K-pop Boy Group Cortis on Early Success and Following in BTS Footsteps

K-pop boy group Cortis is not even two months into their career — but it’s nearly impossible to tell.

The five-member outfit is the first boy group to debut from BigHit Music — the home to supergroups BTS and Tomorrow x Together — in six years. On their first official trip to Los Angeles as a freshly debuted group, Cortis seems to be taking everything in. The group, consisting of members Martin, James, Juhoon, Seonghyeon and Keonho, filter into the lobby of a Koreatown dance studio one-by-one, politely introducing themselves before finding a spot on nearby couches.

Before the group dives into their first EP, Color Outside the Lines, it’s easy to see the reality: they’re a group of teenagers — the members range in age from 16 to 20; the latter a new development as this conversation took place on James’ 20th birthday — who have suddenly found themselves climbing global music charts and jumping headfirst into careers as international pop stars. But once Cortis gets to talking about their music, they’re transformed into seasoned professionals.

Color Outside the Lines radiates youth. The group opted to forgo the concept-heavy, artistic and visual direction — instead, their pre-release single, “Go!,” is chaotic and catchy. The accompanying music video also fits that mold, showing the teens galavanting around L.A. It feels like something made by teens for teens (and beyond). Mostly, because it is.

Cortis is heavily involved in the creation of their own music and their artistic direction. “What You Want,” the group’s second song, is sonically different from “Go!” in nearly every way, trading the trap beats for a guitar and drum-heavy anthem. But both songs fit the group because Cortis seems focused on one thing more than making exactly the kind of music expected of them: Authenticity.

“How do we express ourselves as raw and authentic as possible?” James asks about what he sees as the group’s main goal. The 20-year-old was previously part of a well-known pre-debut group, Trainee A, and has produced songs for other artists under Korean entertainment giant Hybe, BigHit Music’s parent company. “Achieving [a debut on] the chart is a nice thing,” he continues. “But what really solidifies that I’m proud of my job and I like my job is performing and meeting people.”

Below, the boy group speaks with THR about connecting with fans in L.A., what it would mean to follow in their senior groups BTS and TXT’s footsteps and why authenticity is so important to them.

Can you tell me how you’re feeling about a month from your debut?

MARTIN Everything feels surreal. A few days ago, we went to a Red Bull dance battle as a guest. Getting invited to places and just being somewhere that I dreamed to be at is kind of crazy. It’s like everything feels so surreal.

JUHOON We also had a fan sign event here. There were so many people in that building. I was really shocked and also really thankful at the same time.

Did you guys think that you would get to do some of this stuff as quickly as you did? Coming to L.A. and having a fan sign internationally, that’s not super common. What has that been like?

SEONGHYEON I honestly did not expect to get this much love and this much attention from overseas fans.

Has there been anything that’s surprised you the most?

JUHOON For me, charting on the Billboard 200. (The group’s first EP debuted at No. 15 on the Billboard 200). We did not expect that to happen.

MARTIN Not at all.

JUHOON With this album, we just really wanted to focus on expressing ourselves, but luckily those things happened so we’re really thankful.

Obviously, charting is exciting. Does finding success with this EP feel validating for you? You’ve been training from a very young age. Does that make it feel worth it?

MARTIN It feels very worth it. And also it’s like a dream come true in a certain way. I didn’t even expect [to chart on] Billboard. Being on charts, topping charts…. We [hit] first place in Spotify Global Daily … and also on the Korean Apple Music chart. Because we know how it was made, those kind of songs, being on charts and seeing people enjoy them and doing [dance] challenges, it’s so surreal. At the same time, all I can do is just appreciate the fact that they enjoyed it.

JUHOON Especially for me, I think performing on stage is worth it.

JAMES Rather than entering a chart — I think the chart is a big achievement and I think we do have goals for our music — but I don’t think it’s like the chart or a certain number. I think it’s more of what we feel, and what kind of feeling we get from the song. That was the main goal. How do we express ourselves as raw and authentic as possible? Achieving [a debut on] the chart is a nice thing, but what really solidifies that I’m proud of my job and I like my job is performing and meeting people performing.

What has it been like getting to know your fans? What has it been like finding how you’re able to share parts of yourself with them? That’s not really something they can teach you in training.

JAMES Personally, I think it’s just a start. We have only started a month ago and so there’s still a lot of things that haven’t been shared yet. A lot of things to unveil and show. I think up to this moment we shared a lot of different sides of ourselves, but we have a lot more that hasn’t been shown. [We have] a lot of different sides [to ourselves], which we personally know or the people really close to us every single day know. I hope through time, we can be able to share that [with the fans], really just treat everyone like friends, just share this journey and grow with each other.

MARTIN Honesty and being genuine is the most important thing. When it comes to K-pop and the music industry, communicating with fans [is important]. I think that our fans are lovely people, so we really want to make good relationships with them and really communicate well with them over time.

I don’t want to ask you about other groups too much, since this is about you, but you’re obviously the first group to debut from BigHit in six years. You have some incredibly successful seniors. What does it mean to debut at the company?

JAMES It’s truly an honor. For us, even though we do have our hardships and stuff, to be honest, our seniors really paved the way and opened a lot of chances and a lot of different outlets for us.

MARTIN If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be in L.A..

JAMES For us, to be able to create and do our work, it’s all because of them. It’s truly an honor to be able to just follow in their footsteps.

MARTIN Sometimes, I’ll be just super calm and chill, nonchalant, but at the same time when I remember that my senior is BTS, I’m like oh, I gotta start to work. It’s crazy. It still doesn’t feel real that one of the top K-pop artists is my senior. TXT too, [they’re an] insane group, in a positive way.

JAMES I think it’s totally valid if you say we have it easier. OK, if we have it easier, we can show our passion more and show that we are willing to work hard. I think that’s the most important thing. With a good environment [around] you, at the same time, you just have to stay grounded. It’s very easy to lose your way.

Even if you’ve been training together for a while, it’s only been a short while since you’ve debuted. What has it been like learning to work with each other?

SEONGHYEON It’s been two years since we became a group. Throughout our training years, we worked on our songs and albums together. That really gave us a chance to bond and learn how to communicate with each other. [When it comes to figuring out] how to work with each other, we learned that already through our trainee period. Now, I would say that we’re not really experiencing any growing pains because we’ve already got that out of the way earlier.

JAMES I think also because we create stuff together… All five, we create stuff together, we write songs together, we shoot videos together, we choreograph together. That’s why we have a lot of conversations.

MARTIN We clash a lot, but we don’t really get into an intense or aggressive fight. It’s more like we talk it out, or sometimes we just need time. Time kind of fixes it, and then we get together again.

JUHOON I think I’m very lucky to have a team, not just [be] by myself. Having more people, it helps you in many different situations. Also, just making things [helps]. We can have even more ideas, so we can make something more unique and more like us.

MARTIN There’s less burden as a team.

Do you feel that being involved creatively in the things you’re putting out into the world helps you connect a bit more?

JAMES Definitely. For us, creating our stuff and creating our story — because we share our story — it definitely comes from an organic place. To be honest, it comes natural to us. It feels natural for us to share our story and do some certain things in our style. For us, it’s just creating stuff and fooling around and putting that into our art. It’s a natural thing.

MARTIN Just talking about, even for the second album, we’re working on the lyrics still, but there are times when we love the lyrics. It’s so cool. We’re really talking about something, flexing and everything. I like it. But then you notice, oh no, it’s not about us. Then we take a step back, get out from the spotlight for a second. We have to think about, “OK, so who are we? What do we want to talk about?” I think that made our identity for the first album. At the same time, we luckily resonated with people out there.

KEONHO Through our first album we really wanted to portray our true selves. Through the album we wanted to tell the stories of what we can do, and the stories that only we can tell. The key point of the album is authenticity.