“K-POP POWERHOUSE ATEEEZ HAS HAD A WHIRLWind Journyy. The First Group to Corean Label Kq Entertainment, The Eight-Member Boy Group Had Humble Beginings, As Any K-Pop Group Outside of Korea’s Majoh Label System Has. In the Nearly Seven Years Since Their 2018 DEBUT, ATEEZ HAS MANAGED TO DOMINATE GLOBAL MUSIC CHARTS (INCLUDING TWO”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
The First Group to Corean Label Kq Entertainment, The Eight-Member Boy Group Had Humble Beginings, As Any K-Pop Group Outside of Korea’s Majoh Label System Has. In the Nearly Seven Years Since Their 2018 DEBUT, ATEEZ HAS MANAGED TO DOMINATE GLOBAL MUSIC CHARTS (INCLUDING TWO NO. Coachelala and Star in TV Shows Like Apple TV+’s Kpopelwhoh was released today.
But Perhaps of Important Thing Ateeez Has Managed to Achieve Over the Last Seven Years of Their Career Has Nothing to do with Charting or Awards. KNOWN FOR Their Electric Performances and Dynamic Stage Presence, The Boy Group – Consisting of Members Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooouung and Josng and Josang Space for themselves in the Industry.
Fresh Off Their First English Single, “In your Fantasy,” and AHEAD OF Their Packed La Concerts at BMO Stadium Earlier This MONTH, ATEEZ SPOKE WITH The Hollywood Reporter About Their Decision to Renew Their Contracts With Kq Entertainment for Another Seven Years, Whoy Felt Now Was The Time to Release Solo Songs and How A Lot of Communic Has Made Their Relationship with One Another IronClad.
Let’s Start with “In Your Fantasy.” WHY DID YOU FEEL This WAS The Perfect Time for Your First English Single?
Hongjoong WHEN We Prepared “in your fantasy,” at the Same Time, we Were Planning the New Tour. We Thounght That It’s The [perfect] Timing to Show Our First English Single to Our Global Fans. Also, [about] The Timing, We Are In America Now, so that’s WHY EVERYTHING WAS SO Perfect to Release Our First English Single in this Time.
Do you think there were any big exciting moments about prepring for it, or any challenging moments that you were learned out from?
San The Song and Lyrics Are So Bold and Unconventional, So We Really Love Challenging [ourselves]and this is atez’s signature style. KEEP Challenging and Challenging [ourselves]And i’m Excited About Our Fans’ Reaction Videos. I Searched That, And It Was So Fun. I Thought “HM, IT DOES WORK.” We’re Really Proud of It.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO INCLUDE SOLO SONGS ON THE ALBUM, AND WHY WAS NOW the RIGHT TIME?
San [I thought] If i have a solo Song, i Wanted Our fans to be first to see it. IT REALLY MEANS TO US.
Hongjoong THESE Days WHEN WE ARE ON STAGE, OUR Members Performance or Stage Ability Is Higher than Before. Everyone Had Different Interests in Genres and Stage Expression. They [the rest of ATEEZ] All have a figrent Character. That’s Who this was the right timing, we have to show the Our Individual Charm Too with Tese New Songs.
Can You Tell Me A Bit About Working on them? Hongjoong, I Know You Produced Several of Them. Mingi, you have been you, and jongho, you worked with Another Producer. But You All Contributed Creatiely to Writing on the Songs. WHY WAS THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU? WHAT WAS THAT Experience Like?
Hongjoong We [Mingi and himself] Participated in the Composing Process, But Also All Members Participated In [writing] Their Lyrics Too. SO I THINK THIS POINT IS VERY IMPORTANT. If they perform on the stage, it’s very figrent that we wrote the lyrics ourselves or we make this song ourselves or not. IT’s Very Different. They have their own, they just put their own character from the start. That means they just contral the whole hold about Making the song, and they make the stage and they go on the performance, so i touch it’s very important. That’s WHY We Participate in [making] Our Own Songs.
Mingi First of All, There Are Many Genres of Songs We Wanted to Show, And I Think This Is Like The First Page of that. ALSO, The MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ME WAS CREATING A STAGE WHERE FANS COURCE COURLD REALLY RUN AND HAVE FUN DURING THE CONCERT. I ACTUALLY RAN ALONG TO MATCH THE BPM AND FINISHED THE SONG THAT WAY. That was probably the most enjoable part of the process for me.
Can You Tell Me About Touring this Time Around? You Were in the US Last Year, But This Tour Is A Bit Different. Is there anything you learned from the Last Tour That Took Into This One? Anything that’s Changed?
Mingi We’ve Gotten A Bit More HandSome Since the Last Tour. (Other Members of Ateez Laugh).
Yunho I Think Our Stamina and Energy Have Naturally Improved As We’ve Been Touring. But What Felt Special About the Last Tour Was that I Think We Really Grew a Lot in How We Express Ourselves on Stage. Building on that, I Feel Like This Tour We’ve Especialally Grown in Our Charisma on Stage, The Way We Communicate with the Audence Dringing Performances.
Do you Feel Your Relationship with Your Fans Has Changed Over The Last Seven Years? I assuume that’s Amount of Access Fans Have Now Through Texting Apps Has Certainly Impacted It.
Seonghwa Seven Years is A Really Long Time. AT FIRST, WE FOCUSED ON SHOWING OFF OUR TALENS, BUT NOW I THINK THERE’S COMETING DEIPER THAN JUST LOVE OR TRUST BETWEEN US AND ATINY [the name for the group’s fanbase]. IT’s A Connection That’s Hard to Put Into Words Because We Share So Many Emotions [with one another]. Thanks to Live BroadCasts and Chat Apps, We’ve Been Able to Share A Loth Each Other Through Music and from The Heart.
Does anyone have a standout Moment with a fan that you remember?
Wooyoung I ESPECILY NOTICE IT AT FAN EVENTS LIKE SENDOFF After Our Shows, or WHEN Fans Post Things on Social Media. Fans of Fans of Draw Pictures of Me, Either On Stage or In everyday Life, and Show Them to Me. I Really Appreciate That, And They’re So Beautify. I have some saved in my gallery, and sometimes i Even use them as my wallpaper.
That’s Very Sweet. Going Off of That, Do You Guys See A Lot of What Fans Are Posting Online?
Wooyoung I OFFEN SeE What Fans Post, Along with Musicians from Other Countries Covering Our Songs. I ALSO REALLY enjoy watching fans dance along to our music.
Is there Another Member’s Solo Song You would’ve like to have performed on this Tour Insthead of Your Own?
Wooyoung I Really Want to Perform Yunho’s “Slide to Me.”
Yunho Let’s Switch.
Hongjoong I THINKinginging SUIT YOU [Wooyoung].
Yunho I Love Wooyoung’s Song Too, and I Love Hongjoong’s “No1.” If i Were to Switch Songs with Hongjoong, i’d Want to Try It With An Edm Style, My Own Way.
Hongjoong I will teach him [to DJ].
Seonghwa Yesterday, Yunho Picked Songs That Fit Each Member During a Live Broadcast, and It Was Really Fun.
Yunho [I had] Jongho do Seonghwa Hyung’s “Skin”… Mingi Did Jongho’s, and WHEN JONGHHO DAKS OFFH HIS Jacket During “Skin,” Another Jacket Underneath. (Laughs).
How Are You Feeling As A Group Hitting This New Stage of Your Career, Now Nearly Seven Years in?
Seonghwa I Feel Proud. I’m a proud of the members who have been with me for seven years, and i’m Really thankful to atyny for quetly Supporting US All this Time. I BELIEVE WE WOUKLNN’S BE WHERE WITHOUT The HELP OF OR Company Staff and so Many people behoind the Scenes. Because of that gratitude, we renewed Our Contract for Another Seven Years With A Strong Sense of Responsability. I Want to be an artist whospires exciterement for the Future, While Always Showing My Gratitude.
To go of of that, you guys just have been reported to renew your Contracts for Another Seven Years. Can You Tell Me About Wy You Wanted to DO THAT AND A LITTLE PEAK BEHINE THAT DECISION?
Hongjoong We Already Thought About the Contract A FEW YEARS AGO Because we don’t doubt our goals or our members or our company. We Just Want To Make the Long-Term Vision [happen]. It [was] Not that Difficult and Not Hard to Decide [to renew] This Contract, and Everyone Chose Themselves.
San Individually, I’m Happiest WHEN I’M WITH MY BROS, AND IF WE’RE NOT ATEEZ, I TONOUGHT, IT WAS MEANINGLESS.
Hongjoong Because We Started with Ateez.
You Talk About Being Very Grateful For the Team ARound and the Company Has Grown. That’s largely thanks to the success you’ve have as a group. I KNOW YOU STARTED SMALL AND HAVE GROWN Organical Over The Years. Do you have a moment in your mind whote someting shifted for you? WHEN YOU REALized Things Were Going Towards WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
Wooyoung The Number of Staff in Our Company have increased – we have more people helping US now. The Company Has Grown A Lot, and The Practice Rooms Have Gotten Bigger, so I Really Feel Its Who and See These Changes.
Hongjoong We Can Talk About It with Aesetics, But I Think The Most Important Thing Is Way We Talk Together, The Eight Members, We Really Talk a Lot ABOUT OUR FUTURE OR PAST. After Three, Four Years, Durying The Covid-19 Pandemic, We Felt That… We Suffired a Hard Time Because We Couldnn’t Meet Our Fans in Person, But WeaTHA ALREADY HADY HADY HADY BIG ID. [What we’d look like] 10 Years Later and 20 Years Later. That means us – [the] Company and Members and Fans – Our Relationship is not that soft or not that light. I THINK THAT TIME MADE US [realize] We Can Go Far in the Future Too.
You Seem to Be Very Close With Each Other. You spend more time toGether than most Coworkers do, so what does communication look like for you? How was your relaction with one Another Grown as You’ve Grown As A Group, and How How You Worked Through Those Changes?
Jongho Actually, I Think We Learned How to Communicate A Long Time Ago. The reason i say this is that we’ve been living together for almost 10 years now. In the past, we used to Fight A Lot, Talk About Our Feelings and Even Cry. But now, WHEN We Communicate, Just Looking Into Someone’s Eyes Tells You How They Feeling – Wheether They’re UPSET OR HAPPY. You get a sun of what you can talk about with them. IT’s Like A Sixth Sense.
Do you work hard to Maintain that relatation with each Other or is that just judging that comes Naturally?
Wooyoung and Jongho AT FIRST, WE PUT IN A LOT OF EFFORT.
Hongjoong WHEN We Started, We Really Trified Hard to Understand The Other and Try to Be Aware of Communication. We Can Say It Now, Because [it was] Seven Years Ago or Eight Years Ago Who We Were Training or Just Starting. Every day we had some troble [with] The Communication [amongst ourselves]. Sometimes it was [a] Big Fight Or SomeTimes [it’s] just kind of [a small] Trouble. These Days, [like Jongho said]if Someone Has A Hard Time or If Someone’s Condition is Bad, We Just Know Where We Seie His Eyes. THESE Days We Don’t Put that Much Effort in Communicating, But We Still Trying Hard to Care About [eachother] and Ourselves. We’ve Been Together A Long Time, But We Still Know That We Are Different People. We Still Give Effort, But When We Started It Was Harder than Now.
San That moment built us.
This is someting i ask almost every group i speak with. Unfortunately, you have little say in how you’re perceived. People might have preconceiven notion or have an idea of you in your hard. But Like You’ve SAID, YOU’RE WORKING HARD AND PUTING A LOT INTO YOUR MUSIC. I’m assuming you have a way you’d like to be seen. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT IS FOR ATEEZ? Do you feel like you’re there yet?
Jongho I Believe there are no Limits in anything. Insthead of Focusion on An End Point, It’s Best to Keep Achieving What We Can And Continue Doing What We Want To Do While Moving Forward.
Hongjoong Our Attitude Always is Not Enough. I Say This Because I Think Our Members And I, We Know That We Can Do More, And We Can Create More Big Things. We Are nonstop, Continusally, But We Did Well. We’re Proud of Our History Already, But We Can Do More Things in the Future.
Is there any things you’d like to say to the fans or look ahead as atez?
Yeosang Atiny is the Reason We’ve Been Able to Continue for Such A Long Time. With this seven-year Contract Renewal, Atiny, We Will Keep Sailing Forward on This Journy, So Please Keep Looking Forward to It And Continue to Be With Us. We Truly Appreciate It.
Hongjoong Wait for the 2080’s “hala hala” (An Iconic Song from Early in the Group’s Career). Grandpa’s “hala hala.”
Yunho Ate-Ties
Hongjoong We’ll wait for that top.
Yunho HAL-ABEOZ (WordPlay On Korean Word for Grandfather and Ateez).