With his new EP ICY BABY, out on August 14th on all streaming platforms, the South Korean musician sets aside romantic themes to tackle the frustrations and drive of contemporary youth. In this conversation with Koreami, Colde discusses his decision to remain independent, reconnecting with his earliest collaborators, and the push to keep moving forward.
To understand Colde’s place in contemporary South Korean music, one has to look back to the mid-2010s. At the time, international media attention was almost entirely dominated by major K-pop agencies and their corporate strategies. Just beneath the surface, however, an entirely autonomous R&B and hip-hop scene was taking shape across Hongdae’s venues and online streaming platforms. At the heart of that movement was the Club Eskimo collective—founded by DEAN and Millic, and featuring figures like Crush and Colde himself (born Kim Hee-soo)—which introduced a distinct musical direction: lush production, soul influences, a meticulously crafted visual identity, and a far more intimate approach to songwriting than the prevailing industry standard.
As offonoff, the duo Colde formed alongside producer 0channel, gained critical and commercial traction, Kim Hee-soo faced a crossroad typical for emerging korean artists: sign a long-term contract with a major label or pursue self-funding. In 2018, at age twenty-four, he chose the latter. Establishing the label and creative agency WAVY came at a time when independent management for a solo artist in that genre was both rare and risky, but it allowed him to maintain complete creative control—from musical direction and cover design to signing new roster talent.
With the release of the new EP ICY BABY, Colde marks a clear thematic shift in his solo career. The record follows the completion of the two-part project Love Part 1 and Love Part 2, which systematically unpacked romantic relationships, tracing their stages with a delicate, often melancholic tone. With ICY BABY, that chapter is closed. The focus turns entirely to modern youth—viewed not through nostalgia or idealization, but as a state of mind shaped by turbulence, pressure, and the constant need to adapt.
The album revolves around a core contrast: on one side, the cold, ruthless attitude required to survive in a competitive environment; on the other, a surge of burning emotional weight that lingers just beneath the surface. To translate this tension musically, Colde split the project’s release strategy, selecting three lead tracks with contrasting sonic profiles.
On one end is SHUT DA FUCKA AND GO, designed for the domestic Korean audience—distorted and raw, where tight trap metrics slide into drum & bass rhythms to convey a sense of relentless, fast-paced momentum. On the other end stands PULL UP, targeted at the international market, which leans into more ambient and nocturnal trap-soul atmospheres. Serving as a bridge between these two musical dimensions is LIFE IS A MOVIE, featuring producer and vocalist DIMO REX (formerly Bang Yedam of Treasure), which heightens the cinematic quality of the entire project.
”As I put the album’s tracks together, that range moving between coolness and passion felt like the duality of youth itself, unsteady and unsure, yet still pushing forward, and that’s what led me to set the album’s overall theme as “Youth,” Colde says. “Each title track represents a different facet of that youth. PULL UP captures an immature, youthful kind of love, one that put on a brave, cheerful face but was ultimately left behind in regret. Love, I think, is one of the biggest keywords running through all music. LIFE IS A MOVIE compares life’s romantic yet chaotic moments to a film, carrying the attitude of pushing forward anyway. And SHUT DA FUCKA AND GO is my own encouragement, coming from someone who’s walked through anxious, uncertain times, to other youth going through that same period right now. I wanted listeners to feel the different emotions and temperatures that come with each chapter of youth, and that’s why I carried that same idea into the promotional strategy as well, splitting it rather than presenting just one lead track. I think it could be fun to listen to these different moods side by side and compare them for yourself.”
Central to the structure of ICY BABY is a nod to the network of long-standing creative partnerships that have accompanied Colde’s career. On the track DRIPPY, he enlists punchnello, while on DOLLAR BILLS, he collaborates with longtime friend Khakii—both artists with whom he shares a history dating back to his early days in Seoul’s underground circuit. Choosing to rely on a tight-knit circle of trusted contacts rather than seeking superficial features reinforces WAVY’s core operating model: an infrastructure built to empower a close collective of creatives, far removed from mainstream industry formulas.
”I’m a singer-songwriter, but I’m also the head running the label WAVY,” Colde explains, reflecting on the balance between his creative and executive roles. “Because of that, there were moments where I had to keep making choices that fit the business direction rather than that original mindset. I never fully forgot that feeling, but I think there were times it grew a little weaker. Since this album is a story about youth, I tried to bring back the mindset I had when I first started making music with ICY BABY. Working on this album alongside people I’ve stayed close with over the years, from featured artists to the production team, felt like reigniting a passion I’d, at some point, forgotten I even had. Working with Punchnello again was something I hadn’t done since offonoff. We stay in easy touch as friends, but meeting him again through an actual piece of work like this meant a lot to me. That feeling was also beautifully captured on screen by IDIOTS, the music video production team I’ve had a long relationship with, and I think it’ll mean a lot to fans to be able to see that moment for themselves.”
ICY BABY immediately stands out for its lean execution: no filler, no concessions to easy pop, just a fresh, cohesive, and confident sonic direction. The decision to deploy three title tracks and two contrasting lead singles—SHUT DA FUCKA AND GO for South Korea and PULL UP for international markets—serves as a sharp sonic interpretation of contemporary youth, torn between unrefined anger and early regret.
Ultimately, ICY BABY captures a pivotal moment of personal and artistic transition. Stepping back into his skin as an artist alongside his duties as head of WAVY, Colde reunites with long-time collaborators while shifting his thematic focus. Here, youth is no longer treated merely as a aesthetic gesture; it is defined by anxiety, uncertainty, performative confidence masking regret, and a life that feels more like a chaotic film than a clean script. Built on these raw, unfiltered emotional states, ICY BABY emerges as one of the most compelling works in his catalog.
