#i think my top three were: onf - what is love (i think yooa was in that one?)

[protect-namine]

the show is finally over (thank god). no one asked, but probably my favorite stages from the whole show are:

tnx - drowning (woodz cover)

tnx - phobia (skz cover) (I love that they covered a b-side)

tempest - maniac (skz cover)

tempest - eye of the storm + can't stop shining

younite - bite me (enhypen cover)

8turn - love dive (ive cover)

thecrewone - hit the floor (I'm still thinking about the logistics of that stage setup)

oneus - luna

oneus - i know you know (vampire era is BACK babeyyy)

cravity - historia

I don't kpop post here a lot but just know that I actually have been watching road to kingdom every week and: 1) I am so glad this is going to be over soon; 2) even so, I'm very excited to see all the performances; 3) man why couldn't mnet let the groups use the really big rtk1 stage if there wasn't going to be a live audience anyway. that rtk2 stage is so CRAMPED

[onfdata]

[INTV] Singles Korea

Singles Korea, August 2020 Issue Interview with Hyojin & Wyatt

HYOJIN Individual interview

You became more loved: My favorite stage from Road to Kingdom is ‘The We Must Love’, which we did together with YooA sunbaenim. The original song ‘We Must Love’ was really great, but mashed up with ‘Moscow Moscow’, the new arrangement was pure art. The expressive performances given by YooA sunbaenim and the members made the stage feel reminiscent of a musical, and it helped boost public awareness around our team. Like the title suggests, we became more loved.

“This main vocalist is good at his job”: Out of all the feedback I received while on Road to Kingdom, this one made me feel the best. After ‘Everybody’ was uploaded, the top comment was “this main vocalist is good at his job”. It felt really awesome (laughs).

Opening Pandora’s box: We often hear that our songs like ‘We Must Love’ and ’New World’ benefit from their dramatic composition and integrated sense of storytelling. Actually, we started world building with our debut album. Our last stage on the program, ‘New World’, tells the story about setting off after finding a set of keys; each person opens their own Pandora’s box to usher them into the New World. We tried to help the public understand the stage more easily by setting up this worldview. But there’s one Pandora’s Box you should never open… an old video of me singing!

Maintaining one’s figure by eating once a day: In general, I eat more if I dance more. I thought dieting would work, but sadly I can’t hold back on food—as soon as I get my hands on it, I won’t stop eating until it’s all disappeared. For that reason, I’ve gone with eating once a day; I inevitably gain weight if I eat three meals a day. I’m simultaneously controlling myself and dieting to maintain my body. It’s important to maintain a weight and body condition that suits me. So rather than build up muscle for this shoot, I opted to keep my body and weight as is.

—

WYATT Individual interview

The truth behind the brave male rapper ‘Wyatt’: The name ‘Wyatt’ itself refers to a brave man. We picked the name because of my strong image, which makes me look as if I can protect everyone, when in reality… I’m afraid of ghosts and bugs. I’m also afraid of heights. I’m not actually brave, so I ended up getting the nickname ‘Princess’, contrasting with how I appear. It’s kind of like how people call Ma Dongseok sunbaenim ‘Mavely’** (laughs).

Visuals and a low, cave-like voice: There are a lot of people with cave-like voices, so I never gave mine much thought. But a lot of people who watched Road to Kingdom videos reacted kindly to my voice, which I’m very thankful for. There are pros and cons, though. My voice is sonorous and resonant; I sound calm when reading a book or explaining something, which puts people at ease. The con is that I can sound very muddled; since it also echoes, it’s easy for people to misunderstand what I say if I don’t pronounce things exactly right.

Krump: It’s a style of dance I showed on Road to Kingdom for our rearranged stage of SHINee sunbaenim’s ‘Everybody’. I didn’t know about krumping when I started out; I learned about it from a krump teacher after I transferred to Hanlim Art High School. It was then I first encountered the concept of a ‘dancer’ in itself, experienced krumping’s uniquely tough appeal, and even made a krumping team to participate in a contest with. I don’t krump any more. It’s an extremely difficult dance; being an ONF member comes first and foremost, so I’m focusing more on music.

Wyatt’s effort for abs: I worked hard for two weeks leading up to our ‘Everybody’ stage, where I showed my upper body. I didn’t eat any carbs and only had chicken breast and protein shakes. I filled my stomach only with fluids, so I weighed less then than I do now. I found out later on that Hongseok hyung had maintained a balanced diet and workout routine for three weeks. If only I’d had the extra week, I could’ve shown a better body, so it’s a shame.

**T/N: Ma + lovely

—

GROUP INTERVIEW Excerpts

This must be the first time the six of you from Pentagon, ONF, and TOO are meeting up like this.

Wyatt: I thought I’d be in trouble since I’m being reunited again with Hongseok hyung, so I haven’t skipped out on a single day of working out (laughs).

Hyojin: When I found out who I’d be doing the photoshoot with, I couldn’t help but think “is it right for me to even be there?” If you’re doing a shoot by the sea, there’s a certain level of exposure... fortunately, there wasn’t any shocking exposure, but it was still the most amount of exposure I’ve ever put out there (laughs).

What was your favorite stage from Road to Kingdom?

Wyatt: The 90-second face-to-face. I talked about this before, but it’s not that we did well so much as it was that there were so many things lacking about our performance. We saw that as an opportunity for growth in the coming stages. The face-to-face performance was a huge wake-up call for us.

What impact has Road to Kingdom had for you as an individual, and your team as a whole?

Hyojin: Despite how burdened my heart felt, or how impossible things seemed, I could do it. I just didn’t know because I’d never tried. To be honest, I was really worried when it came to our ’It’s Raining’ performance. The song was great, but I didn’t think I could pull it off. But we won first place—I realized that what I was seeing and hearing for myself wasn’t the right answer.

This program took on a tournament format to show the rise towards the ‘Kingdom’. In the end, only one team took the title of champion, but looking at the ‘rediscovered’ teams gathered here today, it doesn’t seem like your efforts have gone in vain. How much effort did each of you make?

Wyatt: By the time we got back to the office after the face-to-face performance, it was 6 AM. Overwhelmed by fear and stress and thinking that we couldn’t carry on the way we were, we held a meeting right away. From that day onwards, it was a constant struggle of man versus mind.

We got to see some amazing, high-quality camerawork only made possible by the 360° stage, which wasn’t present in Season 1’s Queendom, and the likes of which can only be seen at year-end awards ceremonies. What were the pros and cons of this new type of stage?

Hyojin: It was difficult at first because we weren’t acquainted with this type of stage before. I couldn’t adapt and kept thinking negatively, but seeing how the other teams were able to establish a fine balance and create such dynamic stages was so enlightening. We learned how to make our stages even more fantastic and were able to perform cool stages. It was a little disappointing that I couldn’t experience the audience’s real, live reaction, though.

(Translated by @onfdata)