JUNNY Is Pushing the Boundaries of K-Pop

From Korea, the singer discusses why his new EP “dopamine” is his most experimental work yet and how he’s become a leader for Asian Americans in music.

When JUNNY thinks about it now, the possibilities for new music opened up when he released “Invitation” last year. “Won’t you crawl up in this bed with me? Cozy up in these sheets, girl,” JUNNY asks in the opening lines of an R&B track that’s sexier than anything in his discography. The new sound paid off. “Invitation” proved to be JUNNY’s biggest hit, notching him nearly 40 million streams on Spotify alone.

“The amount of confidence I got from the record really influenced my new album,” JUNNY told me one afternoon from Korea. “I felt like I was capable of reaching further into this type of genre. I really wanted to keep myself very dynamic in terms of sound and I didn't want to stay in one position or field.”

The result is “dopamine”, a six track EP that platforms an artistic side of JUNNY you might have missed if you weren’t paying attention. He’s an artist not afraid of experimentation; a songwriter who can write from multiple perspectives, and a gifted musician with an archival knowledge of Korean music. On “dopamine”, JUNNY glides into the experimental R&B that “Invitation” launched. There is only one ballad on the EP, “figure8”, and this is international because on this EP, JUNNY wants you to feel an endorphin rush.

Notably, JUNNY collaborates with K-Pop heavyweights like BOBBY on the lead single “RUSH” and K-R&B singer SOLE on the bouncy “Complications”. These two lanes, the traditional sounds of K-Pop and the sharper sonics of R&B, are lines that he toggles effortlessly. JUNNY understands what it takes to make a hit song, but he also knows how to make us think. His music is aware of Korea’s rich musical history; his taste as a songwriter means that he can champion multiple genres and adapt to anything he wants to try. And he’s proven this in the hits he’s written for K-Pop stalwarts like KAI’s debut solo single “Mmmh” or SHINee’s “Gravity”. “I won’t be able to dance crazy like Kai,” he said in reference to “Mmmh”, “but I know how to make a song like that.” 

For this record, JUNNY’s taken the lessons he’s learned as a K-Pop songwriter and applied them to an EP that seeks pleasure. “Dopamine is the rush of you wanting something but once you get it, there’s that comedown,” he explained. “I wanted to incorporate all of those feelings into the album.” The EP is divided into two halves with “Complications” serving as a midway point between an aggressive, sharp rush of emotions to the softer, nostalgic vibe of “‘figure8’”. 

“The EP naturally wrote itself,” he told me and cited two years of touring the globe that influenced the album’s production. “From the tour and the shows I've been doing, I felt maybe I should have this sound on stage and maybe it would help me out performing. It helped me create something more bouncy and expressive.”

The creation of “dopamine” came about so naturally that JUNNY didn’t think about a title until the album was nearly finished. “That was the last thing actually decided,” he said. “I realized, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve been writing an album called dopamine this whole time without me even thinking about it.’”

JUNNY went through all of the songs he had selected to see if the concept fit. Thankfully, he realized they did. “This process was the first of its kind and I’ve never had this kind of experience before,” he said. “I guess it kinda shows that maybe I’ve developed into an artist that is capable of doing it this way.” 

Two years earlier when I first interviewed JUNNY, he had just released his debut album “blanc”. The album’s creation was a meticulous process that took a year. The challenge, JUNNY explained, was dialing in all of his experience into a singular body of work. “Blanc was really conceptual,” he told me, “and I wanted to get it perfect.” 

“it was my first ever studio album and I never imagined myself being in a position to put out something this big,” he continued. “The whole experience was very overwhelming for me, and I’m glad we pulled through to put it out.” 

Things moved fast after the album’s release. JUNNY brought the album on a world tour to Asia, Europe, North America and Australia where he finally began to see the impact of his work. “It was crazy to do all of this in such a short amount of time,” he explained. He was moved when he’d see groups of fans at multiple stops or when he noticed new faces enjoying his music.. Every new city reminded him that this opportunity was something he never thought could ever happen to a guy like him.

“It meant a lot for fans  to tell me what they like or to watch them sing along to songs that I’ve written,” he reflected. “It made me really proud of myself and motivated me. I think that’s what keeps me going to this day.”

The tour also brought JUNNY back to Vancouver for his first hometown show since signing to his label mauve. It was one among many surreal experiences that highlighted how different his life is now. “The first time I went back for the tour, I played at the exact venue I went to see a show at when I still lived in Vancouver,” he said. “So, having that experience of being on the other side and seeing the fans, I knew what it was like to see me up on the stage. That was a real tearjerker for me.”

Fame is sometimes most acutely felt when an artist returns home, and I wondered how JUNNY processed returning home to a sold out show and hundreds of fans lined up to see him. “It’s surprising how much you change,” he said to me. “But the most important thing is who you have by your side.” For that, JUNNY is grateful to have a supportive company and team who helps him navigate through the changes. 

JUNNY is still close to his family. In press interviews, he frequently recalls stories of singing karaoke in his basement with his brothers or how much his parents' care influenced the man he is today. JUNNY feels that more than ever now. “I’m still my mom’s little boy. I’m still someone’s little brother,” he said and added, “one of my biggest priorities is to keep myself in check and stay humble.”

When he returned home from the tour, he was ready to create again. “Being able to go on tour and really look back at everything, that’s what made me go make this album,” he said. “It’s a creation of all these experiences that have happened since ‘blanc’ that have let me create this album.” 

When JUNNY arrived in Korea in his early twenties, he burrowed into a tiny apartment determined to make music. He knew no one beyond a few relatives, and it was hard to make friends. He left Vancouver for the same reason many Asian singers did in the 2010s: If you wanted to make music as an Asian American, as Eric Nam once said, you would have to reverse engineer your success back to the States by starting in Korea. 

But this is where his story really takes shape: While releasing music independently, Eric’s younger brother Brian Nam discovered his work. The Nam brothers had just launched DIVE Studios, a podcasting company that platformed Asian American musicians like JUNNY. “He introduced my music to Eric, and Eric was really interested in meeting me,” JUNNY recalled. “So he invited me to do a show at DIVE Studios and that was my first time really interacting with that crowd, their audience and that atmosphere.” 

Despite how massively popular K-Pop was in 2021, when JUNNY first appeared on DIVE, Asian Americans were still vastly underrepresented in traditional media. JUNNY was fascinated by the concept of DIVE, and how quickly viewers were paying attention to content being made by Asian creators. “I thought it was very cool that these guys are based in Korea but they’re putting out content for people outside of Korea that love this content that we create here,” he said with a laugh. Within two years, the Nam brothers built a media company that wasn’t just centered around Eric, but instead around a constellation of Asian American artists who found themselves in Korea for work.

JUNNY felt an unspoken understanding between himself and the creators at DIVE. “They’re just great people at DIVE. We call ourselves gyopos, meaning we weren’t born in Korea,” JUNNY told me. “We have this sort of connection where we have totally different careers and lives, but once you meet a gyopo, there’s just this instant connection. It’s like being Canadian. When you meet someone else who’s Canadian, you’re like ‘oh, you’re Canadian!’” 

“Thankfully, me being gyopo, I think I was just welcomed there and ever since, it just happened,” he continued. . “We have this connection where we have totally different careers and lives, but once you meet a gyopo, there’s just this instant connection,” 

The benefit to being part of a network like DIVE is that it gets JUNNY’s name out in front of new faces. Multiple fans that JUNNY’s met have told him that they found him through DIVE’s content. Some, he told me with a laugh, had no idea he even sings. “When I hear that, I get happy that I’m on this platform because it’s just another gateway for people to know who I am. It doesn’t matter if it’s from the music,” he said. “I don’t care how they get to listen to it, it’s about getting my music heard. As an artist, that’s the biggest goal for me.”

Today, there are multiple Canadian idols performing in K-Pop: NCT’s Mark Lee and Keeho from P1HARMONY have all blossomed into some of the industry’s most popular figures. But perhaps what makes JUNNY’s career so important is how an ordinary guy from Vancouver, Canada has been able to succeed in Korea without being an idol. 

For the past decade, JUNNY watched, first, as a BIGBANG fan, then shaped, as a songwriter and artist, the global sensation that K-Pop became. When I asked if he could describe being a part of something so monumental, JUNNY paused for a moment as if he was unsure of where to begin. “I was at the start of it all and now I’m experiencing the great big boom of everything,” he told me. “I can only remember when I first came to Korea, K-R&B was getting just a little bit of traction. K-Pop was about to explode. To see it come to fruition, it is mind-boggling how big it has become.”  

There is significance, too, in what JUNNY represents. Without his leadership, there would be very little space for independent Asian artists to forge their own path. “When I was in high school or college, you really never got noticed if you were Asian and made music,” he explained. “You barely got any notice, only within the Asian community, and that’s really what gave me the motivation to go to Korea.” Thanks to JUNNY’s influence, a new generation of Korean American singers like Juju B. Goode, Sarah Kang, Hojean and Milky Day have found success on their own terms.

Today, as K-Pop has expanded into a global industry, JUNNY is seeing the ripple effects touch his career. From his vantage point, JUNNY hopes that audiences understand that the K-Pop industry hosts an incredibly diverse range of talent. “I think it’s good to have more people like this because as the idol side of K-Pop continues to grow, the more the singer-songwriter side of K-Pop can grow equally,” he said. “There’s so many talented artists out here in Korea that should be recognized and I’m super proud to see it all happen here.” 

And perhaps, the K-Pop industry is paying attention to the movements of songwriters like JUNNY. Lately, he’s been listening to Korean music from the late 80s, tracks like Lee Sang-eum’s “Someday”, that showcase the singer’s raw emotions over a minimal production. “I feel like it’s gonna make a comeback in Korea, and I’m starting to appreciate the music with minimal messages and lyrics more,” he said. When he was younger, JUNNY would roll his eyes at this kind of music. It was often the rock music that his father loved and played around the house. He laughed telling me this because his dad was on to something. “But you know,” he said emphatically, “my dad listened to it because it was good!”

As a songwriter, and an artist JUNNY has been thinking about how to incorporate this kind of feeling into the new music he’s writing. His favorite track on “dopamine”, a ballad called “figure8”, captures this sound. It is notably about his family. “The emotion and straight forward message you’re getting in the song is more raw and personal than hitting with big kicks and 808,” he explained.

But what JUNNY’s learned throughout his career is that to succeed, you have to be transgressive. “I think that’s what we need! It’s art at the end of the day. You don’t wanna do something that other people are doing,” JUNNY exclaimed as he thought through this. “You wanna do something that’s unique and pushes the boundaries.”

As he continued, his voice grew more passionate, as if he was realizing something important about his career. “That’s what led me to have this crazy big discography of all these diverse songs,” he concluded, “because I constantly wanted to push the boundaries of what I could do and what I’m able to do.”