Xdinary Heroes Bleed With Honesty On Their Latest Mini-Album ‘LXVE TO DEATH’

In an industry that sees most love songs chasing the illusion of perfection, Xdinary Heroes remain unafraid to wade into the chaos that love itself entails.

With the release of their seventh mini-album, entitled LXVE TO DEATH, the six-piece rock band from JYP Entertainment‘s Studio J sub-label flips over the concept of love to unveil not just its warmth and wonder, but its tendencies for volatility, anxiety, and self-destruction. Given the group’s tendencies and reputation to push the limits of what modern K-rock can sound like, Xdinary Heroes transform those beats of emotional turbulence into a thunderous (and equally eclectic) mix of emo, metalcore, synthrock, and even breakbeat into an audacious set of soundscapes that mirror the messy beauty of what human connection looks like.

Since their explosive debut back in 2021, members GUN-IL, JUNGSU, GAON, O.de, Jun Han, and JOOYEON have forged their own path in an industry that’s often unpredictable –– blazing their own trail that’s won over millions of listeners along the way. From the gritty rebellion of their first EP, Hello, world!, to their introspective fire of Deadlock, it’s become clear that the group has evolved into artists that dare to confront rather than conform –– with each new release showcasing tighter instrumentation, bolder experimentation, and deeper dives into themes of emotional honesty.

It’s fitting then that LXVE TO DEATH fits in that same trajectory, almost as if it were a reckoning of sorts that declares growth doesn’t always come from clarity, but from the disarray of learning how to love, lose, and live throughout all of it. As I sit down for a brief chat with the group’s members, it’s immediately evident just how deeply personal this release is for them –– even when forgoing the elements of its intricate production and explosive sound. For upon hearing the final result of the record, one can see how they’ve turned love’s messiest edges into something transcendent, electric, and unapologetically alive.

In this exclusive interview with Billboard Philippines, the celebrated K-rock group gets candid about all things LXVE TO DEATH — sharing details about their creative approach for the record, what they enjoyed most about bringing this record to life, and about all the challenges they faced along the way (of which they eventually came to overcome).

Billboard Philippines: This mini-album, LXVE TO DEATH, explores love not as a polished romantic ideal, but as something chaotic, imperfect, and even self-destructive. So what drew you guys to talk about this interpretation of love, and how did the vision guide the creative direction of this project? 

GUN-lL: When we decided to explore this theme of love, we wanted to do it in a unique way that is unique to Xdinary Heroes. And rather than focusing on the ordinary dimension of love, we wanted to focus on more honest, frank, and detailed emotions that occur in love. So because of that, I think the melody and the lyrics came out very raw — and at times, rough. And I think that’s what made both of it really well matched. 

That’s so exciting to hear, because as it is, this album feels emotionally heavier and sonically more intense than your previous works. How did your personal growth or internal conflicts during this period influence the way that you wrote, played, and even produced these songs? 

JUNGSU: Personally, there were a lot of things that we wanted to talk about and explore as a band while we were working on our music. And when we chose the theme of love, it kind of felt difficult at first –– considering that the title of this focused on Love and Death ––  because the initial idea of love is tender and soft. That’s the instinctive thought when you or anyone often thinks of love. But we, as a band, wanted to explore a more distorted kind of love, so that was the difficult part, but I think it came out and blended well in the end.

As artists deeply involved in your music-making, how did your roles evolve on this record, from the songwriting to the arrangement, to the vocals, and even instrumental experimentation? 

GUN-IL: For me, the drum lines in the songs in this album — it’s freaking hard. It’s even more difficult than the last album of ours that came out. Not by a lot, because the last album was also freaking hard. Though it became harder by just a little bit. *laughs*

But now, there are more twin pedals, and the double bass pedal plays in our new songs. And the BPMs are very fast. So I’m still practicing every day, and I actually just came from practicing the new drums for our new songs. But yeah, my drumming level has leveled up, and it has to continue to level up to play the new album as best as I can. 

Jun Han: Every time we write the melody line, we always think we are going to write an easier melody next time. But we repeat the same mistakes over and over again, and we end up making even harder melody lines with each album and each song. But because the melody line gets harder, the vocal ability improves. So I’d think it also improved a lot with this album!

That’s so nice to hear, because it’s like you guys are really pushing yourselves to really improve and become more ambitious with every release. But in the process of making LXVE TO DEATH, was there a specific moment where you collectively felt this is what the EP is about? Like, whether it was a lyric, a sound, or even a decision that clarified your vision as a group? 

O.de: I think “Lost and Found” is the song that left us with very similar, collectively similar emotions. It’s not our title song, but it’s our second-favorite, most-loved song. 

JOOYEON: I think it resonates with us because we’re in the same situation, in the sense that when there are no listeners, our music kind of loses meaning. So “Lost and Found” really resonates with us.

This 7th Mini Album fuses a very bold spectrum of genres, which, from what I’ve heard so far, includes emo, metalcore, synth rock, breakbeat, and more. So how did it feel tapping into all those sounds, and what challenges did you face in maintaining the cohesion while pushing these sonic boundaries? 

JOOYEON: The reason why we challenge ourselves with a new genre, with each album or each song that we put out, is because our motto [as a group and as artists] is to have fun with our projects. So that’s why trying new genres has not been difficult for us.

And I think the part where we’re confident is that even though it’s a genre that already exists, if we sing it as an Xdinary Heroes, as a band, and if we play it, that kind of becomes ours, and our colors really get to show through the genre –– no matter what it is. So that’s why we can try new genres confidently. 

For each of you, which track on the mini-album best represents the evolution of Xdinary Heroes’ sound and why? 

GUN-IL: For me, it’s “LOVE ME 2 DEATH,” because we’ve been doing ensembles for it, and I think it’s one of the most difficult songs that we’ve ever played live, because it has a lot of details, it’s fast, and the timing has to be really good. So yeah, I believe that “LOVE ME 2 DEATH” is the track that represents the evolution of Xdinary Heroes’ sound. 

JUNGSU: My pick is “FiRE (My Sweet Misery),” which is track number three in our album, and also our pre-released single. I chose that song because it kind of shows the power that I didn’t imagine that we had in terms of instruments and vocals, and performance. I think it shows that a lot, so I think we’ve grown a lot from there, too.

Jun Han: My pick is “Lost and Found,” which is the first track of the album. I think that writing songs has a lot to do with creativity, but also how well you perform it also matters greatly. So when we wrote this song and when I saw that people were liking it, I really thought that we’d done a great job, so I’m very satisfied. 

JOOYEON: My answer is also the same as Jun Han. *laughs* I didn’t make the song, but I was in the process of making the sound. In the case of Before, I was in the process of making a sample of a virtual instrument, and I was in the process of finding a new way to play the keyboard. So I think it will be very helpful for our team’s performance in the future. 

O.de: My pick is “Spoiler!!!” which is track number five. It’s not because of its instruments or vocals, but in the process of sound making, I think we really evolved a lot. Usually, we try to put an effector with the instrument that’s in our head, but with this song, we use the sampler to create the keyboard part. So this new approach to sound-making really made me feel like we evolved as a band!

GAON: My pick is also “FiRE (My Sweet Misery).” When we first wrote this song, we weren’t sure whether we could perform this song as well as we had practiced. But after we did this particular show, wherein we showcased the song on the stage, it became very clear that it [the song] became one of our strongest skills that we can show to our fans. 

As it is, just hearing how excited you guys are with each of these songs, there are so many intricacies to show that it means so much to you –– whether it’s performing or even in the composition period. But is there a song on the record that holds any personal or cathartic meaning for you, whether it’s individually or as a group?

JUNGSU: I think for all of us, our pick would be “Lost and Found.” But personally, I think the lyrics were for the fans, because they point out what we really want to say to them. It’s a bit sad, but it’s a song that has the message saying, ‘don’t forget me.’ So I think that’s what really kind of moved me, and it was very emotional.

Given the high emotional intensity in songs like “LOVE ME 2 DEATH” and “FiRE (My Sweet Misery)” as you’ve mentioned, how were you guys able to balance technical precision with the rawness that all of these songs demanded? 

GUN-IL: When we record our songs or perform on stage, I think the most important thing is to focus on the emotions. But it’s also very important to play the technical songs (like those two) precisely. So when I have to practice, I try to practice without any emotions — I practice so that I can play like a real machine. 

But the point is to practice enough so that when I get to perform on stage, I think that’s when I get to embrace all those emotional aspects wholeheartedly, and then I can be emotional and precise at the same time.

The narrative arc of this album traces love through obsession, loss, recklessness, and resilience. Did any specific personal experiences or even emotional truths inform how you approach the lyricism on the record?

GUN-IL: When we were writing the lyrics for “LOVE ME 2 DEATH,” I’m going to do the same thing as I did in studying Psychology. And I learned that in Psychology, there are three types of love for adults. One of them is anxiety-based. 

As I studied and read about it even more, I thought it would be fun and interesting to write a song about it, and that’s how I came up with the lyrics. I realized that this anxiety-based attachment is something that I thought would be really interesting to make a song out of. And that’s why I would say “LOVE ME 2 DEATH” challenged me in that sense.

JUNGSU: I also thought about why we liked “Lost and Found” so much. While working on this album, we expressed a variety of loves in many forms of dimensions that were interpreted in Xdinary Heroes’ way. But in the end, “Lost and Found” had the lyrics that really came out of our hearts and reflected how we really feel about love, so I think it touched and held a special place in our hearts a lot. 

How did you navigate portraying these different emotional voices across the mini-album, while still keeping a consistent identity as a band? 

O.de: Each album has completely different emotions, but I often wonder what we pay attention to in order not to lose our own color while expressing songs with different emotions. In fact, I think that no matter what genre we do, it’s still our performance and our vocals, and our emotions that really come through as our color.

As we go through a lot of experiences, we build up the emotions that we express later on, and I think that’s what makes us unique. Because performing these songs becomes our experience, and experiences produce emotions, and that also becomes part of our colors. 

GAON: To add to what O.de just said, I want to use this metaphor, but I think Xdinary Heroes already has very solid colors of paint, whether it be a vocal or an instrument. The matter is how we use those paint colors in each song to create a painting. I think our colors already exist, but the point is how to use those colors to create a complete painting or artwork, which is our musical output.

That’s a beautiful way of putting it. I can really see how that comes across, considering just how impressive your discography has been over the past few years. That’s very well said.

O.de and GAON: Thank you! 

Now, the key track, “ICU,” is a sonic rollercoaster where vintage rock meets modern chaos. How did that track come together, and why was it chosen as the key track to represent the album?

Jun Han: I think you’ve already explained very well why it became the title track. *laughs* We put a lot of time and effort into the songwriting, and I think it’s because of the mix of hard rock and chaos in the song. The genre of hard rock is really fun to play with, but it’s also very chaotic. I think it’s the genre that we have the most fun with, and it really is like a rollercoaster, just like you said. I think that’s why it became the representative track of what we’ve accomplished on this record!

As musicians and storytellers, what statement are you hoping LXVE TO DEATH makes about who Xdinary Heroes are right now in the present day? 

GUN-IL: That these guys are crazy. *laughs* Oh, yeah. That they are really serious about our music. That we’re really serious about our music 100%, and we’re very experimental. But the best thing is, wow, these guys are crazy. Yeah.

All: *laughs*

JUNGSU: To add to what GUN-IL just said, so far, we have tried to explore themes that were not explored, unexplored areas in our own way. But this time, we chose a very common theme, and shared by everyone, which is love. But we wanted to talk about love in our own way, which is unique to Xdinary Heroes. So at this point, nothing scares us. We are fearless. 

I love seeing that. Given how much effort all of you have put into this record, what are you most excited about once this mini-album is finally out? And what sounds do you hope to explore in the future? 

GAON: I think what we’re most looking forward to is being able to perform these songs live on stage. And next time, I don’t know what we haven’t tried yet. But maybe we can explore more of the math rock sound, or perhaps even jazz. I don’t know, but it’s exciting to think about. 

O.de: Personally, I want to try a fusion between EDM and rock. And for me, I personally want to try writing like a cinematic type of song. Like for example, Muse has a lot of cinematic songs. It doesn’t have lyrics or melodies, and it serves as an intro song for the album. Maybe we could try that!

I can’t wait to hear that. For my last question, when fans finish listening to this record, especially those who might be navigating their own imperfect experiences with love, what message do you hope this record can impart that will resonate with them? 

GUN-IL: That you’re not alone. And that it all passes away. You’re going to be alright.

JUNGSU: To add to what GUN-IL said, as we explore the many different types of love in this album, we realized that each type of love, however unique that is ––  it still exists. And I just want to send the message out that if you’re experiencing that different type of love, I just want to say that you’re not alone. That’s the kind of message that we wanted to share with LXVE TO DEATH.

Listen to Xdinary Heroes’ seventh mini-album, LXVE TO DEATH, in its entirety below:

*This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.