J-Hope: 'Even though I was in the service, I never really let go of my love for music'

BTS's j-hope joins Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to open up about his time in the military, recent collaborations — including with Pharrell Williams — and what’s next for BTS.

j-hope tells Apple Music about the future of BTS and what's next for the group

Zane Lowe: So much has happened since BTS 1.0. You've gone into military service, you've developed your solo career, you've headlined Lollapalooza, you're on a sold-out stadium tour, working with your heroes. And at some point, I'm guessing the plan is that you will come together again. If anything, what would you like to do or experience differently now that you've stepped away for a while? And looking forward to coming back together, how do you want to do it differently or better than perhaps you were able to last time?

j-hope: I think what I was hoping for most of all was, I believe that there is music we can create as BTS. But when we started to come out with our solo projects, we started thinking more about what other stories and music we could create. I think we've found a healthier way of doing it. In the end, we all have our own unique identities that we had a chance to realize and express. We wanted to come together again after each of us have done it their own way. There's definitely something to learn from that. And then there will be even greater synergy when we reunite. Maybe there will be something new we will want to talk about. We've talked about that a lot since the start of our solo projects. I think that over time, we each refined our own unique identities as each of us work on their own music, come out with their solo projects and do their own thing. The funny thing for me is when our identities, which have taken shape in various ways, come together as BTS, I'm curious to see how it'll look like. So I look forward to June when our members will have completed their service. We will quickly get together and talk about what BTS can do in the future. I think it's going to be a massive energy. And the other thing that I've noticed on this tour, when BTS reunite and perform again, I feel that response will be tremendous.

j-hope tells Apple Music about collaborating with Pharrell Williams

Zane Lowe: You got Pharrell on a song! I need to know, like when you get Pharrell on a song, do your boys and your band be like, "You got Pharrell? You got Pharrell? What? Okay, I gotta step up!" Do you guys like, joke with each other when you put out music, and it's like, "You're not going to believe who I got on my song. I got a feature with Pharrell." "That's cool man. Ooh!"

j-hope: I really looked up to him since I was a kid. I used to listen to "Drop It Like It's Hot" and other songs by N.E.R.D. a lot. Game changers. So it was really special to work with him. The other members of BTS talk about how much they respected him. They were so excited about it too. “That must have been so much fun.” “What was it like?”, I got asked a lot. Working with Pharrell has been an incredible journey. I think this makes for an interesting history.

j-hope tells Apple Music about how he balanced military service and making music

Zane Lowe: You know that when you go into military service and you're coming off the back of this very large success, that how important it is that you leave that behind and that you, that you try to, what's the balance, I guess, between looking forward to coming back and focusing on the service that you have to do at hand and being a part of that, genuinely a part of that experience and not being J-Hope, you know?

j-hope: I think it's only natural for young people in South Korea to take on this responsibility. I thought it was a very important part of j-hope's or Jung Ho-seok’s life.

After all, I am a proud citizen of South Korea. I love my country. There are things that I cherish in this country. I thought a lot about how it was going to mean a lot to me. It's a different experience, from which I experienced something new. That was my thought at the time. Also, in reality, I've learned a different life. And in many ways, I got to meet people from all walks of life and I received a lot of good energy. And I heard a lot of good things. But also, you know, a year and a half is actually not a very short time, that bit made me feel a lot of things. In the end, I think the most important thing was I realised how important the work I've been doing for all these years is incredibly meaningful to me. That was basically the main thing I felt. Even though I was in the service, I think there was part of me, I think there was a part of me, who never really let go of my love for music.