{"id":62787,"date":"2026-04-19T11:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/solo-career-making-arirang-group-egos\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:05:55","slug":"solo-career-making-arirang-group-egos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/19\/solo-career-making-arirang-group-egos\/","title":{"rendered":"Solo Career, Making ‘Arirang,’ Group Egos"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t
\n\t\t\tV<\/span>
\n\t\t<\/span> spent much of his childhood with his grandmother in Geochang, a small town in southern South Korea. He came away with a taste for older music, from Chet Baker to Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley, and a broody, smoldering vibe that stands out among his bandmates. He has a voice to match, a smoky baritone that he lets loose on his vibe-y, bedroom-eyed debut EP, Layover.<\/em> He\u2019s always been an essential element in BTS<\/a>\u2019 sound, and on Arirang<\/a><\/em>, his songwriting contributions included essential tracks like \u201cInto the Sun.\u201d He seems quietly confident about it all, with the exception of his inability to hit the kind of high notes that come so naturally to the likes of Jimin. \u201cI am on the lower end,\u201d he says, in a February interview conducted in Hybe\u2019s Seoul, South Korea headquarters. \u201cBut I\u2019ve learned a lot. I\u2019ve gotten better since learning from our past albums, but it will always be a challenge for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you feel in 2022, when it became clear a break was coming? This is all you\u2019ve known for so long.<\/strong>
Well, while we\u2019re in the military, we can\u2019t perform even if we want to. So I did really yearn to perform. I wanted to release an album, I wanted to sing and dance. I definitely felt that \u2026 desire? Let\u2019s call it desire. But since we were needed by our country, we had to do the best with our situation at the time. So I tried very hard to forget about V of BTS for a while, so that I could concentrate on living my life as Kim Taehyung.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou said that after discharge, you rebuilt and reset your mind and body. What does that mean to you?<\/strong>
That idea was so important to me. I knew that my time in the military was going to be quite long, so I thought very hard about how to spend it well and not waste it away. First off, I considered my values and my health. I tried to organize and give a lot of thought to my inner world, looking back on myself and contemplating the kind of person I ultimately want to become. So for that year and a half, I worked out a whole lot. Read a lot, listened to a lot of music. And I think that gave me the opportunity to rebuild my body and mind.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s the most important thing you read?<\/strong>
I asked my friend: \u201cHey, I want to read! Do you have any books to recommend?\u201d And they got so excited and recommended Han Kang\u2019s and Keigo Higashino\u2019s books. So that\u2019s literally all I read. There was also a book called Eleven Steps. <\/em>It was kind of a philosophy book. But with any of the different books, I found myself putting myself into the text. Like imagining myself as a character in a novel, for example. I was so deep in my imagination at the time. Was it helpful? I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\"Our<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\tRolling Stone\u2019s May issue features the most ambitious cover-story package in the magazine\u2019s nearly 60-year history: eight different print covers in all. In addition to the group cover and story, we\u2019re rolling out the seven solo covers \u2014 each with a video and solo Q&A \u2014 through Monday, April 20. Click here<\/strong><\/a> for continuing coverage, and click here<\/strong><\/a> to buy a box set of all eight covers.\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\"Our<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\tRolling Stone\u2019s May issue features the most ambitious cover-story package in the magazine\u2019s nearly 60-year history: eight different print covers in all. In addition to the group cover and story, we\u2019re rolling out the seven solo covers \u2014 each with a video and solo Q&A \u2014 through Monday, April 20. Click here<\/strong><\/a> for continuing coverage, and click here<\/strong><\/a> to buy a box set of all eight covers.\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tARMY says you seem more confident. Do you feel that way?<\/strong>
It\u2019s just that \u2026 Actually, I found that after working out, I looked and felt different from when I didn\u2019t work out, both on the outside and inside. So I guess I have a more confident figure.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou are so careful with your solo music. You have a lot of songs that you make, and then you don\u2019t put out or you delete. What did it mean to get Layover<\/em> finished and out into the world?<\/strong>
Layover<\/em> came to me at a time when I felt the need to look back on my journey so far as V of BTS. The word \u201clayover\u201d can mean a stop between destinations, but to me, it\u2019s expressing that my life is not a straight path. I want to say: I can make this kind of music, but I also like many other styles. I love jazz, classical music, and even more alternative music, so I wanted to share that with ARMY and our listeners. I genuinely love music with all my heart, and Layover<\/em> is that representation of me.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tThe new BTS album is very different from your solo work. Going into it, what were your personal goals for the album?<\/strong>
First and most importantly, there\u2019s not a single song on this album that is not my style. Every single one is my style and the kind of music I\u2019ve wanted to make. I think this was another color I wanted to pursue, in terms of genre. So I gave it my all to create this album, and it has a lot of love in it. This Arirang<\/em> album, I mean.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\tWatch the video interview below\t<\/h2>\n
\n
\n