From TAEMIN to BTS: Meet Adien “ADN” Lewis

Adien Lewis, better known as ADN, is no stranger to the K-Pop world. After writing and producing the award-winning K-Pop song “Move” by TAEMIN, Adien has been a part of the creation of several K-Pop songs including “Boom” by NCT Dream and most recently “Inner Child” by BTS. He’s taken the time to chat with the team to give us a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes, his musical inspirations, and who he would love to work with next! 

Check out his interview below!

For our readers who are getting the chance to know you for the first time, can you please give a little introduction about yourself?

Hi! I am ADN Lewis. I am a singer, songwriter, and producer from the DC/Maryland/Virginia area, and I live in L.A. now.  

How did you get started as a producer? 

I moved to San Francisco for school where I was studying visual effects and animation. While in school for that I [was] going back and forth between L.A. and San Francisco. At the time I had started doing YouTube covers like [in] late high school because I needed an outlet. I didn’t really know anybody in music to do beats, so I started making beats myself. The covers on YouTube started to get a bit of attention, so I then began traveling between L.A. and San Francisco to write for certain YouTube artists. At some point, I just became a producer because people began to want to pay for my beats. 

How did you discover the world of K-Pop? 

I had always been into K-Pop, but really K-Pop and J-Pop. In the early YouTube days, I watched a lot of fan-made music videos (FMVs). GACKT was a big influence as well; I was enthralled by everything that GACKT did. BoA was another one—she was my first big entry into K-Pop. From there I discovered SHINee and a lot of the earlier K-Pop groups.

It’s really interesting to hear that story because it is super common for many K-Pop fans to have started with Japanese music, Anime, and Dramas and somehow found their way to all things Korean. 

It really is interesting because I think the anime influence might be a big one. I don’t know what it’s like for other countries, but for the U.S. specifically, growing up I watched a lot of Toonami, so anime was just kind of the thing. And when you’re young, anime theme songs just get stuck in your head. I think that’s where my entry was, and the same for a lot of other people. 

You've worked on projects for several Korean artists so far. How has the experience with different groups? How was it different writing for a solo artist versus a group? 

I wouldn’t say it’s too different, actually. Songwriters and producers get things called “briefs” telling us what artists are looking for songs and what style song they’re looking for, so if we get a brief specifically for a group we might try and tailor the song by having more vocals or harmonies.

I think for a solo artist... I think you might be able to be a little bit more experimental. With groups you have to include everybody, everyone has to have their own part. With solo artists you can be a little bit more flexible. [But] at the end of the day the goal is the same. 

That’s a fascinating answer, especially the point you made about everyone in a group having their own part. A big complaint that many K-Pop fans have is about the unfair distribution of parts. Fans know that it’s not producers that determine line distribution. It’s what happens in the studio that does. 

It depends a lot on how the song came about as well, because labels work in different ways. Sometimes producers and the songwriters will be in the studio with the artist, sometimes the artist is a songwriter, or sometimes the song will be done before the artist even starts to sing it. I think nowadays when producers and songwriters are doing more pitches that are related to K-Pop, they’re thinking more about what parts are needed. They’re starting to think more actively about that, whereas if it’s a song that is already finished and being submitted to the label without that thought in mind and it ends up being for a group, it might not have enough parts for every artist in the group to do something. Ultimately in the studio you would want them [the label] to help every artist have a part in the song. 

One of the songs you are most recognized for working on is “Move” by TAEMIN. What was your reaction to seeing the song blow up?

It was pretty surreal. It’s hard to describe in words. We started the song in my bedroom and it was just this tiny thing, and I didn’t even believe it was going to TAEMIN at first. From the get-go I was like “it’s not going to happen,” and then finally when I started seeing stuff happening, it was mind-blowing and surreal. I started to enjoy it the same way a fan would. To see it kinda escalate into this big, viral thing where everyone is doing covers of the dance and seeing it appear on TV... It's kinda mind-blowing seeing different idols that I also am a fan of doing the dance. TWICE did a cover of it… Stuff like that. It’s just crazy… It’s hard to describe the feeling. 

How do you feel now that it is considered a “legendary” K-Pop song? 

Again, it's hard to describe the feeling. It’s beyond me. When I go back to think about the song we originally did in my bedroom, it's hard to even think about how it got to that point. There were so many different steps, and so many different people that were involved in making it what it was. From TAEMIN to the people at SM Entertainment to all of us in the writing room, to the engineers mixing it and then to the idols and fans and people streaming it and dancing to it. There were so many people involved [in making it] get to that point. It's just something that is beyond me. 

You mentioned that when you submitted it to SM you had no idea that it was going to TAEMIN. By the time it got to him, did it still sound like the original track you submitted or had it undergone a lot of changes? 

To this day it’s still pretty similar to the original one. A lot of the changes came from TAEMIN’s actual performance of the song. And if you listen to the demo now it's still pretty similar to my original demo, though TAEMIN brings a different energy to every song that he’s on, and especially to “Move.” He brought this sort of finesse to it that you just can't replicate. For the most part, SM kept the song largely the same. They sent back some changes that they asked for that were simple, but overall it's still the same. 

Most recently you had the opportunity to work alongside BTS members RM and V, as well as a stellar team of other writers and producers on the MOTS 7 track “Inner Child.” It is the first time seeing you working with a non-SM entertainment artist. How was the experience similar? How was it different?

I did “Inner Child” with ARCADES, Ellis Miah, and KOOLKID. We all started the song with an initial session in L.A. At that session we fleshed out the backbone of the song, the idea, what it would be sonically. It was a very very rough demo. Then we all split up and went back to our homes. From there, it was a very global experience, sending emails back and forth between us and the label. RM, V, and PDOGG were all heavily involved in the creation of the song. I think it's different from how you would work generally with other labels. With BTS, it was an interesting experience because with a lot of K-Pop artists you don’t really get to always be in the studio with them. For TAEMIN, unfortunately, we didn’t get to be in the studio to co-write with him for “Move.” I didn’t get to be in the studio with RM and V either, but I think the process for “Inner Child” felt just as collaborative because of how much back-and-forth there was between everyone while we were creating it. The writing process can change a lot from song to song, so I love how BTS are so sure of what they want to say and how they want to say it.

Oh? Some K-Pop fans tend to think that everyone gets in the same room at the same time and fleshes out the song in one sitting. The fact that it can be more of a longer, drawn-out experience is really interesting. 

I mean, it really can depend. There are some sessions like that. I personally haven’t done any in-person sessions with a K-Pop artist like that, but I have friends who have. It depends on the artist, the label, what they are going for at that time. It also depends on the point of the project you get brought in on. I think if you get on really early you can get in with the artist [and] get a little bit of a better idea of what the artist themselves is looking for.  

But the other side of it is that they [the labels] have to take submissions from everywhere. They have to work to figure out how to get the best quality song. 

BTS being the group that everyone wants to work with, it must have been awesome to be able to work on that track. 

It was shocking to get the word that they [BTS] were doing it as well. That was another one that I didn’t completely believe was happening. I got word through a third party, it wasn’t through my management or anybody involved in it, which was the weirdest part so I was kind of skeptical at first. So I was reaching out to everyone like “Is this happening?” “What’s going on?” And then I finally got [official] word about it. I think as a songwriter, or really just as a person in the music industry, at a certain point you get jaded. I try not to get too excited about stuff until it actually happens, because things fall through all the time. With BTS, up until the release of the MOTS 7 tracklist, I didn’t even know if I was going to be on the album. BigHit is very secretive in the way they work and they really don’t like a lot of stuff getting out. 

Part of the hype around BTS is their ability to get you excited. With MOTS 7 they released an entire road map meant to build hype up until the day of the album release. It’s one of the reasons I really like BTS.  

Release timelines haven’t always been the case. That has become a trend in K-Pop in recent years; the creation of a timeline of release for things like concept photos, highlight medleys, and music video teasers have become almost expected. 

And of course, BTS isn’t the only group doing release maps. The unique thing is the way ARMY reacts to it. The energy and push they put behind BTS is something that there really is no words for. 

Are there any Korean artists you'd like to work with next? What sort of style would you like to work on?

There's a ton! I want to work with NCT 127 since I have worked with NCT Dream already. I want to go through all the NCT sub-units. TXT because I want to work with all the BigHit artists. EXO—they have been on my bucket list for a while. NU’EST is a group that has shocked me because their music is just so good, yet they fly under the radar. They’re one of my top ones. DEAN is probably another one I need to work with at some point. I don’t know how it would happen because he does his own music, but it needs to happen. He’s so amazing. His voice, his concepts— it’s just so sleek. 

Does your creative process differ when producing your own tracks versus writing for someone else? 

Absolutely. The goal is always just to make a good song. For me personally, you can always change production, but a good song will always stay a good song. For K-Pop, I try to stick as close to the brief as possible while being as creative as I can. It’s a very hard line to walk. With my own stuff, I tend to just go and it's a free-for-all because I’m not particularly well known for my own stuff yet. I’m well known for doing stuff for other people. I don’t have a fanbase that expects a certain sound from me. I can kind of just do what I want at the moment. It’s very freeing to me, but sometimes it makes it harder because without constraints it can be hard to find a direction. I enjoy doing both; I think I need both to have balance in my career. It’s a nice challenge to have to make something off a brief and try to make it interesting. 

Who are your main musical influences?

I have the usual ones people say like Michael Jackson, Usher, and Pharell. Early on I was a big fan of OneRepublic, so Ryan Tedder is important to me as a songwriter and a producer. Imogen Heap: a lot of people are not familiar with her, but you should definitely check her out.  She is probably one of my biggest early influences and one of my favorite artists in general. Her stuff is just so weird, different, and interesting. I think her voice ...subconsciously influenced my own vocal tone. 

Who are you listening to these days? 

I am currently listening to NCT 127’s NEO ZONE album. I have also been obsessed with 5 Seconds of Summer's album called Calm. I like that it's very pop, but it's very stadium pop. It feels mature. The Weeknd: he’s also one of my big influences. Childish Gambino: his music is great, and Dua Lipa who released another great album. Porter Robinson: I don’t know if you're familiar with him. He's a great electronic music artist. He’s a classically trained electronic musician. I think that his music is very eclectic. 

Lastly, what words of advice would you give to anyone aspiring to get involved in writing music?

Keep at it! It is not easy in any way, shape, or form. Especially if you don’t have connections. What I would say for people that don’t have connections is to focus on networking and being friends with people. Don’t just focus on what they can do for you. Be friends with people that you have shared interests with. You have similar music styles, similar musical interests, you have similar sounds. Those will be the people you will grow with, and those will be your peers in the industry as you blow up. It will happen at some point, you just gotta keep at it. You need to keep building strong and meaningful connections. Don’t build fake ones—that is what's going to do you more harm in the end. 

Check out ADN’s music here and follow him on Instagram and Twitter @ADNLewis