SKY-HI – What BE:FIRST gained from the collab with ATEEZ

[shizuna]

Translated and summarized from SKY-HI's interview series with Nikkei, "Be myself, for ourselves"

Original interview, 118th installment from October 17, 2024.

Second part of the interview translated by connie44

Interview with KQ President translated by hana


- boss says beef is seeing an increase in fans domestically and overseas. Though he'll have to check if the ratio of overseas fans is the same as when beef debuted
- Hush-Hush, of course, has a larger number of overseas fans and he wants to make sure the people they connected with via that song / single become numbers
- "We don't want to be a forward that doesn't shoot when given a good pass"
- President Kim (KQ Entertainment) has said this was a good collaboration and they have been able to communicate well [as companies]. With so many artists around the world, he's honoured that there's a group that they can vibe with.
- for boss, he mentions SALU and Takuya (from The Oral Cigarettes) are strong bonds he has. He is glad beef and ateez have something like that.
- boss thinks this connection isn't something that can be formed with just any other group. As a person who makes music, he thinks there's nothing more important than a good atmosphere to create a good song and collaboration. He hopes they can find and collab with more groups in the future that both groups can be happy with.

I know many of you are looking forward to the collaborative performance of “Hush-Hush,” but as a matter of course, there is no time to rehearse together. I don't know if we can make that time when ATEEZ comes to Japan or if we will go to Korea.... It will not be as easy as a collaborative stage between rappers or solo artists, but that does not mean that we have not thought about it, so please look forward to it.

From KQ President:

ateez develops their own story through "series" but they felt that it is time to expand their horizons and one way to do so was through collabs which was the same time kq ceo had meeting with avex and was introduced to sky-hi

he listened to beef and liked their songs, though it was hip and trendy and impactful, plus their performance was high quality

they started this project a year ago
- the original plan was a collab album for which preparations are almost done, but they had difficulty finding a venue to host both groups and their fans, and ateez started their world tour so they thought it would be a good opportunity to bring beef out in la since that is the location where ateez has the most asian fans in their world tour
- they are still discussing carious plans, inclduing ateez perofmirng with beef as guest or opening act
he understadns that fans were upset about this but also thinks that people would understand since they know that the plan mentioned earlier was in place already

they are thinking about collaborating with other artists to expand ATEEZ's worldview . “However, we are always dreaming of new ways and exploring paths that others have not taken, so we would like to try something different this time.”

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