One Group, Three Journeys: Getting to Know RE:WIND
Key takeaways
Quick summary- 1KPopAngel.com had the opportunity to interview global K-pop boy group, RE:WIND where they discussed their journey as a group, finding their identity as group,…
VIA REWIND TEAM
Following their first ever performance at K-Play Fest Bay Area this past July, KpopAngel.com had the chance to interview global K-pop boy group RE:WIND, where they opened up about their journey into becoming idols, finding their identity as a global group, their musical inspirations, and what fans can expect next.
RE:WIND, which consists of 3 members: Elaya, Lei, and Eddie, debuted on March 28, 2025 with the digital single, “FOREVER.” They released their first ever EP RE:MINISCE on August 8, 2025.
Before RE:WIND, the three members were each navigating their own individual journeys in different parts of the United States. But through shared dreams and aspirations, they found their way to one another, and becoming RE:WIND gave them a second chance to pursue their dreams together.
Before getting into RE:WIND’s journey as a group and their musical inspirations, I had a chance to ask them about their first ever performance at K-Play Fest Bay Area that took place this past July.
VIA REWIND TEAM
TAKING THE STAGE
You guys recently took the stage for the first time at K-Play Fest Best Area. What was that experience like for you guys?
Elaya: “It was really surreal. Re:wind’s been in development for a while. And just with our dynamic and how the group is, we are not always able to be with each other all throughout the year at times so this was our first real opportunity to really perform together so it felt really almost full circle and really emotional for all of us. Especially singing all of our songs from beginning of pre-debut tracks to our reminisce EP. It felt really emotional and good to finally perform it in front of an audience and in front of our day ones, so we’re really happy.”
Lei: “Like Elaya had mentioned, it had been a long time since we’d been together for Re:wind, but once we got into it, whether it was rehearsing or actually at the festival, it kind of felt like we just locked back in and we were right back where we left off. I hope it continues this way and that it is just a constant presence and that we are able to continue performing.”
Eddie: “We maybe had like nine days to prepare for the whole concert in person. We did everything we could to prepare for it in advance, but it was such a hectic time. From recording the backing track, to finding the right rehearsal spaces, driving around everywhere, it was like we were dorming again back when we first started, but at a completely different stage of our lives now, so it was just kind of crazy to perform. And we didn’t even expect such a big turn out for even our meet and greet and concert, so I was shocked.
RE:WIND are set to perform at K-Play Fest Orange County this weekend, marking their second performance as a group.
“Are you guys excited to perform at K-Play Fest OC?”
Elaya: “Yes. It was a lot more last minute than K-play Bay Area, which was decided months, months in advance, but it was something that right after Bay Area I was like ‘I wish we could do OC’ and thankfully we got the opportunity again to do it so we are really excited to perform in OC and see how the festival is over there and feel the energy from the audience.”
Eddie: “I heard that the convention is actually a lot bigger there too and their convention stage is a lot bigger too. We had a lot of people at our own concert at Bay Area, but for OC we can potentially be seeing a lot more people, so it’s really fun and it feels more like, not unofficial in a way, but it feels like we are going up there and we just love meeting new people.”
“With this being your first performance, do you think preparing for it also helped you guys develop even more of a stronger relationship as a group?”
Elaya: “I definitely think we have a lot more performance synergy right now. Just because of rehearsal and such. I think while making reminisce, we had very small amounts of time to really prepare the choreo, and that would be mainly what we were focusing on instead of having our group’s synergy for performance. I think we were really also learning a lot and build our bond not only as a team or group, but also as the family that we are. I really think we were able to build a lot of our performance synergy during these past couple of weeks.
Lei: “I think there was a ton of trust we had in each other. Other groups are often backed up by larger teams or a crew that dedicate their time to preparing something like the logistical aspects for a performance, but for us right now we are completely indie. And each of us having to take on a specific role in order for the performance to happen at all, I think is a huge amount of creative benefits. We can really rely on each other to pull through and get to the final destination in a way that I think not many performers can relate to. There is a lot of trust between us.”
Eddie: “Even before our concert or putting our backdrop videos together, hand assembling our albums and to show that we really care. Trends change, people change, where we are in our lives will change especially as we are in our 20s and we are trying to figure life out, but at the end of the day, if we really embrace our independent roots, given that week and a half that we had to prepare for everything it just goes to show that we really can do everything we put our minds to. As long as I got these guys by my side.”
BECOMING REWIND
“The three of you are from different parts of the United States, can you share with us your journey of becoming RE:WIND?”
Elaya: “The group RE:WIND started in 2023. I was born and raised in New York. My mom is from Japan and my dad is from Mexico. I had gone to Korea for the second time around 2023 and I kind of got everything I wanted, you know I had the chance to debut. And I kind of wasn’t really happy. I kind of wanted more creative control and I also wanted to finish school at the same time. So I then connected with my co-creator and together we started RE:WIND. Through auditions we found Lei and through mutual friends we found Eddie.”
Lei: “It’s crazy [be]cause a lot of moving parts came together just in order for us three to find our way into the same room.”
Eddie: “I’m born and raised in the LA area. LA is very huge. I’m part of the more suburban area. I grew up acting for theater, for movies, and television as well, but I always missed the live performance aspect of it.”
“Like many of us we were inspired by idols at the time. We all kind of felt like we were a bit older and a lot of our friends went to college or maybe some things weren’t as nice as they seemed, and it's just like science. And like our life that maybe this isn’t it and I definitely felt that. As well I had an opportunity to debut, but I knew that debuting would not even be the start of what it would be to be an idol especially in this generation where there's just so many amazing groups but that also means it's harder for certain groups to come out of it.”
“So I spent time to study like Elaya and luckily through my projects, things really do happen for a reason. You always find your path in ways you don’t expect.”
Lei: “I’m born and raised in Boston. I’m Chinese-American. Like Elaya and Eddie, I eventually made my way to Korea as well to train. I was at a small company, but I was also older at the time so things didn’t really work out in terms of everyone wants to go to Korea,wants to debut under a big company. It didn’t work out, but it was also a blessing in disguise for me because I was able to come back to finish school and kind of pivot. I actually went into college studying bio chemistry and then after coming back from Korea I pivoted to work in the music industry.”
“Things really do happen for a reason. That happened alongside me joining RE:WIND and I think it made it so that the three of us have a background that could really build up this project together.”
FINDING THEIR IDENTITY
Being a global K-pop boy group in the United States, how has that shaped your identity as artists?
Lei: “I feel like there is so much overlap that we uniquely have. Because we all grew up in U.S., we did a inspirations medley at K-Play Fest Bay Area and the groups in the medley were ZEROBASEONE
Eddie: “Even when you look at groups emerging now in more of the western scene, for example Simon Cowell’s new group December 10 in the U.K., there was kind of a gap in the European pop scene that they were filling ever since One Direction for the new generation. Even like FiveAlive, an Asian American performing girl group in SoCal, it’s also so cool to see them emerge too.”
“At the end of the day I think it’s still about storytelling because we don’t want to make an Asian American story. We want to make a story that’s true to ourselves and it inherently has an Asian American story, but storytelling is the one factor I think is one of our greatest strengths since it kind of exceeds all labels rather than trends.”
VIA REWIND TEAM
FINDING INSPIRATION
Who are your biggest music inspirations? And did any of them have any influence on your debut album or any future albums?
Elaya: “I think it definitely changes in what project we are working on. I think for reminisce it was very apparent that we were very inspired by 90s and early 2000s pop artists like Britney [Spears], *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys. So I think it usually at least for me as well, whenever I’m kind of preparing the creative aspect of our next concept or album, I am always really heavily listening to those artists in that era.”
Member Eddie asked his fellow members a similar question which was, Who are you inspired by individually currently?
Lei: “I was able to see BTS
in Boston and I’ve always looked up to BTS
. They were one of the earlier groups that myself and all of my friends would watch. A lot of their earlier songs were always in my playlists. But getting to see them live just reminds you like wow what a group. Also a group from a smaller scale at that time, what they can go on to achieve and what they can make a full stadium with a full audience feel.”
“We’re obviously at a much smaller scale, but there were people when we performed ‘Reset’ at the end of our concert at K-Play Fest Bay Area, there were people reacting very emotionally to our closing song. And I think it just goes to show that music isn’t really being big or small, but it can really reach people. Sitting in the audience at the BTS
concert kind of doubled down on that experience.”
“So BTS
in that sense has been a huge inspiration for me throughout my entire exposure to K-pop and boy bands in my life.”
Eddie: “Recently, when I sing I tend to imitate the person I try to sing like. If I see or hear it I try to copy it, but I don’t want to lose myself in that. So I think for future releases I do want to sit in my own voice. For example, a lot of the demo tracks we got from our first producers for ‘Reset’ and ‘Like Forever’, I saw my voice going in that direction and even when I sing other songs in general. I’ve been seeing that my tone feels more comfortable.”
Elaya: “Honestly, I’m finding a lot of inspiration in my members. Being able to learn a lot and grow as a performer and as a group is something that I am really happy that we’ve been able to do over the past couple of weeks especially with our first performance, so yeah, they’re my inspiration right now.”
Lei: “Recently we had to record backing tracks or record the cover version of a certain song for our stage and I remember how excited I was to be able to hear a song with Elaya and Eddie’s voices on it. It’s amazing getting to just sit down with them and hear them record an existing song or our new tracks. I am really blessed to be in a group where we get to inspire each other through our voices and what we bring to the table.”
ELAYA, VIA REWIND TEAM
FOR NEW LISTENERS
If someone is discovering RE:WIND for the first time, what song should they hear first and why?
Elaya: “I personally think ‘Little Too Late.’ I think ‘Little Too Late’ pushes a lot of boundaries of what you see in music these days. I mean it’s almost a five minute song. It’s like four minutes, 35 seconds, which is already very different, very fresh and it’s something we really wanted to do as a group which was to make a really long song. I think it’s really experimental. It shows that RE:WIND is always going to try to do something different, which I’d want a first time listener to really see.
Lei: “Honestly ‘Little Too Late.’ Just like the sheer length of it, I feel like it reflects who we are. For us, we have so much to say and we can’t really contain ourselves in just two minutes so ‘Little Too Late’ reflects that part of us really well. And it’s really cool to show that too.”
Eddie: “Jumping off Elaya’s point, we didn’t even think about the length of the song at first. It just kind of happened to be a long song. And then we were like should we cut it? No… we were like we miss songs having bridges.”
LEI, VIA REWIND TEAM
A TASTE OF HOME
Wanted to throw a fun question in the mix, what is your go-to comfort food?
Eddie: “For me I love Korean sweet potatoes. I love them. I love it, like taking it off the hot rocks, peeling it. It’s kind of sweet. It’s really good for you too.”
Lei: “I am a huge Korean fried chicken person. I remember, it was the day before I flew out of California the last time we were there, Eddie and I went to BHC Chicken.”
Elaya: “I think for me it’s any Japanese food that my mom makes. Anything she makes is my comfort food.”
EDDIE, VIA REWIND TEAM
WHAT’S NEXT?
Is there anything new you guys are working on? Anything we should keep an eye out for?
Elaya: “I’ll just say… beautiful storm.”
Lei: “How about… air, but not for any reason you might think.
Eddie: “I’m not gonna talk about the concept or song itself. But Re:wind, I think we are discovering what our strengths are still. We are far from being perfect, far from being one of the best performers of course. But I think we kind of want to restructure, do a quick mini reset while still keeping everything that people love about Re:wind, but also really making it about the music. And sometimes you may not always need a huge trendy concept or a huge performance with a choreo back to back to be an artist.”
Re:wind is slated to perform at K-Play Fest Orange County on Saturday, August 22 in Anaheim, California. They are also set to take the stage at the 2026 Korean Festival Houston in Houston, Texas on October 10-11, 2026.
You can follow RE:WIND on their various social media platforms below:
Instagram: @presstherewind
X: @rewindmembers
TikTok: @presstherewind
YouTube: @presstherewind
Related groups
ZEROBASEONE (ZB1) is a 5-member K-pop boy group formed through Boys Planet I. Debuted on 2023-07-10 under WAKEONE.
BTS (방탄소년단) is a South Korean K-pop group formed by BigHit Music and debuted on June 13, 2013. The group consists of seven members: RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. Known for their powerful performances, meaningful lyrics, and strong connection with fans, BTS has become one of the most successful and influential music groups in the world. Their music explores themes such as youth, self-discovery, mental health, love, and personal growth, helping them build a dedicated global fanbase known as ARMY. Since their debut, BTS has achieved record-breaking success across the global music industry with hit songs such as “Dynamite,” “Butter,” “Spring Day,” “Boy With Luv,” and “Fake Love.” The group has earned numerous awards, topped charts in multiple countries, sold millions of albums, and helped introduce K-pop to a broader international audience. Through their artistry, cultural impact, and worldwide influence, BTS continues to inspire fans and shape the future of global pop music.
Click the same reaction again to remove it.
(Updates after load — yes, your readers are humans… mostly.)
Top reads this week
Last 7 days
Rising Stars NCHIVE: Their Story, World Tour, and What’s Next
1d ago
KEYVITUP Meets Fans at LA Fannect Ahead of KCON LA 2026
2d ago
KATSEYE shows support for members on hiatus and discussed WILD on The Tonight Show
6d ago
All Six Members of NCT DREAM Renew Contracts With SM Entertainment
2d ago
When Does Listening Become Endorsing? What RM and j-hope’s Chris Brown Controversy Reveals About Accountability, Celebrity Culture, and the Impossible Standards We Place on Public Figures.
1d ago