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Hallyuwood
BTS on their upcoming album 'Arirang': 'It's truly the whole package'
BTS on their upcoming album 'Arirang': 'It's truly the whole package'
K-pop superstars BTS said their upcoming album, “Arirang,” will contain diverse genres and will be different from their previous releases.
“It’s truly the whole package. I can tell this next album is going to enlighten a little of that confusion,” said leader RM in an interview with GQ magazine.
The 14-track album will be released on March 20, or three years and nine months after their “Proof” album in 2022.
The following day, March 21, they will hold the “BTS The Comeback Live: Arirang at Gwanghwamun Square, which will be live streamed on Netflix.
About the “Arirang” album, Suga said, “We have a diversity of genres. What I can tell you is that it’s going to be quite different from the BTS albums and sounds that you’ve been listening to. You’re going to see a more mature side of BTS this time around.”
Fans have been waiting for BTS’ comeback, their first since all the members finished their military service that started in 2022 with Jin.
Last year, BTS members went to Los Angeles to work on their new music.
“We’d do six days a week, like businessmen,” said RM.
Last December, RM held a live Weverse broadcast and said, “The personal pressure is huge. Since last month, I haven’t even been able to sleep. I was thinking about whether I should get a prescription for sleeping pills…. I’ve wondered thousands of times, Would it be better for the team to disband or go on hiatus?”
He told GQ, “I think I have some memes because of that livestream.”
About RM’s comments, Jimin said, ““I think it’s RM’s love language to ARMY in a way. It really shows how emotionally invested he is in the group, and in ARMY as well. I think it was very RM to be vulnerable and say things like that.”
V said, “RM is like the identity of this group. He’s the core leader of the group, so he must feel so much more pressure than the rest of us do. I usually don’t have that much pressure, but it seems like he does.”
Jimin said, “We’re not the type that consoles each other. But we just laugh and make fun of the person to make him laugh and forget about it…. We also had some drinks together.”
“Although we make fun of him in the front, in the back we’re crying [too],” said V.
V revealed that before they all were discharged from the military, Jungkook cried as he longed for BTS to perform on stage.
V said, “It was before we all got discharged from the military service. And Jungkook cried, he bawled. Jungkook cried because he really wanted to be onstage, and he just really wanted to perform.”
He added, “We all treasure BTS more than we treasure each one of us separately. We debuted as a group, so I think that’s the core identity that we have.”
“I could really feel how much love and passion Jung Kook has for our stage performances and music,” said Suga.
On what BTS will be in the years to come, RM said, “The 13 years of the journey of BTS—for personally, myself—started with ‘I know this team,’ This team started with me, myself. And then it just became…man, I don’t know….”
“The company, the label got so much bigger. The world is getting more complicated and confused even more and more. The platform has changed, the technology has changed so fast—getting faster and faster, it’s accelerating,” he said.
“I think we’re still confused. But we’re trying to find a little piece of gold inside this confusion,” he said.
They are very thankful to ARMYs (their fans) for all the support.
“I don’t even know how to give all the love back because I’ve received so much and the love is so unconditional. I’m always thinking about how I could give back with better performances, better songs,” said Jimin.
He added, “It’s really hard to even know how big the love is because it’s just so vastly huge. I think it’s mutual. We impact the ARMY, but ARMY also impacts us—it goes both ways. And when we feel these things happening, then I really do think deeper about what message we should convey out there as a team because whatever we say reverberates and it means a lot to the ARMY and we want to make sure that it makes a positive impact.”
On whether they are still aiming to win a Grammy award, RM said, “I don’t know because time has passed. There are a lot of K-pop-related nominees you see in the general field and, really, I want to send big applause for them.”
“I mean, we’ll try. Maybe we’ll submit our album to the Grammys again. But I don’t know, we don’t want to be desperately eager for it…. We don’t want to say anymore like, ‘Ah, man, we want the Grammys.’ I mean, it doesn’t mean that we really don’t want it—but we’ll try. But if not, then okay,” he said.
“The Grammys was one of the goals that we haven’t really gotten in the past, but I think now, the most important thing is just that we are here back together again, we’re going to see the fans all over the world,” he said.