EVOLVING WITH TIME: KIRE’S JOURNEY AS AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST | INTERVIEW

Taiwanese artist KIRE recently opened for the K-POP boy group STRAY KIDS headline on the final day of BST Hyde Park. During his performance, KIRE taught a 50,000 strong audience to sing in Chinese, invited a lucky audience member on stage for an intimate performance, and sets the perfect mood right for a memorable day of music and fun. His dynamic stage presence and crowd work left a lasting impression on everyone at Hyde Park.

After watching his spectacular performance on the main stage, I had the pleasure of meeting KIRE and talking to him briefly before the headliners took the stage. We talked about his experiences in the UK, his thoughts on performing overseas at such a huge event, and his ever-evolving approach to his creative journey as an independent artist.

INTERVIEW | KIRE

Maggie: How are you finding the UK?

KIRE: I absolutely love it! I regret not spending more time here because I’m flying off tomorrow. I wish I would have been smarter—had an extra day or two to walk around sightseeing.

Maggie: Even the weather’s nice today!

KIRE: I know, right?!

Maggie: I heard you’re meeting more fans tomorrow?

KIRE: I am. Because I wasn’t able to finish taking photos with them. I’ve got to make it up to them since I don’t know when’s the next time I’m going to be back. But yeah, tomorrow at St Paul’s Cathedral (laughs).

Maggie: How do you feel about performing at BST Hyde Park and opening for Stray Kids?

KIRE: It’s still mind-blowing. When I went out there, I was like ‘Wow, K-pop is insane.’ I saw some clips from last week or a week or two ago when they were in Milan; the crowd there was crazy too. I’m a Big Bang fan, and I think that Big Bang ran so that they could fly. Because I’ve never seen Big Bang with this kind of crowd yet. I’ve been to BLACKPINK’s concert, but I think this exceeded that.

Maggie: That’s definitely a big crowd here today.

KIRE: Exactly, and you know what’s amazing? There aren’t that many Asians.

Maggie: True! I was surprised.

KIRE: Mostly when you see an Asian artist performing overseas, you’d probably say that half of the crowd is going to be Asians…but no, everybody here is from everywhere, and that’s what’s amazing about music.

Maggie: And everyone loved you!

KIRE: (laughs) Hopefully! I’m very thankful for Stray Kids. They did it so we could be here.

Maggie: I was at your performance earlier, it was amazing.

KIRE: Thank you.

Maggie: What would you say is your favorite song to perform?

KIRE: I think it would be “Sun.” Because “Sun” is a very special song to me. I had an album called “IKARUS“—Ikarus aimed for the sun and he got burnt by the sun. For this song, it’s very romantic. Other than that, I could do a lot of crowd work, I can tell people to wave their hands, and people can hear me sing because it’s a ballad kind of song. I love that song.

Maggie: For your most recent single “Don’t Stop,” that’s quite a music video.

KIRE: Thank you.

Maggie: You filmed and released it as reels instead of long-form videos. How did that come about?

KIRE: I did it because of the way I view social media. For me, I haven’t been watching music videos as much as I have in the past. I took that habit and used it in what I’m doing right now. I know a lot of people would be like me, they are spending a lot of time on reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. We’re not going to flip our phones horizontally and watch music videos—that decreased. Unless you’re Stray Kids, you film very popping music videos for them to do that. But if I don’t have the budget, a lot of people aren’t going to want to watch it. A lot of people aren’t going to give you that first three seconds. And for me, those first three seconds are so important. So I’m like ‘OK, how do I get the most out of this song?’. I shot three different kinds of reels, and the first three seconds are to grab your eyes. If I have your eyes, then I have your ears. If I have your ears, then I have your attention, and hopefully, you’ll follow.

Maggie: Smart marketing!

KIRE: (laughing) That’s the whole strategy over it. But it’s also kind of scary at the same time because you don’t know what’s next as a music artist.

Maggie: You have to evolve.

KIRE: You have to evolve, you have to do skits, you have to narrate, you have to be funny, you just can’t sing anymore, you have to work with fans—The crazy thing is, people forget easily now, you could be famous very quickly, but also people can forget you very quickly. The trends come and go, and it’s going to be faster and faster, our attention spans are getting less and less.

Maggie: What can we expect from you next? Anything exciting?

KIRE: I’m going to keep evolving (laughs). I’m definitely going to do more music. From “Don’t Stop,” one of the biggest evolvements that I did was basically kissing another girl on screen all over. I don’t think that many artists would do that. So next, how do I evolve from this to dancing? How do I evolve this to interact with fans? I’m always thinking of the next step of how far an artist can go. You have NMIXX and Stray Kids, they’re under a big company. They have to go through many different rules to do something challenging. But for me as an independent artist, I can just be like ‘Hey, let’s do it. Let’s make out with a girl for three reels’ (laughs). And I’m the one that’s like yeah, let’s do it. I’m also asking myself what’s next, what can people accept, or what is something that people want to see, that they are afraid of seeing. They do want to see it, but they are afraid of asking to see it. I’m always up for that challenge.

Maggie: Amazing. Now for my final and most important question, any chance of you doing a UK tour soon?

KIRE: Yo, I’m planning that. Judging by today, thanks to Stray Kids, I probably had a little bit more fans in London. I hopefully will get to do Milan, London, Paris—I’m going to play out the universe. So definitely one day.

As the interview came to an end, KIRE was kind enough to let me take a few press photos of him outside of his dressing room. Having listened to his perspectives on creating music and reflections as an independent artist, I can’t wait to see what he brings us next.

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Maggie

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