That Damned Idol — Chapter 108
* * *
Cameras for filming began to be mounted in LB Studio.
It was something that had been happening fairly often lately.
They had been filming Coming Up Next at LB Studio quite frequently during that time.
But today, it wasn't a shoot run by the broadcasting station; it was a shoot run by Sedalbaegil.
To be exact, it was a job being carried out by Create X, hired by Sedalbaegil.
For reference, Lee Hyeonseok had received permission from Han Sion to upload today's recording footage to his personal stream.
If he shared it with some stories on the side, he could clearly see the viewers loving it.
Thinking such thoughts, Lee Hyeonseok looked at the Sedalbaegil members who were loosening up their necks.
'Meaning they're doing better than expected.'
When they had been at odds with Ryan Entertainment, he had thought they would get buried in the industry.
So he had thought he needed to help them, but that wasn't the case at all.
The only things Lee Hyeonseok had helped with were lending the studio before securing a dorm and practice room.
Or perhaps quickly procuring the necessary equipment through his personal network when setting up the practice room?
Outside of that, Sedalbaegil had been achieving everything through self-production.
Yet the fact that they were producing incredible results was astonishing.
At this point, to Lee Hyeonseok's eyes, Sedalbaegil looked more like an indie band than idols.
It wasn't like indie bands had to play non-mainstream genres, as people mistakenly believed.
Just as the word independent implied, all that mattered was being independent from capital.
Besides, achieving complete independence in a capitalist society was impossible.
So speaking more realistically, even if affiliated with a company, it meant having autonomy over one's own music.
In that sense, Sedalbaegil was truly independent.
'Since K-pop has become a genre of its own by now... An indie band that does K-pop?'
It was a strange phrase, but it seemed like there was no better way to describe Sedalbaegil.
Furthermore, didn't the Western world use the term boy band far more than boy group?
If Sedalbaegil achieved success like this, they could become the most successful indie band in Korean music history.
However, Lee Hyeonseok was a man lacking business acumen.
Thus, he failed to realize what a massive opportunity Sedalbaegil had missed, and how foolishly they had missed it.
In the show business industry, there was much talk about Sedalbaegil, who had gone under during the golden time.
Choi Daeho, who had been on high alert, was the most bewildered of all.
However, no matter how outsiders viewed them, Sedalbaegil paid no heed.
For the past week, their focus had been solely on recording the audio for "Resume."
"Sedalbaegil, you may begin working now."
At the studio staff's words, having finished setting up the filming equipment, Han Sion nodded.
And then he pushed Lee Ion into the recording booth.
'Huh? Starting with Lee Ion?'
It was common knowledge that the intro for the Sedalbaegil crew belonged to Gu Taehwan.
But well, there was no law saying the recording order had to match the verse order.
Thinking as much, Lee Hyeonseok squeezed himself in somewhere among the staff so as not to disturb the recording.
Truthfully, he had told Han Sion he would help with the directing.
But he had been refused with words of wanting to try it himself.
It wasn't that he felt slighted, but he thought it was a bit iffy.
Of course, Han Sion had proven his recording capabilities.
Starting from Under the Streetlight, he had finished most songs in just two takes.
To Lee Hyeonseok's memory, the longest recording had probably been less than an hour.
However, recording oneself and helping someone else record were entirely different matters.
Because it wasn't about doing it yourself, but guiding someone else in the desired direction.
Especially for geniuses like Han Sion, who did everything easily, it was rather difficult.
One couldn't direct people who said they couldn't breathe on how to move their diaphragm.
Because that was something they could do naturally from birth.
To Lee Hyeonseok, music to Han Sion was like breathing.
'If a problem arises, I'll step in, I guess.'
Just then, Lee Ion's vocal sound check inside the recording booth was finished.
Recording began.
But something very strange caught Lee Hyeonseok's eye.
It was that Lee Ion was not listening to the beat.
At first, he thought it was a mistake, but seeing Han Sion's attitude, it didn't seem so.
And so, without listening to the beat, Lee Ion began to sing a cappella.
Woo
- Hello
A bit, quickly
Start the day
A refreshing morning
Just how much had he practiced? The rhythm was perfectly on point, as if a metronome were running.
But what surprised Lee Hyeonseok wasn't the rhythm; it was Lee Ion's voice.
Something was different from before.
'Did his vocal color change?'
But that wasn't it.
Vocal color didn't correct itself in a short time, and Lee Ion's vocal color was rather unique to begin with.
More than that...
'Is the sound pressure different?'
The pressure of the sound seemed different.
It was like a video that had been in 720p resolution had gone up to 1080p resolution.
Perhaps even higher.
Clear and distinct.
But that didn't mean his pronunciation was stiff; it had a soft, mellow feel.
Unlike English, Korean had fewer liaisons and more sibilant sounds.
Naturally, that wasn't a bad thing.
It was simply different.
But there were definitely cases where the feel a language gave off differed from the feel a specific genre required.
In bedroom pop, a round and soft, mellow feel was important.
It wasn't easy to achieve in Korean, yet Lee Ion had pulled it off.
Without slurring his pronunciation, he enunciated clearly and pleasantly.
'How did he do it?'
The sound had grown clearer, the feeling the sound gave off had softened, and the pronunciation had become more accurate.
If you broke them down one by one, none were tremendous changes.
But they weren't changes that could be produced in one go.
Usually, when correcting pronunciation, the feel of the sound would die; and in trying to make it clearer, the feel would become stiff.
It felt like the tier of a vocalist named Lee Ion had risen several levels.
Lee Hyeonseok was impressed, but Han Sion, today's director, was not.
"Again. Do it properly, Hyung."
Do it properly?
Just what level of sound did he want?
But as the recording continued, he came to realize that Han Sion was right.
Because Lee Ion could do it even more properly.
Two hours passed like that, and the recording of two perfect lines came to an end.
Lee Hyeonseok didn't know, but during the live performance of "Resume," Lee Ion had had to go into the bathroom.
It wasn't to make it obvious that it was live, nor to preserve the on-site atmosphere.
It had merely been a device to neutralize Lee Ion's uncomfortable vocal color.
But this time, there was no need for that.
"Next. Gu Taehwan."
Gu Taehwan also did not listen to the beat.
What he listened to was Lee Ion's recorded voice.
"It has to be subtly lower than Hyung Ion's emotion."
"I'll try."
Lee Hyeonseok did not hesitate to name Elton John as the singer with the greatest sense of rhythm in the world.
Elton John was a singer who had achieved massive success in the history of popular music.
There was no need to mention other indicators.
The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Elton John.
The all-time album sales rankings.
Judging by album sales, Elton John was the singer who had placed his name in the fourth spot since the beginning of popular music history.
But did he possess the best singing ability? That wasn't the case.
One couldn't deny that he sang well, but it wasn't a vocal prowess capable of selling over 300 million albums as a solo artist.
Elton John's weapons were two things.
Vocal color and rhythmic sense.
If vocal color was something innate, his rhythmic sense truly had a bizarre aspect.
A song that was clearly notated the same on sheet music sounded completely different when heard.
It was a style that couldn't be imitated, nor should be.
Yet right now, Gu Taehwan smelled of Elton John.
Of course, Gu Taehwan wasn't close to Elton John's level.
But at the very least, the flavor was there.
After scattering the accent placed on the first beat into a pianissimo with an unknown starting point, he suddenly burst it forth, completing an auditory ecstasy.
Unable to contain himself, Lee Hyeonseok approached Han Sion and asked.
"Elton John?"
"Ah, yes. Does it show?"
"How did you copy that? It's not something you can just do?"
"I didn't copy it; I just used it as a motif."
"So how?"
Han Sion tilted his head.
"You just have to evoke the feeling, right? I can't copy the vocal color, but I can evoke the feeling."
"……."
'But how did he train him? When he can't even explain properly?'
In truth, this was Lee Hyeonseok's misunderstanding.
Han Sion was merely pretending to be a genius because explaining was a hassle.
Because he wasn't a born genius.
Gu Taehwan's recording ended much faster than Lee Ion's.
Lee Hyeonseok was now at a point where he was getting excited.
Just how had Choe Jaeseong and On Saemiro changed?
To state only the results, Choe Jaeseong had leveled up his specs.
It wasn't that a specific part stood out as noticeably improved.
Rather, upward equalization had been achieved in every part overall.
This was even more absurd.
There was no trainer who could teach something like that.
It was something one could only learn through the passage of time; no one could tell what kind of magic Han Sion had worked.
In contrast, On Saemiro made one tilt their head at first.
Because he was singing, and it was the same as before without any big changes.
But entering the high-note part, he realized.
Unlike the other members, On Saemiro had only polished his high notes.
All this time, On Saemiro had gone back and forth between expressiveness and vocal prowess like a seesaw.
Putting 70 into expressiveness left vocal prowess at 30; putting 70 into vocal prowess left expressiveness at 30.
But now it was different.
Both were above 70 points.
Because entering the high-note part, he displayed his vocal prowess with a euphoric sound.
It made one wonder what on earth would happen if that reached 100 points.
Around then, Lee Hyeonseok suddenly had a thought.
'Are the members at a similar level to Han Sion now?'
Of course, if you nitpicked, Han Sion would be better.
More detailed, higher completion.
But Han Sion's singing might not carry much surprise.
Because there's little excitement in someone who was already good doing well.
But...
"I was crazy."
It was simply another level.
Perhaps Han Sion had been matching the team's balance all this time.
Because if he ran wild alone, it could cause problems for the team.
So he had been singing while keeping his line...
He didn't know what had happened, but the members' level had risen tremendously.
So Han Sion had gone up too.
He couldn't help but think this way.
Then the director from Create X approached with an admiring question.
"This is really amazing. Are all other singers like this when you see them on set?"
"Of course not."
"Will this skill be reflected in the audio?"
At the director's words, Lee Hyeonseok burst out laughing.
It wasn't like the days when music was shared on floppy disks; what kind of question was that?
Excluding the subjective aspects of analog sound, today's digital audio was far higher in quality than LPs of the past.
"Of course it gets captured."
"Then why can't other singers capture it?"
"I think you're misunderstanding something; what the PD is seeing right now is something other singers can't do."
The moment he said that, his heart pounded.
Just what would happen when this audio was released?
* * *
The recording, which had proceeded for a full 14 hours, came to an end.
Mixing and mastering still remained, but in my head, all the work was already finished.
The final sound was predictable.
All that remained was to execute it by hand.
The members were exhausted from the long recording session, yet they were looking at me.
I opened my mouth to resolve their curiosity.
"...70 points."
The friends clenched their fists.