Five things we learned from Suga of BTS’s ‘Road To D-DAY’ documentary

As BTS’ Suga releases his debut solo album ‘D-DAY’, he’s also giving fans a glimpse into the making of the record and his journey across the US, Korea and Japan to find inspiration for it. Along the way, there’s visits to fellow musicians like Halsey, Steve Aoki, Anderson .Paak and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and live performances of some of the album’s songs.

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There are plenty of personal revelations for the rapper and producer too – not least the eye-opening discovery that, despite what he previously thought, he does enjoy travel after all. Here are five things we learned from the Disney+ documentary, Suga: Road To D-DAY.

Suga has also had his struggles with turning 30, just like the rest of us

In our youth-obsessed society, there’s often anxiety around turning 30 and global pop stars aren’t immune to it. In the documentary, Suga shares his concerns about entering another decade of his life in relation to his songwriting. “When I turned 20, I thought, ‘What are my twenties gonna be like? It’s gonna be so fun’,” he says with a wry laugh. “When I think about my thirties, I see nothing.” After explaining his belief that you need to be “hooked on something” to write a song, he asks: “What do you do when you’re over 30? Do I have to keep working? I don’t think I can keep this up anymore.”

Working on ‘Amygdala’ gave him mood swings

Road To D-DAY shows some of the behind-the-scenes processes of some of the tracks on ‘D-DAY’, including one of the record’s highlights, ‘Amygdala’. Named after a part of the brain that processes traumatic events, the song is an emotional piece that pulls from some of Suga’s own painful experiences. In a clip of him working on the track while BTS were recording their reality show In The Soop, he plays a snippet to Jimin and laments: “I have massive mood swings whenever I’m working on this song. To work on it, I have to bring up some of my unpleasant memories.”

‘Snooze’ is a message to aspiring artists

In the documentary, we’re taken inside a visit Suga paid to the late, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in Japan. During the rendezvous, the BTS star played his hero ‘Snooze’, on which they would eventually collaborate. “I wrote down the things that I’d like to say to aspiring artists,” Suga explained when the composer asked him about the song’s lyrics. “I wanted this song to give them some strength. Ever since I was young, I’ve enjoyed writing songs about dreams and that’s what I did here – ‘It’s all gonna be OK. Even though you might lose a bit of sleep, I’ll accept you if you’re afraid to fall’.”

He first fell in love with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music at a small cinema in Daegu

Ahead of meeting with Sakamoto – who he has previously called the musician who influenced him the most – Suga explained how he came to fall in love with the composer’s music, He recalled seeing the 1987 film The Last Emperor, for which Sakamoto worked on the score, in a small cinema in his hometown of Daegu. “There were maybe 50 seats,” he said. “I went there when I was little and the movie is filled with Mr Sakamoto’s music, so I was just blown away by it in the theatre.” After that experience, he began making beats and sampled Sakamoto’s compositions to help him practice his production.

His dream is travel around the world and work with local musicians

Some of Suga’s solo material, like ‘Haegeum’ and ‘Daechwita’, might use traditional Korean instruments but, in the future, we could hear him use the traditional instruments of other countries too. During his meeting with Sakamoto, the rapper shared an idea he has for the future, saying: “One of my dreams is travel around the world and schedule sessions with local musicians who specialise in their traditional instruments. It’s my dream to record them and make my own music based on that.”

Referencing a quote from Sakamoto’s Coda documentary – “the world is full of sounds” – he added: “I’d like to do my best to use the sounds that are filling up this world and make good music.”

Suga: Road To D-DAY is out now on Disney+

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