Artist Spotlight: suggi Is Right Where He’s Supposed To Be
When EnVi jumped on the early morning Zoom call, suggi (pronounced suh-gi) was already there. The Korean-Canadian singer-songwriter was in full cozy mode, wearing round glasses and comfortable clothing. A few weeks after our call, suggi released his new EP, titled child again, which is out today on streaming platforms.
“I don’t have a good memory,” suggi said with a shy laugh in response to a question about his first childhood memory. He does remember, however, running around and catching cicadas in Korea when he was younger. At that age, he loved catching bugs.
The funny thing is that now he’s “so scared of bugs.” Suggi admitted, “I’m so scared of literally everything that flies.” “It’s crazy just thinking about how back then I had no fears,” he added, reflecting on this piece of his childhood. “I just miss the curiosity and the fearlessness I had as a kid.”
Suggi seeks to reclaim this fearlessness and bravery through child again, a sonic adventure told through six tracks. EnVi spoke with the rising singer-songwriter about his new EP, how his songwriting process always starts on his phone, and just how important tenacity has been in his journey as an artist.
Meet suggi
If suggi’s voice was a color, it would be a sunflower gold. There is a warmth and an indescribable depth to his vocals, evoking cozy images of snuggling into fuzzy blankets on a snowy evening. But the artist behind “astroboy.” — which has over 28 million listens on Spotify — wasn’t always “suggi” the singer-songwriter.
In the beginning, “suggi” was a nickname for his Korean name, Bae-seok. When growing up in Korea, everyone just called him suggi. It stuck, and now it’s his artist moniker. Similar to the K-pop world, where fandom names are related to the artists’, suggi’s fans have claimed “huggies.” (Actually, “huggies” was a joke between suggi and his friends until he casually mentioned it online. Fans immediately fell in love with it.)
Suggi started making music in high school. At that time, he turned to creating to “kill [his] loneliness.” Music was “like my friend to talk to and that’s who I make music for,” he explained. In the summer of 2018, the singer-songwriter dropped his first EP called Get off Your Phone. Hit single “astroboy” came seven months later as the predecessor to suggi’s first full-album, cheer up! Twenty-twenty saw eight new suggi tracks, including “ur just a fan.” Fast forward to 2023 when suggi dropped his album moonkid., his final project of his musical career — or so he thought.
Luckily, 2023 was not the end of the road for the singer. Now listeners can dive into suggi’s new EP, child again, which was first introduced by singles “nice” and “joke,” both released earlier this year. He even dropped two other tracks outside of EP’s: “L8LY” and “fork.”
Out of the seven-plus years of music he has produced, suggi believes “child (awake)” is “suggi’s song.” As the first song on the EP, “child (awake)” brings listeners into suggi’s world — namely, his world through a younger self’s eyes.
“Most people would say it’s ‘astroboy,’” he started. “But I think 100% without a doubt, I think it’s ‘child.’” A cut from the new EP, this track is “my favorite song that I’ve ever written in my entire life,” suggi emphasized. “The sound and production is just so me. I love the energy; I love that fun aspect of the song and the lyrics. Everything is just what I stand for.”
Finding That child again
In a world of healing your inner child, the phrase “child again” often evokes strong images and emotions. For suggi, “running around fearlessly” is what he thinks about. This sentiment is reflected in the album artwork for child again, too. A figure, supposedly a younger suggi, runs through a wide-open field, a backpack slung over his shoulders, and his arms outstretched. This suggi has not much to worry about, not even where he is running to.
“I chose that phrase [“child again”] because that’s honestly how I’ve been feeling lately,” suggi shared, speaking about why he named his latest project “child again.” “As I grow up, I feel like I doubt myself more, and I’m filling myself up with more uncertainty.”
He also noticed he would compare his skills as a musician with others, leading to doubting thoughts like “maybe I”m not as talented as I thought” to creep into his mind. Music was something suggi “thought was the only thing [he] had going” for himself. What happens next if that’s no longer true?
Through child again, suggi wants to “reclaim that power.” That power of “freely loving music and making what [he] wants to make.”
“Freely loving music” again is how the singer-songwriter created the EP. The key inspiration for the project was another artist. “I do have an inspiration and, being 100% transparent, this EP was fully inspired by another artist that I randomly stumbled upon on Spotify named philine,” suggi explained. Titled the side-effects of living in a fantasy, the EP features six songs ripe with vulnerability. “[The] title alone already captured everything I was feeling,” he added. “I was just so inspired by how you can capture all these emotions in such a chill way.”
The fourth track on child again, “dream come true,” formed the foundation of suggi’s EP. An acoustic guitar and lightly tinkling elements bring this softly-sung single to life. There is a gentle huskiness in suggi’s voice and a magical use of echo that builds even more layers into the track. “I wanted to have songs around [“dream come true”] that fit it very sonically and sound wise,” suggi said. Child again would have the “feeling of feeling free” and an acoustic soft rock energy, according to the original plan.
Then came along “only u.” Only at the very end of the process was this track added after a lot of waffling back-and-forth. Suggi explained the reason behind this indecision: “It felt so fitting emotionally and meaning wise, but sonically, it was very, very different.” Acoustic tastes and soft rock characterize the other five tracks on child again, while “only u” brings 2000s synth pop to the forefront. In the end, suggi decided “only u” could stay. “I felt like the meaning of the EP weighed more than the musical sound,” he noted.
The Process Behind child again
“A lot of these songs I thought would never see the sun,” suggi told EnVi. “Dream come true,” for example, had been kept in the vault for two years. He also admitted, “But I had so much love for these songs that I kept [them] to myself to maybe work on again one day.”
“That day was now.” And that day is today, the day everyone can listen to child again.
To create his music, suggi starts with his phone. “I do everything on my phone,” he said, pausing for a moment before saying “phone.” To create his first EP, suggi only used GarageBand and recordings on his phone microphone, since he didn’t have access to other equipment at that time.
“All the adults, they will always be like ‘get off your phone. You’re always on your phone.’” noted suggi, striking a chord of familiarity within many of us. “But I was actually working towards something that I considered [to be] my dream on the phone.”
It’s his phone that holds his voice notes with ideas and lyrics. Once he has the skeleton of the track down, he’ll go to GarageBand to “punch out easy chords,” and then bring it all over to his computer to flesh out further. Thank you, suggi’s phone, for all of your hard work!
Suggi also had another album-making fun fact to share with EnVi. Hudson Yang, who plays Eddie Huang in Fresh Off the Boat, is the voice heard in the beginning of “child (awake).” The younger self of suggi (Yang’s voice) says, “Maybe I grew up too fast…I just want to be a child again.”
There was a longer story behind this moment: before he made child again, suggi was in a slump. During that time, he binge-watched Fresh Off the Boat. The singer-songwriter loved it so much he followed the cast members on social media. Occasionally, suggi would reply to their Instagram stories. Yang would also “randomly reply to me and then we became friends over DM,” suggi mentioned with a laugh. If there’s any message in this story, you never know what will happen when you live a little fearlessly.
The Highs and Lows of Being An Indie Artist
“I will always be a struggling independent artist,” suggi said matter-of-factly. There’s no denying it: being an indie artist will never be an easy road. Paying off bills and figuring out the immigration process in Canada went side-by-side with the singer-songwriter’s musical pursuits. The latter challenge only intensified after his mother passed away following his high school graduation.
To help support his family, suggi worked throughout high school and during summers. “The only option that I had was to have basically this lottery ticket that could help me escape the labor work,” he explained. For suggi, that “lottery ticket” was his music.
As he continued honestly, “If my music does blow up, then I get to change my life.”
But 2023 happened first. On suggi’s Discord channel, there is a post where he expressed doubts about ever being able to make more original music. He released his full album moonkid, but, at that time, this was his farewell project. “I didn’t think that I could do music again,” suggi shared with EnVi.
In 2023, the artist was “hit with very intense debt.” Luckily, it’s been paid off, but it took suggi two years to do so. “During that time, I couldn’t even think about music. I just had to focus on work,” he remembered.
Despite this tough period and its hurdles, suggi came out stronger on the other side. When asked about the most important lesson he learned during this time, he took a moment to think.
“Honestly, to not give up,” the artist said a beat later. “I don’t even know what to add to that. It was just ‘don’t give up’ and eventually I’m still here,” he continued with a small laugh.
Being an independent artist is all about tenacity. Suggi cited control over his music and creative process — from writing to production to visual direction — as one of the joys of being an independent artist. But then there’s funding. Plus, actually writing, producing, and directing visuals.
“I feel like music is really 10% of the hardship,” suggi revealed, mulling over the question. “I can make music 24/7 if I could, but 99% of my career goes into everything else I don’t want to do. And that’s the rough part.”
Like he succinctly put it: “The best part is that I’m an independent artist, and the worst part is that I’m an independent artist.”
Then 88rising reached out to suggi. He brought EnVi down memory lane, noting, “They basically reached out their hands to me during that time.” Suggi received a message about setting up a chat with 88rising from their official account (yes, he did double check). Because of that message and that call, he is now one of the independent artists they support under their label.
“Cosigning me was such a huge validation since I was already such a big fan of 88rising,” he said. Put simply, this unexpected connection “just inspired me and gave me another chance,” emphasized suggi.
Dream Come True
When our conversation begins to wrap up, we circle back to tenacity. Sometimes, you just have to keep going. You never know where life will take you.
“You’ll one day thank yourself that you never gave up” is what 27-year-old suggi would tell his younger self. “That’s my motto for everything nowadays,” he added. “One day, I’ll thank myself that I didn’t give up.”
If I learned anything about suggi during our hour-long call, it’s not only that he is a driven person, but he is also someone whose life is full of joy. Going out with friends, for example, is one of those moments since the singer-songwriter is a “very social person.” (He considers himself to be an extrovert.) As he explained, making music can be “very lonely.” So, he “love[s] spending time with people.”
Recently, suggi hopped on the Kpop Demon Hunters train, too, even covering the Rimu/Jinu duet, “Free,” on his YouTube. And like many others, the singer-songwriter has become obsessed with collecting Labubus after a friend gifted him one.
All jokes aside, suggi is the next rising star to add to your playlists. While we were talking, he mentioned having a little bit of imposter syndrome and being “mind boggled” that people listen to his music, that he has fans.
“There are people out there who are listening to my music that I made in my own room and relating to it and calling themselves a fan of me,” suggi said, a touch of disbelief clear in his voice and on his face. “I’m so thankful. I don’t think I’d be here without you.”
But we also don’t know what we would do without suggi and his music. Whether you need a “time out on a busy day” or a moment to just be, know “I’ll be on your side, I’ll be by your side” — that is suggi’s promise.
Child again is now streaming on music platforms. Keep up with suggi on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
Looking for a playlist refresh? Check out more of EnVi’s Artist Spotlight interviews here!
