RIWOO is 20 years old—and he’s been dancing for 10 of them.

On Weverse, you wrote to your fandom, ONEDOOR, “It’s not about feeling weighed down by the immeasurable amount of love—it’s just that I want to give back just as immeasurable an amount of love.” It seems being loved like that really means a lot to you.
RIWOO: I think it’s a truly amazing thing just to be loved by someone. What really fills my heart is that someone like me can be consoled and empowered by our fans, and how the other members and I can be a source of comfort and strength to them in turn.

How did it feel expressing your emotions so openly to your fans? That’s not something you typically see.
RIWOO: I’ve always been more comfortable in writing. Writing is fine, but meeting the fans up close and hearing them compliment me still makes me feel quite shy. (laughs) It's tough looking them in the eyes, and it can be hard when they’re all looking at me at once. Even when we were singing “OUR” at our comeback show, we kicked it off with ONEDOOR, and when around 20 of them were looking at me and saying nice things to me, it made me feel super nervous.

You put on some impressive performances on stage. Do you find you’re still not quite used to having all that attention on you?
RIWOO: I’m okay when I’m dancing on stage. I actually enjoy the attention, but as soon as the music stops, it’s like—how should I put it? It’s like, suddenly I’m no longer RIWOO. I’m standing there facing the audience as just Sanghyuk [RIWOO’s legal name]. The reason why I felt okay writing on Weverse was because I wanted to say thanks to the fans for all the love they send my way but there was no other channel to do that, and also I felt like I couldn’t say that to their faces.

Why do you specifically find it difficult to express your love verbally?
RIWOO: I guess I’ve always felt self-conscious ever since I was little. I used to worry a lot about what people would think of me or how they would interpret my words. It’s gotten better since I became an idol, but that still seems to affect me.

But you’re okay having the attention when you’re onstage?
RIWOO: I’m definitely confident when I’m performing onstage. When I just started out dancing, I felt self-conscious even when I was onstage. I kept thinking about how the audience would see me, but at some point, all those worries just disappeared—at least when I’m onstage.

Could it be a result of practicing so much?
RIWOO: It might be. Dancing has been the biggest and the most enduring part of my life. I think I used to just do whatever was most appealing to me—the dances I wanted to do, the songs I wanted to sing—but now I end up thinking a lot about three different things: what I want to do, what I need to do, and what fans would like to see. Before I debuted, I liked to dance without showing any emotion on my face. I thought I had to make people focus on the dancing only by not showing any emotions, but now I know that having expression is actually part of the performance. That was something of a transition I had to go through at that time. It was hard learning to do so many facial expressions while getting ready to debut.

Did you believe that because of how serious you were about dancing?
RIWOO: I was honestly only focused on dancing at that point. I work to grasp the facial expressions and the performance as a whole now, but back then, I pushed everything else to the side and focused solely on dancing.

BOYNEXTDOOR’s choreography requires you to be expressive with your face and act out the scenarios within the songs, and the new album, HOW?, is no exception. What do you do to make that work?
RIWOO: I practice myself to the bone—making my facial expressions look natural, but through endless consideration and practice. I set up a few beats for myself to hit, like winking at a certain point, then for the rest I just try to express the song exactly as I feel it at the moment.

I imagine you thought especially hard about “OUR,” since it’s the first track off the album and you also do the intro.
RIWOO: “OUR” wasn’t easy. It’s a song about how it feels to go out on your first date with the person you like. I thought, It’s a first date, so it’s not just about being happy—it’s also about feeling shy, a little awkward, and really excited. I felt like I needed to show all that, so I thought of what it looks like to have a hard time making eye contact when you smile, so I would look down and just smile to myself, then look back up again.

Did you intentionally keep the dance moves in the song light? You almost seem to be floating.
RIWOO: I don’t normally dance in a heavy or intense way anyway, so I guess I was already well suited for “OUR.” I’ve been dancing a long time, so I’ve learned a lot of different genres, and even then I think a lot about how to make the style my own. I feel like I truly found my own style after joining KOZ. Dance was just something I enjoyed doing before coming to KOZ, but once I joined it and came one step closer to my dream of becoming a singer, I started looking at dancing in a different light—like considering the bigger picture, including singing at the same time.

I’m guessing you put a lot of thought into performing “Earth, Wind & Fire” live especially. The tempo keeps changing and you have to be constantly moving.
RIWOO: At first, I was like, can we even do this? It was hard to record the singing, too, but the choreography really took me by surprise. It was even tougher than I thought. I kept telling myself, I’m gonna give this one my all. It was my first time being the one to do the intro for one of our singles, and it’s me and WOONHAK for the outro, too, which felt both new for me and probably for ONEDOOR, too. So I kept telling myself, Just have fun with it, and it’ll turn out great. And I thought a lot about the ending. I thought hard about how to make the ending, where I knock down each of the other members till I’m the last one standing, more amusing and more memorable.

Did you dye your hair to leave a strong impression too?
RIWOO: I’d been telling the label forever that I wanted to give pink hair a try. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. We shot the music video after I dyed it, and it felt like a perfect match. (laughs) My facial expressions and whole attitude can change a lot depending on what I’m wearing on a given day and my overall look. Changing my hair and the rest of my style changed my way of thinking, even. I decided to loosen up and be bolder with my expressions and dance moves.

So you loosened up, then?
RIWOO: Umm … yes. I used to think it’d make me look bad if I went over the top, but that wasn’t the case at all. It actually lets me express myself in a much broader fashion. For example, “l i f e i s c o o l” is about us staying in and hanging out together, and my mindset for the performance was, I’m the only one sober but I might as well enjoy myself, so let’s just have a good time with everybody!

Even still, it can’t be easy to show yourself off just having a good time.
RIWOO: Well, for “Earth, Wind & Fire,” for example, the choreo’s so exhausting that even now it leaves me completely wiped. But now I know exactly what I need to highlight for that song, so when we do it, I just think, all I gotta do is have fun with it.

Has that had an influence on you offstage as well? I guess you need to have the mindset of “being sober but might as well enjoying it” when you’re making BOYNEXTDOOR content, too.
RIWOO: It’s hard. I’m pretty introverted, and even I don’t know what’s going to suddenly set me off and get me all excited. And then I come back down to Earth just as quickly. It’s pretty random. (laughs) Sometimes I get excited when my mind's completely blank. We do games and other challenges in our videos sometimes, and I’ve heard people tell me, “You don’t have to try so hard,” a number of times. (laughs) Maybe I end up paying more attention to working hard than having fun without even realizing it because I tend to get super competitive and can’t turn it off.

I bet that determination translates over to when you’re making an album, too.
RIWOO: I spend a lot of time thinking about what I can bring to the table. For this album, I thought about whether I should show off a more intense version of what I’ve been doing all along or something completely different. I wanted to try something that was still RIWOO-ish but also not something that’s already been done.

What would qualify as “RIWOO-ish”?
RIWOO: Things you would expect from me, like how I’ll try to grab people’s attention with my dance. Even I know that’s what I’m like. I considered whether to build off of that or demonstrate a different skill altogether.

Did that also have an effect on how you recorded the songs for HOW? You practically belt out the emotions in “Dear. My Darling,” and you’re extremely bright and energetic in “l i f e i s c o o l.” The range of emotions you put on display seems to have widened.
RIWOO: I put so much thought into things while working on the album. A song is the sum of our parts, so I know how important singing my parts is. I put a good amount of thought into how to sing each and every syllable and get the emotions across. I recorded my parts over and over and tried my best to grasp the feelings behind the songs.

The way you sing in the second verse of “Amnesia” stands in contrast to the first. Is that a reflection of your personal interpretation of it?
RIWOO: I felt that the words, “wear on,” in, “You wear on my nerves as hard as you can,” were impactful in themselves, so I thought I could give them more power by not singing them in falsetto. I tried to give it a sense of progression by singing that part with a lot of power, then easing up toward the end and turning mellow. We sort of become the character in the lyrics that we sing in the moment. The lyrics in “l i f e i s c o o l” go, “Like a lazy grasshopper / Lay down,” and I do feel really laid-back before the song starts.

When do you normally feel most laid-back in a day-to-day setting? Maybe when you’re gaming, like you were in the photoshoot earlier?
RIWOO: These days, when I don’t have any work, honestly—all I do is sleep. (laughs) I do like gaming, but nowadays I keep in mind what I’m doing the next day and don’t play to the point that it would make me tired.

And how is gaming in moderation working out for you? (laughs)
RIWOO: I used to have trouble exercising self-control, but lately, I don’t even have the energy for it. (laughs) One time I fell asleep while playing, and ever since then, I never think, I gotta finish this before going to bed. Otherwise I’m nodding off the whole time. (laughs)

With such a hectic schedule, and with the group making their own songs and choreography, what’s your secret to keeping yourself energized physically and emotionally?
RIWOO: A lot of it is thanks to the fans. Hearing them cheer for us before we even get onstage—just from our songs playing or “BOYNEXTDOOR” showing on the screen—fills me with so much emotion. I’m determined not to let them down when I hear that. It makes me want to give them even more to like.

What do you think of the group now that you’ve been together for a year?
RIWOO: I felt confident about our songs when we debuted, then I became confident about myself onstage, and now I’m confident about us as a group. I know each and every one of the group members will be there to support the rest of us, and with everyone dedicated to fulfilling their respective roles, we shine both as six individuals and as a team. And I think we have a lot of faith in each other for that reason.

What exactly do you mean when you say you “have a lot of faith in each other”?
RIWOO: When we’re doing “One and Only,” for example, TAESAN and I always change up the moves we do behind the door. We used to plan it all in advance, but now we do it right before getting onstage. A slip-up would cost the performance, but I think we’re able to do that because of how much faith we have in each other. It lets us be more spontaneous and it makes the performance more fun.

You’ve described BOXNEXTDOOR as your “other family.” They must be a major influence on you, too.
RIWOO: We know each other so well now that we barely need to get into details when discussing our ideas anymore—we just intuitively understand what one of us means when he says or does something. I have a really good idea what they’re having a hard time with when they are, and we’re able to help out without even thinking about it. On the other hand, when there is something to talk about, we make time to get it out in the open and talk it through. Now we joke around with each other more and just talk like real brothers would—not just about performances, but about everything. We talk about so many random things that we forget what we were even talking about before. (laughs)

Given how shy you can be, those conversations together must be that much more meaningful for you.
RIWOO: I’m not too upbeat when I talk. And when I talk with the members, I can just talk the way I normally do. If we say my energy level is usually a 40, then I can just keep myself at 40 with them. But when I’m anywhere else I’m always trying to bring my energy level up. And you know how when you’re in a meeting or something and everyone looks at you when you’re talking? I find those moments quite nerve-wrecking. But I have no problem when it’s just me and the other group members casually swapping ideas. In other situations, not so much.

What’s it like talking things over with them during practice time? I picture you giving a lot of input when you’re practicing choreography.
RIWOO: Even when I was a trainee, I had a tendency to take the lead when it came to dancing. Because of that, both the members and the performance directors seem to trust me and leave a lot to me. The first thing we do when learning choreo is find some middle ground with the instructors, then we decide on the details and sometimes make adjustments to the moves and formations. Since our songs are full of messages we want to convey, we talk things over and adapt our gestures to line up with them.

So you make your stance pretty well known when it comes to dancing, but how do you handle things when opinions differ?
RIWOO: I think carefully about my ideas and come up with ways to make them persuasive before bringing them up. But despite all that, if there’s still opposition, I drop it right away. (laughs) Tensions can run high when working with a packed schedule, so we just gloss over minor things. Having said that, when it comes to dancing, I’ll still speak up if it feels like there’s something that needs to be addressed.

Did you do a lot of such addressing this time around? (laughs)
RIWOO: This time? I spoke up maybe five out of 10 times. And bit my tongue the other five. (laughs)

It sounds like there’s a lot you want to convey through your dances. Is there anything in particular that’s especially important to you in that regard?
RIWOO: I want to put on dance performances that any dancer would get excited over. There isn’t a dancer in the world who doesn’t love Michael Jackson, for instance, so I’ve thought about doing a performance inspired by his moves

Your solo performance at AAA [Asia Artist Awards] had moves reminiscent of Michael Jackson. And the smooth turns you do in “OUR” make it look like you’ve studied his moves carefully.
RIWOO: It was once I found out more about Michael Jackson that I was able to truly solidify my approach to dancing. He’s the whole reason I started to think about how to make my dancing an artistic expression, not just a series of movements. I can’t think of anyone else who could ever sing and dance the way he did. I have a lot of admiration for him, which is why I learned so much about him.

If you were going to express yourself through dance right now, what would it look like?
RIWOO: I’d probably dance to “Earth, Wind & Fire”—just being, like, “This—This is everything I am.”