“I am the cute king”
If KAI’s debut album named after his name is expectation, tension, and introducing the peak of the new era, then his second album, Peaches, feels like a more dreamy and softer thing. This hidden, known artist confidence was revealed again.
“Compared to the first album, I really feel more relaxed this time.” Jin Zhongren (more familiar with the art name KAI) told Teen Vogue through a video phone. This is at the end of one day. When he was almost at 10pm, our chat was full of the last stop of the day of the second album PEACHES propaganda. Wearing a large cardigan, the brown hair hangs on his forehead without modification. This KAI and his familiar dancers have been very different for ten years. But KAI is an artist who can always reverse surprises.
“Peaches” was released on November 30 and a whole year from his first solo album. He took a feeling of internal province and reflected that period. “In the first album, I put more energy in the skill (so far).” This 27 -year -old The singer revealed through the translation, “For the second album, I want to use a truly clear perspective to focus on the direction I want to move forward and look at everything from a very objective perspective. I also learned how to communicate, discuss, discuss, discuss, and discuss with the staff. The importance of these things. “
The result is the perfect combination of six songs. Under the potential effect of similar R & B elements, each song can find many of the resonance with the previous album. The main song and MV are challenging the challenge of inheriting the debut single “MMMH”. The core of this song is completely emotional as “MMMH”, but it is a more tempting and teasing desire expression. Kai wore new traditional costumes, shuttled between the soft gardens, hillsides, and palaces -proclaiming secret and romantic stimuli and temptation with a smile.
“On the surface (this concept) may be very simple and clear.” He acknowledged that the fairy tale color set of fairy tale, compared to the CGI saturated anti -utopian effect created in “MMMH”, it would feel closer and complete, “But if it is more, if it is more In -depth excavation, this is actually a way to explore the transformation of traditional clothing into a modern style, further use modern clothing and turn it into a traditional style. “
Under the prerequisite request of “deep excavation” and “exploring we see but may not fully understand”, the concept of “peach” began to sprout. Of course, now, peaches are just an emoji that indicates desire (yes, most of the stems of peaches during the release of albums), but as far as its symbols and mythological significance, “Peach” has a long evolutionary evolution history. In many East Asian traditions, Peach has long represented longevity, vitality, and even immortality. Pink peach blossoms also contain romance and love significance. The peach blossoms are blooming in the spring, symbolizing prosperity and wealth, marking the end of a season, and the realization of a goal or dream realization. However, their appearance also implies something more exciting. They are a symbol of temptation (think of “Please call me in your name” in 2017 and “Parasitic” in 2019), their velvety skin and tender texture convey their desires. Once you succumb to this desire, it often leads to some kind of heartbreak and destruction. Straightly speaking, they are forbidden fruits in the 21st century.
Therefore, if peaches are a symbol of many contradictions, they are very suitable themes for KAI as performers and individuals. Unsuccessful Adonis (symbolized beautiful man), inspiration muses in the fashion industry, elegant ballet dancers, emotional souls, the gentle person sitting in front of the camera. Among the six songs, he not only exudes sexy charm, and sings his inner loneliness in a low voice. There are many arguments about the binary nature of the K-POP idol, but each new work of KAI is more like witnessing the diversity of a person. In front of us, we see the real one thousand. It is not enough to say that KAI is separated from Jin Zhongren, because these two identities exist in each other’s spectrum.
“Taozi is more cute, it feels more cute and bright.” KAI said in response to the back packaging of the album. He gave up his clear style of photo and replaced it with realistic photos of life. “But I have to say that this does not mean Jin Zhongren. This is not all of me, because I am a cute king. Therefore, I did not show everything in this album, but I think you can see it for KAI. You can see it from it. “”.
When he said “the cute king”, he stopped and laughed. When the sentence was translated back, he laughed again. In his ten -year career, KAI has been given many definitions, about who he is, what he does. He is the “sexy one” because of his love and skilled expression management of short tops. He is the “quiet one”, because he is an introverted one among an outbound person. He is “the one who is transcendent” because he is easelly put on and take off the character clothes with different concepts. His myth has nothing to do with him. In 2021, he wanted to define himself.
In this year, he first began to play more entertainment characters that showed more personality, and became a popular candidate for popular variety shows and various new programs. Of course, he was introduced as KAI, but with the charm of comedy talent and childishness, he was more like Jin Zhongren than ever.
“Showing you have two very important reasons in these programs. The first is to give fans more channels to provide me and who I am, and the second is that in some sense, let those who don’t understand I see who I am “. He said, “I personally think that this is not as nervous as in the past. In fact, I am happy to participate in these shows, and I am not as worried as in the past.”
He is busy serving fans -standard song shows, more diversified content, and more Tik Tok challenges (he acknowledges this unexpected difficulty: “I find that you have a lot of people through this incident. “))). Our conversation happened a few days before KAI’s milestone time: his first online solo concert. One and a half hours of personal songs (and the underestimated EXO non -main song “Jekyll”) performance, which provides a briefing journey for Kim Jongren as one of the many existences of KAI.
He reshaped himself between the songs and created a new identity and story for each song. This is what he mentioned in his fans after the concert. Wearing a comfortable bathrobe and wearing a Christmas hair belt, he judged his performance (well known that he was never fully satisfied with his work), gave sincere encouragement to his own efforts, and thanked the fans for watching, reminded They pay attention to keep warm in winter and eat well. He was humble and shy, and his voice was as soft as the voice I heard on the phone, and he judged two people on the stage we just saw. “I didn’t deliberately maintain that state, it was just a natural mentality, I always had this mentality,” he said shy when talking about it.
KAI is a continuous development image, and often focuses on its own philosophy with the new aspect of his identity. This reminds people of seasonal change. From winter to spring, when peach blossoms are in full bloom in the new stage of life, things we are familiar with look different. However, although he has created a changeable image, there is still a stable line through:
“What is the most important thing about you is really important,” he said, “The most important thing for me is happiness.”
(Text/hhhh2333)