The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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A Former Idol Carries an Indie Band
Chapter 40
We were told that Killing Band episode 3 would be uploaded in about two weeks.
“I wonder what kind of response we’ll get when it drops.”
“I bet it’ll be the best reaction yet. I think this is the best thing we’ve done so far.”
“Yeah, honestly, this is the best ensemble I’ve ever played. I’m being serious.”
“Oh, for you to say that, Kang Min?”
“Yeah, yeah. Totally sure.”
“Yeah? What do you mean by yeah?”
Heo Jun-seong and Kang Min were buzzing with excitement even though the video hadn’t been uploaded yet.
Watching their reaction, I figured I needed to have a serious talk.
“This is really the last broadcast appearance we’re doing.”
“Huh? Already? Wouldn’t it be better to do more appearances before dropping the album?”
“Stop, stop! I’m exhausted from booking gigs!”
“Well, I guess there’s no helping that then.”
I want to be an artist, not a manager.
Besides, making music is much easier.
I wanted to stop running around and focus on the music.
And now we really needed to release an album.
It’s already been more than three months since the “Rendezvous” single dropped.
Soon we’ll be back at school, and once that happens, album production will slow down.
I need to focus entirely on composing now.
While chatting with the guys, we arrived at ST Studio.
We had two songs to record today.
With the six completed songs we had, today would bring us to eight.
Our target is at least ten tracks.
Once we finish writing, we’re releasing immediately.
After that, we’ll hold a release showcase and perform to our heart’s content.
Man, I’m already excited.
“Cha Seo-ha, why are you grinning like a psycho? Aren’t we recording?”
“Yeah, yeah, we should.”
Kim Ji-hoo’s words scattered my daydreams and snapped me back to reality.
The guys were sitting on the couch, waiting for my directions.
“Alright, come on Jun-seong. Let’s go.”
“Ugh… me first?”
“What else? You always go first anyway.”
“Yeah, fine.”
Heo Jun-seong shuffled reluctantly toward the booth.
I stared calmly at the monitor.
Behind me, Lee Do-yeong, Kim Ji-hoo, and Kang Min began whispering quietly.
“I hope he doesn’t tear into me today.”
“Yeah, I’ve never met anyone pickier than him in my life.”
“Wow, Seo-ha really scares me…”
Six songs completed so far.
Just two months.
Before I found out what Cha Seo-ha was really capable of, I would’ve thought it was impossible to produce this quality and pace in that timeframe.
Before they learned my true nature.
“Stop, stop! That’s not it, Jun-seong!”
“S-sorry!”
Cha Seo-ha was unpredictable and reckless to the core.
Yet he was always kind and good-hearted to us.
But once we got serious with the album work, he was even scarier than during rehearsals.
Everyone had grown a lot since the first recording, but none of us had reached the standard Seo-ha demanded.
“Hey, you. Come here.”
“Okay…”
At Seo-ha’s command, Jun-seong crawled out of the booth, completely intimidated.
“Give me the guitar.”
“Here.”
Seo-ha began playing directly.
“This is how you do it.”
“Okay…”
“And like this.”
“Okay…”
“Is this hard for you?”
“No.”
“Do you really want to do this band?”
“Yes.”
“Then go back in there and nail it.”
“Got it.”
It was like a scene I’d seen once on some idol audition show.
A pretty brutal scene.
“But at least you guys don’t get chewed out much.”
“Huh?”
Lee Do-yeong was talking to Kang Min and Kim Ji-hoo.
“It’s always me and Jun-seong who get it.”
“Well, that’s true, but I guess we’re just scared of the atmosphere.”
“You don’t know.”
“Yeah, I mean…”
“You don’t know how scary Seo-ha can be…”
“Hey, Lee Do-yeong.”
“I’m sorry… please save me…”
“Whoa, Lee Do-yeong’s broken.”
“I swear I won’t do it again. I’m sorry. I’ll never play bass again. I’m sorry, I touched the strings so brazenly. I swear it won’t happen again. Please save me, please save me, please save me, please save me…”
“Hey, snap out of it.”
“Should we hit him to fix it?”
“What? Why would you hit him?”
Kang Min actually started poking Lee Do-yeong all over.
“Maybe I should quit the band…”
* * *
After the warlike recording session ended, we headed to the burger place nearest the studio.
“I’m eating a lot today. Don’t try to stop me! I’m getting two!”
“Nobody’s stopping you, Jun-seong.”
Jun-seong, who’d aged prematurely from enduring the intense directing, was acting out about needing nutrition.
He’s always whining about being broke—where does he get burger money?
“Thanks for your hard work, everyone.”
“Hard work? We do this all the time.”
“Yeah, the difficulty wasn’t that high. It was manageable.”
Kim Ji-hoo and Kang Min answered with their usual energy,
but Lee Do-yeong and Jun-seong didn’t answer at all.
Hmm, did I push them too hard?
Both of them look pretty pouty.
But if I don’t do that, the quality won’t be there—what can I do?
I squeezed between Lee Do-yeong and Jun-seong, linking arms and asking.
“Is it tough? For you two?”
“Of course it’s tough. What, you think it’s easy?”
“Yeah, I found it pretty hard too. I thought we’d improved more than this…”
“Hmm, sorry. I guess I’ve been pretty aggressive pushing you lately.”
“No, we still have to do what needs doing.”
“I’m sorry. Please save me…”
“What?”
I suddenly felt bad.
Music should be fun, not forced.
Of course, if this becomes a real job later, there’ll be times when we have to force it, but there’s no reason to do that yet.
Now that I think about it, I’ve been driving the guys too hard lately.
Running around booking gigs and dipping my toes into the industry made me obsess over success.
We have worse conditions than professional singers, but we’re showing good work despite those disadvantages.
But from the industry’s perspective, it’s hard to see us as having a promising future.
All we’ve shown so far is one song: “Rendezvous.”
So by putting all my effort into the next album, I pushed the guys too hard.
Sometimes you need the carrot, not just the stick.
“You know what? I’m in a good mood. Burgers are on me today!”
“Wait, really? You’re buying me both burgers?”
“No, just one.”
“Ugh, cheapskate.”
“Cheapskate? Come on, Jun-seong, you have money too.”
“Man, where do I have money?”
Jun-seong answered in a dejected tone.
“Hmm… you should have it. You, Jun-seong, Do-yeong, Kang Min, and Ji-hoo—you all should.”
“Oh, right?”
Kang Min nodded in understanding.
The other three had question marks on their faces.
“Listen up! You know what today is? It’s super important!”
I opened the mobile banking app and showed it to them.
“Today is our first settlement day!”
“What! Really? For real?”
“Oh?”
“Wow!”
“No way! Really?!”
Actually, I received money last month too.
Performers always get settlement fastest.
Copyright holders and musicians typically settle a month or two later.
The guys stopped walking and pulled out their phones to check their accounts.
“Hmm…”
Jun-seong, who checked first, looked confused as he verified his account again and again.
What’s going on? Did it not come in yet?
Maybe it comes next month?
“Nothing came in?”
“No, it did come in, but…”
As Jun-seong trailed off, Kim Ji-hoo muttered,
“It’s way less than I thought?”
“Right! That’s what I mean! We made it onto the chart and this is what we get? I thought it’d be ten million per person!”
“Jun-seong… what kind of dream are you living in?”
“But 890,000 won is ridiculous!”
“That’s actually pretty good.”
It’s fortunate they’re learning the reality of the music market at such a young age.
“Did we sell albums? Did we sell merchandise? All our revenue comes from streaming.”
I started lecturing the disappointed Jun-seong about the adult world as we continued toward the fast food place.
“So, imagine a song that didn’t sell albums, didn’t make money from music videos, had no broadcast or performance revenue. If that song ranks 80th on the chart, how much total revenue do you think it makes?”
Naturally, no one had a clue.
“Not even ten million. Maybe 800,000?”
“That’s surprisingly little, actually.”
Jun-seong’s talk of ten million per person was absurd.
“Then the platform and distributor take half. That leaves roughly 400,000, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“And performer revenue is 20% of that.”
“That’s way too low.”
“And we split it five ways, so everyone gets a share?”
“The market’s hopeless.”
“You guys only made more because you all participated as writers and composers. Otherwise it’d be even less.”
Streaming revenue is fundamentally broken.
You make physical albums, throw in merchandise, sell them, produce music videos for ad revenue, hold concerts for ticket sales…
Without all that, the music market is hopeless.
“But cheer up, everyone. We’ve only released one single.”
“Yeah, true. Guys I used to work with—they made less than 10,000 won a month.”
“Less than 10,000 won? Really?”
“That’s too little…”
The others were pretty shocked, but Kang Min was talking about reality.
The money in our account right now was pathetic compared to the popularity we seemed to have.
But since we had so much more to show, we weren’t completely down.
“So Cha Seo-ha, what about your composition and arrangement fees? How much came in?”
“…”
“Did a lot come in?”
“…”
“So a lot did come in…”
Over 200,000 came in, but how could I say that in this mood?
“Th-that’s why I said I’d buy burgers!”
“Still cheap.”
“I’ll buy two!”
“Okay. I’ll accept that.”
* * *
-[#KillingBand]
Oktatop’s Killing Band live!
Watch the terrifying newcomers of the hot indie scene show off their scary ensemble! (Album preview track included—but that’s a secret!)
March 5th (Wed) 3 PM!
Check out Dango Music YouTube.
#Oktatop #Rendezvous #KillingBand
A little while ago, Dango Music posted a teaser for the next guest on Killing Band.
-What? Killing Band? We did that?
-Weird, I’m subscribed but didn’t know there was a Killing Band. Why didn’t it show up?
-Album preview? Guess they’re dropping an album
-By the way, Oktatop? Aren’t they the trending group right now?
└ A rookie idol band
└ They had some bundling controversy but they’re pretty good
-But after Nabitsmo and Sour Onion, Oktatop? The flow feels weird lol
└ It’s like the finale after the preshow, you know?
└ Ah yeah lol. Like after the seniors finish, here comes the main event gg
The response was less than expected.
Fifteen comments.
The news hadn’t reached the band fans yet.
Since the actual video hadn’t been uploaded yet.
For now, let’s just wait and see.
“Cha Seo-ha, you looking at your phone?”
“Oh, no sir.”
“Look at the board.”
“Yes.”
The day I first regressed came to mind.
Heading into March, we officially became seniors in high school.
Fortunately, I ended up in the same class as both Jun-seong and Do-yeong.
In second year our seats were close, but this time we’re all in different sections.
Do-yeong sits in the very front.
Jun-seong in the back, closest to the rear door.
I’m sitting by the window in the middle section.
After wandering around during break, school feels really strange.
I want to graduate already and make music freely.
Being a student is good because I’m young, but the freedom is just too limited.
Man, class is really boring.
I don’t know anything anyway, just hope Killing Band drops soon.
The peaceful classroom atmosphere will feel weird once the world gets loud.
I can’t wait to see that unfold with my own eyes.
* * *
News that Oktatop would appear on Killing Band episode 3 was slowly spreading to every corner of the world.
As always, Oktatop fans who heard the news were pouring out anticipation and affection,
while the band scene was cursing them out for showing up there.
At a level almost like a curse.
And here was one more person full of discontent.
“What the hell are those bastards doing there?”
Lim Hyun-taek, vocalist of Destruction.
He’d also gotten a contact about appearing on Killing Band in the past.
They were in the planning stages and asking if he could participate later.
Lim Hyun-taek naturally agreed and was waiting for his turn.
Even though the view counts for Nabitsmo and Sour Onion were pathetic, he thought things would be different when they appeared.
Unlike those two legends who’d basically stopped performing, Destruction was still actively working.
Because of their consistent activity, they had plenty of songs ready to showcase and plenty of hardcore fans.
Everything was prepared for Destruction.
But the one who appeared before them was Oktatop.
Blood rushed backward in his veins.
We have the longer history and the better skills.
Why the hell are they going first?
“It’s the agency backing.”
“Yeah…”
Hearing his guitarist Jung Bo-un’s words, Hyun-taek felt bitter.
He’d been making music far longer than Oktatop or whoever.
He could confidently say he loved this culture more.
But because they had a good agency behind them, they were doing so much better—it made his stomach churn.
“By the way, Hyun-taek, I’m right, right? They’re making an album?”
“Yeah, it says they’re doing a preview.”
“Let’s see how good they are. If they bring some shitty song…”
“It’s obvious without even looking. They’ll come out mixing in dance and hip-hop for mass appeal, saying they’re a band.”
“Yeah, or else they’ll bring some ballad or R&B and say they’re rock.”
“These days agencies don’t know the difference—they think if you’ve got drums and guitar, you’re a band.”
So Destruction spent a long time bad-mouthing Oktatop, dredging up information about idol bands they’d seen before.
They were bitter that the dream they wanted to achieve was being realized through agency backing, and envious and frustrated.
“This sucks…”
The other members felt the same way.
“Forget it, we’re not doing it.”
“Yeah, even if they ask us to appear, let’s not. I’m too disgusted.”
Just as they were saying they wouldn’t do Killing Band or whatever if asked, Hyun-taek pushed back.
“No, let’s do everything.”
“What?”
“Let’s do it all. Broadcast, whatever. Let’s go out and prove it. That an indie band without an agency can do a lot.”
He wanted to show the miracle of an indie band.
That we could do it too.
“Without an agency, making good music, going on broadcast, winning people’s hearts. That’s how you become a superstar—could there be anything cooler?”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
“Let’s go for it. Work hard and crush those idol bands. If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Destruction, teeth gritted.
They had no idea that the Oktatop they hated and envied so much was already running toward a goal they didn’t even know existed.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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