In Conversation: Yves on 'Nail' & being a daughter of K-pop
If you are familiar with Yves, there's a high likelihood it's because you know her from the K-pop girl group LOONA. But there's also a chance that you know her as a repeat PinkPantheress collaborator, or, most importantly, in her own right as a rising alt-pop singer becoming a mainstay in the viral electronic-hyperpop world.
2024's "Viola" from her I Did EP was a breakout hit, and she's only captured more attention from there, following up with last year's Soft Error and this year's Nail albums, consistently creating music that gets under your skin with its writhing, digital eccentricities and sleek production.
Taking a step back, if you really want to introduce Yves it's a song called "new" from 2017, when she was introduced formally as a LOONA member. Now, in retrospect, the title feels meaningful: after the LOONA contract situation led to the group leaving former management company Blockberry Creative, only she and Chuu didn't re-debut within the other LOONA spin-off groups LOOSEMBLE, Odd Eye Circle, and ARTMS. While Chuu had already been separated from the group, which was an 11-member act for a while before coming to an end, Yves' departure was a bit of a surprise, and proved to be an inspired step: she signed to PAIX PER MIL and clearly had a vision for herself, that it was time for something new.
"I would say that's kind of like a mother figure to me. It's kind of the reason I'm here, but I do also have a very complicated relationship with K-pop."
If you read the description of "new" on YouTube, it was described in a really unique way that I was struck by while grabbing the link for this article. Inspired by the biblical first woman, Eve, it introduces Yves the singer as someone constantly questioning the norms. Written for her as part of her K-pop conceptual introduction, it might simply be marketing, but it still resonates:
"Yves asks a question in Eden. “Is it really a bad thing to disobey God?” If someone has already decided our fate, wouldn’t it be a better life to stand up and against that fate?
Even if it’s not something grand such as God or fate, Yves sings that she will not surrender herself to any walls or glass ceilings she may have to face."
Tamar Herman
If you listen to Yves sing, or talk about her music, it's clear that she's not satisfied with being put into a box by an authority. But as we talked, she revealed that those very same walls and glass ceilings that she was conceptually identified as not being crowded by were, in fact, something that she used to limit herself by: "I would always compare myself with others. They have what I don't have; they're better at this when I can't do that." Now, though, just as she's grown as an artist, and beyond the bounds of what is generally considered K-pop, she's grown beyond that mindset: "I'm just focusing on myself rather than keeping up with people in that kind of spectrum."
Yves' vision for herself and her art is an outpouring of this image that was assigned to her since the start of her career, and still continues even as she breaks out of the K-pop space that formed her. Each album pushes Yves' and her music in new directions, with a blend of beats and melodies that are all at once trendy and haunting grafted onto lyrics that are witty and philosophical, and sometimes aspirational.
Nail as an album, described as a sound of "composed chaos" in a press release, and feels like it's awash in that very same chaos, evoking anxieties and ephemera that make up our individual experiences everyday with our bodies and sense of selves. If that doesn't make sense to you, that's okay; Yves is experiential, and it makes sense to my experience, but yours might be different.
Hours before Yves went on-stage in New York City, she graciously took some time to chat and discuss her approach to growth, and her familial relationship with K-pop. Due to some tight timing, it's a briefer interview than usual for the "In Conversation" series, but I hope you all enjoy.
Thanks so much for making time today. How’s it being back in New York?
I feel like I have come to New York a lot in the past, and I remember a lot of the times when I came with my members, when I was in LOONA. I feel like this time around, especially because it's right before my show tonight, I'm feeling very nervous. This time around, I did have a couple of free days in New York, so I also feel very recharged. I had a lot of good times with my staff and my other team members. So I'm feeling pretty good right now.
What did you get up to?
I did a lot of shopping and ate a lot of good food, especially this gelato.
You performed at the Brooklyn Paramount last year, but today’s performance is your first in Manhattan, actually in Times Square [at Palladium Theater]. How do you feel about your growth in that time?
Rather than thinking of it like a first performance, or a first in my career, I feel like I’m really focusing more on the music and my own condition. I’m really thankful that a lot of fans believe in me and are giving me a lot of support along the way.
I had a fan sign yesterday, so I met a lot of fans. Even some new fans, who said that they had recently discovered my music and wanted to see me, and I'm just really thankful that there's moments like that. So I feel through all of those experiences and emotions are giving me a lot more energy, and so I feel really good today.
You've gone from smaller venues to larger, more prominent ones. Your albums are getting a lot of attention from music industry insiders, and also the general public, and now you’re getting more and more fans who didn’t even know you from LOONA. So how do you feel about that growth and why do you think your music resonates?
Achieving success with the general population and making music that appeals to the wider audience hasn’t ever necessarily been my goal, and it still isn’t now. The goal whenever I make music is just trying to have fun, and make good music through that process. I’ve just found that through this process and through all the work that I've created, fans end up loving the music. And then there slowly has become more people just in the general public who maybe don't even listen to K-pop or my style of music, who have found interest in my music as well. And so I'm very thankful for that.
Though I debuted about 2 years ago, it does feel like a short time. But in those 2 years, there were a lot of things that happened. There are a lot of projects that I put out, a lot of work that I've done, a lot of personal growth, not just in my career. I hope that I can keep showing more growth and better projects in the future to my fans and to the public.
I actually was going to ask about that later, but you've constantly been releasing an album then touring, releasing an album, touring. Each time, obviously, the music gets better and you get better as a performer. You're more confident, and everyone is like, “Oh, Yves.” So how do you keep the creativity flowing amid all this constant hard work?
There have been a lot of times in my life since I’ve been making music where my self-esteem and my confidence in myself really dropped. Just within myself, and also with the people around me and the kind of views that they have of me, and that’s really affected me. So there would be a lot of times through that where I'd be very down on myself. But then I would eventually realize – and I feel like I've really experienced this throughout the past two years since I became a soloist – that life is short.
In all those times before, I would always compare myself with others. They have what I don't have; they're better at this when I can't do that. But rather than focusing on that, I feel like now especially I'm focusing on my own strengths and what I have. I've been really trying to grow personally through those things and more focus on what it is that I can do well and what I might be able to do better than other people. And I'm just focusing on myself rather than keeping up with people in that kind of spectrum.
And though, just as you said, constantly releasing albums and projects and then going on tour as well– it's definitely not an easy schedule for me, but I feel like while it has been busy, I've learned a lot that it's all in those kind of small moments where I can experience happiness, like little gelato for example. That’s a small moment of happiness for me. And I feel like I've grown a lot through these busy schedules and through all these busy projects, and I feel like I'm really looking forward to growing a lot more in the future.
You mentioned that you think you used to compare yourself a lot to others, but now you’re focusing on your strengths. So I’m kind of curious, what are your strengths?
When I would originally think of what my strengths are, I would always try to focus on one, like only thing that I could be really good at. Whenever I’d be pretty decent at various different things, I would kind of try to distance myself from the idea. But through the past two years, and even the past years that I was in LOONA, I experienced a lot of things in my life and my career, singing and being on stage, dancing, performing…I learned a lot of different things and learned a lot of more skills throughout all these different experiences.
So I feel like now, I would say if I had to choose one thing as my strength, it would be that I can try a bunch of different concepts because concepts are a very big thing in K-pop and in Korean music. I can try many different things and I'm not limited to one specific box, but with every single concept that's put upon me, I can kind of express my own color in the end product.
Tamar Herman
I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t ask you about what’s your favorite lyric or musical moment on the new album?
So I definitely feel the chorus part in “Nail”, which is very much about “stop thinking about whatever is beyond this moment, just really try to experience this moment and be happy”. Because that's the really most important thing that matters.
But also one of the other lyrics that I really love on my album is in "It": “Flow Again”. When I was writing this song, I tried to really focus on the idea that hard times will always come around. It's just a natural part of life, but hard times will also always end. And so when hard times come, so too good times will also eventually come. And this is a message that I want to share with both myself and my fans as well. That you shouldn't have to feel lost or stuck whenever you're kind of in the middle of a hard moment. Just let it go and be free, and be ready for whatever's going to come because it might be good.
This is for a newsletter called Notes on K-pop, and I always ask people about what they think about K-pop, as this sort of major entity that is still hard to define.
For you, there’s obviously quite a connection to K-pop since you started your career as a girl group member, but now you’re doing everything on your own, and not necessarily within that same world. So I can’t help but be curious, what’s your relationship with K-pop nowadays?
So K-pop, I would say that's kind of like a mother figure to me. It's kind of the reason I'm here, but I do also have a very complicated relationship with K-pop because as you mentioned before, it is really hard to define K-pop and I think the same way. People always kind of want to say what kind of genre is K-pop, put it into a box. But I also agree that it’s just a very diverse spectrum, and it can't really be defined to one single word or one single style or genre of music.
Because I have come a little away from K-pop, but I'm still very aligned with K-pop and K-pop music, it does feel kind of far but also close, right next to me in that sort of sense.
Before you go so that you can get ready before the show, is there anything else you wanted people to know about you?
I feel like there are a lot of people who look to Yves, the artist, and they have a lot of doubts about who she is, or what she’s going to be, or what she’s doing. So I want to give them a little more certainty that I’m always going to keep growing, and that I’m always going to try to do better, and always going to put out a lot of great projects.
This interview was conducted in both English and Korean via the assistance of an interpreter.
