TUNEXX already knows what they want to say. That clarity comes through in the way they talk about their debut release, SET BY US ONLY – a message sent on their own terms.

Formed under IST Entertainment, TUNEXX are a seven-member boy group comprising Donggyu, Inhu, Taira, Sungjun, Zeon, Sihwan, and Arctic. Four of the members – Donggyu, Inhu, Sihwan, and Arctic – first came to international attention through Mnet's global audition programme Boys II Planet.

Through SET BY US ONLY, TUNEXX debut with a mini album that moves across four distinct sounds: the funk-driven swagger of "100%," the electronic hip-hop of "I'm Alive," the R&B intimacy of "Obsessed," and the band-driven uplift of "Twenty Something." The range is intentional. Arctic puts it plainly – the group never wanted to be defined by a single concept, and their music reflects that. Their name, drawn from the idea of tuning into a shared frequency, was always going to resist a single genre.

Donggyu, Zeon, and Sihwan contributed to the lyrics, and the motivation behind it is telling. Zeon wanted the words to feel more genuine the longer you sat with them – the kind of meaning that reveals itself slowly. Donggyu wasn't interested in telling TUNEXX's story alone; he wanted to share something useful with whoever was listening. Sihwan was trying to capture the feeling of standing at the edge of something and choosing to move forward anyway.

That feeling has roots. For Inhu, choosing to become a trainee was the biggest decision of his life – taken against the grain of what others expected. "I believe that choice is what made me who I am today," he says. Donggyu describes his trainee years similarly: a period of constant challenge, of pushing forward rather than settling.

It's that same instinct – to commit, to define your own path – that runs through SET BY US ONLY from start to finish. Zeon hopes the album is remembered not simply as a starting point, but as the first moment TUNEXX clearly expressed what they wanted to say. Donggyu sees it as the foundation of everything that follows.