The latest episode of 'Suchwita (Time to Drink with SUGA)' was released on October 30 with special guest Taemin of SHINee.
On this day, Taemin introduced his latest mini-album, 'Guilty,' and revealed his creative inspiration for his solo comeback in 2 years and 5 months.
Despite the excitement of returning as a solo artist, Taemin also openly spoke about the struggles he faced.
He shared, "I thought through it a lot. The expectations of the public eye, and there must be things they're expecting from me. You already know, it's our mentality that we don't want to do something we've already done. It's sort of our calling to keep doing something new - which was also my initial thought. But since it's been a while since I've made a comeback, shall I say it's Taemin's Cliche? I wanted to capture the real me that people want to see."
Taemin and SUGA both delved deep into their fundamental desires of being artists. SUGA shared, "I think it's natural for an artist to have that ambition because then, you get better results."
Taemin added, "Because the shelf-life of a singer is short, especially as an idol, though nowadays it's gotten a lot longer. But I'm now at a time when it's not odd to stop at any given moment (since he's in his 15th year as an artist.) So, I need to prepare for that. But the desire to be loved never changes."
Taemin continued, "If I don't want to let that (love) go, I do think I need to try out different things and meet the expectations of people and fans. I think I'm at that stage now."
Debuting at such a young age, Taemin also had to put in much work to get to the position he is in and to be the first member of SHINee to make the solo debut.
He explained, "After debuting at 16, I had this goal of when I turn 20. The image of me in my 20s that I had in mind was 'I'm going to be the best. After these 4 years, I'm going to be the best.' So I worked really hard. I practiced a lot and worked on improving myself. Then it was the end of the year right before turning 20, I saw myself at 20, and I was so lacking. So much more than I expected."
He continued, "So I went to the practice room early morning on that day (before going home), I bawled and screamed. And then I kept practicing. I practiced really hard and just when it thought I hit my limit, the company gave me an opportunity (to debut as a solo artist)."
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