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Interview [FORBES]Stray Kids Talk Songwriting, Career Goals And Their First U.S. Tour (1 Viewer)

Les

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“Authenticity” is a keyword thrown around a lot more often in K-pop these days. With crossover potential in the foreground, there’s more at stake when it comes to shaking the dismissive notion that it’s “manufactured.” Companies are investing more in idols — not just as performers, but as visionaries of their artistic direction. It just so happens Stray Kids have emerged as a rookie boy band challenging these preconceived notions.
This nine-member group hails from one of Korea’s “Big 3” music agencies, JYP Entertainment. They’ve only been around for a year, and they’ve already hit huge career milestones. After snagging several Rookie of the Year trophies at Korean award shows, they just won their first music show at M Countdownon April 4.
“When we won first place for the first time, we were so happy and thankful towards our Stay,” main rapper Han told Forbes, referring to the group’s fandom. “We thought to ourselves that we would need to work even harder now to show an even better side to our Stay. One memory we have from that day is when our win was first announced, Seungmin and I cried a lot.”
Part of what sets Stray Kids apart is their heightened emphasis on self-composition. While it’s increasingly common for idols to pen their own songs, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a Stray Kids track that doesn’t feature a member in the liner notes. They even have their own in-house songwriting team: 3RACHA, featuring members Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han.
“We’re given a lot of freedom,” said Bang Chan, the Aussie leader of the group. “It’s mostly what we want to speak. It is our lyrics and our melodies. So we would write all our songs. We finish a song, and we would show it to our big boss, JYP. And he would give feedback on it. And yeah, it’s beautiful teamwork.”



The fate of a K-pop group’s lineup is often pre-determined by top-down management, but Stray Kids are presented as having an unprecedented level of autonomy. Auteurship is in the details, from Bang Chan hand-picking the members to his handwriting forming the group’s logo.
Their discography — which has rapidly grown since their March 2018 debut — is representative of K-pop’s genre agnosticism. One minute, they’ll throw a bit of rap-rock your way. Next, they’ll hit hard with a well-timed EDM drop. They excel at blood-pumping bangers like latest single “MIROH,” but they can get more pensive on songs like “Grow Up.” While they have built a sound around a razor-edged intensity, they still make room for playful and light-hearted fare like “Get Cool.”
Despite the diversity of their catalogue, there’s always a few song components they have to keep in mind when constructing a track. “BPM is very important especially because we are the ones who are performing on stage,” said Bang Chan. “Another important factor is the song structure. In my opinion, the song structure represents the flow of the whole song, so depending on the mood of the song, the song structure is quite important.”
He’s not kidding. Take their third single, “My Pace.” The flow is disjointed by plenty of vocal breaks, speeding up just as soon as it slows down again. It’s a delicate balancing act, the way they anchor the hooks while keeping the listener on their toes by switching up the rhythm. But this temporal shapeshifting has a larger purpose. It feels conceptually poignant on this track, where the lyrics explore the theme of going through life at your own speed.


“Honestly, having the opportunity to even write songs for the team is a great big honor,” the 21-year-old leader said. “But because we still have a long way to go, we hope to become songwriters who can inspire others and give energy and hope to people in need.”
Stray Kids are already off to an impressive start, wrapping up the three-EP I Am series in less than a year. The group threaded together a whole narrative cycle across the albums I Am Not, I Am Who, and I Am You. Their world-building began in the dystopian “District 9,” where they escaped authoritarian uniformity to forge their own paths.
I Am is fundamentally a bildungsroman brought to life by a group in their teens and early 20s, taking the listener on a journey to self-discovery. “The message of I Am Not is realizing that I don’t feel like myself,” Bang Chan previously explained during 3RACHA’s “pre-talk” with JYP. “I Am Whothrows a question, ‘if I am not myself, who am I?’ As for I Am You, it sounds like we made a conclusion. But in fact, we have yet to find out about our identity.”
That lack of resolution makes sense because it reflects the group's own transitional state of entering into both adulthood and celebrity status.
“While I was going through school, I would think, ‘What’s my dream? Do I really have to do this? My parents expect me to do this but is this what I want?’” Bang Chan said. “Honestly, I haven’t found the answer yet. I still don’t know who I am. But I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thinks like this, right? I just really want to reach out to people who are having the same problem like me — well, not problem. It’s not a problem, but I guess [people] who are going through the same thing. This is the reason we wanted to express that in the I Am series.”


Naturally, these themes also bleed into their follow-up album series, which kicked off with March’s Clé 1: MIROH. In particular, “19” — with lyrics solely written by 18-year-old Han — paints vignettes that dig deeper into his hesitations about entering adulthood.
But the connections between the I Am and Clé series go beyond shared thematic content. “In the music video for ‘I Am You,’ we were looking down at a maze-like city from the rooftop [in District 9],” Changbin said. “This city’s name is MIROH, and MIROH is our new world.”
Stray Kids are practically building their own cinematic universe, and their latest album teaser for Clé 2: Yellow Wood — which will be released on June 19 — could be mistaken for a movie trailer. Note that the setting is in an elevator, which brings to mind their pre-debut single, “Hellevator.” Visual callbacks to their previous work are part of the fabric of their ongoing narrative.
“It is a bit challenging,” said Bang Chan. “But when we write our songs, we do think about what we’ve written before and how we need to continue off of that and what we need to think about writing on next. It’s okay, it’s not that difficult. But we do need to think about [it].”


When they’re not dreaming up dystopian cities, they’re taking their tagline “Stray Kids everywhere, all around the world” seriously. Just last month, they headed out on their first U.S. tour, making sold-out stops in Newark, Houston, and Los Angeles. Come July, they’ll take their Unveil tour to Europe. “Through these stages and performances, we want to be able to show later on more people in more cities what we’re made of,” main dancer Hyunjin said.
On May 17, they played a show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium that was simultaneously characterized by the sensory onslaught of their adrenaline-inducing performances and the vulnerable affability of their frequent ments, or speaking segments. Their raucous spin on K-pop maximalism literally left the 3,000-seat venue shook, as Stays rattled the balcony in their excitement.
But the nonet also made use of the relatively intimate space, placing more emphasis on fan engagement than your average concert. By the time the evening rolled around to their goodbye talk, the members had some heartfelt words for Stay. “I always read our Stays’ letters, and you guys are always afraid of the future,” Han said on stage. “I just want to tell you [to] believe in yourself and just don’t look back. We are on your side.” It was a moment that captured Stray Kids’ penchant for speaking about issues faced by young people.
“We’re always showing and sharing our own music,” the youngest member I.N said over the phone. “We want to be known as a group where we can give good emotions and influences to people around us.”

Original post

“While I was going through school, I would think, ‘What’s my dream? Do I really have to do this? My parents expect me to do this but is this what I want?’” Bang Chan said. “Honestly, I haven’t found the answer yet. I still don’t know who I am. But I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thinks like this, right? I just really want to reach out to people who are having the same problem like me — well, not problem. It’s not a problem, but I guess [people] who are going through the same thing. This is the reason we wanted to express that in the I Am series.”
This is why I love Chan:pepeheart:
 

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