For K-pop supergroup Stray Kids, it’s all about authenticity.

The eight-member boy group, consisting of members Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N, hail from Korean agency JYP Entertainment. The group has spent the last seven years creating the music they want to make with members Bang Chan, Changbin and Han, known collectively as 3Racha, as their main production team.

“[Producing our own music] allows us to highlight both our authenticity as a group and our strengths,” Changbin tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Zoom from Seoul. At the time of this conversation, the group is in between the North American and European legs of their record-breaking Dominate World Tour. The North American leg grossed about $76.2M, according to Billboard, making it the best-selling and highest-grossing North American leg for any K-pop tour. The group went on to have an equally successful European run.

Stray Kids is back with a new album, Karma, which the group says aims to convey the literal meaning of the world — do good things and you’ll receive good things in return. The album’s title track, “Ceremony,” is all about celebrating a triumph after overcoming adversity to get to that moment. The song is endlessly catchy and a celebration of Stray Kids making it to the top.

A line from Changbin’s opening rap verse for the song — “No one, nobody can stop me” — is perhaps the best view of where the eight-member group is at the moment. Stray Kids continue to break charting records around the world, including becoming the first act to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with its first six chart entries; Karma is contending to continue further that record.

Below, Stray Kids speaks with THR about the meaning of their new album Karma, how their relationship with one another has changed and the pressures that come along with hitting the top of the charts.

Can you tell me a bit about your new title track, “Ceremony?”

BANG CHAN “Ceremony” is a song that was elected by all the members for the next album. This might be a personal opinion, but I feel like it’s pretty catchy. It’s simplified, but it has the energy [needed] for a title track. I think that’s how we decided on “Ceremony” and hopefully people will enjoy the whole message and everything that we put into the song.

Why was the message of this album so perfect for you right now? Was it intentional or did it work out that way?

BANG CHAN Obviously, there was a lot of stuff that behind the scenes of how we’re making the album and everything, but because it’s been a while since we released a full album, we wanted to include different genres of music. I think we really wanted to emphasize in “Ceremony,” the title track, a lot of times it says “karma.” In the end, if you do good, you get good stuff in return. I think that’s what we’ve been trying to emphasize. That’s what we aim to do. We try to do good things in order for good things to [come to us in] return.

Does anyone have a favorite song on the album?

HYUNJIN I really like the track “Leap.” It was actually considered as a focus track because it’s that it has that Stray Kids vibe and it’s very grand in scale, so I really like that track.

CHANGBIN I like the track “In My Head.” It was also considered [for the] title track, and it’s a song that you can listen when you want to blow off some steam. It has a chill vibe. The hook is super catchy and addictive, so I think a lot of fans would be able to sing along to it.

You just wrapped up the U.S. leg of your tour and you’re preparing to head out to Europe soon. This tour has been very big in scale. What was your experience like playing in stadiums across the U.S.?

FELIX It’s been a long time since we’ve toured and being able to go through this tour through stadiums and to see a lot of stays in the venue, it was not only exciting but also a very good experience. We did learn a lot from the tour, and there are some things that we thought we can improve on and some things that we did that we really liked. Obviously, we thought we really did succeed at this tour. We just hope that when the chance comes, we can do much better, but also just… I guess we want to prepare more surprises. We thought this tour was very successful.

Using a live band was an interesting and fun choice for the tour. It really adds to the listener experience, having gone to the tour myself. Was that a group consensus or just something that happened naturally?

FELIX It was definitely what the group decided on. We wanted Stays [the name for the group’s loyal fanbase] to hear our sound very natural, very loud and very strongly.

How do you kind of practice self-care when you’re touring or when you are busy working on a new project and that might become your whole life?

I.N I usually work out to build up my stamina. All the members are doing this too, and they also eat a variety of foods to get all the energy.

HYUNJIN I like to draw. Since the scale of the tour has gotten very big, I find joy in visiting art museums in each city. I also get inspiration from those visits too. That’s how I like to spend my free time.

Can you tell me a bit about why you feel it’s important to produce your own music?

CHANGBIN We produce our own music and perform it on stage, which allows us to highlight both our authenticity as a group and our strengths. Since our fans have always loved the color of our music from our trainee days, to after our debut, up until this moment; that’s why we’ve stuck to that style. We think our challenge now is to develop it further and deliver something new to the fans.

Do you find that your relationship with your fans has changed as you’ve grown as a group?

SEUNGMIN I do believe that our bond with the fans has changed over time. We can’t ask every one of them exactly when they became Stay — some of them have been with us since debut and keep showing up, while others we were able to meet for the first time in the new cities during the tour. Just by looking at their expressions, we could really feel how long they’ve waited and how much they love Stray Kids. Touring around the world really reminds us of how grateful we constantly are.

As we just talked about, the scale of the tour is bigger, and you consistently break records on music charts. Does that ever add pressure to you when it comes to a new release or a new tour?

HAN As our concert scale grows, there’s obviously more pressure that builds. But since so many people are looking forward to the tour and what we do, we work hard to meet those expectations. Because there are eight of us, we’re able to share the weight, and we’re able to achieve things that we couldn’t handle alone. We can now lean on each other and get through it together.

How has your relationship with each other changed since your debut?

LEE KNOW Since we all originally came from different backgrounds; we didn’t really click perfectly from the beginning. But after spending eight years together, we’ve come to understand what each other wants just by looking at each other and we know what each other dislikes. Even without putting thoughts into words, we’re often on the same page.

As an artist, you don’t have much say in how you’re perceived, unfortunately. But you’re obviously working hard and creating music you love, so it’s easy to assume there’s an ideal way you’d want to be viewed. How do you want to be perceived as a group?

SEUNGMIN I want to be perceived as an artist with a sound that people can instantly recognize as Stray Kids. When you hear a song, we want the audience to be able to tell it’s ours [because of] how unique and how different our musical color is. We want to be remembered as that kind of artist.

As you prepare to release this album, what’re you hoping for as a group as you look ahead?

HYUNJIN I definitely want to keep performing constantly. We want to stick to our style of music no matter what other trends come along. We want to keep that fun, energetic vibe in our music always. We want to be a long-lasting group and not a short-term project. [We also want to] come back to the fans whenever they want us to.