BDLMD Entertainment girl group MINDY is making their comeback after a brief hiatus, bringing more confidence, and a spicy new single.
On 1 October, MINDY released Shoot Your Shot, an electro-pop track showing the perspective of someone who is ready to choose (or shoot their shot) without hesitation.
It is their first single for the year, and caps off a year’s hiatus, which saw members take on acting projects, or solo music careers.
The six-member group made their debut in 2023, after emerging as the top trainees in the idol survival show Blow Your Mind. Comprising members MingMing, Ilene, Grace, Hongpao, Mukki and Praew, have since released seven singles, including Shoot Your Shot.
ChaPop speaks with the group in a virtual interview, to find out more about their comeback, and what international plans they have.
Q: Congratulations on your comeback! How are you feeling about returning after a break?
MingMing: Thank you so much! So yeah, it’s been a long time since like our last comeback, right? It’s been a year.
But this comeback, we’re so happy (that) it’s finally happened, because actually we waited so long…but we did not disappear. We are still doing content, we still go on stage. Some of us (like me) also went into the acting industry. We work a lot but we still keep in touch.
When we came back, we’re really happy because you know music is what we love, and we got to do this, and we also prepare for like our next song, next whatever that’s gonna coming. Yeah – really happy and excited.
Q: How would you describe this new era of MINDY?
Mukki: If we can define this new era, you will see a much stronger and more matured version of MINDY, not just in our music style, but also in our overall stage performance. We used to be we used to be like a kid who wants to know everything…and we know a little about love – like a little little (laughs)
We really want people to experience the different side of MINDY…the grown-up side.
Ilene: Yeah this comeback shows that side of Mindy where we are like more feminine and we want to know more about love, which is a journey of MINDY from like our debut.
Q: You’ve got your new single out Shoot Your Shot. Could you tell us a bit more about it?
Ilene: So as P’Mukki said, it’s more about love. So this comeback is showing…a new generation of like how to approach a guy.
Many people think think that like more masculine side should start first…but we want to everyone to know that…we can be in that position where they can come to us and we could like you know just engage with each other.
I think this comeback shows…we can be more feminine because our dance style changed, our song style also changed. Definitely like the choreography, because we use like more of like the Thai-style choreography like for our past music videoes. But for this new MV, we used like choreography from Japan, which I think it’s very hard…but I think we get past that.
Q: What’s your favourite part of the comeback?
MingMing: For me, I like the…recording day, like the whole process.
Ilene: I feel like we get to work with a lot of new faces. The male lead for our MV is P’Yorch from POW…a boy group from Korea. He’s also Thai, and we like him so much since we were kids because…he is also an actor and we saw him since we were young. Now we get to work with him and we feel very proud because he’s very famous in Korea and he brings Thai culture for people to know more about Thailand.
MingMing: We didn’t expect that at all!
Ilene: Yeah we didn’t expect he would come here…it was such a surprising moment.
Q: Let’s talk about your international plans. Are you hoping to perform overseas?
HongPao: We want to represent Thailand and make T-Pop (more known). I think we more Thai fanbase but we want people to understand Thai culture…
Ilene: Yeah we want to perform at an international stage, we used to talk a lot about performing at Coachella (music festival) and other international festivals, but you know it’s hard.
MingMing: Yeah it’s a long way to go, but it’s still our dream. What’s gonna happen in the future, we don’t know, but it’s okay. We just…six-seven! (laughs)
Q: Which international artiste do you hope to collab with?
Grace: For me, I think KATSEYE.
Ilene: I know it’s hard, but Shawn Mendes. It’s possible, but it’s a long dream (laughs)
MingMing: I stan ENHYPEN, but I actually also dream to be able to dance with them – it’s a bit hard but yeah, I will say ENHYPEN.
Mukki: For me I want to work with Madison Beer – she’s my idol. And I have another one, so I really like her because she’s really beautiful and has a beautiful voice. Her name is Zara Larsson!
HongPao: For me, it would be BlackPink.
Q: What’s next for for Mindy?
Ilene: We will have a fan concert. This is our second time doing a fan concert. We used to do that when we just debut and it was a success. So we want to do it again, and we have like a lots of special shows, special guests.
We can’t say much about it, but we hope that the auditorium would be full, and we are like so excited.
MingMing: I think we can give give them a hint!
Ilene: Oh yeah, we do have a guest…and we do have a special show with units and stuff!
Q: Do you have a message for your international fans?
Grace: Thank you so much for always supporting us, and we would want more people to know more about Mindy. So please follow us…on any platform at MindyOfficialTH, and you can listen and watch our music videoes on YouTube.
Q: Is there anything else that you you know you you want to add?
MingMing: I just want to say that thank you so much. We really appreciate you guys for always supporting us since day one.
I just feel like so happy to get to work with you guys, and also to see our fans. It’s been a long time and I think it’s like six girls’ dream and we got to do this together.
Ilene: I think like many people…see us as an inspiration for them to follow their passion, and I think it’s worth every single minute of like of it.
I want everyone to like know more about T-Pop…because many people assume that there’s only K-Pop or J-Pop and stuff, and we want people to know more about T-Pop, so we want us to be a part of that, to be inspiration for every one.
Follow MINDY on all official social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.
