Wanna One continues at full throttle

Already half way through its short lifespan, with a disbandment planned at the end of the year, boy band Wanna One is working at full throttle.

The act’s special album “1÷x=1 (Undivided),” due out on Monday, is a follow-up of its previous “0+1=1 (I Promise You)” EP released in March. The new EP is led by “Light,” an up-tempo garage dance track that throws a message of hope and love.

“‘Light’ delivers a sexy image that all of us (members) wanted to try. We’ve put a lot of effort into our choreography, vocal and rapping as well,” said Park Woo-jin during a press conference for the group’s new EP in Seoul on Sunday. 

The five-track EP also features collaborations between Wanna One subunits and famous musicians such as Dynamic Duo, Black B’s Zico, Nell and Heize.

Subunits Triple Position, consisting of Kim Jae-hwan, Kang Daniel and Park Woo-jin; Lean On Me, made up of Yoon Ji-sung, Ha Sung-woon and Hwang Min-hyun; The Hill, with Ong Seong-wu and Lee Dae-hwim and Namba One, with Park Ji-hoon, Bae Jin-young and Lai Kuan-lin, worked on “Kangaroo,” produced by Zico, “Eternity + 1,” produced by Nell, “Sandglass,” produced by Heize, and “11,” produced by Dynamic Duo, respectively.

“We’ve put messages that couldn’t be expressed in ‘Light’ into our unit songs. Our efforts have been shown in the lyrics we wrote and our performances. They are be very meaningful and valuable songs to us,” Ong Seong-wu said.

A few days ahead of its comeback, Wanna One made headlines for abruptly changing its agency from YMC Entertainment to Swing Entertainment. The brand new company, which signed with Wanna One for six months, said it will only focus on the band for the rest of the year and plans to take on other artists after the group’s disbandment.

Asked about the reason the change, Yoon Ji-sung said, “As a group that is running out of time and has a world tour and upcoming albums ahead of us, a new agency that can fully support us and collaborate with us has been established.” He added that nothing has been said or decided regarding the group’s contract extension. 

The 11-piece act, which consists of winners of the second season of the audition program “Produce 101,” has released three EPs so far, including “1÷x=1 (Undivided),” and plans to release more albums until it disbands on Dec. 31. The beloved boy-next-door act, however, was dealt a blow earlier in March when a private backstage conversation in which they cursed and complained was accidently aired, arousing controversy among the group’s fans. The incident coincided with the release of the “0+1=1 (I Promise You)” EP.

“We feel really sorry for our mishap that occurred shortly after our last comeback. I’ve been making a lot of effort to show better sides of us,” Ha Sung-woon said.

At the press conference, Bae Jin-young addressed his ear injury from Saturday’s concert in Seoul. The accident occurred when Bae bumped with bandmate Ong Seong-wu onstage, with Bae’s earpiece causing an injury to the singer’s ear. After receiving treatment backstage, Bae returned to the stage and apologized to the concertgoers, tearing up.

“It was nobody’s fault. Everyone was just surprised as it happened so abruptly. The reason I cried, I usually take stages very seriously, and I was angry at myself and sorry to my fans at the same time,” he said.

Wanna One kicked off its world tour series “Wanna One World Tour - One: The World,” starting with three concerts in Seoul from Friday to Sunday. The group plans to hold concerts in 13 cities over the next three months.

(lotus@heraldcorp.com)