[0:00]As I face those emotions— whether it's joy or love or even something more negative— nowadays I'm more interested in facing those emotions head-on and expressing them through my music.
[0:26]J-Hope of BTS, welcome back to the cover of Rolling Stone. How does it feel to be back in the reunited group? Like, deep in your heart, how does it feel? So after finishing my military service, I performed as a solo artist for a time before reuniting with the group. And during that time, I was already feeling how different those experiences are.
[1:02]Now that we're back together, the other members are filling in any gaps that I feel in my expression, in my performance. In a lot of ways, I realized that this is why there were seven of us. What I mean by that is that each person was doing their job spectacularly well, and that was something to cherish. But my favorite part is that the fans will be happy that we're back together.
[1:38]I'm so happy about that as well. A very important lyric on "Arson" is, "Do I put out the fire, or let it burn brighter?" And this seems like a a huge question that applies to your career and to BTS's career. It seems related to RM saying, you know, we talked about ending it, you know, we wondered, but ultimately we're just, we got to go for it, and I wonder how connected those are in your mind. When I was writing that song in 2022, I poured in all of my emotions I was feeling at the time. Back then, I was worried. I thought: is getting all this love and attention actually a good thing? Maybe while everyone is clapping and cheering for me, I should just turn it all off. And I wondered whether I wanted this.
[2:48]All I had was a tiny flame inside of me, and it had just spread like wildfire. I felt a lot of pressure around that. But I think I've changed a lot since then. Because all of this is just a part of me. And through it all, whether working with the group or in my personal career, I'm experiencing a lot of life and learning from everything. There are things that you can only feel at a particular time in your life. That's how you live, and grow, and become an adult, after all. I think I felt a lot of that while making music during that time and ever since. It does point to that idea that it's not, it was always very likely that you guys would continue, but you always have the option of saying, we've done it all, we we could go out on top. Although, well... Now that some time has passed, I realized it's probably not something I can stop just because I want to stop it. Personally, I'm very affected by the people around me, so I have to think about whether I can handle the emotional effect my decisions will have on so many others. I struggled with that.
[4:31]In the end, I felt that keeping the flame burning is what I truly want, and the choice that feels most authentically me. You used the metaphor of a box a lot. Do you still feel like you're in some kind of box, and if so, what kind of box right now? Back then, I felt like I was stuck in some kind of mold that kept me from expressing myself as freely as I wanted to. I yearned to break that mold and step into the world with my true self, and all of the music that I wanted to share, So I used the "jack-in-the-box" metaphor a lot. I think that was a perfect metaphor for the time. But now, now that I've made more of my own music, challenged myself, and felt more overall, I wouldn't say that I'm in a box anymore.
[5:39]Now I'm wondering, what can I create now that I'm outside of the box?
[5:48]Although, actually, the origin story for our music comes from Pandora's Box.
[5:55]In the story, all evil is released when she opens the box, but when she closes it there's still hope left inside. So what does hope have to face when it leaves the box? When I think about it, there must be so much evil and other presences that I need to find and incorporate into my music now. There are so many emotions in life, right? As I face those emotions— whether it's joy or love or even something more negative— nowadays I'm more interested in facing those emotions head-on and expressing them through my music. You have such an important role in the group, both musically and sort of emotionally. RM has said that in some ways you share his leadership. They've said that you sort of keep the group together; it's your personality and your talent. You're very much needed. Is that ever a burden to be needed so much? I wouldn't say it's a burden, I just do what I can. I think that's my role on the team. And, well, I don't think of it as a requirement.
[7:15]I don't think about what I need to do. It just comes naturally.
[7:22]This... role? Should I even call it that? It feels weird to call it a role. But all I do is take it in stride, and do what I can for the other members.
[7:37]I think it's clear from your lyrics and interviews that sometimes J-Hope is looking for a source of hope. And so we're, you do that for other people, but where can you find it? Well, I actually think about that all the time. Even as I went around talking about hope, I wasn't sure if I was truly a hopeful person.
[8:04]Truthfully, though, it's all about your mindset. Before I got my name J-Hope, was I always a bright, positive, and hopeful person?
[8:29]It's like the name made me who I am, and the place I found in life made me who I am as well. Once I got this name, I told myself that I should take responsibility for this name that I'm carrying. Once I started thinking that way, it changed something inside of me. I started searching for hope everywhere. So I told others about this as well.
[9:04]That if you change your mindset, you can truly find hope. I'm always reminding myself, "You are J-Hope, and the reason you are where you are is because of the huge responsibility given to you by your name." So I found it for myself, naturally: this thing called hope. So no, I don't have a detailed method for how to get there, but my current life is so intertwined with the concept of hope, and J-Hope, so I happened to find my way. What moments stand out from the making of the new BTS album where you felt like, oh, we are finding something new here, we are breaking ground, this is exciting, nothing like this has happened in the studio before? First off, just the fact that all seven of us flew to the United States and had recording sessions together was a complete change to our process.
[10:22]So we had a lot of fun taking in the culture and feeling out the vibes as we worked.
[10:33]I think that's what made this album as special and unique as it is.
[10:42]And a lot of the songs themselves are very different in tone from our previous work.
[10:52]So those are the ways that the process shines through. Traveling together to make music allowed us to show a new side of ourselves, and ended up strengthening our core as a whole. You could have a newfound comfort with writing about romance. What had to change in your mind to get there?
[11:21]I feel like the love and romance you feel in your thirties holds a different weight from the love and romance of your twenties. Even beyond personal experience, I just find myself thinking more deeply about it, and taking on the perspective of a more mature adult. Of course, those who are older than me might find that cute, but what I'm feeling now is that I should deal with emotional themes with more thoughtfulness and care. And actually, that freed me up to speak more openly about love. I think that's just the natural order of things. I realized that love as a concept gets more and more refined as time goes by. The first 10 years of BTS was about climbing to a new kind of superstar them. What is the goal of BTS 2.0 then?
[13:00]I've been thinking recently that I shouldn't get ahead of myself. It's so amazing that we got back together at all, and that we're still making music as a group.
[13:18]When I think about that, goals don't matter as much anymore.
[13:26]We're just in the moment, and we're having so much fun right now.
[13:34]As long as we keep moving forward with these feelings intact, we'll naturally fulfill and accomplish all sorts of things. So rather than dream too big, I just want to keep having fun, making music with the group, and to nurture our loving relationship with each other and our fans for many years to come.
[14:07]That's my only goal, and my hope. I want that. J-Hope, thanks so much for being here.
