Little Pink Starfish

Album 15. Self Made

The format of the variety show Self Made we’re filming is simple.

Season 1 is about earning money through music in Korea while hiding the name Sedalbaekil.

Season 2 is about using the money we earned to go on a busking trip overseas.

I say overseas, but originally it was supposed to be Spain, though it might change to the U.S.

PD Kang Seokwoo contacted Eddie just in case, and Eddie readily agreed to appear, so he’s considering it.

From my perspective, it’s a little absurd that the travel destination changes just because Eddie shows up.

But that’s only my perspective.

I’ve known him for dozens of rounds, but to the public, he’s a top-tier Billboard composer.

They say the HBO documentary filming is almost over, and if that becomes popular, Eddie’s value might go up even more.

Anyway, while Season 1 is about earning money, and Season 2 is about spending it, if you go deeper into the program’s intent, there are more details.

PD Kang Seokwoo wants to show our usual selves and the kind of music we make.

In some ways, he seems to want a documentary style that conveys information.

So he filmed everything — the university festivals where we got famous for performing full albums, and even the fan signing event.

Ah, these days, among the Time Travelers, it’s called the “Fan Satisfaction Event” rather than a fan signing.

We’ve done three events so far, and two more are scheduled next week in Gyeonggi-do.

Anyway, if up until now we’ve mostly filmed Sedalbaekil as we are, now it’s time to film our mission.

“Choi Jaesung.”

“Yes?”

“What should we do first?”

“Um, shouldn’t we start by deciding our names? We can’t perform as ‘Sedalbaekil’s so-and-so.’”

A good point.

It’s common in the music world to create stage names for another persona inside oneself.

Humans are inherently dualistic, and singers can express that.

Eminem has Slim Shady, which amplifies his violent self, and Kanye West has Ye, which symbolizes his success story.

And that brand became the famous Yeezy.

“……No, hyung.”

“Hm?”

“I just meant we should casually pick nicknames……”

As Jaesung said that, I felt slightly embarrassed, but Eion clapped his hands.

“Then let’s pick our stage names!”

“Stage names?”

“We never had stage names while we were promoting on Coming Up Next.”

True. We needed a team name, but no one said we had to pick individual names.

Since it was a project group, they probably figured Max Taehos would pick names when debuting us.

“Sion, what will you choose?”

“Zion.”

As always.

“Oh, I wanted to just go with Eion.”

If Eion hyung had debuted under a normal company, he probably would’ve used the name Eion.

Since it’s his real name, and he looks like an ion drink.

Onsaemiro would probably have stayed the same too, but Jaesung and Taehwan might have changed.

Onsaemiro said he wanted “Miro,” and Jaesung chose “Vib.”

He didn’t explain the meaning, but I can guess.

When Max Taehos attacked Sedalbaekil, I looked into the members’ backgrounds.

Not so much digging as seeing if there were any weaknesses to cover up.

Well, maybe that’s still digging.

Anyway, I pretended not to know.

Taehwan didn’t think too much about it.

Since he made a living with mushrooms, he suggested Mushroom, but got scolded by the others.

Isn’t Toadstool better than Mushroom?

Mushroom means edible mushrooms, Toadstool means poisonous ones.

Sounds cooler, right?

But I didn’t say that out loud.

I’d probably get scolded too.

Anyway, Taehwan’s name was set as Mushroom.

Since we have to hide our identities during Self Made, the funnier the better, they said.

Taehwan tried to argue that it wasn’t funny, but no one listened.

After that, Onsaemiro chose Miro, and Jaesung went with Vib.

Now only Eion hyung and I remained, but I decided to go with LOOP.

Since I’m a regressor.

“Only me left? I’ve got no ideas.”

“How about something simple, like ‘Beauty’?”

“Beauty?”

Clearly a joke from Jaesung, but surprisingly, Eion seemed to like it.

Really, what a character.

But since “Beauty” was a bit much, he settled on “Mimyo.”

I didn’t ask if it was “subtle” or “beautiful cat.”

If it’s the latter, I’d feel a bit weird.

Though we picked names, honestly we had decided beforehand for the camera.

Who knows if these names will even be used.

“So, how do we start making money?”

At Onsaemiro’s question, Jaesung spoke.

“Busking is probably the easiest?”

“Again?”

“Personal streaming? We can wear masks. Oh, or start a YouTube channel and post covers.”

“Next?”

“Um… SoundCloud?”

“SoundCloud doesn’t make money.”

“Wedding song gigs!”

“If we wear disguises, it’s possible. But don’t agencies usually handle that?”

As the members threw out ideas, Taehwan turned to me directly.

“Sion, what about you? You seemed confident during the planning meeting.”

Of course, even as an unknown singer, I’m confident I can make hundreds of millions a year.

But for that, I’d need to endlessly write and sell songs.

That doesn’t require teammates.

I just compose, record guides, and sell them.

Even though PD Kang Seokwoo said not to worry about making good TV and to stay realistic, wouldn’t that be too boring?

So at first, I planned to follow the members’ ideas.

After explaining this, the members thought for a moment and nodded.

“Yeah. Sion’s composing is too OP.”

“But Sion, how did you sell songs to Drop Out and NOP seniors?”

“I uploaded them to SoundCloud, and the A&R team reached out. At the time, it was Director Seo Seunghyun from BVB.”

“Oh, and that connection led you here?”

“Pretty much.”

Though I was the one who thought of selling to Drop Out, it’s not a lie.

“Okay. Then let’s try everything we can first.”

The members brightened up and started planning various things.

To do special makeup disguises, we needed to contact the broadcast station.

So we first decided who would go out.

Eion and Taehwan would do busking, Jaesung would do internet streaming.

Wearing the mask from State of Mind MV.

Onsaemiro said he’d look into wedding gigs.

“What about you, Sion?”

“I’ll work on composing.”

Thus, everyone moved forward with their plans.

“I’ll ask for ugly makeup for Eion hyung.”

“Why?”

“It’s okay to be ugly for a day.”

Taehwan said that and disappeared with Eion to contact the station, while Jaesung called LB Studio’s CEO Lee Hyunseok.

To get tips on personal streaming.

By the way, lately Lee Hyunseok has been focusing more on his own content than Sedalbaekil’s.

He’s developing his usual content — discovering unknown singers.

Though not as many viewers as before, he seems happy, and the agency shows interest too.

Honestly, even though Lee Hyunseok looks sloppy, he has more industry power than people think.

While Jaesung was on the phone, Onsaemiro started searching for wedding agencies.

But to be honest, it all feels a bit sloppy.

Having spent dozens of rounds in showbiz, none of this feels reassuring.

Still, I decided to trust the members and started composing in my room in front of the camera.

“When I compose, I usually have two methods. One is writing for a specific singer. The other is starting with a main melody. This time, I don’t have a singer in mind, so let’s start with the melody.”

PD Kang Seokwoo said he wanted some in-depth footage of my composing process.

“I need to make the main melody, and I have a reference. This video is from the fan signing we did a few days ago……”

The video showed fans shouting our chant during the performance.

At the first fan signing, the fans didn’t know what to expect, but from the second one onward, they caught on.

So they prepared events for us, and this was one of them.

Right before moving to the gym for the concert, the fans shouted this in unison.

“Let’s tweak this and create a main melody. I haven’t decided how yet.”

But I’m good at pulling melodies from certain sounds.

Even Sedalbaekil, which closed Coming Up Next, was made by extracting melody from Onsaemiro’s words.

I sampled the fans’ voices and tried raising the pitch, but it wasn’t great.

Since it was already many voices blended high, lowering the pitch would be better.

So I lowered the pitch and tweaked the EQ, then paused.

“The sound itself is nice, but the method feels too much like K-Pop Struggle.”

That one also used lowered chipmunk lo-fi.

If the approach is too similar, it’s no good.

“Hmm. Let’s try adding harmony instead.”

I added precise harmonies with my own voice over the chant.

There were no lyrics — just humming “mm-mm.”

I didn’t match obvious chords but made it a bit complex.

This is probably the limit Eion can eventually reach.

Singing even quarter-tones perfectly.

Eion might get there in 2–3 more years.

“Pretty nice. Now let’s compress it.”

I kept refining the melody with different methods, and finally, I had one I liked.

Turning that into a song didn’t take long.

People seem to think I always compose with a clear goal, but actually, that’s not true.

The First Day was special because of the masters involved; normally, I just write whenever I have time.

Sometimes new songs for this life, sometimes songs I liked from past lives.

That’s how the composing well never dries up.

After all, this life will become a past round too.

As I nearly completed the guide version, a message popped up in the group chat.

[SEDALBAEKIL Goo Taehwan (20): (photo)(photo)(photo)]

[SEDALBAEKIL Eion (21): Ah….]

It was Eion hyung’s face after the makeup — really strange.

Not ugly because of his base looks, but like handsome features topped with ugly decorations.

Or ugly features topped with handsome decorations.

Truly subtle.

Ah, so that’s why “Mimyo.”

I laughed, showed the photos to the camera, and went back to composing.

As the day ended, the members returned to the dorm.

Surprisingly, the money earned from busking was minus 3,700 won.

They spent more on food.

Jaesung’s personal stream had a peak of 3 viewers, but 2 cursed and left.

Said he was terrible at singing.

Lastly, Onsaemiro just made phone calls all day.

I hoped the next day would be better, but it wasn’t.

Same results, even the day after that.

By the fourth day, our net loss was 110,000 won.

“It’s okay. Tomorrow will be better!”

Onsaemiro said, having paid 30,000 won in registration fees to some agency.

“……”

I originally planned to let the members try for about a week, but this won’t do.

At this rate, we’ll look like clueless kids.

“Everyone, gather up.”