Although K-pop superstar Sunmi has been in the industry for nearly 20 years, until now, she’s yet to have released her own full-length album. “I had been cautious [as] many female solo artists do have difficulties releasing a full album,” she tells NME over a video call from Seoul in late October. But after all the hits – both solo and with iconic girl group Wonder Girls – global tours and television appearances, the 33-year-old finally feels like the time is right to bring forth her first LP, ‘Heart Maid’.
“All this time, I’ve been preparing and having this journey as Sunmi, and I felt like I had enough information [to move forward],” she explains. “It was a time where I looked back at myself, looked back at my music and thought, ‘How can I define my journey? What is my music?’ [In the past] I made songs for myself [to express] just my personal feelings, but now I’m making music that other people can feel comforted [by].”
Sunmi describes ‘Heart Maid’ as an album that she “really made with all my heart, all my emotions and feelings”, something that is “heart made”, a play on words and a homophone of the album’s title. But that title also carries quite a literal meaning for Sunmi too: “The idea of a heart maid, like how a maid takes care of someone’s house [and does the] chores, I want to take care of someone’s emotions. Songs that were made for the heart, that was the main idea.”
While the idea of the album may be a new approach for the K-pop star, ‘Heart Maid’ is still classic Sunmi in all the ways that count. Lead single ‘Cynical’ is a retro-facing synth-pop song that recalls her best work, while the deep cuts are explorational and experimental, ranging from the R&B slow jam of ‘Walking At 2am’ to the dark electropop of ‘Sweet Nightmare’. Read on for NME’s interview with Sunmi about putting out her first full-length record, needing to “redefine” her music and what the future holds.
Tell us more about the album’s lead single, ‘Cynical’.
“I feel these days society itself [has become] more cynical, and I’ve been pondering why that is. When you live life, you get hurt, and as a defence mechanism, you get more cynical. The world is moving too fast, it’s quite harsh and you barely have time to reflect on yourself, [so] how can you even think about someone else? So, I just thought of the idea: even during [times like these], let’s laugh a little.”
‘Cynical’ is a very classic Sunmi song, it reminds me of ‘Noir’ and ‘Lalalay’. What brought you back to that kind of sound? And what were you trying to explore through it?
“I feel like it’s a sound I’m more confident in, that retro-feeling synth-pop mixed with a little EDM. But this time, I also want to show a comedic side. Even the message of ‘Cynical’ – it’s like basically saying ‘Hey, life is tough, but let’s smile a little.’ And I hope that when people watch the music video, they let out a small laugh. The music video, the idea is [based off] this concept in Korea of female virgin ghosts. It’s a person who’s been wronged in their life. I thought it would be kind of funny if a scary-looking female virgin ghost says, ‘Hey, let’s laugh a little.’ The idea itself is quite ironic.”
Why was ‘Cynical’ the right song to be the title track?
“It’s the fastest song, and I just felt it would be the song that would be easily approachable. I did have another candidate for the title track called ‘Sweet Nightmare’. It’s a little bit darker, but I felt that, unlike ‘Sweet Nightmare’, ‘Cynical’ is a little bit more exciting. It’s a little bit cheerful. Even the word cynical, I find it quite catchy.”
What did you draw on for this album in terms of inspirations? Anything you saw or heard that just made you want to write and create?
“For me, I don’t think I get inspiration from things that are grandiose. I think I just get it from everyday life. Sometimes when I’m just relaxing on a sofa looking through Netflix [or if I] hear a line and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I really like this wording!’ And then, it kind of builds up from there. It’s really simple
“This song called ‘Tuberose’, I noticed a perfume that I like contains this specific scent called tuberose. So I was searching what that was, and I found it’s a flower with a very fun story. There’s this legend about that specific flower, that back in the day, they didn’t let young people smell it because apparently the smell is so alluring, so seductive that people fall in love so quickly. And I thought that that story was quite fun, and it just became a track.”
How long has this album been in the works?
“Properly, it’s been about a year and a half since I’ve been really working on this album. But there are some songs that are from a while back, and I just redeveloped them. Actually, the song I just told you about, ‘Tuberose’, I wrote the lyrics way before, but I just completely rearranged it.
“But, of course, there are also songs that I worked on just for this album. I collaborated with different people [and] received different demo tracks. I don’t know if this might be disappointing for me to say, but after these 19 years with all [the music I’ve released], I feel like this is where I needed to redefine my music. Maybe it’s bold, maybe it’s rash, but I really put all my heart and emotion into it.”
On this album redefining who you are, how does ‘Heart Maid’ fit into the world of Sunmi?
“In a way, ‘Heart Maid’ is just 19 years of my growth and journey, and there’s a certain progression to it. The first few tracks are quite dancey, and it is a Sunmi that people often think about and associate with. Later, there’s a bridge [where] the songs are expressing emotions [from within], but I’m expressing them in a very cheerful, light way. These are the songs like ‘Balloon In Love’, ‘Blue!’ and ‘Happy AF’. Then, later on in the album, it gets very personal to something that’s very deep down in me.”
What other surprises are in store for fans on ‘Heart Maid’?
“There’s a lot of different sounds on the album! There’s a track called ‘Mini Skirt’ which is quite bossa nova. Then there’s ‘Walking At 2am’, and it’s way more R&B, ‘A Long Long Night’ is a ballad – a lot of different genres, so I hope fans will find the album interesting.”
After this album, what’s next for Sunmi?
“I don’t really know what my next step is. My goal is to give the best performance I can with ‘Cynical’ and the promotional schedule, and then I would like to recharge. Making this album specifically, I really put all my emotions into it, so I think I’m overdue for a recharge. I don’t know how long that will be – but at a timing that [I feel good about], then I’ll come back with some good music. And if there are people waiting for me, then maybe I have a world tour. At least that’s what I hope.”
Sunmi’s new album ‘Heart Maid’ is out now via ABYSS COMPANY.