Cortés Meets BTS: Exclusive Interview at HYBE Headquarters

-Continued from Interview ①.

-What reality differed most from your expectations before and after your debut?

▶Martin= We were surprised that more people liked our team than we expected. We spent a long time preparing for the album before our debut. We spent two years writing about 300 songs and worrying a lot. I worried about “What kind of music will people like?” and “Some people might not like certain music.” In the end, many people saw our first album, which showed ourselves as we are, and they sympathized with COURTIS’s honesty. Fortunately, our team did better than we thought, so I’m glad.

-Do you feel any pressure being called ‘Next Generation’ of Big Hit Music? BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s success may be a solid lighthouse, but sometimes it must feel like a high wall to overcome.

▶Juhun= To be honest, our seniors are amazing, so I can’t say that we don’t feel any pressure, but I think we’re trying to go our own way. We are trying to focus on our own music as much as possible while finding our own musical color and preparing our own performances.

-BTS will be making a comeback in March, and COURTIS in April. How do you feel about promoting at the same time for the first time since your debut?

▶Martin= As a fan who grew up watching BTS’s performances since I was young, the first time I saw their concert was at Jamsil Olympic Stadium. While watching the stage, I first dreamed of “I want to be on that stage too.” That’s how much I want to emulate their great performance skills. I also watch a lot of their award ceremony performances, and I get a feeling of overwhelming scale, so I want to catch up with that aspect as well.

Recently, I had the chance to run into them once at the HYBE building by luck. While filming (different things), we greeted each other in the middle, took pictures with BTS, and had a chat together. They said, “How are you doing?” and “I hope you do well.” We had a lot of fun, everyday conversations.

▶Juhun= I haven’t heard BTS’s new song yet, so I hope I get a chance to hear it soon.

-The AAA stage, as well as BTS’s concert before your debut, were impressive, so your desire for COURTIS’s own solo concert must have grown even bigger. Do you have a dream stage?

▶James= It would be great if we could have a solo concert. Right now, we are working hard to prepare for the upcoming NBA stage. There will be many stages, performances, and new looks this year, so please look forward to it.

▶Martin= If we get the chance in the distant future, my dream is to perform at Jamsil Olympic Stadium. I hope the day will come when we can perform at the Olympic Stadium someday.

-The group name means ‘coloring outside the lines’ and ‘thinking freely outside the standards and rules set by the world.’ If so, when would you say COURTIS has ‘most boldly gone outside the lines’ in the approximately six months since its debut?

▶James= I think we naturally try to go outside the lines when we create. We keep trying, and we keep making new things. We keep thinking about it. And we always try to do that.

▶Martin= I don’t like being limited to something. So, when we all work, we do things in various places and wear various clothes. If I dressed punk yesterday, I maintain variety by dressing hip-hop today. Recently, we were only working in the studio, but it didn’t work out, so we set up chairs and a TV in the hallway outside the studio and worked as if we were camping. I think we continue to find new things in our daily lives in this way.

-COURTIS is called a ‘Young Creator Crew’ because they directly create music, choreography, and videos. At the debut showcase, Seonghyun explained the working method in one sentence as ‘putting our heads together,’ but since it’s a collaborative creation process, there must be times when the five members’ opinions clash. Do you vote democratically, trust one person’s strong sense, or does COURTIS have its own rules for coordinating this?

▶Seonghyun= Most of the time, we do it by majority vote.

▶Gunho= We compare a lot. We don’t try to miss a single opinion. We look at each one and try it. Because something new might come out of it. So it takes a long time, but I think the result comes out well only if we have this process.

-Apart from ‘Young Creator Crew’ and ‘Bibimbap,’ how would you describe COURTIS in one sentence?

▶James= Like our first album, we are five young people who are working hard to keep growing. We keep trying to broaden the lines and find new things. We are still finding each member’s individual personality and thoughts. We are constantly living while having new experiences.

▶Juhun= ‘Unpretentious’ is a word that suits us well. I think ‘Color Out Line’ is when I am most myself and most individual. I think COURTIS is about showing our unpretentious selves as they are.

-If so, which member would you choose as the one whose image on stage and off stage is the most different?

▶Martin, Seonghyun, Gunho, Juhun= James.

▶Martin= I think he is very professional on stage and has the charm of an eldest brother, but the moment he comes off stage and puts on his glasses, he becomes a whimsical idea bank. I think he becomes a quirky and fun brother off stage.

▶James= I think we all have some differences to some extent. First of all, I think a professional appearance is the most important thing on stage, so I try to do my best to show it, and I live fiercely off stage.

-I’m also curious if there is a routine that you always stick to before going on stage that fans don’t know about.

▶Martin= There is a ‘Victory Pose’ where all the members raise their arms above their heads. I’ve been doing this continuously after seeing an academic study that raising both arms for about 20 seconds increases confidence.

-As Martin said earlier, you worked on over 300 candidate songs for about 2 years preparing for your debut album. How are you working on songs this time, ahead of your comeback in April?

▶James= We are preparing very hard in the same way. We are trying to express ourselves as honestly as possible. We are thinking about making music that is beautiful, most like me, and most like COURTIS.

▶Juhun= We seem to have changed a lot when we were working on the first album and when we were making the second album, so I think listeners will feel a lot of those changes.

▶Martin= The working method is also different. When we worked on the first album, we went into the booth one by one, but when we worked on the second album, we mostly went into the booth together and worked spontaneously, feeling free.

-Martin and Gunho also appeared on the YouTube content ‘Salon Drip 2.’ Do you think you have a talent for variety show filming? I’m also curious why those two specifically went.

▶Gunho= Actually, I was very nervous at first, but Jang Do-yeon treated me kindly, very friendly, and comfortably, so I quickly relaxed, and I was able to talk more interestingly as time went by. I thought I wanted to go on more variety shows.

▶Martin= The ‘Salon Drip 2’ PD said that ‘the chemistry between the youngest and the leader is good,’ so they called us two. It was a new and fun experience for me and Gunho to go on a variety show and do something. Like Gunho, I was able to proceed comfortably thanks to Do-yeon.

-On ‘Salon Drip 2,’ Martin called Gunho ‘whiny’ and said, ‘He shows off that he’s the youngest too much.’ Gunho strongly denied it, but what do the other members think? Does Gunho actually whine a lot?

▶Seonghyun= He whines a little. (laughs)

-To be continued in Interview ③.