Mark [Upper Room]
Mark [Upper Room]

Mark Lee, the former NCT member who has struck out on his own, has offered fans a candid look at his everyday life. After a decade with NCT, he founded his own one-man label, Upper Room, and is now charting a new musical course from Fort Lee, New Jersey.

According to his agency Upper Room, Mark has been releasing a self-produced series called "Fort Lee Living with Marklee" on his official YouTube channel.

The second episode, titled "Stories So Far and Dreams Ahead," offers an honest glimpse into Mark the person — free from the machinery of a major entertainment company and navigating life entirely on his own terms.

In the video, Mark pushes a cart through a sprawling supermarket trailing behind a friend, and fumbles with tape while sealing boxes — the picture of an ordinary young man going about his day. His remark that his role is "tagging along with my hyung and watching the kids" strips away any K-pop idol image, showing instead someone simply enjoying the rhythms of everyday life.

Mark has also been working steadily on music during his time there. Footage shows him running through scales on guitar and warming up his voice ahead of a performance at the UN World Environment Day event, as well as strumming the chords to his original song "Ready or Not" and humming along as he works through the track.

He also opened up about the handwritten letter he sent fans when he announced his decision to go solo — a letter he spent two full nights writing, choosing and crossing out words one by one. "I wanted to fully convey both my gratitude for the past 10 happy years, which were possible because of my fans, and the outline of the new dream I want to pursue going forward," he said.

Mark returned to the value of goodness in the video. Rather than the provocative swagger the world tends to celebrate, he said he wants "to live a good life and channel that into my music." He added that he wants "to prove that goodness can be the hottest and most refined thing out there — to create a new kind of cool," and said, "Because this is what I truly mean, I have to stake my life and my music on it."

The "new kind of cool" Mark speaks of is not a musical concept. It is his desire to translate the life he genuinely wants to live into his music and pass that on to the next generation.

"Because I truly want this, want to achieve it, and want to live that way — I think that's exactly why I have to put everything on the line for it," he said, expressing his resolve.

Mark also shared a new musical idea after noticing that children of a close friend had naturally started singing along to music he was working on. "I'd love to make quality music for kids," he said.

"Fort Lee Living with Marklee" is a self-produced series documenting Mark's daily life, his performance preparations, and the journey of his past and future music.


shee@heraldcorp.com