“I was falling helpless in a bathe of waste / Reaching my arms out towards the others / Falling in dysfunction in all places round me.”

In his poem ‘Free Fall,’ Thomas Kinsella talks concerning the “helpless” terror of free falling – hurtling in direction of the bottom with blood-curdling velocity and little to dispel the oncoming crash. As he falls in a “bathe” of waste – wasted alternatives, phrases by no means mentioned, or just the particles of his life – he flails about for assist, maybe disregarding the truth that this fall is collective, this agony and concern mutual.

As they bring about one other chapter of their thesis on youth to an in depth, Tomorrow X Collectively are in the same sort of free fall. On their final album, ‘The Identify Chapter: TEMPTATION’, the group was gallivanting on a picturesque island, buoyant pleasure and liberation propelling them deeper right into a dreamscape. Finally, nonetheless, they realise they’re very similar to Pi and the tiger caught on the algae island. What that they had regarded as a manifestation of their harmless youth and freedom was, in reality, a crafty lure meant to lull them right into a false sense of safety. The island’s promised abundance was merely a misleading “sugar rush”, preserving the members locked away from their true potential and desires.

Thus comes the free fall. The members determine to say goodbye to Neverland and Peter Pan and hurl themselves into the maelstrom, for the sake of maturity and impending progress. That is the place ‘The Identify Chapter: FREEFALL’ finds them – “falling in dysfunction in all places round” them, as Thomas Kinsella put it – confronting the uncharted, but additionally embracing true freedom, maybe for the primary time ever.

“Within the final album, we had been swayed by temptation. On this album, we get to face actuality. We’re attempting to step ahead, however within the means of rising there have to be rising pains,” says Taehyun of the album. We’re nearly per week out from the discharge of the second a part of ‘The Identify’ sequence, and the 5 members of TXT – Taehyun, Beomgyu, Soobin, Yeonjun, and Hueningkai – patch in via Zoom from a nondescript room. The surface world could also be caught up within the proverbial storm of this new launch – the group was just lately named ambassadors for Dior, and have steadily been dropping idea visuals for the discharge – however here’s a second of peaceable, uncommon respite as they attempt to pin down the core feelings that drive ‘The Identify Chapter: FREEFALL’.

“To start with, I feel it’s the emotion of feeling freed as a result of we’re lastly breaking away from our illusions, [so] there’s that particular sense of freeness,” Hueningkai says. “Additionally, the emotion of operating in direction of our youth, defending and holding our desires and our hopes. The final [emotion] can be the rising pains and the dedication to go ahead.”

Regardless of the turbulent connotations of the album’s title, Hueningkai likes to suppose there’s a way of peace bolstering all of it. “Not having the ability to get away from the illusions might be a contented second, when you consider it, but it surely’s additionally a circle that we’re trapped in. That’s why there’s a way of freedom [in this album] – solely whenever you’re free of that circle can there be change,” he explains.

It wouldn’t be incorrect to say that this is likely to be TXT’s most self-aware album but. They know, higher than maybe anybody, that youth is fleeting. Their attribute indefatigable optimism apart, right here is the place they acknowledge and reckon with the discomfort of being too comfy, nonetheless seductive the concept of staying younger and wild is likely to be.

“I wouldn’t say that we let go of the desires and no matter we had of [our] youth,” Taehyun causes, talking of the album’s idea visuals, which hark again to a few of their earlier releases. Maybe a hangover from the previous? An incapability to actually let go of your earlier attitudes? He disagrees: “[Before] we had been sort of oblivious to our desires. Now that we have now confronted the truth, we realise that there are particular desires and hopes that we have now to observe via.”

He brings up ‘Dreamer’ which, based on him, exemplifies the stability between the uncertainty and concern of letting go of the previous and the heady exhilaration of discovering who you’re. “I dream once more / The identify I retrieved / The chase of following the dream / I’m a dreamer,” the group sings on the music, its languishing, sensual R&B increasing and flickering like a mesmerising aurora within the open midnight sky, making you’re feeling small but unusually secure.

“I assumed discovering the “identify” is sort of a mission that everybody has. It’s just like the destiny that everybody has.” Hueningkai – who contributed to the lyrics – explains, emphasising the dissonance between the id you’re born with and the one you make for your self. “We’ve our [own] names, however what’s essential is that towards all odds and all uncertainties, it’s a must to discover your true self and your true id.”

“At the final prompt / Approaching the floor / The autumn slowed immediately / And we had been all / Unconcerned / Concerning each other in approval.”

“I feel the second after I actually face my id is when MOA (the group’s followers) calls out my identify,” says Hueningkai.

“I felt actually alive once we debuted at Lollapalooza,” Taehyun provides.

Because the dialog turns to discussing moments when the members encounter their very own realities, one factor turns into clear: TXT’s private identities are inevitably intrinsically linked with their skilled ones. They’ve needed to develop (and develop up) amidst a flurry {of professional} accolades that will spark envy and awe alike. At instances, it should really feel like being on the centre of their very own photo voltaic methods – they could need to take a breather and perceive who they’re, however time and the world revolves round them at their very own dizzying velocity. Does fame ever really feel like a free fall?

Beomgyu disagrees: “It’s actuality, however I don’t suppose it has a damaging connotation.” If something, they’ve “change into extra grasping about bringing [our fans] higher music.”

Yeonjun gives a special private perspective: “I feel my ‘free fall’ second was after I began this profession,” he says. His admission is surprisingly faraway from the uplifting hopefulness that tinges the group’s music and solutions alike. “Earlier than beginning this profession, I don’t suppose I knew a lot about myself. I didn’t know tips on how to love myself. I didn’t know what sort of particular person I used to be,” he admits. “However this profession and occupation actually modified me in a great way.”

Thomas Kinsella’s phrases reappear on the horizon because the members all credit score one another for the great reminiscences. “There are challenges alongside the best way, however each time, I take into consideration my members right here, [and] I do know that they are going to assist me and that I can do it,” Beomgyu provides.

Whereas the camaraderie does cushion the autumn, additionally offering consolation is the innate data that they’re on the appropriate path. As Taehyun places it: “I feel all of us truly know the reply. We all know the locations that we have now to be headed in direction of, however placing that into motion requires a whole lot of braveness and energy and that’s what’s actually onerous. It’s actually about reconciling [with] your interior self.”

Tomorrow X Collectively’s new album ‘The Identify Chapter: FREEFALL’ is out now by way of BIGHITMUSIC