FEATURE: Spotlight: KATSEYE — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

KATSEYE

_________

FOR this Spotlight…

I want to spend time with the amazing KATSEYE. They are a girl group based in Los Angeles, California. KATSEYE is composed of six members: Sophia, Manon, Daniela, Lara, Megan, and Yoonchae. With members from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States, the sextet is described as a global girl group. KATSEYE formed in 2023 through the reality show, Dream Academy. Their debut E.P., SIS (Soft Is Strong), was released in August. I will end with a review for that E.P. Before that, I am going to get to some interviews with the K-Pop group. I want to start out with an interview from NME:

“Grinding in the practice room day in, day out also made it clear to the girls that they were on the right path, regardless of where they would finish in the competition. “I really figured out that this is really what I want to do,” 21-year-old Manon shares. “Even through the hard times in the programme, it was always super worth it. I had so much fun – and still do – and was really set in my decision of becoming an artist.”

Leon will help develop KATSEYE’s artistry on the creative side, taking the K-pop scene’s lead and playing a much more hands-on role than creative directors in the Western music industry might. “Whether it’s if the girls can paint their nails this colour or what’s the music video for their launch, I’m involved in every single aspect of it,” he explains. “We’re working very closely together and really trying to hone in on each of their individual styles and cultures and trying to embrace those things while unifying them as a group.”

Unlike Sophia and Yoonchae, the rest of the group weren’t big K-pop fans before they auditioned for Dream Academy. Since being accepted, their bandmates have been teaching them about the scene – something they’ve been taking new inspiration from as they move towards their debut. “K-pop feels like Western music, but just elevated because of how perfect everything is, how fine-tuned the dancing is,” muses 18-year-old Lara. “I feel like that is really gonna be taken into KATSEYE as we merge the Western and K-pop elements. It’s going to be very grand and elevated – and something non-K-pop fans can enjoy.”

“We’ve been training for two years and doing hardcore dancing and training our vocals, and we’re just gonna mash those two together and make something different and something new,” 19-year-old Daniela smiles. “It’s going to be really, really cool.”

During the mission stage of Dream Academy, KATSEYE and their fellow competitors got the chance to see the other side of their inspiration IRL when they headed to Seoul to train. There, they got to rehearse at HYBE, met LE SSERAFIM and had their own fan meeting. “I feel like we all got to take away so much from being there and actually being in the facilities over there with other trainees,” Manon says.

“Seeing the dedication and determination from the peers around us was really, really cool to see,” Megan agrees. For Yoonchae, the trip was particularly special. “Going back to my home country, it was very meaningful to be with these girls and train together,” she says softly. “But I do wish we had more time – I wanted to take them around my favourite spots in Korea!”

Although the Dream Academy process and the resulting group have and continue to take inspiration from the Korean music scene, for Leon, there was also an element of going against the K-pop grain. “I used it as something to push against and say, ‘Okay, well, I see what they’re doing, but how do we make it different? How do we bring something new and fresh from that perspective?’ I want KATSEYE to be part of the history and the future of Western culture – but through the eyes of a global sensibility. We don’t need to reference anything; we can create something from scratch.”

The key to KATSEYE isn’t just K-pop, then, but the melting pot of backgrounds and cultures that each member brings to the group. Alongside Filipina Sophia and Korean Yoonchae, Daniela and Megan were both born in the US but have Venezuelan-Cuban and Singaporean-Chinese heritage, respectively. Manon, too, is Swiss-Ghanaian, while Lara is Indian-American. “We’re all representing a different culture and we’re all very, very passionate about representing where we’re from,” the latter explains. “It’s just so important to tie in elements of our culture into our music, the fashion, the styling – all of it.”

Although the members of the new girl group are young and are just getting a taste of being in the spotlight, they’re aware of the responsibilities they hold as representatives of where they come from. “Sophia is the first Filipino person under HYBE, Manon is the first Black girl, I’m the first brown girl,” Lara continues. “It’s never been done before and we’re very underrepresented so I think there are a lot of eyes on us. It’s so important that we constantly talk about our culture and make it very evident that we’re proud of where we’re from. We want young people growing up to be as proud as we are to be from where we are.”

“We want to let them know that anything is possible – it doesn’t have to be a girl group,” Sophia adds. “If you want to be an astronaut, you just go for it. Doing this confidently is what I feel is gonna make us as inspirational as we can be as artists.”

Being a part of a global girl group means more to KATSEYE than its members hailing from different parts of the planet. It also means sisterhood and the power of music. “It shows that no matter where you come from, music is a way to connect,” Sophia says. “I love K-pop and I barely understand Korean, but it just makes you feel a certain way. No matter where you’re from, anybody can enjoy it and anybody can feel something from it”.

If you do not know about KATSEYE, I would recommend hearing their music on Spotify and reading interviews with the group. They are an incredible six-piece that are primed for big success next year. I will move on to an interview from DAZED from earlier in the year. Every interview reveals fresh layers about the group. I think that they are primed for global domination:

“In mid-September, when KATSEYE – Daniela, Lara, Manon, Yoonchae, Sophia, and Megan (absent from this interview due to injury) – stepped onto a tiny stage set in a multi-storey Manila shopping mall, they were shocked. There were fans, rows deep, crammed against the railings on each floor. “I thought it was going to be the first floor, maybe some people on the second, but the mall turned into a stadium,” says Sophia, the group’s Filipino member. “Growing up, I’d shop there with my mom and grandmother. There wasn’t a single moment of silence. When we tried to talk, they’d start chanting our names. It was crazy.”

In a heady and triumphant year for women in pop, with a welcome avalanche of earworm choruses, viral dances, memes and outfits, record-breaking festival crowds and tours, KATSEYE’s “Touch”, with its sweet stammer of a chorus and an easily replicated finger dance, made its viral mark after its release in late July, blowing up across TikTok.

It was a pivotal, vital moment for the band. A month earlier, they’d released their first track, the catchy and confident “Debut”, seven months (an eternity in the pop-sphere) after being formed via the survival show The Debut: Dream Academy. The brainchild of a partnership between American label Geffen and K-pop mega-corporation HYBE, its executives undertook an expensive risk: no non-K-pop, performance-led pop group had made a dent in the US charts in years. The Debut: Dream Academy would eschew a regular format by airing on only social media and in short form, focusing more on dancing and vocal skills and less on spotlighting big personalities. And though based in Los Angeles, the group was to be multi-national (KATSEYE’s members are Ghanaian-Swiss-Italian, Filipino, Korean, Indian-American, Cuban-American and Chinese-Singaporean-American).

“Debut” deeply divided audiences, many of whom were global K-pop fans who brutally critiqued the labels’ still unfurling creative and marketing strategies. KATSEYE, with hindsight, are equal parts pragmatic and staunch: “That’s always the risk with a song, you never know how they’ll [the public] receive it. We saw a tremendous amount of love for ‘Debut’ so that was amazing for us,” says Manon, and Lara agrees: “Everything was put out for a reason. Everything was very thought through. ‘Debut’ was my fave song off the album, I was like, ‘This is gonna be the one!’ and then it ends up not being the one, and that’s OK.”

But with “Touch”, the group knew something magic was happening when, Daniela says, “Every single scroll through our FYP was just people singing or dancing to it. We were like, ‘Wow, this song is actually doing really well’. It’s really cool to see so many people liking our music.” Sophia adds: “It was even on random videos, like cooking videos, that was crazy. Or influencers I'd been following for a long time, seeing them doing our dance, I was like, ‘Oh, you know our song?!’”

KATSEYE are back Stateside following their successful mini promo tour through South Korea, Japan and the Philippines where they met fans, made TV appearances, did interviews and performances. Onstage, they look powerful, with long limbs and glossy hair moving in flawless, graceful unison. Offstage, KATSEYE, who are all aged between 16 and 22, are joyfully chaotic and loud – in their livestreams and socials they play music, sing, dance, do make-up, show off their pets, often in a bedroom or a studio setting. They do this interview from a nondescript, brightly lit room where they listen carefully and sometimes talk excitedly over one another. They are charming, self-aware and funny. Out in the other world of the internet, the wave of love for “Touch” is seemingly unending.

A version featuring Yeonjun of idol group Tomorrow x Together racked up over 2.4 million Spotify streams in under a week in early October. The original version sailed past 100 million Spotify streams two days after we spoke. “I think when we see the number of streams, that’s when it hits us and we’re like, oh yeah, it’s real,” says Daniela. Manon adds: “We still have days where we’re unsure if this is really happening because, honestly, it’s so surreal. We debuted four months ago and we’re still getting used to it.” Their Spotify monthly unique listeners stand at nearly 12 million. Lara smiles: “The monthlies are really crazy. They’re what sent me.”

The track’s sticking power was amplified by an eight-part Netflix docuseries (Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE), which followed the survival show’s original 20 trainees (whittled down from a staggering 120,000 applicants), and their debut EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong), both released in August. Manon likens making the record to a “collaboration”. “We’re all still very new so we trusted the label a lot,” she says. “They asked us for our stories – I think ‘My Way’ is a beautiful song that really reflects our journeys - that’s how a lot of the songs were formed.”

I saw [vulnerability] as a weakness. Dream Academy was awesome but also so mentally hard. Now we’re in the public [eye], we’re learning how much we can share and what we’re comfortable sharing ... But we also want to show people who we actually are, not just the fine-tuned version

Its overarching message is that it takes strength to be openly vulnerable – “Being vulnerable is super important, it helps us connect with our fans,” says Daniela – but, Lara adds, as a project “SIS was like an experiment. You know what I mean? The EP has a lot of cohesion, but each song has its own vibe. It was us testing the waters, figuring out what our fans wanted and what people would respond to.”

“Each of us has a story,” says Sophia. “Vulnerability is really hard for me as a person. It actually takes a lot more energy than you think, that’s the message I connected with the most in our music. It’s easier for me to put on a front. Us as artists, and as women, especially with that whole journey we went through, a lot of the times you just had to keep it together. Sometimes when people would ask, ‘Are you doing good, what do you need’?, you’d be like, it’s all fine. But that vulnerability, I think we were able to find in each other. We’ve said this a lot, we really only had each other that whole time, so we learned to open up and made each other comfortable [with the process].”

KATSEYE’s positioning as a global pop group trained via K-pop’s gruelling and exacting idol system places them between the clean-cut Korean idol and the West’s grittier, earthier pop stars. So far, they lean more towards the former. They follow K-pop’s marketing strategy of having a prolific TikTok presence (Chartmetric, the platform which tracks artist data across streaming and social sites, ranks them as having ‘explosive growth’), they consistently cross-pollinate their fandom with a variety of other artists and influencers, and use HYBE’s bespoke social platform, WeVerse, to chat with fans.

The middle ground isn’t always the easiest turf on which to stand. Whereas the K-pop methodology is to cultivate deep parasocial relationships – resulting in frequent power tussles between fandoms and entertainment agencies, and the unchecked, ongoing rise of sasaengs (obsessive/stalker fans) – more Western pop artists, women, in particular, are explicitly laying firm boundaries around their time, privacy, and personal space”.

There are a couple of other interviews I want to get to before a review of SIS (Soft Is Strong). It is a wonderful E.P. that everyone needs to listen to. I am moving on to an interview from ELLE. It is clear with every interview that there is this strong connection and chemistry. I think they are primed for a long career together:

“What do you love most about being a "Global Girl Group"?

Sophia: What I cherish most about being a "Global Girl Group" is our ability to connect with a diverse range of people from various backgrounds. Hailing from all corners of the globe, we aspire for our music to resonate with those who see themselves in us. Each of our songs reflects a piece of who we are, and we hope our EYEKONs can find their own stories within our sound and the messages we convey.

What was the most challenging yet fulfilling part of your experience in the Popstar Academy: KATSEYE ?

Megan: The most challenging aspect of the entire experience was undoubtedly keeping everything under wraps for nearly two years. It was incredibly difficult not to share what I was working on with anyone. However, witnessing it all come together and finally being able to unveil it to the world made all that waiting worthwhile. It was a tough journey, but the reward was immense, especially once we entered the competition and I secured my place in the group!

What was the transition like from rehearsing in LA to staging performances in South Korea?

Daniela: Rehearsing in LA provided us with a solid foundation, allowing us to perfect our routines, but performing in South Korea was an entirely different experience. The energy and excitement there were palpable, and it was truly incredible to witness our hard work come to life on stage. The entire experience has been immensely rewarding, and we've gained so much knowledge along the way.

Was the K-pop training/development process what you expected?

Megan: The K-pop training system is undoubtedly challenging, but it truly demonstrates that hard work pays off. During our trainee days, we endured intense sessions focused on singing, dancing, performance, and more, which honed our skills across the board. One of the greatest advantages of this rigorous training is its attention to detail, ensuring that we were polished and prepared for anything by the time we debuted. It’s a demanding process, but that level of dedication has been instrumental in helping us realise our full potential.

What is a genre you would love to try?

Manon: I would one day love to experiment with neo soul or soul in general. I’m also very into bedroom pop.

If you could collaborate with anyone on a song, who would it be, what would the song be called and why?

Lara: A collaboration with LISA, Rosalía, and Pharrell would be an absolute dream come true for me. These artists are incredibly inspiring, and everything they touch seems to turn to gold! I also think teaming up with LE SSERAFIM would be so, so cool. Their track "Pierrot" has been on repeat for me, and I recently discovered it’s called "Sad Clown." I even remixed it with "Touch" during a Weverse Live and sent it to Yunjin!

How was your first fan event with EYEKONS?

Yoonchae: It was really special. I was a bit nervous, but seeing everyone’s support made me so happy and thankful. I could feel a real connection with our fans right away. It’s a moment I’ll always remember.

Do you have any rituals before you go on stage?

Daniela: Totally! Before going on stage, I have a few go-to rituals. I do a quick warm-up to get my energy up and clear my head. I also blast a couple of my favourite songs to get pumped. Plus, take a moment to chill and set my intention for the show. These little things help me feel grounded and ready to go.

PHOTO CREDIT: HYBE AMERICA

If you had to categorise each KATSEYE member according to the "very cutesy, very demure, very mindful" trend, who would fit into each category and why?

Lara: Cutesy ... Yoonchae, Dani, because they are both so cute and my babies even tho Dani is older than me she’s still my baby. Demure ... I'm going to say myself, Manon because we're both calm. Mindful ... Sophia and Megan cuz i feel like they are both very mindful people and are always looking out for everything.

Who is most likely to ...

Sophia: Most likely to go viral would be Manon, without a doubt—she’d definitely start some kind of trend!

Most likely to have their own talk show: Yoonchae and I; we chat so much together, and I think it would be such fun to have a show with her.

Most likely to become a fashion icon: Definitely Lara or Megan; they both have impeccable taste and an incredible eye for fashion that I could never match.

Class Clown: That would be either Megan or me since we always love to play off each other’s jokes and keep the laughter going.

Life of the Party and the funniest: Dani! She’s a ball of energy and has her own unique sense of humour.

What are your favourite activities to do when you’re not in the studio?

Megan: My favourite activities outside the studio are going to the beach with friends and sometimes taking dance classes!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Morgan Maher

Before getting to an interview from NME, I want to drop in a feature from Interview Magazine from earlier this month. Even though these are early days for KATSEYE, they have the talent and determination to be among the most popular and influential K-Pop groups. I am not sure whether they are purely K-Pop or Pop. However you class the group, they have a clear future and distinct sound:

“Morgan hands Yoonchae, Katseye’s youngest member, a vintage camcorder and gives her instructions on how to film herself, and she takes to this ancient technology like a duck to water. Katseye’s debut EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong), a fivesong, 12-minute run of postmodern Destiny’s Child and Pussycat Doll–style bops, captures that once-in-a-career moment when a new group’s spirit has yet to be polished into oblivion. In Pop Star Academy, you’ll see them endure a kind of emotional and physical pain foreign to most teenagers. I gobbled up Netflix’s (unfortunately dark) Cheer and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making The Team, and while Pop Star Academy—and before it, Hybe’s Weverse competition show The Debut: Dream Academy, through which Katseye’s members were chosen—follows that same formula, it goes down easier when it’s set to the music of Robyn and Ariana instead of boomer pop-country or schizophrenic Floridian cheerleader music.

“Sing ‘Teenage Dream’!” Morgan says to the girls, who are crammed into the photographer’s Volvo convertible—the kind of car a sensible, dreaming teenager from Maryland might seek out. Megan asks the other Katseye girls to act like LAX hired them to welcome visitors—their version of a Hawaiian lei ceremony but with sounds more screeching than soothing. This’s the easy part. As the girls break for lunch (Mediterranean mezze from Atwater Village’s Dune), they assemble at a long table—cafeteria seating at Euphoria High— while their managers, PR, and legal guardians tap and scroll their way through lunch. Daniela throws her red hoodie over the AirPods Max to disassociate a bit before returning to hair and makeup, while Manon lies on the ground outside, hoping to soak up a few more hits of sunshine before the summer is over.

It’s hard not to compare a new contending pop star group to the existing competition. Blackpink is defragmenting its stars to start projects of their own, and I assume the same for BTS. But Katseye are still small fish in a deep pond. Like so many girl groups before them, they’re singing, dancing, touring, and recording while simultaneously auditioning to be pulled up for a solo career, to be the next Jennie, Lisa, Nicole, or Beyoncé—the final frontier. For now, though, it’s pure sisterhood”.

I will finish off with a review from NME. They provided their take on the debut E.P. from the magnificent KATSEYE. A group that should be on everyone’s radar as we head into 2025. A group that are going to be taking to massive stages around the world:

“Back in 2022, thousands of girls across the globe shared one dream – for a spot in HYBE and Geffen Records’ latest project: an unprecedented girl group that would bridge the West and K-pop. Fast forward two years, and after three months of competing in the YouTube reality series The Debut: Dream Academy, Daniela, Lara, Megan, Yoonchae, Sophia and Manon would emerge as the final line-up of the new girl group KATSEYE.

There’s an unmistakable bond between the members, the kind that transcends borders despite each coming from diverse cultural backgrounds – including the US, Switzerland, the Philippines and South Korea. After all, these were bonds forged through sweat and grit as they survived mission after mission that emulated the notoriously laborious K-idol training structure. Alongside them were 14 other contestants, handpicked from a pool of more than 120,000 hopefuls.

It is precisely from this shared sisterhood that ‘SIS (Soft Is Strong)’ finds its core. As one listens through the EP, its peculiar name starts unravelling itself. From getting over a crush melodramatically in ‘Touch’ – a dreamy dance-pop salute to independence that’s tinged with drum ’n’ bass influences – to brashly singing “Even if I mess it all up and make a million mistakes / At least I can say that I did it my way” on the emotive ballad, ‘My Way’, KATSEYE navigate the complexity of girlhood and all its ups and downs while staying soft in a hard world.

“Ohh We-ee-ee ain’t flexin’ babe we do what we do,” the group boldly declare in their aptly named debut single, ‘Debut’. Beginning their journey in discovering that strength comes in more forms than one, this high-energy pop anthem balances its exciting chorus with sing-talk verses that ooze attitude. Though the slick production manages to capture KATSEYE’s self-assurance despite being newcomers, it falls short as a fully realised arrival of the group – though, follow-up single ‘Touch’ more than makes up for it.

The shimmery, plucky intro of ‘I’m Pretty’ – the EP’s fourth track and standout – immediately transports us back to pop staples from the late-2000s. “Just when I think it’s too much I dry my tears with makeup / Things I could do with this brush, you’d never know that I hurt,” they sing full of emotion, as the group’s vocal prowess starts to shine through. “But I’m pretty (pretty) pretty (pretty) / Pretty sure that I’m still breathing,” KATSEYE affirm they are stronger than they think with effortless harmonies that masterfully glide through the airy instrumental.

Juxtaposing their hesitation to break free from a cycle of overthinking with an instrumental that dials up the ‘dance’ in dance-pop to an eleven, ‘Tonight I Might’ acts as the perfect closing for the EP. “Do all of the shit I know I didn’t do when I was a kid / Get high on life for somebody’s kiss, Tonight I might,” decide the girls as they playfully let go of their inhibitions, bouncing off a gleeful electronic dance beat that perfectly conjures the image of the end credit scene from a coming-of-age movie – especially during the explosive final chorus.

KATSEYE come out of the gate swinging with ‘SIS (Soft Is Strong)’, a surprisingly cohesive release that largely captures the group’s enormous potential. However, with none of the songs crossing three minutes – in fact, only two barely reach two-and-a-half minutes – it’s hard to shake off the itch you get when a song ends a little bit too early or the feeling that it was just one final chorus away from perfection. Still, this EP proves that they’ve got all the makings of the next big girl group, embellished with the polish and glitter of K-pop”.

I recently discussed how there is a dearth of girl groups and not a big scene like there used to be. Perhaps London-based FLO are the leaders at the moment. There are not too many like them. Perhaps one needs to look to K-Pop to find the best groups. However, KATSEYE combine K-Pop with other genres to create something new. They are going to be massive. With the stunning SIS (Soft Is Strong) out in the world, KATSEYE have produced…