#andromajuneeval

rkwendy‌:

Wendy smiles as Sunmi unni seems to get her point. She’s still got it after all. A small part of her feels validated that her analysis doesn’t seem to be too far out. She just hopes the producers agree with her. Wendy makes a mental note to actually talk to the producers when given the chance. After all, they will be explaining the meaning of the songs to any shows they might possibly be promoting in. “That’s why I think it makes more sense for us to officially promote with Pepe,” she continues. “It has a catchy hook and a tune that’s difficult to ignore. It’s also closer to what the musical trends are these days, as well as what the general public is into.” 

She hums as she agrees with Sunmi unni’s opinion on Deja Vu. “Deja Vu is a strong pre-debut track I think. It gives the public an idea what we’re capable of, especially our rappers? But it leaves people wanting more… I suppose.” Wendy purses her lips in thought. Maybe her thesis should revolve around this new generation of artists they’re part of, if she dares call themselves that. This is an interesting discourse and one worth studying, if she’ll think about it. 

“I’m not a dancer, but I think there’s a lot more leeway for the choreographers to go crazy with Deja Vu?” Wendy asks with a slight frown, tilting her head in Sunmi unni’s direction. “As you mentioned, it’s not exactly hiphop, but it’s not like the common pop songs you’d hear in local radios. Perhaps in the West, yes, but not here in Korea.” She doesn’t see many options for Pepe’s choreography to actually impress, but she may be very mistaken. “As for Pepe, I’m thinking it’s got potential for a point-dance that people can do anywhere? Kind of like ChiChi sunbaenim’s “Gee” or H.A.M. sunbaenim’s “Nobody.” What say you, unni?” 

Wendy bursts out laughing at the comment. “I personally don’t mind waving around lollipops at my age, so I would hope we don’t have to do that.” Wendy’s trying to draw the big picture her CEO and the rest of the Nova staff have in mind for them. It’s a bit of a challenge trying to figure out what the old man is thinking, but she wants to know how similar or different their vision is. “I just know that if we film a music video in a dumb old boring box, I’m going to end up crying.” 

“i think deja vu is more dynamic,” sunmi ultimately agrees. of the song deja vu gives them more to experiment with both in song and in choreography. pepe was safe as a song to say the least. something to secure their popularity before they start experimenting and doing things that could possibly turn off the public.

“yeah that’s probably going to be the case. that’s the feeling i got from when we were recording lines.” just the beat and tempo to deja vu was completely different. sunmi was actually looking forward to deja vu more than pepe. it was a shame that it was a b-side track. “the thing is what is going to be our point choreography for pepe? it probably won’t be too cute because the song sounded a little bit more mature than that but who knows.” nova can’t just throw them on stage with a cute persona. three of their members were over 23 years old (she and solji were closer to thirty than they were to 20).

“your twenty so of course you don’t mind,” sunmi says pointedly. “i’m twenty-six. i would like to avoid a cute concept if i could help it.” but the reality was she couldn’t help it. if nova decided to throw her in ponytails and told her to look cute for the debut stage she would have no choice but to listen. “i think i’m going to have to start working hard to have more say and influence on our concepts. wouldn’t that be better to ensure we aren’t doing something dumb?”

rkwendy‌:

“Whoever wrote the rap obviously didn’t get an English speaker to check,” Wendy says with a chuckle. She shakes her head in amusement. “They tried their best.” She then pauses as she tries figuring out how to best explain her line of reasoning. “With Deja Vu, it’s unlike anything the newer girl groups have been putting out recently. I think it’s a throwback to the sound that was trendy in K-hiphop earlier in the decade,” Wendy says. Once she’s started talking about music, she doesn’t know when to stop. “It’s also straight to the point, leaving little room for creative deviation on our end. It does have a lot of potential for choreography.”

Wendy pauses, making sure she hasn’t completely lost Sunmi unni in her rambling. This can easily get boring for someone who isn’t into music as much as she is. “On the other hand, Pepe doesn’t sound like much at initial listen, but it has a good hook that draws people in the more they listen to it,” she continues once she’s certain she has the leader’s attention. It’s hard to control herself once she gets excited. She just hopes Sunmi unni doesn’t have any regrets listening to her and her nerdy analysis. “Pepe is a well-constructed song, honestly. It’s going with the throwback trend, but it also has a jazzy twist. That’s what makes it sound different from the other groups also going old-school. I would like for it to be a sign that we have a sound that is distinctly ours.”

Wendy makes a face after she’s done talking. That was a bit of a mouthful after all. She takes a sip of her water bottle as she gathers her thoughts. She had always been a better lyricist than a rap-maker, which is why she always preferred to let actual rappers write their own lyrics. She had tried her hand at it, but it only ended up in lots of laughter and secondhand embarrassment. She has a rough idea how it works, but she’s better off leaving rapping to actual rappers. She hopes to actually be involved with production in the future, before eventually taking full control of their musical direction.

“Let’s see how the choreography will turn out then!”

“i see what you mean,” sunmi agrees. “even the cringey english thrown in is reminiscent of early khip hop songs. but what i find interesting is that it’s not necessarily a hip hop track either.” the rap would lead you otherwise but the verses deviated from that. it was an interesting song so sunmi was wondering how it would be established. right now all they had was the sound of the song and how they wanted it performed. there was still left to the imagination.

“pepe also has that addictive quality to it, if we’re being honest.” no parts of deja vu left her singing it on repeat. the chorus was nice and all but it wasn’t something that had a repetitive quality to her like pepe did. “i feel like catchier songs always end up doing better. of course we want to deviate from what everyone else is doing but we want to make sure it sticks with our public at the same time.”

songs like that end up stuck in people’s heads to the point where they have no choice but to like a song. that would serve well for a newly debuted group. especially and*roma; nova had spent so long waiting to debut any group that the hype for them has long since faded and it would be hard to regain it. not to mention that the company did nothing to retain their names in the spotlight. 

“hmm who knows how the choreography will turn out.” sunmi was certainly ….picky when it came to choreographies. not everything needed to be over the top and amazing to be considered a decent choreography but she was tired of the lacklustre choreographies girl groups often had. for some reason many girl group stans considering idols bouncing around to be great choreographies which….wasn’t that hard. it’s embarrassing, honestly. sunmi wouldn’t want to be caught dead doing a performance like that. “if we have to do something stupid i may throw myself off a cliff.”

☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ AND*ROMA JUNE EVALUATION ˎˊ˗

✧ Performing Pepe and Deja vu

sunmi thought that the performance at the end of the month was just for their coaches until, at some point along the way she heard that their ceo was going to be listening in. was he going to personally assign them their lines? the thought made her roll her eyes, knowing he would probably immediately rescind sunmi’s off the stupid assumption that he never thought she could sing well.

( yes she’s bitter and she’s going to hold that against him. )

she thinks it’s because he seems to forget that, for a dancer, her singing is pretty stable. although if you completely ignore that and just think of her as a singer, she’s average. not everyone could be a master like wendy or solji. that’s why she wasn’t a main vocalist. either way, she wasn’t the type to undermine her skills. for years she’s been focusing on her voice and sphere did wonders in that first year of training. she came so far vocally she’s proud of herself.

she wasn’t nervous. sunmi merely wondered what hyun bin had in mind for the song in particular. of course it was going to sound completely different once everyone’s voices where mixed together. everyone in and*roma had a unique colour to their voices. truthfully she wasn’t really interested in getting specific parts so far in the song. she just wanted parts in general. imagine being a leader and getting very few parts in your debut song? that would be embarrassing.

for one thing, she knows she’s not getting the rap. hands down that was still going to chaeyoung but she still had fun rapping pepe during the song performance (and begrudgingly did deja vu’s – which was a lot easier than pepe’s for her). pepe was the song that was more fun to sing. admittedly, she was happy they were told that was their title song. considering they had no choreography learned (yet), sunmi just swayed lightly herself as she sang. though knowing her she would have done the whole choreography and sang just out of habit (and because she wouldn’t have been able to help herself.)

rkwendy‌:

After initial shock, Wendy finds that she kind of likes the songs they’ll be debuting with. Sure, she would have preferred to be given more creative freedom to participate in making AND*ROMA’s music, but she hopes she gets that chance in the future. For now, Wendy’s just content to learn all that she can as an idol, as well as make the mental adjustment from being a trainee to being an idol. 

She had learned the entire song and committed it to memory. Wendy may not be getting rap parts, but she’s going to damn well try. As a budding songwriter and producer herself, she knows the importance of all knowing the entire song. If professional producers are anything like her, they will want to experiment and have everyone sing the songs to see which singer matches which part. She had heard of the time Insoo sunbae had jokingly rapped Jun Q sunbae’s parts in Cover Girl and ended up getting the part in the final recording. 

“Same here. Though in my case, it was for both songs,” Wendy says with a chuckle. “The struggle is all too real though. I did it, since as a producer, I tend to have people doing demos for me learn the whole thing too.” She shakes her head. After SN Project, only a crazy fool would bother with giving Wendy rap parts. Her producer side wants to give it a shot all the same. Wendy hums as she contemplates on the question. “At first I thought I liked Deja Vu better, but now I listen to both songs more, I’m leaning toward Pepe.” She pauses because she knows she has no limit once she starts talking about music. “I could go on all day dissecting both songs, but I want to know your opinion first.” 

“really? i thought the rap for our b-side was corny,” sunmi shared with a scrunch of her nose. the english used in the songs were cringe worthy. it was clear that they either didn’t know english or did and thought it would be the cool thing to say for a “hip hop” concept. that you can just casually say “spit fire” for a rap that wasn’t even considered bars to begin with. sunmi was from new york. she heard better raps on the 1 train.

but at least wendy’s reason made sense. making songs for parts that you personally aren’t used to was a true mark of a good lyricist. if wendy got familiar with rap enough that she could write raps despite not being a rapper, it would make her a valuable asset to the company. maybe eventually they’d let wendy start writing their songs completely. sunmi knows that some groups from smaller companies make their idols write music because it was cheaper. would nova do the same?

( maybe not. )

sunmi had to laugh though. “wait really? i definitely like pepe though. it seems like a softer song especially with the vocals but the rap pulls you out of that. so it’s not really a cute concept, i feel. how would i describe it….” it wasn’t really energetic either. the verses were even a little slower. “i always liked pepe more although that may change when the choreographies come out.” sunmi wonders how they intend to do it. though she knows damn well they wouldn’t ever let her choreography anything, she wanted to see how good of a choreography the songs will be. though dancing wise, pepe didn’t have much hope. it was a slower song. deja vu had a lot of potential because it was an faster tempo song.

“you know how i am about my dances!”