[Herald Interview] Treasure talks new album, making three comebacks in less than 100 days

After making its long-awaited debut in August, Treasure has dropped three albums in less than 100 days as if to prove its presence as a rising rookie of the year.

YG Entertainment‘s 12-piece boy band released its third EP “The First Step”: CHAPTER THREE” on Friday evening, shortly after rolling out its second installment of the “The First Step” series in September. The new album is fronted by the lead single “MMM,” a groovy and aggressive hybrid hip-hop track that shows off a more powerful side of the young group.

“We’d really like to thank our staff who enabled us to have such a fast comeback. I feel like the bond between the bandmates has only gotten stronger throughout our three album releases. I’m really glad about that,” said Hyunsuk in a recent written interview with The Korea Herald. Other bandmates also expressed satisfaction for their prolific musical output. “We also feel grateful for being able to take on new challenges for each album. It’s really great to try various attempts in a such short period of time,” Yedam added. 

Steering away from the previous modern K-pop style heard on “Boy,” Treasure landed on YG’s staple hip-hop this time, poised to showcase the youth’s charismatic side.

“It is our first time working in the hip-hop genre, and we worked on it with so much pleasure because we personally liked it as well. There are so many colors and genres we’d like to show in the future, and ‘MMM’ is one of them,” said Doyoung..

Hyunsuk, who took part in penning the song’s rap verses along with Yoshi and Haruto, explained, “The new song is basically different from our previous works in terms of BPM, so we tried to emphasize such sonic transition. We also tried to showcase our swag and groove in the most powerful and natural way,” adding that the bandmates have also paid a lot of attention to their fashion details.

Taking a more progressive role in songwriting, Asahi and Haruto also talked about their creative process. Asahi is credited as both a composer and writer in “Orange,” another track from the album, while Haruto partially penned the rap verse on the ballad track.

“I wrote this song earlier this year at our dormitory. I made the beats and showed it to Haruto, who then wrote the rap verse. So we started recording. Compared to our past works, I see that we are showing improvements, such as choosing better instruments for the song,” said Asahi.

Created through the YG audition TV show “YG Treasure Box,” which aired between November 2018 and January last year, Treasure dropped its first EP -- “The First Step: Chapter One,” fronted by lead track “Boy” -- on Aug. 7. Comprised of Hyunsuk, Jihoon, Yoshi, Junkyu, Mashiho, Jaehyuk, Asahi, Yedam, Doyoung, Haruto, Jeongwoo and Junghwan, the band’s big debut grabbed global headlines, and “Boy” topped iTunes Top Song charts in 19 countries around the world.

Continuing its winning streak, Treasure earned the title of “Half a Million Seller” with the accumulated sales figure from its two previous EPs. Recently, the group held its first online concert on Oct. 18, as a part of SBS’ “2020 SUPER ON:TACT” concert.

“If we ever do our own solo concert, maybe all of us will break into tears from the very beginning of the show. I’m really looking forward to that day. It will be so overwhelming,” said Jihoon.

Treasure is set to drop its first full-length album sometime in December.

By Hong Dam-young (lotus@heraldcorp.com)