The FESTA dinner was part of an annual celebration of their founding, and the K-pop band welcomed their ninth year together this month.
Bandmember RM said in a video making its rounds on social media that while they’ve “achieved so much as BTS”, the individual members still needed to “grow and mature as individuals.”
He was quoted as saying in the video, “I always thought that BTS was different from other groups, but the problem with K-pop and the whole idol system is that they don’t give you time to mature. You have to keep producing music and keep doing something.” RM added that he now wants to take the time to think about BTS’ new direction, both as individuals and as a group.
The rest of BTS went on to say that deciding to go on a break was a difficult decision, adding that they felt like they were letting down their fans. Jimin was quoted as saying, “We can’t help but think of our fans no matter what, we want to be the kind of artistes that are remembered by our fans. I think now we’re starting to think about what kind of artistes we each want to be remembered by our fans.”
“I think that’s why we’re going through a rough patch right now, we’re trying to find our identity and that’s an exhausting and long process,” he added.
All members of the seven-strong BTS have released music under solo projects: RM, Jungkook, Jin, Jimin, Suga, J-Hope, and V. Earlier this month, BTS released the music video for ‘Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)’, which is the title track of their new compilation album ‘Proof’.