This year, it’s a particularly special year for one group in the Korean music industry. That is BTOB, who will be celebrating their 10th year anniversary.
For their latest comeback, it is presented in the form of their 3rd Album ‘Be Together‘. It contains a total of thirteen songs, including an intro to welcome their listeners in and an outro to wave them goodbye until the next time. You can check out the album on iTunes, Tidal and Spotify.
The group promoted as a quartet last year for their EP ‘4U: Outside‘. However, this time they are rejoined by members Hyunsik and Sungjae after the pair finished their military services.
The Q&A section of the press showcase includes talks about their feelings about this comeback, what kept them going to reach their 10 year anniversary, one word that they would like to be associated with BTOB, their first time reactions to hearing ‘The Song‘ and more. You can check out the event below, the Q&A starts at 16:55.
The Korea Herald / Park Jun Hee
mbn star / LEE NAMKYUNG
TV Daily / 박상후
My Daily / 강다윤
일간스포츠 (IS Plus) / 이현아
Korea Times / 동선화
UnitedKpop / Kristine Phillips
Question : First of all, congratulations on your comeback. This is your first album in 4 years after all of your members completed their military duties, how do you feel about this comeback?
SEO EUNKWANG: It feels great. Although I’ve had the chance to be on promotions as BTOB 4U
after I was discharged, now that we are back to promoting as a full group this time, I thought,
Now this is what BTOB is like as a full group.‟ It’s wonderful to have everyone here.
Joy News 24 / 이미영
My Daily / 강다윤
SE Daily (서울경제스타) / 추승현
Question: BTOB seems quite special with prioritizing your group activities immediately after your military hiatus. How do you feel about reaching your 10th-anniversary milestone, and what was the key to your teamwork that made it possible to stay together for 10 years?
LEE CHANGSUB: The reason we were able to keep going for 10 years is every one of us is very serious about music. As HYUNSIK mentioned earlier, we’ve turned into real professionals from amateurs.
LIM HYUNSIK: There are still many things we can improve on, but given 10 years of career, I think we can now be called professionals.
SEO EUNKWANG: I’m very grateful to reach this milestone. Thank you so much. It’s MELODY and “our fans‟ love that made it possible for us to stay together for 10 years, so I sincerely thank and love them.
LIM HYUNSIK: Our fans are now professionals too.
The Korea Herald / Park Jun Hee
ize / 한수진
My Daily / 강다윤
Korea Times / 동선화
Question: This is your first full-group album for the first time in a while, being released in the year of your 10th anniversary. We would like to ask which elements of this album you thought of most importantly, and which elements put the most effort into.
LIM HYUNSIK: Since this is a full album, we put a lot of thought into it. MINHYUK and I tried to fill this album with many different songs. As we were working on it, we listened to our most-loved songs and kept them as references, but at the same time, we also thought maybe we should show a more professional, more improved version of ourselves while maintaining our color, since it’s our 10th anniversary. Out of my 31 years of life, I worked the hardest as I prepared for this album. We dedicated a lot of effort to this album, and I’m glad to see that the album turned out well.
LEE MINHYUK: When I was working on the album I kept on saying “save me” and it was that challenging, but even in those moments, thinking of MELODY and presenting the full group BTOB motivated me and got me really excited. We devoted our efforts to this album to show the many charms of BTOB.
atstar1 / Park Seung Hyun
Question: What are some new things you tried with your new album “Be Together‟?
LIM HYUNSIK: First of all, this is our first time putting out an entirely self-produced album. It’s also our first time to have 13 tracks on an album. Those are the newest things we tried with this album. We also worked hard on all 13 tracks that once you listen to them, you will think, “how can all these songs be so good?‟
Joy News 24 / 이미영
Question: What are your anticipations for BTOB’s future activities?
LEE CHANGSUB: I hope BTOB can continue to do music for a long course of time. Professional BTOB going long and steady like an increasing curve.
SEO EUNKWANG: We will continue to walk our way, so we hope we can continue to receive love and support.
Star News / 윤상근
Question: I’m sure you are very much motivated for this promotion. Since this is your first comeback as a full-group in a while, you must have had a lot on your mind as you prepared this album. What is a message you want to deliver through this album?
SEO EUNKWANG: This album in general expresses our gratitude for our fans and listeners, and it also made me feel that it’s very “us” and “together.” BTOB would always love to be by your side and continue to walk along. Just like the name of the album itself, we want to “Be Together.” Our title track “The Song” in particular has all the moments BTOB shared with the audience and MELODY in the lyrics, so we hope you look at the hearts we put into it.
My Daily / 강다윤
GMA Network / Aimee Anoc, AC Soriano
Question: This is a full-group album being released in the year of your 10th anniversary. What are your goals for this promotion, and what is a new keyword you would like to earn?
SEO EUNKWANG: Of course, it would be great if we can receive much love and support. This album means a lot because it’s our 10th anniversary this year.
YOOK SUNGJAE: I hope EUNKWANG stays healthy.
SEO EUNKWANG: That’s so nice of you.
YOOK SUNGJAE: We used to be known as “Healing-dol”—“dol” as in “idol”—but now, I hope we become “healing” itself, without the “dol.” Healing is BTOB, BTOB is healing.
LEE MINHYUK: Eventually, BTOB will replace the word “healing.”
일간스포츠 (IS Plus) / 이현아
Question: It must be very meaningful to be together during these challenging times of the COVID pandemic, what are some things that have changed compared to the past?
LEE CHANGSUB: This will be SUNGJAE and HYUNSIK‟s first time on music shows since being discharged. Four of us had previously promoted as BTOB 4U, and every time we went to a broadcast studio we had to test using the COVID self-test kit, and perform just with the cameras in front of us for safety reasons. I don’t know what it’s like right now, but I really miss the times we used to perform as we listened to our fans cheer for us.
LIM HYUNSIK: Performances are different too, but it’s also a bummer that we can only meet the reporters online as well. I hope things get better soon so we can meet in person.
SEO EUNKWANG: Honestly it feels lonely too. Artists are the happiest when they are enjoying the stage with their fans, sharing their music, so it’s very disappointing that we can’t do that. I hope we can go back to normal as soon as possible.
Cookie News / 이은호
Question: Congratulations on your full-group comeback and 10th debut anniversary. BTOB is a special team that has received love for your vocal skills in the performance-centered K-pop industry. What was the most challenging part of your 10 years of career, and what is an achievement you feel the proudest of?
SEO EUNKWANG: The most challenging moment was when I just joined the military. I was the first one to start the military hiatus, so I was well aware that there was much more of the military hiatus ahead of us. Knowing that made it hard to get through those times, and I just couldn’t wait for the full group to come together again.
YOOK SUNGJAE: When I was discharged, I could really feel the bond amongst us, which made me very happy. I’m so thankful for PENIEL in particular because he waited for a total of 4 years for the rest of the members to fulfill their military duties, and I thought that I’m working together with great people and great members.
PENIEL: At first I was like, “Oh, another one is leaving‟ each time we sent a member off to the military, but eventually I got used to it. When it was time for someone to leave, someone could come back. It feels great to be able to work together after all the wait.
No Cut News / 김수정
Question: “The Song‟, a song written by LIM HYUNSIK, is the title track this time. What made it the title track, and how did the members feel when they first listened to it?
LIM HYUNSIK: As always, it was voted as the title track, and our company really liked it as well. When I first let the members listen to it, they all appreciated it and said a lot of warm words too.
YOOK SUNGJAE: If you pay close attention to the lyrics, you will notice that the emotions BTOB has felt until now are in the lyrics, recorded like BTOB’s history.
SEO EUNKWANG: Referring to what SUNGJAE said, speaking of BTOB‟s history, the fact that our past title songs such as “Missing You,” “It‟s Okay,” “Only One for Me,” and “Beautiful Pain” are all in the lyrics gave me chills.
LIM HYUNSIK: I made the melody first, and I finished the lyrics in less than 30 minutes sitting on a sofa. It just came from my heart, so I was able to finish it up quickly sitting there.
Newsen / 황혜진
Question: I recall that you said “[we want to]go further rather than higher, and present many new things as [we]take on many new challenges musically” back in 2018. While I think you’ve already achieved that goal since then, promoting not only as a full group but also as a subunit, participating in Mnet “KINGDOM‟ and more, I’d like to know if that is still a goal of yours, and what your new goals are now that you’re back as a full group.
YOOK SUNGJAE: That was my hope from 4 years ago. It’s still a goal of ours, but to expand on that a little more, I hope we can reach as far as the US, being acknowledged more globally. Until we reach Mars, even the end of the universe. These days many of our seniors and juniors are very successful abroad. As a K-pop group, we hope we can be more widely acknowledged. Plus, EUNKWANG has been working hard on his English lately.
We wish BTOB all the very best in their promotions for this comeback. You can check out their newest M/V for ‘The Song‘ below.
