Chapter 107. Ease is Power! (2)

Translator: Synopsis

“It’s easy to follow.”

KangYoon started to judge the song.

“I… is that so?”

“Yeah. It’s easy to the ear. There’s no sense of rejection from the melody.

Park SoYoung heaved a deep sigh of relief as she was nervous after hearing what HeeYoon said about her songs. ‘Easy to follow’ was one of the most vague statements ever. It was neither a compliment nor a criticism.

“Is this rock?”

“Yes.”

“And in my opinion, you thought of HyunAh as you wrote this.”

“That’s right. You realized already?”

“I get the feeling that this is just suited for her. The bass line is very good. The thudding sounds very good. The chord progression is also nice. However.”

Park SoYoung gulped. This was the important bit.

“This is too weak for HyunAh to sing. In my opinion, I think you should raise the accents a little. Although this doesn’t give any feeling of rejection, it’s like… it’s too easy. HyunAh has the tendency to burst all her power in one go after building up, and I think she’ll find something like this, which is flat all the way to the end, quite hard to sing.”

“Oooh….”

“If I have to speak generally, it’s easy. You said that this song was for HyunAh, but I have a feeling that anyone can digest this song. However, my opinion is that singers with characteristic voices will reject this song.”

After listening to KangYoon’s words, Park SoYoung nodded. She now understood a little about what she had to change. She took the score back again.

“Thanks for your time.”

“No, you’re HeeYoon’s friend. This much is nothing.”

“How important do you think it is to have my work evaluated by someone who actually works in the industry? I’ll treat you to something later.”

“Okay, okay.”

KangYoon saw Park SoYoung off with a smile.

At the front door of World Entertainment, Park SoYoung asked for one last time.

“Uhm, oppa. If it were you, Would you… buy my song?”

At the careful question, KangYoon also replied with caution after thinking for a while.

“If you are referring to that song, then I will indeed.”

“Really? I think there’s something more to that.”

Hearing that, Park SoYoung’s expression brightened. However, KangYoon had something more to say.

“Then, I will hand it over to a really skilled arranger. The melody’s good after all. I will have to find an arranger who can bring out the liveliness from the song. It would be a different story if you were the one to arrange it yourself, but with your current skills… I’m not sure if I’m able to leave it up to you.”

“Oh… I get it. Okay. Looks like I must study harder.”

Park SoYoung bowed towards KangYoon. Although this was the brother of her friend, she appreciated the fact that KangYoon was kind enough to do all this for her. Although his evaluation today was a burden on her heart, she was still thankful since she now knew what she could improve upon.

“I heard that composers have their own special traits. In the case of HeeYoon, she writes things down even while doing something else if she thinks of something. If that doesn’t work, she holes herself up at home and works on stuff. She told me that there are just ‘right times’ for these things. But I don’t think you’re such type.”

“Yes. I have to squeeze my head for three whole days to get something. Nothing just ‘comes’ to me incidentally.”

“Well, it differs according to the person. Fufu, you two have completely different styles. Well, I guess that should be the case. And also, I think your strongest advantage is that your pieces are ‘easy’.”

“Being easy is an advantage…?”

Park SoYoung had a hard time understanding what KangYoon meant. Having understood that, KangYoon explained it for her.

“You can create melodies that anyone can easily follow. I think that’s an enormous advantage. Composition isn’t the end you know? There’s the arrangement process later. Next time, bring me a piece with arrangement done as well. Though, arrangement isn’t as easy as composition, right?”

“Sure.”

“Ease is power. After all, it means that you can write melodies that are pleasing to the ear. The advantage is that anyone can easily sing along. If you can use that well, I think you’ll become a splendid composer.”

“Ooh…. Okay. Thank you so much.”

She received practical guidance that would be hard to hear from anyone else. Although this was her friend’s brother, she didn’t expect this much from him. She was very appreciative of KangYoon.

After she left saying that she’ll work on it more, KangYoon stretched his arms out.

“Let me get back to work too then.”

The brief rest time was now over. Mountains of work was waiting for him.

***

‘Ease is power… a melody easy to follow?’

Having returned home, Park SoYoung reminded herself of KangYoon’s words over and over again.

‘Okay, let’s make my future songs like that.’

On the back seat of the bus, she decided on her style as a composer.

An advice from KangYoon was now creating a future composer.

***

“The Rock Festival?”

Jung HyeJin blinked her eyes several times while looking at the application form that KangYoon gave him.

“Yes. The deadline is Friday, so please do it by today.”

It was very rare for KangYoon to order things directly. Jung HyeJin immediately accepted and got the documents from KangYoon.

Lee HyunJi asked while turning around in her chair.

“White Moonlight’s popularity should work, right?”

“It will suffice with her popularity among indies. And it’s about time too.”

“About time… oh, you mean?”

There was only one ‘time’ that KangYoon could mean: going mainstream from being indie. Lee HyunJi’s prediction was correct and he continued speaking.

“Once we finish the contract with a concert hall, we’ll open it in autumn, and White Moonlight’s entrance to mainstream media will also begin then. The Rock Festival will be the beginning of that.”

“Well, that’s true. The Rock Festival is gaining popularity nowadays, so it will be the perfect opportunity to raise their popularity.”

“That’s right. If spring was hot thanks to JaeHoon, we’ll have a hot summer thanks to them.”

KangYoon shook his head. His springtime with Kim JaeHoon was indeed very ‘hot’. As compensation, he now had sufficient finances, and he was now going to drag White Moonlight to mainstream media.

“Then who will it be in autumn then? JiMin?”

“I think we’ll have to wait some more for JiMin. It’s not like we’re lacking funds right now. I think that we should wait some more and polish her properly.”

“Looks like we’ll have a frightening singer on hand in the future. She was already scary when I peeked at her practice with Seonbae (t/n: the prof). I like this. I feel like our company is finally starting to take shape.”

Lee HyunJi felt good. Considering the hard times she had thanks to the troubles with the singers as well as the pressure of finances, it was now much more stable. There was Kim JaeHoon, who was earning them money, as well as White Moonlight, who was steadily gaining popularity. KangYoon was also earning money with his songs, so the state of the company was now much more stable.

However, KangYoon shook his head saying that there was still much to go.

“This is just the beginning. It’s still too dangerous to rely on Kim JaeHoon alone. And we also have to host a concert, so we have to save up for that as well.”

“A concert? With our current finanaces, a country-wide tour is too much of a stretch.”

“We’ll only do it once or twice in Seoul. But, we definitely have to do the end-of-year one. To do that, we’ll have to save up for it. It’s also what JaeHoon wants to do, too.”

“Looks like my holiday season this year will be spent at the company.”

Pouted Lee HyunJi slightly. However, she was very happy about it.

KangYoon left her behind and headed towards the practice room that White Moonlight was in.

“You don’t know — what I’ll say — my tears fall – on my -cold cheeks –”

When KangYoon opened the door, Lee HyunAh’s powerful voice was filling the room.

‘Is this a new song?’

KangYoon crossed his arms while looking at the multicolored musical notes make white light. The low-pitched distortion from the electric guitar was especially showy.

“To me — nothing –”

Lee HyunAh was drunk on singing. The yellow musical note coming from her was accenting the white light.

‘Not bad.’

The light was not bad. The sounds all harmonized quite suitably, and ended like that.

“Fuah. Hello.”

Greeted Lee HyunAh in everyone’s place. KangYoon waved his hand.

“Can you gather around for a sec?”

Everyone put down their instruments and gathered in front of him. Since KangYoon wasn’t seen much these days due to work, everyone was nervous.

“There’s a Rock Festival in August.”

“Wait, wait a minute. Isn’t that the one held in Goyang?”

Lee HyunAh reacted to the words ‘Rock Festival’. The rest of the members all widened their eyes too.

“Are we going there?”

At Lee ChaHee’s question, KangYoon nodded his head.

“Yup. We’ll turn in the application form today, and unless something special happens, you’ll all go there.”

“Wow!”

All of White Moonlight shouted in joy. The Rock Festival was known to have the largest audience reactions among all the concerts in the country. There were even rumors that singers on the stage there received healing from the audience. And now, they were about to go on it. They each gave each other high-fives.

KangYoon spoke after they calmed down a little.

“You’ll get busy from now on. We were given one hour in the Rock Festival. That means, this is an hour long concert. This is a different story to last time, where you shared the stage with other singers.”

Seeing them excited, KangYoon cautioned them. They were still young. Although youth was good, too much excitement would lead to mistakes. KangYoon wanted to avoid such mistakes. Everyone nodded in understanding.

“After the Rock Festival, it will be autumn, which is when we’ll open our all concert hall. A month after that, you’ll go mainstream.”

“WHAAT?”

Everyone’s voices got loud again at his declaration. They were shocked.

“We… are all… going… together… right?”

When Kim JinDae asked, KangYoon spoke as though it was obvious.

“You’ll go on stage as White Moonlight.”

Implying that they were obviously going as a team. Hearing that, Lee ChaHee poked Kim JinDae’s side.

‘Are you dumb? Don’t you know how good our president is?’

‘No, it’s not that….’

‘Stop your bullshit.’

In the end, Kim JinDae dropped after being scolded by Lee ChaHee.

KangYoon spoke in detail about their future schedules. He talked about how they no longer needed to worry about having a stage, and that they should take care of their appearances in preparation for going mainstream. At that, Kim JinDae muttered something but was poked again by Lee ChaHee on his side.

After telling them everything he needed to, KangYoon left the practice room. But then, Lee HyunAh followed him out.

“Do you have something to talk about?”

“No…. Just… thank you.”

“For what?”

“Just…. For letting us all do music together. If this was some other place, it would have been unimaginable.”

Rock Festival as well as going mainstream.

Lee HyunAh found all of this unrealistic when KangYoon said this to her. She felt excited as each of his words were being fulfilled.

Regardless, KangYoon just shrugged his shoulders.

“Sheesh. It was a promise, wasn’t it? Also, you don’t have to thank me just yet. Just earn me a lot of money before you thank me.”

“Fufu, okay then.”

Lee HyunAh made a blissful smile while looking at KangYoon turning around.

***

Company work in the day, and arrangement during the night.

KangYoon was spending a very busy life. These days, or nights, he was working on Kim JaeHoon’s song that HeeYoon had sent him.

‘Should I add some percussion here?’

He switched out the drum sounds with another percussion, but the light was still weak. No matter how great it was when played by the piano alone, there was no meaning if it wasn’t any good after the arrangement. Just like how it was now.

‘That’s strange. It didn’t feel like this when HeeYoon gave it to me. Did I do something wrong?’

KangYoon listened to the sounds and tilted his head. He felt as though the light had become weaker since the start. Although a series of musical notes was in his vision, it was not to his satisfaction.

“Hyung. Oh, you’re working.”

Kim JaeHoon entered his room, but turned back to leave seeing that he was working. But then, KangYoon told him to stay.

“Oh, it’s fine. Wait a sec.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“You need me?”

“Yeah. JaeHoon. What do you think of when you sing a song about breaking up?”

“Breaking up? Hmm…. It doesn’t make me sad even if I think of my ex-girlfriend. Instead, I think about my mom.”

“Mom?”

“I just want to see her when I think about her. Breaking up is like not being able to see even though you want to see her. That’s why I think about my mom.”

“Oooh, that’s right. I’m trying to bring that kind of feeling out from the melody, but I’m getting nowhere right now.”

“Really? Should I have a look then?”

KangYoon played back the bits that he had arranged until now. This was the introductory bit and a part of the first verse. Kim JaeHoon stepped according to the rhythm but then tilted his head after a while.

“I’m not sure since there’s no lyrics right now, but it doesn’t give me the right feeling. I think adding an explosive feeling at the beginning would be good.”

“An explosive feeling?”

“Yeah. It starts out very calm with the piano, doesn’t it? I think that will make people sleepy. What about you just burst it all out in the beginning? That will make the song less boring….”

“Hm…….”

KangYoon started editing the song again. He played back the melody and combined various synthesizer sounds as well. The keyboard sounds and the synths loudly rung out in the room.

A while later.

“Let’s do this again.”

KangYoon played back the song. As Kim JaeHoon had said, the bursting feeling at the beginning was quite strong.

‘Grey….’

However, he shook his head. However, Kim JaeHoon behind him had sparkly eyes saying that it was good.

“This is it.”

“What?”

KangYoon was shocked. Grey was good? Something seemed to be wrong here.

“This kind of feeling. Very explosive and good.”

“R… really?”

“Yes. I think we should go with this.”

Kim JaeHoon seemed to have taken a liking to the changed beginning and drowned himself in the melody.

‘This… isn’t good….’

KangYoon started pondering about what to do with the song.