TWICE’s Nayeon on New Music, What She’s Realized Throughout Ok-Pop Profession

Nayeon has been on a whirlwind journey for the previous few years.

In 2021, her Ok-Pop woman group, Twice, reached a brand new degree of worldwide success. Touchdown their first entries on the Billboard 200 High 10 (Style of Love) and Billboard Scorching 100 (“The Feels”), the nine-piece act cemented their spot as world superstars. The next 12 months noticed back-to-back releases of their fourth Japanese album, Have a good time, in July and their eleventh Korean EP, Between 1&2, in August. However Nayeon, the group’s oldest member, kicked off that summer time with Twice’s very first solo album, Im Nayeon (Im is the singer’s surname).

“The primary album… I believe I felt numerous strain as a result of it was the primary solo work to return out of Twice,” Nayeon tells The Hollywood Reporter by way of a translator.

The EP and its lead single “Pop!” – a textbook instance of the elevated bubblegum pop that feels distinctive to Nayeon and Twice – had been an immediate hit in Korea and globally, with the album debuting at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Now, on a noon Zoom name from her company, JYP Leisure, in Seoul, the 28-year-old singer is all smiles. In between sold-out world excursions and chart-topping albums as a member of Twice, Nayeon has been exhausting at work making ready for her extremely anticipated sophomore EP, Na, which dropped at the moment.

In a slight departure from her debut solo work, Na, very like Twice’s latest releases, explores a sound befitting an artist who’s not {the teenager} she was on the time of her debut. Whereas “Pop!” was a track for followers to hearken to on a brilliant summer time day with the home windows down, Na’s lead single, “ABCD,” feels higher fitted to pregaming an evening out with pals.

“I needed to indicate the aspect of me that I didn’t get to as a member of Twice and in my first album,” Nayeon explains, noting that she needed to reveal a extra “mature” sound that was “stronger and bolder.”

Na, which is each a play on the singer’s title and the Korean phrase for “me,” consists of seven tracks — 4 in Korean and three in English. The brand new launch additionally contains a number of collaborations, much like Nayeon’s first album.

The album’s third monitor, “Heaven,” options Sam Kim, the Korea-based American singer who helped write and compose the track. Lee Chan-hyuk, one half of the beloved Korean brother-sister duo AkMu, produced the track “HalliGalli.” The Y2K-esque “Magic,” that includes Julie from up-and-coming Ok-Pop woman group Kiss of Life, is a excessive level of the album.

“I beloved working with different artists,” says Nayeon, who notes that Twice hasn’t finished many exterior collaborations as a bunch. “It was each unusual, however on the similar time, it was very thrilling.”

Nayeon has been touring with Twice persistently from 2022 till now. The group most not too long ago carried out an encore of their fifth world tour at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas in March and has extra exhibits scheduled for Japan in July. Nayeon says she’s no stranger to the balancing act of touring and creating new music.

“I’m fairly used to it by now, engaged on an album whereas touring, so I simply had numerous enjoyable,” she grins, including that her group mates have heard and preferred Na. “I regard my solo work as an extension of being a member of Twice.”

In October, Twice will have fun its ninth anniversary, one in all a choose group of acts to achieve this milestone in Ok-Pop, a style the place it’s frequent for an artist to launch a couple of album a 12 months, with promotion schedules sometimes together with a number of weekly music exhibits per launch.

“I’ve realized quite a bit about the way to be thoughtful of others, and the way to voice my opinions, and on the similar time, hearken to different folks’s opinions and stability these two issues out,” Nayeon says of the data she’s gained by way of a close to decade on the job. “With many members in our group, I additionally realized quite a lot of duty.”

When requested what recommendation she had for youthful performers within the trade, Nayeon humbly dismissed the concept. “There are such a lot of nice new artists today, and I study quite a bit from them as effectively,” she says. “There are such a lot of totally different ideas of idols… so I don’t know if I’m ready to offer them recommendation.”

Nayeon did, nonetheless, provide some recommendation to these working in the direction of careers in Ok-Pop: “Actually take into consideration how a lot you need to commit to this career and the way a lot you find it irresistible and the way a lot ardour you might have for this.”

Trying forward, Nayeon appears optimistic and optimistic for the second half of the 12 months, breaking down her targets into distinct buckets: doing effectively on her solo album, the upcoming Twice tour and the group’s ninth anniversary festivities. She’s particularly enthusiastic about performing reside in entrance of Twice’s cleverly named fanbase: “I actually need to construct extra nice reminiscences with our fandom, As soon as.”