K-pop is everything these days.
If you’re a music fan and have not heard of the genre, we suggest that you please masuk further under that gigantic rock that you’ve been sitting under.
Anywho, Korean bands, specifically South Korean bands known for their catchy songs, synchronised dance moves and crazy attractive members, have taken over the world.
Most recently, a new K-pop group called Weeekly released a music video for their album’s title track called "Tag Me (@Me)", and the video got over four million views in the first 24 hours.
(Three days later, the views have risen to over 6.7 million and counting).
Malaysian fans, however, noticed a local connection.
Both composers of the song were Malaysians!.gif.aspx)
Reaching for the stars
The two are crazy talented duo Audi Mok and Tysha Tiar.
Speaking to Rojak Daily, Tysha said that the response to the song was simply unbelievable.
“It’s crazy,” said Tysha repeatedly.
She said that it was also extremely exciting for their song to be picked by the K-pop label, as many international composers had submitted their compositions as well.
“It’s like an audition. How it works with the K-pop labels is that they would ask a few producers and songwriters from all over the world to submit their work and they would listen to it and decide which one they wanted.”
“So then, I think we were up against Sweedish producers and the others. I mean, Sweedish songwriters and producers are insanely talented, so the fact that they chose our songs over other international producers and songwriters, that’s just crazy,” Tysha laughed.
Years of work
Tysha, who has been writing songs with Audi since she was 18, said that the experience is like no other.
“I love working with him because he’s the type that wants his songwriters and the people that he works with to get the melody down within 24 hours," she said adding that it eventually took them 3 days to finalise everything.
(FYI everyone, Audi is an industry legend who has worked with a host of Malaysian singers including Datuk Siti Nurhaliza, Faizal Tahir, Jaclyn Victor, Vince Chong, OAG and many many more.)
Explaining further about the process, Tysha said that when putting together the song, they had to come up with lyrics, a hook and a title.
“Usually the label or group will decide if they want to keep it or not. For 'Tag Me', there were quite a number of words that they actually kept,” she exclaimed.
A huge deal
While "Tag Me" continues to rise in popularity, it is actually the second song that the duo have composed for a K-pop band.
She said that the first song was called "Home", performed by Yezi, which was released on 5 March this year.
“I feel like it’s been an amazing year for me and Audi. In fact, for me it’s like a dream come true to write for K-pop singers 'cos I’ve been listening to K-pop songs since I was in high school!”
"Just talking about it I feel like crying right now. I’m so overwhelmed! OMG!" she said excitedly.
Thankful for all the support
Also a singer herself, Tysha said that the love and words of encouragement by Malaysians have been amazing.
“I didn’t expect how a lot of people actually noticed the fact that the songwriters are Malaysians.”
“I’ve been receiving a lot of comments from them saying that they’re so proud of us and how proud they feel that we’re able to write for K-pop singers so I want to thank everyone who has been saying a lot of all this nice stuff on social media,” she said.
As for those planning on careers as composers, Tysha’s main advice is to never give up.
“I started when I was 18, but at one point, I felt like music didn’t really love me back in a way. I did give up but I realised that no matter what, music is what I always fall back on to."
“I guess the best advise to songwriters out there is to just keep writing, no matter the outcome, just keep writing,” she said.
For those of you who loved "Tag Me", Tysha revealed that Audi and her have a few more songs that could possibly be released soon.
Soooooo, tunggu patiently 'kay, you guys!
All the best Tysha and Audi! First Malaysia, then K-pop, then the world!