[INTERVIEW] Baek Yerin, “I Want to Become A Person Who's Like the Universe”

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Baek Yerin, who was born in 1997, debuted when she was 15 and more than that, she had been a trainee in JYP Entertainment for a long while. The girl who lived in Daejeon had since then moved to Seoul, America and then Seoul again. And in this year when she has turned 18, she released 'Across the Universe', which is from the album "FRANK" that she wrote the lyrics and composed all the songs herself. It is a record about the emotions that a girl feels during her adolescence, written indirectly as the universe, a world that she doesn't understand.

Do you feel awkward when you're being taken photos of? We heard that you're very shy.
Baek Yerin: It's my first time doing an interview along with a photoshoot. Even during photoshoot for the album, I was always with my friend (Park) Jimin whom I work together with as 15&. It is the first time that I have a photoshoot alone. My face always turns red when I'm being taken photos of.

Is it still hard for you to adapt?
Yerin: It is still uncomfortable. I was nervous when I had the photoshoot for the profile photo when I was a trainee. And it is embarrassing to see myself appearing on photos. It is also because I am quite timid and an introvert.

Is such personality of you reflected in your album this time? It seems that your first solo album is mostly about loneliness. There is also a song called 'Don't Leave Me Alone'.
Yerin: I don't write the lyrics after deciding the theme of the album. Writing memo is one of my habits so whenever something happened, I wrote it down, talked about it with my friends then wrote down some memo again, and used those (memos) to write songs. That's why my passive side is often being shown in this album. I am the type of person who tries observe my own emotions, thoughts and worries attentively.

Were you able to organize your thoughts after this album?
Yerin: I still don't understand myself well. (smile) I don't like to be with people and I become lonely when I am with them. It is still ambiguous. It seems more suitable to say that I have recorded (my thoughts) down, rather than to say I have organized them. I wanted to put the many stories of mine naturally (into the album) as the time went on since it's my first solo album.

But you must have cared about people's reaction as it is your first solo album.
Yerin: I worried about what kind of thoughts the people listening to the album would have, and as there is a system in the company, I didn't try to make it totally as I pleased. In particular for the title track, though my opinion was important, I thought that the opinions of other people were crucial too. So I prepared a lot before discussing with others. Other songs were made more according to my please.

What kind of opinions did you receive for ‘Across the Universe'?
Yerin: First of all, for the music arrangement, Park Jinyoung PD-nim gave me a lot of comments on it. Also, I planned to use the vocabulary 'satellite' in the chorus, PD-nim said that such kind of English vocabulary would not be understood instinctively by many people, so it is better to use a word that people could understand right away, and suggested to change it into Korean. He said that it would be good to have many people to listen to (it) as it is my first solo album. For the composition, I made two versions of the song responding to PD-nim's advice given and had learnt a lot from that.

How did you come up with the idea of 'universe'?
Yerin: That was provided by Cloud oppa whom I worked with for this album. At first I wondered, 'do I have to talk about love with this subject?'. But I didn't want to just talk about love although I do have a lot to say about that. Since it is my solo debut track as well, I thought it would be great that it could be heard by a wider audience.

That is interesting. It is a song about the loneliness you have, it's not about ocean but universe! (smile) It is about hoping for someone who would cross the universe to understand my loneliness, isn't it?
Yerin: Wow, it's right. There are many times when people ask me "so who's the 'he'" as they listen to the song, I wrote with the thought of 'there must be someone who would understand my loneliness in somewhere unreachable". I also watched the movie 'The Martian' for it. (laugh)

How was [The Martian]?
Yerin: For me, it was more entertaining than 'Interstellar'. It might seem forced now to relate to it to what I sing, but weren't the time of Mars and the Earth different in 'The Martian'? That, to me, is like the time of me waiting for something here is going slowly, while the time for other people is going quickly.

Is it similar to the feelings of the lead Mark Watney living alone on Mars?
Yerin: I was first amazed. Didn't he grow potatoes because he was a botanist? People really have to know a lot (to live). (laugh) I thought about how it would be if I was left in Mars. I would probably have been dead. (laugh) Even if I could live on, I am probably the kind of person who needs a world that influences me. Something that makes me feel forever. I think that is why I become lonely as that is something I need all the time, at the same time I wonder if I would become miserable if I spend the time alone.

Is it hard to find a person that makes you feel?
Yerin: I have been singing for around 8 to 9 years ever since I was a trainee, that's why I am able to meet many people as singer Baek Yerin. When I heard bad things about my music, I would be very worried and would think 'so there is something wrong about this', and go to ask the people I'm close with. I do think that I have worked very hard during the 3 years since I debuted. But I reckon I am lack of a lot of things as just female high school student Baek Yerin as well.

Daejeon is your hometown, but as you began doing music, you came to Seoul, and studied overboard in America, right?
Yerin: I do think like this sometimes: the place where I was born in is Daejeon, but where is my home? It is why I could not meet people easily, so I sometimes wonder if doing this kind of complicated things alone is worthless when I hang out with friends. However, the people I met through the work that I'm doing are people whom I wouldn't be able to meet if I were living a normal life. Though of course it would be great if I could meet people from both sides, (I am ok) because I want to do what I'm doing.

It seems like that's why rather than your talent of singing, you unraveled the things you experienced yourself more.
Yerin: That's true. There's almost nothing restricted on talent. I steadily do what I am good at no matter where I am at, although singing is a part of my daily life, I cannot say I have lived just by getting into singing. Even when I was studying abroad, I was really interested in drawing and designing, I have recently fallen into videos too. [T/N: Yerin only referred to 'videos' so I am not sure whether she meant watching videos or making videos] It is the music that records such kind of me. It's like 'ah, so I've written such a document of myself in this year'. But it was my pleasure that many congratulated me. The fact that a lot like (my music) and that I could influence others.

How do you record down your daily life and make it into music?
Yerin: I think lyrics is most important, and rather than composing melody that matches the lyrics, I try to sing in a way that suits the lyrics, record it down as audio memo, let people listen to it, and then create something again. There are many pretty words and there are many high-sounding words, but I think it should be written with the most of one's true heart for something to be felt. Because one has to write in the way when the thing happened for that thing that is to be written.

I also think that singing a song is slightly similar to reading (something) out. ‘Blue’ is a song that describes a situation and it reaches the climax when talking about the emotions, it gives a feeling that the melody and music arrangement explains the flow of the lyrics.
Yerin: ‘As I am’ and ‘That's why’ are especially like so. As I only focused on the lyrics when I sang, it seems like how to sing the song was decided that way without me thinking about it. I wrote two tracks in English, actually if it's literally translated, they're really easy English. (laugh) I really used only easy English for the whole song, and it's so for the grammar too. But it somehow gives a feeling of reading out. Just like what I was thinking came out straightly from my mouth.

Is it also because of the lyrics that you are able to deliver the (meaning of) lyrics by your voice with no specific technique?
Yerin: It is decided once I try to sing the song. Instead of searching for the way to sing on purpose, it seems I try to find the tone that fits the lyrics. I wanted to singing in the tone that my voice is most comfortable with, and it is also because to sing as my original self on the stage is what I wanted to do the most. I want to upload guide version of the songs on soundcloud too. Because it's really just singing with only guitar playing. The music arrangement now is according to how I want it to be conveyed, and it matches very well with the public's favor too. Since I don't like fancy style, when the staff worked on it, I requested so next to them.

We heard that in order to let you record just like performing live, to focus on the vocal, there was another space for the instrument team.
Yerin: Cloud oppa handles a lot of the instruments. He played most of the instruments for this album too. So he explained much with respect of techniques, he also said 'Let's use band score music that is rare nowadays for this album'. I began to listen to band music a lot as I was doing my recording. I think I like the sound of bass the most. (smile)

The bass in ‘Across the Universe’ is certainly distinct. (smile)
Yerin: Before the preparation of this album, I had never seen such music arrangement nor process of mixing in person. But I've come to understand how hard it is to do mixing and mastering as I watched it in person. Tracks that were modified many times were amended 3~4 times, but many have said that what they wanted was to showcase the color of my voice. Therefore I continued to contact the staff and requested for modification on the sound.

Do you think that as a result, you have devoted yourself into this album? As the name of the album is "FRANK".
Yerin: ‘Frank’ holds the meaning of being honest, and being open. It is also the title of Amy Winehouse's album. I was comforted by her many times, too. At first, I wanted to use the word 'Bloom' which sounds beautiful to everyone. But after some thinking, I realized I'm not such kind of person. (laugh)

You wrote "I am a weird person, meow" on your instagram account, right? (laugh)
Yerin: I have always heard that people described me as odd. 'Meow meow' is my nickname which was why I wrote that, but two of the friends I always hang out with told me, "Ya, you're the weirdest". I like weird things too, though. They call me in a vulgar way, 'weirdo' too, but I don't feel upset about it.

Then what kind of person do you hope to be? As you've written the title of your song as 'As I am', if you have to define what you are. (How would you define yourself?)Yerin: ‘I am the universe’. Though of course I have yet to become such kind of person. However as I have thought a lot about myself as I worked on my album, I started to want to be a person like the universe. There are things that happen in the universe that just can't be explained, right? I want to become a person like that as well. Strange, though reasonable. A person who is bizarre like that? (smile)