It’s hard being an international pop star these days, even with vampiric powers. But ENHYPEN, the wildly successful K-pop act that commands stadium tours, makes it look easy. It’s not only the music that has some ENHYPEN enthusiasts hooked. Their discography ties into a vampire storyline and lore including a Webtoon series called “Dark Moon: The Blood Altar.”
Are they ever worried that in a world of shorter attention spans, a detailed storyline might become too much for fans to follow?
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Not really, implies vocalist JAKE in an interview with Consequence before the album’s release. “I think the fans just know that we have this huge storyline behind us, and they don’t really have to think about it too much. The content we put out now can be shorter and doesn’t have to have every kind of detail, or storyline, behind it.”
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ENHYPEN first explored the vampire theme starting with their debut BORDER : DAY ONE, and leaned in on subsequent releases, like on 2023’s Dark Blood with its hit track, “Bite Me.” This January, they leveled up the narrative elements on their EP THE SIN : VANISH which, included spoken-word interludes and production credits from JAKE.
Their new EP THE SIN : BLISS, out August 21st, continues the story. On a personal level, it signals major changes for the group. It’s the first project after the departure of former member HEESEUNG who left to pursue a solo career (he now performs as EVAN.)
We met up with ENHYPEN last month while they were still on their ongoing “Blood Saga” World Tour. They were days removed from a string of performances in Latin America — their first ever in the region — and were hours away from their show in San Diego, CA at Snapdragon Stadium. That Thursday, they made an appearance at San Diego Comic Con, joining the Bite Me: Calling All Vampires panel alongside Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke.
On a sweltering Tuesday afternoon, while their ENGENEs were lining up to buy merch, five of the members gathered in a room offstage. Ready in their opening stage outfits, all variations of soft all-black leather, they huddled together for the chat.
Anticipating their appearance at Comic Con JAY, the band’s resident rockstar who grew up in Seattle weighs in.”I already knew how big San Diego Comic Con was,” he says. “There’s almost every franchise that’s really big in the world [there]… it’s like I always think that with life you never know — because I had no idea we would go there, but it’s really exciting for us.”
On THE SIN : BLISS, ENHYPEN explore Brazilian baile funk with lead single “Bloody Paradise” produced by JULiA LEWiS, who also worked on two other tracks. SUNGHOON was present for the concert but unavailable for our talk and followed up later via email: “I especially focused on how we could make ‘Bloody Paradise’ our own and showcase it with ENHYPEN’s unique color,” he writes. “Since it’s a new genre for us, we put a lot of thought into the performance and every detail of our expressions to fully capture the energy and mood of the song. Through this album, I hope more people can enjoy our music and discover a new side of us.”
Have they ever thought of recording in Spanish or even Portuguese? While in Latin America, some members covered songs in these languages and it was impressive. “After we recorded all the songs and all of it was done,” says JAKE “we kind of joked around saying that, ‘Oh, it would have been nice to have a couple of Spanish [songs], or you know, Portuguese.”‘