The path to Free Falling, KANGMIN of VERIVERY's three-track solo debut, wasn't straightforward. As the youngest member of VERIVERY, the seven-piece South Korean group who have been active since 2019, KANGMIN had been thinking about going solo for a long time, but the picture just wasn't clear yet. It took a hiatus, an appearance on BOYS II PLANET, and a solo fan meeting tour to bring it into focus – and with it, a specific story he finally felt ready to tell.

That story is built around anxiousness. Not as a problem to solve or a weakness to overcome, but as a feeling worth examining honestly, from multiple angles. It runs through everything – the concept, the sequencing, the lyrics KANGMIN wrote himself for both the intro and the title track.

Writing those lyrics was new territory. This was his first time actively participating in the musical direction at this level, shaping not just how the music sounded but what it said. He didn't go into it without support – DONGHEON of VERIVERY has credits on the intro track alongside him, bringing a collaborative dynamic that KANGMIN says made the album more meaningful. The two already have years of group chemistry to draw from, and that clearly informed how the intro came together.

The title track, “Free Falling,” took time to click. He didn't immediately feel a connection to the production when he first heard it, but something in the run from pre-chorus to chorus kept pulling him back. It was the process of writing lyrics for it – making it his own story – that settled it. The record's most direct moment lyrically is here too, a line addressed to his fans that caught him off guard when he wrote it.

Working on Free Falling also brought something unexpected into view. KANGMIN went into it thinking he'd grown considerably through his years with VERIVERY. The process of making this record made him reconsider that – and the self-reflection that came with it was its own kind of growth.

What hasn't changed is his place in VERIVERY. He's still the maknae, still the youngest, and he suspects that dynamic is permanent regardless of what he does outside the group. Free Falling doesn't ask that to be any different. He doesn't know exactly where he's heading. He's just fairly sure the direction isn't wrong.