Tiffany Young on K-Pop, New Music, & Possible Girls' Generation Reunion

Hey guys, it's Tracy at Young Hollywood and I am sitting with the gorgeous Tiffany Young. How are you?

Hi Tracy. Hi everyone at Young Hollywood. Thank you for having me.

Uh we were just being a little cheesy but I have to cuz it's Tiffany Young on Young Hollywood. Putting the young literally in Young Hollywood.

Young Hollywood, right?

Yes. We're going to take a marker at some point and just write her name on here. Or we need like a we need a pillow of just you. I'm going to like scribble on the pillow. It'll happen. It's going to happen. Uh but I'm so excited that you're here. I

Thank you.

You are literally you're you're the K-pop Queen. You are.

Thank you. Oh no. I I'm I'm so excited to be here. It's it's one thing to watch all the videos of of all the all the people you fan girl over and to be here. I'm I thank you for having me. I'm trying to contain my fan girls situation right now over to. Um but seriously, your story is so awesome because you've you've actually been doing this for over a decade. And if you if you don't know, Girls Generation, which is where Tiffany started. Um, just, you know, one of the biggest K-pop girl groups in the world. Um, you guys pretty much like paved the way, I feel like for the whole Korean wave, which is I mean, what what is your take on just the fact that K-pop in general is just like exploded and it's taking over the world.

I have been forever a K-pop fan. I've grew up here in California and came across a amazing female solo Diva named Boa and I was like, oh, you know what? That's exactly who I want to be like. And then I ended up moving to Korea at 15 and started my career in with my bandmates. Um and a long decade, but a very fulfilling one. And we were we started in that um year of when social media and um Wi-Fi and things were happening and YouTube was happening. And I'm just so glad that um I know there's everyone's like, oh, you know, there's pros and cons, but I I absolutely love that um it took K-pop to a further audience and all the things happening right now with K-pop artists. I think it's amazing and it's something to keep your eye out on, so go K-pop.

Yes. Go K-pop. Um, but it's crazy that you moved to Korea when you were 15. Like, firstly, did you, I mean, you're from here, you're from California. Were you fluent in Korean or did you ha you were. Okay.

You think you're good at you think you're good at something, that means you're bad at something. At 15, I thought I was fluent in Korean. I was like, I knew a couple words. I'm so Korean. Little did I know, I was the least Korean. I was I couldn't even read out signs that I already knew the logos to. I'm like, wait, that's in English, actually. But in Korean letters and I I I took a little while to study the language and the culture, and I'm I'm so glad I did. And you know, I came back after 13 years last year to California. And, um, you know, I'm realizing. It's a huge change. Yeah. And I'm also realizing life is all about learning all the time and growing. So I'm just happy to be able to learning new things and new words both in English and Korean, I guess.

Yes. So you're now doing your solo career, which firstly, congratulations cuz you're killing it.

Thank you.

Was it hard like going from being in that girl group to now being on your own, like or did you feel kind of more of a like a sense of freedom to sort of write from your own experiences or how was that whole?

It's I think it's really special and it's really happening for the first time. We were together for 10 years, plus 10 plus years, because even before Girls' Generation, we were friends for three years before the band started. So, um, I'm we've been blessed with a long, fulfilling It's a long time career where we had the the time to be together, but also break off into solo projects while we were um very, very active for those 10 years. And um when it came time for contract renewals, I know I don't want to get into business, but we were at this place where we had this sense of trust and love and support and we're just like, okay, what do you want to do? Not not for anybody else, but for you because I care for you. I said that to to one of the other girls and, well, all the girls and we all felt the same way for each other and right now we're at the time where we wanted to um, you know, pursue our solo careers. Mine was just a little bit further. But We're taking um each moment as it comes and there's this trust and support from each other and from the fans. So that trust is going to bring us back together.

You heard it here, you guys. There's a chance of reunion. And I and I got to do I got to test out the waters with my music video in to you. I was going to say your So you're.

I can't believe I did it too. So, thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Your sound is just so unique. Your voice is incredible.

Thank you.

And how would you kind of describe your sound? Because it's kind of got that like funky, sassy.

Sassy. Sassy. Vibs. Vibs. It was the key word for for this new song 'Teach You', which is kind of different from the girl group days, right? I love K-pop and I love pop from the 90s to early 2000s. Like, I realized I I sat down with my um group of creative artists and producers and I said, hey, I want I don't want to change anything. I want to just bridge the two things I love together, back where I come from. So, um, I have to say, um, 'Over My Skin' and 'Teach You' is definitely that middle of what I love about K-pop and what I love about pop and hopefully that's going to bring in um more opportunities and I hope that the fans are going to like it.

I'm pretty sure. If you haven't seen the music videos, you've got to go check them out. Um speaking of 'Teach You', it's your latest one. 'Teach You'. Okay, so that video first of all is amazing. And the whole song is about revenge. So you're getting revenge on a toxic relationship.

Yes.

So, you're just like, you know what? This is what you do to me. You're going to get hurt and there's like fire and gasoline and like you're like vicious in that video.

I'm sassy. I try to keep it into this like sweet, sweet aesthetic. But you know, if you know, you know, I I loved I mean, the whole music video. Um, I had so much fun writing and creating storytelling with the lyrics that I wanted the visuals to match and I was so happy that I got the chance to both act and sing and bring all the fun things I loved about being in Korea into that music video and also just that music video was kind of um my own little drama. My own little um romcom. Dark romcom. I don't know.

Well and you you got the look going on too for the part. Like you chopped your hair.

Yes.

Which by the way, looks so cute on you.

When you go through heartbreak, you know you want a dramatic change and I thought cutting your hair would probably would be the best thing to do for this song and really commit to it and um so far so good.

Speaking of fashion, uh no big deal, but you're the face of the H&M Fall campaign, which is Head to toe today.

Yes.

How's that? And you went to Scotland to do a photo shoot for that. That was that.

Yes. Um H&M's divided campaign is about um new artists and supporting their music early on in their career. Thank you so much for believing in me. It it's amazing. Um the campaign was shot in Scotland. So cool. Went there for the first time. I got to roll around in haystack and be careful around live stock. It was amazing. And I think the most amazing part for me about this campaign was we thought a lot about the collection and what it was going to what it was going to be, what it was going to look like and feel. And they were like, we love your the campaign is going to be about you in the sense of you're going out of your comfort zone on your own, discovering new roads, discovering new things, old things about yourself but and embracing all that is there. And what a way to start um my career back home. And with the song and I I got to take over the store on Sunset and Hollywood yesterday and perform 'Teach You' for the first time. It was amazing. I'm still pinching myself.

Thank you so much for coming. It was so nice chatting and stay tuned for Tiffany Young. You're going to see a lot more of her. Favorite song or album that you have on repeat right now?

Shawn Mendes 'Lost in Japan' and I mean I love Shawn Mendes but who doesn't? Right? Who doesn't? That album is amazing. That's on repeat.

What is the first thing that you do when you wake up?

I scramble around for like an energy drink or coffee. Just so that I won't fall back asleep. But Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. But coffee first.