~ DREAMCATCHER ~ 

Members from left to right: JiU, Handong, Dami, Gahyeon, Siyeon, SuA, and Yoohyeon. 

Who is dreamcatcher?

On the 18^th of September 2014, a five-membered K-pop girl group formed by Happy Face Entertainment debuted under the name of MINX with their single “Why did you come to my home”. The members, back then, were JiU, SuA, Siyeon, Yoohyeon and Dami. However, on January 13 2017, the group re-debuted with a whole new concept “Chase Me” (every member representing a different kind of nightmare) and with two additional members, Handong and Gahyeon, under the name Dreamcatcher. The fandom is called “InSomnia”, meaning “in the dream” in latin. They made their Japanese debut one year later with their single “Full Moon”.

Their latest Korean comeback was on January 26, 2021 with their sixth mini-album entitled "Dystopia : Road to Utopia" and the title track "Odd Eye". This time, all 7 members participated to the comeback with Handong being back from China. 

Here are their official social media accounts: 

• Twitter @hf_dreamcatcher
• Twitter (Japan) @jp_dreamcatcher
• Instagram @hf_dreamcatcher
• Instagram (members) @goodnight_dreamcatcher
• Instagram (Japan) @jp_dreamcatcher
• Facebook Happyfacedreamcatcher
• Youtube Dreamcatcher
• Fan cafe Dreamcatcher7
• V live Dreamcatcher
• Official website Dreamcatcher
• TikTok @official_dreamcatcher
• TikTok (Japan) @dreamcatcher_jp

  

Stage Name: JiU

Birth Name: Kim Min Ji

Position: Leader, Lead Vocalist, Lead Dancer, Visual

Birthday: May 17, 1994

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Fear of being chased

Fun facts: Her English name is Lily. If she wasn’t in Dreamcatcher she would be a police officer or an owner of a macaron store (interview with Kpopconcerts). Her ideal type is someone who communicates with her well, also a man who can control her a little.

 

Stage name: SuA

Birth name: Kim Bo Ra

Position: Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, Sub Vocalist

Birthday: August 10, 1994

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Fear of restraint

Fun facts: Her English name is Alice. She is a former MINX member. SuA learns dance routines the fastest and she helps others learn theirs too. Her hobbies are drawing and watching dramas. She is a fan of TVXQ and her role models are the Big Bang members. Her ideal type is a man who is sexy and who likes her more than she likes him.

 

 

 

 

Stage Name: Siyeon

Birth Name: Lee Si Yeon

Position: Main Vocalist

Birthday: October 1, 1995

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Claustrophobia

Fun facts: She is a former MINX member. Her English name is Monica. She can do voice impression for Pikachu, Squirtle, and Psyduck. Her role model is Sistar’s Hyorin. Her idal type is someone she can connect to and talk to, someone who has sense and matches her well.

 

Stage Name: Handong

Birth Name: Han Dong

Position: Sub Vocalist

Birthday: March 26, 1996

Nationality: Chinese

Nightmare: Scopophobia

Fun facts: Her English name is Della. She was born in Wuhan, China. If Handong wasn’t in Dreamcatcher, she would be a flight attendant (interview with Kpopconcerts). Her ideal type is a kind person who has a good personality and is tall.

 

Stage Name: Yoohyeon

Birth Name: Kim Yoo Hyeon

Position: Lead Vocalist

Birthday: January 7, 1997

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Being Lost in an unknown place

Fun facts: She is a former MINX member. Her English name is Rachel. She is learning Mandarin and German. She likes Harry Styles. Her ideal type is someone hard-working. As for celebrities, she named her ideal type Kim Bum. 

 

Stage Name: Dami

Birth Name: Lee Yu Bin

Position: Main rapper, lead dancer, sub vocalist

Birthday: March 7, 1997

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Oulinophobia or Agliophobia

Fun facts: Her English name is Emma. She learned kendo. She is a fan of the anime "One Piece". Her favorite author is Haruki Murakami. Her ideal type is someone she can learn from, someone who can talk a lot compared to her.

 

 

 

 

Stage Name: Gahyeon

Birth Name: Lee Ga Hyeon

Position: Sub Vocalist, Sub Rapper, Maknae

Birthday: February 3, 1999

Nationality: Korean

Nightmare: Basophobia

Fun facts: Her English name is Lucy. She studies in the Philippines for a few months and was a honor student for 3 years. Her ideal type is someone who smiles prettily, is fun and has a good voice. 

 

 

 

 

 

How I discovered them 

Dreamcatcher is one of those underrated groups that has a really distinct sound. They still didn’t score a first win on a musical show, and they rarely appear on Korean variety shows, so the odds you find them by pure coincidence are low. I personally found out about them watching one of K-ville’s “new kpop songs” video, and the first song I heard from them was Piri. I saw them a lot in “underrated K-pop groups” videos. I hope that I will help them getting the recognition they deserve. 

My Bias is Dami, and my bias wrecker (the runner up to the “bias” title) is Siyeon. Dami has a very unique tone of voice, and her singing is as good as her rapping. And I think she became much more confident in the past comebacks. As for Siyeon, her voice is getting better and better. That falsetto right after the bridge in “BOCA” is amazing. But don't get me wrong, all the other members have that "something special".

About their discography:

Dreamcatcher has a very unique sound that is more on the rock-electronic side. Their debut song, Chase me, is pretty soft compared to all the songs they did after that. It is a good debut song but it’s clearly not the one who showcases the members’ talent the most. After that, they respectively released their title tracks “Good Night”, “Full Moon” and “You and I” that follow the same Nightmare concept, all sounding almost the same to me but still being good songs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On September 20, 2018 they come back with their third Korean mini-album “Alone in the city” with the title track “What” that marks a small change in their sound even though the concept didn’t really change. “What” goes really hard for me and hits differently, the girls really get to show off their vocals, and the instrumental portion in the beginning of the song is *chef’s kiss*.

Their fourth Korean mini-album “The end of Nightmare” out on February 13, 2019 with the title track "Piri" marks the end of the Nightmare era. Piri is very much different from what they've been doing before. I won't put it in the rock register although I consider Dreamcatcher as a K-Rock girl group.

They come back seven months later with their special mini-album “Raid of Dream” with the title track “Déjà vu” on September 18, 2019. Now let’s talk about Déjà vu… DAMI IS SINGING GUYS, QUEEN DAMI IS SINGING!!! Déjà vu is definitely one of my favorite songs of theirs. The instrumental, the song, the lyrics, the MV, and… Queen Dami. It might not go as hard as you could expect, but the song definitely has an impact. I just had a hard time understanding the meaning behind the MV but let me tell you: I suck at finding and understanding theories. 

2020 marks the beginning of a new era for Dreamcatcher. On February 18, they publish their first studio album “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” with the title track “Scream”. However, Handong won’t be promoting alongside her 6 group-mates because she’ll be participating in the Chinese show “Youth With You” (season 2). And let me tell you that there is a huge difference between the pre-scream era and the post-scream era. The members improved a lot, Siyeon’s singing got so much better (she’s my favorite vocalist of the group), Dami gained so much confidence and her rap got better too (I thought that it wasn’t possible but she did it because she’s a queen), and Gahyeon revealed herself. Scream is the song that, in my opinion, made Dreamcatcher more known to the public (even though I think they are still underrated). 

On Agusut 17, 2020, Dreamcatcher came back with their fifth Korean mini-album entitled “Dystopia: Lose Myself” with the title track “BOCA”. Handong won’t be participating in the promotions for this comeback again because she’s stuck in China for Covid-19 reasons. BOCA is the apotheosis to me. EVERY MEMBER had its time to shine in the MV (I can't wait for Handong to come back) and I think they outdid themselves (again) in terms of the aesthetics. The MV is really gorgeous, and there's definitely a contrast between the "warrior" theme and the "goddess" theme if I can put it like that (I told you, I'm not good at understanding underlying meanings). 

Finally, on January 26, 2021, the girls put out their sixth Korean mini-album entitled "Dystopia : Road to Utopia" with the title track "Odd Eye". Again, I'm really bad at understanding theories, but there seems to be something to do with the five senses. They first did "Boca" (which means mouth in spanish), now it's "Eye", and maybe ears or nose are next? The only thing I'm sure of is that they nailed this comeback as well. 

All in all, my favorite title track from them has to be Déjà Vu, with What being a close second. But my favorite album has to be Dystopia: Lose Myself (Dystopia: The tree of language being a close second). All the songs in it are beautiful, with Break the Wall being my favorite B-side from them.

Random Facts

The company went from “Happy Face Entertainment” (2009-2019) to literally “DreamCatcher Company” because the company wanted to show the group their support (source: AllKpop).

That’s it guys, I hope you enjoyed reading this article and that you’ll be checking out DreamCatcher. They have enough talent and experience to be more known in South Korean and Worldwide, they really deserve better.

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Wikipedia, Kprofiles