B.I

Kim Han-bin, known by his stage name B.I, tells us “I childishly play with the idea nowadays of having all gain with no pain,” and while he knows that is a naive thought, his upcoming album project, LOVE OR LOVED, Pt.1, seems to exist somewhere within this concept. In the album, it is as if each track portrays love as it exists in the vacuum of the song’s vivid atmosphere. B.I creates a universe in the album that flows seamlessly together on a breeze traveling from one atmosphere enveloped in the sun’s halo wrapped around a tangerine sky, to another of crisp cotton sheets with sharp corners that sprawl up to a mountain’s peak. There is an ephemeral beauty to the album, like the red rose in flames on the album’s cover, or like the sweet splash of a tangerine on your tongue as teeth pierce its skin. In his design collaboration with Ojeito, B.I emphasizes “sophistication within simplicity,” an ideal that he carries into this album. While there’s certainly a youthful simplicity to the album, there’s a sophistication in its tailoring of sound and production to eliminate excess, in creating a feeling through lyrics, and in choosing to release the album in two parts to better express the narrative. As much as there is a freshness to the album’s first part, there seems to be a similar freshness to B.I as he looks forward to a boundless level of creativity with his 131 team. In our interview with him, he talks about child-like joy, his fans, and LOVE OR LOVED, Pt.1, which will be released on November 18, 2022!