P1Harmony Talks 7th Mini Album SAD SONG: A fun take on loneliness

Rising K-pop sensations P1Harmony have returned with their 7th mini album, SAD SONG. The album features seven tracks across different genres, with members THEO, KEEHO, JIUNG, INTAK, SOUL, and JONGSEOB showcasing their wide-ranging skills by contributing to the production, composition, and writing of the project. The main track of the album, ‘SAD SONG’ is about exploring themes of overcoming loneliness with a focus on positivity. The song doesn’t really come across as… sad. KEEHO even said it’s a track you can twerk to, and after listening, we can totally confirm! We got the chance to have a quick 10-minute chat with P1Harmony to get to know more about the group and their 7th mini album, SAD SONG.

Hi guys, thank you so much for your time with us! – The main track, ‘SAD SONG’ is obviously about being sad and feeling stuck. However, it’s a very fun and catchy song. Can you explain the inspiration behind this theme and how you approached creating a fun song about loneliness?
KEEHO: That was the biggest homework to overcome. When we heard the demo for ‘SAD SONG’ we were very struck because the song sounded nothing like it. We thought we were gonna change the title of the song, but I think that’s what makes the song fun. Fans will be thinking at first: ‘Oh, they’ve come out with a ballad’ but in reality it’s an up-tempo song which will make it really stand out. We were able to fit it in a storyline, so the song really talks about a hero that saves the world and finds peace. After finding their peace they fall into emptiness and sadness; we as P1Harmony overcame that feeling, so even though it has a sad undertone, the main point is how we can overcome that sadness.

Your album mixes different music styles such as trap, rock, and R&B. How do you combine all these sounds and still keep the album feeling like one complete piece?
JONGSEOB: As P1Harmony it’s one of our goals to experiment with music that represents us as a team and shows different sides of us. When we had that goal in mind, we made it work out with the other songs on the album as well. That’s what inspires us, and for me especially that’s what I like about K-pop. With American artists when they release full albums it’s really important to make it cohesive. With K-pop we are six different members and each member wants to do something different – to be able to reflect that in our album makes K-pop so much fun! It also sounds different because we have three different songs that are written by different members, so all our ideas combined together made it sound unique. It’s gonna be a rollercoaster, every track has a different life.

It’s indeed a rollercoaster! I also saw the concept pictures on Instagram and I was quite… in shock! Can you tell me more about those pictures?
KEEHO: The album has a really fun story! It’s about a hero, which is us. We are showing ourselves as P1Harmony, saving the world and finding peace, but we also wanted to give a touch about the sadness and loneliness part. With the first concept pictures, we are standing in front of a fire and we don’t really care about what’s going on. It gives contrast with what people think heroes used to do, but we wanted to show some anger and sadness. Then we were thinking, ‘What is the most traditional way to show a hero?’ So we had different clothes to resemble different attributes, with a knife and other weapons. With the last concept we wanted to show was that everything can be seen as luxurious and colourful, but our impressions inside can be different than what you see outside, I really wanted to show that visually.

So it’s all you! – I was also wondering about the hilarious TikTok’s you make. Who comes up with these ideas?
KEEHO: Thank you haha. Pretty much with our personal reels and TikToks, it’s all of us! I’m an average TikTok user, I’m on the app all the time, so when I see something funny I save it. I think it’s good to show our fans the more relatable and personal sides of us.

The English version of ‘SAD SONG’ wraps up the album. What was the reason behind ending the album with this track, and how does the English version differ from the Korean one in terms of emotion and delivery?
JIUNG: English is such a universal language, there are so many people that can understand it. We wanted to spread the message and reach different places that Korean maybe wouldn’t be able to. We tried to keep the language as accurate as possible, so we switched up some things but the base of the song remains the same.

One more thing, do you have a special message for your P1ECES?
THEO: We are coming back for the first time in seven months with our 7th mini album! We worked really hard on this album. We hope our P1ECES all over the world receive this album with love and are able to make more great memories with the music we release. We can’t wait to make those memories with our P1ECES too. Next time we’re on tour, we’ll make sure to put the new song on the set list and we hope we can have fun with you guys. Thank you so much!

We want to thank P1Harmony so much for making time to chat with us about their 7th mini album SAD SONG! Support P1Harmony by listening to SAD SONG right here: