Woosung, the frontman of South Korean pop-rock band The Rose, has returned with a music video for his brand-new solo single ‘Dimples’, and the Korean-American singer recently sat down with NME to tell us about the song as well as his upcoming album.

For Woosung, both ‘Dimples’ and the album have been a very long time coming. The synthwave song has been three years in the making – and for those counting at home, that’s one more than his previous single ‘Lazy’. In fact, his latest release took so long see the light of day that ’80s-inspired music has since seen a major resurgence and is currently mainstream phenomenon, thanks smash hits like The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ and Dua Lipa’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ album.

“To be honest, like we had this sound [and] the track finished like three years ago now,” Woosung says over Zoom. “Back then when we wrote it, it was just fresh. It was new. It’s almost like, you know, I was back in the ’80s or something.”

However, the vibe of ‘Dimples’ might be a one-and-done for the singer, who said that the sound was something that “just happened” while working on new music. He also pointed out that ‘Dimples’ and previous single ‘Lazy’ “don’t relate” to each other, calling it the “biggest hint” about his upcoming album.

“We were just messing [around] with some sounds, and for some reason the synth sound just sounded good to our ears that day,” he says, echoing sentiments he made about how he creates music in a previous interview with NME. “We weren’t in there to make a retro song or anything like that.”

But what he has been in the studio for and intently working on is a collaboration with fellow Korean-American K-pop idol Big Matthew, aka BM of co-ed group KARD. Back in July, the duo had taken to Instagram Story with posts of them seemingly laying down vocals for a new track, which BM described at the time as a “damn anthem”.

Woosung himself had also hinted to something of that sort when he spoke to NME that same month, although few details were revealed at the time. However, the singer had a little more to say about the track this time around: “Since we’re both from California, it’s a song tied to California.”

“It’s such a chill song. I think a lot of people are gonna really like it and it might be their favourite out of the album,” Woosung added cheekily. “I think Matthew put the best verse on it. You know, I couldn’t [have asked] for anything better.”

Aside from the much-anticipated album though, Woosung has bigger plans in mind, such as growing his company, reuniting with his The Rose bandmates and hopefully going on tour again. “I want to put out my album ASAP so I could go around the world and see my fans – or even like an online thing – but nothing’s confirmed for now. But I’m definitely working on trying to make that happen.”

“We definitely want to go on tour again. We really miss it. So that’s one of the things we are really looking forward. And just kind of creating new music again [with] The Rose, [showing] our sound and our tone, you know, getting into practice,” he adds. “That’s the big picture.”

Woosung’s ‘Dimples’ is out now.