Client: CLASH
“Identity feels like a shadow that runs away when you try to grasp it,” they say, in agreement. “Whenever new desires arise and we crave something new, sometimes we feel that our identity becomes blurry, and we find ourselves searching for it again. The identity we’re currently seeking is to become artists who can strongly resonate with a wider audience and someone who can truly establish that.”
It’s this hunger for the new and more, and the desire to continue playing around with their sound, that made them push back on their team and switch the lead single from ‘Juice’ (eventually promoted as a secondary song) to ‘Hard’ on their recent album of the same name. “We wanted a catchier track,” says Minho, as Key adds, “‘Juice’ felt familiar but we ended up choosing ‘Hard’ because we decided that song would bring us a new experience.” And the inclusion of 90s hip-hop influences, says Taemin, was “to be honest, [because] hip-hop felt a bit distant from SHINee and we wanted to surprise the audience with something unexpected. And I felt that this would spark something inside me as well.”
The 10-track ‘Hard’ garnered SHINee their biggest first day and first week sales of their career while the single took five wins across South Korea’s competitive weekly TV music chart shows, heralding a new chapter for the band who are slated to release a documentary in September, then undertake an arena tour of Japan. Taking a rare moment to pause, SHINee sat down to discuss their latest era with Clash.
Taylor Glasby 