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bts-weverse-trans · 3 years

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201125 Weverse Magazine ‘BE’ Comeback Interview - V

V: “I wish we were back with ARMY, laughing together” BTS BE comeback interview 2020.11.25

How are you doing these days? It’s been a long time since you were able to see your fans. V: I’m not over-stressing about how I can’t meet the fans face to face right now. I just want to see them when it’s safe to meet. I think now, I can wait until then.

As your song says, “Life Goes On.” You decided to keep going on with your life. V: We have to move on. We can’t feel defeated forever. I felt a lot better after making some songs.

Other than working on “Dynamite,” you’ve spent very little time away from home. How do you pass the time when you’re by yourself? V: I really like just spacing out, so I’ll sit in my room doing nothing for hours. I could try putting on a movie, but then I couldn’t concentrate and would just zone out. When that happens, it’s kind of like I’m living without a thought or care in the world. Maybe I should make a song about all of this someday. Probably call it “Spaced.” (laughs) Anyway, these days I’m looking for ways to keep myself happy.

Have you found anything? V: Well, I’m listening to LPs lately. It’s getting to be Christmas season and I love snow, so I bought two or three Christmas LPs to listen to. I’m also listening to old jazz songs by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra is cool, like chilled wine; Sammy Davis Jr. is crazy talented. (laughs)

I guess making “Dynamite” must have been some consolation even when you couldn’t meet fans due to COVID-19. V: We couldn’t put on a concert and couldn’t see ARMY, so we were feeling more and more drained. It seemed like an endless battle. We really wanted to see ARMY feeling better, so we had to get back up on stage and make another album so that together we could beat this thing. I want to be the friend who’s always cheering ARMY on, but there aren’t many ways to make them feel better.

How was the whole “Dynamite” experience? You made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and also had a chance to perform in a variety of different styles. V: Shooting the Tiny Desk Concert was a very natural process, which was nice. But actually, with the situation being what it is, we couldn’t really feel much. The day the news came out was of course thrilling. It was great, actually, all of us calling each other and some of us laughing and others crying: “We haven’t gone down the wrong path after all! Turns out we had a chance—it really was possible!”

You had everyone sitting in the middle, with the set arranged symmetrically around you. V: That was made possible thanks to everyone having their own ideas. There was no overlap between items, which actually allowed us to create a sense of unity by placing all these different props symmetrically. It wasn’t intended to be symmetrical; each member really did choose something unique.

In your room, you included a violin and a photograph. V: That’s a picture I took. I like photos and drawings, but if I had used any art then I would’ve been using that one particular artist’s work, so I thought I’d better use one of my own photos. I ended up choosing the violin because I learned how to play it but also because I enjoy classical and jazz.

It sounds like there were no problems choosing the songs for BE. How did you feel recording your parts on the other members’ songs? V: I like “Dis-ease,” which Hobi hyung wrote, but stylistically it was challenging. It’s really far from my own style so it took a long time to get used to. “Fly to My Room” used to be my favorite song, but it was also the hardest to sing. It was okay at first, until Jimin jumped in.

What about Jimin? V: Because I had to keep up with Jimin, the song went up maybe three keys. I thought I would die. (laughs) It started out as my favorite song, but it was just way too hard to sing.

But why did you have to sing that way? V: Jimin said he was sorry, that he couldn’t go any lower. (laughs) When I first heard the demo version, the key was perfect for me, so I thought it would sound great and I should definitely do it. But then Jimin said he wanted to do it too, so I said, “Great, let’s do it together.” Turns out we went up three keys. So I said, “Hey, what’s the deal? Should I just give up?” But, well, somehow it all worked out in the end. It was a happy ending. (laughs)

Yes, it feels like the chorus never ends. The production style is very unique. I like how the emotion is carried through the whole way. V: I agree, but it’s so long. The chorus turned out crazy, like I was kind of beating the melody into people’s ears. (laughs) The chorus is good, but the whole song’s melody is really catchy. Whenever I heard the beat, I was totally into it. The way the vocals pick up on the beat and the melody was so original and fun, I just had to do it.

What instructions did you give to the other members when they were singing on your song, “Blue & Grey”? V: I didn’t really have to give them instructions much. I told them it would be nice if they could think of all their problems and then try healing those wounds with their voices, since if they focus on those emotions, there’ll be more feeling in the song. They all did a good job expressing the emotions I wasn’t able to.

It seems like you intended “Blue & Grey” to be a melancholy song. I heard you had originally planned to put it on your mixtape. V: I wrote “Blue & Grey” when I was at my lowest point, when I was actually asking whether I could keep going with my work or not. Even the fun parts of work became a chore, and my whole life felt aimless. “Where do I go from here? I can’t even see the end of the tunnel.” Those kinds of thoughts hit me hard.

Was there a reason for that? V: It was when work was a major challenge. When I’m happy, I want to work, and when I’m happy I can put on a smile and see the fans, but there was just so much work to do. I’m an easygoing, you know, laid-back person, but I was stretched too thin and I was starting to sputter. What I mean is, I was having a really tough time, and thinking, “What’s waiting for me at the end? It’s important to be successful, but I’m also trying to be happy, so how come I’m not happy right now?” That’s when I started to write “Blue & Grey.”

So writing the song was sort of your way of bringing yourself some peace of mind. V: There was a time I was going through something like this. I was having the toughest time, but I couldn’t keep carrying that feeling around with me. Instead, I could use it as a kind of fertilizer. So I took care of that feeling by constantly writing it down in my notes. I just kept writing everything down, and when finally I felt like I wanted to try writing a song, I did. After the song was finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment, and that’s how I was able to let go of “Blue & Grey.” That was one way I wanted to try getting over my problem.

The songs you make or sing solo on all have similar images: night; loneliness; snow. V: I like nighttime and the late-night air, and when it snows, too. I liked those things since way back when, but lately I feel things like snow and the night air keep me alive. They may just be another part of normal life to other people, but to me, they represent very special moments.

That makes me think of the ending from “Blue & Grey”: “After secretly sending my words up into the air / Now I fall asleep at dawn.” V: I don’t really sleep well. I toss and turn and get caught up in a lot of thoughts. Even when I turn out all the lights, I can see everything clearly. I close my eyes, but all my thoughts spread wide open. Then I’m sleepy at work, and staring off into space when I’m alone, with bags under my eyes, but if I want to avoid that then I really have to sleep. Except, with the way I am, it doesn’t allow for it. I wrote about that in the first and second verses; a feeling like, “When I’m stuck thinking like this, everything is grey, and I’m all blue.” I wrote these feelings out as a song, and now that I’m thinking about it again, I’m actually over it. I feel a lot lighter. I sent my words out into the air, and now I fall asleep at dawn. You’re supposed to sleep at night, but I’m sleeping in the morning again. So I say “good night,” but it’s not actually a good night. “I pass out because I’m exhausted” kind of thing. It’s the emotions I felt in those moments that I wanted to express.

What do you hope hearing about that feeling will do for listeners? V: Rather than just some stranger telling them to cheer up, I think it’s better to say something like, “You seem depressed lately,” or, “Seems like these days it’s tough for you to perk up.” “Blue & Grey” is the same: “You’re depressed lately? Me too. We’re in the same boat. Wanna talk about how you’re feeling? You wanna feel better, right? I know, but sometimes it feels like you’re being washed away by a whirlpool of stress.” I want the listeners to hear me saying that to them.

It’s important to express your emotions right away when they’re so overwhelming. V: Yes. I usually write a lot of songs when I’m feeling emotional, but these days I have so many different things to do that I can’t really write anything. I tried to write something before when I had a little time, but nothing came out because the feelings I had were already gone. So I tell myself, “You gotta write a lot when you’ve got the feels!” (laughs) And then I open my notes app and come back to old notes, like, “Ah, so that’s how I was feeling back then? I see. Well, that’s how I used to be, I guess.” So I tried to write “Blue & Grey” quickly, as soon as a big feeling came on.

Then it’s important to revisit those feelings when you’re producing a song or choosing which songs to release? V: If you can’t bring the feeling back, you can’t make the song, either. I release a song if I feel it expresses who I was and how I felt at the time when I wrote it. Even if we record it perfectly, if the result sounds artificial, I would rather release another, more honest sounding song instead, even if it’s not perfect.

Are those the kinds of songs you selected for your mixtape? V: Um … I don’t know. This is my first mixtape, you know, so I feel a ton of pressure about it. I’m thinking all the time about what kind of album I should make so that I can feel satisfied with it. The title track is the title track, but everyone also says to just leave it as it is, but I keep getting the urge to keep putting in more and more.

You usually write and choose songs based on your emotions. Maybe the pressure to make your first mixtape comes from you having a hard time with that. V: I think it still has a long way to go. Maybe it’s because it’s my first mixtape, but it’s so hard. And I feel like it’s a little lazy. People tell me just to put it out and see how it does, but I’d rather know what needs to be fixed before I release it. I also don’t want the title track to be depressing. I want it to be positive and help people beat those depressed feelings. But it’s not easy.

That sounds a lot like what the members conveyed with “Life Goes On.” V: I think we showed the current situation in a very straightforward and honest way. We’re still going, going, going. And the going is tough. But it doesn’t end here. I wish we were back with ARMY, laughing together. I hope we’ll all be happy in the future and keep on doing our own best, cherishing our hope for our happy future.

Trans © Weverse

#bangtan #taehyung #weverse magazine #comeback interview #201125 #2020 #be album

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fykimtaehyung · 3 years

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V: “I wish we were back with ARMY, laughing together”

During V’s photo shoot, he’s wearing a different expression in every photo on the monitor. They create a tension and an anticipation because we have no way of knowing what he might do even one second later. But the result is cool from start to finish. It’s V. How are you doing these days? It’s been a long time since you were able to see your fans. V: I’m not over-stressing about how I can’t meet the fans face to face right now. I just want to see them when it’s safe to meet. I think now, I can wait until then. As your song says, “Life Goes On.” You decided to keep going on with your life. V: We have to move on. We can’t feel defeated forever. I felt a lot better after making some songs. Other than working on “Dynamite,” you’ve spent very little time away from home. How do you pass the time when you’re by yourself? V: I really like just spacing out, so I’ll sit in my room doing nothing for hours. I could try putting on a movie, but then I couldn’t concentrate and would just zone out. When that happens, it’s kind of like I’m living without a thought or care in the world. Maybe I should make a song about all of this someday. Probably call it “Spaced.” (laughs) Anyway, these days I’m looking for ways to keep myself happy. Have you found anything? V: Well, I’m listening to LPs lately. It’s getting to be Christmas season and I love snow, so I bought two or three Christmas LPs to listen to. I’m also listening to old jazz songs by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra is cool, like chilled wine; Sammy Davis Jr. is crazy talented. (laughs)

So that’s the type of performer you find cool. V: Those two were also a big inspiration to me while we were working on “Dynamite.” Sinatra has all this jazzy body language, but he also threw some disco in there. And I imagined how Sammy Davis Jr. might dance if there were a mic on stage and he had to dance around it. They were a lot of help when I was finding a way to be upbeat and cool at the same time in “Dynamite.” I guess making “Dynamite” must have been some consolation even when you couldn’t meet fans due to COVID-19. V: We couldn’t put on a concert and couldn’t see ARMY, so we were feeling more and more drained. It seemed like an endless battle. We really wanted to see ARMY feeling better, so we had to get back up on stage and make another album so that together we could beat this thing. I want to be the friend who’s always cheering ARMY on, but there aren’t many ways to make them feel better. How was the whole “Dynamite” experience? You made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and also had a chance to perform in a variety of different styles. V: Shooting the Tiny Desk Concert was a very natural process, which was nice. But actually, with the situation being what it is, we couldn’t really feel much. The day the news came out was of course thrilling. It was great, actually, all of us calling each other and some of us laughing and others crying: “We haven’t gone down the wrong path after all! Turns out we had a chance—it really was possible!”

While you were performing in “Dynamite,” you were also the visual director for BE. I’m sure you were unimaginably busy taking photos, but were you able to communicate well with the other members? V: We communicated smoothly, and I listened to all of their concept ideas and I organized everything around that. If we tried something too natural, it wouldn’t be conceptual enough, so we did our best to strike a balance. You had everyone sitting in the middle, with the set arranged symmetrically around you. V: That was made possible thanks to everyone having their own ideas. There was no overlap between items, which actually allowed us to create a sense of unity by placing all these different props symmetrically. It wasn’t intended to be symmetrical; each member really did choose something unique. In your room, you included a violin and a photograph. V: That’s a picture I took. I like photos and drawings, but if I had used any art then I would’ve been using that one particular artist’s work, so I thought I’d better use one of my own photos. I ended up choosing the violin because I learned how to play it but also because I enjoy classical and jazz.

So how do you feel it turned out? V: I made it, so naturally I like it. (laughs) Part of me thinks I should’ve tried something more conceptual. BE was supposed to give off sort of a magazine or poster feel since we didn’t shoot many of those, but it ended up having more of a natural feel to it. But I did think that the next time we try to make a photoshoot conceptual we should move away from that natural look a bit. The group explained their ideas clearly and they were simple enough to do, so I think it all went really smoothly. It sounds like there were no problems choosing the songs for BE. How did you feel recording your parts on the other members’ songs? V: I like “Dis-ease,” which Hobi wrote, but stylistically it was challenging. It’s really far from my own style so it took a long time to get used to. “Fly to My Room” used to be my favorite song, but it was also the hardest to sing. It was okay at first, until Jimin jumped in. What about Jimin? V: Because I had to keep up with Jimin, the song went up maybe three keys. I thought I would die. (laughs) It started out as my favorite song, but it was just way too hard to sing. But why did you have to sing that way? V: Jimin said he was sorry, that he couldn’t go any lower. (laughs) When I first heard the demo version, the key was perfect for me, so I thought it would sound great and I should definitely do it. But then Jimin said he wanted to do it too, so I said, “Great, let’s do it together.” Turns out we went up three keys. So I said, “Hey, what’s the deal? Should I just give up?” But, well, somehow it all worked out in the end. It was a happy ending. (laughs)

People might be able to hear that part better because it’s so much higher. (laughs) The tone of your combined voices and the way they contrast is really impressive. V: Yes, but all that aside, it was quite the struggle. (laughs) And the chorus is really long. I think it repeats, what, four times? Yes, it feels like the chorus never ends. The production style is very unique. I like how the emotion is carried through the whole way. V: I agree, but it’s so long. The chorus turned out crazy, like I was kind of beating the melody into people’s ears. (laughs) The chorus is good, but the whole song’s melody is really catchy. Whenever I heard the beat, I was totally into it. The way the vocals pick up on the beat and the melody was so original and fun, I just had to do it.

#201125 #taehyung #v #bts #bangtan #t: interview #sorry i split it i thought the initial part was rly important to highlight

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fyeah-bangtan7 · 3 years

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V: “I wish we were back with ARMY, laughing together”

As your song says, “Life Goes On.” You decided to keep going on with your life. V: We have to move on. We can’t feel defeated forever. I felt a lot better after making some songs.

It sounds like there were no problems choosing the songs for BE. How did you feel recording your parts on the other members’ songs? V: I like “Dis-ease,” which Hobi wrote, but stylistically it was challenging. It’s really far from my own style so it took a long time to get used to. “Fly to My Room” used to be my favorite song, but it was also the hardest to sing. It was okay at first, until Jimin jumped in.

What about Jimin? V: Because I had to keep up with Jimin, the song went up maybe three keys. I thought I would die. (laughs) It started out as my favorite song, but it was just way too hard to sing.

#bangtan #v #m:weverse magazine #o:interview #201125

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gotboredwrote · 5 years

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Chapter 2 – Well, Darling Publicist, Let’s See What You Can Do

[[The American Publicist // JRD]]

Pairing: John Richard Deacon x Reader Word Count: 5.3K Style: Multi-Chapter Warnings: Swearing (like one time, okay?), fluff Summary: Y/N was just hired to become a co-manager and publicist for the band Queen. The boys had never travelled abroad, so meeting an American was . . . intriguing, to say the least. Permanent Author’s Note: To clarify, I write because I get bored. Nothing is meant to be professional in any way, nor is meant to offend, cause anxiety, cause anger, cause sadness, or promote disagreement among readers in any sort of (semi)permanent way. A/N: Nothing special to report this time around. Enjoy!

Masterlist // Previous Chapter // Next Chapter // Masterpost

Your first visit with the band seemed to go without a hitch; the boys liked you, Miami trusted you, and you already seem to have a connection with John. You could honestly say that you had not had a better first meeting with a band before. It seemed like the boys had potential, considering the first album was one of your personal favorites before you knew you got the job with them. You had met them on Friday, and Miami told you they were taking the weekend off from the studio to write ideas for songs down on their own, which meant you were not going to see them again until Monday. You spent your weekend planning, based on your initial interactions with the band, what the best way to put them out there would be. You were jotting down all the prominent characteristics of the boys that you could remember from the previous day. You started to notice a trend that could seriously work in your favor. Each of the boys are completely different from one another. Roger was similar to Freddie in the fact that they are the outgoing ones, and Brian and John are similar in that they are the more introverted ones, but in different ways. Roger is loud, confident, and does not really think about his actions, while Freddie is also confident, but flamboyant and methodical. Brian is reserved, stoic, and smart, while John is shy, caring, and meticulous. John’s characteristics made even more sense once you asked Roger about the knee-rubbing from Friday, and he basically told you that John is extremely shy and when there is someone that he really trusts, he tends to show it through physical contact. It just makes him feel better. Freddie also did this to a degree, Roger added, but it is not in such an intimate manner. John would do it to them as well, especially in photoshoots – he was not fond of them, so he would always want some kind of contact from the more confident of the bunch. You told him that you did not mind, you were simply wondering what the deal with that was. It made you chuckle a little, because it does not seem like a group this different from one another could seriously work. But here we are. Meanwhile, while you are in your flat doing your work instead of unpacking the seemingly hundreds of boxes littering your apartment, each of the boys were working on songs that, unlike their personalities, shared a common element – they all wanted to impress the hell out of you come Monday.

Three of the four boys were confident in what they had written, and the only reason that the fourth was not is because he was too busy doing something else. Monday rolled around quickly and the boys were at the studio early prepping all the instruments that were needed for each of their tunes. Miami got there first to unlock all the doors and make sure the studio was ready, and you arrived last, but by no means late. When you walked in, you heard small conversations between the boys, called out to say a good morning to Miami, and turned around to greet each of the boys. The first thing you noticed was that John was on the floor, signature bass discarded off to the side, a toolbox adorning his lap instead. You could see he was tinkering with something, but it was hard to see what, exactly. You decided to get their attention by knocking on the window that separated yourself and Miami from the band. Brian, Freddie, and Roger all turned around and greeted you with a cacophony of smiles, waves, and various audible greetings. You went to reciprocate those greetings but ended up faltering because you startled John so bad that the butt-end of the screwdriver he was holding came up and smacked him right on the front of his forehead. Your smile immediately became a gasp stopped by covered hands, and your legs never moved faster in your life. You sprinted back behind the window into the recording room, threw all your paperwork onto the top of the baby grand piano, and plopped yourself on the floor next to John. A furious blush was taking over his face, that he tried to cover up to no avail.

“John! I’m so sorry! I truly didn’t mean to scare you, I just thought that would be a such a fun way to greet you all. Oh, that must’ve hurt so bad, I’m so, so sorry. Ugh, I feel like an idiot.”

“’m okay, Y/N, really. It really doesn’t hurt.”

“But that isn’t the point, John. The point is that I scared you and first impressions really mean a lot.”

You profusely apologized and were consistently met with an equally abundant amount of “it’s okay’s” and “it doesn’t hurt’s.” You genuinely believed him, considering he was not rubbing his forehead and he was still smiling at you, crinkles and all. Despite knowing you could trust his words, your body took control over your brain and you unconsciously did something that you otherwise would not have done. You reached up to his forehead and gently grazed your thumb over the spot where the screwdriver came into contact with his porcelain forehead. It was not meant to be anything lustful, romantic, or otherwise. Simply a gesture of concern. You were seriously afraid that there was going to be a massive bump at that spot by the end of the day. John knew that the gesture was not one of romantic intent, too, but his body took control and he practically leaned into your thumb so there would be more contact. Nothing more was said, it was all body language doing the talking at this point. This was purely concern from a friend, and who was he to deny that concern? Who does not like it when someone dotes on you? You continued to keep your thumb on his forehead, even braving adding your pointer and middle fingers to graze over the spot as well. Your entire world revolved around John in this moment. You were so honed in on him at the moment that you had not realized Freddie and Brian were practically cry-laughing at John’s reaction. Brian found it hysterical that John got that petrified by the noise of tapping on glass, while Freddie simply found the slapstick hitting-himself-on-the-head funny. Another thing to put in your notes – the boys also had different styles of humor. You had not noticed, nor heard, the two boys laughing, which meant that you also had not seen what Roger’s reaction was either, especially considering he was being completely silent. “Uncharacteristic of him to shut up at basically any point in time” was something else you had written in your notes. Before your head snapped up to comment at the two who were laughing, Roger was looking at John with a pensive look. He had never seen John react that way in any situation, and they had seen and done a lot. On stage, if someone yelled out his name, John tended to look up for a quick moment, nod in recognition, and continue dancing, or at least what John had called dancing and what Roger thinks is just hopping up and down. If any of the guys brought groupies backstage, he would react similarly to how he does on stage, and he would never leave with any of them. He had even seen John with his family, which was a look of adoration. The look that he continued to give you was none of those, not even close. Then it dawned on him – “I have never seen Deaky interested in a girl before…” Roger almost felt too confident in that thought, but nonetheless decided to roll with it. He was broken out of his thoughts by Y/N’s voice, since it was no longer drowned out by the cackling of his bandmates.

“Look, here’s the deal, John. Hopefully you can tell that I feel awful about what I just did. I’m relentless when it comes to people I care about. So, throughout the session, expect me to be checking up on you from time to time. Got it? Oh, and I’ll know if you’re lying to me, mister, so don’t even think about doing that.” John gave her that signature nod, but this was accompanied by a soft smile. “Uncharacteristic of John,” Roger added to his collection of mental notes.

Eventually you had pried yourself away from John and the rest of the band to take your seat in the control room. The plan, as you had discussed with Miami, was for you to stay in the studio with them as much as possible, that way you could see what elements of their style you wanted to project, as well as which songs would probably do best with the public for promotional purposes. Miami would make sure you and the boys got food, and he would be floating around the studio doing a number of things, and to just use the building intercom if you or the boys needed him in any way. The boys had gotten all settled in and set up for the session of the day, when Brian’s voice came over the control room intercom.

“Y/N? Can you hear me?”

You jumped up from your seat in the control room to sit in the chair there and talk back to them. “Yes sir!”

“Good. As you’re aware, Miami told us that to get a good jumpstart on this album, we all needed to spend the weekend writing a song to the best of our ability in that short of a timespan. So, we all, kind of, made it our personal missions to impress you with what we came up with. Are you too busy with your paperwork or would you be able to listen to us today?”

“That sounds like an absolute delight, boys! I am ready when you are!”

Brian gave you a thumbs up, and then turned around to get set up for the first song, which happened to be his. You managed to make eye contact with John and you gave him a look that he knew was going to be the face you made when you wanted to check up on him. It simply consisted of scrunched up eyebrows and big, doe eyes. He lightly touched the spot on his forehead to ensure that you knew that he knew what you wanted to know, smiled and nodded. He internally cursed himself once he turned around to get set up, though, because, frankly, it did hurt a little when he touched that spot. He was hoping that his smile covered up the grimace that he fought back. Brian came back over the intercom for a moment to explain what they would be playing first.

“Um, hello again, Ms. Y/N. This first song is actually the one I wrote, and I titled it ‘White Queen (As It Began).’ I know, I know, don’t say anything about the fact that the band name is in the title because I can see the corners of your mouth curling up a little bit.” He was not wrong, you did think it was a bit corny. “But I wrote this song half inspired on a novel I read called ‘The White Goddess’ by Robert Graves, and half inspired by this girl I met in a biology class who, at the time, I considered to be the epitome of what a woman is and can be. I know, a bit cheesy, but it inspired me, so that to me is the criteria for where a good song should come from.”

“It’s going to be beautiful, Brian. I have lots of faith in you. I cannot wait to hear it.” You flashed him a sincere smile that made him chuckle, and he turned around to the boys to count them off.

So sad her eyes Smiling dark eyes So sad her eyes As it began…

Beautiful was the right word to choose, because the words were entrancing, and the alternation between an acoustic sound and a heavy metal sound fit the message perfectly. The whole point of the song is that it represents this girl Brian met and was always too shy to talk to. The music represented that internal struggle, and the words were able to convey his feelings. Brian really allowed his intelligence to come out with his words, and you were not complaining.

“Brian, that was delightful. And humor me – did you ever speak to the girl? I’m dying to know!”

“Well, funnily enough, I was dared to ask her out, so I did, and while she did reject me, we have remained friends until this day. I guess the whole situation, while semi-heartbreaking to me was funny to her.”

You gave him a knowing smile, and while the boys shuffled around, you checked in on John again since he did not need to do anything between Brian’s song and whoever was next. You shot him the same look you shot earlier, and he responded a little bit differently. Almost as if he was in a little bit of pain, but did not want to appear weak. This time he gave you a crooked half-smile and two nods in return. You knew that the injury was going to be painful at some point, but you did not want to make him feel worse about the whole thing by calling him out on it. He wanted to be strong, you assumed, for your sake. Freddie sauntered up to the microphone, taking his position as the lead singer for the next song, and loudly pronounced that his song would be next.

“Hello gorgeous! Are you ready for the next number?”

“Freddie, c’mon. It’s YOU we are talking about here. Can anyone really ever be prepared for what you are going to throw at someone?” Despite having only spent a limited, finite amount of time with the boys, you knew that Freddie was extremely unpredictable – quite the opposite of yourself. He could roll with the punches better than anyone you knew, and you were… quite the opposite. You had not really told the boys much about your personal life yet, since you tended to be on the reserved side with the bands you worked with. You felt that it was safer, considering these bands know lots of people, and if anything bad were to get out about you, you would be out of a job. Eventually you would tell them your biggest “flaw,” but another day would be better. “But yes, hon, I am ready to hear whatever it is you’ve prepared.”

“Splendid! I wrote this a while back, but put it on a shelf for a time that I felt more inspired to make it proper. When I knew that I had someone new to impress, that euphoric feeling of inspiration hit me like a grand piano over the head! It is entitled ‘Ogre Battle,’ and as you can guess by the name, it tells the fantastical tale of a battle between some ogres. Before it alarms your senses, I will say that it is a bit… heavy? Maybe that’s a good word. Well, I’m sure your expressions will say it all, so without further ado…”

Fa fa fa fa fa Fa fa fa fa faa Now once upon a time - an old man told me a fable When the piper is gone - and the soup is cold on your table And if the black crow flies to find a new destination That is the sign Come tonight Come to the ogre sight Come to the ogre-battle-fight…

Intense. That was the only word coming to mind, because the rest of your brain was overtaken by the boldness and almost not-Queen sound to the song. Every note, ever riff, every hit of the drums, and every particular scream or falsetto, meticulously chosen to represent exactly what part of the battle was being emulated in that moment. It painted a vivid picture in the listeners mind, one that would vary slightly from person to person, but the main idea would remain the same. It flowed so well, and that is what made it such an obviously Queen-made song.

“Wow,” you swallowed, “that was… quite a lot. I am a little bit overwhelmed, if I may say. Not in a bad way, I promise! Just, amazed is all. That is so different than the stuff you guys normally sing. Is there an anecdote or no?”

“No, darling, I just wanted to write a spectacle of a song.”

“Well, you did just that, Fred.” You laughed at his reaction, and could not even begin to fathom what else he would come up with in the next few years.

You wanted to check in on John again, but he was hidden behind some stacked amps doing something that you could not quite see. Just as he was about to reemerge so you could check on him, Roger made his way over to the microphone and spoke into it to get your attention.

“Hello dear, you ready for my song?”

“I think so, Roger. What do I need to know?”

“Honestly, I think I would rather just let you hear it and go from there.” He ran back to his drum kit before any words could leave your mouth, so you just let out a huff of air and gave Brian a thumbs up so the boys knew you were ready. Right before they started, Miami finally walked back in and brought you a cup of your favorite tea and a snack, and told you to catch him up once you got a chance.

Mama's got a problem She don't know what to say Her little baby boy Has just left home today She's got to be the loser in the end She's got to be the loser in the end Misuse her and you'll lose her as a friend She's Ma on whom you can always depend ooh…

Roger, who acted like the big-man-on-campus kind of guy, had just sang his song in a higher range than Freddie, and the lyrics were so much softer than you could have ever imagined. He was writing about something that he had not even experienced in his own life up to that point to your knowledge, and he did a beautiful job of emulating what that must feel like. It almost brought a tear to your eye.

“I… really didn’t expect that from you, Roger. Where in the world did you get the motivation to write about that?”

“I have a sister, and I saw this play out with her and our father, and then it happened with me and my mother, so I just decided to go with my personal experience with it, since my sister wants nothing to do with the spotlight.”

“How considerate, Roger. I loved it.”

You hoped it was not too obvious, but considering three of the four band members had played you their songs, the math was easy to do. The only one left who had not showcased their song yet was John, and you could not wait. John made his way up to the main microphone, shuffling on his feet when he got up there.

“Um, hello Y/N. Before I say anything about music, ‘m checking in with you to let you know that my head is alright right now. I hope that makes up for what I am about to say. I know that you’re probably expecting to hear the song I wrote, and I really hope this isn’t a disappointment.” You felt your heart sink a little bit, you were really looking forward to his contribution to this album, but his time would come later, you told yourself. “I did not write a song over the weekend because I was doing a couple other things. First, I was working on the amp you walked in on me working on. I built this from scratch, and we were going to use it in most of the recordings for this album. The boys have started calling it the Deacy Amp, which is my nickname, except spelled with the ‘c’ instead of the ‘k.’ The other thing I did was attempt to learn to play a little acoustic guitar for you on this next song, since Brian needed a second guitar part at one point. I hope ‘m not disappointing you in any way.”

A disappointment? How could he ever think that? You wanted to ask him those questions, but tears started to well in your eyes, so all you allowed out was an “it’s perfectly okay, John. I can’t wait to hear you play!” John mentioned that Brian wrote this song but needed some backup on the guitar. Freddie had only just started to learn the guitar, and obviously Roger would already be occupied, so it fell on John. He would simply have to switch over to acoustic for those couple bars and move back to his signature bass afterwards. They appeared ready to begin the song, and you did not even know what it was called, you were simply trying your damnest to not let the tears stream down your face. You did not want John to think you were disappointed in him, because that was the farthest from the truth he could have been.

A word in your ear, from father to son Hear the word that I say I fought with you, fought on your side Long before you were born…

By the time the song was over, the tears had rolled down your face and you were doing everything in your power now to not hyperventilate. On top of the song being extremely moving in and of itself, you could not get over the fact that John said he agreed to learn the acoustic guitar and switch around throughout the song for you. You knew there was an immediate connection between you and him that first day, but you did not realize that it was getting stronger by the minute. You stood up from your seat in the control room and made your way through the door to the studio. At this point all the boys were looking at you confusedly, and John was slightly concerned as well. You made your way over to stand directly in front of John before you spoke to him softly.

“Don’t you ever assume I would be disappointed in you. You built a freaking amplifier with your bare hands, and you took up the challenge of learning a new instrument for someone you’ve known for a total of four days. You, John, are the farthest thing from a disappointment that has ever walked this Earth, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You’re versatile and extremely smart, how could that ever make you a disappointment?” The tears were still rolling down your face, but you had a wide grin to accompany them, so all the boys, especially John, could see how happy you were in that moment. “John, I know you can write songs, you would not be in a band if you couldn’t.” You turned to face all of them, wiping the remaining tears from your eyes. “I couldn’t be more proud of all of you, really. Thank you for letting me be a part of this phenomenon.”

You had no explanation as to why you were so attached to the man in front of you, but he did not seem to be scared of it. In fact, he almost reciprocated in his own way. The other band mates simply looked at you adoringly and Freddie dragged you all into a group hug that was equally as bone crushing as the first one that he gave you when you first met. Once the hug was over, you offered to help get the studio cleaned up for the day so you could all go to your separate homes and then reconvene in the morning. You gravitated to help John with his stuff, feeling extremely honored when he let you put his bass away for him. You also helped Roger with the small stuff of his drum kit, like spare mallets or the smaller cymbals. Once everything was cleaned up, Miami came in to address the progress of the day and the plan for the rest of the week.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say today went well. Let’s just hope that the rest of the days go just as smoothly. I think the progress made today on those songs was good, and you all can hammer out the small imperfections or mistakes tomorrow. Otherwise, for the rest of the week, I essentially want it to be brainstorming sessions. You can tackle them in whatever way you guys do best, whether that is writing songs on your own, randomly making noise with your instruments, or just playing as a group whatever comes to mind. The only thing I ask is that it is all done within this building. It doesn’t have to be in the actual studio or control room, but be in this building. The four of you will be doing your thing, and Ms. Y/N and I will be either in this room with you or running errands within the building. Does that sound like a plan?”

Everyone simultaneously nodded and went to pick up their belongings that travelled home with them for the night. John, while you had been cleaning up, had offered to walk you out to your car, so you had been walking together. Miami, Freddie, and Brian had already made their way out of the studio, and Roger was just getting some last-minute things together back in the studio. You and John were alone in the control room. You were getting ready to ask him if he was ready to go, when you noticed something. That spot on his forehead had become a light shade of purple in the time that it took to clean up, yet somehow no one thought to point it out. Your eyes must have given it away that something was bothering you, so John asked you what was going on.

“Y/N? You alright, love?”

“Oh, yeah I am, but I’m not so sure that your head is. That spot is turning purple, John.”

“Oh… I swear, I-I didn’t even notice, Y/N. It doesn’t hu-”

“I know.”

It was another moment of your body instinct taking control over your brain, but this time it was a lot more intense. Both of your hands lightly placed themselves over the sides of his face. His eyes went wide, and went even wider when he felt you slightly pull his head down towards yours. You stood on the tips of your toes and placed a gentle kiss right on top of the fresh bruise, which to John’s surprise actually momentarily relieved some of the pain. His face went completely red again, and you had a hint of pink grazing your cheeks. Both of you had the same thought racing through your minds when you pulled back to your natural height and he leaned back up to his;

“I care so much for him/her.”

“John, I am really sorry about that bruise. I have a special ice pack at home, I’ll be sure to bring it with me tomorrow. Are you still willing to walk me to my car?”

“Mhm…” was all that John could muster, and with that, you walked out the doors, not realizing that Roger had just seen that entire scene play out.

You and John had made their way outside and walked over to your car. He helped you get all your stuff in your trunk, and then kneeled next to you while you buckled your seatbelt.

“I’m sorry if my crying earlier concerned you. You just… really moved me when you told me you wanted to learn that guitar part for my sake. Did you… really mean that? And why me? I said this earlier, but we have known each other for like, four days. What makes me so special?”

John sighed and looked at you longingly. “Truth be told, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions but the first one. I did want to learn it to impress you, but I really can’t explain why I wanted to impress you. There’s just something about you that makes me feel like you expect a certain caliber of person in your presence. I didn’t want to let you down.”

“The fact that I gave off an impression of me being a high-society person makes me feel bad. I don’t want you to change a thing about yourself, John Deacon. I like YOU, as well as your band mates, just the way y’all are. Please just, stay friendly and sweet and you and I will be the best of friends, okay?”

“I can do that, love. Drive safe.”

John gently shut your door and backed himself onto the grass in front of your car. You started to back up and once you were turned around to drive away, you and John exchanged a friendly wave and with that, you were driving away. John watched as you drove away and started to make his way back to his car. When his car was in sight, he noticed someone leaning up against the trunk of his car with shaggy hair. Roger. He forgot that himself and Y/N were not alone, it is hard not to forget when she radiates such a warm demeanor. John made his way over to his car and gestured for Roger to move so he could put his stuff in his trunk, since he wanted to help you first. As soon as his trunk door was opened, Roger blurted out a question that was honestly more of a statement.

“Fancy her, huh, Deaks?”

“What?”

“Y/N. Mate, it couldn’t be more obvious to me. Maybe the other lads aren’t going to catch on as quickly, but I know you deep down. I have seen how you are with certain groups of people, and this is not a manner in which I have seen you before. Process of elimination, in connection with the fact that there is a new, pretty, spunky girl around, makes me think you would like to court her.”

“Rog, it is not-”

“I am not saying that it is a bad thing, Deaky. I just genuinely want to know what you’re going through, so as to help you. You’re shy, everyone knows this, and the rest of us aren’t. So, if you want to prevent any kind of embarrassment on yours or her end, I would tell me what’s going on so I can come up with a story to tell the lads if need be. Do you like her?”

“…I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? You either like someone or you don’t. Which is it?”

“I don’t know, Roger! It’s strange. I haven’t felt like this about anyone in… well, ever. It’s like, the best way I can explain it is just now, when I was talking to her before she drove away. I completely forgot that you were still here. I forgot other people even existed. I just care so much about this one human that no others really matter when she’s around. But I have only known her for four days, Rog, so if that is your definition of being interested in someone, then guilty as charged.”

John was clearly getting flustered with the whole situation, so he simply got in his car, started the engine, backed up and drove away. Roger mumbled to himself amusedly while he walked back to his car. “What the hell am I going to tell the lads? They’ve already figured out the truth, I just can’t do that to John…”

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jobrosupdates · 5 years

Text

The Jonas Brothers Are Getting Used to Being Interviewed Again | VICE

We met the brothers in a deserted London bar, to talk about the past decade and how they finally care enough about pop music to return to it.

The Jonas Brothers don’t know where to sit. We’re standing in a cordoned-off area in the sort of central London bar that resembles the results of a greenhouse and fancy department store’s brief fling. The three siblings eye up four identical green, lip-shaped couches in each corner of the room. “Maybe we should take one each and just shout at each other,” Joe says with a grin.

I laugh nervously, hoping he’s not serious, before suggesting that he and his older brother, Kevin, plop themselves on one sofa, while Nick, wearing a very noisy jacket made of plastic, makes himself comfortable on a red stool. Kevin settles in first, but not before moving four slightly lukewarm coffees onto a low table.

Joe seems buoyant; the other two not so much. “I got some good rest last night, so I'm doing pretty good,” he says, picking up a cup and taking a sip. “I don't know if they got the most amount of sleep. But I had a massage at the hotel and it just put me in a deep, deep sleep.” When I glance at Nick, his face is blank. He doesn’t seem as impressed with his brother’s gentle gloating.

Still, six years ago you might’ve thought that the Jonas Brothers wouldn’t ever trade brotherly jibes with each other in front of a music journalist again. But here they are, promoting their first album in ten years, Happiness Begins. In the US, its lead single, “Sucker” became not only their first Billboard Hot 100 number 1, but the first from a boyband in the US since B2K's "Bump, Bump, Bump" in 2003 ("Sucker" peaked at 4 on the UK charts). They’ve also announced a world tour, done the requisite carpool karaoke – they’re back back.

A newer band might be climbing the walls with excitement at such success. The JoBros, however, have been through this rigmarole of travel, promo, album, tour before. Not that they’re fully jaded – they tell me how happy they are that people still give shit about them – but, rather, they’re reserved. And given what they’ve been through over the past decade, I get it. Happiness might now be beginning, but it’s been difficult to find. A little hesitation is natural.

Now, for the story every super-fan already knows. After starting small, as a teen pop punk act in 2005, the band signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records in 2006 and immediately blew up. In the US, they were the teen pop phenomenon of the late 00s, starring in sitcoms, movies and selling millions of records. But slogging it as poster boys for Disney purity for seven years can leave you in pop purgatory, unable to evolve. In 2013, when they released “Pom Poms”, it was clear that the band had failed to mature with their fans. The song stalled at number 60 on the Hot 100, while its follow up, “First Time”, failed to chart in the UK overall.

youtube

Not that they seemed that bothered by that commercial plummet. What they had was broken and when I ask if they were disappointed that the rest of that material never got released, Joe and Kevin both give off something between a huff and a grim laugh. “Truth is, we weren't really happy with the material and didn't feel like we were artistically in sync,” Nick says quickly, his jacket crinkling as he sits forward on his stool. “It’s one of the reasons the group ended. And we were isolating ourselves and limiting our creative potential because we didn't know if we could really progress.”

"I think we were all in such different places,” Joe adds. “Kevin was starting his life with [his wife] Danielle. Nick and I were in and out of relationships. We'd get in the studio and we couldn't land on anything lyrically. I wasn't as inspired to be in there. It kind of felt like I was just going through the motions and I knew that the music would be created” no matter what, with or without passion. “So I'd come in when I was needed. I just wasn't connecting with what we were creating.”

Why not get new writers, you might ask? Well, the Jonas Brothers’ involvement in the writing process felt, to them, fundamental. Sure, their breakthrough hit was a cover of a Busted song, but “Burning Up”, “SOS”, “Love Bug” and “A Little Bit Longer” were legitimately strong pop songs, and their own. Anyway, their lack of musical progression had incubated a fear of rejection. “Knowing that things were on the decline,” Nick says, “I was afraid that we would ask to work with someone and they would say no.” Panicked, he called a meeting and in 2013, mid-way through recording a new record, he broke up the band.

The next bit is well-trodden. Nick buffed up, posed in his underwear and released one of the greatest post-boyband pop songs of all time, “Jealous”. Joe joined dance pop group DNCE. Kevin retreated into family life. He had two children, Alena in 2014 and Valentina two years later. It wasn’t that simple, though. “I didn't even know if I wanted to do music again,” Joe says now. The air isn’t tense but sombre and Nick’s eyes are cast to the floor. “I had to find my own place. I went on and worked on different projects, but it took time to get inspired. Nick had that all figured out. I just didn’t.”

Meanwhile, Kevin says that he was hurt. Joe and Nick had performed as the Jonas Brothers at a final gig without him and, after the birth of his first child, he felt like he didn’t have his best friends. “It's not that I said that I didn't want to do music anymore, but I think, looking back at it, there was some pain there. So I wanted to look at some other passions of my own and see what else was out there.”

As they talk, each brother is careful to allow the other to share their piece. Nick especially is quiet, often faced away from his brothers examining something off in another corner of the room. They’re respectful, almost detached, as if they’ve plodded through that murky period with the wounds, scars and wariness to prove it. The last six years, the brothers tell me, was about rediscovering their relationships as a family. Once Kevin's kids brought them together, “We made time where we could just rebuild as friends," Joe says," not even bring up anything music-related. We didn't really dive into that stuff. We just said, 'Let's just move on.'” Moving on, in this case, involved making 90-minute documentary, Chasing Happiness.

“It seems like a jump,” Joe agrees when I put it to him, before Nick cuts him off for the first time.

“We were made aware of some offers that were coming in for a Jonas Brothers reunion,” he says, carefully. “There was one at that point which could have made sense. Kevin flew out to LA and we talked through it but not everyone was on board.” He eyes Joe. “But it opened up a dialogue about what we could do together, to touch on that period of our lives.” Nick and Kevin flew to go and meet Joe while he was acting as a coach on The Voice Australia. Aside from a dinner in London a year prior, that meeting was the first chunk of time the three brothers had together, just as a trio. Nick, though, hankered after a reunion. And so, like any responsible adults, they decided a play a game where they got drunk and aired out their grievances to figure out their shit. It worked.

After ironing out the details, the Jonas Brothers were soon recording music as a group again, pulling in pop producer and writer names with the weight of a few tonnes: Max Martin, Shellback, Justin Tranter, Greg Kurstin and Ryan Tedder (Tedder executive produced the album). For Kevin, though, it was a learning curve. In the six years he’d been out of the game, a lot had changed. Session writing, streaming and the way that digital communication has opened up the songwriting process has altered not only how people make music, but how they consume it. “There's been so many times where I've asked them, 'Is this a good metric to look at?'” he says, almost sheepishly, “Streaming wasn't really a thing. The way, dynamically, you work with your label, to pretty much all of it has changed.”

Thankfully, the music on Happiness Begins is really good. “I Believe”, which Nick wrote with Kurstin, sits between “Jealous” and the slick romance of “Hold On We’re Going Home”, while “Every Single Time”, a reggae-lite bop produced by Tedder, could easily have belonged to DNCE. And unlike a lot of current pop, you really can’t imagine anyone else singing a song like “Only Human”, a wonky horn-filled track that, when pushed, could be described as baby’s first foray into ska, or lead single “Sucker”, that grabs those Jonas power chords and drags them into 2019. It’s the Jonas Brothers on a molecular level.

I catch their publicist waving at me to wrap things up. The band have a photoshoot next and then they’re playing an intimate gig for fans. But as we all stand up and exchange pleasantries, I tell them I’m glad that they’ll finally be able to spend a holiday like Thanksgiving together as friends. They all pause and look at each other awkwardly. “We do have a day off and we'll be in the New Jersey area,” Kevin says. “We could go to your house?” Nick asks. I turn to Joe. “Oh, we have no idea,” he shrugs. “We're still bandmates at the end of the day. We're just trying to figure it all out.” And with that they file out of the room.

Source: VICE

#jonas brothers #vice #text #article #interview #2019

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quicksilversquared · 6 years

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How To Fake A Marriage Ch. 30

(let’s see if I can get this up before the internet goes again)

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(AO3) (FF.net)

Adrien was concerned.

As winter turned to spring, Marinette had been contacted by more bands (as well as the occasional individual singer) as different rock and alt metal groups discovered that Jagged Stone's album art designer was a talented fashion designer as well. It was good for Marinette, of course- she was going to have one really impressive resume after this- but spring runway was also coming up, and it resulted in one very stressed Marinette as she worked to stay on top of the requests while still keeping up with her work at Madam Rosalie's.

And because Adrien had been wrapped up in his own concerns about finishing the projects, papers, and tests he had for his classes plus getting his applications in and interviewing for summer internships, he had taken far too long to catch on to just how much work Marinette was taking on . It hadn't helped that she had moved her sewing setup back to her apartment after Ben came over for dinner back in February. Since he had been working hard on papers and she hadn't wanted to distract him, she had just kept it over there and spent her evenings after dinner and before bed working in her apartment, unless she was working on album art or doing concept sketches.

He had thought that she maybe was pushing herself so hard because she had a long wait list formed and she didn't want any of the bands dropping her because they had to wait too long for their turn to come up, but that wasn't it.

There weren't any bands that had been wait listed. Marinette had accepted them all (well, all of the ones that agreed to her pricing), and so she had an insanely long list of in-progress commissions that nearly all had deadlines coming up in the coming weeks.

"Bug, you don't have a full time job and a couple commissions on the side," Adrien said in utter disbelief late Sunday evening- or, rather, Sunday night, when Marinette should have already been getting ready for bed, considering how early she was going to have to wake up the next morning to get ready for the Fashion Week runway- as he looked at Marinette's spreadsheet of commissions and the progress and due dates for each one. "This is two full-time jobs plus some, what with the spring runway this week. And you still have spring photoshoots at work after that. How on earth did you even find the time to make the heat pack for Plagg?"

"It got out of hand," Marinette admitted. She looked utterly stressed as she looked at the list of commissions on her computer screen. "I just... they're famous people, you know? Or on their way to getting famous. They're visible. And the styles are something I haven't had the chance to do at Madam Rosalie's place, really, and they have so many fun ideas... I just didn't want to turn anyone down and miss out on that exposure."

"And Plagg?"

Marinette finally smiled, just for a moment. It wasn't even a quarter as bright as her usual smiles. "I did his bag right before bed one night, when I was too tired to do a good enough job on the commissions. It was just a matter of sewing a few straight seams and pinning the fabric right so that the rice wouldn't get under the needle." A pause. "Also, his whining was annoying."

"Most of these people would have been willing to wait a bit for their commissions, I think," Adrien said, trying not to laugh at that last comment. His eyes scanned down the list. It was very organized, he had to admit, with notes on sizes and measurements and themes and links to other sheets with more information. Thankfully there were quite a few that were close to being done, but they also had due dates that were coming up really soon. "How often are you getting contacted? With real requests, I mean. Not individual weirdos that have no idea what it would cost."

Marinette worried her lip as she thought about it. "Every couple weeks, maybe? It's just that there was a whole slew of them after Jagged Stone's album release that I had to put off working on until after Christmas, and there was that article about the outfits I designed for those other groups that got me more attention again, and I'm still working on finishing up everything for those ones. If I just had a break in the requests I would be able to catch up and then be working on commissions at a decent pace and be able to actually enjoy them again, but that's just not happening!"

"Buginette." Adrien rested his hands on Marinette's shoulders and tugged her into a hug. Part of him wanted to get frustrated with her- she should have known better than to take on so much work- but getting frustrated wouldn't help anything. Or anyone. Besides, there were better ways of expressing the same sentiment without being an arse about it, and the last thing Marinette needed right now was any sort of fight. "Love, that's when you tell new people that you're busy. Or if someone you're working with is requesting more pieces, you tell them it's going to have to wait. You put them down on your lovely spreadsheet as on the waiting list, and then contact them once you've caught up and had a little break. You'll do your best work for them then."

Marinette was still not entirely convinced, Adrien could tell. She was scanning her spreadsheet with a worried look on her face.

"You're right," she admitted after several more seconds of silence. She let out a huffy breath. "I just- we always heard in school about how it's hard to break into the fashion industry and that even to get hired by a company can be hard because designers are a dime a dozen, it seems, and I didn't want my chance to slip past me."

Adrien could understand that fear, honestly. He had seen the pile of applications on his father's desk before- and those were the ones that had already made it past several rounds of eliminations. There were a lot of strong candidates, and even people who graduated in the top of their class in university weren't guaranteed to get a position.

Still, Adrien didn't think that Marinette had to worry about that- and no, he wasn't just being biased. Marinette was crazy talented, and she had an impressive resume to back her up, even as young as she was.

Stepping to the side and crouching so that he was looking Marinette in the eye, Adrien put his hands on her shoulders so he could get her full attention. "Bug. Listen to me. You've already broken into the fashion industry. You'll have three years of interning at Rosalie on your resume, plus all of the stuff for Jagged, plus all of this stuff that you have right now. If people are asking after you to the point that you're getting overworked, you are solid in the fashion industry." He gave her shoulders a little shake for emphasis before sliding one hand up to cup her cheek. "But if you overwork yourself like this, you know the quality is going to suffer. It's better to put people on a wait list and work at your own speed than it is to churn out things that aren't original and aren't you and end up falling out of favor because of that. If people want a Marinette Original, they can wait. That's how the fashion industry works."

"I guess." Still, Marinette looked overwhelmed as she looked from Adrien to her spreadsheet. "And I can start putting people on a wait list now, but what about the commissions I already have lined up? I don't know any of the people on here well enough to ask if I could push their due dates back. And it's just so much work, I don't know how I'll get them all done by the deadlines."

Adrien had to think about it for several moments. It didn't take long before a plan started forming in his head.

"How about this- instead of having to cut off by our normal time, I can finish with my homework then or during the day and then come over and help you however I can?" Adrien suggested. "You said you had rivets to put in on some things, right? If you just mark with, like, chalk where you want them pounded in, I could do that. And I can sort out finished pieces into which commissions they belong to, and get shipping labels printed, and stuff like that. I can't sew, obviously, but if you think of anything I can do to help..."

Marinette looked slightly distressed at that. "But Adrien! You have your own stuff to do, with your papers and your midterms and-"

"My papers are largely done, they just need some editing. I'm going to have Ben look at them tomorrow for grammar and spelling and word choice, so I won't have to do that, and then I'll have a few days to go back and make sure that I have everything just the way I want it." Adrien rubbed Marinette's back, working at the tense muscles in her shoulders. "And one of my tests was yesterday, and then I only have two more for midterms. Most of my classes don't really do midterms at this point. They have tests when they want to have tests. I can handle it."

"That would help," Marinette admitted. She sent a slightly rueful look at the pile of finished clothes on her couch. "There's stuff from four or five commissions there and I know they're there- I check off each outfit once I finish it- but I just don't have the time to sort it out."

"Do you have a sheet with descriptions of which outfits are meant to be in each order?"

Marinette pointed to a folder sitting on the low table next to the couch. "Yeah, in there. There should be copies of the designs attached to each one, too."

Adrien headed over to pick up the folder. It was thick, and when he opened it he found a packet for each of Marinette's commissions. There were a dozen of them, all with multiple pieces. That surprised Adrien a bit, considering that none of them had ever worked with Marinette before and she didn't exactly have a site or anything online with photos of her past work. A couple had cover art commissions as well, and from what he could tell, only one of them had that part of their order completely finished- though once again, there were a quite a few that were nearly done, only needing a round of requested revisions.

It was a lot.

Adrien sorted through the pile as the sewing machine whirred furiously in the background. Marinette was right when she had said that there was stuff from several different commissions all mixed together- only instead of four or five commissions, there were eight. Tikki found sticky notes for him to stick to each pile of outfits, and Adrien wrote down the customer's name, what pieces were in each order, and checked off each piece that he had found and put in the pile. What was still needed was written on a different colored sticky note and put on top of the pile.

Slowly but surely, the couch was becoming much more organized.

"This one says that it just needs one more piece before it's complete," Adrien reported after everything was sorted out into neat stacks, flipping through one packet of commission information to double-check. "It looks like a fairly basic tank top, except with some screen printing."

Marinette perked up and the sewing machine's whirring slowed to a stop. "Really?"

"It looks like it, yeah." Adrien handed over the packet. "I've found the two skirts and one completed top. It just needs this one shirt and then it'll be ready to go."

"I think I was waiting to do the screen printing all at once, since I have a bunch to do among all of my commissions and it's more efficient to do it all in one go," Marinette said, scanning the page. "But yeah, I should maybe do that this weekend and I can get a bunch of stuff checked off. Is it supposed to be sunny then?"

Adrien blinked, puzzled- what did the weather have to do with anything?- but checked his phone anyway. Maybe she just needed the sun for the shirts to dry or something. "Yeah, it'll be sunny, for once. At least that's what they think right now. Why?"

"I gotta set the screens in the sun," Marinette explained, which... yeah, honestly, that really didn't explain anything at all. Adrien was still very much confused. "I should have most of the materials for screen printing, but I just have to make the screens themselves. And- oh, if I'm gonna make all of the screens at once, I'll actually need to make more frames. Shoot, and I don't have the time to pick up more materials, and the copy shop is never open when I'm off and it's always packed during lunch and-"

"If you tell me what you need, I can pick up the stuff for the frames and the other materials, and whatever you need from the copy shop, I can run all of those errands," Adrien told her immediately, before she could get too far into one of her panic spirals. "I can go whenever, I just need a list and where to buy stuff. And for the screen printing- do you sew your own shirts for that?"

Marinette shook her head, looking marginally less frantic. "No, I just ordered some pre-sewn ones that I'll print on. Even if it only takes an hour to sew a shirt like that, I have so many orders for them that it would just take forever." Marinette pointed at an unopened box wedged in the corner of the room with a pile of papers sitting on top. A closer look told Adrien that it was the name of each commission, the color and size of the base shirt, and what design was meant to be printed on it. Once again, Marinette had absolutely impeccable organization. "I should check and make sure they're all there, probably, and get them sorted out with their commission sheets, but I don't have the time."

"I can check on that, too," Adrien piped up. He slipped up behind her and hugged her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Are you feeling better about everything now?"

"Better," Marinette agreed. She twisted around to kiss him. "Not perfect, because there's still a lot to do and I feel really stupid for letting it get to this point... but I think I might focus on the little stuff this week, all of the easy commissions and finishing up the orders that just have one piece left and finishing the pieces I have mostly completed and then doing album cover revisions. Once I have all of that done, then I think I'll have a better view of what I really have left to do." She glanced over at her laptop and the spreadsheet on it and let out a sigh. "I might end up having to email some of my customers and asking to push back the completion date a little bit. I've been scrambling so much lately that I just keep hopping from one piece to another because I see the due date and just freak out, and start working on one of their pieces, then see the due date for another and switch again."

"That sounds like a plan," Adrien agreed. He straightened up and glanced around the room. There were four in-progress pieces on the mannequins, and what looked like a couple others sitting around on the floor and on Marinette's kitchen counter. Just by standing here he was starting to feel overwhelmed. "Then you can finish orders and get those pieces cleared out of here so you aren't being buried under an avalanche of clothes. It won't feel quite so overwhelming then."

Marinette nodded in agreement, biting her lip as she glanced back at her computer. "Yeah. And I suppose I can bring my tablet along to Fashion Week and work on the cover art stuff between runways, too. I've got some requested changes to finish up and then a couple complete ones to design. Or maybe it's just one complete one left to design, I don't remember." She reached over, scrolling through her list of commissions. Red, yellow and green boxes told her what was finished, what was in-progress, and what was still woefully untouched. There were way too many yellow and red-coded boxes for Adrien's liking, and he was sure that she felt the same. "I still have to go in every day and go to other presentations and runways for inspiration, but there's enough downtime between stuff that I can probably get some work done. And I could bring my sketchbook and work on some of the preliminary sketches that I still have to do once the covers are finished up. And then I could take a day or two off to catch up, too, maybe, after Fashion Week is over. Or maybe not. It depends on what we have to do at work."

Adrien nodded. He couldn't say that he entirely liked the plan- Marinette was going to be working herself to the bone with barely a moment to catch her breath, and that wasn't healthy- but if she overworked herself now, then hopefully she would get enough done that she wouldn't be keeping herself awake stressing over the unfinished commissions with their ever-looming due dates. And with his tests and paper due dates more spread out this semester than ever before and Ben's help in keeping him on top of his coursework, he should be able to help Marinette without falling behind in his own studies.

Besides, even if he hadn't admitted it to himself fully, Adrien was far ahead of schedule on the essays. His early push meant that his 'rough drafts' were more like fully completed papers at this point, and he probably wasn't going to need to do much editing between when he got the graded draft back and when the final copy was due.

Hopefully, at least. Barring some complete disaster.

"Are you almost done with that piece?" Adrien asked as Marinette turned back to the jacket she was working on. "Because I can understand wanting to finish it, but it's late and you have to get up early for Fashion Week. And you actually have to be awake for that."

"I want to get one more seam done, and then it'll be at a good stopping point," Marinette decided after a pause. "And then I'll be over- unless you want me to sleep over here so I don't wake you up when I get up?"

Adrien shook his head. If Marinette slept over in her apartment, then there would be no way of knowing if she had actually slept. He would rather deal with being woken up briefly when Marinette's alarm went off early in the morning than have her make the last-minute decision to stay up even later to finish a piece and not know. "I'd rather sleep next to you like normal. How long do you think you'll be?"

"Five minutes, tops."

"Sounds good." As he turned to leave, Adrien paused. "Oh, and one thing... Marinette?"

Marinette looked over at him, eyes wide. "Yeah?"

"Everything will work out, I promise. We're Ladybug and Chat Noir, after all." He grinned at her, and was pleased to see her smile back. It was a little muted, but it was a start. "Together, we can do anything."

For the first time in nearly two weeks, Marinette found that she could actually focus entirely on what she was doing at work. She didn't find her mind floating back to the piles of unfinished commissions sitting in her apartment, or fretting over everything she had to do.

Even if she hadn't made nearly as much progress as she wanted to over the weekend- well, she had had ridiculous expectations in the first place. She had done a good bit of work, and now that Adrien had caught on to her problem, he was solidly on her side. He had managed to get the messy pile of commissions sorted out and organized so that she had a better idea of what she had left to do, and together they had come up with a plan for her going forward.

Well, maybe she had come up with most of the plan, but Adrien's presence and willingness to help had settled the jittery nerves in her stomach and cleared her mind so that she could actually focus. The mountain of commissions to finish didn't seem so insurmountable now that she had Chat Noir at her side and a plan in her mind.

And that focus was needed as Marinette helped models change clothes quickly and got them back out onto the runway. The work was fast-paced and needed all of her attention to make sure the right collars were popped and everything was tucked in in the right places and no wrinkles were visible. Once the last model went through and headed out to the runway, a sigh ran through the changing area and there was a distinct drop in tension. Seconds later, though, everyone pulled themselves back together to start steering models back to their area so they could get changed back into their street clothes and all of the outfits could be packed up and sent back to the office.

Once the last of the things from Madam Rosalie's show were packed up, Marinette snagged her bag and followed her coworkers out of backstage and towards the first of the shows that she had wanted to see. As she walked, she pulled out the wrap that Adrien had made for her- best boyfriend ever, honestly- and dug in hungrily.

"Oh, I'm jealous," Sarah said, eying the wrap. "I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and that's it. I can't cook all that well."

"When did you find the time to put that together, even?" Emily wanted to know, partway through her own turkey sandwich. "I thought you said that you were super-busy with commissions to do, too."

Marinette swallowed her bite and then grinned. "Yeah, I've been swamped," she agreed. "So Adrien has been doing most of the cooking, and he made this for me. He's an absolute godsend."

"D'you think I could bribe him to pack a lunch for me for the rest of the week?" Sarah joked. "I kid, I kid," she added before Marinette had time to think about it. "I should have time to make a proper meal to pack tonight. But that really does look good."

They worked their way through the crowd and into the largest of the runway areas. Once they got into their seats, Marinette wasted no time in polishing off her wrap and pulling out her commissions sketchbook. She wanted to get at least three of her designs cleaned up today, preferably more. Then she could submit all of her sketches to that particular client for approval, and then they would get back to her in probably two to three days, and then she would have to carve out the time to go to the fabric shop and get the materials that she needed, and then-

Her thoughts had started to race again as she tried to feel out a timeline for the commission. Only a sharp jabbing at her side pulled Marinette out of her thoughts, and she looked down to see one of Tikki's eyes peering out of her bag, clearly frowning at her. Marinette let out a breath and tried to calm her racing thoughts.

She was going to try to clean up several sketches today and get them ready to submit for approval. Once she got home, she was going to send the sketches off for approval and finish up the jacket she had been working on and then turn her attention to the mostly-finished pieces. Only once she had her mannequins cleared would she start anything new. If Adrien had any time free, she would have him start to put together the frames for the screen printing.

All she had to do was keep a level head and not start panicking.

As the day wore on, the side of Marinette's hand slowly darkened with smudged graphite. She cleaned up rough sketches while waiting for shows to start, scribbled out ideas to use at Madam Rosalie's during runways, and even got a few new commissions sketches very roughly sketched out. Her hand was starting to ache from being clenched around her pencil for so long by the time she left the Fashion Week grounds and headed home.

"You look productive," Adrien said with a laugh after they pulled apart from their welcome-home kiss and he spotted her grey-smudged hand. "How's your hand doing?"

Marinette wriggled her fingers, trying to loosen them up. "It hurts, but I should still be able to sew with no problem. I might use my quilting gloves, though, just so my hands don't cramp up."

She didn't miss Adrien's concerned glance at her hands, nor the way he immediately reached out to gently massage them. She stepped closer, letting him continue to work at her hands until they were back to feeling relatively normal.

How Marinette had somehow gotten the Absolute Best Boyfriend In The World she didn't know, but she wasn't complaining.

"Let's have dinner first before you do any sewing again," Adrien suggested, steering Marinette towards the table. "I made soup and sandwiches. How was your day?"

Dinner went by all too fast, and then Adrien took care of the dishes while Marinette headed over to her apartment to get pictures of all of her cleaned-up sketches taken and sent before she sat down to finish up the jacket. It would need some snaps and other bling on it later, but she was practically finished with the sewing.

"Is that pile done and ready to sort?"

Marinette glanced up from where she was sewing the pockets in the jacket. Adrien was pointing to a more-or-less neatly stacked pile of jackets and pants and tops on the kitchen counter. She had to think for a moment- why were those pieces over there?- before it clicked.

"Those all need hardware," Marinette explained. "Studs and rivets and snaps and eyelets. It's easiest to do them all at once, I've found, instead of getting all of my tools out and doing one piece at a time." She had marked them all with a marker (dark for the few light pieces, white for the dark ones) with where the studs were meant to go, so she wouldn't have to refer back to the drawings for each one. Like with the screen printing shirts, each one had the commission name on it and the kind of studs (number and size) written on a slip of paper and pinned to the piece.

Technically, it had been Tikki that had been the one to come up with the idea of labeling the pieces like that and it had also been Tikki who wrote up each slip of paper so Marinette didn't have to take the time to do it herself, but Marinette couldn't deny that it was a fantastic idea.

"Aha." Adrien regarded the pile as Marinette turned back to her jacket. "So is that stuff I could potentially do?"

Marinette bit her lip and thought about it. Part of her wanted to say no, because she would have to take the time to teach Adrien how to put things in correctly so that they wouldn't mess up the pieces, but the more reasonable side said yes, please. Adrien was smart and could pick things up quickly, and once he learned how to do the hardware, that would probably be several hours of work off of her shoulders in return for what in all honesty would probably just be a ten-minute demo.

"I'll teach you tomorrow how to do some of the studs," Marinette promised. Those had the fewest tools involved and were the easiest of the hardware pieces to put in. "But for tonight... do you think you could put together some screen printing frames? The wood and the tools are in the hall closet, and there should be an instruction packet there, too."

Adrien nodded and bounded towards the closet. Minutes later, the first frame was halfway assembled on the kitchen floor. Half an hour after that, and several completed frames were lined up next to the fridge as Adrien worked on making several smaller and one larger frame from the remaining wood. Marinette had finished what she could on the jacket and added it to the pile in the kitchen before starting work on a pair of pants.

"Okay, I think it's bedtime," Adrien announced two hours later. Marinette looked over to see him stretching, his t-shirt rising up to expose a thin line of stomach. "Unless you had something else you wanted to get done tonight?"

Marinette blinked and glanced over at the time on her phone. It was definitely later than she had thought. Clearly she had kind of zoned out while sewing. "Oh! Yeah, that's probably a good idea. But, uh..."

She wanted to keep going, in all honesty. She could feel like she was making progress, and she couldn't do that if she went to bed. But Tikki was staring at her from across the room, clearly disapproving of Marinette's desire to just ignore reasonable bedtimes in favor of working.

(Plagg was also there, only he was napping, happily curled up on the heat pad Marinette had made for him. She never got disapproving looks from him.)

"I just wish I had made more visible progress," Marinette admitted. "These pants are almost done, since I had them already started before, and I got the jacket ready for studding but it was already mostly there. And I still have so much to do."

"One day at a time, Bug," Adrien reminded her. He waited until she switched off her sewing machine and then pulled her up off of her chair. "And if you want, I can pick up whatever other materials you need for the screen printing stuff tomorrow. That'll be another thing checked off your list."

Marinette lit up at the reminder. "Yeah! I just need- wait a moment, I need to check something." She hurried to her computer and pulled up the spreadsheet that she had made for all of her screen-printed shirt orders. "I should need six more of the average-sized frames, and the inks, and-" She scrambled for a blank piece of paper and started scribbling down a list, trying to remember what she had and hadn't already bought. Since she had gotten the materials for the first set of commissions, it was just a matter of remembering which ones she hadn't bought stuff for.

Well. It was probably better to overestimate rather than underestimate. Presumably she would get enough orders going forward that she would use everything up long before she had to go back to Paris and if not... well, she had coworkers who could probably use the supplies.

"I think that's all the information you'll need for the fabric ink," Marinette said after several minutes of scribbling. "Any questions, just text me. And I think I should have enough fabric to put on all of the frames, even with six more. And I'll need the pattern transparencies to do the printing at all." She let out a small huff as she eyed the boxes of shirts to be inked. Adrien had sorted them out and thankfully they were all present and in both the correct colors and sizes (though there had been a few terrifying minutes when they thought that she was over a dozen shirts short, before she realized that there was a second box of shirts stashed in the hall closet), but it was yet another pile reminding her of how incredibly far behind she had gotten. When Marinette had initially set the due dates up she had thought that she was being ridiculously generous with the timeline and that the far-out due dates would give her plenty of wriggle room, but now those deadlines were almost here and all she had to show for her work were a million half-finished projects around the room.

"Do you have a flash drive or something with all of the transparency files on it?" Adrien asked, pulling her attention back from her mental berating. "I can run that errand tomorrow, too. I only have two classes to go to and an hour and a half meeting with Ben, so I'll have plenty of time."

Adrien was definitely the Best Boyfriend Ever.

The week continued in a blur of work. Tuesday evening, Adrien finished building the frames and then he and Marinette worked together to get the fabric properly stretched and attached. He had gotten everything that Marinette had asked for during the day, which meant that the screen printing stuff would be all ready to go later in the week. In the evening, Adrien cut lengths of chain for accents on some of the pieces and pressed in studs on a couple of the pieces sitting in the kitchen, which meant that Marinette could sew the liners in and count those pieces as done.

(The best part? Since she had already sewn the liners, putting them in didn't take long at all and Marinette got to feel super-productive as she finished off three jackets in one night. And, making the day even better, they got the news that Alya had gotten past the second round of cuts and her entry had gone on to the proper judges to see.)

During the day, Marinette worked on finishing up requested revisions on album covers in between runway shows, sending them off as she finished and waiting for a confirmation email in return that would allow her to either check the piece off for good or send her back to do a couple more tweaks. Even with all of the stress that she had been under when designing the pieces, Marinette had to admit that she was proud of them. The artwork had turned out wonderfully, and she had managed to push herself with some of the design elements, too. They showed a range of techniques and varied from minimalistic to intricately detailed.

Thursday evening found Marinette still furiously sewing and Adrien pressing in yet more studs in a very decorated jacket. He spent the entire evening working on the piece and Marinette noticed him making a face and shaking out his fingers every so often, especially as it got later.

She felt bad about asking him for his help, she really did- so many studs in a short period of time really made the fingers sore-but he had saved her a solid twenty hours of work so far (two jackets OR two tops OR eight to ten pairs of pants and skirts- her mind started, and Marinette shushed it), and he could ask her for something else to do if he so desired, or even go back to doing his own work.

Speaking of which...

"Are you sure you don't have studying to be doing?" Marinette asked, letting her sewing machine slow to a stop before swinging around to look at Adrien. She wouldn't put it past him to focus too much on her stuff just to be kind, even if he had work of his own. "You've been spending all of your evenings over here. I thought you had papers to write."

"Wrote 'em during the day," Adrien said cheerfully. "And did my studying during the day, too."

"And that's enough?"

"For right now, yes. I don't think I could do it forever, though." He worried his lip, just a bit. She didn't miss it, even though he was clearly trying to hide it so he wouldn't worry her. "And I'll have to take at least one evening to study next week, since I'll have an exam and two papers to finish. And then I have two exams the week before break, and one after."

Marinette nodded. She would probably be done with everything that Adrien could help with by that point anyway. "Take off whatever time you need, really. You've been a huge help." She gestured at the neat piles of clothes stacked and labeled on the couch and at the printing screens, piled neatly on the kitchen counter. "I couldn't have gotten this far without you. I would still be scrambling and panicking myself into a knot." She smiled up at him as he came over to wrap her up in a hug. "I've been able to focus so much better since we came up with the plan to get everything finished."

Adrien just grinned and buried his face in her neck.

"I've managed to get all of my designs finalized and approved," Marinette continued. "And I got revisions done for several album covers and those have been submitted, so I'm waiting to hear back from the last of those. And the one cover that I hadn't gotten a first draft of yet- it's maybe a third of the way done. I'll have to work on that and get it done- well, not this weekend, since I have to finish up a bunch of orders first, but next week at least, so I can get it submitted for critique."

Marinette also sincerely hoped that none of the other people who had had her do revisions needed any more changes. Being able to check all of them off would be a huge relief.

"So how are the studs different than the other hardware you mentioned?" Adrien asked after another minute. He released her from the hug and straightened back up, stretching and twisting to get the aches out of his back. "You said they were easier?"

"Yeah, the others need more than just the one poking tool," Marinette explained. "And they have two pieces that lock together from opposite sides of the fabric. It usually takes a couple tries to get it right." It wasn't that the studs were hard, exactly, just different. There were more steps and more tools, but not that many more. She was sure that Adrien wouldn't have any problems.

"I'm sure I'll pick it up," Adrien assured her. "I might be slower than you at it, but..."

Marinette pulled him back down for a kiss. "That's fine. As long as it gets done, the time doesn't matter. I wouldn't be able to do this without you."

She wasn't even exaggerating. Adrien had been focused on whatever task she gave to him to do, working hard to finish the job. Between the errands he had run, the organizing he had done, his work on the frames, and all of the hardware...

Yeah, it was a lot. It added up quickly.

"Well, then I should get back to work," Adrien told her. "I'm almost done with the jacket, and then it'll be ready for you again."

"No rush," Marinette assured him. She turned back to her machine and started sewing again. The machine hummed, needle a silver blur as it worked its way up the seam, one stitch at a time. "I certainly have enough to do in the meantime."

#Miraculous Ladybug #My writing #How to Fake a Marriage #the internet here is so shaky #Adrien Agreste #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #POSTING BEFORE IT GOES AGAIN

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shutupkimjongdae · 7 years

Photo

[TRANS/MAGAZINE] CanCam Magazine - EXO-CBX for July Issue 2017 To view as HQ scans, click here and zoom in!

source: x translator: fai please take out our translations with full credit only!

To read as text only, keep reading!

JUMP OUT! From Korea’s and Asia’s widely popular dance and vocal group EXO, the Japanese debut of their first sub-unit EXO-CBX! Cool, stylish, but somehow also cute… ♡ We’re thoroughly analyzing the charms of these popular three people. Who is EXO? A vocal and dance group from S.M. Entertainment, where BoA and DBSK also came from. Debuted in Korea and China in 2012, and 2015 in Japan. Recorded the highest first week sale for a foreign artist’s Japanese debut single in history. Performed in Tokyo Dome for two consecutive years in 2015 & 2016. One of the most popular groups in Asia. Who is EXO-CBX? A unit made from three members of EXO; CHEN, BAEKHYUN, XIUMIN. EXO’s first sub-unit, the name “CBX” is taken from the first letter of their names. Debuted in Korea in 2016, and different with EXO, expresses their individual style through pop sounds. This time, debuting in Japan after high anticipation. [SOLO INTERVIEW] I AM… CHEN - Anyhow, the gentle, killer smile is his charm point ♥ BAEKHYUN - The mischievous mood-maker ♥ XIUMIN - The level-headed and reliable big brother ♥ Q: How did you feel when EXO-CBX was set to debut in Japan? C: My first thought was, even if (we’re doing it) as a subunit, it’s fun that we get to do activities in Japan! I’m very happy since we get to meet with our Japanese fan more than we were able to before. Not only with EXO’s activities, please anticipate our appearance as EXO-CBX as well ♪ X: Because I wanted to meet our Japanese fans more, I’m very happy that we get to do activities in Japan as a sub-unit. We always try to remember (the feeling) of “starting from zero”, so even now, without forgetting that feeling, we want to start from zero as a sub-unit and do our activities. Q: Your mini album 「GIRLS」, what kind of album is it? B: The whole concept of this mini album is about what men think of women. For example, in our song 「Ka-CHING!」, it sends the message of “people’s appearances are not everything” sung from the men’s point of view. Musically speaking, we included a lot of song genres, so I think you can feel our brand new charm ♪ Q: The thing you bought recently? C: Sneakers. I like (sneakers) very much! Without realizing, the number (of sneakers I have) is increasing… (laughs). I have so many that I cannot fit them (all) on our shoe shelf, I even have to put them in the closet in my room! B: Clothes for snowboarding! This year, I only went snowboarding three times, but I already bought two sets of snowboarding clothes. I may have bought too much (laughs). X: Black sportswear. I like going basic and black, so I have a lot of all-black outfits. We have practice even on our days off, so clothes that I can wear comfortably also during practice are very convenient. So I go for cool sportswear (laughs)! Because I don’t go out that often, I probably don’t put much thought into fashion (laughs). Q: Things that you do to keep your style? [t/n: ‘style’ in this case is more nuanced to mean ‘figure’] C: Because of my genes, my figure doesn’t change easily (t/n: in other words = genetically, he doesn’t gain weight easily), so I don’t take particular care of anything… I only try not to overeat (laughs). B: I try to exercise at the gym and also watch over what I eat. X: In order to not gain weight, I do a lot of aerobic exercise ♪ Q: Fashion that you find cute on girls? C: More than feminine fashion, I like street fashion! Wearing skinny jeans with a simple T-shirt, cap, and sneakers… those kind of looks! I read CanCam today, and I thought (they all looked) very cute. But, even with any kind of fashion, girls who wears clothes that fit their own styles are the best!! B: White shirts and denim jeans! I think all men like this kind of fashion, but it’s also a fashion that works on girls. And even girls like men who wear white shirts and denim jeans, right (laughs)? So me personally, I think simple styles are very stylish ♪ X: (While reading CanCam) These are all too cute! Looking at all these cute fashion, I don’t really know which one is the cutest (laughs). I think I like feminine fashion more than casual ones. But more than individual clothing, I think that balance is important! Q: Thing that you are into recently? C: I don’t really have much of a hobby… Recently I’m very into singing practice ♪. We have our Japanese debut, and also our next comeback in Korea, so to prepare for that, I have been listening to and singing a lot of songs! B: If we talk about my lifetime hobby, then games (laughs)! I like computer fighting games. Among games, there are actions games set in a country at war where you have to think (of strategies) often, and teamwork is also important… there are a lot of these types of games! But recently, and this is a rare occasion, I have something else that I am into as much as I am into games. That is… snowboarding! In my mind, I’m al~~ways thinking of going snowboarding now (laughs). X: Billiards. Recently, I always go play billiards with Baekhyun and Chen if I have time ♪. We always play four-ball, but since I only started very recently… I’m not that good. The other two? They’re much much better than me (laughs)! Q: What do you find important during the first impression of a girl? C: Eyes, maybe? I feel like with a gaze/look., you can know everything about that person. Not only with girls, but whenever I talk to anybody, I will definitely look into their eyes. Also, I think that (a person’s) smile is important too. I like genuine, natural smiles ♪ B: Brightness is important! But, it doesn’t mean that (she) should be super lively and energetic, how do I say this, but more of (having) positive and smiling energy. If she’s always smiling and looks gentle, I think that is very cute. X: I think it’s important whether she gives off a cute feeling, but more than anything, I think a girl who is wholly-balanced is lovely. In the end, the inside (appearance) is better than the outside! Because I’ll slowly like the girl while we talk about a lot of things and spend a long time together. THE COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF EXO-CBX♡ Thorough investigation of the three’s current thoughts!Their minds are compared!! Q: The place you want to visit the most now? C: OKINAWA. I just want to go there!! B: HOKKAIDO. The other EXO members seem to have already been there… I was too jealous! I would’ve brought my snowboard wear if it was winter right now~ (laughs). X: ONSEN. This is something I’ve dreamed of for a long time. When it’s cold in the middle of winter, I’ve always wanted to go to the onsen in the middle of snow ♪　 **onsen = hot spring Q: Bungee Jumping or full marathon, if you were to do one of them? ALL: Bungee Jumping! C: I want to conquer the fear of “jumping from a high place”! I also wanted to try skydiving ♪ B: (If running a full marathon), you have to run for 42.195km, right? Then, I’ll go for bungee jumping (laughs). X: It’s fine doing it once, I want to jump off from the sky! Q: If you were to have a date in summer? C: THE SEA, OF COURSE. Wakeboarding in the summer or snowboarding in the winter, doing something active seems fun! B: HOME. Because it’s hot in the summer, the best thing is not going out of the house! I want to spend time cooling in front of the air conditioner (laughs). X: RESORT. I want to play at the beach. But I don’t want to get into the water, so I’ll just watch (laughs). Q: The clothes that you think are cute in CanCam? (refer to scan) C: I like simple clothes in one color. I like the color on this dress, and the slit on the shoulder is very cute! B: I said that I like white shirts on denim pants, so is it weird that I picked this style (laughs)? I like this shirt with its slightly loose style! X: I like this kind of feminine style! When we’re on a date, and she comes with this soft and flowy dress with floral patterns, that would feel nice ♪ Q: The last thing you did last night before sleeping? C: (PLAYED A) GAME. (It’s a) game where you choose different characters and defeat your opponent (laughs). B: LISTENED TO OUR NEW SONG ♪. I listened to our new song that we’re releasing now to check if there’s anywhere we should fix and to check on my parts. But I fell asleep soon after that (laughs). When I listen to music, no matter what kind of music it is, I always fall asleep. X: WATCHED A DVD. I watched our live concert 『EXO PLANET #3 – The EXO’rDIUM in JAPAN』 ♪ THE THREE TALKS OF THEIR DEBUT AND OF EACH OTHER! The three close friends who make it exciting even during the photoshoot ♪ We asked them about their thoughts on their Japanese debut being right in front of their eyes and they gave us their real talk. The group who can boast of overwhelming popularity in Korea and the entirety of Asia, EXO. And within them, we’re bringing you their first sub-unit, EXO-CBX, and their first interview with CanCam ♪ When doing activities as three members, deciding on a dinner menu is fun (laughs)! Editor: As EXO, you have done activities in a big group, but now that you’re doing it as three, please tell of the pros and the cons. B: Compared to when there were nine people, the dressing room becomes larger (laughs)! C: For sure (laughs)! B: Also, if we go to the amusement park, we’ll stand out with 9 people, so isn’t it better if we go as three? C: Yeah. Whenever we eat, deciding on a menu also becomes faster, right (laughs)? X: I was about to say the same thing. B: After all, everyone has different things they want to eat. X: And then, our manager will have it easier, right (laughs)? [t/n: saying that the manager will have an easier time managing three instead of nine people] ALL: For sure (roaring laughter)! Editor: Then, please tell us about the characters of the three of you. B: The three of us are, to put it simply, bright, right? Chen is… basically very good at singing and has a strong personality! C: Thank you! Baekhyun, how should I say this, has the ability to adapt to anything he’s learning, take it and make it his own thing. He’s like a sponge (laughs). X: He’s really a presence that we cannot be without. B: Are you saying this for real~? C & X: We’re not lying (laughs)! B: As for Xiumin, he’s the eldest among the members, but his baby face is his specialty! He’s also the bridge between us and our manager, and he makes sure to double check our schedules for us. C: (He’s a) reliable older brother! B: It feels like he’s becoming our manager as a side job (laughs). X: Should I switch (to becoming a manager) (laughs)? I am the oldest, so I try to take the initiative and talk to our manager a lot. Organizing and managing fit my personality. B: By the way, I, Baekhyun, am someone who likes mischi~ef ♪ C＆X: We know (laughs)!! The members who are always together, the coolness they show on stage is exceptional! Editor: Please tell us of the moments when you think the member sitting beside you is cool. C: This is something that I’ve always thought of, but the Baekhyun in our MV and on stage is very cool! He puts a lot of expressiveness in every single one of his movements and facial expressions. When I look at him then, I think he’s very cool and I learn a lot from him. B: Somehow I feel like today is the day we’ll get lots of praises (laughs). The person sitting beside me, Xiumin, always performs his very best every time he’s on stage. So much that his sweat usually falls like rain (laughs). But whenever he’s giving his ment in our concerts or anywhere else, he has a cute side, and I think that gap/difference is charming. He has such a cute baby face, but inside he’s very hot-blooded! X: Okay, so I’ll talk about Chen. As everyone know, he’s very good in singing. Also, when I see him on stage with his overflowing energy, I get strength! To our fans, he’s a presence that is like a battery. Also whenever he’s on stage, he’s really manly! B: So, he’s different normally? [t/n: as in, he’s not manly offstage?] X: That’s not what I meant (laughs)! Editor: If you were a girl, which one between the three of you would you want to date? B: Me (laughs)! C: Why, why? B: Because I have moments when I’m really funny, I have a lot of charms, so won’t I definitely make my partner happy (laughs)? Saying this about myself, I’m becoming shy~ (laughs). What about Xiumin? X: Rather than dating Baekhyun or Chen, I’d rather remain single. I know too much about these two. It’s not always good/strong points when it comes to people, right? So, if I were to date, I’d rather date a completely new person. That is to say, if I am a girl, I’d rather not know anything about the two of them (laughs). B: If Xiumin were a girl, I wouldn’t want to date him either (laughs). Chen? C: Between the three of us, maybe none (laughs). We’ve been together for too long already! B: Not even yourself? C: Yeah, not even myself. It’s because I know about myself better than anyone else, and I have (my) weaknesses that people still don’t know about. B: Please have more confidence in yourself (laughs). Editor: Who is the fashion leader between the three of you? All: Nobody~ (laughs)! C: Everyone has different styles that they like. B: We each wear different clothes that we like. Xiumin is the most casual. C: I like hip-hop style clothes. X: And Baekhyun, he’s stylish in street and also formal clothes. Their goal this year is to meet with their Japanese fans more! Editor: Please tell us about your goals and ambitions regarding your Japanese activities from now on. B: From now on, Xiumin’s (goal) is also to become a manager (laughs). I’m joking! X: I think it’s all thanks to our fans that we managed to have a Japanese debut as a sub-unit. B: This year, while doing a lot of activities in Japan, our goal is to meet with our fans! C: Regardless of our genres, we hope you can watch our song and dance. X: We have to explain more on our unit’s concept! B & C: As expected, our manager (laughs)! MESSAGE TO FANS C: We’re working hard to prepare for our Japanese activities, so please wait for us, okay ♥ B: There’s original Japanese songs in our mini album『GIRLS』, so please listen to it ♪ X: We’re going to meet with our Japanese fans more from now on, so we’re very excited ♥ WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT EXO-CBX♡ We want to know more about the three! So we asked them to answer these questions ♪ Q. If you were to compare yourself to an animal? C: DINOSAUR. People tell me that if they look closely at my face, it resembles a dinosaur! When I look (at myself) in the mirror… it does (laughs)! B: DOG. There are a lot of dogs who spend time alone at home, right? I, too, like spending time at home alone (laughs). X: CAT. The fans have told me that I resemble a cat. I think some also gave me the nickname “Xiu-nyan” (laughs). I, too, think I resemble cats a bit. Q. Things that you absolutely hate? C: COCKROACHES AND SPIDERS. I don’t see them that often, but I hate them!! B: TALL PLACES. But it might be better than full marathons (laughs). X: MESSES. If a room is messy and dirty, my stress (level) increases. The untidiest member is… Baekhyun (laughs). Q. Favorite ice-cream flavor is? C & B: STRAWBERRY!! C: I love it ♡ B: You don’t get tired no matter how many times (you eat it)! X: COOKIES AND CREAM. It’s delicious ♪ Q. The thing you want to eat for today’s dinner? C: SUSHI. My favorite sushi is salmon. B: TONKATSU. We promised that we’ll go eat sushi tonight, but actually I want to eat tonkatsu (laughs). X: SUSHI. Even before I came to Japan this time, I promised myself that I will eat sushi! I love eel ♪ Q. The feature on your face that you like most? C: EYELASHES. I’m often told they’re very long~! B: LIPS. It’s (naturally) red in color. Because I don’t have many lip lines, it’s fine even if I don’t put lip balm on it, so I like it (laughs). X: HEAD. The shape of my head is round, so it stands out. Round-shaped heads are cuter than small heads, right (laughs)? Q. Show us one of your favorite (photos) on your smartphone~! (refer to scan) C: FIJI. This is one of the photos taken when we went to Fiji for a photobook shoot. This was taken on our last day there. If there’s a chance, I want to go and play there with the others ♪ B: SNOWBOARD. I started snowboarding since last year. It was so fun, I took a selfie without thinking ♪ X: BILLIARDS. The members of EXO-CBX are very into billiards! (This is) one taken when we were so into a game!

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