Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 87

– Creak –

Marvin’s appearance was quite impressive.

Like a protagonist from an old Western movie, he announced his presence with a loud, nasal sound.

Appearing with a long shadow, Marvin wasn’t much different from what I had seen in past videos. Except for his blonde hair turning white, he boasted a robust physique that hadn’t changed much.

– Tap tap –

As he stepped in against the backlight, he approached us fearlessly, and I couldn’t help but feel a strange sensation.

Perhaps it was because of the surreal feeling of seeing someone who had jumped out of a screen.

Judging by how the noisy studio had fallen silent in an instant, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt it.

Marvin had leaped across the long span of 20 years and appeared before us.

He stopped just two steps away from me as he entered the studio.

It wasn’t surprising.

From the start, Marvin hadn’t looked at anyone else, focusing solely on me.

“Hmm.”

After facing me, he made an unknown nasal sound and turned his head to Taylor, who was next to me.

“You were right. He’s even more amazing in person.”

“???”

Confused and questioning, Marvin took off his sunglasses and offered me a handshake.

“Marvin Harrins. Call me Marvin.”

“Ah! I’m Park Young-chan. You can call me YC.”

After exchanging greetings, Marvin gave off a more gentle feeling than I had vaguely imagined.

This was quite unexpected.

Painkiller mainly sang Thrash Metal (a subgenre of heavy metal known for its fast tempos and aggressive sound) and Death Metal (a more extreme subgenre emphasizing themes of destruction and death with heavy guitar riffs and powerful double bass drumming).

They were truly at the extreme end of heavy metal, and their open provocation of Nirvana made their image inevitably rough.

However, Marvin, after taking off his sunglasses and exchanging greetings, resembled a kind, middle-aged neighbor.

My uncles were busy introducing themselves to Marvin.

In particular, Uncle Kwak Do-hoon showed a rare frozen expression.

“I’m Kwak Do-hoon. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Hahaha!”

It was a more meaningful encounter for my uncle, as they had lived in the same era. Meeting someone who could be considered an idol, it was understandable that my uncle was so starstruck.

Fortunately, Marvin seemed pleased with my uncles’ reactions.

Perhaps he saw fans who had aged alongside him through my uncles.

After making a good impression, Marvin and we began to discuss the project in earnest.

The Painkiller & Black Tiger project will proceed in two directions.

One is to recreate Painkiller’s most famous song, ‘Provocation,’ under Marvin’s production.

Marvin was the one who created Painkiller, so this experience would definitely provide me and my uncles with great experience.

If the first project is that, the second project is the opposite: I will be producing Marvin.

I couldn’t help but be greedy as a producer for this project.

His drumming, called the godfather of double bass, was something I couldn’t even imitate. It’s not that the level is that different, but that he has completely established his own domain.

“Unfortunately, my uncles can’t join this project.”

To fully draw out Marvin’s potential, it was unavoidable, though regrettable.

However, seeing how much my uncles liked him, I felt sorry for no reason.

‘If this project goes well, I should talk about another collaboration in a few years.’

By then, my uncles would have established themselves as masters, so it might be possible to have a decent collaboration.

Marvin woke me up from my thoughts.

“Then let’s check each other’s skills.”

Just a moment ago, he was like a neighborhood uncle, but now he had the face of a rocker I had seen in videos.

With a slightly provocative look, I smiled broadly and nodded.

I was also curious.

Whether his drumming skills were still the same or had deteriorated.

We went first.

We decided to play Black Tiger as the first song.

The reason for choosing this song first was because it was based on metal.

Soon, my uncles took their places with excited expressions.

We had already finished setting up while practicing before Marvin arrived, so there was no need to delay.

So we started playing the song right away.

-Ooooooh!-

Like a huge engine warming up noisily, I began to raise my voice.

As my voice grew louder, so did the sound of my uncles’ instruments.

When all the band sounds reached their peak, I began to sing Black Tiger in a rough voice.

“tiger tiger black tiger~ Black tigers are great hunters!”

‘Black Tiger’ is a song about laughing at the hunters who came to hunt them and instead hunting them.

As a song that declares that our band is a unique existence without natural enemies, I and my uncles, who sang this song, revealed our presence as arrogant and rough beings.

‘Good! My uncles are in good condition today!’

I felt like they couldn’t show their full potential during practice due to nervousness, but when they jumped into the actual performance, they showed 120% of their ability.

Well, it wasn’t that surprising.

Unexpectedly, my uncles were the type to show their true skills on stage rather than in the practice room.

“Hoo~”

Before I knew it, ‘Black Tiger’ had ended, and I looked at Marvin with a fairly satisfied expression.

“Hahaha!”

Soon, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

His face clearly showed how surprised he was.

I felt a sense of relief, like I had somewhat repaid his earlier provocation.

After that, we played one more song.

It was ‘Level Up,’ one of the songs from our first full-length album and the second most popular after ‘Brilliant Struggle.’

‘Level Up’ is a song that incorporates the Pop rock genre.

Pop rock is a genre of rock music that refers to albums or music where various genre elements are mixed, making it meaningless to classify the genre, or pop music with a rock-like color in a band format.

There’s no need to think of it as difficult; you can think of most of The Beatles’ songs as being in this genre.

It was easy for the public to accept, so if it hadn’t been for ‘Brilliant Struggle,’ this song would have become the main track.

‘Level Up’ wasn’t as flashy as ‘Brilliant Struggle,’ but it wasn’t an easy song either.

What should I say? It’s a song that reveals the skills of the performers without embellishment.

Thanks to that, it was once the most difficult and avoided song by my uncles.

This is because if you don’t capture the inspiration, you can’t properly express the feeling of the song.

‘But now, they’ve gotten quite the hang of it.’

Like the name of the song ‘Level Up,’ everything has leveled up through the concert tour.

-Jijijijijing!-

I filled the similar gap created in the second half of the song with a guitar riff, even if it wasn’t a guitar solo, and finished ‘Level Up.’

Marvin’s face, when I looked at him after finishing the second song, was different from the first song.

Before I knew it, he had the face of a cold-blooded producer, and the moment I confirmed that, I knew.

That we had completely exceeded the standards he had set.

As we left the practice room, Marvin patted us on the back, revealing how satisfied he was.

And when he was about to evaluate me last, he hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“Honestly, I don’t like the word ‘genius.’ I just thought that some people reach their goals faster or slower.”

Marvin hated confining the tearful efforts he had made with sincerity and perseverance under the name of talent.

“But seeing you, I realized that my thoughts have been wrong all along… At least from my point of view, you are a really absurd existence.”

“…….”

I wondered what he saw in me that made him say that I was an irrational being, but I nodded slightly at the thought that came to my mind.

If I think about these strange things that have happened to me, and the unbelievable inspirations, that talent, that I have gained from those strange things, it is certainly true that I am an absurd existence.

Marvin, who had been evaluating me with a dazed face for a moment, shook his head and said with a smile.

“Then, is it my turn to be evaluated this time?”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

It wasn’t to put pressure on him, but it was my pure feeling.

It seemed that my uncles had the same thought, as they couldn’t take their eyes off Marvin, who had already entered the practice room.

-Tick, tick, tick!-

Marvin took out his sticks and tested the sounds of the drum set he had set up.

His appearance made it seem like he was going to show us something properly, so I couldn’t help but look forward to it.

-Dududududung!-

And his performance that started exceeded my expectations.

Short and fast strokes, clear and deep resonating cymbal sounds.

His performance showed an aggressive and amazing appearance that was better than his prime.

His sticks spewed flames to the point where it made me laugh at the thought of whether it could get any faster than this.

“Crazy!”

It was such an amazing performance that I couldn’t help but make that sound.

My uncles had already lost their minds a long time ago, and in particular, Uncle Kwak Do-hoon’s face was so grotesque that his eyes, nose, and mouth were all loosened.

‘My hands are itching.’

Even when I looked through the memories of the guy from my past life, I had never heard a drum performance like that, so I had to be swept away by the desire to play together.

But on the other hand, the thought of wanting to listen to his solo performance was not small either.

It was that unbelievable of a performance.

‘Who would have known? That his drumming, which I thought he had completed 20 years ago, would have progressed so much like this.’

As I couldn’t help but think that there would be a real uproar if this drum performance was shown to the world through the project, I also felt dizzy with the pouring inspiration.

Thanks to that, the song I had prepared for this project had to be naturally discarded, but I had to focus on creating a song that would maximize Marvin’s drums in my head, so much so that I didn’t care about such things.

The first of the two projects to start was Marvin’s producing.

“There’s a reason why he’s a legend.”

“To think that the provocation I’ve heard so much would be arranged like this!”

“What’s really scary is that it’s been arranged in a form specialized for our playing style.”

“Hehehe. I didn’t know Il-beom’s bass was so good.”

“My bass was always good!”

“It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t to this extent!”

“Keuk.”

I chuckled at the sound of my uncles bickering, but I couldn’t help but admit it.

Perhaps it was because he had bet his life on rock? Marvin’s experience was definitely something that even I couldn’t easily catch up with.

Thanks to that, I gained unexpected experience in this project.

As a producer and as a musician, this project will definitely make me grow.