"We Didn't Create This Album Around Just One Kind of Love"....i-dle Returns With "We Made"

After nearly a year, girl group i-dle returned with its ninth mini-album "We Made." The group held a media showcase on July 6 at YES24 LIVE Hall in Seoul's Gwangjin District to commemorate the album's release.

Speaking before reporters and photographers, Miyeon, Minnie, Soyeon, Yuqi and Shuhua described "We Made" as an album that showcases a different side of summer. While previous seasonal releases such as "DUMDi DUMDi" and "Klaxon" leaned toward brighter, cooler atmospheres, they explained that title track "Gimmie Dat Love" instead embraces a more intense "fight fire with fire" approach.

Produced by Abraham Olaleye 'Daramola, "Gimme Dat Love" is a Latin inspired track which boldly captures emotions and sounds that change both dramatically and instantly. Furthermore, adding onto the Latin element, Venezuelan singer Samantha Camara also participated in the topline writing.

"We Made" contains six tracks that explore different sides of the group's musical identity. Alongside January's pre-release "Mono (Feat. skaiwater)," the album includes title track "Gimmie Dat Love," "Morning," pre-release single "Crow," and "Love Is Pain," each exploring different themes ranging from optimism and resilience to heartbreak.

In true i-dle fashion, a lot of the tracks were worked on by the members themselves with outside producing help. Speaking on this and how they decided the creative direction for "We Are," Minnie said, "Since our members have been producing from long ago, sometimes we feel like we are trapped within the colors we have, within ourselves."

"Within that, we wanted to return to the beginning, to when we first liked and loved music, almost from zero, and put more of that into this album." she concluded as Soyeon chimed in saying, "Because it is our ninth year, we also get tired of ourselves sometimes, and we want to do new things and fun things."

Across its eight-year career, i-dle's music has consistently found a strong audience within LGBTQ+ communities around the world. Songs including "Oh my god," "TOMBOY" and "Queencard" have become particularly meaningful to many queer listeners through their themes, aesthetics and messages of self-expression. More recently, "Mono (Feat. skaiwater)" further strengthened that relationship with the lyric, "Whether East or West, whether straight or gay / Every day and night, dance to your real vibe," making Soyeon's comments during the showcase especially significant.

"Rather than creating this album around any one particular kind of love, we made it with the idea of respecting all forms of love and everything that people value. If it has given people strength, then I simply want to say thank you, I truly appreciate that." Soyeon commented.

The group recently concluded the Asian and Oceanian leg of its fourth world tour, "Syncopation," which took i-dle across eight cities including Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, Yokohama and Hong Kong. Along the way, the group became the first K-POP girl group to headline Taipei Dome while also performing at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium, one of the city's largest concert venues.

Speaking on this milestone, Chinese member Yuqi mentioned how being able to perform in these stadiums has made them feel like they have become really cool singers. "As a K-POP girl group, even though we use many languages, music itself can really connect fans all around the world." she said and concluded with "I felt that all our hard work is worth it. I also thought we should work even harder for all our fans around the world."

Having eight years behind them, the group discussed the next step within their careers as the showcase drew close. They shared how they hope this album can reach a wide variety of audiences and that they can resonate however they can with it. When it came to talking about i-dle's next step Soyeon said "Whenever I make music, I think I have always thought about the next step, like "We need to go higher," "We need to do better." But this year, I started thinking that I want to focus on the music of each moment."

"Since debut, i-dle has continued making self-composed songs, so I hope we do not lose the message of continuing to make the music we want to make, and continue promoting while studying and learning." Yuqi added as Minnie closed off the portion of the Q&A before they demonstrated their performance of "Crow" by saying "I hope we can continue our future activities in a fun and good way, and we will show many cool sides of ourselves"

i-dle will release their 9th mini album "We made" on Monday July 6th at 6 p.m KST on various music streaming platforms.