del⁷

🐨: First of all, before going into that...Right around the time Jin-hyung was discharged from the military—which was a year before the rest of us would be discharged—everyone’s mental state wasn't very good. So, when Jin-hyung got discharged, and around the time I played the saxophone... after his discharge, we all gathered together. I can’t quite remember if it was at Jimin’s house or my house... wait, I think it was Jimin’s house. We all gathered at Jimin’s place, and ah... 🐨: At that time, Jungkook was also going through a really tough period. Well, we were all having a hard time since we were all still active-duty soldiers (private first class). Jungkook was crying his eyes out, saying that as the older brother, I needed to work harder to hold the team together. We talked about things like that, and we had a lot of deep conversations among ourselves. 🐨: So we said, 'Alright then, since everyone is waiting for us, let's make an album as soon as we return and repay those who have been waiting.' I think that's when we roughly decided on a plan. And since all the members' discharge dates are clustered in June, the timing lined up well. I think we started setting up the song camp from the end of that year. Then the question became: who should be the 'captain' of this song camp? 🐨: To be honest, the term 'song camp' is a bit of Konglish (Korean-English). In English, it's usually called a 'session.' I was very used to sessions because I had done them with about 30 to 40 people within HYBE during my RPWP (Right Place, Wrong Person) album. I'm sure Jungkook and Hobi have experience with them firsthand too. 🐨: When it comes to sessions, there are sessions where the artist themselves participates, but in this industry, there are also 'pre-sessions' where the singer isn't directly involved—creating things that fit that specific musical world. 🐨: So, we decided that we would go to LA in July and August, gather together, and hold those sessions. I think we made that decision around the turn of the year, though I don’t remember the exact timeline. I remember I was really looking forward to that time, wishing it would come quickly.

🐨 There are a lot of times when Jimin and I have diametric views and I thought this song absolutely had to be included, because this was the only song that I thought had the sound that could properly show the kind of choreography and intense performance that we've done that people liked so much. But for Jimin and our vocalists, it was difficult for them because, if you listen to 2.0, there is only one melody for them. "You know how we do do do do do." But to give life to that line is really difficult. The note is really high and the flavor of the language is very difficult. You have to have an understanding of Black music or you have to be from that world to digest/embody that melody. It was written by Charles. And it was difficult for us guys from Korea to digest it and this was the hardest to do in the whole album for our vocalist members, 2.0. And so some of them felt awkward or weren't satisfied with the way they sang it. 🐨 There was a lot of discussions about taking it out right up until the setlist was decided. I think Taehyung felt that way too. I and someone else--who was it?--we said no way. No way. In the end, it worked out this way. It's a relief that what I said turned out to be the case and the members now really like it a lot.

🐨: Right now, honestly, regarding all the members... one of the things I think is our current strength and weakness—well, actually, it’s a strength—is that all the members are very careful. They are very considerate of one another. Because nobody wants to break this huge... this huge and very close relationship, everyone is extremely cautious. If a member expresses that they dislike something even a little bit, everyone tends to try and respect that. 🐨: But the problem is, because of that, we can never narrow things down to just one decision. Like, maybe two people don't want to do something, four people think it’s fine, and one person doesn’t really care and says they'll just go along with whatever the others choose. 🐨: Because of this, even before getting discharged from the military, I had a hunch that the entire process—from making the album, releasing it, putting on concerts, and doing the tour—would start and end with how we make these decisions. And that hunch was right, in the end. So, out of the tracks we had from that pre-session, we weeded a few out…