Mark Lee Drops First Post-NCT Music on September 10 With New Single 'My Friend'

Mark Lee is not wasting time. His first solo single since parting ways with NCT, a track called My Friend, drops September 10 at 1 p.m. KST under his own label, Upper Room.

The release is a notable milestone on two fronts. It is his first new music in approximately 17 months, following his debut solo album The Firstfruit in April 2025, and it is his first comeback since he formally exited NCT 127 and NCT Dream in April of this year. When his exclusive contract with SM Entertainment ended, Mark did not sign elsewhere. He co-founded Upper Room with colleagues he had already built trust with and took on a role as co-CEO.

What 'My Friend' is signaling

A teaser posted to his official channels gives some indication of where his head is at creatively. It contrasts a city window view with an open field at dusk, visualizing what Upper Room describes as a "Back to Basic" approach: stripping back to core emotions rather than chasing a bigger sound. Whether the single delivers on that framing is something fans will find out on the 10th, but the visual language is a deliberate step away from the high-production SM aesthetic he operated in for nearly a decade.

Mark debuted in 2016 and spent the years since moving across NCT's various sub-units, most prominently NCT 127 and NCT Dream, accumulating a fanbase that appears eager to follow him into independence.

Fan response is already measuring up

Upper Room also launched a fan communication platform called Laylo, and the numbers there are hard to ignore. Within one hour of the page going live, 42,000 people had subscribed or left messages. Mark had previously run a "Mark's Voice Mailbox" initiative that let fans record audio messages directly for him, so this kind of direct-line approach to his audience is clearly something he is building into the Upper Room model from the ground up.

The combination of a fast-approaching release date, a self-run label, and a community platform that lit up overnight suggests Upper Room is positioning Mark not just as a solo artist but as a one-man operation with infrastructure behind it. My Friend is the first real test of what that looks like in practice.