If you’re familiar with Korean R&B you’ll probably have heard of the singer ABOUT. He released a ton of music this year, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to reach out to ask him some questions about his art, his career and his latest album ‘OMNIBUS’.
Note: This is a shortened version of our interview with ABOUT. You can find the full interview in our magazine.
About ABOUT
“Originally, I wanted to be an actor, but in the end, I changed to music as I thought my face wasn’t good enough to be an actor. Also, there’s a difference between what you like and what you’re good at. In my case my skills lie in music, that’s why I suddenly changed my goal right before the Korean SAT. However now I think that the face thing was a stupid excuse. I just wasn’t confident enough to go through with it. And in the end, it worked out fine, but who knows I might challenge acting again later on.”
ABOUT debuted with two OSTs. There was ‘It has to be you’ for the 2018 K-drama ‘Sky Castle’ and ‘Snowflakes’ for ‘My Fellow Citizens’. “It was a bittersweet moment back then, because I thought I’d debut with my own full-length album, but instead my debut suddenly happened with an OST. Now I am fully thankful for the opportunity but then I didn’t know what to feel. However I can say truthfully, that I was lucky and it introduced me to a lot of new listeners, even now.”
The stage name ABOUT wasn’t easy to find. “I went through many bad options and none of those came from me. In the end ‘ABOUT’ was a name that I found good meaning in. I want to tell stories that are about something or someone based on my true me. That is the meaning that I found in the name.”
CHILDHOOD/EROS/ANGER
At the beginning of the year ABOUT released his ‘EMPATHY’ trilogy series ‘Anger’, ‘EROS’ and ‘Childhood’.
Q: Do you think that after creating all of these works you can look at yourself with more empathy?
“Yes. I think so, but one of the main reasons is that I felt the empathy from others towards the me shown in the album. Seeing how people accepted the gloomy, the sad and even the anger helped me accept it as well. So I can say that I accomplished what I wanted to do with this album in the first place.”
ANGER
Q: Can you tell us a bit more about ‘Hennessy’? What was the inspiration? How did the concept of the music video come together? Also how did the gecko fit within that story?
“‘Hennessy’ talks about a slow suicide by alcohol. It’s reflective of me in the past, when I was really in a low place in my life. So, through this song concept, connecting with ‘Monster’, I wanted it to describe how that version of me died and got reborn as the Monster to take revenge through ‘ANGER’ at those who mistreated that dead version of me. The gecko symbolizes rebirth as they can regrow their tails.”
CHILDHOOD
Q: In your track ‘Bullied Kids’ you seem to write from personal experience? Could you tell us a bit more about the track? Was it hard to write the lyrics? Is there something you would like to say to kids who are being bullied right now?
“I wrote all the lyrics based on my own experiences, so ‘Bullied Kids’ also comes from my personal memories. Now I don’t really feel anything about what happened back then anymore but that doesn’t mean it was insignificant, I just learned how to face it in my way. I always wanted to write this type of song but I was very worried about how to express it the right way. Because I did not want to accidentally harm those who are still struggling through something similar.”
“To me, this was the song with true empathy in it on the album. (I always cry singing it on stage). To the kids being bullied: Do whatever you need to get through it, make it public or sue or ask for help or post about it or call the police. Anything that can help you stay safe. You’re not overreacting, don’t let others tell you what to feel and someday you will remember without pain. Believe me, I survived too.”
Q: You closed your trilogy with ‘CHILDHOOD’. How does that feel? Would you have done anything differently now that you can look back on everything? What was the part of the trilogy that resonated the most with you and why?
“As a whole, this album was dedicated to my personal life. So, ending with ‘CHILDHOOD’ let me tell all the stories that I wanted to tell. It was a way to process and grow past the memories still clinging to me. It was a great help to me in that sense. I don’t usually think about what I could change in the past because the past is what made me who I am today. So, I wouldn’t change anything. ”
“The most resonating part was ‘ANGER’ because for the first time I was being honest about my personal anger. I usually think about the listeners when I’m writing music but this time for ‘ANGER’ it was only for me, so it was a very personal experience.”
OMNIBUS
The album ‘OMNIBUS’ is one amazing feature after the other. “I had experience being the featured artist on other producers’ albums, so this time having other artists work on my album was a refreshing feeling, and it was very fun. I’m very thankful to each of them.”
“All of the artists are people who I have built a good relationship with while working in the industry, so this time I personally ask them to work together. All of them have their own musicality based on different genres. With this album ‘OMNIBUS’, I wanted to probe the sense of camaraderie and friendship that can exist in the Korean music industry outside of Hip-Hop. I really love all of the people who participated in this album. One dream collaboration I have left is Sunwoojunga. That’d make me feel over the moon.”
“I was very conscious of the fact that all of them have built their popularity and musicality with their efforts, So, I never wanted to make it feel like I was hitchhiking on their work both for mine and their sake. To overcome that anxiety you mention, I made sure that the standard of collaboration was on a high level to match them. I wanted everyone to gain something from this project. It took 3 years for me to reach that point where I stopped degrading myself and felt confident enough to do this project.”
Hemo was the co-producer of the album together with ABOUT himself. “Hemo and I randomly met at my friend Jayci Yucca’s concert back in 2018. Originally, I was going to work with another producer who was a friend of Hemo’s, but in the end I got tossed over from him to Hemo, like a happy accident. We fought and still fight a lot but through that we produced good music.”
“You could say we clash in a productive way. we’re turning into an old married couple though, so even the fighting is getting less and less. Now we don’t need a bunch of words to understand what the other person is getting at.”
“To be honest, ‘Empathy’ was in a way a very selfish album, made only for myself. without caring for outside factors it was made fully for self-gratification. On the other hand, ‘Omnibus’ was written with other people in mind. both due to its nature as a collaboration and with the purpose of offering an easier listening experience. So I think the biggest difference is that through these two projects, I have found more confidence in ABOUT’s style, which allowed me to try out new genres of music. As now I know and accept the fact that no matter what type of music, I write there’ll be those who listen and those who won’t no matter what.”
Listen to ABOUT on Spotify here.
You can find ABOUT on Instagram here.
