Balladeer Jo Kwon has spent over half his life with the agency JYP Entertainment and it is about time for him to come into his own by expressing his true thoughts and emotions through his music.

He spent eight years as a trainee with JYP Entertainment before debuting as the leader of vocal quartet 2AM in 2008. In total, he has spent fifteen years of his life working with JYP. At a press showcase for his second solo record “Crosswalk,” he told reporters that he felt it was now time for him to make music that draws on his own life experiences. 

“I felt that it was time to sing songs that reflected Jo Kwon’s real emotions,” he said at Mary Hall in Sogang University on Monday, noting that with the passing of time, he has increasingly felt that “ballads that stem from real experiences and emotions are better.”

With this mindset, Jo helped to write the lyrics for the lead track “Crosswalk” and the third track “Flutter” on his three-track digital EP “Crosswalk.” Both of them are about love. “Crosswalk” is about being afraid to confront love that has left while “Flutter” is a sweet love song about first developing feelings for someone.

“When I first debuted, to be honest I had no experience with romance,” he said. “Now, eight years later, I think it would be a bit ridiculous if I said that I still haven’t dated anyone. I wrote the lyrics thinking about the goodbyes, the love, the anxiety, all of the complex emotions I felt over the years.”

“Crosswalk” comes three years and eight months after Jo Kwon’s first solo album “I’m Da One” in 2012. It seems a long hiatus for the musician, who did not officially put himself on hold, but Jo seemed far from antsy or anxious.

“What I gained from all those years of waiting for my debut was patience,” he said. “That patience helped me to wait out the three years and eight months until my second solo album.”

Now that the album is finally out, he says he is curious to see how the album will be received. “When I first debuted, I focused more on rankings than on evaluations of the album itself,” he said. “Now, I’m more concerned about the evaluations, the reviews. I want people to look forward to my next album, to say they want to be comforted by my music.”

Despite introducing himself as “Jo Kwon of 2AM” and saying that he believed his musical career would “begin and end with 2AM,” Jo Kwon said that he was “greedy” as an individual artist. “I’m very ambitious to show everything I have,” he said. “After time has passed, I want people to say that ‘Jo Kwon is a remarkable person, that he’s fun. Whether it’s ballads, musicals, entertainment shows or surprising antics, he has a lot of fun.’ I hope to convey that image.”

Jo Kwon’s second solo record “Crosswalk” was released Monday.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)