The meeting lasted for another 2 hours because there were actually so many things that I and the production team have to decide together. Well, to be honest, it was more like they were telling me what they've got planned for me.
My B-side song is called Young and Free, which is a more funky and playful song. Although there are rap verses, I'm assured that vocal teachers and producers will be there to help me. The other songs on the mini album are amazing as well, I can't wait to start recording them!
I head to Namjoon Sunbae's studio and he's already there working on something.
'Annyeonghaseyo, Shannon! Ready to record your first song ever?' He asks me, still being as nice as he was when we first met.
'Yup, Namjoon Sunbaenim, thank you so much for giving me such a beautiful song!' I reply.
He laughs gently and says, 'you know I was going to save this song for the BTS vocal line for our next album, but Bang Sihyuk, oh, I mean, Bang P.D. nim insists that I save this song for his newest debut. To be honest, I was really surprised that the next debut that he kept talking about turned out to be a girl.'
I tilt my head and say, 'oh really? I heard that Bighit entertainment never takes any female trainees.' Suddenly remembering what Sav told me before I came to Seoul.
He nods,' yeah, and we still don't. You're gonna be our first female artist in years!'
Now I'm feeling more pressure than before. Bang P.D. has never mentioned to me that he literally snatched a song from BTS to give me as a debut track! Why did he even choose me to be his company's first female idol in years in the first place?
The door suddenly opens and in comes the dinner thief.
'RM hyung, are you busy right now?' He asks Namjoon Sunbae without even acknowledging my presence.
'Oh, we're just starting to record Shannon's debut title track,' Namjoon Sunbae explains.
Dinner thief takes the fastest glance at me and turns around and says, 'ahhh, I see. I'll come back later, bye hyung.'
Namjoon Sunbae doesn't seem fazed by his abrupt visit, he turns to me and says, 'sorry about that. Let's start recording now. How's your Korean learning?'
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'Alright! Let's take a break,' Namjoon Sunbae says.
Recording a song is so much harder than I thought.
I walk out of the recording room and Namjoon Sunbae gives me a bottle of water. ' Thank you, Sunbaenim.'
The disappointment in my voice must be so obvious that Namjoon Sunbae notices, 'Shannon, you were doing a really great job just now, why do you look so sad?'
I sigh, finally looking up at the producer of my debut track, 'great job? I only recorded the first 3 lines of the first verse in the past hour! How is that good?'
He giggles, 'it's completely normal! No one said recording a song was easy! And it's your first time ever, don't expect too much! I remember Jiminie used to cry because the P.D. nim was being so harsh on every single line. But it's good because the songs all turned out at the highest quality.'
I can't even bother asking him who Jiminie is. I bet it's one of his BTS teammates.
'Ok! Let's continue recording!' He says after taking another sip of water.
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'Ok, Shannon, I'm gonna go use the bathroom, can you practice the first bit of the chorus while I'm gone?' Namjoon Sunbae asks.
'No problem, Sunbaenim!'
The chorus has a catchy tune which even the demo is really fun to listen to. I'm just really struggling to read the lyrics quickly, a lot of the time was actually wasted on Namjoon Sunbae patiently telling me how some words are pronounced.
'That's not how you use head voice,' a voice comes through on the other side which does not belong to Namjoon Sunbae.
I jump from the sudden interruption. I didn't even hear that the dinner thief has come into the room. The walls are really soundproof, damn.
He comes through to the recording room and takes a look of the lyrics that Namjoon Sunbae printed out for me. 'You're doing the chorus now, right?'
I'm still confused about why he's here so I only managed to nod.
He sings the chorus with such ease and precision even in the original female key! There's not a single hint of breathlessness like I did. Is he one of the vocal teachers?
'You're using too much nasal tone, it's stopping you from hitting the higher notes,' he explains. 'Try again, and this time imagine that you're trying to reach the top of your head while singing.'
' How will this turn out? How do I survive? It's all in the unknown but I will keep on fighting...'
Wow, I did everything that he told me to do and it actually turned out so much better than before!
'Thank you so much! I can't believe I can sing these high notes with so much ease!' I tell him.
He still has a straight face even though he looks like he is trying to avoid making eye contact with me. 'I'm leaving now. Please tell Namjoon hyung I came by.'
Then he's gone.
I haven't even got his name and he's already left like he's in a hurry. How am I gonna tell Namjoon Sunbaenim that some vocal teacher came by looking for him but I don't know who he was?
The door opens again and Namjoon Sunbae walks in with 2 other guys. If I thought Namjoon Sunbae was tall, these two are giants.
He says,' sorry, Shannon, these two caught me on my way. These are Soobin and HueningKai, both are members of TXT.'
'Annyeonghaseyo, Soobin, HueningKai Sunbaenim. I am Shannon, nice to meet you.'
They both smile at me and bow back at me. Namjoon Sunbae, who is standing right next to the TXT members, says, 'ya, look at these two cheeky boys. They're getting so shy from meeting a female idol.'
The guy with the palest, smoothest skin who I think is HueningKai says, ' we haven't heard a lot of people calling us Sunbaenim yet, haha.'
I shake my head frantically, 'Sunbae, I'm barely a trainee, let alone an idol!'
Soobin also joins the conversation, 'yeah, I heard you just joined the company and you're already debuting in 5 months. Daebak!'
'I...'
' Yeah, I mean she got RM hyung to produce her title track! She must be a big deal!' HueningKai turns to Namjoon Sunbae and asks, 'hyung nim, when will you produce a song for us, too?'
Namjoon Sunbae laughs, 'Shannon is our first female debut in god knows how many years! Of course, we have to produce the best stuff for her! Okay, if you guys don't mind, Shannon and I have a song to record. She's a really busy person.'
Both of them motion zipping up their mouths and retreat to the corner of the studio and silently watching Namjoon Sunbae does his magic.
He is right. I get such amazing songs and arrangements for my debut. I should work 10 times harder so I won't let anybody down. I can do this!