aespa have revealed that their forthcoming sophomore mini-album ‘Girls’ was initially slated for release a lot earlier.

The K-pop quartet recently sat with Audacy for an interview as part of the entertainment platform’s video series Audacy Check In, where they spoke about ‘Girls’ ahead of its release tomorrow (July 8).

When asked about the preparation process for the album, member Giselle revealed that ‘Girls” release had actually been pushed back from its original date to make way for more refinements to be made to its songs. “It was released a lot later than what was expected,” she shared. “‘Girls’ was actually supposed to be released in around, like, March or April.”

Due to the extra time aespa had to work on the mini-album, Giselle said that the group had the chance to “experience the process of making it better, and clean[ing] and cutting the result”.

“Recording the other songs and trying to express more of our vibe and stuff, I think we put a lot more effort into doing that since we had a little bit more time than what was expected,” Giselle concluded.

‘Girls’ will include two of aespa’s pre-release tracks – ‘Illusion’, as well as the English single ‘Life’s Too Short’, the latter of which premiered at the girl group’s debut Coachella performance earlier this year.

The new record will also be led by a title track of the same name, and will include three of the group’s older singles: ‘Black Mamba’, ‘Forever’ and ‘Dreams Come True’, of which the first two will be released physically for the first time as part of the mini-album.

‘Girls’ will be aespa’s first project of 2022, and is the much-anticipated follow-up to the girl group’s popular debut mini-album ‘Savage’. Last year, the group covered S.E.S.’s ‘Dreams Come True’ for their label SM Entertainment’s winter album ‘2021 Winter SM Town: SMCU Express’.