mimiirose is a five-member composed of Choi YeonJae, Inn HyoRi, Han YeWon, Yoon JiA, and Seo YunJu signed under YES IM Entertainment that debuted in September 2022 with the single album ‘AWESOME,’ which features the lead single “Rose.”
A year later in the same month, mimiirose made their awaited first group comeback with the second single album ‘LIVE,’ where the members are eager to tell the world that "We are still Alive.” With this album, the quintet highlights their determination to showcase a new, fierce side of themselves, taking a significant step forward in their career.
'LIVE' contains three new songs: the reggae-based moombahton pop dance tune "FLIRTING," "TIPSY," in which they demonstrate their rap skills, and the teenage pop dance with soothing vibes, "A-OK."
To honor their first comeback, allkpop spoke with the girls of mimiirose about 'LIVE,' members' survival show experiences, wanting to join in the creative process of their songs, and more. Continue reading to find out more about mimiirose!
Shout-out from mimiirose to allkpop readers:
allkpop: First of all, congratulations on your comeback! Tell us more about the meaning and message behind the album title, 'LIVE,' and why is the title track called "FLIRTING"? What's the concept behind that?
HyoRi: Our second single album, 'LIVE,' conveys the message of all of us saying that we are alive, but if you spell the word "live" backward, it's also spelled as "evil," which also conveys the message of us coming back as villains with a more strong will to show a better side of us to the public. Also, the meaning behind the title song "FLIRTING" is that we want to deliver the message of our eagerness to grab the audience's hearts and love by flirting with them — our fans and the public. Basically, we want to grab their hearts and do our best to win their hearts.
allkpop: Each member has her own character in the music video. Could you expand more on your role in the video?
YeonJae: My role in the music video is the boss. I basically order the other members to grab the hacker in the music video.
JiA: I'm the gangster in the music video.
HyoRi: I'm a supporter of the team. I'm given a special mission in the music video, and I hope you guys can check that out when you watch it!
YunJu: I'm the thief of the team. If you watch the music video, you'll see the scene where I break into the door by unlocking the key lock, so I hope you can check that out too!
YeWon: I'm the killer who kills the hacker.
allkpop: Do you have any fun or memorable behind-the-scenes stories from the filming of the music video that you could share with us?
YeWon: If you check the music video, there's a scene where I’m on a sunbed which is on the lawn of the music video scene while I’m lip-syncing to the song. I honestly doubted the scene because I had no idea how the final product was going to turn out. However, watching the final product, I think the director did such a great job putting that scene in the music video, so I'm personally very happy with it.
allkpop: You worked with FreeMind for the song's choreography. What were your thoughts when you first watched the demo, and how long did it take you to master the dance choreography?
JiA: When we first received the guide, it was completely different from what we had for our debut song. If it was all about the structure of the choreography in our debut album, now it was more about the synchronization of the choreography. We haven't put much effort into synching our choreographies, so personally, I had some worries and pressure in my mind. Also, these days a lot of K-Pop dance challenges are trending, so we all wanted our choreography to be easier so everybody could dance along to it. The choreography actually went through a lot of edits even right before the music video shooting. I think in total, it took around 3 or 4 months to finalize the choreography.
allkpop: For YeonJae, you're the leader of the group. How's your experience guiding the members so far? You're also a dance teacher! From being a teacher to a leader, it seems like you are really meant to guide people! Tell us more about being able to be the one guiding dancers and your members in their careers! Do you feel pressured into doing such activities?
YeonJae: I've always thought that being a leader is the loneliest role within a group but thankfully our members really support me and follow my lead very well. We always support each other emotionally and just shout out "Fighting!" to each other. I believe I'm a very happy leader. Also, looking back at the people I've taught choreography to, I started to realize more about what I can learn from them than what I can offer them. It really makes me reflect on how I can do better and what I can develop. The pressure that I feel when leading the group and teaching people choreography is that I have these thoughts in my mind: "How can I lead them better or how can I make them feel more comfortable in doing what they do?"
allkpop: For HyoRi, you said in an interview that you like literature and writing, be it a poem or such. Do you have any plans on writing lyrics for a song in the future?
HyoRi: Of course, if I'm given the chance, I would love to participate in writing lyrics or even writing a whole song. Personally, I am capable of working on music. I have some unfinished projects on my own which haven't been released yet. I have the files! So I think it would be great if they were released as special songs!
allkpop: For YeWon, you're the main vocalist and your hidden talent is pitch! How do you monitor and continue to improve your vocal skills? How do you usually prepare your vocals before taking the stage for a live performance?
YeWon: To develop my vocal skills further, I never stick to just one genre. I experiment with a lot of different genres and try to sing and copy them wherever my vocal range allows. And warming up before going to the stage, I usually watch a 10-minute vocal warm-up YouTube video. I just go through them and just find the one that best fits me. That's how I warm up before going to the stage.
allkpop: For JiA, you participated in the known survival show 'Girls Planet 999,' where you gained praise. What were your takeaways from your experience, and in what ways did you use it when you debuted with mimiirose?
JiA: I've gone through a lot of competition survival programs and, of course, I learned how to develop my vocal and rap skills. Most importantly, I learned the overall attitude, like the stage attitude and stage expressions by participating in them. Skills like putting the mic and ear monitor myself as well as finding wherever the camera is are the ones I’ve learned. Those are some things that you can’t learn from training where there are no mics and in-ear monitors to put on. I learned those skills and came back to the members and told them how everything was done during the survival program shooting. I also gave them feedback about it. I told them about the general ways of how live survival TV programs work.
allkpop: For YunJu, at a very young age, you already took part in a competition series, 'My Teenage Girls,' and even in the movie, 'The Flu'! You've already tried both the music and acting industry. Are you interested in entering both fields? From your experience, is there something that you've realized or learned, or something you can share especially from your acting experience?
YunJu: When I was really young, I went to this movie shooting scene with my parents and took part as an extra of me just walking in the scene. I was so young at that time so I really didn't think about acting and didn't give feedback to myself. However, even though I was young, I watched actor Jang Hyuk acting in the scene and I thought it was really cool. But still, my dream as an idol back then was bigger than becoming an actress so I pursued my dream of becoming an idol. As I grew up, I started to gain more interest in becoming an actress and thought to myself, "I would love to try acting one day." Through practicing acting, I think I've learned about the special vocal skills that you have to do while acting as well as the facial expressions
allkpop: Are there any artists, be it in or out of the K-Pop industry, you'd like to collaborate with, maybe for a music release or just a special stage collaboration?
YeWon: I personally really love Ariana Grande. She's one of my favorite singers. If I'm given a chance, I would love to do all those: release a song and even do a special stage with her.
YunJu: BLACKPINK is my role model, so if I'm given the chance, I'd love to do a stage collaboration with them.
allkpop: Did you watch BLACKPINK's encore concert in Seoul?
YunJu: I watched the videos of them performing, but I couldn't watch them in real life…
allkpop: What's your current goal, be it for your group or just a personal goal?
JiA: Of course, we have this goal of becoming successful and being famous in my heart. However, more than that, I wish to do a lot of activities for a long time such as performing on stage.
YeonJae: I strongly believe that the title song for our second single album ‘LIVE,' "FLIRTING" is a type of song that is going to be popular internationally. I wish that all our international fans get to know mimiirose even more. Please send us more love and support!
allkpop: Lastly, do you have any messages to allkpop readers and your fans?
mimiirose: We have finally come back with our second single album ‘LIVE’and the title song "FLIRTING." As much as you waited, we can guarantee you the overall quality and the effort we put into the album, so please keep sending us love and support, and please show a lot of interest in our B-side tracks "TIPSY" and "A-OK."
Socials:
Facebook: @mimiirose
Instagram: @mimiirose_ofcl
TikTok: @mimiirose.official
Twitter: @mimiirose_yesim (Official) / @mimiirose_twt (Members)
YouTube: @mimiirose
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