Eric Nam Talks About His New Album 'House On A Hill,' His 80 Date Tour & More | Billboard News
Eric Nam talks about the inspiration behind his new album 'House On A Hill,' the 80 date accompanying tour, directing multiple music videos for the album, his journey to becoming an artist, opens up about his mental health and self-care app, Mindset and more!
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00:00 It's taken years for us to gain the trust of the artists
00:03 and also their labels to say,
00:05 it's okay to talk about these things.
00:07 - Hi, this is Eric Nam and this is Billboard News.
00:10 [upbeat music]
00:13 - Welcome to Billboard News.
00:20 I'm Tetris Kelly and I get to hang out
00:22 with my friend Eric Nam today.
00:23 How's it going?
00:24 - Everything's good, how are you?
00:25 - I cannot complain.
00:27 âȘ You should know that your love wasn't no swoon babe âȘ
00:31 âȘ I don't need to leave ya âȘ
00:34 âȘ Heartbreaks are reason âȘ
00:35 âȘ All I know is I don't know you anymore âȘ
00:39 - Let's talk about this album, House on a Hill.
00:41 It's out now, you co-wrote the entire project.
00:44 So how did that feel to be so involved
00:45 in the creation of this album?
00:46 - You know, I think I've always been pretty involved
00:48 in my album, but this one was particularly involved
00:52 because not only was it the music
00:54 and the entire songwriting and production process,
00:57 but it also extended to the music video,
01:00 the multiple music videos, the short film,
01:02 the photos, everything.
01:03 And so, you know, and I think naturally
01:06 as an ambitious person, I try to elevate
01:09 and upgrade every album.
01:11 And so how do we beat the last one?
01:12 That was kind of like my biggest homework for this project.
01:15 âȘ Leave me âȘ
01:16 âȘ Now I'm in this moment âȘ
01:19 âȘ In this moment âȘ
01:20 - But also you kind of were a bit of a Beyoncé
01:23 with this album, I would say.
01:24 - What do you mean?
01:25 - With dropping the visuals with the album.
01:27 I feel like she set the groundwork for you to be great.
01:31 So tell me how it was to direct music videos
01:33 with all the songs.
01:34 That sounds like so much work.
01:37 - Yeah, it wasn't easy.
01:38 You know, I come from the world of K-pop.
01:40 When you look at K-pop videos,
01:41 they're always CGI with things flying
01:44 and they're in outer space
01:45 with like fighting imaginary monsters.
01:48 Like it can, you know,
01:49 there's a lot happening in music videos.
01:51 I, as a solo artist and as an independent artist,
01:55 don't have the ability to do that, honestly.
01:57 And so I was like, what can I do
01:59 that would allow me to flex every muscle
02:01 of my creative mind?
02:03 I thought, why not try to write and script out
02:07 multiple music videos and then turn it into a short film?
02:10 So a cohesive piece, I should say,
02:13 that kind of plays with the themes of,
02:15 you know, "House on Hill," being happy,
02:17 finding, you know, contentment, being sad,
02:20 being alone, all those types of emotions.
02:21 - When you're co-writing an entire album,
02:23 like what are the themes?
02:24 How do you set forth like what you're going to explore?
02:27 - It takes a lot of time.
02:28 I think we spent, like I was writing
02:32 for this album on my last tour.
02:34 The hard part was because all I had experienced
02:38 the past few years was pretty much locked down in COVID
02:41 and then newly going out on tour.
02:43 I didn't have a lot to kind of draw from
02:46 in terms of thematics,
02:47 but I wanted to buy a house
02:51 and I saw this beautiful house on a hill.
02:53 I ended up not getting it,
02:54 but in that songwriting session,
02:57 we started to discuss like,
02:58 why do we all want a house?
02:59 Why do we all want to own a house?
03:01 You know, it's multifaceted.
03:02 They say it's the best way to accumulate wealth.
03:04 It's like, is it a status symbol?
03:06 Is it a sense of identity and purpose and a physical place?
03:09 And that kind of led us down this spiral
03:12 of talking about what makes us really happy
03:15 and what drives us as people.
03:17 âȘ But being happy isn't what I thought, oh âȘ
03:22 âȘ But if love is ever enough âȘ
03:24 - You stay busy.
03:25 Let's talk about this 80 city tour
03:28 that you're gonna embark on here.
03:30 That's wild.
03:31 So how is it gonna be different than 2022?
03:33 - Well, we're doing, you know,
03:34 I think last year we did about 64 shows or so.
03:38 This tour, we're doing about,
03:39 I think 80, 80 something shows.
03:41 We start North America.
03:43 We're doing Latin America as a whole for the first time.
03:45 We're doing India for the first time.
03:47 We're doing parts of Europe for the first time.
03:50 And so just by sheer numbers
03:52 and the ambitious nature of this tour, it's different.
03:54 I think, you know, we have new arrangements of old songs
03:58 and then we also have the brand new ones.
04:00 And I think for the first time,
04:02 we're doing like some stage and set design.
04:04 Typically it's just been lights, a band, some dancers,
04:07 but now we're trying to build this world of a home,
04:11 house on a hill.
04:12 - And I will say,
04:13 I was doing some research about your life.
04:15 - Yeah.
04:15 - And I found out something we have in common.
04:17 We were both born in Atlanta.
04:19 - Wait, really?
04:20 - Yeah.
04:21 Following your story,
04:21 also spent time in Boston,
04:23 went to business school and ended up in Seoul on a show.
04:27 That's a journey.
04:28 So tell me, like, how was it for you to go through that?
04:30 And did you ever feel like you'd end up here?
04:33 - Short answer is no.
04:34 I did not think I would end up here.
04:36 It was a very roundabout way to get to becoming a singer,
04:40 but I think it was my only way.
04:42 I think I was lucky enough to have gone through school,
04:46 graduated, had a degree and had a job offer
04:48 at a strategy consulting firm.
04:50 - What?
04:51 - And that was like the only way my parents were like,
04:53 "Okay, like, sure,
04:54 you can try to do something else for a minute."
04:56 And I just kind of happened to land on this TV show.
05:00 So I am very, very lucky.
05:02 And it's still kind of surreal to me to think about.
05:06 - And one thing I wanted to ask you about
05:07 before I let you out of here that was really cool to me
05:09 was your mental health app
05:10 and how you've gotten the K-pop community involved in that.
05:13 So why did you feel it was important to,
05:15 you kind of, you know,
05:16 step into the mental health world
05:17 in this genre specifically?
05:19 - Well, I think, you know,
05:20 mental health is something that every single person
05:22 on this planet is affected by and with.
05:25 One thing that I did know is that my time in Korea,
05:29 I had my own struggles and I never found the right outlets
05:32 or the right resources to really talk about them
05:35 and get the help that I felt that I needed.
05:37 - How was it to even get your peers on it?
05:38 Because like, I'm a carrot,
05:40 obviously you've had guys from Seventeen on there.
05:42 So how was it to get their involvement in this project?
05:45 - You know, it's taken a very long time.
05:46 I think it's taken years for us to gain the trust
05:49 of the artists and also their labels to say,
05:52 it's okay to talk about these things.
05:54 It's been a challenge,
05:55 but we're really encouraged by the fact
05:57 that we have great artists like Seventeen.
05:59 We have iKON, we have (G)I-DLE, we have GOT7.
06:02 And then even on Western side,
06:05 we have incredible artists like Summer Walker,
06:07 Black, Tori Kelly, and even some actors and athletes
06:10 that I think we are hoping to see very soon.
06:13 So I think when we have all these artists coming together
06:16 to really talk about this in their own way,
06:18 it's been very affirming,
06:20 but also I think the fans are starting to see
06:23 how beneficial it is to listen to these stories
06:26 and talk about it.
06:27 - I love the work you're doing.
06:28 I'm excited about your music.
06:29 And thanks for coming and hanging out.
06:30 - Thank you for hanging out with me
06:32 and asking these thoughtful questions, dear Atlanta buddy.
06:35 - Atlanta buddy.
06:37 (upbeat music)
06:39 you