YOON SAN-HA might only be 24 years old, but he already has over a decade of experience under the glistening, yet ruthless, K-pop industry. Born in Seoul, South Korea, he joined label Fantagio in 2012 as a trainee, and made his official debut as the maknae (or youngest member) of boyband ASTRO in 2016.
Since then, cameras have captured his growth from a sweet, pink-haired teenager into a mesmerising triple-threat – excelling as a dancer, singer and actor. In 2020, he and late bandmate Moonbin formed ASTRO’s first sub-unit, and their sultry songs further consolidated his grown-up image, as well as the versatility of his skills. Trying out a solo career was only the natural next step, and earlier this week, SAN-HA released his first solo mini-album, ‘DUSK’.
But a new question emerged: who is solo artist YOON SAN-HA? For the first time, the K-pop star was working completely alone, and had full control over this new chapter in his career. Confusion settled in. Under a myriad of possibilities, the result ended up as a poignant six-track collection, ranging from R&B to lowkey ballads, and showcasing the best of his talents.
Over a Zoom call with NME on the day of release, SAN-HA is enthusiastic and generous in his answers. With a perceptive eye, he details how he decided to embrace confusion, unravels his creative process for the album and reflects on the consequences of debuting so early.
When did you decide to debut solo? And how did ‘DUSK’ come to life?
“I’ve been thinking more seriously about this album since October of last year. I really wanted to do it, but, being honest, during that time I had so many thoughts, like, ‘How can I show my music to the public?’ It was a time of confusion. I would check all the different types of solo artists out there.
“I was thinking, ‘What should I do?’ and ‘What is the music I want to do? And what is my music style as YOON SAN-HA? Should I just get a guitar, have a mic stand and sing? Should I dance and fill out the stage with my performance?’ I took [these thoughts] to the company and they said, ‘Why don’t you convey this confusion into the album?’ That’s how [‘DUSK’] was born.”
So this album is kind of a confused version of you, trying to find yourself as a soloist?
“Yes, absolutely. We have the ‘DUSK’ version and the ‘DAWN’ version of this album, and if you look at the ‘DUSK’ version, the pictures show the confusion and the struggles that I had really reflected upon. It had been a while since I was in front of the camera, so I deliberately planned on shooting the ‘DUSK’ version first to show these awkward emotions. If you look at the ‘DAWN’ version, it shows that I’m getting back my courage and gaining confidence along the way.”
Have you discovered anything about who solo artist YOON SAN-HA is?
“I think solo artist YOON SAN-HA is ASTRO. When we were trainees and after debut, we were doing a lot of different music genres. We did some that were strong, some that were quite cute, or stuff that was breezy and bright. Now I feel like whichever style, I am ready”
When you were researching what kind of style you wanted to approach, who were the artists that inspired you the most?
“I was researching a lot, checking all these different solo artists, even people who are no longer active and people who are still active, like Taemin and Kai. Also not just males, I looked at a lot of female soloists, like Choi Yena, as well. There’s so many, and watching them made me feel more confident that I can do this.
“One of the artists I want to mention is Gemini. There’s some performances of him just sitting down and singing, but he really fills the whole room up with his vibe. It made me think I would like to be an artist who emits this [kind of] atmosphere.”
What was the most challenging part of working on this album? And the happiest part?
“Preparing it was one of the happiest. I do like my singing voice and listening to it, so to have this album with six tracks filled with my vocals is quite nice. Listening to my voice before going to sleep, after waking up, when I’m washing or just doing my daily activities, with it playing in the background, I feel strength listening to my voice.
“The hardest part was that, when preparing this album, or during this promotion period, I am basically alone. Maybe because I’m the youngest member, I feel more loneliness. Learning the choreography was quite a challenge too, especially for the song ‘Bleeding’. I had to fill up the stage by myself, and I will say I’m not the most confident in dancing, but I definitely did gain more confidence while working on it.”
It’s been almost 10 years since you debuted with ASTRO in 2016. What do you think has been the biggest lesson that you learned so far?
“I debuted at a very young age, and I feel kinda weird saying this, I don’t know if I should, but it helped me mature quite quickly. There were so many things to learn from [my ASTRO bandmates], both as an artist and as a person. Because we were training, I didn’t go through the typical puberty stage. The people around me were already mature, and that forced me to mature as well.
“As for the biggest lesson, well, I think when you’re busy, go be busy, and when you rest, travel and look at good things. I think that is a mindset that I learned to have. Because before, when I would rest and go travelling, I would be swimming, I would be eating some good food, but that’s about it. Now when I rest, I want to see some good scenery, and when I do that it warms my heart and helps to relieve some stress.”
You wrote the lyrics for album opener ‘Yeowoobyul’. Can you give us some insights on your creative process and your inspiration for it?
“Whenever I go through hard times, as I was during that time [I wrote this song], I would get comfort just by looking up at the sky. I would take a deep breath and that’s when I would think of life. That inspired me to look up about different stars online, and I came across ‘Yeowoobyul’” [interpreter’s note: yeowoobyul, or ‘fox star’, in Korean, is a phrase to describe ‘a star that appears briefly between clouds on a bad day and then disappears’]
“I felt some comfort in that, and it made me reflect on myself, because it tries so hard just to shine for a brief moment. I guess there’s a sense of longing and missing in this song, so I hope people who are going through struggles feel warmth inside when they listen to this song.”
Since you are still figuring out your identity as a soloist, how do you wish people to perceive this first step?
“I don’t know exactly my identity, but I’m on the journey to find it. When I do a second album, hopefully, I’ll go deeper inside to find who I am. In terms of music, what I really focused on is expressing ‘realness’. I want to be known, like, “SAN-HA? He does it for real”. When I do music, I put my heart and soul into it and give it my all. There’s some realness in the emotions I express, and I think that’s what really matters.”
YOON SAN-HA’s new mini-album ‘DUSK’ is out now on Spotify, Apple Music and more.