BTS Eighth Member | The Life: Year 2017

Producing Sea

April 28th, 2017:

I had come into the company early at 4am to use Yoongi's studio to work on the beat and melody for the song I'd written (and brought Namjoon on to help towards the end). I already had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted it to sound like. I also wanted this to be more than a demo to really show Bang PD I could produce, so I wanted all the boys to record parts for the songs as if it were real. They'd all agreed, but I'd have to work around their schedules. I had finalized the lyrics yesterday and sent it to all the boys so they could get familiar with it and for the rappers to add their own twists to their raps if they wanted to. I wanted to finish it soon to make sure I was submitting it on time, leaving time in case anyone upper-up had suggestions on fixing it.

At 7:30am, I heard the door open and swung Yoongi's chair around. A tired-looking Yoongi was coming through, dropping his bag by the couch.

"Hey," he mutters, rubbing his eyes, "how long have you been here?"

"Since 4," I answer, yawning in response to his yawn.

"How's it coming?" he asks, moving to stand next to me looking at what I had on the screen.

"Okay I think," I say unsure, "I think I'm almost done honestly".

"Really, can I hear it?" Yoongi says pleasantly surprised, "I'm gonna have to hear it at some point," he adds in response to my nervous look.

"Okay..." I give in, hitting play.

Yoongi looked focused as the song played. He stayed silent for a few seconds when it ended, making me feel more nervous than I already had been. I was picking at my fingers, rubbing my arms waiting for his critique.

"Stop doing that to your fingers," he says seriously, leaning down and removing my right hand, which had been doing the damage, from my left.

"Sorry," I mutter, anxiously waiting for his thoughts, "so... what do you think?"

"Y/N... I think it's good, really good," he nods, a slight proud smile creeping up on his face, "I might speed up the drums at the end a little, but that's just my take. I guess it depends on what vibe you want for it though".

I nod, going to see what it would sound like if I did do as he suggested. As was to be expected, he was right, it sounded much better this way.

"Did you look at the lyrics?" I ask, turning around to face him as he rummaged through his bag.

"Yeah, I did," he answers, "I changed it a bit for my flow, but not much. I really liked what you sent me. Want me to try it now?"

"I... sure, yeah," I nod, going to his part in the song so he would have a beat to listen to as he rapped. He pulled up a chair to sit on while he rapped into the mic on his desk.

He redid it a few times because the first couple times, he tripped up, and then the other times I wanted him to emphasize different places. I was a little nervous telling someone with so much more experience than me that I wanted them to sing or rap differently, but he did everything I asked him to. He wasn't condescending or questioning my choices. He just did as asked.