LEE CHAEYEON has never been short of ambition. A former member of girl group IZ*ONE before establishing herself as a solo artist under DayOneDream, she has since earned a following on the strength of her performance-driven music. But Till I Die, her fourth mini album, feels like something more than ambition alone – a declaration, and a promise to herself. “It reflects my strong desire to keep going and never give up the stage, no matter what,” she says of the title. “It’s also a kind of promise I make to myself through this album.”

The focus track “No Tears On The Dancefloor” packages resilience in retro Nu-Disco, while “Know About Me” – driven by Y2K-inflected guitar riffs and a chorus built around the line “they don’t know about me” – pushes back against a fixed image. “The version of me you see on stage is still me, but it’s not everything,” she says. “There are still many parts of me I haven’t shown yet.”

What’s shifted, she suggests, is how she carries herself. On “BAD,” the confidence feels earned rather than performed. “As I gained more experience over time, I became more confident and felt ready to express myself in a bolder way.” The same goes for her relationship with dance itself. “In the past, dance felt like something I had to be good at and prove myself through. Now it feels more like a way to express what I want to convey and connect with others.”

The album closes with “How Are You,” a minimal track threaded with acoustic guitar. It’s the gentlest moment on the record, and deliberately so. “I hoped it would feel like gently asking the listeners how they are.” After everything that came before it, that small gesture lands.