Korean boy band iKON member Bobby has released his first solo album and it topped 22 countries on iTunes.
The 21-year-old singer's "Love and Fall" album became available on September 14 containing 10 songs including the title tracks "I Love You" and "Runaway". Bobby participated in writing lyrics and music of all the songs.
Following its release, the album topped iTunes album charts in 22 countries including Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Greece and Mexico. It also peaked at No. 6 on US iTunes albums chart.
In an interview with Yonhap News, Bobby said he "tried to write songs that would be good enough to listen to before falling asleep. It wasn't easy because it was different from the music that I used to make."
He revealed that he wrote "Runaway" in 2015 for his own pleasure.
"I didn't write the songs necessarily with the goal of putting out an album. I just wrote songs for pleasure since then like a hobby," he said, adding that "I Love You" was inspired by the Hollywood flick "La La Land."
In making the album, he said his biggest problem was the pronunciation.
"Pronunciation was the biggest problem. It was difficult to rectify it and I took a lot of time doing so," said Bobby. "I'd ask people 'is it audible?' If they didn't understand, I'd run to the recording studio to revise the audio. Pronunciation is a sensitive subject for me and I worked hard to improve upon it."
iKON's last album "New Kids: Begin" did poorly when it was released in May and Bobby said the group is working hard to make up for it.
"It's true that iKON's latest album was received poorly. We accept it and are working hard to present a good image as soon as possible," he said.
Recently fans initiated a boycott of iKON products accusing YG Entertainment of not taking good care of the boy band.
"The boycott itself is a sign of fans' thirst (for iKON). Ultimately it's due to our insufficiency as a team so we're working harder, accepting (the boycott) as a scolding," he said.
