Jimin: At first, my most frequently occurring thought was, “We sure have done a lot.” It gave me a little time to reflect, too, and that idea that the best is yet to come is also what “Yet To Come” is about. And in the same way, I want to do lots of even better things in the future, too.

You could say this album is like a breather, couldn’t you?

Jimin: I think it’s important to take a breather like this. I think now’s the time to step back and clear our heads to think about the direction we want to take as a group going forward, and we need time to think about what it is we’ve done as a group.

Is this in any way the result of the pandemic coming to an end? Like, We’ve come so far.

Jimin: I think that was part of it. I think, for me, I can feel it better when I’m working now, as opposed to while looking back, so I’m going to try to take on a lot of new things. That’s why I’m meeting with different producers: I feel like I should take this challenge on, the proper way.

After you released “With You,” you went on V LIVE and said, “Starting with this, I'm going to try many things.” Are you currently working on new material?

Jimin: I’m just starting. I decided to just keep going straight through, staying together with the producers. I think we’ll basically always be together for around a month. We met a few times and were talking about what messages and what kind of appearance or image I want to get across.

It sounds like you still have more you want to show, even after the Grammys and the concert.

Jimin: Exactly. Maybe I can be just a little more explicit.

What do you mean, “more explicit”?

Jimin: I just think I can show something a little more raw about me. That might include a more mature side, too, but what I’m really interested in is showing something closer to my real, personal rawness directly in a format like music or music videos. By doing so, I think maybe I can show something I never have before.

What do you mean by “raw,” exactly?

Jimin: Like, something that shows the things I usually think about a little more honestly? My thoughts are already well-represented on BTS’ albums, but, you know, some of the older members have already dealt with some darker material  on their solo mixtapes. I think I’m trying to do something similar.

Are there any topics you want to explore?

Jimin: I’m doing this more for my own sake than because I want to say something to other people. Because after a year and a half of the pandemic, I was thinking a lot about how I was a little lost. Once the other members found out about that, they said, “Why don’t you try to make it into music?” And that made me decide I should try and talk about it in my music.

I guess it took a little time before you realized you were lost.

Jimin: Yes, I think so. I thought I had a wonderful life before, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt like maybe I was trying to deny something.

You mean, not being able to have an audience?

Jimin: That’s part of it, but I also started to question things and yet tried to brush those things off at the same time—denying them by telling myself I was just enjoying my life.

It sounds like you were at a point where you wanted to avoid personal concerns or the whole pandemic situation.

Jimin: It seems that way. It was like, Now that I think about it …. I think I figured that at least I couldn’t be shaken because I had the reassurance of BTS. But I was suddenly struck by a thought: Would I really be okay if it were me personally, not the group, that was on display? I think I finally recognized that.

You released “With You” with HA SUNG WOON. Was it a conscious decision to collaborate with someone with whom you have a well-known friendship?

Jimin: Yes. He was the first friend I made when I moved to Seoul. He’s the first non-school friend I ever made if you don’t include the other BTS members. We used to say, “Someday, when we both make it big, it would be something special if we made a song together and sent it out into the world.” That was the meaning behind it: something I wanted to do someday.

I guess you could say it all started from a promise made long ago.

Jimin: Right. We’d been talking about that for seven years, practically. We would show each other our songs or anything else we worked on whenever we made something. We kept that up and said, “Let’s try making some music together,” and then we really did. It was fun.

Did that have any influence on the tone of voice you chose to go with? You tried singing in a completely different voice than usual.

Jimin: You’re right. It gave me a lot of practice because it was really hard right from the beginning, so I had to redo it over and over. I kept saying, “I’ll try that again from the top,” and changing a bunch of stuff, but it was a lot of practice, and it was a song for a soundtrack, so I tried really, really hard to give it a simpler sound than anything I usually did before.

It’s closer to your speaking voice than your singing voice. It seems like you must have tried a lot of different things in detail while recording, looking at the way your voice overlaps with SUNG WOON’s in the chorus or how the emotion in the melody is reminiscent of the first self-written song you ever released, “Promise,” even though you didn’t write any of the music this time.

Jimin: We tried so many different things. We called each other all the time, and I’m really grateful for the producer who worked with us because I was actually all finished recording, and I kept saying I wanted to try it again from the beginning when we were all finished recording, and I would say, “I’ll try it one more time,” and I could tell that was a lot of hard work for them. It made me feel a lot of different things and it was an important learning experience. I think there were many moments that made me feel that way while we were working on it.

I heard that making “Promise” allowed you to get out of the funk you were in at the time. Would you say that “With You” was a way for you to try and find the emotions that you wanted to express?

Jimin: I took an MBTI test recently and it said I’m extroverted, but when I made “Promise” I was really introverted and feeling depressed. I think “Promise” was a chance for me to look at myself. I managed to come out of my shell a little thanks to that song. The first version of “With You” we recorded was very emotional and there was a long process involved in relieving that emotion. “I’ll soften up a bit. … I’ll try it a little softer. … Ah, right—a little bit softer now. … I’ll just try it nice and simple.” Like that. I wanted to show sadness and a desperate longing expressed in a simple style.

It seems like you felt a lot of different emotions while singing that song.

Jimin: I used to get really emotional when it came to relationships with others and the words they say, but I’m not really like that anymore. So lately I have moments where I feel like, How was it that I used to feel, again?

Two years ago, in an interview with Weverse Magazine, you called yourself someone who likes to be loved, but it seems like maybe you don’t feel that way as much anymore.

Jimin: It’s not quite an emptiness, but I feel like it’s close to that. It’s not like, Well, what else is there? But I think I’m feeling something similar to it.

And then you might have a problem of finding what to fill it with.

Jimin: Exactly. I actually struggle and feel restless if I’m not doing anything. And think, Wow, I’m just passing the whole day like this? And it’s been close to a year since I started to feel less like that. But now it’s like, What have I been doing this whole time? Why was I like that?

Jimin: I didn’t really think about it like that while working on the album, but it eventually turned out that I really needed that time. I think everyone—us members and the label—had to look back so we could move forward.

The lyrics to “Run BTS” start by talking about life before the debut, and you really got into the rock and roll mood with your vocals on the song. How do you feel revisiting the way you used to run around all the time working so hard?

Jimin: I think in those days I was sort of desperate. (laughs) Saying, Wait till you see what I can do next. I can see it in my old videos, too.

That “wait till you see what I can do next” sense comes across particularly well in “Tony Montana (with Jimin).” How did you end up doing that song?

Jimin: SUGA and I said, “Let’s do something together,” and that was the result. I think I wanted to sound cool. (laughs) I guess I really wanted to stand out when we made that. “I’m good at this, too!” (laughs)

In “Tony Montana,” you sing, “You used to curse me, I’m major / I’m an idol by nature.” If your natural state back then was being an idol, what about now?

Jimin: I’m still an idol. Idol is an accurate description. The word “idol” means something different to everyone, plus I think Koreans see it in an entirely different way, but anyway, you’re right to say that’s where I started. To be honest, I can do the things I do individually, even now, because of being in BTS, and I don’t think that’s going to change since I got my start as an idol.

What do you want to do for ARMY as an idol? You’re expressing your feelings in “For Youth” off Proof when you sing, “Will you give me your hand? I’ll get up over and over.”

Jimin: Just being cooler—with good songs, good music videos and good performances. I think that’s the best way to stay faithful to my calling and the way I can pay them back the most. I felt sort of guilty the past two years. After that first day of the LA concert, I felt like I had been wronging the fans this whole time somehow since our concerts kept getting canceled. I felt like maybe they started to lose their passion during all that time since they couldn’t see us, but they had been waiting unconditionally, so I really started to ask myself what I had been doing that whole time. We sang “Permission to Dance” and greeted ARMY at the concert but it was weird how emotional it felt despite the song being so upbeat.

You’re still an idol and still have those feelings, but at the same time you’ve become well-respected among many artists.

Jimin: I’m really grateful for everything ARMY says, but not entirely satisfied with myself yet. Nothing would make me happier than having this much self-satisfaction, but I don’t, and I struggle with that. I guess that’s why, even though I really want to be better, I was avoiding the fact that to change in that way I would have to be more consistent in what I do—but I forced myself to bury those thoughts by telling myself maybe I was already good enough. But now, I want to be even better. I want to be better, and cooler. I changed.

You must have had a lot of thoughts like that coming to you when you were singing “Yet To Come.”

Jimin: So now I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to knowing who I’ll become and how much better I’m going to be able to perform.

What would your ideal performance look like? I felt like it was a little more clear what the audience wanted to see from you recently when you performed “Black Swan” in LA, Seoul and in Las Vegas.

Jimin: I want to show off everything I’m capable of at the highest possible proficiency. For example, whether I’m showing that dark but sexy vibe that only “Black Swan” has, the high energy of “IDOL” or “FIRE,” or how cute I can be, I want to do it all with the highest proficiency. I always look forward to the audience erupting into cheers whenever all my proficiencies come together. I think that’s one of the reasons I used to criticize myself so much whenever I made a mistake or did something wrong.

Are you saying you’re not quite there yet?

Jimin: Oh, not even close. It’s still a long way away, and I’m changing now, too. So we keep trading ideas because of the uncertainty we’re currently facing. After doing choreography with exact precision all that time, we moved to a phase where we have a little more freedom to be a little more relaxed or try to involve the audience a bit more. But I think we need to do more songs and be more open to the kinds of direction or sets we should be doing since we don’t have too many songs where we can show off that new side of us.

That’s what I thought when I saw your performance of “Butter” at the Grammys. It felt like you had reached peak proficiency with a performance planned out perfectly from beginning to end. If you could put on this kind of important performance despite all the trouble surrounding it, surely at this point you could ascend to the next level.

Jimin: I’m absolutely stoked for it now. What are we going to be like when we’re even better—when we can make each and every move look its best? What’s the future going to look like when we’re even more experienced? So it’s not really a problem that we didn’t win any awards at the Grammys. It would have been nice to win one, but that’s because it would have been like a gigantic gift for ARMY if we did. I just wanted to show them how cool our group is up on stage, so I was just happy we were able to put on that performance. I actually wanted to do “ON,” too. I just wanted to put on an incredibly high-energy performance to tell people, like, “That’s how we do it!” And just come back. (laughs) But we put on a pretty good performance considering how rushed it was, and the fans liked it, and I was like, We did it! I guess you could say I felt relieved.

With regards to your newly changed self, producing “Friends” must have been a different kind of opportunity for you. The song was also on the soundtrack for Eternals. Did you see the movie?

Jimin: Yes, I saw it in theaters. (laughs) It was amazing and I felt grateful, but I also wish I could have made an even better song.

How did you get started working on that song?

Jimin: I made it from scratch, actually. I was just in the practice studio and thought, Should I try something, too? And got to work by myself, laying down a drum beat like, bum-tss-bum-tss. It wasn’t quite as soft as the version that exists now; I sang the melody a little more intensely. I was thinking of a song that would be a little more energetic than the sentimental melody it has now, but when I gave it to the producer, he said, “Oh, not bad,” and, “I think a melancholy feel would suit you. What do you think?” I agreed with the suggestion, so the song ended up sounding a little cuter than what I first envisioned.

I’m guessing that’s why it develops into a rock-like group chorus later in the song. It’s interesting, the way it sounds like reggae at the beginning and naturally progresses into something fierce.

Jimin: Yes. I think it just came out that way. That happened, then they said, “Should we put this on the album?” And that’s where the theme of friendship with Taehyung came from.

Speaking of “Friends,” how do you see the other members of BTS now? I imagine you feel the same as your “Tony Montana” days, but with some things different, too.

Jimin: They’re more than just friends, brothers or family—they just feel like a place you can always come back to. What I really felt when we were in the US recently was that I had times where I would have a lot of things going on in my head, and after I went through all that and came back around and talked with the other members, a lot of times they would tell me, “Ah, I see. I sort of figured. But I think you’ll be okay if you just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s all good.” It’s hard to put into words exactly, but I always got the impression they’re this powerful force that mentally helps me to return to my true self. So they’re more than just cool—it’s just, “thank you always.” It’s hard to put into words, but it’s something like that. (laughs)