Colde Builds a World of Contradictions Through ICY BABY
- K Fuse
- 56 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Ten years after first introducing himself through offonoff, Colde has continued to carve out a space of his own as a Korean R&B artist, producer, and founder of independent label WAVY. Throughout his career, he has worked across the Korean music industry with artists including RM of BTS, Baekhyun of EXO, Lee Chan-hyuk of AKMU, B.I, Whee In of MAMAMOO, Heize, and THE BOYZ, establishing himself on both sides of the creative process.
Now, three years after his last EP, Colde returns with ICY BABY, a project that brings together eight tracks built around the complicated nature of youth. Rather than treating youth as a period defined only by nostalgia or excitement, Colde approaches it through its contradictions, allowing confidence, uncertainty, passion, restraint, and vulnerability to exist alongside one another. The EP opens with “ICY,” immediately establishing the colder and more composed side of the project. The track feels like an introduction to the album and the character behind its title, setting a restrained foundation before ICY BABY begins to gradually reveal its warmer and more emotionally charged sides.
That transition begins with “DRIPPY,” featuring punchnello, which brings a more playful energy into the project while connecting directly to an idea Colde has carried since his earlier days in Club Eskimo. The track's attitude reflects the creative freedom behind the album, allowing Colde to revisit an older philosophy of staying raw while presenting it through the artist he has become. “PULL UP” shifts the energy again, functioning as one of the project's more immediate moments. This track carries a stronger sense of confidence and movement. The contrast between the tracks helps establish one of ICY BABY's defining qualities: Colde isn't interested in holding the listener inside one mood for too long.
The second title track, “GIRLS ♡,” offers another change in atmosphere, bringing a softer and more romantic perspective into the EP. Its placement helps prevent the project from becoming too heavily centered around introspection, instead allowing the more carefree and emotionally open aspects of youth to exist alongside the uncertainty found elsewhere. “DOLLAR BILLS,” featuring Khakii, continues that movement while adding another collaborative voice to the project. The track contributes to the EP's broader sense of variety, demonstrating Colde's ability to shift between different sounds and personalities without losing the identity that ties the project together.
That inward turn becomes more apparent with “LIFE IS A MOVIE,” featuring DIMO REX. The track introduces a more reflective perspective, fitting naturally within an EP that frequently considers the passage of time and the experience of looking at one's life while still being in the middle of it. Rather than presenting youth as something already finished, ICY BABY treats it as something that can be understood differently as experience accumulates. “BIG TALK,” featuring JJANGYOU and Choi WonBin, brings another burst of energy before the album reaches its final destination. By this point, the EP has moved through enough contrasting moods that its closing track carries considerably more weight.
“SHUT DA FXXKA AND GO” arrives as the final title track and the project's clearest statement. Instead of attempting to resolve every uncertainty raised throughout the preceding tracks, it offers a straightforward response to them: keep moving. The song transforms the album's reflection into action, making it an appropriate conclusion to a project concerned with what happens when passion and uncertainty exist at the same time.
The progression of the album reflects Colde's own position as an artist. His career has moved between performing, songwriting, production, collaboration, and building his own independent creative space through WAVY. ICY BABY brings those experiences into the present without attempting to separate them into different versions of who he is.
Ahead of the release, K Fuse spoke with Colde about the three years that shaped ICY BABY, the meaning behind its title, the creative process behind the project, his evolution from offonoff to the artist he is today, and what he hopes listeners take away from this new chapter.
K Fuse: First of all, thank you for taking the time to speak with us here at K Fuse, and congratulations on your new EP, ICY BABY! It's been three years since your last EP. Before we talk about the music, could you introduce yourself to our readers who may be discovering your work for the first time?
Colde: Hello K Fuse, I'm Colde, a Korean R&B artist, and I'm back with a new EP called ICY BABY. It's been three years since my last EP release, the Love series (Part 1 and Part 2). This new EP tells a story through the keyword "youth," a word that carries a contradiction: it looks vibrant on the surface, but also carries an underlying unease, both at once. It's a period of being unsteady and unsure, but that's exactly why it burns all the more intensely.
I wanted to capture that same turbulence throughout the album, and across the tracks, you'll get to hear both my colder side and my burning sincerity across a range of genres. I hope you'll give ICY BABY a listen.
K Fuse: Three years is a long time between EPs. Looking back, what experiences, emotions, or moments shaped ICY BABY into the project it became?
Colde: A lot happened over that long stretch of time, but the most direct influence was probably the tour I did after the last release. Meeting fans in so many different places around the world, I drew a lot of strength from the different kinds of energy they brought, and through that, I also felt that the love for Colde as an artist stayed the same no matter where I went. All of that energy coming together is what pushed me to want to greet everyone again through a new album as soon as I could.
K Fuse: The title ICY BABY immediately catches your attention. What does “ICY BABY” represent, and how does it reflect the story you’re telling through the EP?
Colde: ICY BABY is a word that came to me right from the moment I started planning this album. Thinking about the character of Colde and what word felt most "Colde," the word "ICY" came to mind, and I wanted to express how the phrase "It's so wavy baby," which I used back when I first debuted, has since evolved into an even more distinctly Colde character over time.
And since the overall theme of this album is youth, when I look at myself, I feel like the hotter my heart gets, the more rational and sharp my thinking becomes. That duality is reflected directly across the album's tracks, and as I made them, I got the sense that this album was ending up as an expression of youth's many different faces. I think youth is also a turbulent period that holds both the passion to feel like you can do anything, and the anxiety of an uncertain future, at the same time. So this album, built on the story of the youth I lived through, is also meant to be an album of deep empathy, and encouragement to keep moving forward anyway, for the youth living through this moment right now.
K Fuse: Every project has its own atmosphere. If someone listened to ICY BABY from beginning to end, what kind of journey do you hope they experience, and what emotions do you hope stay with them after the final track?
Colde: If you listen through the album in order, you'll start with a cool, composed side of Colde, and as the tracks go on, you'll get to hear a side of me singing with a burning passion and sincerity you haven't quite heard from me before. I really hope you experience that whole arc, and I deliberately placed the message I most wanted to give you in the title track "SHUT DA FXXKA AND GO," at the very end. My hope is that after listening through Colde's story and reaching that last track, you'll walk away with real courage to keep living through this moment.
K Fuse: If someone were hearing your music for the first time and you could only introduce them to one song from ICY BABY, which track would you choose, and why?
Colde: I'd really want to recommend the whole album, but if I had to pick just one, it would be the title track "SHUT DA FXXKA AND GO." I tried a lot of things on ICY BABY that you wouldn't easily find elsewhere in my discography, but at the heart of that story is still the fact that I lived through my own youth too, and what I came to realize was: life doesn't come with a set answer, so don't just sit there thinking, keep moving forward. This song delivers that message with real, burning sincerity, which is why I'd choose it. But if you listen through from "ICY" in order, you'll get to meet a lot of very different sides of Colde along the way.
K Fuse: You've written and produced music for both yourself and many other artists. When creating ICY BABY, was there anything you found yourself doing differently because this project was so personal to you?
Colde: Whether it's drama music or producing for K-pop idols, the process involves interpreting a song from a lot of different angles and then bringing my own color into it. Going through that process again and again gave me a much more layered view of my own emotions.
With ICY BABY, I think my own character comes through more than in past work. From features to production, I built this album around people who could really underscore the "youth" theme. I found voices that could genuinely relate to my story and stand alongside it for the feature lineup, and IDIOTS, the music video production team I've had a long relationship with, HAHYUNG IS HERE, who worked on my new symbol and artwork, and sunburnkids, who captured this new side of me in photos, all of them made ICY BABY's story that much stronger.
K Fuse: Every artist reaches a point where they stop chasing a sound and simply create what feels honest. Do you feel ICY BABY reflects the truest version of Colde you've shared so far? Why or why not?
Colde: When I make music, I don't really chase a specific sound. I think more about how I can turn that sound into something that's uniquely mine as Colde. So I think every album I make ends up being the most honest capture of whatever I was feeling at that time.
ICY BABY is no different. This album weaves in even more personal stories than usual, carrying both the ten-year path I've walked since offonoff and the direction I want to head in next, all in one place. That's why I think it's the truest version of me I've shown so far.
K Fuse: Looking back on your journey, what's something you've learned about yourself through making music that still influences the way you create today?
Colde: Back in my Club Eskimo days, we lived under the slogan "Let the kids stay raw," always aiming to make something fresh. That same idea shows up in this album's track "DRIPPY." Time has passed and my circumstances have changed a lot, but when it comes to my attitude toward music, I've always tried to express my own originality in a way that makes listeners feel, "this could only be a Colde song," whenever they hear it.
K Fuse: You've helped create songs that became part of other artists' stories, while also telling your own through your solo music. When you look back years from now, what do you hope people remember first: Colde the producer, or Colde the artist—or do you hope those two can never really be separated?
Colde: I hope it's both. My role is obviously different when I'm making my own music versus writing for other artists, but even when I'm producing for idol artists, I go through the same process of interpreting a song from a lot of different angles and bringing my own color into it. In the end, I'm still putting my own identity into that song too. So maybe what I really hope people remember isn't a position, producer or artist, but simply the person, Colde, himself.
K Fuse: Finally, is there a message you'd like to share with your fans around the world who have been patiently waiting for this new chapter?
Colde: Hello everyone, it's been a while. It's been three years since my last EP, and this new one, ICY BABY, is the first step of a journey toward my upcoming full-length album. I think the next chapter will build on the many sides I've shown in this album, and become the journey where I finally bring every side of Colde's identity together as one. I hope listeners around the world can recognize the emotions I felt through that process, and the story of pushing forward anyway to become who I am today. ICY BABY isn't just my story. It's all of ours.
ICY BABY ultimately feels like a snapshot of Colde at a point where looking backward and moving forward have become part of the same process. Across its tracks, he allows different versions of himself to coexist, from the cooler restraint of “ICY” to the urgency of “SHUT DA FXXKA AND GO,” while maintaining the individuality that has defined his work from the beginning. With the EP serving as the first step toward his upcoming full-length album, ICY BABY leaves Colde in motion.
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