WayV Are Coming Of Age

“If we wanted to become super famous overnight, [we’d] choose a song that is trendy,” says Ten. “But everyone in the music industry is trying that same thing over and over again. If you don’t feel that burden, then you can have the mindset of being able to try something new and be okay with not knowing what’s going to happen. It’s very exciting.”

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Make no mistake, WayV – the Chinese-language subgroup of K-pop megagroup NCT, consisting of Ten, Kun, Xiaojun, Hendery, YangYang, and WinWin – are, shall we say, plenty famous. Since debuting in 2019, they’ve established themselves as having a notably different vibe and aesthetic to their peer subgroups, like NCT DREAM and NCT 127. “People know what WayV’s sound is like… very powerful, like dubstep and keytar, a very heavy sound,” Ten notes.

But it’s precisely because of this longtime calling card – explored across four EPs and debut album, ‘Awaken The World’ – that WayV were getting antsy. In prepping for ‘On My Youth’, their second studio album, they knew they wanted change. 

“We said, ‘Give us two different demos [for the lead single],” says Ten, “and when we listened to the first one, it was good but it reminded us of our older songs, and when we listened to ‘On My Youth’, we were like ‘Ohhh’. The verse is ballad-like and very focused on the lyrics but the chorus, it’s like…” Ten pauses and pops a few subtle moves. “It’s not upbeat but it’s not too laid back, it’s a very weird combination.”

‘On My Youth’ is sparse in places – underpinned by little more than a squiggly synth and tinkling keys, reminding Ten of golden age hip-hop ballads – but adopts a softer approach to layering than WayV singles in the past, the eventually swell of strings and synths working beneath the vocals rather than galloping alongside them. 

“We’ve always loved what we do but this song makes us think in a different way, like, ‘How are we going to perform this?’” adds YangYang. “That was a big challenge for us but all the members did great and even when I listen to it now, I feel emotional.”

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It wasn’t just the song which hooked Xiaojun, it was also the challenge presented to him by the music video to embody character acting. “I really like my performance in it. I put every emotion I had into this video. My character is nervous all the time – I have to use a paper bag to help with breathing, that kind of stuff,” he says in English, with his sweet, unfiltered candour. Adds Hendery: “I’m just going to be honest. ‘On My Youth’ is special and emotional, so how to perform this song was really important for us because, as idols, we have influence with a lot of teenagers.” 

The subject matter they dig into is timeless; the rite of passage where, as a young person, you do things and lose people for all the wrong reasons, fuelled by youth’s ego, stubbornness and naivety.

“I know they say we’re too young / Every day we’re growing / They say we’re too dumb… We’re gon’ make mistakes / We’ll get there even if it’s late… I could blame it on the pain, I could blame it on my ego / Put a cross against my name… Blame it on my youth.”

“That’s what we, as members, all relate to. When we were young, we all did something stupid or we’d fight over something that’s not that big of a deal. Now we’re grown up, we know that’s just a part of life, we’ve experienced that mistake and become a better person,” says Ten. 

“Everyone has something they regret doing so I hope this resonates with people,” adds YangYang. “In the past, I didn’t appreciate time much, I always wanted to do everything fast and get through it. But now I know I have to slow down and embrace everything around me.” Says Ten: “I was always in a hurry, too. I’m very short-tempered but I spoke and did things before I thought [about them]. That’s had an impact on me, and these days I think before I do.” 

Twenty-seven-year-old Ten remains gloriously honest, though. He talks fast, and you notice his lips twitch and eyes slide towards the band’s staff just as he reveals something personal or transparent or imperfect, ergo, something traditionally un-idol-like. Because some things in WayV will never change – like their zingy one-liners and physical comedy or Kun’s calm, balancing presence or Hendery’s unexpected anecdotes – and that’s a good thing.

But something has shifted in WayV, too, this year. It’s in the way that YangYang, their youngest at 23, curves through the conversation with ease, still with an infectious enthusiasm but his replies more precisely constructed, introspective and considered. It’s Ten listening back to the new record and having an epiphany: “It’s [in] how we’re using our voice, I can hear it. When we’ve sung [previously], we always tried to make it perfect but, on this album, I feel like we’ve put more emotion into it.”

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“We’ve been working together for four years and I feel like everyone has found their own confidence and charisma, how to show himself [best]. I think that’s one of the most important things on this album,” says YangYang. The knock-on effect, says Ten, “is we’re not afraid to try something new, like, before, we thought, ‘Oh if we do this kind of thing, it might sound weird’, but now we’re like, ‘Ok, let’s just try it out, and if it’s not good, we just re-record it’.”

“Even though we’ve had a year between albums we did a lot of other things, such as our fanmeeting tour and NCT activities,” adds Kun, “and through those we’ve learned a lot and grown up.” He sees them working faster but, at the same time, better. “We received demos a day or two before the actual recording time so we did [a lot] in a short amount of time but I think we did it well and we can see how much we’ve improved.”

WinWin, due to scheduled commitments in China, wasn’t part of the seven-city fanmeet tour or the promotional cycle for ‘Phantom’. White-haired and wide-eyed, he’s mostly quiet, tuning into the frenetic chatter, nodding when he hears something he agrees with. So how is he finding being back in the thick of WayV life?

The question is relayed in Korean but WinWin looks to YangYang who nods and says he’ll translate for him, and WinWin replies in Mandarin as Kun and Xiaojun grin at him. When he finishes speaking, he puts his head down on his fists, balled up inside his sweater sleeves, and YangYang laughs – “He’s being so shy!” – and Hendery sings and dances NewJeans’ ‘Super Shy’ at him. But the point WinWin makes in amongst all this delightful distraction, is that in “doing this promo with them, I feel like they’ve all matured so much as people this year, and we’ve had a lot more new ideas”. 

YangYang wants to elaborate on their increased thought process and input: “Before this album, we didn’t really talk too much about our own ideas but at the start of preparing ‘On My Youth’, we each gave ideas for the songs, the lyrics, and how we should perform them. And that’s been a big upgrade for us, that we start talking more about the details, the promotions, the music videos, and TikTok.” 

WayV haven’t been particularly prolific on the social platform, and Ten laughs. “If you’d said, do a WayV TikTok challenge [previously], we’d be like, ‘Oh, we don’t want to’.” But, he says, the band have come round to making their presence on the app more known: “But ‘On My Youth’ isn’t a fast song, so [we wondered] how to make this song look more interesting in a TikTok challenge and Xiaojun gave us ideas.”

If anything, it appears WayV has become more ambitious, the proverbial fire lit beneath them. 

“Yeah, that’s true,” says YangYang. “We all got more ambitious.”

“We’re not afraid of the conflict. We talk more – in the group, with the management, with the A&R team. We’re gonna persuade you to agree with us, that’s the change,” says Ten. 

“If you disagree” says YangYang, perhaps half-joking, “I’m gonna fight.”

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Whatever the push-and-pull of the conversations in the planning stages for ‘On My Youth’, the result is an album that understands what audiences love about WayV and retains some pleasing familiarity: Their big harmonies are centrepieces on ‘No One But You’ and ‘Lighthouse’, ‘Moonlight’ is stamped with a similar cinematic presence to 2019’s ‘Moonwalk’, and the heartwarming presence of ‘Be Alright’ is a fan song with lyrics co-written by Kun who low-key beams, admitting he’s “done a lot of work on what I wanted to say, so I hope they’ll be touched”.

But, equally, there’s new vigour, clarity and self-command running through tracks like ‘Poppin’ Love’ and ‘Ain’t No Thang’, the teasing smirk lurking within them turning full sneer on ‘RODEO’, the album’s heaviest moment, sat mid-tracklist like a deliciously rubbery, bassy beast. Then there is ‘INVINCIBLE’, arguably the most celebratory WayV has ever sounded. It just so happens to also be a defiant swipe at their doubters: “Bottom to the top, we ain’t even hit the limit / They said we were never gonna win it all / We’re doing this forever, we’re invincible”.

“On ‘Phantom’, we talked about how we can overcome our hardships but, on this album, we’re done with that, we know that’s happened, now let’s just celebrate,” says Ten. “When we talk when we’re practising, we do talk about the future more than the past (“I think it’s like 80% random stuff and 20% talking about the past and future,” Hendery interjects precisely, like the most eager of students, making his bandmates laugh) but we also celebrate where we’ve come from because without it we can’t be us now.”

Nevertheless, WayV are a little nervous about unleashing their latest work. YangYang is “looking forward to the reactions. We’ve listened to the songs so many times but the first time the fans listen to it.. how do they feel? I want to know their emotions”, and Xiaojun is keen on “everyone seeing everything we’ve been shooting because it’s a lot.” And WinWin, who speaks English haltingly, with WayV – who know just how hard he’s been practising – cheerleading his every word, says he’s “excited to see our fans because we’ve made many surprises to share with them, and our fans have waited for us for a long time so we really want to see them.” 

“I really think the ‘new WayV’ era has passed,” says Ten, referring to our conversation at the release of ‘Phantom’, who were then promoting as quintet, a few months prior to the announcement that their lineup would change from seven members to six. He calls this their “ongoing era”, where they’re somewhere past the reset button of early 2023, yet still a work-in-progress. “Right now, we’re ready to go out there and make it happen, to go ‘THIS IS WAYV!’ Seriously.”

If sometimes it feels like the stars haven’t yet quite aligned to propel WayV to the highest echelons of pop stardom – unfairly so, given their talents – it’s reassuring to see them assert a far firmer grip on the wheel to steer their own destiny, unintimidated by the increasingly prevalent idea that an artist isn’t worthy unless success comes early in their career. 

“In order to have success, you do the hard work and you grow. Everyone is allowed to make mistakes,” says YangYang. “You learn from it, go forward, and have the confidence to be successful. We believe in ourselves to be bigger, and better.” 

Ten has a sudden, final thought to share – he wants to nix the concept of an “ongoing era”. Instead, he says,”In this era, we’re not afraid to open up. No one is afraid of expressing themselves. This will be the ‘bloom era’ for WayV.”

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‘On My Youth’ is out now.

Words: Taylor Glasby