The drums that come back after 'run without fear': MINGI (ATEEZ)'s 'Where are you'

Today's NONOL PICK is 'Where are you' (어디에 있어), released October 6 by MINGI of ATEEZ as Part 2 of the soundtrack for the drama 'Dive Into You' (너에게 다이브). It was sung for a drama, but the Bugs credits show that MINGI wrote the lyrics alone, composed the music with QUAIMO, Long Drive and THE NEED, and arranged it with Long Drive and THE NEED. We picked it because, rather than a soundtrack song that was only sung, it was built together from the frame up. MINGI's real name, Song Min-gi, also appears in the chorus, MIDI programming (entering instrument sounds into a computer one by one) and recording credits. The album introduction calls the song 'modern pop punk', a kind of rock that sets an easy-to-sing-along melody on fast, rough band sounds. To find where that label can actually be heard, we split the sound by instrument and measured it every 0.5 seconds. 'Dive Into You' airs on Channel A on Saturday and Sunday nights and can also be watched on Disney+. The official music video is cut together from scenes of the drama, and the times follow this video.

0:00 · Six seconds of guitar alone

The song opens with an electric guitar alone. Until 0:06 there are no drums, no bass and no voice. The guitar picks its strings crisply every 0.22 seconds, and this is where you can hear most clearly the 'upbeat, vivid electric guitar riff' (a short guitar phrase repeated over and over) that the album introduction mentions. The tempo is about 140 beats per minute (BPM), so a little over two beats go by every second. The singing starts at 0:06 with 'Too much한 내 머릿속은 / 혼잡해 매일' ('inside my head, it's too much / crowded every day'), and the drums only come in at 0:10.

0:33 · The drums stop at '잘 모르겠어' ('I'm not sure')

At 0:33, the moment '잘 모르겠어' ('I'm not sure') begins, the drums stop for about a second. They come back at 0:34, the guitar starts to ring out rough and fizzing, and at 0:36 '다시 넘어지기를 반복해' ('I keep falling down again') follows. Spread the sound out by pitch, and the guitar, which had been gathered in the low range until then, fills up densely all the way into the high, metallic range. This is the first spot where the 'pop punk' description catches the ear. In the second verse, at 1:54, the drums step aside for about a second at '잘 모르겠어' in just the same way.

1:15 · Kick and snare pull back in the chorus

The first chorus starts at 1:12 with '꿈은 어디에 있어' ('where is the dream'). From 1:15, the thumping kick (the big drum) and the snapping snare (the small drum) drop out, and only the shimmering cymbals are left to keep the beat. '있어 있어' (an echo of 'is it, is it') and the second '꿈은 어디에 있어' pass over the top, and the kick and snare come back 14 seconds later, at 1:29. Now it's the bass's turn to step away. From 1:29 to 1:56, through the second verse's '남들과 발을 맞추다 / 잃어버린 my pace' ('keeping in step with everyone else / I lost my pace'), the drums keep running, but the low sound that held up the floor disappears.

2:38 · 27 seconds without drums or bass

The bridge begins at 2:38 with '수없이 놓쳐 왔던 / 장면들을 따라서' ('following the scenes / I've missed countless times'). It's the passage that shifts the mood before the last chorus, and here the drums and bass drop out together. In the 27 seconds until 3:05, the only sound from the drums is a single shimmer of cymbal at 2:51, on '조금 더 멀리 더 멀리' ('a little farther, farther'). Meanwhile, it's the guitar that holds on to the beat. The guitar goes back to a clean sound like in the first verse, but it doesn't rest: it picks the strings every 0.21 seconds, close to five times a second.

3:05 · The 10 seconds after '겁 없이 달려 봐' ('run without fear')

The last line of the bridge is '길을 잃어도 괜찮아 / 겁 없이 달려 봐' ('it's okay to lose your way / run without fear'). At 3:05, as those words end, the drums and bass come back all at once, and for 10 seconds, until 3:15, the band plays with no singing. These are the 10 seconds in which the guitar rings out loudest in the whole song. It's 12 dB (decibels) louder than the guitar in the first verse, a gap the ear hears as a little over twice as loud, and more than 3 dB louder than in the choruses. Once the last chorus begins at 3:15 with 'Taking it to the moon', the drums drop out again at 3:33, this time down to the cymbals. Over the bass and guitar, '꿈은 어디에 있어' ('where is the dream') is asked one more time, and the sound stops around 3:47. Apple Music

Ko Hyun-jung of kokosound studio mixed the song, and Kwon Nam-woo of 821 Sound Mastering mastered it. Scenes that are easy to miss in ATEEZ's 'BAD' music video are in our NONOL Hidden Details piece.