Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Episode 9. A Night with the Indie Band Girl (4)
Time passed and a week went by.
Park Siwoo stood up from his seat with a satisfied smile.
‘It’s finally complete.’
The lyrics of <Pale Blue Dot>.
After nearly a week of cutting down on sleep and immersing himself in the work, he had finally finished the final revisions today.
‘The recording’s done too.’
Park Siwoo sent the recording file to Seol Ayeon.
By now, she should have finished practicing the guitar, and they were planning to record the song starting tomorrow.
The message he sent was:
“The lyrics are complete. We’ll be recording tomorrow, so just make sure you’ve memorized them.”
The reply came immediately.
“Yes! I’ll memorize them.”
“Good. Come to the place I mentioned earlier tomorrow.”
“Yes!”
Since the recording file was also sent.
‘Now I can rest a bit.’
He had pushed himself nonstop for a full week.
Because he was doing something he liked, he didn’t feel especially tired, but his body was another matter.
“My back hurts…”
Park Siwoo tapped his aching lower back and lay down on the bed.
That day, he ended it by lying down and looking at his phone.
The next day.
Even though it was the weekend, Park Siwoo’s day was busy.
Today was the day Neon Heart would have their first recording session.
‘Neon Heart is scheduled to arrive at 11.’
Park Siwoo arrived at the company early at 10.
The recording and mixing rooms were located on the second floor of the building.
‘They said the engineer would already be waiting.’
There were three recording rooms.
He went to the largest one, Room 1, where a man wearing glasses greeted him.
“Hello. You must be the lead producer?”
“Yes, I’m lead producer Park Siwoo.”
“Ah, nice to meet you. I’m engineer Cha Seungjun.”
“Nice to meet you.”
After a brief handshake, the two walked into the recording room.
“You can take a seat here.”
“Ah, thank you.”
It was a seat with a full view of the recording room.
Even the chair was the best quality.
Park Siwoo sat down and turned his body to look around the room.
Overall, it was similar to his own workspace.
The only difference was—
‘There’s a spacious recording booth.’
And also—
Park Siwoo turned his gaze forward.
In front of him sat an overwhelming array of electronic equipment, resembling the cockpit of an airplane.
‘So this is why an engineer is needed.’
Without proper training, there was no way anyone could touch those machines.
As he was admiring it, Cha Seungjun spoke.
“May I listen to the song?”
“Of course.”
Park Siwoo transferred the file from his laptop to the recording room computer.
When he pressed play, the speakers began to resonate with a deep, thudding sound.
“G-good…”
Cha Seungjun said, widening his eyes.
“Did you compose this yourself? This track’s vibe… it’s just like Guitar Hero.”
It seemed he hadn’t been informed.
Cha Seungjun didn’t appear to know that Park Siwoo himself was Guitar Hero.
“Honestly, since this is my first time meeting the lead producer, I had my doubts. I apologize. A track at this level doesn’t even need tweaking. It could be uploaded as-is right now.”
“Isn’t that a bit too much praise?”
Park Siwoo asked inwardly, smiling, and Cha Seungjun shook his head.
“It’s truly at Guitar Hero level. As you know, that means world-class. Neon Heart is lucky to receive a track like this as their first.”
Cha Seungjun said, his eyes wide with excitement.
“I’ll work hard.”
His eyes sparkled with determination as he clenched his fists.
He seemed convinced the song would succeed, overflowing with enthusiasm.
‘It’s good that he’s motivated.’
Maybe he should give him a bit more motivation.
Park Siwoo smiled lightly and said,
“Come to think of it, there’s something I didn’t mention.”
“What is it? Should I get you some coffee?”
“No, not that. I am Guitar Hero.”
“Oh, you’re Guitar Hero.”
“Yes.”
For a moment, Cha Seungjun’s pupils lost focus.
His brain seemed unable to process the situation.
After a brief pause, he suddenly jumped up.
“Y-you’re really Guitar Hero?”
“Yes. There’s no reason to lie about something like this.”
“Hah…”
Cha Seungjun let out a breath of disbelief.
“I truly respect you.”
“I’m not someone worthy of that level of respect.”
“No, really. I’m also a composer. For unknown composers like us, you’re a real source of hope.”
Hope, huh.
Park Siwoo smiled awkwardly.
“Thank you for saying that.”
“I’ll stake my life on this work.”
“Yes… well… I appreciate it.”
“Yes.”
Just then—
Knock, knock.
The door opened with a knock.
Park Siwoo turned his head and immediately had to suppress a laugh.
A small rabbit-like figure was peeking her head in.
“Ayeon, come in.”
“…I’m sorry.”
Startled by Park Siwoo’s voice as she looked around the room, she quickly pulled her head back.
After a moment, she entered, her face turning an astonishing shade of red.
“Hello.”
Despite that, her voice remained perfectly normal, which somehow made it even more amusing.
Of course, he couldn’t laugh in front of her, so Park Siwoo barely suppressed his expression and said,
“Where are the other members?”
“They’ll be here soon.”
As if on cue, the members of Neon Heart began entering one by one.
“Hello—oh? Team Leader Park?”
“Hello. I’m lead producer Park Siwoo.”
“Lead producer…?”
“I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. I am Guitar Hero.”
“R-really?”
Ha Seungjin, the leader of Neon Heart, widened his eyes.
The other members were no different.
“Oh my god… Guitar Hero personally scouted us.”
Fortunately, they didn’t seem upset that he had concealed his identity.
Instead, they were simply overjoyed that Guitar Hero had chosen them.
Clap!
Breaking the noisy atmosphere with a clap, Park Siwoo pointed toward the recording room and said,
“You all practiced the songs, right?”
Ha Seungjin replied,
“We even had a rehearsal yesterday.”
“Good. We’ll start recording today. Ayeon, set up your instrument and go warm up your voice in the next room.”
“Yes.”
“For the first recording, we’ll start with bass and drums. I want to finish within today, so let’s move quickly.”
“Yes sir.”
At his words, the Neon Heart members began moving in an organized manner.
“Engineer, please take a look.”
Since they would record individually, each instrument had its own channel.
Park Siwoo instructed Cha Seungjun to check their instruments.
Cha Seungjun inspected them without complaint.
“It looks like we can start right away.”
“Let’s begin then.”
At Park Siwoo’s signal, Cha Seungjun spoke into the mic.
“Drums and bass, please get ready. We’ll begin recording. One, two.”
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The performance began with the drums.
Listening quietly, Park Siwoo’s eyebrows twitched.
“Engineer.”
“Yes, the timing is slightly off, right?”
“Yes. I think we need to record again.”
At his words, Cha Seungjun immediately stopped the performance.
“Drummer, you’re too tense right now. It’s okay to make mistakes, so let’s go again slowly. You can turn on the metronome.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. Let’s try again. One, two.”
The performance started again.
But this time, mistakes came from the bass.
“I-I’m sorry!”
Lee Sua suddenly stood up and bowed her head.
This time, Park Siwoo took the mic.
“It’s okay. Let’s try again.”
Recording resumed once more.
However, minor mistakes showed no signs of decreasing.
“Hm…”
He hadn’t expected individual instrument recording to take this long.
Nearly an hour passed with no progress.
Park Siwoo said quietly,
“Let’s take a short break.”
“Ugh…”
Lee Sua leaned back in her chair.
Ha Seungjin, the drummer, also looked exhausted despite trying to hide it.
‘We need a plan.’
He had expected some nervousness for the first recording, but not to this extent.
“Engineer, what do you think?”
“This does happen occasionally… but the only solution is repetition.”
“Repetition, huh…”
Park Siwoo fell into thought.
‘Is there no better way?’
After a moment, an idea suddenly came to him.
“Junhyuk, could you call Ayeon?”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
Soon, Seol Ayeon entered the recording room.
Park Siwoo spoke immediately.
“Let’s record as a group performance.”
“A group performance?”
Even Cha Seungjun was taken aback.
“Of course, vocals will still be recorded separately. I think it would be better to record the instruments together and then select the best takes.”
“Understood.”
Seeing Cha Seungjun nod, Park Siwoo turned to Seol Ayeon.
“Don’t sing with too much power. We’re recording instruments.”
“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Alright, let’s try again.”
At his words, the Neon Heart members began moving in unison.
Holding their instruments, Cha Seungjun said,
“Let’s begin. One, two.”
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The drums started, followed by the full performance.
Listening closely, Park Siwoo smiled.
‘This is it.’
The unstable, mismatched noise had completely disappeared, replaced by a clean, harmonious performance flowing through the speakers.
“P-producer…”
Cha Seungjun, clearly sensing it as well, looked at Park Siwoo in shock.
“N-no, how did it suddenly get this good? How? Seriously, Guitar Hero, is there anything you can’t do?”
“Is it acceptable?”
“It’s insanely good! We could use this take as-is!”
Right.
At that moment—
Knock, knock.
With a knock on the door—
“Is everything going well?”
Company CEO Cha Yeseung had arrived.