Jin, the oldest member of BTS, turns 28 on Dec. 4, but he delivered a special present to the ARMY on his own birthday — a solo single titled “Abyss.”
He unwrapped the emotive synth-pop ballad two hours before the clock struck midnight on his birthday in South Korea, which fans can listen to on BTS’ SoundCloud or BANGTANTV’s YouTube channel.
Jin expressed how the buoyant yet heavy song is about feeling burnt out, especially after BTS reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 three times in the last three months with “Dynamite,” “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo, and “Life Goes On.”
“I don’t want to share my sad feelings with my fans. Because I only want to show them good things. But it’s different if it’s through music,” Jin began the lengthy letter on BTS’ Blog, which was translated to English by Allkpop. “To be honest, I recently felt really burnt out. I think it was because I had a lot of thoughts about myself. I was congratulated by many people after reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but I wondered if it’s really okay for me to receive something like that.. There are honestly a lot of people who love music more than me and are better at music than me, so is it okay for me to be feeling this happiness and being congratulated like this…”
Jin met with acclaimed South Korean songwriter and producer BUMZU, and his positivity “brightened” the star and inspired him to write about imposter syndrome and his other worries that were weighing him down. RM wrote the chorus of “Abyss” and earned a production credit alongside BUMZU, Jin and Pdogg.
“It’s a bit of a sad song that’s not the right fit for a birthday, but it seems it would be a little off to release it when it’s not my birthday, so I’m releasing ‘Abyss,’” Jin concluded. “ARMY, please listen to it well, even if it’s lacking.”
But the ARMY reassured Jin that he never fails “to amaze and bring happiness to the world,” according to a message from a BTS stan account addressed to “Our Worldwide Handsome,” by surprising him with television, social media and magazine advertisements.
Allkpop also reported that his Team Kim Seok Jin fanbase prepared a TV ad to run on Mnet channel until Dec. 7. Other ads will launch across various apps from Dec. 4-7, such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, KakaoTalk, Snow, B612, SODA, and Foodie.
Jin’s fansite masters, who are typically devoted fans to a singular member of a K-pop group that share stunning images of them on social media, will run full-page advertisements in fashion magazines such as Vogue Korea and Harper’s BAZAAR Korea.
Listen to “Abyss,” read Jin’s entire message about it, and see more love for him below.
Hello, this is Jin.
Recently, I said this at a press conference.
“I don’t want to share my sad feelings with my fans. Because I only want to show them good things.
But it’s different if it’s through music. I don’t want to share them through my ordinary actions, but I think it would be okay to show them through music.”
To be honest, I recently felt really burnt out. I think it was because I had a lot of thoughts about myself.
I was congratulated by many people after reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, but I wondered if it’s really okay for me to receive something like that..
There are honestly a lot of people who love music more than me and are better at music than me, so is it okay for me to be feeling this happiness and being congratulated like this..
That’s what I thought about, and going further into that made me feel troubled so I wanted to lay everything down.
I received counseling over that and after a while I spoke with Bang PD [Bang Si Hyuk]. He asked what I thought about possibly writing about these feelings in a song.
I responded that I didn’t feel confident that I could make one well and I was worried that the end result might not be good, since I’m already at a position where that wouldn’t be acceptable. He replied, “That sort of thing isn’t important. But if you do it, then you’ll definitely do well. I’ll find someone who’d be a good fit for you.”
That’s how I met the composer Gye Beom Ju [Bumzu] and we spoke a lot about my feelings now and many other things.
He’s a bright and optimistic person. He said that he wanted to help me and he said, “Let’s try writing about a lot of worries. If it doesn’t work out, then we’ll just start again.” His positivity brightened me up again.
We spoke about many things and he made a track then and there about my current feelings, and “Abyss” was completed after using the track to write about the things I wanted to try to express. I want to thank Gye Beom Ju once again.
It’s a bit of a sad song that’s not the right fit for a birthday, but it seems it would be a little off to release it when it’s not my birthday, so I’m releasing “Abyss.”
ARMY, please listen to it well, even if it’s lacking.
ps. Thank you to our leader who wrote the chorus lyrics.