INTERVIEW Singer Younha dives into ocean fantasies with 'GROWTH THEORY'

Singer Younha released her new album "GROWTH THEORY" on Sept. 1. Courtesy of C9 Entertainment

By Lee Gyu-lee

• Published Sep 4, 2024 6:22 PM KST
• Updated Sep 5, 2024 4:21 PM KST

Two years after the success of "END THEORY," singer-songwriter Younha returned with "GROWTH THEORY," just in time for her 20th anniversary in music.

This album, dropped on Sept. 1, continues her "THEORY" trilogy, exploring scientific themes through music. While the first series follows a girl exploring outer space, this album shifts the narrative to a girl embarking on an oceanic adventure in a small, old boat, reflecting on marine life and her own personal growth.

The singer shared that this album represents the culmination of all the musical challenges she has aspired to tackle in her career.

“I worked hard on this for a year and believe it will be the most impressive album in my discography. I would describe it as a rock genre. With this album, I freely embraced all the musical challenges I’ve wanted to explore,” she said during an interview with The Korea Times at a café in Jungnang District, Seoul, Monday.

“I like this one the most out of all my albums so far. You can understand who Younha is just by listening to this new album. I was attached to this one the most, carrying it around, constantly fixing and modifying it, and deeply contemplating its themes. Because I spent the most time on it, I have the greatest affection for it.”

The seventh feature album consists of 10 tracks: the title track, “Sunfish,” “Mangrove Tree,” “Antmill,” “Attention!,” “Silvering,” “Curse for the Rocket Formula,” “Coriolis Force,” “Life Review,” “Part of Cloud” and “East Wind.”

Younha revealed that the idea for the album came to her during a trip to Australia, specifically while she was in the remote town of Broome, where she went to see the Milky Way.

“It all started with a mangrove tree I saw on my trip. As I began writing a song about this tree that grows in the sea, I imagined a girl traveling through the ocean,” she said.

“The story begins as the girl returns to reality. When she wakes up, she finds herself on a cliff above the sea, wondering 'Which way should I go now?’ And she sees a mangrove tree and gains the courage to start her journey.”

The musician said she wanted the audience to feel as though they were part of the album’s musical universe, embarking on the adventure together while listening to the songs.

“With this album, I wanted it to be more glamorous and more immersive. For the sixth album, I wanted to make the audience feel as if they entered into someone else’s unconsciousness or dream, like 'Inception', and observe the music. This time, I wanted it to feel like you're really immersed as you’re really in the ocean,” she said.

“I hoped it would feel like we're riding a boat together, to the point where it’s hard to distinguish whether this is fantasy or reality.”

The title track, “Sunfish,” conveys a message of following one’s own beliefs and path regardless of what others say. The artist shared that as she learned more about the sunfish, she felt increasingly drawn to it, which inspired her to write the song.

“(Sunfish) is known as a weak creature. But when I studied it, that wasn't true. It lives about 20 years and moves around in quite a wide range from the surface to as deep as 800 meters underwater. It doesn’t belong either to the surface or the seabed. So it resonated with me that it’s a creature that is not bound to any one place,” she said.

“I wanted to say, ‘Let’s be like the sunfish.’ We might be misunderstood or misperceived by others, but by following our own path, we can make a positive impact.”