EL CAPITXN steps into his own story with debut album WHO KILLED EL?

For years, Jang Yi Jeong, known professionally as EL CAPITXN × Artist bio EL CAPITXN Real name: Jang Yi-jeongPosition: Producer, Songwriter, Artist, DJNationality: South KoreanBirthday: 1993-09-10Birthplace: Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea EL CAPITXN is a South Korean producer, songwriter, artist, and DJ known for his work with major K-pop artists and for his earlier career as a member of HISTORY. Reflective, creative, persistent, and highly focused on artistic identity and emotional storytelling. He has described himself as someone who has continued through music despite major changes in his career. Tap again to view profile → Close , has moved between the worlds of performing and music production. Before establishing himself as a sought-after producer, he was a member of the K-pop group HISTORY, where he began his career as a singer. 

He later built a reputation for helping bring other artists' musical identities to life, with production credits spanning an eclectic range of names and sounds, from Agust D's “Daechwita” to music by BTS × About group BTS BTS (방탄소년단) is a South Korean K-pop group formed by BigHit Music and debuted on June 13, 2013. The group consists of seven members: RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. Known for their powerful performances, meaningful lyrics, and strong connection with fans, BTS has become one of the most successful and influential music groups in the world. Their music explores themes such as youth, self-discovery, mental health, love, and personal growth, helping them build a dedicated global fanbase known as ARMY. Since their debut, BTS has achieved record-breaking success across the global music industry with hit songs such as “Dynamite,” “Butter,” “Spring Day,” “Boy With Luv,” and “Fake Love.” The group has earned numerous awards, topped charts in multiple countries, sold millions of albums, and helped introduce K-pop to a broader international audience. Through their artistry, cultural Tap again to view profile → Close , TXT, IU × Artist bio IU Real name: Lee Ji-eunPosition: Soloist, Singer-Songwriter, ActressNationality: South KoreanBirthday: 1993-05-16Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea IU is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actress known for her distinctive vocals, songwriting, and extensive career in music and acting. IU is known for a thoughtful and introspective public persona and for taking an active role in the creative direction of her music. Tap again to view profile → Close , PSY, and tripleS. But with WHO KILLED EL?, the creative direction shifts inward. Instead of shaping a sound around someone else's identity, he is building an entire world around his own.

The project explores a tangle of human contradictions. He craves love while struggling to trust it, longs for salvation while doubting its existence, and oscillates between a desire to tear everything down and a fight to protect the most fragile pieces of himself. Rather than trying to resolve these tensions, EL CAPITXN embraces them as the foundation of his most personal work to date.

In an interview with KPopAngel, the producer and artist opens up about the experiences, creative instincts, and visual concepts that shaped the album, and what it truly takes to put his own story at the center for the first time.

Yet, reaching this milestone was far more complex than simply deciding to release a solo record. For a long time, he wanted to turn his personal story into music, but struggled to find a starting point. The person who began his career as a singer, the producer he became over the years, and the artist who still longed to stand on stage again seemed like three entirely different versions of himself.

Initially, he believed he needed to make sense of those chapters before bringing them together. He thought the album would have to offer some kind of conclusion to his past. Eventually, he arrived at a different understanding: not every story needs to be resolved before it can be told.

“In the end, it was not that I made this album because I was finally ready. Rather, it came down to a conscious decision to stop waiting until I was,” he says.

That decision shapes the album's identity. Rather than presenting a polished version of himself, EL CAPITXN allows unresolved feelings, conflicting impulses, and uncomfortable emotions to coexist. The result is a record that moves between sounds and moods that might seem incompatible at first, but ultimately serve the same emotional narrative.

An album built on opposing worlds

WHO KILLED EL? is structured around two distinct chapters. The first, THE UNREDEEMED, tells the story of the unsaved, drawing on the aggressive energy of rock and metal to explore anger, defiance, emotional wounds, and conflicted love. The second, The Prayers (The Voiceless), turns toward those who have lost what matters most to them but continue to pray.

The musical language changes accordingly. Distorted guitars, unstable textures, and dramatic tension give way to orchestral arrangements, gospel, and classical influences. Two symphonies connect the album's structure, allowing its songs to function as parts of a larger narrative rather than isolated tracks.

Together, these two chapters make up a 12-track album, with the symphonies helping connect its contrasting musical and emotional worlds.

Yet the shift toward more spiritual sounds does not necessarily offer comfort or resolution. As EL CAPITXN explains, “Still, turning to prayer does not guarantee salvation. Throughout this album, God never provides an explicit answer.”

This tension is central to how he approaches music. Rather than searching for one genre to define his identity, he is drawn to the collision of seemingly opposing elements: beauty and the grotesque, elegance and violence, tragedy and the absurd.

In conventional production, those contrasts might be softened to create a more cohesive sound. Here, EL deliberately does the opposite. He imagines sacred choirs rising above abrasive rock arrangements, or deeply uncomfortable emotions hiding beneath beautiful melodies.

“I realized I am far more captivated by an imperfect, bizarre kind of beauty than one that is neatly polished,” he says.

That instinct also reveals what distinguishes his work across different musical styles. For EL CAPITXN, a recognizable musical identity does not necessarily come from a particular genre or sound. It emerges from the way he connects contrasting elements and translates complex emotions into music.

He often begins by imagining a scene: the character at its center, the situation they are in, and what they might be experiencing as the music unfolds. The goal is not simply to create a compelling melody or production, but to make listeners feel as though they have entered a particular moment.

Finding the right people to tell his story

EL CAPITXN in the official "Don't Say Love" Performance MV featuring BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT. WHO KILLED EL?. Credits: EL CAPITXN Official YouTube Channel

Working on his own album also meant reversing the creative process he had followed for years.

When producing for other artists, he typically starts by understanding their musical inclinations, their current artistic direction, and where they want to go next. From there, he looks for the sounds and arrangements that best serve their identity.

With WHO KILLED EL?, the process began with the opposite question: What does this particular emotion or story need to sound like?

Some songs called for a rock band, others required a full orchestra. Certain moments needed a voice beyond his own. His experience as a producer became especially valuable in finding the right musicians and collaborators to bring each part of the album to life.

“Previously, my job was to find the right music for the artist. This time, my job was to find the right music and the right people to tell my story,” EL CAPITXN explains.

That approach extends beyond the music itself. The album's visual identity was never meant to be developed separately or added after the songs were finished. He was already imagining spaces, characters, lighting, and movement while composing. He remained closely involved in everything from the artwork and music video storyboards to the recurring symbols and color palette.

Bats, daggers, melting hearts, religious architecture, and altars appear throughout the album's visual world. But these images are more than gothic decoration. Each one carries a particular emotional meaning. “A bat represents a creature capable of surviving in complete darkness, while a melting heart captures the pain of desperately wanting love while being afraid of it.”

The visual concept for “Don't Say Love,” his collaboration with Beauty School Dropout, brings that conflict to the forefront. Through contrasting black-and-white imagery, opposing personas, and unnatural movements, the video portrays two sides of the same person: the one longing for love and the one trying to push it away.

For EL CAPITXN, visuals should do more than illustrate a song's subject. They should communicate feelings that sound alone cannot fully express. In that sense, the music and imagery are not separate creative projects, but two languages telling the same story.

No single answer to who EL is

After years of working behind the scenes, WHO KILLED EL? gives listeners access to parts of the artist that rarely had a reason to appear in his production work for others.

He is not particularly interested in offering a definitive explanation of who he is, either. Instead, he wants listeners to encounter the conflicting sides of his personality without expecting them to fit into one consistent image.

“People often expect artists to project a consistent message or an unambiguous identity, but real human beings are never that simple,” he mentions.

That refusal to simplify himself may be one of the album's most revealing qualities. There is no attempt to make his imperfections more palatable or to turn every difficult feeling into a lesson. The contradictions are allowed to remain unresolved, because they are all part of the same person.

And while the album brings together several chapters of his life, it also points toward what he hopes to explore next. EL CAPITXN envisions a future live production in which music, theater, cinema, and opera converge on a single stage. Rather than a conventional concert built around an artist performing while an audience watches, he imagines a narrative brought to life by a band, orchestra, choir, actors, and performers, with the audience becoming part of the story.

He also acknowledges that he may not be the traditional frontman who can sing as he once did. But rather than seeing that as a reason to limit his performances, he sees it as an invitation to find new ways of expressing music live.

Ultimately, his ambition reaches beyond releasing records. He wants to create complete worlds through music, exploring not only the darker and more extreme emotions that have shaped this album, but also other dimensions of the human experience he has yet to examine.

Perhaps that is the most fitting way to approach the question in WHO KILLED EL?. The album does not offer a simple answer, nor does it try to identify one version of EL CAPITXN as the real one. Instead, it brings all those versions into the same space: the singer, the producer, the performer, and the person still figuring himself out.

"Rather than presenting a definitive answer about who I am, I wanted to lay bare the conflicting facets that exist inside me," he explains. "More than anything, I hope listeners understand that every single one of those facets is undeniably me."

Released on November 6, WHO KILLED EL? brings together tracks that trace the different sides of EL CAPITXN's creative and personal identity. The album is available on all major streaming platforms.