Introducing the ‘Beatpella’ Kpop girl group, AweSomeBaby

AweSomeBaby (a.k.a Awe5omeBaby or Awesome Baby) is a five-member Korean girl group signed under TN Nation Entertainment. The group was created by the CEO of the company, Tony An, who is the founding member of the biggest boyband in Kpop’s history, H.O.T.

Jaeduc Kim, who was the member of the rival band, Sechs Kies, is also under the label as the main producer who helped to launch AweSomeBaby.

Consisting of five talented members ranging in age from 19 to 21, AweSomeBaby were considered individually skilled in their craft, all the members were already winning or performing in national contests even before they were formed into a group. After being put into the group, the members did over a hundred live street performances together, busking in numerous places in Korea.

AweSomeBaby officially debuted on June 19, 2015 to perform their debut single “Why Should I” on KBS Music Bank.

June, who is the leader and the oldest member, is the beatboxer. Sumin and Dahee are vocalists and Yechan is the lead vocalist. The youngest member, Lina is in charge of the rapping.

This group only released one single, but you’ll realize by just listening to their debut single, ‘Why should I’ that’ they have more talent hidden than they’ve shown and I’m very curious to know what kind of music they will be releasing in the future.

If they sound this harmonic and in sync at the start of their career, they definitely have the potential to become top acts in a matter of time.

KCRUSH Interview with AweSomeBaby

Hello AweSomebaby members! Thank you so much for taking your time out to take a KCRUSH interview! Could you start by briefly introducing yourselves, please?

June: Hi, I’m June who is the leader of AweSomeBaby, and I am in charge of the beatboxing in the group!

Sumin: Hi! This is Sumin, I’m a vocalist with an attractive voice and a bright smile.

Dahee: Hello! This is Dahee who is a vocalist and the smallest member in AweSomeBaby.

Yechan: It’s nice to meet you! My name is Yechan and I am the lead vocalist of AweSomeBaby!

Lina: Hello! This is Lina, a rapper with a twist and the youngest member of AweSomeBaby at 19 years of age. It’s so nice to meet you all!

What has changed the most for you as individuals after your debut as a group?

June: I feel we are getting more responsible as we continue on forward. What’s changed the most after the debut is that we’re now at a stage where we are starting to think we have to put in more work and effort.

Sumin: It’s only been a short while since we hit our debut, so I am not sure whether the changes have been much, but I think our thoughts and the whole mindset in general have changed. These days, I tend to become more aware and think before I speak so I don’t make any mistakes. Taking more responsibility comes with that too, I guess.

Dahee: What’s probably changed the most is the mindset in my opinion. Instead of being anxious and just trying to relentlessly work hard, we are now putting in most of our effort in all the work we do with responsibility.

Yechan: It’s probably obvious but just being able to learn and perform on stages have changed the most for us after making our debut last year.

Lina: I think our mindset has definitely changed the most. We were all about working for our debut, but nowadays we’re starting to learn from our seniors and other artists when they’re on stage trying to figure out and research how we can add to make our next comeback stage much better and enhanced.

Are there any genres or type of sounds that you would like to try for the upcoming album? Please let us know your reasons as well.

June: I would really like to cover Hip-Hop for our next record. I am also interested in electronic sound so if given the opportunity, I’d like to try that out as well.

Sumin: I felt that the concept and the overall feel of our first single, “Why should I” was in a way slightly dark. So for our next record, I want to release music that is bright and fitting to our age group and less depressing.

If the sound can also promote Beatpella as a genre, that would be even more awesome.

Dahee: I feel that we didn’t show enough Beatpella as much as we could have, so for our new music, instead of releasing of a different genre of music, I’d like to stick to showing more of Beatpella to our audience.

Yechan: I would like to try out all different types of music so right at this moment; I can’t really select which genres to pick even. We are currently practicing and working on diverse music because we want to do and try out different types of genres.

Lina: If you look at the K-Pop performances that became massive hits, the addictive dance moves people can join in with cannot be excluded, so I am thinking how we could release a great dance track by also showcasing Beatpella more elaborately for our next record.

Your first single, “Why should I” played a big role in differentiating yourselves from other girl groups with its unique sound with Beatboxing and Acapella. What makes AweSomeBaby’s members sound so in sync?  

June: I think we practice a lot to become more harmonized with each other’s sounds. Because we do beatboxing and acapella together, there is no other way than to practice diligently as a group.

Sumin: Personally, because I have a large tone of voice, there have been many times when practicing within the group was very difficult. When you are harmonizing in a group, you can’t have one person’s voice standing out too much and the balance has to be right.

As we continued to practice, I learned ways to adjust to things like, “I need to hold my mic a little further in these kind of situations,” and as we put more hours on practicing, I found myself steadily developing and becoming better as a singer.

The members are always trying to listen out for others in the group which helps us to harmonize well.

Dahee: I think the reason our sounds all blend well together is because we were doing a lot of busking and other musicals activities together before we debuted.

Yechan: Whenever we are together in a car to go to some event or somewhere, someone starts humming quietly and the rest of the members just build up the sound into a harmony. To get our voices to balance well with one another, we have to spend a lot of hours practicing together, and the members all seem to have the harmony in mind in everyday lives.

Lina: We usually practice as much as we can because harmonizing can go wrong even if just one of the members is off key and that could ruin the whole sound. When we are scheduled to go on an event to perform we practice in the car all the way to the location until we can get the perfect harmony.

What kind of songs are you listening to these days and have you watched any movies that inspired you?

June: The song I am listening to the most these days is “How Would It Have Been – 어땠을까” by Nayoung Kim sunbaenim, and the film I watched recently that inspired me is The Himalayas.

Sumin: The song I am into is “Queen” sung by Jeff Bernat. I usually love listening to Jeff Bernat’s songs because of his honey smooth voice. His songs are great to listen to before going to bed, when I am out walking by myself.

I really recommend that you try listening to his songs, if you haven’t already!

The most recent movie I watched is Goosebumps because Lina kept saying it was really fun to watch and recommended it. I like watching fantasy movies and because the actor Jack Black was in the movie with a bunch of animals, it was super fun and truly the best! It seems that they will be a sequel movie out soon, so when it comes out, I will be the first to go and see the movie.

Dahee: The song I am listening to often is Zico sunbaenim’s “I Am You, You Are Me” because the song is simply so sweet!

The movie which inspired me to the point of crying my eyes out for a long time is the Korean movie, The Great Tiger.

Yechan: I listened to Super Junior’s Ryeowook sunbaenim’s song “The Little Prince” for the first time few days ago; I’m currently listening to it repeatedly for days. I think the lyrics are in particularly so pretty!

Lina: I love going to see the movies so much that I often go to the cinema by myself. I recently watched Goosebumps featuring Jack Black, which is a comedy/horror movie and because it had so many interesting episodes and elements/ I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen and didn’t know the time had gone by so quickly. I strongly recommend you guys to watch it!

Do you have any countries or certain stadiums you’d especially like to perform in?

June: The one country I’d like to visit the most is probably the U.S.A! The concert halls and other venues all hold massive events at the end of the year, so we’d love to do a concert there!

Sumin: I’d love to visit every country in the world but our concert in Japan got cancelled a while ago, so unfortunately we weren’t able to attend. If given the chance again, we would love to perform in Japan!

Also, I’m currently learning to speak a little Chinese to debut in China soon, even though I am still a beginner and can only do as much as introducing myself, I would like to visit China and say my greeting in Chinese.

The place to perform can be just anywhere we can do busking in. Right now, we just want to meet as many people and perform in front of them.

Dahee: I would like to go anywhere to perform if we could. Because we aren’t that well known in Korea yet, we are ready to go out and preform at any time. And if possible, we’d love to meet the KCRUSH America Magazine readers as well!

Yechan: I haven’t had the chance to go abroad yet. I want to visit the countries near Korea, like China and Japan. I’d also love to travel to America as well as countries in Europe.

Lina: I’d like to perform in Korea! It would be really cool if we could perform in arenas like Jamsil Main Stadium and Sang-am Worldcup Stadium!

KC: The CEO and the main producer of your company used to be legendary idol group members at one point, what kind of advice or encouragement do they give you?

June: Yes, they tell us what to be cautious of and a lot of advice when we get on air.

Sumin: They are indeed both great and legendary seniors to us. One of the things they advised us was “Make a lot of effort to greet others.” They also advise us on certain things before we get onto the stage and the advice they’ve given us has been an immense help. They’re always great and treat us like real family.

Dahee: They advise us on important stuff right until we get on stage for a show or a music program. Instead of ordering and instructing us on what to do, they tend to tell us to enjoy ourselves.

Yechan: They tell us what it was like for them and what they experienced when they were active in a band, and they can only be resourceful advice for us.

Lina: Yeah, because our CEO is also a senior to us in this business, he tells a lot of advice before we hit the stage to perform, and frequently lets us know about the things we aren’t aware of about the media and so on.

Do you have any preference to a certain color? Which colors suit you the most in your opinion?

June: Uhm…black? I like black the most, haha.

Sumin: I have always been into the color yellow since I was young! I don’t know the reason how I began to like yellow so much, but I think it’s because the color gives out such warmth and the feeling you get is somewhat bright and shimmering!

Dahee: I personally like the colors pink, black, or white!

Yechan: Since I was very young, all the stuff I owned used to in blue because I loved the color so much. There isn’t a particular reason behind my liking but I like anything if it’s blue.

Lina: I like the color pink! And especially hot pink out of all the types of pink. I started collecting things that are pink and now I’ve ended up owning everything in pink.

What hobbies or talent do you have other than the music-related?

June: I am interested in DJing and would love to get real training in the future.

Sumin: These days, my hobbies are watching TV dramas. I watched Oh My Venus recently and felt satisfied from the series.

I share a room with the youngest member of AweSomeBaby, and when I was watching the drama with my earphones on and she heard a sound of sobbing coming from somewhere and it was me crying because I got emotional. Lina was looking at me with pity, hahaha. But those were such happy and sweet times for me.

I like to be sociable with other people so I consider myself to be good with others. I don’t know if that would be thought as a talent, but I would consider a great trait that I have.

Dahee: My hobbies are reading, which wouldn’t necessarily seem like an interest that suits me. I also like to visit places. And I tend to have a very bright personality and I smile a lot!

Yechan: I love cooking and eating. And the people around me to tend to eat what I cook for them well and regard it tasty.

Lina: My hobbies are dancing, cooking, watching movies, doing nail art, window shopping, etc. I’m quite talented in dancing, cooking and doing make-up.

Please let us know what your goals and wishes are for 2016 and we want to let you know that we hope you achieve everything you put your minds to.

June: We will work hard on our next album and hope for the best when it comes out! I wish our family members and all everyone at our company would always be healthy and be well! Happy Lunar new year to you!

Sumin: I hope nobody gets sick and that everyone stays healthy and safe. I hope AweSomeBaby and myself, Sumin, will enhance and given more chance to let our presence be known to more audience in the future! Hope everyone the best of luck in the Lunar New year and may the year be filled with happiness!

Dahee: I wish AweSomeBaby will be able to get to connect with the public more this year and personally hope that myself – Dahee- will be known as well!

Yechan: I wish things go well for AweSomeBaby and nothing bad comes our way this year. Our goal is to become better in our art so more people will tune into our music. I hope the readers of KCRUSH America Magazine a very happy new year and that you will experience a lot of great things. Thank you!

Lina: 2016 will hopefully be a year that AweSomeBaby will make a comeback with brand new music and get more recognition, because we will be working so hard to come back in a better form. Please show us lots of love and support, and for myself- Lina- as well! To the readers of KCRUSH America Magazine, have a great 2016!

There is more to music than cute choreography and catchy rhythm, and that’s more or less what we’ve been seeing from the new girl groups that have emerged in the K-Pop scene lately. It is refreshing to listen to music that showcases a good balance of beatboxing and acapella. We want to show our appreciation for the great interview from the AweSomeBaby members and wish them all the best in the future!

J. Chung