JHIN gets vulnerable with newest single “Airplanes”
Simon Jhin almost gave up on pursuing music. His latest single, “Airplanes,” released on November 10, was written in September 2022. “Airplanes” details the doubts Jhin, who goes by the stage name “JHIN,” had about pursuing his dreams. With deep-felt and fervent vocals over buoyant guitar strums and synths, “Airplanes” serves as the dynamic soundtrack that plays over navigating the early 20s.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter, originally from Chicago, was an NYU freshman when he decided to move to Korea to start vocal training. He packed his bags and left for what his parents thought would be winter break. JHIN was there for around three years, training as a musician and building relationships with producers like Joseph Park, stage name 220, who has produced for K-pop groups XG, NCT 127, and TWICE. JHIN’s music is inspired by his Korean American background, pulling inspiration from his mother’s love for Korean ballads and from artists who inspire him, like Juice Wrld and Dominic Fike.
“Airplanes” comes out almost two months after JHIN’s “Blue Butterflies.” His most popular single to date, “Blue Butterflies,” has accumulated over eight million streams on Spotify and has been featured in official playlists such as “Pop Sauce,” “iykyk,” and “Fresh and Chill.” The song has gone viral in countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
With over 1.2 million listeners on Spotify, the self-proclaimed indie-pop artist signs off on his bio, “And now, the show begins.”
RS: Congratulations on the new single. First off, I wanted to ask what has the reception been like on “Airplanes?”
JHIN: From my friends, they probably like this song the most because it shows a different side of me, like a more raw, sensitive form of myself. In terms of general audience, I think the fact that it went from “Blue Butterflies,” which is such a happy song, and it’s very upbeat in terms of emotions, and then when I dropped “Airplanes,” I wanted it to be more like a real talk kind of message. Something that sounds more [sonically] pleasing.
R&S: You’ve been approached by people in the industry to pursue music over the past couple of years but decided when you were 19 to really go for it. What was it that made you make that decision?
JHIN: Growing up, I hinted to my parents, “I might want to go towards the arts route.” They’re cool about me pursuing music, but they’d rather I focus on school. During COVID, I just found the perfect time to tell my parents, “Hey, I’m going to go on a journey, and I'm going to find a new hobby.”
R&S: Were you always into music from a really young age, or what is something you discovered later you have a talent for that you wanted to pursue?
JHIN: So I’ve always listened to music, but my parents were like, ”If you don’t have talent in it, don’t even start.” I tried everything, and I was never musically inclined. I still don’t know how to read graphs and sheet music. I’m teaching myself at school. It’s so funny because I feel so behind.
R&S: Did TikTok have a role in you deciding whether you wanted to pursue music or not? Or was that a separate thing that started to get popular?
JHIN: It was always just a hobby. After I downloaded TikTok, I made two videos, and the second video blew up. I was like, “whoa,” because it was the first time I’d ever gained followers outside of meeting people. I thought that was super interesting. But I always treated it like a hobby, something for fun. If I’m not having fun, if I don’t want to do it, I won’t do it.
R&S: That’s really cool, because now that audience you’ve accumulated when you started TikTok is getting to hear your music. You have a built-in audience to jump your music off. I also wanted to ask— I read that you trained in Korea. What was that like? Talk about that experience and what you learned from that. Did it help you in your career as you're starting it out?
JHIN: I went to university for two years, and then COVID happened. I had to take my classes from home in Chicago, and I’d play video games all day. I had some sort of clarity one day; I had a realization, and I got really depressed. I was like, “What am I doing with my life?” Because, at the time, we didn’t know how long this quarantine thing would last. Through my depression, I was like, “I need to find a new hobby.” That’s when I thought to myself, why not go to Korea and find my path?
The first person I hit up was my producer. His name is Joseph Park. I only knew him from this one girl I met in Chicago. So, I called up Joe, basically built a quick relationship with him, and jokingly asked, “If I just pack my bags, go to Korea right now, will you take me in as your understudy?” He was like, “Yeah.” I don’t think he meant it, but I took it as, “Oh, he meant it.” Next thing I did, I just packed my bags, and I went to Korea, and I basically ran away from home. This [was] the first major moment in my life where I went against what my parents have been telling me. They thought I was staying there for a week. I was planning on staying there for months because I didn’t know how long this training process would take. I was so naive. I thought because I had the ambition that I had it. When I first got to Korea, I was the worst singer you could ever hear. But Joe took me in.
R&S: I wanted to talk about “Blue Butterflies,” which was released in August. Since then, it’s accumulated more than eight million streams, which is amazing. Did you anticipate that it would get the traction it did, and why do you think so many people resonated with it?
JHIN: Honestly, I'm not gonna lie. I was pretty confident that it would do better [...] than my previous songs. It has a certain sound that anyone can enjoy. It was also the most audience-friendly, most pop song I had at the time.
R&S: I was going to say, out of your whole discography, it’s definitely the most mainstream pop-adjacent track.
JHIN: Yeah! I actually wrote that song as a joke. The whole time I was in Korea, I was depressed a majority of the time, so “Blue Butterflies” was written out of a joke because I kept sending sad songs to my producer, and my producer was like, “Can you write a happy song?” Out of frustration, I wrote “Blue Butterflies.”
R&S: You’re inspired by artists like Juice Wrld, Justine Bieber, Dominic Fike, and Post Malone, and they help you craft your artistry. What is it about those artists that inspire you, and what do you like to draw from them?
JHIN: My worst enemy is my laziness. The reason why I love those artists so much is because of their incredible work ethic. Whenever I listen to their music, I get inspired because they’re able to produce so much work, even if they’re in a time crunch or feel pressured by society. I think they just work extremely well.
Press photo provided by JHIN’s team
Press photo provided by JHIN’s team