Stray Kids on their new album, pre-show rituals and dream collab

In July 2019, one year post-debut, Stray Kids brought their Unveil Tour: I Am to Brixton Academy, a venue with a capacity just shy of 5,000 people. In an interview with Refinery29 during that tour, the youngest, I.N, hoped the band would be “remembered as a team that not only makes good music, but makes the kind of music that really influences and helps people”.

Almost to the date five years later, Stray Kids have just headlined BST Hyde Park, the weeks-long festival with a capacity of 65,000. They’re almost at eight billion streams on Spotify. The members – Bang Chan, Changbin, HAN, Seungmin, Felix, I.N, Hyunjin and Lee Know – are favourites of luxury fashion houses, from Versace to McQueen. They also worked with Tommy Hilfiger for their recent Met Ball appearance, the first-ever by a K-pop group. Last year, their third studio album 5-Star was the most pre-ordered K-pop album of all time, at a staggering 4.93 million copies, and a new EP ATE, due out July 19, has been whipping fans into a fever state with explosive song teasers and a droll, canny trailer.

There’s rarely a single, completely standalone reason for an artist’s success but there are undeniable defining factors: for Stray Kids, their authenticity and vulnerability has propelled them to pop’s upper reaches. As lyricists, songwriters and producers, they’ve been unafraid to pin their fears, hopes, dreams and nightmares for all to see in a constant exploration of growing up and belonging, the desire for success, and the highs and lows of achieving it. The music they wrap around it is often gloriously abrasive and extravagant (“Thunderous”, “Back Door”, “God’s Menu”) but they’ll ground themselves in the delicate and subtle (“19”, “Another Day”, “Cover Me”), frequently on the same record.

That they’ve rarely played Europe is even more reason for the visible ripples of excitement across Hyde Park, why there was a hundreds-long queue at dawn to get in, and why, among the pyrotechnics and fireworks and glitchy, hypercolour video backdrops several stories high, you can feel the air vibrating as their fans – known as ‘Stays’ – scream themselves hoarse.

By the close of their propulsive 100-minute set, the night has felt like a much-needed escape from reality but, several hours before they’re due on, the mood backstage is almost languid. Rather than back-to-back interviews, the band opts for a roundtable with a handful of media. They’re relaxed and affable, exchanging quips with the expected ease of a band who have spent almost every waking hour together for years, and settle in to discuss performing, their rituals and their upcoming release.

What does it mean to you to be the first male K-pop act to be headlining BST?

Bang Chan: It’s a legendary festival, a big honour. And, like our comeback is in five days, so we’re very honoured to have the opportunity to get a lot of energy from everyone to really explode (with) our comeback.

How do the pre-show sensations compare to early days of performing?

I.N: I still feel nervous and shaky, hopeful and excited for the stage and it’s a similar feeling to how it was then but it’s something that everyone feels [because] we still have that thirst and passion for the stage.

Do you have any personal routines or superstitions before going onstage or even in daily life?

HAN: We get together and do some stretches so we don’t hurt ourselves. When we arrive at the venue and go through the process of preparing, we make sure to work [out] our vocals because we get so excited [onstage]. We ease into it so that they don’t get shocked at the noise we’re going to make.

It’s been five years since Stray Kids last played London: How has your approach to performing changed since then?

Lee Know: Back then there was some uncertainty, we didn’t know whether we had fans in the UK. Now we’re hoping to enjoy the atmosphere, the eight of us, making sure we have fun and rip up the stage.

Out of all the members, who do you think the London vibe suits the most?

Changbin: Me. There’s nothing that doesn’t.

Bang Chan: Funny! Oh, maybe it’s because he likes football.

You’ve just announced your new world tour, dominATE. You’re going to four continents, which stops are you most excited for, and why?

Seungmin: That’s a hard question. We’re preparing everything with [careful] detail and making sure nothing is overlooked. Each city has its own vibe and feel so I think it would upset Stays if we specified just one city so I’d just like to open it up to be excited for all of them. I love [the] Earth.

How does the energy and vibe differ between a festival like BST and a solo Stray Kids show?

Hyunjin: The set list is different between our own show and a festival, for our own it’s one where our own fans gather, but a festival isn’t just our fans but people who don’t know us very well who are coming to have fun. So we will choose music that’s more upbeat and suitable to a festival vibe. Our own concert tends to be heartwarming but for a festival we’ll come say, ‘we’re gonna die out here tonight’.

Let’s talk about the upcoming album, ATE…

Felix: So the expression ‘ate’ is when we’ve eaten something but the same pronunciation is the number ‘eight’. It’s been nine months [since last release] and we just want to come back as eight members to really show that we’ve truly eaten this comeback.

“As the producers and creators of our music, hearing that Stays gain strength and confidence from it, that’s all that matters” – Bang Chan

How does it differ from your previous work?

Felix: There are definitely a lot of concepts that we’ve included but also just the music style, I don’t think the fans would expect and I think it’ll just be new. Everything we’ve put into this album will just be more satisfying, in a sense, but fans will love it.

Stray Kids have surpassed 7.7 billion Spotify streams: How do you process such success?

Bang Chan: Numbers in general are infinite, we still have a long way to go. As the producers and creators of our music, hearing that Stays gain strength and confidence from it, that’s all that matters. Numbers, results, a big thank you. But for us what matters most is if people out there need it, they can gain strength from it. That’s it.

Can we expect any collaborations with any UK artists?

HAN: I really love YUNGBLUD. Collaboration-wise, we haven’t had the opportunity yet but there are lots of UK artists, YUNGBLUD included, so I’m hopeful that there will be [a chance to] in the future.

What has been the most recent real goosebump moment onstage?

Felix: Performing in front of a lot of people, that itself is just so nerve-wracking but surprising. But for me [at I-Days Festival in Milan], we saw how far the crowds went to the back but then we saw a video of all these fans from the top view. The amount of people that came to the festival was crazy, that they had to have an LED TV at the back just to see what we looked like, that was unbelievable for us.

Stray Kids' upcoming album ATE is out on July 19