When my video name with Jungkook begins, he has the look of somebody roused too early from sleep. On digicam, the youngest member of the South Korean pop group BTS is sporting a black zip-up, hood pulled over his head in a means that means he’d get pleasure from a nap—just a little shocking, given his repute amongst followers as an indefatigable “energizer bunny.” We’re lower than two weeks away from the discharge of his first solo album, Golden, and his days are full of dance practices, rehearsals, video shoots, interviews with abroad press. The exhausting calls for of promotion aren’t new to him—he’s been with BTS for greater than a decade, racking up best-selling albums, Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1s, sold-out stadium live shows, and world data. However that is Jungkook’s first time releasing a full document on his personal, and it occurs to all be in English.
At first, Jungkook felt conflicted about this. “I used to be considering, Is it okay for a Korean to not launch Korean songs in any respect?” the 26-year-old singer instructed me by way of an interpreter, from his leisure firm’s workplace in Seoul. BTS achieved international reputation whereas making music virtually fully of their native language, apart from a couple of English-language hits similar to “Dynamite” and “Butter.” On the similar time, the entire level of his solo effort was to problem himself—and solely singing in English appeared like one great way to try this. But he hopes to attach with folks on a degree deeper than language. “When you consider pop stars, they’re these actually cool singers that you just’d look as much as since your childhood,” he mentioned. “After all, issues have been altering lots. However I nonetheless have that pop-star picture caught in my head since my childhood. And I wish to be a cool man that provides off that tremendous vibe.”
It’s a disarmingly easy description of a pop star: a cool one that provides off an incredible vibe. But it surely’s a picture he’s been chasing for a very long time. As a youngster, Jungkook determined to affix BTS as a result of he was so impressed by the English-speaking and rap expertise of the group’s chief, RM. He used to add covers of his favourite pop songs on SoundCloud, and usually gushes in regards to the likes of Justin Bieber, Usher, and Ariana Grande. The primary time I noticed him carry out stay, he flew by way of a stadium, suspended by a cable over tens of 1000’s of followers, his vocals so steady you’d suppose he was reclining on a chaise.
However underpinning this want for coolness is an equally previous obsession with excellence. The title of Golden instantly evokes Jungkook’s best-known nickname: the golden maknae. Coined by RM, it refers to his standing because the youngest (“maknae,” in Korean) member, who appears to be preternaturally proficient at all the pieces he does. Not solely is Jungkook a strong dancer and a powerful vocalist, however he additionally excels at drawing, portray, songwriting, archery, wrestling, sprinting, swimming—a compilation of him merely being good at stuff has greater than 18 million views on YouTube. On the subject of his essential job as a performer, he’s a recognized perfectionist who’s exacting about his work. So expectations have been excessive for Golden, the discharge of which was preceded by two singles, the U.Ok. storage observe “Seven (feat. Latto),” which set a Spotify document for the quickest music to succeed in 1 billion streams, and the early-2000s throwback “3D (feat. Jack Harlow).” However I wasn’t ready for the beautiful essential observe, “Standing Subsequent to You,” which brings to thoughts Parliament-Funkadelic and Michael Jackson. It’s not fairly like every music that Jungkook or BTS have carried out earlier than.
Jungkook mentioned he beloved the demo for “Standing Subsequent to You” a lot that he recorded a full observe the subsequent day. One trade-off he made in an effort to experiment with totally different shades of pop whereas singing in English was enlisting skilled songwriters and producers. Golden options the producers Andrew Watt and Cirkut, who labored on “Standing Subsequent to You,” in addition to Main Lazer, Ed Sheeran, and David Stewart. The album’s 11 songs sound like a broad survey of what you’d hear on American radio—stylish R&B, acoustic, synth-pop earworms with sing-along hooks—however reworked by Jungkook’s buttery, versatile vocals.
He instructed me that, for a very long time, he thought it was vital for artists to put in writing their very own data (as some BTS members elected to do for his or her solo albums). Jungkook has written and produced songs for BTS, together with quiet ballads and electropop anthems; not less than two tracks that he wrote for his solo undertaking ended up being recorded by the group as a substitute. “As I grew up, I got here to phrases with actuality and began accepting what I’m not good at or what I don’t should do,” he mentioned. “At this second, there’s nothing I wish to write about. So I used to be considering, Do I really want to speculate my time into making a music from the start to the tip?” With Golden, the pressing want wasn’t there, and the timing didn’t make sense. (BTS is predicted to reunite in 2025, after all the members have accomplished their obligatory army service; Jungkook has but to start his.) Moderately than writing lyrics or composing melodies, he selected to experiment with new vocal strategies and hone his live-performance expertise.
The songs on “Golden” reference mature themes—specifically, substances and intercourse—extra explicitly than his earlier work, partly due to the relative cultural conservatism of his dwelling nation and the idol business. Jungkook has overtly acknowledged this shift (and appeared unbothered by the extra pearl-clutching reactions) however says he’s not making an attempt to redefine himself in relation to his previous. “Jungkook again then was Jungkook again then, and by some means, I grew to become who I’m proper now. The one which’s making all of the judgment calls is me, myself, on this very second,” he mentioned. “I’m not considering, Oh, I ought to break free from that cute picture because the youngest member … Lyrics are simply lyrics, and pictures are photos.” He added that he selected love songs for his or her universality, however that folks shouldn’t learn them as autobiographical.
All through our dialog, Jungkook would do issues which may learn as sometimes maknae to these followers who’ve adopted him for years: ingesting his water by lifting the cup with each tattooed, sweater-pawed palms; waving goodbye for a stable 15 seconds with a large smile on his face, once more with each palms. However the best way he talks—how he visibly works by way of a tough query as he’s talking, correcting himself or leaping in so as to add a thought—and his poised method supply clear indicators of artistic intentionality and hard-won maturity. These indicators come by way of within the album too: in his natural-sounding enunciation, the best way he slips between a fluttery falsetto and a heat decrease register on “Nearer to You” or performs with quantity and tone on “Hate You.” It’s the form of progress you see in somebody who hasn’t stopped working.
