Cortis, the new male member band from BigHit agency, the company behind the celebrated BTS, debuted on Monday with a digital single and a desire to establish a genuine and unique identity in the K-pop scene.
Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon and Keonho hit the music scene with ‘What You Want’, a pre-release track from their EP ‘Color Outside the Lines’, the title from which the group’s name comes from, by irregularly selecting six of its lyrics, Juhoon explained at the ensemble’s launch event held in Seoul.
“It conveys the idea of thinking freely, beyond the standards and rules set by society,” the artist explained at the event, which was accessed by local news agency Yonhap.
‘What You Want’ is a song that combines a 60’s psychedelic rock guitar riff with a hip-hop influenced boom bap beat and whose lyrics are about the desire of young singers to get what they want with confidence and without hesitation.
BigHit has introduced the band as “a team of young creators who directly create music, choreography and videos with a completely new and original sensibility.”
Cortis, is the first group from the influential agency since Tomorrow X Together (TXT) jumped into the music industry in 2019.
Color Outside the Lines’ is scheduled for release on September 8. In anticipation of their official debut today, and prior to the release of the EP, the band posted their concept video ‘GO!’ last August 11, which as of this Monday accumulated over 1.2 million plays on the YouTube platform alone.
Seonghyeon described the creative process within the group as “a collaborative effort.”
“At first we worked separately, but the songs didn’t come out well,” he recalled. So we started collaborating closely, even writing a single line of lyrics together. That approach got us better results and cemented our belief in co-creation as a style of teamwork,” he recounted.
Martin and James are no strangers to the process within the industry. Both have previously contributed songs and choreography for the Hybe label’s ILLIT and TXT.
“I enjoy producing, but I’ve loved being on stage since I was young and making my debut as an artist was a dream I couldn’t give up,” recounted Martin, who also talked about the pressure that comes with being the rookies in BigHit.
“I would be lying if I said there was no pressure. Thanks to our amazing veteran teammates we feel a great responsibility and we are working hard to do our best,” he said.
While preparing for their debut, the group selected their candidates for the EP’s title song from over 300 songs.
“We organized a music camp in Los Angeles (U.S.) to create the title song and B-side songs,” Keonho recounted. “We initially planned for one month, but it didn’t go as well as we thought it would, so we ended up working for three months,” he detailed.
Martin explained that at one point, when they were stuck on a topic, they had an “open and honest” conversation about what they wanted in life. “As we recorded our individual answers, whether it was freedom, honor or love, the songwriting process flowed.”
During today’s presentation to the local press, the Cortis ensemble performed choreography using treadmills.
The members laughingly recounted that at first they spent all day on the treadmills devising choreographies and had to take pills for motion sickness, but that they ended up adapting and began to enjoy it.
Asked about the band’s goals, Juhoon said that with this first EP their main goal is to make themselves and their music known. “Going forward, we hope to become a band with a strong and distinctive identity, just like the veterans that have come before us. We want people to say, ‘That’s so Cortis,’ and recognize our style instantly,” he added.
