EXO member Kai has opened up about how the pandemic impacted his life as a musician.

In a new interview with Esquire Korea, the K-pop idol discussed his relationship with music and performing, revealing that he had had a “difficult time” in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the singer had been busy with several releases — including EXO’s ‘Don’t Fight The Feeling’ and his own solo mini-album ‘Peaches’, Kai shared that he had found himself feeling “bored”.

“Without that joy [of performing on stage], it has been really hard,” he said, as translated by Soompi. “Last year was probably the busiest year of my life. But even in that busy time, I felt bored. I wasn’t motivated, and I felt I was bored and not having fun.”

The EXO member went on to explain that this largely stemmed from being unable to perform in front of live audiences. However, Kai added that participating in online concerts was able to satisfy some of his “hunger” to perform on stage.

“I used to think the biggest happiness as a singer was just singing songs. But that’s not it. The biggest happiness for a singer is singing to someone. I’ve realised how important it is to have someone there,” reflected the idol.

“When I release a song, I can see how many people have listened to it. But there’s a completely different joy when I’m on stage,” he explained. “When I’m on stage singing and dancing and see the crowd singing along to my songs, there’s a real joy in that.”

Last November, Kai made his solo comeback with his mini-album ‘Peaches’, along with a dreamy music video for its lead single of the same name. At a press conference for the release, the idol had shared that recording the album had not been a “relaxed process”.

“It took some time because we needed constant evaluation in order to make good songs and a good album. The tough thing was the conflict between not having enough time despite all the things I wanted to do,” he shared.