ATEEZ's captain Hongjoong sits down with Variety's Tiana DeNicola to talk about life pre-debut, how ATEEZ almost had 9 members, his plans for a solo album, The Grammy Awards, and his thoughts on American fans embracing K-Pop. 00:00 Intro 01:04 Hobbies 02:03 Fan searches 02:30 Petit Coussin 03:57 Musical journey 05:09 Discovering if he's creative 05:33 Sending demos to labels 06:19 Auditioning as a producer 07:23 180+ songwriting credits 09:20 Writing for members 10:47 Being ATEEZ's captain 14:51 ATEEZ's pre-debut story 16:01 The 9th ATEEZ member 18:38 Learning to dance 20:55 Solo music 24:03 Will there be a solo album? 26:02 Dream collaborators 27:07 Military service 28:40 The Grammys 31:10 K-pop's rise in the US Join Variety to get access to members-only perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgRQHK8Ttr1j9xCEpCAlgbQ/join Subscribe to Variety on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@variety?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe to Variety Events on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCNYLx3nct1l7Ng9Z2h4bo4w?sub_confirmation=1 Connect: http://www.facebook.com/variety http://www.instagram.com/variety http://www.twitter.com/variety