VERIVERY's Kangmin Names SHINee's Taemin as the Reason He Pursued Solo Work

K-POP group VERIVERY's Kangmin is stepping out on his own, and he wants his fans to know the nerves are part of the point. /JELLYFISH ENTERTAINMENT

VERIVERY's Kangmin is stepping out on his own, and he wants his fans to know he is taking the responsibility seriously. The singer released his first solo single, "Free Falling," and sat down in March at the Gangnam, Seoul offices of his agency Jellyfish Entertainment to talk through the project with KPOPIT.

For Kangmin, the solo debut is a chance he traces directly back to his fans. "I still have a lot to learn, so I'm grateful that this opportunity came my way," he said. "This chance came from the love of fans, so I want to be a singer who works hard enough that their time doesn't feel wasted."

Going from group member to solo act has come with a new kind of weight. "I've been promoting as a member of VERIVERY, so trying to do everything on my own brought a lot of worry," he said. "Doing interviews and broadcasts alone makes me nervous and makes me feel the responsibility. When I think back to our debut, I didn't really know anything then. I figured if I just give it everything the way I did back then, that's enough."

K-POP group VERIVERY's Kangmin is stepping out on his own, and he wants his fans to know the nerves are part of the point. /JELLYFISH ENTERTAINMENT

The single's central theme is anxiety, a feeling Kangmin says he wanted to address honestly rather than hide. "Everyone deals with some kind of anxiety. I have my own light version of it. Even at fan meetings, group or solo, I felt anxious. I felt anxious because I was happy. I thought it would be interesting to talk about that openly, so I made it the theme. I told myself I should use that anxiety as fuel to keep working hard so I can keep being loved."

He did not want the message to feel heavy. "I didn't want to make it too deep," he said. "What I want to emphasize is that the reason I feel anxious is because I'm happy. I want to show fans that I hope we stay happy together going forward, and that I'll keep putting in the effort to make that happen."

The visual concept leaned into a softer, more fragile image of a young man, and Kangmin shaped his preparation around it. "I actually tried not to work out," he said with a laugh. "Not because I didn't want to. It just felt like it would express the concept better." He added, "I thought if I wanted the word 'anxiety' to read clearly, I needed to look as thin as possible. I've been dieting hard. I was already on a diet, but I dropped another 2 kilograms."

K-POP group VERIVERY's Kangmin is stepping out on his own, and he wants his fans to know the nerves are part of the point. /JELLYFISH ENTERTAINMENT

Asked what kind of solo artist he wants to become, Kangmin set a clear bar. "I want to be a singer who looks cool through every second of a three-minute song. If I ever get to do a solo concert, my dream is to look cool the whole time I'm on stage, then be funny during the talk parts." Pressed to put a number on how far along he is, he said, "I'd say about 30 percent. I think the version of me preparing for this looks cool. Solo activities are just starting, so I think the rest will fill in as I go."

He admitted the idea of a "cool singer" is harder to pin down than it sounds. "Honestly, it isn't clear-cut," he said. "Chasing something when you don't even know what it is is the hardest part. At first I think back to how I ever ended up dreaming of being a singer in the first place. It started because I watched amazing senior artists on stage and wanted to make fans happy the same way."

He pointed to one senior in particular as his role model: SHINee's TAEMIN. "The reason I first started dreaming about going solo was thanks to TAEMIN," Kangmin said. "We had album promotions that overlapped once. I watched him dance through the intro on stage completely alone, without any backup dancers."

K-POP group VERIVERY's Kangmin is stepping out on his own, and he wants his fans to know the nerves are part of the point. /JELLYFISH ENTERTAINMENT

"Free Falling" contains three tracks, including the title song of the same name, which Kangmin co-wrote. The title track is a contemporary R&B pop song built around a dynamic rhythm, guitar, and EP ensemble. It traces the anxious push and pull of two people who keep hurting and holding each other inside the same relationship.

For Kangmin, the solo debut is less a break from VERIVERY than a promise to the people who got him here. Anxiety, in his version of the story, is not something to outrun. It is the proof that there is still something worth holding on to.

Minkyung Lee lmk@k-popit.com