Big Ocean Marks First Anniversary with New Mini-Album Release on Korea’s Disabled Person's Day

Rosa Gulliver
Apr 20
3 min read

Rosa Gulliver of TINYGMUSIC | April 20, 2025

Big Ocean today celebrates its first debut anniversary with the release of its second mini-album, Underwater. The album’s subtitle, Embracing the Black Ocean, conveys the message that everyone harbours deep and intense instincts beneath the surface. While their first album, Follow, showcased youthful freshness and vibrance, this time, they seek a dramatic transformation with a mature and alluring concept.

The central motif of the album is “The Merman”—a mythical being, half-human and half-fish, who struggles to find a place on land. Though burdened by sorrow and longing for the world above, a merman who fully embraces the depths becomes stronger and more captivating than ever. With a radiant tail that propels faster than feet and flowing hair and hands that caress the currents, he can embrace every wave. For a merman who has realised his own power, the sea is no longer a place of fear but an infinite space filled with possibilities.

The four tracks in the album depict Big Ocean’s journey of recognising themselves as mermen and awakening their instincts.

“SINKING” PJ's solo single portrays submersion—the pain of drifting apart despite trying to conform to a loved one.
“FADE OUT” represents realisation—as they sink deeper, all external noise fades away, leaving only the clarity of their own voice. Member Chanyeon is credited with assisting with the lyrics.
“Attention” PJ's solo single is the title track and symbolises instinct. Having embraced their identity as mermen, they regain confidence, seducing the listener to dive into the water and surrender to the emotional whirlpool. Member Jiseok contributed to the choreography.
“End of Time” tells the story of a reunion. Under the moonlight, they dance and promise eternity. Chanyeon is also credited with assisting with the lyrics in this track.

Listening to the album in order feels like watching a heartbreaking melodrama — and soon, you find yourself rooting for the mermen’s transformation as they are reborn from the darkness.

May everyone find their own Black Ocean in Underwater.

Big Ocean kicked off its first European tour in Lausanne, Switzerland on Saturday and Sunday, and will proceed to stops in Milan, London, Paris and Montpellier.

About Big Ocean

Big Ocean is a K-pop idol band made up of three artists with hearing disability. Members, PJ (Main Vocalist), Jiseok (Main Dancer), and Chanyeon (Main Rapper) live with varying degrees of deafness but decided to pursue their love for music anyway. Big Ocean made their debut in April 2024 and has performed at all three top ranking K-pop music shows including SBS Inkigayo, MBC Music Core and KBS Music Bank.

In the media, Big Ocean has been recognised by the BBC and ABC, on top of making national news for their novel disability representation in the K-pop industry. Billboard also nominated Big Ocean as “the Rookie of this month (September).”

The members have developed a tight-knit fanbase especially in the US and Europe. More than 1.6 Million users have now followed Big Ocean across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube just in a year of their debut.

Through immense training and practice, the members learned to sing and dance to vibrations of the beat through wristwatches they wear and flashlight screens that work as metronomes. They applied AI voice conversion tools to sing their own records, in spite of shortcomings in pitch. By championing their limitations with technology, Big Ocean have also become music industry pioneers in the modern world.

Big Ocean’s performance has uniqueness in that they sing in sign language. They use Korean Sign Language (KSL), as well as American Sign Language (ASL) and International Sign (IS) to embrace diversity and inclusiveness.

Their debut song is a remake of “Glow” by H.O.T-Korea’s hottest boy band in 2000, and the second release was original single “BLOW.” Their single, “SLOW” which ranked top 4 on iTtunes Brazil music chart was made to support the 2024 Paris Paralympics with the lyrics emphasising to “take it slow.” Their first mini album “Follow” was released last November with the title song “FLOW” which was produced by three times Grammy Awards winning producer, “Mark Batson.”

Big Ocean’s 2nd mini album “Underwater” is released in celebration of their first debut anniversary. The album’s subtitle, “Embracing the Black Ocean,” conveys the message that everyone harbours deep and intense instincts beneath the surface. While their first album, “Follow,” showcased youthful freshness and vibrance, this time, they seek a dramatic transformation with a mature and alluring concept. Tracklist is as follows: SINKING, FADE OUT, Attention (Title song), End of Time.