[JoyNews24 reporter Lee Mi-young] Singer An Shin-ae said PSY suggested she make a remake album.
An Shin-ae will release her new album Best Before at 6 p.m. on the 21st and return after roughly 15 months.
An Shin-ae said she feels overwhelmed at the thought of sharing the results of about 15 months of work with her fans. She recalled repeatedly creating and discarding material—doing that three times during the process—and said all of those struggles ultimately found their way into the final album.
The new release is a four-track remake collection. The title track is Kim Gun-mo’s “Love of One’s Own,” and the album also includes Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter’s “People Seem to Change,” Kim Hyun-chul’s “What’s Wrong,” and Won Mi-yeon’s “Parting Trip.” Each song is a reinterpretation of a beloved classic that continues to earn steady devotion from K-pop listeners.
Explaining why she chose a remake project for her comeback, she said she had intended to finish her “Dear” series—with Dear City and Dear Life reflecting her recent worldview—and to complete the series with the next album. But during the process she struggled so much she kept making tracks and then scrapping them. PSY, who saw her wrestling with the project, suggested first that she try a remake album. “You should try a remake album,” he told her. “I want you to feel the happiness I felt making one.”
She added that she needed a breakthrough and thought it would be interesting to put her own stamp on songs audiences already love. In the end, the project pulled her out of an inward spiral and gave her a better chance to show listeners her artistic colors, she said.
She also described how Kim Gun-mo’s “Love of One’s Own” became the title track. While she was agonizing over the choice, producer Yoo Geon-hyung suggested arranging the song a cappella. She worked through the night to finish the first verse and played it for the label’s CEO—she never expected it to become the title song.
For this album she focused more on her strengths as a vocalist than on composing. Yet the track that became the title song turned out to be the clearest expression of her creativity to date. Although she worried that a title track built from 73 layered vocal parts with no instruments might be risky, its originality helped clinch the decision.
Alongside the album, An Shin-ae will present a small-theater concert series titled SCENE A at Yeonnam Space in Mapo-gu, Seoul. The run will include eight performances over four weeks, every Saturday and Sunday from April 25 through May 17.
She said SCENE A is the first concert she’s produced under her own name, an idea she conceived herself and that PSY endorsed. He joked about doing 200 shows, but since this is her debut run she’ll start modestly with eight performances over four weeks. With just one guitar and one piano, she plans to perform most of the set raw and unvarnished—presenting herself plainly, she said.
She asked fans to come prepared to relax and to leave their daily worries and stresses at the door. “I’m ready,” she said. “While you’re here with me, I hope you can feel at ease.”
