#pieces

[TRANS] IU Documentary ‘Pieces: Winter of a 29 Year Old’ - Interview excerpts (Q1-29)

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

Q1. Reason you decided to release this album

This was planned since the beginning of the year and these are songs that all my fans know.

My fans know them whether as one phrase or as the whole song and have always requested for the songs to be released.

It has been 10 years since I kept a song like ‘Drama’ to myself without releasing it.

So at age 30, before I move on to my 30s, would this be considered as brushing off all my experimental songs from my 20s?

I have decided to release this album as a gift for the fans and a new beginning of my musical endeavours.

Q2. ‘Pieces’ Album Introduction

Pieces between my images that I continuously portrayed through my music and revealed publicly?

It was made of pieces that were not released nor bothered to be released and that was why it was named ‘Pieces’.

Q3. ‘Pieces’ Song Introduction

The initial songs are ‘Drama’ and ‘You’, which I wrote around the age of 20 and 24, respectively, and ‘Next Stop’ is a song that started at 25 and finished at 26.

‘Winter Sleep’ and ‘Love Letter’ were also in my late twenties, around 27~28. There are many songs that I would start and take up to a year to finish.

Take ‘Next Stop’ from my mid-20s and ‘Winter Sleep’ and ‘Love Letter’ from my late 20s as songs that I have never planned to release because as I said, they are experimental and thus, took a long time to finish too.

Q4. What was different from the previous album preparation process?

I was a little less pressured… because they have already been released to the fans little by little.

In fact, I usually feel so much pressure about ‘how will fans react to this song?’.

However,there wasn’t much uncertainty since ‘Pieces’ was solely composed with only the fans in mind and these songs are already well-liked by the fans.

I can’t help but be mindful of chart performance while making albums.

I can’t help but think about album sales or what kind of response it will get from music sites as a producer, but since this album was composed that way (with only the fans in mind) from the start, it was definitely different from other albums.

Q5. The meaning behind the tracklist order in Pieces’?

The tracklist order is decided under the presumption that people will listen to the album as a whole. The structure (introduction, development, turn and conclusion) of the album is decided with the feeling of ‘as a listener, I am listening to an entire book’, but first and foremost the beginning is really important.

Deciding what song to place as track no. 1 is an important point both strategy-wise and in terms of how I want to tell my story, but this way or that way, we started off with ‘Drama’ which many fans were waiting for the most.

The song itself has a really nice feel and I believe that it is the song that holds the theme of what I wanted to show through this album the most.

I had always shared with fans the story behind why this song was not being released for such a long time and with the thought that simply including ‘Drama’ alone would be meaningful enough for fans to have this album, I thought that it should be placed as the first track. Subsequently, track no. 2 would be the stories that would be most emphasized and the songs that I believe people would listen to the most would usually be placed as track no. 2 and no. 3. That’s why ‘Next Stop’ and ‘Winter Sleep’ were placed in that order, then the order of the following songs, ‘Love Letter’ and ‘You’, was decided more comfortably and that is the basis upon which the tracklist order of the album was decided.

Q6. How did the word ‘Pieces’ come about?

It was just an idea that came to me suddenly, but I thought, “Why don’t we just go with ‘소품집’ (Etudes - musical term for a small collection of pieces)?” However, this title felt a little too simple? It’s a commonly used expression, so ‘조각집’ (Pieces) came about as we were thinking “Isn’t there anything a little different?”. (T/L note: Inside the ‘Pieces’ documentary, the song introductions clipped inside is titled “IU’s 소품집” which is the original working title for this album.)

Of course, these songs are all very precious, hold good memories and are very dear to me, however, there were reasons why I couldn’t put them in official albums and so I thought instead of a complete picture, it felt more right to me that they were small pieces of that picture.

So when you put these pieces together, and gather these five songs together, it becomes a rather (complete) picture?

Meaning-wise, these songs are a bit different from the songs I would put on an album.

So I felt that if it was called ‘Pieces’ then what I wanted to say would become clearer, and that was how it was decided.

Q7. The reason why ‘Drama’ release was delayed

I don’t think there was an album that ‘Drama’ could fit in. I always tried to do so, but it was a song I made at the age of 20, kind of a song I made for fun and even compared to the other self-composed songs in this album, the emotions and vibe are a little different.

However, fans liked the song a lot and there were a lot of people who would request the song during en-encore at every concert. That is why even though I promised that I would release it someday, ultimately from the standpoint of a producer I would feel that putting this song into an album would be kind of forcing it too much, when considering the big picture I was trying to create and due to this reason, I would keep saying ‘next time, next time’ and the release eventually kept getting delayed.

Q8. Looking only at the lyrics of ‘Drama’ , I feel it would be believable if you said that the current IU at the brink of turning 30 wrote them.

I do think that is possible. The lyrics don’t quite have the vibe of a twenty year old.

The vibe of the song is like a children’s song, bright and sung cheerfully without too much technique. Although the vibe itself is like this, the lyrics show a bit more maturity. I borrowed the concept of a drama, but because I personally wrote the lyrics as if an old-aged actor were painting a picture, the content of the song does seem more fitting for a 30 year old than a 20 year old and yet even more so for a 40 year old than a 30 year old.

Q9. Your thoughts on singing ‘Drama’ as you wrapped up your twenties?

My voice was a bit different. Back then, I was actually younger; the concept of singing it like a children’s song was not awkward, and I remember singing it without that much effort. Of course, though I did sing this song at every concert as I got older year by year, because recordings and live performances are completely different fields, grasping the feeling to sing the song with detail and move forward with the directing was harder compared to the other songs. The thought that “I’ve reached the point where expressing the simplicity that only comes from the innocent-like times of the younger self now requires some thinking” made it a bit difficult, and because my voice itself has aged since then, I thought, “Is it a little awkward to sing it like a children’s song?” Though these may be my own thoughts… That’s why I sang less cheerfully compared to then.

Q10. The atmosphere during the recording was so nice

I often vibe with the atmosphere of the song I’m singing at the moment. When I sing a sad song, I tend to completely turn off the lights and focus quietly. When singing a fun song, I also tend to express (the song) by dancing and making myself feel good. Isn’t this the only bright song out of the five songs I participated in this time? I purposely did it more excitedly, and I actually felt a lot better.

Q11. You played the recorder (musical instrument) yourself

I was very satisfied with (how the sound turned out with) the recorder. (laughs)

“Ah~ If I learnt the recorder professionally, I could probably do it? I’m so satisfied with the sound?” I had such thoughts.

Q12. When you were recording ‘Next Stop,’ did you think of Jian as you sang?

I did not do that this time. Back then, I had thought about singing it that way if this theme, this song, actually were to be used in the drama, but as (those plans) unfortunately fell through, I thought about the 25, 26-year-old me at the time as I sang.

Of course, although there is also Jian in that piece, to say that this is only the theme of Jian is a bit different; it’s just my sentiments. From there, the song was concluded through Jian.

Q13. Your emotions back then when working on ‘Next Stop’

Actually, I can’t really remember clearly. Most of the songs on this album are like that. Since they are not songs that I wrote recently, but songs that I wrote as long as 10 years ago, I don’t recall exactly what kind of feelings I had when I wrote it, but for ‘Next Stop’, I remember that the melody probably came before the lyrics.

I think it was like “Ah!!”

Back then, I enjoyed taking the bus and travelling around alone.

I simply enjoyed taking the bus by myself to the Gwanghwamun area for a walk before returning home.

But I didn’t have a specific destination in mind when I boarded the bus back then.

I just felt stuffy and wanted to go for a walk, so I left my house, but it was like a tour without deciding in advance where I would be alighting.

As I thought to myself, “Where shall I alight? Where shall I alight?” I ended up not getting off the bus.

“Would there be a better destination that I prefer?”

“Rather than this place, would there be another place that suits me better?”

It’s a song that contains these emotions in a one-dimensional manner.

However, figuratively speaking, ‘Next Station’ is not just about a bus stop or train station, as it also refers to my feelings about my own life of ‘when will I get used to and accept the fact that right now where I am is where I should be in my life?’

I recall that the key to the lyrics is that I started writing upon receiving inspiration on a day when my twenty-five-year-old self took a bus and couldn’t decide where to alight.

Q14. What does ‘Next Station’ mean?

Destination, I guess? About what I should decide as my direction in life.

Actually, I think it’s not something that you come to realise with age, but that you keep thinking about over and over again. It’s a song about how lost and troubled I feel, because even though it’s been 4-5 years, I think I still haven’t decided on my destination and wonder about ‘the place I want to alight’, ‘the place I want to end up eventually’ and ‘the place I want to settle down in my life’.

Q15. Are you still as troubled as ever about where to alight?

That’s right. I’m not sure where that would be. I wonder, ‘Would I really find a clear answer to that in my lifetime?’

Q16. ‘Winter Sleep’ is an undisclosed song?

This is probably the song that fans have the least information about. As far as I can remember, I do recall singing a verse from the song when my fans asked me to sing one of my self-compositions on the spot at a fanmeeting after Hotel Del Luna ended in 2018. (T/L note: It should be IU’s 11th Debut Anniversary in 2019 instead.)

That was the first and last piece of information to them, but there was actually another hint for this song in an IU merchandise that came out this year (2021).

The first page (of the merch) reads, ‘a stalk of spring, a cup of summer, a page of autumn, a breath of winter.’ They would be using the diary (merch) throughout the year, so I thought this would be a crucial mediator between the people who received the diary and the year that they’d be spending. So I jotted down and revealed what the four seasons mean to me, and what a year means to me through the merchandise, and that was the hint for ‘Winter Sleep’ and the expressions used in the lyrics.

But fortunately, (my fans) liked it a lot, though they obviously wouldn’t be able to link it to ‘Winter Sleep’…

Perhaps they will find out when the song is released?

Q17. Introducing the song ‘Winter Sleep’

When I first started writing, the song was about death. And it still was when I finished.

At that time, I wanted to depict myself not being able to accept that someone precious to me passed away, that they were gone from this world – I wanted to describe myself trying hard to remember them, imagining as if they were by my side.

In that one year after their death – the spring, summer, autumn, winter… As if I were telling a story to this friend, the one who passed…

“You can’t see them, but I’ve left in front of your room a bouquet of spring that hasn’t bloomed yet, a cup of summer that I’ve poured, a page of autumn that I’ve torn out, and a breath of winter infused with my true desire to see you.” It could be seen as me rambling endlessly about how much I miss them, yet sending them a message, “I’m okay,” and it could also be a story letting them know, “I miss you.”

It’s not about someone’s absence, that someone is no longer here - it’s more like what someone would feel if their pet crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

And I wrote with the thought, “Wouldn’t the family and friends of the deceased, who left so abruptly, accept their death in this way?”

They could be sad endlessly and be completely broken (by their death), but the song is imbued with the idea, “I’ve lived the 1 year, the 12 months, without you…with you.” as I thought, “Isn’t it possible for them to spend (the one year after the death) like that?”

Q18. The reason behind the title of the song ‘You’

Because I hadn’t planned on releasing this song either (laughing), I don’t think I put much effort into coming up with a title.

But the fans also showed so much affection for the song during fanmeetings that it deserved a title.

It’s a song with a lot of fortune.

And it gained fame as well.

Q19. When do you come up with song titles or album names?

There are songs like ‘Next Stop’ that I tend to think, “Can another title even exist for this song?” and thus decide on the title right away. But there are also songs like ‘Through the Night’ that I came up with the title extremely late. ‘Love Letter’ is also one of those songs, having come up with the title late after agonizing over it. It’s different from song to song.

Q20. The reason behind using friends as motifs when writing songs

It just comes naturally to me. I think if there’s something or someone that I have affection for, I can come up with a story about it naturally as well. Of course, I’ve also realized that when preparing a full-length album with dozens of songs, ‘it would be impossible to work as a lyricist if I wrote the lyrics based on only themes that came to me naturally’.

So I do use lines that didn’t find me naturally but are still good lines - the lines that I instead had to (actively) find in advance. That being said, it’s much better to write a song for someone I love, since it finds me so easily.

It’s easy to be written, it’s easy to be sung, and it’s easy to be attached to it.

Love has always been an inspiration for me.

Q21. What is the difference between words that find you and words that you find?

By “words that find me,” I mean something like, “I never used these words but they came to me?” There really are cases of this happening from time to time.

The time that I really felt, “It’s really fascinating. This moment.” was from the lyrics of ‘Through the Night’, when I wondered if these words were really inside me the entire time. They came to me on their own in one sudden moment, and even found a spot inside me. And I thought, “I finished writing a verse, just like that?”

After those were words that had trouble finding me, but these were the words that came in bulk. It was a moment where I thought, “How could these many lines come to me in such a short span of time…” There are also a lot of times when a sentence or a few words, not as long as full lines, suddenly find me. Most of the songs in this album were created this way.

On the other hand, I have to (actively) find words half of the time. This usually takes an extremely long time. I make space for the lyrics before the words come to me. I then bring the words that can roughly fit into these spaces and try placing them here and there.

Q22. The meaning behind “Love Letter”, the song you initially gave to another singer?

It’s not my story, but I have written the song rather like a drama or fictional novel. At the time (of writing the lyrics), it was a story of an old couple, I guess. (The song) is about telling one side to not be sad when the other side leaves this world. That’s why I wrote it in 하오 style (T/L Note: The lyrics are written in an older form of speech with word-endings that are not often used colloquially, e.g., 다오 Da-o and 하오 ha-o). It’s about an old couple, so I purposely made it a little obvious (through the form of speech used). Along with talking about the most dazzling moments in life that are prominent enough (for one) to put a bookmark in between, I wrote the song thinking, ‘I hope you won’t be sad thinking about me just because I left, for you have these memories (with me). Instead, I ask you to smile as you recall the memories, and remember me that way.’

Q23. You sang “Love Letter” again.

It is a song I am very attached to. Although all five of them are songs that I feel particularly (attached to), this song is very dear to me, it’s also like a child still not all grown up (and thus I can’t help but care for more).

Seunghwan sang it really well. But it was presented in a totally different mood with a different arrangement and bpm (beats per min). Not to mention I think Seunghwan’s interpretation (of how the song should be delivered) itself is very different from my version. (His version is) way more modern and sophisticated. I liked (the song) because it sounded very different from the guide version that I sent to him, so I thought, ‘Ah, this is interesting.’ It was the first time I gave my (self-composed) song to another singer, to a vocalist I have faith in, and it was nice coming to realize how much a vocalist’s interpretation adds to the color/ style of a song.

From there, it crossed my mind that perhaps if I release my version, ‘it could also come across as completely different even though they’re the same song?’. I thought perhaps if you listen to ‘Love Letter’ from Seunghwan’s perspective and another version from my perspective like a set, you’ll somehow find them identical, yet different (at the same time) even though they’re conveying the same story. I sang (Love Letter) thinking, ‘I hope that my version would be accounted for the completion of this song too.’

Q24. IU’s 20 years old

Truthfully, it was such an age that made me upset because it was utterly meaningless.

I mean, isn’t there something special about (being or becoming) 20 when you’re still in your 10s? It is a symbolic age (marking adulthood), too.

So I was looking forward to being 20, but nothing in particular happened as expected.

Back then, I was also much gloomier, and much socially inept compared to now. So I remember being a little disappointed over the fact that ‘my life won’t magically become more interesting or different all of a sudden just because I’ve turned twenty.’

But then again, I also remember getting this type of question a lot at that time.

Since I couldn’t answer it (honestly) like this, I made up answers like ‘I’m so happy, so excited (about being 20)’, and which I think kind of made me feel guilty back then.

Q25. Your twenties were occupied with work, any regrets?

Honestly, there aren’t many. It does occur to me that I should have hung around more often when I was younger, but again, I always (shut down this kind of thoughts) and come to conclusions like ‘but you hate hanging around though’ / ‘right, yeah’. I bet even if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t have been excited about it too.

Cause I don’t really like to hang around.. both then and now.

If I didn’t (occupy myself with) work, I would just be lolling around at home all the time, so I’m happy that I did well and spent my time more productively compared to that. Cause it’s always good to work hard. That is why I would say rather than regrets, I thought, ‘ah, I guess I’ll be able to live more comfortably in my 30s given how hard I’ve worked in my 20s’ and I feel grateful too. To me, who has led a diligent life in my 20s.

I find working most fun. Among all the stuff I could do. I’ve been told by my acquaintances who have observed me that I’m the type of person who can’t stand sitting still and not working. ‘You really can’t stay still when you’re not working, and when you’re told to rest, you just sit there and start thinking about work, making plans and sorts’, I got these kinds of comments a lot. I don’t think it would be any different even if I were to go back to being 20 years old (now).

Even though 10 years have passed, the components (pieces) that make up the 20-year-old me and 30-year-old me haven’t changed much. I still dislike going out, so do I dislike being in crowded places. Eventually, if I’m given all that time again, wouldn’t I just end up working again?

Q26. A song that represents IU’s 20s?

If I were to pick a song that represents my 20s (trying hard to decide)

This again depends on what the criteria is, but a song that I definitely would have to be included would be ‘Friday’.

‘Through the Night’… would 10 songs be too many?

Later on, I might be like, ‘I need to include this song too!’ and the list would get longer,

but right now the songs that come to my mind would be ‘Friday’, ‘Through the Night’, ‘Palette’, ‘Twenty-three’, umm… then ‘Full Stop’.

‘Knees’and‘Heart’ can make it too, right?

‘Celebrity’, ‘Epilogue’, ‘Dear Name’ would make 10 songs in total.

Q27. The reason you control everything?

It’s because I know player IU best (T/L note: ‘player’ refers to IU as someone being controlled in the ‘game’ of the entertainment industry), since I decided that I’m the best person to control her moves, I’m also the best at making use of myself in multiple ways, that’s why I have continued to take on the role of producer.

In my 30s, I’m thinking of letting someone else do the producing for me.

I feel that I’ve sufficiently done what I want to do in my 20s.

It would be refreshing to receive directing for an interesting project for a change.

Q28. Don’t you worry that you will lose your objectivity?

I’m not sure what I’ll be like right away next year, but for almost 15 years of my career, that’s something I am confident about. I’m good at being objective about myself. I don’t get excited about useless words, I don’t get hurt by useless words either and I think I’ve done a fine job with that so far. In this world, right now among the people in my life, I feel, ‘I know myself best’ and that ‘I know myself well career-wise’. And eventually it worked on me (laughs) so I think I made the right decision

(T/L note: IU means the mindset that she knows herself best worked on her because it kept her objective).

Q29. What is the reason behind you being thoroughly objective about yourself?

I think I have always been like that from a young age.

When I was young and even before I started this career…

It just seemed to be accurate all the time.

I tend to be accurate about my judgement of myself.

Just that when I was young, I was stricter (T/L note: in judging myself) and now less so.

I think my parents gave it to me.

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

Translated by squishy_blob, ChoMin80, yule, jjanghimi, wellstrong_, jieunspoetry, 4seasonswithIU, and forenexiaoseo

Edited by IUteamstarcandy

Please take out full and proper credits, thank you!

IU Documentary ‘Pieces: Winter of a 29 Year Old’ - Secret Letter

Uaenas are the most central puzzle piece in my life :)

I will always keep a place there for uaenas

- Jieun

Note: There is only ONE version of the secret letter.

odollydearest.com pieces i love

This Jwett run in my blood

Every single day it breaks me to pieces I’ve tasted defeat at the feet of my demons I’m such a fucking waste of achievement I should put this trigger to my brain and just squeeze it, Tell me what I did to deserve this pain Tell me what I did to deserve this hurt When all I ever did was put everybody first.