[FanTalk] Daileee is Weeekly's driving force, members say

Weeekly’s fifth EP “ColoRise” came 19 months after the release of “Play Game: Awake,” its last physical album back in March 2022. The break was an unusually long one, especially for a girl group that only debuted in 2020.

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Now that Weeekly made its long-awaited comeback, members have a lot prepared to show to fans.

Weeekly dropped its fifth EP "ColoRise" on Nov. 1. The album came 19 months after the release of “Play Game: Awake,” its last physical album back in March 2022. The break was an unusually long one, especially for a girl group that only debuted in 2020.

While the long downtime has been tough for the members themselves, they shared that they have many things they wish to do for Daileee, their fandom, in the days to come.

“It’s something that I’ve only secretly shared with Daileee, but I really want to produce our own music in the future: write lyrics, compose songs and direct [the members] to sing the song I write,” Jaehee said in a recent interview with Celeb Confirmed, a K-pop news brand by the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“I would love to write a song that perfectly suits Weeekly. I was thinking of a concept that is somewhat arcane, like dancing in a flower field,” she added. Soojin shared that she, too, wanted to try and write lyrics herself.

“I also want to write lyrics, and I also want to have all of our members come together to work on [our own] Weeekly’s album in the future: from the album's concept to all the small details,” Zoa said.

Daileee, too, has been staying strong in support of Weeekly, sending many fan videos for Weeekly to watch and writing more than 280 questions and requests for the girl group to answer on FanTalk.

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Q: How did you guys spend your 19-month-long break?

Soeun: I think we spent time doing similar things. We worked hard to improve ourselves, and we practiced a lot, too. We also tried to maintain a good work-life balance by pursuing hobbies.

I really got into pipo painting kit for painting by numbers, and while I was not able to do much in recent days, I have two or three paintings that I’ve completed. Soojin: Pastimes like watching TV shows and films or listening to music are things that I have been enjoying for a while. It’s a bit awkward to say it myself, but my recent hobby is reading books. It’s not like I’m reading any complex books, but I’ve been reading some novels that caught my attention.

Q: In what ways do you think you have improved?

Jihan: As we started preparing for "ColoRise," we gathered and did vocal practices every time we had a recording session coming up. We would ask each other how we interpreted the song in different ways, and it was a time when we could come together and discuss how we would interpret each song as one team.

Monday: I improved a lot. I tried not to restrict myself to a specific genre of music, so while I mostly just practiced famous pop songs or Korean ballad tunes in the past, I got myself into jazz recently, so I decided to improve my jazz vocal skills. You never know what genre of music will find its way to us, so we have to be prepared for any genre.

Soojin: We didn't have much attitude of mind during our debut days because we were busy trying to do what we had to do. But as we return with "ColoRise," we've been preparing as we reminded ourselves how precious we are to be back on stage, and it all felt different. It's our first comeback in a while, and all our members have been yearning for a comeback.

To new and returning fans of Weeekly, do you recommend listening to "ColoRise" or Weeekly's past hits first?

Jihan: All our b-side tracks are so, so good, but I believe — and I'm sure all our members will agree — that both the lead track "Vroom Vroom" and all the b-side tracks in "ColoRise" are total masterpieces. And if you like our latest album, you should go listen to our previous releases, too.

Soeun: Once you've listened to the songs in "ColoRise," I think it's quite nice to go back and listen to our previous albums because it's like a reminder of the different colors that we managed to show over time. To be honest, we appreciate you listening to any of our music. They are all good pieces.

Monday: If you think you are about to stan us, I recommend you watch our videos from our debut days. When we first debuted, we were all young and baby-like and all very cute, so if you watch our videos chronologically, from the debut, I think that will be a lot of fun.

Weeekly finally launched its official fan club membership for Daileee. Is there anything you want to tell Daileee who signed up for the membership?

Zoa: We have finally started recruiting members for our official Daileee fan club membership. It's already been three years since we first debuted, and I can tell fans have been waiting for one for a very long time. I want to thank everyone who signed up for it. We will prepare a lot of things to do with Daileee, so please look forward to the things to come! Thank you. I love you all!

Soeun: I just wanted to give a round of applause to welcome all our fans. We will do our best to have fun times with Daileee. The recruitment will end on Nov. 30, so you still have time to sign up!

Christmas and New Year's Day are coming soon. What would you guys like to do during the holiday season?

Soeun: We released a Christmas-themed track last year, so it will be nice to drop a carol-like track this year. I would also like to go see the first sunrise of the year with our members. The weather might be cold, but watching the sunrise makes you feel warm.

Zoa: I spent Christmas in the United States when I was in third grade, and I can still remember how many people on the street were dressed up as Santa, and that made a huge impression on my young heart. So, with that fond memory, I would like to spend Christmas with the members someday.

Soeun:We now have recruited members for our first Daileee fanclub membership, and we didn't really have much chance to meet our fans, so I hope we can have the opportunity to perform in front of our fans.

Do you have any messages to Daileee after watching the fan videos?

Zoa:We get chances to meet our Korean Daileee as we do our album promotion activities in Korea. But because we were mostly active during the Covid-19 pandemic, we haven’t had many chances to meet overseas Daileee in person. Watching the fan videos from overseas Daileee makes me choke up and really makes me want to meet them as soon as possible.

Monday:We’ve always been saying, “Weeekly belongs to Daileee, and Daileee belongs to Weeekly,” and that phrase really hit me today. We always think about our fans, but watching the fan videos was really heartwarming, and I think the support from our fans is a huge driving force for us as we promote our album. We will go for an early morning practice tomorrow.

Jaehee: We are physically so far away from our overseas Daileee. But we are so grateful that our fans are giving us unwavering support from such a distance, and we will repay that by trying even harder. We will try extra hard so we can meet our overseas Daileee. Thank you so so much.

To find out more about Weeekly, visit Celeb Confirmed!

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Weeekly sat down with Celeb Confirmed to talk about the band and answer questions from fans around the world. [CHO YONG-JUN]

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