버추버 인터렉티브_플레이브

SPECIAL

버추버 인터렉티브_플레이브

2024.10.14

Try clicking each artist and their signs!

Beginnings

YEJUN

I had my heart set on forming a group with some talented people. I hoped they’d be creative and could bring out the PLAVE flavor, whether that be through making songs or choreography. And most of all, I wanted the members of the group to be good, kindhearted people.

EUNHO

YEJUN came to me first and said we should work together. Honestly, I respect YEJUN’s skills so much that I thought, If I’m with him, what can’t we do? And I became a member of PLAVE on the spot. He’s so skilled musically, and has such a good personality and nature about him, that there were zero doubts in my mind.(laughs)

HAMIN

The whole idea of virtual idols felt a little weird to me at first and, to be perfectly honest, I was worried as far as my abilities went. I was worried for a little while that I might even hold the others and the music they make back, but it didn’t last long. Thanks to their help, I improved faster than I expected, and I feel like my confidence and self-esteem improved, too. The biggest reason I chose to do it in the end was that everyone trusts each other.

Music

YEJUN

We finished up a chapter of the PLAVE universe with our debut song “Wait For You,” “The 6th Summer,” and “WAY 4 LUV.” We do a lot of talking amongst ourselves anytime we’re writing songs, including thinking back to the good times we’ve had with PLLI and times we’ve joked around with each other. And the group considers PLLI to be our muse when we’re working on songs, and it always makes us happy to write a song about them.

HAMIN

Seeing as we’re all fundamentally different, we make it our top priority to tailor the choreography we make to each member of the group. Even when we’re practicing, we’re usually pretty quick to make progress, then after that we help the members who are slower to pick it up individually or we practice on our own before doing it all together and quickly polish it up. And since we make our choreo with people who like the group in mind, we work to make highlights out of our fictional universe or the narrative ideas we come up with while interacting during streams—things fans will like and find memorable. We work in things like inside catchphrases from our streams or workout poses so it’ll be memorable and fun. I want to make music and put on performances that they’ll be able to hold and to cherish not just right now but way into the future, a long, long time from now.

NOAH

Whether there’s rhythm, special effects, and props here and there sometimes makes a difference on how choreographers come up with choreo that highlights those elements. It doesn’t normally feel right having choreo for a rock song, so we tried to make songs that sound like rock with an infusion of pop.

EUNHO

Being virtual idols, we face a number of issues. I don’t want to get too into that right now—we just want to use the music we’re most comfortable with to express our thoughts and feelings openly. “Virtual Idol”, for example, we think of ourselves as exactly that: virtual idols. And that’s something we want to express with confidence and with pride. We take a lot of pride in being virtual idols. And we’re confident in our abilities and always working on improving ourselves, just like in the lyrics I put out recently where I said, “Our beautiful wonderful fans sometimes worry but your idol gonna be the best, don’t worry / We’re our own brand, no need a viral marketing.” I wrote those because I wanted to assure our fans directly that that’s exactly how confident we are, meaning I know just how much they worry, but there’s no need to.

Performances and tech

BAMBY

Being a virtual idol group gives us some secret weapons that nobody else has. For example, a technique unique to our group that we used in “WAY 4 LUV” to represent a sense of freedom through voyage and adventure was having us disappear and then reappear again. We think up magical things like that or things that match the flow of the songs and then make use of those. NOAH comes up with a lot of ideas for that, too.

NOAH

When I first start writing a song, I come up with rough ideas about what might work where. I talk about what I think could work well for which parts because I want to help them come up with good choreo and hope they use my ideas. For example, if I tell them an idea I worked on for BAMBY to be falling at one point, or for there to be a part with magic in it, they write the choreo around that for us.

Hard work

BAMBY

I know now that choreo doesn’t just come from thin air—it takes a lot of careful planning. When I’m making it, I keep thinking about how we need to do something new. And it has to have a lot to do with our group narrative, too. And most importantly of all, we absolutely have to take responsibility for our supportive fans.

NOAH

As artists, we feel the need to keep giving the public something new and to keep taking on new challenges. We feel a sense of accomplishment from challenging ourselves and we’re always thinking up something new. We’re all very much the types who never feel satisfied with staying still or settling for what we’ve got and want to keep moving forward. We’re pretty good at keeping up the momentum and putting our ideas into practice, so we like pushing ourselves to try new things and find it exciting, too.

YEJUN

The recording process is painfully hard, but the love and appreciation our fans, PLLI, have for what we create turns it into something wonderful to look back on. The fact that that process is painful means we get really attached, and I know we’ll look back on it with fond memories, so while the next album we work on might be hundreds or even thousands of times more agonizing to get through, we have nothing to fear since we know it’ll become a good memory in the end.

Growth

YEJUN

We honestly didn’t expect to receive such an outpouring of love after just a year. It makes it even more dreamlike and such a happy experience. PLLI—that’s what our fandom’s called—are the ones who made it all possible. And we’re really happy we’re getting more and more opportunities to branch out into other areas and engage more with the wider public.

NOAH

It feels just like a dream. Everything about it’s just so amazing. It’s like I’m perpetually living in a dream within a dream.(laughs) There’s so many artists in the world, and I think it takes some luck to get noticed in the crowd. We’re truly fortunate.(laughs) That’s why we try to be ever more open with our adoring fans, thank them more often, and be even more ambitious with all our performances. We’re always thinking of our fans.

BAMBY

So many unexpected things have happened lately that it feels real and unreal at the same time. We’re virtual idols, which is a unique field, and there’s a ton of strong new artists coming onto the scene lately. We already knew it wouldn’t be easy to grow so quickly, so there’s no way we ever could’ve guessed we would expand like this.(laughs) But as we always say to each other, we just keep working towards a happy future together while thinking of PLLI and living each day like we always have.

PLAVE

YEJUN

I feel absolutely honored I get to sing with such talented people. It’s really reassuring knowing such talented folks are always there by my side. And, most of all, I get a sense of belonging with PLAVE that makes me happy and makes me feel secure. I hope people keep following us as we continue to grow. It’s sure to be interesting.(laughs)

NOAH

PLAVE’s just like family.(laughs) At the same time, I think I can describe us as songwriters, choreographers, and artists who make all their own material. We’ve come together in this atmosphere of family and harmony and I hope we can become the kind of artists who all help each other shine.

BAMBY

It’s even more fun working together now than when we started, and the only thing we can say has changed is that more people are interested in and excited about us the longer we’re at it. With that kind of anticipation, we feel a growing sense of duty. And having worked with the others for over a year now, we feel even closer, and I’ve seen more and more of what they’re capable of. We’re working even harder to highlight everyone’s personal strengths.

EUNHO

We were once asked if we could choose whether we’re more like virtual idols or more like just idols. But we’re not targeting one or the other—we’re what we say we are: virtual idols. We have what makes both so special and appealing. PLAVE is paving the way for new trends and cultures, and we hope that people will stay tuned and are looking forward to the new world our group is creating.

HAMIN

That’s actually one of the things we wonder in private about still—why people are so in love with us. If I were forced to try and think of what the answer might be, maybe it’s because everyone in PLAVE is so open and honest? It’s pretty obvious when we tell a lie.(laughs) So I’d say the reason’s that we’ve tried to approach our fans with honesty in everything we do, and that’s how we managed to find happiness—in a way that’s bigger than I ever expected. It’s nothing unusual for a singer to sing and dance, but actually being adored for doing it’s a whole different story. We’re eternally grateful and couldn’t be happier about all the love we get from our fans. That’s all I’ve got to say!