SEVENTEEN is back with their fourth mini album “Al1,” and Soompi was at their comeback showcase on May 23!

After posing for group, unit, and individual photos (see bottom of article for exclusive pictures), the members sat down to answer various questions about how they prepared for their new album.

“Fresh” is a huge keyword for SEVENTEEN, and all of their previous title songs, “Adore U,” “Mansae,” “Pretty U,” “Very Nice,” and “BOOMBOOM,” stayed true to this image by showing the feelings of a boy figuring out what love is. Seungkwan stated, “But we didn’t think ‘fresh’ necessarily meant ‘bright,'” and explained that for this comeback, they wanted to show the emotions of a boy experiencing sorrow for the first time. This is in line with SEVENTEEN’s goal for this album, which is to let their fans and the public know that they can pull off many different music styles.

Along with the change in their music style, SEVENTEEN has also changed up their performance style to match their song. Hoshi, leader of the performance team, commented, “Together with our choreographer and the performance team, we expressed the complicated and sad emotions through movements in the members’ positions. I was inspired not only by modern dance, but also by things that aren’t related to dance. For example, I was walking back to the dorms one day when I saw a streetlight. It fit well with our song’s mood, so I decided to incorporate it into the choreography.”

It’s not easy to make decisions when 13 people are involved in the process, but SEVENTEEN seems to have no problems. Woozi said, “We have an easygoing atmosphere when we work on music. When anyone comes up with an idea that isn’t too great, we either joke about it or give them a hint that the idea isn’t very good. That way, everyone feels comfortable about giving ideas, and we don’t have any conflicts when working together. We actually collide more when deciding what we’ll eat that day or who’ll be in charge of cleaning.” Seungkwan added that their key to great teamwork is constant communication.

When they were asked about being compared to EXO and BTS, the members said that it was an honor for them to be grouped with them.

2017 is a special year for SEVENTEEN, as the number “2017” contains their group name. Seungkwan expressed how thrilled he was that they were promoting in 2017, since they would have had to wait 100 more years for a year with the number 17 to come around again. The “2017 SEVENTEEN Project” was created as a result of this coincidental match between the team’s name and the current year. While not much is known about the “2017 SEVENTEEN Project,” fans can expect to see more releases from SEVENTEEN this year starting with the the first part of the project, “Al1.”

Check out more of Soompi’s exclusive photos!

Group



Vocal unit



Performance unit



Hip hop unit



Woozi



Seungkwan



Joshua



DK



Jeonghan



Hoshi



The8



Dino



Jun



S.Coups



Wonwoo



Mingyu



Vernon



Below are photos of SEVENTEEN performing their title track “Don’t Wanna Cry” and B-side “Crazy in Love” in perfect synchronization.