Peninsula's Life Begins in 2016

Chapter 103 BLACKPINK in your area

Meanwhile, Jiang Yan was sitting in the living room with a pile of analyses of Teddy's works over the years, printed from the internet, in front of him, along with his own feelings about what he had learned in the past few days.

Just then, the phone screen lit up. Lin Xiaolu leaned over first and, seeing the message in the notification bar, excitedly exclaimed, "Jiang Yan, she's here! She messaged me saying Teddy wants to see you!"

Jiang Yan quickly picked up his phone and saw the message from Lin Yoona: [Jie Eun said that after Teddy listened to two songs, he immediately contacted her to meet you, but it's too late now, so Jie Eun refused. She asked me to send him your Kakao ID, and he should add you soon.]

Less than two minutes later, a friend request popped up.

The profile picture is a pure black background, and the ID is just a simple letter: TEDDY.

Jiang Yan accepted the request and then sent a message: "Hello Teddy, this is Jiang Yan."

Less than ten seconds after the message was sent, the other party immediately initiated a voice call.

Jiang Yan paused for a moment, then pressed the answer button.

"Yo-bo-se-yo, senior-nim."

"Hello Jiang Yan, Zhi En played two of your songs for me."

"Yes, senior, please speak."

"It's hard to explain over the phone. Tomorrow at 2 PM, THE BLACK LABEL in Hannam-dong. I'll send you the address, and we can talk in person."

"Yes, I'll be there on time."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yan looked at the address Teddy had sent on the screen and tapped his fingers lightly on his knee twice.

Lin Xiaolu floated behind him, excitedly spinning in mid-air: "Dafa, his tone completely showed that he couldn't wait to see you, which means those two songs really got him going."

"Hmm." Jiang Yan responded briefly, saved the address to his phone's notes, and then picked up the stack of documents on the ground again to continue looking through them.

Lin Xiaolu floated in front of him, blocking his view: "Aren't you excited? Aren't you nervous? Aren't you going to jump up and shout that you finally succeeded?"

"Excited." Jiang Yan turned to the next page of the documents without even lifting his eyelids. "But after the excitement, I still have to do my homework. Meeting tomorrow can also be seen as a test."

Seeing his unyielding attitude, Lin Xiaolu frowned, rubbed her forehead, and floated to the ceiling to lie down.

This person is hopeless.

The next day at 1:30 pm.

Jiang Yan arrived at the Itaewon area half an hour early.

THEBLACKLABEL's office building is a five-story gray building with no superfluous decorations on the exterior walls, except for a low-key metal plaque at the entrance engraved with the words THEBLACKLABEL.

Jiang Yan gave his name at the front desk and was quickly led to a studio on the third floor.

As soon as I opened the door, a rich aroma of coffee wafted out.

The room looked quite large, but it was crammed full of equipment.

The entire wall is covered with synthesizer modules, three ultra-wide monitors are placed side by side, several guitars and basses stand in the corner, and the coffee table in front of the sofa is piled with empty coffee cups and takeout boxes.

Teddy stood up from the mixing console.

His appearance is similar to the photos of Jiang Yan that I found online. To be specific, he looks cool and stylish, completely YG style.

"sit."

Teddy pointed to the sofa, then leaned against the edge of the mixing console, his gaze sweeping over Jiang Yan's face.

"He doesn't look very old, around twenty?"

"Yes, senior, I'm twenty years old this year."

"Jie Eun told me you came from SM." Teddy nodded, his tone flat, revealing no emotion. "Twenty years old, an official producer at SM. I previously worked on perfecting Tiffany's solo songs for Girls' Generation, and later wrote three more title tracks, and then I was fired."

He paused, his somewhat tired eyes beneath the brim of his hat fixed on Jiang Yan: "Can you tell me why you were fired?"

Jiang Yan didn't choose to hide it, but she also didn't involve Girls' Generation. "I helped a friend avoid a bad movie, and then I fell out with people at the company."

Teddy paused for a moment, then chuckled.

"The people at SM are still the same as ever."

He pushed his hat brim up a bit. "Let me make one thing clear to you first. Although THE BLACK LABEL is backed by YG, I have complete say. So, I'm different from $M here. I don't look at seniority or background; I only look at the work."

He walked to the computer and opened the waveforms of the two audio files.

"I've listened to 'As If It's Your Last' and 'Kill This Love' many times. The arrangement, melody, and hook all perfectly match my aesthetic."

He turned around, his gaze returning to Jiang Yan: "So I want to ask you, how did you write these two songs?"

Jiang Yan met his gaze, thinking to himself that a test had begun. "Senior, before answering this question, I'd like to say something first..."

Teddy raised an eyebrow: "Speak."

"These two songs were written after I studied all of my predecessors' works over the past ten years."

Jiang Yan answered very sincerely: "From 1TYM to BIGBANG, from 2NE1 to my seniors' own solo works, I spent a long time understanding my seniors' musical language, their timbre preferences, rhythm handling habits, and the melody direction of the chorus. Then I used this language to write these two songs."

He paused, took a thick notebook out of his bag, turned to the page with the folded corner, and placed it on the coffee table.

Teddy looked down.

The notebook was filled with dense writing, and each page was categorized with color labels.

[Analysis of Teddy's Commonly Used Synthesizer Sound Libraries]

【Characteristics of Teddy-style chorus hook melody】

[2NE1's "IAmTheBest" Arrangement Breakdown]

[Low-frequency response processing of BIGBANG's "BANGBANGBANG"]

It's over twenty pages long.

Teddy picked up the notebook and flipped through the pages one by one.

As he turned to the back, his movements became slower and slower, and his expression changed from nonchalant to serious, and then from serious to incredulous.

He closed the notebook, put it back on the coffee table, and looked at Jiang Yan with a different kind of gaze.

"Why are you doing all this homework?"

"In order to write songs that my seniors would like," Jiang Yan answered without hesitation. "Actually, from the beginning, I wanted to join YG and learn from my seniors, but by chance, I ended up at SM."

Teddy gave Jiang Yan a strange look, while Jiang Yan met his gaze without blushing or skipping a beat, and even smiled shyly.

Teddy smiled and shook his head. "You're very interesting and smart."

He stood up, walked to the mixing console, opened the project file for "KillThisLove," and dragged the progress bar to the intro.

"The beginning of this song feels like something's missing. Do you feel the same way?"

Jiang Yan felt a chill run down his spine.

In the original demo that Lim Yoona gave him, the opening line was indeed the iconic "BLACKPINK in your love."

'

He didn't expect that the other party would still notice after he made the changes.

Jiang Yan maintained a calm expression and replied, "Yes, your feeling is correct. There will be an introductory line in this section, but before it is completely finalized, any element that is too directional will limit the scope of the song's applicability, so I changed to a more open approach."

After listening, Teddy didn't say anything, but just stared at the waveform graph.

Then he turned to Jiang Yan and asked, "If I accept this song, do you think this intro line should be written?"

"Um, could you tell me which group will be singing this song?"

"BLACKPINK."

Jiang Yan listened without hesitation and said the exact words, "BLACKPINK in your area."

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