THE BOYZ: “We want to encourage listeners to pave their own path and be their truest self.”

In August, the 11-member K-pop group The Boyz were dancing in bathrobes, hanging by the pool, and shooting hoops against candy-pink backdrops for their summer single ‘Thrill Ride’. Their newest concept, however, puts them in a dilapidated building, with electronic collars locked around their throats, bodies bloodied and pushed to the limit. Chameleonic since their debut in 2017, this is The Boyz hitting “another turning point”, says Eric, one of the group’s two rappers, with new single album ‘Maverick’, and its stirring, bass-heavy eponymous single. “It’s our first release that doesn’t talk about a loving relationship,” adds vocalist Kevin. “It’s a portrayal of our uniqueness, and more like an empowerment song. We want to encourage listeners to pave their own path and be their truest self.” 

Now in their fourth year, The Boyz make the demands of being an idol – multiple releases a year with gruelling schedules, complex choreography, and ever-transforming visuals – look almost delightfully effortless, which is in itself a compelling facet of K-pop. But, as The Boyz explain while breaking down the making of their new record, though the challenge of endless sweaty rehearsals remains in order to continually grow as artists, this is increasingly balanced by rewards, whether sweetly fleeting, welcomingly unexpected or engraved on the memory forever.

Only three months have passed since your sixth mini-album ‘THRILL-ING’… when you heard about plans for ‘Maverick’, did you think “Wow, so soon” or “Yeah! Let’s get it”?

Eric: To be honest, we already knew during ‘Thrill Ride’ that ‘Maverick’ was on its way so we’d prepared ourselves emotionally and had no problems at all despite the short space of time between them.

Juyeon: We knew we’d soon be in rehearsals for ‘Maverick’, so we didn’t let our attention and motivation drop between the two, and were able to try even harder because of this.

K-pop is unbeatable in terms of being able to create something visually and sonically arresting very quickly. Why do you think it has the ability to be so agile?

New: The system within our company (Cre.ker Entertainment) is very well established, where everyone knows their role and exactly what they need to do, and it’s like a well-oiled machine, so we’re able to produce something of high quality in such a short time.

Younghoon: One of the things that also really pushes us is that the fans are waiting for us. We know they don’t like periods of inactivity and even when we’re not promoting, fans are always leaving messages asking when we’re returning and, because of that expectation, I feel like it’s not so hard to come back quickly. And more comebacks help us to grow faster.

Having a limited time in which to create can be a positive by pushing you to think outside the box, right?

Haknyeon: It’s always better to have more time to perfect your craft and there’s always good and bad to every situation, so we try to make the best of the one we’re in.

Eric: It’s different for all of us and I enjoy the pressure, to be honest, but whether there’s a lot of time to prepare or not, it’s just the fact that we make it happen and we never fail to accomplish our goal.

How long do you get to rehearse before you record?

Jacob: It’s pretty different for every album but for ‘Maverick’, the song itself, I’d say, give or take, three to five days, and we recorded it several times trying to find the best sound. But for the B-sides, we had a lot less time to practice and record, maybe two days to practice, record it, and that’s it.

Kevin: Sometimes we have a song that we’ll pull up from our archives… ‘Russian Roulette’ was actually recorded a while back and we just made some edits on it [for this single album].

New: We didn’t use it previously because we thought ‘Russian Roulette’ hadn’t fit those past concepts properly but if you listen to this song and ‘Hypnotized’, they’re aggressive and they fit really well on ‘Maverick’.

Because of your time on two survival performance shows – ‘Road To Kingdom’ and ‘Kingdom’ – you seem to have nailed learning choreography quickly. Do you still get excited or nervous going into a rehearsal for the first time?

Q: When we go into learning a new routine, there’s a lot of excitement and expectation but we worry about when we dance it if it’s still going to come out the way we envisioned or if it will fit us well as a group.

New: And we’re always trying to think of ways to make it our own and make it unique. It’s always hard while learning it, and [it’s the same] when we prepare any album, it’s not an easy process.

From ‘Maverick’s haunting first trailer, I thought you were headed in a slower, quite cinematic direction with this song, but instead it’s punchy and rousing. What’s the connection between the song and the video’s Battle Royale-esque story? 

Juyeon: For this video it wasn’t about relaying a specific message that relates to the song, it was about showing the video as a standalone piece of art. But at the same time, the video is about how The Boyz are mavericks in their own ways.

Kevin: Battle Royale was our biggest inspiration – the film takes students and puts them in a dystopian environment, and we’d debuted wearing school uniforms, so having that environment and mood projected on us, we thought that’d be a good meeting of two worlds. 

There were genuine tears captured on film from Q, New and Haknyeon… What helped put you in the zone for that during the shoot?

Q: For me, I thought about how I’d feel if I really was in this situation and because I was completely immersed in my concept, I was able to cry and show more emotion.

New: Not everyone can cry just thinking about things so I asked Younghoon, who has experience in acting, and he gave me the tip of not closing my eyes until they hurt and then tears would fall on their own.

You’ve done story-lead concepts throughout your career, like the teaser for ‘The Only’, but is there one you wish you could’ve done even more with, like a short film or a graphic novel?

Eric: That teaser for ‘The Only’, where each member had their own concept and the storyline was about boys who were unsure of themselves… I think it would’ve been nice to go deeper into that and have told a longer story.

New: I actually like stories where the audience has to come up with their own endings because it makes them think. But I do want to mention ‘Reveal’ because it was our first full album and we’d put so much preparation into it but I felt like it could have had more impact. We could have gone more into it but when we released it, the pandemic had started, so we couldn’t do much else.

Speaking of which, during the pandemic many artists have taken the opportunity to work on themselves or their skills. What’s something you’ve been focused on?

Sangyeon: I’ve put a lot of my focus into how we appear on camera. In the past, the way we performed was based on (in-person) fan reactions. But with no way to see them, I have to think more about how I appear to them on video or TV and by doing that I’ve actually become a lot more comfortable in front of the lens.

That exchange of energy between artist and audience is so vital. Without it, have there been moments where it felt like you were just going through the motions? 

New: A lot of times it felt like we were just filming a music video, so there were moments where I was really low, but knowing the fans were still with us was motivation.

Your fourth anniversary is on December 6th… since debuting, what’s something you didn’t expect but when it happened you were like, “Yeah, that felt good”?

Kevin: When we sang ‘36.5° (Melting Heart)’ in front of European fans and they all sang along in Korean. It’s a B-side ballad and the fact they knew all the lyrics was an emotional moment I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.

After four years as a team, what would you say is The Boyz’ most maverick moment or most unique trait?

New: You can see that through our ‘Identity Film Gen Z’ (a series of member-focused short films) – I think they show us exactly as individuals and what differentiates us from our contemporaries.

Haknyeon: That’s what I was going to say!

The Boyz, it’s been great catching up, as always, but Sunwoo, you’re very quiet today. A word before we say goodbye, please?

Sunwoo: I love you.

Ok, thank you.

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