ZIN CHOI

“Listen at your own risk.” That's ZIN CHOI's warning to anyone who thinks they've figured her out. The Seoul-born singer-songwriter is 17 years old, less than two years into her career, and already operating on her own terms – writing and producing her music, as well as directing her own videos since her debut EP mom!!iminlove dropped in October 2024. The follow-up, DONOTDISTURB, arrived five months later. She has not been waiting around.

The daughter of producer Hitchhiker and lyricist Kim Bu-min – the pair behind records for Girls' Generation, SHINee and TVXQ!, with Hitchhiker's production credits also including Brown Eyed Girls' “Abracadabra” – ZIN CHOI grew up inside the industry before she had a name in it. By her own account, she was running around SM Entertainment's studios before most kids her age had any idea what a recording studio was. She was five years old when her voice was sampled on her father's track “11 (ELEVEN)”. By the time she was writing songs herself, she already knew exactly what the machine looked like from the inside. The relationship has extended beyond the studio, too: earlier this year, the pair launched a video podcast series together, Music In My Business, as part of HYBE's STAN:A platform.

What she's built on the outside of it is something else entirely. Her music sits in the space between Korean R&B and the genre-blurring instincts she absorbed from years in the studio – upbeat, hooky, deceptively light. The darkness is in the detail. Lyrics about anxiety, insecurity and the particular pressure of being young in 2026 sit underneath production that could pass for a summer playlist. She calls them unfiltered metaphors. Every song, she says, has a hidden meaning.

Her recent release, "coco" – a collaboration with easea – flips the script. Where much of her earlier work turns inward, "coco" is a confident, outward-facing declaration. "She's reflecting off my mirror," she sings, and it turns out she's singing about herself. A love song to her own identity, written in what she calls her own font.

Growing up, the studio was just a normal part of life for you. When did you first realise that wasn't normal for most kids?

ZIN CHOI [laughs] I still to this day never realized that. I have a lot of memories where I would be running around SM Entertainment’s studios and watch everything do their thing. It was a big part of my life, and still is! I am honored to have experienced that, and be a part of the family.

Did you ever feel like becoming a musician was a free choice, or did it feel like this was always going to be what you did?

It was always in the back of my mind. I did have a free choice to what I wanted to do with my life, but I showed signs since I was really young that I can write songs – so this is how it ended up!

Your parents built their careers through a lot of reinvention – it wasn't always a straight line to success. Does knowing that make you feel more relaxed about your own path, or does the weight of what they achieved feel like something you have to match?

I respect their work and experience, and I am very glad to have them. Their success has never been compared to what I want to do. I love them, and I'm always grateful that I have these amazing people by my side at work – and when it’s time to go home, I’m with my best friends.

You spent your childhood watching other artists perform your parents' songs. What is it like to now be the one in front of the microphone?

At my first real stage I was shaking backstage. I was crying because my friends sent me a heartfelt paragraph and I was shaking so hard that I questioned myself if this is something that I want to do? And then – I went on stage, and I forgot I was on it. I loved it, and I still love it!

Your dad has worked on your music with you. What is that like – does he treat you like an artist in the room, or does the father-daughter dynamic ever get in the way?

I think it’s both. My dad and I have a great friendship. We are best friends and we’ve never fought. Sometimes we joke about fighting [laughs] He really encourages my creative vision and respects my opinions, and I do the same. We make a great team.

Most people don't get to make music with a parent. When you're working with your dad in the studio, how do you separate the creative relationship from the personal one – or can you?

I completely change when it comes to business. I am 180 different. Work is work, and I separate my personal relationship and situation. I have this mindset because since I was younger, I would follow my parents into important meetings. So Zin and ZIN CHOI are different.

You wrote a song for a K-pop boyband and then kept it for yourself. What makes you decide when a song should stay with you vs. assigning it to another artist?

It really depends on how much attachment I have to the track. When I start playing with the track and it starts as an idea of me giving it to someone else, like 90% of the time I send it to them. But if the approach is just writing a new song, sometimes I end up keeping it for myself.

A lot of your lyrics deal with feelings that are very specific to being young. Do you feel a responsibility to the other teenagers who might hear those songs and recognise themselves in them?

Listen at your own risk. If you can relate to my lyrics, you’re super cool – and at the same time, I am very sorry. I write unfiltered metaphors about my emotions in my songs. Every song has a hidden meaning!

When you write, does music feel like an escape from the pressures of being a young woman in 2026 – or a way of confronting them?

I believe that avoidance doesn’t change anything. By anything really. The best way that has worked for me is acknowledging the facts, and understanding that it is an emotion that I could express through my art. I see everything as an opportunity to make a statement of my own. A statement that doesn’t deflect anything, but admires everything. In my own font.

Your newest song “coco” is about watching someone who seems completely confident and effortless. Is that a person you know, or a version of yourself you're writing towards?

YAYY!! I was waiting until someone noticed! It is a love song to myself! “She’s reflecting off my mirror”. I think the most important element about my identity is how much I love myself. I'm the love of my life and that’s my best friend. We all love coco!

Overall, what has surprised you most about what it actually feels like to release music and have people respond to it?

It’s interesting because everyone takes it in different ways. For instance, some may think “silly faces” is a fun song or some might say that it’s the saddest song I have. So I'll always welcome hearing the experiences people have with my songs!

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This feature is taken from our fifth printed issue, available for purchase here.