【[SUB] SAVEN - “Rhapsody” Producing & Recording Behind】
The roughly twenty-minute video began with Dohee appearing in a rumpled oversized hoodie.
[Dohee: All right, Dohee-log is back!]
-Is Dohee bare-faced again today?
└It’s not even a schedule, so she can be
└But honestly, I like the lighter look more than when she gets makeup done at the shop
└Fr, her features are already flashy to begin with;
[Dohee: —not really... Anyway, today is the day I’m revealing the title track to the members for the first time. I’m a little nervous.]
Just then, a voice came from off-screen.
[Seoyun: Nervous, my foot. Let’s hurry up~ We don’t have time right now~]
[Dohee: No, but I still have to film the intro.]
The viewers naturally smiled at the sight of the two bickering right from the start.
But when the camera turned toward the voice, the members were there, completely drooping, and compared to the lively Dohee, they looked even more exhausted.
-The girls’ schedule has honestly been insane lately
-I guess they really have been busy
-But they don’t show it on music shows or at concerts, so I’m proud of them
[Hana: Yeah, let’s hurry. If we run late, we’ll have to practice until the early morning again today, and that’ll be hard. Look at Harang.]
[Harang: I’m... going to die.]
As if she had no choice, Dohee let out a sigh and handed out documents to the members.
For some reason, the documents were densely packed with text.
[Dohee: Should I explain?]
[Chaerin: Yeah, since you picked the song, that’d probably be better.]
Dohee nodded and sat down in the middle seat, and the briefing began in earnest.
[Dohee: First, everyone got the materials, right?]
[Sera: Yeah!]
[Harang: We don’t have time, so keep it short...]
[Sera: I don’t mind if it’s long...!]
[Dohee: First, let’s go over the album title. Wee Hours.]
Dohee looked across the members’ faces and pointed to one section of the document.
[Dohee: It means dawn, the dead of night. What comes to mind when you all think of dawn?]
[Sera: Getting sentimental!]
[Dohee: What else?]
[Sera: The night sky!]
[Hana: I have a feeling this is going to take a while... Harang, what do we do? Unnie wanted to let you finish early today too, but I guess we’ll have to go until late dawn after all.]
[Harang: No... Chaerin. Can’t you just, just explain it instead? Please?]
[Chaerin: Dohee will keep it moderate. She’s excited, so leave her be.]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ The atmosphere is seriously polar opposites
-Meanwhile Sera gets full marks for attitude ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Dohee ignored the members and continued saying what she wanted to say, just between herself and Sera.
[Dohee: The night sky, right! When you think of the night, the moon comes to mind, doesn’t it? But people in the past apparently thought that the phase of the moon rising at dawn affected people’s mental states and behavior. That’s why the word “lunatic” came about, with “luna,” meaning moon, as its root.]
[Sera: Mm-hmm!]
[Dohee: Of course, I heard that “lunatic” didn’t mean “madman” or “insane person” from the very beginning. For starters, if you look at the Bible written in the fifth century, there are signs that it was used more for epilepsy than madness...]
[Sera: I see...!]
And Sera’s enthusiastic responses were enough to make her explain even the etymology of the word.
[Dohee: So, an insane person...]
[Harang: No, is that actually important?]
[Yeeun: (pointing at Dohee) Insane person...]
-Yeeun ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ She’s so freaking funny
-Why is Dohee so excited today, seriously so cute...
└It’s her first time producing, so of course she’d be excited ㅋㅋㅋ
└I think it’s just because Sera keeps reacting like she’s doing so well ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Because of that, the members were already complaining of dizziness.
[Dohee: ...So when you listen to the title track later, you’ll understand.]
[Harang: No, can’t we just listen to the song?]
[Seoyun: Hey, Lee Dohee, this is seriously TMI.]
[Hana: Guys, what did you feed Dohee this morning?]
And with complaints pouring down on her, she couldn’t very well push forward.
[Dohee: Ah, okay, I’ll only talk about the really important stuff now. First, if we talk about the connection between the title track and the B-side...]
But the story that followed was also about to drag on.
[Dohee: You probably don’t know, but first of all, both songs have mix-and-match in common.]
[Sera: I didn’t know!]
[Dohee: You wouldn’t have.]
[Harang: Of course we don’t know, we haven’t heard the title track. Play the song first!]
[Dohee: Now, now, focus. First, think of the fan song. It felt like a completely typical electro dance track, right? But the mood the song delivered was somehow emotional. I thought of that feeling as mix-and-match, and it was meant to create a chaotic feeling to express the sentimentality of dawn? Madness? Something like that.]
-Oh, so that was the behind-the-scenes...
-It definitely feels different listening after hearing the song explained like this
└The infodump is cute, but now that I’m listening, it’s actually interesting ㅋㅋㅋ
[Dohee: On the other hand, the code and melody of this title track are dark, but the rhythm is bright, so the mood is exciting. Naturally, this is also mix-and-match, and you’ll feel something like a wild party at dawn. Look, if you look at the instrumentation right now...]
Chaerin, unable to keep watching, eventually had no choice but to cut Dohee off.
[Chaerin: Yeah, yeah, I think you’ve explained everything you needed to. We’ll listen to the song first now. Let’s go over the rest of the details while directing during recording, Dohee.]
[Dohee: I still have a lot left that I prepared...]
Only then could the atmosphere in the meeting room finally settle.
[Hana: So the two of you are going to handle the directing?]
[Chaerin: The A&R team will help too, I think. Since they’ll have to oversee the engineering as well.]
Meanwhile, in the corner of the screen amid the settled atmosphere, Seoyun and Sera were talking in the same pose, with the same posture.
[Seoyun: Ugh, she really talks a lot.]
[Sera: Yeah, especially today...]
[Seoyun: It’s worse than usual, right?]
[Sera: Yeah, she’s cuter than usual...]
[Seoyun: ... (looks at Sera with wide eyes)]
The context was the complete opposite, though.
And finally, the screen was able to move on to the recording studio.
The first person to open the recording room door was Dohee, who had made the song.
[Dohee: Ah, ah, can you hear me~?]
Dohee asked Chaerin, who was sitting outside the booth beside an A&R team staff member who appeared to be an assistant engineer, to check the mic.
[Chaerin: Yeah. Let’s go right away. You know what kind of feel it is, right?]
Dohee nodded, warmed up her throat for a moment, then let her voice out comfortably.
And the tone that came through had completely lost the rough feeling from a year ago, while Dohee’s own unique color was coming alive.
-But Dohee really must have practiced her vocalization a lot... Now she’s just part of the vocal line...
└She was always good at singing, people complained about her tone
└Yeah, she practiced so hard to fix that. Even in other behind videos, she’s always singing whenever she has time. So proud of her ㅠ
└But why are Dohee’s vocal cords so strong? It feels like she sings and talks all day;
While the fans gushed about how proud they were of Dohee’s constant improvement.
Dohee, apparently not quite satisfied, tilted her head and pressed the button connected to the booth.
[Dohee: Mm... Could I listen to the guide version just once more?]
At the A&R team engineer’s affirmative reply, the guide version played.
And the guide version of Dohee’s part was, of course, also in Dohee’s voice.
-Why is it so cool that she did the guide herself too;
└Fr, she’s ten years younger than me but I’m starting to want to call her noona... Dohee noona...
└Sir;;
└And honestly, Dohee’s chest these days... seems bigger than Hana’s... seriously...
└Excuse me
[Dohee: Ah, that’s not it... I’ll try just one more time.]
Dohee pressed the button repeatedly and requested a retry.
Just then, the booth opened, and Kim Seoyun came in, dragging Dohee out as she spoke.
[Seoyun: Producer, you can stop now! She’s seriously just repeating it so she can act cool, seriously.]
[Dohee: Ah, I’m not...?]
In reality, Seoyun usually claimed to have a PhD in Dohee Studies, and her accuracy rate was actually over ninety percent, so her credibility was very high.
-If Seoyun says so, we have to believe it ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Ah, my emotions ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Her playful streak really never goes anywhere ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-I knew this would happen ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
In the end, Dohee, looking dejected as she was dragged out, sat beside Chaerin, and then Park Yeeun’s recording began.
[mm-hmm]
Yeeun’s recording seemed to end quickly with her voice, charming in its fresh yet fizzy sweetness.
Then, as Yeeun paced in place as if something didn’t feel right, she suddenly raised her hand.
[Yeeun: Uh... Chaerin unnie! C-can I try again too...?]
And there was Dohee, who claimed to have a PhD in Yeeun Studies.
[Dohee: Uh, no. You’re also trying to act cool.]
At Dohee’s words, Yeeun denied it and came out of the booth, but anyone watching could tell.
Because Yeeun’s startled face gave everything away.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah, Yeeun’s face turning red is seriously adorable
-Meanwhile Dohee admitted she was trying to act cool ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└If she wants to tease Yeeun, she has to admit it too ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The two maknaes are seriously the same ㅋㅋㅋ
└Dohee rubbed off on Yeeun fr
Fortunately, for the members’ recordings that followed, Chaerin removed all traces of laughter, saying they didn’t have time, and continued directing, so things could be handled quickly.
-But Chaerin is way stricter with directing than I thought
-Chaerin understands the members really well. She seems to know what parts of their voices or tones people find charming when they hear them in songs, and she asks for those things well
-Why is Dohee just nodding next to her ㅋㅋ
That was because she gave specific instructions while demonstrating directly, telling them to sing while smiling or correcting their pronunciation.
[Chaerin: Dohee, if you have anything to say too, say it.]
[Dohee: I thought you’d scold me for eating up time again... Then I’ll do it too?]
[Chaerin: Yeah, do it comfortably. Comfortably.]
But the directing Dohee stepped up with so confidently was almost never reflected.
[Dohee: No, with that rubato.]
[Seoyun: What’s that?]
[Dohee: Like... freely, while bringing out that feeling? The tempo and rhythm too, however you want, unnie.]
That was because, compared to Chaerin, she said a lot of vague, abstract things that were hard to grasp.
[Dohee: No, that’s too much your style, unnie. But unnie, you’re good?]
[Seoyun: I’m kind of good.]
[Dohee: Should we just go with this?]
[Chaerin: We’ll just record again from 2A.]
In the end, most of the directing was handled by Chaerin and the assistant director.
And the video ended with Dohee’s dejected face.