TXT are Big Hit’s latest project (Picture: Big Hit Entertainment)

Outside, New York City is hot. Dirty, sultry, makeup running in rivulets kinda hot.

One becomes hyper-aware of the dust and grime embedded their into skin and clothes when walking into the air-conditioned, pristine hotel suite to meet rising K-Pop rookies, Tomorrow X Together. Soobin, the group’s leader, Yeonjun, Huening Kai, Taehyun and Beomgyu are neither grubby nor sweaty. They’re welcoming and immaculate in simple, crisp casual wear; Yeonjun’s black and white checkerboard shirt is as loud, fashion-wise, as it gets.

Despite a packed schedule – one journalist after the one other filing in and out of this room – they’re comfortable and alert, if not slightly curious as to what another quickly-conducted interview brings. TXT, as their name is commonly abbreviated to, are in town for two days of KCon, the annual, roving Korean pop music convention, which has drawn thousands of fans to the Javits Center by day and Madison Square Garden by night, and where they’ll perform four tracks from their debut EP, The Dream Chapter: Star.



Onstage they’ll wear dress-shirts, ties and, fittingly, school blazers (Yeonjun the eldest at 19, while Huening Kai is only 16), and although they might have initially gained attention for being labelmates with BTS, TXT bear little resemblance to the iconic swagger and disaffection of early BTS.


They’re successfully walking their own path – boys next door, sweet and wide-eyed, with an upbeat, pop-heavy sound and tongue-in-cheek nods to the prickly confusion and heat that comes with being a teenager. There’s even a touch of surrealism to their work – on Cat & Dog they declare: ‘I don’t wanna just be friends… I wanna be your dog’ as audiences delightedly bark at them.

So, in the spirit of such quirks, we dive into a quickfire conversation and discover TXT never fight, have too many stuffed toys and are very, very good at talking all at once and jumping in to finish each other’s sentences.

ON AN AVERAGE DAY, TXT…

Taehyun: In the morning, me, Huening Kai and Beomgyu go to school, then we come back to the company and…

Beomgyu: We practice practice practise.

Huening Kai: Practising is our life!

How many hours of school do you do?

Huening Kai: Maybe until, like, 12pm or 1pm.

And so Soobin and Yeonjun just lie in bed waiting for you to come back?

Yeonjun: (laughs) That’s right, we just sleep.

What happens after practice?

Huening Kai: We usually order in food and eat together.

Taehyun: Always together.

Is there a battle over deciding on a menu?

Yeonjun: (laughs) We don’t fight.

Beomgyu: Never!

FOR THE SAD OR BAD DAYS

When you’re tired or down, what do you watch to cheer yourself up? Personally, I’m on YouTube for cat videos or people falling over.

Huening Kai: I usually watch cute animals, like puppies and kittens.

Beomgyu: When I sleep, I play and listen to rain sounds on YouTube.

Oh, I have a rain sounds app, it’s amazing. It makes me sleepy but also need the bathroom.

Taehyun: I watch Huening Kai’s fancams because he’s so cute onstage.

Kai, are you aware that he does this?

Huening Kai: No! (laughs)

MY PRECIOUS!

What’s the most precious thing you own?

Yeonjun: Clothes. I love clothes.



Taehyun: I love shoes.

Huening Kai: Lots of dolls and toys. They’re so soft and squishy. I usually hug them a lot.

How many do you have?

Taehyun: He can’t count them.

Beomgyu: 200?

Huening Kai: No!

Yeonjun: 20?

Huening Kai: Umm…

Beomgyu: 300?

Huening Kai: No!

Beomgyu: I have a guitar and a doll too. Actually I have two guitars, one electric and one acoustic.

Have you named your guitars? All instruments should have names, the same as cars and ships.

Beomgyu: Oh, no names, not yet.

ON FANTASY CONCEPTS

Let’s match a member with a concept; your options are sexy, retro, horror, futuristic and hip hop.

Huening Kai: Of course, hip hop is Yeonjun.

Taehyun: ‘Sexy’ is me.

Soobin: No, it’s me!

Yeonjun: No, it’s me, I’d rather have sexy. Sexy hip hop.

Feel free to stake the ultimate claim… who’s the sexiest?

Taehyun: Maybe Soobin.

Soobin: I think I’m the sexiest member of this team.

Yeonjun: No, you’re second sexiest.

Soobin: Hey, no.

Keep it moving… who’s taking futuristic?

Everyone: Huening Kai!

Soobin: When there’s a fashion look that we can’t really can’t digest, Huening Kai puts it on and suddenly it makes sense. So he’s, like, futuristic.

The horror concept, who’s the best fit for that?

Huening Kai: Me, I think.

Ok, slow down there, you can’t have them all! Now for retro…

Taehyun: Me. I love retro music actually. I love New Jack Swing.

TXT are down with choosing superheroes as alter egos (Picture: Big Hit)

ON COMPOSING

Beomgyu: Huening Kai and I write songs and give them to our members and we all write lyrics. Maybe you’ll hear them (some day).


How many songs have been written?

Taehyun: Maybe four or five?

Beomgyu: That’s a secret!

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

TXT members use their birth names as stage names, so if you could use a different one just for a day, what would it be?

Huening Kai: We’ve never thought about this before. Maybe we could have superhero names….

Soobin: Then I’ll be Scarlet Witch.

Huening Kai: I’ll use Spiderman. We can be Tomorrow By Together Avengers Team.

Yeonjun: I’ll be Hulk.

Beomgyu: Iron Man.

Taehyun: Black Panther.

ON AMBITION AND MOTIVATION

Beomgyu: I think Taehyun is the most ambitious of the group.

Huening Kai: When he sings, I can see his passion. But also I think all of our members have that kind of passion.

Yeonjun: Mostly we motivate each other.

So you just know when someone is struggling and can get in there and help them?

Taehyun: Yeah, that’s right.

Huening Kai: We’ll be like, ‘Come on! We can do it!’

AND FINALLY…

What’s a random catchphrase you say to each other all the time, but that’s only developed since you’ve been together?

Taehyun: (laughs) ‘Thinking’. So, for example, when we were talking about some songs and I’d made some mistakes, Soobin said to me (pointing at his temple), ‘Thinking! Thinking! One more time!’ And now we say it a lot.

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