Fame is a fickle friend. That&rsquo;s why the common trend is to be deceived by its empty promises. While the road to possess it is filled with dead ends and downward spirals, Korean-American singer and host Eric Nam gets through the smoke and mirrors by using his music and digital platforms to tackle today&rsquo;s existential dilemmas. Along the way, he realizes what it truly means to build good fortune and sustainable success.

&ldquo;Everything I touch turns to sold,&rdquo; is one of Eric Nam&rsquo;s witticisms for his new full-length release, House on a Hill. The ad shows the singer dressed in a suit personifying a corporate executive from the make-believe House on a Hill Realty. In many ways, it reflects his alternate reality.&nbsp;
Born in Atlanta, Georgia to Korean immigrant parents&mdash;Eric Nam was exposed to the American dream early. He almost followed the same managerial track his parents took, but fate had other plans for him. 
Before entering the world of entertainment, he was hired as a business analyst at Deloitte Consulting in New York after graduating from Boston, but shortly before pursuing the opportunity, he got a call from the program Star Audition, a talent show in the same mold as The Voice and American Idol, inviting him to South Korea to train as a K-pop star. Risking everything, he said yes.&nbsp;
Fast forward to 2023, he&rsquo;s done television series, music albums, and concert tours. He even snatched GQ Korea&rsquo;s Man of the Year title alongside being listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 honor roll.&nbsp;

Coming from a household that didn&rsquo;t consider it possible to live like a household name, Nam proves that anyone has the agency to zoom out and reframe the American Dream. But these days, he would rather turn the camera toward himself and explore the world within him.&nbsp;
This inward pivot has resulted in Dive Studios, which hosts the mental health platform Mindset and various programs like Nam&rsquo;s podcast hit, Daebak Show. Consequently, it trickled into his music by way of House on a Hill, Nam&rsquo;s metaphor on existence and success and their glamorous pitfalls.&nbsp;
Fresh from experiencing the infamous Manila traffic, he takes a break at Solaire Resort with L&rsquo;Officiel Philippines. While enjoying the sunset from Manila Bay cascading through his window while feasting on his favorite dishes at Red Lantern, Nam examines his reality and discusses the tradeoffs of fame with humor.

I was listening to House on a Hill and noticed that underneath the friendly tune, it has very existential lyrics. Are you an existential&nbsp; guy?
I have moments and seasons when I am, but I think everybody does, right? It's good; it&rsquo;s natural to have that. It just hit me right in the middle of this album process because I wrote it last year, and I was so busy. I was on tour for nine months out of 12 last year, and I was like, &ldquo;Wow, this is great. I'm touring. I'm doing everything that I want to do. I should be happy. Am I happy?&rdquo; Then I started going on a spiral of, &ldquo;What makes people happy? What makes us really alive?&rdquo; I'm so busy, but is this what I really want? All these existential questions started to happen. When we jumped into the studio, people were like, &ldquo;Let's write a love song or a breakup song.&rdquo; No, no, let's write about a house on a hill. That's when we kind of went into this existential spiral of songwriting.
 
Can you expound on the imagery of House on a Hill? 
When I think of a House on a Hill, it's very much like when I was in LA, searching for houses. It just happened that this house I really wanted to buy was the perfect house for me. It had a lot of windows, natural lighting, lots of trees, a modern but rustic interior design with a backyard and everything. I was like, &ldquo;This is my dream." And it happened to be on a hill. Then I was like, "Hey, I walked into this oasis. I found this house on the hill that I really love.&rdquo;
When we started to expand on it as the visual of a house on a hill on its own, almost like a castle where a king, queen, or some billionaire would live, that's very inaccessible. That imagery from the outside usually means success or status. But inside that house, are the people living in it really happy? I just imagine they have everything, but maybe they have nothing at all. The album cover says that. You have all this food and wine and all these beautiful things but what if nothing ever fills me up or something? So to me, it's about the dichotomy of having luxurious things but also feeling incredibly empty. When we were building the music video and the short film for this album, we really leaned into it. It's a lot of these visuals of very expensive things like caviar and lobster, an extravagant party, and all these things, but still feeling very alone. We really leaned into it, and the film wraps up with the song, I Wish I Wasn't Me, which again, is an existential song itself. I don't think it was ever intended to be like, we're going to write an existential album. But as we were writing, it just kind of happened that way.
Do you have everything you want?
I don't think anybody has everything they want, you know? Here's the thing, even if I were to say yes, it's weird because I think as humans, our human nature is to always want more things. Even&nbsp; if I buy this beautiful shirt that I've wanted for so long and wear it a few times, I'm gonna see your shirt and say, &ldquo;She has a better shirt than mine.&rdquo; That applies to so many things, whether it's a job, a house, a car, friends, or money. There's always somebody bigger, better, cooler than you.
So when you ask, &ldquo;Do I have everything I want?&rdquo; I think, maybe not in the most material sense possible. But as I was writing the song in this album, I thought, let's change this mindset to thinking, &ldquo;How grateful are we to actually have everything that we need, and to be able to pursue the music that I want, and to live the life that I live&mdash;putting music out, touring the world, creating shows?&rdquo;

Your parents are your heroes. What important lessons did they teach you? 
My parents always said, &ldquo;You need to learn how to be a leader. You should always lead people.&rdquo; Whatever that might mean, whatever work you end up doing, you should be a leader and somebody who can take people through the right path or leave a good impact. That was always their lesson to me, and they showed that by example in their life&mdash;how they were active and how they went to work and that kind of stuff. Be somebody who really cares for others, which I think everybody should be, but apparently, sometimes it's not easy. I remember my mom always saying, "If your dad&mdash;because my dad was the one who started working first, my mom was kind of stay-at-home taking care of us and doing some side jobs&mdash;if your dad was able to go to work, get a job, become a manager, and he doesn't speak English, imagine what you and your brothers can do when you were born and raised here. You don't have the handicap of not speaking the language. You have arguably better resources, better education, everything."&nbsp;
So, that was always engraved. That left a very deep impression on me from a young age. That encouragement always drove me to be hyperactive at school, in organizations, and in extracurriculars to make sure I, at least, give myself the best chance of being successful in whatever I do.&nbsp;
 
When you went back to Korea, did you experience reverse culture shock?
Oh, yeah. I could barely speak the language. I felt like I was always in trouble for really dumb, menial things. If you don't know the culture, you will make mistakes. But then I look like everybody else, so they assume that I should know. That was really hard. I had a lot of stress, like, I got to learn the language, I got to learn the rules, I got to learn how to fit in. I remember having a lot of dreams of me not being able to talk or being in trouble. That went on for years, and it just really took a lot of effort to get to a place where I felt a little more comfortable.
That&rsquo;s a big reason why I became a lot more introverted because in Korea, everybody does the MBTI test. It's so popular. Before I went to Korea, I was definitely extroverted, like 100,000%. When I got to Korea, I became introverted. 
So what's your MBTI?
I&rsquo;m an INFP or INTP. 
Those are the poets. As an INFP or INTP, how did you navigate the Aegyo culture?
It was really hard. The Aegyo culture will always try to make you do things that are cute.&nbsp;
Do you find yourself cute?
I don't think so, and I would always be like, "Do this, do that." At first, I was like, "This is so hard to do." But then, when you're on camera or when somebody's filming it, there's some part of you that clicks in, maybe it's the performer in you, and I just black out. I do it.

Are you more of a big-city person or a suburban guy?
 
I go back and forth on this a lot. I love the benefits and the convenience of a city, but I also find myself needing to go somewhere with trees and water. I went to the Hamptons in New York. I literally just sat and read in a cottage with two of my best friends.

Any suggested reads?
I was very proud of myself because I finished a book. Oh, it's been a while. I read this book called, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which is a great book; I would highly suggest it. It's about gamers.&nbsp;

Are you always thinking about tomorrow?
 
Maybe I am always thinking about tomorrow. I've made it a practice of not thinking about tomorrow as much anymore because I'm trying to just appreciate and live in every moment as much as I can. I also think that throughout the past 9, 10, or 11 years of being in this industry, I was always thinking about tomorrow, and always trying to prepare for what's next and make sure I have all my homework done. Now, I slowly feel like I have enough experience under my belt. I trust myself and my instincts enough to walk into many situations and feel like I can do a good job. If I'm overthinking it, I don't get to show or deliver the truest form of myself.

I was reading an interview where you mentioned you were born in the Year of the Dragon. Do you believe in that sort of magical thinking?
I remember there were years when I had accidents, which in Korea they call, Aekttaem (액땜). It&rsquo;s like when something bad happens to you, that kind of breaks the seal so nothing else bad will happen. That's what people say whenever something bad happens. They say, Aekttaem: &ldquo;it's&nbsp; out of the way, so everything is going to be good.&rdquo;

Whatever work you end up doing, you should be a leader and somebody who can take people through the right path or leave a good impact...Be somebody who really cares for others, which I think everybody should be...

I like the idea that you have businesses like Dive and Mindset that combine business and advocating mental health. How did that come about?
We started Dive from the podcast Daebak Show, and once we started to have our show, we quickly started a bunch of other shows. We realized our audience and people around the world really enjoyed honest conversations. For the first time, people could see and hear their favorite artists talk about their struggles in a real way. We tried to figure out what's the safest way to go about this. Being a celebrity or an idol can be a very scary process so we developed a new platform called Mindset. We found that people really enjoyed it; they really wanted it. So we started to build more of that.
 
When everything sucks, what's your idea of a good time?
I love to pretty much wake up at whatever time I want, have a nice big cup of coffee, eat whatever I want, and do whatever I want on that day. That, to me, is like the best time. It could be watching Netflix by myself all day, it could be going out to grab drinks with friends, watching a concert or a festival, or just driving to the beach, but it's about the freedom to just do whatever I want. 

I hope you have more of those moments.
Thank you.

Photography Renzo Navarro Styling and Creative Direction Yanna Lopez Hair and Makeup Jinah Lee Story Tin Dabbay Video&nbsp; Kevin Redder Styling Assistant Dainnie Lopez

Upward Spiral: Eric Nam

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