BTS member V has revealed details about his upcoming solo mixtape, which might be released later this year.

In celebration of BTS’ Rolling Stone cover feature, the publication released individual digital covers featuring in-depth interviews with each member of the boyband. During V’s interview, the vocalist opened up about working on his forthcoming solo mixtape, his musical influences and more.

The South Korean singer – real name Kim Taehyung – spoke about the difficulty of crafting music on his own, from the songwriting to the production. “I have to take part in writing the lyrics and the melodies for all the songs and the production process. So, it is a bit of a pressure to bear all of the load that is distributed among the other members for a group album,” he said.

“So it is tough. But what is good about it is it gives me an opportunity to show who I am, and show the music that really has the color of Kim Taehyung,” he added. “That’s what makes creating this mixtape so much fun and fulfilling.”

The BTS member originally stated last June that he was working on a mixtape with the goal of releasing it in 2020, but the project has yet to materialise. During his interview, the singer touched on the delay, saying that the release plans “turned out to be [much] harder and more complex than I imagined that it would be”.

“So then I thought I would release it early this year. But again, it turned out to be a bit more tough than I thought it would be! So now I’m looking at the end of this year,” Kim added. Earlier this year, the singer had released a short snippet of an unreleased solo song on Twitter.

Elsewhere during the interview, V spoke about his “musical heroes”, singling out the late Elvis Presley in particular. “This is sort of my personal preference, but I think I like the older Elvis Presley, the Elvis Presley of his later years,” he said. “There are many famous Elvis songs, but I feel like there’s a lot of songs that are more hidden, and not as prominent in the song discography.”

In other individual interviews with Rolling Stone, BTS’ Jungkook talked about his admiration for Ariana Grande and how watching her life “really stayed” with him. Meanwhile, RM shared more about how he found his musical identity.