ElenaTofu

“I really want to use my voice to express all the emotions and feelings, so I’ve been spending a lot of time practising, taking lessons and working to show new sides of myself through it.”

“[People] were probably expecting another album that consisted of deeper and more emotional tracks,” he says, referring to his solemn solo debut, 2018’s ‘Voice’. “But I wanted to completely break out, I wanted to show a new side of myself.” The result of that desire is ‘Dice’, his delightful sophomore mini-album. To better illustrate the differences between both albums, Onew makes an analogy with the colour blue: “‘Voice’ is a bit darker, it has deeper sentiments to it, but ‘Dice’ would be a brighter and lighter blue.”

“My voice is one that can really touch the hearts of people. In a sense, [its] specialty is warmth, it makes you feel like someone is holding you tight. That’s how I always wanted my voice to be, and what I aim for it to be as well.”

“I wanted to be able to give that positive influence to everyone. It’s important for an artist to expand their spectrum, but my main focus is bringing that energy and hope to people.”

“I feel like it was a good time to widen my musical range and experiences, to be able to do something before I get older. I’m the youngest right now, so…” he laughs, all the shyness from the beginning of this conversation gone now. “Being a singer is something that I will continue to do, but when it comes to dancing, that’s a different story with age. I want to do it as much as I can [and for as long as] I have the energy.”