The multi-national Kpop girl group X:IN group made their debut in April 2023 with the digital single ‘Keeping the Fire‘. Since then, the multi-national five-member girl group – composed of E.sha, Nizz, Nova, Hannah and Aria – has seen great success. Most notably, member Aria went viral on Korean and Chinese forums due to her looks and ethnicity, as well as her winning the support of many Indian K-pop fans. Last month, the group made a splash with their pre-release song ‘My Idol’, which delves into the rigorous life of a trainee. The track portrays the challenges faced by trainees, including their arduous journey, and unwavering determination in the face of adversity. The fun lyrics also refer to the numerous other groups. They recently returned on the 25th of February with their second mini album, ‘The Real’. In this interview, each member reveals one thing they have no doubt about and the type of concept they would like for their next comeback!
Q: Hello, X:IN! In your latest comeback, “NO DOUBT,” you convey a confident message about surmounting challenges despite doubts or criticism. The lyrics hint at a X:IN light passing through us as we fall in love with your beat more and more. What specific impact does X:IN aspire to make within the industry?
X:IN: We want to go beyond being the best idols and give a positive influence to everyone as world-class artists.
Q: What does the word confidence mean to you? Additionally, what specific skills or abilities do you possess that you are absolutely certain about being good at? What is one thing each member has “NO” DOUBT about? (asked by our member @fromisSakura )
X:IN: We think that confidence is a necessary strength required to accomplish something, where there is nothing more important than believing in yourself before achieving your goals. It’s like self-confidence. Baseless confidence is a form of arrogance, but I think it is desirable to be self-objective, fill in your shortcomings, and envision a future that is always evolving rather than settling for the present. We’re also very patient people, so we believe that no matter what hardships and trials you face, if you have a goal and a dream to achieve, you can achieve it without giving up. There were many difficulties to achieve the dream of debuting, but it seems like we persevered until the end!
Q: Your other song, “MY IDOL”, has received a lot of attention and love on Twitter (x.com). The chorus is a celebration of many legendary K-pop acts, such as Girls’ Generation, BLACKPINK, 2NE1, BTS, and many others. What K-pop group or artist, made you want to become an idol? (asked by our member @OutroTearTheFirst )
ARIA: As I’ve always said, it was BTS 선배님 (sunbae-nim) who inspired me to dream of becoming a performer. Seeing them on stage was, and is always fascinating, and I aspire to be like them and perform good music happily for a long time with my team.
Q: Since E.sha choreographed ‘My Idol’, so this question is for her: Were there any difficulties or challenges that you faced as a choreographer that you were not expecting to face, how does it compare to your work as an idol, and would you consider contributing in a similar way again (choreography, songwriting, music production, etc.) (asked by our member @Polaris_Tae )
E.SHA: I’ve done a lot of other different choreographies, but creating choreography for K-pop idols was a first for our song. I thought it was important to blend my style with X:IN’s appropriately, so I found myself particularly thinking about highlighting each member’s strengths in their parts and focusing on the main points of our choreography. Of course, every aspect from start to finish is important to me, but I believe it’s important for the audience to have something memorable. That aspect was a bit challenging and required a lot of contemplation. Nevertheless, since I was proposing the choreography, it was nice to have a better understanding and expression on stage and during the song. Despite the difficulties, it was a fun and rewarding task, and if given the opportunity, I’d like to participate more in the future and even challenge myself in writing lyrics and composing music!
Q: What did you find to be the most challenging/difficult when transitioning from a trainee into an idol, and/or do you have any advice for anyone looking to join the idol industry in the future? (asked by our member @Polaris_Tae )
X:IN: Anxiety was probably the biggest factor. Although we were practising hard, we were very anxious about the uncertain future of whether we’d be able to debut. So we practiced more to get rid of those thoughts. If you really like it and are confident, give it a try!! It’s such a fun and charming job, so good luck and we’ll definitely see you on stage later~
Q: What was it like meeting fans for the first time? Was it at a music show, a showcase, or someplace else? (asked by our member @mimenet )
X:IN: We think it was probably a music broadcast or an event venue. At first, we were a little shy because of the exciting thought, “Is that person our fan?” But now, when we meet them, they are the most welcoming and grateful people.
Q: What would you want to tell your younger self? (asked by our member @Seriously )
X:IN: We think we’re lucky to have found what we want to do so quickly. We hope you always have fun singing and dancing with the same mindset as when you first started! Isn’t it fate that you like dancing and singing among so many things??? There will be a lot of hard times but believe in it and persevere, you can do it! And we hope that you always prioritise your happiness first!
Q: For Nova & Aria: Aside from the language barrier, what did you find to be the most challenging aspect of moving to Korea? Now that you’ve been living in the country for some time, what is your favourite thing about Korea? (asked by our member @Polaris_Tae )
NOVA:Obviously, moving to another country and not being able to see my family for one and a half years already was very challenging, especially because I always lived with my parents. So I had to learn how to survive almost alone, and do all these everyday tasks that adults do. I think managing money and getting to know how much it actually costs for me to live was a thing I definitely had to learn. And, of course, I really miss my family. The thing I personally enjoy the most in Korea is this incredibly huge and developed K-pop industry that I was lucky to become part of. Korea gave me so many opportunities to appear on music shows, meet amazing people and be able to live my dream, so I am very grateful for that.
ARIA:Definitely homesickness. I was very used to being taken care of a lot by my family, so when I moved to Korea alone and had to start taking care of stuff I never had to, it made me realise just how easy I was living in the comfort of my home back in India. But I adjusted to everything in no time, so it’s all good now. Also, missing my family and friends and feeling lonely at times was something I had to deal with a lot in the beginning. Not that I don’t miss them anymore, I just learned to deal with it better with time.
Q: When members feel homesick or miss their families what do they do to feel better? Especially members who live far away from home? (asked by our member @UMJI MOODS )
ARIA & NOVA: For the Korean members, they often visit their homes but for us, our only option is Face-timing and texting.
ARIA:I personally call home a lot and make sure to video call my mom whenever possible, and it’s a routine for me to call home and share about my day before bed every night.
Q: Are you already planning your next comeback? If so, what is the next concept you would like to try?
NIZZ: We don’t have a definite plan yet, but we’ve talked about this topic with the members! E.Sha said she wanted to sing a song with beats reminiscent of a midsummer night’s party, and Nova is a confident queen who wants to try a similar concept to Beyonce’s! Hannah said she wanted to do a song with a refreshing and innocent concept, and Aria said she wanted to perform a song in the rock genre. Lastly, I want to try a cute concept that X:IN has never tried before… Don’t you want to see X:IN pull off a cute concept~?
Q: Is there a country you’d love to perform in? (asked by our member @Seriously )
X:IN: As we are a K-pop group, we have been performing on a lot of Korean music shows and festivals, and we’re very happy to promote in Korea. But we also have a lot of READYs all around the world, so we would love to meet each and every one of you~
Q: Is there anything you would like to say?
X:IN: We successfully completed our 2nd mini-album ‘NO DOUBT’ promotions, and I think this activity was especially happy and fun because we were able to meet more fans. READYs~ Thank you for spending precious time with us, and thank you so much for your support. We ask for your continued interest and anticipation~ Let’s be together for a long time! Love you.
GFX BY @yerm
PROOFREAD BY @Polaris_Tae
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY @Chococo
