On 2 September, the group's lead vocalist released FREECHILD, a three-track solo EP built around the title track's arena-sized, Queen-inspired swagger. It's the first taste of a debut album still taking shape, and by his own account, it's been a long time coming. "All this energy has been bursting through the seams for the past nine years," he says of the restraint that came before it. "I believe it was a necessary time for all my ideas to marinate."

Holding back and letting go sits at the centre of FREECHILD. The title track's pre-chorus – "They'll treat us like we're vandals, so let's make art" – doubles as the EP's central theme, and the accompanying music video leans into it visually, drawing a narrative nod from Fight Club. KEVIN describes wanting to embody something closer to an alter ego than a performer: "I wanted to be the Tyler Durden to anyone that listens to my music and sees my video." It's a fitting reference point for an idol who has spent nearly a decade inside a group identity, now building something explicitly his own.

The EP's second and third tracks, "Manifesto" and "Focus On Me," extend that arc, moving from confrontation into introspection. But FREECHILD itself was born somewhere unexpected: written, KEVIN says, the moment he landed in Norway. "I've been telling everyone around me to go to Norway before they die."

Asked what's changed the most since his 2017 debut with THE BOYZ, by way of K-pop Star 6 before that, KEVIN’s answer is simple: he sounds more sure of himself. More than anything, FREECHILD tells the story of a KEVIN MOON who is done waiting to find out.