Girl group cignature goes for a more refreshing feel in 'Smooth Sailing'

cignature’s newest lead track “Smooth Sailing” was the one track that stood out after listening to more than 100 candidate songs, ultimately receiving members' unanimous support — and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

Girl group cignature sits down for a FanTalk interview with Celeb Confirmed, a K-pop news brand by the Korea JoongAng Daily, last month. [CELEB CONFIRMED]

cignature’s newest lead track “Smooth Sailing” was the one track that stood out after listening to more than 100 candidate songs, ultimately receiving members' unanimous support — and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

“We listened to more than 100 candidate tracks when we were choosing the lead track for our album,” Jeewon said during a FanTalk interview with Celeb Confirmed, a K-pop news brand by the Korea JoongAng Daily, last month.

“After promotions for our last album ‘Aurora’ finished, we’d been looking for a song to follow up with, but we were lost for a long time because we couldn’t agree on a single song,” Seline said. “Even the day before we first listened to ‘Smooth Sailing,’ we had been listening to like 50 candidate songs in one sitting, but none of the songs met all of our expectations.”

“'Smooth Sailing’ was the first and only song that received unanimous support from the members, it matched the season [of late summer] and it was befitting of cignature’s music style […] and we ended up recording right after that session," Seline added.

cignature dropped its fourth EP “Us in the Summer” on Aug. 29, seven months after the release of “My Little Aurora.” The members explained that while the group’s latest EP does keep the cute and bubbly concept that cignature showed in its previous album, it also features a more “refreshing” side of cignature that they haven't shown in its previous releases.

The album features three other B-side tracks: “Mess With My Mind,” “Sorry So Sorry” and “Little Me.”

cignature sat down with the Korea JoongAng Daily and Celeb Confirmed to talk about the group’s latest album and answer questions from fans around the world.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Girl group cignature [C9 ENTERTAINMENT]

Q. You said “Smooth Sailing” was the lead track that received support from all six members. Which specific part of the song did you enjoy the most? Which part do you wish to introduce to the listeners of the song?

A. Chaesol: I think “Smooth Sailing” is a song with lovely lyrics, and the chorus that goes “You are right beside me, I’m right beside you, and you are right beside me again, we can share whatever we want to, so give your heart,” really makes me feel bubbly when I sing the verse while thinking of our fans.

Chloe: I really fell in love with Jeewon’s part, where we sing “Hi Hello” and we actually bow on stage, as the melody is solid and it also features cute choreography. When we first listened to that part, we also thought that it was a bit odd, but as we recorded the song and practiced the choreography, all the members found it cute and we all fell in love with that part of the song.

Dohee: I don’t think I’ve ever shared this before, I didn’t even tell the other members, but I really like the part where it goes “I will soak you with my love, and talk to you whenever I can,” I find the lyrics very sentimental, and Jeewon’s sweet vocals suit the lyrics very much. It might just be my favorite part of our lead track.

Apart from the lead track, which songs do you like the best?

Chaesol: The first track of the album, “Mess With My Mind,” is my favorite track, and Chloe also really agrees with me. We both think that the track is worth being a lead track altogether. I think the song can be an easy-listening score, which you can listen to while you drive, when you take a rest and so on.

Chloe: Ever since I was first introduced to the song, I would listen to it non-stop on my commute and whenever I had time to listen to it. It’s about talking to your best friend about your crush or confessing your worries, and I think it almost feels as if you are talking to your close friend in real life.

Seline: While I do like “Mess With My Mind,” I’d have to choose “Sorry So Sorry.” The song may be a short one, but I think our recording was solid, and the result came out well. It’s short but it packs a punch. Members also voted it as the best B-side track to have choreography, so we even made a fitting choreography for the track.

Girl group cignature [C9 ENTERTAINMENT]

Member Belle couldn’t participate in the album promotion as she is getting ready to appear on SBS’s girl group audition program “Universe Ticket.” Was it challenging to have one less member in the group? Seline: I wouldn’t say it was necessarily challenging because we had one less member this time, but we definitely felt the emptiness. We were so accustomed to saying things like “All seven of us, are we all here?” and realized that we were missing one. While designing the choreography wasn’t much harder, Belle did sing a lot for us, so we really paid attention during our recording sessions to make sure we filled her empty spot. But we’ve tried our very best to make the performances perfect, and we are very satisfied with the final result.

Are there any goals that the members of cignature have yet to achieve?

Chaesol: I have a goal that I thought of just this morning that I didn’t even tell our members about yet. It’s that I just wanted us to maintain our bright, happy energy and perform on stage so that people watching our performance can receive the same energy. I want our members to be happy on stage.

Seline: While people often say that you shouldn’t care too much about the numbers and scores, I want to care too much about it. [laughs]

Jeewon: We’ll be able to have even more people listen to our tracks if the songs get positive scores, so we do hope to get No. 1 on weekly music shows one day.

Girl group cignature poses for the camera ahead of the online press showcase held on Aug. 29 for the group's fourth EP ″Us in the Summer.″ [C9 ENTERTAINMENT]

About a year ago, Chloe went viral online after teaching fans about computer programming and explaining the book “Miracle Morning” during a livestream. Do you have any plans to continue these lessons?

Chloe: Fans were surprised from the get-go when they found out that I studied data science at the University of Michigan in the United States before joining cignature. And because they didn’t know much about me, I thought it was a good idea to introduce myself by sharing what I learned at the university. While I had limited knowledge on the subject, as I only studied for a year and a half, the livestream saw a good response and I even got the opportunity to join the variety show “The Time Hotel,” so I’m very thankful to our fans.

At the same time, I was very much pressured by that same livestream. I’m an idol, and I felt like I was receiving unnecessary monikers about coding and the University of Michigan, because I’m not good enough at the things that idol members should be good at, like dancing or singing.

But I also think it’s a differentiating, charming point for myself, and if our fans enjoyed watching it and want me to do a sequel, I will study once again and continue the computer science lessons!

Do other members want to teach anything to their fans?

Seline: I do want to host an online dancing lesson one day. Like how all the events were done on Zoom, it would be fun to invite some of our fans to teach them our choreography. I don’t know how it would work out, because everyone’s ability to learn new things vary from one another, but I do want to give it a try.

I think it would feel different for the people who cover our choreography to have us directly teach them, compared to just replaying our videos online.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]