M.Pire (pronounced ‘empire’; a combination of ‘music' and 'vampire', signifying the need for the group to live off of music) debuted under Benjamin Entertainment (a sub-company under CMG Chorok Stars, which is sometimes listed as their company instead) on 130801 with the single album Carpe Diem and six members: Taehee, Useung/Yooseung, Haru, Red, T.O, and Jerry. A seventh member, Lumin (formerly LeeU of F.Cuz), join in October of the same year. Their fandom name was originally Fan.Pire, but due to negative feedback from fans, it was later changed to Muse (뮤즈), an acronym for ‘Mind, Understand, Special, and Encourage’.
They had their first official performance several months before they debuted at Dream Concert on 130511. Former member Kangon (see note below) is seen in that performance, but he left the group on 130615 and T.O was added in his place. The group also has two members (Taehee and Yooseung) of the disbanded group BB.BOYS.
The title (and only) track of Carpe Diem was ‘너랑 친구 못해’ (‘Can’t Be Friend With You’ is used official, but it’s sometimes listed as ‘We Can’t Be Friends’ or ‘I Can’t Be Friend With You’ unofficial). Their next album, New Born, was released on 131030 and featured three songs: ‘까딱까딱’ (I’m Better), ‘On My Mind’ (written by JYJ’s Jaejoong), and ‘너랑 친구 못해’ (which is the same song as before just rerecorded with Lumin’s voice). The last album featured in this video is T.O’s solo debut, 거짓말 (Lie), which was released on 131230.
Overall, M.Pire seemed to have gotten off to a strong start, winning several rookie awards and gaining buzz from their collaboration with JYJ’s Jaejoong, but nothing much happened next. I’ll finish off their discography in another video, but they basically just fizzled out thru 2014-2015 and then completely disappeared. In 2015, CMG Chorok Stars apparently announced M.Pire would be moving to LUCE Entertainment (another sub-company under them) and were actively denying disbandment rumors while several members started their military service and T.O promoted with a project group (B.Crown) in Japan. While fans were divided at the time over what was happening to the group, I think at this point, it's safe to say they quietly disbanded sometime in mid-late 2016 (based on T.O posting on his IG about the group making it to 900 days in January 2016).
Note 1: Kangon both left and then went back to the same group, M.Peror (엠페로 / ‘emperor’). Now, obviously, these two groups have long been confused with each other given their similar names, Kangon technically being a member of both, and apparently (although I’m not sure yet if it was official or not) M.Peror’s fandom name was M.Pire. But, seeing as Kangon was only in one performance with the group and it was before they officially debuted, I decided to just save M.Peror for a later video instead of trying to shove them in here.
Note 2: I’m not quite sure when the photos used for the two New Born songs were taken, but I had a really hard time finding good quality/decently sized pictures for this time frame of the group, so forgive me if they’re a bit off timeline wise.
Tracks Included:
1. 130801 - Debut - 너랑 친구 못해 (Can’t Be Friend With You) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mSPZ8ZS8r0
2. 131030 - Second Album Title Track - 까딱까딱 (I’m Better) – Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLientoyTDk; there’s no MV for this, so here’s a performance of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCI0VRH5ix0
3. 131030 - Second Album Track Two - On My Mind - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU0en3iBMuI
4. 131230 - T.O Solo Debut - 거짓말 (Lie) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT-TkIrVqoI
Not Included:
1. 너랑 친구 못해 (Can’t Be Friend With You) inst. from Carpe Diem
2. 너랑 친구 못해 (Can’t Be Friend With You) and its inst. from New born
3. 까딱까딱 (I’m Better) inst.
4. On My Mind inst.
5. 거짓말 (Lie) inst.
For more info about this group: https://kprofiles.com/m-pire-members-profile/
