(subtitles by @angelade17 on Twitter aka the guy who makes SKZ dance tutorials)
NICK: *laughs*
What are you doing to us?
[Rossini's Semiramide Overture plays]
[to Bang Chan from Stray Kids] KEVIN: HI ISAAC: Hello! Welcome
[hi Chan, nervous laughter]
UMU: So now you're reacting to the boy group Stray Kids and a B-side released off of their Clé 1: MIROH album
The member Changbin said that the lyrics came from the feelings of not having his dreams supported
The song itself feels like a journey through a maze which could symbolize the twists and turns along the path of following your dreams
The song is composed by three of the members of Stray Kids called 3RACHA, and the songwriter JKEY
JAMES: Cools
[t/n: yo I'm so hyped already]
MELISSA: This is so murky
Wow
NICK: That synth, like *sings*
AARON: Yeah I hear that NICK: It's like f- it reminds me of like fog
FIONA: *wiggles to Woojin's rapping*
DANIEL: I love how it's in compound [meter], the rapping
DANIEL: But then when it started off it sounded like it was in a duple meter, simple meter FIONA: *grooving*
ELIZABETH: The- there's swells happening in the synths in the back, so it-
But more than one swell happening at the same time so it just feels like this big cloud of sound
ELiZABETH: What is that? There's the (OWEN: That was-) beeping
E: WHAT THE. WHAT??? [t/n: girl same]
MELISSA: Oh my god time change, that's crazy (JAMES: What's going on with the time) can this go on my playlist too?
M: Thank you
J: Woah
J: That rap's fast M: That's the fastest rapping I've ever heard
ISAAC: *raps* Just mouthing it very silently, yeah
KEVIN: WOW ISAAC: *sings along* KEVIN: Ok it goes back
I: Sounds like boss music
"If you hear this, it's too late"
J: Onomatopoeia, we love that M: This is literally just like
M: Yeah, this is like rap concerto, I love it
N: I love these raps in like triple times though, 'cause they can use such weird changes of the agogics
K: Wow I like- the rapping is getting freer and freer, but it still somehow feels connected to the beat
A: I don't know
A: Oh?
N: *laughs* What are you doing to us U: *giggles*
CLOUD: Ohh
HENRY: *jiving hard*
HENRY: Oh man they got such good flow
[t/n ENGLISH RAPPER SEUNGMIN IN THE BUILDING]
O: I'm gonna get-
There's- I have so many questions about this song and how it started out like form-wise
And also that weird like, beep that just stopped for a little bit
Like, what is- I don't know what's going on
H: OOOH
H: *grooving hard* OH MY GOD
D: Oh this is like the first time we hear singing
J: I like how they took this song in a positive direction
M: Yeah J: Or at least seemingly
H: Oh no that's not it, that's not it :(
One more
H: AGH I want more C: That was weird
H: Oh my god, their rapping, their sense of rhythm it was just INCREDIBLE
Sure, you can have someone else produce and write all this for you
But you have to have a good sense of it yourself to be able to perform it just as well too and oh my god-
U: They write it themselves :) H: AAAAGH OF COURSE
C: I feel like this one (H: They're- aughh. AUGHH) had more like alterations in it?
C: Like the auto-tune of the voice that happened in that one part H: Mmmm
C: And like, kind of like the more synthesized feel of the strings and stuff H: Oh, for their timbre? C: Yeah
H: I was listening more to the rhythm (C: The rhythm was like *dances*) of their lyrics, and I guess
H: What, like, is always really cool to hear in rap- and I'm a really big fan of rap and hip-hop (C: The duple, the triple?)
H: Like this, it feels like it evoked a lot of, the stuff I like, like Kendrick
Is when it's not just like duple and triple,
But you you pick a little, a little rhythm motif like da-da-da da
And then you repeat it for a whole line of an entire, you know, phrase, like word phrase, something that makes sense
But every single little bit of that phrase is da-da-da da, da-da-da da, da-da-da da
U: Like *raps the rhythm from Bang Chan's verse*
U: Like that? H: Yeah like that, like ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop C: It's almost like
C: 'Cause it's like you're rhyming, but then you're like rhythmic rhyming H: Exactly, yeah exactly
C: So yeah it can feel really great- H: You're repeating it with different words and to make that a cohesive sentence or a cohesive thought is really tough
And that's a sign of like, really experienced craft, and I just- that flow was so good
I: Yeah its use of rhythm was just
I completely forgot this was Stray Kids when I was listening
'Cause I was listening just for music
I: And I remember I was like wow, this is a very long rap. And it just keeps going, like "Hm this is very good" K: Hmm
I: Then I was like looking at the title, I was like "Wow Stray Kids?"
I: "Oh it's Stray Kids, that makes sense" [Kevin & Umu laugh]
I: So but yeah, it was just nice to hear the different styles they were going for
And then hearing- yeah there's this one part where they did a hemiola, but then duple groupings on the triplets
*sings the rhythm from Bang Chan's verse*
Can't really do it right now
But yeah the play on rhythms and also DICTION, oh my goodness. That's some fire fire
That's a really great presentation of just how to speak a language to be so precise and so clean with the execution
And yeah, it was just very
It was motivating to hear how someone could just take music and just explain themselves,
Explain a motif or an idea that they want to put out to this world, so yeah
N: That's... SO weird, it's- A: I feel like we just went through a maze N: Absolutely
N: Totally a maze in terms of metric modulations and
Then at the very end where they give us something kind of solid, they got to the police sirens, so we can't even-
We can't even really grasp the beat of that
A: I feel like that- N: What a weird song
A: And I feel like it was just like, like the end it wasn't like a resolu- resolved ending N: No
N: No it was like the bridge, and then bye
A: Yeah no I feel like, very impacted by like just like the amount of changes that happened, like wow
N: I kinda love it A: No, it was great, but it was just like-
A: I need like a second, I need to go like get a cup of coffee and like (N: Yeah) think about what just happened to me
E: Oh is that it? O: That was.......?
E: WELL.
U: "Maze of Memories", babyyy
O: I'm so confused
U: Talk through your confusion please
O: It just- we never felt like we got anywhere, and maybe that's the point like you're in a labyrinth
You're never actually gonna get to the ending or figure out where you are in terms of the the song or your placement in space and time
Because it's just, it felt just everywhere and nowhere at the same time
E: The tempos, I don't even think they were related by (O: By some sort of metric) double-time and half-time O: Yeah
E: Yeah it was definitely two very unrelated tempos and one of them was like definitely faster
Like I think the first one we started with was faster and that gave you a more intense beat-you-can-dance-to vibe
Whereas the second section was much slower, so it felt...
E: It just felt like if you turned that on in a club no one would know what to do *laughs* O: Yeah, absolutely
E: I don't know how you would classify like, form for this either
Because there were definitely, it changed tempo...
E: There are four different sections, 2 with the slow tempo, 2 with the fast tempo O: Mm-hmm
E: And I didn't notice well enough if you would call the faster section say the chorus
I don't necessarily know how you classify form for this
I'd have to take a second listen, um
But it was definitely not structured in the way you would expect from a pop song
And that definitely leads back to the idea of it being a maze and you're not really sure where you are, what's going on
O: And there wasn't any sort of-
O: Like a lot of songs intentionally are written with a hierarchy in terms of the sections E: Yeah
O: Like the chorus is the thing that everyone remembers right, it's the see-
O: It's usually set up to be an intentionally biggest part of the song, the most memorable E: Yeah
O: But these felt actually like there wasn't any sort of hierarchy, they were- they felt very level in terms of how intense or how interesting they were
Like it just kind of going back and forth, and I'm confused
M: I love that song (J: never give up) because it's in minor but it has like a beat and it's like... catchy
E: Yeah J: interesting E: That's all I need to like a song
J: I really appreciated the time changes, I couldn't- M: YEAHH
J: I didn't nail quite exactly what they were
But it's a pretty clear indication of that like feeling that you can encounter at times when you're going through that maze of life or whatever
And then shit just completely flips and you're like
You look back at who you were, you're going- you're like
We live in a different times now, you know like
Really like, things can just flip like that at the drop of a hat and that's like woah
J: So I appreciate that aspect M: James you're so deep J: Sorry
M: I appreciate that (J: *gasp*) I actually do J: Thanks M: It's really fun U: You nailed it, you nailed the lyrics
J: The way they invoke like, that like
Stray kid grunge underground vibe with like the police sirens
And like, the like low guitar and like just some of the sound effects
Like that whole vibe that they have, it's really really really imp- I think like especially for this song in particular
It's really really appropriate and apt because a lot of the time it does feel like you're like completely going against the grain, like
Walking upstream in a river that's like completely against you at all odds
It feels like everything you have to do to get where you want to be is-
You just have to like go against the grain like, life will grind you into dust if you don't, like you just got to keep going never give up like
I think it's like a very important, very important sentiment
[Up next: DAY6's "Ouch" per Bang Chan's request :3 ]
*Naruto*