Published on Oct 29th, 2019
Here’s a new cover, this time with some good friends of mine...you may remember them from the MGAs and definitely not anything else ㅋㅋ This is a special one, and it’s always an honor to play with them. It was fun! Happy HallowEEn x
( with @rkxsungwoon @rkkenta @rkpwj @rkminhyun )
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daniel and sungwoon both like 5 seconds of summer. daniel has known this since he prepared an acoustic cover of youngblood for his nova audition around this time last year, only to axe it in favor of singing that cursed charlie puth song he never should’ve sang. (if hyunbin didn’t want him after all of his performances on the mgas this year, however, he doubts he could’ve done anything differently to change his mind back then. at least he made peace with something.)
the idea to cover teeth was a bit of a collaboration in itself-- daniel reaching out to the others upon the song’s release to cover it with him, naturally, obsessed with the bass line. sungwoon agreed to do it with him, but then the idea stalled by the time they roped minhyun into it. they got busy with other things, but they could’ve made time for it if they really wanted to. as much as daniel wanted to cover it, and as much as he wanted to play music with his friends again, there still wasn’t something quite right about only playing with minhyun and sungwoon. teeth didn’t have heavy drums, and they didn’t need two guitarists to cover it, but...
he knew if he wanted to play any music with any of them they’d need to get over the hurdle of the first cover without kenta and woojin. maybe they just weren’t ready yet. daniel forgot about it in favor of writing songs.
sungwoon, however, didn’t forget, and brought it up again in early october, pitching it as a halloween project, to daniel’s surprise. this time, it wasn’t just him and minhyun, but it was to all of them, and everyone agreed. daniel was overjoyed. he didn’t let himself get too carried away-- to drift too far into it feeling like they were never apart as they practiced-- but he savored the time, sure to enjoy it, time to play with them further never guaranteed. they would practice together on weekends, renting out their old practice space just like old times after kenta and woojin came back from training.
they picked it up pretty quickly, but daniel still brought his (newly purchased) acoustic bass over to their apartment to play through his parts with the others when they were home, both for practice and because it was fun. they were going to do a full band version for their official cover video, but a couple secret acoustic versions never hurt anyone.
the video itself isn’t too elaborate; they have neither the time nor money for that, really, but they covered their practice space in spooky plastic sheets, and enlisted the help of some friends to film their special halloween cover.
daniel would like to think that this is the first of many unofficial empty enigma covers post-mgas. there was nothing in kenta and woojin’s contracts that said they couldn’t still play music together, only that they couldn’t release original music anymore and that they didn’t want them performing under the empty enigma name. they could bend those rules whenever woojin and kenta had the time and energy, and daniel would be happy to anytime. if it’s just a one-off thing, however, he’ll take and treasure that much, too.
the trademark of teeth is the bass line that drives it, and daniel opens their cover with it (and it’s an honor.) woojin kicks in with the drums, quick hits in between his bass riff, and for a few measures it’s just them-- something like a team sphere classic. the guitar builds up, then fades, peaks, then drops out, back to daniel and his bass with only sungwoon’s voice.
daniel, thankfully, couldn’t relate to teeth’s lyrics-- could gladly say he only wanted to cover it because it sounded cool. if he could attach the lyrics to a certain memory, it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as fun, content considered.
for the build up to the chorus, it’s different-- a low, growing guitar, and daniel lends his voice as backup to sungwoon, taking the lower harmony.
call me in the morning to apologize every little lie gives me butterflies something in the way you're looking through my eyes don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive
sungwoon sings the first half of the chorus alone, then minhyun joins him as the backup vocal for the second half, and then all of them:
never, never, never ever let go
it’s back to sungwoon over daniel’s bass again for the second verse, with the lightest touch of drums from woojin. it’s a fitting song for halloween, a little dark and eerie, and daniel is glad they waited to do this until now, especially if it meant getting all of them together. it’s lighter than their previous sound, but if they’re not empty enigma anymore, there’s no need for them to conform to the typical empty enigma style. it still has a little more bite than the original though, which is saying a lot, because the original has plenty of edge, but they wouldn’t be them if it didn’t.
this build up and chorus is the same as the last, except maybe they’re a little more into it, and it drops off into a bridge, faint backup vocals from kenta, and then ramps back up into the final explosive chorus.
the instrumental outro is where they really get their chance to shine, save for sungwoon, who already shines plenty every time he opens his mouth. it’s mainly kenta that gets to tear it up on his guitar, layered beautifully over the trademark bass line daniel plays.
never, never, never ever let go
when the video was all edited, they all watched it together, everyone giving it the okay for daniel to do the honors and upload it to his youtube channel. they couldn’t upload anything with kenta and woojin under the empty enigma brand anymore, and they decided it made sense, with daniel being the one of the band most active on youtube now. daniel and his band indeed. they were still empty enigma even if they couldn’t be in name anymore-- even if they weren’t supposed to be a band anymore --at least to daniel.
when it was uploading, naturally, daniel was on their couch, both laptop and guitar close by, and when it was successfully uploaded, he let the others know immediately. he refreshed the page too often to watch the views come in, and updated the others every time they so much as walked past him, clearly excited by this entire venture.
“those are all your views from refreshing so much,” sungwoon joked, peering at the screen of his laptop like he didn’t believe him.
“are not,” daniel argued with a grin. “okay! i’ll stop refreshing and check again tomorrow. i have to study for a test anyway.”
he doesn’t know when they’ll all be in the same room again long enough for him to say what he really means: i missed this. it was fun. let’s do it again.