RM 5/28 Live Pt. 1

hihi

My commentary in green.

ai shhii the angle is ::phone drops::
i gotta get a better angle

it's cuz i put it [the phone] on top of my pokemon cards

jak;fdjgladfj;lj cutiejakdlgj;alfjgl

anyonghasaeyo
it's been a while since i turned on the stream by myself
ugh this is frustrating (talking about fumbling with his phone to get it to stand upright so he could conduct the livestream)
one sec
okay..
works now right?
i don't like how this is cut off though so adjusting slightly this way
like this

k anyonghasaeyo
is the back too bright?
oh! who's that, jin hyung? hi anyonghasaeyo

what should i do?
what should i doo?
do i look like a ghost? (fidgeting with the lights)
this is better right?
i went riding roller coasters with jin hyung and i put that photo as the thumbnail for the stream
the reason i turned on the stream is because if i don't turn it on today, i probably won't turn it on for a long time
but before too much time passes since arirang was released, i wanted to talk about be sure to unpack some of the things while it's still fresh in my memory
i set the subtitles to korean so i'll try to speak in korean for the important stuff

if it's not clear, he does/says this because the Korean subtitles are a bit more accurate and he's about to share things that are deeply meaningful to him re: the work on this album, he'd rather not set it to 'english subtitles' and have things sort of misrepresented. Rather, he'd choose to articulate his thoughts clearly in Korean

as in, it's not about de-prioritizing non-Korean speakers, it's about wanting to express HIMSELF most accurately in his native language. my readers/followers/mooties likely aren't the ones getting this twisted, but I wanted to say that CLEARLY, just for your knowledge, in case you see some nonsense circulating that suggests otherwise. but like i'll always also suggest, it's not worth correcting internet dbags - I just want you to know for yourself in certain terms. don't waste time/energy correcting stranger dumdums 😘.

yesterday, we got the AMAs and then today
while performing in North America, Korea, and Japan.. there are times when I like get choked up and really immersed in the emotions
it's been a little over two months since this album came out, about 70 days or so.
I have a lot of thoughts about this album and for those of you who are coming to the concerts, I wanted to share some things on this live that I really want you to know [about the album/him]

now after tomorrow's last las vegas show, we'll be heading back to korea, so um yeah
in the past, I think I used to write down a lot of things and prepare for the live, so I was really debating about whether to turn on the stream or not, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the regional stories and things related to song camp and the album and my thoughts about the future...

because while performing, we went to seoul, tokyo, then tampa, el paso, mexico city, stanford, and then las vegas
we went to these 7 regions, and it was really nice to perform after such a long time and see so many people, it made me think about a lot of things
so I felt like I was really connecting with the audience, and especially.. there's so many of you who see [us/the concert] through video clips
during the encore part, there's that karaoke part where they play random songs and you never know which song is going to come out, and a lot of old songs come out there, right?
and today, 'Attack on Bangtan' came out, and if I remember correctly, 'Attack on Bangtan' came out around the time of NO, so it's been about 13 years, 12 and a half years or so..
thereby sorta bringing us back to the old days..
then being able to reflect on our present selves..
and then considering how we can do better in the future..

I think this has been a time for me to be able to think on those things a lot
and so i mean..

and i mean some of it.. is hassle to think about but
and cuz every single word I speak.. i mean sometimes can cause issues..
so honestly i was debating on whether or not even to talk about/turn this live at all

should i talk about arirang?
but to be honest, like other than the Rolling Stone interview
we only really talked about the album in a professional way
so I wanted to talk about how we approached the album and..
actually now that some time has passed
i can.. how should I put it.. there are things I'm able to talk about with a more refined tone, I guess
by now, I felt it would be okay to turn on a live to talk about it
[cuz by now] the wave of news [about the album] has passed, we've won awards, we've also done the first leg of the tour..

so anyway, we pored over so many things about this album very sincerely
considering all that, i don't think we've adequately communicated/expressed/shared all of that quite yet

so first off, there are my thoughts on the album as a comprehensive whole
then there are my thoughts on music and performance these days, which I want to share after going through the album
but first, before I get into that,
when Jin hyung was discharged from the military, it was about a year before we were all discharged, and at that time, we were all in a pretty bad mental state
so when Jin hyung was discharged - that time I was playing the saxophone - and we all gathered at either Jimin's house or my house, I think it was Jimin's house
and at that time, Jung Kook was also going through a really tough time
I mean we were all going through ittt, we were all privates [Korean military], crying our eyes out and stuff

talking about things like 'hyung, you'll have to do a lot to hold down the team for us..'
we talked about a LOT of things that time
and we decided pretty simply/concisely -'okay, considering how long they've waited/have to wait for us - as SOON as we're all discharged, we should come back with an album to show our appreciation in return

and with all the remaining members' discharge scheduled for June, the timing was good..

but starting from the end of the previous year, we started talking about the setting for the song camp
regarding like 'who will lead/captain the song camp' was..
actually "song camp" is a kind of Konglish term, it's originally called "session" in English
I had experience with 'sessions' during the making of RPWP with about 30-40 people, within HYBE, so I was very familiar
Likely Jung Kook and Hobi also had direct experiences too

And so with 'sessions' there are sessions that include the artists themselves
But there are also sessions that take place before the artists are involved, like pre-sessions

I'm not sure of the exact timing but we started talking about the song camp setting around the end of last year to go to LA around July or August to go to the session together I'm pretty sure that's what we'd decided

I think I also really looked forward to that time
Wanted to discharge asap

And as long as the hiatus was.. Jin hyung and Hobi endured the most honestly
So many concerts and appearing on variety shows..
So moving beyond that sort of gap/disconnect (their hiatus)
The next thing was for us to fly to LA together

The issue was this...
the pre-session was already underway before we were discharged, as far as I know
starting around April or May

From that time, the songs that were coming out were 'BODY TO BODY', 'Swim', 'Normal', 'Like Animals', and ...Please?
Yea, I think those were it .. those had came out during that time

Just in case you're unaware, when he says 'these songs were out' - he doesn't mean the songs were the completed versions you know today, he means the existence of those songs, perhaps some of the larger themes, details, maybe some substantial melodies/directions for those songs were already secured - but it's not that those songs were in their final form as you recognize them today

Once we were discharged, before we headed out to LA, we all got together at a *pension and preview-listened to the songs

*펜션 (pension) = a vacation rental, cabin/lodge, airbnb type thing - NOTHING to do with "pension: retirement money, etc."
you'll actually see/hear people use this word a LOT - but be sure not to confuse the uses! hahaha

and, as you know, there are a LOT of songs that were cut
we had our own session where we listened to all the songs that were cut
and at the time.. like many people (relevant staff/ppl) from the industry had come and..
mm.. I had a lot of thoughts while listening to those songs..
at the time, I think there were about 15 songs or so, but the opinions were all different
some friends liked this song, some friends disliked this song

so the seven of us, ..i mean we each have a lot of experience, and we've all done solo work
and if you take a look at our solo work, you'll see we're all very different [from each other]
our artistic approach/goals/vision are different
the aspects/direction [of our artistry] that we most prominently want to showcase are different
now putting out a full album after 6 and a half years, and then going on tour, how do we tie all of that together?

if back in the day, maybe it fell on me.. especially me and like yoongi hyung?
we'd discuss like we listen to a LOT of music so..
if that was what was sort've helping us to make decisions

nowadays, all the members..
i'd say it's our great strength and weakness.. actually no - it's a strength for sure
all of our members are very considerate
this incredible relationship..
this incredible but very delicate [in structure]/intricate relationship that we have, no one takes it lightly/no one wants to disrupt/break it
so everyone is extremely careful about navigating it

like if any one of us doesn't like something, we all try to respect/regard their input
but the issue is.. since we're all like that
it makes coming to any sort of conclusion/decision really difficult
if 2 of us really oppose something while 4 of us is okay with it
and 1 person has no preference and wants to go with the group consensus..

like.. even before we were discharged, I anticipated that the whole, year-long process of making the album, releasing it, performing it, and even the tour would all boil down to how we make decisions as a group
and I was right in the end

so we distilled a few songs from the presession before we headed off to LA
in LA, I mean we've spoken on this a lot now but
we worked every day - 6 days a week at Conway Studio, a very nice and organic studio
At Conway Studio, there are 4 buildings, ah, 3 buildings..
we set up 4 rooms there, and every day, different producers, then instrumentalists, then topliners - the people who are good at coming up with melodies by singing on the spot - would come in and work with us

every day a different combination would go in
for example, one day it would be me and Jung Kook going in and working in this room all day, and then another day it would be Taehyung and I going in and working in this room all day
so it was like that, every day, the people in the room would be different
about 5 people would be in the room on any given day, and those 5 people would come up with 1 or 2 songs for sure
so it was like a really.. how should I put it..
a really, kind of like a workplace system?
a workplace where we make songs, I guess?

the company was also making selections..
like for FYA, JPEGMAFIAMAFIA
and there's actually an artist I really like called 070 Shake
and 070 Shake also came in for about 2 days to work with us
and there are songs that made it into the album and songs that didn't
but anyway that's how it all went down

if in the first week or so, the members, I mean since they can't really speak English and they're a new to this way of working, they were unfamiliar so they were maybe fumbling a bit here and there but then about a week in, they started warming up/getting their bearings as they also each started to find there were artists they were drawn to working with
and that's how 2 months were spent

it was not like 'oh we'll make SWIM the title track for sure' right from the get
there were thoughts like 'certainly we have to have a more powerful, energetic sounding song than 'SWIM'
but here's the thing..
if you consider 'well, what should BTS' title track be for THE BTS COMEBACK?'
it's like everyone's answer could be the right one or the wrong one, right?
like some people expect us to do something like 'Dynamite'
some people expect something like 'ON'
some people expect something like 'Hooligan' like we have now
some people expect us to do something like 'Spring Day' or something like that
so everyone has a different idea
in some 10+ years, having made music in such a vast array of genres and styles and doing so much, we all had different thoughts about what the direction should be
and the fans are all different, and the thoughts of the members here are all different, and the thoughts of the relevant people in the relevant departments are all different
there was no way to narrow it down

the hardest part was that we didn't have a clear captain/leader
no one to drive the process and clearly proclaim 'this is right, this is wrong'
it was a really challenging time to assert something like that at the time
that made things really difficult

So to be clear, RM is not saying that the work of SETTING the direction AS the leader was the difficult part - but that even assuming the role as the "captain" was not for granted (by him or anyone) as they are ALL much more fully realized musicians with solid artistic opinions/goals, so that 'role' was never assigned/assumed by anyone - because it couldn't easily be claimed in this context, esp in preservation of the intricate group dynamic as he mentioned earlier

so honestly, we made this album without a clear direction at the start
so when this album came out, I thought it was natural that there would be a lot of different opinions about it
for example, starting with the title track 'Arirang' itself, there would be a lot of different opinions about it
but as just one who participated in the making of this album, I just think it's a miracle that this album came out, really

I think it's a miracle that this album came out, and whether people like it or not...