Cautious about opening up, completely comfortable the moment she’s onstage, ELENA’s a wave shaped by ebb and flow.
First impressions of her
ELENA: It takes me a while to open up to people. People meeting me for the first time always think I’m super chill, and I have no idea why. (laughs) But the rest of the group says I’m a completely different person once you really get to know me. Once I’m comfortable around you, this goofy side you wouldn’t expect from me comes out, and when I’m with the group, I’m especially determined to make them laugh. I love when I can make people laugh. It makes me happy, and it makes them happy too. The girls have started calling me Yellena. It’s a mix of my Korean name, Yena, and my English name, ELENA. I get embarrassed easily and my face turns red sometimes, and I think they call me that just to see it. (laughs)
Someone who listens
ELENA: I sort of have different chemistry with everyone in the group. With some of them, I get really energetic, but with some of the others, I end up matching their energy instead. I do really want to make them laugh, but when it’s a serious conversation, I’m more comfortable listening. I don’t think it matters so much whether I have advice to give them when they’re having a hard time. Just being there for them is what matters. Most people already know what they need to do anyway. They just need someone there to listen. And I want to be that person.
From ABC to ABD
ELENA: I actually used to plan absolutely everything out. I always made checklists of the things I needed to do, and if things didn’t go according to plan, I’d get stressed out, but when I became a trainee, there was a different schedule every single day and things were constantly changing. I figured it’d only make things harder if I let myself get stressed out every time, so now I try to just “go with the flow”—like riding a wave, tuning as I go.
Singing as a secret hobby
ELENA: I was hardcore into studying when I was in school. I liked getting good grades, and I felt really accomplished when I saw how that reflected all the effort I put in. Plus, I wanted to make my parents proud. I tried so hard in every subject that it was hard to even pick a favorite. And in the middle of all that, I still made time for all the classic high school memories, like homecoming and football games, so singing was really more a secret hobby I kept to myself. I first realized I loved singing back in a choir class when I was really young, but it took something like 10 years before I really started auditioning.
The flute is like the voice
ELENA: I was serious about playing instruments too. Piano really helped me learn to read music and understand chords, and the flute helped shape my overall musical sense. And importantly, the flute has this quality where your breath control and the sound itself resemble the human voice. The dynamics shift with even the slightest change in breath, and I think that taught me how to express a whole range of emotions.
My first microphone, courtesy Dad
ELENA: I wanted to be an idol ever since I was little, but it always felt like this impossibly far-off dream. Then I started getting chances to sing for people I knew, and as my confidence grew bit by bit, I started sending out emails for auditions. When I actually got a response, that’s when I thought, “Maybe this could really happen.” My parents were so supportive too. My dad’s especially into music, so when I told him I wanted to record covers, he bought me a nice mic and put together an entire recording setup for me. My parents were the first ones to see the potential in me, and I’m really grateful for that.
So long, ELENA from Maryland
ELENA: When I left for Korea to really become an idol, most of my friends back in the US didn’t really know what I was up to. Then once news of my debut came out, my best friends were so happy for me and threw their support behind me. But at the same time, I feel like they trust me to handle things on my own rather than making too big a deal out of it. It feels like they’re trying not to put any pressure on me and I’m grateful for that. During the photoshoot for the album cover, I saw a patch sweatshirt and it brought back memories of my time in the US, which was such a nice surprise. It was really similar to what seniors at American high schools get, but I never got to wear one myself back then, sadly. So getting to wear it with the group now that I’m in TUIDE felt really special.
Tuning the tide with TUIDE
ELENA: When I first saw the name TUIDE, I thought, “How do you even pronounce this?” (laughs) But once I heard it out loud, I thought it was actually really cute. The more I heard it, and the more I said it myself, the more I grew to love it. And once I learned what it actually meant, I thought it suited our group perfectly.
Trust your gut, follow your heart
ELENA: When we were working on our debut album, the thing I heard most was “sing with confidence” and “give it your own vibe.” I heard a lot of advice like that during recording from a lot of the staff, including the two GroovyRoom producers, and at first, it was hard to get a feel for things, but then at some point, I just cleared my head and sang without overthinking it, and it sounded way better.
I guess the less I thought about it, the more my vibe came through. That was especially true with “SUN KISS.” There’s a strong rhythm but it has this laid-back feel to it thanks to the acoustic guitar. Bringing out the bass of a song is the hardest part, but once I stopped thinking and just went with my gut, the recording turned out great. The more I overthought how I should sing it, the less natural it sounded. Same with “Flip-Flop Girl,” which is one of my favorites on the album. I just enjoyed the song so much that I made all these different facial expressions when we performed it without even thinking about it. And that’s really the core message of the whole album too—seven girls dancing full of energy and just enjoying themselves together.
Practice over and over like a broken radio
ELENA: I have a dance duet with SEOYEON in “GRLS.” There’s a ton of hand motions and the timing’s really tricky, so on the first day we started learning it, the two of us just kept repeating the same section over and over, like a broken radio. (laughs) But the more we practiced, the more we naturally got in step with each other. The solo choreography, on the other hand, was soul dance, which I always loved. I think the groove just comes out on its own when I lose my body to the rhythm since I love the style so much.
Shy girl with a big voice
ELENA: There’s a ton of harmony in “GRLS” especially. I’m on the chorus of every track on this album, and recording “GRLS” was the hardest one, but also the most fun. Every time I hear my voice, it makes me proud. I want to expand my vocal range even more in the future, and someday, I’d like to make my own music, too. I think that’d be amazing. Singing’s what I do for a living, but it’s honestly still my favorite hobby too, so anytime I have free time, I just sing whatever I feel like, purely for the feel-good vibes. I sing songs like “Halo” that I adore, and lately I’ve been particularly into listening to and singing alternative R&B by artists like Daniel Caesar. And if I had to pick one song to sing just for the fans, I’d want it to be “shy girl” by SOLE. I love how it sounds, but what really resonates with me is how it’s about never going back to who you were in the past. I’m usually pretty chill, but get me onstage and I’m overflowing with energy.
Days off
ELENA: On days off, I usually go out, typically alone. Since coming to Korea, I’ve eaten out by myself a lot too. I’ll go somewhere like a good bakery, a cafe, a pasta place. I’m not someone who’s scared of being alone or bothered by it. When we have downtime together, sometimes I watch movies with the girls. I like horror movies, so when we’re going to watch something together, I usually try to steer us in that direction. But then again, “Frozen” was my favorite movie as a kid, and even now, we sometimes all end up singing the songs. It gets pretty chaotic. (laughs) And honestly, even just talking with the group, there’s never enough time in the day.
Somewhere between an NYC girl and a Cali girl
ELENA: I love shopping and check out online stores a lot, and I get a lot of my style inspiration from Pinterest. I get a lot of inspiration from the rest of the group too. My go-to is the clean girl aesthetic, but lately I’ve been trying to mix things up. Being in TUIDE has exposed me to a lot of styles I never knew about before. I actually wore a bandana for the first time while we were prepping for the album. I guess it was working for me because the staff kept working bandanas into my look after that. (laughs) Still, it’s hard to pick just one style. In winter, I want to be a New York City girl, and in summer, I want to be a California girl.
Homes
ELENA: This is kind of a funny story, but … I actually had another dream besides being a singer when I was little. I wanted to be a combination real estate agent and interior designer. (laughs) I loved anything to do with homes. I really loved remodeling and interior design, and I even just loved touring houses for fun. It’s such a niche interest, right? (laughs) If I ever get to decorate our place myself someday, I want to lay down a rug, put out a bean bag, put in some soft lighting, and just make it really cozy.
A second family
ELENA: I do love spending time alone, but I quickly miss the other girls when they’re not around. There was one time when we had a day off where everyone went off to do their own thing, and even after a few hours I already felt something was missing and really wanted to see them. I was so happy to see them when we got back together, and that’s when I realized we’re basically a family. When I first came to Korea, being away from my family was hard, but now the group’s my second family. Our personalities and interests are all really different, but we understand each other completely. Whenever we’re together, we just talk so much that we can go on for hours. Sometimes that’s a problem, actually, because we end up not getting enough sleep. (laughs) We’re so in sync that whenever one of us starts doing something, the rest of us tend to go along with it. Lately we’ve all been eating these chewy konjac jelly snacks that YI HANI started eating first. To be honest, they don’t really have a notable flavor, but I think that’s part of the appeal.
A group bursting with energy
ELENA: There’s a lot of milestones I want to hit as an idol, but one of them is winning No. 1 on a music show. I’d also really love to do one of those puppy interviews where you get to pet dogs. Dogs are just so cute, and I feel like it’d be really iconic. But the biggest thing is that I want TUIDE to be seen as a group with a different kind of energy—one that’s contagious so that people walk away with something after seeing us. The music video for this album is kind of like that, actually. It’s about seven girls who show up in this quiet, sort of gloomy little town and start dancing. Compared to the whole atmosphere of the town, we’re absolutely bursting with energy. (laughs) I think that says a lot about what we’re all about.
A source of solace
ELENA: I want to be comforting to fans but also give them energy, just like I do with the group—someone they can come to when they need comforting, or when they need a source of strength. I can’t wait to meet them and show them our music and our performances, and I hope they’re looking forward to our album too.