Now and then throughout the interview, EVAN hums a tune or breaks into dance to demonstrate his point. His eyes, flickering between curiosity and calm, shine with a seriousness like never before. That’s when you know he’s all in—for EVAN, it’s ride or die.

You mentioned in a recent video with “ELLE” that you’ve been playing “Pokémon Pokopia” lately. (laughs)
EVAN: The main draw for me is collecting things. In the game, if you talk to Drifloon, you can go to places called Dream Islands, and there’s a ton of items that you can only get there, or are really hard to find otherwise. It’s the most exciting part for me, but you can only go once a day, so I did the dishonorable thing (laughs) and messed with the clock [on the console] and went over and over. I’d say I’m about 20% through. Not that I’m playing now, obviously. I don’t have time.

Apparently you’ve been putting time into language learning, too.
EVAN: These days I’m spending most of my time on things that are useful to me. I even had a Chinese lesson just before I came in. (laughs) Two days ago, I managed to put together my first full sentence. Getting the pronunciation down didn’t take that long, but I still need more practice with tones. I’m also trying to learn Japanese. English too—I mean, I’ve done something like 20 or 30 sessions lately connected to my music. My English has gotten more natural than it used to be thanks to all that.

Is there a reason you’re putting so much effort into languages even with your packed schedule?
EVAN: I genuinely want to get closer to more fans and on a deeper level. I think showing them I’m at least trying, even if I’m not that good yet, brings us closer, so that’s why I’m putting the work in.

You seem to tailor your approach to fans differently depending on whether it’s on Instagram, Weverse DM, or somewhere else.
EVAN: I guess I do that without even realizing it. When it comes to things I’m confident in, like making music, I’m pretty specific, but with other things, I’m actually a lot less like that than you’d expect. I just want to be myself with fans. There’s a side of my everyday self that’s just kind of cute, and it’s fun to see how fans react when I post something I wouldn’t normally. There’s something enjoyable about that sort of cute push-pull in the conversation. (laughs) Everyone has different sides to them, and I think I wanted to let a little more of the everyday me come through.

And then there are things like your cover of the Justin Bieber song “DAISIES.”
EVAN: That started from me simply wondering what would happen if I posted something like that, but so many people ended up watching it. I should’ve tried harder. (laughs) I think the naturalness was kind of the whole point of that video, though. There’s something appealing about how raw it is.

That video felt very much in line with the tastes and style you’ve become known for. Are you listening to anything different lately?
EVAN: Working on a variety of different things has given me time to get to know myself better. I experienced a lot of different feelings. It feels too simple just to say I’m into R&B. I definitely have alternative R&B in my bones, but I love upbeat stuff and I love slow jams. I’d even describe myself as essentially being alternative, but I still can’t leave R&B out of the equation. I feel like my music isn’t complete if I don’t have that there as the foundation.

Would you say you’ve landed on something of a decision for your music going forward, then?
EVAN: A decision … is hard to come to. (laughs) I think you only really reach a decision when you fully understand yourself—when you’ve got yourself all figured out. Right now I’m different every single day. My style and the range of what I can express keeps changing. The more capable I become, the more varied my interest in genres becomes, so R&B, which I’ve always loved, has become something I can work with in a lot more varied ways. I’ve been getting into punk rock lately, and listening to a lot of old bands. I like Michael Jackson, too.

“Ride or Die,” the title track off your digital single, feels like the result of all those tastes coming together. It has a vibe I really didn’t see coming.
EVAN: It was the first song to come out of the very first session when we started working on this release. I already knew about the phrase “Ride or Die” for a long time, and the melody for the (sings the chorus) “You are my ride or die” part just came to me, so that’s where it started. I asked the producer for something that’s rock but with intense, crushingly low bass, and that’s how the beat came together. Then we recorded it right away. I think we had a rough version of the song in about three hours. Everything I said I wanted to make at the time is in there.

Sounds like the song was meant to be.
EVAN: It really was. It means so much to me. I was hoping “Ride or Die” would be the single, and I was surprised when it was chosen.

It feels like it started from a spontaneous idea but had a pretty concrete vision behind it.
EVAN: I wanted it to kick off with an intro that’s rough, kind of like a British band. And I wanted each section to have its own thing going on, like the “choppy” part in the middle. I just remembered how, while we were working on it, we kept asking for the bass to be turned up, over and over. “Turn the bass up. Make it go boom boom boom.” (laughs) The sound would get almost ridiculously punchy, and we’d still be like, “It’s fine, just crank it.” At some point the producer was like, “You guys are completely insane.” (laughs) We balanced it out later, but if you listen with a focus on the bass, it’s great. We put in so many layers that you can’t quite tell what you’re hearing—and that’s what I think of when I think of rock.

By the time you reach the end of the song, it feels like this complete whirlwind of emotions.
EVAN: With a message like “Ride or Die,” and the way the song builds, I felt like it had to burn everything down at the end. The feeling is like, “I’ll be with you till the very end, till my dying day,” so just ending abruptly would’ve felt like a letdown.

It’s actually surprising vocally as well. I would’ve expected you to go for something that highlights the more delicate side of R&B, but this song seems to call for real rock attitude and raw expression.
EVAN: There’s almost nowhere to rest in this song, and there’s even a high note right at the end. (laughs) When I recorded it for the first time I realized it was harder than I expected, so I worked on improving my setting and my mindset. I worked in more practice time during the recording process and tried to improve on a lot of different things. I also had to figure out how to sing out in a loud, hoarse voice. It was kind of like, “Get outta there, R&B, I got rock to do! Get out [of my throat]!” (laughs) I’ve always loved the whole rock sound, and I thought about what kind of vocals would fit in. I paid more attention to my energy levels, too. All that stuff.

The choreography looks like it must take a lot of energy, too. I got the impression that the difficulty keeps climbing from the second verse on.
EVAN: Someone at the label gave me a nickname: the glass cannon. (laughs) It means I have to fire these big shots, but my body is made of glass so it keeps shattering—basically their way of telling me to take care of myself. (laughs) So now I’m doing cardio and truly getting myself ready.

Also interesting is how there’s a mix of choreographed moves and natural-looking gestures.
EVAN: I was actually trying to look at the performance through someone else’s eyes. If I just end up doing what I like, the only thing that goes into it is what I care about. I kept asking myself, “Would this be enjoyable no matter who watches it? Does it look good?” I wanted the chorus to come across immediately as simple, and like the other parts feel like they come together as one complete whole. I haven’t seen the Michael Jackson movie yet, but the reason I love his performances is how the clear structure sucks you in. I thought about all of that.

There’s really a lot you want to give people.
EVAN: I have a vivid picture of myself onstage. Whenever I make music, I can always picture it vividly, and I won’t feel at ease until I make it a reality. I really let my feelings guide me when I wrote “Ride or Die.” It can be a love song that speaks to everyone, since everyone has different feelings—it’s left open to interpretation. But for me, it makes me think about my fans.

In contrast to “Ride or Die,” “Overflow” is about when emotions are practically spilling out of you, but conveyed with a kind of restraint.
EVAN: “Overflow” is sort of a little more about me personally. Everyone feels sad sometimes, but there aren’t many ways to let that out. Even when I do open up to someone, sometimes I think, “What if all this is just bits of conversation that’ll just disappear right up in smoke for them?” The topliner suggested the word “overflow,” and it felt like exactly the right word for expressing how you feel when you’re about to spill open with emotion.

The way the structure of the song and its lyrics repeat, and the whole vibe sonically, all feel like they’re working in tandem.
EVAN: I wanted to give the song this sense of “Is it over? Is it not?” all the way through to the end. I also wanted to say something sort of optimistic during the hook—“Here we go again.” It’s like, “Let’s try again, let’s just give it a shot,” but then you say, “Things’ll just end up right back where you started anyway.” There’s a sliver of hope, but also this “What was the point of that?” feeling. (laughs)

That might explain why you sing it almost like you’re just speaking.
EVAN: I think I’ve been inspired by artists who write like they’re speaking. I’ve always loved emo rap and Mac Miller’s music. That comes through naturally in the delivery, I think. I’m sure you can tell from listening, but what you hear is exactly what I’m feeling.

To convey some emotion effectively, you really need to make judgment calls about the structure of the music itself. How do you make those choices?
EVAN: I can tell I’m getting a clearer sense of my own tastes, and also starting to understand what other people like, too. Some songs need the hook to repeat to really land, some need longer verses, and some verses are perfect at four bars. I can feel that difference now. Honestly, even someone who doesn’t make music can listen to a song and go, “This feels too long. What’s that all about?” I think it’s just a matter of looking at those same aspects more closely and working on the music from there.

Going forward, I imagine there’s going to be both what you personally as Lee Heeseung want to convey and what you as EVAN the producer need to convey. How do you strike a balance between those two?
EVAN: I think that’ll show up on the next release, whenever that is. (laughs) I’d love to talk about this again then. For now, “Ride or Die” and “Overflow” are really 50/50. In the end, though, it’s all talking about me.

I see creativity as ultimately a process of getting to know yourself better. Did you discover anything new about yourself while making this single?
EVAN: You might expect me to listen to a lot of music, but in reality, I feel like I don’t listen to all that much. If something really speaks to me and I get hooked on it, I’ll put that one song on repeat for two hours. That works in my favor sometimes, but I think it’s worked against me too. You need to have a wide range, but I feel like mine’s still so narrow. It’s like how I almost always watch the same kind of movies, but I saw “The Grand Budapest Hotel” recently and I loved it. There’s so much color, and it’s just so perfectly organized and aesthetically pleasing the way the scenes are set up. It made me think I need to expose myself to a wider variety of things. (laughs)

That feels like it’s ultimately a desire to keep growing. What drives you to keep pushing forward?
EVAN: Maybe I understand a little better now. I think it’s not enough to just show people a good time—you have to move them. If my music changes just one person’s life, that’d be great. Everyone has rough periods, and I had one when I was really little, too, but it always seemed like there’d come a time when things would be okay again. That’s the message I want my music to convey moving forward.

What do you hope people will get from “Ride or Die” when it goes out into the world?
EVAN: I’ll never forget the rush I felt when I made “Ride or Die” and first heard it. I was seriously so stoked. I couldn’t believe what I could do in a genre I’d never worked in before. In the same way, I’m really curious what it’ll feel like for me when the combination of the music and the performance are out there for the world to experience. Ultimately, I hope people have a great time watching my performance and be the sort of person who can take satisfaction in that.