This is part of a series featuring new hallyu stars. ― Ed.


The 24-year-old twin brothers Jung Dae-ryong and So-ryong were seven years old when one of their friends first introduced them to K-pop music. “That’s when it all began,” said Dae-ryong. “We loved to dance and sing, that was life. That’s still our life.”

After being signed at 18, the boys trained for six years before debuting as the hip-hop performing duo, Tasty.

Their name “Tasty” refers to the bringing together of different styles, choreography, performance and flavors, which is the main goal for the boys and their music. 

And despite being identical twins, the Chinese-Korean brothers claim that they have distinctly different attitudes and that can be seen both on and offstage.

“He’s more like the bad guy on the stage,” said So-ryong about his brother. “And I’m the smooth dude.”

“I’m more calm, I don’t talk that much,” he said. “He (Dae-ryong) is very outgoing.”

“But not like 24/7,” Dae-ryong, his hair highlighed with pink and blue, laughed in reply.

Tasty’s debut album titled “Spectrum” was released in August of this year and the title track, “You Know Me,” which featured a heavy emphasis on dancing and choreography, is a mixture of hip-hop, dubstep and house.

“We think it’s a new sound,” said Dae-ryong.

After the record’s release, the twins had the opportunity they had always hoped for: to debut live on the M! Countdown music performance show. “That was our ‘dream come true’ moment,” Dae-ryong said.

Even though the twins’ first mini-album was released just three months ago, the boys are already working on their follow-up.

“It’s a whole different style,” said So-ryong. “This time we are going to sing more than dance.”

They started recording their new title track this week and said that although they are working on some new dance moves to wow their fans, the main focus of their upcoming album is to add more vocal harmonies.

“We want to show our singing abilities and our choreography,” said Dae-ryong. “I felt like ‘You Know Me’ was more choreography, more performance, but this time we are going to sing a lot.”

“This time we got a lot of haters,” he said, referring to the heavy emphasis on dancing, as opposed to singing, in their debut release. “We had a lot of fans, and we had a lot of haters saying, ‘Oh, you guys can’t sing.’”

So now the boys are out to prove a point and hope to release their new album sometime in the beginning of next year. “We will work hard until you like it,” they said.

“Back in the day, when people talked about a duo, they talked about Deuce or Clon,” So-ryong said. “Right now in 2012, and in 2013, when people say ‘duo,’ I want them to talk about Tasty.”

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)