[Interview] Excerpts from XportsNews and TenAsia Interviews with Yves (250807)

Yves explained, “At first, the A&R team told me that ‘White cat’ was the title track, but I liked ‘Soap’ a little more. The company also thought about it, then suggested, ‘Let’s have double title tracks.’ ‘White cat” has a cute vibe that I haven’t shown yet. It has an early 2000s atmosphere so it goes really well with the current Y2K trend, and I think people will enjoy listening to this. ‘Soap’ was a collaboration with and features PinkPantheress, so do focus on how our two voices go together.”

She also cut her hair short, shedding the long hair one might think of when Yves is mentioned.

“When it comes to a K-pop artist’s comeback, doesn’t it seem like a sort of standardized system, like making drastic changes through dyeing your hair? I actually wanted to pare that down, so that's why I cut my hair, simply.”

Ahead of this comeback, Yves had her first solo tour in Europe, North America, and Latin America. She said, “Certainly, I’ve learned a lot after performing at large venues, and it felt like a self-study in how I should make myself look more awesome onstage. Whether it’s while dancing or singing, I’ve been trying a bunch of things more boldly.”

In particular, Yves boldly brought in the genre of electronic music not common for K-pop idols. She said, “More so than liking electronic music, I needed something to differentiate Yves as a singer, and I thought it was a good fit for expressing this. There’s a lot of sounds you can express with electronic music. The spectrum of images I can implement has also expanded, so I’ve been sending a lot of ideas to the company.”

She continued, “A lot of people thought I’d sing ballads because they think my voice suits them, but I think electronic music is the middle ground between what I’m good at and what I want to do.”

As someone “who doesn’t like being too obvious”, Yves’ outro “mom” hides a twist beneath its warm-sounding title.

Yves explained, “Have you seen the movie ‘Run’? In the movie, the mom takes care of a sick daughter, but she’s actually feeding her weird medication to keep her sick on purpose, to prevent her from going outside. When the daughter realizes, she feels betrayed by love. I thought it would be too cliche if a song called ‘mom’ went in a touching direction. It may be a surprise, but with devices like this I think you’ll become more curious about my next album, so I made this the final track.

Yves’ twists(?) don’t end there. After bringing up the plot of a rather eerie film, she credited “her mother” as her greatest musical inspiration, making everyone burst into laughter.

Yves expressed her affection, saying, “My mom wanted to be a singer. She was so passionate she even bought a guitar to play on her own. When I see the sheet music that she wrote by hand, it really makes me want to work hard. She always advises me to ‘Have fun and don’t be too nervous.’ After promotions end, my mom and I go on dates too. I’m always thankful for her.”

Yves said that her mother’s favorite song is “Soap”, and that her own favorite song is “Aibo”. “There’s a lot of parts where I can encourage the crowd to sing along, so I think I’ll be able to enjoy performing this at places like festivals. Perhaps it’ll enter a lot of people’s playlists after they hear it?” she said with a smile.

Yves, who’s normally hard on herself, rated this album a 3.7 out of 5. “If I had worked on it alone, it would have been a 2, but as the artists I collaborated with just did such great work, they brought it up to a 3.7.”

Yves’ answer to the question, “What sort of singer would you like to be remembered as by the public?” was a surprise.

“A stubborn person.”

“Even up until my second album, there were some reactions saying I should return to being in a group, but seeing those reactions actually made me want to make my own music. Honestly, I was most concerned about my fans’ reactions, but unexpectedly to me they said thanks for introducing them to a genre they wouldn’t typically listen to, and they’ve really liked my new visual forays as well, so I am very grateful,” Yves proudly said.

When asked how it feels to receive more attention from foreign media outlets like NME, DAZED, and Billboard US, than in Korea, Yves said, “From my LOONA days until now, we’ve confidently shown what we’ve wanted to show, not being afraid of prejudice. I think overseas fans saw that and supported me. So perhaps that’s how the fandom strengthened and I gained popularity abroad. I’m thankful.”

She mentioned a goal for this round of promotions. Yves shared her hope, “The goal last time was to not get too greedy about results. But thankfully, one of my B-sides went viral overseas and even made it onto the Tiktok charts abroad, and after that I can’t help but to get ambitious. For these promotions, I hope I can go viral on Tiktok domestically as well, so that lots of people can easily discover me.”

Sources: [1], [2], [3], [4]