Lee Hong-gi poses for a photograph at a press conference held in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap



By Kwak Yeon-soo



Lee Hong-gi, Korean pop-rock band FTISLAND's lead vocalist, released his newest solo single "Cookies" from his second mini album "DO n DO," Thursday.



During a press conference to promote the new album, he revealed the back story of the title. "We usually use the phrase 'again and again' for doing things over and over again, but the phrase 'do and do' struck in my head because it sounded cute to me," Lee said.



Inspired by a nickname for Marvel post-credits scenes, "Cookies" is an electro-pop track quite different from Lee's typical musical style within FTISLAND. BTOB's Jung Il-hoon features as a guest rapper for the upbeat song.



"I wanted to pick up dance music instead of rock ballads because it's more mainstream and better portrays my light-hearted personality," Lee said.



Full of warm and positive messages about the future, the single was written as a "love letter" to fans before his military enlistment. Its heartfelt lyrics include lines such as "Even if the song ends, it ain't over. The days will come when we'll make better days together."



"Since this is my last album before joining the army, the song reflects my feelings about this temporary hiatus and is meant to cheer up fans while I'm away," he said.



Lee also mentioned that he'll dance to the song, saying he received help from 1Million Dance Studio. "It's my first time dancing to a title track in the 11 years of my music career. I had no intention of dancing on stage, but that thought suddenly came to me when I was composing the song," he said. "It turned out that I'm not a bad dancer," he added.



On this album, Cheetah features in the pre-released song "I AM," while DinDin appears on "Campfire" and SF9's member Zuho on "Come to Me." The other two tracks are "Yellow" and "Good Night."



He confided on the military issue, saying "I plan on enlisting in the army next year. I wanted to enter with all the FTISLAND members, but Min-hwan has a baby. So the plan is the older members join first and the younger members follow us after a short interval in order to minimize the band's hiatus as much as possible."



FTISLAND, which consists of members Lee, Choi Jong-hoon, Song Seung-hyun, Lee Jae-jin and Choi Min-hwan, debuted in 2007 with the album "Cheerful Sensibility." The five-member band has enjoyed popularity in Korea with their hits including "Lovesick," "I Hope" and "Severely."

