CORTIS, BIGHIT MUSIC’s first new group in six years, finally stepped into the spotlight.
At their debut showcase on Aug. 18 at Blue Square in Seoul’s Hannam neighborhood, the five-piece premiered their title track “What You Want” and unveiled a performance film shot in a desert outside Los Angeles.
SEONGHYEON said, “We sifted through more than 300 contenders over two years and didn’t lock the title in until the very end of camp. When we heard the finished version, it just clicked―this was our song.”
JAMES admitted, “My first thought wasn’t just ‘This is great.’ I was worried about what kind of choreography could live up to it. But the song was so strong that we committed to building a performance worthy of it.”
“CORTIS” is a six-letter scramble inspired by the phrase “Color Outside the Lines.”
JUHOON explained, “It stands for thinking freely, beyond rules and boxes. We’re a collective that co-creates everything―music, choreography, even visuals.”
Most of the tracklist was born at a writing camp in Los Angeles. KEONHO recalled, “We planned to stay a month and ended up there for nearly three.” MARTIN added, “One day we asked each other what we truly want in life―peace, freedom, love, honor. We carried those feelings into the booth, and you can hear the honesty in the takes.”
They poured the same energy into performance. The desert-shot film is a serious eye-catcher. “By the end of the shoot we literally had sand in our mouths,” SEONGHYEON said. “Dancing under that open sky, sweating in the heat―it weirdly felt freeing.”
KEONHO said, “We started with five treadmills and now we’re up to 11. For the film, we hauled 35 pieces of equipment out to the L.A. desert ourselves.” JAMES laughed, “The treadmill choreography was no joke―I took motion-sickness pills while mapping it out. Now we’re so used to it, we can actually enjoy the ride.”
CORTIS also took a hands-on role in the music videos. “We’ve made tons of music ourselves, but we’d never shot our own visuals,” MARTIN said. “We thought, why not us? From snowy peaks to the desert, we injected ideas across videos for all five songs, and every member sat in on the MV production meetings.”
On goals for the album, JUHOON said, “As a debut, it’s about showing people our sound and who we are. Looking further ahead, we want to become a team with a signature identity―like our label seniors.”
After making a bold first impression with the title track, CORTIS will officially drop their debut album, “COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES,” on Sept. 8 and kick off full-scale promotions.
Photo: Baik Seung-Chul
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)