Kpop Club (10 page)

“I know girlsu
these days wanna look like gangnam styles, make the s-lines. These
days, many many diet, do you know the diet ways?” said Sebastien,
opening the question up to the audience.

Some of the
girls clearly hadn’t understood the question. As an expert in
deciphering broken English and Konglish, Krystal decided to
answer.

“I’ve heard of
quite a few diets,” she said, doing her best to keep a straight
face.

“Ok, you tell
me,” said Sebastien.

“Well, the
other day I was reading about this enzyme diet. Basically following
the wellbeing craze in Korea, people are eating enzyme rich foods
and bathing in fermenting rice bran for 15 minutes. This is
supposed to help burn calories,” said Krystal.

“Okay, that’s
a little bit strangey ones. I don’t know that’s correct ways. Other
peoples?” said Sebastien.

Krystal hadn’t
expected Sebastien to be able to understand everything she said.
Funny that a person’s understanding could be so much better than
their speaking, she thought.

“I heard about
this diet that some groups do called the paper cup diet,” said
Celine.

“Yes, this one
is berry paymous ones in Korea. Do you know the ways?” said
Sebastien.

“Well,” said
Celine. “Basically each girl gets 3 paper cups, like the ones you
get in coffee vending machines. In one cup you put rice, in another
your put fruit and then in the last one you put side dishes. You
have to be careful not to fill the cup past the top and I guess the
idea is that this helps with portion control.”

Some of the
girls nodded to show that they understood the concept.

“Yes, your
talkings is correct,” said Sebastien.

Before he
could say anymore Nadia spoke up. “I heard that the girl group,
Heart Flower, only eat egg whites on the days they perform.”

“Yes, those
girls are the leally crajee girls,” said Sebastien.

Pooky joined
the conversation. “I’ve heard that a lot of kpop stars do what’s
called the Denmark Diet. Basically you eat a lot of protein like
boiled eggs but you also have some carbs like toast. You also drink
a lot of black coffee to speed up your metabolism.”

Sebastien
nodded.

“You seem to
know lots but these ways are not the healthy ways. You need to make
condition up. Make body healthies – bad things out, good things
in,” said Sebastien.

Krystal let
out a squeak of laughter, which she unsuccessfully tried to mask
with a cough.

Sebastien
continued, seemingly oblivious to Krystal’s outburst. “In our
companies we make philosophies: eat healthy ones: fruits, cereals,
chickens breastesis, feesh, exercise manies and most important one
is make the balance. Sometimes you only eat 80%, sometimes you eat
180%. You need to make find the good relationships with your
bodies.”

Everyone
looked perplexed. KYM couldn’t take it anymore and burst out
laughing. In an attempt to disguise his sniggering, he then shot up
out of his chair and started clapping furiously. The girls followed
suit and the room momentarily resembled an insane asylum with
everyone clapping and laughing hysterically. Sebastien didn’t
understand what was going on but smiled and joined in with the
clapping anyway.

“Thank you,
Sebastien,” said KYM, a tear in his eye. “Just to summarise then
girls, what Sebastien said was: eat a balanced diet, exercise
frequently and every now and then treat yourself to whatever you
want: ice cream, burgers pizza etc. Remember that you’ll be doing a
lot of exercise when you’re rehearsing and performing so you’ll
need to eat a fair bit to keep your energy levels up. I don’t want
or expect any of you to end up looking like matchsticks. We all
come in different shapes and sizes and all I ask is that you stay
fit and healthy. If you do this, you’ll be looking after yourselves
and setting a good example for your fans.”

The girls
smiled and nodded to show they understood.

“Moving on
now, let’s make our way to the gym,” said KYM, leading them out of
the meeting room.

They arrived
at the gym to find the Andre Project boys in the middle of a
weights session. Andrew saw them come in and waved to Krystal. He
was wearing a sleeveless top and she hadn’t realised he was so cut;
she blushed as butterflies fluttered about in her stomach.

Sebastien
gathered them in.

“Do you know
the ways to use the gyms?” he said.

The girls all
nodded.

“Well, I show
you anyways the bajic ones,” said Sebastien, before taking them on
a whistle-stop tour of the machines in the gym.

Once the tour
finished, KYM shepherded the girls and the Andre Project into one
of the dance studios.

“Right girls,
what I’ve decided to do today is ask the guys from the Andre
Project to join us for the dance session.”

The Andre
Project waved and smiled at the girls and they smiled and waved
back.

“We’re going
to start off with the basics,” continued KYM. “We’ve got an
excellent dance instructor called Yeung-1. Yeung-1 was part of the
legendary bboy crew, the Followers. He has choreographed
performances and music videos for almost all of the top kpop groups
to date.”

Break beats
suddenly started blaring out and a man came back-flipping into the
room until he reached the group. He then started popping and
locking to the music; busted out some moves and then stopped dead
still in a freeze. The music cut out and the girls clapped as they
exchanged looks of disbelief.

“Thank you,
thank you. I’m Yeung-1,” said the man. “That’s just a taster of
some of the things you’ll be doing next week,” he said, winking at
the girls.

The girls
giggled.

“Joking aside,
I’m here to turn you into dancing queens. What I like to do with
all my new recruits is run through a series of foundation moves
together. This helps to ease you into dancing as a group and it
allows me to assess your strengths and weaknesses. It worked for
the Andre Project, didn’t it guys?”

“Oh yes!” said
the guys.

“Let’s get
started. What I want you to do is line up in 3 rows of 5. The 5
guys from the Andre project I want you to be in the front row here
facing the mirror and then I want 2 rows of 5 girls behind, also
facing the mirror,” said Yeung-1.

The Andre
Project and Kpop Club lined up in formation as Sebastien and KYM
took seats at the front of the studio.

“We’re now
going to run through some classic dance moves with music; follow my
lead,” said Yeung-1, taking up a position in front of the new dance
ensemble.

An Andre
Project song started pumping out of the speakers and Yeung-1 guided
the group through a series of funky dance moves. The girls started
off by practising to pirouette in time to the music. Once they had
mastered this they focused on hip movements; Yeung-1 got them to
stand with their arms crossed and shake their hips so that the
entire focus was on the lower part of their bodies. This was
difficult at first but it really helped them to appreciate the
coordination required to make the top and bottom halves of their
bodies do different things.

Yeung-1 then
got the girls to practise switching positions with each other by
strutting rather than walking. This proved more difficult for some
girls than others. Krystal in particular felt a little silly
strutting about, but it got easier with time. Things were then
switched up and the girls were asked to leave their comfort zones
and do some basic popping and locking. The task here was not only
to execute the moves cleanly but also to do so in unison with the
others.

The session
was very challenging but immensely fun. KYM joined in for the last
5 minutes and really impressed the girls with his moves. Krystal
got the sense that all the girls saw him in a whole new light after
seeing him dance.

When the
session ended everyone was exhausted and dripping with sweat.

“Great work
today, guys and girls; that was very promising! Let’s get some
water,” said Yeung-1.

Krystal stood
still with her hands on her hips, breathing heavily. In the corner
of her eye, she spotted Andrew slowly walking towards her. He had
taken off his top to reveal the most magnificent “chocolate abs”
she’d ever seen. He came and stood right next to her, his torso
glistening with sweat under the studio spotlights.

“How did you
find that?” he asked, with a cheeky smile.

“It was good
fun, thanks. You’re a really good dancer,” said Krystal, instantly
regretting it.

“You’re not
too bad yourself. I particularly liked the horse riding impression
you did to Gangnam Style,” said Andrew.

Krystal
squeaked with laughter before going bright red in the face.

“The dancing
is tough at first but it gets easier with time. The boys and I were
hobbling around for a week after our first session. But, you know,
if you’ve ever got any questions about how things work here, let me
know yeah?” said Andrew.

Krystal
laughed.

“Great
thanks.”

There was a
slightly awkward silence as Andrew struggled for something to
say.

“So, where do
you girls live?” he said, eventually.

“We live in
Apgujeong.”

“Oh, cool, we
live in Seocho so we’re actually pretty close. We should…”

Just then KYM
made an announcement.

“Right
everyone, please feel free to use the gym and showers, get
something to eat from the canteen, if you like. We’re done for
today. I’ll send a car for you again tomorrow morning, when we’ll
be getting back to the bread and butter of this industry, singing!
Andre Project, I’d like a quick word with you; we need to go over a
few things in the studio.”

“Yes,
hyung-nim,” said the boys.

“Thanks guys
and girls – see you tomorrow,” said KYM.

“I guess I’ll
have to catch up with you later,” said Andrew, with a smile.

“Sure thing,”
said Krystal.

Andrew jogged
off to join the other guys leaving Krystal disappointed that he
couldn’t finish what he was about to say. What was he going to say?
There was no point in thinking about it now she concluded;
hopefully she’d find out later.  

There was a real sense of excitement in the
van journey over to KYM Entertainment on Friday morning. The girls
were so excited that they ran into the offices and wolfed down
their breakfasts in a matter of minutes. Delighted by their
enthusiasm, KYM decided to take them straight into the live
studio.

“As you can
see girls, this is the studio. I wanted to bring you here as it’s
the heart of KYM Entertainment; this is where you’ll be building
your legacy. I could’ve given you this chat in the control room,
sat on the couches, but I wanted to give it to you here, standing
up. Can anyone think why?” said KYM.

“Is it because
things sound clearer in here?” said Maya.

“No, that’s
not it, but not a bad answer! Anyone else?” said KYM, laughing.

“Is it because
we stand up when we sing?” asked Nadia.

“Very good,”
said KYM. “That’s exactly right. You’re going to be spending
hundreds if not thousands of hours in here standing up as it’s
probably the best position to be in when you’re singing.”

The girls
nodded to show they understood.

“You see those
men?” said KYM, pointing through the glass at two men that had just
come into the control room. “That’s Mr Hong and Mr Lee, our sound
engineers. Soon, they’ll be like family to you – your new uncles.
They can help you with all sorts of things from getting the mix
right in your headphones to making you a cup of tea.”

KYM waved to
the men through the glass before turning back to the girls.

“Now, I
appreciate that some of you may never have been in a studio. Let’s
start with a small quiz - who can tell me what this is?” said KYM,
pointing to the head of one of the microphones.

“That’s a pop
shield,” said April.

“Excellent,
and what does a pop shield do?”

“Pop shields
help to prevent pop sounds on bs and ps.”

“Excellent.
Let me ask you a more general question - what do you guys know
about music production?”

Jennifer put
up her hand.

“I know a lot
of songs these days are auto-tuned; they sound kind of synthesised.
This means that you don’t have to be a great singer to bring out a
song.”

“That’s
definitely true, Jennifer. Auto-tuning seems to be everywhere these
days but just so you know, girls – we rarely auto-tune voices here
at KYM. We only ever auto-tune anything for genuine mixing
purposes. Does anyone know about any other tools we use for
recording?”

Pooky raised
her hand.

“My family in
Thailand often use a compressor in their studio.”

“Great, yes –
and what does a compressor do?” said KYM.

“A compressor
helps to ensure that your vocals stand out from the surrounding
instruments.”

“Exactly! Well
done. Yes, a compressor is something we and almost all studios use
nowadays. You’re all here because you can sing, and compressors
make sure that people can hear your wonderful voices. Speaking of
which, what do you guys know about voice types?”

Maya put up
her hand.

“I know that
female voices are roughly split between sopranos, that are the
highest; mezzo-sopranos, kind of in the middle; and then
contra-alto, the lowest.”

“Very
impressive,” said KYM. “How many of you girls knew that?”

None of the
girls said anything.

“That’s fine,”
said KYM. “Your academic knowledge of music isn’t important at this
stage, although this will develop in time. For your information, I
can tell you now that in this group we have two sopranos, Hannah
and Krystal. The rest of you are mezzo-sopranos, which is the most
common kind of voice. Not common in the sense that your voices are
a dime a dozen, but common in terms of your range. In actual fact,
it’s very rare to find a real contra-alto and, if we want a
contra-alto type voice, you mezzo-sopranos will be able to hit the
kinds of notes we need. Just for completeness can anyone tell me
about male voice types?”