Classical Musicians React: Samuel Seo 'D O W E'

Seiji: Pfftt.

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wow Stephen: That was nice.

Umu: You're now reacting to the K-indie artist Samuel Seo and his song 'D O W E', released in 2019.

And the lyrics are commentary on the growing problem of air pollution, especially in Korea where fine dust is a growing problem.

And people have to wear masks to protect themselves.

He longs to see the blue sky free from dust.

The song is composed, arranged, and written by him.

Stephen: Sick! Let's do it! Seiji: Pfftt.

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wow.

Stephen: That was nice.

Isaac: This is the dust jumping around like— *both pretends to cough* They're having a dance, whoo! Kevin: This is really chill, all the percussion rings very nicely.

Henry: That's not a– what is the meter? Brianna: One, two, three, ha! One, two, three.

This is bachata.

Elizabeth: Okay, I feel like the beginning there was like a three in there for a couple of iterations that was throwing me off a little.

Henry: *struggling to figure out the meter* His voice is beautiful, his voice is beautiful.

Fiona: I like the cool vocals just introduced.

Like, there's more peril introduced? Like this song is like cool and collected but it's like .

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Hey! Daniel: Yeah.

Henry: Dang, this is hip! Kevin: “I wake up with dust.

“Isaac: “with dust ah, ah!” “Another one bites the dust!” ;D (Queen reference) Stephen: Also, it's really cool how like.

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not all the time.

Because right here they're not doing it but before with that like the guitar rhythm they were cutting off a beat.

So it kind of like throws you off for a second.

Henry: I don't know why I was so freaked out by the meter, it's like a solid Cloud: Because the syncopation is there (Henry: Solid duple) and you're like— wooow! Percussion! Stephen: And then every now and then they like displace that guitar rhythm So it like makes you think one is where it's not actually, which just kind of cool.

Elizabeth: Oooh, I like the little flute riff.

And now we've got choir! Owen: I like that sentence, “I want my sky again.

” I like that.

Fiona: This is pretty awesome.

Daniel: Yeah, yeah.

Elizabeth: That's just like, so tight.

All the instrumentation.

Him singing.

The rhythm.

It's just like so put together but he's just so good at that! Ugh! Daniel: Oh and then he goes back.

Fiona: I love that, it's simple and he says, “I want my sky again.

” Daniel: Ohhhh.

That's interesting, I think that's like a.

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Isn't that a tertiary—tertian chord? Fiona: Sure! Kevin: It ends on a minor seven and the nine.

Daniel: No I'm only saying that because there's a piece that I'm playing that ends sort of like that.

Fiona: I—yeah, it sounds— Fiona: Yeah, it sounds good.

It's good to me.

I doot one note at a time.

Cloud: It sounds like the same ending as the avocado song.

Henry: That was really cool, that was really good.

I like that a lot.

Cloud: I really liked that!Henry: I liked that a lot, yeah.

I was so sad because like—I could just— Henry: I'm just gonna cruise fine.

Cloud: I'm just gonna hit that on replay and just like walk home.

Bye! Henry: Goodness.

Cloud: Thanks for the song, man.

Henry: What do you like about it? I like the.

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I liked everything about it.

I like the singing, Henry: the form, the back and forth—Cloud: I love the syncopation Henry: Yeah, the—what I'm going to call just polyrhythms, for the instrumental backing.

Maybe it's just syncopation.

But I feel like there's some layers of other rhythmic decisions.

Cloud: I'm like still swaying (Henry: Alternative.

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) like yeah! Henry: Nah it was really, really cool.

It was really hip.

It kept me on my musical toes! Cloud: I love the “I wake up with dust *cough cough*” It kind of reminded me of 'Radioactive' where they're like “Breathing in the chemicals—””*inhale*” Daniel: What do you think? Fiona: Aw man, I just love the use of guitar in there just that sound is so like contemporary and cool and it's being using so much like fusion jazz and like new music now and also the Like in the bass line ostinato all throughout so consistent.

(Daniel: Yes.

) It just carried the whole song (Daniel: Exactly.

) until the end.

And like he was able to like there were moments of silence But he was able to jump back in and that groove was never lost.

It was established strongly.

Daniel: Sorry, I'm going to talk about actually about his diction.

Fiona: Do it, yes!Daniel: I'm like just talking about that right now.

But I thought it was so interesting because when I heard him sing, like when he comes in with his vocals when you sing in Korean his Korean wasn't like not necessarily authentic, right? Because he is.

He's like this Korean, South Korean singer, but like it's Americanized it's like westernized his pronunciation and it's so funny because like but I can tell for him like he's like trying to imitate a more like Korean situated like in the country like their style like their accent of speaking Korean but like you see in like other K-Pop artists like there's a trend to like pronounce Korean words or saying Korean with a westernized sort of accent but he's going the opposite way but what he speaks or when he sings in English it actually comes up a lot more smoothly as the pronunciations obviously are not.

I'm assuming, and I think I searched this up but he's actually.

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He's from Canada, too.

Umu: Yeah, he was born in Korea but then went to school on Canada, law school.

Daniel: Yeah, so it's like for him the pronunciation isn't as like as like maybe you can say awkward? Or like like mouthful-ly if you can really say that.

To him, like when I'm listening to this, it really sounds smooth and I think that really adds to the general vibe we're getting here.

It's just like another layer on top of like all these other layers and you don't hear like a linguistic disruption as much, if that make sense.

But.

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yeah.

[It's] something that I would want to listen to more.

Umu: Dude, he's amazing.

Daniel: I know, he is! Isaac: That sounded very atmospheric and it never scratches the surface—or it never cuts through the bubble— Kevin: or the smog layer.

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You know, if you think about like the layer of smog in the sky never cuts through it and never And never goes out of it, there's always something covering it.

Isaac: Ah.

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Kevin: No? Isaac: No, that's because you're getting the facts wrong because if you have that, that would cut through—Kevin: It's a metaphor.

Isaac: But yeah, so it was interesting how he kept this soundscape so alive and fresh throughout the whole song because it did maintain through the entirety of it.

What made it so significant within each one of the sections is the use of rhythm.

It's laid out in a cascade motion through the different instruments in that you don't you're not always listening to the congos and you're just or (Kevin: “The congos”? The congo is a dance.

) the low drums.

Kevin: Bongos.

Isaac: Bongos, or some type of drum.

But you're alternating from different instruments and not forced that kind of switch from instrument to instrument keeps it fresh.

And then for him to just chant “do we do we” I thought it was like.

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is that questionable inflections, like “do we do we” it sounds a little bit like a question.

But also it could be an exclamation of.

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a point he's trying to say.

Yeah, I thought it was just a nice and pleasant song.

Stephen: It's really interesting.

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To have like such a layered approach because it you don't listen to things.

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Like you don't isolate certain instruments like you might with other songs.

Here you have to listen to it as a whole, which is really cool.

Seiji: And I think they, was it just that one thing that happened the whole time harmonically? I think, right? I don't think it changed right? Yeah, and then you just changed with layers and no different (Stephen: He changed the meters.

) Umu: Wait, when did he change the meter? Stephen: Well, he'll just like, he'll cut out a beat every now and then which you'll kind of be like, whoa! Or he'll like displace it by like an eighth note, which is also kind of has the same effect, which is kind of cool too.

Seiji: Yeah, it's like a vamp tune.

It's kind of cool, with a huge budget.

Melissa: Have I reacted to him before? I feel like—Umu: Yes! I liked his voice.

(Umu: 'Happy Avocado'!) Melissa: OH I liked his avocados.

Wait, no!.