K-pop group P1Harmony on ‘Ex,’ Being Idols and Their Bond

K-pop group P1Harmony can’t get any closer.

It’s KCON weekend, and the six-member group is running on very little sleep amidst busy schedules throughout the weekend, so perhaps that’s why they erupt into laughter when Jiung, a rapper in the group, suggests they’ve been together so much they’re essentially “marinating” in one another. They themselves can’t believe they’ve spent over five years together day in and day out.

Known for their dynamic performances and diverse discography, P1Harmony – consisting of members Keeho, Theo, Jiung, Intak, Soul and Jongseob – seems to always be evolving. Their latest release, Ex, their first English-language EP, is no exception. The five-track album, led by a lead single of the same name, is the group at its best. The album is engaging, fun and could get any potential fan hooked.

The album’s fifth track is another first for the group – a Spanish version of their title track. Keeho, who’s a native English speaker, making him the group’s de facto translator for this conversation, says it was important to include a Spanish version if the group was going to promote an album in the U.S.

Below, P1Harmony speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about making Ex, growing closer to one another, learning how to find themselves and how they want the world to see them.

You’re preparing to release your new English album, Ex. What were some of the exciting and challenged parts that came with that?

JONGSEOB I feel like it’s the right timing. Our North American [leg of the] Most Wanted tour is an all arena tour. I feel like if you can understand [a group’s] song lyrics, you can relate more closely. I hope they like it. There’s a whole bunch of amazing songs in there. It was a very fun experience and process. When we prepare this [album], we shot the [album] jacket first, and we decided what was going to be our title song. I feel like [it was] quite hectic, but for me personally, I love [the song] “Ex.” I decided we have to choose this song for the title track.

KEEHO Also, English is not an easy language. I mean, for me, I’m OK.

You have a bit of an advantage.

KEEHO I would hope so (Laughs). Just being in the booth with them and looking for their English pronunciation, stuff like that, you can never be too harsh on them because you can’t blame them. That’s not their native language. But also at the same time I’m like, bro, why… sorry [directed toward his group members], why can’t you just say it like that? But obviously it is just that barrier, so [it was] a lot of hours in the recording booth, getting the right pronunciations down. We also have a Spanish version of “Ex.” Shout out to the lady that was in there helping us with our pronunciations.

I think definitely the language was the hardest and also getting it out on time. We were on such a time crunch, and I think we were still promoting “Duh,” at the time when we were doing it. We were prepping for in between [other schedules], and it was just a really, really crazy time, on top of prepping for tour. But hopefully it’ll be fun for our fans. We really, really hope to maybe do a little bit of [the new album] on tour as well when we’re here.

The album’s really fun. You do have a large global fan base. Does that play into why you want to release songs in different languages?

KEEHO I don’t think it’s necessary because I feel like K-pop fans like K-pop because it’s Korean, not because it’s just English, but I think there’s also that aspect of wanting to just get a little closer, being able to relate. It’s better to have it there than not have it there. We’ve done English releases before with different collaborators with Pink Sweats and New Hope Club. We did “Fall in Love Again” with Tricky [Stewart], but I was like, why don’t we just do some with just us this time? We’ve never done it before, so we might as well. Those songs also resonated really well with our fans, and so we thought it was just the right time right before tour to release it.

Can you share more about the experience recording a song in Spanish?

JIUNG The hardest part was definitely because it’s a song that’s not made in Spanish originally, it’s an English song that we changed to Spanish. Sometimes the syllables would be kind of off. If we said, I love apples, sometimes apples in Spanish will be not just two syllables, it’ll be three. But you still have to fit it in that same pocket, so it was hard to translate that and get it [right] because it would be so fast at some parts.

KEEHO [As] to the reason why we chose to do [a version] in Spanish, I think it’s because the Latin American fan base is so huge. Also, in America, Spanish, the culture and the language, has such a big place here. Not even just in America, in the world too. We felt like if we were going to promote an album in America, just having an English song wouldn’t really make sense. I think having Spanish would also resonate with a lot of different people. We know we have a lot of fans in Latin America, and also we’re going to tour in Latin America soon too. We thought it was a really important thing to include as many people as possible.

You’re about to go on tour, and I know this is your biggest tour yet. Do you feel that adds more pressure to you?

SOUL I’m definitely scared (Laughs). I’m scared because it’s not only the fact that the scale is getting bigger, there’s so many things that follow that as well because the scale gets bigger. We have dancers this time on tour. We have a whole bunch of other preparing just because the scale got bigger. Even though we have more to prepare for, the amount of time we have to prepare for it is either the same or even less than before. Having to prepare all of that while having that burden of needing to level up and do something different, even from my solo stage. Last tour, I thought I did a really good job, but this time having to kind of one up, that just feels like a big burden.

KEEHO But I think we always figure out a way.

How do you feel as a group, you have evolved together? How has your relationship with one another changed?

SOUL We can’t get any closer to each other.

JIUNG It feels like we’re marinating in each other at this point.

KEEHO We understand each other very, very well. Everyone can’t get along 100 percent [of the time]. There’s some parts where we’re like, “I wish you could change a little bit about yourself.” I think that’s also very healthy. Being able to communicate that in a way that’s not offensive, we’re so good at that now. We’re so close now. It’s kind of crazy. It’s been five years.

That’s a long time

KEEHO Every day [for] five years.

JONGSEOB I feel like it’s over five years, [it’s been] seven years.

KEEHO Not even on and off, every single day for multiple hours, straight for hours, so, I mean, we’re really marinated (Laughs).

I have to be honest, I don’t know a single person I could see every day for seven years. Obviously, you have to work at that relationship though, I assume, to openly communicate with one another.

KEEHO I think the whole job that we have is really mental Olympics because you have to be on. So many people expect so much from you. Your members expect so much from you. There’s just that kind of hidden rule to just be. There’s no such thing as a day where you can be kind of meh. But when it comes to your members, I think you’re allowed to be a little more human. Be a little different when we’re with each other.

That idea is something I’ve talked about other groups that have even passed that 10 year mark and how that affected them, not even particularly in a negative way. But it just changes the way you live your life when you are always on, in a career. How do you feel that that has changed your relationship with yourself, and your relationship with each other?

KEEHO I think with yourself, it’s really crazy. Sometimes, I just look at myself, I’m like, wow. It’s just like, wow, you work so hard, and sometimes you kind feel bad for yourself. I don’t know if that’s a good thing to say, but this is very humanly insane. But it’s so crazy that, if you put our mind to it with discipline, you can still do it. You’re being perceived [by others] so much, sometimes you forget who you are, and sometimes you remember yourself as the way other people perceive you. Sometimes you’ll say something or do something and people are like, oh, Keeho is this type of person [or] he’s this type of person. I’m like, am I that type of person? Sometimes things get blown out of proportion – positive things, negative, whatever it may be – some days I’ll be like, “Oh, I really like carrots,” for example. But then I actually don’t really carrots. I don’t know why I said it, but now everyone thinks I like carrots. You just feel like you are obligated to carrots now. Sometimes you just believe the way you’re perceived, I think. There’s a little bit of a weird self-finding moment there that you need to have. But I think what’s really cool when you’re with your members is [that] they’ve known you longer than anyone else has. They’ve known you before you were even famous, right? I guess they can see you for who you are without having to go through all of the layers that were kind of pushed onto you from all the years of being in the spotlight. I think that’s what makes your members special.

What do you guys do to ground yourself and take care of yourself during busy schedules?

JIUNG This year, I started meditating, and it helps me a lot. I’m always meditating. I’m trying to meditate at least five minutes in the morning, at least 20 minutes before I go to bed. It helps me to be in the present. After I started that, I became able to focus on what I’m doing right now, who I am right now, what I can do right now. It helps me to reduce any stress that I get.

KEEHO You know what, I don’t have a way to [de]stress. You just kinda live through it. I think I like to take vacations, but obviously that’s limited. I think for me, I like to just not overshare. I think for the longest time I felt like sharing a lot is so fun and cool, but I [realized] some things, keeping it sacred and keeping it to myself makes it feel more special. Those things just kind of keep me grounded, and I don’t need to share everything. I think K-pop idols are very different, in the sense that oversharing is encouraged and almost needed.

It’s like, what did you eat today? What did you do today? What time did you wake up today? What are you doing today? If you don’t share that, fans [will ask] why [you aren’t sharing]. But I think, obviously there’s a balance that needs to be kept. Some things I think are cool to share. I think [there are] some things that are cool to be private. Having that balance, I’m starting to now feel that. I’m five years in, I’m starting to feel it now. But I think keeping things a little more private, keeping things that need to be mine to be mine is what is special and keeps me grounded, less stressed.

Do you, Keeho, feel more pressure with that? People with you in particular have put a personality on you that maybe isn’t always how you feel. Do you feel that because you were born in Canada and when you come to the U.S. fans converse with you more freely, that you feel obligated to share more because of that?

KEEHO Yeah, I think so too. I would never blame anyone for it, but I definitely think because they’re able to connect to me in a way that’s not foreign. They can also feel like, oh, this is just my dude. But also there’s boundaries, so I think that balance is also really, really important. That’s why I feel like I also need to take a step back and just kind of keep some things private because I’m also human too. These guys are also all human. But I think the reason why they seem a little more further away is just because of the language barrier.

I also feel like there’s definitely ups and downs to it because as an English speaker, because they feel like they can just see someone like me at school or even at work, they just feel like they can resonate with me, which is a good thing. But I also feel like there also comes with a lot of responsibility when it comes to that. They kind of expect a certain thing from me as well too. I mean, I love all the pressure and all the stress, all the ups and downs that comes with it, but I think there’s definitely that aspect.

As a group, you don’t always get to choose how the world perceives you, but I have to assume you have a way you’d like people to see you. What does that look like for you?

JONGSEOB I feel like my ideal vision is that I want to try something that I want in that moment. I write my own lyrics and I write my songs, and I feel I want to try more diverse genres. I want to keep [pushing] my own creative boundaries. That’s my ideal vision.

KEEHO For me, I think it ties into the last question. Being in the spotlight and also just like you said, being an English speaker in a K-pop group that promotes in Korea, I think I’m just so used to pleasing people and just being a people pleaser. Even though it doesn’t benefit me, I’ll say or do things that I know will benefit the group or benefit me or whatever it may be. I like being perceived that way, but I wish I could just be a little more raw. I wish I could just, I don’t know. It comes out every now and then, and that’s why everyone’s like, oh, he’s so sassy and whatnot. But I’m actually a very, very, very straightforward, and I wouldn’t say the nicest, person. I don’t think I am.

That’s OK, you don’t have to be.

KEEHO I think I’m a really honest and a very straightforward person, and I think sometimes that scares people. But that’s who I am truthfully. As time goes by I want people to kind see… so we’ll see how that plays out.

INTAK For a long time, I thought that looking cool, looking bougie and like [a] superstar was what was needed to be perceived. But I think now at this point, I just really want to everyone to see the group as just as honest as it can be. [We’re] just some dudes, some boys, that are just chasing our dreams, working really hard. [I want them to] see it as almost kind of like a movie, kind of like a fictional story. [I want them] to see how hard we’ve worked and how hard we’re willing to work and to see it as a romanticized version of our lives.