'Just happy to be together': Former Loona members reunite as Loossemble

K-pop

Published: 10 Oct. 2023, 19:08 Updated: 16 Oct. 2023, 13:46

'Just happy to be together': Former Loona members reunite as Loossemble

Loossemble performs its debut lead track "Sensitive" during the girl group's debut showcase held at the Ilchi Art Hall in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Tuesday [CHO YONG-JUN]

Five members of former girl group Loona have reunited as Loossemble after a bumpy legal battle, and now they say they just want to be happy with their fans.

“There are so many goals that we wish to achieve: win a No. 1 trophy on a weekly music show, break existing records and many more,” Yeojin said to reporters during a press conference held Tuesday at the Ilchi Art Hall in southern Seoul.

“But all I want is for our members to be happy, and we wish to continue to be active in different ways to make our fans proud of us. Good results will naturally follow if we are diligent enough,” she said.

Loossemble is short for Loona Assemble, referring to the five members coming together. It is comprised of five members from the previous girl group — Hyunjin, Yeojin, Vivi, Go Won and Hyeju (who went by Olivia Hye during her days in Loona) — who fought through an uphill battle to stick together and come back as a quintet.

Loossemble performs its debut lead track "Sensitive" during the girl group's debut showcase held at the Ilchi Art Hall in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Tuesday [NEWS1]

Earlier this year, all 12 members of Loona were able to part ways with their former agency BlockBerry Creative when the court had their exclusive contracts suspended, citing unfair contract terms.

Despite it all, Loossemble was just happy to be together.

“But I also want our song to land on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart,” Hyunjin, the leader of the group, said with a laugh.

“[‘Sensitive’] is a track in the easy listening genre, and I found myself singing to the song all the time, so with the energy we’ve received from our fans and during today’s showcase, I hope we can make it to Billboard’s Hot 100!”

Loossemble’s conference was held almost a month after the girl group’s actual debut date, since the girl group was busy going around the United States for a “Debut Ceremony” tour right after the group dropped its debut EP “Loossemble” on Sept. 15.

“We were so glad to meet our fans again, who have been waiting for us for so long; we are now back in Korea, filled with the energy we received from our fans,” Gowon said.

“It was so nice to see the familiar faces again,” Hyunjin added.

Loossemble performs its debut lead track "Sensitive" during the girl group's debut showcase held at the Ilchi Art Hall in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Tuesday [NEWS1]

In fact, their fans were the reason that members were able to pull themselves together through the turmoil, according to the Loossemble members. A legal battle against an agency often takes a toll on a group too severe for them to make a proper comeback, of which Loossemble members would have been fully aware.

“I was actually quite hesitant and worried about starting again. […] But one thing — our fans — is what made me clear my mind,” Hyeju said. “We are here together with the goal to meet our fans once again and to march forward together.”

“We talked a lot with each other, and we realized that we had a lot of things that we wanted to achieve, and we all really wanted to see our fans again,” Gowon said.

Girl group Loossemble [CTDENM]

"Loossemble," the girl group's debut album, has eight tracks — four of which the members of Loossemble took part in writing the lyrics. “Real World” has Hyeju in the credits, “Colouring” has Vivi and Yeojin, “Newtopia” was written by Gowon, and “Day by day” was solely written by Hyunjin.

Lead track “Sensitive” is a catchy song featuring an addictive bass riff and guitar sounds that tell the listeners to “listen to your sensitive emotions” and "march forward based on it.”

But arguably the most unique inclusion in the album is “Strawberry soda,” written and composed by Yves, also from Loona but not in Loossemble.

“'Strawberry soda’ is a song that talks about the feelings of a girl going on a new adventure: It’s telling us that while the roads ahead might not be as smooth as can be, it’s the journey that matters, as long as you are together,” Hyeju explained.

“Yves wrote the lyrics for us, and it really feels like a precious gift for us.”

“While I value every song in the album — especially since we all took parts in the album production — I value ‘Strawberry Soda’ a lot as it’s written and composed by Yves. It's a meaningful track as it acts as a present given by someone who knows us the best," Gowon said.

Girl group Loossemble [CTDENM]

Despite all the ordeals they've been through, members of Loona are still affectionate and caring toward each other — and they're all open to a full, 12-member comeback.

“We are still very much open-minded for a full member schedule; if we and other members of Loona can organize time together, we are always down to meet our fans Orbit and C.Loo,” Yeojin said.

Orbit is Loona’s official fandom name and C.Loo, pronounced "crew," is Loossemble’s fandom name.

“I’ve talked with Heejin a lot,” Hyunjin said. “I’m friends with Heejin so am a bit shy to send her all the supportive messages, so I ended up just calmly telling her to ‘be who you are’ and ‘do as you always do.’”

Members of Loona have been gearing up for solo and group activities over the past few months. Heejin, Haseul, Kim Lip, Jinsoul and Cheorry formed a new girl group, Artms, under newborn agency Modhaus, with Heejin set to release her solo album on Oct. 31 and Chuu dropping her first EP "Howl" on Oct. 18 under ATRP.

Girl group Loossemble [CTDENM]

While Loossemble finished its first big step, the girl group still has much planned for the future.

“We differ from any other group in the sense that we are able to pull off all kinds of different genres of music, […] so our next objective is to try to come up with a more varied genre of songs. We also wish to build a new relationship with our fans,” Hyeju said.

“We’ve just completed our U.S. tour, so we now plan on being active in Korea, and while it’s still a bit of a secret, we do have a planned event. So I hope you look forward to that,” Gowon said.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]