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
Even more than 6,000km away from her hometown of Santurce, Puerto Rico, RaiNao still manages to keep a piece of home with her. It’s Monday morning in Madrid, and the 32-year-old, born Naomi Ramírez Rivera, is calmly sipping on a cup of black coffee surrounded by fan palms and chestnut trees inside the terrace of her hotel. Coffee is her morning ritual back home, and things don’t change even if mere hours ago she was performing in front of 70,000 people as a guest on Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ residency in the city.
“I think it was the biggest venue I’ve ever performed at, or maybe it was Brazil,” RaiNao gushes, referring to her February appearance on the tour in São Paulo. Ultimately, the numbers don’t matter; for her, it’s all about the experience. “Even if I had done it 10 times over, it’s always beautiful and a different surprise.”
Music has always been a constant in RaiNao’s life. She began playing the saxophone at 11, but she never thought it would be the way she would make a living. “It’s all Wiso Rivera’s fault,” she says with a laugh. During the pandemic, her then-boyfriend and now creative partner and go-to co-producer encouraged her to go for it. She was stuck in a rut, juggling part-time jobs, when she realised that was not the life she wanted to lead.
“I felt overwhelmed that I thought, ‘Am I really going to spend the rest of my life working inside a bank?’ Wiso told me, ‘We have the tools, the studio is right there. Let’s just do it.’ And we did it.” Her stage name followed naturally. The moniker, a play on her nickname “Nao” with the creolisation of “right now,” is her own carpe diem. “It’s become a mantra for me,” she explains. “I’m in the moment all the time now. It’s a goal and a way of life.”
That now is what has taken RaiNao to global stages, performing ‘PERFuMITO NUEVO’ across the world, on US television, and gaining new listeners along the way. The song is what has put her on the map, and she’s more than grateful to Bad Bunny for the exposure. “He’s an artist who knows what he wants but also gives you your space to create,” she says, adding that their collaboration flowed as smoothly as a hot knife through butter. “I had a lot of freedom, and I’m always going to be thankful for that. I love that type of creative connection; it’s intuitive. We listen to each other. It’s great when anyone connects with your music, but he’s obviously a very important artist for Puerto Rico. Knowing he appreciates my music and my art, and that he says it every time he gets the chance, is incredible.”
She believes it’s precisely this type of interdependent local network that makes the Puerto Rican music scene as special as it is. “The support between artists has been key in careers that blow up,” she says. “We really do rely on each other and uplift each other constantly. It’s beautiful.”
The same way she got the cosign from Bad Bunny, RaiNao is also sharing the spotlight with Puerto Rican talent on her latest project, her second studio album, ‘Marcría’, a play on words that refers to both the PR slang for “spoiled brat” and “sea-raised”. In the 16-track album, RaiNao lends the mic to up-and-coming local musician Frido Vargas, who released his first song, ‘Mareo’, as part of the project.
“I’ll always make space to draw attention to the talent coming from my island, which I know goes hard and deserves as many ears and eyes as I do,” she says. Her debut studio album, ‘Capicú’, followed a similar pattern with the inclusion of Gyanma’s ‘Bajo Candau’.
“I’ll always make space to draw attention to the talent coming from my island, which I know deserves as many ears and eyes as I do”
“Puerto Rico’s indie scene is bustling, and you need to be on the island, soaking it up, to know [local artists],” RaiNao shares. Her label was “sweating” when she proposed including ‘Mareo,’ but when Vargas played the song for her, she knew it belonged in ‘Marcría’.
That’s not to say the project isn’t entirely RaiNao’s. Though it borrows its name from the sea, her ultimate “safe space”, ‘Marcría’ is born from RaiNao’s experience at 10, when her mother enrolled her in a school for the visually impaired. The album is a sensory journey accompanied by guided meditation, colour visualizers, and more to tell the full picture. You’ll notice green is a predominant theme. Emerald is RaiNao’s birthstone and the central piece of a ring she received in sixth grade, when she graduated from said school. As such, the hue has tinged the entire album, manifesting in music videos and in the small orb featured on the cover art.
On YouTube, she has microstories for each song that complement the sensory experience. “Not everyone has seen those, and they form a little story that I wrote based on the sensorial treatments,” she explains. “That came first, and then came the songs. It was an experiment.”
Only two tracks were created before the overarching theme was set: ‘Chamberí’ and the single ‘Gris’, which the artist initially intended to give to someone else. Legendary producer Tainy reached out and asked her to send over a few songs for his repertoire, and RaiNao obliged. “I sent him a few, but I kept going back to ‘Gris’ and thinking it was my song; someone else might like it, but they aren’t going to like it as much as I do.” It wasn’t until she was already structuring the project’s concept that she felt she needed to ask for it back. “I felt no other song exemplified water as much as ‘Gris’ did.”
Another emotional crux on the album is ‘Cántaro’, featuring salsa legend Andy Montañez, one of many remarkable collaborations alongside the likes of Omara Portuondo and Cultura Profética. The song marked the first time RaiNao recorded her own sax in her career. “I know that there are better sax players in Puerto Rico whose sound is way better than mine, and I always tap them to record,” she explains, “but this was a very personal song, and it needed to be me even if the result is not the best.”
The melody for the track was born from a sample of her voice and was later re-envisioned and reworked into a brass comp. Her sax is complemented by a bassoon, played by her best friend, who sent in recordings from Jacksonville, Florida. The result is her take on the “Death of the Author” literary theory and, in a way, her own eulogy. “Once you put out a project, it dies for you,” RaiNao explains, “but with that death comes another birth, another interpretation.”
‘Marcría’ comes to a close with the track that lends it its name, which sees RaiNao reciting a poem by the late Puerto Rican artist Ángelamaría Dávila, included in the 1966 poemario ‘Homenaje al ombligo’. RaiNao serendipitously came across Dávila’s work while working on the album. Upon reading this poem, she was stunned. It perfectly encapsulated the project. “It’s remarkable that this poem was born years ago from the mind of another Puerto Rican woman who’s no longer with us.”
RaiNao toyed with the idea of borrowing from the poem and playing around with vocal layering to use it as an interlude in a song that she’d call ‘Garabato’ (slang for “scribble”). “I wanted something simple that’d bridge the project from its more danceable side to its darker side,” she recalls. Ultimately, she felt the poem, as it was, was the perfect summary, a bio to ‘Marcría’.
Throughout the process of working on this album and the accolades it’s brought her, including a spot in YouTube’s Foundry Class, RaiNao feels “blessed and happy”, but she knows the final word no longer belongs to her; it belongs to the world. “For me, art is very spiritual. I knew I came into this world to leave it a better place with my art,” she says. “I’m always going to try not to dehumanise myself, not to stray too far away from myself to create.”
RaiNao’s ‘Marcría’ is out now via Rimas Entertainment.
