K-pop stars KARD on their favorite musicals, raising lions, and reading ‘nasty’ thirst tweets

Kard’s latest single may be dedicated to the benefits of getting “Icky” with someone, but the quartet’s YouTube habits are a lot more PG-rated.

Rapper Jiwoo specializes in sultry stares on stage, yet offstage she says she has two interests: “puppies and babies.” J.Seph, the group’s stoic rapper, perks up when talking about his favorite Broadway musicals. Things get spicier — literally — with Somin, who likes watching people eat hot wings. But it’s BM who finally brings things full circle by asking to read fans’ ickiest thirst tweets on camera.

Read on to learn more about what Jiwoo, J.Seph, Somin, and BM have been watching while on tour.

J.Seph

J.Seph: I love the musical Hadestown, specifically the songs “Wait for Me” and “Wait for Me (Reprise).” There was a six month period where like 95 percent of the music I listened to was just those two songs.

When the musical came to Korea, I was serving my time in the Army so I wasn’t able to see it. Even when we were in New York City for our recent tour, I couldn’t see it on Broadway because we were working.

What other musicals do you like?

JS: I also like Chicago, but I haven’t seen that either. I watched the movie and really enjoyed “All That Jazz” [sings the song’s chorus]. I got hooked. While I was serving in the Army, we performed a musical called “Mesa Song” that we created ourselves. We composed and wrote it. It was really fun, a great memory.

I don’t usually like UFC,but yesterday I started watching the champion Alexander Volkanovski. It’s a two-days old hobby [laughs].

Usually, fighting is too violent for me.

JS: I felt the same way, but for some reason yesterday I fell into it.

The duality of man: musicals and MMA fighting.

JS: I also watch a lot of cooking videos.

BM, Jiwoo, Somin — does he cook for you guys?

BM: No, but I want him to. He knows he’s good. I don’t know if he is, but I want to try his stuff. It always looks good, aesthetically, when he shows me photos. We’ve eaten together many times, and he has a high standard for food.

JS: I’ve cooked for my family before but never the members. Before the end of the year, I’ll cook spicy Korean marinated ribs for them.

Somin

Somin: I like watching spicy food challenge videos because Korean people are really good at eating spicy food. Watching foreigners eating spicy food, it’s kind of fun to watch them in pain. I also think, “Is it that hot? I think I could handle it.”

BM said “daeri manjok” is the way to describe someone doing something in the place of you. There’s a German word, “schadenfreude,” which is like in like, delighting in the pain of others.

BM: Schadenfreude girl! She likes it.

SM: Only when it comes to spice! I love spicy food. When we’re stressed we Koreans eat spicy food and sweat and all that goes away… It’s really cathartic.

You shared a Kelly Clarkson Show clip ahead of this interview. Are you a fan?

SM: I love her. I saw a video of her and Ariana Grande doing a singing contest, and it was fantastic how strong and powerful her vocals were. I really want to be on the show. We did a performance of “Icky” on Good Day New York. It was the first time actually performing on an English program, and we want to do more of those. Kelly Clarkson Show, any late-night shows. We want to perform and show who Kard is.

BM: She’s the OG. “Since U Been Gone!”

BM, being from the States, do you remember her on American Idol? 

BM: Yeah, Kelly Clarkson was big. I think [the show] was big around the time I was watching Disney Channel Original Series like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and stuff like that.

Jiwoo: I was really into Hannah Montana and High School Musical.

BM

BM: I recently watched celebrities read mean tweets, and I feel like I can handle mean tweets. I think I’d have a lot of fun reading it. But what I’d rather read is thirst tweets. 

You haven’t been invited to do that yet?

BM: No, I keep telling BuzzFeed. It’s on my bucket list. And it’s gonna happen because fans send me some nasty shit. I saw a video of Mike Tyson on the Jimmy Kimmel Show where he popped up behind fans talking about him, and I kind of want to do something similar with our fans.

Where they’re talking about you and then you’re behind them?

BM: Yeah, in front of our venues on tour, for example. I think it’d be really interesting and funny just to catch their reaction.

Is there a mean tweet that you remember ever reading about yourself? That you’re like, “Damn, they got me.”

BM: One I didn’t like in particular was “man is shaped like a refrigerator.” And that was when I was a little bit bulky, like a little bit bigger. That one hurt a little bit.

Why? 

BM: I don’t know what [they] meant by “shaped like a refrigerator.” I just look like a big-ass box? A shapeless, big box. And I was just like, “OK, let me show this guy or girl in a couple of months.” And I did. 

As for what else I watch on YouTube, I watched a lot of Diablo 2 and [Diablo] 4 gameplay. You’re going around killing demons and demon bosses, collecting items, [and] getting rich as hell. I also watch PubG. I watch a lot of music production videos, but as far as anything out of the ordinary I think that’s pretty much it. And I got into cars recently.

An expensive hobby. 

BM: It is. I have my baby back in Korea. I drive a Camaro. I’ve been thinking about tuning it but decided not to because in Korea the roads are narrow, and there’s a stop sign every 400 meters so there’s no point… You know how you watch people doing a mukbang to fill your own hunger? I watch people tune and race their cars.

Jiwoo

JW: I generally like funny interviews, especially late-night stuff because they upload them with perfect Korean translation on the bottom so it’s easy to understand. I recently watched Adele on “Carpool Karaoke”, and I loved this episode of “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” with Kendall Jenner and Harry Styles. I like putting myself in the situation like, “Would I answer the question or eat the bad food?”

This Buzzfeed puppy interview is on my wishlist. I love puppies, I have a Frenchie in Korea.

Wow, Buzzfeed really needs to schedule something with you all.

BM: I let them know plenty of times. We’ll make it work one day.

JW: While we’re on tour, we do a lot of flying, and I have YouTube Premium, so I download videos to watch while we’re in the air. I like watching movie reviews where they summarize a two-hour long movie, the most important points, in a 20-minute clip. In Korea, that’s one of the specialities of certain YouTubers. 

I also like watching plane reviews of the most expensive first-class cabins and classic YouTube clips like Glozell tasting wasabi and doing the cinnamon challenge. I love animals. I’ve recently been watching videos of Pubao, the first giant panda born in Korea. There are a lots of clips of her playing around with the zookeepers.

So cute! Does it make you want a panda?

BM: I want one! And a lion, too. My friend [in Pakistan] has one, and he named it after me. I would like to raise one one day. Apparently, it’s not too expensive. I have to do my research on where it’s legal to raise them.

JW: One more thing: There’s a Korean YouTuber called “wineking.” He speaks eight different languages. In this video he goes to France with his wife, and the waiter at a restaurant is rude to them and everyone around them. Even people at nearby tables are upset about her behavior.

But this guy isn’t upset. He’s smiling and being very friendly to the waitress and instantly the atmosphere of the restaurant changes from bad to good. Watching him use his wisdom and wittiness to change everything in an instant was so interesting. It made me want to be like him: a powerful, kind presence that influences others.