Kevin: aaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Umu: So Park Hyo Shin is revered as one of Korea's most renowned legendary modern singers of today.
Umu: He debuted in 1999, so he's been in the music industry for 19 years as of this year. So some background information about
Umu: Park Hyo Shin that will give you context to why he wrote this song, is that he has not had good
Umu: dealings with his companies in the past. One of them worked him to the frickin bone until he collapsed on stage and
Umu: was later diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia. Jarod: Damn.
Umu: And Wildflower was a huge comeback for him after four years of hiatus. And it's very close to his heart since a wildflower is symbolism for his deep appreciation
Umu: for music and also represents the hardships he had to go through in the past that held him back from doing what he loved the
Umu: most and how despite the turmoil he has survived them and like the lyrics portray
Umu: he was a wildflower facing harsh coolness of winter and blooming in the end.
Umu: Do you guys want the lyrics before or after?
Jarod: Let's do before.
Umu: Okay.
Umu: And so the song was composed and written by both him Park Hyo Shin and his friend Jung Jae Il who you'll see
Umu: playing the piano in the music video. The music video is a one-take live in the desert.
Kevin: wHAAAAT? yeEEES!
Umu: Uh it's filmed by a drone and the piano playing and the vocals are live-- recorded live.
Stephen: Wow Umu: And so there's actually an original
Naoki: That's intense. Umu: studio version where it's like a full orchestra and like a drum set and stuff, but
Umu: this is just vocals and piano, so like it's a new arrangement. Gwen: I'm interested to see
Hugo: How this goes?
Gwen: How like a live performance music video. Hugo: Yeah.
Jarod: It's pretty pretty cool when you think about it, and I like how they show the process at the beginning. Katie: Mhm
Jarod: I'm just like acoustically this would be a nightmare, you know.
Kevin: Oh, man. Oh, man. Hype!
Kevin: Hype! Hy-
Kevin: Holy geez.
Jarod: They're probably using dynamic microphones because those are very-- that's a durable type of microphone
Jarod: to withstand like all the wind and whatnot like
Kevin: Wow, this is some artsy shit. I'm such a fan.
Kevin: There's the resolve-- the suspension doesn't resolve!
Kevin: Woah now it's in three.
Gwen: It's a gorgeous voice. Hugo: Mhm.
Hugo: He has more facial muscles than most k-pop singers we see.
Jarod: See maybe like recorded live, but there's like so much reverb added into this track right now. Katie: Mhm.
Jarod: Because you're not gonna get that kind of like goopiness out in the middle of nowhere.
Emiel: Nice harmony. Henry: Yeah, this has really good harmonies. I like the--
Henry: I like the way the melody interacts with the harmonies though. He sort of like weaves in the harmonies opposed floating above.
Peyton: His voice has a lot of like lower un... like... Charlotte: Overtones?
Peyton: Yeah, with like a little breathy thing over top to give it like you know the "pop flare."
Melissa: I like that he chose a major key, so it's like--
It feels like there's kind of hope, but also in the poem like there's a wildflower. That's gonna bloom again. Fiona: Yeah.
Gwen: It does look like there's a fair amount of jaw tension though. Hugo: Yeah.
Gwen: This is weird that we can like see every muscle in his face moving. Hugo: He also might just have a more muscular face than we're used to as well.
Gwen: Like yeah cause like his upper lip is moving a lot as well.
Henry: You know what I actually like about his voice? Is that it does sound mature.
Henry: It sounds more mature than other artists we listen to. we listen to a lot of people for like under 25, you know?
Henry: But like this sounds like--
Henry: Yeah, it sounds like it's got some, you know, meat on the bones.
Naoki: oh, I like the use of the silence and that break and then BOOM. Stephen: I love the break cause then it's just BAM.
Naoki: Yeah. Stephen: His voice is like
Naoki: Very, very good. Stephen: Exposed, but he's just killing it. Naoki: Yeah.
Melissa: That's why I like that this version is like no percussion or like other instruments like it's just about the singing. Fiona: Mhm.
Emiel: Yeah. Henry: It's good piano playing too. Emiel: That little break right there, the piano.
Katie: Is that a diminished chord?
Jarod: I don't know. I missed it. I was just thinking it's like the pianist is laying down them thick block chords.
Jarod: That's about it. Katie: Mhm. Jarod: Yeah.
Katie: I'm trying to analyze the chords.
Kevin: Four to two-- very strong predominant.
Kevin: *gasp* *shooketh*
Isaac: Ooh, modulation. Okay. Kevin: It's not the modulation. It's that heavy bass note. Isaac: Oh, is it--
Isaac: Oh. Kevin: No no no no. It is a modulation, but I'm saying the modulation isn't what, you know, like we've heard that before with the--
Kevin: DUUUUR Isaac: *chuckles*
Kevin: Oh my gosh, the drone's doing things. Yeaaaaaah. Isaac: That's a close shot too like, it's this close. Kevin: Yeah.
Kevin: No cuts.
Hugo: he can have a little more backspace.
Hugo: But--
Hugo: It's possible to have more backspace while still keeping the pop sound. Gwen: Mhm.
Hugo: That was a good high note, though. Gwen: Yeah.
Gwen: I think it gets better when it goes higher. Hugo: Yeah.
Gwen: Cause you're like forced, I guess, to have to-- Hugo: Well, you have to. Gwen: Yeah.
Hugo: It's easy to get lazy down in the lower--
Henry: Whoa! Emiel: One too many modulations.
Henry: Well no, I kind of liked it. It was like-- it wasn't really a full modulation. Just kind of- was an escape.
Emiel: It was a side step.
Kevin: flat six, minor four, one.
Hyo Shin: *epically slays high note* *what a king* Kevin: *shook*
Hyo Shin: *still slaying that high note* Kevin: *freaking out* aaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
Hugo: oH SHIT SON Gwen: That's-- that's his voice.
Hugo: There it is! sHIT Gwen: Here we go.
Henry: Wow, I wouldn't think he'd had that C. That's awesome.
Emiel: Yeah. Henry: It's like a really-- that's like-- this is like maybe one of the stronger vocalists we've seen XD it like almost certainly.
Hugo: Oh damn! Gwen: There's the clarity that he was missing, yeah.
Gwen: Yeah, cause his, his breath is getting in the way.
Hugo: Yeah. He has a good low. He has a good low, but once he gets up there... Gwen: Once he, yeah, once he--
Gwen: really like clicked into it, yeah.
Gwen: I think the part of classical vocal technique that ought to be applied to every type of singing is Chiaroscuro cause it
Gwen: it changes it. It does. Hugo: I also enjoy how like he actually is-- it's very sincere. Gwen: Mhm.
Emiel: The melody really clearly outlines the harmony too, Henry: Yeah.
Emiel: which is-- which is appreciated. Henry: Really.
Stephen: It just goes to show you that you don't need to have, like [a] heavily arranged
Stephen: song if you've got amazing talent. Naoki: Yeah.
Jarod: It's so powerful. You can like see it on his face too.
Kevin: wwWWWWOOooooWWW
Isaac: I thought it was nice. He like-- there was moments where he-- he sung a minor 7
which is very juicy if you've heard it if [inaudible] smaller intervals.
You just have this random-- not random, but like it was coordinated to have a minor 7 and then later
He did like a minor, uh, major 10, and I was like *impressed sound*
Kevin: *imitates Isaac* Isaac: Awesome juicy stuff, and then you mentioned about the chords. It's like-- that was so spicy.
Kevin: Uh huh. Isaac: It was very elaborate, but any luck, he was very passionate when he sung-- like just like tell-- you can look at his
like chords, and how he like really sung into it. Kevin: He's not auto-tuned. There's none.
Kevin: thERE's NONE.
Kevin: You can tell it's so-- and yeah there's that, but it's also going up and down,
Kevin: and it's just-- but he's so precise, you know, it's not like you can tell he's singing a little off. No, it's never off.
Kevin: But you can tell when a song just has theirs autotuned, and this is-- this is it!
Kevin: I think the mastering is is what did the-- is is what did the magic, but the performance is really moving
Kevin: And I think the drone shot with the close-ups is very powerful too because at first I was like, "Okay,
Kevin: "he's just is-- just gonna be the entire video, but then it worked. Aaron: My favorite part was-- well
Stephen: I love the fact that they would-- they used Briggs,
But-- and then, like he would just come in and would hold out a note for-- like, leading into the next Naoki: Yeah
uh, frame-- like the next chorus. That was really really cool, especially at the end when he did that, and then he kept climbing. Naoki: Yeah.
Um, that was a reaaaaally, really cool effect. Naoki: Yeah, that was special. Yeah.
Stephen: Emotionally, that was beautiful. Naoki: Yeah, cause you think he's reached a peak.
Naoki: bUT wAIT!
Stephen: But yeah. Naoki: There's more! Stephen: Which is nice because--
Naoki: Yeah. Stephen: It goes back to his li-- you know, the lyrics where it's like he keeps breaking through barriers,
Stephen: so it's almost like musically, he's setting up barriers for him to break.
Naoki: oooooOOOOOOOOOHHHH! *shooketh* THAT'S SO DEEP! Stephen: And, and he keeps-- no, but then he
no, but, but he keeps doing it, right? Naoki: Yeah, no, he does for sure.
Naoki: No, uh, the control he has over his voice, um, he's obviously a very strong singer
Naoki: I'll I'll probably say he's
Naoki: better than most thing is that we found k-pop groups. Like I doubt most thing is would be I wouldn't do something so convincingly like
Stephen: Seriously, that was unbelievable. Naoki: Like he didn't have to rely on instrumentation or anything to carry the song.
Naoki: He just relied on his voice and some harmony given by the piano. Aaron: Yeah. Naoki: The star that was his voice.
Stephen: Mm. Hugo: Yeah, yeah that jaw tension is super real where he affects his vibrato and his--
Gwen: And I'm sure some of that is like what you're saying-- kind of working around having an actual problem. Hugo: working around
Gwen: I mean obviously that that would change things, of course. Yeah, it was phenomenal. Hugo: Yeah, um...
Hugo: But then his high notes were great. Really great.
Gwen: He locked into it like a clarity, and he was riding his breath more rather than when he stuck behind it. Hugo: Well he's not a tenor.
Hugo: And he's definitely not a tenor. Gwen: Yeah.
Hugo: It's not like he's a-- he's a k-pop star who naturally already had a high voice and who like really gets up there,
Hugo: But like, I think that also made it more impressive. Gwen: Mhm.
Hugo: Um, and his his intimacy with the song too, like he very was-- very passionate about the song.
Hugo: But he felt it had such good integrity, too. I give his number a 0.5. Uh, This is kind of contrived.
Gwen: I'm also impressed that they manage just like sound. Hugo: Yeah.
Gwen: Recording-wise, they managed to-- because like they were-- I'm not sure if they maybe added the wind noise later
Gwen: But there was like nothing of that in the-- in the actual recording. That was cool.
Peyton: I thought it was-- it moves a lot more than you'd expect most.
Peyton: Those like power ballad type songs would move. You can obviously tell whatever he was singing about was like very dear to him.
Peyton: And like I think that's one of those songs that would like, you know, tear people apart alive.
Melissa: It was like-- I like how it was just so simple Fiona: Mhm.
Melissa: and they weren't trying to add any like exciting, like,
Ooh, it's an instrument like cause I can see how you can easily go the direction of like let's add like a ton of Fiona: Yeah.
strings or like even fake strings, and the-- Fiona: Oh man, that would have like totally killed it. Melissa: emotional swell that would-- like he didn't
Yeah, like he did like the-- all the like
the actual emotional-ness with just his voice and a piano rather than being like okay,
this is like the big moment. Let's add like cellos, but it was like let's just add modulation and like dynamic. Fiona: He didn't-- yeah.
Fiona: He didn't need to add any extra because there was so much power and like purity and passion and other p-words Melissa: Exactly.
Fiona: to his voice.
Melissa: Yeah, his voice could just like do it all, so he didn't need all that other crap. Fiona: Listen to his performance. Other poop. Umu: Right.
Melissa: I mean it's not crap. Umu: But, but the original song IS orchestrated. Melissa: Well, I like this version.
Fiona: I really like this version. It's way more current, sorry! Melissa: Judging by having only heard one version this one's been... Umu: *laughs*
Melissa: In my uneducated opinion. Fiona: 10/10. yeah- my very uneducated opinion
Fiona: This is the one. Melissa: Exactly. Henry: That kind of a texture is so-- it like it so exposes vocalists who might be
Henry: not the best singers, and maybe good musical, um, reciters.
Henry: So like that this was like really obviously a strong vocal performance on his part,
Henry: and it was like really s-- it like was very impassionate. He's this strong voice--
Henry: It seems like he's recovered really well from it-- from his injury. His interaction with the piano was great.
Henry: Piano playing was really good. It was really harmonically interesting so...
Henry: Yeah. Umu: How d'you think the song represented the lyrics?
Peyton: I think, with a lot of really heavy topics, a good way to go is that, uh--
Peyton: like making it a very thin texture. I feel like the more tender
Peyton: songs of the tender-like melodies and the repertoire that we play
Peyton: usually come in 10 textures. Like it could be just like light strings and like a solar-wind voice or like
Peyton: You know sometimes--
Peyton: It's even like-- they break it down to like a quartet like maybe half the strings play or something like that.
Peyton: I know the Adagio from mahler5 which-- go check out-- is just strings the whole time. Also the use of silence is super important
Peyton: especially-- as like-- added in with the thin texture allows it to kind of create this feeling of nakedness and like
Peyton: because you put yourself out there like as a musician like
Peyton: And I very like-- wow, any wrong sound, it's gonna ruin it---it's such a like sensitive
Peyton: environment to be in. They also puts the-- brings the listener in like oh my god. What's about to happen cuz like you know?
Peyton: It's so easy to check out when there's like-- everybody's just like eeEeEEEuUUGUUgGHH
Peyton: You know, but uh you know-- Well, there's just like a few people just kind of like
Peyton: *imitates violin* eeuughhhh
Peyton: It's just like-- you're like oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck
Umu: How'd you feel the song and melody supported the lyrics that I read before you watch this?
Hugo: I thought it was great. Gwen: Mhm I think kind of the simplicity and the sincerity of it
Gwen: really added to that, and you could tell that he wrote every single word and and
Gwen: He was very connected to it, and it showed. Jarod: You know you have the power chords in the piano
Jarod: you know so it's just like-- you're feeling it--- like you're listening to it. He's here, and you're hearing the message.
Jarod: You're feeling it in your chest. *whispers* You're feeling in your heart. (wow deep Jarod)
Katie: It was good because it didn't distract it all from the words because I think he meant that to be the main focus and
Katie: so it was just very supportive and not distracting. Um, sometimes I would like be caught off guard because of the leg drop,
Katie: but I thought that added to it again. Like I thought it was really well balanced between music and lyrics.
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