eaJ, the Indie Persona of DAY6’s Jae
A few years after their debut, many idols choose to pursue solo activities alongside their group promotions, with many either choosing to have a solo debut or delve into acting. Jae of DAY6 has always been an idol that has appeared a bit more accessible to the public, likely due to the fact that he is Korean American and was also an active YouTuber for some time. These days he is also seen playing Among Us with other big name streamers like Valkyrae and Sykkuno and even owns his own Twitch channel.
For a quick background on those less familiar with the idol, Park Jaehyung made his first commercial appearance on the competition show K-Pop Star. He was eliminated at sixth place, but was recruited by JYP Entertainment to join as a trainee for an upcoming band, which would later be revealed to be DAY6. Before taking the leap to Korean entertainment, Jae studied at California State University and had a YouTube channel where he uploaded song covers as a hobby. After debut, he participated in a number of different outlets including MCing for the show After School Club and starting a new YouTube channel known as JAESIX in 2017.
But after a two year hiatus on his channel, some new content popped up in January 2020. “LA TRAINS” was dropped on January 16 and showcased an entirely new side to Jae’s music, presenting a melancholy, lofi-driven beat that only lasted for a minute and 20 seconds, a preview of what was in the works. JAESIX was gone, but eaJ was here to stay.
About two weeks later, he posted a second track on the channel, “Otherwise,” with a similar short length. The track had a bit more of an upbeat tone than its predecessor and mixed an acoustic sound with a more R&B beat. His next release came in February in the form of “Guess Not,” which had the same background animation used in “Otherwise,” this time colored rather than black and white. The song took a more synth-heavy approach and had an interesting contrast of chill R&B influences and intense high notes.
“Pinocchio” was dropped a few days later, this time with a video of Jae in the studio accompanying the upbeat track. The video showed an intimate process of song creation packaged in the less than two minute track that was becoming his signature at the time. A performance video of this track also dropped on the 88rising YouTube channel. Fans may be familiar with 88rising, who currently help promote such artists as GOT7’s Jackson Wang and Chungha.
Within the span of four months, Jae released seven tracks as eaJ, each one with a different indie flavor. However, his most popular track to date was released in July. “Pacman” has close to six million views, much higher than any of the other eaJ releases to date. The short track definitely packs a punch at the drop, with Jae flexing extreme vocal range with strong high notes that drive home the pain in the lyrics, especially considering the softer nature of the song before he belts out these notes halfway through. It’s a very emotionally moving track, especially upon first listen. Check it out for yourself and you will immediately understand what I mean.
In most recent news, he featured on a new track by DPR Live alongside Crush. The November 27 single is significant, showing that Jae is gaining recognition outside of the K-Pop space. If 2020 is the year of eaJ, we can only wait and see how much further Jae can fly in the future.
Follow Jae’s social media for more updates on the eaJ releases and his other solo activities!