RM of BTS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Stephen Thompson | December 2, 2022

Now that we’re back to recording Tiny Desk concerts in the office, home concerts mostly happen under special circumstances: when the artist is overseas, for example, or otherwise unable to get to Washington, D.C., when we’re recording. Given that BTS’s RM (aka Kim Nam-joon) is based in South Korea, we let it slide — not least because his team put together one of the most impressive Tiny Desk facsimiles we’ve seen yet. What really sets it apart is the huge array of shelf-bound ephemera, which is bound to have the BTS Army sleuthing in the YouTube comments. What’s a random tchotchke and what’s an Easter egg? Study the set closely!

RM timed his solo Tiny Desk debut — which follows BTS’s home concert from back in 2020 — to coincide with the release of his first official studio album, Indigo. But he kicks off the set with an older track, “seoul,” which first appeared on his 2018 mixtape mono. From there, he showcases the first two tracks from Indigo: the rap-driven “Yun” and the funky “Still Life,” both of which are inspired by RM’s love of and fascination with painting. The studio tracks feature Erykah Badu and Anderson .Paak, respectively, both of whom get shoutouts in this set. But here, the focus never drifts away from the star at center stage — no matter how closely you might squint at the stuffed animals, housewares, clocks and toys (not to mention Big Mouth Billy Bass!) behind him.

Now, if we can just get him to visit the real Tiny Desk…


SET LIST
“seoul”
“Yun”
“Still Life”

MUSICIANS
RM: vocals
DOCSKIM: keyboard
john eun: guitar
Jaeshin Park: bass
JK Kim: drums

CREDITS

CREW:
Huiwon Song
Sunyoung Kim
Hyeri Shin
EumKo
Youngwoo Lee
Eunil Lee
Sungju Min
Kihun Kim
Seungjong Lee
Yuntae Ko
Kidung Kim
Kiyong Eom
Donghyun Lee
Doosoo Choi
Yujin Jung
Sangjoon Lee
Kieun Lee
Kihyun Lee
Seonghyeon Heo
Insol Yun
Hyeongeun Kim
Yujin Ko
Daeun Han
Jae Yoo
GANi
Leehyun Kim
Yeonhwa Cha
Daye Shin
Daniella Kim
Saeyong Oh
Lee Jung Min
Lee Hyeon Ki
Jeong Dae Seong
Jinho Jeong
Rachel Um
Jennie Lee
Rosa Kim

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Bob Boilen
Video Producer: Kara Frame
Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
Tiny Production Team: Suraya Mohamed, Bobby Carter, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills, Marissa Lorusso, Ashley Pointer, Jill Britton, Sofia Seidel
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#tinydesk #rm #bts #nprmusic