In a candid interview from Seoul, the singer talks about her current tour, confronting trauma in her new video for “Break It feat. Lexie Liu,” working with underscores, and the technique behind her mold-breaking submit Ok-pop profession.
Pictures + Design / Lauren Nakao Winn
Help / Sabina Mendoza
Story / Christine Terrisse
Shot at DWNTWN Studio
“This 12 months, I need to journey to Jeju.” International pop star Yves is referring to the big island off the coast, south of the principle Korean peninsula. Her grandmother is getting older and she or he wish to journey collectively whereas she nonetheless can. She additionally desires to discover a new pastime. The holiday will probably be a welcome break after a whirlwind 12 months and for that matter, a whirlwind life. One that may not final that lengthy, as she is keen to get again into the studio to work on an album for subsequent 12 months.
In 2024, getting ready to go solo, Yves wasn’t certain what path to take. By that point, the singer had been on the Ok-pop scene for seven years as a part of the twelve-member group LOONA below Blockberry Inventive.
LOONA, with its mix of sounds and worldbuilding, developed a loyal fanbase, particularly throughout the LGBTQIA neighborhood, however the firm proved rife with issues. Yves and the opposite members managed to interrupt out of their contracts earlier than it utterly went below.
Signing to PAIX PER MIL company as a solo artist proved to be a wise transfer. She arrived on the boutique company with an open thoughts and got here up with a technique constructed round hyperpop— from her perspective not a path many different Korean artists or teams had been going with on the time.
“I wished a ‘first-move’ benefit,” she says, by way of Google Meet. Dressed casually, her generally lengthy hair is in a bob. “It turned out fairly effectively and it was a turning level for me to develop my musical spectrum as an artist.”
‘Loop’, her debut EP, captured the eye of LOONA followers, vloggers, and world press. Domestically, it charted as excessive as #13 on Korea’s Circle Charts, buoyed by its house-tinged lead single “Loop (feat. Lil Cherry).”
From there she gained momentum. ‘I Did’ her second EP got here out that fall with its single “DIM” going TikTok viral. Then got here ‘Mushy Error’ the next 12 months. On that launch she collaborated with PinkPantheress. Their music “Cleaning soap” appeared on the London producer/singer’s lauded remix album ‘Fancy That?.’
Her newest EP ‘Nail’ launched this spring marks the second section of her creative motion she tells LADYGUNN. ‘Nail’ was well-received by critics and followers alike. It additionally marked the primary time she obtained songwriting credit score. She co-wrote the title observe, ”Nail” together with “Halo” whereas on “It” she is credited as sole songwriter.
Though concerned creatively on her earlier EPs, the success of ‘Nail’ is a vindication of types and never just for its streaming success.
Maybe it is going to silence the criticism she obtained prior to now on-line from individuals speaking about her lack of songwriting credit. “I had a tough time studying these feedback,” she confesses. “However I believe the attitude of followers is altering now.”
The feedback smack of a sure snobbery of the Ok-pop idol business Yves comes from. Most idols don’t self-produce as a result of they merely don’t have the time—performing is the full-time job. One can argue that taking the time to develop her sound, technique and visible id earlier than testing out writing isn’t a foul thought. After so a few years together with her work formed by a gaggle, the now 30 12 months previous can work the best way she desires to.
‘Nail’ is a visceral bed room pop, dreamy and laidback however with a sort of “relaxed” chew. The entire temper of the EP is centered round golf equipment and nightlife, she describes. However what is usually a twenty-something right-of-passage Yves by no means had an opportunity to expertise herself.
“I didn’t know the way individuals really transfer round in a membership—dance in a membership—she says by means of an interpreter, “So I spent a number of occasions with my music video director (Bang Jaeyeob directed “Nail”) watching YouTube movies of individuals dancing at golf equipment after which I really went to the membership with the director and my A&R to expertise it myself.”
This spring, she launched into her second solo tour, the fourteen-date Yves Tour: The Americas (an earlier European leg of the tour started in April). The setlist targeted on her earlier solo releases in addition to some LOONA covers. Immediately, she observed a shift in her viewers from earlier excursions, whereas many got here from her LOONA days, some followers’ relationship is newer.
“It provides a brand new vibe,” she factors out. That vibe, she explains, made it really feel extra like a competition versus a Ok-pop live performance. The tour gave her a way of the nightlife expertise she missed out throughout her years as a performer.
Apart from her rising songwriting, rising sonic palette, and otherworldly visible id, one of many smartest strikes Yves has made in her profession, has paid not solely creative dividends however relayed a delicate sense of id as her alternative of collaborators.
Together with Chinese language artist Lexie Liu and PinkPantheress, Yves has collaborated with fellow South Korean rapper Lil Cherry (“Loop”) French-Algerian singer Lolo Zouaï on “Nail” and upcoming Filipina-American producer singer-songwriter on the remix for “Do It.”
Thus far, she has completely elevated younger multicultural nonbinary girls (Underscores identifies as trans). The options really feel nearly seamless. PinkPantheress and Underscores increase on the vocabulary she has constructed with the in-house producer on PAIX PER MIL (IOAH) enhanced with every of their signature spins.
Working with world artists has pushed her efficiency capability previous her Ok-pop basis. A shock look on the Atlanta cease of Underscores’ tour on June eighth was a standout. “I used to be a bit anxious,” she admits. “As a result of it wasn’t my very own present and I used to be afraid that followers may not react the identical means as when on my tour, however once I acquired on stage the followers went nuts and I felt that Underscores and I had been one group. It was a tremendous expertise.”
And on April twenty second Yves was joined onstage by Lolo Zouaï on the Paris cease of her personal tour. When performing “Nail” solo she says, she is used to the eye being on her, however when Lolo got here onstage she was amused to see the followers gaze shift to the French star.
Previous to her tour, “See you in hell” from her second EP ‘I Did’ was a favourite to carry out. “Sitting very near followers on the fringe of the stage, I felt one thing particular singing that music,” she says. Lately, she favors “Break It (feat. Lexie Liu).” It’s a reasonably mellow music, however there’s something about followers singing alongside to the observe that will get her in her feels.
The 2-month lengthy tour was Yves’ longest up to now. Touring each three days, it nearly began to really feel routine, she says, performing the identical set record in twenty-four completely different cities. In the midst of the tour, she acquired to some extent the place she nearly felt like she was taking it with no consideration.
“I used to be capable of maintain onto the thought,” she says “That this can be a lucky alternative to see my followers in numerous cities and work together with them. I used to be capable of shake off the sensation of routine on the tour, and that’s one thing I’m pleased with.”
The video for “Break It” is the primary time she has co-starred in a video with one other artist and her first time working with a non-South Korean director: Jeremy Qin of VACANT IMAGE, a frequent inventive accomplice of Liu’s. Within the video, shot on an iPhone, Yves portrays a lonely alien who meets a accomplice to share companionship and surprise of a brand new world in Lexie.
Not solely was the strategy of capturing movies completely different from what she had been used to in her earlier work, however she was capable of confront a longstanding childhood trauma within the course of. When she was youthful, she went to a swimming pool with a relative and never figuring out how deep the top of the pool was, she fought to remain above the water, feeling for a second like she couldn’t breathe.
“From that time on, I haven’t had any curiosity in going into the water,” she says. “Even once I’m on trip, I by no means get my head moist.”
On the shoot for “Break It” she needed to soar backwards together with her complete physique touchdown within the pool. She pulled it off.
Word: Throughout this interview, Yves spoke in Korean by means of an interpreter. The interpreter spoke within the third individual, quotes from Yves had been switched into first individual.
