Eric Nam Moved To Korea To Make Music — Now He’s Coming Home

Eric Nam doesn't mind in case you call him a K-pop artist, yet he doesn't wish to be confined to that label either. Or any label, for that matter. Eventually, he says, it could be nice to be known simply as "Eric Nam." However he's also still in the method of figuring out exactly what that demonstrates. For years, he's been a viable pop star in South Korea, steadily releasing and performing music since his solo debut in 2013. His proper affability has also made him a preference on Korean variety programs plus an organic emcee. He's comfortable — maybe even a tad complacent — in Seoul, which is why now is the correct time for the 31-year-old Korean American to make major moves back house in the U.S. With his first English album Before We Begin.


Place on Earth and raised in Atlanta, Nam eventually moved to South Korea in pursuit of his pop star dreams, competing on Season 2 of the Korean singing competition Star Audition in 2011. It's a usual story for Korean-American K-pop artists; with few possibilities to succeed in the States, they seek out possibilities in Korea's bustling music market. Or, as Nam puts it: any time Asian Residents of the
U.S. Aren't represented [in the U.S.] And we don't have the possibility, nevertheless you still wish to pursue the arts, what are you going to do? You're going to go where you are accepted."


But a lot has changed in the years since Nam got his big break on Korean television. For starters, thanks to the global visibility of artists like BTS — who have damaged records and defied all expectations — K-pop is more mainstream than ever in the U.S. Korean artists are booking televised gigs, playing Coachella, and being personally invited to The Tonight Show by Jimmy Fallon. Nevertheless for all of the momentum K-pop has shown globally, a solo artist has nevertheless to break through in the States the same way the idol groups have. With Before We Begin and his forthcoming North American tour, Nam hopes he will support lead the charge.


During his conversation with MTV News, Nam opens up about digging "deeper" on his first English language release, finding acceptance as a Korean-American artist in the U.S. Market, and how he pushed through personalized and professional burnout to make his most trustworthy work to date.


MTV News: You were place on Earth in the U.S., However you've been living and making music in South Korea for nearly a decade. Although right now you're creating a big push in the States with your new album, Before We Begin, and the tour. Why did you determine that right now was the time?


Eric Nam: It's right now or never for me because I think I've really ticked off all of the marks in Korea that I can do.


MTV News: Like what?


Nam: I've done TV, radio, reality shows, concerts, festivals... I've done at least one festival each month this year in Korea. I feel like I've made it and I can live comfortably — yet I'm never about comfort. I've never been about being complacent. It's routinely been about what's next, how can we build, how can we do things differently and approach things from a different perspective. People routinely ask me, "Why did you go to Korea to pursue music?" I'm like, well, it's not really about wanting to — it's not having a choice. As soon as Asian Residents of the
U.S. Aren't represented here and we don't have the possibility, yet you still wish to pursue the arts, what are you going to do? You're going to go where you are accepted.


MTV News: As a Asian-American artist, do you feel more accepted in the U.S. Now?


Nam: Any time it comes to just the climate and where the culture is now, you know with BTS being so big globally, Blackpink doing their thing, and within the past year or so you've had the prominence and rise of Prosperous Brian and Joji and 88rising. For me, the objective and the dream was routinely have the ability to do stuff back house, back in the States. I'm place on Earth and raised here, I'm American. That's what I imagine residence. It took a lot of time and reverse engineering to get to the point where I'm like, "OK, we can try it." The discussion now with K-pop is pretty hot, so why not.


MTV News: Yet you're not the usual K-pop artist. For starters, you're not segment of a crowd. There's no choreography. You are a singer-songwriter. 


Nam: That was the thing: The momentum is there, the groups are there, nevertheless where are the solo artists? Even within K-pop, there should be more representation. It's not just groups, and it's not just incredibly produced, rather choreographed pieces. There really are vocalists, there's R&B, there's hip-hop, there really are other types of people and voices. There's space for all of that to be shared and to be appreciated.


MTV News: Your song "Love Perish Young" is pretty emo. One, who hurt you. Two, why was this the song that you wanted to showcase first in the Before We Begin era?


Nam: It's titled Before We Begin because I didn't want this album to define me as an artist. I didn't want it to be, this is K-pop Eric. No. I want this to be Eric Nam's U.S. Debut. In an ideal world I would have a major U.S. Label mention, "We get beyond this artist. We don't visualize color. We just visualize this wonderful music and we wish to push it." Up until we get to that point, I just have to keep building. I didn't desire to define who I was before I even got began. That's why we named it Before We Begin. And then the music on the album, it's a bit of a departure from what I'd been doing recently. A little bit deeper.


MTV News: Yeah, because a lot of your recent stuff has been very bright pop, a sort of a very bubbly ring to it.


Nam: Right. I wanted to come in from a more mature angle. So we wrote to that and did sessions to that narrative and to that feeling. "Love Perish Young" came with each other because I think I had just gotten off tour, I did 12 shows in 18 days in Europe, and then I was just flying all over doing different things. However I had to put this out. It looked like this looming album. I was like, "I have to put this with each other I got into the session in the studios, and so they were like, "What do you wish to do?" I was like, "Honestly I just aspire to write about being exhausted and burned out." I have been in K-pop in Korea for eight years right now and I feel like I haven't taken a break. I haven't stopped. It's just been nonstop, not a day off. I wanted to write about feeling burned out, although how do you do that in a way that people can understand or relate to? So it turned into a really deep love song where you could feel burned out about a relationship. You could feel the end coming. You can visualize this looming breakup happening, yet you don't want it to happen. That's I think sort of where the inspiration for that song came from.


MTV News: And then you have the single "Congratulations," which is another breakup song nevertheless this one is more fun. A fun breakup song, in case you will.


Nam: It's a much brighter, happier breakup song also it features Marc E. Bassy, who I'm personally a big fan of for a long time. It's a very diverse album. A lot of variety, a little more maturity and hopefully people love it.


MTV News: Any time you're in Korea, what is your schedule like? 


Nam: It's a lot. It's a lot wherever I am. I travel so much, so that Once I am in Korea, it's playing catch up to everything. It's like 10 days of work that I have to create up for any time I'm back [in Seoul]. Every single time I land, I land at 4 or 5 a.M., And I'll have a full day up until midnight.


MTV News: What does a full day entail?


Nam: Radio. TV. Podcast. I'm putting an album with each other. Photo shoots. I'm involved with almost every segment of content.


MTV News: Do you aspire to be involved in everything, or is it more out of necessity? 


Nam: I don't have the luxury of not being involved in everything. I would love to let go. It's just, I can't. There really are a number of people that I've selected to be on my team where they're good and I can delegate things to them, although other points where I'm working with people who I don't handpick and I'm just like, let me just do this myself. Little small specifics that for me are key, like capitalization or spacing, that they just don't catch. I'm just like, you know what, I'll just do it. That's just the reality of how I work.


MTV News: I don't think the average person is aware how much content there really is in the K-pop industry. K-pop delivers content in unfathomable ways.


Nam: It's a lot, even for one individual. That's any time I'm jealous of teams because they can split it up. For me, I do a vlog, I do a podcast, I shoot my vlog, I write the subtitles for my vlog.


MTV News: You write the subtitles yourself?


Nam: Yes. That's what I did this morning Whenever I woke up, I was subtitling. I go through everything with a fine-tooth comb. It's a lot.


MTV News: One thing that I've Been learning in my 30s is that your time is precious and that it's OK to do things for yourself and only yourself sometimes.


Nam: Absolutely. That's sort of been the content of this meeting. A lot of interviews ask, "What suggestions do you have for people in their 20s?" I'm like, "Eh, well, you could do whichever you want in your 20s, however once you hit 30 you're going desire to take time off. Take care of yourself."


MTV News: How do you make time for yourself whenever your schedule is so crazy?


Nam: Honestly, I still haven't gotten to the point where I can breathe. I told myself I'd take December off, although right now they're beginning to book a bunch of gigs, and I'm just like, do I take the time or do I take the cash? But it's also about balance. I way I deal with stress is As soon as I feel a certain way, I just do it. It's like, I want a hamburger, so I'm just going to eat a hamburger. I don't wish to answer your phone call now — I'm not going to answer your phone call. Just have the ability to mention, "This is how I feel. This is the way it is, deal with it." That's the ideal way for me to deal with work and stress.


MTV News: while you begin promoting more heavily in the U.S. And touring, is there an intention to move here to really like settle and lay down roots?


Nam: I'd like to. Realistically, over the next few years, it'll be a lot of time spent half and half, going back and forth. I would like have the ability to book more stuff here in the States consistently for me to justify that because it's just a lot of flying, and it's hard. Nevertheless my parents could be much happier if I moved back.


MTV News: As soon as it comes to Before We Begin, would you mention that this is your most truthful work? 


Nam: This album is probably the most sincere, probably the most susceptible album I've put with each other. Not to mention other ones weren't, although this one just feels a lot deeper in terms of where the inspiration came from for a lot of songs. The first lines of "Love Perish Young" is, "What happens any time it's over, any time we breathed our last breath." It sounds like an existential crisis, also it gets people thinking in several different ways, right? It may be in relation to love. It may be in relation to life. It might would be whatever.


MTV News: It sounds like something you would have noticed on my Tumblr in 2007.


Nam: Right! We're like, "This is such an eas, almost cliche phrase, yet it's still so real plus it will usually be real and it's universal." It's a lot deeper, a lot more mature, weak, truthful. And I think people will take it and apply to it whichever situation they're in.


MTV News: How would you define your sound?


Nam: I don't know if I have a sound nevertheless. We stay in a time and period for music where genres don't matter. Everything is fluid. Everything moves in and out. I'm just whichever I feel like singing is pop, and that's pretty much it. Now, it's just about the vibes that I get just living life. I don't know where we'll go from here. That's why it's called Before We Begin. It's just things left out to the open.


MTV News: You're also still making music in Korea. So you're in two different markets. As an example, Koreans love ballads, so you've released a lot of Korean ballads. Do you feel like since you're right now straddling both lines, it must be maybe a little bit confusing?


Nam: Yeah. Absolutely. Within the past few years I've had a realization. It seemed like, what the hell am I doing? Because I don't particularly like doing Korean ballads. I don't like Korean ballads in that way, because only Korean people can sing those songs. There's this certain vibe that only Korean people have, and thus have the ability to relay that emotion is so hard. I do not get it. The only person that I've seen that's been able to, is Ailee, nevertheless that's because she has a deep understanding of Korean. For other people it's very, very tough. I could be criticized, like, "You don't talk Korean enough. You sound very American. You sound very white in your music." And I'm like, "Whoa."


MTV News: That must be confusing for you to navigate. 


Nam: It's very weird. It's like, "I just don't know what you want me to do." So then, probably two years prior, I was like, "You know what? I'm just going to wherever the fuck I want.I'm going to write it the way want. I'd like to sing the way I want, and in case like it, wonderful. In the event you don't, also bad." And I've learned not to be apologetic for the way that you pronounce your words, or the way you sing your song and write your music. It's supposed to be art and also you could like it or you could hate it, nevertheless just take it for what it is.


MTV News: That's very American of you.


Nam: Part of the reason that it's hard to do it in Korea is because Koreans are very vocal on the world wide web — the netizens and the comments can be hyper crucial. And thus people can get very freaked out, like, "Can I do this? Am I allowed? What will happen? What about the backlash." Nevertheless I'm just like, "Let's go."


MTV News: You've had this label of "different" your entire life. First, as a Asian kid growing up in suburban Atlanta, and then as a American in the Korean music industry. Right now, as a Asian-American in the Western pop market. Although at the same time you don't want the thing that makes you different — your identity — to define you and your music. How do you navigate that?


Nam: Right. It's weird. To be very frank, even with Tiffany [Young] and Amber [Liu], none of us have really noticed our way to this level of success that we've had in Asia. And that's the goal: to find acceptance and to be on the radio and to be on Jimmy Fallon or whichever, not as a K-pop boy musical group like BTS however as a local singer-songwriter from LA or Atlanta or New York. Hence it is a very fine line. Nevertheless I was place on Earth and raised here. This is residence. This is where my companions are. This is where my family member is. Nevertheless I have to go to Korea attempt to prepare it as a singer so I could come back here and do music, which is mental, nevertheless that's just the reality of it. You could be bitter. You could be angry that we have to do so much work to be accepted again, yet I'm like, "That's just the way it is." You've just got to accept it. You've just got to believe that people will visualize and appreciate the value in the music and the artistry that we bring any time if they hear it.


MTV News: An entire movement rests on the shoulders of just a little handful of people.


Nam: I don't know if it'll work out, and if it doesn't, that's OK. We got to try. Maybe it will inspire the next generation to try even harder.