WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ My Fired Uncle Is a Genius Guitarist? ◈
Chapter 42: Are You Really an Office Worker?
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From Tuesday through Friday, I went straight to the rehearsal room after work. At night, after the girls had gone home, I worked on songs to send to After Rain.
Rather than writing new songs, I dug through the drawers in my head and pulled out old sheet music.
‘There isn’t enough time to write four new songs from scratch.’
I had three criteria.
First, they had to feel different from the songs I gave Muri.
Second, they could not suit Black Rabbit.
Third, they had to fit Moon Hyunwoo’s solid low-mid range.
I pulled out songs whose verses sat low and carried weight, narrowing down the candidates one by one.
Choosing songs that met those conditions was quick. The real ordeal was spending sleepless nights revising the arrangements for their current lineup and recording demos. After working nonstop for several days, the four demos finally began to take shape. They still needed polishing, but the framework was complete.
After working every night and barely sleeping for days, fatigue often caught up with me during the day. One day, the department head passed by, saw my hollow face, and casually remarked,
“Manager Lee, why do you look so tired lately? Were you up all night playing games?”
“No, sir. I just didn’t sleep well.”
“You work in sales. You can’t even manage your condition? Get yourself together.”
“Yes, sir. Sorry.”
The department head clicked his tongue and walked away. I went to the break room and made another cup of coffee.
‘Maybe I should’ve just said I was playing games.’
It was not like I could say I had stayed up until three in the morning writing songs for someone else’s band.
I desperately wanted the weekend, when I could rest properly for two days. But this week, too, I would not get to fully rest.
There was recording on Saturday.
#
Inside the control room of a recording studio in Gangnam, the engineer sitting before the console quietly clicked his tongue in admiration at the sound coming through the monitor speakers.
‘They said they were high school students, but they’re practically professionals.’
Two high school bands were recording tracks for the event album. When he received the schedule, he assumed it would be ordinary commemorative work. Just record them, clean things up a little, and call it a day.
But three hours after the morning team entered the booth, that assumption had been completely overturned.
Noise Line. He had heard they won the competition. The drums and bass never wavered against the click track, and the guitar being played in the booth was even more impressive. The guitarist ran through fast phrases with ease, then played the same section again without the slightest inconsistency in his hands.
‘Was his name Park Taegeon?’
The engineer took his hands from the faders and leaned back in his chair. The performance was polished enough that there was hardly anything left for him to adjust.
‘High schoolers these days are no joke.’
Jeong Sehyuk, seated beside him, had not looked surprised from the beginning. He merely sat with his legs crossed, sipping coffee and occasionally nodding along.
“All right, good work. That wraps up the morning recording.”
He turned off the talkback microphone and flipped through the schedule sheet on the table. It contained the profile of the runner-up team coming in that afternoon.
[Black Rabbit]
They were high school students as well. As the engineer casually turned the page, his eyes stopped at one corner of the attached photograph.
Behind three kids dressed all in black stood a potbellied man in a black cap and mask, awkwardly hunched over.
‘But why is there some older guy with them?’
Three high school students and an office worker in his thirties. Just as he wondered what this bizarre combination was about, he heard a door open in the hallway.
#
The moment we entered the studio hallway, we ran into the Noise Line kids, who were just coming out after finishing their morning recording.
Park Taegeon, walking in front, spotted me and stopped short. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he simply dipped his head and walked past without a word. Kwon Jaemin and the other members behind him also politely bowed to us.
“Uncle, they were surprised when they saw us, right? They were!”
“Keep it down. They can hear you.”
I lightly brushed off Yun Taerin as she poked my side and whispered, then opened the control room door.
A spacious booth was visible beyond the glass. Yun Taerin ran inside first.
“Whoa! I’ve never been to a recording studio before! What are all those buttons for? Uncle, can’t I press one just once?”
“Press one, and you’ll lose a hand.”
“...”
Yun Taerin could only blink at the console, unable to touch it. Bae Somi stood close to the door, cautiously watching the room, while Cha Sion silently looked over the microphones in the booth before quietly asking,
“...Do we sing in there?”
“Yeah. But we record all the instruments first, then do the vocals last.”
“Okay.”
There was a faint note of excitement at the end of her brief reply. She seemed half nervous and half excited in her own way.
“Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.”
A familiar face approached with a smile. Where had I seen him before? As I searched my memory, he held out his hand first.
“I’m Jeong Sehyuk. We’ve met before, right?”
“Ah... You were at the judges’ table.”
“Oh! It’s the judge mister!”
Yun Taerin pointed at him and shouted. He was the one who had asked where the pedalboard was at the judges’ table.
“I’ll be overseeing this album recording. I look forward to working with you.”
“Likewise.”
Jeong Sehyuk’s gaze lingered on me for a moment. He seemed as though he wanted to ask something else, but soon put on a pleasant smile and turned toward the console.
The engineer sitting in front of it turned his chair and lightly raised a hand.
“Welcome. Ah, I heard the guitarist also wrote the songs? And that you work at a company?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impressive. You work a regular job and do this too.”
“...Ah, yes.”
“If this is your first time recording, it’s fine to stop and start as many times as you need. Don’t feel pressured. Just relax.”
“Okay!”
Yun Taerin answered energetically.
I quietly set my guitar case down by the wall. Avoiding the cables scattered across the floor with familiar ease, I first looked over the ports for the headphone cue system set up by the booth.
Since we were recording by parts, the drums went in first.
Yun Taerin put on her headphones and sat behind the drums. Her face beyond the glass was far stiffer than usual.
“Uncle! I can only hear the click and the guide track!”
“That’s normal. Don’t think about playing together. Just play like you did in the rehearsal room with the click.”
“Got it...”
When the talkback was turned off, the booth fell silent again. Soon, recording for 「Footsteps」 began.
Her touch was a little stiff in the first take because she was nervous, but after wrestling with the click track in the rehearsal room for days, her timing did not fall apart.
“Let’s do it once more. Nothing was wrong. Just loosen up.”
“Okay!”
She relaxed properly on the second take. She drove all the way through with the same refreshing sound I heard in the rehearsal room.
The engineer, checking the waveform, muttered,
“She’s... really a high school student?”
“She’s in her second year.”
“Huh.”
He looked surprised by her unexpected steadiness. All the practice she had built up until now seemed to finally be shining through.
Of course it was. For days before recording, she had repeated the same sections against the click countless times.
Bae Somi, pressed close to the glass, gave a small clap toward the booth. Cha Sion spoke almost to herself through the glass, though the microphone button was not even on.
“She’s good.”
“She can’t hear you.”
“I know.”
The problem was the following track, 「RUN」.
The part I had worried about most came right after the pre-chorus, when only the drums remained for a fill before entering the chorus. Yun Taerin’s sticks landed exactly on the click as she moved into the chorus.
“Sounds good. The timing was dead on. Let’s move to the next part...”
Just as the engineer was about to approve the take, I reached out and pressed the talkback button.
“Let’s do it once more. The timing’s right, but you’re being too restrained. That’s not like you.”
She had focused so completely on keeping time that the force of her own sound had disappeared.
Yun Taerin blinked blankly for a moment through the glass, then gripped her sticks again.
“...Okay. Here I go?”
The next take. The instruments dropped out in the pre-chorus, and the fill exploded.
This time, it was different. The sound came pouring forward while staying perfectly on the click. It was the very fill that had gotten the audience on their feet during the Finals, driving powerfully into the chorus.
The song ended. Yun Taerin shouted into the microphone.
“How was that one?!”
The engineer scanned the waveform, then nodded in admiration.
“The timing’s still solid, and the sound is good too. I think we can use this take.”
“There you go. That’s your drumming.”
“It worked?! Really?!”
Yun Taerin threw off her headphones and ran out of the booth. Jeong Sehyuk, who had been watching from the sofa, spoke in admiration.
“That really was the drum performance from the Finals. Hearing it in a studio gives it a different feel.”
“You heard it, right?! Uncle, you heard it?!”
“Yeah, yeah. I heard it.”
I met the palm she thrust out with mine.
Smack! A crisp high five rang out.
Next was the bass.
But Bae Somi froze right in front of the booth door. Intimidated by the unfamiliar studio, she turned toward me and whispered in a shrinking voice,
“...Uncle.”
“Yeah.”
“Could you cast the spell?”
I snorted softly and said to her in a low voice,
“My queen. Please enter.”
At those words, Bae Somi’s breathing changed at once. Her chin, which had been lowered toward the floor, lifted, and her timid gaze cooled. The figure walking into the room with arrogant steps was not the girl who had trembled before the doorknob moments ago.
The engineer stared blankly at the scene, then turned to me.
“...What did you just do?”
“Ahem. It’s a kind of pep talk.”
Recording began immediately afterward. Bae Somi pushed through the heavy bass line without wavering. A flawless one-take performance, without a single mistake or hesitation.
When the song ended, a brief silence filled the control room. The engineer, who had been staring blankly at the monitor, turned to me and asked,
“The bassist is also... a high school student, right?”
By the time Bae Somi came out of the booth, the spell had already worn off, and she had returned to her usual timid expression.
“Y-Yes...”
As Bae Somi blushed and bowed her head, Yun Taerin, sprawled on the sofa, cried out as though she had been wronged.
“That’s not fair! How did she get it in one take?!”
“Somi has always played like that.”
“...I-I practiced a lot.”
“I practiced a lot too!”
Next was Cha Sion’s second guitar.
There was no sign of nerves in her back as she slung on her guitar and entered the booth. Instead, she had to stop twice during the first take. Her chord changes came half a beat late, or her strumming was uneven. During fast transitions, her hands still could not keep up.
“Sion. Get ready for the transition before the second verse starts. Form the chord first and wait.”
“Okay.”
The troublesome section went smoothly on the next take. Once I pointed something out to her, I never had to say it twice.
“Relax your wrist in the chorus. Don’t strum with your whole arm.”
“Okay.”
She fixed that in one go too. Both songs finished without interruption on the third take, and the watching engineer let out a low whistle.
“This one gets it in one go too...”
Cha Sion came out of the booth looking as calm as ever, though her breathing was slightly quicker.
Finally, it was my turn.
As I put on my guitar and prepared to enter the booth, the engineer began explaining the recording process.
“For guitar, we’ll first record one full take from start to finish, then if there are parts to fix...”
“Yes. Let’s do one full track first. Give me only the click, drums, and bass in the headphones. Leave out the guide track.”
“...Ah, okay.”
I went into the booth, plugged in the jack, and put on my headphones. The drums and bass the girls had recorded earlier began to play. All I had to do was lay my guitar over the tracks they had built.
One full take of 「Footsteps」, then one full take of 「RUN」.
My hands moved as usual. I had done this countless times. Keep the tone even, never let the picking strength waver. Make sure the same phrase produced exactly the same sound.
Between passages, I caught sight of the scene beyond the glass.
The three girls were pressed side by side against the control room window, watching me. Yun Taerin’s mouth hung open, Bae Somi blinked with both hands clasped together, and Cha Sion stood with her arms crossed, stubbornly following only the movements of my fingers. I felt like a monkey at the zoo, but it was not too bad.
When I finished both songs in a row and returned to the control room, the engineer was studying the monitor. He appeared to be looking for sections that needed correction, but his mouse wandered over the waveform without finding a place to go.
“Um, is there anywhere we should go again...?”
“Let’s redo only the fourth bar of the second verse in 「RUN」. The attack was a little too strong.”
“...What?”
The engineer enlarged the waveform for that section with a doubtful expression. After staring at the screen for a moment, his eyes widened.
“...You’re right.”
“Let’s punch in just there.”
As I headed back into the booth, I added,
“Could you adjust the headphone balance again? Lower the bass a little and bring up only the snare a bit more.”
My instructions were precise and free of excess, and the adjusted balance was exactly what I wanted.
The engineer no longer saw me as some amateur office worker tagging along with a high school band. He pulled his chair closer and began operating the console like a machine, following my instructions.
When I returned to the control room after cleanly finishing the correction recording, Yun Taerin rushed at me as though she had been waiting.
“Uncle, what was that just now? How do you sound like such a professional?”
“I am a professional.”
“No way.”
Jeong Sehyuk sat on the sofa with his arms crossed, silently watching the scene.
We played both songs again from the beginning. The drums ran, the bass supported them, and two layers of guitar were laid over the top. Now all that remained was the vocal track.
We had reserved two days, planning to continue until tomorrow if we could not finish everything. But at this pace, we would have enough time to record all the vocals before the sun went down today.
“Shall we take a short break, then do the vocals?”
The girls cheered at my words. As they stretched and went to the restroom, the control room briefly fell quiet.
The engineer spoke without taking his eyes off the monitor. His low voice made it hard to tell whether he was talking to himself or asking a question.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“...Are you really an office worker?”
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