Chapter 64. Feature (2)
A week quickly passed by after Lee Hyun's meeting with Lee Hyerin.
In this one week, he completed the rearrangement of Dreams and discussed the marketing plan with Kim Dongsu.
They can't do intensive marketing because of the budget, but Lee Hyerin doing a feature for one of the songs was enough for people to be at least slightly interested in Minyuk.
You can say that Lee Hyun was just trying to ride the fame of Lee Hyerin.
But he doesn't have much choice here.
Apart from all this, he also started the recording for Dreams with Minyuk.
Lee Hyerin had a busy schedule, so they needed to wait for her schedule to get free before they could start the recording of Broken.
That's why, to save time, Lee Hyun decided to record Dreams first. Like that, a week passed by and on Thursday, Lee Hyerin came to the office of Mango Entertainment.
"This place doesn't look bad."
Lee Hyerin said as she looked around.
"Yeah, it's small, but it's more than enough for us currently. It's not like we have many trainees or artists."
Lee Hyun said and started showing her around the office. He was feeling rather thankful for her as she was doing the feature for free.
The more astonishing fact was that Nike Entertainment had allowed her to do so.
'The power of a celebrity really depends on their popularity.'
A small celebrity needs to listen to his agency and he can't oppose their decisions, but it was different for big celebrities like Lee Hyerin.
They can do anything because of their popularity and the agency can only nod their heads. It was because the celebrity can easily transfer to another agency since he or she would have options.
That's why it was necessary to look at the personality of the person first instead of their talents.
'I wonder if Minyuk or Harin would change after becoming famous.'
While thinking about it, Lee Hyun led Lee Hyerin to the underground studio. It was not much different than the studios in Nike Entertainment.
"President."
As soon as they entered the studio, Minyuk greeted them.
His hair and clothes were messy as he was practically living in the studio these days due to the recording. He wanted to give it his all since it was his first album.
Lee Hyun was the same as him, so both of them were getting along while working on the album.
"Minyuk, I wanted to introduce you to someone."
Lee Hyun said with a smile and Minyuk tilted his head.
"Who is... Lee Hyerin!!!"
Minyuk paused when he finally noticed Lee Hyerin who was standing behind Lee Hyun. He wasn't able to stop himself from shouting due to the sudden arrival of a celebrity.
"Hello. So, you are Kang Minyuk?"
"Y-yeah."
Minyuk shuddered as he opened his mouth. He stared at Lee Hyerin with shock because she was one of the most popular singers currently.
In a way, she was someone Minyuk really admired.
'It's really different to see her in real life.'
A former idol group member who left her group after an unexpected pregnancy. No one has ever thought that she would make a comeback and a successful one at that.
Standing in front of someone like that, Minyuk would obviously feel nervous.
"I didn't think you would be this nervous."
Lee Hyun laughed when he saw Minyuk being nervous. He was usually calm and composed, so it was surprising.
"No, it's just too surprising."
"Well, you would be working together for sometime. So, get used to it."
Minyuk slightly nodded his head hearing that, but he was still somewhat stiff.
"You really don't have to be nervous."
"Ah?"
Minyuk was slightly surprised when Lee Hyerin suddenly came close to him.
"I know that it's normal to be nervous, but it would affect your singing if you get too nervous. You can talk to me casually as we would be working together."
Lee Hyerin said all that with a slight smile and Minyuk finally calmed down.
"Thank you."
"There's no need to say that."
* * *
After introducing each and calming down, the three of them sat down on the sofa and began to discuss the song.
"Have you practiced the song?"
Lee Hyun asked Lee Hyerin and she nodded her head enthusiastically.
"Of course, I practiced it many times."
He had already sent the score of the song and guide version to Lee Hyerin, so he was confident that she wouldn't disappoint him.
"Broken is a song that emphasizes the lyrics and the melody, so try to focus on that during the recording. It's fine if you make mistakes."
Recording was a process to just record the song countless times and insert the best parts. It was fine even if the singer makes some mistakes as they can just go over it again.
It was also the reason why some recordings take days.
"Are we recording my part first?"
Lee Hyerin asked and Lee Hyun shook his head.
"No, let's go over Minyuk's lines first. I want you to adjust to his style and cover the parts where he is lacking."
The main reason Lee Hyun had decided to add a feature was because he wanted to profit on the fame of Lee Hyerin, but that was not the only reason.
Another reason was that he wanted a female singer to give a more emotional feel to the song and he had also noticed that Minyuk was lacking in some parts.
He wanted Lee Hyerin to correct that.
"I understand, but is this guitar solo really necessary during the bridge?"
Lee Hyerin suddenly became concerned about the bridge part of the song.
The bridge of the song was different than the whole song.
It was done to avoid the repetitive lyrics and the music in it was also different than the whole song.
A song would normally go on like verse - verse - chorus - verse - chorus, but a song with bridge would go on like verse - verse - chorus - verse - bridge - chorus.
"Do you think it would ruin the song?"
"It won't ruin, but the guitar part is really hard. I don't think anyone else other than a professional guitarist would be able to perform it well."
Lee Hyun smiled hearing that.
The reason he had added the bridge part was because of Minyuk's guitar skills. Rather than his singing, he was better at playing the guitar.
"Why don't we record the bridge part first?"
He proposed after thinking for a bit.