You’d never know with the way their fans show up for them that ZEROBASEONE, composed of nine members KIM JI WOONG, ZHANG HAO, SUNG HAN BIN, SEOK MATTHEW, KIM TAE RAE, RICKY, KIM GYU VIN, PARK GUN WOOK, and HAN YU JIN have only just passed the one year mark since their debut. Their fans, ZEROSEs, were able to attend a plethora of events themed around ZB1 (and featuring the group themselves) throughout KCON LA 2024 presented by Samsung Galaxy at the end of July, and attend they did! The convention was constantly a flurry of ZEROSEs running around to spot the members at various stages. Throughout the convention and concert days that they attended, the members of ZEROBASEONE were all highlighted and appreciated by fans and new listeners alike. While walking through the convention grounds, attendees were seen with headbands, slogans and signs representing all nine members. Despite their insanely busy KCON schedule, which included two main stage performances, meet-and-greets and a visit to the GRAMMY Museum, ZEROBASEONE took a few minutes for a quick interview with Pop Crave. Learn all of the essentials about ZB1 in our Q&A below!
Out of all of the members, who do you feel identifies the most with ZEROBASEONE’s music?
KIM GYU VIN: I think it would be Matthew. There’s a lot of positive and bright songs in our album and Matthew has bright and positive expressions and personality.
SEOK MATTHEW: I think Gyuvin also matches it too, because his personality is very similar to me.
The ‘Feel the Pop’ music video goes through many different concepts and styling for the group. So, is there anything left that you all want to try? Does that tie into different musical styles that you all would want to try as well?
GYU VIN: Astronaut!!
MATTHEW: Astronaut? I mean, I guess we haven’t done Astronaut [concept] yet, who knew we’d do Cowboys, but here we are. [laughs] I think one concept we’d all want to try is hip hop! Maybe hip hop in the future, but yeah, I don’t think a lot of people expect that, but I feel like, you know, if we do that, that’d be nice.
IMAGE COURTESY OF WAKEONE
Out of all of ZB1’s title tracks, which do you all think represents your identity as a group the most?
KIM TAE RAE: “In Bloom”.
SUNG HAN BIN: Yes, I’ll choose “In Bloom” as well because it is the beginning of our youth, our story. It’s the beginning of our journey and I think every time we hear “In Bloom” there’s something sentimental that really keeps our hearts full.
Looking back after you’ve just passed your One Year Anniversary, what advice would you give to yourself after you just became a ZB1 member?
PARK GUN WOOK: To protect myself- I like to say that, you know, it’s important to take care of other people and be nice to all of the fans and people around me, all the members and staff, that is definitely a priority, but in order to do that, you have to become someone who can share all that love, so make sure you are putting yourself as a priority and you take care of your own self.
KIM JI WOONG: Of course we’ve all given our best till now. However if we were to go back, I would tell myself not to neglect little things and work harder. Also always remember to thank ZEROSE every step of the way.
**Additional comment made by KIM JI WOONG post-interview publishing.
Can U.S. Zerose expect to see ZEROBASEONE on your upcoming tour?
RICKY: We will be sure to keep talking to our company to give us a US. tour. Hopefully!!
How does it feel to return to KCON LA for the second year in a row? Is there anything in particular that excites you about KCON or Los Angeles in general?
HAN YU JIN: When we first came to KCON LA last year, we were greeted with a lot of love and support. This time, we are also greeted with a lot of love and support. I’d like to hear the cheers once again, so I’ll do my best to show you a better performance. It’s so exciting and it was an honorable experience. It’s an honor to be back here in LA. I think that last year really proved as a great energy source and motivation for all of us. So we would love to witness that again and we really look forward to having a great show at KCON this year.
IMAGE COURTESY OF CJ ENM
What would you recommend for someone who wants to learn about ZEROBASEONE to watch or listen to? What’s the first thing you’d recommend?
MATTHEW: You know, if I was just someone that didn’t know anything about ZEROBASEONE, I’d want to see CampBaseOne. Have you seen that?
A little bit! I agree, it’s great.
MATTHEW: But I think it’s like very real, like the realest version of us. And it was just so much fun. If you watch, if you start from there, you can see how much we grew. From then up until now. So I think that’d be the best type of content that there is.
What about music wise?
MATTHEW: Oh, music wise! What do you guys think?
GUN WOOK, HAN BIN: “Back to ZEROBASE”!
MATTHEW: “Back to ZEROBASE”? Yeah. Maybe our intro, “Back to ZEROBASE” on ‘YOUTH IN THE SHADE’.
Which member keeps up the most with pop culture and how do you go about keeping up with it? I think we all know the answer.
MATTHEW: Yeah [laughs]
GYU VIN: Well actually, Ricky and Matthew know a lot of memes from America, and I would like to learn the memes, I want to learn about memes and talk about them. So I’m trying to fill my algorithm with foreign trends. I really want to feed it with all the current memes and pop culture so I can keep up.
RICKY: Yeah! Me and Matthew, we are always there at the first of the trend. So we always tell members what kind of memes or trends there is maybe on TikTok or something, but then for me, I need members like Gyuvin to tell me what is trending in Korea, and it’s like an exchange.
MATTHEW: Yooo.
What are some of your pop culture obsessions? We’re Pop Crave, so we’re all about pop culture. What is your favorite thing right now?
ZHANG HAO: Recently, I watched so many African choreography dances. I think the music is so charming and the dancing is so amazing.
IMAGE COURTESY OF WAKEONE
Keep up with all nine members of ZEROBASEONE as they release their new album “Cinema Paradise” in August 2024.
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