Hearts2Hearts welcome you into their dreamlike universe

Hearts2Hearts [https://www.nme.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hearts2Hearts_FOCUS_credit_SM_Entertainment.jpg]There’s a phenomenon when it comes to our memories called déjà rêvé. Unlike its counterpart, déjà vu, this isn’t the feeling thatyou’ve experienced something before, but that you’ve already dreamed it. It’s a comforting jolt of familiarity that takes you backto that moment between waking and sleeping, when the world you’ve been exploring in your head fades into a watercoloured haze thatlingers just enough to leave an impression but never quite enough to grasp.That’s the experience of listening to Hearts2Hearts, the freshly debuted K-pop girl group from SM Entertainment, who, with theirfirst mini album, ‘Focus’, invite us into their wistful, dreamlike universe.“When I listen to songs I loved in school, that memory comes right back like time travel,” says Yuha over video call from Seoul,where she and the rest of her members, Jiwoo, Carmen, Stella, Juun, A-na, Ian and Ye-on, chat from their label’s office late intothe evening.  “That’s why I love music so much. It captures youth and turns it into a sort of nostalgia.”Nostalgia is etched into the soundscape of Hearts2Hearts. Following pre-release singles like the airy ‘The Chase’ and thebubblegum pop ‘Style’ earlier in the year, this collection of five songs takes you on a chimerical walk down memory lane. Thesongs pull from the past in their influences, taking particular inspiration from genres tingling with soft and breezy top notes,like classic melodic R&B and sophisti-pop. Songs like the pre-release, ’90s-infused ‘Pretty Please’ and the city pop-inspired‘Flutter’ especially feel like they’re flushed with a kind of hazy halo glow, almost like you’ve just lain down on the grass andclosed your eyes while looking at the sun.“When I first heard the demo, I felt like, ‘Oh my god, these are our songs?’,” says Carmen, 19, completely wide-eyed. “I stillcan’t believe it, because it’s so good.”Part of the album’s comforting familiarity comes from the hands of the veteran hitmakers working behind the scenes to craft theHearts2Hearts sound. They include Kenzie, who arguably invented the SM Entertainment girly pop sound with artists like BOA andGirls’ Generation, and Andrew Choi, who’s probably best known right now as the doomed demon Jinu in Kpop Demon Hunters, but hasbeen a label mainstay writing for artists like Taemin and NCT since the 2010s.“Ever since our debut, producer Kenzie has worked with us,” says Stella. “So we feel really, really honoured that so many SMhitmakers have been working really hard to give us great songs. For us, because we are a newer group, it just feels surreal to usthat we get to work with these amazing people and that we get songs from them.”It feels particularly full-circle for Stella, who, now 18, says she was first inspired to want to become a K-pop idol afterwatching the music video for Girls’ Generation’s seminal ‘Gee’ as a young girl. “My parents just randomly showed that to me oneday while I was just playing around. And I watched, and I was like, ‘Who are these ladies?!’ I was like, ‘Wow, it must be so niceto be able to sing and dance and do what you love on stage’.”Hearts2Hearts[https://www.nme.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Hearts2Hearts_FOCUS_Teaser-3_credit_SM_Entertainment.jpg]Hearts2Hearts credit: SMEntertainmentIn fact, that legacy of SM artists is at the core of many of the girls’ backstories. Juun, 16, saw BOA’s iconic ‘ID; Peace B’performances as a child and immediately wanted to become an idol because “she was just so amazing on stage”, while Yuha, 18, wasgalvanised in the difficult days of being a trainee after watching Taeyeon perform: “I thought to myself that I really want tostand on that stage one day, and that feeling was so powerful, it became my motivation.”Eight months on from their debut back in February with ‘The Chase’, Hearts2Hearts are still pinching themselves that they’veachieved their dreams of becoming K-pop idols.“To be honest, there were a lot of moments where we felt like, ‘Oh, I’m not gonnamake it,” says Jiwoo, 19. “But then I always imagined what it was going to be like as a K-pop idol in the future, and I tried tokeep it together and push hard, and that’s what got me here today.”Some of those days were harder to push through than others, though. “There were moments when we had to dance ‘The Chase’ fivetimes in a row, and that was very hard,” says Ian, 16, as the room erupts in knowing laughter at the memory.There’s a playful ease in the room between the members of Hearts2Hearts, like you’ve walked in on a slumber party already in fullswing. It’s the kind of bond that can only come from navigating the particularly odd existence they’re currently having asteenagers (the group’s ages range from 15 to 19 years old). They live together, work together and train together. They’ve evenblended their Spotify playlists, so they can learn each other’s favourite songs. Really, there’s not much time in the day they’renot together in some way, and they seem to prefer it that way.> “Music captures youth and turns it into a sort of nostalgia” – Yuha“We’re so close, like a family,” says A-na, 16. “We talk about everything, even our worries, and often watch movies together inthe living room.” A recent fave is Wicked, which handily combines Stella’s love of Ariana Grande with Ye-on’s love of musicals: “Iwant to try a musical at some point, because I got to learn [them] when I was younger and it was great to perform on stage.Another strange aspect of their newfound position as a rookie girl group is becoming unofficial ambassadors to fans who, in anyother timeline, they would likely be sitting opposite in class or shopping with on the weekends. “It’s still kind of surreal thatwe’re teenagers and we’re making music for other teenagers to listen to, right?” says Stella.“We’re so grateful that we get to influence other people’s lives, especially the youth who are our age. I guess we’ve never reallythought about the fact that if we weren’t doing this job, we would just be playing around in school. But for me, I think us doingour passion is really important.”“When I think about the songs that I grew up on when I was younger, I want our group to be something like that to the people intheir teens.”In that way, Hearts2Hearts exist like a dream. As eight girls growing up, their world is the same as their peers’, but there’ssomething undeniably different about the way they’re navigating this territory as idols. Still, they’re not in a rush to wake upany time soon.Hearts2Hearts’ ‘Focus’ is out now via SM EntertainmentThe post Hearts2Hearts welcome you into their dreamlike universe appeared first on NME.