When RIIZE goes out to dinner, it’s a 20-person affair.
On this specific Sunday night, the pioneering South Korean mega-label SM Leisure has reserved a non-public room at a scorching spot in Los Angeles’ Koreatown fashionable with music artists for its new boy band. The six members file in round an extended desk — together with an SM-associated translator (who’s often assisted by two different staff members), a publicist from RCA Information (an SM associate for RIIZE), a veteran supervisor from Seoul and eight further crew members who sit in a close-by sales space.
The Korean group is on the town for its RIIZING DAY Fan-Con Tour tomorrow — a “fan-concert” the place the group intersperses choreographed performances of its personal Okay-pop hits with informal video games, casual onstage chats amongst themselves and particular covers of each Okay-pop classics and world boy band hits, like One Route’s “One Factor.” It’s RIIZE’s first time headlining a present in america, however its third group go to to L.A. Earlier than the Might 20 live performance, the group flew right here in August to attend the town’s annual KCON Okay-pop mega-fest and likewise filmed two music movies on the town: the jovial “Recollections” (a pre-debut single that generated buzz for the group that month) and its official debut single, “Get a Guitar,” a slick, bubblegum earworm launched in each Korean and English that’s now RIIZE’s most streamed tune globally, with 219.6 million official on-demand streams since its September launch, based on Luminate.
“Not even a 12 months has handed since our debut, however a lot has occurred,” says RIIZE’s youngest member, 20-year-old Anton, as his bandmates nibble on naan bread and citrus-splashed hamachi crudo. “Again then, our group was, like, harmless, you recognize? Now, we’ve kind of adjusted to touring and visiting different nations.”
Shotaro
Munachi Osegbu
Sungchan
Munachi Osegbu
In truth, RIIZE’s members weren’t completely inexperienced when the group made its official debut on Sept. 4, 2023, via Okay-pop big SM in a partnership with RCA. Shotaro and Sungchan had beforehand debuted in NCT, the bold boy band mission that SM launched in 2016, changing into its two latest members in 2020 and contributing to Resonance, Pt. 1, NCT’s highest-charting Billboard 200 launch. Two years later, SM’s board of administrators moved to terminate the corporate’s manufacturing contract with founder Lee Soo-Man (from whom SM will get its title) in 2022 in an effort to shift SM away from Lee’s artistic authority. In Might 2023, Korean multimedia conglomerate Kakao grew to become the corporate’s largest shareholder after a heated bidding warfare with Okay-pop titan HYBE (which initially purchased Lee’s stake within the firm however then bought it to Kakao throughout a young provide) for entry to SM’s practically 30 years of Okay-pop glory, together with an in depth catalog, devoted divisions for nonmusic alternatives like performing, know-how and the metaverse, in addition to dozens of lively artists — quickly to incorporate its latest addition, RIIZE.
Simply days earlier than Kakao grew to become majority shareholder, SM CEO Jang Cheol-Hyuk revealed that as a part of an organization restructuring, NCT — initially pitched as a gaggle with infinite members splintered into localized subunits worldwide — would not infinitely increase and that Shotaro and Sungchan would go away to debut in a brand new group, becoming a member of beforehand introduced SM Rookies (the corporate’s staff of trainees) Eunseok and Seunghan, together with different Korean and American members. In July 2023, pleasure mounted when Okay-pop media retailers reported that the son of acclaimed Korean singer-songwriter-producer Yoon Sang — later revealed to be Anton — would additionally be part of the mission.
Lastly, on July 27, 2023, SM launched RIIZE. The group (whose title is a portmanteau of “rise” and “notice”) launched its Instagram with 27 pictures — informal selfies and mirror pics with out the flashy vogue, excellent make-up or shiny finishes that always characterize Okay-pop photograph shoots even on social media — revealing the seven-member lineup of Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee and Anton. (Six are at dinner tonight; in November, SM positioned Seunghan on “indefinite suspension,” although he’s nonetheless listed as a RIIZE member on the label’s web site.)
RIIZE has sought to current itself as extra down-to-earth — a noticeable change from earlier, high-concept SM artist launches just like the supernatural-inspired boy band EXO; the woman group aespa, which sings about straddling the actual and digital worlds; and different larger-than-life Okay-pop idols the label has served up because the late Nineties. RIIZE describes its music as “emotional pop,” a phrase it makes use of, Anton says, “as a result of we hope that folks can relate to it emotionally. The members all do, and I believe that’s what our followers need from us as nicely.”
Clockwise from prime left: Wonbin, Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Anton, and Sohee.
Munachi Osegbu
However RIIZE differs from different Okay-pop outfits in ways in which transcend the aesthetic or idea. For one, its social media method is much extra hands-on than that of its contemporaries, who are likely to have marketing-approved captions; @riize_official sprinkles feedback throughout followers’ TikTok accounts. The members additionally filmed the #GetAGuitarChallenge with influencers together with Merrick Hanna (who has 32.5 million followers on TikTok), reacted to tasting Indonesian snacks with Jerome Polin (8.2 million followers on Instagram) and shot charming content material with South Korea’s most outstanding brazenly homosexual movie star, the tastemaker Hong Seok-Cheon, who predicted Wonbin as a “face” to observe in 2024.
“We’ve an idea known as ‘real-time odyssey,’” Eunseok explains. “We put up lots of photos of our every day life and intimate [moments] on social media.” Anton clarifies: “We don’t actually consider it as an idea — we’re simply attempting to point out our genuine selves.”
Not like a lot of its friends, RIIZE additionally doesn’t have a chosen “chief,” even when the Tokyo-raised Shotaro — at 23, the group’s eldest and solely Japanese member — naturally steps up. At dinner, he ensures everybody round him (together with this reporter) has water and their drink of selection. He’s the primary to talk on the meal and divulges probably the most about his musical tastes; Sam Smith is a favourite. To his left is his fellow ex-NCT member, Seoul-born Sungchan, 22, whose beaming smile helped him develop into a number of the weekly Okay-pop efficiency TV program Inkigayo whereas he was in NCT. In the future, he hopes Pharrell Williams will collaborate on a observe for RIIZE. Shotaro likens Sungchan to the colour sky blue as a result of he has “a really clear coronary heart… and may be very harmless.”
Sohee
Munachi Osegbu
Wonbin
Munachi Osegbu
RIIZE’s 4 different members sit throughout from the duo. Born and raised in Seoul, Eunseok, 23, prefers calm ballads and the music of Ed Sheeran. Whereas his outdoors demeanor matches his musical style, his bandmates reveal he has a extra lighthearted aspect: As Sohee describes, Eunseok is thought for giving “very random and fantastical” nonsensical nicknames to everybody he meets. Anton calls them “mainly video-game character names,” which makes everybody snicker.
The 22-year-old Wonbin — or “Darkish Bin,” as Eunseok has dubbed him, to the remainder of RIIZE’s amusement — was born in Seoul however raised in South Korea’s southern port metropolis of Ulsan; he digs Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Expertise-era singles like “Mirrors” and “Go well with & Tie.” Child-faced powerhouse vocalist Sohee, 20, grew up in Siheung, situated within the nation’s most populous province, Gyeonggi; he’s not solely “actually shiny,” Anton explains, “[but] his mindset is at all times actually optimistic as nicely.”
Final is Anton, 20, son of singer Yoon Sang and the actress Shim Hye-Jin. Whereas Anton has appeared on South Korean TV since childhood (Yoon Sang is predicated in South Korea), he was born in Boston and raised in New Jersey; rising up in america fostered his urge for food for music discovery and exploration, which in the end grew to become the inspiration for his Okay-pop profession. “I don’t actually suppose I’ve a favourite artist per se,” he says, soft-spoken however confident. “I identical to to discover as many genres [as I can] and attempt to take heed to lots of completely different music even when I don’t perceive the language. Individuals who take pleasure in Okay-pop may not perceive Korean.”
From left: Anton, Sohee, Wonbin, Eunseok, Shotaro, and Sungchan of RIIZE photographed Might 21, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Munachi Osegbu
Anton’s musical philosophy encapsulates the rising mindset of the younger viewers with whom RIIZE, in addition to SM and RCA, hope to attach. As U.S. listeners develop into more and more involved in foreign-language music, RIIZE has earned 37.8 million official U.S. on-demand streams — contributing to 641.2 million globally — based on Luminate. And it hopes to proceed increasing its fan base (generally known as BRIIZE, pronounced “breeze”) with the June 17 launch of RIIZING – The first Mini Album. Its new single, “Increase Increase Bass,” incorporates the identical hooky power of “Get a Guitar” whereas including shimmery disco vibes and an irresistible bassline. Sungchan and Wonbin each say it’s their favourite RIIZE tune but.
After 5 completely different Okay-pop releases topped the Billboard 200 final 12 months, pushed by Okay-pop followers’ love of bodily product and labels delivering collectible album packages in a number of variations, RCA Information COO John Fleckenstein says the label is “completely targeted on delivering bodily variations for RIIZE” in america — however as only one method to elevate the group’s presence.
“The imaginative and prescient behind our world partnership was to marry what each our corporations do greatest throughout all areas to deliver further alternatives, attain, sources and development to help RIIZE,” Fleckenstein provides. “Our ardour lies in exploring the intersection of music, artwork, tradition after which connecting that to an viewers. SM have been unbelievable companions who actually perceive the market.”
Eunseok
Munachi Osegbu
Anton
Munachi Osegbu
Because the members of RIIZE dip into Basque cheesecakes for dessert, they share their private targets for the long run, each close to and distant. They hope that “Increase Increase Bass” can crack a number of Billboard charts and are trying ahead to their first authentic Japanese-language single, “Fortunate,” due in July, calling it “an ideal tune for the summer season.” Shotaro desires of sometime performing on the Tremendous Bowl and the Billboard Music Awards.
RIIZE desires followers to know that the Fan-Con Tour is barely the start, and that the members plan to go to many nations. When Shotaro and Anton burst into tears in the course of the band’s two sold-out dates at Tokyo’s Yoyogi Nationwide Gymnasium area in Might, it introduced new which means to the group’s “emotional pop” — and conveyed how a lot RIIZE desires an offline fan connection that’s as sturdy as its on-line one.
“I actually didn’t plan on crying by any means,” Anton displays. “That was our greatest live performance up to now, and seeing the followers distant holding up our indicators and stuff was simply kind of overwhelming.” On the live performance the day after dinner, the members handle to not break into tears — however their efficiency isn’t any much less heartfelt. Amid heart-stopping choreography, Anton pauses to handle the viewers. “We’ll work exhausting,” he says, “to develop into a RIIZE that BRIIZE will be pleased with.”