Suchwita (슈취타): BTS Suga's New Drinking Talk Show

Since the Army was notified that BTS would be focusing on solo projects as their mandatory military service is coming up, the Army has been getting a steady flow of content from different members that highlights their individual interests and solo music projects.

Suchwita is BTS member Suga's latest solo project in which he debuted a web series on Youtube. Suchwita is described as a drinking talk show with a special guest every episode. Keep reading to learn more about the show and read about details from the first episode. 

Suchwita is filled with personal stories never told, fun facts about alcohol, and in episode 1, insights into the music that has evolved alongside the men who created it. Suga revealed during the first episode of Suchwita that his vision for the show was a "talk show with a side of alcohol."  

He joked that he did not want him or his guests to be dragged out of the studio or crawl home because they consumed too much alcohol on his show. In the past few years, Suga has grown a great interest in learning about liquor, most notably whisky, which RM jokes and says that Suga could tell you everything about where whisky came from. 

You can catch the first episode of Suchwita on Youtube and on the Weverse app. 

Suchwita's first episode was 35 minutes of pure bliss as BTS members Suga and RM shared laughs, nostalgia, and stories of tribulation to triumph as they discussed life, with music being the focal point of each topic. 

With teasers about Suchwita released prior to the show debuting on December 5, a special guest was said to be revealed during the first episode. Army everywhere immediately recognized that the person with his face hidden with a 'suga' cube was fellow BTS member RM. 

Having RM as Suga's first guest was timely in that this episode debuted after the release of RM's debut solo album, and because RM and Suga were the first members to join BTS, they have known each other the longest for almost 13 years. 

Although there was a mini fridge on the set of Suchwita fully stocked with alcohol and bottles of Milkies, the sponsor for Suchwita, RM, came bearing gifts of traditional Korean alcohol as guests are expected to bring their own alcohol of choice as an entrance fee. RM brought a bottle of Munbaeju, 문배주, a distilled liquor that smells like Manchurian pear has a floral taste, and is 40 proof.  

He also brought a bottle of whisky, Kavalan Soloist Oloroso Sherry Cask. It is a Taiwanese single malt whisky that has 57.1 proof and was featured in the Korean movie Decision To Leave. They sipped on shots of the distilled alcohol, drank the whisky neat, just drank the alcohol at room temperature, and poured from the bottle straight into the glass without ice or mixing it with anything.  

The guys ordered food to go with their alcohol, consisting of different kinds of,전, or jeon. Jeon are fritters containing ham, squid, and vegetables which are sliced, covered in wheat flour, and an egg wash, then fried. Suga prepared joraengi tteok, pearl rice cakes with a sweet dipping sauce, to enjoy before the food arrived. 

For much of the show, Suga asked RM about his debut solo album Indigo and the process behind creating the album. RM revealed that because J-Hope allowed RM to be the first to listen to his debut solo album Jack In The Box, he returned the favor by RM being the only member of BTS to listen to his own debut solo album Indigo before its release. 

With a unique production structure of 16:8, 16 bar verse with an 8 bar hook, and having songs as long as 4 minutes and 30 seconds on the album, RM admitted to being slightly worried about going outside of the normal song structure that is most utilized in the industry. 

With so many regrets with his last mixtape Mono, RM wanted to take a step outside the box and put out a body of work that was truly him, even if that meant taking a few risks. He wanted to completely contrast Mono with Indigo by making the tracks more colorful in melody and composition, compared to how black and white Mono was. 

RM said his album is like his diary from 2019 to 2022 and summarizes his journey through life in his 20s before he turns 30 next year. Each song has its own unique genre and story. His hope for the album is that it has a lasting effect like the scent of Korean alcohol and will be included in people's playlists for years to come. 

He reveals to Suga that this album has gotten him closer to the person he really is and Suga reaffirms that by saying that this is the freest and most comfortable he's ever seen RM. If you want to hear the archive of RMs twenties in his debut solo album Indigo, you can grab both versions of the album at The Daebak Company. 

The guys also took the opportunity to go down memory lane. RM and Suga both discussed the moments when they felt like they knew that they wanted to pursue music and become rappers. Both recalled their experiences quite vividly. 

Suga says he can remember the day and the weather in his hometown of Daegu when he was watching a music show on TV where they rapped and sang, describing that as the moment when he knew he wanted to be a rapper. 

RM said his revelation was a two-part experience where he can remember printing out lyrics to Epik High's album Swan Song, in 2006 and rapping the songs with his friends. A year later, in the spring, he asked his mom for a PO48 microphone to start recording music, and his mom bought one secondhand for him, wishing him luck with it. The rest is clearly history. 

Suga suggested playing a game of past or present where RM had to choose between February 25, 2020, or the year 2025. The significance of the date he mentioned was that it was the day that they had to shoot a stage performance for the music show Inkigayo, for their song ON without a studio audience. This was right before the world shut down because of the global coronavirus pandemic. 

They discussed how they both felt during the pandemic, hoping that enough time had passed for them to openly discuss their true feelings with Army. RM described going through the five stages of grief as they watched their schedule get canceled right before their eyes. 

Suga released Daechwita in May of that same year and described feeling helpless and sad when they couldn't be with their fans. Suchwita is a play on the word Daechwita and features the song as the opener for the show.  

They were preparing for the Map Of The Soul world tour vigorously only for the entire thing to be canceled. They nostalgically reminisced about finally being able to perform the song ON in front of a live audience for day 1 of the Permission To Dance On Stage in LA concerts in November of 2021, 646 days after the release of the song.

When discussing the future, Suga expressed the fear of how uncertain 2025 is. Having always preparing for uncertainty in his younger years, he chose to live in the present instead of focusing on the future. He said this sentiment of living in the present can be heard throughout his mixtape D-2.  

2025 is the year that BTS is supposed to return to group activities, as long as all the members return from military service in good health. Jin is the first member of BTS to enlist in the military and is set to start his service on December 13, 2022. RM said that he hoped to be able to start creating music for BTS and himself in anticipation of when all of the members of BTS come back together. 

They also seemed to give a spoiler that there will be a 10-year anniversary celebration of The Most Beautiful Moment In Life album in 2025. 

The show ended with Suga recommending a song to RM. He recommended The Beatles' song Let It Be. He described it as a song that would resonate with each of them now more than ever because they are older. It brought an exciting sentiment of learning to leave some things alone as you grow from an adult to a child. 

Suga said sometimes he still doesn't feel like an adult, and RM followed that up by saying that the word for child in Korean,어린, only differs by one vowel from the word adult in Korean, 어른, speaking to the idea that maybe the change between a child to an adult isn't as drastic as we thought. 

Suga said he wasn't sure there would be a second episode of Suchwita but with how fun and engaging the show is, I'm sure the popularity of the first episode alone will demand for more episodes. The Daebak Company will keep you updated if more episodes go live. 

Trying to beef up your BTS merch collection while you have some time before the next solo project is released or before all the guys continue group activities in 2025? The Daebak Company has its own official BTS merch shop that stays stocked with the latest and greatest BTS merch. Get things like the member's solo debut albums, some of BTS RM's favorite books, or the BTS collab with AMOREPACIFIC lip sleeping masks that are PTD, Butter, and Dynamite themed. 

Want to read more about the BTS members and learn more about their homeland of Korea? Check out these articles from The Daebak Magazine.