and this time she was performing something she could have fun with. ( along with it being two weeks, the fans were spoiled. ) in fact, she was so bright that her dressing room sounded loud even with the doors closed.
it was a mess inside, not a bad mess but a mess non the less. some of the backup dancers were joking around, the rest just resting. and kami was egging them on from where she stood, getting a final look-over. they already rehearsed, hair and makeup finished and her outfit had been chosen. all that was left? waiting to actually take the stage.
and she had already finished passing out a few cd's.
all she could do now was joke around.
then they were told to get ready, line up behind the stage because she was up next and they were almost finished with her set. which she had to admit was very pretty. there wasn't anything fancy, just a wall of flowers still the colors and the lighting made it very pretty. soon enough, she was given a pass to head to stage and get in formation.
as soon as her back up dancers bent down for the first move, a huge smile was on her face.
this part of her felt right. this was the type of performer she wanted to be. someone who could have fun on stage without any real worries. as the minutes passed, kami allowed herself to get lost in her performance. she knew every move, every step, her body would do what she needed it to do without much effort on her part. ( something she was only able to do once after she threw herself into practice. )
still it felt like she was floating.
floating until the end of the song came and she tried to hold her ending pose as long as possible. she had to let go at some point, skipping off stage with her backup dancers. the rest of her time at the at the music show was spent in a blur. at some point she started to nap until her manager woke her up, it was time for the final stages. kami slipped in with the rest, knowing a win wasn't coming her way. and by now? it didn't really bother her.
it was something she had gotten used to.
once the winner was announced, kami was one of the first to make her way off stage.
it felt good to be in the studio for an single that was a little gave her a little more to get crazy.
youngil was already in the studio, as well as boa. and seeing both, she didn't hold back her grin. and that was because she was sure someone else was going to be here for the recording but when it came too those two, she could feel comfortable at least.
and it didn't take long for youngil to rush her into the booth.
( and he just wanted to go home and drink. )
the first time they did it, it was just a quick run. she had a few ideas of how she wanted the song to sound and kami wanted to test it out. ( with boa writing down notes from time to time. ) once they managed to find what worked, she was back into the booth to officially record.
( which was slightly out of their normal order )
they did they chorus first, since it was a pretty simple. in fact, it was overly simple. she played around with how she said it but kami was over all set on the sound. then they did the verses and it was amazing feeling. this time around, she didn't feel drained after one song. ( even more so because this was going really be one song. ) so much fun that she didn't realize how much time passed once she left the booth again. most of it was done, this would be a short break and then she'd go back in for the harmonies.
for now, she relaxed on the couch with boa as youngil worked on mixing the song, playing with the volume. mostly doing the leg work. ( why was boa here again? ) she was allowed to relax for too long though, after ten minutes or so she was pushed back into the booth. ( someone was determined to get this finished today, she noticed. )
this took a little more work but it was fun work.
everything was coming together nicely and she couldn't wait to get on stage with this one. "final." came through and kami nodded her head, re-focusing herself. thirty minutes later, she was finally done and collapsed onto the couch as soon as she stepped out. for now, she let youngil work and closed her eyes. not opening them until someone nudged her. "ready to listen?" kami nodded her head, not opening her eyes but she was listening.
and when it was over, she had the biggest grin on her face. sure, they had to clean it up a little but this was one more step taken care of for her comeback.
she wanted the entire dance to be light and fun and went kami got to work, she focused on her own parts. ( at first. ) there was one move she wanted in the intro but she knew that she'd have to have the back up dancers so a small note was made instead. there was a lot of stopping and starting in the process, running over to check out a move before she moved onto the next section. hours passed but she barely paid attention, her focus was on the project she had at hand.
she wanted something that she could easily break out of and come back into.
like the start of the second verse, another thing she would need back up dancers for so she marked it down again. and after a nice eight hour stretch, she was finally ready to pack up for the day. it didn't mean her work would end there. she'd go home and review everything so she could really put the moves together.
so far two days of work went into this and she was determined to pull it all together today. since she still needed to get the back up dancers their parts as well and then go through the entire thing. she wouldn't know if any changes would need to be made to the entire piece until she watched it.
once again, she had everything set up. one camera so she could check the moves and another camera so she could have some good bts footage for her youtube channel. in just few minutes, she was picking up on where she left off for her back up dancers. her solo parts were already done, she had spent a day and half working it out and now it was time to move on. her first job was to get her female dancers out of the way, where they would be placed. the placing for her female dancers wasn't hard at all, where she wanted them to go and what she wanted them to do.
her next move was for the male dancers,
she knew she wanted them to open it at least, for them to be in the center when the song first started. so she did those moves as well, working out every detail of their placement. and once that was over, she was done for the day, tomorrow, she'd head to the dance studio to start to teach and work on the next process.
and tomorrow came quick, when she arrived, all of the dancers were there and kami got right into work. ( she was known for her work. ) and they all had experience, so it didn't take long for her to teach it and didn't take long for them to get it down. four hours into it, they were pretty much together and kami stood on the side to watch them. with another person filling in for her ( to see the entire piece. )
"stop!" her yell came and the music was cut off, she didn't single a person out but kami did come stand in front of them to show them the way she wanted a certain move. they picked it up from the start and this time it was finally better. every once in a while, she stopped to go over another move.
perfection.
she wanted perfection.
still, they wrapped up for the day, another run through and a filming at the company so she could present. it would be a tough few days but it'd be worth. ( and they'd have some time to relax after this, she just wanted a nice head start. )
the day of the run through had come with changes, minor ones that wouldn't hurt to remember. ( or that was just the trust she had in her dancers. ) "okay, follow me." one major change was the chorus, she wanted to replace a move or two. right now, the move she had with the chorus, once she looked at it as a hole, it didn't fit. instead she wanted to make a blowing motion, adding in a little more popping.
and then following that, she was supposed to move with the female dancers but switched it around to having a male partner, all of them would. the other changes with mostly focused on hand-movements and when everyone got it down, they were able to move onto the run through. only a few mistakes were made, which was something she was largely happy about.
filming day came and her mood was up, everyone arrived on time and they went through the dance a few times until it was time to record it. it would be like this was the very first performance of her song.
it went well,
once they finished filming, kami went to review and felt proud about what she saw. later on, she'd send it to her manager so he could work with the company and they could give a final review. and while she did this, the rest of the crew waited. ( it wouldn't be the first time she wanted to change something or caught slight mistakes. ) but kami looked up with a smile.
now that her music was down, kami turned her attention to the lyrics.
laying her bed, laptop on legs as she stared blankly at the notepad on her screen. it took a while before something hit it, she wanted the lyrics to refreshing and a little flirty. a little about love and a little about herself. the fun side of herself.
two lines came to her, even though kami didn't know where she would place them yet. the feeling of starting anew, carving out her own path. they mirrored the lyrics of success but in a gentler way, they had their path. with that, kami typed out the lyrics in the top of the app. adding a little note on the side as she worked out where she wanted them to go in her mind.
but that was also the push she needed.
the two lines were a great base to start off on, it gave her something to think about. with that, kami returned to the top of her lyrics and started out the first verse. the opening was fresh, the first line had a bold statement and she went on to support it. with the thoughts that she would come out even stronger, this was her restart. a chance to start anew.
even if she was down, she’d get back up.
and then once that was done, she went back to the lyrics that she made a note off. they’d be great to lead into the chorus. ( even if she didn’t have that ready yet. ) kami skipped the chorus for now, letting herself jump to the second verse of the song.
the lyrics were confident, she was confident. when it came to music, nothing could really shake that. nothing could shake her. and she wanted it show, adding in the facts about herself in a more playful manner. ( because this was about being free and happy, not cocky. there was a line she was walking on and kami felt like she balanced it perfectly. ) she let herself write freely for a bit, just getting out her thoughts on the topic. figuring out what to say and the right way to say it. in the end, she managed to get clean it up, finally putting together in a way that made sense.
then she paused and went to the music on her laptop, pulling up the instrumental to play. what whatever lyrics she wrote for the chorus, she wanted it to match the music in a way. then she went back to her notepad and thought about the bridge. ( she did her choruses most of the time anyway. ) in fact, her thoughts remained on how she wanted to write the lead up to the bridge. what was good enough to precede the bridge that she very much loved.
the instrumental looped a few times before she started to type again.
it'd be a reaffirmation of verses, just strengthening her thoughts in the song. even if someone wanted to get her down, she'd be okay. just like with her scandal and her most recent comeback. she was free to do what she wanted, to fail or succeed or both. she wasn't the type to give up. ever. and her bridge reflected that.
now came the chorus. the last piece of her song. it came easy, she knew she wanted the instrumental to be the focus in the chorus so she didn't have a real one per say. just a few lines to hang over the beat but it was perfected. a simple summing up of everything in the song, a command.
the first thing she did was save it once she finished, making any last minute changes or typo's. the second thing she did was send it off to get feedback even though she was sure this was the final version.
and the third had been moving on to work on her dance.
this was going to be brighter, very brighter than her mini-album.
that's what she wanted after doing something so..sad and down. which meant throwing herself into the music she had waiting for her. track's that had been put on hold so she could work on her mini-album. it was finally time to come back to them. there was one track she had in mind already, one her prouder had already worked on but left unfinished. at some point it was sent to kami and she hadn't really focused on it.
today, she would.
it started with playing the track, listening to what was already there. and it wasn't much, this had to be one he gave up on pretty quickly. as it stood, she had two ways she could go with it. something more party-ish, a little heavier in sound. a club banger. or she could go down a more flirty route, it wouldn't be hardcore party sound but it would be fun. in the end, she went with the latter, why not have a little fun? she was aiming for the summer anyway.
then came to really get to work. she started to mess around, adding more so than taking away from it. there was already a strong baseline so she had another idea, making it a little more tropical. which meant changing the drum sound he already had. then she wondered what more she could could do to bring out silly part's of the song. looking over the voice samples that she had. there were a lot of cute ones in there and it just added to the summer vibes that were already there. after one review, she kicked up the base in the background so it could be heard a little more subtly.
another review and she went back to tidy up the bridge, after that she was sure it'd be good enough. it'd only be minor changes then and then she could send it off to him for feedback and any other changes he wanted to talk about. as it stood, the bridge was fine but she wanted to change the start of it a little. swapping out the piano she had in favor of measured snaps. kami let it run from there, moving onto when the bridge rolled back into the chorus. there was a silence that followed and she did it linger, thinking about the lyrics that would be there before an idea hit her.
a voice sample of a whistle, something that had been in the background of the song. it was the perfect little touch. another beat of silence and then right back into the chorus. after another review, she sent it off and leaned back with a very relaxed smile.
