Love is ubiquitous, so broad and borderless that no single definition may embody all of it. And perhaps for that purpose, love is the proper begin. The primal expertise. The ocean from the place anybody can drink, dive, and emerge anew. It is Episode1 : Love, as Korean singer and songwriter So!YoON! named her sophomore LP, which was launched March 14.
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However, to Hwang So-yoon, the 25-year-old behind the moniker, “love is bad.” She blurts out these three phrases, laughing however solely half-joking, earlier than explaining why, then, she wrote an entire album about it. “I wanted to study and think about different perspectives of love, not usually what we think of or classify it as,” she says.
On a Zoom name with AP, per week earlier than the discharge, Hwang’s digital background is the inside of a spaceship (“I chose it myself,” she says, proudly). The distinction between the extremely futuristic setting and her informal apparel — glasses, hair tied underneath a cap — is as intriguing because the music she grew to become identified for.
Before changing into a solo artist, Hwang based the band SE SO NEON when she was 18, which went on to develop into considered one of South Korea’s most acclaimed indie teams. Currently composed of Hwang and bassist Park Hyun-jin, they mix rock riffs, R&B flairs, and ethereal synths with daring devotion. In 2018, they gained Rookie of the Year and Best Rock Song on the Korean Music Awards. More not too long ago, they had been chosen by Fender as considered one of their 2020 Global Artists, and had been the one Korean group chosen for YouTube Music’s 2021 Class of Foundry.
Their most inimitable high quality, although, is Hwang’s voice. Often described as androgynous and satisfyingly raspy, it’s relatively multidimensional. Hwang is ready to conjure any form of human and their experiences when singing — males, ladies, kids, it doesn’t matter. With such vary and an eagerness to create, she embarked on a solo profession in 2019 along with her debut album, So!YoON!. In an interview for The Korea Times, Hwang defined that adopting a stylized model of her given title, So-yoon, allowed her to “build a new character and deliver the energy that’s embedded within the way it’s written.”
In that manner, if So!YoON! was an introduction to Hwang’s private universe, Episode1 is the place we meet its fantastical creatures. There are six of them, by the way in which — every anchored to one of many “major tracks” within the album, as she calls it. “Some characters are ghosts, or fantasies; some are extremely feminine. None of them are based on a particular somebody, so it’s more up to imagination,” she says.
[Courtesy of PR]
They seem within the album’s collaterals and music movies, interpreted by Hwang in numerous costumes and hairstyles. There is a long-haired blonde sporting a golden corset for title monitor “Smoke Sprite (feat. RM of BTS)”; a curly-haired vixen in eyeliner and leather-based for the groovy “Till the sun goes up”; a tomboy in a puffer jacket for the chilly of “CANADA”; a ragged ghost in inexperienced satin for “Gave you all my love (feat. jibin of Y2K92)”; a smooth lady sporting white shirt and pants, imprinted with a unadorned physique for “Bad”; and a mysterious spirit lined head-to-toe in black fur for “LOVE (a secret visitor) (feat. parkjiyoon).”
“There isn’t one specific underlying story that links all of them,” Hwang says. “However, I wanted to visualize them as much as I could, in accordance with the actual tracks. I put a big focus on how my body would be portrayed.” She thought of every character’s surroundings, the folks they had been talking to, and the folks talking again to them. “Although the genres and characteristics of each track are different, I wanted to tie [them] altogether with my voice.”
And identical to her voice, Hwang landed on a multidimensional album. She explains that Episode1 is “not a classic portrayal, but more about the concept of love, whether it’s dreams or different scenarios.” In a press launch, she says we are able to “feel it halfway between psychedelic and soul.” It’s an correct definition, as Hwang swims by means of digital beats, classic R&B, and even some pop moments that broaden her musical spectrum and provides depth to numerous shapes of affection.
Sung each in English and Korean, the choice additionally got here from her need to not set any artistic boundaries. (Halfway by means of the dialog, she alters her digital background to a paradisiac sundown over an opulent pool. “I’m changing my mood,” she says.) “Making tracks in English wasn’t easy, and there might be some grammatical errors,” she laughs. “But I was able to express direct emotions easily. For example, if I decided [beforehand] that a track was going to be in Korean, I realized that I would gravitate towards a very Korean type of mood, and I didn’t want to limit myself like that. I wanted to make sure it sounded natural, without language being a barrier.”
“There are a lot of genres in this album that I’ve never done before. I’ve always had a big interest in them, but it’s my first time putting out tracks that aren’t rock-based,” she provides. “One of the main concerns that I had was that I wanted to maintain a high recording quality, while [thinking] about how the audience would feel, and how pop the track might have to get, in order for them to have an easier approach to it.”
On Feb. 17, she launched a preview of Episode1 by means of Prologue: Love, a digital single album consisting of tracks “Bad” and “CANADA” and their respective music movies. Inspired by Hwang’s private experiences, they showcase an unexpected, susceptible aspect of the singer. “I’ve been doing bad / But tell me where you at,” she sings on the lingering twangs of “Bad”, whereas craving for a long-distance lover within the dreamy ballad “CANADA.”
In the music video for “Bad,” Hwang exercised that vulnerability, tangling together with different actors and even doing a kiss scene that set Twitter on hearth. “The emotions during the shoot were very intimate, serious, yet in the moment,” she says. “Not only was the kiss scene new, but because the music video required a lot of body movement, I wanted the mood to be very comfortable. I brought a bottle of tequila on set and we were all drinking, going with the flow. The character in “Bad” is extra private to me as a result of I used to be capable of get deep into her feelings.”
For the remainder of the album, the problem was to play characters that differ extra from her personal character. In the music video for “Smoke Sprite (feat. RM of BTS),” which Hwang defines as “a dream within a dream,” she acts as three completely different folks: “a blonde, long-haired woman, a fantasy-like character, and a lady who was a burn victim,” she says. “I would go into different outfit changes, look in the mirror, and act out as if I was actually that person. Since it was my first time, it was a challenge to do that.”
She goes additional and says that “everything was a challenge” on this album, however not less than the tales behind her fellow artist collaborations inform in any other case. For instance, working with RM, the chief of K-pop phenomenon BTS, was “very natural.” She met him whereas he was additionally getting ready for his solo debut album, Indigo, and so they hit it off from there. “We were both spending time just listening to each other’s albums and giving each other feedback, thinking of concepts and ideas. We listened to [my] title track and there were no lyrics to it yet, so I felt very thankful [that he helped] on this.”
[Courtesy of PR]
“LOVE (a secret visitor) (feat. parkjiyoon)” occurred because of YouTube. “I had been thinking deeply about a collaborator [for this song] when, thankfully, my Youtube algorithm recommended parkjiyoon’s current tracks. I was already a huge fan, but I hadn’t caught up with her newer [work].” As for Y2K92’s jibin characteristic on the membership jam session-inspired “Give me all your love,” Hwang says that she and jibin have been associates for a very long time, so it was simple to set it up.
Besides the beforehand talked about six principal tracks, there are additionally 5 transitional moments in Episode1 — an intro, an outro, two skits, and “Exit,” a track that can also be poised to look on the upcoming (but nonetheless obscure) Episode2. “It will be stronger than Episode1,” Hwang says. “I’m working on it right now, and it’s very electronic-based and even more experimental.”
But that’s a dialog for the longer term. Right now, Hwang is busy selling Episode1, crafting SE SO NEON’s new album, and changing into an artist that folks will sit up for. “I think it is important to make people curious, and right now that is what I am striving towards,” she says. “I am aware that what I put out is going to be there forever, so I want my works to be timeless.”
And what has this journey by means of love taught her, in any case? “The main thing I learned is that I want to experience more love, whether it’s giving or receiving,” she says, far more optimistic than at first.
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