BTOB sings about spring in 'Remember That'

Boy band Born To Beat (BTOB) / Courtesy of Cube Entertainment

By Kim Jae-heun

Boy band Born To Beat (BtoB) has released its eighth mini-album “Remember That,” which includes seven tracks about spring.

“The songs go well with spring,” said BtoB member Ilhoon during an interview at a cafe in Gangnam, Seoul, Monday. “The song is about memories of an ex-lover during spring. Our vocals and rap harmonize well together.”

Rappers Minhyuk, Peniel and Ilhoon wrote a rap for the album’s title song. Singer-songwriters Cho Sung-ho and Ferdy composed the song based on acoustic guitar and string music.

It is notable that the rappers wrote all their parts for the songs, with BtoB members Hyunsik and Ilhoon composing tunes and writing lyrics for more than half of the album.

“I personally think we are musically improving. We get inspiration in various ways when we write songs _ from art pieces at exhibitions to surfing around social media,” said Ilhoon. “Sometimes we get ideas from random things too. It is just sad that we don’t have enough time to write more music.”

The new alum comes five months after the release of their seventh mini-album “I Mean” last October, which received an award on MBC’s music TV program “Show Champion.” The group has been together for three years and seven months.

The seven-member boy band has released three ballad singles in a row.

“Releasing only ballads three times in a row times may seem risky, but if we see our future in the long term it’s only a small part of our career,” said Sungjae. “Soon, we will be showing our dance performances too.”

The boy band picked “Descendants of the Sun” as their biggest rival currently, as its soundtrack features various artists is topping the online music charts.

“Captain Yoo Si-jin and Doctor Kang Mo-yeon of the popular drama series are unexpected strong rivals,” said rapper Minhyuk. “Even I couldn’t stop watching it until I finished the fourth episode.”

The boy band debuted in March 2012 on CJ E&M’s TV music show “M! Countdown” with their songs “Insane” and “Imagine.” Despite the group’s early promotional concerts in Asian countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and Japan, it took time for BtoB to grab attention.

They rose to stardom in 2015 with consecutive hits off their first official album titled “It’s Okay” and seventh mini-album “Way Back Home.” The boy group swept not only online music charts and TV music shows, but also sold out two concerts in December at Jangchung Gymnasium in eastern Seoul, as well as their fan meeting “BtoB Awards,” which attracted over 3,500 fans. They also ranked second on Japan’s Oricon Weekly Chart with their fourth Japanese single “Dear Bride” on Feb. 24.