In a candid interview from Seoul, the singer talks about her recent tour, confronting trauma in her new video for “Break It feat. Lexie Liu,” working with underscores, and the strategy behind her mold-breaking post K-pop career.
Photos + Design / Lauren Nakao Winn
Assist / Sabina Mendoza
Story / Christine Terrisse
Shot at DWNTWN Studio
“This year, I want to travel to Jeju.” Global pop star Yves is referring to the large island off the coast, south of the main Korean peninsula. Her grandmother is getting older and she would like to travel together while she still can. She also wants to find a new hobby. The vacation will be a welcome break after a whirlwind year and for that matter, a whirlwind life. One that might not last that long, as she is eager to get back into the studio to work on an album for next year.
In 2024, preparing to go solo, Yves wasn’t sure what direction to take. By that time, the singer had been on the K-pop scene for seven years as part of the twelve-member group LOONA under Blockberry Creative.
LOONA, with its blend of sounds and worldbuilding, developed a loyal fanbase, especially within the LGBTQIA community, but the company proved rife with problems. Yves and the other members managed to break out of their contracts before it completely went under.
Signing to Paix Per Mil agency as a solo artist proved to be a smart move. She arrived at the boutique agency with an open mind and came up with a strategy built around hyperpop— from her perspective not a direction many other Korean artists or groups were going with at the time.
“I wanted a ‘first-move’ advantage,” she says, via Google Meet. Dressed casually, her sometimes long hair is in a bob. “It turned out pretty well and it was a turning point for me to develop my musical spectrum as an artist.”
‘Loop’, her debut EP, captured the attention of LOONA fans, vloggers, and global press. Domestically, it charted as high as #13 on Korea’s Circle Charts, buoyed by its house-tinged lead single “Loop (feat. Lil Cherry).”
From there she gained momentum. ‘I Did’ her second EP came out that fall with its single “DIM” going TikTok viral. Then came ‘Soft Error’ the following year. On that release she collaborated with PinkPantheress. Their song “Soap” appeared on the London producer/singer’s lauded remix album ‘Fancy That?.’
Her latest EP ‘Nail’ released this spring marks the second phase of her artistic movement she tells LADYGUNN. ‘Nail’ was well-received by critics and fans alike. It also marked the first time she received songwriting credit. She co-wrote the title track, ”Nail” along with “Halo” while on “It” she is credited as sole songwriter.
Although involved creatively on her previous EPs, the success of ‘Nail’ is a vindication of sorts and not only for its streaming success.
Perhaps it will silence the criticism she received in the past online from people talking about her lack of songwriting credits. “I had a hard time reading those comments,” she confesses. “But I think the perspective of fans is changing now.”
The comments smack of a certain snobbery of the K-pop idol industry Yves comes from. Most idols don’t self-produce because they simply don’t have the time—performing is the full-time job. One can argue that taking the time to develop her sound, strategy and visual identity before testing out writing isn’t a bad idea. After so many years with her work shaped by a group, the now 29 year old can work the way she wants to.
‘Nail’ is a visceral bedroom pop, dreamy and laidback but with a kind of “relaxed” bite. The whole mood of the EP is centered around clubs and nightlife, she describes. But what is typically a twenty-something right-of-passage Yves never had a chance to experience herself.
“I didn’t know how people actually move around in a club—dance in a club—she says through an interpreter, “So I spent a few times with my music video director (Bang Jaeyeob directed “Nail”) watching YouTube videos of people dancing at clubs and then I actually went to the club with the director and my A&R to experience it myself.”
This spring, she embarked on her second solo tour, the fourteen-date Yves Tour: The Americas (an earlier European leg of the tour began in April). The setlist focused on her previous solo releases as well as some LOONA covers. Right away, she noticed a shift in her audience from previous tours, while many came from her LOONA days, some fans’ relationship is newer.
“It gives a new vibe,” she points out. That vibe, she explains, made it feel more like a festival as opposed to a K-pop concert. The tour gave her a sense of the nightlife experience she missed out during her years as a performer.
Aside from her emerging songwriting, growing sonic palette, and otherworldly visual identity, one of the smartest moves Yves has made in her career, has paid not only artistic dividends but relayed a subtle sense of identity as her choice of collaborators.
Along with Chinese artist Lexie Liu and PinkPantheress, Yves has collaborated with fellow South Korean rapper Lil Cherry (“Loop”) French-Algerian singer Lolo Zouaï on “Nail” and upcoming Filipina-American producer singer-songwriter on the remix for “Do It.”
To date, she has exclusively elevated young multicultural nonbinary women (Underscores identifies as trans). The features feel almost seamless. PinkPantheress and Underscores expand on the vocabulary she has built with the in-house producers on Paix Per Mil (millic and IOAH) enhanced with each of their signature spins.
Working with global artists has pushed her performance ability past her K-pop foundation. A surprise appearance at the Atlanta stop of Underscores’ tour on June 8th was a standout. “I was a bit worried,” she admits. “Because it wasn’t my own show and I was afraid that fans might not react the same way as when on my tour, but when I got on stage the fans went nuts and I felt that Underscores and I were one team. It was an amazing experience.”
And on April 22nd Yves was joined onstage by Lolo Zouaï on the Paris stop of her own tour. When performing “Nail” solo she says, she is used to the attention being on her, but when Lolo came onstage she was amused to see the fans gaze shift to the French star.
Prior to her tour, “See you in hell” from her second EP ‘I Did’ was a favorite to perform. “Sitting very close to fans at the edge of the stage, I felt something special singing that song,” she says. These days, she favors “Break It (feat. Lexie Liu).” It’s a pretty mellow song, but there is something about fans singing along to the track that gets her in her feels.
The two-month long tour was Yves’ longest to date. Traveling every three days, it almost started to feel routine, she says, performing the same set list in twenty-four different cities. In the middle of the tour, she got to a point where she almost felt like she was taking it for granted.
“I was able to hold onto the thought,” she says “That this is a fortunate opportunity to see my fans in different cities and interact with them. I was able to shake off the feeling of routine on the tour, and that’s something I’m proud of.”
The video for “Break It” is the first time she has co-starred in a video with another artist and her first time working with a non-South Korean director: Jeremy Qin of VACANT IMAGE, a frequent creative partner of Liu’s. In the video, shot on an iPhone, Yves portrays a lonely alien who meets a partner to share companionship and wonder of a new world in Lexie.
Not only was the method of shooting videos different from what she had been used to in her previous work, but she was able to confront a longstanding childhood trauma in the process. When she was younger, she went to a swimming pool with a relative and not knowing how deep the end of the pool was, she fought to stay above the water, feeling for a moment like she couldn’t breathe.
“From that point on, I haven’t had any interest in going into the water,” she says. “Even when I’m on vacation, I never get my head wet.”
On the shoot for “Break It” she had to jump backwards with her whole body landing in the pool. She pulled it off.
Note: During this interview, Yves spoke in Korean through an interpreter. The interpreter spoke in the third person, quotes from Yves were switched into first person.
