Get To Know EDEN, The Talented Solo Artist And Producer Behind ATEEZ's Music

EDEN — real name Kim Yong Hwan — is most well-known these days in the K-Pop industry as part of Edenary, the production team for ATEEZ that also includes fellow producers Buddy, LEEZ, and Ollounder. His stage name references the biblical garden because he has always wanted “to make music in the most natural, basic way.”

There’s a reason he’s well-known among ATEEZ fans — he creates incredible music, and ATINYs enjoy seeing the relationship between the members and their producer.

There are many stories about ATEEZ’s members interacting with EDEN, perhaps most notably of which is when the producer had Hongjoong memorize 200 vocabulary words as a trainee to prove his dedication to music.

The leader of ATEEZ and EDEN seem to share a particularly close bond, with Hongjoong’s own music production heavily influenced by that of his mentor’s.

There are also many clips on Twitter that show the idols and their producer interacting!

But EDEN’s career began far before ATEEZ was even an idea, let alone a K-Pop group. He’s a relatively private guy, so we don’t know a lot about him, but some interviews have given us further insight into his character. He’s had a talent for playing the piano since a young age, influenced by musicians such as Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff that inspired him to pursue a career in music.

After deciding that he wanted to be a composer, he made the decision to move to Seoul from his hometown Yeonsu. He’d already mastered the only composing taught there — classical — and needed to move to the big city to learn pop.

From there, he taught himself how to compose and produce music. He learned from books, the internet, and his own intuition, and in 2010, a file of his music that he’d sent to his friend ended up in the hands of Source Music. They ended up taking him on as half of the production team Eden Beatz alongside fellow musician J.Rise, and the earliest music they released was their 2012 album with the same name. The album had three songs — “Running”, “푹 숙이고”, and “Don’t Worry” — and the duo went on to produce a couple more albums.

He also began producing music for other artists at the young age of 22 in 2010, starting with SS501 member Kim Hyungjun‘s album My Girl. Unfortunately, however, soon after he started producing music for the label, Source Music began to lose resources to continue Eden Beatz, and to pass the time, EDEN joined the military and completed his service in 2013.

When he returned, however, EDEN ended up leaving Source Music after learning that they wanted to take his music down a different path than he had planned. They parted ways on friendly terms, but the next four years continued to be difficult for the producer, who went on to sell only one song during that time.

Thankfully, KQ Entertainment happened to reach out to him and, after an interview over a meal, the vice president of the company asked to work with him. He went on to live in a studio at the company for the next two years, and through this connection, EDEN met Hyunsik of BTOB and WOODZ, who would go on to be co-producers and good friends to him.

From that point on, EDEN’s career finally began to go up. He helped in the production of the song “Will Be Here” by BTOB, and in the following years he continued to produce music for the group, including “I’ll Be Your Man”, “Just Tell Me”, and “Missing You”. Due to the success of these songs, his reputation went up as well, and he also made music for other well-known K-Pop artists including GFRIEND, Wanna One, and BOYFRIEND.

Soon after, Hongjoong joined KQ Entertainment with the dream of becoming an idol who writes his own music, and EDEN became his at first reluctant mentor who would go on to be known as the “father of ATEEZ’s music”.

He made his own solo debut at the age of 29 with the single album Urban Hymns and lead single “I’m Still” on February 17, 2017. The song was well-received, and the beginning of a great solo career for the artist.

2018 was a huge year for EDEN. He released another album, Ryu: 川, on February 8, which had five songs including title track “Good Night” and the song “Dance”, which featured his friend WOODZ. And of course, it was the year that ATEEZ would make their debut on October 24 with the song “Pirate King” on their first album, TREASURE EP.1 : All To Zero. It was a big deal not only for the members, but also for EDEN himself, who played a huge role in the group’s creation.

Though there was some concern about EDEN being able to produce pop music at first, considering he was known more for his ballads, he went on to recruit the rest of the members of Edenary that helped to round out the talent behind ATEEZ’s songs. The four producers work beautifully together, claiming to have never had an argument, and EDEN has expressed his gratitude for their belief in him.

Outside of ATEEZ’s music, EDEN has continued to pursue his own solo career as well. He released another EP, Exhalant, in 2019 with the title track “Suffering for Love”, and later that year also came out with the digital single “Heaven” featuring Heize.

His most recent solo release was the song “Dancing in the Moonlight”, released in May 2021. And though these days, most of his energy and attention goes into creating ATEEZ’s songs, we hope that he continues to produce his own music as well, because he is an incredibly talented artist with a beautiful voice that deserves to be heard.

We can’t wait to see what else EDEN has in store for the K-Pop industry in the coming years!

Source: MTV

Get To Know EDEN, The Talented Solo Artist And Producer Behind ATEEZ’s Music

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