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| Five-member group Seven O'clock ― Rui, Tae-young, Han-gyeom, Andy and 2Soul ― pose in front of the camera after the showcase held at S-plex center, Tuesday./ Courtesy of Forest Network |
By Jung Hae-myoung
Five-member K-pop idol group "Seven O'clock" released its third mini-album "White Night," Tuesday.
At the showcase held at S-plex center in Seoul, Tuesday, Han-gyeom, the leader of the group, said "The concept of this new album is about the boundary between being a boy and a man. To make it different from the previous album, we tried to make tracks with various styles both comforting and funky."
He added, "We also tried to take extra care for the visuals and styling."
For this new album, the team has introduced its newest member, Rui, who was a contestant in music audition program "Under Nineteen" aired on MBC. Rui, now the youngest member of the group, is the band's rapper.
Seven O'clock debuted with seven members and has seen frequent changes in membership. Jeong-gyu, who was one of the founding members, is now having a rest for health issues. Now with Rui joining the group, the team is officially running with five members.
"Since the debut, there has been many lineup changes, and we feel there would be a new atmosphere every time," Han-gyeom said when asked of the continuous roster changes. "But because of that, we keep remembering our initial resolution when we first started the group. The members try to perform as if it is the last time we step onto the stage."
The team finished its first tour in Europe on April 14, and has drawn positive responses from international fans.
Asked why they think they are receiving attention from abroad, Tae-young said: "We don't have concerts often, either in Korea or other countries, but for every performance we try to make the best of it and our fans also understand that we feel that way." He also stressed Andy and Rui are fluent in foreign languages which smooths out communication between international fans.
However, the number of their concerts here is relatively small compared to other K-pop bands. The members showed some inconsistency in releasing their albums with a long wait in between.
"We always hope to produce good results when we release an album, but that didn't happen as much as we thought, hence a long break between each album," Han-gyeom said. "If we can make it, then we will be able to release albums more frequently."
Seven O'clock members said they hope their new tracks make it into the top 100 charts of streaming websites, and if so they promised they would organize a fan concert meeting.
The mini-album, "White Night," is inspired by Dostoevsky's novel "White Nights." They used it as a metaphor for endless love for one's significant other, and that they would love as long as the sun is in the sky.
Beside the title track "White Night," the album consists of four other songs including "Midnight Sun," Save Me Now," "Ladi Dadi" and "Paradise," which is a cover of a song from the soundtrack to "Boys Over Flowers."
TOP TRACK, the composing team for this album and their 2018 release "#7," is led by Oh Joon-sung, a prominent composer of K-drama soundtracks.
"White Night" was released on streaming sites at 6 p.m., Tuesday.
