SHINee's Minho talks about music and acting in latest magazine shoot

SHINee member Minho reveals secrets about what's to come for the SM Entertainment idol group in his latest interview and pictorial with GQ Korea.

Following his discharge last November, Minho said that he's been spending most days with his family because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since it's not a situation where I can freely go anywhere, I've been spending a lot of time with my family. We even spent Christmas and New Year's together,” he said, as translated by Soompi.com.

“Since there nearly hasn't been a situation like this since my debut, I think it's good. Even while in the military, my greatest realization was how much I missed spending time with my family and friends.”

Minho, along with members Onew, Key, and Taemin, have been heavily preparing for their much-awaited comeback this February -- which includes the concept of their album and its upcoming title track.

According to the K-pop idol, the group has been discussing what direction they'd like to pursue and that they've been quite busy with the preparations to thank fans for waiting for their full comeback for more than two years.

“Since we're in the middle of album preparations, we inevitably have a lot of discussions about our team, our direction, and what we have to show [as a group],” he revealed.

“Until now, SHINee has been taking on new and unique challenges both in music and our style. There were things we started that were later derived from, and there were things that made us think, 'Is it okay for us to do this?'

“But since we're an idol group, we were inevitably stereotyped, and we weren't oblivious to those views. Now, all we want to do is to show clearly our music style by emphasizing its artistic aspect.”

Since Minho's discharge, the group has been hinting that they're preparing for a full comeback this 2021. It was eventually revealed in SMTOWN's “Culture Humanity” virtual concert last New Year's Day with a one-minute video of SHINee's hit songs before ending with the words, “2021, SHINee is back.”

The members, most especially maknae Taemin, have been sharing spoilers about the group's activities, prompting much excitement from fans in the weeks ahead.

According to the singer, the choreography for their title track is harder than the dance moves of “Criminal” and “Everybody.”

He revealed, “When I practiced 'Criminal' recently, I thought this would be the hardest one ever. But this choreography is much more challenging, so I'm worried. I think we can pull it off if we try our best, but I think it'll be too hard to do it twice [in a row]. It's too hard!”

“Then in our bridge part, if it's not revised, I think it may look like we're religious fanatics, but it looks so cool because it shows our teamwork. Like… holding our hands together.”

During their January 21 VLive, Taemin and Key shared that they've been busy recording their title track's back-to-back performances despite not yet filming its music video.

While waiting for the official comeback date, get to know SHINee and their shining world here: