From day one, Le Ssearfim has been fearless.
The K-pop girl group, which hails from Korean entertainment giant Hybe’s Source Music, burst onto the scene in 2022 with their catchy debut single “Fearless.” But it’s bigger than just one song — the group’s name is literally an anagram of “I’m Not Afraid.”
In the increasingly crowded world of K-Pop, Le Sserafim has always stood apart from the crowd. The two eldest members, Sakura, 28, and Chaewon, 25, had already achieved huge success in Korea as members of temporary girl group IZ*ONE, formed through a popular Korean music competition series in which American-born Yeonjin, 24, was also a contestant. By the time Sakura joined that group, she had already had a long career as an idol in her native Japan.
Kazuha, 22, was a professional ballet dancer and studying at the Dutch National Ballet Academy when she was discovered by the entertainment company. Eunchae, 19, the youngest of the group, was only 15 years old when she debuted in the group. The five-member girl group has been constantly evolving, and their latest album, Pureflow pt. 1released last month, is no exception.
“Our main message with this album was about our process of reinventing ourselves as a band and redefining what that means to us,” Youngin says. Hollywood Reporter Early morning Zoom from Seoul. The girl group, known for its trendy and fashionable outfits, has swapped its glitzy stage outfits for a more casual look, befitting a group of young women in a rare moment of respite.
They explained that the album’s previously released single “Celebration” is a congratulatory message for their new mentality. While they found the album’s lead single, the demo track “Bombala”, which contains a sample of “Macarena”, to have the same message. On Thursday night, the group is set to release a rare cross-group collaboration, “Iconic By Mistake,” with fellow K-pop girl group Illit, under Hybe’s Belift label, and US-based international girl group Katseye, formed through the Hybe x Geffen partnership.
“This is the mindset of Le Sserafim right now,” Yunjin continues. “It’s the most representative message we have as a team.”
Below, Le Sserafim delves into the pressures of youth stardom, what they’ve learned from each other, how their sound has evolved and what they hope people understand about them as a group.
You’ve experimented with many genres throughout your career. In your opinion, what makes something a Le Sserafim song, sonically speaking?
Yongin We do a lot of different things vocally. We, as a team, really enjoy trying new things. It’s not just musical. In a lot of the visual aspects, especially for this album, we tried a lot of new things. I bleached my eyebrows for “spaghetti”. Performance-wise, we also like to try a lot of different genres like synth, thrash and hip-hop. I don’t know how to explain “bombala,” but it’s really new to us, too. Rather than having a framework for what we do, I think our most defining factor is our mission and what we talk about. And how that’s really rooted in how we feel as a team and the things we want to express. What makes something happen at Le Sserafim is the togetherness we feel with each other and our desire to connect with the audience through our messages.
There are many different aspects that play a role in the final product you put out. One of the most important things is your relationship and dynamic with each other. How do you feel this has evolved? I know you both have had your ups and downs but you seem to keep each other balanced.
Sakura Instead of there being a big change, last year we went on our world tour. This allowed the five of us to spend a lot of time together. Whenever our performance was over, we would take time to give each other feedback, and sometimes that conversation would get quite serious. We were also able to share ideas we had about moving our team forward, and it really helped us develop a deeper understanding of each other. I think that’s what allowed us to enter this era with this new album.
Do you find that you’ve learned something from each other during this process?
Yongin I personally am constantly learning from all the other members because in some ways I may be better at things than them, but in many ways, the members teach me how to be more patient or more advanced. I am a very fickle person. I have crazy mood swings some days I’m super active, some days I’m super depressed. But I think the members balance me out in some way. If they feel a little down, another member notices it, and even if they don’t say it, they turn up their energy because they have the availability for it. I’m a talkative person, but some people aren’t. You don’t have to always talk about things. If I feel that way, I think they act on that a lot and that teaches me that everything doesn’t have to be verbal. You can only speak with feelings. This is a big difference.
People feel comfortable saying what they want online because they may think that since you’re a celebrity, you won’t have the typical human response to things. But clearly this is not true. You have feelings and feelings. How do you ground yourself in this regard?
Kazoha As I mentioned, since our job is to be celebrities, people often talk about us very easily. Sometimes they tend to judge us by what they see from the outside and say anything they want. Of course, it would be impossible not to perceive what they are saying at all. But instead of focusing on what others think of us, we try to focus on feeling good about ourselves and how we feel about ourselves right now. That’s the mentality we try to have.
Is this something you feel you’ve always had, or is this something you’ve learned along the way?
Cheon Looking back from our debut, I think we’ve gone through a big change. And in the process, we’ve also evolved a lot. If you think back to when we just debuted — even if we felt certain emotions and even if we felt hard inside — because we wanted to appear stronger, we tended to avoid those emotions. However, at some point, we decided to accept those feelings and instead learned more about ourselves. Instead of avoiding those feelings, we decided to just confront them. It helped us reinvent ourselves, helping us become stronger versions of ourselves.
Chaewon or Sakura, I’m particularly interested in your perspective on the responsibility you might feel as more experienced members of the group.
Cheon I was really young when I first appeared in my previous group. Since it was my first time [as an idol]I think I was rather brave. When I went through the promotions and served as a member of that group, I had thoughts and feelings that I had [at the time]. After I debuted in Le Sserafim, I realized that our younger members might feel the same way I did then. I really hope I can be useful to them. I always try to make sure [they know] That they can count on me.
Why do you feel it is important to use your platforms as idols? Especially when it comes to talking about beauty standards.
Yongin One of the overarching goals we always have as a team is to show our listeners and fans that we are the same. That we too are people who feel the same feelings and face the same difficulties. But we are also able to get back on our feet. We care about showing people that it is possible to heal. It is possible to be flexible. It is possible to carry on with the fear that is still in our bodies. I think it’s just a natural instinct. I believe it is our responsibility to take care of each other.
Even though you have the spotlight, people don’t see the everyday moments you spend with each other. Is there anything you wish people would see that would shine a better light on who you are as people and performers?
Ionchi I hope so People know that we are not just celebrities; We are human beings just like them. We have these thoughts and feelings. We are a group that tries to express that through music. We hope people understand that. As we do our promotions and various activities, whenever we see people who really understand and relate to it, we find comfort in them. This gives us more strength to keep going.
Do you think there is an era or song in your discography that you can point to as the Le Sserafim thesis?
Ionchi I think instead of choosing one song Pure Flowthe album itself, actually shows who we are as a group really well. It’s the album where we were most honest about our thoughts and emotions. We first encountered the concept of fear, but during our promotions and activities, we felt many different emotions – and our perception of the idea of fear changed. This album represents that change and who we are in this moment.
