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K-pop boy band CIX poses during a media showcase for its sixth EP "'OK' Episode 2: I'm OK" held in Seoul on Monday. (C9 Entertainment) |
Five-piece boy band CIX on Monday released its sixth EP "'OK' Episode 2: I'm OK," marking the release with a media showcase event a few hours before the album's release.
The new album marked the end of the group's "OK" series and opens up to the next chapter of their story, said the band members -- BX, Seunghun, Yonghee, Baejinyoung and Hyunsuk -- during the event held on Monday.
"We've improved and grown in many parts through various activities, including the world tour, and we melted them into this album," the band's leader BX said.
Starting in Seoul in December, CIX held the second world tour, "Save Me, Kill Me" -- a 18-city voyage around Europe, the US and Japan -- the band's biggest concert series so far.
"We poured in our everything (during the global concerts) for our foreign fans who have waited for us. In return, (we) received as much energy from them. It was how we could prepare for this album," Seunghun said, with Yonghee adding that the band will be "going back out in no time."
According to the members, the tour had been named after the new album's title song, "Save Me, Kill Me."
"We had the album and title song all set before we set off on the tour. It was our big spoiler for the fans," Baejinyoung said.
According to Seunghun, the bandamtes trained almost two years for the single song.
"We first received the song in the winter of 2021," Seunghun said.
"We were worried at first whether we could voice it properly. We trained hard for almost two years and tried to express the song better."
The new album closes the doors to the group's second musical series, "OK" series, which kicked off in August 2021 with the act's first LP "'OK' Prologue : Be OK" and continued into the second EP "'OK' Episode 1 : OK Not" dropped in August 2022.
"'OK' Episode 2: I'm OK" sings of the double-sidedness of youth -- how we relish its beauty yet crumble to its pains on our way to finding our own colors.
"As it's our last episode of the series, we wanted to show that we have matured. Although the lyrics of the songs are sad, we also console (the listeners) through them," BX said.
There was no hustle for these boys, as the narrative which CIX has followed since its debut in 2019 has been tightly planned from the start. They are only rolling them out step by step through new albums and contents.
For instance, the new album is closely related in story to the band's second EP "'Hello' Chapter 2. Hello, Strange Place," which came out in November 2019.
"(The connection) had been planned out since our debut by the members, the writers in our company and the staff. We're unveiling our story with every new album like this," BX said, not going deeper into the connection.
Wrapping up Hyunsuk's explanation, the "Hello" series was about the present and set the foundations of the story. Meanwhile, the "OK" series climbs back in the timeline to the past, giving the background to how they arrived at the present story.
Expounding on their narrative-building universe, Seunghun said, "We were in a huge hell until now. We're still in it, to be precise, but now we tell the story of 'cloud nine,' in which the five of us take our steps out of hell and into heaven."
It's been less than three months since the band wrapped up the world tour, but CIX members were already anticipating their next one.
"We'll make as many opportunities as we can to meet our fans here and abroad," BX said.
Seunghun chimed in, saying, "When we become more famous, I want to hold a domestic tour and hold concerts in different regions of South Korea."
"I want to go to a bigger venue. I want to feel that electrifying feeling I felt there. The light sticks looked like a canvas of stars. Hopefully we can make it into Tokyo Dome and hold a dome tour in Japan," Baejinyoung said.
