Mark Tuan Isn't Performing Around the Quiet Anymore

For Mark Tuan, 2026 starts with a quieter, more honest version of himself, packaged into the single "Alone." The single moves into atmospheric R&B, a noticeable turn from the alt-pop of Silhouette, though the GOT7 staple doesn't see it as leaving anything behind. "It started simple: I wanted to try something new and see how far my range can go musically. Genres are so blurred now anyway that I don't see trying new style of music as a departure. I focused on what I wanted to say, and this is the sound that came with it," he tells Hypebeast. A big part of what drew him here was Doechii's Alligator Bites Never Heal, produced by Peyote, who also handled "Alone." "What got me about Doechii's album was her storytelling, and how bold and honest she was to bring it to life. Peyote's work really amplified that story and I was hoping to do the same," he says.

Silhouette introduced the version of him that lives outside the spotlight. "Alone" goes somewhere quieter, into the overthinking and restlessness that show up once things go still, and Tuan is candid that the two projects came from different places. "Silhouette set the ground. It let people see me outside the spotlight, and that gave me the confidence to go further in. But I showed the casual side, some would say the easier parts. Not the overthinking, not the restlessness, not who I am when everything goes quiet. This time I'm not performing around it. I'm writing from it which is very rewarding," he says.

That honesty came out of a year he spent deliberately slowing down, refining his craft and letting the music arrive on its own schedule. The patience taught him something about how he wants to work. "I'm falling in love with the creative and writing process even more now. I used to put deadlines on myself that nobody asked for. Letting go of that was the first time in a while I just let the music take me. Now I am realizing that I love making music, not just finishing it," he shares. It also brought him face to face with something he'd been avoiding. "What surprised me was these realizations that I do get lonely, and I had been covering it with overworking myself. I'm seeing that I need that time to figure myself out sometimes and that is the beauty of my creative self."

Watch Mark Tuan's "Alone" music video below.

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