67– 『Drop Pop』 (3) 67.
While I worked with Suyeon, two weeks had already passed since January began. I didn't even realize it had become January 1 because I was so busy working, and yet it was already the second week.
In a month, it would be one full year since I regressed. Seriously.
"Time really flies."
"Yeah. I'm already a high schooler. I'm old. I'm so old."
Suyeon, sitting beside me, heard what I said and went, "Ohhh my back," making groaning sounds like she was dying. I gave her a look like she was ridiculous.
What did a seventeen-year-old mean, she was old?
Then what was I, when I was twenty-nine before the regression, a senior citizen?
"So, did you finish the new song?"
"Yeah, it's almost done."
Muttering that, I nodded. Ever since Jin Sohyang introduced our channel on her social media, the Drop Pop channel had skyrocketed.
The views on Rough, the one she recommended, broke forty thousand, and the views on our other songs were setting new highs every day.
The average that used to sit around a thousand now broke ten thousand.
A growth rate that cleared one thousand percent, a truly catastrophic rise.
Seriously, it was all thanks to Sohyang. Because Sohyang recommended Rough, Rough got featured on the Cloud main page, and people who saw it kept flowing in.
I really needed to buy her a meal later or something.
"I really want to upload it already."
"You like the song that much?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
Suyeon nodded vigorously. The new song we were about to upload, Pop, Pop, perfectly satisfied what she wanted.
A song that felt like you were hopping along on clouds. A lively melody with pop-pop, bouncy lyrics, the kind of song that was charming like that.
Suyeon also had a lot of fun the whole time we worked on it.
"I want to see the reaction to Pop, Pop already."
"Why?"
"Because it's a song I worked on with you, oppa."
Ah, right. Pop, Pop was the first song Suyeon and I properly worked on together. Up to now, our workflow was me composing and Suyeon singing.
Even Come Home, the one she sang at the festival, was something we worked on together, but only partly. But Pop, Pop was something we did together from start to finish.
"I want to keep working like this with you, oppa."
"We will."
"Really?"
At her question, I nodded.
Yeah. Seriously.
"Okay."
Maybe my answer satisfied her, because Suyeon giggled like an idiot. She was cute, so I smiled too. Then I went back to work.
Pop, Pop was a really important song. It was the first song we would upload after the channel started skyrocketing. In other words, whether this growth kept going or got cut off depended entirely on Pop, Pop.
That was why I put a little more care into it than the songs we'd uploaded to Cloud so far. You could say I paid attention to the details I'd been giving up on.
And when I finished Pop, Pop, the day I had to work with Blue Aka was already coming up. Damn, it was already time.
What time should we meet tomorrow?
As I looked at the message from senior Won Seongmin, I smacked my lips. It was a little disappointing. With the momentum we had right now, I wanted to keep working with Suyeon.
Of course, I planned to work with Suyeon even while I worked with Blue Aka, but still. We had made the appointment already, so it couldn't be helped.
And working with Blue Aka wasn't a bad thing either. They were niche, but they were a world-class band that played on the global stage.
On top of that, Won Seongmin composed all of Blue Aka's songs. If I worked with someone like that, I would definitely learn something.
While I uploaded Pop, Pop to the Cloud channel and set tomorrow's schedule with senior Won Seongmin, Suyeon said to me, "So starting tomorrow, you're working at that Haul Studio?"
"Yeah."
"Hm…"
Suyeon trailed off for a moment.
Then she seemed to think about something and asked me carefully, "Can I go there too?"
"Huh? You?"
"Ah, it's not a big deal. I just want to look around."
Hm. Han Goyo would be there, so would it be okay? After a brief hesitation, I sent messages to senior Won Seongmin and Goyo. I asked if it was okay for Suyeon to come look around tomorrow.
A reply came quickly.
I'm fine with it.
That was senior Won Seongmin.
And then,
I don't care.
That was Goyo.
"They both said it's fine. Let's go together tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"Nice," Suyeon muttered, nodding.
§ § §
"It's been a while."
"You were here to record last week, though."
At Won Seongmin's greeting, Yoon Hajun smiled and nodded. Behind him, Yoon Suyeon cautiously looked around Haul Studio.
She'd worked here several times, but she never got used to it. Was it because of Won Seongmin? She knew he was a good person, but his face looked too scary for a girl who had just turned seventeen.
Still, Suyeon forced herself to be brave and bowed her head.
"Hello."
"Ah, yes. Hello to you too, Miss Suyeon."
After finishing the greeting, Suyeon hurried over to a chair and sat down. Seeing that, Won Seongmin gave a bitter smile and said to Yoon Hajun, "I guess Miss Suyeon is scared of me."
"More than that, doesn't she just get shy around strangers? Suyeon takes after me, so she's a bit shy."
"…You, Hajun, get shy around strangers?"
At Won Seongmin's words, Yoon Hajun gave a bitter smile and nodded. Right now, after regressing, he was less shy. But originally, Yoon Hajun had a very guarded personality.
More precisely, rather than being shy, he tended to be wary of other people. Anyway, he was the type to keep his distance.
"I feel like there's someone else who fits 'shy around strangers' better."
"Who?"
"The person we're working with today."
"Ah."
Was Goyo the shy type?
Rather than shy, didn't she just not care about other people?
"Have you met Han Goyo before?"
"I haven't met her, but I heard a lot about her from Taeyoung. And I heard her sing at the festival too. That's why I accepted your proposal. I thought working with her would turn out well."
"Ah, thank you."
Hiring Goyo as the vocalist was Yoon Hajun's idea. Of course, even though Hajun was the producer for the song he would be doing with Blue Aka, deciding something like that without discussion was wrong.
But Won Seongmin accepted Hajun's proposal gladly. Thinking back to that, Hajun smiled. Seriously, he was a good person.
"By the way, are the other members not coming today?"
"No. Today is just a composition meeting. Those guys don't have much drive for composing. I always composed by myself. Then if they didn't like it, they'd quit playing. And if they got a good idea, they'd suddenly show up. Those damn bastards."
At the harsh language coming out of Won Seongmin's mouth, Yoon Hajun looked surprised. So he could talk like that too. Hajun thought he was a sage.
Well, if it were me in that situation, I probably wouldn't have anything nice to say either.
With thoughts like that, Yoon Hajun talked with Won Seongmin for a long while. Most of that conversation was about Hajun.
What kind of activities he would do going forward, what kind of songs he would make. Questions like that.
While they were talking, the door to Haul Studio opened and Han Goyo walked in.
Seeing Goyo enter with a slightly hesitant posture, Yoon Hajun went up to her.
"It's been a while."
"Ah, yeah."
Maybe she felt relieved seeing someone familiar in an unfamiliar place, because Han Goyo let out a sigh of relief. Then she walked with Yoon Hajun over to Won Seongmin.
"I'm Won Seongmin. We'll be working together today."
"I'm Han Goyo."
After exchanging brief greetings, Han Goyo looked around Haul Studio. From the outside, it looked dirty and scary, but inside was cleaner than she expected.
And the facilities looked decent enough.
"Hello."
Then someone spoke to Han Goyo.
At the voice, Han Goyo looked toward the source. Yoon Suyeon was there.
Smiling brightly, Yoon Suyeon looked at Han Goyo.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Yoon Suyeon, Hajun oppa's younger sister."
Yoon Suyeon and Han Goyo were strangers who weren't really strangers. They knew each other's faces, but they had never directly spoken like this. It was the first time they were even seeing each other up close.
"…I'm Han Goyo."
Han Goyo didn't bother saying she was glad to meet her, or anything like that.
Because she wasn't glad.
She agreed because Yoon Hajun asked, but meeting Yoon Suyeon wasn't something she welcomed.
Of course, Yoon Hajun told her it was fine. He told her there was no reason to think that way about Suyeon. He told her his songs needed her voice.
Still, unpleasant was unpleasant.
§ § §
"Do you have a song you've been thinking of, or a concept?"
Now that Goyo had arrived, they started the meeting in earnest. At Won Seongmin's question, I took out the USB that held the rough sketches of the songs I'd made and plugged it into the laptop.
"I prepared about three songs for now."
"Oh. What genres?"
"One is a typical rock song. Another is ballad rock. And the last one is…"
"The last one?"
"Listen for yourself."
After saying that, I played the tracks.
First: typical rock. A song that drove hard and moved on at a fast tempo.
Of course, it was only a sketch, so there were plenty of lacking parts, but it was enough to convey the feel.
Then second: ballad rock. A song that started out plaintive and then burst forward.
Both were typical-style songs. Songs that had already been done thousands, tens of thousands of times. There was no way the progression itself could be special.
The kind where you could predict the progression just from hearing the opening, basically.
I cautiously watched Han Goyo and Won Seongmin's faces.
Neither expression changed.
At that, I gave a bitter smile.
I expected that kind of reaction, but it still stung how exactly it matched what I expected.
But it was fine. Those first two songs were just build-up for the last one.
"And this is the last song."
Slowly, I played the final track.
Won Seongmin and Han Goyo listened closely to the song coming out of the laptop. And the further the song progressed, the more their expressions subtly shifted.
Seeing that, I grinned.
"…This song."
When the song ended, Won Seongmin finally spoke.
But he closed his mouth again, thought for a moment, then asked carefully, "Is this emo rap?"
"That's right."
Emo rap was a rap-hip-hop style built on a gloomy melody. It was a genre that got established around two years ago, and it was gaining a fair amount of popularity in the United States right now.
But this song wasn't just emo rap. To bring out rock elements, I placed electric guitar and bass parts throughout.
I also used drums to bring out trap elements, and added jazz using synthesizers.
And on top of that,
"The vocal is going to move forward as melodic rap."
"Melodic rap?"
"You can think of it as R and B. In Korea, they call it singing rap, I guess?"
Won Seongmin answered Han Goyo's question kindly.
Melodic rap, or singing rap. This wasn't the latest trend like emo hip-hop. In Korea, it had been used since the early 2000s.
But that was older melodic rap. Modern melodic rap was a bit different.
Of course, melodic rap itself was a style that was vague to the point of being ambiguous, so if you didn't know it, you probably wouldn't hear what the difference was.
Melodic rap had such strong melodic quality that some people treated it not as rap, but as R and B.
Still, it wasn't a style you could dismiss.
Anyway, that was why this song was rock, trap, and emo hip-hop, carried by melodic rap, with trap and jazz mixed in.
You could think, what kind of mishmash is that, but this was actually an extremely hot genre in the United States right now. And little by little, there were people starting to try this genre in Korea too.
"It's one of the hottest genres right now, and I think it's a good genre for trying a lot of things."
"Right. I was thinking about a genre like this too."
"Makes sense."
This genre suited Blue Aka really well. Blue Aka was a band that tried lots of things, and they used unusual instruments too.
"It's still just a sketch, so there's a lot that's lacking, but if we add various instruments to this…"
"The melody will get fuller. The problem is, if we mess it up, the melody could start to feel really messy."
"We'll have to balance that."
This kind of genre, the kind where multiple genres crossed over, was a first for me too.
You could think it was similar to Main, but Main split the parts and switched genres by section.
This song didn't split parts. Everything was mixed together. The genres blended and transitioned naturally.
Even now, it was a difficult job to the point where I couldn't imagine making it alone.
But I wasn't working alone right now. Blue Aka was with me.
If I worked with them, maybe it could be possible.
"What do you think?"
I asked Won Seongmin carefully. He hesitated briefly, then nodded.
"It feels like it'll be a very high-difficulty project, but I think it's absolutely worth trying."
"Whew, thank God."
At his answer, I let out a breath. Thank God. If I didn't have Blue Aka's help, this would have been something I'd have to postpone with no idea when I'd ever get to it.
"So, Goyo, what about you? Are you okay with it?"
Won Seongmin gave the okay, but Goyo hadn't yet.
Blue Aka and I would be making the song, but Goyo would be the one singing it.
She would have to sing using a technique she'd never done before, melodic rap. There was no way that would be easy.
If Goyo said it was too much, it was dead on the spot.
I looked at her anxiously. Goyo hesitated, then slowly nodded.
"…I think it's worth trying. But it's my first time with this technique too, so I'll need to practice. Do you have any songs you can recommend?"
"Of course."
And just like that, the song was decided.
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