Kang Daniel is a new kind of storyteller and is ready to conquer the world
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“I don’t really like love songs. Because about 80 percent of all the songs that I’ve heard are all about love,” Kang Daniel tells NextShark.
The South Korean soloist, singer-songwriter, producer and actor found time in his hectic schedule last month to answer interview questions ahead of the next leg of his “FIRST PARADE World Tour” in North America and Europe. His tour began in Seoul in August of last years.
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It’s amazing how he managed to find the time to chat. To recap his 2022, he started the year with his acting debut on the Disney Plus K-drama “Rookie Cops,” which shot to No. He released his second album, “Rookie Cops,” which he starred in. Then, he released his first full-length album, “The Story,” and followed it up in May with his U.S. broadcast debut, becoming the first male solo K-pop artist to perform on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” August saw the premiere of “Street Man Fighter,” an iteration of the 2021 Mnet dance competition show “Street Woman Fighter,” which Kang also hosted. He is also the CEO of KONNECT Entertainment and oversees artists like CL Gfriend ex-member Yuju.
When asked who he will be in 2023, the artist says he wants to focus on his “main job more.”
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While countless people declare themselves to be multi-hyphenates, soloist-CEO-producer-fashion icon-actor Kang Daniel has earned his hyphens and then some. With so many titles and responsibilities, it may be easy to forget that his main job — and the one that he identifies with the most — is being a singer and a storyteller.
“I’ll focus more on my activities as a singer, there are things I haven’t shown,” he tells NextShark. “There are many things I want to show, so I hope my fans look forward to it.”
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Kang catapulted to fame after winning the South Korean survival reality singing program “Produce 101.”
Wanna One would be formed with 10 other aspiring musicians. Although they made their debut in 2017, and their contracts ended in 2018, they still managed to win 49 awards and 99 nominations.
A year later, Kang’s debut EP “Color on Me” set a new record at the time for the most albums sold within the first week of release for a South Korean soloist, selling over 400,000 copies in the first three days. Kang has sold more than 1.7million units in his four EPs, as well as his first studio album. His music videos have been viewed over 150,000,000 times.
Kang insists that he has many more stories to tell and is still doing it his way.
His repackage album, “The Story : RETOLD,” features newcomers “Nirvana, Ghost” and “Selfish.”
“[These tracks] were already set,” he says. “I thought I should add it in the next album. I had these songs since I released the album “MAGENTA,” so I was thinking about when to add them in, and I thought this repackage album would go well with the World Tour’s ‘theme song.’”
Eagle-eyed fans, known as DANITY, will notice that he has rearranged the B-side “Parade,” the fourth song from his album “The Story,” to begin the repackage.
For the songs to work, Kang shares that “the expressions of the lyrics must match [his personality].”
His previous works were based on his own experiences. However, he now finds it more natural to create narratives from other places.
“I wanted to talk about a variety of fun stories in a different way, so I tried that,” he says, noting what makes his repackage album special. He cites videogames as his inspiration and views them as their own worlds when asked about his creative process.
“I feel like I get new inspirations when I play games. The game also has a worldview, and each game has a different story line, different characters and different emotional lines, so I think it’s a movie that I play directly,” he says.
“God of War: Ragnarok” is one of his current favorite games, while “Chainsaw Man” is an anime he’s loving. He decides sci-fi as the film genre that he would like to be in. Which movie character would he play? Kang says Star-Lord from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
These are all ways to escape to other realms. However, Kang is confident about his next chapter of global fame. This will be his first solo tour around North America and Europe.
When asked if there were any challenges with transitioning his songs from his album to his world tour, he simply says, “There was no difficulty. It was prepared so smoothly.”