New pop group has Korean, Japanese members

Is the world ready for another K-Pop group?

On 11 January, music label MLD Entertainment formally launched T1419, a group composed of nine members — five of which are Korean (Noa, Sian, Kevin, Gunwoo and On), and four Japanese (Leo, Zero, Kairi and Kio).

MLD is known for managing female K-Pop group Momoland.

For its debut single, T1419 — “T” stands for teenager, and 1419 the average age of its members at the time of its formation — released “Asurabalbalta” in Korean and Japanese versions.

“Asurabalbalta” is the first of three tracks in T1419’s coming album, Before Sunrise Part 1, which is said to be a four-part series. The album is described as a blend of pop, hip-hop and electronic music.

In 2020, the group released two pre-debut singles, “Dracula” and “Row.”

Below are excerpts from a South China Morning Post online interview with T1419 last December:

Noa: “With ‘Dracula,’ we attempted to show our take on how our generation, Gen Z, is heavily reliant on the internet and social media. So, the song is kind of about how everyone is looking at their phones and how modern society lives in cyberspace, where we’re all becoming virtual Draculas.

“And ‘Row’ represents how we’ve all been growing together as nine separate men and how the eventual goal of debuting has brought us together.”

Leo: “There are a lot of differences culturally between our Korean and Japanese members, but we’ve been together for a long time, so now the Korean members can speak Japanese and we can speak Korean. But when I first came over [from Japan], it was hard to communicate with each other. Many problems happened.”

Sian: “The first time the Japanese members came to eat in Korea, they didn’t understand that we share our food with other people. But now they can understand and accept [the Korean way of] sharing food. I think it’s funny, because they really didn’t understand it at first.”

Gunwoo: “We want to be as successful as our senior sister group Momoland, and grow into an act that can stage top-level performances. We want to spread our message and be happy as artists ourselves. Also, I’d love it if we could be no. 1 on the Billboard charts. It’s not that we want to — it’s that we will.”