Katseye is ready for the global stage.
The six-member girl group — Sophia, Manon, Daniela, Lara, Yoonchae and Megan — already have a fanbase behind them. They were brought together after competing in a YouTube contest in Los Angeles that had viewers watching a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the band and voting on the performers, a first-of-its-kind in a collaboration between South Korea’s HYBE (home to BTS) and U.S. label Geffen Records (Olivia Rodrigo, Camila Cabello).
“I’ve always been dancing and singing my whole life,” said 20-year-old Daniela, who grew up in Atlanta. “I heard about the opportunity, and I was like, ‘This is amazing, and I have to take it.’ And I also was like, ‘You know what? I think it would be so much fun, too, to be part of this training process with all these girls.’ Because I grew up as an only child, I didn’t have any sisters, so I thought I could make friends with people that share the same passion as I do.”
The sentiment was echoed by all. It’s been their dream to perform. Many have been training since they were young girls, taking weekly voice lessons and dance classes. It was a no-brainer to sign up for the competition.
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“I think what is so special about this project is that it is a chance for us to represent our people and our cultures, and that’s kind of something that hasn’t been done before in this way,” chimed in Lara, 18. While she’s from New York and L.A., she feels a strong connection to her Indian roots, she said, and it’s reflected in her personal style.
“Being Indian, there’s not many girls or just people in the entertainment space to have as a role model,” she said of the one-of-a-kind opportunity. “I want to be that person. And I want to have girls and just people in general be able to look at me and look at us and see themselves.”
It’s an international bunch. The youngest, 16-year-old Yoonchae, is from Seoul; Sophia, 21, grew up in Manila in the Philippines and Manon, 22, is from Zurich, while Megan, 18, is from the U.S. — Honolulu.
“We’re basically all family at this point,” said Manon.
They’ve been sharing a house in L.A. as they’ve practiced choreography — with K-pop-level training — and built their sound recording their EP, “SIS (Soft Is Strong),” working with American songwriters and producers like Ryan Tedder and Blake Slatkin. Out now, the five-track album includes their first two singles, “Debut” and “Touch.”
“We didn’t get it on the first try,” admitted Lara. “You know what I mean? Like, it took a lot of work. Some of the songs we had to redo. We really wanted to get it perfect…We wanted to create this very vulnerable feel, but also share how confident we are and female empowerment and sisterhood. But also be very real and show the realness of being a girl growing up.”
“It was definitely a journey to adjust to doing all of the skillsets together, because it’s not just dancing and singing together, but you also have to think about…group chemistry and how to convey the story behind what we’re doing,” added Megan.
The journey has been captured in a Netflix documentary, “Pop Star Academy: Katseye,” that debuted Wednesday. Directed by Nadia Hallgren, produced by HYBE, Interscope Films and Boardwalk Pictures, the series gives a glimpse into the making of Katseye.
“It was definitely some getting used to, having the cameras around you all the time, just being filmed,” Megan said of the Netflix show. “It’s just hard to get used to sometimes. But I feel like we got used to it. We kind of forgot that the cameras were there.”
Among the visionaries behind Katseye appearing in the series is Humberto Leon, the tastemaker, restaurateur and founder of Opening Ceremony. Leon has been part of the project as creative director for more than two years. He’s involved in “every big-level decision to every social media post,” he revealed, though before anything, he got to know the girls on a personal level.
“Getting to know them as people and their personalities and their characteristics and their upbringing, and whether or not they have brothers and sisters, or what their families were like, just really helped inform where I wanted to go with each and every one of them,” he explained. “Because I think the thing that’s important is as we look at them as a group, the thing that I celebrate the most is their individuality.”
Leon gravitated toward dressing them in vintage and Y2K styles, sourcing original pieces from the Warner Brothers costume lot, he said, and sharing a fashion history lesson along the way: “I’m showing them, yes, Balenciaga, but also the Nicolas Ghesquière Balenciaga from the 2000s that really started the craze and giving them all these little tidbits of everything, from luxury fashion to Gap and American Eagle and all these other brands in the ‘90s and 2000s that were super relevant. What I feel like I’ve always been good at is this kind of interesting high, low mixture.”
Asked about their favorite brands, the girls list American Eagle (they’re dressed in head-to-toe looks from the label during the interview), Opening Ceremony (“of course,” they laugh in unison), Gentle Monster, Diesel, Balenciaga, Versace, Saint Laurent, Dior, Chanel and Miu Miu.
“I remember we all had one-on-ones with him the first time we met,” Sophia said of Leon. “He was just like, ‘Show me your style, tell me all about you.’ And the coolest thing about working with him now, being in Katseye, is that he takes who we are and who he sees as artists and challenges us in the best way.”
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