A much anticipated collaboration between VERNON and THE8, V8 was the latter’s idea. “I said that it’d be really exciting if we worked together, as it seemed like we could produce a lot of fresh pieces of music,” THE8 says over a video call from Seoul where the duo, both members of record-breaking K-pop outfit SEVENTEEN, will hold a highly anticipated showcase in mid-July. VERNON adds: “We tried to work with producers we’ve never worked with before and who’ve never done K-pop.” 

That the portmanteau of their stage names echoes an engine found in iconic American muscle cars, which have come to symbolise freedom, youth, rebellion, escape and, for V8, a “relentless drive to race forward”, is the icing on the cake. On their self-titled eight-track EP, songs like “Friend”, “BEAT” and the focus track, “singasong” stutter and hiccup as they trip across coy, playful instrumentals. “girlsnboys”, Pharrell’s second production with members of SEVENTEEN, is icy and all-knowing, reminiscent of NYC synth pioneers like Man Parrish. V8 entwine, separate and rejoin at multiple points on the record, their personal and emotional diversions subtly woven into lyrics but boldly declared on their solo tracks. VERNON’s bouncing “미아”, for example, sounds part YEEDM and part Steps’ “5, 6, 7, 8”, while THE8 finds inspiration in the sweaty magic of Berlin’s electronic scene on “8DM”. 

Below, turbo-charged K-Pop superduo V8 speak on their collaboration, dropping lyrical easter eggs for fans, and rebelling against the K-Pop trend cycle.

Let’s start with the final track on V8, “rat race”, because I’m intrigued that two members of SEVENTEEN, who have the two biggest selling K-pop albums of all time, still feel enough imposter syndrome to write the lyrics “If I make one mistake, I’ll fall/I know it’s only a matter of time/Before they find me out” and “I don't deserve all that I got”.

VERNON: It’s me feeling guilt for having everything I have but, nonetheless, keeping on racing towards wherever this race ends. I guess we're just still hungry.

Why the feeling of guilt when you've clearly worked so hard for what you’ve achieved? 

VERNON: Because everyone works hard and not everyone succeeds. It’s kind of guilt tripping sometimes when I think about it. 

THE8, you seem to come at the idea of a rat race and the pressures of success in a slightly different way on this track.  

THE8: I wanted to focus more on reflecting deeply on the youth I’ve lived through so far. So my lyrics convey thoughts like ‘Even though my smile becomes a facade to hide my vulnerable side from others, when the night gets truly dark, will there be someone by my side to sing along with me? Is the reflection of myself in the mirror the real me?’

VERNON: That’s basically how we approached all the songs – just talking about our own perspective on the same topic. And in different languages. 

Which would be the track where you’re most connected?

THE8: “friend”, because we were channeling our emotions toward our fans and looking back on the precious memories we shared. 

VERNON: It has a lyric – ‘You make me feel like I hit it home’ – that’s a direct reference to a SEVENTEEN song called ‘Homerun’. There are a lot of references to our past songs and behind the scenes episodes that only fans would know. I sing ‘The melon walls are making sense tonight’ which refers to our training studio back when we were trainees. It had green walls and our fans nicknamed it the melon studio. I honestly hated being there and that time, but after debuting and going through everything I’ve been through [and looking back at that space and time now], the melon walls make sense.

THE8: There is a line in my lyrics that goes, ‘I love you like the color of the sky’. I often share photos of the sky that I’ve taken myself with our fans. To me, the sky I encounter in those specific moments always feels the most beautiful, and I truly love the sky. So this message – that I am always thinking of and loving you just as much as I love this beautiful sky – is my personal easter egg. 

The fuel behind the record is the idea of ‘spent youth’ but rather than it being a negative, you pull on all your experience and make it propel you to this new chapter. How do you come into this mindset when so many people mourn the loss of their youth, become stuck on memories or wish they weren’t getting older?

THE8: I guess we just wanted to keep everything really genuine and authentic. We didn’t aim to put a really positive message into this, we just wanted to say, flat out, this is us. We’ve been artists all throughout our 20s and that journey has created us as we are right now. We've run full steam ahead and we’re going to keep racing ahead as hard as we can. 

What is the vibe in the studio for you both given your decade-plus friendship? How does it play out when you hit a snag in the creative process?

VERNON: We hardly argue. I might have a strong opinion or THE8 might have a strong opinion, and when we do, usually, the other will follow whoever has the stronger opinion. We haven't had really huge conflicts. It was a pretty peaceful process, at least between the two of us.

This collaboration has been highly anticipated by your fans. Was there any pressure you felt in creating a large-scale project, and particularly for you, VERNON, as you head into your mandatory military service this year?

VERNON: The pressure I felt was just from myself wanting to do a good job. And once we had the music that was relieved pretty quickly. I’m just happy to be able to release this project before my enlistment, and it’s all thanks to THE8. 

THE8: I just wanted to do a really fun, exciting project with VERNON since it was a very important album for us. And I knew how excited the fans were so I really wanted to live up to their expectations. I’m quite curious to see how this album will be received. 

Was there a track that came together more easily than others?

VERNON: ‘singasong’ came the quickest. It was also the last song we worked on. I just knew this would be our focus track. I felt like I had to convince everyone we should make this a focus track. It was just so refreshing and different; it’s honestly my favourite on the album. 

Which track presented the biggest challenge?

THE8: Rather than calling them challenges, I’d say there were tracks that naturally matured and became clearer along the overall timeline – tracks like ‘Friend’ or ‘coloring’. We worked on these songs with producers who have been by our side since the beginning of this project and we were able to bring out richer colours for them as the album began to take shape. 

Occasionally we’d step away, then revisit them with a fresh perspective, thinking ‘Now we’ve brought in a song like this, let’s evolve this track in this direction to better fit the album as a whole’.

On V8, there’s a reference to the Robert Pattinson film Mickey 17 in which he plays a worker who is cloned and expendable. Do you relate to this theme in that the threat of a very limited shelf life has always hung over K-pop idols and idol music?

VERNON: Wow, that's a really good point. We’d talked about something similar regarding this whole ‘V8’ idea, because nowadays the new trend [isn’t petrol], it’s electric vehicles. And in music, everyone's just so focused on making something that would work on TikTok. It’s not really on trend to be working on full albums. I mean, we’re not making a full album but we have eight songs, which is a lot. 

We’ve been around for a while – we came out in 2015 – and I do think some might see what we’re trying to do with V8 as old-fashioned or, at least, unaligned with what others do today. But I don’t care what other people do. I just want to do whatever I want to. And that’s shown through this album.

What will you take away most from this project?

THE8: I learned so much from this album. I realised that this isn’t something anyone can do on their own – it’s truly a collaborative work. I also learned that I need to be a strong pillar at the centre to successfully lead a project. I have to be clear and definite in my vision so that everyone involved can look in the same direction without being swayed, and build on each other’s ideas together. I think through this experience I keep on wanting to do better and work harder.

VERNON: It was truly exciting and chaotic. More than anything, arranging was the hardest task. Making a song you can do anytime with anyone you want, but actually getting to a point where you think it's good enough to release, and convincing everyone to go in that same direction wasn’t easy but it was fun.

V8 is out now.