NMIXX Explores All ‘Shapes of Love’ in Their First Full Album Blue Valentine, Opening Up About Diversity, Creativity, and Growth | EXCLUSIVE

NMIXX’s adventure as six members has been a long and successful one, and they’ve now reached another huge milestone as a group with the release of their first-ever full-length album, Blue Valentine. The project dives into the complexity of human emotions with the group’s signature MIXX-core sound.

HAEWON, LILY, SULLYOON, BAE, JIWOO, and KYUJIN, the diverse and creatively involved members of the group, were thrilled to discuss their new release, sharing their passion for the journey that led them to this long-awaited moment, one we’ve been eagerly anticipating right alongside them!

The album is filled with intricate visuals and layered emotions, showcasing their unique sound that ranges from the soft, mellow tones of “Blue Valentine” and “ADORE U” to the high-energy EDM vibes of “Reality Hurts.” It also features continuations of their earlier track “O.O” and Latin-inspired rhythms the group has mastered so well in songs like “PODIUM” and “RICO.”

Each of the 12 tracks highlights NMIXX’s growth, both lyrically and visually. The group has also released several interactive elements, from personality quizzes to manga stories that illustrate NMIXX’s world, that we touched on in the conversation, alongside striking music videos like “SPINNIN’ ON IT” and “Blue Valentine.”

These videos contrast each other beautifully, from free-spirited visuals to deeper, more emotional imagery, which we explore further in our interview with The Knockturnal.

NMIXX’s voyage continues to evolve, embracing the full spectrum of emotion. As JIWOO explains:

“Our first full-length album, Blue Valentine, carries many faces of love — joy, excitement, pain, and complexity all coexist. I think that’s what real love looks like in life. I hope listeners take away the message that love doesn’t have to be perfect — and that even within imperfection, people can understand and move forward together. As always, I hope our music can be a source of comfort and strength to our NSWERs. I really want this album to convey our sincerity.”

LILY adds:

“It was meaningful to express those emotions through our voices, and I really hope listeners can feel that sincerity.”

Read the full interview with NMIXX below, where we discuss what they’re currently “crushing on,” their songwriting process, and the deeper meanings and experiences behind this evolved release.

The Knockturnal: This album explores so many different shades of love, something we don’t often see associated with the color blue. NMIXX’s approach feels fresh and unique, diving into the conflicts and emotions that come with loving and being loved, including the pain and vulnerability that can arise.

With this concept, how was it to explore the different forms of love, platonic, romantic, and even self-love, through the songs on this album?

LILY: Love isn’t just a beautiful, happy feeling. Sometimes, and inevitably, it involves pain, conflict, and vulnerability. Our new album, Blue Valentine, captures that duality, the push and pull of emotions in love. The title track is a pop song layered with a ‘blue mood,’ but its shifting BPM reflects the dynamic emotional highs and lows. I personally worked on the lyrics for “Reality Hurts,” exploring the message we wanted to send through those complicated feelings. It was meaningful to express those emotions through our voices, and I really hope listeners can feel that sincerity.

HAEWON: Love is something we all experience in life, and along with it come conflicts and pain. That’s exactly why we chose the name Blue Valentine. Loving someone means you can both give and receive hurt, and we wanted to express those raw emotions in our music. While writing lyrics, I thought a lot about how to capture that complexity, whether it’s self-love, platonic, or romantic love; our goal was to convey the sincerity and the ache within it.

The Knockturnal: The album reflects The Paradox of Love, with contrasting moods, edgier tracks like “Phoenix,” “Reality Hurts,” and “RICO,” alongside softer tracks like “Crush on You,” “Adore U,” and “Shape of Love.” NMIXX is known to ‘CHANGE UP,’ but how did you approach balancing these different moods both in the songs and in the visual concepts?

BAE: I don’t think love can be defined by just one feeling, like happiness or sadness. I felt it’s about joy, pain, excitement, and conflict existing all at once, which is the essence of love. So in this album “Blue Valentine,” we wanted to portray those complicated emotions through different moods and genres. Our identity, “CHANGE UP,” is a powerful tool that helps us express those contrasting emotions fluidly. For example, tracks like “Phoenix,” “Reality Hurts,” and “RICO” capture intense, powerful feelings, while “Crush on You,” “Adore U,” and “Shape of Love” focus on pure and romantic emotions. 

Lyrically, “Blue Valentine” and “SPINNIN’ ON IT” explore the push-and-pull feelings of not being able to let go despite constant fights and confusion.

SULLYOON: We also wanted to express the paradox of love visually. If you look at the Valentine version of the concept photos, the unit cuts show warm, fluttering emotions when together, while the solo shots express loneliness and emptiness after conflict. Some photos look very lovely, while others give a hollow and complicated feeling. We worked hard to reflect these emotions not only musically but visually, which made the album’s story and feelings even richer in my opinion. 

The Knockturnal: In the “SPINNIN’ ON IT” music video, we see beautiful, delightful things, like cupcakes, twisted in unexpected ways, such as pins on the cupcakes. Could you share more about the thought process behind these visual choices? What did the moodboard look like for this concept?

HAEWON: The music video focuses on visually portraying the “other side of love.” Even in something sweet and cute like a cupcake, there’s hidden pain and hurt, which symbolize the complex emotions of love. We always value emotional range in our music, so we tried to capture those subtle contrasts visually. We wanted to show a world where feelings that are “lovely but dangerous” can co-exist with “beautiful but painful”. 

KYUJIN: My cupcake scene was based on the premise that I loved the members so much that I got them together. I made love & hate cupcakes, but the cream was actually mint toothpaste, and the decorations were thumbtacks. On the outside, it looks sweet and adorable, but inside, it is filled with things that can hurt someone, symbolic of that duality of love. While shooting, I tried to act like a sweet, playful girl with a slightly dangerous edge. That contrast is at the core of “Blue Valentine,” and I enjoyed bringing that contradiction to life through this scene. 

Watch the memorable moments from the “SPINNIN’ ON IT” music video below!

The Knockturnal: The video also mixes heartfelt, intimate moments with playful, intense ones, like the cake-throwing scene. How was it filming those playful moments?

HAEWON: Even for playful scenes, we always stay serious on set. So many staff members work hard for just one take, so we give everything to get the best cut quickly. Even when it looks playful on camera, I was fully focused inside.

JIWOO: Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever have a filming experience like throwing that many cakes again! It was so fresh and fun. I wanted the scene to look like a real fight, so we all gave it our all. It was such a fun and memorable shoot.

The Knockturnal: I’d also love to talk about the interactive aspects of this release, like the Blue Valentine quiz and the Blue Valentine MANGA, which features the six members of NMIXX on an adventure toward MIXXTOPIA, a world celebrating diversity. How did it feel to see yourselves in manga form, with your characters’ stories and lore being told in this way?

KYUJIN: Through the previously released webtoons and personality quizzes, fans could understand and connect with our universe more easily. It was amazing how the cartoon characters looked so much like us! I was fully immersed the entire time.

Dive into the quiz: here!

The Knockturnal: In Chapter Two, a translated slide reads: ‘For each other’s sake, some wanted to stop the adventure, and for each other’s sake, some wanted to continue it! But what do we do… we’ve already come too far. How can we fix things when we’ve become this divided?’ How does this reflect the story of NMIXX and the messages you want to convey to your fans through this 12-track album?

HAEWON: Even as a team, there are times when our thoughts differ. Sometimes we want to stop, sometimes we want to keep going. But what matters is that we’re together, looking in the same direction. That’s where this album began, from that shared feeling. We want to keep dreaming with our fans and keep moving forward, no matter the challenges.

KYUJIN: That line really made me think. We’ve also had moments when we felt lost, but our fans have always grounded us. So this album is our real story. Just like how love contains many emotions, “Blue Valentine” expresses our journey of growing through those emotions together.

Check out the Blue Valentine story: here!

The Knockturnal: NMIXX consistently promotes inclusivity, featuring people of different ethnicities and abilities in the manga. In Blue Valentine, animals and plants are also treated as equals, and songs like “RICO” include Spanish influences. How important is inclusivity and diversity to NMIXX’s journey, music, and messaging?

LILY: I think a need to be included is an innate desire that lives within all of us! I think there’s no reason everyone shouldn’t be treated as equal. When I was younger, seeing mixed-race people on TV meant a lot to me, and I felt so seen. I’m so happy NMIXX can hopefully be that for someone. Also, I believe diversity creates more interesting art, and everyone being the same is boring.

The Knockturnal: Since we just spoke about diversity, the album is incredibly diverse in sound. With so many different vibes across the tracks, do each of you have a favorite song on the album, and why?

LILY: Among the songs, “Reality Hurts” is the most special to me because I wrote the lyrics myself. I wrote it to fit NMIXX’s story, but I also poured a lot of my personal emotion into it. All the things I felt while I was working on it are on the track. 

HAEWON: I love “Shape of Love.” It means “I love you because it’s you,” regardless of the shape or color of love. That reminds me of the love between NSWER and me, so I feel especially connected to this track.

BAE: I really like “SPINNIN’ ON IT.” The song and lyrics are beautiful. Lines like “We’ll still be us” and “See you tomorrow” hold the belief that even if we hurt each other, we’ll still be together tomorrow and beyond.

JIWOO: Me too, “SPINNIN’ ON IT.” I was drawn to it from the very first listen. Especially Sullyooon and LILY’s high notes are stunning and give me chills every time.

KYUJIN: I was also immediately pulled to “SPINNIN’ ON IT.” It’s hard to explain why, but the sound just clicked with me. It has the exact musical color I love.

SULLYOON: My favorite is “Crush On You.” I love cute, love-filled lyrics, and this song feels so sweet and heart-fluttering. I remember practicing a lot to express that feeling well during recording.

The Knockturnal: LILY and HAEWON, you both contributed to writing tracks on the album. Can you both share what it was like working on these tracks? How did they come to life, and what are you most proud of or have learned through the process?

LILY: This full-length album was also special for me. It was my first time participating in lyric writing, so beyond singing the vocals in the strong, it meant a lot to express our own story in our own words. For “Reality Hurts,” I did write it based on NMIXX’s story, but it is extra special to me because my emotions are in it. It was obviously quite challenging, given that it was my first time, but it was a lot of fun to express my thoughts and emotions into lyrics. And also, when I heard my lyrics come to life in the members’ voices, it was such a proud and precious moment!

HAEWON: I wrote the bridge part of “PODIUM,” and I still vividly remember working on it in between tight schedules on the day of our overseas performance. I wanted the flow to feel unique but still familiar, so I put a lot of thought into every single line. When the members said, “This part is so good,” and “It feels so you, HAEWON,” I was really touched. It felt so meaningful knowing my genuine heart had melted into the team’s music, and it gave me even more motivation to participate in future songwriting.

The Knockturnal: “RICO” also features Spanish beats and lyrics like ‘Me Encanta Ay Que Rico…’ You’re clearly connecting with your Spanish-speaking fans. How was it to work on another track inspired by Spanish sounds?

LILY:  NMIXX has always loved experimenting with Latin sounds. When we released “MEXE,” we infused a lot of Latin rhythm and mood, and with “RICO,” we expanded that color even more. Mixing languages and genres is part of our identity, so incorporating Spanish lyrics and Latin rhythms felt natural and fun. It made me feel connected to fans around the world.

JIWOO: Latin rhythms always make you move! You can’t help it! Even in the studio, we could feel that energy while recording “RICO.” On stage, it’s the perfect song to enjoy with fans. I’ve always loved Latin sounds, so expressing them in our own style was really rewarding.

The Knockturnal: “SPINNIN’ ON IT” racked up 7 million views on YouTube in just a week, and then there’s “Blue Valentine,” the main track of the album, which has a much softer vibe. Both songs are very different from each other. What made NMIXX choose these two as the pre-release and lead tracks, compared to the rest of the album?

HAEWON: I think NMIXX’s biggest strength is our ability to show a truly wide range of musical colors. This time, through our pre-release track “SPINNIN’ ON IT” and the title track “Blue Valentine,” we wanted to express very different energies and charms. Although the two songs have different genres and moods, they both share the same root: the pain and conflict that come from love and the lingering feelings that remain within it. We wanted to express those emotional flows in two very different ways.

BAE: “SPINNIN’ ON IT” is an energetic track filled with intense emotions, while “Blue Valentine” has a softer and more mature vibe that shows the duality of love. By releasing these two songs side by side, we hoped to showcase the full spectrum of NMIXX. Through both tracks, you’ll be able to feel not only the wide emotional range of love we express but also the musical depth and quality of our sound.

The Knockturnal: There’s so much more we could talk about with the songs, but lastly, I’d love to touch on the continuation of your debut track “O.O” with the final tracks on the album, “O.O Part 1 (Baila)” and “O.O Part 2 (Superhero).”

They feel like a perfect continuation of the original. How long were these tracks in development, and what inspired them for this first album? How did you decide on the timing of releasing these continuations?

KYUJIN: “O.O Part 1 (Baila)” and “O.O Part 2 (Superhero)” were actually the two original songs that were mixed together in our debut track “O.O.” For our first full-length album, we wanted to finally present them in their complete form. These tracks have been with us since early on, so they hold a special meaning for all of us. We first performed “Baila” and “Superhero” at our 2023 fan concert; the fans loved them a lot, so we decided to officially include them in this album.

SULLYOON: Our debut track “O.O” was a symbolic starting point for NMIXX. By including these two songs that connect to that beginning, we wanted to create a sense of continuity in our journey. “Baila” carries a free and danceable energy, while “Superhero” embodies bright and powerful vibes, blending our early passion with our growth now. Through these tracks, we wanted to tell our fans, “The story of NMIXX is still unfolding.”

The Knockturnal: Before we wrap up, I want to ask a fun question! Since the whole concept of this album highlights love, what’s something you’ve been ‘crushing on’ these days, whether it’s self-love, a hobby, or just something that makes you happy!

HAEWON: I’m currently “crushing” on dramas and TV series. Being an idol means I have special experiences, but I don’t often get to live through ordinary romance or drama in real life. Watching dramas lets me experience a different world.

SULLYOON: I’ve fallen back into crocheting lately. I’m making cute keychains, and it’s so fun!

BAE: It’s not just recent, but I think I’ve fallen deeper into reading NSWERs’ messages and comments. I often share their funny edits with my family or look at them alone for comfort. It’s still hard to believe how much love I receive, and I just want to hug everyone. It’s an essential part of my daily routine.

JIWOO: Lately, I carry around a diary and draw little doodles whenever I have a break. Filling up the pages one drawing at a time has become something I really love these days.

KYUJIN: Fashion… and crocheting!

The Knockturnal: NMIXX! Thank you so much for your time today, and congratulations again on your first full-length album! Reflecting on everything we’ve talked about, what is one message you’d like to share with your listeners as they experience Blue Valentine?

JIWOO: Our first full-length album, Blue Valentine, carries many faces of love: joy, excitement, pain, and complexity all coexist. And I think that’s what real love looks like in life. I hope listeners will take away the message: “Love doesn’t have to be perfect,” and that even within that imperfection, people can understand and move forward together. And as always, I hope our music can be a source of comfort and strength to our NSWERs. I really want this album to convey our sincerity.

As SULLYOON said, “The story of NMIXX is still unfolding.” And with this standout release, that story turns another exciting page. Reaching #1 on Melon’s charts “PODIUM,” only reaffirms how far they’ve come, and how much more is still to come for NMIXX.

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