The release date for BTS's forthcoming album Map of the Soul: 7 inches ever closer, but though Feb. 21 is still weeks away, the Korean septet is explaining more about what's to come with the already powerful, moving record.
In a new interview with host Zach Sang on Feb. 3, BTS was asked about this next era of music and what fans could expect from MOTS: 7. Suga, a.k.a. Min Yoongi, answered with a candid preview of what's to come. "One message that penetrates the album as a whole is that you must face your inner shadows, but resist becoming submerged into its depths," he said in Korean, with an English translation in the video. "You must face it and move on forward."
The sentiment makes sense, given that BTS introduced ARMY to this era with Suga's introspective track, "Interlude: Shadow." The song ruminates on those darknesses we all face, as well as the ones specific to Suga one of the seven members of one of the biggest musical groups on the planet. As Suga sings per a translation by Doolset Bangtan: "I’m scared of flying high, no one told me how lonely it is here, that my leap can be my fall."
Elsewhere in the interview, BTS talked about the artistry of "Black Swan," with RM (Kim Namjoon) sharing that musically, it's supposed to be a little jarring. "It's all about the shadow," RM said. "I think 'Black Swan', when you first listen to the song it's like, BTS does this genre? What is this? It's not like 'boom'... or dynamic, it sounds really different."
Zach also asked about what they've learned across seven years of being BTS, seven years since they debuted. For RM, it was his oft-used motif of learning to love yourself, while for Jimin (Park Jimin), it was "the importance of appreciating those around you." Suga added that he's learned "there's no growth without pain."
And though the music and the members are taking on some heavy, ultra-relatable material, there's still that sense of lightness and positive reflection embedded into their, cough, DNA. J-Hope (Jung Hoseok) just released the retrospective, hopeful party track "Outro: Ego," and he shared a message of optimism when Zach asked how he measures success. "I see it in the faces of people smiling around me," J-Hope said. "It can be in any situation, like when my family and everyone around me see me at our concert and smile."
MOTS: 7 drops Feb. 21, but the next big moment for ARMYs is the concert ticket sales, which fans will start snapping up this week.
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