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INTERVIEW For LUN8, 'Off the Grid' means letting go
K-pop boy band LUN8 / Courtesy of Fantagio
By Pyo Kyung-min
Freedom is not a word that comes naturally to K-pop. The genre runs on precision — choreography drilled to the second, concepts mapped out albums in advance, camera angles rehearsed until nothing is left to chance.
Which is what makes LUN8's upcoming fourth mini album, "Off the Grid," something of a rarity. The boy band under entertainment label Fantagio has built an entire release around the one thing the industry is least equipped to manufacture, and the members insist they mean it literally.
"It's an album that expresses the freedom of a youth choosing its own path," Yuuma said during an interview at The Korea Times headquarters in central Seoul, July 8. "It carries the idea of stepping outside fixed standards and frames, and drawing a new starting line of our own."
The six members, Jinsoo, Yuuma, Kael, Takuma, Junwoo and Ian, spent 10 months on the record, their first since last September's "LOST." That album, along with the single "Butterfly," leaned dark and controlled.
K-pop boy band LUN8 / Courtesy of Fantagio
This one, set for release 6 p.m. Wednesday, required the opposite discipline — letting go. For Junwoo, the group's main dancer, that meant dismantling rules he had spent years building.
"I always had a set routine. Dance has to be done this way, expressed this way so the public understands it," he said. "But this album's choreography isn't about looking clean or refined. It's full of moves that let us joke around and show our chemistry. So this time I broke my own rules and told myself to express what I actually want to do on stage."
Member Kael said he had an image to shed.
"I had a strong, intense image," Kael said. "Since this album captures the feeling of youth, I tried to break away from that and show a brighter side."
The most striking admission came from Jinsoo, who described a kind of self-imposed confinement that will sound familiar to anyone who has watched idols perform politeness like a second choreography.
"Until now, we tried to show only a polished version of ourselves. But the more we did that, the less our individual charm came through," he said. "During our 10-month hiatus, we kept talking with fans and giving each other feedback, and we realized the charm we show when we're just hanging out never made it into the world. We'd rewatch old videos and think, wouldn't this have been more fun if we'd just been ourselves?"
K-pop boy band LUN8 / Courtesy of Fantagio
That realization shaped everything, down to the album jacket. The photographer and label staff told the members to pose however they wanted. No fixed angles, no assigned positions.
"I was so happy," Kael said, laughing. "I've always been the member with too many ideas, so when they said 'Do whatever you want,' I thought, 'My time has finally come.'"
Not everyone found it easy. "Honestly, it was harder for me," Yuuma admitted. "When someone tells you to be free, you start wondering how. But watching the other members, who were so natural at it, I learned a lot."
Takuma, who helped create the point choreography for the lead single "SNEAKERS," discovered the group's method by accident.
"At first we tried to make something impressive, and nothing worked. So we just started playing around," he said. "Someone pointed at their shoes, simply, and that turned out to have the most impact. I didn't know we were a team with this many ideas."
The song itself is engineered for summer, a whistle-laced track that opens with the hiss of a can cracking open. "The word 'sneakers' takes up about half the lyrics, and it's so addictive," Ian said. "The moment I heard it, I knew this was the one."
K-pop boy band LUN8 / Courtesy of Fantagio
The band's embrace of freedom is not without stakes. LUN8 debuted as an eight-member act in 2023 and currently performs as six, a change Jinsoo addressed without flinching.
"There have been changes, but I never felt we lost our footing," he said. "Going from eight to six made us think hard about how to fill the stage, and the worries that grew out of that actually made us grow."
The members are candid that this album is a test case.
"For us to have more freedom next time, this one really has to do well," Ian said. Kael calls the record a midpoint — the group is studying songwriting, with the goal of one day releasing music entirely of its own making.
Their ambitions for the immediate term are less abstract. Takuma wants a first music show win. Ian is aiming for the streaming charts, while Junwoo will settle for ubiquity.
"If our song plays in restaurants, that would be perfect," Junwoo said.
Asked what makes LUN8's version of youth different from the polished, sun-drenched kind K-pop sells every summer, Jinsoo reached for something he called the "happy mayhem."
"It's a bit different from the beautiful image of youth. We're always together, always playing. Even practice feels like part of playtime now," he said. "It might look rowdy to some people, but that boyish, crashing-around energy is our youth. We couldn't wait to show it to the world."