GHOST9’s Prince Vatani is One of K-pop’s Most Entertaining Idols

If you’ve read enough interviews with K-pop groups, you probably have already gleaned that while almost all of them are incredibly polite and charming, they tend to be guarded in how they reply.

Then there’s Prince Vatani, who I have not interviewed (yet),1 but I feel like I already have a sense of his personaility, thanks to his delightfully fun stream of Instagram Stories and YouTube vlogs. While many K-pop idols host chats for their fans, few are as irreverent and genuinely entertaining as he is — dishing about the industry that has made him famous.

Born Pasidh Vataniyapramote in Thailand, Prince Vatani made his K-pop debut with GHOST9 in 2020. Now 23, he is incredibly active on social media, where he showcases his gift for storytelling and sarcasm. He doesn’t need a foil to play off of, because he’s quite skilled at making himself the brunt of his own jokes.

Two of my favorite vlogs consist of him answering questions from fans as he eats the Baskin-Robbins 27 Cube Ice Cream Cake.2 While he might dance around a particularly sensitive question, he often digs deeper, providing anecdotes that go beyond a pat answer. And when he says, “Story time,” you know he’s going to be spilling some hot tea.

Full disclosure: I did not conduct this interview. Prince Vatani conducted the question-and-answer sessions himself and shared them on his social media channels. I just transcribed the most interesting (to me) elements. Please note that for clarity’s sake, I did edit some of the questions.

ON FANS AND SASAENGS:

Do you think most idols in Korea are able to freely go out to restaurants?
Yeah, most idols can go to restaurants and they do. They would go out at night, so that less people would see them. In a lot of Korean restaurants, they have private rooms, so they would book the private rooms, and they would hang out there. Korean restaurants, isakayas4, basically anywhere with a private room. And if they’re regulars at the restaurant, the restaurant manager would sometimes turn on their music. So, if you’re randomly in a restaurant at night and you hear your idol’s music, they could be in the same restaurant as you. Or maybe they’re playing a random K-pop playlist.

JIGGLYPUFF & SOCIAL MEDIA:

Now, the only one following my account was my mom. One day, someone found that account, figured out it was me, and started spreading rumors that I was having these relationships with certain fans, and I was like, “Bro, whoa, whoa, hold on.” So, I deactivated the account. My manager came to me, and he was like, “Is this your account?” And I was like, “Uh, yeah.” So that happened, and that was the last Twitter account that I ever had. So now, whenever my mom sends me a post, I tell her to just screenshot it and send it to me.

Also, in this day and age, everyone uses social media. I feel like we would all have secret accounts. The only thing I do with my private account5 is I follow meme content.

Do idols have secret Discord accounts to play with Discord bots based on K-pop?
Okay, I don’t know what Discord bots are. But story time. So the only game I play is League of Legends. Sometimes, my friends would be like, “Hey, we need a player to fill our lobby,” and I’ll be like, “Okay, sure, I’ll fill in.” So we get into the Discord call, and I’ll be like, “Oh, annyeonghaseyo6 Mr. Jigglypuff. Let’s do well.” And over the game we kind of bonded with each other, you know. So we’re making jokes, we’re like, “Hey, Mr. Jigglypuff, I need some help, where are you? Hey, Mr. Jigglypuff, stop dying.”

Later on, I asked my friend who Mr. Jigglypuff was, and it turns out to be [redacted7], and I made a fool of myself. So, lesson learned, whenever I get into a Discord call, I would ask my friend, what I’m getting into. Who are we getting into?

So, the most interaction I ever had with people in the industry was either at the gym or in Discord lobbies.

Do idols watch the edits fans made?
I do. My mom sends me a lot of our group’s edits. She sends me other groups’ edits. She just sends me every edit. But I assume that a lot of us do. Do we enjoy it? That’s a different story.

Do you Google yourself all the time, or is it just something I would do if I was a K-pop idol?
That’s a maybe. I personally don’t search myself up online, because there’s nothing to search, but I would assume that a lot of people Google themselves.

Is an idol’s life is much easier than it’s shown in social media, and do they have plenty of free time between comebacks?
I think this is case by case. In my case, we don’t have comebacks, we’re not touring, so I have a lot of free time, hence I’m doing this. But when someone’s busy, they’re really busy.

Every K-pop idol has their favorite thirst trap of themselves.
False. I don’t have a thirst trap. Make me some thirst trap edits. Wait, now that I think about it, don’t.

MUSIC, CONTRACTS & MORE:

Following up on that question, can K-pop idols reject songs if they don’t like it?
Since you’re in a group, opinions are going to be very different. If as a group you all go to the company and say, “Hey, we hate this song, let’s not do it,” the company is probably gonna listen to you. But as a rookie, I don’t think any company would put the future of the company in a bunch of teenagers’ hands … so they’re not gonna listen to a bunch of teenagers. But as you grow older, you gain more experience — the company would eventually listen to what you have to say.

Is it true that some idols don’t like their concept/songs, but just deal with it like any job.
That’s true. I don’t think you have to like a song to perform it, you just perform it.

Like medical school debt, I’ve heard that you also have debts to pay off once you become an idol. Is this for real? And how expensive does it get?
If you do music in Korea in any way or form — it doesn’t have to be idol — you’re gonna deal with debt. This is common knowledge in Korea. But with idols, since there’s just so many people and so many expenses, the debt can get high really fast. Debt all comes from training, food expenses, housing, album preparations, everything. And that’s not necessarily bad. I think that’s how all businesses work. All companies are required to give you a statement with all the expenses, so that we can keep track of what is used, but sometimes that those can get sketchy.8 Our company — we’re not sketchy, we’re not held at gunpoint. Yeah, it’s really normal for idols to have debt, and they have to pay for all the investments before getting their first paycheck. The good thing about K-pop debt, though, is that it’s attached to your contract, so once your contract period is over, the debt would also be gone. So, if you can’t pay off your debt, the company would take all the responsibility.

Is it true that each group only gets paid like $68 or something when you go on stage to promote your songs. Do you have to split it between members?
Music shows and broadcasts, they do pay you, but in most cases it’s not a lot of money. I don’t think any idol is expecting money to come from music shows, because you’re not there to make money. You’re there to promote your music. Is it split among the members? It depends on your contract, but if you haven’t renewed your contract, most of the time it would be split equally. But before that, a lot of times you would also have to pay back debt to the company.

Does your agency watch or check your vlogs before you post them? Have you ever had to delete something because it was too real for the idol image?
Every single time, our company reviews everything before we get it uploaded. I think that’s standard protocol. Companies should be checking for, you know, mistakes. With my videos, every time I send it in for review, they always tell me delete stuff. I would fight back. They would say no, and I post it anyways. They’ll give me a call and I’ll be like, “Oh, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” And I still do it.

During lives, do staff usually stay behind cameras or monitor the lives to make sure the members aren’t dropping anything?
With most K-pop lives, the social media team would be behind the cameras, or they would just monitor the lives on their phones. If we said something wrong, they would text us, or they usually have this whiteboard [and write things like, “Don’t reveal any spoilers”]. That’s how we communicate with the staff. Do they tell us how to act? I don’t think they do, but if someone isn’t smiling as much, like having a hard day, we don’t want to show that to our fans, so they would write something like “smile more.” Nothing too controlling, just “smile more” or “stop frowning.”

Do idols do those weird fan calls in front of staff? Are they told to act in a certain way during those if staff is present?
This one’s false. So, here’s how it works. Most of the time the fan calls you see are not actually done by the company, they’re done by a third-party service, which specializes in fan calls. So, the staff you interact with, they’re not going to be a company staff. They would be staff that you just met. Their job is to monitor the calls. A lot of them are really good at languages, so they can translate global calls. They would not force you to act a certain way, unless your company is like, “Okay, let’s smile more,” or “Be more friendly to the fans.” Maybe the company would say that, but the staff who monitor our calls, if we feel uncomfortable with something, they would inform the fans to move on to another question. So, yeah, in most cases, they’re actually helping us more than controlling what we have to do.

Do you individually pick what to wear to performances, or is it decided for you?
This is case by case, depending on how much creative control an idol has. We don’t get to choose our outfits. Usually the company would talk with the stylist on what member should wear what. And when that comes to us, since it’s our bodies, they want to make us as comfortable as possible. We can ask for adjustments, put in some input. But for the main costumes, that’s decided by the company. When I do want to wear someone else’s outfits, I would tell my stylist, “Hey, that’s really pretty. Can I have something similar to that for next time?” That’s that’s just me being respectful, instead of saying, “Hey I want that outfit!”

Do idols lie about their ages?
Wait, let me think. Okay, maybe, but I don’t personally know anyone who lied about their ages. It doesn’t make sense, you know?

What would you tell younger you before you signed the contract to be in GHOST9?
Actually, I would tell him to just do it. I wouldn’t change a thing. I love my job.

IDOLS, BOWLING & FRIENDSHIP:

What are some signs that a group is generally close versus just being professional co-workers?
Honestly, you never know. Idols are really good at hiding their team dynamics, but you could see some friendship through what they choose to do on their free time and who they choose to spend with. If on a free day your faves go out with their members, they hang out with each other, they go on vacation — that’s real friendship, or maybe relationship.9

Are K-pop idols actually close with their members, like they show on screen or is it just for camera and they treat each other as co-workers?
This I think is somewhat case by case. In general, I do think that it’s a complicated dynamic to have. A lot of times, you like the members, everything’s fine, that’s cool. But, of course, you can also hate your members. But I do think that you can never really just be co-workers, because you live with each other for what, 10 years, you go through all this training, you go through all of this trauma together. I would assume that even if you don’t like each other, there would be a space of mutual understanding that would make you kind of more than coworkers, even if they’re at each other’s throats. I think this is where it’s case by case.

Part of me wonders if idols from different groups go to the gym together. It makes sense in my head, but I don’t know if that’s actually gonna happen.
Story time, the most interaction I had with celebrities outside of a workplace is at the gym. There’s this gym exclusively for people in this industry, and I think you can only get in through relations.10 And a lot of times, idols and actors would go to that gym to get personal training. Sometimes, personal training times would collide. I might be booked for 2 p.m. and someone else is booked for 3 p.m. At first, you just say hi, but as you meet them more often, you kind of start doing more interactions. That is where I interacted most with people in the industry. It always just stayed as small talk. I never actually made a friend from the gym, but I assume that many people do.

CRINGE FACTOR:

K-pop ending11 fairy is a hostage situation. Most idols find it cringey to pant heavily and wink in front of the camera.
False, ending fairies are not a hostage situation. If the camera picks up on you, you just do it. If you want to wink, you wink. It might be cringy in the moment, but like five minutes later, I don’t even think anyone cares. Or is that just me? The music shows actually pick who gets to be ending fairies, so when you get picked, it’s actually a compliment. It’s like, oh, the music show likes you. I don’t think any of us would have strong opinions about ending fairies. You just do it.

I’ve wondered how much K-pop idols’ personalities are tailored for the camera. I’ve always assumed pretty much anything on camera isn’t really what idols are like.
This is somewhat true. Sometimes we have to fake it for the camera, because if we don’t fake it, then it’s just going to be boring, and no one wants boring content. So, our personalities are not necessarily fake. It is a lot of times exaggerated, because that’s also part of the job. The main job of an idol is to entertain, and I’m a boring person. So whenever I’m in front of a camera, I’m going to exaggerate and try to entertain, because that’s my job. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s 100 percent fake, because it’s still a part of us. But it is definitely exaggerated.

THE POLITICS OF BEING AN ENGLISH-SPEAKING FOREIGN IDOL:

But there’s difficulties to these questions because as one of the main English speakers in the group, I was asked questions about the economy, about the political state of the world. You know, it felt like it felt like I was preparing for pageant, like I was trying to be Miss Universe. I was like, “Hi.”

Are the old people and Koreans in general really judgmental of foreigners? Are Koreans racist?
In my personal experience, this is a false.13 Koreans have always treated me pretty nicely most of the time, but I think I’m like a special case, because one, I do K-pop. No one really looks down on K-pop. And two, I don’t look and sound that different. I speak Korean pretty well. It’s not apparent that I’m foreign. Also, there’s a lot of foreigners in Korea. I think whenever I go outside, I always meet [other] foreigners.

WHAT IN THE WATTPAD?!

Do you guys actually shower together when there’s not much time left?
This is really true. I mean, not anymore. I’m living alone right now. We used to live in a dorm . There were only two bathrooms and seven of us. Waiting can just be a waste of time. People just use the same bathroom. And actually, a culture shock that I had was that Koreans were very comfortable being naked around each other. In fact, at home, I’ve never seen my family naked. I’ve never seen anyone naked. There’s no public baths, there’s no spas. But in Korea, that’s different. Like, people just love getting naked. So it took me a while to actually adjust myself and actually start being naked in front of my members.

Do K-pop male idols share each other’s personal items.
Sometimes. I don’t share my personal items, but sometimes they just steal it from me.15 Living in a dorm with guys, anything that could go wrong will go wrong. My towels all disappeared, my socks gone with the wind. Okay, story time. Once while I was living in the dorm, I showered and then I came out of the bathroom. Someone else was wearing my underwear. I was like, “Hey, bro, is that my underwear?” They were like, “No, this is my underwear.” So I went right behind him, I put my hands on their cheeks, and I pulled out the underwear tag. It says “made in Thailand.” Why is your underwear “made in Thailand.” In another instance, I wanted to shower. I opened my bathroom door, went inside. I needed a morning shave, so I went to my shower cabinet. I took out my razor, it was wet. Now I had a couple of questions. First, who used my razor? Secondly, which part of the body did they use it on? Anyways, I threw away.

Are some idols just freaking for the stage, or are they actually just freaky?
Hey, you want to know something? I don’t think I should say this, but I’m going to say this. I noticed that when someone male or female is really charismatic and sexy and hot on stage, that doesn’t just come from nowhere. It comes from experience. Because if you think about it, if you want to be attractive, you need sex appeal.

Living in South Korea automatically makes you feel ugly.
This personally is false, probably because I’m not ugly. In media, people are really good looking. When you go out in the streets, most people look pretty normal, I suppose.

TO DATE OR NOT TO DATE:

Are music shows a dating spot for idols?
I think that’s wrong. With your managers and staff watching, there’s no room to exchange numbers. I think you can maybe exchange glances at music shows, but not numbers. Back in the day, maybe. Nowadays, probably really hard.

If an idol goes on a date with someone, does that person have to sign a confidentiality agreement?
I think this is false, but also I wouldn’t know.16 Maybe this could happen, but I think it’s false, because I feel like NDAs are a very business thing. It’s like companies would probably make people sign NDAs, but with dating, I don’t think idols would want their company to be involved with who they date — unless you’re really big, then I mean it kind of makes sense to have NDAs. Also, I think idols are very careful with dating, so they wouldn’t just go on dates with someone they can’t really trust.

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