EVAN channels fear of being forgotten into music on 1st mini album
Singer EVAN poses during a press showcase for his first mini album "DEATH OF ME" at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace in Dongdaemun District, Seoul, Monday. He changed his stage name from Heeseung to EVAN after leaving K-pop group ENHYPEN. Yonhap
Former ENHYPEN member calls 'DEATH OF ME' a mirror, apologizes over fallout
Six months after walking away from one of K-pop's biggest boy bands, EVAN says the album he has built as a soloist is organized around his anxiety — that an artist whose music stops reaching people has "ceased to exist."
The soloist, known until March as Heeseung of ENHYPEN, dropped his first mini album "DEATH OF ME" on Monday. He hosted a press event just hours ahead of the official release at the Grand Peace Palace at Kyung Hee University in eastern Seoul.
The idea behind the album, he explained, came from a line in the anime "One Piece" about how a person truly dies only when they have been forgotten.
"When my music no longer reaches people, my reason for existing as an artist disappears," he said. "This album carries the meaning that I won't let that happen."
EVAN performs during a showcase for his first mini album "DEATH OF ME" at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace in Seoul, Monday. Courtesy of Belift Lab
Belift Lab, the HYBE label that announced his departure from ENHYPEN on March 10 and that he remained with as a soloist, describes "DEATH OF ME" as an album about holding onto a tangle of emotions and moving forward anyway. The group, meanwhile, has continued as a six-member act since the announcement.
Asked directly about the exit, EVAN said the decision followed a "long stretch of uncertainty" about what kind of music he wanted to make.
"I shared what I had been working on with the company, we talked, and after thinking about it for a very long time, I ended up taking the solo path," he said.
He also addressed the reaction from some of his fans, and went a step further by issuing an apology before the reporters in the room, many of whom fielded protest messages from fans in the weeks after March.
"I understand deeply how hurt and worried fans have been," he said. "I want to repay that with music and with a sincere path forward."
EVAN performs during a showcase for his first mini album "DEATH OF ME" at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace in eastern Seoul, Monday. The eight-track album, which he produced across the board, was released the same day. Yonhap
The eight-track album is the first release he has produced across the board, going beyond merely singing the songs.
"It's like a mirror," he said. "There's fear about what's ahead, but there's also this bare, unfiltered story about wanting to achieve a lot. I think it projects my thoughts exactly as they are."
Part of what that produced was a disclosure he had never made publicly before. In a Weverse Magazine interview published Thursday, EVAN said he was treated for malignant lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, when he was a fourth-grade student.
The singer said the illness belonged in the album rather than beside it.
"The theme running through all eight songs is hope, and I felt my childhood illness ran along the same line, so I brought it out," EVAN said. "It was a moment that had a huge effect on how I think and what I value, and confessing it came naturally."
"If I was going to show what's inside me exactly as it is, it was a story I had to tell," he added. And I'd like to use this occasion to offer a small comfort and a story of hope to people who are living with childhood cancer."
EVAN speaks during a showcase for his first mini album "DEATH OF ME" at Kyung Hee University's Grand Peace Palace in eastern Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The title track, which he co-wrote and co-composed, wraps that resolve in heavy pop R&B built around the declaration that nothing is going to stop him.
"There were a lot of moments while preparing this album when I thought I had reached my musical limit," he said. "This song is about not giving up when I run into that wall."
Alongside the title track and "Ride or Die," the album features "Not Enough," "Noise," "Twilight," "Immature," "Overflow" and "Going Home."
His live schedule is filling out on both sides of the border. In August, he became the first recipient of the Global-K Artist award at the 2026 TMElive International Music Awards at Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong. He is also set to open NBA Fan Day 2026 at the Venetian Arena in Macao on Oct. 10, before performing at K-LIVE FESTIVAL BAND : AGE in Bangkok on Oct. 17.
"My goal is to stand on bigger and more numerous stages," he said, "so that people take an interest in me, in my story and in my album."
His motto as an artist, he added, is to give people hope through music, and to help listeners who are worn down find the strength to get through it.