Chanyeol EXO Talks About Military And Album Making

Chanyeol EXO as well as EXO-SC subunit in a press conference ahead of EXO-SC BACK TO BACK FANCON at Beach City International Stadium, Jakarta (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Park Chan-yeol, also known as Chanyeol, a member of the K-pop idol group EXO as well as the EXO-SC subunit, admitted that he felt more mature after serving in the military some time ago.

"I feel more mature and calm," Chanyeol said during a press conference in Jakarta, Saturday.

Chanyeol completed his military service on September 28, 2022, as an active soldier since March 2021. He admitted that everything felt invisible.

Chanyeol became EXO's fifth member to complete his military service after Suho, Xiumin, Chen and DO.

Almost four months later, Chanyeol and his colleagues at EXO and EXO-SC Sehun greeted EXO-L, the name for EXO fans, in Indonesia through the "EXO-SC BACK TO BACK FANCON" event at Beach City International Stadium, Jakarta.

He admitted that he was excited because he had not set foot in Indonesia for a long time since completing his military service. Chanyeol, Sehun and their colleagues at EXO visited Indonesia at a concert titled "EXO PLANET #5 - EXplOration" in Tangerang in November 2019.

At that time, three group members, namely DO, Xiumin and Lay, were absent from the concert.

"I'm here now with Sehun, performing for you too and I'm very excited and nervous," said one of the singers of the song "History".

When asked what EXO-L means to him, Chanyeol said he was originally like a friend, however, now it has turned into a family.

"We have debuted for 11 years. I used to feel EXO-L like friends, but now it's more like family," he said.

He was then asked about his experience of participating in the creation of the EXO-SC album, namely "1 Billion Views" with Sehun. In the album containing nine songs, both Chanyeol and Sehun were involved in writing the lyrics of all the songs and composed three of them.

"I think a lot of fun and learn a lot of different things, such as producing and directing (the song). Working with Sehun, I also started learning about songs," he said.

Apart from them, Dynamic Duo personnel, Gaeko, also participated in album production. Sehun said Gaeko was one of the best rappers and producers in South Korea.

The album "1 Billion Views" which was released in July 2020 was ranked first on iTunes for Top Album Chart in 51 regions around the world with album sales exceeding 500,000 units. This achievement makes EXO-SC a half-million seller that proves their global popularity.