ON THE RISE
While many may choose to spend their birthdays giving themselves a well-earned break, Jaehyun wrote a song. “It was really sunny outside, so we had very positive thoughts in our head, and I think that’s why the mood and the vibe and the sound came out really bright and happy”, the 26-year-old NCT member says about his new single ‘Horizon’. It’s the latest song to come out under the NCT LAB project, where members of the K-pop boyband release standalone solo or unit tracks.
Like 2022’s ‘Forever Only’, his last ‘NCT LAB’ single, Jaehyun’s oaky baritone moulds to the bouncy R&B stylings of ‘Horizon’, a breezy and light song about piercing the clouds and finding the serenity above them. “I thought of horizontal moments, like when views are really calm and peaceful,” he says about ‘Horizon’, which he co-composed with regular NCT collaborator DEEZ and producer SoulFish. “The day that I mostly thought about while writing the song was a day that was really cloudy and gloomy. I was on a schedule to another place, so I rode an airplane and once I went up beyond the clouds, it was really calm and bright. And at that moment I thought that, even at the same time or in the same place, how you think is the easiest but biggest change you can make to feel different.”
There’s a sense of intentionality that runs through the core of Jaehyun, almost like the strong and stable slice of a skyline. It makes sense when you consider that his time, or sometimes the lack thereof, is such a commodity as he balances everything from music – in the shape of NCT at large, his homegroup NCT 127 and the recent debut of the sub-unit NCT DOJAEJUNG to acting to a partnership with Prada which, among other things, recently took him to Italy where he filmed the music video for ‘Horizon’. Deciding the course of his own mindset is just one of the ways that purposeful drive filters into his life.
His notes app is a precious trove of lyrics and half-songs that he tinkers with in scarce moments of downtime. He prefers to master a new craft or hobby before sharing it with the world and he approaches his own musical inspirations like a study session. “If I have an artist that I like, I like to listen to the album and then I watch some interviews. Then, if they talk about the music or the older songs that they like, then I search for those songs,” he says, continuing the cycle ad infinitum. “Then I take a look at those artists and find the artists that they like.” For those curious, the current favourites on his playlist are Kaytraminé’s debut album, Kool & The Gang and “all the ’90s.”
Even in moments that call for improvisation, like rare days without a schedule or two to tie him up, he plans his planlessness. Usually, it involves deciding not to set an alarm, even if that means waking up in the afternoon, but recently, he’s filled the blank canvas of his free days with exploring more of his own music. “I have lots of work, but when I’m composing or writing, like in the moments that I spend time in the recording room or working on a song, that’s one of the happiest and most satisfying parts of doing this job.”
2023 marks seven years since the official introduction of Jaehyun to the world, first as a part of the rotational unit NCT U with the single ‘The 7th Sense’ in April 2016, and then soon after in July with the debut of NCT 127. “That first year, the first thing that comes to my mind is our debut moment. For NCT, actually, it was in China, our first actual performance stage, and I really remember that atmosphere, the flashes of the cameras and just the crowd of people,” he says, a smile brightly hitting the tone of his words.
“And also, for 127, I remember wearing clothes that felt really young and unique, very ‘neo’. It was really ‘neo style’,” he says, referencing the maximalist styling for the group’s first single ‘Fire Truck’. “We had some long dresses over our pants, and our hair was really crazy and I remember doing this jump move with our legs up? There’s a move where we just keep jumping on the same spot.” He laughs, those seven years ago seeming much further back in time than they are.
Still, going from the final crest of teenagerdom to your mid-twenties can feel like experiencing three entirely different phases of life, especially when it comes with the pressure of work and the watchful gaze of adoring fans and a curious public. But while time has enveloped and shaped Jaehyun, he feels fairly unchanged by its current. “When I meet my school friends, they always say that I look so similar to our school days, and that my attitude and personality and my looks haven’t changed a lot. They always talk about that”, he reflects, turning the observation to be more introspective.
“But for me, I think I like the base is really the same, there’s nothing really different, but I think I got older. Lots of experiences and events happened that made me get older, but I still do feel like I’m 20 years old.” Reflecting on what he would tell his younger self given all those hardening moments of transformation, he simply says: “feel it all”. “Every up and down, feel it 100 per cent. When you feel happy, feel it 100 per cent, when you feel bad and are having a hard time, feel it 100 per cent.”
Like the horizon his sophomore solo ‘NCT LAB’ single is named after, Jaehyun’s path keeps heading out into the distance. There’s an imminent NCT comeback (which he coyly describes as “really good” after pondering over how much he can reveal) as well as a return to acting in the film You Willl Die In 6 Hours, which he just finished shooting. Before the end of the year, he also wants to go snowboarding and make progress on the surfing he learned while in LA last year with bandmates Johnny, Taeyong and Taeil: “That was my first and last time surfing. But I want to try it again because I really want to stay standing for a longer time.” Mostly, he just wants to release more music, the goods of his notes app heavy in his pocket. “I really want to share more.”
Jaehyun’s new ‘NCT LAB’ single ‘Horizon’ is out now
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
