Chapter 221 (1/2)
Volume 7 / Chapter 221
TL: LightNovelCafe
Editor: adkji
Sponsored: Chimemerie & Sudarsan L.
“This kid! What is this? When did you get here?”
Danny ran over right away and hugged Colin. This is also Jun Hyuk’s first time seeing him after they separated in LA, and took the hand Colin held out to him.
“Jun, the show was good. Your talent really isn’t rusty at all. No, I think it shines even more.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Why are you here all of a sudden?”
“What do you mean why? I came to see the show. Neither of you pick up your phones, so I was wandering for a while.”
“Oh, sorry. I left mine with my manager…”
Danny finally remembered that he doesn’t have his phone on him. He was completely forgetting about where his agent was because he was surrounded by maestros. “Let’s not hang around here. We should go back home first.” Jun Hyuk took Colin’s arm and got in the waiting limousine.
***
“Colin! Goodness. What is a rock star doing here?”
“I can’t miss Jun’s U.S. debut stage. I needed to come yesterday, but I can’t stop time.” Amelia saw Colin come through the door and also expressed her delight.
“Clayton’s top beauty is still the same.”
Jun Hyuk saw Yoon Kwang Hun go to Colin, who he was meeting for the first time, and introduced him.
“I told you before that there’s a cellist who’s incredible on the bass, right? This is him.”
“Ohh. So this is the friend who rejected becoming Yo-Yo Ma and chose Curt Kobain’s path. It’s a pleasure.”
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Colin Sabotos. Yo-Yo Ma and Curt Kobain are both remote.”
Colin laughed bitterly and his old friends were busy asking how he has been doing recently.
Colin released his first album and started from the bottom, sweeping through California’s clubs with an arrangement by LA Sound. It was the start of a rigorous schedule.
“We released the album thanks to Jun and started performing in clubs. I would perform at 3 or 4 clubs a night, be reduced to rags, and go back to the apartment to pass out.” Colin shook his head. He was recalling memories of suffering.
“The drunk jerks disturb the shows… Ugh, don’t even mention it. I don’t even want to think about it twice.”
“I guess you’ve gotten out of the clubs since you’re saying you don’t want to think about it again?”
When Yoon Kwang Hun spoke, Colin’s face brightened with a smile.
“Yes. We’re fairly well known in the west now. Since we’ve made our band known to a certain point, we hold joint and solo concerts at times now. Of course we can’t do tours across the country yet…..”
“But, it doesn’t look good from your expression.”
Amelia looked over Colin’s face and spoke cautiously. It could be that he is exhausted because of a long flight or a concert, but this is not the face of a musician who was working to gain popularity.
His dark shaded face shows that he is without a doubt worried about something.
“We went east through LA, San Diego, and San Francisco while preparing our 2nd album. We presented new songs occasionally and reactions weren’t bad. But…” Colin faltered suddenly and his face quickly turned red.
“Damn it. The drummer left.”
“What? He left? How could that happen?”
“Why after suffering through everything? I thought you guys were doing well.”
Danny and Amelia shouted at the same time. A drummer who suddenly quits a band that is growing well. It is something that they cannot understand.
“He said my music sucks. It’s just really flashy and there’s too much that’s unnecessary.”
“I feel like that’s true. Isn’t it?”
Jun Hyuk had been listening quietly when he spoke up for the first time. Colin’s face grew even redder.
“Yeah. I tried to be cool and it was really flashy. That’s my music. But I can’t agree that the flashiness and splendor are useless. Anyway, the drummer left saying that he wants to do alternative music.”
70s rock music pioneered various genres like hard rock heavy metal, blues rock, southern rock, and progressive rock, and emphasized performances with depth. 80s rock was the golden age for the guitar as a phallic symbol and a macho image of wearing leather jackets.
But since the 90s, rock music has been focusing on delivering messages. Concise guitar riffs, drums that are not flashy, and meaningful lyrics are the characteristics. Like the shabby jeans and t-shirts that band members wore on stage, alternative music expressed their rejection of existing musicians’ ideas of money, love, and pleasure.
Colin wants music with harmonious melodies of the guitar, bass, and drums with each part giving an admirable performance, rather than the delivery of messages in alternative rock. They just have not been able to show that admirable performance yet because they have not found a keyboardist to join them.
He had tried to get Jun Hyuk to go into pop music with them in the first place because he needed Jun Hyuk’s piano skills.
“I want to show the kind of music I want to pursue to the public. I’ll turn down the role of playing messenger regarding the circumstances that today’s youth have been placed in and their worries.”
Colin calmed down again and quietly explained his thoughts.
“If you wanted to do music that people like and not music that I want to do, you didn’t need to give up the cello. You can play the Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms that people like.”
“But don’t you think you should listen to your members’ opinions and work together?”
Band members are equal relations regarding music. If there are colliding opinions, they need to reach a compromise. Though the leader’s views are most important, the leader needs to persuade the others at the least. However, Colin’s response was like that of a dictator’s. “No. I’m doing my music. All I need is a guitarist and drummer who play the music I make. If the guitarist and drummer want to do their own music, I’ll have to find other people.”
In some way, Colin is like an orchestra conductor and not a band leader. He seems to be thinking of band members as instruments that implement his music.