Words By Gladys Yeo
Emerging from the toughest moment of her career, the K-pop singer spent the past year looking inward, finding solace in a tranquil, unpretentious existence. Now, she’s ready to explore all the world has to offer – and to give even more in return.
Yves moves through the world with intention. It doesn’t appear to be something she consciously strives to do, but it takes only minutes of conversation with the 27-year-old idol to notice the careful deliberation behind every sentence that leaves her lips. That’s not to say that she’s guarded, or sparing with her words – quite the opposite, in fact – Yves simply has an affinity for expressing herself thoughtfully.
This purposeful movement informs nearly everything in her life, from the trajectory of her career, to her experience and creation of art, to the way she posts on Instagram. Born Ha Sooyoung in Busan, South Korea – later moving to the neighboring Yangsan – the singer wanted to be a performer for as long as she could remember. “Even as a little kid, I’d draw pictures of myself living my dream of singing in front of an audience,” she shares at one point during our conversation. And sure as fate, at the age of 19, she brought those pictures to life with her debut as part of LOONA, one of the most formidable K-pop girl groups in recent memory.
After enjoying over five years of success, LOONA entered a legal dispute with their label in late-2022. By mid-2023, all 12 of its members successfully terminated their contracts with the company. While her bandmates quickly found new homes and begin releasing music as subunits and soloists, Yves took her time, speaking with various agencies over months before finally inking a deal with PAIX PER MIL – a new label led by prolific producer Millic – in March of this year. She made her debut with her EP and single LOOP just two months later. “My image in LOONA was of a very powerful, strong dancer and visual, so I knew that some of my old fans who remember me that way could have been a little disappointed,” she reflects candidly.
“But I really trusted in the music and was confident that I would be able to convince my fans of this new way of being an artist – as Yves.”
Throughout their run, LOONA had become known for being striking performers, painting intricate pictures with their razor-sharp choreography and powerful vocals. For her debut, however, Yves opted for a subdued but captivating deep house number, hypnotizing rather than dazzling her listeners. “It’s common for female soloists to have very impactful visuals and a powerful sound for their music,” Yves points out, explaining that she and her label decided on a “step by step” approach to her solo career. She builds on this with her follow-up single “Tik Tok,” a cozy indie-R&B track she released last month best paired with a warm cup of tea. “We decided we wanted to go slow and long, and chose to begin with a more easy-listening sound [...] I want to build my way up and focus on creating a stronger bond with my fans along the way.”
“Performing alone on stage, I felt a sense of catharsis, as well as the joy of being able to pull it off on my own. It was very satisfying,” she says.
But as a self-proclaimed worrywart, Yves also experienced her share of doubts. “Even as a member of LOONA I was always worried about something. As a soloist, of course the worries have grown even more.” She adds to this confession that she often wondered if she could truly command a stage without the presence of her bandmates. “I don’t think I can ever be 100 percent satisfied with any performance. There will always be something lacking that I will look back on and fix next time.”
Effective as that work ethic is for her constant growth as a performer, Yves also admits that it sometimes works to her detriment. “With LOOP, I believed I had to do everything perfectly,” she says, adding that she found herself unable to relax throughout its promotional cycle. “It would be great if I could give myself a little room in the next release to be more relaxed and put more of my personality [into my performances].” As if reminding herself, she sagely adds: “If I was aiming for perfection, I wouldn’t have tried to become a solo artist.”
As one of LOONA’s leaders, Yves spent most of her near decade-long career steering the group towards a direction that benefited them as a team. While she found tremendous joy in her role as a leader, the singer also hoped to pursue her own artistic vision – a desire her bandmates urged her to explore when their legal troubles sent them their separate ways. “[The members’ support] gave me the conviction that our fans would also love me no matter how I presented myself. It gave me the confidence to step out as a solo artist.”
Back in 2022, Yves earned her first songwriting credit on Playback, a B-side on what later became the group’s final release. In the months of turbulence that followed, the singer began to hone her songwriting skills, occasionally updating fans on her progress on her social media and personal blog. “I already knew in my mind – despite the circumstances – that I wanted to perform and sing, but there was no stage for me to do that at the time,” she explains her shift in focus. “It was then that, within myself, I decided to work on my songwriting skills with the thought that I could write a song for my members, or that I could perform my own song one day.”
While Yves has yet to release a self-written track, she has gifted two songs – “Strawberry Soda” and “Truman Show” – to Loossemble, a new girl group formed by five of her former bandmates.
After being approached by a representative from their label, she offered the two songs up for a blind test. Unaware of Yves’ role in writing them, the group chose to release them in their first two EPs. “At the point where I wrote those songs, I didn’t feel like I was complete as a solo artist. It was just a great opportunity to be able to give those songs to my members as a step I was taking [as a songwriter].”
Under Millic’s guidance, the singer shares that she is experiencing unprecedented growth as an artist. “I would love to show my own songs one day, when I feel ready to,” she says. “I think I am ready, but I want to keep exploring concepts and genres and try things across the spectrum before I start releasing my own songs.”
As the conversation shifts towards her songwriting habits, it becomes clear how naturally attuned she is to art. In the place of finely-tuned process, she simply lives in a constant state of creativity. “I’m definitely not the type of girl who decides to sit down and write lyrics. I’ve never done that,” Yves laughs. Her approach is organic, like a scrapbook of her life.
“I just spend my day, and as the thoughts come to my head I’ll write them down like a log. If I come across words that I find inspiring or rare while reading books, I like to write that down.”
“With that, I do a kind of mind map and create my own storyline and narrative based on that word to create lyrics, which I then cut and paste when I’m working on a song,” she says. “As a daily routine, I like looking through Pinterest and finding visuals that inspire me and making archives of that. Then I go on to music, and I start looking for the genres or styles of music that would suit that visual moodboard. I like to archive these things and sometimes mix them up and see how they work, it’s kind of my hobby.”
While Yves is tight-lipped about the specific genres she has been drawn to lately (“that would be a spoiler!”, she exclaims teasingly), she’s eager to voice her admiration for American singer-songwriter Caroline Polachek: “I like that her songs are very conceptual and evoke a lot of imagination. Even her song titles are very imaginative. That’s the kind of song I’m into these days.”
Polacheck is one of countless artists Yves has featured on her Instagram, which she often uses to share her encounters with art in all of its forms to her fans. It’s also where her professional and personal lives intersect, where she makes sense of her experience in the world through an amalgamation of tasteful film photos, music recommendations and her latest adventures on Animal Crossing. She’s perfectly comfortable showing each facet of herself to the world. “I don’t mind talking about my sadness, or whatever I’m going through at the moment, so it's very organic, in a way,” she says, commenting on the open, vulnerable relationship she shares with her fans online.
“I didn’t want to be an artist who shows fans something that’s completely different from who I am in my normal life.”
There’s still a distinction between her on and offstage personas though, and she playfully points it out. “Ha Sooyoung loves to be in bed. She’s very lazy. But Yves is someone who is full of motivation, inspiration and exploration, and is always aiming for something better and constantly seeking growth,” she explains, adding with an airy laugh in English: “They always fight.”
“But music is like the bridge of transformation,” she continues. “Once I start listening to music and interacting with music, that’s when I automatically turn into Yves. But outside of music, I’m just Ha Sooyoung, playing games in my bed.”
For a soul so inclined to create and experience art, being forced off stage in 2023 was one of the most painful moments in her life, both as Ha Sooyoung and Yves. But it was then that she learned some of its most valuable lessons to date.
“Last year was a very difficult time for me. As a human being, I believe that you can’t know what happiness is if you’re constantly only happy.”
“That’s something I learned last year, that has made me a much stronger person inside. As an artist, I don’t think I would’ve started writing songs if I hadn’t had that break. It was such a difficult time, but I’m also grateful for it.”
When asked what success and happiness look like to her, Yves refers to her childhood dreams of performing on stage. “So, I think I’ve already succeeded,” she says. Taking a moment to ponder the subject of happiness, she gazes thoughtfully at the ceiling before commenting in English: “This is so difficult.”
“Back to last year, it was difficult, and I was grateful for it. But I also never want to go back to that time,” she laughs when she finally finds the words. “So happiness, for me, is just being able to live my normal daily life, stay healthy, and just live subtly and peacefully.”