This episode contains adult language.
Hello hello everybody. My name is Woosung.
So in my life, I think I've had my fair share of controversy. And I just remember at my lowest points, I used to get really, really agitated.
It would impact my daily life, impact my relationship with people that I loved, and I’d just be a stressful

person that people didn't want to be around.
And if I had any advice to give anybody dealing with drama, controversy, or the negative energy surrounding those types of situations, I would just say:
You don't want to be that person that takes it out on everybody else.
One situation—it doesn't have to go into all parts of your life.
And I've met a lot of people, met entrepreneurs, I’ve met musicians, I've met just old people that have knowledge.
And

one thing I really look up to in these amazing people are that when there's a problem, they deal with it.
Let's say we're eating lunch together and they get a call and it's a huge problem, right? They get on the call. Blah blah blah.
They're very much like, ‘Hey, here's this problem. How the fuck are we going to solve it?’ Boom. He might be a little agitated, gets off the call, and he's fine.
Back to normal. How he or she was right

before he got on the call. Like, they deal with the situation as it comes at that moment and move on.
They separate it very well. This is this and that is that.
They don't sink in that emotion and just let it out to everybody and stay in those emotions.
And that's how you could function so you don't come off as just, like, a negative person, a pessimistic person that's giving off bad vibes to everybody, and then you just fall in this black hole where you're just like a negative ass person.

If a problem arises or you're dealing with drama, your life is more than this controversy.
This one problem should not be your whole life. There's so many aspects of life that we could appreciate and love and find happiness in that you don't have to get caught up in just one controversial thing.
Do not run away from your problems. Be solution-oriented.
Don't take it out on other people.

Find a hobby—something you could just do to get your mind off of things. 
And make sure toxic energy doesn't bleed into your other parts of life.
For me, the best way to heal myself is being by myself. I'm used to being on my own, so I like doing things on my own and I feel the most comfort when I'm by myself.
So, to me, staying home,

watching random videos on YouTube, watching documentaries, reading, eating the food I like... So find what works for you.
For some of you guys listening in, I know you guys know the whole situation with The Rose and the controversy behind it and everything, but after a year and a half—

almost two years—I'm happy to say that we're on the other side of it now.
I know it was tough times, but everybody's moving on.
We're getting things started, back on our feet. We have music coming out.
And it really is a new beginning chapter for us. And I'm excited to share this with all you guys.
Thank you for staying with us, showing us love. It's our turn to return it now.

WOOSUNG shares his insights into handling controversy and not letting it bleed into all parts of one's life.

How to Deal with Controversy

This episode contains adult language.
Hey. This is Woosung.
So let's talk about pressure—how I deal with pressure and how you may deal with pressure.
I think there are two types of people: People who cave under pressure and people who do better when the pressure is there.
For me, I think every time I encountered pressure, I grew.

For example, the biggest one would be K-pop Stars.
I grew a shit ton on that show because I was under so much pressure and I was not ready for it.
I was staying up for these rounds all night. I just sang and sang and sang until I had it right. I was not ready for any of this, but I was going higher up in the rounds and I just kept passing. 
But after it,

it grew me as a person.
So I think for me, when pressure comes, I strive to be better. I kinda, like, crave the pressure sometimes. And I'm waiting for another pressure that's about to come.
And same thing with when I perform.
There’s been moments where, you know, I get nervous and I'm, like, looking at everybody in the front, I’m looking at my band members, I'm trying to figure out what the fuck is happening, I'm trying to get the lyrics right, you know…
At those times I just gotta take a deep breath and realize that I'm here

with myself trying to deal with this. So I focus. 
The way I deal with pressure is visualization.
If you want to cope with pressure, take a deep breath at that moment. Don't rush. Focus on yourself, take a deep breath, and really think about what your goal is at that moment. Like, it's practicing—it's practicing for the situations to come your way.

And I breathe, smell, feel what it's gonna be like before I do it to focus.
I always practice with my eyes closed on my bed and I play the whole concert—whatever, rehearsal—out in my head.
I visualize what I'm going to look like, what I'm going to sound like... I would even, like, make up people's faces for concerts if I was nervous for something.
For me, like, it's so detailed. But, it prepares you

for what's to come.
It might not be as easy as it sounds ‘cause it was not easy for me.
I had to deal with many situations where I tried to focus and I couldn't grasp it, but it comes with practice.
Just really think about that one thing—what your goal is—right in front of you. Do you want to do this performance well?
Yeah? Then take a deep breath. Focus. Relax.
I think it's very important to visualize things because

it's like that saying, where like: “If you dream it, it comes true.”
If you keep thinking about something and if you keep at it, eventually, it'll come.
You're making it your life now. And with the right mindset, you can do anything.

In the face of pressure, some people cave and others grow stronger. WOOSUNG shares his thoughts on using pressure to become stronger.

How to Deal with Pressure

This episode contains adult language.
What's up guys? My name is Woosung.
In this booster, I really wanted to talk to you guys and inform you guys about food, and how eating unhealthy could really impact a lot in your personal life.
I'm not a nutritionist, but I'd love to share some of the things that have worked for me and some of the unhealthy behaviors that you might not notice.

One thing people never think about that impacts your mental health is food.
Healthy food is extremely important for your mental health. It's the beginning of everything. There's things that we must do to survive, and food is one of them.
Food is our source of energy, and you having energy impacts your mental health. 
Because once you're deprived of nutrients that

your body is supposed to be receiving, you start to become less happy, less energetic, less positive.
So many mental issues come from just being deprived of the nutrients.
I feel like it's important to test different things and be open-minded about it because what might work for other people might not work for you.
And if you don't test it, you'll never know.
For example, just because everybody says, like, “Take protein shakes to gain muscle”

—for me, I got acne on protein shakes. I was holding water weight. The protein shakes weren't for me. Like, I'm lactose tolerant. A lot of protein in my body does not work. Period.
Some of the signs that it's not working for you might be: Waking up in the morning, feeling like shit. It's hard to wake up. Your body suddenly feels heavier, not in weight-wise, but like, you know, when your body's kind of like, ‘Oh man, like, I don't feel like getting shit done.’

You might be trying to digest foods that are not working for you and your body's already drained because it's going through that process of just digesting.
And, in my opinion, if you keep eating foods filled with oils and fats and unnatural chemical stuff, you get addicted to it. You crave it more, right?
Same thing the other way. If you start eating healthy, you crave healthier foods more. 
Like, I realized when I was eating a lot of the healthier stuff, like, it was hard for me to even finish a fast food burger.

It didn't smell right to me. My body didn't react well. I had a stomachache and then I didn't want to eat it as much.
Like, your body is so important. It's so special. You should take care of it, right?
At the end of the day, this is your body you're trying to take care of. You don't want anybody else to speak for your body. No one can—even though they think they can—nobody can, because it's your body. You know it the best. You should know it the best. 
Not just

listen to advertisements or people talking about short diets, you know—who ate this and who ate that.
So, like, you don't want to just go into these fad diets of people telling you, “Oh, keto is good,” and you just go on keto.
You should research that shit. You should really read it. How people felt on it. Watch videos. I know there's so many information out there, it's hard to really pick out which one's the right one.
Once you research it enough, you kind of get the idea of, like, ‘Oh, this is something I want to do. This is something I don't want to do.’

And that much care should go in your body no matter what.
Think about not just these few months, like, think about your life, and what you want to eat every day and what you could keep up with every day where it's, like, you're not forcing yourself to do it.
That's not how food works. Food is something that we consume naturally. We've been doing it ever since we were humans. Even animals do it.
In my opinion,

something is working if you feel good on it and you want to keep a lifestyle. If you could do it every day and you're feeling good and healthy, then that's the right lifestyle for you.
Even if it’s like one meal a day, just start small and build up.
And if you start to notice yourself less tired, more energy, good for you. Something’s working, right?
So keep going.

WOOSUNG shares how underestimated good food is & how fundamental it is to well being and joy.

Eating Good Food

Hey guys, this is Woosung and welcome to my Mindset.
I know some of you might've been just wondering where we've been. Where I have been. Where The Rose has been.
It's been almost two years. During those two years, we got to really think about ourselves. Got to be alone for a while.
And I'm so excited—and

I'm pretty sure our members are too—to share what we've learned.
And I just want to say thank you for all the messages you guys send us and all the love and support. Even when we're not putting out anything and we're absent, you guys were standing strong, waiting for us.
Just the fact that you guys said, “We're here together and we're going through it together”—I felt like we had a whole team of Black Roses just... We miss you guys too.

And yeah, thank you so much. It means a lot. 
So, when they say K-pop, people feel like it's this perfect thing, right? They're called idols. You idolize them and it's almost like they're not humans. They have this perfect image, looks, personality.
And you guys might feel like we feel things differently, we see things differently,

because we do music.
Yeah, we might see things differently a little bit, but it's really not like that.
I see the same things you see. And that's why I always talk about, like, we're all just people.
And just because I'm listening to you or you're listening to me, or I'm here and you're there... It doesn't change the fact that we're just human beings.
I'm not that special.

My everyday life is probably as boring or more boring than anyone's in this planet earth.
I don't move. I stay in one spot. I'm lazy. There, I said it—I'm very lazy. Um, if they made a documentary of me and they said, “Just do what you do,” you'd probably turn it off after, like, 10 minutes.
You know, up until recently,

I didn't want people to ask me anything. I was very closed off for a while. A lot of my life, I haven't opened up because I have many walls.
But for this, at least for this Mindset, I opened up more than I ever would have.
I've never talked this much about myself to the public or to my fans. It's a new thing. It's a new feeling, like... a little bit scared, a little bit nervous, but at the same time, a relief.

And, in a way, half of me was kind of like, you know what, maybe I'll never just share my stories. You know, I like learning about your stories and what you guys feel and relating to that.
A lot of our songs that we write, we get inspired by your stories that you share with us.
But maybe the other half was like, it's only fair that we let you guys in on our stories as well. So I'm so glad I got this chance to talk it out.

You're about to hear a lot of things you never knew about me personally. I never had the chance to share it with you guys, and I'm so glad I got this chance ‘cause I was always dying to let you guys know what I went through.
What my past is like, how I went through my puberty, my eating disorder, my journey as a musician, how it all started, what I do to

protect myself, what kind of walls I have, every little detail you ever wanted to know about me—it's in here. 
This is me. This is who I am. This is where I'm at in my stage of life right now.
My name is Woosung, and this is my Mindset.

It's been nearly 2 years, and a lot has been learned. Now... WOOSUNG is opening up.

We’re All Human

This episode contains potentially disturbing content.
Episode one. 
I just have this strong respect for my mom that I have for no one else. She literally gave everything she had—all that up—for me to have a better life.
Mothers are something different.

I think the most life defining event for me that I also have no memory about is my parents' divorce. They got divorced when I was two years old.
Back in the days in Korea, not many people were divorced, and even if they were, they were very secretive about it. You know, they would never say they got a divorce. It's very culturally taboo.

And to my mom, she just didn't want to raise me in such a negative environment, where I was going to be looked down upon just because my mom got a divorce.
Back then, it was something that you had to hide. She was a teacher, she was an English teacher, and they were asking her about like, “Oh, like, where's your husband?” And she would have to lie.
She would have to lie and tell them that he was overseas or something ‘cause she didn't want people to judge her.

And to my mom, she knew that kind of toxic culture would be a really big problem for me growing up, hearing phrases like, “Oh, like, he doesn't have a dad.”
She didn't want that for me. She wanted me to be able to express who I was and hence why my mom wanted to leave.
So she decided to leave everything behind—everything that she had

in Korea—and move with me to America.
I was eight years old when we got on that plane to come to America.
Came here with nothing. It was just me and my mom. And two luggage bags. We didn't know anybody else.
The first night

we were staying at Motel 6.
I think I was a little scared, intimidated by all of these new things.
When we went to sleep, it felt very uncomfortable. Something was not right, like, inside the bed.
I just remember I had this terrifying dream. It was one of the most traumatic memories I have from my childhood.

I had these cockroaches, a line of them, going over my stomach, everywhere, like, crawling. I felt like there were millions of them, on my bed, on the walls. And I remember waking up so scared, like—everything hit me then.
Everything just hit me at once that we're not home. Nothing's

familiar. 
So I woke up and I ran to my mom and I was like, “Mom, I—we cannot sleep here. We have to leave. We have to go back.”
And I remember her just holding me and saying that it's going to be okay.
It was such a odd moment because I was traumatized. The only thing that was holding me together was my mom. You know, she's all I had. And I remember her just hugging me and

saying that it's going to be okay.
That was the start of my American journey.
As I grew, I realized how scared she must have been at this new country with her son and we have nothing. We don't have a home. We don't have a car. We don't have families here… And how sad

and how lonely that feeling is. And how strong that is.
It was really just the two of us. My mom and me.

I would say I'm pretty independent. I've been like this my whole life, and I really didn't know why. Until recently.
Growing up, it was just hard for my mom to take care of me. Not enough money. She was working all the time. She was a waitress at a sushi restaurant, so I would have to be home all by myself.

Going through that, I never thought I could 100% lean on my mom. And I don't mean that in a bad way, like, no—she was there for me all the time. She was what was holding me together and I know that.
However, if you think about it, she went from having everything in Korea to having nothing in America.
She was not at a secure place and she didn't have anyone to lean on herself.

And I think just naturally I wanted her to lean on me too.
I felt like I had to fend for myself and get some of the heavyweights on their shoulders and take it on mine.
I remember thinking as a little kid, I had to be strong and just be able to stand on my own. So I'd always keep my problems and stuff, whatever came my way, to myself.

And most days, I’d just come back from school and my mom was working so she wouldn't be there.
So I'd eat and, you know, I'd have to go about my day, whatever—homework, projects, Lego's, watching TV… and I would imagine and go through life.
And that was one of my hobbies: Imagining.
And then as time passed,

I just got too good at being alone. And I think these little things that I didn't know about at the moment kind of matured me. Time passed and I was very independent.
I think that's one of my strong points and my weak points. ‘Cause even when it’s hard, I don't rely on people—I just try to take care of it myself.
And I think as time passes,

there's a limit to that. There's a limit to however much you could do by yourself. And now I'm realizing more and more of it, so I'm really opening up and sharing with loved ones that are by my side.
When you're young, you don't have an idea of how much your parents or, you know, whoever's taking care of you, what they have to go through.

You have no idea. You take things for granted.
I had no idea at the time how much my mom sacrificed for me. 
I think I really started to understand after I left home to go to Korea and start my music career.
I was looking at things differently, thinking about my life or my future.
And I think that's when I really got to appreciate how beautiful a mother's love is.

And me being closer to the age she was when she was going through this, and imagining what my mom was feeling at the time... She had so much responsibility.
And she pulled through without once breaking down in front of me.
So now that I think about it, like, she was dealing with a lot.
She had such a great life in Korea. She had

everything. She had a nice job back then. We literally had a house when everybody was living in apartments. Her friends were all there. Her mom and dad, her brothers and sisters.
But she left all that for one thing: Just to possibly give me a better life. 
If you could put a thing, a person or whatever before yourself, that is love.
As I grew up,

I realized being scared or being afraid doesn't go away with age. So for her to be at that spot with her son and to comfort me, my mom is a superwoman.
Even now, I just don't want to hurt her. I think it is a traumatizing moment for her. It just feels like it is, because it feels very vulnerable for both of us.

One day, I want to… I would love to talk about it with her and really get to know how she was feeling at that time.
Mom: Hello? (Korean)
Woosung: Hello umma (mom). (Laughs).
Mom: Hi.
Woosung: Watchu doin’? What did you eat today?

Mom: Today? Vegetable soup as usual. And sweet potato. That's about it. How many questions we gonna do? 
Woosung: This is about me moving to America, and, like, what it was like for you, and, like, just my childhood, okay?
Mom: It's been, like, over 20 years so I don't really remember that much, but I'll try. 
Woosung: So what do you think was the hardest part about

moving to America was?
Mom: I couldn't get a good job. Even if I got a job, they treat me like—they pay me less than they’re supposed to.
Woosung: You weren’t scared at all?
Mom: You know, when I have you, nothing makes me scared at all.
Woosung: Wow. Supermom, huh? 
Mom: I don't know if it's a supermom, but that's all mom, I think. ‘Cause that's what mom’s supposed to be.

It's not about me. It's all about my kid. I don't think it's a sacrifice. I enjoy with my kids. Without you and AJ, I never get happy. But I get happy all the time because your existence with me is in this world.
Woosung: What was it like to take care of me as a mother? 
Mom: When you were little?  
Woosung: Yeah. I'm still a little but...
Mom:

Oh yeah, you’re my baby forever. Like all mother. But when you were little, you were very, um, brave. You were very independent. You were really good at school. You did your homework all by yourself and you ate dinner by yourself and you were awesome kid.
Woosung: I was a nice kid.
Mom: You were very nice kid. You were fat though. You were very fat. 
Woosung: You cannot say that.
Mom: I know, you were very chunky, but everybody said

you were very fat kid.
Woosung: You said, you said I was very good looking.
Mom: Yeah. I thought you were most handsome guy in the world. Yeah. You are. You’re still to me, you know? 
Woosung: Okay. Thank you, umma.
Okay right now you have the opportunity to speak directly to my fans.
Mom: Oh your fans?
Woosung: Anything you want to say to them directly?

Mom: First, thank you very much for being my son's fan and loving my son. I really appreciate all Sam's fan. And I hope all your fans are happy listening to Sam’s song. It's kind of hard to say ‘Sam’s song’ — my son's song. And stay safe. Hope everybody's healthy. And

let's pray all this difficult time pass quickly so Woosung can go see you guys soon. Okay?
Woosung: Amen. Okay umma. I miss you, umma.
Mom: Me too. 
Woosung: I haven't seen you in, like, a month.
Mom: I know, I know. I'm waiting for you to come.
Woosung: Okay umma, I’mma go now.

Be safe. I love you. 
Mom: I love you more. Stay safe, okay?
Woosung: Okay.
Mom: Okay, bye.
Woosung: Okay, bye bye.
I want to thank her for what she has done, but I know words can't just be enough. I just want her to be happy.

And I want her to always feel like her making those decisions when she was younger, it was never the wrong decision.
My mom made me who I am today. I really don't know where I would be without her. I might be a totally different person. I probably wouldn't be here talking to you.
And chances are you probably wouldn't be where you are at either if it weren't for the people who loved and supported you throughout your life. Parents,

siblings, friends, mentors, teachers—everybody leaves an impact, good or bad, but that's what makes you who you are and that's what's so amazing. 
Every one of us has a person that's impacted us in our lives. But it's just that, when you're a little bit younger, you just don't know how to appreciate as much as you want to and you regret it as you grow up.
But if you just take a moment and just appreciate and try

to understand and show love to the people that you truly love, I think you're doing your part.
I hope listening to this can make you understand that feeling a little bit more.
This is Woosung and this is my Mindset.

WOOSUNG recounts the story of his mother's love, strength, and role she played in his early life and beyond.

Mothers are Somethin’ Different

This episode contains adult language.
I feel great. Hype. Yeah! Black 18, black 18, set, hut!
Episode two. 
Okay so... where do I start?

I moved around a lot, growing up. Spent some time back in Korea... I was just all over the place, you know, back and forth.
And when I was growing up, I didn't think anything about being a singer, to be honest. Music was just my hobby. I liked playing the guitar, but I also liked a lot of other things—skateboarding, biking, sports.
What got me into playing guitar was ACDC, Aerosmith, and

Led Zeppelin. 
I imagined myself playing electric guitar in a band but it was never, like, a legit dream where I, like, followed it. It was just for fun, like, for my thoughts in my head, just imagining away at night. 
And in fact, you guys have no idea, but I actually — I know it's embarrassing for me to say now ‘cause you guys look at me and you guys are like, “He's so small and so skinny” — but I actually

wanted to be a football player. Yeah, like NFL.
It's funny now, but it wasn't funny back then. I was so serious about it.
I was in middle school going into high school and I was good. I was really good.
I was first string safety, second string running back—if you know football.
I just fell in love with the game. The breeze

after running a play, in a helmet and in all your pads, when you land that tackle, when you catch the ball, when it sticks to your hand, how it feels very quiet when you're up in the air as you grab the ball.
It almost feels like a slow motion, it's like —
And then you're trying to run with the ball and you're seeing everybody that's around you, and you don't know if you're gonna get hit or not.

It was my everyday life: Football. That's all I had in my mind.
I woke up, ran an hour, went to school, thought about all these plays in my head that we were going to do later in the afternoon for practice, thought about working out and what I needed to work out that day. I looked at football plays, videos left and right. I was, like, so dedicated.
I could put myself—my tiredness

or my laziness—away for football. It was ridiculous. I fell in love with something for the first time. 
You don't love something because of a reason. You don't know why but you just love it and you just put yourself full on.
I wanted to be a NFL football player. I was so serious about it. And,

you know, I would tell my mom, “This is my dream. This is what I'm going to be.”
And then shit went downhill.
Like everything else in life, you can't have what you want all the time. 
So a week before my very first game — my high school, ninth grade, freshmen year. So excited. Starting safety. I was ready.
We were practicing the whole summer,

hell week. Three practices a day. Throwing up. You know, bonding.
After all this, a week before... in practice, I'm on defense. They throw the ball to the running back. He catches it. He's running the sideline. I get a perfect angle. I hit him. 
I tackled him so hard that his helmet fell off, the ball flew away. The coach was so proud of me. He was like, “Yes, Sammy, you did a great ass

play last play so you blitz this time. Get the quarterback.”
I was like, “Hell yeah, leave it up to me. I'll get the quarterback.”
So I go. Sideline. Said, “Hut.” I blitz. And…
The receiver blocks me. He just pushes me a little bit. Like ‘boop,’ not even a hard push. ‘Boop.’
And my shoulder just literally pops out — like that.
I raised my hand and — my right hand, of course, ‘cause my left shoulder was fucked up and I couldn't move

my left hand — and I'm like, “Coach, my left hand is not moving.”
We took the pads off. There was a bulge. The bone was definitely not where it was supposed to be. Call my mom. She takes me to the ER and we wait for three hours.
Doctors say, “You need surgery. The surgery is going to make you better. You could play football next season though.”
And I was like, “Okay, that's bad news, but it's okay. One season

I could condition myself. Like, I have the whole year to heal. Let's do the surgery ASAP.”
We did the surgery, came out. The doctor said, “Actually, while we’re in there, your ligaments, your rotator cuffs, were just bashed. I'm sorry but I don't think you should play football anymore.”
I didn’t know what to say. I didn't

know what I was feeling. I didn't know if I was even mad at that point. I didn't know how I was supposed to feel.
It feels like one of those drunk nights where you can't remember certain things, and all I remember is me sitting down and leaning against the bed, thinking, ‘What?’
Mind you, I was on a shit ton of medicine. And after a couple of hours, when the medicine was wearing off, that's when I realized:
My dreams were shattered.

I started crying my eyes out. I was bawling. I realized something that I loved so much for the first time—I can't do it anymore.
And I thought this was going to be my life, my dream. All this time I thought I had a purpose. And that one incident just shattered everything.
It's not something I could try and fix. That was

what fucked me up. With everything in life, I thought if I try my best and if I work at it, it will work out.
But that fucking incident made me realize, no matter how hard you try, there are things just out of your reach and you cannot do it no matter what.
So, after my injury, I lost my purpose.

I felt like a nobody. And once you lose your purpose in life, that's the worst place to be.
I was sad and then I got angry and I got frustrated. And it became bad because I hated everyone and everything.
Everyone got on my nerves: My mom, my stepdad, my brother. I was getting in fights with my parents. I was throwing shit. I broke my mirror. I broke my door. I

stopped talking to my friends. I ran away from home many times. I just couldn't do it.
It got to the point where I felt like I had nothing. Every time I looked down at my arm, it was like a painful reminder that my dream was completely just gone. Dead. 
When I was in that dark place in high school, I felt like my dreams were shattered and I was like,

‘fuck this shit.’ And I just wanted to get out. I wanted to leave all this behind me. 
When I was in 3rd to 6th grade, I was in Korea living with my grandparents. I remember it was like a very happy place. Very easygoing.
So I thought my problems would go away if I just went back to my grandparents' house and stay there.
So,

I decided to move to Korea.
I told my parents. And my mom, she was like, “Well, if you're going to do this, take responsibility for it. I'll get you the tickets. I'll make sure you could go to Korea safely. But, you take responsibility for what you just said and what you just did.”
So I went.
And until this day, that is one of the worst decisions

I have ever made.
Damn. Korean high schools. Not an easy thing.
Coming from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM classes in America to 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM classes in Korea, with a shaved head, all male school, with a bus ride that takes an hour to get to school every morning... Can you imagine? Different culture, different language.
The first bus ride, I was like semi-excited,

right? Because it's a new place, new people.
But damn. I go in class and I fucking knew that it was not for me.
I was so intimidated by all of these Korean—I mean, I'm Korean, too, trust me but—Korean high schoolers, they're intimidating.
They all knew each other at that school. So I was the new kid from America.
And I thought I was, like, tough ‘cause, like, I played football,

right? I was like ‘Pfft, yeah. Like, if anyone wants to fight me, I'll fight them.’ But they were tall. Who said Asian people are short? They were so tall and big. I don't know what they eat but—
That was hell for me. I just put myself in the worst situation possible. I was already at a bad place and then now I took that and then threw it down the ledge.
Every day I regretted all the decisions I made. I would, like, rethink my life and feel

like I made this huge ass mistake. 
But I—you know, I had my pride. I promised what I promised.
I didn't tell my mom that I wanted to go back to America, even though every night I was bawling, thinking, like, I made the biggest mistake of my life.
And I stuck out for three months, which is not that long, but it felt like three years to me.
And after three months I begged… I begged my mom

to take me back in. 
The first phone call was the worst ‘cause she literally heard me and she hung up the phone.
Mom: Yuhbohsaeyoh (Hello?)
Woosung: Hello umma (Hello mom)
*click*
*dial tone*
I was like, ‘Fuck. I'm stuck here.’
And then I was like, ‘Okay, what am I going to say to go back?’

‘Cause there's nothing in the world that I could strategize or say that's gonna convince them.
And at last, it was honesty. It was telling them, like, “Yo”—okay, not yo, but—”Mom, I made a huge mistake. Forgive my mistake. And let me promise you that I'll make it right, and I won't go back on this one.”

So long story short, I came back to America.
Went back to school where I used to go. My football dreams were definitely over.
I felt lonely. I truly did. I felt like nothing in this world could make me feel better, but I started to find different things that I was interested in.

Me and my friends, we made an all male dance team.
We competed with, like, choreography that we practiced. And that's actually why I entered the K-pop Star audition later on, because I thought I could get in by dancing with my friends. 
Now, looking back to all that craziness during my puberty years, I definitely wasn't handling my frustrations and anger in a

healthy way. Too much emotions, too many different emotions. It was just fogging up my judgment system.
And I think if I could just pick up a phone and talk to my younger self during that time, I would tell him to calm the fuck down.
That this dream of yours that you thought was going to be your life is a small part of what's to come.
And this incident is what is going to make

who you are in the future, where you realize the love for music.
So you're blessed. Enjoy it.
You might love someone or something so much, and you think that’s your purpose, but it's not gonna go as planned and that's okay.
Everybody goes through it, but you might learn something out of it.
Start walking in different paths, because there are many things that you could find in life that could give you happiness.

Have people around you. Let them support you. It's okay. And when they're having a hard time, support them.
Everybody fails at one point, everybody has to come down. And if it was just that one thing that you were looking at this whole time? Oh, that fall is going to be horrible. 
But if you have different bases and different things in life that give you happiness, it won't be as hard to fall.

If today, for some reason I couldn't sing anymore, I’d deal with that. I'd be sad, but I could deal with it. And I know I could deal with it.
I don't make one thing my whole life, because balance is always the key.
And if anybody listening feels like they're in a similar identity crisis, either big or small, just tell yourself: It's okay.

You don't know how your life is going to turn out and that's the fun part. It doesn't always have to be one thing. And life never goes the way you plan so why not just enjoy the ride? 
Just to say it simply, I think success is being satisfied with where you're at, and I'm not there yet.

What happens when you can no longer pursue your biggest dream? WOOSUNG shares about a pivotal identity crisis of his youth.

A Broken Dream

This episode contains adult language.
Episode three.
Growing up, I was very Americanized. You know, I lived in Thousand Oaks. Not many Koreans or Asians at all.
So the only place where I found out about any Korean culture was actually church. A Korean church.
So I go to this church and it was

such a different experience from all the other parts of my life.
We were eating Korean food for lunch. People were speaking Konglish, meaning Korean mixed with English.
I’d never really consumed Korean content. K-pop was, like, one of the biggest things that I discovered.
At church, everybody was looking at videos of 2PM, Big Bang, 2NE1. And I think I

was hooked.
Then my church friends were like, “Hey, you like singing and dancing and—” like, ‘cause we used to just mess around and you know when you go on church retreats, you do a bonfire and you guys all sing together?
So then they were like, “You know, we should go audition for this show on SBS called K-pop Stars.” 
So K-pop Stars. It's an audition show in Korea with the three big companies—YG, SM and JYP—as the judges.

And you sing or dance to get to the top.
So I said, “Yeah. Okay. Well, I know how to play, like, two songs on the guitar and sing,” but mainly I think my focus was on dance. ‘Cause I thought I was a great dancer.
So we prepare and get ready for the audition and we go. 
We pull up. A lot of cars, a lot of kids, a lot of Asian people, all looking very unique.

At that point, I was just there just consuming everything. Someone's doing ballet, someone's rapping, and someone's beatboxing.
I was like listening to all these stories, you know, just making small conversations and they were like, “Yeah, blah blah blah. This is my plan, blah blah.”
And I was like, ‘Wow, this is serious. This ain’t a joke here, huh?’
But for me, it wasn't, like, too serious. I wanted to do other things in life. I wanted to major in psychology, like, I wanted to keep dancing.

But not K-pop. I never thought that was an option for me.
The first audition was very hectic. They put these big ass number tags on you with your name on it, I think. And then they just call you, like— “772. Come to booth one.”
So it's my turn finally, and I go in, and they're all sitting there with cameras. I was like, ‘Why do they need so many cameras? They need, like,

every angle of my face?’
Boom—and you start. They say “go,” and you just go.
So I sang. I was like, I try to picture the girl, through the looking glass… And I sang the Jason Mraz song.
And yeah, they said, “Come back at 7.”
They literally didn't give me feedback so I was like, ‘what?’
My friends come out and they're like, “Oh, maybe they were interested.”
So the second audition was more legit. I go and now it's not like a booth.

You're on a stage and there's three judges in front of you. One being BoA, and two being, like, higher ups at YG and JYP. 
BoA was sitting in the middle. BoA… BoA noona. She said I'm cute, and I felt happy. 
I did not think I was going to get in. Like, I wasn't taking it seriously. I knew

I wasn't going to get in, I thought. And I was just enjoying the experience, you know what I mean?
I sang. I literally sang the same song I sang earlier and I danced, and then... this—I think he was a 실장님 (Chief) at YG—he was like, “You know what? I want to just take you to YG as a trainee.”
But BoA was like, “No, we're going to take him to Korea,” or something like that.
Oh and then—now that I remember—they give you this yellow ticket. Once you get this yellow ticket, it means

they are looking to take you.
And a couple of weeks after, they come to your house with full cameras equipped. They shoot this interview thing, and they ask you things, and then they give you the ticket there in front of all your family.
They said, “You're going to Korea.” And I was like, “What? I'm going to Korea?” 
That's when I got in.

When I was initially going to Korea, I was just happy I was getting free food and a place to stay.
And when I arrived, I got to meet all the foreigners, which was Jae from Day6 and BM.
It was a breath of fresh air, just getting to know everybody, you know, what they're going through. It was amazing.
So now it's a little bit more serious than I thought.
Before the first round, they were like, “You got in with singing. That's what the writers told me. You don't even

need to dance.”
I was not prepared for this. I thought I got in with dancing. It shocked me so I was not ready. Like, I knew how to play, like, two songs on the guitar and sing. 
And I think once I got to Korea and I was in K-Pop Stars and getting through all the rounds, I started to get extremely nervous because I started to realize this is something I wanted to do seriously. I wanted to

win.
And as soon as I started feeling that way, I started getting nervous, pressured, scared of losing. It started feeling like the feeling I had for football. I was so passionate—I was staying up for these rounds all night. I just sang and sang and sang until I had it right.
I was not ready for any of this, but I was going higher up in the rounds and I just kept passing.

I felt so out of my element.
And if you go back to watching my performances from the show, you will see just how terrified I was throughout—like, if you see round 1, you see like... he's just being a boy.
Round 2, it's like… he doesn't get it, really. He's just messing around. He's having fun.
Round 3, round 4 hits and you see how nervous I get. How terrified I am.
Yeah, I was 19, guys. I was

19.
I think one of the hardest things at that time for me was when the singing coaches on the show told me I should change my style of singing, change the notes that I end with.
The coaches were telling me that I need to get rid of this trill, or whatever it is they call it. They said that was not the right way of singing.
For example: I try to

picture the girl. Girl.
I did not know I had that. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just singing as I—it sounded good to my ears.
They said, “Don't do it every time. Control it.” I didn't know how to control it. I was just singing.
Like, I have to sing this new song in front of bazillion cameras and audience and coaches and all these judges. I was just not comfortable in changing anything.
No matter what,

at the end of the day, I am responsible for my audition. Not the coaches, not the writers, not anybody. I am.
I just felt like I am where I am because you liked me for who I am. So at the end, I was just like, “Fuck it. I'm just going to do me.”
So in the show itself,

I ended up getting dropped right before Top 10. And I reached my limit, to be honest.
It’s so dramatic—they make you exit out this door if you failed. And they have—like, my mom waiting for me out there, you know what I mean? Shit.
I'm not much of a crier. I don't like when people see me cry. And I try to hold it in because like, all these cameras were on me but I just

couldn't do it.
And it was snowing. It was fucking snowing. And I saw my mom in the snow and she was, like, teary-eyed.
So after that, I came back to America. And I had to graduate high school—I was in 12th grade.
I was bummed. You know, I really wanted it. I really wanted to win.
But it turned out

that a couple of companies from Korea were interested in me and they wanted to sign me.
So basically I had to decide to go to college, and just go on the path that I was going at, or to go to Korea and risk everything. 
You have to understand. I was so looking forward to college.
To me, college was everything. You know, when you're in high school especially, like, you dream of

that life. The freedom with your friends, no parents... it was a dream for me. I was so, so excited for that.
But, in the end, the thought that killed me was: I'm never going to get this chance again.
College is something I could do, even when I'm older, but this one chance I had was the only chance.

If I passed on this, I thought I was going to regret it later on in life. That's why I had to give up college, even though that was my dream.
So I took it. I went to Korea.
Now that I'm thinking back, revisiting the story about the coaches telling me that I should change my voice, I kind of agree with them. They were right. Maybe in the future, I'll take some vocal lessons and learn the proper technique.

But at the same time, I'm thankful that I got to do it on my own. ‘Cause I really understand my voice now. I know what it could take and I know what it can't. I know what I'm good at, I know what I'm not good at.
But personally speaking, for me, I sing better when I feel it. When I'm not thinking too much about the technique.
It's like when you're saying things, when you're telling a story and when you're really

in the moment, the story just comes out better. It delivers better.
Singing is the same thing. It's— you're telling a story.
When people listen to someone really sing, not everybody's analyzing. It doesn't matter if I sing this line with a trill in the end or without. As long as other people can feel what you're saying.
And once I understood that,

my main purpose was to present what this music is trying to say.
For people trying to find their own voice, I think my tip would be: Don't try to sing like somebody, you know what I mean? Sing with your voice. There's so many different voices and no one has a correct answer.
That's what's so amazing about art, right? You don't win or lose. Someone might fuck with your voice but someone might not. 
The amazing part of it is that we're sharing this

to other people. And you always have to think about what this singing is going to make other people feel.
And if that song can mean something to people, and if it could make them feel better about whatever, I'm happy. That's my purpose.
This is my Mindset.

Auditioning for K-Pop Stars, dealing with other people's criticism, and taking a huge leap. This is the story of WOOSUNG'S call to adventure.

The Yellow Ticket

This episode contains adult language.
Episode four. 
This one is about the hardest time in my life—losing purpose and trying to find my new purpose.
So after I decided to go to Korea and pursue my music career, I became a trainee.

I was going into this without knowing too much about what I was going into. I was young.
For all of you guys that have no idea about working in Korea, I'll break it down for you. What I experienced was definitely very depressing.
When I was a trainee and I was living with like three other managers, the trainees did the dishes, cleaned everything in the house. We did their laundry,

cleaned after they ate. That was like the easier things, you know?
My days were basically similar almost every day.
Wake up, workout, eat, practice room, dinner, and then you still come back until like 9 to 10 o'clock. You're there trying to prepare for... who knows what.
They would tell you all these things like,

“Oh, this is going to happen.” There were debut dates. We were supposed to go out on certain shows. They were gonna make us record this song. We had a title song ready, and “there's going to be things coming in for you. Like, this and this, so practice for that, like, be ready for it ‘cause these are coming.”
But they wouldn't.
Like, in the beginning, yeah, I was, like, so excited. I was like, ‘Hell yeah, like I'm going to practice everyday. I’mma practice extra.’ Like, I stayed up and just sang just because I thought something was coming but...

empty promises.
When adults older than me, when they said something, I believed it. And then I trust it.
To me being a young kid, not knowing anything, those promises were everything to me.
And now that I think about it, becoming their age where they were, I'm kind of like, ‘All these promises that you could not keep, like—what were you thinking?

How the fuck do you say that to a 20-year-old?’
They were the only ones that we could look up to and respect. Like, we didn't have parents there. Like, we were young. Even though I was still, like, 20, like—I was 20.
I was supposed to be in college with my friends. I had nobody there.
One thing after another started not going the way I thought and then I got discouraged. I was insecure.
It just felt like I was practicing

forever and ever without a purpose and without a goal in mind. I know I'm training but, like, at this point, what am I doing it for?
I think in the process, I just lost my purpose. I lost where I was going.
Before going to Korea, like, I had everything laid out. I was like, ‘This is what I’mma do, I'm gonna practice. I'm gonna come out. It's gonna look like this.’ I was drawing my future, and when I got there,

that was not reality. It was nothing like that.
And that's the kind of place I was at the first three years of being in Korea. It felt like the longer I stayed, I was never going to make it.
And with all those things going on, that was the most stressed I've ever been in my life. That's the place I was at. I was very vulnerable. Scared.

Trying to figure everything out when everything was such a mess.
I remember I would go to practice on a train. I was like, ‘I just really wish this train would crash.’ Everything could end.
And it would just be easier—you know, I don't have to do it myself.
I just wanted it to be something natural so it could just go away and I don't have to worry about it. And no one

has to be, like, really sad about it because it was a natural disaster.
Such a—such a horrible thought. I didn't have the space in my heart to think of other people. I could barely think about myself and take care of myself.
So one day, one of the higher up managers comes to me and tells me they booked a TV show for me. It was about

surviving in the jungle, the caveman style life. You gotta make your own food, like, survive.
What they told me was, “You have to get ready. Your body needs to be in good condition. You're going to have to take off your shirt, you know, nice body when that happened.”
They started giving me personal training at the gym. They put me on a diet. I was basically eating nothing. 1500 calories

was my, like, higher days.
In the morning, I was eating chicken breast. Lunch, one sweet potato and another chicken breast. And for dinner, I was eating spinach and chicken breast. And that was it.
Even when I was younger, I was always a big eater. And, like, I had never had to control my food. Eating 1000 - 1500 calories a day at my age and my height, it was literally nothing.

Waking up, it was so hard for me to open my eyes. But at the same time, at night, I could barely sleep because I was so hungry.
But I did it with my willpower because I needed to look good. I was so dedicated. I did not have a cheat date of eating whatsoever. I was working out twice a day, working out until I threw up.
After months of going full out with this, I was, like, so excited for the show. I was actually going to be working.

People wanted to book me. I wanted to prove to my company that I could do well. And then…
The show got canceled.
They just said, “Eh, they don't want you anymore. They got somebody else.”
That promise that they made me that the show was going to happen was one of my biggest empty promises that hit me.
In a way, it was almost like

tipping me over the edge. Something that I had no control over, just—boom, and like, broke what I had going on. It, like, bashed what I was building.
And that's when I realized I don't have control over anything.
What do I have control over? I didn't have control over my life, when I could debut, when I could sing, when I could do anything.
And

at that point, my thoughts were: I could control my food. I felt a relief of, ‘Oh, I am still in control of some things.’ And I kept with the diet.
That was the only thing that kept me going. I kept working out and after a certain point, your body just says, ‘No, you have to eat food. You have to eat nutrients.’ And I think that's when it started going

downhill for me.
I started to develop a behavior of being obsessive over food.
It’s so weird because I remember one day, I opened my eyes and I was eating, like, a full pizza, full cake, hamburger, pasta—in one sitting, I ordered everything and I was just eating it. And I fell asleep in the middle of it.
So it became, like, a once a week thing. I would tell myself it's a cheat day.

I would work hard during the weekdays and I would wait for Saturday, my cheat day, to eat whatever the fuck I wanted to eat, and I would binge eat.
And I would look forward to that day. I keep eating and I couldn't stop. It was like something in my brain just shut off and was consuming all this food.
And it came a point where it became once a week to like, ‘Oh, you know what, maybe another day’s okay. Maybe another day. Maybe another day.’

And it became every day.
I went back and forth between binge eating and not eating the next day, and feeling shit about myself. I started getting more depressed.
Like, I was trying to remember how I ate food before, back in the days. I was trying to remember what my relationship with food was like. And I remember it being very happy but now it was a relationship where I was scared of food.
It was an

eating disorder. I didn't know at the time, but it was an eating disorder. I didn't throw up. I didn't have anorexia or anything. For me, it was binge eating.
I started breaking out—my face. There were bumps, big bumps, all over my face, all over my chin, all over my jaw area. There were too many to even count.
So terrible to the point where my company was like, “What the fuck is going on? What is wrong with your face?”
And that was the day I woke up and said, “You know what? Like, I need

to fix this.”
I don't remember ever being this depressed. I didn't have a purpose. I was just roaming around, floating around like nothing.
And when I saw that, I was like, ‘Okay, there is no way I have to live like this. I'm gonna make my body healthy again.’
So I started looking up videos. I started with eating disorders. That's what I typed in on YouTube.

And then I came across this video where the title was, “This is how I overcame my binge eating disorder,” something like that.
I found out there were people like me that were going through this bad relationship with food. This girl was telling her story of how she had to go through this binge eating, back and forth, for years.
And then she found a diet—found a lifestyle—that worked for her. And that

lifestyle was being a fruitarian.
She was explaining all these things and it just made sense to me. It was something that I could believe in.
That day, I just went cold turkey. I was like, ‘Okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to eat just fruits. It's all natural. It's from the ground. That's what we've been eating for how long humanity was alive. That's what we were eating in the

beginning of times. It makes sense.’
So I started eating fruits. It was a raw vegan diet.
Now I had a purpose. Like, I had goals.
Every day, I'm going to eat fruit and I'm going to plan it out and I'mma start working out again. I'm going to get rid of my eating disorder.
I was just eating until I was full, basically. I would get a full watermelon, cut it in half, get my spoon and just eat the full half for my first meal.

For my second meal, I would have like 10 bananas.
And for my last meal, I would eat 10 mangoes or however much I could fit in my stomach.
It's, like, very extreme and I did it for six months.
I know it sounds crazy but my body was so deprived—I was eating all those nutrients, but I stopped gaining weight at a certain point.
After a couple of months, I started to lose weight. My skin cleared up. Everybody was like, “What happened? Like,

what did you do?”
And I just said, “No, I've been just eating fruits.”
Every morning I would wake up very positive, ready to go. I didn't need coffee. I had so much energy in me. I wasn't feeling sad. I was ready for the next day. I was looking forward to tomorrow.
And that got rid of my depression. One day, it was just gone. At that point in my life,

it's what got me back on track.
I'm not saying everybody should go on a fruitarian diet. And actually, fruitarian diet might be very dangerous to some people. I don't even think any diet is one size fits all. Everyone should find their own way of doing things.
But the important thing I want to tell people is: If you're at a place where you're not happy, where

you don't feel like you're living to the fullest, you just have to be open-minded. You can't be closed off. Even though that's really hard.
Thinking back at it now, I was at a very vulnerable state, physically and mentally, and I just needed to find the purpose within myself. Where I could grow, where I could get out of this.

But for anyone who's listening to this, I do want to say, like, it has to be a purpose for yourself.
Healthy purpose is trying to fix your problems, what you're dealing with, really looking back at what do I want to change in myself?
For me, that purpose was healing my body. What got me out of this depression that I had was just one thing, a very simple thing.
It doesn't need to be a big change

all the time. Like, it could be the smallest thing that changes in your life that you could really find your purpose in life.
But if you are going through it and it's too hard for you to handle and you just don't know a way out?
Take a step back. Look at yourself. The one problem that you have is not who you are. You are definitely more than that.
I think the best thing to do

is just remember to find a purpose. We all have a purpose. You just don't know it yet.
And once you have a goal and a purpose, you’ll slowly start to get out of the bad stages you're in.
This is my Mindset.

This Mindset discusses eating disorders, depression and suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is in need of help, please reach out to a mental health professional.

Without purpose, we become lost. WOOSUNG shares about the darkest moments of his life and how he got out of them.

Find Your Purpose

This episode contains adult language.
Episode five. 
If you made it to this episode, thank you for being even interested in the stories I had to tell.
We are here, finally, talking about more of the things you guys know me as: The Rose.

This was one of the moments where I started really feeling like I owned my life and I found something and I found people in my life that I wanted to be with forever.
So here we go.
So when The Rose formed, I wasn't even a trainee. I had actually got out of my old company because nothing was happening for me.
I was there for three years. Empty promises. No results.

And I could not live my life like that anymore.
So I quit. I left. Got my own place. I got a job. 
For a good year and a half, I was living by myself, teaching English. I was not listening to any music. Zero. At that time, it was really a healing process for me because I got to see how normal people lived.
With The Rose, I think whenever I think of them and how we

started this whole thing, it really warms my heart because it wasn't something we planned. So what happened was... 
Leo—you guys know him as Dojoon. Dojoon was a friend of mine through BM. Matthew. They were in the same company. They were trainees together.
And Dojoon left that company, started doing music at Hongdae.
At that time, he found Jaehyeong and Hajoon. And they formed a band, because

Jaehyeong and Hajoon were always in a band. They were also trainees at a different company, training to become a Korean rock band.
So the three of them—they met. They knew each other from busking so they formed a band called Windfall.
Me and Leo—we just used to hang out, drink together, play, and he was an oddball to me. Like, with his broken English—mind you, he lived in New Zealand for five years—always very outgoing, and he was a very happy dude. Happy, happy,

positive vibes.
He has this big smile on him, and he's like, “Yo! Sammy.” Like, he has this accent. It's so funny. Like, his English was—I feel like—worse back then. I don't know. Very positive, very goofy in a way.
He loved Jason Mraz too. That was a point. Like, we both loved Jason Mraz. We connected with that. 
And one day, like, it was just another hangout. And Leo just came up to me with his goofy voice, smiling, he's like, “Yo”—all serious though, smiling

but very serious voice—and he was like, “Yo, I've been doing this thing. I have my own band and they're great.”
And he started becoming this PR marketer, like, showing me their stuff, like, “this is Hajoon, this is Jaehyeong. Look at them. Aren't they great?”
And I was just sitting there like, “Oh yeah, they're—they're great. Good for you, bro. Like, hey, respect.”
And he's like, “No, no, no. Like, look at them, like, we're trying to do this and we're trying to do this and we need you. We need you on the team.”

Just like that. I couldn't take it seriously though. It’s Leo, you know?
I feel like Leo knew where he was trying to go with this. He's, like, very manipulative in that way, because now that I think about it, he brought chicken to my house. He brought chicken, he started this whole conversation. It was very well thought out.
Leo was like, “We're trying to do a show in Hongdae. It's like a hall show. Probably not that many people are gonna come, but we need a member like you that sings and plays

electric guitar. That's what we're missing. We need you.”
And at that point I was teaching English, and I was already talking to a different company for my solo music.
I said no. I told Leo, I was like, “That's not in my plan right now. I have my plans. Like, I want to be a solo artist. I've tried the whole team thing back in my old company. I want to be responsible for myself and myself only.”
I was very selfish because I was just

taking care of myself. I was fending for myself—I had to be selfish.
And that's when I think he went to plan B and he's like, “No, no, like, just come to practice one time. See how it is.”
And he presented me like, “You know, we just need help ‘as friends.’ Bring your electric guitar and we'll just jam out and then see how it is and you can maybe help us with the show. For one show.”
So I was like, “Okay. I mean, if you guys are, like, asking for a favor, I'm down. I'll help you guys out. Whatever it is, like, don't expect too much. I haven't played my electric guitar in so

long.” And he’s like “No, it's all cool.”
So I agreed to help them out just as friends, no long term, just for this show.
So then Leo invited me to meet Hajoon and Jaehyeong.
My first impression of Jaehyeong and Hajoon was: Very genuine, very nice. Like, literally, I think I'm the worst out of the four of us.
Leo—very nice, positive guy.
Jaehyeong and Hajoon? Jeff is Jaehyeong, Hajoon is Dylan.

Jeff and Dylan—they were so pure, you know what I mean? Like, so pure. Like, pure musicians.
So after that meeting, we hit it off. I still had the same mind though—I wasn't trying to do band music. And then we went to the jam session.
We picked the song and we're like, “Okay, here are the lyrics.” We printed it out. And we're like, “Well, we're just going to try it.”
They're like, “Can you just play the F chord and the D chord or whatever, power chords?”
And

I haven't performed in a while. It's been a minute since I played my electric guitar. 
And I started to play.. and the first note that I played was beautiful.
And that was the moment when I realized that it was it. And we all felt it.
It just felt magical. I just knew. We all just knew, at that point, this was something

we were going to do forever together. 
So we did the show with, like, 20 people. Half of them were, like, our friends, you know what I mean?
And like, we had only had a week and a half to prepare for this. We didn't even have that much time. We didn't have our own songs. So we had to write songs

‘cause we can't just do cover songs.
If we're trying to be a band, we can't just not have our own songs. So we write a song called “Photographer.” It's about taking pictures with your eyes, like, with one blink, you take a snap and you keep that in your memory and that's like a photo.
Yeah, that was our first song that we ever wrote together, and we did that in a week and a half. 
Looking back at it now, yeah, we could write better songs, but that song definitely has a connection with us and our very deep roots.

And we did the performance. I've seen the performance tapes. They're not that great, compared to the shows we’re doing recently, but it was a start. 
You know what? Being a solo artist is very lonely because you're on the stage by yourself. It's your show.
But sharing that with other people? I felt stronger. We had each other at least. If we fucked up here,

we all fucked up. It was a team.
I even told this company that I was talking to as a solo artist—I was like, “You know what, like, I know this is what I want to do, and if it's not this, it's not going to work.” 
So the CEO of the company that I was talking to came to the show, watched our show, believed in it, said, “You know what? Maybe it'll work. Let's go for it.” So we went in this company together as a band.

It was a new beginning. Not a lot of people believed in bands in Korea. Not a lot of people wanted to fuck with us.
And we were like, “Yeah, you just wait and see.” Like, we knew. Us four—we always kept each other in check. We weren't discouraged. We were ready to show a big ‘fuck you. Like, whatever you thought, you’re wrong.’
This is like the moment that made us who we are. We made a promise

then:
Let's not let anything get in the way of what we're trying to do. Because in the future, it's gonna be harder. There's going to be more people telling us what to do, trying to break us apart.
There's always gonna be somebody that's going to try to influence our genuine beliefs that we have as a team. Let's not break that. No matter what, let's have each other's back. We had that talk.

We changed our name. We wanted it to be a name all four of us had an input in. And that's what The Rose should be. Because it shouldn't just always be about who the singer is. A true band is where everybody shines.
The Rose is one thing. It can't be The Rose without Jaehyeong, Hajoon, Dojoon. If one of us leaves,

it can’t be The Rose.
We had a purpose. All of us—we had the same purpose and a goal that we were striving for. And that's what made us so passionate and dedicated.
After we signed, we did a whole year of training.
No one told us to practice, but we wanted to. We wanted to just cover songs, we wanted to write songs. We had a practice room and we were there, each and every day, eating breakfast, lunch, dinner there. We practiced our asses off.

We were doing everything together: We were living together, eating together. We were practicing together. We played games together.
Every moment of our life for that whole year was just us four. And it really helped us build a good base to hold us together.
We grew so much as a team. We found our color. We found our tone.
When we wrote, “Sorry,” our debut song, that's when we knew. We're like, “We’re ready.”

You know what happened with “Sorry” was:
One day, we were just practicing. Hajoon comes up to me—he's like, “Yo, I wrote this melody with a piano.” You know, (sings Sorry)—he didn’t have the lyrics, he’s like (hums Sorry).
The second I heard it, I was like, “This is a hit! This is amazing!”
Literally right there and then, I wrote the lyrics. I was like, “Yo, okay. I think the concept is sorry. Like, we're sorry. Like the title is ‘Sorry.’”

And I wrote the lyrics down. It happened within, like, 20 minutes.
I was like, “Hajoon, let me sing it.” And he played the piano for me. I sang the melody and we were both like, “This is it. Oh my God. This is a song that we want to present to the people as our first official debut single.”
We got together, we started playing the song, we finessed it, like... it came along very easily. It was just kind of meant to be.

Our debut was hard. You know, everybody doubted us. Even the people that were working for us doubted us.
They liked the song—they didn't believe it was going to perform as they wanted to. We didn't have anything to prove to them, like, we didn't have music that was out, we didn't have the numbers, we didn't have the funds to, like, PR really well, we didn't have a marketing team.
So everybody kind of had this idea when they met us were kind of like, “Oh yeah, good luck.”
When it dropped,

we thought we were going to get no views. But like, it was actually getting a lot of views. Somehow, it just did well.
That was a blessing moment. It was amazing.
I remember when we passed a million views we were like, “What? A million views, like, it's huge!”
If you saw a million people in front of you, that is fucking huge. Like, has anyone even seen a million people in front of them?
So we were like, “Oh shit.” And then it kept going.

2 million views. 3 million views.
And it's funny because it was not even in Korea. People overseas were listening to it and people were tuning into our Facebook Live cover days and they were interested in what we were, and it was a very, like, heartwarming moment where I've been working for this for such a long time ever since I came to Korea, and up until that point, it was something I couldn't grasp and now it was something right in front of my eyes.

People were listening to what we created, and it was what we wanted them to listen to.
Within a couple of months, we got a tour offer—a five-city Europe tour in November. Like, we debuted in August.
So we had to hurry and release another single called, “Like We Used To.”
And then right after that, we went on tour. Half of our songs were covers and half of our songs were

songs that we had made previously in the year practicing with each other, so they were unreleased songs.
This was not in our plan to tour this early.
We didn't know what to expect. Even the touring company, they expected about 200 people to come in. If 200 people came in to watch the show, it would just be like a good start. We could do it again.
500, 700 people showed up. No one expected it. And we're like, “What? Amazing.” 
I was so nervous, but I

still remember the scream. They were so passionate and they believed what we were singing about. They knew all the words... and they were not Korean.
The year after that, we came out with an album called Void. “Baby” was our title song.
And then we went on another tour. That was my first American tour. We went to South America, we went to two Mexico cities, and we went to Brazil. And we started growing like that.
And then after that, we came out with another

The story of how WOOSUNG, Do-joon, Ha-joon, and Jae-hyeong met and united as one.					

WOOSUNG

We’re All Human

Mothers are Somethin’ Different

A Broken Dream

The Yellow Ticket

Find Your Purpose

The Rose: The Origins

Walls

Bonus Episode: K-pop, Self-Honesty, and Beyond

21 Questions with WOOSUNG

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