BOYNEXTDOOR Opens Up on First Full Album 'HOME' and Hopes for 'VIRAL'

BOYNEXTDOOR is putting its most personal songwriting on record. For the group's first full-length album, every member earned a writing or composing credit, with songs that trace what they felt from pre-debut training through their third anniversary.

The six-member group, made up of Sungho, Riwoo, Myung Jaehyun, Taesan, Leehan, and Woonhak, sat down for a press interview at a cafe in Seoul's Seongdong district to talk about the new LP, "HOME." The album drops Monday at 6 p.m. KST.

Three years, condensed into one album

"HOME" arrives almost three years after BOYNEXTDOOR's debut and is the group's first studio album.

"We're back with our first full album," Leehan said. "Every member is credited as a writer or composer on this one. The stories are autobiographical and pretty serious, so we hope a lot of people listen. This is the human side of BOYNEXTDOOR."

The format itself pushed the group to work differently. "As we got deeper into the work, I naturally felt more pressure, and my mindset shifted," Myung Jaehyun said. "It wasn't because it was a full album. The stories we wanted to tell were about ourselves, and that made me think a lot. When we finished, I understood why a full album means so much to an artist."

Taesan said the writing reached all the way back to their training days. "We tried to capture the emotions we felt before debut and the feelings that built up over three years," he said. "We approached it as the album that closes out Chapter 1 of BOYNEXTDOOR. We wanted to be as honest as possible."

For the title track, "VIRAL," the group reworked what they see as the classic K-POP formula in their own way. "We talked about taking the K-POP we grew up listening to and reinterpreting it through BOYNEXTDOOR's color," Sungho said. "We thought back to the senior K-POP stages we watched as trainees and as students, and we borrowed elements like high notes leading into a dance break."

Myung Jaehyun said the group thought hard about what listeners actually wanted from them. "We wondered if people were thirsty for this kind of music," he said. "If BOYNEXTDOOR delivers a song over three minutes with tight, synchronized choreography, we thought that could come across as our identity."

A team credit for songs everyone wrote

The album also marks the first writing credits for Sungho and Riwoo.

"It was my first time, so the other members and the producers helped me a lot," Sungho said. "I kept thinking about how to take the things I wanted to say and the melodies in my head and raise them to album quality."

Riwoo said the experience was new and at times difficult. "It was my first time being involved from start to finish. There was a lot I wanted to do in my head, but I wasn't used to expressing it," he said. "The members who'd been writing for a while listened to me and tried to pull as much out of me as they could."

With all six writing at once, ideas piled up. "When opinions split, we'd just work on multiple versions," Riwoo said. "One song would have three or four different sets of lyrics."

Myung Jaehyun framed that as a strength. "What's attractive about our team is that all six of us have really distinct personalities," he said. "Each member likes different genres and has a different color, and combining those let us find new directions."

The members agreed that the sessions turned into long conversations. "If we worked for four hours, three of them were talking," Taesan said. "We opened up about family, we talked about small everyday things. This album got finished through a lot of conversation." He added that the honesty wasn't always easy. "There were moments that hurt. I'd ask myself, is it okay to be this open?"

Songs written by all six members carry a single shared credit under the group name, BOYNEXTDOOR. "We made these songs together from beginning to end, so we put the credit under the team name," Taesan said.

"Only songs that all of us worked on can carry that name, so it feels like an honor," Myung Jaehyun said. "We'd been saying for a while that it would be cool to credit them under the team. No one disagreed."

Working closely also surfaced new sides of one another. "When we work together, I tend to slack off a little, but Taesan would pull me back in," Woonhak said. "I discovered a new kind of leadership in him."

Taesan laughed about Woonhak's stamina. "I tend to work on a song for a long stretch once I get going, but Woonhak isn't great at long sessions," he said. "If we're working four hours, his eyes start closing after about three. I'd wake him up and we'd keep going."

Making 'VIRAL' go viral

Heading into release, the group adopted a slogan: make "VIRAL" go viral. Leader Myung Jaehyun, who has built a reputation for throwing himself into content without holding back, fits the title track's energy.

"I pushed myself a lot because I felt like we had to get our team's name out there," he said. "I had confidence in our music, and I wanted more people to hear it. That feeling hasn't changed. I want our members to be more famous and more loved. If there's something I can do to make that happen, I'll do it even if it's hard on me."

The other members try to ease the load in their own ways. "There's a weight to being the head of a family, and a weight to being the leader," Woonhak said, watching Myung Jaehyun grind through promotions. "When he comes back to the dorm and says, that was a little too much today, I want to give him strength. So I'd cook for him."

Myung Jaehyun is also dealing with a leg injury heading into comeback. "I'm still getting treatment," he said. "I've prepared for this for so long that I really want to take part, so I'm focusing on recovery. I plan to give everything I have during promotions." Leehan added that the leader's drive has flipped the usual dynamic. "His will is so strong that the rest of us are the ones telling him to slow down."

BOYNEXTDOOR is also chasing a bigger commercial milestone. The group has already logged three consecutive million-selling albums and is aiming for a fourth with "HOME."

"We prepared as hard as we could, and whatever results come, we'll accept them," Myung Jaehyun said. "But you have to aim high. It's impossible not to have expectations."

Taesan kept it short. "I'll work hard until we sell 10 million albums," he said. Woonhak set his sights on the charts. "Once you start as an idol, you have to reach the top, right? I want a No. 1 on the music charts, and someday I want a No. 1 on the year-end chart."

The members are also aware that as the group gets bigger, the "boy next door" identity in their name can start to feel distant. Woonhak said that gap is exactly what shaped the album.

"That's why we wanted to get closer, to show who we really are. That's why we put our stories on this album more deeply and honestly," he said. "We're still the boys next door. And we want to stay the boys next door."

"HOME" arrives Monday at 6 p.m. KST.