Off the Record
In the time it takes to make an album, what crises have they undergone, and what concerns have they faced- coming up with their third album, we ask the band Royal Pirates.
James’ Transformation
One day in the midst of preparing for the album I was in an accident that badly hurt my hand. As someone who plays the bass, I fell into despair, not knowing whether or not I would be able to make music anymore. For a band with only three members, losing the bass would be a huge blow. However I am extremely thankful for being able to incorporate the electronic genre, and with it- having received many suggestions of how I can overcome the loss of bass. The members also helped me a lot. At that time I happened to also have taken an interest in [electro] and it was something I was learning. Thanks to that I was also able to start a new challenge. If I compare it to playing the bass, I think I got a little busier. When performing live, all I’m thinking about is where to put the cables and where to plug them. Rather than being burdened by this, I think it’s fun. Matching up each and every one is like playing a puzzle.
Moon’s Transformation
In all the time I’ve spent making music until now, I think this is the most I’ve ever practiced singing before. I think James’ accident was the catalyst to this change. Since the accident I started wondering what I could do to make an active change in myself. Honestly, starting from quite some time ago I thought that it would be great if my singing could be as comfortable as my speaking voice, but it was not as easy to put into practice as I thought. My original tone is in the mid-range, but whenever I sang it came out almost polyphonic (?). This time I tried out many things and finally found a method to sing in my own voice. If someone who hasn’t heard our music before went and listened to the old tracks, it may be that they think the vocalist has changed- I’ve gone through that big of a change.
Sooyoon’s Transformation
Starting with this album, I’m planning on promoting under the name EXSY. It was made with the “x” from “ex- (former)” and the “sy” of my name’s initials, to signify that before this I was just a “simple Sooyoon”. This name change wasn’t something suggested to me, I just wanted to start fresh under a new name. There were a lot of things I faced personally while preparing for this album, so I’ve changed much as well. When I felt at my lowest, I expressed it in the lyrics of the song “Dangerous.” It’s a song with that expresses futility. I wanted to be a person totally different from the one described in the song. Truthfully, using Korean to write or pronounce the name (EXSY) is a little strange though (laugh)
Behind the Scenes Episode
We kept wondering what direction we should go with our music. Then we met former SOLID leader Jae-hyung and he came on as our producer. He was originally an R&B musician, so we wondered whether he would be suitable to help us in the rock genre. After we got to know him we found out he is quite skilled. Also, he had more experience with bands than any other producer out there. In the previous albums the producer’s color buried ours, but this time Jae’s sense and feelings were added into ours. Not only that, we learned from and were influenced by the stories he told us stories about when he himself was promoting and his philosophy on music. He’s our new mentor.
Introducing the Album
Our third EP album (3.3) holds meaning as our re-birth as a band. It encompasses all the things we’ve gone through and overcome, and the changes we went through while preparing for the third album. More than anything, the fear and uncertainty that clouded our future after bassist James’ sudden accident, and all the emotions we’ve felt since then are poured into this album. Coming back with an almost all-new side of ourselves, through this new album we were able to finally find ourselves. The charm of this album is that people will be able to enjoy all six songs on it, and all are classified as electro dance, retro dance, hard rock, etc.- all various genres. Above all, all of the tracks were made on the foundations of rock music. We recommend it to anyone who likes refreshing and powerful music.
► Scan provided by Royal Pirates Official (x)
English translations by SSRP (heymeowmao)
