Shinsadong Tiger presents EXID

From a tough girl image to sexy and sophisticated choreography, five-member girl group EXID is one of the latest projects from the hit-making songwriter and producer Shinsadong Tiger.

Original members LE and Sol-ji, and new members Jung-hwa, Ha-ni and Hye-rin, make up the new hip-hop/dance girl group, whose name is a combination of “exit” and “dreaming.”

"The concept behind our group’s name is our desires to go beyond just dreaming,” said Ha-ni.

EXID first debuted as a six-member group in February with the mini album, “Holla.” The album’s title track, “Whoz that Girl,” is a dance/pop track that starts off cute and upbeat, but then breaks into a heavy DJ dance interlude.

“For every song, we like to think of new concepts to embody,” said Ha-ni. “We like keeping our fans anticipating.”

A couple of months after their debut, the group went through changes before finally settling as a five-member group. The new faces of EXID came back to the K-pop scene with the album “Hippity Hop” in August and introduced the group’s catchy, upbeat dance title track “I Feel Good.”

“The five of us are so different,” said Ha-ni. “We each have our own talents, whether it be singing, dancing or rapping, and we like to always change and show off our different traits.”

“When people hear our music, we want them to be filled with the desire of wanting to keep on listening to us over and over again,” said Sol-ji.

The girls claim to be unique in playing a large role in the production process of their music and stage presence.

“Our songs, our albums, even our hair and makeup all reflect our own tastes, like being custom-made,” Hye-rin laughed. “Our personal concepts and opinions regarding our music and performances are always highly valued and taken into consideration.”

EXID’s latest single, “Every Night,” was released in October and was written and composed by member LE. The song is a big shift from the upbeat electronic pop singles that they have released in the past and shows off the low-key, sophisticated and sexier side of the members.

“Every Night” is about a man toying with a woman’s heart and calling only when he is bored and wants something from her.

“The music video to the track is all about revenge,” LE said. “Shinsadong Tiger likes to describe it as a dark comedy.”

The video portrays the members formulating a chemical compound of red pepper and placing it into test tubes. The girls then throw the tubes into a room while the man in question is having a party with a room full of women, causing them all to become violently ill. This event is what led to the scene at the beginning of the video where the girls are dancing in a room full of incapacitated people while wearing gas masks.

“We originally just used the gas masks as a joke, but the scene turned out to look better than we thought so we decided to use it,” LE said, laughing. “But it was so difficult dancing with them because we couldn’t see very well in front of us.”

“We couldn’t breathe very well either,” Sol-ji added as the rest of the members laughed along.

The members of EXID are currently working on their next single, which they hope to release sometime early next year.

“Every time people hear our new music, I want them to think, ‘Wow, EXID does not disappoint.’” said Jung-hwa.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)