Jimin’s back—with the full force of Team Jimin, now also known as the Smeraldo Garden Marching Band, behind him. After figuring out where he’s headed in FACE, Jimin starts a new chapter with MUSE. Has the singer who asks powers beyond him to “set me free,” truly found his freedom? Producers Pdogg and GHSTLOOP, who worked on both of Jimin’s solo albums, say that “Jimin’s as eager to grow as ever” while also noting that “he’s definitely more resilient than during his FACE era.” We spoke to the SGMB members and producers behind MUSE all about their experience working on Jimin’s latest release.

Congratulations on making your debut. (laughs) You were in the official track video for “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)” alongside Jimin.
GHSTLOOP: I didn’t expect to be in it honestly (laughs), but we decided that, if we we’re going to do it, we were going to get conceptual with it and be like a band. That’s how Team Jimin became the Smeraldo Garden Marching Band.

Pdogg: We did it together for Jimin’s sake. We’re playing our instruments for real in the video and we were constantly suggesting ideas to him for things like the overall image behind the video.

ARMY seemed curious about whether it’s a continuation of the smeraldo from the BTS universe.
Pdogg: That wasn’t what we really had in mind. It’s like how the Beatles had the idea of becoming the fictional Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. We were looking for a key idea and said, Oh right, smeraldos. From the fictional flower smeraldo to the fictional Smeraldo Garden Marching Band—that’s where our concept came from: a band that tells “The Truth Untold” about love, just like what the flower symbolizes. The song “Truth Untold,” the idea for which originated with LOVE YOURSELF, is a sad song, but the Smeraldo Garden Marching Band puts a happy spin on it.

On FACE, Jimin opens up about how he felt during the long pause from performing onstage that the pandemic had caused, but with MUSE, the focus is more on words like “showtime” and “party.”
Pdogg: A lot of people felt depressed during the pandemic, and Jimin was no exception. He took his passion and appetite while holed up at home and channeled it into his music. I remember Jimin was so happy being in LA to record “Set Me Free Pt. 2” in the warm, sunny weather. (laughs) So it seems like working on FACE helped him feel better and helped lift his feelings. The idea behind MUSE was to express what he had felt then. That’s why all the songs ended up being upbeat and hopeful, even romantic.

Is that why you chose love as the common thread throughout MUSE?
Pdogg: Happiness ultimately starts with love, but Jimin found it tricky to figure out how to talk about love (laughs) so we started to talk about how we could approach the topic of love in a fictional context. As I mentioned before, we came up with the idea to create a fictional band similar to what they did with Sgt. Pepper’s and talk about love that way.

Was the idea to place the lead single, “Who,” towards the end of the album part of that concept?
GHSTLOOP: We arranged the tracks to follow the storyline of the album. We even worked on the track in the order they appear on the album, other than “Closer Than This.” Now that I think about it, it’s sort of amazing. (laughs)

Pdogg: “Rebirth (Intro)” links MUSE to “Set Me Free Pt. 2,” working to show it’s a new chapter for Jimin. The lyrics build up the excitement in this bubbly way—like he’s carefully checking to see whether it’s okay to show how excited he is. Then “Interlude: Showtime” starts and the true concept behind the album really opens up. Then “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)” ushers in the album’s concept. If you see it as a song that helps tell a truth that’s otherwise untold, then it’s like it’s being addressed to someone you love, but we also wanted to imply that it’s a message to fans through lines like the one that says “June 12.” “Slow Dance” (feat. Sofia Carson) is about how you can tell someone you’re interested in how you feel about them, which is why the title is “Slow Dance”: It’s about wanting to take your time getting to know one another. Then it goes into “Be Mine,” which takes the concept one step further, and is about an imaginary relationship. Our plan was to follow that song with the lead single and write it as a serenade, but Jimin was having trouble relating to it. He asked himself if he can ever really love someone, and that question led to the creation of “Who.” The album is about looking for some imaginary woman, but “Who” is about the reality of feeling lonely and melancholy, and asking yourself where the person for you is, which is why we made it the very last track.

So then that’s why, while FACE is about Jimin facing himself, MUSE is about other people.
GHSTLOOP: Exactly. His first album was about finding himself, and the second is about finding someone else.

Pdogg: In that sense, love becomes his muse.

GHSTLOOP: We made FACE and MUSE pretty much simultaneously.

Pdogg: But while we were making them, FACE felt really dark, and the mood behind the MUSE tracks didn’t fit, so we split them into two different albums. Actually, if Jimin hadn’t played around on the KARMA synthesizer, there may never have even been “Rebirth,” and then there wouldn’t be that whole buildup at all. (laughs)

What’s the story there?
Pdogg: You might have seen in Jimin’s Production Diary how the intro to his first album was something he just came into my studio and played on the keyboard there. And funnily enough, it was the same thing for the new album’s intro. We’ve been using the same studio since 2014 to record things like the choir in “Set Me Free Pt. 2” and the choir for RM’s song with Tablo, “All Day,” and we’ve got a Korg KARMA hooked up there—the quintessential synth of the 2000s. Jimin played two notes on it and came up with this dreamy sort of melody. After we heard that, GHSTLOOP added brass and I played some drums. Then Jimin played some more notes, which had a completely different vibe, and we thought, “That’s good—let’s use it.” And that’s how we made the first song. We must’ve looked ridiculous, dancing with our arms around each other. (laughs)

Jimin said in the behind-the-scenes video for “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (feat. Loco)” that that song came together really quickly, too. Which song gave you the most trouble, then?
Pdogg: Maybe “Who”? That probably took us the longest. We tried so many different approaches before the song finally worked. We finally just decided to go to New York and work on it with Jimin there, and that’s what we did.

GHSTLOOP: We sat down with Jon Bellion, who produced the song with us, and Jimin briefed us on everything. Jon had this huge whiteboard in his studio, and as Jimin explained everything to him, Jon latched onto what Jimin was saying, like, “Oh, so that’s what he’s looking for,” and wrote it all down. (laughs)

Pdogg: It was clear what Jimin wanted to do with “Who.” He was there with us the whole time, giving us his ideas all throughout. His previous album was designed to be deeply personal, but the new one is more abstract and isn’t strictly about Jimin alone. The whole thing’s also in line with what Millennials and Gen Z experience when they fall in love. The song also has English lyrics because it’s the kind of subject matter that people from all around the world can relate to, so we figured it’d make the most sense to just do it in English.

We’ve been told that the lead single off his first album, “Like Crazy,” was inspired by the film of the same name. Were there any movies or anything that informed your work on the new album as well?
Pdogg: The main image we had in mind while working on the album was Olivia Hussey, the star of Romeo and Juliet. We didn’t just watch her old clips, either—we looked at what she’s doing today and said, “Please, give us inspiration!” (laughs)

GHSTLOOP: We drew a lot of inspiration from her for the lyrics for the love songs “Slow Dance” and “Be Mine” especially. We would watch her movies and ask ourselves, “What would we say if we were in that scene?” That was our approach. Now that I think about it, it was only really the songs that materialized through that process that made it onto the album. We already made music videos for all the songs in our heads. Jimin even acted like a music video director sometimes. (laughs)

I’m sure Jimin was disappointed that he wouldn’t get to perform the songs live since the album came out after he entered the army. Performing is really important to him, after all.
Pdogg: Yes, it’s a shame, really. That’s actually why we made the video clip of him singing “Slow Dance”: because he really wanted to put on a show. He couldn’t dance during it since he’s singing with a band, but there might be a kind of slow dance added to the song if he goes on tour later on. Once work on the album was all done and he was a month or two out from going to the army, he would strap on a mic and practice singing and dancing every day like he was getting ready for a live performance on TV. He says that the very first thing he wants to do when he gets leave from the military is practice his singing. I guess he’s really determined to show everyone how he’s improved in leaps and bounds when he finally gets out. I’m blown away by him. He had such a tight schedule—waking up early to take English lessons and taking singing lessons every day—that I even asked him point-blank, “Jimin, why do you work so hard?” He said he feels he has to increase the breadth of ways in which he can express himself so that he can give us producers what we want and so that he can turn the ideas he has in his head into reality when he’s writing songs.

Sofia Carson features on the song “Slow Dance” and also sings in that video clip. How did she end up being a featured artist?
Pdogg: Jimin’s vocals are sort of androgynous and have a fairly Western pop feel to them, so we thought it would be good if he collaborated with an artist from overseas, and A&R suggested Sofia Carson. We saw her in a movie where her character sings and I just went, “Wow!” She’s just a fabulous signer and their voices complement each other so well. Plus, she studied dance, so she’s got that in common with Jimin, making them a great match for potential performances. (laughs)

It feels like MUSE does a good job of highlighting Jimin’s always-sultry vocals. It’s a good thing, too, since that’s a prerequisite for love songs, which the album is full of.
GHSTLOOP: His main focus was on identifying what he’s best at when it comes to singing and to use that. He was also confident that he could find ways to introduce change into his vocal style.

Pdogg: When we did FACE, Jimin felt he had room for improvement. I think he felt like he wasn’t able to fully bring his vision to life. This time around, he tried singing in a lot of different keys to find the perfect fit for him and to live up to what he had envisioned for himself. Whereas last time we adjusted the key so he could hit higher notes, since high notes are his specialty, this time around we kept talking over how to adjust things so that he could not only show off his wonderful high notes but also express himself in every song in different ways, including more moderate notes, and even sing deeper and in falsetto.

Speaking of such changes, his vocals on “Be Mine” feel much more understated compared to his solo songs on BTS albums. In Jimin’s Production Diary, he keeps asking if he sounds too cheesy when he’s recording his vocals. He seems to put a lot of thought into the way he sings.
GHSTLOOP: You’re right. As Pdogg said, he wanted to broaden the range of genres available to him, so that’s why he decided to experiment with so many different styles. He’s on more solid ground now compared to during FACE, right down to his very core, and it’s easier for him to expand on everything now. If you feel a difference between “Be Mine” and his earlier songs, then I feel like Jimin has succeeded and so have we.

How would you say Jimin’s vocals differ when he’s singing solo versus when he’s singing with BTS?
Pdogg: The BTS members are generally playing to their strengths on BTS songs, and in Jimin’s case, that means hitting those high notes. For his solo work, he sang in a wider range. Since “Who” is in English, he approached it more like an American pop song, changing up his vocal technique in ways he hasn’t done before. Our goal was to have his vocals sound a little different from what people are used to hearing. And it’s fun to hear when a group switches between singers in a song, especially when it comes to BTS, since they all have such distinct voices, so we tried to record his solo songs in such a way that there’s this contrast between the high and low notes, as well as falsetto, to keep things interesting.

After FACE came out, Jimin said, “I know exactly what I should do from now on. There are more things I want to do.” What is it about him that you think drives him to improve?
Pdogg: He constantly puts in the effort to improve himself. Even when he had nothing he could promote, he did vocal training right up until his enlistment as though he felt compelled to. After FACE, he was driven to do even better on the next album, and that determination drove him to practice really, really hard. Even when he was done recording all the vocals for MUSE and we were getting ready to release it, he kept practicing and we were like, ‘Uh, should we be rerecording this?’ (laughs) Because you could really tell how he just kept improving.

GHSTLOOP: The whole reason there’s an acoustic remix to begin with is because he practiced so much that it would’ve been a waste not to record something. (laughs)

MUSE also has a song dedicated to fans, “Closer Than This.” Does the approach change when recording vocals for these fan songs?
Pdogg: Now that GHSTLOOP and I have been working on BTS music for so long, we have an idea of the sense of gratitude that the members of the group have for their fans, even if we can never fully appreciate it the way they can. And when it comes to writing fan songs, Jimin often has the clearest vision for what he wants to say. He writes down all the conversations and experiences he’s had with fans like he’s writing a letter. When I asked him what it all means, he explained how it’s about something that he did with the fans before and the imagery behind it. And we use that as the groundwork for the direction we take. For “Closer Than This,” we kept talking about looking at it like a BTS concert. That’s why the lyrics “tinge purple” are in there and why they’re all about shared memories that he and ARMY have. We were picturing the day when BTS would be all together again to see ARMY in concert when we wrote the part with the children’s choir.

It feels like MUSE is Jimin’s way of opening up to ARMY about his truth untold. Do either of you have an unspoken truth that you’d like to tell Jimin?
Pdogg: Just that I appreciate all his hard work. That’s it. For a producer, there’s nothing better than an artist who works hard. He practiced right up until he entered the army, all so the album would be like a gift for his fans. I’m so thankful to him for that, and proud of him, too. (laughs) Now I want nothing more than for him to finish his service in good health.

GHSTLOOP: I’m the same way. Like what Pdogg said, this album was possible all thanks to Jimin’s hard work, and that in turn kept me going, too. I feel like his attitude toward it gave me the kind of positive energy I needed to keep going until the very end. I’m really grateful to him for that. Jimin, come back safe, then let’s work on something new together! (laughs)