A.C.E On Bringing Traditional Korean Culture To Modern K-Pop: ‘We’re Really Proud’

While A.C.E fans know the interconnected story linking the K-pop boy band’s different music videos, their latest release is also rooted in rich Korean history.

For their most ambitious project to date, A.C.E’s bombastic new single “Favorite Boys” and its accompanying HJZM : The Butterfly Phantasy album create a sonic and visual experience that the band says looks to honor both aspects of Korea today and Asian culture at large.

With juxtapositions that could only work in the K-pop world, the guys deliver raging hip-hop, rock and pop alongside elements of folklore, sport and philosophy. There’s the layering of Guns N’ Roses T-shirts with the robe-like hanbok clothing that represents Korea's long-standing Chosun dynasty. Plus, choreography that is equal parts show-stopper shuffling and a play on folk wrestling known as ssireum. “Favorite Boys” looks to honor both the past and the present, all while creating something to push A.C.E as a leader to K-pop’s future.

While Butterfly Phantasy has already delivered the band’s best first-week album sales and local award-show nominations, the rising quintet has done something more important by commanding the competitive K-pop spotlight and deliver something that is both artistically personal and universally compelling—a stark difference from last year when local media deemed them "just glad" for any attention.

The members themselves speak with pride not only in the physical transformations they made despite coronavirus concerns (the group’s English speaker Byeongkwan cheekily mentions “a lot more of our muscles” in the album artwork), but also excitedly of their creative team who came up with the traditional-meets-modern looks and of one another (Byeongkwan also can’t help but excitedly interrupt to help hype up members Jun and Chan when they’re explaining their underwater photoshoot that collectively wowed the K-pop fandom).

Read on for more from Jun, Donghun, Byeongkwan, Wow and Chan unraveling the different layers of their new album, the meanings behind different Korean cultural elements and why they say their relationship with their fans—known affectionately as Choice—has “become different.”

Jeff Benjamin: Congratulations on this new comeback! I've been so excited for this album and this feels like a really big moment. What’s been going through your minds during this release?

Byeongkwan: Because of our pandemic situation, we’re not able to go anywhere except to our practice room, our house or the gym. Because this concept required us to work out our bodies—you might have seen a lot more of our muscles and our bodies in the initial pictures—we were focusing on our vocals, dance practicing, as well as working out. We’re really nervous because it's been almost ten months since our previous comeback, but excited to show our performance to our fans, Choice. Since we put so much effort and time into preparing, we have to win. We feel that pressure.

Chan: We want to show a different concept and choreographies every album. We have been preparing for this album from May until now and, this time, we’re really ready to show what we’ve prepared. We want to meet the fans face-to-face, of course, but we feel lots of pressure because fans waited for us so long and we want to make it deserving of waiting.

Jeff Benjamin: “Favorite Boys” is really powerful and impressive as a lead single. Why was it the right song to choose as your single for this big comeback?

Byeongkwan: Actually, there were two songs that were competing between being chosen for the title track [single]. There was “Baby Tonight,” which fits more of a sexy and dreamy concept and we loved it, while “Favorite Boys” was more powerful and up-tempo. But after a long discussion, we felt like “Favorite Boys" suits us more. A.C.E is known for their really strong choreography and strong beats whereas “Baby Tonight” is more easy-listening. “Favorite Boys” more so shows A.C.E really does: strong sound and dance.

Jeff Benjamin: I've been so impressed by the visuals you've shown in your teaser photos and videos, I love the historical and traditional Korean elements in them. Can you explain some of the different visual aspects?

Jun: Since the title song’s title is “Goblin” in Korean, we had to really go with strong colors rather than something like pastels. It’s very vivid.

Byeongkwan: Do you know Korean traditional wrestling ssireum? In Korean fairy tales, traditional goblins like to wrestle with humans. Using that, our choreographer found a way for us to use traditional Korean wrestling in our choreography. That’s a really exciting thing. I think every culture has a different concept of goblins, but in Korean they don’t have horns, they’re not a monster figure, a Korean goblin is more human. They’re fine to be around and hang out with humans, it’s more friendly. We bring that idea out on stage.

Chan: And for people from western countries, it might be hard to figure out what’s unique about Korean traditional elements when it comes to fashion. You might tend to think about Chinese or Japanese outfits when thinking about Asia. But we wanted to make the accessories, the details, all the extra elements to be authentically Korean among Asian traditional elements. In the music video, that's seen with jade rings, ornaments and the hair bands with our hanbok outfits. 

Jeff Benjamin: Yes! The fashion is really cool, I feel like you did a mix of traditional and modern when you wear the hanbok over your streetwear. I haven't seen that before.

Byeongkwan: It’s really unique! Our stylist team is very open-minded, they try very hard and think a lot. You know we've tried a lot of fashions since the “Cactus” era, we’ve worn hot pants, crop tops, short shorts…all the credit goes to the stylist team and the staff first. They work very hard to bring the concepts and we’ve been in very long discussions for what to bring for this comeback so we're really proud of the stylist team. But we’re in the K-pop scene, we can’t go with only a traditional look, it’s got to be modern. And we ended up somewhere in between and think we found some really good points between the two. It came out really nice and we’re happy.

Donghun: It’s also not easy to dance in hanbok, but at the same time we want to show the unique movements in these traditional outfits.

Jeff Benjamin: An element that really caught my eye—and I think all of the K-pop community’s eye—was the underwater teaser photos with Jun and Chan. Was it really taken underwater?

Chan: Really underwater!

Byeongkwan: They were almost two meters [six-and-a-half feet] underwater! 

Jeff Benjamin: How did you do it?

Chan: It was our first experience being underwater that long. Just to be in the water tanks, sometimes it’s very scary but we were really confident that if we do it in the right way the outcome will be really good. We really tried hard to make it look good. We were shooting in the studio for two days and, after getting ready with makeup and outfits, went to shoot in the water for six hours—

Byeongkwan: Per day.

Chan: Every time we dived in the water, we had to hold our breath for 30 seconds to one minute. We swallowed a lot of water—through our nose and mouth—it was tiring and a challenge, but at the same time a pleasant experience. 

Jeff Benjamin: Are there other important symbols or visuals in the music video?

Byeongkwan: So, I was that member who threw the dice and when we throw dice, all we think we need is luck. But you can throw again and again. If things go wrong, we can do it again. And the dice have a really important meaning for A.C.E so I'll just tell fans to watch carefully for what character I am. [Laughs]

Chan: He’s the key member! Keep your eye on him. 

Byeongkwan: It’s a new game, it’s a new era, he can decide whatever he wants to do in terms of being himself. But I've been more of the villain character since the “Savage” video and this now continues our cinematic story.

Jeff Benjamin: While the album has powerful songs, I'm also really impressed by the softer tracks “Stand by You,” and especially “Clover” that Jun and Wow wrote. What inspired these tracks?

Jun: First of all, I just wanted to write a good song—just a good song. There was a contest between members to make a fan song through V Live. The fans voted and I got the most votes! And the company chose “Clover” as a fan song for this album, but once it got chosen I developed it a lot more when it came to the lyrics and a trendy production over time. I put in a lot of work.

Wow: And after Jun wrote the whole song, he left a section for the rap parts for me so I could be part of it and write my own lyrics. He's a smart leader.

Jeff Benjamin: A big part of A.C.E.'s story is the busking and outdoor street performances. Has the current situation with coronavirus greatly affected the busking scene in Korea?

Byeongkwan: Yeah, it's definitely changed. I think when the second wave came [to Korea], there were very few people in Hongdae [a popular area in Seoul to watch street performers]. We weren't even able to go to restaurants from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., so during that time no one can really see people dance on the streets.

Donghun: It's very sad that people are not on the streets which means obviously fewer groups on the streets. Actually, we bumped into [popular Korean street-performance team] Diana three weeks ago. Before that, we rented out a movie theater to show our Ace Road reality show with a few fans, went to a restaurant and then showed them Diana.

Jeff Benjamin: A.C.E is also really known for their great vocal and music covers with some surprising and great songs. I'm also curious who you're listening to these days or what artists you might like to give a shoutout to?

Byeongkwan: I covered “Con Calma” by Daddy Yankee and Snow. I really enjoy that song. Latin music is very trendy in America, but it’s still quite new here in Korea. But we listen to it and it inspires us to do covers. So, as the music is growing, I want to tell him that we’d like to do a collaboration or something fun together. We’re here!

Jun: Each member has different tastes, but we all love Lewis Capaldi, Harry Styles, those strong ballad singers. But also BTS’ “Dynamite,” the disco feeling that it gives you is everything.

Byeongkwan: As a group, we’re also really into “12:45” by Etham.

Jeff Benjamin: Due to the situation, it’s difficult to meet with fans. How are you connecting with Choice even if you can't meet in person? Are there any words you want to share with them now?

Chan: It’s the time of our comeback so we are naturally communicating with them more and showing them more contents on social media. But at the same time, we’re going to try to post more photos, more videos and be on V Live more often than before in a way to give more of ourselves. We are preparing a concert too, on October 10, and that’s going to be a gift. It’s our job to share our content and show ourselves, but we see this concert as a gift and we’ve been preparing for it since last month.

Wow: Even though “Stand by You” was our last single, I feel like it still gives comfort. The Korean title translates to “Write a Letter” and we take that to mean you could write to yourself, knowing what’s difficult and hard these days, in an effort to know yourself more. That’s how we can all be better.

Byeongkwan: I want to add that we really love Choice. We really want them to stay safe, but we also really can’t wait to see them in person. We’d really like to see you too in person, Jeff, and take a selfie and have a good time. [Laughs] But we feel like our relationship with Choice has recently become different, it’s become deeper and deeper. We see and we feel the support that they’re trying to do for us for this comeback. It’s amazing to see. We hope everyone stays safe, doesn’t get sick, wears masks—we won’t let you down. And we also hope that not only Choice, but also all the K-pop fans out there enjoy our new album.