Raising a Neglected Singer-Songwriter - Chapter 45



Only Krnovel

45. I’m going to quit my job.

[Heavenly Horse Reincarnation]

In a world where martial arts have been secretly passed down even in modern times.

This is a modern martial arts webtoon about the story of Cheonma, who used to boast of his omnipotence, waking up in the body of ‘Cheonma-on’, a high school bully who is suffering from school violence right before his death, and trying to revive the Cheonma Singyo.

Along with the undefeated cider material of the loners’ revenge, the action scenes with a strong impact have gained great popularity through word of mouth among young readers, especially the MZ generation.

It has risen to the top of the popular webtoon chart, beating out strong competitors.

How could the publisher of [Cheonma Hwansaeng], which is doing such a great job of being a filial son, just leave it alone?

Following the thorough market logic that says, “You have to row when the water rises, pour oil when the fire is hot, and squeeze out the hype when it’s popular,” it was a very natural process to decide to produce an OST that would give wings to [Cheonma Hwansaeng].

A webtoon with an OST is a symbol of the so-called top tier.

[Cheonma Reincarnation] Author ‘Bihyung’ was excited and soon received several demos from the serial publisher.

however······

‘Uh… Excuse me, are there any other demos?’

I don’t like any of them.

It feels like everything was made in a factory.

As the decision was delayed for a long time, the serial publisher expressed their intention to make things difficult, citing a tight production schedule.

However, even so, from Bihyung’s perspective, he couldn’t just choose the OST.

As much as I love the work, I also wanted the OST to be perfect.

Then, eventually, all the demos secured by the serial publisher were sold out.

The person in charge had no choice but to make a new suggestion.

“We don’t think we can give you any more recommendations. If you don’t mind, how about if the author gets some references himself and sends them to us so we can use them as reference and work on them?”

However, the reference search period is two weeks.

Since the production schedule had already been postponed once, we finally agreed to choose from existing references if we couldn’t find a suitable reference within two weeks.

From that day on, Bihyung’s ‘fun OST reference exploration life with webtoon serialization’ began.

I looked for a similar martial arts webtoon OST.

I also referenced historical drama OSTs.

However, I couldn’t find any really good references among them.

So, after much thought, we decided to borrow the power of collective intelligence.

Fans who are as serious about [Cheonma Reincarnation] as you are.

– If an OST for [Cheonma Hwansaeng] were produced, what kind of feeling would it have?

As soon as I posted a post on the fan account of [Cheonma Hwansang], which is run by a fan while hiding the fact that I am a writer, comments started coming in.

Fans each recommended songs and singers that would fit the piece. As expected, the fans were great.

While I was checking each comment with such gratitude,

“Huh? What is this?”

Suddenly, a song with an unusual title caught my eye.

[Flower Dance]

“Dance of the Flowers. The dance of flowers…”

Even the title itself gives off a strong oriental feeling.

When I clicked on the attached link, the page was connected.

This is my first time seeing a site called SoundSky.

The composer’s name seems to be ‘D.Voice’

“What?! A device?!”

Bihyung cried out in surprise.

As a webtoon writer, you have to be sensitive to trends.

Whenever I have free time while working to farm materials, I browse YouTube or communities on a daily basis.

So, it was impossible not to know the name of DeVoice, the hottest guy on YouTube these days.

Of course, I also listened to some of the cover songs he sang.

“I thought you were a YouTuber who was good at singing, but you also compose music? Or are you two different people?”

I played ‘Aengyeonmu’ with excitement.

As expected, it was a song with an oriental sound.

That’s also quite old-fashioned!

And the moment he heard the chorus, a picture seemed to unfold before Bihyeong’s eyes.

A fantasy where the characters of [Cheonma Hwansaeng] dance with swords and run around in the fluttering flower rain.

‘This is it···!’

The mood of the song is in perfect sync with the piece.

It’s like a song written for [Cheonma Hwansaeng] from the beginning!

‘I’m not going to use this as a reference. I absolutely have to use this song!’

I immediately joined SoundSky and left a comment.

I want to use the song as an OST.

It’s not just any other webtoon, it’s [Cheonma Hwansaeng].

Shining #1 on Wednesday webtoon!

Of course, I waited, expecting an immediate and proactive response.

one,

‘Are you busy? Why aren’t you replying?’

The other person remained silent.

The next day, and even the day after that.

‘Could it be that you mean rejection···?’

Cha Sung-jun was busy with ‘Who’s the King’ and decided to put off checking the response to ‘Angry Birds’ that he uploaded on SARS for the time being.

However, as a non-human who didn’t know that, I couldn’t help but feel sorry.

I had a burning desire to comment again, but I held back for fear of seeming nit-picky.

Still, he is a top webtoon writer.

One day, two days, a week passed in such endless waiting······

Before we knew it, it was Sunday.

The last day of reference search suggested by the serial publisher.

“You probably won’t come today either···.”

The non-human mutters in a voice that is as if he is dying.

Until two days ago, I was confident that they would contact me if I waited a little longer, but since yesterday, I have half given up.

It was when I opened my mailbox without much expectation.

“Huh, huh?!”

Bihyung drops the drawing pen he was holding in his hand.

[Hello. This is D.Voice.]

An email arrived from the composer of ‘Aengyeonmu’.

*

“Is that [Cheonma Hwansaeng]? It’s the #1 webtoon on Wednesday right now.”

I’ve never seen it before because I’m a web novel fan, not a webtoon fan, but I know it’s famous.

They said it was a mix of martial arts and school stories.

I opened the prologue because I was curious about what kind of story it was.

however,

Swish swish swish-

The thumb goes down without any obstruction.

As I was reading so absentmindedly, I had only intended to watch the first few episodes, but I had already watched over 30 episodes.

“Wow, this is interesting.”

I can see right away why it’s popular.

There are also bone soup-like themes such as the reincarnation of the strongest and the revenge of the loner.

The main character, heroine, and supporting actors are all unique.

What I especially like is the vivid animation during the battle scenes.

Even when watching on screen, the characters seem to be alive and moving.

‘If, ‘Aengyeonmu’ is added here···.’

It’s thrilling just to imagine.

I really want to try this sometime.

So, I sent an email to the address left in the comment with that intention.

And then I focused on other things for a while.

While reviewing the YouTube advertisement, I made a list of which cover songs would be good to sing.

I was very surprised to see that there was a special feature article on DeVoice so late.

He also smiled happily as he checked the status window.

After about 10 minutes, my phone vibrated.

– Hello? Are you the composer of Devoice?!

When I pick up the phone, I can hear a man’s voice that sounds like he’s in a hurry.

– My name is Bihyung, the writer of [Cheonma Hwansang] who left a comment!

As expected, it was amorphous.

No, it was Bihyung who called me at a faster rate than expected.

‘But do writers usually make calls like this? Even famous writers who get first place?’

Of course, I only sent my contact information to Bihyung via email, so it must be him.

To that question, Bihyung happened to answer.

– I’m in a hurry because I don’t have time, so I couldn’t go through the publisher and decided to call you directly. I really like your song.

Anyway, after that we had a short ice-breaking session.

It’s a meaningless yet meaningful time where we compliment each other’s songs and webtoons before talking about real work.

And when it was starting to warm up,

– I··· But··· This might be an impolite question······

“You can speak comfortably. Since you have requested it.”

– By any chance··· is there no song in ‘Aengyeonmu’···?

After hesitating for a while, Bihyung asked.

It seems like they needed a song that included vocals, not just an accompaniment.

“A vocal version? Of course there is.”

It’s just that I didn’t upload it to SoundSky.

When the voice comes out, it is revealed that ‘Nerdy’ and ‘Sadi’ are the same person.

But now there is no need to hide it any longer.

What a refreshing opening after being eliminated in the last ‘Who’s the King’.

– Hey, do you have it?! Then I’d like to hear that version!

Maybe it was because I was worried that there would only be an MR version.

The excited, formless voice rose uncontrollably,

“Oh, could you give me just a little bit of time?”

Cha Seong-jun took a break for a moment.

Not for any other reason –

“I’ll edit it and give it to you. Actually, I got a little greedy while reading [Cheonma Hwansaeng].”

Strictly speaking, the current ‘Aengyeonmu’ is not a custom OST for [Cheonma Hwansaeng].

It just so happened that our styles matched well.

With just a few improvements to the current version, the feel of the work can be better captured.

– If you do that, I would be so grateful! And I will discuss the contract with the publisher and send it to you right away.

“I will email you once the revision is complete.”

After finishing the call, I sat down straight in front of the keyboard.

It’s just the right time for [the movie viewing] to end.

I had to do some work to test out the overlapping buffs anyway, but luckily, I got some work done.

That’s also very attractive!

Anyway, while I was fiddling around with MIDI for a while,

When the idle activity ended, the emotional buff was automatically activated, and the vitality buff that was additionally stored was used.

[Emotional buff applied for 1 hour.]

[Vitality buff applied for 1 hour.]

The buff stack test was a great success.

“I’ve doped, so now I can focus on work.”

The main stat [Composition] is at level 11.

Last time, while completing a special mission, I raised [Association] to level 5.

Thanks to that, while reading the webtoon a little while ago, I was able to quickly organize ideas in my head about how to revise the song.

There are two major changes.

The first of these is to add an instrument that will become the focal point of ‘Aengyeonmu’.

An instrument that plays high notes on top of the acoustic guitar that serves as accompaniment.

A woodwind instrument that can handle the highest range of sounds –

“flute.”

The background that brought the flute to mind is as follows.

The main character, Cheonma, leisurely plays the flute in front of the great army that came to subdue him before he dies, and his appearance is quite impressive.

Even after being reincarnated as Cheonma-on in modern times, whenever I reminisce about my past days as Cheonma, that flute often appears.

In other words, the flute can be seen as an instrument symbolizing the heavenly horse.

So of course it should be included in the OST too.

But why a flute and not a pipe?

This is to remake ‘Aengyeonmu’ into a ‘crossover’ genre.

These days, when using oriental sounds, there are many crossover attempts, such as the harmony of Western and Korean instruments, or Korean music scales played with Western instruments, and they go well together.

Moreover, the webtoon genre of [Cheonma Hwansaeng] is also a modern X martial arts crossover.

So it wouldn’t be strange at all if a flute were used instead of a pipe.

To add some brainwashing,

The past Cheonma became the modern Cheonmaon.

Then, the flute he played could become a flute if modernized through a filter?

Anyway, I tried adding the sound of the flute to ‘Aengyeonmu’.

in result,

“Oh. Are you okay?”

Look at that, it’s not heterogeneous at all.

Rather, the flute’s vibrato is used, and its strange charm captivates the ears.

After that, I added melody with flute at appropriate intervals.

With this, there is no more touching on the song.

But the answer to why there were two revisions is,

That’s because the thing to be modified this time is the ‘title’ and not the ‘song’.

[Flower Dance]

When uploading to SoundSky, there are many users from English-speaking countries, and I was worried that it would look messy, so I put back in the Chinese characters that I had excluded.

So that the meaning of the song, ‘Dance of the Red Flowers’, can be properly conveyed.

“It’s over now!”

It took exactly one hour to get here.

This is thanks to the full benefit of the buff stacking effect.

When you come up with an idea with a head that has been buffed emotionally,

I quickly moved to the program with my hands that had received the vitality buff.

This is the completion of the two-handed sword.

After that, I carefully checked the completed sound source and sent it to Bihyung by attaching it to an email.

The final OK sign from the non-formal side came only two hours later.

*

And the next day, Monday.

[Cheonma Reincarnation] OST composer, Cha Seong-jun, stood in front of the team leader.

The eyes of the team leader looking up at Cha Seong-jun are filled with shock.

It’s because of the envelope he handed me.

“You, you, you··· this···.”

The team leader stutters as he asks what on earth that envelope is.

Calmly remind him of its true nature.

“Yes, it’s a letter of resignation.”

This time, the meaning behind it is also clear.

“I’m thinking of quitting my job.”

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