Chapter 152: Share the World

Dearest Lizzy,

I am truly mortified with myself... so sorry... T_T I managed to finish this just yesterday... so here it is. Hope it's not too shabby =.=

Hugs!

-Sierra

******

[[S-Cube 4th Album Launch]]

Reporters: Can you give us an overview of your new album?

Shoei: It’s an album of covers of the songs that have inspired us throughout our career in music, and in life.

Sierra: We were asked to select songs that we found inspiring, songs that had influenced our emotions at one point of our lives, and songs that were our favorites.

Reporters: There has been speculation that an album of covers was done because the company was trying to save time and cut corners so that you could put out an album in time for the awards season. Any comments on that, since writing and producing new songs would have taken too much time?

Sierra: Of course new songs would require more work, but we didn’t just take these existing songs and recorded them just as they were. We used the lyrics, we used the music, but we still had to alter them so that they matched our style.

Skye: What we feel was done for this album was that we took good songs, and made them our own through adding elements that made it distinctly our sounds.

Shoei: You may have noticed that there were a lot of classics, which meant we had to update them with fresh sounds to make sure they appealed to the listeners today. We wanted to share the songs we loved, and make the process of introducing them interesting and fun.

Reporters: And what is the style concept for the new album?

Skye: We’re going for classic glamour. Most of the songs in the album are classics. Of course we have some recent hits, but you can see that they are predominantly songs from the 90s, 80s and older.

Reporters: Any comments on the MV concept? The relationships between band members in bands with men and women have always been the debate of the media. How do you feel that this was the concept chosen?

Sierra: As always, it is a controversial topic, but we would like all viewers to remember that it’s just a music video. There is no subliminal message and the main purpose is to convey the emotion and topic of the song.

Skye: We find it funny when people still manage to pick up this topic and insinuate that there is truth in it. Of course there are bands where their members end up dating each other, but ours isn’t one of them. But to make it clear so that the media does not create any misunderstandings, we’re siblings.

Reporters: Then does each and every one of you actually have active love lives? We all know that Sierra is dating Kim Jae Joong of TVXQ, but what about Skye and Shoei?

Shoei: I’m married! (laughs)

Skye: Shoei is married… as we all know. As for me, I’m still waiting for the right girl to come along. Then again, this wouldn’t be a very good time to start dating. Our careers are our focus at this time.

Reporters: Getting married soon, Sierra?

Sierra: This question is old… (smiling) Can I have the next one?

Reporters: We noticed that there is a bonus track, a solo by Sierra in this album. Is this the preview to your upcoming solo project?

Sierra: You can say it is. Skye and Shoei kind enough to allow me to slot my solo into the CD so that everyone would be able to anticipate my upcoming mini album.

Shoei: Sierra’s solo will be out in a few weeks, what better way for us to support her as band mates then to use our new album to help her get some exposure.

Reporters: We’ve received the official press release, but there’s no update on who you’re working with on this project. There are rumors on the internet that some YG artistes have been enlisted. This would be one of the rare collaborations between SM and YG artistes. Can you give us some updates on what to expect?

Sierra: Because the management was prepared for this question today, I have been authorized to reveal that we are working with YG. G-Dragon of Big Bang has been producing this mini album, and T.O.P will be featured in the title song.

Reporters: So the rumors were pretty accurate.

Sierra: Thanks to the fans who are always outside the studios. We can’t keep it a secret that G-Dragon and T.O.P have been coming and going since people have seen them show up at the studios. We had initially planned to make it a big surprise, but I guess now the only surprise left would be how the mini album will sound in the end.

Reporters: And what will be the concept of your mini album?

Sierra: That will be revealed at the launch. (pauses) I think we have talked enough about my coming solo debut, maybe we should get back to the topic of S-Cube’s new album.

Reporters: Which songs would S-Cube recommend to those who are buying the album?

Shoei: ‘Just a Feeling’ is good, and you will all have already heard ‘L.O.V.E’ on the drama ‘Girls on Top’.

Skye: ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ and ‘Suddenly’.

Sierra: My favorites are ‘Sara’, ‘The Rest of Your Life’ and ‘Spin Around’.

Skye: I think we’ve managed to find a selection of songs that were made popular in the previous decades. It will be nice to introduce some of these songs to the current music enthusiasts and to see their reactions to them.

Shoei: If everyone hates the album, then we’ll know that we have really weird tastes in music (laughs).

[Shoei’s POV]

The album launch ended pretty quickly this time, compared to the previous ones. I suppose the lack of scandals made it hard for the reporters to ask prying questions. I’d say that this album launch is the least eventful one, but hopefully there had been enough hype to push the album sales up.

“Omigod…” nuna breathed out in relief as she fell onto the couch in the holding room after the conference.

“Get your butt up,” Shi Kyung hyung said to her. “We have a radio interview to rush to.”

“Ah… hyung… just one minute,” nuna whined.

“Get up, big butt,” Skye said, and dragged nuna up by her outstretched arms.

“Shut up, you monkey,” nuna growled but let him pull her up anyway.

Nuna’s a little sensitive about her butt. Everyone knows how Jun Su of TVXQ is famous for his duck butt. Nuna is famous for her very curvy derriere. It wasn’t as evident when she debut, because she was slimmer back then. But as the years when by, and she started to put on a bit more weight, she started to get bigger hips, and her butt grew in size to match.

When the media photographing her in all those fitting qipao dresses during the awards season, the netizens started noticing and there had been a flurry of obsessive discussion about it for a long time. Eventually, the media caught on and took every opportunity to provide photos of nuna which the netizens could pick on and comment.

Some called her one of the ultimate S-line, some said she didn’t qualify because her top wasn’t ‘heavy enough’. Some said it was garish of her to wear fitting clothes, and the perverts would leave lots and lots of lewd comments on how they’d love to get their hands on her butt.

You’d think after all these comments, she’d start wearing baggy pants and long skirts to hide them, but she just ignored them and continued wearing whatever clothes she liked. She doesn’t like it when people comment on how big her butt is, but she doesn’t mind when people tell her how having a big butt makes her look good in jeans and form-fitting dresses.

We spent the rest of the day zipping around from one studio to another for various interviews. This 4th album launch was surprisingly uneventful. We got pretty tame and routine questions from most of the interviewers. It wasn’t until we got to SUKIRA that the fun really began. Ee Teuk hyung and Eun Hyuk were on duty today and they had lots of fun asking questions in the oddest ways possible, and as always, imitating us.

“So… this album is filled with oldies,” Eun Hyuk said.

“Classics… they’re called classics,” Ee Teuk corrected.

“Choesonghamnida,” Eun Hyuk said. “Classics…”

“No, no…” nuna smiled. “He’s right to say oldies… some of these songs were popular even before my parents’ time.”

“Of course it would be politically correct to refer to them as classics,” Skye interjected.

“Keuraechyeo…” Ee Teuk hyung said.

“So how did you guys decide on putting out an album filled with classics?” Eun Hyuk asked.

“Well… any artistes’ biggest dream would be to actually do the music they love. So for this album, we decided we’d share the songs we loved with our fans.”

“No offense… but are classics all you 3 listen to?” Ee Teuk asked.

“Of course not,” nuna said. “These are just the songs that planted the love for music within us. These are songs that shaped the artistes we are today. That is why we wanted to share them with our fans… to give them an idea where S-Cube got their musical roots from.”

“And some of these songs might be a far cry from the kind of music we do today, which was why we tried our best to change the way these songs are sung so that they’d sound closer to S-Cube’s current works. We tried to make sure the fans wouldn’t feel that the songs sounded too foreign from the genre S-Cube usually did, but we’re also going for the critics’ approval,” Skye added.

“Sounds fun, sounds ambitious, and I am dying to see how this would take off,” Ee Teuk said. “So let us listen to your first single off this new album. I’ve seen the MV, and let me say… it was fabulously glam!” he squealed.

“He kept saying he should’ve been in it,” Eun Hyuk laughed. “Would you like to introduce it?” he asked me.

“This song is entitled ‘Just A Feeling’,” I said. “We hope you like it.”

They played the song, and Ee Teuk and Eun Hyuk did a silent skit, parodying our MV which involved a lot of tango moves and glaring at each other. We were all in stitches, trying to control our laughter as the song was ending, because we’d be on air again. It was the most fun interview of the day.

[Sierra’s POV]

The last interview had wrapped, but my next job had just started. We were doing a late studio recording for the MV of ‘Crazy’. It was cold, and I had nothing to wear but a mini dress and a fur-trimmed vest. Seung Hyun got lucky; he got to wear a full suit.

“Hey laydee…” he drawled when we met up at the shoot location.

It was a mock concert stage, and we even had extras to play concertgoers. Some of the extras were volunteers from Seung Hyun’s cafe. He’d notified the leader and made it a secret project for his fans to participate in.

“Hey sexy,” I laughed.

“How did you know my name?” he pretended to be shocked.

“It’s written all over your sexy body and face,” I replied.

“You bet it is…” he laughed.

“I’m freezing!” I complained.

The coordinator had provided me with a coat for now, but my legs were still freezing, when with tights on.

“The pain of beauty,” he laughed. “Want me to warm your legs?” he wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“I’ll take my chance with frostbite,” I said,” taking a step back from him.

“I was just being thoughtful,” he said, putting his hands up and pretending to sound offended.

“Places!” the producer shouted.

“Let’s go,” he said as he ascended a step up the side of the stage, and held his hand out to assist me.

I shrugged off the coat and put my hand in his, allowing him to lead me up the stairs. It wasn’t a real concert, but standing up there, being blinded by the lights and hearing the fans scream our names, I can’t help but feel butterflies fluttering within me.