It’s the day before J-Hope’s headlining appearance at Lollapalooza, and if he was nervous, it didn’t show. Relaxed in a casual fit by Balenciaga, he flashed a smile as he reflected on this historic moment. On Sunday, he became the first South Korean artist to headline a major American music festival while also making his solo live debut.
Despite his calm demeanor, he has been working tirelessly tonight and his expectations are high. “Actually, it’s a big challenge for me as a J-Hope artist. It’s a very important push forward,” he tells Rolling Stone backstage through a translator in a cordoned-off enclave in the artist’s area. “So I really had to prepare really hard, because it’s a moment very meaningful and an important part of my art. After this performance, I might feel a lot of things. I’m sure it will help me take the next step as an artist.”
The prep work included deep dives to perfect his live delivery of the first two singles (“More” and “Arson”) from his first solo album, Jack in the Box, and they’re the songs for which he says he is more excited to play. the first time. “They’re also songs that have styles that I haven’t played before,” he explains. “So I’ve been practicing a lot because they’re hard songs to do live.”
The singles, he says, require a lot of energy, and he spent a lot of time rehearsing them. “I have to perform these songs just depending on my voice and my vibe. It’s not the usual weapon that I have, which is dancing,” he adds. “In that sense, I really focused on these two main singles which are very meaningful to me.”
Going solo also meant rehearsing without his six other BTS bandmates. The experience has been “lonely”, he laughs. “I miss my members.” But this has also presented good challenges, physically, energetically and mentally, after having worked for the last 10 years in a group. “[It’s] very challenging, but also very fun. So, actually, I think it’s very positive to take on new challenges, [which] they will really help me as a person. So I’m enjoying the whole process. Every moment is so fun and so new and makes me feel like I’m back in the old days.”
With Jack in the Box, J-Hope is the first member of BTS to release a solo album, and it’s truly solo, with no features. “I filled the whole album with just my voice. So I made this album so I could prove myself, you know? I wanted to show people that this is the music that I make. This is the vibe that I have. I wanted to let a lot of other artists listen to my music; that I want artists to know that, ‘Oh, J-Hope makes this kind of music,'” he says. “I’m looking forward to a collaboration, so maybe I can do a cool collaboration and fantastic with other artists. Nothing is ready yet, but it’s just my bold ambition. I am open to any future plans like this. If I do a collaboration next, it will probably feature my ultimate weapon, which is dancing.”
It’s only been a few weeks since Jack in the Box arrived, but J-Hope already has a great performance under his belt and has had time to reflect on some lessons learned.
“The most important thing is that I realize that taking on this huge task, it was a big challenge to do what I wanted to do at that moment. Looking back, in fact, I think I realized that if it wasn’t for now, I wouldn’t have been able to publish this record,” he says. “So I think this marks a big milestone in my musical journey. So, actually, after this album, I’m slowly starting to establish the direction of where my music should go. I learned that maybe I was a little arrogant, maybe a little lacking and a little inexperienced. But I learned a lot from this album. In that sense, I think this album is very, very meaningful to me.”