For girl group Brave Girls, producer and songwriter Brave Brothers is both a solid foundation and a looming shadow.

Following its debut in 2011 as a seven-member group, Brave Girls was widely publicized as being produced by the K-pop mega-name, but quickly faded into obscurity with mediocre music.

“It’s the seventh year for ‘Brave Girls,’ but its members only debuted last year and are practically rookies. However, the expectations (toward us) are those of a seven-year veteran, which puts a lot on our shoulders,” said Eunji of the group. “We hear people saying all the time that everyone who receives a Brave Brothers’ song becomes successful -- except singers from his own company.”

“Rollin’” marks the first time Brave Girls is performing without any of its seven original members. Its current members all joined the band in February 2016.

“I was so nervous because this is the first stage for us as a five-member group,” said Hayun.

The five-member group said they prepared for the new EP “Rollin’” as if it were a matter of life and death.

“The focal point of our preparation was to make sure that the (fans) won’t notice the gap left behind by our former members,” said Minyoung, adding that she wanted to finally make her producer proud.

According to the members, Brave Brothers was involved in not just the music -- having composed all but one song of the five-track EP -- but also dance moves and looks.

The main track “Rollin’” is a standard house number with a simple, repetitive hook that has the obvious intent of getting into listeners’ heads.

“Rollin’ is an up-tempo EDM (electric dance music) song with a mix of tropical house that sings about a person lingering around one that she loves,” said the group’s agency.

The music is complemented by dance moves with a chair, which the members said were designed so that fans could easily mimic them.

Despite controversy about “oversexualization,” the members spoke out against the group being perceived as just pretty faces. Yuna said girl groups consist of artists, too.

“It’s important to find out what our ‘color’ is,” said Yoojeong.

“I think girl groups are artists. I hope we will be able to show more than what is expected of us,” said Yuna.

Their ultimate goal? To finally “beat” their boss.

“The most popular celebrity in our company is Brave Brothers. We want to be more famous than him,” said Minyoung.



By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)