[Exclusive] 10CM Says Jung Eun-ji Is the Only Artist He Writes For

"I don't usually take on outside work," 10CM said. "But Eun-ji and I are really close, and we click musically, so I did it."

The singer-songwriter was talking about Jung Eun-ji, a member of the girl group Apink and an actress. He rarely writes songs for other artists. His collaboration with Jung is the only outside project he has taken on.

"When I first gave her a song, her fans gave me a lot of praise," he said. "So next time, I wanted to repay them with an even better song."

That song is "Linguine," a track on Jung's mini album released in August. 10CM composed it.

"It's a mix of reggae and bossa nova," he said. "I wanted to win over Jung Eun-ji's fans, so I put a lot of thought into it."

He had high praise for her voice. "She sang it well enough to release from the very first take," he said. "I just guided her so it wouldn't sound like she was imitating my style."

10CM sat down with K-POPIT recently to talk about everything from his fan concert last month to his views on music.

At the fan concert, he performed about 60 songs over three days. As a band-based act, every song has to be played live by the band, making it a lot to prepare. Asked if it was a heavy load, he admitted it wasn't easy and pretended to let out an exhausted sigh, which drew laughs.

"After performing for so long, I ended up repeating similar songs," he said. "I wanted to play as many of the songs fans wanted to hear as I could. I cut back on our so-called 'sagol set list,' the songs I usually sing, and put together a different lineup every day."

Sagol is a Korean beef bone broth that gets boiled again and again. In Korean slang, the word describes something that has been reused over and over.

For the Oct. 10 show, fans voted to pick 20 of the songs.

"I'm pretty sure some fans voted by thinking about which songs would give me the hardest time," he said with a laugh. "There was even a song I'd sung just once as a featured artist and never brought back. I sighed while getting ready, but it was fun when the crowd roared for songs I didn't see coming."

10CM became widely known for singing the Korean version of the animated series "Reaching You" (Neoege Dakireul). But he admitted he isn't really a fan of anime.

"Honestly, I don't watch much animation. I'm more of a comic book person," he said. "At the time, I didn't even know what the show was. I took the job to make a living. Only later did I find out how popular the show and the song were."

More recently, he made "The Darkest Night," the ending song for a Japanese drama based on the work of Junji Ito.

"I'm not great with scary content, but I've loved Junji Ito's work since I was a kid," he said. "10CM has often been loved for bright songs, but I actually enjoy listening to dark music. It was nice to make a song with that kind of mood for the first time in a while."

10CM is known for lyrics that tell stories almost anyone can relate to. So it may come as a surprise that very few of his songs are taken from his own life expeirences.

"My life right now isn't very exciting," he said. "I start from the strong feelings I had when I was young, liking someone or disliking someone, and I build a story from my imagination. Even if it never happened in real life, I think hard about the details so it feels like the listener's own story."

He was just as frank about how his sound took shape.

"10CM is a team that puts survival first," he said. "I didn't center my music on acoustic sound because I loved it. Acoustic was the trend back then. Over time, I changed my music bit by bit, and at some point we became a modern rock band."

Lately, he said, he has been thinking about trying acoustic music once again.

He returned more than once to the idea of meeting listeners' expectations over chasing his own taste. K-POPIT asked whether there is music he wants to make just for himself.

"Unlike when I was younger, now I want to do a good job with the music people expect from me," he said. "These days, the music I want to make isn't all that different from the music the public will enjoy."

As for what's next, he plans to spend a lot of time on stage.

"I think I'll be seeing people at shows a lot for a while," he said. "I'm getting ready for concerts at the end of the year and the start of next year. I'm also still writing songs, so I want to come back with new music."