InterviewMONSTA X's Kihyun trusts his gut on 'BORDERLINE'
'It's an album that can make the real me known,' he says
Kihyun, main vocalist of K-pop boy band MONSTA X / Courtesy of Starship Entertainment
With one day left before deadline, Kihyun of K-pop boy band MONSTA X has yet to choose the title track for his upcoming solo album, "BORDERLINE."
The MONSTA X main vocalist had another song penciled in, but a nagging feeling would not leave him. So he did what the album itself is about — he trusted his own instinct and eventually went with "So Good," a rock-based track carried by delicate, technically demanding vocals.
Kihyun has anchored MONSTA X as its main vocalist since the group debuted in 2015, with the voice that carries its choruses and its highest of notes across a decade of albums, tours and festival stages. Away from the six-member act, he has built a parallel solo identity rooted in belt-heavy rock, starting with the 2022 single "VOYAGER" and the mini-album "YOUTH."
"I chose [the title track] with the mindset of trusting my own choice," Kihyun said in an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday, at the Starship Entertainment headquarters in Gangnam District, Seoul. "And I think it really was a great choice."
Kihyun of K-pop boy band MONSTA X / Courtesy of Starship Entertainment
That decision anchored "BORDERLINE," Kihyun's second mini-album and his first solo release in three years and nine months, out July 7 at 6 p.m. It comes after a stretch that included military service and a full slate of group activity, and Kihyun described the record as something he had long wanted to make but treated, this time, like "homework."
"Since it's my third solo release, putting out the same thing again felt like a burden," he said, adding that he deliberately chose a title track that resists easy singing.
"[The new album's] title track is a demanding song you can't just sing however you want. I put in a lot of genres I'm not good at, to make an album that shows a lot more of my range."
Kihyun first heard "So Good" last November, when a member of his management team played it for him around a iHeartRadio Jingle Ball appearance. Even in that brief moment, it reminded him of his favorite British singer James Bay, and it kept tugging at him.
The song is not a straightforward belter, he said, but one that has to carry an emotional line, and finishing it took real work.
Kihyun, main vocalist of K-pop boy band MONSTA X / Courtesy of Starship Entertainment
The album's title, Kihyun said, doubles as a thesis. "Borderline" means a line of boundary, and the album is about crossing it. The idea compresses into the title track's lyrics, a message about believing in yourself in an environment where people hand you too many answers.
Some of the album's weight comes from the years behind it. During his military service, Kihyun said, he was anxious he would fall behind or be forgotten.
Those fears proved unfounded. On the group's recent reunion tour, he found himself returning to venues he had played before and getting choked up to see fans still there.
"That's when the gratitude hit home," he said. "I thought I had to repay that heart."
A broader change traces to the pandemic's enforced stillness, which unsettled him at first.
"Being forced to rest, I was very anxious," he said. "But looking back, that time actually helped." He had spent his twenties working without pause, he said, and came out of it able to travel, surf and see friends without guilt.
K-pop boy band MONSTA X performs during the 2026 MONSTA X World Tour "The X: Nexus" at KSPO Dome in Seoul, Feb. 1. Courtesy of Starship Entertainment
That shift feeds the album. Where stepping out alone as a main vocalist once came with the pressure of having to prove something, the solo work now does the opposite.
"Music activities used to be a source of anxiety," Kihyun said. "Now the activity is actually a release."
He kept "BORDERLINE" entirely his own, with no featured artists, and framed strong singing as his edge in a market chasing other trends.
"Honestly, one thing that worries me is that it's a song that doesn't match the current trend," he said. "But in a way, I think that becomes a point of difference."
"This album holds the most of my own thinking, above all else," he added. "It's an album that can make the real me known."