JUST A NOTE, THESE ARE NOT EDITED. THESE WILL NOT BE EDITED UNTIL I FIND SOMEONE TO GO THROUGH AND EDIT THESE.
Upkey Girl 2
< Heungul Heungul Sound >
(Humming Sound, left it untranslated b/c it's the name of the studio)
MUSIC & VOCAL PRODUCING
흥얼흥얼 사운드 CEO 염대수
(Humming Sound CEO Yeom Dae Soo)
"The company name is interesting. Heungul Heungul Sound."
As I said that, he seemed a bit embarrassed and stuttered out an explanation with an awkward smile.
"Well, it means 'let's make music with fun and spirit'. (흥fun/excitement + 얼spirit)
"Ahaha, nice name."
Hyun Dong jumped in with a proud expression.
"I named it."
"Good work."
"I heard you were Hyun Dong hyung's senior in the army."
"Yeah. I was his senior by three months."
"Then you must've known him for almost over 10 years. It's not hard to keep a close relationship with people from the army."
"If I meet him too often it gets annoying, so I need to see him occasionally. Isn't Hyun Dong that kinda person?"
I joked and he returned in favor.
"Hahaha, he's the annoying type for sure. Hyungnim, no need to use honorifics for me."
I wondered if I should because of his rough impression, but since he was Hyun Dong's hoobae (kouhai, opposite of senpai, sunbae), and I wasn't the type for formalities in a private setting so I went with it.
And that's how the meeting began. (Author put 술자리 = drink meeting)
Hyun Dong started the conversation with my ability as the topic.
"Did Rosemary debut when we were Corporals?"
"Yeah. When I reached my 4th salary class" (호봉號俸TLN: apparently they count the time their by their salary increases? Idk I didn't go to the army)
He filled my glass and gestured at me with his chin and went on with his explanation at Yeom Dae Soo.
"Do you know which one he predicted would become top-class in Rosemary?"
"Lee JuRi? Som Yee?"
"No, Ra Ye Na."
"Huh? Ra Ye Na was a nobody back then. She only made it big after she went solo…"
"That's what I'm saying. But he predicted it at that moment."
From how things were going, this was to verify my abilities through Yeom Dae Soo.
Hyun Dong proceeded to tell him everyone that I predicted would become a success or was a bubble (bubble 거품aka bubble-economy, no real value), and I told him everything I knew without hiding anything.
There was no reason to conceal anything, and I wanted to help if I was able to.
Obviously, I skipped the supernatural part about me seeing lights that others couldn't see.
"Is it called Ggi? (끼loosely = talent) if I just see them, I can feel an aura of a celebrity. I wish they'd make a betting ticket on this stuff. (author put 토토which is basically a gambling ticket) On who will make it and who won't, that kind of stuff."
"Hahahaha."
Yeom Dae Soo gave a hearty laugh and leaned the soju bottle towards me.
Then, not sure if it was serious or joking, he added a vague favor.
"Then come to our audition at least once. This project is very important to us."
"I don't mind at all, but it's not something I've done before… I told Hyun Dong already but I know nothing about music. I'm just a regular salaryman."
"We're the main judges anyway so don't feel pressured. It's like being a consultant."
Once Hyun Dong added, Yeom Dae Soo did as well.
"Yeah, just take it as coming over to take a look at Hyun Dong hyung's studio."
"I'm confident in myself… but I'm not quite sure how much help I'll be. This isn't something that can distinguish their level, and is only able to see their gifts and star-qualities…"
"That's what we want. We can teach them to sing and dance, but you need to be born with Ggi." (Ggi 끼= Talents, natural gift)
I got off at HakDong Station on Subway Line 7, and followed the map Hyun Dong sent me for about five minutes.
As I entered the apartment area behind the furniture street, I saw big crowd of people starting at the mouth of the alleyway.
"Wow…"
They were all participants in the audition.
Most seemed to be middle schoolers, and the eldest were probably mid-20s.
A few elementary kids came with their mothers.
Some were flaunting their fashion senses, others were in comfy training-clothes, but the rag-tag bunch of youths were humming songs (흥얼거리다humming) or going over their dance choreographies.
One girl was complaining to her friend as she was checking her face with her phone camera.
"Ah, fuck what do I do. My swollen eye still hasn't calmed down. It's fucking annoying, fuck ." (존나짜증나씨발, It's fucking annoying fuck. Or insert other cusswords here +annoyance)
She was so good at the hard-sounding words. (센발음is used to denote words with ㅆor ㄸor any other doubles. double ㅅand double ㄷ)
She had a pretty face, but practically had a rag in her mouth.
Don't worry kid, you won't make it. Your swollen eye isn't the issue, but you don't have a shred of light coming from your body.
It's not too late, so go back to studying.
Uhm?
From a quick glance it wasn't just the Jonna(존나is a cheap cussword) girl that needed to study hard.
There's was only a small number of those with an aura of a star.
No, there wasn't even one in my sights.
Let alone a top-star's aura, I couldn't see one that had a regular light.
It felt like this audition gathering of aspiring artists seemed worse than a group in Itaewon or Gangnam during the weekends. (Hot spots in KR to go for nightlife.)
Can you guy even put food in your mouth at this rate?
Stop daydreaming and go back to studying.
As I entered the alleyway, a few sharp gazes scanned me top to bottom.
It probably means 'the fuck is this geezer doing here.'
Yup. I'm your judge.
Bend over mother fuckers.
Fuc , I, with your sponsor, fuck, drank last week! Went to noraebang (karaoke) and, fuck? Did it all! (the phrase is a meme concerning geezers in Korea.)
It felt awkward to make my way through the unnerving gazes and enter the building.
Instead, I walked over the coffee shop on the first floor next to the office building and called Hyun Dong. As if showing off my status to the applicants.
"I'm in front of the office, want some coffee?"
-We're good, we have coffee so just buy yourself one.
"Hey, there's a lot of people here. There's a line out in front."
-Heheh, that's just the 1st group.
"Ah, really? Seemed like it was over a hundred."
-There were a lot of applicants, so we made an announcement after diving the timeslots. There was about 1500 applicants.
"1500? Damn."
-Who knows how many came out of that number.
Even with a 50% attendance rate, it's 750 people.
I thought it would only be about 100 applicants, but it seems I looked down on their company a bit too much.
The office was in the basement of the building.
"Excuse me, coming through."
After buying my coffee, I excused myself through the students in front of the entrance and headed down the stairs.
I could smell the air freshener wafting in the air.
I expected a shabby, run-down practice room as it was a group of friends that were doing this. Kinda like Steve Jobs and Wozniack's warehouse.
But holy shit.
The beige-tone interior was as clean as a café's and it wasn't large but it was a proper recording studio like the ones I saw on TV. There were four rooms along the hallway.
TRAINING ROOM
CEO ROOM
MIDI ROOM
RECORDING ROOM
Above the shoe storage, there were signed CDs from the artists that attended lessons here.
Whuuut.
It was cool to look at as it was my first time seeing something like this.
[To. Ruzu Sam! Thanks for the times. I'll do my best!] (쌤=teacher short for 선생님->샘->쌤)
[Ju Hyung Sam thank you for teaching me such a good song ^^]
[Dae Soo Hyung Thankyu! From. Lee Chan Woo] (Author wrote 땡큐= Thankyu in pronunciation)
Actor Lee Chan Woo?
Woah, isn't this kinda big?
Even I know him.
He wasn't a top-tier, but he's a 20s actor who's reveling in popularity after taking on a sub-main male character on a total tv programming channel.
He had an album. I didn't know that.
There were 20-something signed CDs from Idol groups, mainstream hip-hop groups, and other artists that took lessons or were friends of the guys here.
As I was gazing at the collection, I came across Yeom Dae Soo who came out of the restroom.
He greeted me with his characteristic heavy and low voice.
"Hyungnim you're here."
"Hey, Yeom DaePyo" (DaePyo = CEO, but Korea slightly distinguishes between the two)
I lightly waved in response.
We became close after moving shops twice during the drinking meeting, and even went to a singing bar.
"You don't look so good today either."
"Yeah, I drank till 5am. Here, change into these slippers."
"Thankyu. Aren't there a lot of people? I heard there were 1500 applicants."
"Yeah. We were surprised too. I think it's because of the school vacation for kids."
Dae Soo gave a slight, awkward smile and led me to the room with the sign 'TRAINING ROOM'.
A mirror filled the whole wall on one side.
It was the choreography practice room and today's audition site.
Inside, there were about 5-6 employees including Hyun Dong. Two female.
"Is everyone well?" (안녕들하십니까polite way to say is everyone well + greeting in a very formal way)
Greetings were good manners.
Once I gave a nice, clean greeting with a bow it was returned in kind.
"Yeah, annyung haeseyo." (안녕하세요an nyung ha se yo. Basically a formal greeting)
"Annyung haeseyo" (can't TL this without botching the meaning so it's gonna have to work.)
Hyun Dong formally introduced me, and the meeting began.
An audition meeting, when I have no connections to this.
I sat and listened as I was here as a Consultant(?). (? Added by author)
The auditions were changed to two rounds of 1st preliminaries because there was a lot of applicants.
Today and tomorrow, and two days of the next weekend.
From then on, the 2nd round of preliminaries happen the week after here at this office location, and the main round, with major agencies, takes place at a small theater at one of the Universities in Seoul.
For now, I agreed to help until the 1st preliminary that went on until tomorrow.
After 10 minutes, everyone had their roles down.
"Let's go for a smoke."
At Hyun Dong's gesturing Yeom DaePyo (CEO, representative, president), and I got up.
There was another door besides the one that went up to the 1st floor. It was a smoking area as well as a door leading to the underground parking space of the building. The well-known celebrities use this door to enter apparently.
The parking lot was empy except for the single BMW5 parked there, and it was Yeom Dae Soo's.
"Woah, Yeom DaePyo you're leading a successful life." (DaePyo CEO, etc explained above as well)
"Nah, I'm not."
Yeom DaePyo shook his head embarrassedly. (ok I'm not noting DaePyo anymore fuck this lol)
Originally, he had a domestic mid-sized car, but changed to keep face as a DaePyo. It was because of work, and people that judged based on the external cues.
While we were smoking I had a chance to hear more about the inner-workings of the studio.
This is the 3rd year of acquaintances and friends getting together and putting together this studio.
7 males and 2 females.
Each had a different role but matched everyone's titles as Producer (PD).
There were some that did two jobs like Hyun Dong.
There were two hyungnims that were older than us, and everyone else was dongsaeng. (Hyung + nim honorific. Denotes older male. Dongsaeng = everyone younger regardless of gender.)
Each manage to bring in work, but most big jobs were brought in by Yeom DaePyo.
The last 2 years, they were barely scraping by to avoid making a loss and it's only recently they've been able to take a breather by working together with a mid-sized entertainment company. (중소= JungSo = Mid+Small. Denotes any company that is not a major/big size)
This audition was also planned in tandem with 10 other entertainment agencies. In their midst was the the 'Planelle (플랜엘Plan L? may need to change spelling phonetics later)' company which was known for taking over the charts whenever they made a comeback. (씹어먹다= chew whole, basically take over completely)
"Planelle's songs are good."
"They worked with us a lot. We made the song for the Year End Awards Ceremony Performance."
"What really? Did you see them in person?"
As I asked Yeom Dae Soo, Hyun Dong jumped in to boast.
"DaeSoo was their vocal trainer when they were trainees. Did SooHyun and JaeHee learn from you?"
"Yeah."
"They did guide recordings in our studio a lot as well."
"Woah, is JaeHee pretty in real life?"
They were a talent-based group known for all 4 members having extraordinary singing abilities, but there were two appraised as the 'visual' members.
One of them was Jae Hee. I can't remember the other member's names, but I remember her because she's my type.
"Uhuh, Jae Hee is pretty. The other's look better in person as well."
As Hyun Dong gave a thumbs up, Yeom Dae Soo showed a picture he took with the Planelle members as a response. It was as Hyun Dong said. The phone picture proved that girl groups are girl groups for a reason.
"Woah, look at how small her face is. Hey, why didn't you tell me you meet celebrities?"
When I chastised Hyun Dong he let out a short laugh as though I were being childish.
"Tell you that for what. And it's Dae Soo that's close with them not me. I've only seem them once while recording."
Yeom DaePyo added proudly.
"They like drinking so much that we go for soju every now and then."
"Me too. I want to drink soju with Jae Hee."
It was a joke, but Yeom DaePyo took it seriously.
"They're not active right now so they should have a lot of time, should I call them up?"
"Yeom, you're a great man. I love you." (PLEASE NOTE THE PUN사랑해염play on words for 사랑해요. Saranghaeyeom, Saranghaeyo.)
Hyun Dong quickly added excitedly.
"Great, call them up."
Seems like he's actually close. Yeom DaePyo received an immediate response once he went out a KaTalk to someone.
"Jae Hee and Soo Hyun are working out right now but have time in the evening. Should I tell them to come?"
"Do I need to go on?"
#Saturaday, #Planelle, #Success
< Heungul Heungul Sound > End
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