Back in the day, most South Korean agencies didn’t allow their artists to write their own material. But times have changed. Nowadays, groups and soloists have more creative control.
BigHit Music (formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment), was among the first agencies that gave their artists freedom to write their own songs. Every single member of BTS participates in the production process, and now their hoobaes in TOMORROW X TOGETHER are finally following in their footsteps.
When the album minisode1: Blue Hour dropped last year, the group’s mat-hyung or eldest member Choi Yeonjun was revealed to have contributed to the lyrics of “Wishlist,” its pop-rock flavored fourth track. However, he’s hesitant to take credit for it.
“Personally, I don’t think I really contributed enough to ‘Wishlist’ to say I wrote it. I just thought back to the excitement I felt when I was young and innocent,” he shared in a recent interview with Weverse Magazine. “When I write a song, I base it on my personal experiences. If that’s not enough, I’ll watch a movie or ask people around me if they’ve had similar experiences.”
He revealed that before “Wishlist” made his group’s third mini album, he was working on a different song with the same title.
“Its story was a little different: I wrote about the end of the semester and wanting to go anywhere with anyone because I’m stuck at home. Our producer Slow Rabbit said it’s really good and we should’ve included it on the album, but it was too late. It would’ve been nice. It was so good!”
Yeonjun said being able to help write their songs has helped him perform better.
“Because it’s rap, I try to pronounce the words so they’re catchy instead of carefully pronouncing everything. A lot of times I slur my speech and sometimes I rap so it doesn’t even sound like it’s Korean. I wrote all the lyrics to the rap in ‘No Rules’ myself, so it perfectly matches the way I rap and my rapping stuck better on the beat.”
“No Rules” is a track from their second studio album, The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE. Aside from that one, Yeonjun also worked on “Frost” and “What if I had been that PUMA.” He oversaw editing for them.
“Our producer Hitman Bang sent me the lyrics that had been completed so far and said, ‘Yeonjun, I think you can save this. Why don’t you see if you can edit the whole thing.’ So I did,” he said when asked how he came to work on “What if I had been that PUMA.”
Yeonjun says he ended up changing a lot of lines in the song.
“The lyrics you hear now came from lots of back-and-forth and changes. For instance, the line ‘My EXP’s still at zero’ used to be all in Korean, but I changed it to ‘my EXP’ in English because it sounded cooler. Anyway, in games ‘experience’ is usually shortened to ‘EXP’ anyway. The line ‘careful, it spreads out quickly’ also used to be totally different, but I borrowed some lyrics from our older ‘PUMA’ song instead.”
Hitman Bang was so happy with Yeonjun’s work that he left ‘Frost’ up to him too. He even gave the burgeoning songwriter carte blanche to change the song however he wanted to, so that’s exactly what he did.
“In ‘Frost,’ the lines that go ‘Cross the frozen lake and follow the path / The stop sign was at the other end’ was originally ‘Follow the path around the frozen lake / Look for the sign of destiny.’ Crossing the frozen lake sounded more like a fairy tale that painted an adventurous picture than following the path around the frozen lake, so I changed the original. Also, the Korean words for ‘follow’ and ‘wind’ rhyme with ‘sign’ and ‘flower,’” he says.
However, while Yeonjun enjoys working on TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s songs, he wants to make music under his own name someday. He says the BTS members—all of whom have dropped solo efforts on Soundcloud and YouTube—are his role models in that regard.
“I’m impressed with the way SUGA keeps making his own music even while he’s busy with group promotions. I’d really like to relase at least one song or mixtape. I believe that TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s music explores universal experiences that many people can relate to. But seeing as how they’re songs everyone can identify with, it’s sort of difficult to include the details of my own private stories in them. If I were to make my own mixtape, I’d like to include those stories. I think MOA would like it if I shared those honest stories with them too.”
His dream of flying solo aside, Yeonjun is aware of how much power he has as one-fifth of TOMORROW X TOGETHER. When they debuted two years ago, he made up his mind to use his platform for the greater good—and he doesn’t see himself ever changing his mind about that.
“I hope to be the same as I am now. I’d rather be young at heart, always looking for a new challenge, than become some mature know-it-all. Also, no matter what others may think, I want to be someone who always stays true to himself. I want to defend what I believe in and break down walls created by prejudices and stereotypes when I come up against them. I’d like to become the kind of artist who can make other people feel better using my music. After all, I myself have found comfort in other people’s music. It doesn’t have to be a ton of people, but I do hope the music of TOMORROW X TOGETHER can bring comfort and strength to someone out there,” he said.
