Q. Introduce yourself.
A. Hello! Choi Wonbin here.
Q. How have you been lately?
A. While the sun is up, I soak in vitamin D, cycle over to the Seodaemun culture and sports center, and swim my heart out alongside grandmothers far healthier than I am. Once the sun sets I work on my album and read, and on weekends I play shows with Snake Chicken Soup or, every so often, head to a party and shake my hips with everything I have.
Q. Any episode or TMI from this shoot?
A. Someone I worked with in the early days of Wetter happened to be on set as a fashion editor, so we caught up after a long while. It brought back old memories and felt quite special.
Q. You played ‘a mischief-maker who delights in stealing other people's souls’ in this shoot. When are you at your most mischievous in real life?
A. When I've spent too long pretending not to be one.
Q. If, like your character, you could steal anyone's talent at will, which would tempt you most?
A. The ability to regulate my dopamine receptors at will.
Q. We're curious about the aesthetic you chase. What serves as the greatest reference for your fashion philosophy?
A. One way or another, does it feel ‘rock’?
Q. The song ‘Hate is all around’, which filled the set, carries the lyric “pull the stone lodged in my head”. How is your head these days? Is the stone still stuck?
A. The stone that was lodged there when I wrote that lyric seems to have come out, though I can't even be sure of that, and right now a new one is wedged in.
Q. Do you read for pleasure? We happened to spot a photo of stacked books on your Instagram feed.
A. Yes, I love books. To enjoy reading properly, I try not to do anything more stimulating beforehand, though that often doesn't work out.
Q. Did the books hold what you were curious about?
A. At first, yes, I read looking for answers, but reading with that intent never lasted long. Whenever I didn't find the answer I wanted, the hours felt worthless. With exercise, and with reading just the same, I love the healthiness the act itself gives, free of any purpose. These days, rather than reading for answers, I'm learning what questions I should be living with from writers who are ridiculously good, older and younger alike.
Q. I first came to know you as Choi Wonbin of the band Wetter. I checked Wetter's Instagram comments again today, and fans are still writing in real time that they'll wait until you return. What does Wetter mean to you?
A. Wetter feels like my twenties. I lacked so much, and in trying to fill all of it I found myself chasing something stronger and more intense than the day before, every single day. Inside that were things like vanity, an inflated self-consciousness, an exaggerated rebelliousness. And yet I also remember the pure passion of making albums and playing shows without a second thought, even with no income.
That taste was an energy possible only in your twenties. I'm curious what Wetter's thirties would sound like, and part of me wants to leave it all as a memory. Where it flows from here, I honestly don't know yet. It may sound irresponsible, but I truly don't.
Q. Choi Wonbin the solo artist and Choi Wonbin of Wetter, what sets them apart?
A. Looking back from where I stand now, Wetter was about inheriting and studying the culture and sound of the rock bands the members and I loved, and translating them into Korean. The solo work carries a different attitude: having inherited a particular culture and sound, it asks, “shall I now try the thing only I can do, the thing even they cannot?” Still, both remain rock. That much they share.
Q. It's no exaggeration to call this moment a band boom, with so many bands winning over the public. Why do you think people are this passionate about bands?
A. First of all, as someone who has loved rock bands since my school days and naturally kept a close watch on the domestic band scene, I don't agree that an unprecedented band boom has arrived. Certain bands have always stirred up their own booms, but I don't believe the genre itself has joined the mainstream the way ‘hip-hop’ did.
Hip-hop, which rose to mainstream status alongside K-pop, spent five straight years repeating the same lines, and perhaps bands simply got lucky as people went searching for anyone saying something different. Globally, music and fashion move in circles, and I see this as simply the band phase of that cycle coming around.
The heat hip-hop gives off has become, quite literally, too hot, and it feels like time to cool down with the chill that rock music provides, or so I flatter myself. Rumor has it the rock star seat in Korea is still vacant, so I'm thinking of giving that door a knock.
Q. You show us such a range of activity. What made your heart race most recently, on a personal level?
A. I've been hooked on swimming at the neighborhood culture center, where a grandmother in her sixties, far healthier and sturdier than I am, kept teasing that the young one has less stamina than she does. Stung, I swam lap after lap without resting and nearly died of a bursting heart.
Q. Beyond music, is there another field you'd like to take on?
A. Sometimes I make music because carrying around thoughts I can't put into words is simply too painful. But perhaps because my musical technique still falls short, I'd also like to gather up the words I never managed to express and try writing a book.
Another field I'd like to attempt: telling myself “why do you need to express everything so badly~”, keeping my mouth firmly shut, going wherever the money is, and simply living as life carries me.
Q. Let me ask something a little more personal. What kind of person is Choi Wonbin, the human being?
A. I still don't know. IU wrote in a lyric that at 25 she finally felt she knew herself, but I still can't say I do. It's less that I don't know and more that I keep changing; I knew yesterday, and today I don't. I suspect IU is the same. She simply felt, on the day she wrote that lyric, that she finally knew herself. If I had to answer, though, I'd say I'm someone who keeps trying to find out who he is.
Q. What are your fans like?
A. Love itself, the whole japchae!
Q. Anything you'd like to say to your fans, taking this chance.
A. I love you, japchaes. Good news is coming soon.
Q. We can't let you go without a spoiler about what comes next. What are you preparing?
A. I'm preparing my first full-length solo album. It runs fifteen tracks, and with friends from all sorts of genres taking part, I carry my own cute little confidence that “no one has heard an album like this in Korean”.
On top of that, I've reunited with the friends who were there at Wetter's very beginning, and we're working together again. Quite some time has passed since those first days, and each of them has upgraded dramatically in their own position, so I can't wait to hear the results. There's no label to restrain or sign off on what we create, so for the first time we hold complete autonomy. Whether that proves a gain or a loss, we'll only know once it's out.
Q. Lastly, what is one thing you want to protect for as long as you live?
A. Even if what I wanted to protect is destroyed and shattered, I want to protect the strength to rise from bed again tomorrow and find something new worth protecting.
Brand. Umbro
Videographer. Kim Kyungho & Yoon Iseo
Assisted by. Jung Jiwoo & Choi Hongjun & Oh Sumin
Video Edit. Kim Kyungho
Editor. Kim Jinju & Cho Seoyoung & Kim Minkyeong
Assisted by. Jeong Subin
Hair. Ahn Hyunggyu
Assisted by. Jang Chaerin
Makeup. Jung Daeun
Project Manager. Johny Lee
Starring. Choi Wonvin
FAQ
How does Choi Won Bin usually spend his time?
Choi Won Bin spends days cycling and swimming to absorb vitamin D, evenings working on albums and reading, and weekends performing with Snakechickenssoup.
What is Choi Won Bin's fashion philosophy?
The most important reference in Choi Won Bin's fashion philosophy is whether something is rock.
