The appearance of Kawashiri Ren-kun from JO1 who have released their second album “KIZUNA”! “We want to say ‘We are with you’ with our music.” Fukuoka local Kawashiri Ren-kun, a member of the global boy group JO1, appears on the cover of our magazine for the first time in about a year. He talked a lot about JO1 who have released their 2nd album and current keyword ‘bonds’.
Profile Kawashiri Ren born ‘97, from the prefecture Fukuoka. He worked as a back dancer and choreograph since his teenage years and participated in the orginally Korean audition program “PRODUCE 101 JAPAN” in ‘19. Through the votes of the viewers called ‘National Producers’ he gained the second place in the final and made his debut as one of 11 members of the global boy group JO1. They made their debut in March ‘20 with ‘PROTOSTAR’ and released 5 singles and 2 albums so far. He is the dance leader of the group with his overwhelming dance skills.
I think I have not shown yet how I reprimand the members such as "Do it properly!" or "Did you listen to what was just said?".
This is the 5th time you appear in this magazine, Ren-kun, and this time we are in the multipurpose ‘Weekend house’ in Kego. First, I would like to ask you about your recent affairs, so are there any especially memorable group activities lately? TN: Kego is a district in Fukuoka. We did concerts with an audience for the first time last year in November and finally it came true for of course the members but also JAM, so it still stays in my mind and I think it will be an event that will stay in my mind for long. Since JAM had come all the way, I wanted them to go home with the feeling that they had a lot of fun, so we wanted to have a show that not just entertained us a lot, but everyone. More than everyone expects, we can see the faces of the audience from the stage. So, after the shows ended, the members talked about every detail, such as “The people on the left side cried a lot” or “At the seats over there. parents with their children came”. As there was a center stage, we were able to see everyone in the back, too, so I remember everyone saying “It is great to have lives with an audience”.
This is indeed great. We are also anticipating a show in Fukuoka. Speaking of something more recent, the radio program ‘JO1 All Night Nippon X’ has started and you took part in a discussion with the prime minister about vaccination. Do you think you have a side you have not shown to the public yet while doing all those different jobs? Ren: I guess what was not seen on camera yet or rather what JAM have not seen well yet, iis my side of being strict at practice. Basically I am always enjoying it, but when there is no time or when someone fools around when we have to do it earnestly, me and Sho-kun, as the elder brothers of the group, reprimand them like “Hey, do it properly!” and I think this side of scolding them a bit is something I have not shown yet. However, I believe sooner or later in the future you will see this side (laughs).
When you give a warning like this, is everyone obediently listening to you? Of course! I do not get really angry at them, it is rather that I tell them at a relaxed moment “Did you listen to what was just said?” while making them laugh a little, but that’s because when I scold them, I do that in a pleasant atmosphere. But well, I want them to listen to what was said (laughs). I think the opportunities are also increasing where you come in touch with people from outside the group and from other genres, such as through the Amazon Prime Video drama ‘Short Program’ in which each member played a main character. There are a lot of people who have more experience than us and we learn different things from everyone. I think it is one way to improve JO1 further, because it is possible for 11 members to work outside (the group) to bring something back to improve JO1 just as when I work outside and interact with various people, as it is for our main business JO1. At ‘Short Program’ everyone got to know about the joys of acting and dramas, but there are also some members who got into it saying “I want to do this more and more” and there are also members who said “I want to take acting lessons” and did so. I think it was one opportunity to challenge various things such as acting, so I hope everyone will improve in a better direction now. I would also like to ask about things other than your activities and music, so is there anything that you tried lately and that you enjoyed? Becoming more mature made me understand the virtues of salt. Up till then, so often when there were refreshments or I ate with the staff, I felt that “With meat there should be a sauce!”, but now I tend to choose more mature things such as salt or wasabi now and think “At the time of the 1st album it was sauce, but now I started to eat it with salt”. I feel that my tongue also grew up (laughs). And in about 5-6 years, you might be determined on the meat itself. Ahahaha! I guess by then I will have started to pick fish (laughs). How do you spend your time when you want to relax? Because of these times, I rarely go out, but with the members I always play games. You really love games, don’t you? It is not good when you play way too much, but recently I ended up playing with Mame-chan and others until late at night. Speaking of Ren-kun and ‘Fukuoka’ (in the meaning of the magazine), in the March issue this year there was a large birthday ad for you featured that was made by JAM. Yes, I know about this. (while reading) This is amazing… It makes me so happy~ You can feel the love of a lot of people, right? Your recent album is called ‘KIZUNA’ and I think you, yourself, have many opportunities to feel various bonds such as the ones with the members or with JAM. It is something often said, but people say “One cannot live alone”, right? That we can be active is thanks to all JAM and when the practice is tough there are the members and all staff who support us. I believe everyone is surely connected with someone else. We express that connection via the album title and the title track ‘With Us’, and we made the album with the hope that it can be an album that through the music we say “There is someone at your side” and “We are with you”, when you have a hard time and that it can encourage you. Especially ‘With Us’ is a song that reflects the album. To say it in one word, (it is) ‘happy’. The lead tracks of our releases were often easy to understand cool songs, but this time we had the theme of ‘bonds’, so it became a happy song in which you can feel connections. From the training on there was a really fun and lively atmosphere. The album features 7 new songs and among them there are songs which you have never heard (from JO1) before. My personal favorite is ‘ZERO’. The sound is really beautiful and there are the lyrics “It was decided since we met The link called destiny” in the bridge, but the lyrics are very beautiful as they have a lot of messages such as the feeling of the circle of being connected and this goes round and round and this is like the number 0. So, I’m often listening to ‘ZERO’ lately. What do you think about ‘Touch!’ in which the member Kono Junki-san participated in the writing of the lyrics? Do you also think that it is a pure song that makes you even feel a little bashful when you read the lyrics? Yes I think so. A typical Junki-ness comes out or rather he chose words that let you easily imagine him talking, so I believe that it is another song that will be surely loved by JAM. On the other hand, ‘Love & Hate’ is a moody and thrilling song. You can catch a glimpse of a new side of the group. My impression was “This is definitely my type of song” when I first listened to it. It is one of my favorites because it has a really interesting play on the words, such as love and hate, as the title suggests and uses opposites in the lyrics such as “Your hot gaze that seems to burn It is cold that it seems to freeze”. Another song that was especially memorable is ‘Walk It Like I Talk It’. The lyrics such as “The determined life is invincible” or ‘If you want to live a unique life There’s no future if you stay in the safety zone” show quite some aggressiveness. That’s right. We have barely done such powerful songs lately and since ‘CHALLENGER’, there was no song that was such an easy to understand powerful song, so I believe both the members and JAM will like it. I hope you will watch this song either on a video or performed live soon. The album is a compilation of this time. I want you to try to listen to it while keeping in mind both our growth so far and our future growth. Which song would you recommend to someone who comes across JO1 for the first time through this album? Maybe ‘Move The Soul’. It is a song that is very easy to listen to, is easy to groove to and it got a tie up with an anime. Both the singing and the dancing clearly stand out and I think it is interesting to watch. The line distribution is very fine, so after wondering “Who sang this?”, “Is that one who just sang?” and I want you to look this up (laughs). It is the song with the most detailed line distribution we ever had. Regarding the song, I felt while watching the video of your appearance at ‘THE FIRST TAKE’ which became a huge hot topic, that it was refreshing to hear everyone’s vocals without you performing and it was an opportunity to focus on listening to each one’s singing. Do you feel that you did a level up in regard to singing? I am a person who always danced, so I barely had any appearance in just singing, but doing this together with Sho-kun, Junki, Sukai and Takumi… I received this wonderful opportunity together with truly reassuring members. There have been a lot of reactions, so the awareness inside the group became stronger that “Our singing is also watched”. I would like to put more power into training to match the mood of the singing with everyone and I want to improve our vocals so that people will say “This is a group that can be enjoyed just with their singing, too”. Perhaps it is because you have experienced live shows with an audience, but I have the impression that there are a lot more songs that feel closer and speak to you. If you looked at the album as a whole? The album is a compilation of this time and I believe it has become a turning point despite it does so each time, so we improved since the previous release and I believe you can enjoy it more when you listen to it while paying further attention to the improvement from this album on. As it is an album which has a message that encourages you, that has powerful songs and shows various sides of JO1, I hope it will become an important album both for us and for everyone. As a group you are breaking into your third year since your formation. Finally, please give a message to everyone cheering for you. We still cannot see what is ahead, but we are moving forward somehow while struggling, so I promise you that the members will continue to get along and that I will make you all happy. I hope you will continue to support us just as before.
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