THROWBACK: When Taemin opened up about his decade long journey, interest outside music and more

We are looking back at August 2020 when SHINee alum Taemin spoke to W Korea and opened up about his career, solo debut, upcoming music and much more! When talking about his journey so far, and realising that he had been in the industry for more than a decade, Taemin said, “At this point, there are things I’m seeing for the first time, but there are a lot of things that are the same. Earlier this year, I did my hair and dressed up the way I looked during my debut at 16 and took a photo. I posted it on Instagram and the fans really thought it was an old photo of me. But I still think I look older.”

If you didn’t know, Taemin made his debut way back in 2008 and has since launched a successful solo career and has even become part of SM Entertainment’s project group SuperM. He said, “When I look back on my life, it seems fascinating even to me. I was 13 when I entered SM Entertainment and I turned 28 this year. I’ve been a singer for almost half my life. I’ve been running on this road for a long time. I think that I had a lot of greed when I was younger. Because I was ambitious, I was able to debut with SHINee and get the chance to debut solo. Lee Soo Man came up to me one day and asked me to cover any pop song and send it to him. I wondered what that was about, but it turned out that it was for me to release a solo album. I think it was a test, now that I think about it. I feel a sense of accomplishment. Of course, there was a lot of luck involved.”

While talking about his interests outside music, Taemin shared his love for the show Black Mirror. “I’m the type to like unusual things. I used to try and avoid movies that were popular. I felt that those movies were repeating elements that had already been popular with consumers before. But I slowly came to like things that I could watch with a light heart. These days, I put on a movie and do something else while watching it. In the past, I would watch old independent movies or thrillers according to my taste and I would get really tired after watching one film. Because I focused so much while watching them, I used up a lot of energy.”

ALSO READ: A Star Is Born: Profiling SHINee's Lee Taemin's illustrious decade long career in showbiz