Choi Yu Ree

Choi Yu Ree's songs have a way of finding their way into other people's mouths. "Forest" – the aching track at the centre of her own YouTube series, Yu-ree's Forest, where guest artists take their turn covering it – has become something of a rite of passage among idols, TXT's SOOBIN included, who lent it his falsetto for Episode 6. It's a strange kind of tribute: a song this intimate, sung so often by other voices, and somehow never worn down by it.

That intimacy is the whole architecture of Stay: Two, the second and closing chapter of her Stay series. Where Stay: One dealt in the surreal and the distant – songs like "Between Earth and Sky" and "Journey to the Sun" reaching for things that feel far away but never quite leave you – Stay: Two pulls everything back down to the ground. She wanted the emotions here to feel tangible, she says, close enough to touch: the fear of standing alone after a leap forward, the slow realisation that everything is relative, the refusal to ever fully define what love is.

The two albums share the same emotional core, she says, but Stay: Two is the one built for the ordinary weight of living: fear, comparison, vulnerability, the slow work of learning to sit with feelings she once tried to avoid. She doesn't call the series unfinished, exactly. She calls it complete enough to stand as its own body of work, with more stories still to come, just not necessarily inside these two records.

Stay: Two moves in the opposite emotional direction to Stay: One, beginning with a leap forward and arriving in solitude. When did you first realize these two albums needed to speak to each other in this way?

Choi Yu Ree While preparing for <Stay: One>, I made up my mind that I wanted to send the message that “it's okay to stay in whatever state you may be in.” In that sense, <Stay: Two> became an essential chapter in the Stay series.

The two records seem to trace the same emotional terrain from different directions. What did reversing that journey allow you to express that Stay: One could not?

<Stay: One> and <Stay: Two> ultimately share the same emotional core. However, I see <Stay: One> as a more surreal, almost otherworldly album. Songs like the title track, “Between Earth and Sky” and the closing track, “Journey to the Sun” explored things that feel distant yet are always with us. With <Stay: Two>, I wanted to work with subjects that are much closer to our everyday lives. Beginning with the first track, I tried to portray the emotions a person encounters after taking that leap into life through familiar, tangible images, so they would feel more immediate and real.

Stay: Two is an album holding many emotions rather than a grand story. How did you decide which feelings belonged on this album?

My songs always talk about life. This album naturally reflects the emotions I was experiencing while I was making it.

"Higher" opens with the courage of taking a first step, while "Monologue" ends in an intimate moment of being alone with yourself. How did you want listeners to feel as they travel between those two points?

I imagined the fear people experience when finding themselves alone. Through that contrast–starting off with powerful energy only to end up alone in the end – I hoped listeners would look upon their own lives with a little more tenderness and care.

"It's All Relative" suggests that it can be okay to slow down and rest. Has your own relationship with pace, expectation, or comparison changed while making this record?

It’s what’s been on my mind the most lately. I've come to realize that everything is relative. In the past, I think I lived without these kinds of thoughts or even the room to breathe, but these days, I’m living in a much calmer place, without expecting too much.

In "Wildflower," quiet growth becomes a way of reflecting on your own life. What do wildflowers represent to you personally, and what kind of growth have you been noticing in yourself lately?

“Wildflower” reflects on how every flower has its own distinct beauty when you look closely, yet they are often collectively called "wildflowers" without being known by their individual names. Through this song, I wanted to express the importance of seeing and remembering the beauty that exists within each person. Perhaps because of that message, I’ve found myself naturally paying closer attention to people these days, looking for the qualities that make each of them special.

"Last Love" holds both hope and uncertainty: the desire for a love that lasts, alongside the question of what love really is. What made that emotional tension feel important to write about now?

“Last Love” lingers in the space of not knowing what love is, yet still feeling something undeniable. Looking back, I think that has always been the way I’ve experienced love. I simply chose to turn that feeling into a song at this point in my life, but perhaps it’s an emotion that has always been there.

Park Jinyoung appears in the music video for "Last Love," bringing another person's interpretation into the world of the song. What did his performance reveal about "Last Love" that surprised or moved you?

For me, it was his eyes. Of course, some of that comes naturally, but “Last Love” had to feel completely sincere and unadorned. I still vividly remember being captivated by that look during the shoot.

"Drift" finds both comfort and unease in surrendering to life's current. When you feel uncertain, what helps you accept not knowing where you are being carried?

I’m not really the type to be afraid of uncertainty. Instead, I try to focus on studying the situation and figuring out how to work through it. Still, when it comes to things that just don’t have an answer, I simply accept them for what they are.

"At My Worst" and "Monologue" are especially vulnerable songs, confronting tears, isolation, and the self we show only when nobody is there. Was it difficult to make those feelings into music, and did the process change how you held them?

Similar to what I mentioned in the previous question, I don’t feel particularly afraid of emotions that people often consider negative. But there was definitely a time when I was extremely afraid of them and tried to avoid them at all costs. During those moments, I would completely fall apart. These days, though, I’ve become someone who tries to share those feelings with others a little more. I think I’ve gained the courage to share my sadness with people.

The album's colours gradually fade toward monochrome as its emotional world becomes lonelier. How closely do you see the visual artwork and the music as parts of one story?

I think visual artwork helps communicate the finer details and emotions that music alone may not be able to fully express. That’s why I think every element should be approached with the same level of care and thoughtfulness as the music itself.

Now that Stay: One and Stay: Two are both complete, do you see them as a finished story, or is there more to tell in this series?

I think it can be considered complete when viewed as a standalone body of work. Of course, there are always more stories I want to tell. But I’m confident that those stories can be expressed fully through other albums as well. In that sense, I feel that the Stay series is much closer to being a complete chapter.