chandol's Mercurial Mini Tour Documentary Captures His Most Authentic Self [Premiere + Q&A]
Photos by Connor Gaskey
chandol, the South Korean namesake of 23-year-old Boston-based songwriter Charley Yang, is premiering his mini tour documentary exclusively with OnesToWatch. Documenting a week-long national tour that followed the release of his debut album, Mercurial, chandol captured his tour in raw snapshots of moments across New York City, Boston, and Los Angeles. Narrated and edited by Yang himself (along with creative director Kevin Lien), the mini tour doc spotlights moments of quiet on the tour, pockets of time where Yang’s heartfelt musings about his return to the stage fit right in. The Mercurial tour kicked off Yang’s first handful of performances under the chandol moniker, and while this marks a new chapter for the singer, it’s his most authentic yet. We chatted with chandol ahead of the premiere about why he wanted to capture the Mercurial tour in this way, what being intentional in this stage of his life looks like, and what’s to come.
Watch the Premiere of the Mercurial Mini Tour Documentary here:
OnesToWatch: Congratulations on the premiere of your mini tour documentary! What was the process of creating this doc like, and why did you want to capture the tour in this way?
chandol: I mean it's always nice to have a small recollection of videos and memories of tour. I feel like every tour you sort of learn something new, and at the same time the more tours you do, the easier it is to forget some of the things that happened and some of the lessons you learn. I think for me it's very important to document a lot of these things.
Definitely. You mentioned in the doc that your hometown show in Boston is always one that you look forward to, and you always feel goes really well. Were there any highlights from the Boston show this time around?
[laughs] See this is why documenting is important because some of the memories become a little bit fuzzy. [My opener was] one of my buddies from elementary school, we've been friends since third grade. Music was always a thing he did and I've always been a fan of his work and music, so to be able to share the stage with him was really cool, really full circle. His name is Geskle, you should listen to him. He's good.
You have a really great relationship with your touring band, and through watching the tour doc you guys are always laughing and having a great time. How did you guys meet, and how was it touring with them?
This band this time around was my little brother [Harris Yang] on guitar, Shunta Sakamoto on electric guitar, and Tony Spencer on the drums. I met Tony and Shunta on a previous tour that we did for a different project in the past. The first introduction was just through my sound guy, Steven, who had a bunch of different really talented musicians audition for the old project, and those two were the ones that really stood out to me. Since then, we've all gotten along really well.
Do you feel like they're also part of chandol as well? You guys have such good cohesion, how was it creating these shows together?
It's kind of hard to say. I feel like whenever I'm on tour, I try to learn as much as I can from these musicians, especially Tony and Shunta, because they're honestly just wizards on their instrument. In a way they’ve contributed to the music, and future music, little things, like little licks that Shunta will hit, or things Tony will feel out in the music. A lot of it is that they’ll hear the song and I’ll tell them “Go wild with it, do whatever you want.” For the live aspect, they're definitely a big part of building the sound out.
You released your album, Mercurial, on July 10 and started your tour on July 23. At the LA show, the crowd was already screaming every word. How did it feel to be on stage and see a sea of people within a couple of weeks knowing all the words to your songs?
Man, it's always a shock because I'm someone who has a lot of difficulty remembering lyrics, even to my own music. For some reason it doesn't stick. Melodies are better for me, but words hard. So, it's always really, really helpful in a way when the crowd's singing just in case I forget a lyric. It had been a long time since I performed live in front of people, so it's a little unfamiliar still, but so awesome.
Do you have a favorite song to perform live, and did it change from the first show to the last?
I think my favorite song to perform is “What's the Rush?” partially because it sits in a very comfortable range for me to sing, and it's pretty easy to play on guitar. We do like an extension at the end where we try to get everybody into the vocal motif of [the lyric] “take me away,” which feels good to have the whole room singing that.
In the documentary and on your social media, you mentioned that in this new chapter of yours, you want to really move with intention. What does that look like right now for you, and was intentionality something that was at the forefront of your mind on this tour and album?
Truthfully, I will say it can be challenging to try and move in a super intentional way all the time. Sometimes you don't really know what the heck you're doing, or if things are a good idea or bad. I think right now what moving with intention looks like for me is trying to be in the moment. I feel like in the past—and I'll probably continue doing this just because it's a bad habit—but I always look to the future and try to think about what to do one, two, or three years in advance that'll shape the way that I behave now. I think I'm trying to take it day by day. Especially with music, I'm not trying to predict trends or anything like that. I'm just trying to make what sounds really good right now, to me, to the person I am. I feel like that approach has helped a lot for me when making music.
Were there any practices that you implemented in this album-making process or on tour to center you in that headspace?
That's a good question, like any rituals or stuff like that?
However you interpret it, maybe before a performance you did something or if there was an album itself that you were listening to during the album-making process. This album is very authentically you, and you speak very vulnerably in it. How did you get into that headspace to be intentional with your music making?
I see. I think something that I started doing—and I think I'm much better at it now than I was even before I was making Mercurial—is just staying staying the fuck off of social media as much as possible, at least from the artist perspective. Not really reading about what people are saying about me or just anything that has to do with me, I just try not to read into it. I think that's helped me be real.
That makes sense for sure. Before a performance, are there any pre-show rituals that you do?
We do the whole dapping each other up and being like “Yo let's go, we got this!” For these shows in particular I didn't really need the ritual, but me and my little brother would play two touch soccer which is like juggling. Man, it was so fun. It's really mesmerizing, you zone out while doing it and I guess that kind of helps.
Did having your brother on tour help to ground you?
Oh my god, yeah, he's like a little punching bag. No, he's an amazing presence to have, he’s the vibe.
Now that the tour is over and the mini documentary is out, are you working on anything new?
Yeah, I've been busy. I made a small collection of songs to release soon. We're kind of going in with a different approach. Before it would be very meticulous, and everything's planned, but this time around we're feeling out the vibes and just going with it. The songs are pretty much done for what's coming next.
For creative direction for the new EP, we're kind of going in with no solid plan. We have time allotted to shoot and film everything, but the plan is to record everything in the moment, and try to be as spontaneous as we can. There are some things that you just can't predict will happen, especially if you shoot in an unknown space, there are a lot of ideas that pop up. So yeah, spontaneity.
That’s interesting, because the antithesis of being intentional is to be spontaneous. Is that something that was maybe born out of this last tour or album? Did you want to do something to challenge yourself?
Maybe, in hindsight. I think that's a really interesting perspective, but yeah maybe it's taking a step back and letting go. Intentionally doing so can lead to something cool, and I think it'll fit this upcoming project really well.
Lastly, who are your OnesToWatch?
The opener that I had, GESKLE, one of my friends, he's a super cool artist. I've been listening to Zep a lot recently when I go on runs. Zep makes really interesting alt pop type music. ear is cool, I don't even know how to describe their hyper electronic indie sound, they make cool stuff.
Listen to Mercurial below:
September 25, 2026
