1VERSE Returns!

They’re back with their first new single in months!

Photo courtesy of Singing Beetle

Please introduce yourselves and share what special traits or skills each member contributes to the group! 
NATHAN: I’m the Midwestern southerner of the group, a vocalist, and also the mood-maker.

AITO: I’m the youngest of the group, I’m the main dancer, and I can make people fall in love with me.

KENNY: I’m a vocalist, songwriter, and personality hire. My special trait is accommodating everyone’s food orders. I love the idea of ordering someone else’s food. I’ll go around and ask what everyone wants and try to get it all together, and then I’ll find the one-plus-one deals and save so much money. It’s like a game of saving money on [an] app. There was one time in Chicago when we had three people with completely different dietary restrictions, and I managed to get everyone exactly what they wanted.

Please describe “LOOP” and how it differs from your previous songs. 
KENNY: This is the first time we collectively wanted to make a fun song. We’d been making music out of our depression and that shattered state of mind for a while, so we thought we might as well give a little summer treat. We went for a weird concept of how we’re addicted to arcade games.

NATHAN: The beginning of the song is just very different from everything else we’ve done so far, [with] arcade sounds and a video game type of beat. The song itself is about trying something and continuing to do it, being stuck in that loop, the way you keep playing a claw machine and keep losing and keep going at it until you get it. We have a lot of range across our discography, from something really sad like “WABIF (Wide Awake before I Fall)” to this, which is very happy.

What are your goals, both for this single and for the rest of 2026? 
AITO: More [fans, aka] 5TARZ, and more stages, especially in Japan and Korea.

NATHAN: My goal is for all the 5TARZ and everyone listening to have a lot of fun with this song and to connect with what we’re trying to say. We’ve been describing the song as being about a kind of addiction, but not necessarily a bad one, and I hope the perseverance side of that comes through, too.

Check out “LOOP” here!

View the Substack version of this piece here!

Answers have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.