Baek-kyung Song, a former member of 1TYM, has officially announced his departure from the group.
On the 4th, Song posted a lengthy message on Instagram, writing, "It may sound sudden, but 21 years after the release of our final 5th album, I will officially leave 1TYM."
He also shared a screenshot showing "withdrawal" next to his name on a portal site, clarifying, "The portal didn’t miswrite 1TYM’s group profile. I personally asked them to remove my name from the group." He went on to mention his past project group Moo Ga Dang, adding, "I wanted to delete the group itself, but that wasn’t possible by my decision alone."
He explained that his decision was about cutting ties with the past. "As I restart my music career, I wanted to clearly draw a line from the messy past that made the younger me give up on music."
Song also expressed a desire to separate 1TYM’s past success and his bandmates’ careers from his current work. "Labels like 'million-seller' and 'world-class music producer' have nothing to do with my current musical life."
He added that he is now fully immersed in making music again: "I’m refining songs I always wanted people to hear but couldn’t release, tracks I’ve kept on a hard drive for over a decade," noting, "I’m also creating new songs."
Progress has been slow since it’s been a while. "Because I can’t move on without fine-tuning every detail, it takes more time," he said. "These days, I’m just enjoying the process of making music." He concluded, "I don’t know what form it’ll take, but I’ll finally let you hear a fully new track," heightening anticipation for his return.
Song debuted in 1998 with Danny, Oh Jin-hwan, and Teddy as 1TYM. The group was loved for hits like 'One Love', 'Hot Ddeugeo', and 'Without You' ('위드아웃 유'). 1TYM effectively halted activities after releasing their 5th full album, 'One Way', in 2005.