Interesting excerpts from that controversial MHJ interview

MHJ: When I first heard the intro to the <Ditto> demo, I was absolutely taken back by the chorus. It was as if it expressed everything I wanted to say. And a picture came into my head. A deer that randomly pops out in a white snow field and the faces of people who meet the unexpected. As if to represent the relationship between consumers and NewJeans who debuted out of nowhere. I was thinking of those who witnessed the beauty of freedom in an open, empty environment and their desire to own it. The desire to chase after something beautiful, while unintentional, puts constraints on the subject and ironically reduces their charm. I thought of this bizarre relationship and thought it’s similar to our reality. I understand people may not trust and question something they have yet to experience but I wanted to state that we will shine more brightly when we are left free. I even thought that that might be something that everyone actually wants.

I collected <Attention> <Hype boy> <Hurt> <OMG> in 2019 but <Ditto> in particular was produced [from my ask] for the winter of 2022. Ironically, The misunderstandings from the 1st EP was what made <Ditto> happen. I wanted to wrap up the misunderstanding by reconciling [TL note: she’s being very deliberate w her word choice. She’s not calling it a fight, she’s not saying she’s apologizing. She wants to make up for what’s happened and what’s happened is a misunderstanding]. As if we could transfer the heat of the summer to the warmth of the winter. So I was even more sure that I wanted to build an album that felt like a gift

MHJ: The premise that I might be expected to work with HYBE producers sounds a bit weird. I think there’s a couple misunderstandings because ADOR started as a label within HYBE. To put it bluntly, ADOR is a company founded to allow me do music and business the way I desire. This also means that the company will be run differently from the pre-existing media industry systems. The mission of a company holds a lot of meaning. If someone asks how I’ve been able to work 20 years in the idol industry even though I originally had no interest in it, you could say that it was the desire to provide an alternate vision and new music that doesn’t exist yet in the mainstream market. This is the reason I said that “[their] concept is their music itself” right before the launch of NewJeans.

I am not a songwriter or a lyricist, just a producer that has nothing to do with copyright. The flip side of this means that I can do my work without being restrained by a song’s composition. This also means that ideally, Ador’s music is borderless and free of constraints. So working with those who understand my music tastes was much more important than creating an organized system. BANA’s Kihyun is an old friend from my SM Ent days. We became friends because we both did not agree with the company’s style and system at the time. I guess we were the troublemakers. And that’s also why we both left to create our own companies. When I launched ADOR under HYBE, I strongly argued for a complete “lack of interference on creativity and our independent operations”. And as such, HYBE has no say or relation to how ADOR operates and runs production. So it feels weird when I sometimes see ADOR’s music style grouped with SM or HYBE.

MHJ: I founded a label to be an executive producer and took the role of a CEO to be fully independent as an executive producer. Creativity is a field that requires close communication with business management. This doesn’t imply reckless spending behavior. Success in creativity within pop culture is measured by the numbers. This isn’t pure art. So to me, creativity and business have been on the same line of importance. It’s been 20 years since I’ve been a part of this industry. I’ve witnessed a lot of mistakes and mishap over those 20 years. If someone asks what I’ve learned over these 20 years, it’s, “Ah, that’s what I should avoid.” and “I should avoid that.” I’ve witnessed plenty of conflict that arose from misunderstanding between creativity and business. Simply spending a lot of money without proper planning does not lead to good creative output nor business output. Many people use the phrase “HYBE funds” to explain everything, but it’s not an expression I agree with. Invested funds and actual label management strategy that utilize them is separate from HYBE and is fully under the label’s control, and furthermore I’ve received a couple other investment opportunities of simiar value at the time from companies other than HYBE. I had several options at the time and regardless of the investor, my number 1 request was always ‘creative independence’ and ‘nonintervention’, so it didn’t have to be HYBE. Then this leads to ‘why I had to choose HYBE,’ but I will stop here since that will lead to a completely different topic than this interview.

The 1st EP budget was not hastily planned at all. Lots of folks mentioned HYBE’s capital regarding the 4 MVs and their production budget. HYBE has no say over ADOR’s production plan or how the funds are spent, because we were promised autonomy in business management. Our budget is not too different from other companies or labels, because the production budget was planned from my experience with budgeting and market research. If anything, we were much more efficient given the amount produced. And sure, budget helps, but a lot of it doesn’t always lead to good results. I try my best to balance spending and creativity based on my experience in the field. And that’s one of the factors that allowed for a NewJeans to be paid so quickly. Account balancing is different for each company and is a top secret so not a lot of people actually know how they work. Maybe it’s because of this lack of understanding, but I saw a lot of people talk about how NewJeans were paid 2 months into debut. Some were confused between creative neighboring rights [TL:no idea what this is] and account balancing. Some were arguing that it was possible because we’re a part of a large company.

Given how rare this is in the industry, I don’t not understand. At least based on what I’ve seen, nobody has been paid this quickly. But nobody has 3 debut title tracks. And nobody had all three enter the charts so quickly and stay on top for the long run. The market is changing so obviously there aren’t examples to compare us to and so I understand people are guessing. We didn’t pay NewJeans because we were nice, and it wasn’t because HYBE is big. It happened because the necessary conditions were met. To summarize, it happened due to a balanced budget plan, a triple title strategy, and the outcome of being successful pretty quickly. When I first decided on three title tracks, lots of people were surprised and said a lot of things, but I was able to make the decision because I was a producer and yet a CEO. Filming several MVs was also possible because I was a producer and a CEO. If you’re a producer, you need to understand that pop culture is not free from the numbers. I able to think about how to create those numbers and alternate solutions preceisely because I’m a creative and an administrator, not an administrator that has nothing to do with the creative side.

One of the experiments I wanted to do while launching ADOR and NewJeans is how far I can get with just the basics. This is why we didn’t do a YouTube promo campaign. I wanted to compete with the foundations; music, choreo, and content. It’s easier to evaluate reality the cleaner your data is. And once you set that as your basis, it’s easier to decide where to go next.

If anything, they’re sweet consumers that are excited by photo cards. They move me. If this their attitude now, I’m wondering how excited they can be once I’m going all in. Just a random thought but I’m suddenly just very thankful. It’s fun creating content by bouncing back and forth between the fans. If you look at just my title, you could ask why a CEO is knee deep in all this work but my title doesn’t change what I do. If I need it, I make it and new things that are perhaps hard to explain. I wanted to create a new kind of relationship with our consumers. The reason I founded ADOR was to do something I enjoy. ‘Fun’ influences a lot. ‘Fun’ is the foundation of the ‘entertainment’ industry. And that’s what I’m focusing on. And because we’re in our early days, I am indeed involved in leading a lot. But good results will serve a good reference point for people at ADOR.

MHJ: There are a couple factors that I emphasize, such as melodic progression or vocal style. Personally, I have very much not been a fan of the way K-Pop typically handles melodic progression or vocal styles. The need to include a high pitched part, awkward and sudden rap sections, everyone sounding the same, etc. Of course, I do respect those who enjoy this style. But I do not like these elements and wanted a world in which music without those elements can exist. I started leading overall production in order to be in control of these details.

‘Songwriting’ as a concept is fairly open-ended these days. It’s rare for a beat maker to also take on top lining and most don’t even recognize the concept of a top liner so most people don’t understand the role they play in making music so it’s understandable that most people fail to understand. The importance of a beatmaker versus a topliner varies song to song so I can’t say which is more important. And as such it’s arguable that the role of a director that manages this overall process has grown. All this means that a song isn’t made by one person. If you hear demo samples with different toplines on top of the same beat, I’m sure this will make a lot more sense. The outcome might have been very different if the beatmaker or the melody maker directed the vocals instead of myself. 250, who gained a lot of recognition through working with us, has always been a polished producer and has given music to other idol teams as well. But the output has been very different from ours. It might be obvious but the style of a final product changes depending on the final stakeholder’s decisions. A lot rides on my decisions. So word choice of asking how I “chose” is right yet wrong. I’m someone that wants the change the game. I wanted to break the existing notion on how K-Pop can be successful. I became a producer and a CEO and yet I still desire to work in a creative environment that is free of prejudice. I hope lots of different thoughts appear in this market. This is coming from from a former art director that had no interest in idols. This should be your takeaway.

Typically, when something is successful, people like to look at the result and understand the process by going backwards. But there are serious limitations to this given that there is a finite amount of experiences to analyze and draw conclusions out of. The reality I experienced and have built is often very different from the 3rd person’s presumptive perspectives, because everyone works differently and approaches their lives differently. The title of Art Director, Creative Director, and Producers all meant different things per industry and per person. Never assume things with little basis. Things that feel new do for a reason. Using old conventions to understand newness could already be an outdated practice. One needs to think outside the box to think differently. Easily defining how success is made is not something every record producer is capable of. But if you must know how I think, I could say this. Perhaps it was the harmony of an attractive beat and melody paired with a easy to listen vocal with all the overwhelming aspects removed. There is a reason I wanted to be strong at the basics.