Enhypen speaks of growth and pains through ‘Border: Carnival’

Big-name rookie group Enhypen has returned even bigger than before with the second EP “Border: Carnival,” which sings about the ferocious five months since the group’s debut.

The seven-piece group held a media event in Seoul on Monday ahead of the album‘s release at 6 p.m. that day.

Taking on the story from their first EP “Border: Day On,” which depicts a complication of emotions faced ahead of debut, “Border: Carnival” sings of another wave of emotional ups and downs that followed their grand debut.

“While the first album had expressed how we’d felt standing on the borderlines of a trainee and an artist, the new album talks about the emotions that came after the debut,” the group‘s leader Jung-won said.

Going beyond the border, they were soon mesmerized by the spotlights, festivals, and ups and downs emotions which felt like a carnival to them.

Leading the album is “Drunk-Dazed,” a pop-rock song that embodies such a whirlwind of emotions and energy the band felt in entering a whole new world. Jung-won explained each of the bandmates were interviewed by producers to make sure the song showed the genuine hearts of each of them.

The six-track album also includes “Intro: The Invitation,” “Fever,” “Not For Sale,” “Mixed Up” and “Outro: The Wormhole.”

Hee-seung said, “We tried to illustrate the various emotions. The first line of ’Drunk-Dazed‘ is ’Beautiful and brilliant,‘ and I think this lyric not only depicts the title song but the whole album itself.”

“Border: Carnival” racked up preorders of 450,000 copies, breaking the group’s former number of 300,000 copies for the previous album.

“We’re honored to receive such huge love although we‘re a new group. Although we were awed by the number, we’ll continue to try our best to show more of ourselves with the new album,” Hee-seung said.

Speaking about their first on-site fan meetup in February, the band hoped for more chances to get together with fans this year.

“We realized the gap between the energy from an online meeting and an offline meeting,” Jungwon said, adding, “that experience has become a driving force for us as we endure this period.”

Jay said, “We’d had different expectations (about offline events) before we made our debut, so we were happy just to perform amidst the cheers and applauds of our fans. We want to play more with them when the situation gets better.”

Until then, the band promised to stay connected online.

Jake said, “We try to communicate as much as we could through social media and other content and to share our daily lives with the fans.”

Making a grand debut in November through Mnet competition show “I-Land,” Enhypen became an instant sensation, sweeping rookie of the year awards at year-end music award ceremonies and shows.

“We couldn’t believe that we would be named the rookie of the year so fast. We’re so grateful to Engenes (the group’s official fandom), and the members promised we‘ll do even better in the future,” Sunoo said.

Niki added, “We realize we were able to receive support from K-pop fans worldwide as we were created through their votes. I want to take this time to thank them once more.”

For their goals this year, Jake said, “I think we’re going through a stage where we challenge ourselves to discover our unique colors,” while Sung-hoon piped in, “we hope more people get to know us, especially around the world.”



By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)