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It’s 11 a.m. on a balmy Monday in Seoul, South Korea, when Tomorrow X Together (better known as “TXT”) enters the studio. The five members softly greet and smile at everyone as they squeeze onto a black sectional couch. In an ideal world, this interview would be conducted in person, but given the pandemic, it’s a Zoom call. No matter the medium, this K-pop group has effervescent energy that is naturally endearing; it can be seen in the way they enthusiastically nod and applaud throughout one another’s responses, and heard in the way they laugh whenever the call temporarily lags.
In the span of just over a year, TXT members Choi Soobin (19), Choi Yeonjun (20), Choi Beomgyu (19), Kang Taehyun (18), and Huening Kai (birth name Kai Kamal Huening, 17), have added a lofty list of achievements to the group's name. Since they officially came on the scene, via Korean powerhouse Big Hit Entertainment (home to BTS) in March 2019, they have held a six-date showcase tour in the U.S., took home more than 10 major music awards, performed center stage at Madison Square Garden during KCON, and released three albums in Korean and English that all cracked the top five of the Billboard World Albums chart. Their first studio album became the highest-ranking debut album ever for a male K-pop group on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Beyond their status as BTS’s “younger brother” group, there’s something special that attracts fans to TXT — empathy, sincerity, and a little bit of magic. In their bubbly, synth-pop debut single “Crown,” the group unpacks the awkward, emotional pains of adolescence with an extended metaphor about overcoming differences in the service of love. “There’s a horn rising up on my head, but I love it,” the chorus goes, per the official translation. “You become my crown.” The things that make them different become points of pride.
“We really try hard to make songs that people can empathize with; songs that can heal people and reassure people,” Taehyun, the vocalist known for his incredible high notes, tells Teen Vogue via a translator. “Crown,” which garnered 15.1 million YouTube views within 24 hours (as of this writing, it’s at 113 million and counting), was actually a healing experience for TXT — the songs they attach themselves to most in their discography are the ones that tell their story of hardships faced leading up to their initial launch as a group.
According to Taehyun, the decision to dedicate the group's discography to documenting their teenage experience stems from a desire to create the kind of music they wish they had heard when they were coming up. “I think if I had heard this sort of a song when I was young and going through those growing pains, it would’ve been very comforting,” Taehyun says. Beomgyu adds, “If just one person can be healed or consoled through our music, or can relate to our music, I think that’s great.” Taehyun echoes, “That would satisfy me and would make it all worth it.”
Each member arrived at their roles in TXT differently. Four members were born in various parts of South Korea, and Huening Kai was born in the U.S. and raised abroad. Taehyun starred in commercials as a kid, before joining Big Hit in 2016. Beomgyu declined an audition in Seoul because it was during his school exam period, so the company came to his hometown of Daegu instead. Soobin sent in an audition tape with incorrect contact information, but fortunately, Big Hit was able to locate him after searching for a while. Huening Kai didn’t hear good news from another company's audition, but an employee there was impressed by him, and when that employee left to work at Big Hit, he was invited to audition there. For Yeonjun’s second-round audition, when he was a young teenager, he wrote and performed original rap lyrics. After TXT was accepted by Big Hit, the group went through the industry-standard idol-trainee system; each member spent at least two years training in singing, dancing, rapping, and more before their official debut in 2019.
Before Big Hit went public with its first group in six years since launching BTS, speculation about TXT had been swirling on the internet. By the time TXT had published five separate introduction videos on YouTube, fans were already discussing potential biases (the popular K-pop term for a favorite member). A week after debuting, the group appeared on Korea’s The Show Choice, a competitive singing program where they won. From that point forward, fans have overwhelmingly supported the young men in TXT, who seem destined for success.
“Our biggest goal when we were trainees was, of course, our debut,” says Huening Kai, who has been described by fans as "a walking ray of sunshine.” “That was our goal. That’s what we were working towards.”
In interviews, the members speak highly of family members who have motivated them to work hard. Beomgyu, speaking to Refinery 29, “credits his mother for his resilience.” Huening Kai’s father is a musician who encouraged him to play several instruments. But despite technical training in the art of musical performance, little prepares one for K-pop superstardom. The members of TXT admit that the journey has been eye-opening.
Yeonjun, the eldest member of the group, has been open about his struggles as the member who trained the longest prior to the group's debut, and Taehyun shared that the group’s first few meetings were a bit awkward. “It was a brand-new environment that we were not used to, but after meeting a few times, I think we really got familiar with each other,” he explains. Beomgyu says he was surprised when the group first met, because “all of the other members were really good-looking.”
Instead of letting their fears and insecurities hold them back, TXT leaned into the desire to succeed, with songs like “Maze in the Mirror,” written entirely by the group and produced by Beomgyu, the soft-spoken vocalist who has performed covers of Radiohead and Glen Hansard in the past. “It’s our first self-penned song; it’s one that tells our story,” says Yeonjun, a main rapper for TXT who fell in love with dancing after joining a club at school. “It’s a story about us.”
In that same vein, Taehyun mentions “Sweat,” a “hidden” track that the group released this year. Translated, the lyrics read, “Remember the moments we soaked with sweat. To look back on these days when our dream has been met. We can make it with the five of us together.” The song is a thinly-veiled story of working hard to obtain a goal. “It’s not a song that’s on the album, but it’s a song that we released for our fans online,” he explains. “It’s a song that contains our story and how we’ve grown.”
TXT’s professional growth has been directly impacted by the public ascent to megafame. Some of the intensity around K-pop artists comes from their fans online, who promote them and defend them with equal fervor. Like many contemporary pop artists, TXT has a following, but the level of dedication from their fans is high. This is something all five members are very aware of, and it’s given them a sense of obligation to make intentionally uplifting music. “We learned to be more cautious of what we say and how we act because we now know that we can influence others in the world,” they told Buzzfeed in a recent interview. “We think we’ve become more responsible and that we’re able to keep a more professional mindset.”
By wearing their hearts on their lyrical sleeves, the members of TXT have fostered a tight-knit relationship with their fan base MOA, an acronym for “Moments of Alwaysness.” The Korean word Moa also means to gather or collect, and per Dispatch, the sum total of the phrasing means “gathering pieces of dreams to fulfill a mutual dream of TXT and fans.” The group regularly connects with fans online, especially on the Big Hit fan community platform Weverse, where they encourage fans to study, reply to love letters, and pen diary entries for fans to read. “I think it’s great that we can create music that appeals and resonates with a new generation of fans and listeners,” says TXT’s shy leader Soobin, who keeps morale high among the group through jokes, dancing, and encouragement. “We enjoy making songs for people in their teens and 20s, and it’s fulfilling. We are growing as part of the process as well, so we want to keep making music that can resonate with this generation.”
TXT has shown that they're willing to be emotionally vulnerable in their music, but they're not trying to grow up too fast. They're relatable and goofy, but they also celebrate how each member has got his own thing going on. In this global boy band golden age, TXT is the musical equivalent of watching actual teenage actors play teens on television, instead of ultraglamorous but unreal mid-twentysomethings.
TXT's first mini-album, The Dream Chapter: Star, in March 2019, set the tone by exploring the joy and excitement of meeting new people and forming friendships. That thrill continued with their first full-length album, The Dream Chapter: Magic, in October of that year, which featured the newfound friends ditching the banality of school and societal expectations to embark on a magical adventure in search of an otherworldly oasis where they could be free to be themselves. On The Dream Chapter: Eternity, just out in May, TXT completes their set of musical vignettes exploring youth, friendships, and trust.
“Working on every album, it’d be a lie to say that there’s no pressure at all,” Taehyun says, “but we try to use that pressure to drive us and motivate us to make our albums as best as we can make them.”
Outside of the magical realm of music videos, the members of TXT have their own unique, intriguing personalities. Soobin has a known fear of water, and the group has been very vocal about their deeply polarizing relationship with mint-chocolate ice cream. They also have different musical interests: Soobin is quick to share his well-documented love for Bebe Rexha, who recently joined TXT for an Instagram Live, and Yeonjun appreciates hip-hop artists like Dean and DPR Live for their style and musicality. Beomgyu adores Adele for her powerful vocals, and Taehyun picks Kehlani for her “amazing groove,” and because her vocal tone “stands out over any beat.” Huening Kai’s pick? Shawn Mendes, a performer the group has covered, because of his calming voice. “He’s also good at guitar, so double the points!” he says.
It’s only when their schedules are finished for the day that TXT feels like they can really be themselves. “When all of our activities are done and we go back to our home and I’m with my members, I think that’s when I’m the most comfortable because we really know each other well,” says Taehyun. Like most Korean idol groups in their early years, the members of TXT live together when they’re not touring. Watching Netflix is a favorite pastime at home, and Taehyun also has a new obsession: volleyball. “I never realized how interesting the sport of volleyball is,” he says.
Overall, it’s been a transformative year for TXT, not just because of career achievements, but also because the members have grown from wide-eyed trainees into more confident, professional versions of themselves. “I think when we were starting out, everything was really new and confusing. But as time passed, I developed a little bit more of a sense of responsibility,” says Huening Kai. “In the past year, there have been a lot more fans who have come to really appreciate and love our music, so the way I think now is that I want to perform as best as I can to give back some of this love we receive.”
This year has also inspired them to become more active participants in the creative process of their music going forward. “I think I would like to again participate in making songs and also writing the lyrics,” says Huening Kai. “I would like to write music that would really move people’s hearts.” The group is also keen to explore new genres: “Future R&B — that’s one genre I would like to try,” Yeonjun says.
“We’ve tried a lot of different genres of music,” says Soobin. “We didn’t release it as a song, but when we were trainees, we worked on an a cappella song. That’s something we’d like to do in the future, if we can.”
As the group’s Dream Chapter series comes to a close, the members of Tomorrow X Together have a conscious eye on their legacy and how they can make dreams a reality. Although they can’t specifically reveal what comes next, they’ll continue to do what has already won over hearts of fans across the globe: release honest, authentic music that is not only representative of their personal stories, but their generation and the world around them.
“I think seven or ten years from now, we will be continuing to perform as the five of us. Singing, dancing, and performing. It’s what I’d like to be doing,” Taehyun says confidently. “I would like people to remember us as a group that can really have a positive influence, and when they hear our name, it brings a smile to their face.”
CREDITS:
Photographer: Park Jawook
Visual Creative: Lee Hyun Ju
Assistant: Kim Yousung
Style Team: Kang Sung Do, Cha Yeon Hwa, and Lee Min Gyu
Hair: Kim Seung Won
Make-up: Han Ah Reum
Video Production: Yoo Kwon Ryul and Hwang In Taek
