Rookie girl group LIGHTSUM held their online media showcase for first mini album “Into The Light”, which displays how they, as Gen Z, desire to be honest with the emotions faced by “us now”. The members debuted the live performance stage for their title track ‘ALIVE’ during the media showcase, where the members of the media also got to watch the music video prior to its public release.
Here are some of the media questions the the LIGHTSUM members answered during the media showcase:
1) If you could recommend a track from this album to the fans, what would it be?
JIAN: I would recommend ‘Bye Bye Love’. It‟s a new genre of song that LIGHTSUM is presenting and the lyrics are very beautiful too. So it would be great if you pay close attention to the lyrics while listening to it.
HINA: I would like to recommend the second track ‘i’. This is a dreamy song with a different vibe from ‘ALIVE’, so I think we will be able to show another charming point.
2) It has been almost a year since your debut. What did you feel while promoting for the past year and in what way have you grown? Starting from this promotion, you will have more chances to have face-to-face activities. How do you feel about it and what is your aim?
JUHYEON: I think we used to feel more nervous because everything was new and unfamiliar when we first debuted. However, I think that each member‟s individuality and expressiveness have become stronger on stage, so we want to show more diverse expressions through this promotion.
NAYOUNG: Now that the pandemic regulations have been eased, we can meet and perform in front of our fans. I want to perform on and enjoy the big stage while listening to SUMIT’s cheers, sing-alongs, and fan chants.
3) Who is your role model among the senior artists? And since it’s your 1st Mini Album, it may feel very different for you. What’s the goal that you want to achieve through this album?
CHOWON: There are so many respectable seniors but to choose one among them would be (G)I-DLE. I admire them for creating new trends and trying various concepts. Just like (G)I-DLE, we also want to try various concepts and find our own color so that many people can notice us.
JUHYEON: Rather than records or achievements, we want to let SUMIT listen to our various songs and also imprint our group name ‘LIGHTSUM’ in people’s minds.
JIAN: It is my personal goal to powerfully convey the message that our group wants to deliver.
4) In the past 1-2 years, prominent girl groups have debuted and it became very competitive that it is now called the ‘4th generation girl group competition’. What is LIGHTSUM’s competence among all the groups?
SANGAH: Our competence would be our performance. I proudly think that we are making a stage that people would want to see again by showcasing our strong individual characteristics along with the synchronized dance moves together with our 8 members.
5) It seems like the performance became more powerful compared to the past promotions and the preparation process must have been very difficult. Can you share any moments from it?
JUHYEON: We have wanted to impress people with a powerful performance starting with our debut track ‘Vanilla’. When we were practicing for ‘VIVACE’, we used to say that this is harder than ‘Vanilla’ but when we started to practice ‘ALIVE’, we thought this is the hardest performance ever. So we were worried if we could do it and sing the entire song live, but we made it again and thought, “We are actually very strong”.
CHOWON: In this title track ‘ALIVE’, a dance break part was included for the first time since there wasn’t one in the previous tracks. I thought the performances of our previous tracks were pretty difficult but we found it harder this time. However, we managed to focus more on the dance break part so that we can show the perfect performance to many people with our synchronized dance moves.
6) You seem to have lost a lot of weight. What are some things you paid attention to appearance-wise? What is a modifier you would like to acquire from this promotion?
SANGAH: Since we’re making a comeback with a song of a different mood compared to ‘VIVACE’, we were keen on our appearance this time. All our members dedicated a huge amount of effort to our looks and went on diets during our hiatus. I’m glad you think we’re looking good. As for a modifier we would like to acquire, as mentioned earlier, we hope we get called “LIGHTSUM the performance experts”.
7) Looking at your performance, your teamwork seems great and your facial expressions are lively, so I was wondering how much of your day you dedicate to practicing. This album clearly catches LIGHTSUM’s charms and also involves various genres. What kind of compliments do you hope to receive through this album?
HUIYEON: We worked on the choreography of ‘ALIVE’ for a long time. I think we all practiced for about 2 to 3 hours every night.
SANGAH: Adding to that, the group practice was 3 hours every night on average, and in the morning we practiced individually, so in total it was about 8 hours a day.
JUHYEON: Since we have many face-to-face opportunities this time, and also since there is the kind of energy that you can feel only when you’re actually seeing the performance, we hope people think our performance feels very different in person and that our live sounds great as well.
8) What sets your new title track apart from your singles from last year? JIAN mentioned that she wants to powerfully convey the group’s message, what is the message that you want to deliver as a group to the audience?
CHOWON: While we wanted to show a more mature side of ours with ‘VIVACE’ compared to ‘Vanilla’, this time with ‘ALIVE’ we want to present an honest and confident side which we had not shown with ‘Vanilla’ and ‘VIVACE’. The difference from our previous singles is since our new album is an EP, it contains tracks of various genres filled with each of our member‟s charms and vocal colors, so I think you will enjoy this album more if you pay attention to those aspects.
JIAN: The meaning behind our team name ‘LIGHTSUM’ is “8 LIGHTs coming together as one SUM to bring more positive energy to people”. So just like this meaning, we hope to become a team that can deliver good energy to everyone.
JUHYEON: To add to that, the lyrics of ‘ALIVE’ are very honest and confident, so listeners will be able to relate to them. Also, simply listening to the song will boost their confidence and give them energy as well.
Check out KAvenyou’s Facebook album for more photos from the media showcase.
Watch the MV for LIGHTSUM’s “Into The Light” title track ‘ALIVE’:
