00:00:00
so um how did your mom react to
00:00:03
that tell your mom like I'm going to
00:00:06
tell you a secret i didn't All right
00:00:08
this album it's still I don't know when
00:00:10
this interview is going to come out but
00:00:11
this we're having this interview before
00:00:13
this album gets released right so from
00:00:16
today's point I am telling you that I
00:00:19
didn't I didn't show my mom yet i didn't
00:00:22
let her hear it yet
00:00:25
when I'm lost you got me homeing you
00:00:34
Nothing is about being your number i'm
00:00:37
106
00:00:44
oh hi
00:00:46
hey hey nice to see you again good to
00:00:50
see you so today we're here to talk
00:00:53
about your first solo album
00:00:55
are you nervous i am very very excited
00:00:58
yeah so um to start the interview I want
00:01:01
to talk about something that I saw
00:01:04
online uh it was a letter that you wrote
00:01:08
when you were an SM rookie you don't
00:01:11
probably you won't remember but are you
00:01:15
going to read it out for me yes oh no
00:01:18
okay
00:01:21
okay you
00:01:22
said I will definitely work hard to
00:01:26
become one of SM SM's famous stars and
00:01:30
be able to provide the music people
00:01:32
would like to listen
00:01:34
to you wrote that like 10 years ago wow
00:01:39
that's crazy
00:01:42
right now you're releasing solo album
00:01:44
wow and like being one of the most
00:01:47
respectful I feel like artist oh wow
00:01:51
thank you um so how do you feel
00:01:54
wow honestly though like when you were
00:01:58
stirring up this question I was like "Ah
00:02:00
this is going to be cringy." But
00:02:04
after like actually kind of like
00:02:07
like feeling it i was like "Dang after
00:02:11
10 plus years I'm here with the first
00:02:14
fruit album." I kind of feel proud yeah
00:02:17
okay yeah i'm very very proud yeah so um
00:02:21
let's talk about the
00:02:23
music right um so the album is
00:02:27
like dividing four
00:02:30
chapters and the first one is Toronto
00:02:34
this the city you were born and you open
00:02:38
with Toronto's window
00:02:43
right to laugh
00:02:46
no because you're you're doing so good
00:02:48
Oh thank you um listen to the album a
00:02:52
lot of times this week so we're gonna
00:02:55
talk oh you Oh nice okay so we're going
00:02:58
to talk about it um so in this song you
00:03:02
talk like about dreaming detail
00:03:12
i never thought that I could dream in
00:03:14
detail you
00:03:16
know and when you're able to do this
00:03:20
it's like almost you have a purpose to
00:03:23
live right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um
00:03:28
why did you did you decide to open the
00:03:30
album with this message great
00:03:33
question um but first of all I knew that
00:03:36
it had to be Toronto cuz that's where
00:03:38
everything began for me and this album
00:03:41
is an autobiography and so Toronto had
00:03:44
to be the first track um but you know
00:03:47
it's Toronto's window so like I'm
00:03:49
looking back to Toronto like where it
00:03:50
first began i'm looking back and I
00:03:52
realize oh I was
00:03:55
raised my mom raised me like this my dad
00:03:58
raised me like this and I kind of wanted
00:03:59
to put that message there but before
00:04:01
that I had to say that for me to even
00:04:04
realize how I can see the past I say
00:04:07
this in the song like I now I can see
00:04:09
the past with a new set of eyes it's
00:04:11
just there was a realization for me that
00:04:14
really just changed the way that I
00:04:15
looked at my past and it really had to
00:04:18
do with my faith too in a way and so
00:04:21
finding that reason and drive and
00:04:23
putting that into everything that I do
00:04:24
in my life that's kind
00:04:27
of it's linked with
00:04:30
my new way of thinking and
00:04:33
so yeah that's how it came out so the
00:04:37
next song is 1999
00:04:40
i saw that you were kind of like
00:04:44
doubting to put this song as the main
00:04:49
single because it's like kind of obvious
00:04:51
because is the year you were born but
00:04:55
this song is like totally different i
00:04:57
was surprised i was very surprised yeah
00:04:59
yeah
00:05:01
um so
00:05:04
sorry yeah yeah yeah go on no I want to
00:05:07
have that moment like you are Oh okay
00:05:10
this song is going to represent the
00:05:11
album because it's very I mean okay okay
00:05:15
okay first I'm going be honest it wasn't
00:05:18
like a rightaway pick for me um when I
00:05:22
first got the beat when I first got the
00:05:23
hook I was like oh wow this is in like
00:05:26
this is something but I wasn't sure that
00:05:28
this was going to be the song to
00:05:30
represent this album just like what you
00:05:31
said but there were other options um and
00:05:34
other songs but in the end I just felt
00:05:37
like this was the best out of all all
00:05:39
the options and then we thought about
00:05:41
the lyrics in about 1999 and then I just
00:05:45
felt like okay this is the perfect song
00:05:48
for the album and so and for the genre
00:05:52
too like we tried so many different
00:05:53
genres like cuz this genre is like no
00:05:58
one I didn't even expect it no one
00:05:59
expected it but I realized that I am the
00:06:03
type of artist who can really just try
00:06:06
and pull off so many different genres is
00:06:09
and so just the 1999 theme was what made
00:06:13
me kind of click with the song the most
00:06:16
and so I just felt like this was the
00:06:18
right beat to to choose and yeah and I
00:06:23
really like how you sing this song
00:06:25
because it's very 90s you remind me a
00:06:27
lot of Justin Timberlake i don't know if
00:06:30
it was on purpose yo yo yo yo yo yo
00:06:33
that's actually pretty that was exact i
00:06:35
I thought of Justin Timberlake as well
00:06:37
really
00:06:41
so we're good i mean because you know it
00:06:44
it started off like I was like talking
00:06:47
with my producer dress and I was like
00:06:49
I've always been confident about my
00:06:52
falsetto um and and that was it like I I
00:06:56
just it was just I left it there and
00:06:58
then like gradually he was just like
00:07:00
"Okay yo I'm thinking about a song." And
00:07:03
then around the time where we were
00:07:05
looking for a title track he gave me
00:07:07
that beat with that falsetto hook and I
00:07:09
was like interesting and then that's
00:07:12
yeah it kind of began there okay so
00:07:15
after the song is the New York section
00:07:18
right
00:07:19
flight to New York yes and then after
00:07:23
flight to New York you have we have two
00:07:25
songs it's Righteous and Fractured did I
00:07:28
pronounce it right fracture yeah uh so
00:07:31
both of these songs show your connection
00:07:33
to hip-hop right
00:07:37
and I want to know why do you think
00:07:41
hip-hop reflects your time in New York
00:07:43
yeah i mean I think you're very on the
00:07:45
right track cuz you know for each city
00:07:48
we kind of had to have a specific mood
00:07:51
to categorize the parts of the album and
00:07:54
so New York it really reminded me of you
00:07:56
know just like how like the busyiness of
00:08:00
Manhattan like the streets of New York
00:08:02
and just like
00:08:04
um out of all the other tracks I felt
00:08:07
like the hardest in the rap and like the
00:08:10
loudest
00:08:12
um section of the album should be New
00:08:14
York name three
00:08:17
team at the same time with no rest with
00:08:20
no rest back on my rover keep up and
00:08:23
down look at me now god is my power i'm
00:08:26
NCT
00:08:27
and my ANR was like my ANR um partner he
00:08:31
actually thought of that idea and I was
00:08:32
like "Okay that's a good idea." And so
00:08:34
we searched for songs like Righteous and
00:08:36
Fraia so that's the hardest part of the
00:08:39
album like the the strongest part yeah
00:08:42
when I received the album I thought this
00:08:44
was going to be the whole album so I was
00:08:47
very surprised other songs m yeah yeah
00:08:51
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah true true
00:08:53
true you know it's only up it's only up
00:08:56
until New York and then everything else
00:08:57
is just kind of different you know it's
00:08:59
like yeah yeah yeah it's very exact so
00:09:03
Vancouver this was my favorite part of
00:09:05
the album Vancouver
00:09:24
Um we have Ranc Vancouver loser and
00:09:28
watch TV
00:09:30
right and I feel like in these songs you
00:09:33
really showcase yourself as a vocalist
00:09:36
and also as a storyteller
00:09:44
oh I saw you mention before that you
00:09:47
really love to sing and you you have a
00:09:50
dream to be an author right i did i did
00:09:53
yeah and why you choose this chapter of
00:09:58
your life to show like that
00:10:00
you these parts of you know like the
00:10:04
sides i think this was also after having
00:10:07
like numerous conversations with my ANR
00:10:09
but we felt like Vancouver should be the
00:10:11
sentimental section of the album very
00:10:14
kind of you know like kind of dampened
00:10:16
the soul kind of but um and so Vancouver
00:10:20
even just from the track it's very you
00:10:22
know you know it reminded me of the the
00:10:25
the weather of Vancouver you know and so
00:10:29
and just I really like how you said that
00:10:32
I think I put a lot of my storytelling
00:10:34
creativity like my creative energy my
00:10:36
storytelling creative energy into
00:10:39
Vancouver into Loser and watching TV
00:10:42
just like what you said um and so when
00:10:44
it comes to my vocals but also just how
00:10:47
I wrote the songs I think I'm very proud
00:10:51
of how the Vancouver section came out
00:10:54
yeah I really like Loser because I feel
00:10:57
like you sing a lot in this song and I
00:11:00
didn't know you could sing like that so
00:11:03
I didn't know that I could sing like
00:11:04
that
00:11:05
too but I tried it i tried it and this
00:11:07
was also like an influence that I got
00:11:09
from Dress but he was
00:11:11
like you know you know the
00:11:14
um like the boyfriend acoustic song of
00:11:18
Justin Bieber yes it was kind of like yo
00:11:21
we should have a song like that and
00:11:22
Dress was like yo you should we should
00:11:24
try something like that but as we got
00:11:28
to you know develop it it it it sounded
00:11:31
so good
00:11:33
um and the lyrics as well i think I'm
00:11:35
very proud of how it came out too so I
00:11:38
really like how you say "I don't want to
00:11:41
be I don't want to be a loser but also I
00:11:44
don't want to lose her." Yeah yeah yeah
00:11:48
i really like that yeah yeah
00:11:51
that's Yeah yo I'm glad and it's it it's
00:11:55
first people will be like "Oh dude he's
00:11:56
in a toxic relationship like he's
00:11:58
talking about toxic love." But it's not
00:12:00
that it's actually about me no it's
00:12:03
actually about a love that will forever
00:12:08
love you no matter how
00:12:13
toxic the how no matter how
00:12:18
stop it stop like do you know what I
00:12:20
mean no no it's like No no hear me out
00:12:24
hear me out i I want to tell you so it's
00:12:26
about in the beginning it starts off by
00:12:28
saying oh I am hurt this person hurt me
00:12:33
but in the
00:12:35
end so in the beginning the other person
00:12:37
is the loser for me but in the end I
00:12:40
realize that I'm the loser because
00:12:43
I still choose to love you
00:12:45
back it's just endless unconditional
00:12:49
love
00:12:51
it's profound like deep yeah it's deep
00:12:54
though
00:12:56
so let's move on
00:13:00
to
00:13:02
section it starts with your feature with
00:13:06
HA which really nice i like the part
00:13:16
good but throughout I feel like
00:13:18
throughout this journey you have two
00:13:20
other collaborators you have also Yunji
00:13:24
the highest girl right
00:13:27
and Crush how was work with these
00:13:30
artists all right like Han obviously you
00:13:33
know he was someone that I always wanted
00:13:36
to collab with um in a way like since or
00:13:39
even before debut um and so he was the
00:13:42
perfect choice um for um 82 pressing um
00:13:47
Leongji she was also just like the
00:13:49
perfect choice for Fraia she um she
00:13:52
killed it in her verse and we always
00:13:55
kind of
00:13:56
had our you
00:13:59
know our connection through like social
00:14:01
media and everything so everything just
00:14:03
kind of added up it was very natural but
00:14:05
um I think Crush was the most
00:14:07
unexpecting artist for me to even you
00:14:10
know contact but um in the beginning for
00:14:14
watching TV I was like "Wow he would
00:14:16
sound so good um for for a for a course
00:14:20
like this." And so we actually contacted
00:14:22
him um but he first actually said that
00:14:26
he was too busy cuz he was on tour he
00:14:29
had a lot going on and he was like "I
00:14:31
don't think I can um do it." And I was
00:14:33
like "Oh no." And so I was actually
00:14:35
thinking of dropping the song cuz I
00:14:36
couldn't find the perfect artist i
00:14:40
couldn't find the most appropriate like
00:14:42
the the like the right the most you
00:14:45
know the artist that would sound the
00:14:47
best on this track other than Crush and
00:14:48
so I was actually talking to my ANR
00:14:50
saying that we should just drop it but
00:14:51
then we were like "Okay we should ask
00:14:53
him one more time." And then the second
00:14:55
time he contacted him he was like "Okay
00:14:56
let's do it." Thank God because it's
00:14:59
like one of the best songs of the album
00:15:01
so I'm glad
00:15:03
that he was a part of it wow um so we're
00:15:07
speaking of ha you with him are part of
00:15:11
like different groups of NCT so you are
00:15:15
part of NCTU NC Dream
00:15:18
NC7 man that's a lot and how was it for
00:15:22
you to find your own identity as a solo
00:15:25
artist while creating this album like
00:15:27
there was a time where you're like "Oh
00:15:29
my god I don't know what I'm doing." Yo
00:15:32
that's actually the key point of the
00:15:35
message of this album because this album
00:15:38
was a journey that allowed me to find
00:15:41
myself this album helped me find myself
00:15:44
for the first time in 25 years and so um
00:15:47
I hope that my listeners can really feel
00:15:49
that and that's why I put all of
00:15:51
my
00:15:53
personal messages and feelings and
00:15:56
thoughts into this album and I think my
00:15:59
faith really had a lot to do with it as
00:16:02
well and my faith is linked with my
00:16:04
identity so I think a lot of those
00:16:10
um aspects were put in to this album
00:16:12
from like just in every angle and the
00:16:16
last song I want to talk about is your
00:16:18
the song you did for your
00:16:20
mom that made me very emotional let me
00:16:23
tell you really okay i was a after
00:16:28
listen I was a mess so um how did your
00:16:31
mom reacted to that like you told your
00:16:34
mom like Yeah you want me to tell you a
00:16:36
secret i didn't All right this album
00:16:39
it's still I don't know when this
00:16:40
interview is going to come out but this
00:16:42
album we're having this interview before
00:16:43
this album gets released right so Mhm
00:16:47
from today's point I am telling you that
00:16:49
I didn't I didn't show my mom yet i
00:16:52
didn't let her hear it yet
00:16:55
what no way did I know that she's going
00:16:59
to be like what
00:17:02
i would if I was a mom like imagine
00:17:06
having a child moving through all those
00:17:10
cities and then this child become like a
00:17:13
famous singer and he's like "Oh no I'm
00:17:16
going to put a song for you." Like
00:17:19
I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to
00:17:21
see how she reacts when the album comes
00:17:22
out i'm not going to show her until it
00:17:24
actually comes out
00:17:25
on all platforms you're going to have to
00:17:28
after after the album comes out how she
00:17:30
reacted
00:17:32
yeah y I want to see how she reacts i
00:17:33
I'll try to film her if I can i don't
00:17:35
know if it if she'll be like upset or
00:17:37
something but I just feel I did let my
00:17:39
dad hear it my dad was really surprised
00:17:41
he was
00:17:42
like like "Oh my god mom is going to be
00:17:45
like she's going to she's going to be
00:17:48
shocked." My dad was very very surprised
00:17:51
but um you know I was like "It's too
00:17:53
late now
00:17:56
okay um to finish um I saw a video you
00:18:01
recorded when you released Child your
00:18:04
first single it was a video called
00:18:06
Child's
00:18:08
Diary you were like very open about it
00:18:11
everything everything and I thought was
00:18:14
very
00:18:15
um special that video so I want you to
00:18:20
um answer the questions you answered on
00:18:23
that video in 2005 in 200 25 after you
00:18:29
release your first
00:18:30
album so the first question is what do
00:18:34
you think you are in the eyes of others
00:18:36
now oh
00:18:39
hey yo what's
00:18:43
up um what do I think I look like in the
00:18:48
eyes of other people
00:18:50
um I think in the eyes of other people
00:18:53
they'll be able to know how pass like
00:18:57
um like how passion I think now I'm more
00:19:02
passionate and certain of my identity
00:19:06
compared to when I did that that
00:19:09
interview in child's diary
00:19:13
and the last question would you what
00:19:15
would you say to child Mark
00:19:20
i would
00:19:22
say oh I I I would really want to tell
00:19:26
him that the thoughts and the concerns
00:19:29
and all of that confusion that you're
00:19:32
going through is it'll all make sense
00:19:35
one
00:19:36
day and I'm
00:19:39
excited i'm excited for you bro i think
00:19:42
I'll just tell them that yeah I think
00:19:44
everyone's excite excited for you i saw
00:19:47
the comments like the you released like
00:19:51
a teaser today and I saw people sobbing
00:19:54
people like "Oh my god this is so
00:19:57
personal."
00:20:00
Exactly so I think everyone's proud of
00:20:03
you everyone's really really happy for
00:20:05
you including me because I don't know i
00:20:10
don't know if you know this but that
00:20:12
first we met in S paulo the first time
00:20:16
and that was my first ever
00:20:18
interview so oh man yeah yeah so
00:20:23
um you know I know what that feels like
00:20:26
yeah you made my dream come true so like
00:20:30
take this interview
00:20:33
yeah and it's also also it kind of links
00:20:36
with the meaning of the first group
00:20:37
because it's my first album and you know
00:20:40
you know like I think the meaning that
00:20:43
the word first holds is very very
00:20:46
special to all people and and so I know
00:20:49
what you meant yeah
00:20:51
thank you thank you as well you for
00:20:54
letting me tell this story sign and
00:20:56
thank you for everything i hope you have
00:20:58
a huge success with this album
00:21:03
thank you and that's it that's it thank
00:21:07
you
00:21:08
see you again take care yeah you too
00:21:13
bye-bye don't be too sad that we're
00:21:15
we're finishing the call
00:21:18
why would I be I want to sleep it's 4 in
00:21:20
the morning Brazil
00:21:25
the first fruits of all your crops
00:21:29
now that I could see the past with a new
00:21:31
set of eyes my life makes so much more
00:21:34
sense now first of the first fruits
00:21:37
looking back to Toronto like a
00:21:43
window ever since I was born
