The band fills the minute when the singing rests: HARO's 'To the shooting star'

Today's NONOL PICK is 'To the shooting star', a single that singer-songwriter HARO released on October 6. HARO, who has been singing ballads, now puts a band up front and runs toward the bright side. Each time the drums and bass drop out and come back, the song rises one more notch, and as you listen, it really feels like taking off for somewhere. The release notes say the song compares the dreams and growth of youth to a journey through space, and describe 'a bright, energetic sound, different from the emotional ballads released so far'. HARO and 9Day wrote the words and music together, and 9Day arranged it. The Korean title is '유성에게'. The music video shows five people playing together in a white studio lit with purple light, and the times below follow the music video, too.

0:25 · The first two lines, sung without drums

The drums and bass, which came in all at once in the intro, drop out just before the singing starts at 0:25. The two lines '밝게 빛나는 이 우주 속에서 매일 / 작은 별빛을 난 찾아갈거야' ('every day, in this brightly shining universe / I'll go looking for a little starlight') are sung with no drums or bass. On screen, you can see the keyboard player behind HARO. When we split the sound by instrument and measured it, the drums in these 10 seconds are 45 decibels quieter than in the intro, and the bass is 50 decibels quieter. Decibels are the scale for measuring how loud a sound is, and a gap this size is about the difference between the inside of a moving subway train and a quiet library, so both are effectively switched off. At 0:35, the drums and bass come in together, and '눈부신 혜성에 내 길을 잃어도' ('even if a dazzling comet makes me lose my way') follows right away. That's also when the screen switches to HARO clapping in front of a mic stand.

0:56 · '너는' ('you') in a one-second stop

At 0:56, right after '그곳엔 뭐가 있을까' ('I wonder what's out there'), the band cuts the sound dead for one second. In that gap, HARO sings '너는' ('you'), the first word of the chorus, alone with no backing. At that very moment, the screen flashes white. At 0:57, the band comes back all at once as '저 태양처럼 밝게 빛나줘' ('shine bright like that sun') carries on, and when the white clears, the camera is close on HARO's face, singing.

1:43 · Just one '유성' ('shooting star')

After the chorus ends, for 22 seconds from 1:18 to 1:40, the instruments play on with no singing. Meanwhile, the camera moves between close-ups of the guitar, drums and keys. The lyrics roll out one space word after another (universe, starlight, comet, galaxy, nebula, sun, orbit), but '유성' ('shooting star'), the word in the title, appears in just one line, at 1:43: '저기 눈부신 유성에 꿈을 담을 수 있게' ('so I can put my dream on that dazzling shooting star out there'). Our lead photo is from the moment this line begins.

2:22 · Drums and bass step aside for a wordless '따라 랏 따라' (ttara rat ttara)

After the second chorus come the syllables '따라 랏 따라' (ttara rat ttara), sounds with no meaning. At 2:22 the bass drops out, and the drums fade away by 2:25, too. In this stretch, the drums and bass are more than 50 decibels quieter than in the chorus, and the screen shows the keyboard player. After a passage left with just the voice and some quiet backing, the drums and bass return together at 2:30, in the middle of '모두 다 기억할게' ('I'll remember it all').

2:44 · 18 more seconds after the singing stops

The voice stops at 2:44, on '더 밝게 빛나는 저 별처럼 말야' ('like that star, shining even brighter'). The band keeps running for 18 more seconds, puts down the drums at 3:02, and at 3:06 the handwritten title '유성에게' appears on a black screen. Right after, a rainbow-colored streak of light cuts diagonally across the screen. The intro and the interlude each last a little over 20 seconds, and the outro 18, so in total the band plays with no voice for more than a minute. Apple Music

The credits for the recording list the drums as drum programming by 9Day. That means the beat was put together on a computer instead of being played by hand. Piano and synth are by croove, and bass by Kim Gi-baek. The music video credits list Park Seong-hun on drums and Park Jun-gyu on piano, while Kim Gi-baek (bass) and 9Day (guitar) are named in both the recording and the video.