Wowie... it's already been a year since the launch of NOISZ STΔRLIVHT—the rhythm game x visual novel x bullet hell mobile game that I have the honor of singing for as Asuka of idol group SUNRaiSE. ☀️
To celebrate, both groups SUNRaiSE and STΔRLIVHT came together for a collab track called "Clash of Twilight!" It's a cool song filled with cryptic lyrics referring to the game's story, which btw really keeps me on my toes and after every chapter I just want to find out more. The devs have poured a lot of passion into this fantastic game. Also love that all of the vocalists, plus Malcolm who's behind the videos, are all from the youtaite community. ❤️
We're actually running a Kickstarter right now where you can buy some merch including a CD of the entire game's soundtrack! It's super freaking cool how many members of the youtaite community have participated in it—beyond the idol group cast there's also chiisana, fome, and Miyolophone in the song credits! We're all on an album together!!! Too cool!!
Clash of Twilight (Lyric Video) / STΔRLIVHT vs. SUNRaiSE (prod. Shirobon & MegaSphere)
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SUNRaiSE has two songs which you can check out below!! Both are bright, hype-inducing, uplifting songs! The notes in "Parhelion" were crazy high to sing haha. To be fully honest I'm not satisfied at all with how I characterized Asuka's singing voice and wish it were more unique. ;;
Rise Above (Music Video) / Soleily ft. SUNRaiSE
Parhelion (feat. SUNRaiSE) / Reku Mochizuki
I actually uploaded a playthrough/reaction video of the first time I played Rise Above in the game... 😳 Been meaning to film again while playing Parhelion, combine the two parts, and upload onto my vlog youtube channel, but...yeah my backlog of things to do is huge lol...
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NOISZ STΔRLIVHT Release Celebration Live
Finally, here's the official VOD of our livestream that we did one year ago for the launch of the game! I wrote about it in-depth in this post, but the entire idol cast went on stream as vtuber models of our characters—a huge challenge for me to conquer due to my stage fright and throat issues. But it was fun. And we did it. We did that!
This VOD was also edited by me! I added the subtitles and song names and tried to smooth out some of the technical issues we had. After the stream I just couldn't bring myself to listen to what I'd sounded like (EMBARRASSING!!!) so you can bet... much screaming and cringing happened while editing this .....
PS: Wait omg, I can start an "original music" tag for this post... Still going to tag it as a collab cover though even if that's inaccurate heh.
Quick post to say: a collab that I sang for all the way back in 2016 has conquered all odds and released today!! A miracle baby 🥺✨✨
Everything is so, so, so pretty—I love it all.....
Absolutely enamored......
Everyone has such a lovely and pretty voice, the art is beautiful and looks straight out of a game, designs are so stylish, the animation aesthetics are flawless and smooth, and mix is stunningly clean with godlike blend. 👏 Really honored to be in such a high-quality collab like this!
(Meanwhile, I shouldn't be too harsh on myself from six entire years ago but wants to close my ears during my solos hhh..... it sounds like I'm singing a different genre from everyone else, cries. Wish I'd sung it more prettily like everyone else... At least I do think I've improved at singing since then! Also isn't this art of me super cool!!! The artists went with putting my hair up and using my glasses as a necklace accessory—they made me such a hottie!!)
YAAAAY! I've been looking forward to this collab more than anything and I'm so happy it's out in the world to be shared! 🥺💖 It was my huge honor and delight to sing the part of Shibuya Kanon for Mathew's English translyric cover of Liella!'s "Mirai wa Kaze no You ni" aka the ending theme from the Love Live! Superstar!! anime.
My heart was fully invested in this, in so many layers hahaha. First of all I'm a big fan of Love Live and while Liella's season 1 wasn't the greatest I still have fond memories from watching it and bonding over its ups/downs with friends — including Mathew. In terms of my personal taste in music, I'd probably say Liella is a close second to Nijigasaki for what I would regularly listen to.... Their songs just sound so lovely and light and refreshing and uplifting without going overboard. ;v; There are a few Liella songs I like a lot and the anime ending is one of them! It's such a nice song!! Plus you always get sentimentally attached to the theme songs after watching a show haha.
There is definitely a soft spot in my heart for Kanon's character and the first episode that introduced her as having crippling stage fright (fucking up performances and auditions) and yet having a passion for singing and making music and it destroys her that she can't do better. It was the first time I related so deeply to a Love Live character... And was totally unexpected for the protagonist, at that! For a silly idol anime, I appreciated how grounded and full of heart it was. 🥺
GUESS WHO REWATCHED EPISODE 1 TO TAKE THESE SCREENSHOTS AND ENDED UP SOBBING UGH. It hit me harder now than the first time. (Though of course the bad news is that they went on to ignore this super important piece of character development for like 9 episodes but who's counting--)
Given all this, it meant a lot that Mathew entrusted me with singing Kanon's parts and for representing the protagonist of the group....... Such a great honor 😭😭😭😭
And on top of everything, I've been listening to the covers that Mathew puts out for a while—I genuinely enjoy and admire them a lot! Every video of his is sparkling with passion and love and warmth. He brings together such lovely casts and writes touchingly inspiring lyrics and his mixes are magical (the blend is always amazing!) and it's so cool how active he is with idol cover projects and getting them finished at a time when many projects never see the light. :') 💕
That said, ofc I've been wanting to work with him but a few opportunities didn't pan out because they were at really bad times for me... And when this one came along...... I'd already been dealing with throat issues and taking a break after clearing my urgent projects........... but I just knew that if I said no I'd regret it forever?! My response to Mathew was literally: "My heart tells me I should say yes this time 😭" This was the only project I recorded in the middle of my vocal rest periods—I did try to be careful not to push myself too hard or sing for too long so it was recorded over many days and I tried to respect my limits.
After this was when my throat took a turn for the worse so this is the last thing I recorded before taking my serious vocal rest! And of course my thoughts lead me here... that if I never recover..... and am forced to retire......... I'd be happy that this collab is the one that marks my retirement. ❤️ THOUGH OF COURSE I'm GOING to recover!!! and NOT retire!!!! so yeah!!! ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ
Also I will admit that I'm actually happy with my solos in this,,, It's been ages since I could say that LMAO. Considering the circumstances it was recorded in that's surprising, but I think I managed to sound as well as I'd hope to sound—I don't dislike this timbre that was used to sound closer to Kanon and I expressed everything I wanted to express and don't sound like a bad singer quq Success, I'm actually quite proud!
The cast is just wonderful. Such pretty, lovely, adorable, sweet, soothing but energizing voices and I love everyone and hope I can sing with them all again. ;u; I'd absolutely still be a gushing fan even if I weren't involved since this collab is a delight to listen to—I've been looping the mix drafts for a while and now that the video is out I'm still not stopping!!
We will give our all, so let us take flight, you and I~ ✨✨✨!
A few weeks ago this collab with a bunch of friends came out!! It's of "Shabondama" by Morning Musume and I go way, way, way back with both this song and most of the others in the singing cast! Cinna (WHAT A TALENTED PERSON) I met recently in the group chat for this collaboration but Aerin, k, chiisana, and Samu I've known for years and years—we spent our youths covering Hello!Project songs!
"Shabondama" is an iconic track that I participated in covers of way back when I was a wee middle schooler and to this day often comes up in karaoke sessions when there are H!P fans present. Such a fun, angry, sassy, energetic song. And then Cinna did a rock arrange remix of it and cranked it up to 11 🔥🔥🔥 The instrumental and mix are incredible!
The video is so, so cool. The stylization of both the illustrations and the motion graphics work perfectly — and it's vibrant and badass and artful. Bless Jerry and Hibi's talents, and also Aerin for bringing together such a strong team :>
Personally I gotta confess I'm not happy with my singing in this, but that how it be... I just kinda zone out every time my solos come around haha..... I recorded it at a time when I was struggling with my recording circumstances and barely squeezed it in. At that point we were also working with a placeholder instrumental so I feel like I didn't bring enough aggression and drama to match Cinna's amazing remix and the others' powerful vocals T__T There's no point in regretting too much though, since I've been on vocal rest/recovery and wouldn't have been able to rerecord anyway. At least there's plenty of other aspects to enjoy 💕
(Edit: For some reason the embed is broken... youtube pls- it is linked below!)
Something that I can't help but feel is rather sad is that some singing collaborations I'm in are no longer up on YouTube; I just found out today that this happened to a few with a group I'm very fond and grateful to have been part of—and it prompted me to go download a bunch of collab videos for my own safe keeping SDFKSDKJ YouTube is not a trustworthy archive.. 😭 (Though I understand that for certain people it's a matter of safety and identity protection to remove those videos from the public eye..)
It made me extra glad that I update my blog with all my uploads and collabs, so that I'll always have my own proof that each of these steps of my journey happened and that mark in the sand will never go away. I like that I can leave my feelings here about all the stuff I helped create and/or watched being created, and the lovely people that I've worked with, and I can feel assured that those memories are somewhat preserved.
Anyway, yeyeyey I was in a couple of new collabs that came out recently! ⭐️
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This one is so, so special. I think it's the first of its kind in the youtaite community and I can't get over how cool of an idea it is.
pKotetsu/Justin brought together all of the CB groups he's been in by inviting a representative from each—and I had the honor of representing DREAM✦SCAPE (our group from ACB2) which he animated for along with Shippa! It's truly a celebration of the friendships and amazing works created throughout the years. 🥺 Justin has been behind so many legendary groups in CB history; the nostalgia really just hits you in the face!!!
In my opinion this might just be the greatest homage that the ytt community has seen thus far. It's filled to the brim with detailed and thoughtful references to all of these beloved projects—Justin seriously outdid himself in carefully crafting this video with love and it's visually gorgeous too. ;u; The animation is perfect... Justin is so damn talented flawlessly executing all these different styles and making the entire video flow.
For me, the DREAM✦SCAPE references during my solo hit particularly hard. The birds and feathers are a clear callback to our What video, as not only the motif that came up during the scenes when I sang........but also they were significant in the part that I actually animated myself!! The rap part from 2:23 to 2:35 was put into motion by me using the assets, aesthetics, and scene set-up that Justin and Shippa already made so I can't take credit for too much but HONESTLY.....I'M REALLY REALLY PROUD OF IT TO THIS DAY.......
Additionally there are callbacks to The Sky Falls, in which my character is portrayed standing in front of a wall with moving images projected on it. :D :D :D It's also this exact CB entry that inspired me to utilize a projector for the uh....rock band music video that I directed....heheheh 💦
Personally I'm not a fan of how I sound on this song tbh but it's a privilege to have been drawn by Chisacha, mixed by Vuvu, and tuned by azuma! I've looked up to all of their work for years and had never been under their care like this before. /o/ And the instrumental by immanuelbear is impeccable—I always forget that it's not official! Also I helped with timing the vocals :D Enjoy!
This collab came out last month and I hadn't gotten to sit down to write a blog oops 💦
My friend David Guthrie did a smashing rock remix of SNSD's The Boys and invited this ~dream team~ cast of absolute queens to sing on it! At the time I got this invitation I had been turning down every collab due to feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities and my backlog, but the temptation was too strong here... 😫 I admire everyone in this cast and would've kicked myself for letting go of the opportunity to play among the stars.
It was so much fun that we all recorded facecams while trying to adhere to a similar color scheme! I loved seeing the others rock out and enjoy themselves, which can't really be expressed in the same way with the typical animated PV. ;u;
Fun fact: chiisa and I actually covered this song in English before many many years ago as part of Gemini ............with parody lyrics that we wrote...... It's called "The Trolls" since our member Jeffrey (who was a SONE) was always associated with trolls and pranks loooool. Both chiisa and I only retained the lyrics from that rendition and were like, "Oh that's what the actual English lyrics are?!" while recording for this collab. I can tell you're looking at me, why're you such a creep? Any closer and you'll be dead meat~
Razzyorganized this as a birthday chorus for Ryan—who is my longtime friend and fellow member of Gemini—and it includes the vocalists of DREAM✦SCAPE(aka the three girls of Gemini plus Aerin!) and vocalists from 「CHAOS」 which is an awesome, powerful group that I look up to. They were the winning group of FCCB back in 2015!
The result is just...pure.....girlgroup vocal supremacy.... It sounds so good.... D✦S and CHAOS girls have a TON of vocal chemistry in our own groups respectively—and when you put us together it's this amazing balance of sweet, powerful, sassy, and energetic voices. 💖🔥 And made all the better by THIS FABULOUS MIX..!!! So impressed with Naya's work! I want to know all the secrets behind being able to produce a pop cover that sounds this polished and professional.
And how fun is the video...!! It's such a ride and I'll never get over how clever it is to emulate the line distribution videos that Ryan enjoys watching. Oh and we did a secret, last-minute premiere to watch it with Ryan for the first time and that wAS WILD. I had to be the one to be like, "hey are you online rn!! oh tHANK GOD.. can you help me with something? i need you to help check this link for me" ☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️ while sweating bullets hahahaha;;; We had a lot of the singers gathered already and the premiere had to be set for a specific time so....if Ryan was not available at that exact time, we would've had to reschedule it but also couldn't reveal it to him too far in advance. Anyway it all worked out perfectly for a delightful surprise. :>
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A fun trend happening this month is #SingingMarchwhich is a set of daily prompts created by @KerriSama. Lots of my friends have been participating! Including my good friend KT who, for day 6's "Duet" theme, took the opportunity to add to the recording of "Koi wa Nandarou" that I did last year YEEESSSSSSSSSS. Both of us were in the Mermaid Melody cover scene back in 2007 but somehow never overlapped until years later after that culture submerged—ha, get it.
Impromtu duettttt 🥺 KT's lovely singing puts mine to shame (cringing) but I'm sooo happy for both the existence of this and to see any resurgence of Mermaid Melody hehehe
As for me, I've only participated in #SingingMarch once so far—it was maybe 2 or 3 AM one night when I'd already been irresponsibly staying up late and decided to indulge in my spontaneous idea of recording a certain song for the "From before the 2000's" prompt, furthering my irresponsibility. (So irresponsible.)
The song choice I don't believe anyone on this planet could have predicted hehehe it's "Desperado" by The Eagles (1973) with the arrangement that Pristin'sSungyeon sang on the show Girl Spirit and dedicated to her grandmother! I loveeee her rendition to bits and always sing along to it in the car by myself. Typically I don't care much for oldies or country so this is an exceptional sort of outlier. I really enjoyed all the emotions I was able to pour into it!
It's been a while since a collab I'm in has been released (since July ;o; Edit: oh wait I uploaded a collab in Oct but it's not the same thing as being in a collab not organized by me b/c that was more anxiety than excitement LOL) so it's been exciting to experience all the hype around an upload again this week!
This collab has just been a fun time through and through—the entire process—and it's been so refreshing and a source of hope especially in this year's depressing landscape of many singing projects being put on hold and lots of people leaving the community... 😭 It's really been a standout project for me! Miffy, our organizer and animator, led us with lots of passion that energized and inspired us and I appreciate her so much 💕 Through this collab I also met new friends whom I'm already very fond of—they're super sweet and fun to talk to and I feel so comfy in our Discord chat. ;U;
ALSO...... omfg I cannot believe this is my first official collab with Gino?!?! Honestly I said yes to this collab just because this song is a bop and I'm a big fan of Miffy and her work but I DIDN'T EXPECT THE BLESSING OF GETTING TO FINALLY COLLAB WITH MY GOOD FRIEND OF 9 YEARS...... Gino was Gemini's senpai and was one of the judges of DUBattle Royale back in 2011 (which we participated in and ultimately won ;u;) where we became friends on Skype, then met up in person after finding out that we + chiisana all lived in the Bay Area, and we've been IRL friends ever since! We've sung together at karaoke... and even worked on an official kpop singer's music video together...... Wild. 😭
If I have to be completely honest I'm personally not too pleased with how I sound on this song ;; but I LOVE LITERALLY EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF THIS VIDEO..... The visuals are pure serotonin and I just love how creative Miffy got with it—also the color palettes and the cute art by Anya and Hachee 👌👌 Gino, Alys, and Arcee's voices are all to die for... I am legit big fan..... I will listen to them all day..... And Ship did such a great job with the mix and the effects! I was quite impressed especially with how fast she worked (and by herself) yet delivering such quality.. Goals.....
Earlier this year, some of my friends and I were obsessed with the anime If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budoukan, I Would Die (aka OshiBudo) which was airing at the time so we thought it'd be really cute if we covered the opening theme!! This cast feels really precious because not only are they my [lovely-voiced] friends in the youtaite community, but also they're all in NorCal so we used to hang out a lot! You know, back during "precedented" times when hangouts were a thing.
And then of course we were brought to life by the perfectly adorable visuals of souleheart (illustration) and Azuka (animation), bless!!! They both make such wonderful things and are really sweet to work with—would definitely recommend their commissions. ;u;
🔹 Looks like souleheart's art comms are closed right now but they're worth keeping an eye out for; she was impressively fast and communicative and just captured all of our personas p e r f e c t l y.
🔹 Azuka is incredibly multitalented and has both animation and vtuber model comms open—and she's also debuting as a vtuber on 10/24!
【合唱】 Clover wish / 推し武道 OP 【7人 ver. youtaite】
⇢ VOCALS: KT ･ https://www.youtube.com/seahorsegurl ･ as Reo Lucy ･ https://www.youtube.com/Lyrratic ･ as Sorane mochi ･ https://www.youtube.com/c/crunchimochi ･ as Maki yanovi ･ https://www.youtube.com/yanoviP ･ as Yumeri カリタモ (tamou) ･ https://www.youtube.com/c/isoperi ･ as Yuka 小さな (chiisana) ･ https://www.youtube.com/ChiisanaChanx3 ･ as Maina Eva ･ https://www.youtube.com/waterpixieva ･ as Aya Kuroノ ･ https://www.youtube.com/c/KuronoCovers ･ as 🐝
“I will say "bees" exactly once (x1) in the background if you will have me as an additional adlib vocalist”
~✨~✨~
And uh, I mixed!
With the much-appreciated help from fome, mochi, KT, and Kurono for their insightful feedback! 🙏
Yup, that's all I have to say about that....... Just kidding, there's probably like 500 more words to follow on this topic, sorry.
AAAH SHE'S HERE: CODEX's comeback!! SCB3 round 1 was back in February and the chorus battle took a hiatus as people were figuring out their altered lifestyles with the hit of the pandemic and finally now in August we're in round 2! Actually the deadline's been extended til next week but we were luckily already on track to finish by the original deadline so we uploaded really early ;v;
I've already fangirled over this group so much in my last post that I'm not sure I need to repeat how much I love CODEX and CYPHER...... Funnily enough, in that post I mentioned my "emotional favorites" being W and Our Sky, and—although this isn't exactly CYPHER—this new video feels like the 3rd entry of that Feels Trilogy. It is honestly just such a privilege that I get to be in this group, with these precious and sweet friends who are all so skilled that it blows my mind... I'm really in awe at all of them and this video totally captures my reasons for being so. LIKE....EVERYTHING IS SO PERFECT.........
💎 Do you hearrrr those vocalsss? T___T Everyone brought the perfect emotions for this beautiful song and I love everyone's voices.. I think Kura especially is a standout in the song for his tastefully emotional, delicate, yet controlled solos at the beginning (also Chiisana's right after him!) and end. Overall everyone is such a good singer that it's hard for me to keep up; I really admire them!
💎 The choral arrangement and the mix!!!!! That's [almost] all Fome. He recorded thorough guides of all the adlibs and harmonies for us to follow—resulting in a lot of tracks that he expertly weaved together—and I think that's a big strength of ours. As always Fome's mixes are really polished and he does it so quickly too, it's insane... Oh also the ending acapella part was his idea! (The "diva" adlibs at the end were a team effort tho which is cool ^^ a bunch of us submitted those for him to choose from)
💎 Omg Yuki's art is to die for. It's such eye candy as always. I especially love her coloring style and it works so well with this shimmery, jeweled look. 💖👄💖 Just stunning and I actually like that she didn't just straight up use our persona designs, but did something creative to execute a uniform concept while also keeping us distinguishable by our hair colors! Also the poses are so interesting and refreshing!
💎 MOM... MOM, LOOK, I'm in a video animated by Howl!!! 😭 There is little greater an honor than that as a youtaite. Hahaha. His work really speaks for itself time and time again—he just has this ability to create breathakingly elegant things that are pleasing to the eye and moving to the heart.
From a personal standpoint, I... don't know how to feel about my vocals lol. I was always self conscious about the fact that I have the highest tone, perhaps the weakest singing ability, and I guess my voice is a bit more.. sterile and lacking grace compared to the others? So I think Fome and Howl were clever in scripting me in places where the song changes—to take advantage of that contrast between me and the others. And in some cases I think that worked really well! ;v; I'm actually pretty fond of how my 2nd and 3rd solos (both in the last third) worked because it feels impactful when it goes from a full, rich chorus to just me; or when it goes from Jae's low solo with solitary strings to my starkly different voice at the moment when the music starts to build and the glittery particles start appearing (I love those!!). On the other hand, my first solo is really important because it introduces the first chorus, but I was so damn frustrated while recording that because I struggle to sing it well. And I fear it might stick out in a negative way ;;; Bah. Idk, nothing I can do about it now but at least I feel satisfied with the other solos ;v;;
I have been...evidently very distracted this year and never posted about these collabs that I was in back in May AAAAAAHH.
Uploaded on Mother's Day, I was in Lucy and Mero's super collab of "Mother" from Carole & Tuesday which featured not only a bunch of amazing vocalists but a whole band of Davids (no but srsly there's 3 Davids) awesome musicians who came together to make the instrumental! It sounds so so so so so good. This was a fun collab to be a part of and also introduced me to some new friends. ;v; Such a touching and uplifting song aaa also it's a facecam video which is fun!
And then yaaaay it had been a while since I was in a k-pop collab!
This one is such a blessing... Lia, Nami, and Aerin are all longtime friends—and all sweethearts with wonderful voices—that I'm really fond of 💗 AND the song is MY ANTHEM, love4eva by LOONA yyxy !! AND I got to sing the part of MY BIAS MY PERFECT GODDESS PRINCESS Yves (pronounced 'eve')!!! And entirely unintentionally, it was uploaded the day before my birthday so it just felt like a big birthday present to me LMAO.
YEEEEY another collab that I was really looking forward to came out! There's something fun and nostalgic about representative singing as an anime character, which I grew up doing but never do anymore oops....
It's the group character song from OshiBudo aka If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budoukan, I Would Die which is my favorite anime from the season that just ended. ;u; Idol collabs hnngg I'm actually also organizing my own collab from this anime as well! which i really need to work on but animal crossing has me on a tight leash
🥺 ikon and Reba somehow trusted me enough to let me sing as the center of the group: the adorable, earnest, sweetest supportive friend, best pink leader Reo!! 💖
Over the past week, I've replayed this collab an uncountable amount; I really enjoy it..... The energy from each and every vocalist is off the charts and perfect 👌 I like everyone's voices a lot. And the way our mixer Jess made those group parts blend and sound like they could be the original vocals of the song?? So impressed. It was an honor to be in this!
【ムラサギ】 Zutto ChamJam「ずっとChamJam」【歌ってみた】
►VOCALS◄
Eva 「waterpixieva」
すぃる 「@polarisyl」
Fuyu 「 Fuyuland 」
Reba 「 Rebear」
月乃 「 月乃」
Kiyo 「 MewKiyoko」
ikon 「 MurasagiYT 」
Jess 「 lilmenchi」
►mix◄ Jess
►mix support & video◄ Reba
~ ✨ ~ ✨ ~
Absolutely no shade at all—this happened before I heard anyone else's lines—but when I was recording, I went and tried to sing as all of the ChamJam girls.......... It was way too much fun LOL.
Without a doubt I've been procrastinating writing this post and I can't really explain why LOL...... I'm definitely proud of these uploads—it's not the case where after uploading I feel so embarrassed about my work that I avoid the video for months, which definitely happens... Maybe it's because I dedicated a whole tireless month to working on just cover projects (aka worked my ass off to get these out before Animal Crossing took over my life) so as soon as I was done, I wanted to be absolved of any effort or responsibility related to them for a while? Hm idk... Or perhaps it's because I'm proud of them that it feels weird to admit so and write about it in detail? ^^;; There's a lot I want to say...
Two big uploads that mean a lot to me!!! 💓
The moment I heard Elsa sing Show Yourself on my first viewing of Frozen 2, I just knew it was a song I wanted to sing. Frozen holds a permanent residency and large real estate in my heart for being what helped me explore my feelings and heal through a difficult time—and I just love Elsa and the whole icy motif (metaphorically and aesthetically) and the two sisters' different experiences with isolation and being honest with oneself. The first film is a masterpiece. 😭
The sequel is...fine? good'ish? But on my second viewing of it I sobbed through Show Yourself... I like the lyrics a lot! My favorite line is "I have always been a fortress, cold secrets deep inside" aaah it just resonates with me so hard...... In many ways I try to be pretty open—like how I share my thoughts and experiences on this blog!—but in many other ways I seem to always be keeping my walls and guard up. Have been criticized for that before by someone who was one of the most important people to me at the time ;; And honestly around everyone who doesn't know about my singing, weeb, and k-pop interests, I'm extremely secretive and not comfortable with talking about my interests... >< thus it's hard for me to form a close relationship with anyone outside of this circle or anyone from whom I fear judgment. And due to my thorny personality I'm often described as an ice queen which certainly has its negative connotations but I've embraced and like the nickname haha.
I also really love the build-up of the song—it made it super fun to sing because there's such a variety of emotions and range to it ^^!! I especially looove singing low and emotional and chilly, and then there's an arc of self-realization and then breathy AND THAT SUPER HIGH OPERATIC FALSETTO I DIDN'T KNOW I COULD DO and then slightly warmer and then strong! until I'm belting and sadly can't even reach the notes without mixed(?) voice hahaha. And with Disney songs, you can be emotive and nuanced in ways that poppy songs often don't allow: there's somberness, there's reservation, there's wonder, reflection, curiosity, confidence, openness!
I'm so, so, so happy that I covered this song. ;u; Recently I started feeling a lot like I wasn't sure in my own singing capabilities and to be frank, in a lot of collabs I've been in, I'm not that happy with how my singing or vocal tone sounds compared to everyone else? Even if I do redoes, sometimes it feels like I'm hitting a wall. It just kinda feels like GOD FINALLY I got to actually sing and show people some of my strengths!!! Like real singing that I'm proud of!!! 😭😭
Phew okay I practically just wrote an essay LOL. One last thing-- I used to do multi-language covers often (or at least just posting more covers in different languages and recently I've only been doing JP and KR) AND I DID NOT FREAKING REALIZE. It's been ten years since my last multi-language cover.............. jeebus...................... Let's not think about that too hard! Anyway I learned while working on Show Yourself that I basically don't know anything about any language lol. Especially with the added pressure of knowing that viewers would more pay attention to my pronunciation than usual and with this somewhat more classical style there's less room for fudgery than in poppy songs. . . it was a long struggle learning to better deliver the different accents in all these languages. Still much to improve on. Bless Fome for not only making me sound good with this mix but also teaching me some of the nuances in the Japanese and Mandarin that I missed!
Anyway here's the video I just wrote a thesis on. Queen Elsa rocks.
【Eva】 Show Yourself / Frozen II ❄️ 【5 Language Cover】
Now the second upload is even more special !!!! Nine years ago, 5 friends and I decided to join a competition (unofficial chorus battle) called DUBattle Royale with the group name Gemini, because among our group we had many "vocal twins" and we blend extraordinarily well together. What a fucking beautiful thing it is that the six of us can still sing together after all these years..... I call them my first found family because they really are that to me—I know that regardless of the ebb and flow in our changing lives, I can always still count on them to have my back and cherish that special bond that only we can understand. We were hoping to have a group meetup again in Toronto late this year but with the pandemic there's no way so maybe next year for our 10th anni. :>
So yeah we sang this amazing IDOLiSH7 song that's about flying high, smiling together to overcome challenges, having courage, and reaching for our dreams together !
Our anniversary date unfortunately fell on the day that shelter-in-place was first announced in the US and in general there was a lot of grief and anxiety on social media—so as a group we discussed if we should hold off on the upload/if it would be tonedeaf to sing something so cheery in these worrisome times, but in the end we decided that it might be a welcome breath of fresh air for some people who were looking for some light in the darkness? ;; Thankfully I think we were right ;;;; To hear that we helped cheer up some folks makes this video even more meaningful than it already was. I love it a lot.
We were super fortunate to get to collaborate with an incredible visual team (I call them the visual fairies!) who are all sweet and skilled as heck and I greatly treasure their friendship too. 😩 The video is so gorgeous..... Look at all these pretty pastel colors........ Our characters and different personalities were captured so well.... The clothing designs are perfect for all of us..... The camera movements are expertly smooth and the video is just sparkly good vibes all around. I would absolutely work with pash, kayla, and azuka again without hesitation anytime, anywhere. 😭
Fun fact: every Gemini member has a strong preference towards girl idols lololol so we end up singing a lot of songs that cater more to the girls' ranges and voices. But for this one we girls have been like, "YESSSS OUR BOYS GET TO SHINE SO MUCH!! GET ITTT!!!" hehehe Jay especially is the standout in this song—he is the center of this comeback!! 💚
Oh and also I mixed............. the mix evolved a lot lol. We started recording this a long time ago and my mixing style and what I want to convey in this mix has changed a shit ton throughout the working period. I ended up settling on this wide sound with the vocals not too pushed forward, still bright but not overly crispy, fullness in the mids/lows, wet prechoruses but dry choruses. There's definitely something here that's preventing this mix from being on the level of professional that Fome is able to achieve in his mixes—I'm certainly hitting somewhat of a wall... but given my lack of advanced knowledge and not having as much in my toolkit compared to many other mixers, I'm overall kind of satisfied with the mix? It's pretty contained and doesn't make me cringe? lol
Looking forward to Gemini's 10th anniversary project~ 💞
AAAAAAH HI I've been very occupied lately with working on the coverthatI'muploadinglatertoday but before that goes up, I wanted to take a moment at this absolutely incomprehensible hour of 3 AM to give this collab its own post because it deserves the world!!!! 😭💕 A whole dream come true!!!
I've mentioned the group CYPHER here a few times before—while I was participating in the same chorus battle as them... standing outside the restaurant window during their group dinner at AX... (LOL OKAY FOR CLARITY I was also actually invited but had to pass it up for our Gemini group dinner 💗)—I've just genuinely been such a huge fan of them since they first formed for ACB1.
The six vocalist boys have this magical chemistry and it's amazing that they each have different personalities to their voices but they all come together into a charming blend, and they sing with so much emotion that you can't not be drawn into their world. (Some emotional favorites: W, Our Sky) And then they always have the best visuals sdjkfslkd just out of this world... Their artists do gorgeous work and Howl is an animation visionary... And for ACB2, they came back and did self-written original songs for all three rounds which is just insane and they're fucking legit amazing songs 😭 Truly I admire every single one of them to the moon and back.... An extremely skilled collective of people who are also really cool?! I'm definitely privileged to be friends with all of them and to be able to hang out with them in person. They are really such a good group. The pinnacle of both quality and heart. I can't fangirl enough over them, sorry. #HailCypher
yaaaaaaaa sooooooooooooooooooo I think it was back in October or something when I was in a car with Fome and Chiisana, and Fome suddenly asks us if we'd sing in SCB3 with Cypher lol. I was like WHAT I CAN'T DO THAT. WHAT???? NO.... I DON'T KNOW...... and there's just been a whole lot of self-esteem attacking since and working on my singing and my Japanese pronunciation, and I'm honestly still personally not satisfied with how I sound in our entry but I'm extremely glad that I joined them in the end. ;;;; It was super well received and so far no complaints about me!
It's been a lot of fun!! Everyone is lovely and hilarious and our entry is freaking.....my favorite thing ever.............I just love it, I love it, I love it so much, I love it waaaaay too much. T___T 💞 The song is wonderful; the visuals are beautiful and bright and fun and creative and engaging and impeccably polished and also my taste in colors djkdfjs; it's a sweet spectrum of voices full of personality and all masterfully mixed together into a massive dosage of serotonin.
Please enjoy our cover of Yasuda Rei's social media-themed song "Asymmetry" !
And I thought things couldn't get better.....but no.....but no..... Arianna had to go and combine some of my favorite people....with my favorite game..... And drew this adorable piece of us all (staff included!) as Animal Crossing characters, I caaaan't 😭😭😭
Thanks for all the support for CODEX unit~ 💕
Let's add some more cuteness with a really fast Animal Crossing version of us i i did for fun hahaha ✨💖 pic.twitter.com/mSV0Ukm0UH
【オリジナルMV】 Stepper - A Path To You (English Cover) 【8人合唱】
YAYY I was looking forward to this chorus and it's finally out in the world in all its delightfully uplifting glory! Angela and Jefferz organized this and I believe it might be my first time singing translyrics? Probably? Can't remember for sure. I love the energy in this—I've been looping it a lot and it's a collab full of people that I admire! 💓
"Everything's all right! Some days I'll just feel down.
All right! Happy days will be around!"
(Hoping that this year, even more collabs that I'm in will be released 🤞)
✨✨✨ I'M FREEEEEEEE. I've been waiting for this moment for months!! I'm thankfully happy with all the things I've been working on recently and they are fulfilling projects, but it's truly exhausting and stressful to constantly be against deadlines and to always come home from work knowing that I can only take a short break before diving into making cosplay, or recording lines, or mixing, or making video ads. I really need a whole week just to catch up on sleep ;^; However I'm very excited to be spending all of August just doing social fun things and making a trip to LA with friends for KCON!
DREAM✦SCAPE made it to the final round of Ascension Chorus Battle (2019) and the deadline was last week, marking the end of an amazing journey. I really love all three entries our team made!! Our non-vocalist staff (pKotetsu, shippa, minty⁺, neneki) are all so talented and cool; it's been such a great honor to work with them and I still feel privileged that they said yes to us and stuck with us for 3 rounds. ;u; And of course it's been incredible to be a vocal team with longtime friends Mimi, Chiisana, and Aerin 💕💕💕 The other day in our sappy feels we called each other our "singing sisters"—and I feel like that's really the best way to describe the four of us... Our vocal tones all vibe and blend extremely well together and we sing with similar amounts of energy!! And we're always on the same page; having worked together and been friends for nearly a decade (yet somehow we'd never done a quartet before?!) let us be very comfortable with each other and give/accept honest feedback and have the best support system ever. ;o; I love them so much. I got to sing with such fuqqin POWER VOCAL QUEENS.
There's a lot to appreciate—from the vocal prowess and blood-pumping energy by chiisana, Mimi, and Aerin; to minty⁺'s ever stylish designs that nailed each of our personalities every time and eye candy illustrations that I would happily eat up at any given moment because they are just my type; to neneki's persevering dedication and how she elevated us with her knowledge about mixing and audio tech; to pKotetsu and shippa's animation (and the story was crafted by them too!) with A+ aesthetics and unique effects built by them that I can't comprehend the process behind.
Thank you for a great CB run! 💕
【A-S3】紅蓮華 | GURENGE【DREAM✦SCAPE】
For the past two rounds, neneki had done the main audio mix while Mimi and I would work on the timing—but for this round the scheduling only worked if neneki tuned/timed while I did the main mix, so that's how I ended up mixing despite swearing off CB mixing after Gemini's "Innocent x Haven" for Ascension 2017, heh....... For good reason too, I found out. and reconfirmed every. single day. as I struggled to make enough progress on the mix. Struggled just to accomplish anything. Discovered that I know nothing about efficient mixing, am lacking a lot of technical knowledge. Constantly felt the pressure of the looming deadline and the high expectations for a final round entry. Was burning out because my full time job is also post production and eye strain intensive. Had trouble staying awake late every night. Ear fatigue clouding my judgment.
This was such a big wake-up call regarding my mixing process. ;; More about this under the cut.
Hawwo, it's been a while. TAT I honestly don't even remember how I spent April but I was certainly busy with something or the other... Now the month of May has blown by me with little semblance of healthy personal time. orz I was sick for two entire weeks and then had the most intense, draining, high pressure business trip for a week in Phoenix.. Now I'm mostly recovered but still got busy and some stressful times ahead. Yells a little.
Right before I got sick (and probably the reason), Fome and I made a 1 day trip down to LA because my favorite!!!! group!!!! Lovelyz came to the Korea Times Music Festival for their first American performance. QuQ I was so happy I got to use my lightstick and banner.... My princesses were beautiful and glowing 💗 The downsides to KTMF were that it was outside, a very long show, and it got cold once the sun went down—but o m g it was so much better a concert than I ever imagined it to be.... We both enjoyed it a lot!!! Every single act brought a quality performance and we were constantly awed by how impressive everyone's skills were... Kim Bumsoo is now my favorite ahjusshi; he's literally a godman and can do no wrong ever. Super Junior is always a joy to watch; plus their live vocals were very clear and they nailed them. Eunji from Apink is just such a wonderful and incredible singer and person!! Sungwoon's super stable vocals and dancing! And of course Fome's favorite Taemin dances for this non-broadcasted outdoor concert with as much charisma and feeling as he would for a music video shoot. And everyone else was impressive; I'm just too lazy to write about every act.
Here's me being the one embarrassingly loud Lovelinus in my section.
~ ✨ ~ ✨ ~
The Ascension Chorus Battle round 2 deadline was a few days ago and yaaaay our group actually made it...... Not gonna lie, we were getting worried but hoooooo everyone really worked their asses off and pulled through in the end. T___T So thankful for everyone's hard work; this round was not easy at all.... On the vocal and mixing side, we struggled a lot. We sang XAI's "THE SKY FALLS" (which btw is from a Godzilla anime movie OST, which for some reason we were pretty hyped about) and it's a very cool song but is overwhelmingly repetitive, so we came up with a lot of melody changes and stretched ourselves to add new adlibs and harmonies as last ditch efforts to add a little spark... And then this sort of song is pretty unforgiving to mix since the vocals are very exposed, so every adjustment makes a drastic change in the sound and you end up going back and forth trying desperately to find a sweet spot that may not exist. (Not to take credit for the mixing—I only did timing and then neneki mixed while Mimi and I gave feedback so we were all frustrated together lolol)
Visuals are freaking amazing. This concept? The selective colors? The character styling? The story? The Marvel reference? Amazing amazing amazing.
