#i will always love loona. i remember when i got haseuls solo album recently. it finished my loona album collection and i was looking for her

[violayves]

one day i hope artms/loossemble/chuu/yves solo activities will stop feeling so bittersweet to me

[12loona-archived]

[INTERVIEW] LOONA for the 10Star Magazine cover story (May issue) by 10Asia

The concept of the photoshoot is ‘girls in a fairy tale’. We often dream of being the protagonist as we read fairy tales as kids. Is there a particular character you wanted to be, or liked? HeeJin: “I wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin. Maybe it’s because I learned belly dance as a kid, but Jasmine was so pretty to me. I wanted to try her clothes and her hairstyle.” HyunJin: “Snow White. I could have fun playing with the dwarves and meet a handsome prince too. And experience coming back from death. (Laughs) I like challenging myself on new things, and I wanted to become Snow White and experience lots of extraordinary things.” HaSeul: “Beauty and the Beast for me. But not Belle, I empathize more with the Beast. Watching it as a kid, of course the beautiful Belle was the protagonist, but rewatching it after growing up a little, I could see the Beast’s perspective. I felt sorry for him, and could empathize with the Beast being tender on the inside but pretending to be tough on the outside.” ViVi: “Not a fairy tale, but the Little Mermaid from the Disney film. Ariel is admirable for setting out for love and her dream. I like that feeling of freedom.” Yves: “Little Mermaid for me too. My aunt owned a video rental store and she would show me The Little Mermaid every day. It was so pretty seeing her swim with her fins, red hair waving in the water, and I would copy it all the time. I remember pretending I had fins.” Olivia Hye: “Mulan for me. She’s so awesome. She has a different feel from the other princesses and I like her because she’s brave and gallant and strong.” Yeojin: “Thumbelina. I’m small and so is she so I think it’s a good fit. And the Frog Prince too, even though that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be. I just have a soft spot because my symbolic animal is the frog. (Laughs)” Read the full translation of the interview under the cut. Full translation by Littel_Johnn (via Reddit).

LOONA has three units and one solo unit. […] Could you boast about the concept of each unit? Yves: “LOONA yyxy feels like a bouncy girl. Fresh and unique. Each member has a symbolic emotion. I’m faith, Chuu is love, Go Won is hope and Olivia Hye is anger. Those emotions come together to form youth. So I want to call LOONA yyxy a shining youth.” HaSeul: “Loona 1/3 is a unit of innocence. HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul, and ViVi express the freshness of first love. Our unit song is ‘Love&Live’, and it’s a song that confesses wanting to meet someone after hiding our feelings for a while. I’m sure that whenever you listen to this song, you’ll feel nostalgic and soft.” Kim Lip: “LOONA ODD EYE CIRCLE is a sexy and powerful unit. We had a girl crush concept unlike the innocence of the full group, so we left an intense impression when ODD EYE CIRCLE first appeared. We’re different right from the gaze and atmosphere. (Laughs)” YeoJin: “I’m in a solo unit. Our label actually told me that ‘Yeojin, you are the hidden card of LOONA!’ I’m not sure, but I think they trusted that I will be able to do well on my own. I’m a little insecure because I didn’t train for very long, so I do extra practice on my own without the unnies. But I think I’ve grown for sure compared to when I started, because HeeJin unnie and Choerry unnie helped me a lot.” There are many members, so there must be someone with a unique nickname. Could anyone say that my nickname is the most unique? HeeJin: “Me. The fans call me Dangun because I was the first member to be revealed. With this name they’re saying that I was the one who made LOONA. It’s a really meaningful nickname and I love it, so I always say Dangun Heejin when introducing myself.” Yves: “My nickname is the Soft Jaguar. My solo song had an elegant and chic concept so our label gave me the swan, but fans said I have charisma like a jaguar on the stage but have a soft side off of it, so they gave me this nickname.” Chuu: “I’m a gang-ur-jwee. Not a gang-ah-ji (‘puppy’), you have to roll your tongue like this. Isn’t it cute and unique?” Go Won: “I have one that’s more of a good fit than unique. I’m the ASMR of LOONA. People say my voice has a bright feel, and fans say it’s like a fairy voice, so I think ASMR is a good fit. Like a comfy voice you could fall asleep to. I think it’s addictive.” You recently finished promos for your second promoted track, “Butterfly”. You had good results, getting to first place candidates on music shows, and the music video breaking 20 million views. It must be a special feeling. HyunJin: “It was short so I feel unsatisfied, but also content that we had awesome promotions. The ‘Butterfly’ choreo doesn’t have spots for resting. I’d never practiced so much in my life. I think the good results might have been due to the hard preparations. We’ll show you more growth next time, prepping even harder. And I’ll hope expectantly for first place too.” Chuu: “For this album we practiced all night and into the morning. It would have been easy for members to get on edge, but we understood and cared for each other so it made our teamwork even more solid. There were lots of funny moments too, taking care of each other’s meals and waking each other up. Even apart from the results, I think this promo built a lot of good memories.” JinSoul: “Not only did we get better results than ‘Hi High’, but I’m proud that we were able to really feel our growth. The members practiced so much leading up to the comeback. We grew closer and also our skills grew a lot. There’s also this confidence that we’ll be able to show even more based on the experience from this time.” “Butterfly” got attention for beautiful formations and a dynamic yet gentle performance. Especially the jumping move. Go Won: “I was the one in the jump part. I get scared easily, so when I first climbed on the members I couldn’t even stand and would just tremble. But Olivia Hye and Yves [unnie] told me ‘Don’t worry, we will never drop you’. So we trusted in each other and I got up there to do the choreo.” Olivia Hye: “I could feel Go Won unnie shaking up there. On some days she would go up comfortably, but shake on other days. So I did the performances nervous every day. I got nerves no matter how much I practiced, but now that it’s over it’s all good. (Laughs) I also have good memories from her trying out lots of shoes to find one that doesn’t hurt when stepped on, since we wear boots.” Even in this short interview we can feel LOONA’s charms. What’s the team’s charm, according to the members? HeeJin: “I can confidently say that we have charms in twelve colours for twelve people. Every member has a different charm. Some of us feel next-door, others are sharp. We’re also down-to-earth unlike what you might expect out of the girls. We each debuted with solo songs through the LOONA project, and they all have different concepts and charms. Oh, and LOONA is also tops in terms of handling different concepts. (Laughs)” ViVi: “I think LOONA is most beautiful when all twelve are in the same picture. Each member is different, but in the full group we become pretty and innocent.” Yves: “Mystery. LOONA’s music videos contain our narrative/universe. So that leads fans to predict different theories through them. Even for us, it’s fun to piece things together like, ‘Was this the meaning of what we filmed?’ If the videos were just pretty to look at it might be a little boring, but I think this makes them interesting.” HaSeul: “The pretty and lovely LOONA members are themselves the charm. I’m proud that I’m part of LOONA, and I’m proud of our members. I look at the photos and videos of the members often, and every time they’re so pretty and bright. They tell me I have Dal-bushim (‘LOONA pride’), but even beyond that I think LOONA has a wholesomeness that makes you feel good.” Could you name a reason to fall for you? Chuu: “I have the charm of making you happy. Your happiness index will go up when you look at me. Fans also tell me that looking at my videos or photos makes them feel warm, like in sunlight.” Yves: “You’ll fall for my chameleon-like charms. A lot of people see my calm side, but I can dance hip-hop intensely, or mesmerize you to a sexy song. I’m adorable when doing aegyo and can immerse you in emotions with a ballad. It’s the charm of making you curious and expectant.” Choerry: “I’m probably the only member of LOONA who can handle every single concept. I can span all of innocent and sexy. Fresh like a vitamin, but girl crush charms popping out too. That odd charm is the reason to fall for me.” HeeJin: “I’m sharp on the stage, but like a cute and lovely little sister off the stage. I think that gap is why you might fall for me. I showed off both my vocals and belly dance on MBC’s Masked Singer recently, and many people told me that that’s HeeJin’s reverse charm.” Kim Lip: “You’ll fall for my many talents. I’m good at everything. I have passion and ambition too. So I tried lots of different things. For music I learned piano, violin, guitar and gayageum, and in sports too I tried everything I wanted to. I’m a fast learner too but I think I’m just really curious. And yet I’m shy, so I can’t show it all and get embarrassed instead. Many fans think that’s adorable so that must be a reason to fall for, right?” Olivia Hye: “I’m part of the maknae line, but I’m tall and charismatic. My looks might make me seem chic, but my voice is cute. I’m cool on stage, but have a lot of everyday aegyo. I think that clear difference might be what fans like in me.” ViVi is LOONA’s only foreign member. Because of your cute looks and imperfect Korean, we felt like the members adore you despite you being the oldest. ViVi: “The members help me a lot. HaSeul especially. I don’t know a lot of things when we promote because of my Korean, but each time the members explain in many ways so it’s been fun. They all say that I’m like the maknae. It might be because my personality is to lean on friends and family a lot, but also because my Korean is kind of like a child so that feels like a maknae.” YeoJin is the team’s youngest. Living with eleven unnies might be reassuring but perhaps it’s also hard sometimes? YeoJin: “Having lots of unnies is always good, but especially when we go to the broadcast studios. I don’t feel intimidated because I have so many unnies. (Laughs) But sometimes it is difficult. Everyone has such clear unique traits. I’m the maknae, but some unnies have personalities where you want to care for them. In times like that it’s really ambiguous. They always try to care for me because I’m the youngest, so I feel like that might be hard on them. Maybe that’s a dilemma that every group’s maknae has.” HeeJin’s the only member who’s a solo CF model. There must be both pressure and responsibility. HeeJin: “Definitely a lot of pressure and responsibility in doing individual work. But I’ve been able to do it confidently because the members root for me a lot. I want to be able to do a lot of things along with the members.” Chuu’s biting heart became a big topic online. Lots of celebrities applying it made it an even bigger deal. Chuu: “I did it because I felt so happy while drawing hearts for fans at a fansign. I found out that it was floating around as a GIF later. I’m thankful that they call it the “Chuu heart” and that many celebrity seniors are using it.” Who is LOONA’s role model? Or a direction you want to pursue? HeeJin: “I have artists that I like and look up to, but not a role model. I want to gradually put together a singer named HeeJin rather than follow someone else.” Kim Lip: “I’m similar to Heejin. I don’t have a set role model. There are seniors whose performances I think are cool, and others whose vocals I think are beautiful. There’s lots to learn from each person so I want to pick up their good traits. And I want to collect those traits and convert them into my unique charm.” YeoJin “My role models are Girls’ Generation and BTS. Girls’ Generation sunbaes are probably every girl group’s goal. I always feel a warm and healthy energy from them. BTS sunbaes are just amazing. I want Loona to be an amazing group that can give off healthy energy too.” HyunJin: “I’m interested in acting, so Gong Hyo-jin sunbaenim is my role model. I like her particular aura. I learned acting too when I was a trainee, but right now I’m focusing on LOONA. If I get an opportunity, I want to act in a fresh youthful role, or someone impactful.” What kind of girl group would you like the public to think of Loona as? Olivia Hye: “I hope we can establish a colour to the point that when you hear a song, you recognize it like ‘Oh, this is a LOONA song.” I hope we’ll be a group that you watch and listen to with confidence. We’re working hard to get there.” Chuu: “I hope LOONA will be a group that’s good with performances and good with our faces. I want to be called a group that has both visuals and skills. Because we’ve got such good teamwork. It’s my dream to be called a group that you want to see whenever and every day, a group that you want to be with for a long time.” Go Won: “A team that can attempt diverse concepts. I want to hear that LOONA feels different every time you see us.”