Nam Taehyun Reveals The Relationship He Had With WINNER Members Before Leaving YG
Nam Taehyun originally debuted as a member of WINNER from YG Entertainment. He withdrew from the team in November 2016, where he then formed his own band, called South Club.
South Club released a song, titled “OUTCAST”, where rumors began that Nam Taehyun left WINNER because he did not get along with the rest of the members. However, Nam Taehyun explained that the song has nothing to do with WINNER.
“I wrote ‘OUTCAST’ while I was in YG, and I let the WINNER members listen to it too. That song has nothing to do with the members.
My mom likes the song so I decided to make it the title, but it’s just a song I made when I was in YG. It’s a song fit for a band and I thought it would be good to add it to the new album.”
— Nam Taehyun
In fact, he emphasized that the WINNER members and he didn’t have a bad relationship. All of the members had kind personalities, where they acted in calm, rational ways.
“Personally, WINNER had a good relationship. I was the only one with such a stubborn personality that I was nicknamed the ‘Fiery Maknae’. The members always discussed and promoted in a rational manner.
WINNER is a very kind hearted team. In my opinion, there may have been different opinions and conflicts about music but the relationship was good.”
— Nam Taehyun
So if not for the WINNER members, why did Nam Taehyun leave YG? He carefully explained that he didn’t leave because of one specific troublesome incident.
“I think it’s unmannerly to talk to every media and opportunity about the specific details as to why I left YG. What I can say is that I didn’t leave because of one specific incident.
I’m saying that I didn’t leave because I caused a big problem.”
— Nam Taehyun
Through various interviews, he’s always emphasized that he was facing a difficult time mentally and decided to leave after he realized that he wanted to pursue a different genre of music.
“I get lonely easily, but at the same time, my mood swings became too erratic. I was having difficulties myself but I also caused difficulties to the people who worked with me.”
— Nam Taehyun
“First of all, I wasn’t good at working as a group. I was also facing a difficult time mentally. There were a lot of internal happenings at the time. It can’t be helped when so many people are working together.
I had mental difficulties while promoting, there were differences in music taste, and I just had trouble adapting to the group life. I had 5 years left on my contract but I decided to leave because of a lot of reasons just combining together.”
— Nam Taehyun
Although many tried to talk him out of leaving YG Entertainment, Nam Taehyun ultimately withdrew from the group.
“It’s a loss for me to leave YG. Everyone tried to talk me out of it.
But my mental state wasn’t at its best, and I couldn’t handle where I was at the time – not because it was YG but just in general.”
— Nam Taehyun
But he doesn’t regret leaving WINNER at all.
“I never regretted my decision. My life’s motto is to never regret a decision you make. To regret something is only putting loss on yourself.”
— Nam Taehyun
He’s learned valuable lessons after leaving WINNER and looks forward to how he can grow and learn from his experiences to become a successful artist!
“After working with a big corporate agency and receiving its enormous amount of resources, I felt dissociated when I faced the reality of working and promoting alone.
But these lessons have made me stronger, so I’m happy with it.”
— Nam Taehyun
