RIIZE are a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Korean boy group’s name is a (sort of) portmanteau of the words ‘rise’ and ‘realise’, introduced with the mission of growing and achieving together. So far, they’ve done that with absolute ease.
They did it in days, in fact. Within four days of the group’s reveal in summer 2023, they hit a million followers on Instagram, their debut single ‘Get A Guitar’ followed suit and sold a million copies on pre-orders alone. Their first mini album ‘RIIZING’ arrived last summer, while their first full-length ‘ODYSSEY’ is on the horizon.
But beyond all the hype and the (very impressive) statistics, RIIZE’s debut was as part of a new wave of K-pop, one that embraced loosening up. The first photos revealed of them were self-shot and blurry; they had seemingly free reign of what they posted on TikTok; they use their real names as stage names. Now, in the run-up to ‘ODYSSEY’s release, they’ve opened a second Instagram account to ‘dump’ behind-the-scenes photos alongside the usual glossy conceptual ones.
When we meet them, it’s not exactly a glamorous affair. It’s early afternoon for us, which means it’s far later than anyone should be sitting down to do an interview in Korea (10.30pm, to be exact), and the six boys – SHOTARO, EUNSEOK, SUNGCHAN, WONBIN, SOHEE, and ANTON – are squeezing us in for a chat between major preparations for their album release and upcoming tour, at the end of a very long day. Dressed down in their hoodies and t-shirts, hats covering hair and faces, they look like the normal twenty-somethings they want you to believe they are.
“With ‘ODYSSEY’ being our first official album, we sort of wanted to showcase a culmination of all of our experiences ’til now, as well as our hopes and aspirations for the future,” says ANTON, the youngest member, who often ends up leading the conversation as the group’s only English speaker. “I think we were able to do that pretty successfully. As much as the members and I are confident about this album and the songs, there were some moments in the process where, you know, I felt, ‘Am I doing well enough?’ Or, ‘Am I on the right path?’ I think that’s a part of ‘ODYSSEY’, odyssey meaning journey or experience. Something that I want to achieve with this album is to maybe give the people that listen to the songs the courage to maybe embark on their own odyssey or journey.”
The album is a sonic journey in itself, with no two tracks sounding alike as it moves through a variety of genres. In its first half, it hits floaty UK garage, wonky hip-hop, harsh breakbeats and retro rock n’ roll; an instrumental at the midpoint leads to a second half categorised by Korean balladry and One Direction-esque stadium pop.
“We’ve had singles and mini albums until now, but this is our first full-length studio album,” says SUNGCHAN. “We have the process of recording ten tracks through our ballads and new styles of tracks, like our title-track, and we really tried to challenge ourselves with genres we hadn’t tried before, and I feel like we’ve grown from that as our team name rise and realise says. By exploring ballads and various other genres, we’ve been able to develop, and we want to continue challenging ourselves in different areas in the future as well.”
“We sort of called our music genre ’emotional pop’ since our debut,” adds ANTON. “And I think, in a way, with having ten new songs, we sort of filled out the emotional stuff. You know, there are a lot of songs and styles that we haven’t tried before. Our songs might be able to express what people may be feeling better with the new sounds.”
“I want to give people the courage to maybe embark on their own odyssey or journey”
‘ODYSSEY”s lead single ‘Fly Up’ maintains the vibe RIIZE have been cultivating since their debut, with its retro sound and bright, energetic feel. It’s not a million miles away from ‘Get A Guitar’, but it is noticeably different from pretty much everything else in contemporary pop right now.
“Since our debut song was ‘Get A Guitar’, and we had ‘Talk Saxy’ and ‘Boom Boom Bass’, we often get asked, ‘What’s the next instrument going to be?’” jokes ANTON. “But while ‘Fly Up’ isn’t necessarily tied to any instrument, it sound-wise makes sense as a song [for us] and performance-wise as well. I think we’re starting to be able to say like, ‘This is RIIZE’s style’ in a way; people will be able to feel and see that as well.”
“‘Fly Up’ is the most exciting song,” says SHOTARO. “It seamlessly blends with the performance we’ve shown until today, but it has a new aspect of showing a kind of musical style. I also have a personal high expectation regarding the music video, because we had a huge, mega crew of choreography and dancers coming together during the LA shoot.”
The track’s music video sounds as ambitious as the group’s mission, bringing in thirty dancers for a one-take mega shoot in Los Angeles and making for the boys’ first shoot in the city since their debut. In the album’s trailer, the new visuals call back to those first videos, too, and will be stitched together as a short film alongside the album.
“While we might not have necessarily tried to connect our last music video with this one, this specific project, ‘ODYSSEY’, can be watched from start to finish. So I think, at least in this one project, it’ll be really fun for people to watch all the videos all together at the same time,” ANTON explains.
Since K-pop’s global expansion began in the late 2010s and early 2020s, group concepts have become more and more elaborate, with companies spending years developing storylines while fans dig into the lore and invent their own theories around it. We only have to look to RIIZE’s own label, SM Entertainment, to see some of that. There’s aespa, the girl group with a fantastical sci-fi concept, who exist in two dimensions, one of them featuring the girls as avatars, while NCT, SM’s last boy group prior to RIIZE, explored the idea of a limitless boyband, with a current head count of a staggering 25 members, split into six sub-units, all of which interact with one another.
With RIIZE, SM stripped it back, removing the need to follow complex storylines and doing away with the Marvel-ification of their roster, instead launching a group with a central theme of simply growing up together. RIIZE may focus on rising up, but they’re bringing K-pop right back down to Earth, too.
It shouldn’t feel radical – most pop groups, both Eastern and Western, have gotten on fine without an extended universe since the 90s – but with many major groups vying for fans’ attention in increasingly extravagant ways, it’s refreshing to be back to basics.
“So as our genre, the genre we made through ourselves, is emotional pop,” says SOHEE, the group’s powerhouse vocalist. “This isn’t limited to a single genre. It’s a way for us to tell our own stories, and this wasn’t even at all hard to express because it’s us as a group ourselves, so that’s why we think fans will be able to understand us better and feel a stronger sense of connection.”
It’s one of the reasons RIIZE have been said to be recapturing the essence of those second-generation K-pop groups. With SM Entertainment being responsible for much of the industry’s early growth, they often mine their own archives, picking out old tracks for new groups to cover. So when RIIZE covered TVXQ!’s ‘Hug’ in January, it wasn’t a new move, but something felt different. No, it wasn’t WONBIN’s striking resemblance to Jaejoong (although he is a dead ringer for his senior idol), but that, 21 years on, the presentation of the track was almost exactly the same.
Much like in groups of K-pop past, RIIZE’s choreography and presentation feel looser and less rigid (that doesn’t mean it’s slack or easy; have a look at the intricate house steps they followed on last year’s ‘Impossible’), just like their central concept does; now, it’s filtered through the eyes of Gen Z.
“I’m really thankful that many people would see us that way and tell us that way, but we know that RIIZE didn’t just appear out of nowhere,” says SHOTARO. “We’ve been fortunate to grow under the influence of many senior artists at SM, learning from their music and the path they’ve laid. In that environment, we’ve been able to take what we’ve learned and develop into something uniquely our own. So we’re grateful that people recognise that, and we will continue to work hard to grow and show even more in the future.”
Something RIIZE do brilliantly, that very much wasn’t around during K-pop’s second generation, is their social media. Before any music was even teased, the boys were actively uploading Instagram reels and TikTok videos that highlighted their personalities, which they’ve kept up ever since. In between the usual promotional dance videos with other idols and song clips are the kind of silly, off-the-cuff, viral-audio-utilising videos you’d find any average 20-year-old posting on their personal pages. Charming and really very funny, we’re told they’re often the brainchild of SHOTARO, which makes sense if you believe the rumour that he was scouted by SM from his TikTok account.
In the short time since those first uploads, they’ve already been on quite the journey. Summer 2024 saw them embark on their first tour across Asia and North America, culminating in three nights at Seoul’s KSPO Dome to 15,000 punters each time, quite the feat less than a year after their debut. Despite clearly achieving ‘monster rookie’ status (a term bestowed upon K-pop groups who achieve significant milestones within their first year), it feels like they’re just warming up.
“So now it’s been two years, we don’t really feel like rookies currently,” says EUNSEOK. “But since this is our first full-length album, we feel like this is the start of our new journey, so that truly reflects our identity, and we believe it will become a major milestone in our growth journey.”
“When we performed at the KSPO Dome during our fan concert, it was an emotional moment,” explains WONBIN. “It was a venue we used to admire while watching our seniors perform there when we were trainees, and actually standing on that stage ourselves felt deeply moving. We also have a tour coming up, and since we haven’t been on all the stages all over the world, we’re really expecting and anticipating to show cool performances and stages, and we also want to receive a lot of energy from each audience.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get to see SOHEE crying,” adds ANTON, to an immediate rebuttal from SOHEE.
They’ll be stopping off in London at the quaint little venue of, erm, Twickenham Stadium (yep, huge) as part of SM Entertainment’s 30th Anniversary celebrations. SMTOWN LIVE will pay a visit to the UK for the first time this June, bringing with it practically the entire artist roster.
“As this is our first time in SM Town in the UK, we’re excited to meet the fans in the UK and connect with them, just like the feeling we get from the song, ‘Fly Up’,” says SOHEE. “We hope you look forward to seeing us come together as one.”
With a solid foundation already laid, 2025 will see RIIZE enter the next phase of their career, getting bigger and better with every release. An idyllic combination of Gen Z chaos, K-pop nostalgia, and a level of relatability rarely expressed in their industry, we could be watching the leaders of the next generation marching right into place. Big stats, big bangers, big dreams; for RIIZE, their odyssey is only just beginning.
“We hope to become the group that represents 2025,” says SHOTARO. “When people think of 2025, we want them to think of us as a group and our music. We also want to be one of the first artists that come to mind when people think of K-pop, so our goal is to become the defining team of the year.”
“Our goal has always been to, you know, rise and realise like our group name, and I think since our debut, we’ve been able to do that little by little,” ANTON explains. “This time around, we almost wanted to prove to ourselves and all sorts of people that we have risen not all the way, but we’re confident in what we’re doing. That’s something that I felt. And obviously, each and every one of us has grown, not only as artists, but as people since debuting.”
Taken from the June 2025 issue of Dork. RIIZE’s debut album ‘ODYSSEY’ is out 19th May.
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