TXT starts on new journey with 'The Chaos Chapter: Freeze'

Moving on from the first stage of their story, “The Dream Chapter,” boy band Tomorrow X Together, also known as TXT in short, turned the page to the next part with their second full-length album “The Chaos Chapter: Freeze.”

Ahead of the release of their new album Monday, the five-piece act conducted a media showcase. Originally set to take place in person, the event was moved online after it was discovered the members may have come in contact with a COVID-19 patient. All five tested negative for the virus disease ahead of the event.

Hinting that the new album takes on the story from the previous “The Dream Chapter” series, member Yeonjun said “The Chaos Chapter: Freeze” is about “the story of a boy who has frozen still, unable to do anything as he watches his peaceful daily life shake into a chaos.”

The team’s leader Soobin elaborated, “while ‘The Dream Chapter’ had been a coming-to-age story of a boy who meets a girl, ‘The Chaos Chapter’ shows the encounter between a boy, frozen due to a sudden chaos in his world, and a girl who comes to save his hurt soul.”

Leading the album is title track “0X1=Lovesong (I Know I Love You)” featuring Korean singer Seori.

“The title track is in a trendy pop-rock hybrid genre. It’s a love song about the firm self-assurance of the boy who believes he can trust only his heart toward this girl in this chaotic world,” HeuningKai explained.

Explaining about the long and complicated title, Beomgyu said, “the seemingly mathematical formula-like name refers to the love song of a boy, whose world had meant almost nothing (0), encountering a girl (1).”

According to the members, delivering such emotion was of the utmost importance for the new song.

“I hope people focus on how the members express the change in emotions on the stage. Rather than focusing on how to act, this time, we really tried to become immersed in the emotions,” Taehyun said.

To dig deeper into their expression of emotion, Soobin said, they found inspiration from the Netflix series “The End of the F---ing World.” Soobin’s wears a T-shirt bearing the title of the series in their teaser video of the new album.

“When we make music, we watch works showing similar emotions to really intensify the feelings. The changes in the emotions felt by the characters in the series as they ventured on seemed to come in line with those in our title track,” Soobin said.

Supporting the comeback of his fellow singers of agency BigHit Music, global sensation RM took part in writing of the song. BigHit Music is affiliated with the Hybe Label, the management arm of the music and platform company Hybe.

“Struggling for three weeks over the lyrics, producer Bang asked RM for help if he wanted to, and thankfully, he did,” Soobin said, adding the title was also decided in part by the BTS member.

“We were choosing between two versions for the title, and it was RM who said ‘0X1=LOVESONG’ seemed to better suit the song, and that’s how the final name was decided,” he said.

The new album is an eight-track release, and includes the group’s first original English song “Magic.”

“We wondered how we could return to our global fans who have shown love for us, and the result was ‘Magic,’” Yeonjun said.

“We worked hard on making our pronunciations sound natural, and also on delivering the groove and details of the song. It was a challenge for us, and we hope MOAs also like it,” Beongyu said.

Meanwhile, the album also includes five other songs in which the members took part in either writing or composing. Soobin took part in writing of “Ice Cream,” Yeonjun, Taehyun and Beongyu in penning “Balance Game” and Yeonjun, HeuningKai, Beomgyu and Taehyun in writing of “No Rules.” With “Dear Sputnik,” HeuningKai attempted his first production while Taehyun took part in production. Both members were credited for writing of the track. Yeonjun also participated in the writing of “Frost.”

“We think hard about what is the topic, or the material of music that we can do at this moment. The biggest concern was to show the individual colors of the members, while at the same time, maintaining the group’s identity,” leader Soobin said.

Excited ahead of releasing their second studio set, the rookie band said they were fully supported by Hybe’s executive producer Bang Si-hyuk.

“We have a group chat, the five of us and producer Bang, and it was our first time that he directly complimented us on our dance practice video. He said we’re really ‘in some trouble’ this time, and that really helped us stay confident throughout the work,” Taehyun said.

Making a splash debut into the K-pop scene in March 2015, TXT instantly soared to stardom and has set new highs with every release. The newest album surpassed 700,000 stock pre-orders as of Monday, marking the biggest pre-order volume to date for the group.

Thanking fans sincerely, HeuningKai said, “Our music is about stories that only we can tell. They are stories about those teenagers, reinterpreted and created into our own performances, and I think that’s why many (in our generation) say they find it relatable.”

Asked how they wish their music was remembered in five to 10 years’ time, Beomgyu said, “I hope TXT’s music can move people’s hearts. When time passes, I hope that our music is remembered as songs that had best expressed each persons’ hearts.”

In closing the event, Taehyun said, “we’re going through a stage when we think deeper about ourselves. Not only about music, but also about our style, choreography and concepts, giving our own opinions about such. We feel the changes we’re going through, but we still have much to attempt and to show. We hope we could introduce you to the diversity of music, and also prove that we can interpret all genres in our own style.”

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