#o:interview

"When we couldn't go on tour, everybody felt really a sense of loss, a sense of powerlessness," Jin says

BTS’ main producer, Pdogg, is fond of pushing the group’s singers to the top of their range, and beyond. One of the most extreme, and impressive, examples is the howling series of beyond-falsetto notes Jin manages to reach on the track “Crystal Snow.” You’d never know it from that moment and many others, but Jin wasn’t a singer (or a dancer) at all when he first joined Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE) as a trainee; he was studying acting instead. In the third of Rolling Stone‘s breakout interviews with each of BTS’ seven members, Jin explained how he cultivated his formidable skills, looked back at some of his best musical moments, and more. He sat in his label’s headquarters for the conversation, in a blue button-front shirt with a wide collar and a black baseball cap from the Japanese brand Mastermind, a gift from Suga.(In celebration of BTS’ appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, we’re publishing individual digital covers with each member of the band; check back throughout the next four days for more.)

I know you just woke up today. What was your day like yesterday? We went to shoot a variety show, a popular and famous show in Korea, and we haven’t done one of these in a while. I want to emphasize and make sure it’s pointed out for the record that everybody went berserk about how good-looking I was [laughs].

Even through the mask I can tell. So what have you learned about yourself in this year off the road? Especially when we were on tour, there wasn’t time to reflect on myself and figure out what gives me joy, what makes me relax. Being off the road for a year gave me a chance to really reflect on what I want and who I am, and sort of learn to love myself. I got a chance to sleep more, and that makes me a lot more satisfied. I tried exercising, and I realized that’s something that I like. And everyday things like playing games, watching movies, singing, those kinds of things.

At the same time, it feels like you felt the pain of not being on tour. Not just myself, but other members really felt that. When we couldn’t go on tour, everybody felt really a sense of loss, a sense of powerlessness, and we were all sad. And it actually took us a while to get over those feelings.

You wrote the song “Abyss” about some of those feelings, right? As the title suggests, I was feeling very down deep in the abyss when I was writing the lyrics. I was feeling very sad and down. But the process of actually singing the song and recording the song alleviated a lot of those emotions.

“Moon” is a great guitar-driven song. Is it true that you would like BTS to record more material that leans toward rock? I don’t think I’ll refuse any rock-style songs that come our way. It’d be good if we can do more of them, but they have to be feel appropriate and match the style of our team.

Since your background was in acting, you really had to learn to sing and dance from scratch as a trainee. What was that like? It was true then and it still is true now that it does take more effort for me to do the things that may come more naturally for the other members. I lack in many areas. For example, a lot of the other members will learn a dance once and they’ll be able to dance right away to the music. But I can’t do that, so I do try to work harder so I don’t hold the other members back or be a burden. So I would come to dance practice an hour early, or after the practice was over, I would stay behind another hour or so, and ask the teacher to go over the choreography one more time.

But you’ve become an amazing singer. What were some moments when you started to realize that you achieved some mastery of singing? I don’t think there really was a moment when I felt I had arrived as a singer. I haven’t mastered singing. But a singer has a duty and an obligation to bring joy to the audience. As we went on tour, I began to see the audience liking what I was doing. We were sharing the same emotions and what I was doing was resonating with them more and more. So whether it was my singing or my performance or whatever it might be, I began to realize that I am able to communicate with the audience.

Tell me about [HYBE founder] Mr. Bang. What is his particular genius? [Cheekily] A lot of it, I think, is luck. The realization of genius was his good fortune in meeting us. I don’t think he could have done it without us. I think in his good fortune lies his genius. … I think one thing that I can say about him is his ability to look into the future and read trends very early on. He’s able to see, “This is the kind of thing that we can be doing; this will be good for the future.” So I think that he’s very capable in that. Plus he’s very lucky.

You are, of course, the oldest member of the group. There’s a truism that people sort of freeze at the age they become famous, because that’s when ordinary life stops for them. So in your head, do you feel like someone who is almost 30, or do you feel younger? This is embarrassing for me to say because it’s sort of tooting our own horn, I guess. But at every moment where I felt that we were at the peak of our fame, after that we reached another peak, and another peak. And so as I continued to become older, and again, it’s kind of embarrassing to say this, we were able to hit more and more peaks. So I feel my age! I feel that I’m 29.

Would you like to try acting again at some point? Nothing’s carved in stone. I sort of like to go with the flow and do what I feel. Right now I really love music, so I think I’m obviously more oriented to doing music.

“Spring Day” is obviously a group effort, but I find your part on it particularly moving. What do you remember about recording that song? We wanted to create sort of a sweetly sentimental or melancholy feeling for that song. When we got the lyrics, we tried to set the theme and the tone for recording the music. I tried to recall a lot of my sweetly melancholy memories so that I could translate it into the overall feeling. For example, you’re thinking about a friend that you may have lost touch with, and drawing from that sadness.

How does all the complex vocal interplay on BTS’ songs come about — how do you all decide who sings what? So when a song is finished, we will all sing it. We will sing the entire song. And then we decide which lines really suit which person and their character. And we try to work that out.

And finally, in your trainee days, could you have ever imagined this level of success? I think at that time, I felt that if I could bring together an audience of 1,000 people, that’s what I wanted to do. That was my goal back in those days.

Red Velvet, an all-female Korean supergroup comprising five young pop stars—Irene (Bae Joohyun), Seulgi (Kang Seulgi), Wendy (Shon Seungwan), Joy (Park Sooyoung), and Yeri (Kim Yerim)—was created in 2014 by SM Entertainment, a company that has helped develop and popularize the global K-pop phenomenon. In their still-nascent career, they have released countless songs with frothy titles such as “Power Up,” “Dumb Dumb,” and “Umpah Umpah”—all packaged into two studio albums, one reissue album, one compilation album, and 11 EPs. As they continue their worldwide expansion, following in the footlights of BTS and Blackpink, they have played sold-out American shows, secured endorsement deals with everyone from Coca-Cola to Prada, broken streaming records for their contribution to the 2020 animated film Trolls World Tour, and added Korean lyrics to a remix of the song “Close to Me,” by Ellie Goulding and Diplo. There’s a duality to their identity that they’ll explain later, which is why we could think of no one better to ask them a few questions than Diplo, a dance-hall legend with a penchant for country.

———

DIPLO: Tell me about your name. Why are you called Red Velvet?

RED VELVET: Red Velvet is a combination of “red,” representing our bold, more sophisticated side, and “velvet,” which reflects our softer, more feminine side. The name encapsulates our signature color and describes who we are as artists, and what we want to accomplish: to captivate the world with great music and performances of different genres and styles.

DIPLO: What separates you from your K-Pop peers? In what ways are you trying to distinguish yourselves?

RED VELVET: As embodied by our group name, we have our own unique color that can be seen in everything that we do: “red” for the vivid and bold, and “velvet” for more of our soft, toned-down side. This is what makes us different from other artists.

DIPLO: What are some of the things you love about America?

RED VELVET: We love that we can experience and easily access a wide variety of different cultures.

DIPLO: When you’re traveling, what do you miss most about home?

RED VELVET: When we’re abroad for work, we’re constantly on the move—to new hotels, new cities, and new environments. It can get pretty lonely sometimes, especially when we’re alone in our hotel rooms at night. That’s when we miss being together with our families and our pets.

DIPLO: What is your go-to room service order?

RED VELVET: We always order steak when we order room service. Always.

DIPLO: What’s it like for you walking down the street in South Korea?

RED VELVET: We usually cover our faces with a hat and a mask so there is no problem walking down the streets here. If we act natural, we blend right in.

DIPLO: How have your lives changed since starting the band in 2014?

RED VELVET: We feel like the change hasn’t been too dramatic, but seeing fans support us from all around the world makes us emotional every time. It never ceases to amaze us that we get this support and love, and we are so incredibly grateful for all of it. Our fans inspire us to work harder every day and to spread more positive energy.

DIPLO: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done or given you?

RED VELVET: At our very first event, shortly after our debut, we didn’t yet have an official light stick, so our fans were cheering us on with these dusters—that you use to clean—because they were the same color as our hair back then. That was a pretty memorable sight.

DIPLO: What would each of you be doing if you weren’t in the entertainment business?

RED VELVET: This is easy for Joy. She loves children and dogs, so she’d probably be working to become a certified dog trainer or teaching kindergarten.

DIPLO: Where would you like to see yourselves as a band in ten years?

RED VELVET: Enjoying life to the fullest, always smiling, and doing what makes us happy.

DIPLO: Besides me, which American artist would you most like to collaborate with?

RED VELVET: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, and Tori Kelly.

HARU*HANA VOL.43

I.M’s MANUAL writing by Jooheon:

I.M is happy when you say he is funny.

I.M likes rap so much so he pours his passion when he works on it.

If you want to make I.M laughes, talk anything random.

When I.M is gloomy, please dance with interesting expression.

When you wake I.M up, call his name.

Make sure he eats 3 times a day. He especially likes ramen.

I.M is happy when Monbebe call him “Kkukkung-ah~”.

"I had a sense of urgency and desperation about going after my dreams," says BTS' leader

I was someone who wanted to go to a top college, an Ivy League school by American standards,” says RM, BTS’ leader. “I was a typical student who was trying hard to achieve. And then I trusted [HYBE founder] Mr. Bang, and I started to walk down a different path. And I had a sense of urgency and desperation about going after my dreams.” RM’s gifts as a rapper, songwriter, and producer have been essential to BTS’s development, as have his wide-ranging intellectual interests. In an interview from his label’s headquarters, the artist formerly known as Rap Monster discussed whether BTS should be considered K-pop, the uniqueness of South Korean hip-hop, the highlights of the Most Beautiful Moment in Life era, and more.

You quoted the great abstract artist Kim Whan-ki recently: “I’m Korean, and I can’t do anything not Korean. I can’t do anything apart from this, because I am an outsider.” You said that was a key thing you’ve been thinking about lately. How does that idea apply to your work? So much of the pop and hip-hop I listened to came from America. But for me, as a Korean, I think we have our own characteristics and some kind of localized identity. I can’t really explain it very well, but there are some characteristics that we Koreans have, or maybe Eastern people. So we try to kind of combine those two things into one, and I feel that we created a new genre. Some may call it K-pop; some may call it BTS, or some Eastern-Western combined music, but I think that’s what we’re doing. If you think about the Silk Road in the past, there’s this idea of Eastern people and Western people meeting on some kind of, like, big road and maybe doing selling and buying of stuff. I think this story repeats itself, and some kind of new, interesting phenomenon is happening. We feel very honored to be existing in the very eye of this big hurricane.

There’s so much great Korean hip-hop, including your early heroes Epik High, who are still active. What did you hear in it early on, and what do you hear in it now? There’s always a process of when something new comes into another culture, where the identity gets transformed and it changes and adapts to this new place. Obviously, there are differences between Korea and the United States that affect the music. For example, Korea is not a multiethnic country like the United States. So there are different sensitivities that are underlying the music. Korean rappers of course have their own unique and different lyricism, their own situations and hardships that they fit into the process. As a Korean, obviously, these are the things that resonate with me.Obviously, there’s a saying there’s nothing new under the sun. So especially for people like us, in the margins of the world, so to speak, we think about how can we transform this and how can we make this our own. So these are the things that I think about when I try to balance the inspiration of Korean and American rappers. And, I think, now though, there’s a convergence of all genres of music. 

When BTS first started, there was this conflict in some people’s minds and in your own between the idea of being a rapper or being an idol, which we’d call a pop star. This is obviously something you’ve addressed in song. Maybe you can explain a little about that conflict and why it seemed so important at the time? When I was young, I wanted to be a writer of prose and poetry, and then I found rap. And a lot of what I wanted to do went into the music. And, yes, there was this idea of being a pure artist or a pure rapper. So in the beginning, it is true that when we were debuting as a pop act, there were times when I had to sort of reorganize my identity and then reflect on what my identity is. And at the beginning we didn’t see positive results. We didn’t have a lot of fans. We didn’t have great results. There were some times when we were mocked.

So it is true that it took some time for that identity to develop and settle itself. But, you know, whether it’s rap or pop music, or whatever it is, it is another method for me to show my mind and express my voice, and having that resonate with people. So a lot of that conflict resolved itself. And I think things today are very different from what they were like in 2013, because even though there’s still a lot of discussion about what is pure, what is authentic, what is sincere, what’s an artist, what’s a pop musician, those boundaries have become less and less meaningful. As long as I can show what I’ve written, it’s valid as the continuation of my dream and what I always wanted to do.

It feels like BTS really found itself around the time of Most Beautiful Moment of Life. That’s where everything came together. How do you look back on that time? Despite the name, Most Beautiful Moment in Life, that was actually a very tumultuous period for me and for us. There was the tough image we had in 2 Cool 4 Skool, in those early stages, a sort of exaggerated expression of toughness and that angst. And then we sort of slowed down a little bit and tried to express the emotions of young people who have really nothing more than dreams. It was a more honest sort of expression, and we witnessed how it was resonating with a lot of people.There was some confusion because this was something new, and we were showing ourselves to be more vulnerable, more delicate, which was very different. But we realized that it was meaningful, and as we went forward to the Love Yourself series, we started to discover that more and more as we continued.

I know that many fans don’t see BTS as part of K-pop. And you, yourselves, have said that “BTS is the genre.” How do you see it? That’s a very important debate. Because what they call K-pop, that genre is expanding very fast. For example, some so-called K-pop groups have only foreigners, from Europe, India, China, like, everywhere. There are no Korean members, but they do the K-pop thing, they’re switching the parts, and so on. BTS is expanding very fast as well. And K-pop is now so wide. Somebody could say that K-pop is for Koreans who sing a Korean song. That could be K-pop. But what about “Dynamite”? We sing the song in English. But we’re all Koreans, so somebody may say it’s a K-pop song. Or they may say it’s just a pop song, because it’s in English. But we don’t actually really care about whether people see us as inside or outside K-pop. The important fact is that we’re all Koreans, and we’re singing a pop song. So that’s the reason why we said that our genre is just BTS. That debate is very important for the music industry, but it doesn’t mean very much for us members.

What music really changed your idea of what’s artistically possible? I started with Nas, Eminem, the golden age of hip-hop. And the turning point was Drake, in 2009, when he released Thank You Later. That album was kind of shocking for me because it was kind of a freaky thing that a rapper actually sang. So after that a lot of rappers began to sing, deciding to put the melodies into their songs across the genres, between raps and melody. So, yeah, that was the moment.

When you rapped that your “shadow … is called hesitation,” what did you mean by that? It can be called hesitation or cautiousness, but, I think, there is a form of hesitation that prevents you from taking risks and prevents you from challenging yourself.

I know you motivated the members by saying that your grandkids might watch your Grammys performance someday. Is that something you think about often? It gives me a lot of goosebumps sometimes that our every moment leaves traces online where everyone can see them. So, yeah, I think that helps us keep motivated.

Some film actors have a saying, “Pain is temporary. Film is forever.” [Nods.] Life is short. Art is forever.

"We've been telling people to really love themselves," says Jimin. "This year, I began to tell myself these things"

BTS’ Jimin describes himself as “introverted,” which may come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen his extraordinarily expressive dancing, or the moment he leans back and nails a high note in, say, “Magic Shop.” In the second of Rolling Stone’s breakout interviews with each of the seven members of BTS, Jimin contemplated his perfectionist streak, described his experience of the pandemic year, explained his love of dancing, and more. He gave his lengthy, thoughtful answers from a studio room in his label’s Seoul offices, wearing a zipped-up black winter coat with a white faux-fur hood, a large black bucket hat, and a white mask to protect a translator.(In celebration of BTS’ appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, we’re publishing individual digital covers with each member of the band; check back throughout the next week for more.)

Some fans think that you may be working on a mixtape. Is that true? To be perfectly honest, there’s really nothing that’s ready or prepared. I am trying new things and really challenging myself with new things. But there is nothing that’s concrete or ready to put out.

What have you learned about yourself from the past year, in your time off the road? I realized that we’ve been telling people to really love themselves and telling them to be stronger. This year, I began to tell myself these things as well, and convincing myself that this is also something I need to keep in mind. I also realized there were times when I was being too on the edge with people around me. And I thought that I should go back to the way I was, to realign my gears, so to speak, so that I can become again the person that I used to be when it comes to how I treat people around me and how I treat myself. Now, I see people reacting positively to even small positive changes.

For seven years or so, you had ARMY cheering for you. In the past year, because of the pandemic, you’ve faced silence. How have you adjusted to that? I still have a series of negative thoughts about the situation. You know, “Why are we in this situation?” You know, “What are we doing?” And I didn’t want to acknowledge or admit or face the fact that we can’t see our friends and can’t do the things that we had been doing, as you said, for the past seven years.

What made you want to dance when you were young, and how did you realize that you had a gift for it? First of all, I never thought that I’m good at dancing. But I began to like dancing when I was young. It was my friends who suggested that we go learn how to dance as an after-school activity. As I did more of it, I began to like it more and I started taking more lessons. And I became more and more immersed in it. And I realized, as I continued to learn how to dance, that I didn’t have the stress when I was dancing. It was my own space where I could go to a different world, where I didn’t have to think about other things. It was something that I could really immerse myself into. And it made me feel really free. And it made me really happy. And then even after I debuted and I still have those feelings and those emotions, dancing is the best answer.

I understand that you don’t like to make mistakes. But that could make you very hard on yourself, couldn’t it? When I debuted, I had the shortest period of training. And I feel that I wasn’t fully ready and confident when we debuted.  I still have my shortcomings. I’m always moved by the fans who dedicate themselves — their time, their emotions, everything about themselves — to appreciating what I do and loving what I do. It makes me feel that for their sake and for their devotion that I shouldn’t make mistakes. So if you ask how do I learn to be easier on myself or more generous to myself, I think that will be something that will continue to be very difficult for me because of how I feel. When people point out things that I need more work in, it used to make me really angry at myself. Now I feel thankful if people point out things I need more work in. It makes me want to try harder.

Who were some of your early musical heroes? There were a lot of artists that influenced me. Foreign artists — Michael Jackson, Usher — and also a lot of Korean artists. But a lot of my musical inspiration came from watching the other members do their work.

You were sort of the project coordinator for Be. What did you take away from that experience? What I took away is first, how sincere the members were about making the album and making the music. So much time and so much effort goes into the creation of the music. What I also took away from it is I should also dedicate this kind of time and effort to making and creating music, and I should also try to make great music. I was really inspired by what the members contributed to the process and how we all worked on the album.

You’ve all said many times that there were differences between the members that you’ve overcome over the years. Can you elaborate at all on those differences? [Laughs] So many that I couldn’t possibly list. We all had different personalities, personalities that clash. And I, for example, may consider myself to be a little bit slower, more contemplative or more introverted. And then there are other members who want do things much faster. They’re much more active and outgoing. And then there are other guys who are even more introverted and even slower than I am. So, of course, these personalities continued to clash. I think we’ve all come to develop an understanding that it is OK to have these differences, that some people are going to be slow, and some people are going to be fast. Sometimes we have to wait. Sometimes we have to ask more questions. I think all of us sort of developed an understanding of each other.

I love the song “Serendipity” from 2017. You really pushed yourself as a singer on that one. Could you share your memories of recording it? I think this was the first time I really tried to highlight all the nuances of my voice and focus on each detail of my vocal expression. So it was very difficult to try to make sure that translated into the recording. And I just remember the recording process being very difficult because of how hard I tried to make sure that I focused on all of these details, making sure that they are expressed in the song.

Would you like to still be in BTS when you’re 40 years old? I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of being not a part of this group. I can’t imagine what I would do on my own, what I would do without the team. Even before we debuted my goal was to continue to work with these people, to continue to sing with these people. I think when I become older, and I grow my own beard, I would like to think that at the end, when I’m too old to dance, I would just like to sit onstage with the other members and sing and engage with the fans. And communicate with the fans. I think that would be great, too. So I’d like to keep this going as long as I possibly can.

"When they said I was a hidden member, I actually thought I'd been cut from the team," V says

From the start, singer-songwriter-producer V was BTS’ secret weapon. His rich, deep voice is a pleasing contrast to his fellow singers’ ever-higher high notes, and he’s not afraid to delve into full-on bedroom R&B, as on the downright sultry neo-soul track “Intro: Singularity.” With a love of jazz and classical music, V began his musical life as a saxophone player, and has the most eclectic list of influences of any member of BTS, from Sammy Davis Jr. to Sam Cooke to Coldplay (BTS’ recent cover of “Fix You” was apparently his idea). Wearing a black newsboy-style hat, a zipped-up black parka, and a white mask in his label’s headquarters one morning in April, he sipped orange juice and talked about his upcoming mixtape, his Elvis Presley fandom, his favorite movies, and more.

I know yesterday you did a variety show for the first time in a long time. How was that? It was our first appearance in five years. So I was really nervous and I was really tense. So I didn’t get a lot of sleep. But then actually when we showed up yesterday for the actual shoot, the host of the program was really kind and really accommodating. So everything went really well. I felt really comfortable. And then this morning, because of our interview, I also didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.

I’m sorry about that! [Laughs] No, no, no, no, no.

I know you had been working very hard on your mixtape, and it’s been delayed, and I think you feel a lot of pressure to make it right. How’s it going now? We’ve worked and made music as a group, and as a group only. So working on my own tape means that I have to do everything related to all the songs on the album. I have to take part in writing the lyrics and the melodies for all the songs and the production process. So, it is a bit of a pressure to bear all of the load that is distributed among the other members for a group album. So it is tough. But what is good about it is it gives me an opportunity to show who I am, and show the music that really has the color of Kim Taehyung, the color of V, to our ARMY. So that’s great opportunity of course, and that’s what makes creating this mixtape so much fun and fulfilling.

So, what is your current prediction for when you will put it out? I originally thought of releasing it last year. But it turned out to be more harder and more complex than I imagined that it would be. So then I thought I would release it early this year. But again, it turned out to be a bit more tough than I thought it would be! So now I’m looking at the end of this year.

You already had the solo song “Sweet Night,” from a TV soundtrack. What did you take away from the experience of making that? That was released as part of a soundtrack for someone I knew really well [actor and former cast-mate Park Seo-joon]. but it was actually originally made as part of my mixtape. It’s one of my personal songs. That song started out from me feeling that I really wanted a good night’s sleep.

“Blue and Gray” is a gorgeous song. You said you wrote it about a time when work was really hard for you and you weren’t happy. What was it about the work that was hard? That was when the Covid pandemic was just really expanding and becoming serious. We had prepared really hard to show ARMY our “On” performances. And what I was finding difficult at the time was not being able to show what we practiced and prepared so hard. I was telling all ARMY on social media, “Get ready, we’re about to show you these great performances!” So that was really frustrating and difficult and it made me sad. I think there was a measure of being tired and really sort of burned out a little bit from the work as well.

Were there any good points of this year off the road? It allowed me to really focus on something. Pre-Covid, I was so busy that I couldn’t really concentrate on one thing or really focus on something new. If I wanted to do a new thing, I was really forced to sort of be a dilettante. I couldn’t dive deep. But during the last year I had more time. In my work, I really tried to do more producing and then go more in-depth on my music. My melodies before were not that complex, or intricate, I thought. But I was able to focus more energy into it, to listen to more music, and really sort of think about more things. And that, I think, helped me to really dive into the producing aspect of making music. And I had a lot of time to come up with good melodies, and also had a lot of time to just sort of sit and vegetate. [Laughs] And that also helped me.

I know that you like many different kinds of music. Tell me about some of your musical heroes. My musical heroes are constantly changing by the hour almost. So yesterday, you know, it was Elvis Presley. And today might be somebody else. This is sort of my personal preference, but I think I like the older Elvis Presley, the Elvis Presley of his later years. There are many famous Elvis songs, but I feel like there’s a lot of songs that are more hidden, and not as prominent in the song discography. So, what I’m trying to do, and what I want to do, is listen to every single song, even if it’s just one minute of the song. Both the big songs and even the songs that are sort of hidden among the tracks.

There’s some great 1950s ones as well, but you’re right, late-period songs like “Kentucky Rain” and “Suspicious Minds” are some of his best. If you can recommend some must-listen Elvis Presley songs, I’ll listen to them!

I’ll get a playlist to you. So what was it like to be a “secret member” before BTS’ debut? To be perfectly, perfectly honest, when they said I was a hidden member, I actually thought I’d been cut from the team.

So can you laugh about that now or is it still a little bit traumatic? I can laugh about it now for sure. As long as I can sort of toss around our CEO, our label’s boss, and shake him around a little bit by his cuffs. But yes, I can laugh about it.

I’ve heard you like old movies. What are some of your favorites? I like old movies, but also movies that are classics but not super old. Like for example, The Godfather was a movie that I really enjoyed. And Reservoir Dogs is one of my all-time favorite movies. The Godfather I actually watched recently. A friend of mine had told me, “It’s really long, I fell asleep in the middle of it.” And I thought, “Is it that boring?” And then I watched it and I was really moved by it, especially the charisma of the godfather [Marlon Brando], and all the actors and the direction and the production. And again, his charisma, and his commanding presence during the film.

You did some acting of your own in the TV drama Hwarang. Do you want to do more of that going forward? It’s something that I’m thinking about after I turn 30.

"I do sometimes think, 'Why did I have to spend so much time in the studio?'" says Suga

With his biting, confessional lyrics, technique-heavy flow that can hit Busta Rhymes-like levels of emotional intensity, extensive production and songwriting credits, and indomitable work ethic, Suga is an indispensable piece of BTS’ collective artistic soul. In April, he sat in his label’s headquarters, wearing a gray knit cap, white mask, and black parka as he spoke about his battles with depression, his songwriting process, staying hungry after conquering the world, and much more.(In celebration of BTS’ appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, we’re publishing individual digital covers with each member of the band; check back tomorrow for our interview with V.)

You had surgery late last year for a shoulder injury that I believe dates back to your trainee days. How are you feeling? Much better. There’s still some physical therapy that I have to do, but it’s much better. And, yes, I suffered the injury in an accident when I was 20 years old and then as I continued to deteriorate, it was recommended to me that I undergo surgery. Fortunately, there was a little bit of time that I could use to have this procedure. So that’s what we did.

It’s very impressive that you’ve been doing elaborate choreography for all these years with this injury. How did you manage that? By the year before I got the surgery, I think, I was receiving treatment, injections, almost on a monthly basis. But there were times when I couldn’t lift my arms or have a full range of motion in the middle of a concert. So it wasn’t really so much about the pain. It’s more about whether I would be able to continue doing these performances. When you are actually performing, because of the adrenaline and whatever, it doesn’t really hurt. You sort of experience that the next day, that’s when you feel the pain or the discomfort or you can’t raise your arms anymore.

I love the song “First Love,” where you talk about your early infatuation with your piano and with music. The lyrics suggest that your love for music is also a source of torment; what was going on there? When I was working on “First Love,” I wanted to express a mix of different emotions, because first love is not all good things; there’s the bitter things as well. So I was talking to Mr. Bang about attaching the metaphor of first love to the first moment I came to know music. The target of the love is a piano, but it could be anything – a friend, some other entity. Then, I wanted to show the emotions you go through.

You’ve been open in your lyrics about depression and other struggles. How are you now? I’m comfortable now and feeling good, but those sorts of negative emotions come and go. So it’s almost like cold weather. It may come back in a cycle over a year, year and a half. But when I hear people say that when they listen to my music, and feel comfort and are consoled by those lyrics that express these emotions, that makes me feel very good. It’s very encouraging. I think, for anybody, these emotions are not something that need to be hidden. They need to be discussed and expressed. Whatever emotions that I may be feeling, I’m always ready to express them now, as I was before.

You’ve written many songs for BTS, many songs for yourself, and many songs for other people. What is your usual songwriting process? The process is really different for every song. Sometimes it may be a word that pops up and I build on that word, or someone could make a request for a certain way they would like a song to be developed. Oftentimes, we decide on a theme and then we sort of freely work from the larger overarching theme that we may have. But generally, when I work on a song, I create the beat first and then the melody and the rap and then finally the lyrics. That’s generally how I build them.

How is your guitar playing going? Since my shoulder got much better, I am back on the guitar. I’ve been playing other people’s songs to practice, of course, and I’m looking forward to sometime in the far future of being able to sing and play the guitar at the same time. That’s what I’m working toward.

On “Dope,” you have a great line about your youth rotting in the studio. But do you ever have regrets about that? I have no regrets about the work in the studio. Those days and that time has allowed me to have the kind of opportunities that I have now and today. So there’s no regret. But I do sometimes think, “Why did I have to spend so much time in the studio?” [laughs] Why couldn’t I have gone faster. I had that head-to-the-grindstone effort. Why couldn’t I have rested a little more or refreshed myself a little bit more? I do think about that.

You and RM and J-Hope have all these great double and triple entendres and other wordplay that can be lost on listeners who don’t speak Korean — translations can’t convey all of it. Is it frustrating that some of your foreign fans might miss certain things? When I was growing up, of course, I listened to American hip-hop and pop, and my English is not very good. So I read the lyrics and the translations of the lyrics. And obviously, what native speakers of English may consider the key lines, the key verses, the punchlines, I really couldn’t understand them because of the intricacies of the language. And, I think, that’s an unavoidable part of the language barrier. And, I think, it’s important to try to find a happy medium where people from both languages and cultures or other languages understand it. So we try to write lyrics sort of in the happy middle, that can be understood by people speaking other languages. And also, I’m studying English more and more, trying to get more familiar with it. So if we can get both Korean speakers and English speakers to understand the lyrics, that would be great. But again, that’s something I experience as well.

There’s a story that your parents didn’t like that you were rapping, that they even tore up your lyrics. How did that affect you? My parents didn’t understand rap. They are a generation apart from myself, and they never listened to rap; it wasn’t part of the music that they listened to. So it’s only natural they were against what I was doing. And, of course, being a musician is a very unstable profession as well. So I can understand perfectly why my parents were against what I was doing. But I think that motivated me or helped me work harder because there was something that I now had to prove. I had to show my parents it was possible. So it drove and motivated me to work even harder.

After all that BTS has achieved, how do you stay hungry? I’m one of those people who think that not only do people change, but people must change. But I do think it’s so important to maintain that hunger. But from the days when we were actually hungry, we set routines for ourselves, and they stay with you, even if you change as a person. I think we are still able to draw upon the things that we talked about when we were still hungry, so we can maintain that work ethic and stay hungry, even if we change and develop as people. Now, instead of hungry, I think we’re more hangry! Angry and hungry [laughs].