RM of BTS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

RM of BTS: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny 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

Director: Oui Kim (OUI)

Producer: Yeonjin Kim (OUI)

AUDIO:

JEONG WOO YEONG

Son Yu Jeong

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