“I’ve been here for two days already, but it feels like I’ve been here for two years,” Jackson Wang shakes his head. It’s Men’s Fashion Week and we’re in Paris with the global superstar whose reputation for always being on the go is playing out in real-time: he’s juggling parties, events for his Team Wang Design collaboration with Billionaire Boys Club, and promo for his just-released new album, ‘Magicman 2’. “Every single day, I’ve slept like two, three hours.”
Wang’s schedule might be packed now, but after his commitments around 2022’s ‘Magicman’ finally came to an end, he did something unusual. The musician, who’s also a member of the K-pop boyband GOT7, took a year off for a long-overdue break in which he learnt more about himself and regained his focus and energy. “I felt like I really needed that,” he says now. “For over 10 years in this industry, I was just running non-stop. I didn’t even have time to feel – I was just outputting; there was nothing coming in.”
During that year, he wrote personal diaries, processing the experiences he had been through, and eventually turned them into the introspective, reflective songs that make up ‘Magicman 2’. “I think this album is definitely self-serving,” he explains. “It’s very personal to me. It’s one of those albums that, as a performer, as a singer, as an artist, I really needed in my life.”
Over the course of our In Conversation interview, Wang opens up about ‘Magicman 2’, his growth as a person and an artist, and where he’ll go next musically after this record.
How did taking a step back for a year let you work through the thoughts and feelings that ended up on this album, and how did that change you as a person?
Jackson Wang: “I think [for] a lot of us just living in society every single day, there’s a lot of different standards, right? That’s the reality of things. For me, I didn’t know the person that [I] was because for more than 10 years, it was just like, ‘Do this, do this, do this’. So it almost felt like, ‘Am I the me that people know, or am I me?’ But that comes to the question: ‘So what is me?’
“I just needed time to not escape from myself and get to know myself better, how I feel about reality, society, humans, relationships… How do I feel about my family and what means the most to me? I think that was the person that I was always – not intentionally – escaping from. I faced it, and that’s basically what the entire album is about.”
Why were you trying to escape that person?
“It’s just very unintentional. Because like I said, back-to-back schedules for more than 10 years and from since I was an athlete. It’s just practice, competing in tournaments after tournaments, and becoming a trainee and debuting as a group and then pursuing my solo career. It’s just what’s next, what’s next, what’s next. But what does it even mean? Is this something that I really want to do? A lot of people told me not to take the break – the industry people around me. Because the reality is, if you stop, you just go down.
“Whatever bubble, that aura that you had is not going to be because you’re not active anymore, right? But then, at the end of the day, it’s just a choice that we make. Are we willing to lose something and gain something? But what you’re gaining – is it more valuable to you? So I just chose what my heart was telling me.”
Was losing the things that you built up over the last 10 years a concern for you?
“I think I definitely lost so much. But it’s just another mentality. I never had anything to begin with, so fuck it. If I can be at a certain point, a certain moment, I have something. I feel like I can, through hard work or through time or another, better version of myself, I can climb back. That’s what I believe… touch wood, fuck! Imagine this interview comes out and I fail as fuck. But hey, this is what I chose, though.
“You just can’t have everything in life, and even my brand, Team Wang Design, it’s all talking about personal stuff, life goals. Every launch, it’s about that stage of my life, what am I thinking and what’s valuable to me. A lot of people think, ‘Oh, Team Wang Design – is it a merch [line], is it a brand or whatever?’ It’s just my personal closet. It’s Jackson’s closet. Any collaboration is just Jackson and friends. Even the music, the album – people ask me, ‘What’s the inspiration?’
“There’s no inspiration. A lot of my output after that year of taking a break has just been what I experienced, how I felt. Music, apparel or products is based off of that – no inspiration. It’s not like I sit in the park and then I’m looking at the sky, and all of a sudden, the inspiration comes. No, fuck that.”
You described the album earlier as self-serving. How do you think making an album with that intention – it purely being for yourself – has changed the way you’re thinking about how you’re gonna make music in the future?
“I think it’s more comfortable and it feels from the heart, and I understand that. But the flipside is it might not be what everyone wants. Everyone’s having a hard time in the world, so many unfortunate events happening that – no one wants to fucking hear how you feel. Everyone’s struggling. Entertainment – you’re supposed to entertain people. I get that. I just think that, for this album, though, it’s for me, right? That’s it. The reality is it’s not ear candy songs. I just needed to get it out, and after that, I can do ear candies all day.”
What is the biggest thing you learned about yourself through making this album?
“Being able to admit my mistakes. Being able to be comfortable with my flaws and learn from it. And also, because a part of the album is also about betrayal from whoever that I really trusted, what I learned from it is I accept it and move on, but also understand the other side of the perspective. Bad people would never think they’re bad people. In their point of view, probably they’re just hustlers or they’re this or that. So, just understanding the situation. I think that’s the entire progress of me evolving and being able to accept it and move on with it.”
Looking back at the first ‘Magicman’ album, you’ve said those songs are cool, but you don’t really have a personal connection to them…
“Some of them. It’s all over the place. I feel like that’s also me evolving into finding the new sound. Because on the first ‘Magicman’, I’m always talking about ‘find your magic, find your happiness’. That’s why [there’s] ‘Blue’ and all these emotions are there, but what the fuck does ‘Blow’ have to do with ‘find your happiness’? It was just very messy. A lot of the shows were very successful, but I just felt in my gut, ‘What does it even mean?’
“I feel like this album is 100 per cent everything in one channel, right? Everything makes sense. Videos after videos, songs after songs, the chapters, the narrative… even if it doesn’t do as fine, it’s really meaningful to me. And after that I promise you – the people, the audience and my fans that’s following me – I’m just gonna do candies. Make a song about lollipops, a song about marshmallows.”
In terms of making an album where you did feel fully connected to every single song, did that feel different to you when you were working on it compared to the first ‘Magicman’?
“I think the first one was just more sonically and performance-wise, ‘Is it gonna be dope? How can I shoot the visuals? How can I choreo the entire performance?’ It was not really, ‘What am I saying?’ The narrative of the album is there, but the songs – the arms and legs – are not making sense. So that’s one of the things that I… not regret, but I learned [from].”
How did making ‘Magicman 2’ change your vision of who you are and who you want to be as an artist?
“I think it’s creating that and also passing 30. I feel like I’m more neutral with everything now, and I do exactly what I want. Is it good for me? Is it bad for me? Is it worth it? Not worth it? We never know. I think I chose innovation – just try stuff. But innovation, if you really think about it, is risk. Innovation is only innovation when it succeeds, right? But if it doesn’t, then people think you’re stupid as fuck. But that’s what I chose.”
What do you want people to take from the album?
“Everyone needs their own version of Magicman to grow. And this is just life – we’re born, we die alone. But is it a bad thing? Is it a good thing? It’s just facts. Just accept it. It’s not bad and not good.”
I wanted to talk about ‘High Alone’. At the beginning, it starts with samples of things like a radio clip, a TV jungle, a bit of Wanderings Of Sanmao. What’s the significance of those samples, and how they tie into the song?
“Those are the moments that meant happiness to me and the sounds that made certain precious memories for me. It gives me security in my heart. Probably when I was a kid, the songs were just playing on the radio in my parents’ room and it’s just at the back as BGM. Those sounds make me feel loved and make me feel calm in my heart. I just took all those moments and pieced them into the intro.
“The reason why I chose [to put them] in the beginning was that’s the safe zone in my heart, but then I slowly get brought into this reality of everything, and this is what I face. It’s almost like sonically [being] born and brought into the world in the safe space and then, ‘Fuck, this is what I have to accept’.”
How do you think it’s going to feel performing these songs on stage compared to the first ‘Magicman’ album?
“I think definitely it would be a movie. We just finalised the deck of what I want on stage – what if we have a thrust [stage]? What is gonna be on the thrust? Not something crazy, but it’s necessary. It’s a movie. The narrative and everything will be the same [as the album], but it will be something that you’ve never seen me doing ever in my life… London, I’m coming!”
Jackson Wang’s ‘Magicman 2’ is out now via Team Wang Records/88 Rising.