Chapter Text
Sub-Zero Just Dropped the Surprise Album of the Decade
8 July, 2030
After more than six years of no public appearances together as a group, Australia-based rock band Sub-Zero have finally returned with their surprise album “Radio Silence” in an unexpected move that introduces their sound to new fans and reminds old ones that they’ve still got what it takes
When Sub-Zero first announced their hiatus six years ago, right when their career was reaching the peak of its momentum, everyone thought they were crazy. Fans were heartbroken, critics commented that this was the worst time they could’ve chosen to go AWOL, and even casual listeners understood that this was a huge hit to the rock scene. We’d all seen this before: bands announcing that they’re simply taking a break, only for the members to launch off solo careers and never look back. No one expected Sub-Zero to ever return to making music together, and yet, they’ve once again done what they do best: be unpredictable.
Radio Silence is a breath of fresh air from the typical sound associated with the rock genre. The band has taken this opportunity to show an older, more matured side of them to the world; a reintroduction of sorts, for both old fans and new. At the same time, the songs are instantly recognisable as the trademark Sub-Zero brand.
“We wanted to share something with the world that was really, truly, us,” explains lead guitarist Han Jisung in the letter that the band posted to their social media alongside the release of the album. “We wanted to update you all on what we’d been up to while we’d been gone, and show you how much we’ve all grown and improved since then. We’ve spent enough time writing albums about other people’s stories. It’s our turn to be honest now.”
The opening track, Hourglass , is also the album’s lead single. The music video departs from Sub-Zero ’s usual tradition of intricately plotted mini-films—instead, they’ve put together a compilation of home videos taken by the members, of everything from their families and pets to each other. Drummer Lee Felix even takes the camera with them on a road trip through Australia with their family. It lends a more personal touch to what is already their most intimate album to date.
“ Hourglass is a song about patience,” wrote bassist and co-songwriter Hwang Hyunjin in the same letter. “It’s about waiting for the sake of waiting, and loving for the sake of loving.” After listening to the song, one is inclined to agree with these flowery words.
The lyrics compare the permanence of sand in an hourglass to the permanence of the singer waiting for their loved one; describing the feeling of waiting on someone who you have no guarantee will ever want you back. Sonically, it is a lot quieter and more introspective than Sub-Zero’s usual singles. Lead singer Kim Seungmin’s honey vocals add to the experience with his characteristically emotional singing, capable of melting even the coldest of hearts. And yet, despite the sad premise, the song leaves the listener feeling more hopeful than not.
Second Summers, the next track…
BEFORE
🎸❤
[COVER] Superstition by Stevie Wonder
J.ONE • 468,378 views • 19 October 2015
28k likes • 753 dislikes • 2,108 comments
Hi guys!!! Today I’m posting a cover of one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists. Actually, THE favourite artist. I love this song a lot so I’m excited to share it with you guys! I hope you like it!!
[ORIGINAL RAP] Matryoshka
J.ONE • 253,629 views • 12 April 2016
34k likes • 486 dislikes • 3,588 comments
Hi guys!!! I’ve had this beat stuck in my head for the past 3 weeks, and I eventually couldn’t take it anymore and just sat down and wrote all of this down in one go. My homework can survive another day without me. You can also listen to this song on my SoundCloud! Please let me know what you think! I hope you like it!!
[COVER] Congratulations by DAY6
J.ONE • 906,889 views • 5 August 2016
52k likes • 986 dislikes • 4,651 comments
Hi guys!!! I have something different to post today. My friend, Seungmin, is a huge fan of Day6. He recently introduced me to their music and I immediately fell in love. I’d also been trying to get him on my channel for months, and he finally agreed to sing with me. So we decided to record a little cover of Congratulations for you guys!! Seungmin’s voice is beautiful so I hope you like it!!!
[COVER] You Were Beautiful by DAY6
J.ONE • 21,488,054 views • 26 February 2017
913k likes • 6k dislikes • 13,801 comments
Hi guys!!! It’s been a while since Seungminnie was on my channel, but since you guys liked the last video so much, we decided to film another cover together. Both of us loved the new album and this was personally my favourite song off it. Stream Sunrise!! And also our cover!! I hope you like it!!!
🎸❤
(Taken from an extract of Sub-Zero Uncovered , the best-selling biography containing individual interviews from everyone involved in the making of the band. This book is the members’ first and only time divulging the uncensored details of their history together.)
Jisung: I don’t think any of us expected to ever make it this big. We just wanted to throw our music into the void, and we thought that would be it, you know?
Seungmin: I never really wanted to be a singer. Much less in a band. Jisungie was the one who convinced me that my voice was even good enough for covers, and after that, I just kept singing because it was fun.
Interviewer: What did you want to do originally?
Seungmin: Baseball. Professionally. I was on the school team and everything, but I had to deal with an injury and I couldn’t pursue it any further.
Jisung: Yeah, Seungmin really wanted to be, like, a professional athlete, or whatever, but anyone with two eyes could see that he was literally made for music. Except him. I had to beg to get him to agree to posting a cover with me at all. But in the end, it was actually a Day6 cover we did together that was my first video to go properly viral.
Seungmin: After I realised the sports thing wasn’t going to work out, though, I put my whole heart into making music with Jisung. I knew this was something he loved, and something I could come to love just as much, too.
Jisung: Seungmin is super diligent. He started keeping notebooks and shit and reflecting on all our progress. Once he puts his mind to something, it’s impossible for anything to set him away from it. He was exactly who I needed by my side, both as a friend and as a fellow musical artist.
I told him I love his voice, but he also helped me learn to love mine even more. When I was still pre-T, I had a habit of pitching my voice deeper whenever I rapped or sang, but singing with him made me feel less insecure. I’ve always had a wide vocal range, and I was finally able to use my higher pitch without feeling self-conscious about it.
Seungmin: Jisung influenced me just as much as I influenced him. And then as we found our other members, we kept adding to the bigger picture, clicking together like the pieces of a puzzle we didn’t know how to solve yet.
Felix: Really, Jisung and Seungmin were the ones who started it all. The band was all the brainchild of their genius. Especially Jisung.
Seungmin: I knew Felix from school, and I knew they played the drums because I’d seen them post about it on their story. Jisung had been talking about wanting to start a band, by then, so I just walked up to them and asked if they wanted to join a band. We didn’t even have a name then.
Felix: I’d barely even talked to this guy before. But what was I gonna do? Say no?
Jisung: When Felix came on board, that was when things started getting really exciting. We had a drummer! It finally felt like a real band.
Seungmin: By that time, Jisung had already dropped out of our high school and started homeschooling instead. So he had a lot of free time to write the songs he wanted us to perform. It was a win-win situation for all of us, because Felix and I were too busy to work on the songs with him, but we still got to be in the band.
Felix: I’ll be honest, I was super intimidated by Jisung at first. I thought he was the coolest person on the planet. I think a lot of it just stemmed from jealousy, but I always found myself wanting to impress him.
Seungmin: Jisung has a way of making you feel like you’re the most important person in the world when he compliments something you do. It was funny seeing Felix so taken by him, but it made sense. I guess I was just immune to Jisung by then. This is what happens when you’re unlucky enough to have been stuck with someone since middle school.
Jisung: The songs I’d written back then were probably the most fun I’d ever had writing anything. Yeah, they were horrible, and a lot of the shit I wrote makes me want to full-body cringe even now, but I’ll never forget how much fun it was.
Felix: When we put out our first EP, just a mishmash of the few original songs we’d already posted on YouTube, I remember feeling so proud of myself. We were independent, and we didn’t instantly blow up or whatever, but I was still so proud.
I don’t think I’d ever felt that proud for anything I’d achieved in school or academics. It was just insane to see that something I’d put passion into could make me happy even if it didn’t “get results”.
Seungmin: Our EP kind of sucked, to be honest. Jisung can’t even listen to it now. He runs out of the room if you try to play it in front of him. But it was still ours.
Jisung: Some of the worst songs I’ve ever written. Some of my favourite songs I’ve ever written.
🎸❤
EP
No Zero
Sub-Zero • 2018 • 7 songs, 22 min 3 sec
- Industrial Joy
- Mentos and Coke
- Alien
- Hoodie Season
- How It Should be
- Grow Up
- I Graduated High School And All I Got Was This Stupid Anxiety Disorder
🎸❤
(Taken from a transcript on YouTube.)
Sub-Zero “Alien” Official Lyrics & Meaning | Verified
J.ONE: I wrote this song entirely in one sitting. Obviously, not all of it made the final cut, but most of what you see is what I’d managed to come up with in my room. It’s very teenage angst. The kind of feelings you can feel only when you’re seventeen and you think you’re the first person experiencing any kind of emotion ever.
SEUNGMIN: Jis—J.ONE is our lyricist. He’s written almost every song on the EP. Felix and I try to help every now and then, but it’s not much, you know? It’s better to stick to your strengths.
(J.ONE smiles at Seungmin.)
[Intro]
The only thing predictable about life is
Its unpredictability
Anyone can be anything
You can be everything
J.ONE: Oh, the intro. (Laughing) I don’t know if you can tell, but I kind of like Ratatouille. I’m serious. It was one of my favourite movies as a kid—I’m sure you can figure out why—and when I was thinking about what I could add to this song while working on it in the studio, it just clicked.
FELIX: It’s actually my voice, put through a very heavy modulator.
J.ONE: I’m sure you could sound like that without the mod if you tried hard enough.
[Chorus]
Falling down, I’m an alien on this earth
I don’t seem to belong anywhere by myself
No matter how much I smile, I feel so lonely
Like aliens trying to blend in with Earthlings
No one can hear me when I try and say something
SEUNGMIN: Who hurt you?
J.ONE: (Laughing) I don’t know! I told you, this song is pure teen angst. I was just really going through it that night.
FELIX: Hey, don’t sell yourself short.
J.ONE: Yeah, yeah. I think this chorus is pretty self-explanatory. Usually, when I’m writing something, I’ll come up with a scenario and try to go based off what I think would be the appropriate emotions or responses to that scenario—but this time, because I was writing about something that was way more personal, it was easier to get the words off my chest and onto paper. But it also makes it scarier when people listen to it.
SEUNGMIN: I felt so much pressure when I was recording this song. Jisung wrote such deeply emotional, relatable lyrics. I had to sing them in a way that would do them justice, both for the listener and for the writer.
J.ONE: You really did do an amazing job. You’re our main vocalist for a reason.
SEUNGMIN: Oh, I know. (Felix laughs.)
J.ONE: Something fun but difficult about this song is that I originally wrote it as an original to upload on my YouTube channel, like the other raps I post sometimes. I fully intended for it to be a solo song. But I showed these two the demo and they loved it enough to want to record it together.
SEUNGMIN: The difficult part he mentioned was trying to adapt the song into something more rock, suited for a band. Jisung usually handles the musical arrangements, but the drum solo after the second pre-chorus was all Felix’s brainchild.
FELIX: It was my first time trying anything like that. I honestly didn’t know if I trusted my skills enough to be able to pull it off, but I think it worked.
J.ONE: Of course it worked, you did great. The song would feel incomplete without your part.
FELIX: (Biting back a smile) Thank you.
J.ONE: So, the first verse—
🎸❤
Recording Agreement
This Music Recording Agreement (hereinafter “Agreement”) is made effective by and between the following parties:
Sunrise Records, hereinafter referred to as “Company” or “Recording Label”,
and Han Jisung, hereinafter referred to as “Artist”.
This Agreement between Company and Artist is effective upon the signing of all parties. Artist and Company agree to be bound by the following terms, in relation to the digital and physical release of Artist’s sound recordings and compositions comprising the band Sub-Zero (hereinafter referred to as “Record”).
Article 1: Term
This Agreement between Company and Artist shall commence upon 10 October 2018 and shall continue in full force and effect for a period of 7 years (hereinafter referred to as “Term”.) Company retains exclusive digital distribution rights to Record for Term. Company retains exclusive rights to physical distribution of Record on compact disc, cassette, vinyl and all other physical formats, now existing or hereafter arising, for Term.
Article 2: Ownership & Manufacturing
Company owns all sound recordings and compositions associated with Record and may seek to exploit those sound recordings and compositions in any commercially reasonable manner. Company shall register the copyright in the name of the Company. Company controls the copyright in Record for the duration of the Agreement and shall pay to Artist sound recording, mechanical, and publishing royalties, as well as synchronisation licensing fees arising from the Record.
Artist agrees to include Company logo and name, as well as all catalogue numbers, barcodes, and technical data in association with Record in any format for the duration of this Agreement.
Article 3: Royalties
Company shall pay to Artist 25% of all net royalties from digital and physical sales of Record’s songs. Net means those royalties remaining after all of Company’s reasonable expenses related to the production, distribution, promotion, marketing, and sale of the record, including recoupment of costs related to physical product.
Article 4: Disputes
If any dispute arises during or after the term of this Agreement between Artist and Company, parties shall hold negotiations amongst themselves before pursuing litigation.
Article 5: Written Agreement
This Agreement constitutes the sole agreement between the Company and Artist with no additions, deletions, or modifications that may be accomplished without the written consent of both parties. Any oral representations made at the time of executing this Agreement are not legally valid and, therefore, are not binding upon either party.
Article 6: Severability
If any provision of this Agreement or the application thereof shall, for any reason and to any extent be invalid or unenforceable, the remainder of this Agreement shall not be affected thereby, but instead will be enforced to the full extent permitted by law.
Date and Signature
The parties acknowledge having read this Agreement and hereby bind themselves to this Agreement with their authorization affixed below.
Han Jisung
10 October 2018
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Jisung: It was only after we put our EP into the world that we actually started getting professional attention. Like, from record labels and shit.
Seungmin: Jisungie’s YouTube channel already had a pretty decent following by the time we’d started posting videos together, so there was never a lack of people that wanted to listen to our music. I think the labels caught onto that when they heard about us—it’s always easier to give support to a band with a somewhat-existing platform rather than build a new one from scratch.
Jisung: I knew next to nothing about the inner workings of the music industry. I’d always been a little immature in that sense; I wasn’t serious enough to handle the “business” side of things. It took a lot of research and a lot of growing up for me to finally claim to be able to understand how to work within it, but until then, Seungmin took care of most of it for us.
Felix: Like I said, No-Zero didn’t win us any awards, or thrust us into the spotlight, or anything like that. But it did put us on the map when it came to finding a record deal, which was pretty sweet.
Interviewer: So you put out your first EP in 2018, just the three of you. But a lot of people don’t know you guys actually started out as a three piece band.
Hyunjin: Yeah. I was a bit of a late addition.
Jisung: We only added Hyunjin because our label insisted that we needed to find a bassist. I was super annoyed about that back then. It’s my band, why should I have to change things when I don't want to? But it turns out they were onto something, because Sub-Zero wouldn’t be Sub-Zero without our missing Zero. (Pause) That needs some work.
Seungmin: Hyunjin was great. We weren’t super close, initially, but I knew that he’d bring exactly the kind of sound that we were missing. Then he basically followed me around until I had no choice but to befriend him.
Felix: He was one of my family friends, he didn’t go to our school. I knew he’d been in his school’s band, though, so when our label suggested that we should get a bassist he was the first person I thought of. He was surprisingly immediately up for the idea.
Hyunjin: This is going to sound so embarrassing, but… I didn’t really have a lot of friends back in high school. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do after school. I think I knew by then that uni wasn’t really for me. So when Felix approached me with the idea, I didn’t even think twice before saying yes.
Seungmin: It was definitely awkward at first. The three of us—Jisung, Felix, and I—had been singing together for a while already, so we were used to a certain way of doing things. We had our own rhythms and routines, so there had to be an adjustment period when we brought on someone new. It’s just crazy to think about now because all four of us are so in sync.
Jisung: It was hard to get used to, and I probably didn’t make it easier for anyone. Especially Hyunjin.
Interviewer: So is it true that the two of you hated each other when you first met, when the band was still in its starting stages?
Hyunjin: I wouldn’t say we hated each other. It was more like… a difference of opinions. We were young and immature and didn’t know better than to just lash out at whoever was closest. We’ve both come a long way since then.
Jisung: (laughing) Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I couldn’t stand his ass.
Hyunjin: I don’t regret our fights, because I think they played an important role in shaping us into who we are today. But if I could go back in time and talk to 18 year old Hyunjin, I’d probably tell him to try and be a little more empathetic towards the people around him.
Felix: It was really bad. There were days when they’d go without talking to each other, which only got worse after we all started living together after our first album. Since I was the one who’d suggested getting Hyunjin on board the band in the first place, I felt guilty—like it was my fault for causing a rift like this between the members. I was worried we’d split up before we even properly took off.
Seungmin: I’ll be honest, I knew they used to fight sometimes, but I didn’t know how serious it was in the very beginning. I tended to mind my own business. I got into quite a few fights with Jisung myself, so I didn’t think too much of it. He just has that kind of personality, you know?
Jisung: I know Felix took a lot of the blame on themselves, back then, but they really had nothing to do with it. Hyunjin and I were just angry kids with nowhere else to direct that rage. I was definitely a lot worse than him. I had too much pride.
Seungmin: Jisung’s biggest problem has always been his pride.
Hyunjin: Once, after a particularly serious fight, I remember we were both crying pretty badly. I don’t remember what the fight was about. I just remember feeling so terrible about it for days afterwards—that was the first time I tried to apologise to him.
Jisung: I told him to fuck off. What? I was 18. I was stupid.
Hyunjin: I didn’t want to hate my own band member. I knew that sort of thing wasn’t sustainable, and it would just get harder to work with in the long run, but Jisung was just so fucking infuriating all the time. (Pause) Wait, can I swear here?
Jisung: I didn’t have the best personality. I’m not going to make excuses for myself. But I also know that the whole thing we had going on wasn’t entirely my fault.
Felix: Hyunjinnie is… as someone who’s known him since we were both kids, I’ve seen him go through a lot of different phases. I’m sure he’d say the same about me. There’s been times when I could tell that he wasn’t being fully himself, or wasn’t happy with the person that he was. But whenever he got into one of his fights with Jisung, that was his whole truth.
Hyunjin: I think—okay—this is going to sound really messed up when I say it out loud, but I think that one of the reasons I kept humouring Jisung back then was because it was the only time someone had ever respected me enough to actually fight me. He considered me on the same level as him. As a teenager, I was used to getting into fights as a way of gaining power over someone else, but it was different with Jisung. Fighting with him was a way of being seen.
Jisung: I liked Hyunjin as much as I hated him, even back then. He was someone I was curious about, but he was also a threat. It took me longer than I would’ve liked to realise that we’re better when we’re working together than against each other.
Felix: It was weird, how much time they spent together and how they still couldn’t stand each other. Jisung was always over at Hyunjin’s house. I thought that meant they’d made up, that they were finally friends, but they’d go back to almost killing each other the next day at practice. I was so confused.
Seungmin: I don’t think I’ll ever understand what the two of them have going on. I spend twenty-four hours a day with them, and I still don’t get it. Whenever they’re together, it’s like they’re in their own personal bubble, and the whole world is an inside joke that only they understand.
Hyunjin: I don’t think we ever really had a moment when we sat down and actually talked about our issues with each other. We talked about a lot of other things—music, problems we were facing at work, personal problems, our hopes, dreams—but we never explicitly addressed the fighting.
Felix: Jisung’s pretty bad at saying what he means. If it’s something positive, he’ll be the first to yell compliments, but he usually represses any disagreements until they go away or he explodes. And being him, it’s usually the second.
Jisung: For a songwriter, I didn’t really know how to express myself in healthy ways. It was especially bad when it came to Hyunjin, obviously, but I think Felix took a lot of the brunt of it too. They’ve always been someone who prefers to communicate openly, so we didn’t really understand each other.
Seungmin: I don’t think any of us understood each other that well, back then. But there was still one thing that we had in common, and so we clung onto music like a lifeline.
🎸❤
HYUNSUNG BEEF MOMENTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA **REAL**
SL123 • 3,980,200 views • 17 October 2024
630,832 likes • 506,722 dislikes • 237,800 comments
Top Comments
soup • 6 years ago
Why would they form a band together if they clearly hate each other so much lol I don’t get it
kitology • 6 years ago
guys, let’s not jump to conclusions. we don’t know the boys personally. we can’t make assumptions from some random clips taken out of context. i’m sure they care about each other in their own ways, and we should respect their decision to not want to act sappy in front of a camera.
homophobiaclub • 3 months ago
bruh i don’t know who put this old ass video on my tl but watching it after reading their new biography… so many things make so much more sense now
puddingdynamics • 4 years ago
I STILL CANT BELIEVE 3:49 IS REAL HAN JISUNG YOU ARE ON CAMERA PLS GET A GRIP
mythpunks • 6 years ago
you know what? i understand hyunjin
🎸❤
(Dated 23/06/19. Snippet from a voice memo saved on Jisung’s phone. They’re playing on an acoustic guitar. Only two voices can be heard, a little unclear, switching between singing and humming different melodies.)
HYUNJIN: The song you told me about last time.
JISUNG: (humming) This one?
HYUNJIN: Yeah. It was stuck in my head all day yesterday. I need to scratch the itch.
JISUNG: Sure. Go ahead. Or—you want me to start?
HYUNJIN: Yeah.
JISUNG: How did it go again? Write a list of things you’ll regret—
HYUNJIN: I’ll be on top, smoking a cigarette. You don’t even smoke.
JISUNG: (laughing) Artistic licence, Hwang.
HYUNJIN: Did you finish the lyrics yet?
JISUNG: Ugh. I’m still stuck on the bridge. I was thinking something like— The things you run from, I run to.
HYUNJIN: Maybe… (strumming chords) The things you run from, baby, I run to. I know it scares you through and through.
JISUNG: No one knows you like I do—
HYUNJIN: Try to tell me that’s not true.
(Pause.)
JISUNG: I like that.
HYUNJIN: Mmm.
(Pause.) (Hyunjin strums another chord.)
JISUNG: This is… No, wait, play that other one again.
HYUNJIN: (strumming a chord) This?
JISUNG: Yeah, yeah. Can you, like—
HYUNJIN: (plays a different chord) How about this, we can transition from this to this and then switch—
JISUNG: No, no, wait. Give it to me.
(Something being shuffled.)
JISUNG: So for this part in the chorus— (humming) —we can back it up with something a little different. Listen to this.
HYUNJIN: I don’t like it.
JISUNG: Dude— (sighing) . Ugh. Show me your way again.
(More shuffling.) (Chords are strummed.)
JISUNG: Okay. Okay. We can try something else, maybe, something like—
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered. )
Felix: Watching Jisung and Hyunjin write music together is a whole other experience.
Seungmin: Felix and I, we didn’t really consider ourselves songwriters then. Felix helped out with the toplines sometimes, and I wrote lyrics when I could, but it wasn’t either of our priorities. Music meant something different to us than it did to Jisung and Hyunjin.
Chris Bang ( producer, worked with Sub-Zero since their early days ) : The first time I met the kids, I knew there was something special about them. I’ve worked with a lot of bands before, a lot of people their age, even younger, but there was just something about the way they saw music—not a lot of people have that kind of passion in them.
Jisung: Chris is fucking amazing. Probably the most genius producer I’ve ever worked with. All of us just click with him in a way that goes beyond just a simple singer and producer bond. I think, in another life, we could have made some really good music together.
Seungmin: Chris specialises in making pop tracks, but honestly, he can do everything. And he can do it well. We can go to him at any time with the vaguest idea possible and he’ll help us turn it into a new song. He’s the only person I’ve seen that can take Jisung’s nervous energy and channel it into something productive rather than immediately get annoyed.
Felix: Channie? [Pause] Yeah, he’s a great producer. He takes care of us well.
Hyunjin: I never really considered that songwriting could be something I’m good at until I met Chris. He was the one who taught me all the theory I know now, and the one who gave me the platform I’d need for experimenting until I found what worked for me.
Chris: Hyunjinnie is the kind of person who puts a lot of effort into honing a skill. It’s unfair to say that he’s talented when it comes to making music, because all of his ‘talent’ comes from years of work and experience that he’s put in. I’m lucky to be able to see how much he’s grown since the first time I met him.
It’s also very different from the way Jisung works. Jisung’s the kind of person who’s born with talent; there’s a million different things that he’s good at, and yet, he’ll somehow keep finding more things to master. He’s permanently curious. Always moving, restless. That sort of energy can be hard to keep up with, especially when you’re on the same team as him.
I think—I’m not sure if it’s my place to say this, but I think that both Jisung and Hyunjin had a lot of reasons to be resentful towards each other. Hyunjin wanted the kind of effortlessness with music that Jisung had. Jisung wanted the attention that Hyunjin attracted without even trying. But at the end of the day, they were both just teenagers with more in common than anything else.
Jisung: See, I was used to writing all our music myself. It wasn’t like I didn't trust the others, okay? But Sub-Zero had a sound. And it was a sound that I’d started. I wanted to keep it consistent.
Hyunjin: I thought Jisung was a bit of a pretentious prick when we first met.
Jisung: Hyunjin used to say I was pretentious. I’m not pretentious.
Hyunjin: I’d listened to the stuff that the band had already put out, and I’d liked it, obviously. I wouldn’t have agreed to join if I didn’t like it. But I also had ideas for new things we could do that were different from what Jisung had already planned out. Unsurprisingly, we clashed.
Seungmin: I’m not a confrontational person. Not that I don’t stand up for myself, just that I don’t feel the need to disturb the balance if everything is working out properly. I was fine with our band’s arrangement of Jisung writing everything and the rest of us following.
Hyunjin most definitely wasn’t.
Jisung: Okay. I can admit now that I might have had some control issues when it came to the music we were producing as a band. I felt protective over my songs—it was one of the few things that I had that I could say was fully mine , and I didn’t like someone else coming in to change things.
Chris: In the beginning, I was mostly working with Jisung alone. It was clear to me that he had a solid idea of what kinds of songs he wanted to make, which was good because it meant we spent less time trying to figure things out. But it was also bad, because it meant that he was a lot less receptive to feedback.
Felix: It was around February, I think? A few months after we’d all had some time to get used to each other. The first “official” meeting we had together to discuss our album.
Hyunjin: When we all met up at the studio that day, I brought along a plate of cakes that my mom handed to me that morning and a notebook full of ideas. I was ready. I really wanted to bring something to the table.
Jisung: I’d written six or seven songs by then. They were all in pretty good shape. Normally, when we met up to discuss songs, I’d take them through whatever I’d come up with and listen to whatever notes they had, make changes if I thought they made sense. It worked. It was simple.
Seungmin: Hyunjin isn’t really one for simple.
Hyunjin: When we started the meeting, Jisung jumped straight to the point. He showed us what he’d come up with, the song he was proudest of.
Felix: 2000. It might be old now, but it’s still one of my favourite tracks we’ve put out. We all loved it.
Chris: Jisung had shown me the song a while back, when he was still working on it, to ask for advice and what to change. I don’t remember what I told him to add, but I do remember thinking that it was good.
Seungmin: We all agreed that it was a great song to build an album around. I was excited—it was a kind of sound that was unique only to us. It felt like we were finally defining who Sub-Zero was.
Hyunjin: I loved the song. It was fresh, I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I said as much to Jisung, back then, and then I handed him my notebook. I thought maybe everyone could read through it and we could all discuss from there.
Felix: “I’ve got some stuff here that we can start from, too,” Hyunjin had said.
Jisung: Here I am, sitting on my eight great songs, waiting to share them with the rest of the group, and Hyunjin walks into a band he’s completely new to with all of this confidence.
Hyunjin: He didn’t even flip through it.
Jisung: Look. It’s impossible to talk about any of what I did without making me sound like an asshole—because I was an asshole. I’m not gonna sit here and deny it.
Seungmin: Hyunjin got mad. I don’t blame him. I would’ve also probably blown up at Jisung if he’d done something like that to me.
Felix: That was one of their first full-blown fights that I remember. Neither of them were willing to give up their pride and let it slide, especially when it came to music. So they were just caught in a stalemate.
Jisung: “Write better,” I’d told him.
Hyunjin: “Play better.”
Seungmin: (sighing) They were both so stupid.
Chris: I was the one who had to intervene, in the end. I didn’t even know the kids that well back then. But I did know music, and I also knew that the two of them working together would be something magical.
Jisung: Chris saved my ass a lot of times back then. He’s still someone I rely on for more things than I can count.
Hyunjin: He had conversations with me and Jisung, separately, and then took us out to eat. He introduced us to another one of his friends there; another producer. Changbinnie. It felt a lot like we were kids getting chastised for misbehaving, but I can’t say that we didn’t deserve it.
Seungmin: I don’t know what Chris or Changbin said to the two of them after that fight, but whatever it was, it worked. At least for a little while. We had another meeting afterwards where all of us actually read through each other’s ideas and tried to pick which ones we could put into one cohesive album—instead of just letting Jisung do the deciding for us.
Jisung: I was still really annoyed about it. But I managed to put my ego aside for a while, just for the sake of the band.
Felix: Whenever they write together now, it’s like they don’t even have to say anything to understand what’s on the other’s mind. Sometimes Hyunjin will hum a random tune and Jisung will just jump in, and boom, they get started again.
Hyunjin: Jisung makes writing fun. He makes everything fun, really, but I don’t think I’d enjoy doing this as much if it was without him.
Chris: Working with Hyunjin and Jisung is a delight. They’re two people who think completely differently yet are completely alike. The music and ideas they can come up with it is something special, and I think their dynamic with each other plays a huge part in what makes Sub-Zero, Sub-Zero .
🎸❤
www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sub-zero-2000
Album Reviews: 2000 (Sub-Zero)
Genre: Rock
Label: Sunrise Records
Released: 1 September 2019
Reviewed: 23 September 2019
After limited success from Sunrise Records’ previous attempts at launching multiple boy bands who never made sounds loud enough to stick, another contender arises from the midst to finally give the world something to pay attention to. Sub-Zero is a new name on the music scene, with a few songs already out on Spotify that probably flew under the average listener’s radar. This is their formal introduction to the rock world, and it takes them only 49 minutes and 12 seconds to build an album that’s almost impossible to forget.
The genius songwriter behind the scenes of 2000 is 19-year-old Han Jisung. He draws inspiration from his parents’ life story in writing the lead single, named “2000” for the year in which they met and subsequently had him, and this choice of personal touch adds something to the song that isn’t easily replicable. Despite using lyrics that are unusually emotional for their kind of sound, it is staunchly not romantic. Lead singer Seungmin sings over a bass-heavy instrumental that lets his amber voice shine through, harmonising with Jisung during the bridge as the song reaches its crescendo. It’s almost like riding a rollercoaster.
Based in Brisbane, all four members of Sub-Zero have a shared Korean heritage that makes itself known through the kind of life experiences most of their songs talk about. In This Could Get Ugly, they sing about growing up with repressed anger through deeply specific lyrics that will only be relatable for their intended audience. “Is there enough of me to be enough for you?” asks Jisung in Papercuts , a quieter song about having to deal with the pressures of living up to your parents’ expectations. It’s the quintessential Asian teenager experience.
Yet while this sort of intensely intimate songwriting can be a plus, it can drag them down at the same time. There’s still a sense of immaturity that one gets from this album, and the various range in songs fails to find a cohesive middle ground. Daydream/Wetdream/Nightmare is an experimental track that tries to pull off a Bohemian-Rhapsody-esque switch between three kinds of sounds in one song, but ultimately fails due to the band’s obvious lack of technique. Too Soon is the token love song in the whole album, but there’s a clear lack of the same passion that there is in the other songs. It’s sonically flat, with lyrics that are pretty but aimless.
All of these problems are only to be expected from a band’s first album, especially one by members this young. There’s no doubt when it comes to their potential. With more time to grow musically, Sub-Zero could well be on their way to becoming a household name in the future.
Score: 7.2
🎸❤
(Dated 02/09/19 at 1:29 am. Transcript of a video call between Felix and their mom.)
FELIX: Eomma! Hi!
MOM: Hello, hello (laughing). I missed your face. How’s my little rockstar doing?
FELIX: I’ve never been better. I’m so happy. The whole day’s just felt so— what? I’m talking to my mom!
MOM: Is that Hyunjinnie?
FELIX: Yeah. Hyunjin, come say hi.
(Hyunjin peeks over the end of the screen.)
HYUNJIN: Hi, auntie!
MOM: (smiling) Hi, Hyunjinnie. You look well.
HYUNJIN: And you look as beautiful as always, auntie.
FELIX, off-screen : Please stop flirting with my mom.
MOM: Don’t listen to him. How are you all? Is Chris taking care of you properly? Have you been eating properly?
HYUNJIN: (trying not to laugh) I’m really good, auntie. Chris is a great host, and we’re eating well, I promise. We had a late celebration dinner today for the album launch.
MOM: Good. You kids deserve to celebrate. You should be proud of yourselves.
HYUNJIN: You’re the best, auntie.
MOM: You—
FELIX: Okay, okay. Hyunjin, leave now. You’re cutting into our precious mother-son time. No, pouting will not work. Get out.
HYUNJIN: I’ll be back for you, auntie!!
(A door shutting in the background.)
MOM: He’s such a sweet boy.
FELIX: You wouldn’t say that if you saw him around Jisung.
MOM: They’re still as bad as ever?
FELIX: I swear it’ll never get better.
MOM: (laughing) Now, tell me everything. How was the party?
FELIX: Oh, it was so fun, eomma. Channie’s other producer friend was over—Changbin—I told you about him—and he brought over a few of his music friends too, and we were just chilling together the whole evening until the 12:00 am countdown. Then we listened to the whole album on Spotify—we were singing along, to our own music, though we were so off-key you wouldn’t be able to tell it was ours.
MOM: (smiling) Eomma is happy that you’re happy.
FELIX: I really wish you could’ve been here. You would love Chris. And Changbin. And everyone else.
MOM: Oh, I don’t know about the others, but I’m definitely going to be meeting this Chris soon. You’ve talked too much about him for me to not.
FELIX: Eomma!
MOM: Just teasing, teasing. You should invite him over to our house once.
FELIX: Maybe. Next time he’s in Sydney.
MOM: What else did you guys get up to for a whole week? Did you get to explore Brisbane a bit?
FELIX: Oh, yeah. Channie gave us a full tour of the city. It’s so pretty, eomma.
MOM: Yeah?
FELIX: Yeah. (Hesitating) Seungmin is planning on applying to UQ for next year.
(Brief silence.)
MOM: That’s nice. I didn’t know he was considering university.
FELIX: He wasn’t planning to, originally, but… it’s Seungminnie. He spent a lot of time talking to Chris this week. They weren’t really talking in front of us, but I overheard them discussing back-up options for if our band didn’t work out. Um, Chris went to UQ too, actually.
MOM: It’s a smart choice, what Seungmin’s planning. It’s helpful to have a degree, especially for your generation.
FELIX: Yeah. He’s smart.
MOM: The others aren’t considering the same, I take it?
FELIX: (shakes head) Hyunjin and Jisung are too focused on music to even think about anything else. And I don’t think uni is for me.
MOM: That’s fine. It’s good that you know what you want, in fact. And it’s never too late to go to university even if you change your mind a few years later.
FELIX: Chris said the same thing.
MOM: He sounds smart, too. I’m glad you have him.
FELIX: Yeah.
MOM: Have you guys planned what you want to do next? If Seungmin does end up going to UQ, what does that mean for you?
FELIX: Um…
MOM: We can talk about this later, if you want. It’s late.
FELIX: No, it’s fine.
MOM: Okay.
FELIX: About the others… Hyunjin will just want to follow wherever Seungmin goes. If that means moving to Brisbane, then he’ll do it. And Jisung wants to stay where the music is.
MOM: And you?
FELIX: I don’t know yet.
MOM: That’s okay.
FELIX: I really like it here. From the week we’ve spent here, at least. The music scene is great, and it could really help us get noticed if we started playing gigs around town. And Chris could help us look for a place to live, all four of us together. And Changbin’s family owns a restaurant here that’s hiring part-timers—
MOM: (gently) You sound like you’ve given this a lot of thought.
FELIX: Um. I don’t know. I just… I don’t want to do something impulsive that I’ll regret.
MOM: Tell you what, Lix. Get some rest now. Sleep on it. After you fly back tomorrow, we can sit down and have a proper chat about it. Okay?
FELIX: Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.
MOM: Good.
FELIX: Love you, eomma. Good night.
MOM: I love you, too.
🎸❤
(Jisung’s phone)
29 January 2020
hannie
did you eat
hwang hyunjin
yes
hannie
liar
i know you’ve been crying
we all heard you
come down and eat
[read 21:32]
3 February 2020
hannie
were you using the midi?
where did you put it?
nevermind i found it
14 February 2020
hwang hyunjin
felix is upset
hannie
ok?
hwang hyunjin
his date stood him up
can you check in on him?
i would but i’m already out
hannie
fuck are u busy with today
hwang hyunjin
will you check on him or not
whatever i should’ve texted seungmin first anyway
hannie
ugh shut up i’m going
16 February 2020
hwang hyunjin
manager’s asking for u
she sounds mad lol
hannie
can you stall?
i’ll be 10
hwang hyunjin
u owe me
21 February 2020
hwang hyunjin
i didn’t mean that
jisung
[read 00:16]
23 February 2020
hannie
come eat
[read 2:34]
9 March 2020
hwang hyunjin
eomma says she misses you
hannie
will she make breakfast for us again?
hwang hyunjin
-__-
yes
hannie
SAY LESS
11 March 2020
hwang hyunjin
[170120.mp3]
the riff you asked me to send
i changed it a bit from what we were working on
hannie
cool
18 March 2020
hannie
we got chicken and beer
you don’t have to drink but come down
[read 19:02]
27 March 2020
hwang hyunjin
are you free?
channie and i are working on a track
his studio
hannie
5 mins
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered. )
Interviewer: So, 2000 came out in 2019. People Watching came out in 2022.
Jisung: We took a bit of a break between our first and second albums.
Seungmin: It was literally the opposite of whatever record labels tell you to do. We got pushed to put out an album as soon as possible, to make another mark when people were still paying attention, but it just didn’t make sense for us.
Daiyu Huang ( Sub-Zero’s manager since 2018): Now that I’ve been with the kids for more years than I can count, I know that they’re the ones who’ll know what’s best for them. Back then, though, it was a pain trying to get anything through to them.
Hyunjin: Seungmin had just started at university, so he was already a lot busier than before. The rest of us were trying to juggle working all kinds of odd jobs and writing music at the same time.
Jisung: I’m honestly glad we took that time off instead of rushing to produce another album that we’d only be half as happy with and horribly burnt out after. It gave us a lot of time to figure out what kind of direction we wanted to take our sound in next.
Chris: 2000 was a good introduction album, one that set the tone for who Sub-Zero wanted to be seen as. With their second album, they wanted to go a step further and show that they were capable of growing past that.
Felix: We were also going through a lot of shit personally, during those years, both within the band and outside it.
Jisung: 2020 sure was a fucking year.
Seungmin: We all know why it sucked. There’s no point getting back into it after so much time.
Hyunjin: We were all already anxious about everything that comes with moving in with each other to a new city, and on top of that, it turned out we had to be stuck in quarantine together for a completely unforeseen period of time.
Jisung: I thought I would be fine, considering I never even left the house much in the first place, but just a few months in and I was already itching with this need to get out. It was hard to focus on working or creating anything at all. In that sense, I’m lucky that I wasn’t living alone, because I don’t know how else I would’ve survived through that slump.
Seungmin: We were in a cramped two-bedroom back then, with Hyunjin and Felix sharing a room and Jisung and I sharing the other. It’s true what they say about moving in with your best friend—do not do it unless you’re one hundred percent sure that you can tolerate them twenty-four-seven.
Felix: Being locked inside for so long forced me to acknowledge a lot of things about myself that I’d spent too long not thinking about. When your only company aside from your roommates is the mirror in your room, you start digging up all the old feelings you thought you’d buried.
Interviewer: 2020 is also when you came out as non-binary on your Instagram, right?
Felix: Yeah. But it took me a long time before I could even come out to the members. I was stupidly nervous about it, even though I knew they’d be okay with it. Jisung is literally trans. But there was that niggling thought in my head—what if I’m not trans enough? You feel?
Jisung: I’d been pretty young when I figured it out, and I didn’t really make a big deal out of it when I did. I told my close friends and my brother. And everyone in the band already knew. It was super different from Felix’s experience, but it still touched me that they chose to talk to me first, considering we’d never been particularly close.
Hyunjin: I’ve never really spent a lot of time thinking about my gender, but after Felix came out… I could relate to them in ways that I didn’t expect to. I think I’ve always presented myself as something other than a guy, and as long as the people I care about know that, I don’t mind what others see me as.
Seungmin: We always shut it down whenever people call us a boy band. It’s not the most accurate term when half the group doesn’t even fit the description.
Jisung: We had a lot of conversations about personal experiences like that when we were living together. It’s part of what helped us become even closer, but it also wasn’t perfect for us all the time.
Felix: The fighting was really bad for a while. It would’ve been even more unrealistic for us to expect not to fight, but still… my temper had a bad habit of flaring up unexpectedly.
Seungmin: Jisung and Hyunjin’s shit was regularly scheduled as always. But some part of that tension must have leaked into Felix and I as well, because I remember more disagreements over the stupidest things than I would have liked to.
Hyunjin: I don’t think I ever fought with Seungmin. He was the one person I didn’t want to be mad at me, no matter how much I was acting out—I used to go to him when I fought with the others.
Jisung: I got a lot closer to Felix during the first few months of quarantine. We hadn’t really been able to understand each other, before, but now that all we had was time to talk, it helped us break through what had been keeping us from being close.
Seungmin: It was a time when a lot of… unexpected relationships formed between us. I suppose it only makes sense, given that we were around each other twenty-four-seven and neither of us had any particularly close friends outside each other, anyway. That kind of codependency was bound to affect us.
Interviewer: What kind of unexpected relationships do you mean?
Seungmin: Well. (Pause) It’s a bit complicated.
🎸❤
Kim Seungmin’s Personal Diary
Daily Reflections #429
I don’t get paid enough to deal with their bullshit. This is the third time this week that I’ve had to tell Hyunjin something that Jisung told me to tell him, because apparently we’re all still stuck in primary school. I’m so annoyed.
Classes are harder than I expected, but I’m managing to keep up. Which is why I really don’t have the time and patience to direct towards mediating their fights. They’re perfectly tolerable when they’re alone or when they’re making music, so I don’t get why they have to make their issues my problem.
Next time one of them asks me to communicate on their behalf, I’m saying no. If we keep going like this it’s just going to get worse. They can’t keep ignoring each other forever.
Daily Reflections #467
Practice ended up dragging on for hours more than it was supposed to yesterday, and when I finally went up to rest, I realised I had an essay due that I hadn’t finished yet. I stayed up writing it all night. I don’t even know if it’s any good, but at least it’s over.
Maybe I overestimated myself. Eomma said I shouldn’t try to juggle uni and a band at the same time. I know that’s just her way of saying she wants me to quit the band and do university full-time. Chris said it would be hard, but what isn’t? I still think I can do it. I’m too scared to not. Especially with how volatile everything is right now, I don’t want to risk my entire future by placing my bets on a musical career. Maybe that’s a cowardly way of thinking. Maybe it would be different if I had the kind of faith that Hyunjin does, or the passion that Jisung does. Even Felix’s patience makes me jealous.
I spend a lot of time talking to Chris these days. He really helps. We have more things in common than I thought we did at first. It’s funny, though, because he gives me all of this important life-saving advice and then doesn’t follow any of it himself.
Daily Reflections #480
Hyunjin has been acting suspiciously friendly towards Jisung these days. I think Jisung has caught onto it too. Today, during lunch, Jisung said something pointedly mean on purpose and instead of retaliating, Hyunjin just laughed it off. My jaw almost dropped right then and there.
Not that I’m complaining. This is the only thing I could’ve asked for. I know it’s probably not going to take long before they’re back at each other’s throats, but I’ll take advantage of the current situation for as long as I can.
Also, I think something is going on with Felix. He won’t talk to us any of us about it, but he’s been keeping to himself a lot more. I can tell he’s overthinking himself into a spiral. It’s not my place to pry, but I hope he talks to one of us soon, even if it’s not me.
Daily Reflections #487
Jisung and Felix spent the day at Chris’ studio today, so it was just me and Hyunjin at home. Normally, Hyunjin just stays in his room unless he has a reason to come out, but he asked me if I wanted to eat together and we ended up spending the rest of the day together in my room. He painted quietly while I did my uni work and then we watched the new episode of Itaewon Class.
I think I have an idea of what’s happening, but I don’t want to say it out loud and risk anything. I like spending time with Hyunjin. He always says he loves my singing, which is nice, but he also gives me objective feedback when I need. We have the same taste in dramas. It’s comfortable.
Daily Reflections #498
I joined Jisung in Chris’ studio today, mostly because I just wanted to meet Chris again. Jisung is going through one of his whiny slump phases again. He keeps complaining about people saying that he can’t write love songs. Chris told him he doesn’t need experience to write a good love song, and that just made Jisung complain louder.
I can think of someone who’s good at writing love songs. He hasn’t let me read any of them yet, but I’ve seen glimpses of what he scribbles into his journal. I think a few of them are going to make it to our next album. I’m sure they’re all great songs, but I don’t know how to feel about that.
I’m getting better at managing uni work. It’s nice to have the monotony of studying and writing assignments and giving exams.
Daily Reflections #504
I talked to my advisor today about what classes I should be taking next year. It feels relieving to know that I have a reliable plan for the future to fall back on, even though I might not need it.
Felix had a really long conversation with all of us today. It makes me happy to know that they trust me enough to talk so openly, even though we’re not necessarily the closest. Now that I know what had been troubling them, I have one less thing to worry about.
The other thing is still constantly on my mind, though.
Daily Reflections #511
I kissed Hyunjin today.
I’m still not sure why I did it. I told him it didn’t mean anything, and he didn’t look shocked or upset, which I think means we’re okay. He asked if I could kiss him again. I told him I wanted to think about it some more before doing anything.
Daily Reflections #519
The kissing is a regular occurrence now. Also, it’s not just kissing.
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Hyunjin: I feel like it’s almost glaringly obvious by now, but I suppose I’ll say it anyway. I used to be in love with Seungmin.
Seungmin: Did Hyunjin mention that…?
Hyunjin: I’d already grown up with Felix, and I couldn’t stand Jisung, so naturally I gravitated towards Seungmin at the very beginning. He always claims he’s not open to new people but I’d never felt more comfortable than I was when I was around him.
Whenever things didn’t make sense, or my brain was being too loud, Seungmin was the pillar standing upright in the middle of the storm. He was always unchanging, so sure of himself. I know now that he was just another kid who made mistakes, who was trying so hard to act like he’d got his shit together, but back then I just thought he was perfect.
I never tried to hide my feelings. I didn’t expect him to return them, so I didn’t see the point in hiding it. Looking back, I think that even though that honesty was a relief for me, it was more of a burden for him.
Seungmin: Hyunjin’s feelings never felt like a burden to me. But they did feel like… a responsibility, of sorts. And beyond that, in a twisted way, they also felt comforting. I liked knowing that someone would be on my side no matter what. I think that’s a part of why things ended up the way they did.
Felix: I knew when they started hooking up, of course. Hyunjin told me immediately. I was a bit wary about it—Seungmin is my friend, but I knew that he didn’t have the best record with commitments. Hyunjin seriously liked him a lot. I didn’t want to see him heartbroken.
Jisung: I’ll hold back from saying anything for now.
Hyunjin: I remember when he kissed me, for the first time, on his too-small bed while the newest episode of whatever k-drama we were watching was playing on my laptop. I didn’t fully believe that it was real. He didn’t waste any time in letting me know that this wouldn’t lead to anything serious—but I didn’t want to let go of him now that I knew what it felt like.
Seungmin: We agreed to keep things casual. Easy, commitment-free. I think I always knew that I was taking advantage of his feelings, that he had more to lose with this setup than I did, but it still didn’t stop me. We all make bad decisions in our twenties, right?
Hyunjin: Felix had warned me to be careful around Seungmin, when I first told them about our whole thing. I know they were coming from a good place, and that they just wanted to look out for me, but I had a hard time taking any of it seriously. I still thought that maybe if I spent enough time with Seungmin, he’d call off the friends-with-benefits thing and I’d have a chance at something more.
Clearly, it didn’t work out like that. It was pretty stupid on my part. I don’t resent Seungmin for it—at least, not anymore—but I wish I hadn’t wasted so much of my time being hung up on someone who didn’t feel the same way.
Felix: I can’t remember how long they lasted, but as much as I wish Hyunjin didn’t have to go through that, I think it’s unfair for me even as an outsider to say that it was all gloom and depression. They did have fun together. I guess that’s what happens when you’re best friends first.
Seungmin: I was already spending the most time with Hyunjin over anyone else, and after we started hooking up, it was just a matter of how we were spending that time. It was convenient at first because it wasn’t like either of us were getting the chance to meet anyone else under quarantine, so at least we didn’t go crazy from being touch-starved. Whether that meant having sex or just cuddling while watching a drama together.
Hyunjin: We’d go on dates, sometimes, except Seungmin would explicitly say, “This is not a date,” and I’d say, “I know,” when really, I was still calling it a date in my head. (Pause.) We went to the library a lot.
Jisung: Seungmin and Hyunjin both love reading. I really don’t get it, but I remember there was a time when both of them would always have their heads pored over the same book. Inseparable. Like a pair of Siamese twins.
Felix: I’ve known Hyunjin the longest, and he tells me everything, but there were a lot of things that he only went to Seungmin for. I understood that. Seungmin is a good listener, and exactly the kind of comforting presence that Hyunjin needed back then. I remember Hyunjin describing Seungmin’s room as his “safe haven” in an old interview, and even though he was probably exaggerating, it’s still true.
Seungmin: Hyunjin was—is—still my best friend. All the reasons I love him as a best friend is all the reasons we couldn’t work out romantically. He expected too much of me, and I’m just… me. Whatever spark we had would’ve fizzled out in months after he realised that I couldn’t live up to the image he had in his head.
Boyfriend Seungmin isn’t the most reliable person. Especially not ten years ago. Best friend Seungmin, though? That I can do like second nature.
Hyunjin: I was really happy back then, just spending time with Seungmin. Even now he’s one of my favourite people to just… be with. So I don’t think I regret what happened between us.
🎸❤
(A page from a photo album, full of shots taken on film camera. Each picture features the same subject.)
Top left, the first picture. A candid shot of Seungmin taking a sip from his coffee, a book on his lap that has all of his attention in that moment. He’s sitting on the couch. The photographer, whoever they are, seems to have taken the picture without the other person noticing. Caption: Our cute nerd Seungminnie~
To its right, the picture stars Seungmin with a scarf in his hand, an exasperated expression on his face. His mouth is half-open, as if he’d been caught in the middle of saying something. It’s unclear whether the scarf belongs to him or the photographer. The picture looks shaky, almost as if the photographer was holding back laughter when they were taking it. Caption: Dressing for the weather!!
Next is a photo of Seungmin bending down next to a dog while petting it. A collar around the dog’s neck lets the viewer know that his name is Kkami. Seungmin’s shoes and mask are still on, so it looks like he’d been ambushed by the dog as soon as he entered through the door. It’s comforting, familiar. Caption: Two puppies~!
The middle row features a series of three images taken while the photographer has been baking with Seungmin, from the looks of the kitchen and the multiple bowls of batter laid out across the counter. In the first one, Seungmin is focused intently on stirring the contents of the bowl; he looks up in the second one, laughing at whoever is behind the camera. There’s genuine joy in his eyes, a spark warm enough that you can feel it through the photo. The third picture shows him angling towards the photographer with a fistful of flour—the rest is left up to imagination. Caption: We didn’t get food poisoning!
Bottom left is another candid shot, this time on a bed, taken while Seungmin is presumably sleeping. His shirt is off, eyes closed peacefully against a pillow, and sunlight filters into the room to illuminate the marks littering his back and shoulders. It’s intimate. It’s the sort of picture you take only for yourself, to preserve a memory you want to look back upon forever. There’s no caption.
The last picture on the page is a simple one of Seungmin in a diner, caught in the middle of a laugh, a half-eaten piece of cake in front of him. There’s a few other people on the table, partly visible from the angle, but from the way the photographer has taken the shot it’s impossible to focus on anyone other than Seungmin. Caption: Seungminnie is sweeter than any dessert~
There are probably countless more pictures in the album like these. The setting and the camera may differ, but the subject stays the same. No matter who is looking at the album, it’s obvious: here, between these pages, there is love.
🎸❤
Hyunjin’s Sketchbook
(They’re all drawings of Seungmin.)
🎸❤
(Snippets of songs, most of them scrapped halfway through, scribbled onto a piece of paper ripped out of a notebook. The handwriting is barely legible.)
I think I dreamt you up
Painted a picture, couldn’t give it up
The two of us dancing on
Don’t remember many sunrises
When the day breaks as I lie awake
Dwelling on my worst mistakes
But I think of us as the best
You’re the only thing that’s crystal clear
The only thing I dare hold dear
Everything I know true disappears
When I see you
What is my name, where do I go?
How did it start, when does it end?
Can I follow you, can we play pretend?
For just a little bit longer
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Hyunjin: I’ve been told I have a bit of an… obsessive personality.
Felix: Hyunjin’s never processed an emotion normally in his life.
Jisung: I was spending a lot of time with Hyunjin during those years, with the amount of music we had to work on together. We’d decided on a concept for the album pretty early on—songs from different perspectives, stories we’d heard and stories we wanted to tell. A voyeur’s daydream, basically. You know how it goes. You’ve heard it.
The point is, if Hyunjin on a good day has his heart on his sleeve, then Hyunjin while songwriting has his heart bleeding bare in front of everyone. Every song he wrote was some variation of a love song. And it wasn’t exactly hard to tell who he was writing about.
Seungmin: Hyunjin and I had decided not to tell Jisung about us hooking up. Maybe not in as many words, but… it was understood. Fucking someone in your band is a bad idea even if you’re all on good terms, but throw in some tension and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.
Jisung: I didn’t have a single clue what was going on between the two of them, but I knew that Hyunjin was stupid for Seungmin, and that led to some of his rawest songwriting.
Hyunjin: Writing lyrics is quite honestly the most embarrassing thing on the planet. I half-expected to get clowned to hell and back when I showed Jisung some of my initial love songs, but he responded with nothing but enthusiasm and his usual critiques. It helped a lot with my confidence in those lyrics.
Chris: When Jisung first came to me with the ideal for their lead single— People Watching —I was so hyped. It was exactly the kind of sound I’d envisioned them heading towards.
Felix: The first thing I thought when I heard the demo was, This could be it. This could be our breakthrough. The thing that finally gets us out of the indie scene and into a larger world.
Jisung: It was a good time for us creatively, but that still didn’t mean that it was a good time for us. Somehow Jinnie and I kept finding things to fight over even as we were working together. And they were the stupidest, most meaningless things, too.
Hyunjin: I don’t know how to explain it. Whenever Jisung and I would be left alone together, there’d be this kind of energy in the air that could only result in us bickering. You could call it chemistry, but it was the wrong kind. The kind that makes things blow up.
Jisung: Whenever I saw Hyunjin, it triggered a monkey part of my brain that wouldn’t rest until it had achieved whatever spiteful activity it was thinking of doing. I still think it’s because he’s too damn pretty for his own good.
Seungmin: It was sometime in July 2021, I think. I remember because I’d just started winter sem.
Felix: I wasn’t around for the fight, but I did hear about it later. And from the sound of it, it was explosive.
Jisung: The funniest part is, I don’t even remember what we were fighting about. I remember what we said—things that I probably shouldn’t be repeating here, that’s for sure—but I can’t for the life of me remember what started it.
Hyunjin: I chose to dramatically storm out of the house rather than continue the fight. I think I ended up at Channie’s studio. That was just where any of us ended up when we felt astray.
Jisung: I remember heading straight for mine and Seungmin’s room, as I always did whenever I fought with Hyunjin. Seungminnie is a good listener. I feel bad now for taking advantage of that and burdening him with so much, but back then, I just vented to him all the time without thinking.
Seungmin: It was so fucking annoying. I’d been in the middle of some work, but Jisung had barged right in and expected me to drop everything on command. He was so loud and distracting and loud —what else was I supposed to do?
Jisung: He kissed me.
Seungmin: It sounds bad when I say it now. Okay, it probably would’ve sounded bad if I said it then, too. But I wasn’t thinking straight. I was just trying to get him to shut the fuck up and I was used to kissing Hyunjin whenever I needed him to be quiet. My mind made a logical conclusion. And then, well, one thing led to another.
Jisung: Ten out of ten. Best head of my life. I still think about it sometimes.
Seungmin: Sleeping with Jisung was probably the worst mistake I’ve ever made.
Felix: I didn’t know about it then—obviously—but if I had, I would’ve yelled at both of them. I just wish I knew what Seungmin was thinking.
Seungmin: I didn’t… I don’t know how to explain it. I was sick of both Hyunjin and Jisung dumping their shit on me. Of being used as a middleman. The responsibility I felt from holding Hyunjin’s feelings and from being Jisung’s best friend were at constant war with each other, and this was the only way that they both could’ve won.
Things were always so different with the two of them, too. With Hyunjin, I felt safe. It was comforting to have someone to rely on, who’d go out of their way to make sure I felt loved. And with Jisung, things were fun. A lot more lighthearted, without the added complication of any feelings.
It sounds so horrible when I say it out loud. Please don’t make me talk about this any more.
Interviewer: Sorry. At least you’re being paid for this.
Seungmin: Ugh.
Jisung: If you know me, you know I like skinship. I like kissing the homies. Who hasn’t had sex with their best friend, right? I didn’t think anything of it, even when it became a semi-frequent affair. It was normal, it was fun, it was an easy way for us to blow off steam.
Seungmin: Just like with Hyunjin, I’d told Jisung that this wasn’t an exclusive thing. We weren’t dating or anything. We were both free to do whatever we wanted with other people, but I felt so guilty even then. And yet that didn’t stop me.
Hyunjin: I’d never actually asked Seungmin if he was seeing anyone else, but I just kind of assumed that he wasn’t. Wrongly so, which I know now.
Interviewer: So to summarise, you were sleeping with both of them at the same time, without telling either one?
Seungmin: (Pause) Yes.
Jisung: Really bad decisions all around, but we got some good fucking music out of it. If you’ve ever liked a song off People Watching, say thank you to Kim Seungmin’s dick.
🎸❤
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Track demos
Attached: peoplewatching_demo.mp3, goneaway_demo.mp3, downunder_demo.mp3, actoroutofwork_demo.mp3, disaster_demo.mp3, alittlebitlonger_demo.mp3, hiccup_demo.mp3, selfcontrol_demo.mp3, regretme_demo.mp3
Hi Chris!
Here’s all the demos I talked to you about at the studio today. I’ll bring the uncompressed versions over on my hard drive tomorrow, but just in case you wanted to get a listen of them beforehand so you have an idea of the sound we want for this album. Thanks!
Best,
Han
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RE: Track demos
Attached: phobia_demo.mp3
Like we talked about today, I’m attaching the track I played you at the studio. I think it’ll be a good fit for the sound of this album, but let me know what you think. Ask Hyunjin too.
Warmly,
Chris Bang
Producer | JYP Ent.
+61 900 654 321
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RE: RE: Track demos
Attached: alittlebitlonger_guide.mp3, alittlebitlonger_vocals.mp3, alittlebitlonger_acoustic.mp3
Hyunjin and I were messing around with my mic at home and ended up recording a rough guide for A Little Bit Longer, I liked how it turned out so I thought I’d send the files to you before I forget. I added the raw vocals too in case we can do something with it later, though it’s not the best quality. The acoustic version maybe we can keep as a secret track.
I’ll drop by the studio tomorrow with Hyunjin so we can go through all the songs we’ve finalised so far!
Best,
Han
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: Track demos
Attached: goneaway_guide.mp3, regretme_guide.mp3, peoplewatching_guide.mp3
I had Changbin look over at these once I was finally done with them, and he added a few small changes to the bridge in Gone Away and the bass in People Watching. Other than that, it’s good. It’s really good. Listen to the tracks I’ve sent and tell me what you think. You can pop by the studio whenever if you want to chat, I’ll be up tonight.
We can start recording the lines for these three soon. People Watching can go out as the first lead single, then Regret Me and Gone Away as follow ups. Let’s discuss more with Daiyu tomorrow.
Warmly,
Chris Bang
Producer | JYP Ent.
+61 900 654 321
🎸❤
(A polaroid, dated 20/09/21 . Caption: Happy birthday, terror trio!!! )
Seungmin and Jisung sit on either side of Felix, crowded over a small table with a cake in front of them. There’s too many candles to count—a few of them stuck haphazardly onto various angles of the cake, covering every possible inch of surface area—but one would assume the number is twenty one. They’ve already been blown out. The three birthday terrors in question are wearing matching party hats in different colours, confetti dangling down from their hair.
Felix is holding a knife, poised in position to cut the cake while Seungmin is caught in what seems to be a one-sided staring match with the cake. Jisung is looking towards the camera, one hand outstretched and mouth lifted in a grin, almost as if he’s calling for the photographer to come join them at the table.
Everyone’s smiling. It’s almost as if you can hear the laughter through the picture; smell the scented candle that Hyunjin insisted upon lighting “for the vibes”, taste the cheap convenience store cake. It all adds up to look like unadulterated joy.
🎸❤
5 November 2021
sub(zero)s
hannie
what do we want for dinner
yongbokie
i’m eating with channie tonight, sorry!!
hannie
channie?
like
chris bang?
bang chan?
OUR bang chan?
yongbokie
try to sound less happy about it
hannie
I’M SO HAPPY
I’M POSITIVELY PLEASED
GET IT FELIX 🔥🔥🔥
yongbokie
there is no getting
it’s literally dinner
platonic dinner
hannie
no such thing as platonic dinner
u know what they say about dinner
yongbokie
what do they say about dinner??
hannie
oh u know
anyway
@seungminnie? @hyunjin?
seungminnie
Hyunjin’s with me
We’re eating together too
hannie
wow
thought u were bae
yongbokie
jisung it’s 2022 please get it together
hannie
just leave me to rot in my misery
🎸❤
(Taken from a transcript on YouTube.)
Sub-Zero – People Watching (Behind the Scenes)
In the middle of filming on set. The band are in school uniforms, taking a short break from recording the music video. Seungmin and Felix are resting on the couch while Jisung talks to the camera, Hyunjin right next to him.
HAN: The concept for this video is basically—we’re high schoolers, right? (Gesturing towards their uniforms) Look how well I pull this off. You can tell I was clearly the most popular kid in high school.
HYUNJIN: (laughing) Sure.
HAN: So, we’re high schoolers, and I’m the most attractive one, not that that’s plot relevant—
HYUNJIN: (laughs)
HAN: —and we’re filming a short documentary with a bunch of different students. It’s a movie in a movie. Movieception.
HYUNJIN: (delighted) Movieception!
HAN: Yeah, movieception. It’s like the one drama that Seungminnie is obsessed with.
SEUNGMIN: Our Beloved Summer?
HAN: That’s the one. Seungmin, have you ever seen a single show that isn’t a romance k-drama?
SEUNGMIN: Jisung, have you ever felt the touch of a woman?
HAN: Okay. Shut up. Hyunjin, stop laughing, I’m gonna kill you.
HYUNJIN: I’m with Minnie on this one.
HAN: You’re always with Minnie. Felix, baby, back me up, won’t you?
FELIX: (without looking up from their phone) Jisung is right and I love him.
HAN: (beaming) Thank you.
HYUNJIN: Weebs.
HAN: Nerds.
SEUNGMIN: Aren’t you supposed to be explaining the music video concept for the fans?
HAN: Oh! Oh. So we’re filming a documentary. And we’re in high school. You know how the lyrics of People Watching— wait, Seungmin, sing the part for us. You know which part. The bridge.
SEUNGMIN: I’m not a jukebox.
HYUNJIN: Please?
SEUNGMIN: (sighing) Ugh. You’re waving through the window, you’re doing it all for the show. You’re eyeing your reflection, you’re waiting for directions to tell you where to go.
HAN: (pretending to wipe tears) Wow. Our lead singer, Kim Seungmin, everybody. Can we get a round of applause?
HYUNJIN: (laughs while clapping)
SEUNGMIN: Get on with it.
HAN: Right. So based on those lyrics, at the end of the video—you guys have probably already seen the video by now, but we haven’t, wow, I’m jealous—anyway—at the end of the video, there’s a part where Hyunjin stops filming and brings the camera down.
HYUNJIN: (nods)
HAN: Then, the actual camera—the one that’s filming us—pans away to show that Hyunjin was the one being filmed the whole time. Like The Truman Show vibes.
HYUNJIN: I’ve never seen that movie.
HAN: Me either.
HYUNJIN: (laughing) What—
HAN: So I guess people might think the ending is kind of freaky, but it’s just supposed to be a fun twist. A way of saying that we’re all watching each other, and being watched, all the time.
SEUNGMIN: That is freaky.
HAN: It’s art.
HYUNJIN: You’re pretentious.
HAN: You’re the last person who should be calling me pretentious—
🎸❤
(Seungmin’s phone)
14 February 2022
hyunjin❤️
[link]
this pet cafe opened up a few blocks from here
do you wanna go?:)
jisung from work
heyyy
hey
minnie
👨❤️💋👨👨❤️💋👨👨❤️💋👨👨❤️💋👨🔥🔥🔥🔥🍆🍆🍆🍆
❓❓❓
🎸❤
@hwang.jin
126 posts 937K followers 302 following
(A photo of the band during practice, each of them perfectly focused on what they’re supposed to be doing. Seungmin sings into the mic with heady intensity; Jisung, next to him, looks like he was born with the guitar in his hand. Felix’s hair is a mess, blurry in the picture, and you can tell that they’d been moving along to the drum beat. Hyunjin’s fingers are pressing down on the frets of his bass, but his eyes are fixed on Seungmin.)
hwang.jin home ❤
10 July 2022
603K likes • 299K comments
2000han cringe lol
sky.kim ❤
felixlee15 love you hyunjinnie!!! 🥺
cb97 You kids just get better every day :)
smartlove guys relax he’s only got two eyes
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Felix: The years leading up to People Watching’s final album release were such a good time.
Seungmin: It was probably the busiest I’d been in my entire life. When I wasn’t struggling with uni work, I was busy with the band. I honestly don’t know how I made it through alive.
Hyunjin: Most of my memories from those years are just spending time with the band. Hanging out with Felix, writing with Jisung. My thing with Seungmin was still going strong then, and I was permanently riding the high of getting to be close to the person you love.
I’d never felt as close to a group of people as I did then.
Jisung: A lot of things were looking up then, you know? We had an album we were proud of. We’d finally fallen into a rhythm that didn’t feel forced or tense at the worst moments. Hyunjin and I could actually hold decent conversations with each other that didn’t result in bloodshed or external intervention. It was a good time.
Seungmin: Unlike with 2000, we decided to ease into the album release by putting out a few singles first to catch people’s attention. It was Chris’ idea.
Chris: I knew when I heard People Watching for the first time that this was the kind of song that would go viral in a matter of days. It was catchy, you could dance to it, it was a little bit pop and a little bit rock but not too much of either thing to completely turn a demographic away.
Felix: Regret Me actually ended up spawning a TikTok trend for a while where people would post videos of themselves captioned with lists of everything their exes were missing out on, using the chorus lyrics as the background music. It wasn’t exactly what the song was about, but it was a fun trend. And it put us in the spotlight for a long time.
Seungmin: My personal favourite track on the album was Gone Away. I’d helped in writing it with Jisung, so I was excited to have some of my own lyrics make it to the final cut for the first time.
Out of all the singles, though, that one made the least noise. I’d already kind of expected it since it was the slowest of the three and didn’t exactly feature the most relatable lyrics, but it still stings when you’re expecting a certain response to something and don’t receive it.
Hyunjin: Every time you put a piece of art into the world, you’re acknowledging the fact that it’s going from your heart to another’s. It’s theirs to interpret, to remix, to view in whichever way they wish—your relationship with the audience ends at creation. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I can’t always control the way people see me or my art, but I think I’ve been happier with what I create since then.
Jisung: Because the singles blew up so much on their own, when the actual album came out, we were overwhelmed by the huge response. We had a few loyal fans from before, sure, but nothing to this extent.
Felix: I’d been worried that our music would just be a one-time fad. An audio that people were obsessed with for a few months and then ultimately moved on from, because it got old and they heard better music. Luckily for us, the people decided to take a chance on Sub-Zero and listen to the full album.
Daiyu: This was the kind of success we’d been imagining for the band since the start, but had never gotten close to achieving with any of our previous ones. Sub-Zero was, and continues to be, the exception to most things.
Felix: It was delicate, you know? The kind of success that you’re afraid to touch. Spun sugar fame that could disappear after a single misstep.
Jisung: We put out the album in August, just a couple of months before Seungmin’s graduation. There were a lot of interview opportunities and live gigs that we’d been postponing until after because it didn’t feel fair to do something that Seungmin couldn’t be there for.
Seungmin: I couldn’t help but feel like I was dragging the band down sometimes. They had to compromise a lot because of my schedule—for that, I’ll be forever grateful. But none of them ever made me feel like I was being an inconvenience, even though ultimately, my reason for getting a degree in the first place was going against the band.
Hyunjin: Seungminnie is literally our lead vocal. His voice defines the Sub-Zero sound. The band would be nothing without him, so I don’t understand how someone so smart could ever think such stupid things.
Jisung: People Watching ’s popularity also meant that we could do things like go on tour, because people would actually come listen to us now. We’d played a few stages during 2000 but nothing too big; by the time we could consider even doing a national tour, the pandemic had hit.
Felix: I loved the idea of tour almost as much as I dreaded it. The idea of finally being able to sing to a real, live audience and get up on a stage—versus maintaining the energy to do it almost every day for months on end. It was exhausting to think about, but at least I had the comfort of knowing the members would be with me every step of the way.
Seungmin: I was excited about the possibility of tour. Truth be told, at this point, I was starting to feel foolish for ever doubting the success of our band, so I wanted to do everything I could to regain the same faith I should’ve had from before. I’d be Sub-Zero ’s #1 fan.
Jisung: We were all full of this… inexplicable energy. It was like riding a collective high, one that you know is going to end soon, but you don’t know when so you’re just stuck holding your breath until something happens.
Hyunjin: We should’ve known it wouldn’t take long for things to fall apart just as quickly as they came together.
🎸❤
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
SUBJECT: People Watching World Tour
Hi Jisung,
We talked about this during the meeting earlier but I wanted to follow up on your thoughts about a world tour. With the timing of People Watching and concerts finally being allowed for the public again, a tour would be the best decision both financially and marketing-wise. The longest we can push it is until after Seungmin’s graduation this October. Management has been extremely patient with the band in terms of putting out this album in the first place, so this would be a good way of making them happy.
Have a talk with the others and let me know as soon as possible. We can discuss dates and venues once you’ve decided.
Regards,
Daiyu Huang | Manager
T +61-455-594-960
E [email protected]
🎸❤
(A polaroid, dated 26/10/22 . Caption: Our puppy is graduating~ )
Seungmin standing front and centre in front of the university, clad in a graduation gown and cap as he beams at the camera. It’s almost a magical moment in time. His hands are busy, full of all the different items he’s managed to acquire over the day:
- His diploma. Hyunjin had cheered the loudest when Seungmin’s name had been called to the stage, which would have been embarrassing if not for the fact that Jisung and Felix joined him in whooping shortly after. Seungmin gave no indication that he heard them as he calmly walked across to collect his diploma, aside from the small smile tugging at his lips.
- A bouquet of flowers, red chrysanthemums and poppies spilling out of the tissues they’re wrapped in. It’d been handed to Seungmin by a pink-cheeked Hyunjin right after he walked off the stage. There’s a card tucked in between the petals of a flower that Seungmin hasn’t read yet, but it says this: Congratulations on graduating!! We’ve all seen how much work you’ve put in over the past three years and it’s paid off. Keep working hard and having fun, our Seungminnie~ I love you.
- A second bouquet of flowers, pink roses tied together at the stem with delicate wrapping paper. Seungmin refuses to say who they’re from, but rumour has it he’s gotten close to a certain journalism major recently. Hyunjin was caught giving it the stink eye multiple times throughout the day.
- Two handmade bracelets around his wrist, yellow and orange respectively, tied into a knot that looks frankly impossible to untie. For someone as averse to wearing jewellery as Seungmin, it’s a wonder that anyone managed to persuade him into this, but if anyone could’ve done it it would’ve been Felix. They’d apologised a bit sheepishly for the rough-looking bracelets, and promised that they had brownies waiting back home, but Seungmin had dismissed the concerns immediately and said he loved them. It’s impossible to make Kim Seungmin say anything he doesn’t want to, so it was clear that he really did.
- The People Watching album, in all its black-and-white cover glory. Jisung had handed it to Seungmin with a grin—the same grin he’d sported the entire time through the ceremony when he told anyone who would listen that “Kim Seungmin is the greatest singer to grace this planet”—and made him autograph the inside flap. “I’m your biggest fan,” he’d said to Seungmin, who only replied by rolling his eyes and calling Jisung dramatic. Still, it was easy to tell that he was pleased.
It’s a happy picture for a happy day. The polaroid remained taped to their shared apartment fridge for a long time.
🎸❤
SUB-ZERO
PEOPLE WATCHING WORLD TOUR 2022-23
|
NOV 29 Brisbane, AU |
APR 4 Belfast, UK |
|
JUN 10 Montreal, QC |
JUL 15 Singapore City, SG |
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Felix: When was it, again? Sometime during the Australia tour?
Daiyu: I’d been backstage after the Newcastle show, getting a few beers with some other staff members. Felix was there with me. Hyunjin had been with us for some time, before eventually getting bored and heading off to find Seungmin. I didn’t think much of it.
Hyunjin: I normally preferred being alone after performances, just to get my energy back, but somehow that day I wasn’t feeling up for it. I wanted company, and company always translated to Seungmin back then.
I suppose it was a sign from the universe for me to finally open my eyes.
Jisung: In my defence, I always spent the night after performances with Seungmin. It was tradition. Christening the hotel rooms, you know?
Felix: I wasn’t there, but I heard he walked in on Jisung getting, well. Oral sex, I guess I should say. From Seungmin.
Seungmin: It was like I’d been playing with fire but was still genuinely surprised when I burnt myself.
I remember Hyunjin’s face. It was… he wasn’t mad or hurt so much as he was truly shocked. He was just frozen, taking it in with no reaction. He stared at us as both me and Jisung scrambled to get ourselves presentable.
Jisung: Like I said, I was completely clueless that anything had been going on between Seungmin and Hyunjin. I thought this would just be another awkward, funny incident that we could just brush under the rug and not talk about ever again. God knows we had enough of those on tour.
Seungmin: “Are you upset?” was the first thing I asked Hyunjin. I didn’t even think of apologising. I didn’t think I had anything to apologise for—I wasn’t exclusive with either of them. It wasn’t cheating.
I think I knew even then, though, that considering the history between us it was maybe worse than that.
Jisung: That was when I started to get a clue as to what was happening. From the way Hyunjin still looked entirely shell-shocked, as if he couldn’t bring himself to say any words or he might start crying on the spot. I’d seen it happen before and I didn’t want a repeat of that.
Hyunjin: Jisung started laughing then, that high-pitched laugh he does only when he’s really nervous about something. I figured out then that he hadn’t known either. I still didn’t know what to even say.
More than anything, I just felt… I don’t know… betrayed. I wasn’t upset that he’d been hooking up with someone else. I was upset that it was Jisung, for obvious reasons, and I was upset that he hadn’t thought to even tell me about it. I was upset because I knew he was aware of my feelings for him, but he still went ahead and picked the one guy I could barely even stand the sight of on a good day.
Seungmin: The rest of the night is blurry. I don’t know what else we said in that hotel room, but Hyunjin still refused to talk to me. It felt like a slap in the face. The one person who I thought would have always been on my side suddenly wasn’t.
Jisung: I love Seungmin, I do. And I definitely wasn’t the biggest fan of Hyunjin back then. But even I didn’t understand why Seungmin had strung the poor guy along like that for so long. I felt bad for him.
Hyunjin: When I left the room, Jisung tried to follow after me, probably to check on me. He’s always been nicer than he thinks he is. But just looking at him in that second made me want to throw up—I can’t repeat what I said to him here. I was just so angry, and tired, and he was the closest person for me to take it out on.
Jisung: It would’ve been easy for me to escalate our fight that day, I think. I’m pretty sure I almost did. But I held back for once, and I let Hyunjin go back to his room to deal with things in his own way. I’m not sure how it would’ve turned out if I’d shouted back at him in that hallway.
Seungmin: Jisung went out to check on Hyunjin after he stormed out, and the whole time, I was just frozen on the bed. For someone who thrives off of planning, I’d never even thought to think this far. I didn’t know what to do. I was out of my depth.
Jisung: For what it’s worth, I remember thinking that Seungmin looked equally as disturbed. I couldn’t identify the expression on his face, but… he just looked so sad. As much as I wanted to yell at him, I just didn’t have the heart to.
Felix: Sometimes good people make bad decisions, and it takes time to grow from that. The four of us would know that better than anyone.
Seungmin: Things definitely changed after that, but we couldn’t afford to have it change. We were in the middle of tour. Our label was already putting pressure on us to start writing the next album, saying that we couldn’t have such a long gap between two albums again.
Daiyu: I didn’t know what was going on between the kids until much later, but even I could tell that there was some sort of tension there. They never let it interrupt their work, though. I never had to intervene when it came to things like that.
Felix: They were always serious when it mattered. I was feeling a bit out of my depth during that time, if I’m being honest, because I had some other shit going on personally—I didn’t know what to do or say in front of the members to help with the situation.
Interviewer: What was the personal thing, if you don’t mind sharing?
Felix: (hesitating) Someone who I’d been very close with, and liked a lot, rejected me right before we went on tour. I’d gotten the impression he felt the same way, but…
That’s all I want to share for now, I think.
Hyunjin: I tried to pretend like I could deal with it normally. Like I could just move on with this new information in my life. It shouldn’t have mattered, right? It’s not like I expected anything from Seungmin in the first place. It would’ve been easy for me to shove it under a rug and forget about it. To try and move on.
But I’d spent so long liking Seungmin, I didn’t know what to do with myself when I wasn’t supposed to anymore. You can’t switch your feelings on and off like a light switch. Trust me, I’d tried.
I didn’t want to be mad at Seungmin. It was impossible for me to be mad at Seungmin. I couldn’t blow up at him the way I could at other people. The only thing I could do was ignore him unless we were in a group setting. Maybe it was unfair of me to ice him out so suddenly, but I’d say he’d done his share of unfair things.
So I had all of this anger inside me, directed at Seungmin, that I couldn’t take out on him—but there was someone else conveniently available right then. And I threw all our progress out the window.
Jisung: If I’d been the one picking fights unprovoked before, it was Hyunjin’s turn now. All of the tentative friendliness that we’d built up over the past year had been dashed to the ground. We were fighting almost every second of every day.
Hyunjin: I remember being so jealous of Jisung. I’d always been jealous of him, how easily things came to him, and this was just another example that rubbed salt into the wound. I’d spent so long pining after Seungmin only to have him choose someone else who didn’t feel even an ounce of the same emotions.
The whole time, I kept thinking: What does Jisung have that I don’t? What was he giving to Seungmin that I couldn’t? What did Seungmin see in him that he couldn’t see in me?
Jisung: I was annoyed that he had the audacity to be jealous of me. He was Seungmin’s favourite person for the longest time, and even though I didn’t even like Seungmin like that, there was something between the two of them that I’d never had with anyone. They were closer than close.
I remember wondering what it must’ve felt like to have that kind of bond with someone. To know them that well, and in turn, let yourself be known by them. It was just an unrealistic fantasy for past Jisung.
Hyunjin: I didn’t care about being the best possible version of myself in front of Jisung. I didn’t have to pretend to be cordial with him for Seungmin’s sake anymore, either, so there was just no point. He probably saw the worst sides of me then.
Seungmin: It was odd, knowing that they were fighting so much again and it was because of me, even though they didn’t involve me at all. It was basically what I’d wanted this whole time. And yet I felt so… I don’t know… resigned, every time Hyunjin didn’t come to with a problem like he used to before.
Hyunjin: I spent the most time with Felix then. I was the only one who knew about their thing with Ch— their personal thing, so we both took turns comforting each other, essentially. It was pretty much a miserable time.
Seungmin: I didn’t really talk to anyone. I kept mostly to myself outside of band stuff. I’d have felt too guilty to even try.
Jisung: I had Chris, and Changbin, though we mostly talked about work. Then again, I’ve never really been a “talk your feelings” out kind of person. As is evident from every single page in this book.
Felix: The thing is, even though we were all dealing with so much shit from all angles, we were still on tour. We’d been dreaming about doing this for years . None of us were willing to ruin it with our personal, petty issues. Like I said, we know how to be serious when we have to be.
Jisung: I’ve always put the band before anything else. I think that goes for all of us. When it comes to work, all personal shit is left at the door. There’s no room for that with us.
Hyunjin: It was easy for me to be professional when we were on stage, performing in front of other people, keeping up a show. It basically became second nature.
Felix: Concert stages always feel like a liminal space to me. It’s a place where you’re always on the verge of possibility—anything can happen, and anything will happen, because we’re all riding the high of hearing thousands of strangers scream our names and the words we’ve written.
Jisung: I feel the most comfortable when I’m performing. It didn’t always used to be like this, as I’m sure most people know, but when I’m on stage I never want to leave.
🎸❤
(A photo, slightly blurry, taken from a fan’s phone in the middle of a concert. Hyunjin’s hair is bright red, vivid enough that it looks real even through the screen, and Jisung has an arm slung over his shoulder. His other hand holds the mic he’s singing into, eyes hooded, staring straight into Hyunjin’s. They look like they’re the only people on the stage; on the planet. It’s disarmingly intimate.)
(Another photo, taken right after. Hyunjin is now singing into Jisung’s mic. Their positions haven’t changed—they’re occupying the same space, breathing the same air. They look like they were born to stand right where they’re standing.)
(Every photo from that night. They’re looking at each other. There’s a tension that anybody can see. The way they’re singing, the way their bodies are turned towards each other almost subconsciously. They’re magnetic.)
(It’s not love, not yet, but it sure is something.)
🎸❤
Hyunjin’s phone
13 April 2023
lixie💘💗💖❣️
where are you???
jinnie💗
Stedelijk
lixie💘💗💖❣️
bless you
jinnie💗
it’s the name of the museum!!
lixie💘💗💖❣️
?!
i said i’d go with you
why did you leave so early
jinnie💗
i wanted to get here before the rush
and you were sleeping so prettily
i didn’t want to bother you
lixie💘💗💖❣️
so that’s also why you left without telling daiyu?
jinnie💗
i cant hear u over the sound of this beautiful art
lixie💘💗💖❣️
are you avoiding me because you’re embarrassed about last night?
bc i promise hyunjin you’ve seen me cry over worse things
and worse boys
jinnie💗
oh my god
now i really cant hear u goodbye felix
the connection is breaking bzzzztttt
lixie💘💗💖❣️
don’t do that
have fun at museum come back soon
we’ll have a proper talk
when you’re not drunk and in post-concert haze
jinnie💗
i want to die
lixie💘💗💖❣️
see you<3
🎸❤
min @kwangyaout · 3m
y’all subzero are as insane live as everyone says they are, the energy at the venue was genuinely magical i kept wishing that the concert would never end
🐈 SAW HYUNJIN LIVE @kysjiu · 8m
ok but can we PLEASE take a minute to appreciate these seungjin pics from the brisbane con
replying to @kysjiu
We Won The War. @closetdevotions · 7m
and how long are seungjinists going to cling onto this concert and pretend like they’ve even acknowledged each other’s existence in the past few months?
replying to @closetdevotions
🐈 SAW HYUNJIN LIVE @kysjiu · 7m
being delusional is an extreme sport.
We Won The War. @closetdevotions · 9m
seeing seungjinists suffer and hyunsungists fight for their lives is great entertainment as a hyunlix enjoyer. i can’t relate to any of your struggles.
k 🌙 @smartlove · 12m
it’s been months since i saw the subbies live but all the europe clips are making me miss them so much
k 🌙 @smartlove · 12m
@moondepths can we please go to berlin
replying to @smartlove
#1 deranged hyunsungist @moondepths · 8m
LEAVE ME ALONE
#1 deranged hyunsungist @moondepths · 14m
not to prove my dn right but i just think it’s interesting that hwang “seungmin is my favourite person in the world” hyunjin hasn’t posted a single story with seungmin over the course of the tour so far
🎸❤
(A sheet of paper, ripped out of someone’s notebook. The handwriting looks familiar. We’ve seen the messy scribbles before, the half-written, disconnected song verses. This time, there’s added annotations in a different handwriting.)
Say the things we left unsaid
Say that it’s not all in my head
Tell me what you think about me,
Tell me that you think about me
Baby, please don’t say you’ll forget about me Too long. Change: Please don’t ever forget about me
December sixth,
Do you remember?
Dude. At least try to be less obvious.
You were with him.
The world’s best pretender.
Please scrap this song. You have to sing it with Seungmin. Also, you sound five.
There’s not a day I haven’t thought
What we had and what we lost
Weird flow
Could we ever go back?
Fight our way through it , make it last?
Small talk, tall talk
You tell a lie so I tell three
You’ll pick your pride before you ever pick me
I like this. There’s song potential here.
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered. )
Jisung: We wrote most of our third album while on tour.
Felix: We’d come up with a concept way before—back when we hadn’t even finished People Watching yet. It was something we discussed often, ideas we wanted to see through, whether it be in the far future or near present.
Hyunjin: For all the love that Sub-Zero got, there was always one criticism that stood out to us. To Jisung, specifically.
Jisung: They said I couldn’t write love songs. I mean, can you fucking believe it?
Seungmin: Jisung always got super touchy when people said he couldn’t write good love songs. We used to tease him a lot about it, which he took in good sport, but I think after a while it just became a matter of pride for him.
Jisung: I didn’t like the idea that there was a songwriting thing I wasn’t good at. Like, okay, maybe I didn’t have the experience, but you don’t need to go through something personally to tell a story about it.
Felix: He mainly said it as a joke, first. “We should just create a whole album full of love songs.”
Hyunjin: I really liked the idea, even though I was pretty sure Jisung was kidding when he’d suggested it. Partly because I was still pining over Seungmin and the only things I ended up writing were love songs, and partly because I felt like people always assumed “love” and “rock” to be two separate genres. I thought it would be interesting to create something that went beyond that.
Felix: What can I say? Love is punk rock.
Jisung: We started talking about it, then, really talking about it. I remember saying something along the lines of, “Love songs don’t have to start and end at just romantic love.”
Seungmin: Family, friends, pets, even your own self… these are all people that you can feel love for. Outside of people, too, there’s places and memories and interests that everyone has love for. That was the kind of feeling that we wanted to capture with this album.
Felix: Looking at love from different perspectives was also an important part of it. When we think about unrequited love, we think immediately about the person who’s pining. But what about the person who’s the object of that love?
Jisung: Falling Backwards was one of the first songs we wrote for it. It was actually an idea that Seungmin had come to me with ages ago—I brought it up during the meeting. He helped with a lot of the lyrics. It’s kind of like a sister song to Gone Away.
Seungmin: When we’d been in the process of writing Gone Away, Jisung made a throwaway remark that stayed with me since. It’s not easy to hold someone’s feelings for them. It’s also not something you can talk about easily without making it seem like either person is in the wrong, but it’s something I wanted to try to express.
Hyunjin: I think this was the album that all of us contributed to the most. It was probably a result of—well—heightened emotions, with everything going on, and all. And we were around each other even more than usual because of tour.
Jisung: Have you ever tried to write a love song with someone who hates you? It’s not the most fun experience.
Hyunjin: When we were shuttling between venues and hotels and different interviews, the only opportunities we had to share lyrics with each other were scraps of paper passed around or nearly incomprehensible voice memos sent at 3:00 am. And yeah, maybe we were a bit snappy with each other, but I think we managed to be professional about it for the most part.
Jisung: Hyunjin is literally the pettiest person on the planet. Half of the song-writing sessions we had during the early days of the tour amounted to nothing because he kept passing snide comments or just straight up refusing to cooperate. He still seemed to trust my opinion enough to let me look over his lyrics, though, so I tried to be as objective as I could.
Hyunjin: No matter what, I always ended up being the one who spent the most time with Jisung. I resented it so much back then. But who else would I spend time with, anyway? I couldn’t keep bothering Felix with everything.
And even outside of songwriting, Jisung was the only one who could understand my impossibly specific situation. He’d been through the same thing.
Seungmin: It always ends up being Hyunjin-and-Jisung, Jisung-and-Hyunjin, no matter what it takes for them to get there. It’s almost impossible to separate them.
Jisung: When I think of that year, I remember a day in Paris, for our last stop on the Europe tour. The morning after our concert. I hadn’t expected Hyunjin to be awake.
Hyunjin: I’m normally the opposite of a morning person. That’s Seungmin. But I’d woken up randomly and couldn’t go back to sleep, and it felt like a waste to ignore a sunrise in Paris. I went up to the hotel terrace to try and get some pictures.
Jisung: I was up on the terrace to get writing inspiration. Sunrises in Paris are supposed to be romantic, right?
Hyunjin: I almost walked right back down to my room when I saw Jisung sitting there. I really didn’t have the energy for another fight, especially so early in the morning. But he didn’t look combative—and I was willing to risk anything for a pretty photo of the sky.
Jisung: “You know how to wake up before noon?” was the first thing I’d asked him. Probably not the most tactful.
Hyunjin: I just scowled at him, or said something mean in return. I don’t remember. I just wanted to sit there with my thoughts and the camera.
Jisung: I knew how to tell when Hyunjin wanted to be left alone. I’d spend too long reading through the cracks in his guard. But I was in one of my restless moods, and I didn’t feel like being quiet, and I’d missed spending time alone with Hyunjin without him trying to bite my head off.
Hyunjin: He kept—I don’t know. Looking like he cared. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, but I managed to swallow it down. I didn’t want to burn delicately mended bridges all over again.
Jisung: It was mostly small talk. I could tell Hyunjin was just humouring me. But it was still something. Before everything went down, we’d reached a point where we would talk constantly about the randomest things. It was jarring to go back to ignoring each other so quickly.
Hyunjin: No matter how much I wanted to hold a grudge against Jisung, it was pretty much impossible when all it took was a few words out of his mouth for me to start laughing.
I think I’m just bad at staying mad at people in general, honestly.
Jisung: Making Hyunjin laugh is one of the best feelings in the world. It’s my favourite thing to do. He never laughs like that at anyone else’s jokes, you know?
Hyunjin: I couldn’t tell you what we talked about then if you asked. Most of it has faded to the back of my memory. But I remember the lightness in my chest, and how much I’d missed being with someone who understood me without need for any explanation.
Jisung: It wasn’t a magical fixer for our relationship, of course. I’m pretty sure we were just hypnotised by how unreal everything seems so early in the morning. But it was a nice break from everything.
And maybe I’m imagining it, but I’m pretty sure that Hyunjin was nicer to me for the rest of the day than usual. He didn’t even shoot daggers into the back of my head when I sat next to Seungmin for something.
Hyunjin: I didn’t get any good pictures of the sky from that day, but I did get a picture of Jisung when he wasn’t looking. It’s still in one of my photo albums.
What a story, right? Just you, the sunrise, and the person you’ll never be able to escape no matter how hard you try.
🎸❤
(Taken from a transcript on YouTube.)
Seungmin Kim and Hyunjin Hwang Take The BFF Test
BuzzFeed Celeb • 6,121,814 views • 23 June 2023
430,032 likes • 99,722 dislikes • 23,800 comments
HYUNJIN: Hi, I’m Hyunjin and I’m the bassist for the band Sub-Zero.
SEUNGMIN: And I’m Seungmin. I’m the lead singer.
HYUNJUN: And today we’re here with BuzzFeed to take the Best Friend Forever test to see how well we actually know each other.
SEUNGMIN: I’ve never met this guy in my life.
HYUNJIN: Ha. Yeah.
[Upbeat Intro]
SEUNGMIN: All right. Let’s do this.
HYUNJIN: First question. Their birthday.
SEUNGMIN: March 20th.
HYUNJIN: September 22nd. Boom.
SEUNGMIN: Their favourite snack. Ha. Eggplants, obviously.
HYUNJIN: (laugh) Stop!
SEUNGMIN: Hyunjin loves eggplants. They’re his favourite vegetable. He eats them for fun.
HYUNJIN: Shut up! (laughing) Be serious.
SEUNGMIN: Hmm. (Pretending to think) Trying to think of what you eat when we’re on breaks during practice. You’re just always munching on something. Like a ferret.
HYUNJIN: (laugh) Okay. Well. We all know what Seungmin’s favourite snack is.
SEUNGMIN: I have no idea what that could be.
HYUNJIN: (to the camera) I’m pretty sure he’s bought like, twenty packets of Flaming Hot Cheetos while we’ve been in the US. He’s this close to filling a whole suitcase with them to take back to Australia.
SEUNGMIN: (laughing) They’re a good snack! I don’t know what to tell you.
HYUNJIN: If you say so.
SEUNGMIN: It’s been years since I’ve last had these Cheetos.
HYUNJIN: True. When we’re in Australia, you subsist entirely on your Macca’s diet.
SEUNGMIN: This interview is painting my eating habits in a terrible light.
HYUNJIN: Because they are terrible.
SEUNGMIN: Next question!
HYUNJIN: (reading) Their biggest celebrity crush. Ha.
SEUNGMIN: Me.
HYUNJIN: (laugh)
SEUNGMIN: (laugh) Just kidding. Um. Timothee Chalamet?
HYUNJIN: Oh true! He’s so cool.
SEUNGMIN: (snort)
HYUNJIN: Yours is obvious. Day6, right?
SEUNGMIN: (laughing) All four of them?
HYUNJIN: Yep. All four of them.
SEUNGMIN: Sure.
HYUNJIN: Right. When was the first time we met?
SEUNGMIN: Through Felix, right? When they brought you over to Jisung’s house for practice.
HYUNJIN: Yeah. (cringing) God, that was so long ago.
SEUNGMIN: I can’t believe it’s been 5 years.
HYUNJIN: Yeah.
SEUNGMIN: Favourite memory of you together?
HYUNJIN: There’s so many.
SEUNGMIN: Come on, pick one.
HYUNJIN: Um. Maybe the time we tried baking, during quarantine? The one that devolved into a food fight and Felix yelled at us for messing up the kitchen.
SEUNGMIN: (laughing) I remember that! The cookies did turn out great.
HYUNJIN: Not as good as Felix’s, though.
SEUNGMIN: Never.
HYUNJIN: What about you?
SEUNGMIN: Probably the baking, too. Or when—yeah, the baking for me too. It was so much fun.
HYUNJIN: Nice.
SEUNGMIN: Their go-to karaoke song. Oh, easy. Yanghwa Bridge.
HYUNJIN: (laugh) I think I’ve sung it every time we’ve gone out to karaoke.
SEUNGMIN: It’s a good karaoke song. You also really like that one—Youngblood? You and Jisung always sing it together.
HYUNJIN: Oh, yeah!
SEUNGMIN: Another great song.
HYUNJIN: I think yours is like… well, definitely a Day6 song. I wanna say Congratulations.
SEUNGMIN: Definitely. Any of their titles are good for singing.
HYUNJIN: You sing it with Jisung, too.
SEUNGMIN: Yeah.
HYUNJIN: Something you admire about the other person.
SEUNGMIN: That’s easy to answer. Everything.
HYUNJIN: That’s a cop-out!
SEUNGMIN: (laugh) Okay, okay. Um. I love how aware you are of other people…? If that makes sense. You’re always in tune with everyone’s emotions.
HYUNJIN: Oh.
SEUNGMIN: If any of us are feeling down, we can usually count on you to notice and try to distract us.
HYUNJIN: I didn’t realise I did that so much.
SEUNGMIN: Mmm. It’s sweet. (Pause) Anyway, your turn.
HYUNJIN: This isn’t going to be surprising to anyone, but your singing!
SEUNGMIN: (laugh) He’s always calling me his favourite singer.
HYUNJIN: Because it’s true! I love your voice so much. Our music wouldn’t be the same without it.
SEUNGMIN: Okay. If you say so.
HYUNJIN: (softly) But what do you even know?
[Upbeat Outro]
HYUNJIN: Well, that was fun.
SEUNGMIN: That was great. It was enlightening.
HYUNJIN: We know each other well enough.
SEUNGMIN: Good job.
HYUNJIN: Thanks to BuzzFeed for having us here!
SEUNGMIN: And be sure to check out our album People Watching if you haven’t already.
HYUNJIN: Bye!
Top Comments
angeljendur • 6 years ago
the amount of sheer awkwardness in this entire video is unparalleled
deaponia • 2 years ago
I still feel like I shouldn’t be allowed to witness this video like it just feels wrong
seothsayers • 7 years ago
seungjin walking into the buzzfeed set on this day: we are going to create an environment that is so toxic and uncomfortable for everyone involved
smartlove • 7 years ago
tell me they didn’t fuck before filming this
🎸❤
(A photo, dated 17/07/23. The band at Jisung’s family house in Malaysia.)
The day after their Kuala Lumpur concert. All four of them are smiling for the camera, posing with Jisung’s family in front of their house—Jisung’s older brother had been tasked with camera duty, so he’s not in the picture. Seungmin is standing on one side with a fluffy white dog nestled comfortable in his arms; presumably the Hans’ pet, Bbama. To his left, Jisung stands between his parents with a kind of grin on his face that we haven’t seen in a long time.
Hyunjin and Felix are positioned on the other side of Jisung’s mom, sporting twin smiles. Hyunjin had been an instant favourite at the Han household; with Felix only quick to follow. The bliss on their face from the sheer amount of food they’d been offered and offered again is just proof of how much they’ve been doted on through the day.
Jisung’s mom and dad are dressed in matching tour shirts, which they’d received with a great amount of joy and no less praise. Pride is the only way to describe the emotion on their face as they stand with their son. It’s been a rough road for them to reach all the way here, and even though their relationship might not be perfect even now, it’s better than what it used to be.
Anyone can tell that Jisung’s happy to be back home.
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered. )
Hyunjin: By the time we’d reached the Asia leg of our tour, we had a couple of solid songs pretty much ready to go. But we still didn’t have a lead single or even an album title.
Jisung: How do you sum up something as broad as love? We weren’t the first artists to try doing it. People are always writing and singing about love, so what would make us different? What would make us stand out? What would make people want to listen to us?
It’s a lot of pressure, but I wanted to make sure we did it justice. I didn’t want to half-ass a single with shallow lyrics that sounded deep on the surface and would inevitably blow up on TikTok for a few months. The rest of the band felt the same way, too—we wanted to create something that would mean something not just to us but also to the people listening to our music.
Hyunjin: We ended up procrastinating the deeper stuff for a long time. But we still had a lot of other music to work on. Revisiting old ideas, coming up with new ones every day… I’d forgotten how exhilarating it was to write .
Chris: I wasn’t with the kids on tour—obviously—but I was still getting updates on their music from Jisung whenever he got the chance to call or shoot me an e-mail. I remember being surprised at one of the first demo tracks that he sent me, something that Felix sang the guide for.
Felix: I normally don’t sing on our tracks. You know how it is—the silent drummer with the unexpected voice. I was fine not singing for the most part, since it wasn’t something I felt passionately about or anything, but the first time I wrote a song that I could properly call my own… it just felt right to sing for it, you know?
Chris: I teared up when I was listening to it. I felt so proud of them, even halfway across the world, and it made me so happy to know that they could write with so much love about themselves. It’s still one of my favourite Sub-Zero songs ever. (Pause) Objectively, of course.
Jisung: Felix had told me ages ago that they wanted to write about their experiences with gender. I wasn’t sure if they remembered, but I brought up the idea to them again when we were still in the talking stages of our album, and they were over the moon. They had some help from Hyunjin, but for the most part, they worked on the song themselves.
Seungmin: It’s a beautiful song. Felix insisted that they wanted me to sing the lead for the studio version even though they did a great job with the guide. I can’t explain what it feels like to be trusted with a song that’s so close to someone’s heart—I was touched then, and I’m still touched now.
Hyunjin: It was pretty much a no-brainer when we selected that to be our first single for the album. All of us agreed unanimously, which almost never happens when it comes to picking anything to do with the band.
It’s a bit funny, now that I think about it—of course it was Felix that kept us united, despite everything. Who else would it be?
Felix: I’ll be honest, I was a bit surprised by the reception I got for the song. I still am. I didn’t expect it to receive so much love, but I’m glad it did. The fact that anything about my experiences could resonate with someone else was enough to make me the happiest person on the planet.
Jisung: We put out the single immediately after we ended our tour, mainly because our label wanted to capitalise on all the attention we got. I didn’t mind; we wouldn’t have gotten as far as we did with our music if we didn’t have the management behind us taking care of all the less fun stuff. But the pressure was still building up, and we weren’t anywhere close to finalising a title.
Seungmin: We all tried to spend less time with each other when we got back to Brisbane. Felix stayed with their family in Sydney for a couple of weeks, I caught up with my uni friends and generally spent more time hanging out with them. As fun as tour had been, it was also endlessly exhausting, and being in each other’s company for any longer might’ve led to bloodshed.
Hyunjin: I hadn’t talked to Seungmin much throughout the tour, and I was fine with it, so I thought that bruise was finally healing when we came back home—but it just felt like it re-opened instead. Everything around me was something I associated with Seungmin and now we weren’t even on speaking terms.
Seungmin: Hyunjin was still ignoring me then, which stung more than I would’ve liked to admit. I knew that he wasn’t obligated to forgive me, and I didn’t want to push anything on him, but… I thought maybe things would have a chance of returning to normal at home.
Hyunjin: I kept wishing he’d reach out to me. But he didn’t, so I took it as proof that we were done for good, even just as friends.
Jisung: Hyunjin was in an even worse mood than usual during those days. Which is saying a lot, because he’s the most dramatic, crabbiest person alive even on a good day.
Felix: The tension in the house was impossible to live around, honestly. I needed some breathing space. I love those three, I really do, but all of us could’ve avoided so much grief if they’d just sat down and talked through their issues in at least one sitting.
Seungmin: It was still easier when we were on tour because we at least had our separate rooms at the hotels, and we weren’t really spending time together aside from concerts and press stuff. Now I was back to rooming with Jisung and things were just unbearably awkward in a way they’d never been before.
Hyunjin: I considered moving out for the first time then. I know Felix did, too, but I suppose it says enough about our loyalty to the band that neither of us did.
Jisung: Trying to write with Hyunjin was getting even harder. Almost every time we tried to sit down and discuss ideas for the album, it ended with us fighting. It was exhausting.
Hyunjin: I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to try and write an album of love songs when I was dealing with what was probably the worst heartbreak of my life. Trying to write anything happy just felt like stabbing a knife into my own gut.
Jisung: In the end, we did what we always did—go to Chris.
Chris: I think it was around January, 2024? I was in the studio with Hyunjin and Jisung. Jisung had sent me multiple caps-lock texts about how Hyunjin was “the most insufferable person in the world” and “I can’t work with him anymore, Chris, I really can’t”, so I was expecting the energy they brought when they came over.
Hyunjin: Something about Chris’s studio is just freeing. You don’t feel the need to keep up any kind of pretences when you’re within those walls.
Jisung: Chris told us to try brainstorming with anything that came to mind, just toss around ideas, so that’s exactly what I was doing. I was saying words just to say them, throwing things around until something stuck, complaining about not knowing what to write.
I asked, “How the fuck do you even love?” And Hyunjin said, “That’s exactly it.”
Hyunjin: How Do You Love? That’s the title we ended up picking for our third album. But you already knew that.
Jisung: In that little moment, those two seconds where we made eye contact and felt the immediate rush of relief that comes from having the last little puzzle piece slide into place, I was grinning so wide I could feel it split my face. So was Hyunjin.
Hyunjin: Chris showed us a few tracks on his laptop that he thought might suit the sound we were going for, and we spent the rest of that day coming up with random hooks and melodies. It was a fun day.
Jisung: It took us a long time to write that song—and for someone who’s prone to bullshitting lyrics in one go, I’m glad we spent so much time on it. I think it visibly paid off.
Hyunjin: After we got HDYL sorted, it was a lot easier to figure out what we wanted for the rest of the album. We dedicated ourselves to writing full-time.
Jisung: Sometimes, the key to not trying to kill each other is being so busy that you simply don’t have the time or energy to.
🎸❤
PEOPLE.COM > ENTERTAINMENT > MUSIC
Sub-Zero’s Felix Lee Talks Gender In Band’s New Single Euphoria
“This is a song that I put my entire heart and soul into creating, so please show us a lot of love,” said the 23-year-old drummer in an Instagram story uploaded on their birthday.
By Devi Ahuja | September 14, 2023 06:54 PM
It’s no secret to anyone with an internet connection that Sub-Zero have been everywhere recently. They just finished with a stadium world tour—a huge feat for what is essentially the band’s first tour—and they’ve already put out a new single without wasting any time.
Euphoria is a pop punk song that anyone can dance to, with bright beats and lyrics you’ll have a hard time forgetting. Unlike Sub-Zero’s usual music, however, this single is written entirely by drummer Felix Lee. They use the song to talk about their personal experience with gender, and how something that they’d once been scared of is now something that they hold nothing but love for. The title comes from the phrase gender euphoria, which Felix has said is their favourite way to describe themselves.
Felix first came out as non-binary to the public in 2020, through an Instagram post. The drummer has since talked about how they were nervous beyond belief while writing the post, but that their members had supported them endlessly throughout. This kind of unique bond between Sub-Zero’s members is another part of what lends them their charm, alongside such personal songwriting.
Euphoria is available to stream now on all music streaming services. The music video for the same will be out on September 20, 3:00 PM AEST.
🎸❤
Kim Seungmin’s Personal Diary
Daily Reflections #1046
Eomma called me today for the first time in a year. She said she missed me and asked me to come visit sometimes. I texted noona about it and she said I should try to give her a chance. I’m still not sure if I want to, but I’ll see.
I’ve started cooking more and more recently. It’s therapeutic to just shut down my brain and chop vegetables sometimes. It’s definitely one way to deal with things when Hyunjin and Jisung sound like they’re about to burn the house down at any given point of time.
Is it bad to say that I’m kind of dreading this album release?
Daily Reflections #1055
I finally showed Chris one of the solo songs I’d been working on. I don’t know why I didn’t go to Jisung with these lyrics. I don’t really want it to go on HDYL. But it makes me feel guilty to think of doing anything outside the group when the others haven’t even brought it up once.
Chris didn’t ask any personal questions about it, though. He gave me some feedback on the lyrics and said he’d make me a track. I want to muster up the courage to ask if he’ll still help me produce music if I want to pursue a solo career.
When I got home from the studio, Hyunjin and Felix were watching a new drama in the living room with their heads joined together on the couch. I don’t think I have the right to feel upset about that, considering I was the one who screwed things over in the first place, but it still stings to see sometimes. I wanted to ask if I could join them but chickened out and went back to my room.
Daily Reflections #1061
We had our first practice session for our new songs. Until now we’d just been writing tracks and lyrics, so today we finally worked on arranging the music. I’ve gotten rusty over the past few months, so I’ll need to practise the chords on my own before our next rehearsal. I’ll make a list below of everything I need to do.
Jeongin invited me out for dinner with him and Minho afterwards. It’s nice spending time with people who don’t have constant expectations of me to live up to. With them, I don’t feel like I have to be Seungmin from Sub-Zero; I can just be Seungmin.
🎸❤
@hwang.jin
234 posts 5.2M followers 2.3K following
(Rows upon rows of physical album copies decorate the table. They’re all in the signature red and yellow colours that people will soon come to associate with the album; emblazoned with the iconic “How Do You Love?” font. Though not visible in the picture, the back of the record sports a shot of the Sub-Zero members lounging on top of each other on a sofa. In front of the table, Felix poses for the camera by throwing up twin peace signs. They’re grinning; the kind of joy that’s impossible to explain if you haven’t seen your own work laid out in front of you like this.)
hwang.jin d-15 til you can own one of these babies for yourself!!!
1 August 2024
541K likes • 64K comments
felixlee15 >:) >:) >:)
choigyu what a pretty album cover I wonder who helped you design it
hwang.jin @choigyu the best artist i know 💗
cb97 Can’t wait!!!!!!
🎸❤
(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered. )
Hyunjin: We were done with almost all of the songwriting for HDYL by June. I think that’s the fastest we’ve ever written and completed an album.
Jisung: It was like we were all riding a collective adrenaline rush after the tour and we didn’t want to pause in fear of the fact that we’d lose our momentum. If we stopped to take a break, we’d have to acknowledge all of the other shit between us—and why would we do that when we could just push it aside and continue doing what we did best?
Seungmin: When an entire audience is expecting something from you, your only thought process is trying to figure out what you can do to make sure that they keep paying attention.
We’ve always created music that is important to us, rather than what other people tell us to do. “For the arts, not the charts,” as Felix would say. But it wouldn’t be fair to say that it’s not on our minds as artists.
Hyunjin: I say “almost all” of the songs, because there was a last minute addition to the tracklist that I was hesitant to even consider at first. But I kept feeling like something was missing.
Jisung: Worst of Me is probably one of our most infamous songs. I’m fucking glad we never had to perform it live because I don’t think I’d be able to.
Hyunjin: Everyone’s heard it. Everyone’s guessed what it’s about. I don’t really want to get into it now, but… it’s a good song. I don’t regret releasing it.
Jisung: It’s impossible to release a song and not have everyone immediately ask the question, “So, who’s this about?”
It’s human nature to be curious. Most of the time it’s funny, because more often than not the stuff I write is just based on a passing thought or idea I’ve had, but other times it’s scary how accurate people’s guesses are.
Felix: Sometimes, being in a band with those two is like being an extra in the Hyunjin-and-Jisung show where you’re constantly reminded that you’re not the main character. I don’t blame them for it, but if I didn’t love them as much as I did, I think I would’ve gotten sick of it years ago.
Seungmin: Things were still kind of rocky between all of us at that point, and the only times I properly talked to Hyunjin were during rehearsals or recordings. Jisung was skittish, too.
Felix: I was loving the music we were making, but I wasn’t loving the job. I don’t know how to explain it. The thought of having to get up every day and repeat the exact same show I’d been putting on for the past few years, and this time with an added tension that just leeched into everything and made it worse… it was too much.
But I didn’t exactly want to get up and leave in the middle of everything. I wanted to see things through; I wanted to finish this album and make it the greatest damn album possible.
Chris: From what I remember, recordings went by super smoothly. We were done in only a few takes for everyone.
Hyunjin: Even though the music bit was fine, recording all of the video content felt exhausting in a way it didn’t used to before. Maybe because we’d all gotten burnt out from the cameras constantly shoved in our faces—maybe because we just didn’t like each other very much at the moment.
Jisung: When we were filming our music video for HDYL , two random guys that none of us had ever met before showed up on set and said they were here for Seungmin. We’d never heard him talk about them in our lives.
(Off-record) How should I be referring to you? This is so weird.
Interviewer: Don’t worry about it. Just say Jeongin, like you’re talking about anyone else.
Seungmin: I never talked about band stuff with people outside the band. It felt like it defeated the point of knowing people outside the band. So the day that Jeongin and Minho showed up on set, I was equally as surprised. I still don’t know where Minho managed to get the address from.
Hyunjin: It was… I don’t remember how I felt. I don’t think I was still heartbroken back then, so I wasn’t exactly crying over Seungmin talking to another guy. But I realised that there’d been so much about Seungmin that I hadn’t known—that I hadn’t tried to know, either.
Felix: Seungmin tends to keep to himself, yes, but I don’t think we realised how true that was until we saw him interact with Jeongin and Minho. It’s almost like he was a whole other person.
Which isn’t to say that he wasn’t true or honest with us—I think I know him enough to say that he trusted us. But there were sides of him that he showed them that he hadn’t shown us, and it made me happy to know that he had people like that on his side. I’d always been worried that he was repressing everything.
Jisung: The set was pretty awkward that day, but almost everything from back then was. Things couldn’t be more different now, though.
Hyunjin: It’s crazy how much can change in just a little bit of time and how much can still stay the same. HDYL came out more than six years ago, and even though none of us are the same people we were then, we can probably sing every line off the album from memory.
🎸❤
📌 Pinned Tweet
Sub-Zero @subzero_official · 50m
Our 3rd album, ‘How Do You Love?’, is out now!!! We’ve put a lot of work into it and we’re so happy that it’s finally yours. Have fun listening, & please show us a lot of love!!
Subzero.lnk.to/HDYL
min @kwangyaout · 1m
listening to falling backwards genuinely made me cry, seungmin’s vocals are no joke 😭😭😭 i hope i get to see him perform this live i think it might actually kill me
silly seelie @triopilled · 1m
I KNOW THAT THE WORST OF ME WILL ALWAYS BE WORSE THAN THE WORST OF YOU……
[drowning_in_a_pool_of_tears.gif]
Sweet Talkers @sweetalkersmusic · 4m
Congrats on the album @SubZero_Official!!! Loved it, everything you guys do is phenomenal as always!!!
#1 deranged hyunsungist @moondepths · 7m
BRUH THE LYRICS TO WORST OF ME??????
#1 deranged hyunsungist @moondepths · 7m
every day my DN GETS VALIDATED!!!!!
strawbeby @mysticboy · 8m
oh this album is so perfectly emotional & so quintessentially sub-zero 😖💗
☀ @kyeomgarden · 8m
I don’t even go here but How Do You Love is one of the coolest album concepts I’ve heard of in a while what the fuck, I’m so impressed with how much they managed to express through only 14 songs
We Lost The War. @closetdevotions · 9m
just listened to worst of me (<-- will never be the same again)
k 🌙 @smartlove · 9m
i LOVED every single song but ride or die is seriously the best track<3 subzero are never beating the homoerotic best friends allegations
silly girl hyunjin @angeljendur · 9m
HDYL ALBUM OF THE YEAR ❗❗❗
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(Dated 20/08/24 at 9:23PM. Transcript of a video call between Felix and their mom.)
FELIX: Eomma, hi.
MOM: Hi, baby. Have you eaten?
FELIX: Yeah, I had dinner a while back. Some leftover ramen.
MOM: Aish, this kid—come back home soon, okay? I need to get a proper meal into your body again.
FELIX: (laugh) I’m fine, eomma, I’m taking care of myself. Promise.
MOM: Good.
FELIX: Tell me about your day.
MOM: Mmm. I went out with the girls. Olivia wanted to try out this new restaurant and Rachel had the day off, so we made it a girls’ day out.
FELIX: (wistful) That sounds fun. I wish I could’ve been there.
MOM: I know, baby. They’d say the same. They miss their sibling.
FELIX: I miss them too.
(Pause)
MOM: (softly) How are you holding up?
FELIX: I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m good. The album’s doing really well, and I’m happy—
MOM: Lix.
FELIX: I really want to come back home.
MOM: Have you talked to the others about it?
FELIX: God, that’s just part of the problem—it’s so hard to talk to them about anything these days. (Sigh) I miss when things used to be easy with the four of us.
MOM: What about Hyunjin? Has he talked about coming back to visit?
FELIX: No, not really. They’re all… They all like this whole thing so much. Performing. Music. And, I love it too, but it’s all so much recently.
MOM: You need to say that to them, baby. There’s no point in holding all of this in.
FELIX: (Sigh) I know, I know. I will. But I don’t want to abandon the band.
MOM: You don’t have to abandon them. You can always take a break. They’ll understand that better than anyone else.
FELIX: Maybe.
MOM: You don’t have to make any decisions now. You know I always say—
FELIX: Sleep on it, yes, eomma. I will.
MOM: (smiling) I’m glad you called.
FELIX: I can’t deprive you of the company of your favourite kid, can I?
MOM: Well—
FELIX: I’m emotionally volatile right now, eomma, be nice to me.
MOM: (laugh) Okay, okay. Now tell me about your day.
FELIX: It was honestly not bad. I went to—
🎸❤
from: [email protected]
to: [email protected]
SUBJECT: Interest Check
Dear Mr. Hwang,
I am writing on behalf of Mirror Image to express our interest in working with you. I received your contact from your agent after our conversation, who mentioned in passing that you were open to looking at opportunities outside your current industry.
I believe Mirror Image would be the ideal agency to help introduce you to the world of modelling, one step at a time, only doing what you are comfortable with. We believe that your unique style and charisma would be an asset to our brand. In turn, we would be able to promote you and Sub-Zero’s music to even higher levels. I understand that you do not wish to quit music to take on modelling full-time, and at Mirror Image we will respect that wish.
If you would prefer to sit down for a coffee and discuss this further, please feel free to call my number below to set up a time or send me another email. I would be more than happy to answer any and all questions you may have.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Warm regards,
Tiffany Allen (she/they)
HR Representative
T +61-467-995-160
E [email protected]
🎸❤
STAR MAGAZINE
NEWS | REALITY TV | ENTERTAINMENT | OMG! | STYLE
Sub-Zero’s Golden Members Hyunjin and Jisung Wrapped In Recent Controversy
OMG! August 31, 2024 3:14 pm · By Kevin Jung
The entire world tuned in to listen to the new Sub-Zero album when it dropped just a few weeks back. Its popularity is uncontested, but it goes without saying that such popularity comes with a price. In this case, the price to pay has fallen on the songwriters’ heads.
Fans and non-fans alike have long believed that there’s a strained relationship between members Hwang Hyunjin and Han Jisung, one that negatively affects the group’s image and press content filmed together. Lyrics from their recent album only serve to add more fuel to this theory. Though one would not expect all the band members to be perfectly close, it’s surprising that they could dislike each other to this extent with how much they push their “family” branding. It’s hard not to read it as fake.
Furthermore, netizens have dug up old videos from 2015 in which… [READ MORE]
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(Taken from Sub-Zero Uncovered .)
Jisung: I thought releasing a new album would be the magical solution to all of our problems. It was pretty much the exact opposite.
Hyunjin: The reception from our fans was overwhelming. We’d been worried about not living up to everyone’s expectations after People Watching, but from the looks of it, they were as pleased with the album as we had been. The issues arose when other people took advantage of HDYL ’s popularity to probe at us even further.
Felix: So many articles kept popping up left and right. Most of them didn’t even have a shred of truth to them, but it was still exhausting to deal with. Hyunjin especially took a lot of hits.
Seungmin: I don’t really like thinking about that year. It’s unfortunately true that you can’t attract positive attention without attracting the negative counterparts of it.
Hyunjin: Whatever was going on, it was unsustainable. We could all tell that we were about to crash and burn any second.
Seungmin: In the end, it was Jisung who called the emergency meeting.
Jisung: I didn’t want to do this. I was the last person who wanted to do this. The band was—it was basically my whole life. I’d given up my teenage years for it, put in hours and hours of sleepless nights just writing. I couldn’t imagine living without it.
But I also didn’t want it to turn into a bitter memory for us down the line. I wanted to make sure that we could still look back on our band days and think, “That was fun. I don’t regret doing that.”
Felix: When Jisung first said the word ‘hiatus’ out loud, I almost cried tears of relief. I think that was the point I realised that I couldn’t have kept this going for even another minute without stopping.
Seungmin: He said, “I love all of you, and I love the music, but I don’t love how we’ve been acting around each other lately. I don’t know if any of you feel the same way, but it’s been bugging me and I thought it was time we addressed it in front of everyone.”
Hyunjin: I was surprised. Jisung actually taking the initiative to talk about something as polarising as this? What happened to avoiding any potential conflict unless he was the one starting it?
Jisung: I was terrified out of my mind. In theory, I knew I didn’t have anything to be anxious about; these were my members, and they wouldn’t hate me for something like this at all. I tried to memorise what I would say but that didn’t work at all. I don’t even remember what I ended up saying anymore, but I’m glad I did.
Seungmin: We had a productive conversation that day. There was no snapping or petty comments from anyone—we sat down and we discussed our options. Sub-Zero was important to all of us. More important than anything else in that moment.
Felix: We’d have to talk to Daiyu, obviously, but I somehow had a feeling that she wouldn’t try to stop us. She’s always looked out for us like an older sister would.
Hyunjin: I could see that bit by bit, there was a weight being lifted off of everyone’s shoulders as the conversation progressed. I hadn’t realised how tired we’d grown after dealing with everything until we suddenly had the option of not dealing with it anymore.
Jisung: We didn’t discuss what we’d do during our break. It didn’t feel right—but I think by then, we already had a good enough idea about what all of us wanted from hiatus, anyway.
Hyunjin: Felix had been talking about moving back home forever. It’s not like they were unhappy in Brisbane, but I knew they missed their family. I’m truly glad that they got to spend more time with them.
Seungmin: I didn’t want to bring up solo songs during that meeting. It felt inappropriate.
Felix: It was just so relieving to have everything out in the open. I felt like I could breathe properly again. I’d grown so used to the air being stuffy with an unnamed tension whenever we sat down in the same room, but it didn’t feel like that then.
Hyunjin: That’s it. That’s how it ended. No huge incident, no explosion that caused things to go wrong all at once. Just a slow burn and a simple conversation.
Jisung: Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
🎸❤
[BREAKING] Rock Sensation Sub-Zero Announce Group Hiatus