Before the photo shoot, MINHYUN slowly looked over the props on the table and took a seat to familiarize himself with his environment. As the photos appeared on the monitor in time with the sound of the camera shutter, he looked less like the young man who had been bobbing his head to the music just earlier and more like the owner of his surroundings as he fixed his gaze in front of him. As MINHYUN said, he was always ready for anything.
The imitation you did on V LIVE of the character Choi Joon from the YouTube channel Psick University has become very popular.
MINHYUN: Just a little fun to break up the day, right? (laughs) As they say these days, I’m in the “Joon mood.” I love to watch his videos while we’re in the car or the green room and thought they were funny. I just suddenly thought of the videos and copied them. I’m glad they liked it.
“Oh! You’re so pretty!” Just those four words, and the imitation was perfect. Many people said they were recommended your video by the algorithm and ended up seeing your other videos, too.
MINHYUN: I’m glad I could help a little with making people happy. Even people who aren’t L.O.Λ.E liked it. I like to imagine L.O.Λ.E read other people’s comments and smiled. “So many people are into MINHYUN!” (laughs)
Romanticize, your first full-length album in seven years, is sure to be among those things that are making people happy.
MINHYUN: The theme of the album is romance. We’re promoting this album right as spring comes, so people should be able to chill out to it.
You sang the first line of the opening track, “Dress.”
MINHYUN: In order to sing the intro better, I studied and practiced, and I think I got better as a result, which made me happy. I thought the intro to “HELLO” was so important that when I recorded it I sang that one word hundreds of times. And even I think it sounds good. (laughs)
How was the lead single, “INSIDE OUT”?
MINHYUN: I was really worried about the intro. If the pronunciation is off during the English parts it breaks the listener’s concentration, so I tried to imitate the pronunciation and tone of the guided demo version exactly. You have to make the intro so it gets everyone hooked and makes them want to keep listening to the next verse. When the lyrics change to lyrics of desire like “pull my arms” and “hold me,” I tried to convey a subtle difference in emotion, like using stronger diction, or adding vibrato to the last note to make it sound like I’m shaking. I studied a lot so I could put my own style into the softer parts of the song.
You said lyrics are the most important part to you when you’re listening to a song.
MINHYUN: I like to listen to songs with good lyrics whose meanings I can understand well. If I hear a song I really like in a language I don’t speak, I always look up the meaning of all the lyrics. I listen to Jeremy Zucker’s “always, i’ll care” every night. It has these great, thoughtful lyrics. It makes me think about how I want to take care of all the people I care about, like in the lyrics.
Your solo song “EARPHONE” is that same kind of song, one that can give people a kind of warm feeling.
MINHYUN: I thought about what romance means to me, and it was whenever I listen to music. It’s a feeling that lets me forget all this noise and tough questions and just listen to some music I like. Let me trust my voice instead of what other people say. I sang the bridge—“Tonight, as the night sky stars shine bright / Turn my voice on”—I sang that part different from the calm part before it. I had the whole arc of the song in mind but I felt like I had to make that part really strong because that’s where the message I wanted to convey is.
Since you wanted to forget about tough questions and just listen to some music, there must have been some things you were worried about. Did you have more to worry about once the pandemic started?
MINHYUN: I can no longer do the things I always assumed I could always do no matter what. I love music, but it made me wonder whether I can keep being a singer for a long time. At concerts I would communicate with the fans through song, feel the sweat as we performed on stage—but those moments of happiness and satisfaction are gone now. So I kept asking myself, What should I do to improve myself? How can I sing better? But I tried not to have those kinds of negative thoughts while working on this latest album. We had a fun time getting our performances ready and creating a polished album. I know L.O.Λ.E are feeling tired lately, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has kept their spirits up like us, or even more than us, while enduring these hard times and waiting for us.
Would you say you’re also enduring through these times?
MINHYUN: Definitely. I’m still getting ready for everything. I’m practicing hard so I can really impress the fans when we get out there.
That makes me think of what you said on V LIVE: “You can’t be an idol if you’re going to eat anything you feel like.”
There’s a lot you want to do.
How did you prepare for your role as Eun Taek? The character is a careful high school student who never acts rashly, even for a second, and always hides his emotional pain.
What was the most memorable scene to shoot?
Just before the epilogue, Eun Taek looks annoyed, saying something along the lines of, “I kept telling you to close it but you couldn’t hear me, so I’ll just close it myself.”
How did the other members of NU’EST react to your part?
What do you think of all the time you’ve spent together with them?
That makes me think of something you said—that you tried your best to meet the goals you set with your mother when you were young.
So you worked hard, and then your reward brought you really good luck.
You’ve said many times you want to look good for your fans.
MINHYUN: I want to be a perfect person, inwardly—the kind of person who can make people who don’t like me, like me. So that even someone who doesn’t like me or doesn’t have any interest in me can at least meet me and say, He’s a nice person.
I think you’re feeling the weight of having been an idol for 10 years.
MINHYUN: As you know, there aren’t many teams who stay active this long. I want to applaud the members and myself for making it through, and I especially want to say thank you to the L.O.Λ.E who stood with us for such a long time. Looking back, it was thanks to our fans that we won first place. And I’ll always remember the three days we spent together for the concert at the KSPO Dome. I’m thankful for that, and also thankful I had a chance to be in a musical and a TV drama. I achieved all the goals I set out for myself and now I have a new goal. As MINHYUN the NU’EST member, my biggest goal is to keep making and performing music for a long time—sticking with music and keeping it fun. I want to do what I like for a long, long time, and not let down all the people who support me.
What kind of music do you want to create going forward?
MINHYUN: I want to make music that sounds and feels uniquely “me.” I like acoustic songs and the sound of a live band. I’d like to commission songs from all the artists I like to listen to and just enjoy myself doing a lot of work that way. I’m so curious what kind of synergy there will be if I take a song in their style and insert my voice into it. I like NELL, so I definitely want to collaborate with Kim Jong Wan.
I can tell you’re very confident about your music and your work.
MINHYUN: I’m confident, and I want to make sure people come back to check me out even if they go away for a while. I have no choice but to be good if that’s my plan, so I have to work even harder. I promise to never forget to be thankful and to exercise self-control. It comes full circle. (laughs)
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