EXCLUSIVE: KARD Talks Sixth Anniversary, Growth, and the Future
On any other nondescript, oppressively humid summer day in the Washington D.C. metro area, fans flocked to the local casino just outside the city to once again see one of their favorite groups. The MGM Theater has become a popular spot for K-Pop acts, and as the pandemic finally subsides, K-Pop touring has officially exploded stateside.
KARD is one of the few groups that is not unfamiliar with touring stateside, as their Wednesday show marked their third appearance in Washington D.C. since their debut in 2017. As we navigated the backstage of the MGM Theater to meet with the group, it became clear how much really goes into the production of one single show and how tiring it must be to do this night after night. But KARD are clearly pros at it and passionate about it, so as we sat down with them, we asked more about their touring experience.
Q: This tour is taking you all over the world, from Central America to Europe. Is there anything you all are looking forward to doing or trying?
BM: I think it’s our third time here, so we’re excited to not only see familiar faces but new faces as well. We were just in New York, and every time we’re at a show we always ask who’s been to a KARD show and whose first time it is. In New York, there were a great amount of people that came for the first time. But we’re excited to see today how many people came, who’s new, and who can party the hardest.
Jiwoo: Today’s our six year anniversary, and we’re very excited to see what type of signs fans brought or just what type of energy they brought too.
Q: On that note, it is your third time here. You’re not newbies here. How do you all prepare for a tour, especially at this scale?
JW: We focused a lot on our B-side tracks. We’re performing every song in our recent albums.
BM: So lots of rehearsals, lots of preparation for the B-sides that the fans didn’t expect to see, and “Cake” is one of our highly anticipated songs so we’re excited to show that as well.
Q: So before going on stage, are there any rituals you guys follow? Any little secrets about what you do beforehand?
BM: We always take a group photo for SNS. Besides that–
JW: Stretch, eat, put on perfume.
BM: Jiwoo is big on perfume, so she always puts some on before going on. I think that’s about it. I think we stopped doing it [a group chant] after like the second tour, but it got corny at one point so we just stopped.
A lot of the focus on KARD recently has come from their new mini-album ICKY and title track of the same name, with the music video currently sitting at 14 million views and a number of viral moments on social media from the promotion. The song itself is quite ambitious and bold in a way their previous releases haven’t been, so we asked them about the creation process of this latest album.
Q: Your previous mini-album Re: came out a year ago. In what ways has the creative process been different in creating ICKY?
JW: This album is where we had the most creative control. I don’t wanna say control as in we were bossy or really tried to push just our own agenda, but in a sense where we really wanted to push what we believed in, which was “ICKY.”
BM: It was almost a different song, the title track, but we really believed that “ICKY” was the stronger candidate. Just the album in general, DSP Media was nice enough to really take all of our opinions and make it a part of the album as much as they could. So with that, we felt a lot of responsibility because it's not small money going into that album, right? So what comes out of it, we were ready to take accountability, and in that sense, I feel like we’ve grown a lot since the last album.
Q: “ICKY” has had its fair share of iconic moments, from the TikTok challenge to BM’s viral rap verse, but has there been a moment during “ICKY” promotions that specifically stands out to you all?
J.Seph: The IKEA challenge. I thought the idea of shooting “ICKY” at the IKEA was very cute since “I-Kay-Ah” is the original pronunciation [in Korean] and it sounds like that in the beginning of the song, so I thought it was pretty witty and cute.
Somin: I felt excited the moment we heard “ICKY” was gonna be the title song.
BM: It was almost something else, and we had to politely ask some of the higher-ups in our company to convince the CEO that “ICKY” was a better candidate. We were in a room next to where they were having the meeting, and we were just getting texts in real time from one of our directors, we were praying to ourselves please let it happen. We were lucky because he was like, “Just do it,” then and [when] we got the message and as quietly as we could were just so excited.
Even recalling the nerve wracking experience for the quartet, the energy of excitement was palpable from them when talking about the victory of getting “ICKY” approved as the title track. It’s no secret that early on in an idol’s career they tend to have a lot less say over their music, but it shows growth in their career that they were able to negotiate this change.
Since it was the sixth debut anniversary, we asked them a bit more about how things have changed for them in that timeframe and what they plan for the future.
Q: You debuted six years ago now. How have things changed in your career since then?
SM: We’ve all become very mature, I think not only as human beings but in our music and as artists as well. When you’re an idol, usually idols from the beginning are very factory made, meaning they can’t touch any of the music, any of the visuals, nothing. And we were the same case in the beginning as well.
BM: But where we are now, where we have a bigger influence on the direction of our group, I think is something that has changed a lot and a change we’re definitely happy with as well.
JW: In the beginning, there’s inevitably a lot of stuff you don’t see [as an artist]. With experience and time, I believe one of the biggest things that’s changed is the fact that I see it now, whether it be flaws, direction, [etc.]. Because I know more and see more, I feel more pressure and more responsibility to give better quality.
Q: Leading into that, are there any music genres or styles that you would like to explore or experiment with in the future?
BM: We’ve been asked that a lot this time around, and the reason I get excited when we’re asked that is because we have a clear direction on our next album. We’ve all agreed on it. I’m not gonna tell you what it is. You guys will know in due time, but I’ll leave you with this: right now everyone is kind of taking it back right? [Back] to music styles like early 2000s and sometimes even earlier to like late ‘90s/early ‘90s. We’re gonna do the same, but with a genre that hasn’t been touched yet. And when we do it, you’ll hear, “Wow, KARD is definitely ready for this one.”
Q: What has been your favorite choreography in your comebacks?
JW: “Dumb Litty” because it was the first song we actually changed our choreographer to two choreographers named Vata and Simeez from Korea. They’re amazing choreographers, a girl and a guy, working together they made our choreography. It was a lot of fresh ideas because there was a lot of blocking of the choreography that was a lot I’ve never seen before. I like the intro; we look like a totem pole.
Q: Last question: is there anything specific you’d like to share with your fans and our readers?
SM: For the fans, we appreciate your love, and through your love only we’re able to continue to be better artists and strive to be better as well. Please continue to love us.
JS: For people who haven’t heard about us and are hearing about us now through our album ICKY, we also have other amazing songs such as “Oh NaNa,” “Don’t Recall,” a lot of B-sides in between our first song and recent album, so please check out all of them and you’ll see you find interest.
As our time with KARD came to an end, it became clear how genuine the quartet was about their career and growth, which would only be even more reflected in their stage presence and just how happy they were to be performing. One of KARD’s greatest charms is their authenticity, which is easily reflected in their behind-the-scenes content as well as their performances. That’s something that you can’t fake, and we hope that moving forward more people will come to realize that as their career and creative control continues to progress.
If you haven’t yet, check out our event coverage of their show. Huge thanks to DSP Media staff and the members for taking the time to speak with us before their show.
*Translation done live by BM. Big thanks to him for helping out!
**Answers edited for better readability