KARD is re-establishing its reputation as one of K-pop’s finest co-ed groups through its latest EP “Re:” which dropped Wednesday.

It has been a year and 10 months since the EP “Way with Words” (2020), the last time the group released music as a whole. During that time, member J.seph enlisted and completed his mandatory military service.

During a showcase event Wednesday, just hours before the EP dropped, the group talked about J.seph’s absence, saying how they missed him so much that they kept in contact as much as possible.

“We always talked for at least an hour on the phone, and we wrote him tons of letters,” Jeon Somin said.

“I really appreciated how the members would stay on the phone with me and listen to what I had to say, considering that I’m a talkative person,” J.seph said.

KARD also performed the lead track “Ring The Alarm,” which is a Moombahton pop-dance song with a vibe that just screams summer.

The EP has five more tracks: “Break Down,” “Good Love” and “Whip!” with instrumental versions of “Break Down” and “Ring The Alarm.”

“Good Love” is an English song.

The four members of KARD — Jeon Somin, Jeon Jiwoo, BM and J.seph — took part in producing the songs. “Break Down” was written by all four members, and BM participated in writing the lyrics to all of the songs.

“The prefix ‘re,’ when added to the front of a verb, means ‘to do again,’ and we’ve finally returned to the stage after almost two years,” BM said. “We wanted to refresh ourselves and prove that we still have the passion to sing and perform on stage, so we thought 'Re:' would be the perfect title for the album.”

“This album is by far my personal favorite,” J.seph said. “The hair, makeup, performance — I hope all our fans enjoy it as much as I do.”

The group agreed that the members had fun making the album and that it was “full of good vibes.”

“We wanted to make something that could show what’s ours,” J.seph said. “So we kept giving each other new ideas and we praised and complimented each other a lot. We feel like we’ve really grown as a group and had such great teamwork.”

When asked what KARD’s greatest advantage is as a group, BM said that because each member has different singing tones, it helps to widen their musical spectrum.

The group will start another world tour “2022 Wild KARD In Latin America” in late July, in cities like Mexico City and Buenos Aires, for which the members expressed their high expectations.

“We had so much fun making this album and realized how we’re happy making music together and performing as a group,” Jeon Somin said. “We really hope to make cherishable memories with this album.”

KARD is a rare type of K-pop act as it is one of very few active co-ed groups. It officially debuted in 2017 with the EP “Hola Hola.” In line with its name, each member has their own representative card suit — BM is a club, J.seph is a spade, Jeon Somin is a heart and Jeon Jiwoo is a diamond.

KARD is particularly popular in South America and is best known for songs like “Oh NaNa” (2016), “Don’t Recall” (2017), “Bomb Bomb” (2019) and “Red Moon” (2020).

Jeon Somin

Date of birth: Aug. 22, 1996
Zodiac sign: Leo
Birthplace: Seoul
Debut: 2012 as a member of girl group Puretty
Agency: DSP Media

Singer Jeon Somin debuted in 2012 as a member of Puretty, which was a girl group under DSP Media that released music in Japan. The group disbanded after two years, and Jeon appeared in MBC’s reality audition show “Kara Project” (2014), in which seven female trainees competed to become a new member of girl group Kara. Jeon did not make the finals, but debuted as the leader of DSP Media’s new girl group, April, in August 2015. Jeon departed from April later that year due to “concerns about [her] future,” and then in July 2017, she debuted again as a member of co-ed group KARD.

This information was confirmed by DSP Media on June 21, 2022.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]