Date: May 8, 2023

Location: Yes24 Live Hall

Emcee: Hur Young-ji of girl group KARA

Q. How does it feel to be back after eight months?

Xion: Thank you for coming. We are here to let you fight off the Monday fatigue so we hope you enjoy!

Seoho: We put our best foot forward because it's our first new music in a long time. We hope you listen to it and enjoy the powerful performance.

Hwanwoong: I dyed my hair very bright, which I haven't done in a while. Our music is full of surprises like this so we ask for your love and support.

Keonhee: We successfully wrapped up our world tour before this project. We prepared for this album to the best we can so that we may return the love and support we received from fans from all over the world.

Leedo: We're back in nine months, and you'll be able to see the members having grown during that time.

Q. Hwanwoong, tell us what you’re going to perform today.

Hwanwoong: Last month, prior to our comeback, we pre-released the music video for “Unforgettable,” which is a B-side track from this EP. Here today, we are going to premiere the stage performance of the song, as well as the music video and stage performance for lead track “Erase Me.”

*ONEUS performs “Unforgettable” on stage

*Premiere of “Erase Me” music video and stage performance

Q. You guys had your first world tour earlier this year. How did it feel?

Hwanwoong: We were so glad to meet [ONEUS’s fandom] TOMOON around the world. It was our first time visiting Latin America, and we were so grateful to see fans not only sing along but also dance along to our performance.

Keonhee: We are so grateful for everyone around the world waiting for ONEUS. We thought hard about how we could improve our performance and grew from that. That experience helped us with this album and we thank TOMOON.

Q. Please tell us what “Pygmalion” is about.

Leedo: The title song comes from the "Pygmalion Effect," which is about someone's hopes bringing about positive results. The album is about our urge to bring to life everything we've always hoped for.

Seoho: There was an episode about the Pygmalion Effect in a book I read as a child and I remember that. Just like how Pygmalion’s strong yearning brought life to a statue, I want our new EP to feel alive too.

Xion: The EP is jam packed with five great tracks from “Intro : Lethe,” lead track “Erase Me,” “Unforgettable,” “Echo” which Leedo helped produce and “Halley’s Comet.”

Leedo: I took part in writing the music and lyrics for "Echo." I was in the United States while I was working on it and I think it's a song that brings out the best in every member.

Q. This might be a tricky question. Who among the members is most like a statue, like the one off of the Pygmalion Effect story?

Keonhee: Seoho gets two votes, Xion gets two and I got one.

Seoho: (Poses like a statue on stage)

Q. You guys pre-released “Unforgettable” last month. It was the first time that ONEUS pre-released a track. Tell me more about this change in your promotion.

Hwanwoong: “Unforgettable” was actually a runner-up for the lead track. It’s such a good song that we were proud of it and wanted to present to fans as soon as possible.

Q. Tell us about the lead track “Erase Me.”

Keonhee: Lead track "Erase Me" is an "Emo-pop" song, which is a mash-up of orchestra music and EDM. It's a subtle mix of both calm and passion, as well as the transition from weak to strong. It starts by expressing the void then proceeds to a chorus that's full of emotions that feel like will burn everything down.

Seoho: It's a powerful song that shows the powerful side of ONEUS like our debut track “Valkyrie” (2019).

Xion: We actually had three songs running for the lead track. "Erase Me" is especially a lead-track material song that shows who ONEUS is.

Q. Show us the key movements of the choreography.

(Main dancer Hwanwoong demonstrated the tear drop-inspired key dance move of “Erase Me”)

Hwanwoong: We named it the “stop tears dance.” It expresses wiping away one’s tears.

Q. Any episodes from the music video set or recording sessions?

Leedo: It felt really strange and scary to be inside a coffin, which I did for the first time for the music video. The coffin wasn't closed, fortunately. It was a mysterious and new experience.

Seoho: There's a scene in the music video where I kiss a statue. I wasn't very good... So I was worried about how it will seem in the music video and the director would think about it. Most of it was cut out so I guess the director didn't like it much. I'll do better next time.

Hwanwoong: Leedo wrote the lyrics and music for "Echo" and he directed us during the recording session. His detailed directions helped me bring out the best in me.

(Q&A session with reporters)

Q. What description of ONEUS do you want to hear from the public?

Keonhee: We want people to say this is just ONEUS. I think these compliments are given to groups that have a clear unique style. I like it when someone says, "This is ONEUS" or "This is ONEUS material." We want to mark our versatility down like we've been doing so far.

Xion: We were on a world tour and TOMOON always tell us "We miss you" and "We are proud of you." I hope more people call us "Our ONEUS” like our fans do.

Q. How does it feel to be back after a bit of a hiatus?

Keonhee: This is the first album to show to you with five members [after Ravn left]. So we thought hard about what we could show best and we learned from the senior groups. There are great artists releasing music this month and I think learning from that makes us feel, not that we should do better than someone, but that we should do what we can do best -- something that only we can do. If we continue with the music that we like that people enjoy that music, then I think that's what success is.

Q. If you were to summarize this EP…

Hwanwoong: I think this album has been the best of our work so far. If you listen to the intro track, you'll understand the message that we're trying to convey and connect through the songs. We hope you enjoy all the songs from the album, because it's been perfected as a whole. We tried really hard to appeal to the general public.

Q. Any thoughts coming back as a group of five [after member Ravn left last year]?

Keonhee: This is our first new album with five members. All of us thought hard about what this means and we became closer after thinking about how we can continue our team as #ONEUS. We feel all the more attached to the album because it took a long time to make it. We started it with a grand vision, and we're confident with what we have.

Q. ONEUS has been known for its strong stage performances. Do you feel like your performances have evolved over the years?

Xion: We took part in [an Mnet music competition program] "Road to Kingdom" in a very early stage of our debut and we've changed a lot since then. We've always went with powerful performances but this album is more about what we want to express through the performance.

Q. It’s been four years since ONEUS’s debut, and you guys have been showing growth with every EP [in terms of commercial success]. Do you have a guess for how commercially successful “Pygmalion” will be?

Seoho: If I were to guess, I feel like it’s going to do well.

(Members laugh)

Seoho: That’s how confident we are. We will show nothing short of what we’ve prepared.

Keonhee: We used to say that we wanted to win first place on TV music shows with the previous album and the one before that, because we wanted to return the love that the fans give us. But with this album, we want it to make fans proud with great performances.

Q. This EP tells a narrative of ONEUS’s ups and downs, and how you guys overcame the turbulence. I bet it made you look back on the past few years and how ONEUS has grown. What’s the biggest change for ONEUS compared to your rookie days?

Keonhee: This EP is really meaningful to us, because we’ve been hearing that our eight-month hiatus was quite long for ONEUS. We had been frequently releasing music before this. Focusing on making this album and going on a world tour caused a bit of a gap, but it also gave us time to reflect on what we do best, what we’ve been doing for the past four years and what fans love most to see from us. We thought about what makes us shine the most and makes us the happiest and tried to maximize it. The things we've done in the past aren't gone but we want this to be the second act for ONEUS, taking from the past and leaping into the future. We are confident that we can pull it off.

Q. Any resolutions going into your promotional activities?

Xion: This album starts us as a five-member group. It's a meaningful fresh start.

Hwanwoong: We'll keep on releasing various content, including going on television music shows. We'll also try to communicate more with fans.

Keonhee: Thank you for your time today. We’ll always be ONEUS who ponders what we can do best.

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]