u/Fabzrocks

>To our Coer,
Thanks to your strength and support, we got 1st place on Show Champion. Thank you so, so much. And I saw that we even reached #1 on Melon too.
Because of you, it feels like we’re getting to experience so many new things. Things I thought would never happen in my lifetime even now, it still doesn’t feel real that all of this is happening.
Seeing the overwhelming love you’ve given us, I keep thinking about how I want to repay our Coer by working even harder.
We won’t let down your expectations. I really, truly love you all so much ❤️🔥

>Today, the older guys and girls at Dankook University GREENGREEN

>Dankook University, let’s go ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥
I only saw you once, but I truly love you!! It was so great.
If I get the chance, I’ll come visit again!

>Dankook University was great today.
I fell in love you all.
See you again next time 🫶🫶

>Show Champion #1 🥇

>🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶
Coer, let’s keep rising all the way!!!!!!!!!!

>Your life has changed a lot since your debut. You performed “MIC Drop” live at the end of the year, the same BTS song you sang at your audition, for instance.
SEONGHYEON: That was actually the first time I’d really sung and danced to “MIC Drop” properly. It wasn’t something I could’ve imagined back when I was auditioning, so it felt surreal and really satisfying to get up onstage and perform that song. Now when we’re out and about, so many people recognize us and go, “It’s CORTIS!” And every time that happens, I think, “Wow, we did come pretty far.” Since the making of our debut album, I was hoping more and more people would end up loving our music. As a musician, it feels great that I’m starting to experience little moments like that.

>

>You’ve been experiencing more and more, like going to the US and performing at the NBA All-Star Game and checking out Amoeba Music. What kind of influence are these changes having on you?
SEONGHYEON: It’s refreshing, and it’s just genuinely fun. It keeps me wanting to seek out more new experiences like that. I was in China for the first time yesterday, and getting to try so much different Chinese food was a whole new thing for me. I loved it.

>

>Those changes must be affecting your day-to-day rhythm too. Did you start following a yoga channel as a way to maintain your inner rhythm amidst all the recent changes?
SEONGHYEON: Exactly that. I try to do yoga whenever I have time. I also do yoga nidra [guided yogic sleep] a lot when I’m getting ready to sleep. When you dance this much, your body and mind need that release. And I’ve always loved eating out, but with my schedule these days, a lot of the time those little everyday things just aren’t possible, so when I do have an opening, I make a point of doing more stuff like that.

>

>With less free time these days, I imagine you’ve had to work out how to find inspiration for your creative work.
SEONGHYEON: We poured so many ideas into our debut album, but then it was time to start working on the second one before we knew it. Having to write songs while promoting made it feel like there wasn’t enough time to get inspired the way I did for the first album, so we kept talking about how we needed some way to recharge. I guess it felt like there was less time to experience the outside world than before, so we got back into the little everyday things we hadn’t been doing as much, like seeing a movie in theaters with popcorn, playing basketball on a school court, that kind of stuff. We also tried a lot of new things together. That’s where we found the inspiration to write.

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>Did you come up with a system so you don’t forget any ideas you have while promoting?
SEONGHYEON: I used to love spending hours alone in my room working, but now that I don’t really get that kind of time anymore, my laptop goes with me wherever I go to work and I lay down beats during downtime. If I’m in the middle of vocal or choreo practice by myself and want to do something else, I make some music. When I get the chance I try to work with MARTIN or JUHOON too. It’s like I’m constantly making sure not to let the creativity slip away.

>

>That reminds me of the time you and MARTIN were working on “Mention Me” when you were supposed to be checking out of a hotel room and kept saying “just 10 more minutes” over and over.
SEONGHYEON: These days I try to finish whatever I’m working on before wrapping up. You never know when you’ll get another window to work, so it actually speeds up the workflow. It was the same thing for that one. I kept thinking about how, if I just had a little more time, I could get it all done, so I wanted to finish it then and there. You might end up forgetting your ideas otherwise, so it needs to be right here, right now.

>

>You must have felt a real rush after putting all that work into it when the part you wrote came on. (laughs)
SEONGHYEON: It was my first time writing a song for a soundtrack, so I honestly didn’t expect it to get a thumbs up on the first try. I was just relieved it went smoothly, and when I heard my part in the movie, I felt great. (laughs)

>

>You must take a different approach when writing a song for a movie since you’re working from someone else’s story rather than your own. How did you tackle that aspect of it?
SEONGHYEON: I actually hadn’t seen the movie yet when I was working on it—they just told me what it was about. So, before I got down to work, I looked up the director’s other movies and their soundtracks, and I got a sense that the lyrics tended to be relatable and straightforward rather than super intricate. The line that really stuck with me was “Smalls can ball.” I just put myself in that situation and worked within the range of my imagination, then wrote really honestly and directly about that. I felt like the best way to get the message across for that song was to go with my instincts.

>

>Then there’s “GREENGREEN,” which perfectly captures the busy life you boys have been living.
SEONGHYEON: When I was working on “Wassup,” the first thing that came to me were the opening lines: “The trunk of the Carnival's got traces of yesterday / Lookin’ out, we pass the same streets, hamster wheel.” After getting through a busy day, the trunk of our van ends up stuffed with clothes, shoes, bags, and all the stuff still there from the day before. It’s such a regular occurrence that I ended up writing about it. I also wrote the lines that open “REDRED”: “Hot vanilla latte, take a sip / Caffeine’s back and kickin in.” I think it’s lyrics like those, that come from our day-to-day lives, that make this new album shine.

>

>Do you drink vanilla lattes that much? (laughs)
SEONGHYEON: It was right in the middle of winter in Korea when we were working on the album, and I do love a good hot vanilla latte, so that’s how that ended up in the lyrics. If it’d been summer, it probably would’ve been an iced vanilla latte. (laughs) It’s just regular, everyday stuff.

>

>Another difference with “GREENGREEN,” besides all the day-to-day details, seems to be the focus on moments in the music and choreography that really stick with the listener.
SEONGHYEON: We were looking to emphasize a rough, raw feeling when we were making it. Musically we tried for a vintage sound, and when we were all working on the choreography together, we wanted to have moves that would really grab people. We figured that’d make them easy for people to dance along to. We put a lot of care into the album, and COER had to wait a long time for it, so we just really want to get it in front of them.

>

>Why did that feel like the right direction for the group? On “EUNCHAE’s Style Diary,” you described “GREENGREEN” as being “a bit more like” the group and “very CORTIS-like.”
SEONGHYEON: I think we just really gravitate toward authenticity. Even when we were working on the first album, what we wanted was something unrestrained, raw, and unfiltered, but once we debuted and started performing live, all five of us had this feeling that we could push things even further, so even for the visual aspect of this album we focused mainly on keeping things raw. We kept the makeup minimal too, to the point where you can even see our pores, and some of the photos reflect the way we actually dress day-to-day. I feel like it’s that sense of effortlessness that makes us cool.

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>That makes me think of the photo from the Weverse Albums version where you’re completely sprawled out on a sofa. (laughs)
SEONGHYEON: We took those photos for each other. (laughs) The idea was to show us being totally normal, so we went into the shoot feeling pretty relaxed. Now that I’ve had my photo taken so many times and done a bunch of photoshoots for promos, I’ve gotten better at expressing myself the way I want to for the camera.

>

>When you were working on “YOUNGCREATORCREW” and freestyling some lyrics, you mispronounced “utgyeobeoryeoseo” [“ridiculous”] as “utgeobeoryeoseo,” but it ended up in the final version.
SEONGHYEON: I think that’s more my style, actually. I do want to be good at everything and actually be perfect, but I also don’t want to come across like I’m trying too hard. Yes, it was a mistake, but anyway, if it sounds good when you hear it, it works. I tend to just go with whatever feels right. (laughs)

>

>You can see that mindset in the way you dance, too. Rather than simply dancing with the highest possible intensity, you seem focused on putting your own twist on it, which might actually be harder to do.
SEONGHYEON: The dances for the new album were all tough, each in its own different way. “TNT” has a lot of moves where you’re really bending your body, so I experienced a lot of back and neck pain while practicing, and “ACAI” feels like it’s full energy the whole time, like with “GO!”, “REDRED” has a lot of moves where you’re tensing up then releasing, so you have to keep that tension in your body at all times, which was its own kind of challenge. And while giving it everything you’ve got can look amazing, I feel like it can fall short of my standards of what’s cool. I find that if I just dance however it feels natural to me instead of overthinking it, what I’m all about comes through on its own. There’s still a lot I’m figuring out, but this album has a lot of parts where I could move freely, so I felt freer to express myself. It’s hard, but it’s fun. (laughs)

>

>It sounds like you’re figuring yourself out while turning the idea of being cool over in your mind. You’re always showing off your own sense of style, whether that’s wearing a hoodie with a cap like you did at the hotel or wearing sunglasses on your head.
SEONGHYEON: Since I perform onstage and make music, I think the visual aspect is important too, so I try out whatever look I’m interested in putting out there. Vintage shopping is new to me, but I’ve been buying a lot of clothes, and if there’s a style I just like or something that catches my eye, I’ll try it out. Even when I was younger, rather than using someone else as a reference, I just kept doing whatever I felt would be good. When people look at me, I just want them to think, “He’s got style.”

>

>You seem to have a clear sense of what you’re after. JUHOON has described you as someone who’s persistent and knows what he wants.
SEONGHYEON: There’s no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to creative work, so I guess I just end up sticking with what I like. That’s probably why everyone says I have a distinct style and am persistent.

>

>Is it possible you’re only intense like that when it comes to working? There was a time when you were so introverted that it would take you five minutes to answer a question from JAMES, but now you say things like “Wanna grab a bite?” playfully when you guest hosted “M Countdown” and you look after your fans like it’s second nature to you.
SEONGHYEON: I honestly just didn’t know how to talk back then. (laughs) I think the five-minute delay thing was because I didn’t know what to say, but now, I want to put forward my best self, so I figured I might as well put in the work to prepare while I’m at it.

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>You say you didn’t know how to talk, but in the “2025_cartalk” video, you showed a real aptitude for adjusting your communication style depending on who you were talking to. With KEONHO, who tends to give shorter answers, you kept your own answers short too, taking the pressure off, and with the ones who wanted to go deeper, you’d speak at length more and open up the conversation.
SEONGHYEON: It must be out of habit at this point. I don’t really do it consciously—I’ve just always been that way, I guess. For the sake of connecting better with people. (laughs)

>

>That’s probably the reason MARTIN has said you feel like an older brother to him in a good way and that you’re someone he can rely on. You seem to listen to everyone around you, but when it comes to your own concerns, you don’t really let them show.
SEONGHYEON: I think I’m just more comfortable sorting things out on my own. Instead of getting help from somebody, I usually find a way to work through it myself one way or another.

>

>But, being part of a group, aren’t there times where you find yourself relying on the others without even realizing it?
SEONGHYEON: I’m not really a talkative person, so during group interviews I do find myself leaning on the other group members. These days I’m trying to speak up more though. (laughs) I used to not really like putting myself out there, but having people this easy to be around next to me makes me want to try a bit more.

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>I guess you could say that willingness to keep trying is your “GREEN.”
SEONGHYEON: Anytime I start something, I try to do it properly. If I feel like I can do better and I’m not satisfied, I’ll push a little harder. I started going to an English academy because my parents signed me up, but once I was there, I wanted to do it right. I became a trainee because I was scouted, so it wasn’t always a dream of mine, but as I got into it, I figured I might as well do it properly, so I worked hard at it. I just want to do a good job at whatever I call my own.

>clear the way

>All things ‘GREENGREEN’ ✅ Press Play on Cortis’ 2nd EP with an exclusive Takeover on K-Pop - link in bio!

>Martin’s healthy indulgence: drinking a glass of apple juice.

>☀️

>KCON JAPAN 🤟

>MJ let's go

>I heard you were in LA recently. [Note: This interview took place on April 18.]
JUHOON: We’ve been working in LA since the debut album, so at this point I feel just as at home there as in Seoul. (laughs) When I saw our album on display in the K-pop section at Amoeba Music, it made me realize how we’re actually out there in the world now. The sun’s brighter there than in Seoul and everything’s bigger. You definitely feel open and relaxed there. It’s the kind of place that’s so inspiring it actually makes you want to work, and I feel like it changes the way I dress, too. (laughs)

>

>So did you pull off any bold new looks while you were there? (laughs)
JUHOON: (laughs) Umm … I usually wear a lot of Adidas, but I picked up a Nike t-shirt there while I was shopping, so I tried this completely unhinged combination of a Nike tee and an Adidas hoodie. (laughs)

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>Quite the mash-up. (laughs) What kind of style are you into these days?
JUHOON: I don’t have a hard preference for any one aesthetic right now. You have to try a lot of things before you know what actually works on you, and I feel like I’m still in the middle of that process. I look at Pinterest to see how other people pull things together. I draw a little from here and there and try to make it my own. Overall I’d say I’ve gotten more into minimalism than I used to be, just wearing things for what they are instead of with a belt or a bunch of accessories. I want it to feel like it’s something that’s just a natural extension of me, just me being really human and natural, not like I’m dressing to impress anyone. That’s the feeling I’ve been going for lately.

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>That pursuit of authenticity is actually one of the defining qualities of your group’s music.
JUHOON: That’s why figuring out what made sense for where we’re at right now was such an important part of the process. We wanted to show off CORTIS’ true colors, but we didn’t want to repeat anything we’d already done in other songs. The key to “REDRED” was finding the right subject matter, and at first we had absolutely no idea what to even write about. We went through session after session, and then JAMES threw the phrase “GREENGREEN” into the mix, and that’s when the song found its unique angle. What we’re aiming for, and what we’re trying to avoid—we decided that would be a good topic to explore and wrote the hook around that. When I look back now, I think it was exactly the right call.

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>In what way?
JUHOON: The lyrics just flow really smoothly from start to finish. Like, when you first meet someone, you usually don’t dive straight into the deep stuff, so the first verse starts with light, everyday small-talk things. Then we wrote the hook that comes next to feel like a declaration of who we are. And in the second verse, we went deeper, trying to lay out all the things we’re typically thinking about.

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>What kind of things did you want to say?
JUHOON: MARTIN’s part in the second verse hits me especially hard—the lyrics from “a cold abandoned city” to “my head turns bright red.” I think it captures something all of us as a group feel. We felt the world keeps getting more individualistic, losing warmth. That part’s also about wanting the people who watch us to really give themselves over to the performance. When the whole crowd’s cheering together, you feel way more energetic.

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>Your musical instincts and taste seem a lot more defined than they used to be.
JUHOON: I was in the songwriting camp for our debut album right when I first started making music, so it was more of a learning experience for me to figure out how the whole process works. This time around, I wanted to push a little further with what I’d picked up from that. JAMES and I wrote the second verse of “Wassup” together. The chords for that song feel darker than the other tracks, so I approached the work looking to sort of neutralize that effect. I was also careful not to let things get too emotional while recording. We took turns freestyling during those sessions one by one, and I got right in there. And when all five of us were freestyling around a single mic at the same time, I got a little more into it.

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>It can’t be easy to get all your different perspectives on the same page when you’re all trying to make the best choices for the music.
JUHOON: All five of us have strong personalities, so getting everyone on the same page isn’t so easy. (laughs) When we’re divided on something, we try making every vision into its own version and see how they feel. It happened with the music video we made for “TNT” too. We couldn’t reach a consensus. (laughs) We were shooting at the location we planned for, and then suddenly, right in the middle of the road, we ended up in a 30-minute debate. (laughs) “I think we should do it like this.” “No, we should stick with the plan.” (laughs) In the end, three of us shot the original idea as planned and the other two shot a reworked version using the new idea, and we sent both to the director and the label. That way we could hear everyone out and make a final call from there.

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>So you respect each other’s ideas but still have to prove it works to the crew.
JUHOON: At the end of the day, we have to make something. We have to make the best version possible, whether that means picking the best idea or combining a few of them. But honestly, when we’re just having fun doing the shoot, the final result tends to come out pretty good. We shot freestyle this time too. We were never really built for planning anyway. (laughs)

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>How did shooting the “REDRED” music video yourselves go?
JUHOON: We spent a lot of time thinking about how to bring the raw feel of “REDRED” to the screen. We ended up making two versions. The one that became the main music video grew out of an idea to capture a vintage Korean feel. When we were first working on “REDRED,” we were imagining boys from a British hood. We wanted to evoke that and layer in something distinctly Korean at the same time, which is where the idea for an old local restaurant came in. We shot at a minmul jangeo place that someone on staff found for us. (laughs) There were so many things we could just grab right there and use as props. We threw on bibs, went into the bathroom, got a shot of the calendar on the wall. And there were two welcome mats at the entrance—one green, one red. (laughs) The second we saw them, we got the insert shot. That’s basically what the whole thing was—just one camcorder, no real plan, making it up as we went. There’s also a version that’s more focused on hand gestures, and for that one I suggested using a low frame rate to give the visuals a little extra something. JAMES handled shooting and editing for that one.

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>You have a real eye for video direction. I imagine the fact that you like movies and books feeds into that.
JUHOON: I recently read the novel “Pavane for a Dead Princess” before watching the movie that’s based on it, “Pavane.” I brought it along to read on the plane and during downtime when we were shooting in Japan, and I ended up reading the whole thing before we came back. If a movie based on a book comes out, I’ll usually read the book first. A movie gives you one definite picture, but I like how absorbed I get in my own version of how I imagine things when I’m reading a book.

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>Coming up with your own images in your head is certainly one of the great pleasures of reading. I understand you even reread “Annyeongira Geuraesseo” [“They Said Bye”].
JUHOON: Sometimes once just doesn’t feel like enough. I’ll finish a book and think, “Ha, there’s still more I can get from this!” And then I’ll go back and read it again from the beginning. I want to really make the book my own. With the one you mentioned, I found it a little difficult to follow the first time through. After I read the commentary at the back, I read back through it going, “Oh, so that’s what that line meant—that was foreshadowing.”

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>That drive to give shape to something until you’re fully satisfied with it seems to reflect your attitude toward yourself, too.
JUHOON: I think there’s a lot of people who don’t really know themselves all that well. I’m still in the process of figuring myself out, too. I used to look at things and think to myself, “This looks good, but that looks good too. I dunno which to choose …” But lately I know well enough that I can look at something and say, “I can tell, this one’s definitely better!” I can actually feel how I’m different from how I used to be. I think I feel more certain about my views now that I’ve gained more experience.

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>That might be why KEONHO called you the “loudest person” in the group. He talked about how you’re usually quiet but that you can get really firm about your opinions sometimes.
JUHOON: To make a good song, you have to commit to one good idea, for better or for worse. When we’re working, the only way to help the group is to have a strong opinion, so I try to share my ideas as much as I can. Normally speaking, though, I try only to speak up when I genuinely believe in something. And I just tend to think a lot before opening my mouth. (laughs)

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>That reminds me of something you said in an interview with “GQ”—that maturity means taking responsibility for your words and understanding the weight of your actions. You also mentioned wanting to work on reeling in your emotions when they stray too far from the center.
JUHOON: I think you have to accept your emotions for what they are but still be able to keep them in check on your own. I’ve been feeling a wider range of emotions than usual lately. Sometimes you need to express them, but I just try to keep them inside when it wouldn’t be a good idea to let them show.

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>But sometimes those emotions break through anyway, like on August 11 last year, the day they hung an ad outside the label’s offices leading up to your debut.
JUHOON: That was such an intense mix of emotions. I was ecstatic about the fact that we were debuting, but in that moment, it hit me that something that had always felt so far away was suddenly right in front of me. Seeing our huge faces up there on that enormous building, it was like, “Ah … It’s really happening. The big moment has arrived.” (laughs) I think the tears were from all of those emotions mixed together. At the time, I kept asking myself over and over whether I was really ready to present myself to the world.

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>What’s on your mind as you head into the promotional period for the next album?
JUHOON: Well, things are never easy. (laughs) This is a completely different world from when I was just doing my own thing, and I don’t think anyone can get used to it all in one go. I’m still finding my footing in this world. But whether it’s through music or something like this interview, I want to show people as much about what makes me unique as I can. It’s the kind of environment where it’s easy to get pulled in by what other people say. I just don’t want to lose what makes me me.

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>Is there anything you’re absolutely determined never to lose? You sing about wanting to be “the real deal” in both “REDRED” and “ACAI.”
JUHOON: That’s a tough one. (after thinking with his head down awhile) The feeling of having my own two feet on the ground. No matter what anyone says or what comes my way, I want to know I can hold onto my sense of stability. I think that would keep me from losing myself.

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>Maybe the process of working through that is exactly what it means to find your own sense of cool. In the “2024_Rookie Team_Interview.xlsx” video, you said, “I don’t find myself cool yet.” Has your thinking on that changed at all?
JUHOON: Maybe a tiny fraction compared to back then … (laughs) But I’ve still got a long way to go. (laughs)

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>You value stability, and yet you chose a career where change is constant and the pace never slows. What was it about it that called to you?
JUHOON: That it’s … That it’s fun, I guess. I think I wanted to lead a more exciting life. Making music and getting onstage like I do now just feels a little more fun to me. There’s definitely times when it’s physically and mentally draining, but I can say with certainty that I’m having fun.

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>So it’s because the light representing fun turned “GREENGREEN.”
JUHOON: You have to have fun to stay interested, and you have to be interested to be passionate. It’s the same with my personal projects—I just do it for fun. When I look back, I guess everything began with having fun.