Korean-American singer Eric Nam had an interview with Sports Daily, a local newspaper, on Monday, and reflected on his parents reaction to his decision to pursue a career as a singer in Korea. He also talked about what it was like to feature in ”We Got Married,“ a variety program on MBC in which a male and female celebrity are paired up for a date. Here are some excerpts:

(Eric's Instagram)

Q. Where do you get inspiration for your music?

A: I watch a lot of movies. If there are lines from the movie that I really like, I jot them down and refer to them when composing songs. I also refer to a lot of songs or my own experiences.

Q: Since when did you want to be a singer?

A: I have wanted to be a singer since I was in elementary school. You know, most of my other classmates in school said they wanted to be the president, a scientist, or an athlete when they grew up. But I wanted to be a singer because singing on stage seemed fun. But my parents told me to focus on studying and that I should delve into classic and opera music if I wanted to do music. I studied popular music on my own in my spare time.

Q: You are living in Korea alone and your parents are residing in the States. Does that not make you lonely?

No. I struggled more with coping with the Korean culture than with loneliness when I first came to Korea, since I had spent much of my life in the States. But I couldn‘t tell my parents that I was struggling or stressed, since moving to Korea was a decision that I made despite my mother’s opposition. My mother initially did not want me to pursue a career as a singer.

Q: What does your mother say now about you being a singer?

A: My mother came to Korea this January for the first time in three years. That was around the time when I was becoming more publicly known. My mom said to me, ‘Wow, you really are a celebrity.’ She also came to my photo shoot and she said it was cool, since that was her first time visiting a photo shoot or something similar to it. She also came to the KCON concert in New York in June.

Q: Is your actual personality the same or different from the person you show on TV shows?

A: I avoid watching myself on TV. I don‘t want to be too conscious of how I am portrayed in TV. I am afraid that if I become too conscious, I will start being fake and putting on a show of someone who is not really me.

Q: You are featuring in a reality show “We Got Married” with Solar (a member of K-pop girl group Mamamoo). What was that like?

A: It felt really awkward at first. It made me cringe whenever I called her, “honey.” Things got more comfortable after we filmed the third episode. The staff wanted us to publicly display affection from early episodes, but that is neither what Solar nor I am like. Solar seems like a very nice person, and I want to be friends with her and continue to keep in touch with her even after the program is over.

By Lee Ji-hae (jihlee@heraldcorp.com)