mino for gq, december 2019

" men of the year 2019 - song min ho "

< Song Min Ho’s ambition wants to keep filling up, to continue to draw, and to continue to write. To the dazzling maximalist, heaven is his personal workspace. >

 

GQ. I noticed that it says ‘HEAVEN WELCOME’ on the door of the studio where you work. Would you consider that place heaven to you?

MINO. There are times when my workspace is heaven, there are times when it’s hell. I wrote beneath that in smaller letters ‘DEVIL ONLY’, too. I wanted to play around with the contradiction of the message.

 

gq. You’re a hard worker who writes songs without rest.

mn. I put everything into working on living a better tomorrow.

 

gq. What’s the reasoning behind having so high a standard to the point where you corner and pressure yourself?

mn. This might sound like I’m a bit full of it but, I really feel like what I put out there is less than my actual potential, haha. It probably means I have a lot of greed. I’m the kind of person who, if I start something, I won’t be satisfied until I fulfill the standards that I’ve set and thought for myself. I tend to enjoy that process too.

 

gq. WINNER’s ‘SOSO’ is a song about a heart that feels just so-so and starts to become dull. In ‘ALARM’ too, which was on your solo album that was released last year, you sang about gradually feeling vapid through the lines, ‘The thrill and passion I felt at the cusp of 20 lift like a fog, little by little / the reality that I see more and more is monotone’. Would you say you’re going through a transition period at present where you’re taking a brief pause to look back at the days in which you breathlessly worked with no rest?

mn. To me, every day is like a transitional period. In trying to live a better tomorrow, I habitually find myself looking back at yesterday, but sometimes there are moments when I want to pause in the today that will soon become a yesterday. I think that’s the point I’m at.

 

gq. What a literary expression, just like the lyrics of your song. In your solo song ‘UM…’,  lyrics like ‘Your flaws, the back you turn, the breath you hold, the eyes you avoid’ come off as incredibly poetic. What kind of heart do you write such lyrics with? 

mn. With some songs, I create the lyrics instinctively and delicately, in a way where you can draw it out in your head. But sometimes, there are songs that I write the lyrics for in a really layered, tangled up way, where you can listen over and over again, before eventually pulling up a separate page for the lyrics to read along to the melody and still feel like, ‘What is this even talking about?’ I create my lyrics in multiple different methods but at the end of the day, this is the core message of what I write: ‘Someone comfort me’, ‘Anybody, even just one person, understand what I’m trying to say.’

 

gq. You read poetry, right?

mn. There are a lot of commonalities between song lyrics and poetry, particularly in the quality of needing to melt the feelings or story you wish to deliver into a sentence concisely and briefly. Though of course, the form can change infinitely depending on the occasion, the way I personally prefer is short but deep sentences. Encountering lines like that really make my heart flutter. And when I’m able to find myself in those sentences, I linger around the short phrase for a long period of time. Because ultimately, both poetry and music don’t just spontaneously combust and disappear into the air, but rather they are shared with the person who is reading or listening to it, right? I think that they also share the characteristic of having this kind of relatability and resonance as their largest source of strength. That’s why I like them.

 

gq. Have you thought about writing your own?

mn. It would be a bit grandiose of me to declare, ‘I write poetry’, because really I just write down some thoughts before I go to sleep. I sugarcoat melancholy thoughts to make it look better, write regrets in the form of a letter of apology; that’s the level I’m at.

 

gq. I saw through Instagram the drawings that you personally made. They were so interesting because of how freely you drew them, and the way in which you utilized colors vibrantly and boldly. I saw that you sometimes use your hand to smear, or paint on the canvas before even going on to paint on the window. 

mn. Haha, art is much more free than music, because I can completely and only focus on the parts that really dig into me.

 

gq. When you were younger you said you liked Egon Schiele, but which artist do you like nowadays?

mn. I feel like the world is so expansive now, especially since just a few touches can lead you to an overwhelming amount of information. So lately, rather than getting deep into the works of a famous artist, I’ve been enjoying glimpsing at random images that I come across.

 

gq. It seems like you tend to opt for surreal images that mix dreams with reality, and a colorful, maximalist style. Is there any particular reason why you’re captivated by this kind of style?

mn. I can’t say I know the reason why, but I guess I have this desire to continuously fill up something within me. Maybe it could be just as much of a hollow effort. I did have a period where I felt so pushed around and sick of all these objects that I ‘tried’ to be a minimalist, haha, but I ended up failing. I’ve just come to think, ‘I guess I must be a maximalist.’

 

gq. I heard about how you enjoy reforming your clothes, so much to the point where your fellow group member Kim Jin Woo gifted you with a sewing machine. How do you go about working on your clothes?

mn. Come to think of it, I haven’t given love to the sewing machine lately. When I used to be really into it though, I would combine a few of the brands that I liked to make a new piece of clothing, or alter the fit of clothes I hadn’t worn in a while to re-wear them.

 

gq. Apparently you like Vivian Maier and her photos? You also use medium format cameras, but what kind of camera have you been enjoying using recently?

mn. I was really into old cameras so I used medium formats, and once I satisfied that curiosity to a certain extent, in the end I found myself coming back to the idea of photos themselves as a way to ‘keep a record’. Well, I guess in other words I’m saying that the medium format film cameras are heavy and a bit inconvenient, so I don’t reach for them as often, haha. But lately, I like to use disposable cameras or a light point-and-shoot. Those are enough for me right now.

 

gq. Do you have a favorite subject?

mn. I love photos of people. Due to the nature of my work, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to take photos all dressed up. So when I take photos, rather than having my subjects be dressed up and fancy, what I want most is for the feelings of that moment to be captured—to the point where I can just look at the photo and say, ‘Ah, back then!’, and really get to catch whiff of the remnants of that time and place. 

 

gq. It was interesting to see the photos you took of the beautiful rocks you collected. It made me think that you’re the kind of person who has the ability to find beauty even in the common things that are around you. 

mn. I encountered these strange rocks that looked like they had been manufactured on the set of the ‘SOSO’ music video shoot. I picked them up and brought them home. Their cylindrical shapes were so amusing. From then on I’ve felt a kind of mysticism towards rocks. I actually went out recently to collect some rocks, but it wasn’t particularly for any sort of major project or work. I just went to go pick up some rocks, haha.

 

gq. It must be in your nature to enjoy creating in whatever way possible. Where does the heart to continually make things come from?

mn. Creating in and of itself is so much joy. Of course, there’s a lot of pain, loneliness, and jealousy tangled up within it, but there’s not a lot besides creating that I can get so absorbed in. So your question of ‘where does that heart come from’ is equivalent to asking me, ‘Why are you hungry?’. It’s that obvious and natural.

 

gq. What kind of kid were you?

mn. I seemed extroverted from the outside but I was actually an introvert. An extremely timid kid. So I always wanted to become an extrovert.

 

gq. I can still remember how impressionable it was: during the survival show, with ’Fear’, you spoke your mind in such a composed manner rather than showing off. What has changed between the 23-year-old Song Min Ho who sang ‘Fear’ and the 27-year-old Song Min Ho?

mn. Fear, and reasons to be fearful, have actually become more varied. The way I control them has changed, too.

 

 

 

 

gq. What is the most fearful thing to Song Min Ho right now?

mn. A lack of curiosity. Ceasing to be curious about something.

 

gq. You have a lot of tattoos: ‘be nice, be kind’, ‘right posture clear mind’, ‘love’. They aren’t ostentatious and are healthy letterings. How do you choose your phrases?

mn. I like things that stand out, but not in a way that’s excessive or obvious. One day I was thinking about what tattoo to get, and seeing myself so obviously think and choose from English words suddenly made me feel contradictory. I love Korean, my mother tongue, and I’ve made it my job to write lyrics and sing in Korean. So after experiencing that feeling, I grew an interest in tattoos that are in Korean. I took the message that I needed the most, in the most Korean-font—the brush calligraphy—and tattooed it on both sides of my shoulder blades.

 

gq. The ‘right posture clear mind’?

mn. Yes. Right posture, clear mind. Whenever or wherever you see the back of Song Min Ho absentmindedly walking, I hope you’ll give me a tap on the shoulder and read it out to me, haha.

 

gq. The blue rose, the Sewol Ferry ribbon, the mask of hahoe, the upside-down crown — these are all tattoos that make one curious about why you got them. Do you like to get tattoos of things you like or believe in?

mn. It depends on the occasion. There are ones I think about deeply before deciding that I want to get them one day, and ones I get because I’m so hooked on them in the moment. But I don’t regret any of them; they’re all so true to who I am. My favorite is the ‘love’ one. 

 

gq. What sustains Song Min Ho’s life?

mn. Honesty, loving, expressing.

 

gq. I heard you often ask your friends ‘What kind of person do you think I am?’ How is the ‘you’ you see versus the ‘you’ that others see? Is it different? Is there a reason why you’re so deeply drawn to the idea of what kind of person you are?

mn. I can’t help it. I discovered that the most difficult questions for me answer in the process of creation all turned out to stem from me and only me. I’m still really curious about it, and I think it’s something I must continue to consistently find out about.

 

gq. When you ask that question, what’s usually the response you receive from those around you?

mn. A unique guy, just a Song Min Ho-esque person.

 

gq. What kind of person is Song Min Ho, from Song Min Ho’s point of view?

mn. I want to say this: ‘Who are you?'

 

 

(link to interview article)