[INTERVIEW] Young K brings an emotion for every occasion in first full-length album

You always have to improve. But if you can’t improve, you should at least change — so was the goal for Young K, a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 and one of the most talented songwriters in K-pop.

Young K, songwriter and a member of K-pop rock band DAY6, is back with his first full-length album, ″Letters with notes.″ [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

You always have to improve. But if you can’t improve, you should at least change — so was the goal for Young K, a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 and one of the most talented songwriters in K-pop.

Nonetheless, he apparently “still can’t figure out" what he’s good at.

“That’s actually something that my mentor, composer Hong Ji-sang, said when we were making this album together,” Young K told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview held ahead of Monday's release of his first full-length album, “Letters with notes.”

“He told me that you should always be improving. And if you can’t improve, you should at least change. So, with this album, I tried out new things because I wanted to show new sides of myself. I’ve tried new genres and styles in details such as my vocals, the rhythm or even my pronunciation.”

“Letters with notes” is Young K’s first studio album and his first new music since he finished his military duty last April, becoming the first K-pop singer to serve as a Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (Katusa) soldier.

Young K, songwriter and a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Young K is renowned for bringing a perfectionist touch to his band DAY6’s songs with emotion-grabbing lyrics that leave you reminiscing about your own life and loves through songs such as “You Were Beautiful” (2017), “Time of Our Life” (2019) and “Zombie” (2020).

“I consider myself a storyteller of various kinds. I honestly can’t define myself as this specific person. I’ve been trying to find out who I am, what my strengths are or how I’m unique, but I don’t think I’ve succeeded. But while I’ve been trying new things, I found that I’m good at conveying all the different colors.”

For all 11 tracks of his latest album, Young K wrote the lyrics as if he was writing letters to himself, which then became songs when they were given musical notes — hence the title, “Letters with notes.”

“Rather than just a single message, I wanted this album to give the listeners the emotions they need at different times; to be comforted when they need comforting, or to be excited when they need excitement,” he said.

A scene from the music video of Young K's latest song ″nothing but″ [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Lead track “nothing but” is a a tearful story of consolation for people unwilling to let go of their loved ones, even when they see that the other person’s love is withering. “There is nothing but this, nothing but this dying love,” Young K writes in the lyrics.

“When I was talking to [songwriter Hong] Ji-sang, he told me that I seemed like a person who can’t let go of things even when I have to,” he said. “So, I started there and wrote the lyrics as if I couldn’t let go of my love.”

He also recommended track No. 3, “let it be summer,” a song where he compared the seasons to life. He tried to make the words simpler and more metaphoric for the album, but that doesn’t mean that he expects any particular compliments from listeners, he says.

“Whatever they want to feel, I hope they do — but I believe a song leaves my hand as soon as it’s been released into the world,” he said. “I’m just grateful enough that people listen to the songs. If they feel anything at all, then I would be content.”

Young K, songwriter and a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Young K’s songwriting skills have been expanding beyond his own band, giving other K-pop artists some of their best work through his words. In fact, girl group H1-KEY’s hit dance track “Rose Blossom,” released in January, gave the rookie girl group the boost it needed to gain the public’s attention after having struggled since its debut last year.

He has over 160 songs copyrighted in his name as of August this year, making him one of the top 10 most active songwriters in K-pop.

Still, when asked why he thought his songs were so loved by listeners, he remained humble.

“It’s honestly so hard to assess my own songs,” he said. “But one of my goals when I’m writing lyrics is that I always try to write them in a way that best goes with the song. Maybe I did that right.”

Young K, songwriter and a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

One thing he pays special attention to is redundancy, especially with his own work. Just as change and novelty are things he always tries to bring to the table with each new work, he goes back to make sure that nothing he wrote is the same as before, he said.

“With every new song that I write, there’s this thought and concern that’s been building up inside of me — that I’m repeating myself,” he said. “There are actually moments when I write something, and I feel like I’ve written something similar in the past. It turns out that I’ve used the same expression before, so I have to scrap it. In a way, I keep trying to change for myself, too.”

Fans may not worry that things get “too” new.

“I’ll make songs of all kinds,” he said. “That’s why I have [songwriter Hong] Ji-sang working on this album like I’ve done in the past, but I’m also trying out new things with new composers. A song can become very different according to who you work with, not just with the rearrangement but the melody and the words also.”

Young K, songwriter and a member of K-pop rock band DAY6 [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Having debuted in 2015 as the bassist and vocalist of DAY6, Young K is now into his ninth year in the K-pop industry, where rock bands who have only their music and charm must compete with bands armed with fancy choreography that steal the audiences’ attention.

Still, DAY6 and Young K have made it this far as some of the most respected artists not just in K-pop but in the Korean music market as a whole. His goal is to stay in the game for as long as he can and enjoy himself while doing so.

“I can feel my attitude and love for music has definitely changed,” Young K said.

“There was a time when I was beaten down and wasn’t sure whether this was the right path for me. But whenever I saw [fan club] My Day on the stage, I feel like they’re telling me with their eyes that I belong here. So, the more I kept going, the more I came to love music and I want to stay doing this for as long as I can."

“But if I want to do that,” he added, “there have to be people to watch me stand on stage. So, I hope that I become an artist who people want to see more of and want to know what my next moves are.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]