Jeremy Reeves: The chemistry between us is
like a four tier filter.
Having other people that you trust and respect…
It just helps to drive where that track is
going.
Ray Romulus: A lot of different things that
we all have different strengths in that as
a collective is bigger than just making beats
and being producers.
Jonathan Yip: We're really just, we're trying
to handle the business part of the music business.
Instead of just making beats and then going
home.
Jonathan Yip: The way we got into K-Pop was…
We were working with a writer out here.
It was the first time we worked with him.
He just out of nowhere asked us, “Have we
ever been to Korea?”
He ended up introducing us to his manager
who then connected us over to the record label
SM Entertainment.
Ray Romulus: K-Pop is a little bit different
on how we would approach our beats.
Ray Romulus: I think for us we base a lot
of what we make based on feeling.
Not to say they don’t, but theirs is very…
They know exactly what they want.
You know what I mean?
They're like, "Yo, we want exactly this at
this tempo."
It's very, very structured.
Jeremy Reeves: To me at least the most important
part of a song is melody.
That's what's cool about K-Pop.
That's their most important part of the song.
Ray Charles McCullough II (Charm): We kind
of build everything around the core structures
and there are different sections that they
have.
Intro, verse.
We kind of make the song with that, all that
stuff in mind.
Ray Romulus: So we show up to SM.
And what they usually do before a session
is they sit us around and they go, "Hey this
is what we're kind of looking for for the
group.”
Once we broke from that, Jeremy just ran,
you know, he ran into the room.
Jeremy Reeves: I like to always start with
a progression.
It came to me pretty fast.
I just…
I don’t know.
The sound itself inspires you.
One of my favorite go-to synths is Sylenth.
It’s my favorite VST for anything synth-oriented.
When I was creating that, I remember Ray was
in the common area.
The door was cracked and so I just hear a
"That's dope."
And I was like, "Alright cool.
So I'm on to something."
That's when Ray got up and came in and was
looking for a lot of percussion stuff.
Ray Romulus: With the kick, I was trying to
find pockets of … You wouldn't obviously
go, "Oh okay, the kick's going to hit at this
time."
Jeremy Reeves: Right.
That's one thing we can always count on.
It's not always going to be the most straight
forward rhythm with Ray which is dope.
Jonathan Yip: Me and Charm were in another
room working on a different song.
I heard what they were working on.
In my mind, there was this loop that I just
ran through earlier in the day.
I was like, “This loop actually could maybe
work for what we're doing.”
And so, went in there and I was like, "Yo
Jerm, pull up this one loop and see if it fits."
Jeremy Reeves: Once we had that established,
we continued on with the bass.
In my opinion, Trilian…
The quality of their stuff is incredible.
Ray Charles McCullough II (Charm): So everything
you've heard so far, you've heard the bass
line.
The drums mostly.
That crazy melody that Jerm came up with too.
At this point, my job is like, “Damn, it's
about 80% done.”
So it needs to fill out a little more.
So I added a pad.
It really outlines the chords and the feeling
that we wanted to feel which is the good time.
We didn't want to make it sound darker.
Sometimes when you add something, it weighs
the song down.
In this case, it just kept the energy up.
It kept it moving forward.
Jeremy Reeves: So typically, we'll start with
making the biggest portion of the song which
is the hook.
And then we pick and choose what we take out
to create the verse sequence.
For instance, the down-hook or the second
part of the pre-hook.
And it’s going to filter it building into
what is going to be the post-hook or the actual
hook.
And Ray added a snap.
That’s basically just to show you something
else is coming.
So with that, Ray added those pianos.
Ray Romulus: When I played it, I remember
Jerm just turning around like, “Yo that’s dope.”
So I added that.
And then he’s like, “How about we layer
it with an octave?”
And that’s exactly what you just heard.
Jeremy Reeves: With the bridge, because they're
such performance and dance-oriented, we went
half time and kind of switched up the whole
feel of it.
I basically just took the snare loop and I
chopped it.
And then I used a different synth and just
changed the progression.
Ray Romulus: It’s incredible.
Love it dude.
Jeremy Reeves: Thanks again man.
Pound it.
Jonathan Yip: I think the bridge is meant
to take you away from the rest of the feeling
of the song.
And so, you’re used to hearing verse, pre, hook,
verse, pre, hook.
Then all of a sudden, it's like, "Oh dang,
where are we going?
We're going somewhere else.
This is crazy."
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Then all of a sudden we're back.
Jeremy Reeves: I went back to 90s R&B.
Ray Romulus: It’s just fun.
Especially when they’re allowing you to
do that.
It was pretty tough just being in the states
playing music like that or music that we grew
up listening to and elements that we loved.
And would love to incorporate but it wasn’t,
you know, received well.
Jeremy Reeves: In the states, it’s not always
accepted, you know?
And aside from artists like, for instance,
like Bruno.
You know, but even still, that was taking
a chance.
It would be difficult to hear this song on
the radio in the states.
It’s very musical and it has a lot of changes
which in the Korean culture, they thrive off
of that.
They love musicality.
Ray Romulus: It felt like we were kids again,
allowed to play things we grew up listening
to.
And now we’re allowed to do it.
That’s what made that fun.
That was the inspiration behind that.
