Music & Fan Events

Yes, it feels really tight now. I think I was pretty skinny back then. Anyway, it was my first step when I wore this outfit, so I was very excited. I was excited, and also nervous. Anyway, color on me is the album that I put a lot of effort to get to Danity as soon as possible. As I look back, it’s the first time I wore such a colorful outfit. There were some pastel tones and I wore a lot of different outfits. The photo behind me was actually taken differently from the way I’ve taken so far. I started to feel that, ah finally I am about to make my solo debut. I think that was a very good step. So now I don’t really feel anything. To be honest I was a little shy when I first wore it, but anyway COM contains five tracks. The title track is “What are you up to”. But as Danity may know, the message I really wanted to convey is a track called “I HOPE”. I wanted to tell Danity about things that I had been putting up with until now in that track. So there are still many Danity members who like that track, so I’m always grateful for that. I will never forget how I started and what kind of mindset I had, so please have faith in me.

Then there was one very glorious thing when I was performing COM. It’s what I am the worst at. It’s a ball. I was appointed as a public ambassador for my hometown Busan. So I was going to throw the first pitch. But, actually there are many sports I don’t know much about. And I am especially unfamiliar with baseball. I didn’t even play kickball before. But I had intensive training for about 30 minutes? I guess. Then I threw the ball, and I personally didn’t like [how I did] it at the time. But now that I see it, it’s just a good memory. After I threw that first pitch, I heard that the Busan team won the game that day. And I got some sort of nickname, so I felt really good. Anyway, I think those were the things that helped me to make a good start of COM.

So that’s all about COM, and there’s something next to me. That’s the slogan I had when I went to meet many Danity members around the world after the release of COM. It was some kind of a spoiler. The color, but anyway. Because that was a time when I was able to move around freely. I think I travelled around many different cities to refresh myself and had a lot of good experiences. Especially in the concert with Danity, there weren’t many tracks on the setlist. Because it’s the first album and there’re only five tracks, so it wasn’t that many. In a way, it could be quite vacant. But Danity members focused on my stage and enjoyed so much. And I just heard about a Danity member who saw me for the first time in the fan meeting and started to support me. I think it was a tour that gave me really amazing and precious experiences. Of course I’d like to go if there is a chance now and things get better, but I hope we could be patient until then.

Guestbook: “Let’s start!”

CYAN. It’s a blue color, so I thought it’s the album that is very similar to myself because there are a lot of things that I like. There are so many things I like in the images of CYAN. First, skateboard over there. Secondly, movie. And also I like this kind of denim jacket. I also really love clear weather, of course. So if I tell you about the skateboard first. Some of you might know that I really like skateboarding and I rode it for a long time. I slightly got hurt here [points at ankle] when I was 20, so I can’t ride it anymore. But a skateboard and props appeared a lot in CYAN. At first, it appeared in my music video. Second, it appeared when I was performing on music shows. I think this one [candy] is here for me and has got no relation at all.

OK, so now let’s talk about the album. Well, can you see the difference? It got smaller. Yes, that is correct. It was this big, or was it this big? But it shrunk like this and did some bulk up. Yes, so it became a square type design. In fact, I started to participate in design from CYAN which was the beginning of the color series. So I think I have a lot to say but I hope you enjoy it. Well, it has 2 versions: ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ version. There is one of them, the ‘Day’ version. If you look at it, it is attached in a fan shape. If you look at the album one by one, you will understand why it is shaped in this way. For now there are no two circles and there is only a fan shape like this. Anyway, the track list started to be written at the back properly starting from this album. The first track is “Adulthood”, the second is “2U”, the third is “Jealous”, the four is “Interview”, the fifth is “TOUCHIN'”. Actually there are no such songs with fancy and heavy beats like “doom doom” not till now. Why? Should I just say it is because I wanted to get closer to you slowly? Yes, do you get it? It’s like the brightness that I have? It occurred to me that I wanted to put that brightness in a song. So I think “2U” is a track that Chancellor gave me as a gift while we’re working together. But even when I was recording that track, I was like, “Does this fit me?” I was thinking, “Will it really fit me?” But as I see it at this point, I think the track that fit me the most was “2U”. So ironic, isn’t it? Then “Jealous” seems to be like an indispensable part in this album. I think “2U” and “Jealous” were always together. At that time I had a comeback show when I was making a comeback with CYAN. I did “Jealous” on an outdoor stage and then just switched to an indoor stage. I remember that a lot of Danity members liked it a lot. Hope you liked it.

So what else do we have? Ah, the most important thing. OK! It’s the stories included in this video. What is it? Yes, it’s the music video. There are 2 music videos for CYAN which is very unusual. Of course, “TOUCHIN'” was put together after it was released as a digital single, but there are 2 music videos. Anyway, since the track “TOUCHIN'” was released first, I will start with “TOUCHIN'”. From the beginning, “TOUCHIN'” was not written here in English. But it was written as “TA-CHI-IN” in Chinese characters in the music video. So it’s quite new. I didn’t even think of it, so I was thinking that they are really creative. This was my idea for the music video of “TOUCHIN'”: It’s like me watching B movies with a lot of homage. You may not know the villains but there is an animation called Inspector Gadget. There’s this boss villain wearing some kind of armor on one of his arms and he is petting a cat like this. But the villain in “TOUCHIN'” is also with a cat and mechanical arm. And the female lead always gets kidnapped. And the male lead always goes look for her. I tried to follow these clichés and in the middle of the music video, I start to feel that it captured a good reaction that hey this movie is quite strange, it’s like a B movie. So I think it came out pretty well. I think “TOUCHIN'” can be rated as 4.5 out of 5 stars among my music videos. It was so great when I saw it again.

The music video of “2U” is from a very old theater in LA. So many singers made their music videos there. But I went there for the first time to play as a role of a part-timer. Not sure if you can see it but there’s something that I used. I call my friends while pretending that I’m busy cleaning with that one. Then how will my friends come? They come with skateboards to make no sound. Anyway, it starts out really fun then I get chased by the security guard. In the end, I don’t get caught and he tells me to be careful. Then I go, “Hm? What happened?” And that’s how it ends. I don’t think there’s a music video that makes my heart flutter when I recall emotions at the time of shooting as much as “2U”. It was so good and I think it just became a very good memory in my heart.

And there is something I did together when I was performing CYAN. That is DaniTV. I also made a logo for DaniTV and I should say it’s a mascot for DaniTV: Klong. I created a very attractive cat. And I think I did a lot of fun things while filming DaniTV. How shall I put it, I think I was able to blow off some steam by doing things that I wanted to do. And most of all, the most memorable thing was the counseling session. I think it was really good because… well there is only one episode yet, but I had a lot of fun at that time.

This CYAN room and the album are really like my youth to me. I think it suits my personality the most. I just really like the blue sky, wind blowing, and when the weather is nice, I sit around with my cats. If there is a spot with some sun at home, I like to lie down there and those kind of stuff seem to be well portrayed in the tracks of CYAN so I’m proud of it. There were a lot of things I regretted when I looked back for the first time. Actually, as I worked hard from CYAN, I never really took a break ever since then. Because while I was performing CYAN, I wanted to plan the next album right away. So I learned a lot of things in a short period of time and I think it’s the very precious album that worked as an accelerator to me.

Guestbook: “Stage 1 clear”

First of all, it’s popcorn which I really love. There’s a track called “Movie” in MAGENTA. So it’s a kind of music video that topped off MAGENTA. After all “Night” was a live clip. Since the track name is “Movie”, so we all went to the car and had popcorn together. There were such kind of scenes so I really enjoyed popcorn that day. Our dancers, Chancellor, and Dvwn who featured in the song made a cameo appearance. I was really grateful, and Henry also appeared. Come to think of it, a lot of people appeared. Anyway, the way how I cast them was that as for Dvwn, I got to know him through a track called “Adulthood” in CYAN. I kept thinking that I really want to work with him and I felt that his voice seems to go really well with this track “Movie” so we got to work together. And Chancellor is almost inseparable from me, like a work mate? He’s really my muse. He always helps me out and I asked him “Bro, can you come and have some good time?” That’s how he appeared. Henry knows the A&R team bros from my company and also knows Chancellor. I am not really sure but I heard there’s some kind of an overseas Korean community. Henry also gladly accepted and came to the shooting site that day. They all came and it was awesome. The start was great but the rain wouldn’t stop. What I imagined was there are people doing the BMX stunts on a sunny day and I wanted to make it well, but it rained too much. We all stayed inside and just sighed like this. Fortunately the rain stopped in the evening, so I was able to film the scene of eating popcorn in the trailer. So I think there is a bonus clip in the end about what weather we were shooting in. Actually, we suffered a little more than that. There’s a scene where the car shakes. If you see in the music video of “Movie”, I am in a car with Henry and Dvwn is sitting at the back. It’s not like someone shook the car from the side, I shook it myself. It turns out that I was quite strong.

The album design got thicker this time. Previously, CYAN was a little slim. There are always two versions and this time there are water and fire. But this time, it’s fire. There were three circles in CYAN. The circles are folded one by one to become one at the end. I wanted to express it, like how those word cards go round in a circle so I came up with an idea. So with two circles, what could express the unique intensity of summer with magenta a color. If you somehow shoot the sun with a filter, then it comes out something like this as if you did it on the outside of the circle. What do you think, isn’t it great? Anyway, so I wanted to tell you that this is also a picture that I am attached to. Maybe because the fire version came out first, it was really difficult to make the water version after that.

The first track is “Flash”. And it should be all be listed out in one place. Anyway the second track, “Waves”. The third track, “Who U Are”. The fourth track, “Runaway”. And the fifth track is the one with the popcorn, “Movie”. And the sixth track should be “Night”. So it’s a mini album and it contains six tracks. So what role does MAGENTA have in the color series? It was something about youth earlier from the CYAN room, the bluish feeling not greenish, but I wanted to show you something that feels bluish. It’s not like I don’t know anything, but instead it’s like I know something but I am pure. I’m happy if I wanted to show you such a pleasant vibe. But this time I wanted to express something really strong, the beginning and end of summer with the tracklist in MAGENTA. So when you first listen to this album in shuffle, you might think that all the songs are in different genres incoherently but I think this is my chronic disease. If you listen to the track 1-6 in the order of the track list from “Flash” to “Night”, you will probably understood the summer that I wanted to express.

I’ve been wearing a very gorgeous outfit for some time. It’s “Waves”, the track that is like a charge leader of MAGENTA. There are two main outfits of the song “Waves”. “Who U Are” is the title track but in terms of the overall flow, I thought the track “Waves” would fit better for the overall theme of MAGENTA so I wore this outfit. “Waves” was pre-released at my 1st anniversary fan meeting DAN1TYST. Actually, it was very difficult at first when I was doing DAN1TYST. Is a a fan meeting without an audience really a fan meeting? Such thoughts crossed my mind, and there’s really no cheering. I was really stumped because I couldn’t check what I am doing or if people are watching. But as we started a live broadcast, Danity members left a lot of comments so I was proud that it had quite a lot of responses and ended well. We also had a VLIVE after DAN1TYST was over, so I think I had a good time to talk with you guys. I did the doljabi at the end of DAN1TYST since it was the 1st anniversary. I chose colored pencils at the time so that’s why colored pencils are here as a symbol of DAN1TYST. At that time I told you that I will show you more diverse colors in the future. Well, I am not sure if I am really showing you properly. If I am showing you well, then I think I will be very happy with that. Following last year, we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary this year while making eye contact. In fact, it would have been great if we could really meet up in the 2nd anniversary fan meeting, but in order to appease that regret even a little, I decided to proceed with VR where you can see my face and make eye contact. I’m so happy to be able to talk to you even closer with such great technology.

Guestbook: “Popcorn was good. The food here is good”

This time, I think there were a lot of outfits that I wore when performing, like a straitjacket in “PARANOIA” and as for “Antidote”, I wore a lot of outfits that are modernistic and stand out. Since the songs themselves are too dark, I think I chose a lot of outfits that could set the tone. So personally, I think I like the outfits from this album a lot.

Anyway, we have a cup of water right here. In the music video of “PARANOIA” and in the teaser of “Antidote”, or shall I call it the concept photos and highlight medley, there are many scenes where I drink water in the highlight medley video of YELLOW . I don’t drink in “PARANOIA”. I am about to drink, then a hand comes up from the bottom and I drop it. Should I call it an own will? It’s like I am out of control in “PARANOIA”. My body doesn’t feel like my body. The psychological effect started to affect the body. Have you heard of that story? About a rotten onion. You say bad words to an onion and you say good words to another onion. I did that experiment back in elementary school. The onion that only heard bad words became really rotten, so the body became a bit like “uh, uh” due to psychological attack. In “Antidote” I think it’s trying to show the image to overcome by drinking, just like the concept. In the highlight  medley, I spill while I am drinking and that is like I became insensitive, like I don’t care at all. I think I was trying to signify something like this.

So we talked briefly about the color series. I made so many attempts from COM to YELLOW. But I included a lot of self-help stories about me especially in YELLOW so I feel like I have grown up a little more. There were a lot of challenges, but I feel like I settled down.

Guestbook: “This is happiness!”

So the Room of Color is all over now. Thank you so much for being with me in the Room of Color from Part 1 to Part 2 until now. I am not sure about the project albums like the color series in the future but I want to keep on making a lot of fun attempts and I want to do a lot of things that I am good at and I will make a lot of good songs, so hope you all look forward to it.

Well, I have released 4 albums and 2 digital singles. I think it was more difficult because I made the album with the intention to show my various colors as the color series. Because every time I have to try something different and especial for YELLOW which was released recently I think it was difficult to portray my feelings because I had to bring up the period that was very difficult emotionally and sing about it. Especially there’s a song called “Misunderstood”. It’s something like that song hits the nail on the head. The genre itself is quite attractive, but I can’t define what type of genre it is. But I think the most difficult time was when singing that song. I am supposed to bring out the darkness deep inside of me but it will be the black dragon* if you bring it out wrongly and it doesn’t really work if you bring it out in a cool way (*meme originated from Japanese anime to express something cringe) so I had a lot of difficulties when recording it.

Is there a choreography that you made inspired by movies or other contents?

As for the inspiration, there was a guy dancing strangely on the roadside before. Actually he is a close friend of mine. He is the one who sets the direction for the choreography. Sometimes we get inspiration together at the same time or sometimes I convey it to him but probably in the most recent track “PARANOIA”, I think I referenced movies a lot when expressing my gestures. There’s an exorcism movie called Constantine. Usually when it comes to exorcism movies, there’s a movie called The Exorcist. The priest sprinkles holy water but they just beat the devil in Constantine. They just hit him, throw him down, it’s physics. It’s exorcism and in brackets, physics. It’s a style that they exorcise physically. And another one is Venom. He’s my favorite anti hero. He was a villain and Tom Hardy is eroded by Symbiote in the movie where he shows outstanding performance and he’s trying to get away. Then he is assimilated and says “fresh meat?” and he goes around to eat meat. I think I reference those kinds of scenes a lot.

Now dance should have a soul, and if the beat is added under the soul, I believe that is dance. Actually in the dance genre, there are times when they do a solo dance at the moment of silence but I basically have to dance on the beat to be excited. That way I should be able to move the hearts of the audience even more. That’s why even the simplest movement requires a soul [demonstrates headache dance].

You seem to keep your relationship with the Konnect staff like friends and like a family. 

That’s right. But these days, it has a bad meaning when you say it’s a family-like company so I call it a friend-like company.

Not only the staff but you also put a lot of effort to communicate with your fans. I heard to you made an application.

Yes, ever since I made my first debut it was something I’ve been thinking about since my solo debut with our staff. I always thought for a long time that it would be nice to have a channel just for my fans and someone there was a good opportunity so they developed it so nicely and lightly. Personally, I think lightness is important for a communication app. It should be fast, otherwise data will be lost. Data is consumed continuously. It’s unlimited nowadays but using data was very tough just about six years ago. It reminded me of the times when I had to go ask my friends to send my some data so an app should be light. They made it well, so I think we’re doing fine.

Is there an additional color that you wish to have in the future?

I feel like I’ve tried almost all the intense colors but in a way not all of them. Actually when you think of a color, not always the color comes to your mind when someone asks you to express the mood of the day with color. Even a day is like that, so it’s not possible to organize a track or an album that takes months to work on with one color. I want to be a person with more various CMKYs in the future.

It seems a lot of things have happened to me up to now. A lot of good things happened but I mean there were times when I was really loved, and in such huge love, “Can I get this kind of attention? Can I get this kind of love?” There were a lot of times I questioned myself and I don’t think I’ve ever been conceited about it. Never. But after that, a lot of things happened and other things that could become an issue were happening. I felt it’s really hard to get things done in a way I wanted it to be. It’s hard. I was lucky. But as I started to feel mentally exhausted about it, I wondered what I have done wrong. Did I really make such a big mistake? Or I thought about why I made such a mistake that I recognized and regretted it. The easiest way is to find something that I can release my stress but it’s not easy to do that for a person like me. So in the end, I ended up blaming myself and that was the beginning of YELLOW. I felt there’s really no one out there. There’s really no one on my side, and I felt a lot of times that it’s all over. Of course, I’m very happy and full of happiness right now, and I got stronger after I went through such period but it lingered a little bit after going through those things. Even if the wounds you have are healed on the outside, they become scars on the inside. As I look back, I think the most difficult time was when I was performing CYAN. It was really hard for me to be on stage after a rest when I was having a hard time. In fact, some of you who could easily notice may have realized I couldn’t really look at the camera. I couldn’t make an eye contact with the camera. Sure, I was acting on stage, but I think it was the first time I did it in such a pretentious way. Anyway after all those things passed, I got a little stronger and it feels real when I meet and talk to you. I think it’s good. Because of Danity, I was able to take out the darkest side of me in the color series, so I think I was able to finish the color series well. From last year to this year, from the 1st anniversary to the 2nd anniversary, I’ve done a lot of performances but I never forget my precious and grateful heart to you. If the last year was just full of appreciation, I think the 2nd anniversary was really fun this time. I think I enjoyed it well, and there were many times when I left commentary while looking back at the albums I released, but as I see each of theses props one by one, I seem to be reminded of those memories. It was a time that I considered as a really hard time, but as I see it now, there were a lot of fun things as well. It made me think that I just couldn’t realize it.

How should I wrap it up. I think we will be celebrating the 3rd anniversary by this time next year. I hope you will always be by my side during the time as we walk along the road towards the 3rd anniversary. I won’t be able to repay you unconditionally for the undeserved love and support that you guys give me but I will do my best to be an artist Kang Daniel to sing a song that could console you as much as possible. I will be more stable and show you better performances as a man and as an artist in the future. I will look forward to your continued support and let’s walk well together. Thank you!