As part of its cover story package, Rolling Stone has rolled out its standalone profile of BTS’ Jin, in which he talks about lessons learned during the pandemic, wanting to lean into a more rocking sound and missing the ARMY during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Being off the road during the pandemic helped Jin slow down and take some time to reflect on “what I want and who I am and sort of learn to love myself.” Even better, he got to sleep way more, play games and watch movies while discovering that he actually loves to exercise. But, like his bandmates, he definitely felt the pain of not seeing screaming ARMY members at concerts.
“When we couldn’t go on tour, everybody felt really a sense of loss, a sense of powerlessness, and we were all sad. And it actually took us a while to get over those feelings,” he said of being down without the input of the band’s beloved fans, which inspired the introspective late 2020 solo song “Abyss,” which tackles burnout and anxiety. “I was feeling very sad and down,” he told the magazine. “But the process of actually singing the song and recording the song alleviated a lot of those emotions.”
The profile notes that despite hitting a “howling series of beyond-falsetto notes” on the song “Crystal Snow,” Jin wasn’t originally a singer or dancer when he first teamed up with HYBE (formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment), but was studying to be an actor. Would he would like to try acting some day if an opportunity came along? He’s going with the flow for now, he said, focusing on music, but “nothing’s carved in stone.”
And while you wouldn’t know it by watching the seven-man group’s intricate choreography, Jin continues to be a bit self-conscious about his stage skills.
“It does take more effort for me to do the things that may come more naturally for the other members,” he said of his bandmates. “I lack in many areas. For example, a lot of the other members will learn a dance once and they’ll be able to dance right away to the music. But I can’t do that, so I do try to work harder so I don’t hold the other members back or be a burden. So I would come to dance practice an hour early, or after the practice was over, I would stay behind another hour or so, and ask the teacher to go over the choreography one more time.”
Asked if he’d like BTS to delve more into such guitar-driven songs as “Moon” from last year’s Map of the Soul 7 album, Jin said he would definitely “not refuse” any more rocking songs that come BTS’ way, adding that they’d have to “feel appropriate” and match their style to be considered.
And in perhaps the most revealing moment, Jin broke down how the band’s complex vocal interplay gets sorted out in the studio. “So when a song is finished, we will all sing it,” he explained. “We will sing the entire song. And then we decide which lines really suit which person and their character. And we try to work that out.”
The BTS cover story will be included in a special collector’s box set that includes eight copies of the issue — one group cover and seven additional ones spotlighting each member — which is available here now.
