오르는 것들의 아래에서

I have long been drawn to fables that offer reflections and insights on life. ‘오르는 것들의 아래에서’ was inspired by Trina Paulus’s Hope for the Flowers, which I first encountered in middle school and have returned to many times as an adult.

Through lyrical music, I wanted to tell a story of stepping away from the endless competition to climb after others, finding one’s own path, and finally gaining wings that lead to a connection with a small flower.

With that idea in mind, I developed the lyrics and musical direction. In writing the lyrics, I thought carefully about not only their meaning but also their rhythm when sung, the feel of the words, and how they would sit with the melody. I felt that the words and verb endings at the close of each line would shape the song’s lingering impression, so I chose expressions such as ‘오르거라’, ‘내려가리’, and ‘있었구나’ with care, and finalized the lyrics through conversations with ChatGPT.

I used Suno to create the vocals and accompaniment. When working with my own voice, the upper register did not come through as intended, so I recorded the low and middle registers separately and used those recordings.

Vocal expression required the most attention. To improve the mechanical texture of the generated audio, unclear Korean pronunciation, and sharp upper register, I kept revising prompts and generating cover versions. Rather than choosing a version whose elaborate chorus harmonies gave it a conventional pop-song feel, I selected the one that best preserved the song’s lyricism and quiet emotion, even with a faint trace of that mechanical texture remaining.

I then separated the vocals and instruments into stems and tried further arrangement work. My arranging skills and familiarity with the tools were not yet sufficient to realize what I had in mind, and I was also satisfied with the selected version’s structure and atmosphere. I therefore kept the existing arrangement and finished the piece with some simple mastering.