{"id":938838,"date":"2026-10-19T13:10:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/938838\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T13:10:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T13:10:20","slug":"seventeens-jeonghan-and-joshua-on-jxj-debut-dreamscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/938838\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventeen’s Jeonghan and Joshua on JxJ Debut ‘Dreamscape’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFor more than a decade, Seventeen<\/a>\u2019s Jeonghan<\/a> and Joshua<\/a> have shared the spotlight with 11 bandmates in one of K-pop\u2019s best-selling groups. Now they get it to themselves with \u201cDreamscape,\u201d their first album as the duo JxJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe record is also Jeonghan\u2019s first new music since he completed South Korea\u2019s mandatory military service this summer. While he served, Seventeen kept performing without him, and at times he watched his bandmates from the audience, among the group\u2019s fans, known as Carats. Joshua spent the same stretch producing songs of his own and sending them to their company.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair met as trainees and recorded the duet \u201cFalling for U\u201d for the 2018 special album \u201cDirector\u2019s Cut,\u201d but JxJ is the first project built entirely around the two of them.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoshua says their company first suggested they collaborate together. \u201cAfter giving it some thought, we\u2019ve been together for so long, and we really wanted to show a different side to ourselves,\u201d he says. \u201cSides that we haven\u2019t shown as a whole group, as Seventeen, so we thought it was going to be fun. And a lot of our fans actually like our chemistry, the chemistry that the two of us have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJeonghan says that with several members away on military service, those who remained talked with the company about how to keep bringing Carats new music. \u201cWe thought that it would be a really exciting project, so that\u2019s how it came to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeventeen debuted in 2015 under Pledis Entertainment, now part of Hybe, with 13 members split into hip-hop, vocal and performance teams. It holds the record for the highest-selling K-pop album, \u201cFML,\u201d and was the first K-pop act to sell more than 5 million copies of an album in its first week. All 13 members renewed their Pledis contracts this summer, the second time the full group has re-signed. Military service has thinned the lineup, though. Six members are currently serving, and Seungkwan and Dino enlist together on Oct. 26. That leaves five active members: Jeonghan, Joshua, S.Coups, Jun and The8. Jeonghan and Joshua both sing in the vocal team, and JxJ is the group\u2019s seventh unit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe exhilaration and the Carats screaming, cheering, their love, the spotlight \u2013 everything is something that you can only enjoy on stage,\u201d Jeonghan tells Variety. \u201cSo I missed those moments on stage. I just wanted to get ready after finishing my military service, prep myself, and get back on there as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe says he came out of the service having grown more as a person than as an artist. \u201cWhen I was in the military, in my workplace, I felt so much love, consideration, respect, and those heartfelt feelings for other people. I just wanted to weave that into the music, and I just hope that that will show when the listeners and our beloved Carats are listening to our music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf everything he felt in that time, warmth struck him hardest, and he came to see it as \u201ca form of love.\u201d It is the one thing, he says, he doesn\u2019t want to lose sight of.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe songs Joshua handed over made an impression. \u201cThey were really surprised with the work that I\u2019ve done,\u201d he says of the company. \u201cI think my company knew more about my personal taste after I gave them what I produced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJeonghan hadn\u2019t known that Joshua was so interested in producing. \u201cWhen we started working on this album, I was amazed by how clear an idea he had in his mind about the musical direction that we should have moving forward. It seemed like he gave it a lot of thought and has confidence in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe credits bear that out. Joshua co-wrote and co-composed his solo track, the alternative rock song \u201cNot Personal,\u201d and has a lyric credit on the closer, \u201cNo Looking Back.\u201d Jeonghan co-wrote the lyrics for his own solo, the electro-house track \u201cColoring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJoshua had his own surprise. With a tour to follow the album\u2019s promotions, Jeonghan had been mapping out the stage show. \u201cI didn\u2019t know he was thinking that much about the concert performances and how we should showcase our abilities through the concerts,\u201d Joshua says. \u201cSo that was really interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two didn\u2019t start out agreeing on what JxJ should sound like. \u201cHe wanted to showcase a more\u2026 what would you call it? A more aggressive\u2026 well, not aggressive, but a stronger side, and I wanted to show a subtle, mature version of ourselves,\u201d Joshua says. \u201cEventually, we met at the middle and came out with the song \u201812 O\u2019Clock,\u2019 which is right in the middle between strong and subtle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting there took three or four candidates for the title track. One started out as a house song and was then reworked as a band track. The final pick sits between the two. \u201cI think this album was more meaningful, not so much in that we were attempting new tries, but in that we were able to expand our spectrum and touch on different genres that we didn\u2019t explore in the past,\u201d Jeonghan says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c12 O\u2019Clock\u201d is a dance-rock track built on \u201970s and \u201980s disco and funk. Its title plays on noon and midnight: one hour for chasing goals in waking life, the other for the fantasies of sleep. In the video, the pair wander through warped train carriages and rooms with no way out, following a mythical creature that is part peacock, part Ouroboros. The seven-track album opens with the house song \u201cLike You,\u201d passes through R&B and soul, and ends on the raw band sound of \u201cNo Looking Back.\u201d Jeonghan says that range gives the record an immersive, dreamlike feel, and the choreography is being built to match. \u201cWe just really wanted the whole album to feel like a journey between traveling through dreams and reality,\u201d Joshua says.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Joshua, the bigger change from Seventeen is how much he gets to sing. Within a 13-member group, and a five-member vocal team, his parts are short. \u201cEven if it lasts long, it\u2019s like five seconds. But as a unit, we could show more of our vocals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaking his career far from home was its own adjustment. Joshua grew up in Los Angeles. When he first arrived in Korea, he struggled with customs such as bowing and speaking in honorifics to elders. Thirteen years on, Korea feels like home, and he has watched the world catch up with it. \u201cEven if I was American in America, it was really hard for me to fit in at first because of the differences and nobody knew anything about Korea at that time,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now, it\u2019s the new cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJeonghan says Seventeen\u2019s global scale brings freedom and pressure hand in hand. \u201cOf course, there\u2019s the faith and the trust that our fans place in us, and this helps us explore various genres and take on new challenges. But at the same time, there\u2019s the pressure to live up to their expectations. The pressure is always there, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re always trying harder and having so many meetings and practicing really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJoshua is waiting to see how fans respond before saying whether JxJ goes beyond one album. \u201cWe won\u2019t know where this will take us until we get there\u201d he says. Jeonghan sounds more sure. He says the pair saw the unit\u2019s potential while preparing \u201cDreamscape\u201d and came away feeling \u201cthis unit will definitely have something else to offer, something new to bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe album may be named for dreams, but Jeonghan says he didn\u2019t make it to chase one. He sees it as the pair\u2019s first album since entering their 30s. \u201cI just wanted to showcase myself as a grown, more mature artist,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking on JxJ showed Joshua how much he likes having a hand in his own music, and he says he can\u2019t wait to make more personal work of his own. He has other plans too. \u201cI\u2019m also taking acting classes, so hopefully in the future I could be in a future acting project,\u201d Joshua says. \u201cThat\u2019d be really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJeonghan says he thinks less about a next goal than about the fans already there. \u201cI am just so grateful for all the love and support that our fans, Carats, are sending. So I just want to show them great music, bring them good music, and share great moments with them, and just keep growing together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than a decade, Seventeen\u2019s Jeonghan and Joshua have shared the spotlight with 11 bandmates in one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,321768,4627,321769,341,21774],"class_list":["post-938838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-jeonghan","tag-joshua","tag-jxj","tag-music","tag-seventeen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}