MBLAQ: "We Like Both Disses and Compliments"

On June 4, MBLAQ held their comeback showcase at the Lotte Card Art Center in Seoul. Before the showcase, MBLAQ sat through a press conference and spoke about their thoughts on their comeback as well as their thoughts on music.   Leader Seungho commented, “While we each had our individual activities and prepared for our album, we didn’t waste any time,” and “Since the team came together for the first time in a while, it feels like each of our lacking aspects have been filled up and we want to show great performances.”   This comeback is MBLAQ’s first in one year and three months since their fourth mini-album “BLAQ% Ver” in March of last year. During that time, Seungho and G.O stood on stage for the musical, “Gwanghamun Love Song” in Japan while Lee Joon appeared on several variety shows such as “We Got Married” as well as the drama, “Iris 2.” Thunder is currently acting in the drama, “Nail Shop Paris,” while Mir showed great presence in variety shows, “Rules of the Jungle” and “Real Men.”   While each member was focusing on their individual activities, all of members’ thirst for perfection as a group kept growing. It seems like that thirst was quenched through this fifth mini-album. Out of the six tracks, two of them were co-composed by Thunder and Seo Jung Hwan. One track was co-composed by G.O and Primary. Mir also wrote lyrics for three tracks with another lyricist.   Seo Jung Hwan, who is originally from the hip-hop group Untitled, worked with Thunder on tracks, “Sexy Beat” and “Dress Up.” Thunder commented, “The track ‘Sexy Beat’ has a sensual feel to it and ‘Dress Up’ has a mainstream melody. ‘Sexy Beat’ is the first track of the album and it has a harmony of the hip-hop rhythm along with a pop feel. ‘Dress Up’ is an urban dance track about a fun love confession.”   G.O commented, “When working on our title track ‘Smoky Girl,’ I got really close to Primary hyung,” and “I composed ‘R U OK?‘ with Primary hyung comfortably with an open heart.” “R U OK?” is a neo-soul track, which is about a man’s feelings after breaking up with his lover.   Mir showed confidence by saying, “Thunder and G.O told me now to be pressured when writing lyrics so I worked very freely. As a result, a very hot track was completed.”   MBLAQ is showing great passion and determination in their newest album. Mir’s difficult decision to step down from the incredibly popular show “Real Men” was to focus on MBLAQ. Thunder praised Mir by saying, “As time goes by, his dancing and rapping skills are building up.”   As a last remark, Lee Joon stated, “We like disses, we like compliments so we just hope a lot of people will listen to our music. Other groups work hard too but so do we. We are still in the process of finding our color so we hope you can continue to send us love.”