[Interview] Scott Quinn on writing for NCT DREAM
There aren’t many Songwriters that can boast working on songs for three of the biggest names in K-Pop, but Scott Quinn is one of them.
Scott Quinn Press Image. Courtesy of Scott Quinn.
Scott, a North Yorkshire born and bred Artist and Songwriter, made his debut in an indie pop band playing local gigs and has a deep-rooted passion for music.
“When I left university, I ended up uploading [my university solo project] to BBC Introducing and it got played on Radio One immediately,” he explained, “In my old band we were striving to have Radio One play for like five years and never got it, and then this song I’m in Love got it straight away.
“I was like, okay this is changing everything.”
The Artist and Songwriter’s most recent escapades resulted in a trip to Seoul, South Korea, working with leading entertainment company SM Entertainment, and co-writing boy-group NCT DREAM’s Dreaming which boasts over 4 million streams on Spotify.
In previous years, Scott had also co-written fourth generation boy-group CIX’s debut single Movie Star, and A Brand New Day, for leaders of the K-Pop industry, BTS, which featured the vocals of Swedish singer Zara Larsson.
Dreaming
“The original song I wrote about two or three years ago now with a good friend of mine called Sam Klempner, and another writer called Hight, who’s also an artist”, Scott explained, “We wrote this song with Zara Larsson in mind, which was mainly because I’d just written [A Brand New Day] and at the time I was thinking maybe we could keep this thing going.”
A Brand New Day made its debut on the soundtrack album for BTS’ official game, “BTS World”.
“The song was finished; it had my vocal on, and it kind of had some interest from different people,” said Scott, “It was really recently that we heard that NCT DREAM were interested.”
Dreaming is the seventh track on “Universe” – the third album by South Korean boy-group NCT. The group features a whopping 23 members and is divided into four sub-units (NCT 127, NCT U, NCT DREAM and WayV). Dreaming uses the vocals of sub-unit NCT DREAM, made up of seven NCT members – Mark Lee, Jaemin, Jisung, Jeno, Renjun, Haechan and Chenle.
Scott explained his shock to the response the song garnered upon its release. “I didn’t know what kind of reaction the song would have,” he said, “And it seemingly was one of the more popular ones off the album which was crazy to me as well.
“I had no idea they were running with it as a frontrunner and the video came out which was crazy, and the production value was so high.
“It just doesn’t happen in the West anymore.”
Watch ‘Dreaming’ track video.
The History of Dreaming
“Originally [Dreaming] was called Something to Dance to,” Scott explained, “It was a heartbreak anthem for getting over someone. You go to the club and you’re over all the crying, you’re over all the heartbreak, and you’re asking the DJ to give you something to dance to, something to be carefree about, something to lose this sadness to.”
Scott explained how, during the back and forth of the writing process between himself and SM Entertainment, the lyrics took on a different form. “With K-Pop there’s always this mix of Korean and English,” he said.
“It was really cool hearing their interpretation of it and they kept in certain words, like ‘something, something’.”
“For a lot of people [K-Pop] is escapism,” Scott said, full of sincerity, “I know with the BTS stuff when we did that, the game OST, Brand New Day, it was all so dreamy, and it was in this other world and so I thought that fitted really well.
“It was a completely different concept to what I started with, but I love where it ended up. It’s also really cool watching reaction videos of people from countries where they don’t speak Korean, and they’re translating the lyrics and learning what it’s about. I love that.”
A Brand New Day
On March 10, 2017, BTS leader RM tweeted a screenshot of Scott’s song Know Me, using the hashtag #RMusic to share the song with his fanbase – the unstoppable ARMY.
Scott explained at the time the tweet was made BTS were yet to blow up in the West. “I didn’t know if it was one person, I didn’t know if it was ten people,” he said, “I was in a museum in London at the time and I was like ‘why is my phone blowing up’?
“The interaction was crazy, the fans are so loyal.”
Having now worked on several K-Pop songs, Scott spoke about how A Brand New Day was his first K-Pop cut and that keeping a relationship with the boy-group was a challenge after their popularity surged in the West.
“We were DM-ing a bit and we were like we should get into the studio together, and there was a real relationship there,” he explained, “Then they just blew up.
“I tried my hardest to keep in that circle, and then eventually their team took over their Twitter and unfollowed a load of people.”
Despite having some connections severed by the seven-piece group’s global popularity, Scott still managed to work on music for BTS. “A year later I got sent a track by Mura Masa, I don’t think many people know that he did the beat on [A Brand New Day] because he didn’t shout about it much.
“I was asked to have a go at the melodies, and I literally pressed record on my voice memos, hit the demo track and improvised this melody and that was it. That was the finished melody that they used in the song.”
Scott explained that he could not make it to the level on the BTS World game which featured his song. “I tried playing the game and it was too hard,” he joked with a jovial smile, “I gave up. I couldn’t keep [the members] happy.”
Future K-Pop endeavours
After working on A Brand New Day with BTS, Scott was flown to Seoul to take part in a nine day camp with SM Entertainment. Later the debut single Movie Star, which Scott co-wrote for boy-group CIX, was released.
“[Movie Star] is one of my favourites, it’s a really cool one,” he said, “We wrote that in Korea and the video for that is amazing.
“The guys are so cool.”
Watch CIX ‘Movie Star’.
As is the case with many other creatives, Scott, whose passion for music is abundant, is not ready to stop any time soon. “There’s a few more [songs] in the pipeline,” he teased.
“There’s another that I know is coming out at some point that I wrote last year. I can’t say anything about that, but it’s [for] a member of a group and it’s cool.”
Scott’s sincerity and admiration for Korean groups shone through throughout the interview.
Scott Quinn, press image for his single ‘Holding on to Letting Go’ which recently hit 5 million streams on Spotify. Courtesy of Scott Quinn.
“I love K-Pop and there’s always so much opportunity for it,” he explained, “I love the jazzier chords and the big middle-8s. That’s a lot more me than what we do over here.
“The production value [of K-Pop] is so high, and it just doesn’t happen in the West anymore, we don’t really go for that. I love doing what K-Pop does, so there’ll be loads more [songs] I’m sure.
“I think K-Pop used to be a cheesy thing over here and no one wanted to touch it. Now it’s one of the biggest powerhouses in the world.”
“So many people now listen to music that’s not in their own language, which is incredible, and I think long may that continue.”
Stream Scott Quinn ‘Holding on to Letting Go’.
