[INTERVIEW] 221020 Vogue Korea - IU āLooking back on the past occasionally makes it more meaningful, doesnāt it?ā
IU in Seoul, IU in Milan. Is she the same or different?
At āVogueā, many photos were gathered of IU, Koreaās first female solo singer to have a concert at Jamsil Olympic Stadium then visit Milan as Gucciās global ambassador. IU said, she asked herself, āHow about this?ā and she started enjoying herself more.
Q: You attended the 2023 S/S Milan collection show as Gucciās global ambassador. Was there anything memorable for you about the collection? Any look or item that you liked?
IU: The moment I entered, I felt that the showcase venue was small and cosy. There werenāt many seats either. Then in the middle of the show, a partition wall in the centre of the stage was lifted and I realised that it was like a decalcomanie and there was another show on the other side. The twin models who were walking on their side of the stage met in the middle and held hands as they walked. Whether visually or symbolically, it was an interesting performance. I like overalls and this season, there were overalls! I wonder if they have it in my size? I got excited.
Q: During the āTwinsburgā collection this time, 68 pairs of twins appeared on stage. The mother of the creative director, Alessandro Michele, is a twin so it came from his own personal experiences. I think artists need to have the ability to not bypass little experiences in their lives or miss out on the opposite side of the lives they have become accustomed to and turn that into art. I think the way you tell stories through your music and the unique way you express yourself through your lyrics is an example of that. How do you convert your daily experiences into music? Do you observe or make notes or think on the flip side?
IU: Iāve actually been making fewer notes than before. I still write in my diary, but Iām not as obsessive about writing in it anymore. Itās like, āThe words to remain shall remain, or else just forget them.ā Itās been awhile since the days when I tried hard to cling on to thoughts that are worth becoming items. (But when I work on my full-length albums with more tracks, Iām clearly going to cling on reluctantly again.) Nowadays, there are many artists that write lyrics by themselves that have character. Iām also the type to stick my flag (TL note: stake my claim) on mainly themes Iām good at writing and can hang on to for a long time. Iām hooked on āpatternsā and ārulesā these days. Iām gradually starting to realise that Iām someone who lives with many rules in my daily life. I get stressed when something falls out of place too. I wonder if Iāll be able to infuse such ideas in my music in future.
Q: We did the āVogueā cover photoshoot in the house of a Milan collector. It was a house filled with pictures and antique furniture, right? Whatās your house filled with? Are you surrounded by them now as well?
IU: As I receive this question and look around me, I realise that I do have a number of pictures in my house here and there. I mostly spend my time in my room and in my room in particular, I have many pictures gifted to me by friends or my fans who drew them by themselves. There are pictures amazingly drawn on canvas and many sketches from my friendās studio. Perhaps itās because I have zero talent in drawing, when someone gifts me with a meaningful piece of art, I feel really touched. It contains the affection, time and effort of that person. The pieces that are really precious to me are gathered at one corner of my room. During my concert this time, there was a section that reproduced that part of my room too.
Q: Other than 2020 and 2021 when Covid-19 was severe, youāve been putting on solo concerts every year since 2012. What does it mean to you to be able to have face-to-face concerts with your fans?
IU: Itās a celebration party with my fans after a year of farming. Itās difficult to replace a concert with another event. The fans who come for my concerts will clearly know what I mean.
Q: Your first solo concert in 2012 was āReal Fantasyā right? Do you still remember what your first concert was like?
IU: I donāt remember it vividly, but of course I still remember it. I did a nationwide tour for my first concert. From gathering concert audience, to maintaining my condition, putting things in action, to ensuring that the tension stays up during my concert each week instead of weakening, I was at a loss about everything and felt scared. I blamed the producer a little then for not guiding me on what to do and asking so much of me from the start, but after my concert this time, I thought to myself, āThank you for raising me to be strongā and contacted the producer separately too. Whatās encouraging for me is that my parents who came to watch my first concert 10 years ago and said, āThe stage seems too big for you to fill on your ownā back then, told me this time. āThe stage that extends beyond 100m does not look big at all.ā
Q: The concert you had in September was really amazing. You were the first Korean female solo singer to have a concert at Jamsil Olympic Stadium, right? With about 90 people on stage, about 1300 staff making preparations together and about 80,000 fans in the audience. Iām curious about your overall thoughts on the concert.
IU: I felt, āI enjoy the stage more than I thought. Things really work when many people put their hearts together. Iām working with some really amazing people. I have a really great life.ā
Q: In the teaser video on your ādlwlrmaā YouTube channel, you said, āI want to leave a mark in concert history.ā Did you manage to achieve what you hoped for?
Q: Director Jo Hyunwoo who worked with you from the 2017 āPaletteā concert to the 2019 āLove, poemā concert, as well as the 2022 āThe Golden Hour: Under the Orange Sunā concert, shared his thoughts on what a āperfect concertā means to him. Usually when IU starts singing, the audience becomes quiet and only participate actively during the sing-along parts, but during your Philippines concert, the audience cheered so loudly that you couldnāt hear the music in your in-ears. You responded that, āA perfect concert means differently to different people. That was a perfect concert in a new way.ā In what way was the concert this time perfect?
IU: Despite the 3 year gap, not only me, but I felt that everyone was clear about their roles. At each position, it had to be that person. This concert was not a tour and there were only two days, but if I had the chance to go back again to that day, I would not have been able to make it any better.
Q: How did you feel when you fell asleep the night before your concert? How about after the concert?
IU: It was raining a lot the night before the concert and we didnāt manage to complete the run-through rehearsal, so I went back after work that day with an unsettling feeling. My backup singer who could tell how I felt sent me an image of āYou can do it abilityā, so I thought to myself, āThatās right, Iāve done everything I can. Itāll work out somehowā and posted that image on my Instagram story before lying down in my bed. After the last day of the concert, I went for the after party. They didnāt make it obvious the whole time, but perhaps because the staff mostly felt pressured by the large scale of the concert, many of them were crying. Telling each other that they did well, it was the best, thank you for working together. Exchanging words with each other, I felt a surge of love for mankind that night. I got home late at night and read the concert reviews and felt overwhelmed with emotions which was something I had not felt in quite awhile. I think out of the concerts I had done, it was the concert with the highest level of audience satisfaction. That itself was enough to compensate for everything.
Q: This concert was described as a āmusical or Olympics opening ceremonyā. In particular, the highlight was the hundreds of drones that formed a picture in the sky. Whatās the stage equipment or effect that you were most into? On the contrary, was there anything you had to compromise for practical reasons?
IU: From the performance perspective, I think it would have to be the hot air balloon that went up as I sang āstrawberry moonā. Itās something that the concert director insisted on strongly since the first meeting. A few months before the concert, together with a few key staff members, I went on a trip to Buyeo for a test run and that was how much we anticipated the hot air balloon performance. It would move depending on the wind direction, so it was very much weather-dependent and I thought I didnāt have a fear of heights at all, but once it went up by more than 10m, I couldnāt sing and whenever it wobbled due to the wind, my heart sank. As I was close to the fire, it was really hot to ride it in summer too. The director expressed his concerns (with a firm expression I had never seen from him in the many years we have worked together) āJust. Believe. In. It.ā Iām glad I did. The audience really liked it. What I had to compromise with was time, of course. From when the title of the concert, āGolden Hourā, was confirmed, we set the condition that āwith the sunset as the background, we had to start the concert at 7pm sharp without missing a beatā. But for an outdoor concert, we couldnāt drag it too late into the night. So it was a shorter concert than what I used to do and we prepared for a runtime of 3 hours.
Q: What was a great hurdle for you for this concert and how did you overcome it? On the contrary, what was the most exciting part?
IU: The biggest hurdle was myself. Since a year ago, my ear has been giving me some issues. If I sweat a lot or produce loud sounds for a long period of time, a muscle in my ear rattles and opens up and sound seems to echo loudly inside. As I was preparing for my concert, I trained myself well and made great improvements, but it had been awhile since I stood on stage and on top of that, it was the biggest stage in singing career, so many complicated thoughts were running through my mind. I just kept practising. If my ear opened up, sounds became unclear to me, so I was cautious about singing loudly and afraid to do so. Even if it sounded weird to me, I would just sing it out aloud first and record that and listen to it again, trying to find a way to control it. As I kept doing that, I started to regain my confidence gradually. It can get worse if I go too overboard, but for now, Iām safe. Aside from my condition, the moment I decided to do a concert, I tormented myself and struggled with thoughts like, āWould I be able to fill such a large stadium?ā Whenever I had weak thoughts, I remember telling myself, āHey, this is the Olympic Stadium, even if you canāt eat (handle) it, itās a Goā to make myself bolder.
Q: After your encore stage, āLove poemā, you said, āThereās an issue with my ear, so I nervously prepared for this concert. I could barely hear properly today, but I could sense the support from all of you.ā You must have been taken aback when you first heard the diagnosis of your condition. How did you feel back then and how are you accepting it right now?
IU: After hearing the diagnosis, I was firstly glad that it wasnāt an issue with my hearing per se. Since my job requires me to use my voice a lot, although I was at a loss of what to do, I think it was a chance for me to have more humble feelings about my health and this job that I love. When none of the worst case scenarios I imagined happened and I managed to pull off my concert successfully, Iāll never be able to forget how thankful I felt at that point in time. After the articles went out, I was contacted by many people. I even received messages from seniors that I did not have their contacts. There were more people around me with this condition than I had thought. As we use our ears and throat a lot, many singers revealed that they faced the same issue and shared their encouragement and their own tips with me. I also helped those who asked me for help as much as I could. From the perspective of someone who stands on stage, the bond of sympathy and support that we shared gave me the reassurance that I would be able to recover quickly. That was another episode that I was overwhelmed with a love for mankind recently.
Q: During your āThe Golden Hour: Under the Orange Sunā concert recently, you started off by singing āeightā without any accompaniment. Youāve mentioned before that itās a song you want to sing during sunset and something youāve been planning for a long timeā, but what was the reason that you decided your opening for the concert to be this way?
IU: āeightā was a song that I released when I was 28, during a time of Covid-19 blues and a sense of powerlessness myself, when I was tired with everything. As I couldnāt have face-to-face concerts during that time, I wasnāt able to gain strength from the audience. So when the field of performing arts started to become active again, I felt that if I were to hold my concert, I would have to sing āeightā as the first song powerfully and mark an end to the times I felt tired of everything. Itās the only song that has never changed its position the whole time we were deciding the setlist.
Q: During your concert, you said after singing āPaletteā and āGood Dayā, you would be excluding them from your setlist in future. You said, āNow that Iāve turned 30, youāre welcoming moments as good as you felt back then. Thereās no reason for me to hang on to these songs anymore.ā Over time, youāve also graduated songs like āMarshmallowā right? Itās not easy to let go of your shining history, is there a reason that you need to graduate your songs? I think it shows your growth as well.
IU: I think looking back on the past occasionally makes it more meaningful. As I work hard to release new songs, I would like to avoid a similar structure to my concerts every year. Thereās some misinterpretation in the way it was reported in the news and although they will be left out of the key pieces that make up the regular setlist, during encore or with a freer atmosphere, I can still sing them if the audience requests for them. Itās also my will to continue to produce new songs to fill the empty spaces of the songs that have graduated, so I hope my fans donāt become too disappointed because of that.
Q: It seems that your choice above is influenced by you turning 30. Are there any emotional changes for you as you begin your 30s?
IU: I think itās a time that I break free from my obsession that things have to be either āthis way or that wayā. As I start thinking to myself, āHow about this?ā, many things have started to become more enjoyable for me. Iām enjoying life, these days.
Q: With your concert over, youāre left with the release of your movie āDreamā! You started filming for it last spring, right? Besides āDreamā, what other projects do you have lined up?
IU: I would like to show a more relaxed side of myself. Iām always telling my fans, āI want to become uaenasā hobby.ā Thatās my flow (TL note: how Iām doing things) these days too, whether itās an album or other pieces of work, rather than breathless stories, I want to tell warm stories that allow our hearts to relax.
Translated by IUteamstarcandy
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