When Kahi was the leader of After School, she was known as “Charisma Kahi” because of her boldness. This time, however, Kahi is different. She isn’t surrounded by her group, and the charisma that she once exuded is now hard to find.
Kahi speaks about her change, saying, “A lot of people expect me to come out with an ambitious mindset to conquer the music charts, but I’ve actually gone the opposite road. I want to do music that exposes who I really am and not a facade. If I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t have released this album. Thankfully, I was able to release an album and a title song that shows my fans who I really am.”
When confronted with the fact that she lacks her “usual” sexiness, she stated, “I think there are two different ways to express sexiness. One is a total femininity, and the other is a kind of subdued, mysterious and unexpected charm. The first one is like a girl wearing lingerie, and the second one is like a girl wearing a uniform. I wanted to express the second kind of sexy.”
“But,” she adds with a smile, “the choreography is rather sexy and charismatic, so you’ll see some familiar things, too.”
On staying with her old entertainment company while leaving After School for a solo career, she stated, “Because I never thought of them as my crutches or something to fall back on, this new venture is both scary and exciting. I’m mostly happy because I’m doing music that I wanted to do. My mindset usually is to enjoy the ride. If I do well, that’s definitely a plus, but I don’t stress out too much about how successful my album turns out.”
Her title song, “It’s Me,” is not the kind of sexy and powerful dance song that we expected. Surprising and unexpected, but that’s what Kahi wanted.
“I don’t want to try so hard to fit into any kind of predetermined criteria of beauty. My natural, unadulterated self is what has to be beautiful to be found truly beautiful. The title song was chosen with this mindset. My staff despaired when I told them that that was my album concept. They knew that this kind of beauty is the most difficult to depict, but they did a great job. I’m satisfied with our result.”
Her music video was filmed in Spain to put together a package of song, stage performance, and filmography. The music flows as the image flows on the video, expressing the type of beauty and sexy that Kahi wanted to pursue. Kahi explains that it was an attempt to bring Spain and its beauty to her Korean audiences through her song.
Her album was met with resounding approval; many of her fans and music critics stated that this type of music is “distinctly Kahi” and that the album is “a perfectionist album that is easy on the ears as well.” Kahi produced the album, and chose her own songs to sing and called her friends to feature in her new songs.
“I didn’t want to go to all the trendy songwriters and ask for a hit song. I want to bring fresh and fun into my album instead of sounding like every other album. I worked the concept, wrote the lyrics, and brought people to feature in the songs. The level of personal satisfaction for this album is off the charts (laughter).”
Songwriters such as Neonethy, Alice Sky (Rottyful Sky), Mister Rocks & Anthony Mills, Jessie J, Curtis Richardson, Paulo Mendaco, and Scott Hellowell made her songs while stars such as Yoon Do Hyun, Dumbfoundead, Swings, and Dok2 made featuring appearances in her songs.
Kahi stands in the pathway that leads away from being an idol star and leads to being a life-long musician. Many artists have walked this road, such as Kang Ta and Park Jin Young.
“There are too many idol superstars who are amazingly good at what they do – how can I compete with them? I’m going to choose to be a musician that everyone can love – not because I’m an idol or surrounded by beautiful friends, but because they love my music. I don’t need the spotlight – I’ll be a position player. I’m satisfied with that.”
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