From geeks to witches, zombies and hoteliers, girl group Purple Kiss is known for its different and unique concepts. Now, the group is ready to add its own new look in its latest EP “BXX.”

“When we had the opportunity to talk to our CEO, we told him that we wanted [a hip concept] and that we wanted to talk about our friendship in our next album. He said yes to our plan, and we tried our best to do just that,” Purple Kiss’ Chaein said in an interview with the press at the RBW headquarters in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, ahead of the EP’s release on Tuesday.

“We’ve always had the ambition to release an album that shows our own story, to produce multiple albums that both we and the public can relate to. And as we celebrate our three-year anniversary [in March], we thought it was the perfect time to release an album about ourselves,” Chaein added.


Purple Kiss’s story starts with the title, “BXX,” which is a combination of the phrase BFF for "best friends forever" and XX, the female chromosome. The concept also shows a villain-esque side of Purple Kiss, as they are dressed like rebels in concept photos and as hackers in their music video teaser.

“The concept represents the wild girls that we are,” Chaein said. “And we are using the villain-like concept as a medium to tell our stories.”

This "hip" concept was what all six members of Purple Kiss were waiting for, according to Yuki.

“Our members feel like siblings to each other, and that’s what our fans have been telling us too,” Swan said. “So we tried to unpack the story of our friendship, saying that we are villains working together to break the norms of society,” Swan said.

“But being a villain doesn’t mean that we are crossing the line; it’s a more kitsch interpretation of it. You’ll see us on top of a basketball hoop, and when you look carefully into our ‘hacking scenes,’ you’ll soon find out that the text on screen is just filled with our names in English and our birthdays.”

“With the lyrics, we are trying to say that we are doing what we want to do, while also doing what we should be doing.”

The choreography of the lead track “BBB” — which stands for “Bad B Behavior” — also links back to the concept, according to the members.

“We wanted to include hip performances in our dance, and moves like fist bumps and parts where we make eye contact with each other show the girl friendship that we have,” Dosie said.

Swan is also credited as the lead lyricist of the lead track, while its B-side track “Heart Attack” was written and composed by Chaein, and the lyrics and songs for “Toy Boy” and “Voyager” were produced by Na.

“It’s not like the company asked me to write the lyrics, but as we listened to the guide track and its proposed lyrics, I knew I could unpack our own story better if I wrote some myself,” Swan said, adding that she wrote the lyrics overnight. “I’m glad to have many of my proposals selected in the final release.”

“Heart Attack” talks about the fluttering minds of youth in their 20s, while “Toy Boy,” which was written in just two days, is about a couple in love, and “Voyage” is the story of a couple going on an adventure, according to the members.

“I’ve been constantly writing songs, so I have a lot of songs saved — about 160 so far,” Chaein said. “But I try to just send my songs that fit the concept of the group best.”

“I don’t produce songs often, but I did recently write one for my parent’s wedding anniversary. I think I need motivation like that to come up with a song,” Swan said. “While I was too shy to ask them for a review, I think they liked it.”

But it’s not like Purple Kiss members had much downtime to write their songs, as the group held its first tour “Festa” across 17 cities in the United States in October and November last year, followed by concerts in Korea and Japan in January.

The tour, according to the members, allowed them to meet their overseas fans but also turned out to be an opportunity for Purple Kiss to relieve their stress.

“It was our first solo tour abroad, and we were worried whether any fans would come watch us perform,” Dosie said. “But the performances were sold out from day one, and we’ve heard our fans cheer like we’ve never heard before.”

“We are a group who has always sang our songs live, and we had the desire to really show that during our tour. So we ended up using handheld microphones the whole time,” Swan said.

“The stage is the place where artists can relieve their stress in a positive way, and I think we were able to do so through the tour we had last year with no regrets. We hope to continue that trend with another tour this year.”

And Purple Kiss members already have big plans for the group's future tours.

“We’ve prepared English versions of our songs for the tour, but it turns out that our fans have prepared singalongs based on the Korean version,” Swan said. “So maybe we should perform more Korean versions of the songs, too.”

Swan added that the group’s future concerts should have big displays for more special effects, instead of the backdrop posters they had in “Festa,” while Chaein wanted to have a live band backing the group’s vocals.

“We hope to be singers that our fans are proud of,” Chaein said. “And we think we can do that with our performances, with the energy that we have.”

“You need good skills backing you up in order to be a long-lasting singer in the industry. While we have had fans telling us that we have good skills, we have a long way to go,” Swan said. “But I do believe that we will receive the spotlight in the industry one day."

To find out more about Purple Kiss, visit Celeb Confirmed!

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]