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The following is taken from RM's BTS+ video on V Live on February 22, 2017, where he talks about the lyrics to "Spring Day" and his inspiration for them.
So that's what his inspiration was!
RM:
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The key word "Spring Day" isn't a word that's used very often, but it's also not super uncommon.
So I thought, "spring day, spring day," there's something exciting about the phrase, so I liked it.
When we receive the track and first listen to it, we all write the melody in our heads since we write and compose it.
So I actually had already written the "Bogo sipda (I miss you)" part.
But now that means that the only thing in the melody is "Bogo sipda daradada daradada bogo sipda," haha.
I couldn't think of anything else so I just left the melody like that.
Ha... So I was just thinking to myself, what could I do to write a real legit title melody...
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Did you know I like finding hidden spots? I go around looking for hidden places all the time.
So in Yeouido, there's Saetgang Park and Saetgang Station, and I frequently go to Yeouido Hangang Park and then sometimes to Saetgang park.
I dunno why really, but when I ride a taxi and I see a place that catches my eye, I open my map application and think to myself that I'll have to go there next and then I'm sure to go.
But that day I just wanted to go to Saetgang Park so I went. And as I was walking around there,
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and I was just listening to the track, lost in the beat of "Spring Day" and lost in my emotions,
Gosh, our producer is just the best, isn't he? He wrote such a great track for us.
But I get sucked into mainstream melodies. Hobi is a lot better than me in that sense, so I was asking him about that
When all of a sudden I saw a fallen leaf. Then it was December, maybe November, but either way there were a bunch of leaves piled up.
Uh... There was just a pile of leaves. But fallen leaves then were, how do I put it, it was kind of a weird feeling to see fallen leaves at that time.
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So I picked up a leaf and was just looking at it. The reason I picked up the leaf is because these are all fallen leaves just left there.
The shriveled up leaf was like an umbrella like you're holding up an umbrella like this.
You know the cartoon Totoro? I liked that the leaf seemed like the umbrella that Totoro used.
And you know, like the times when you're younger and you'd write a letter and you'd dry a leaf and send it with your letter.
Dry some leaf and then a year or so later you see it stuffed in your wallet or notebook or something and then you see that dried leaf and then write a letter to your friend, you've all done that, right?
Even if it was just for school vacation homework or something? Well, that's exactly what I thought of.
Thinking to myself the leaves are so beautiful, and then suddenly the wind blew and swoooosh the leaf fell, fell right out of my hands.
And then I suddenly I thought of those words, "nakyeopi ddeoleojyeoyo (leaves fall)."
Ha, so now that's like how I met the current melody, by fate. It was normally fallen leaves (nakyeop), not snowflakes (nunkkot). "Nakyeopi ddeoleojyeoyo, ddo chogeumssik meoleojyeoyo (leaves fall and get a little bit further away)."
So I had that much, and then when I added the original "bogo sipda" part, it went together with the melody so well.
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Wow and I was already so drained of emotions on that day, I just went to Saetgang Station to get some rest, but that was already out the window.
So from then on I just kept listening to the beat for like an hour while walking around the Saetgang and Yeouido area and really inspecting myself and asking myself if it was really a good melody while singing the song to myself.
But wow, I just thought it was really good, I really liked it.
But whenever I write something I really immerse myself in it. So I might think something is really good, but then after I refresh my mind and ears and listen to it again, there are times I realize that what I wrote really wasn't that good.
You guys know what I mean right? For example, you write a letter and then you look at it the next day and are like, "what was I thinking when I wrote this??" I've had that a lot, that feeling.
So I turned off the track and sat in the leaves for 20 minutes and listened to, what was it, probably something like "Mama" and "Lie."
So I refreshed my ears listening to those and then I turned on the "Spring Day" melody again and added "nakyeop,"
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and it was just sooo good! This one's done!
Normally when I send a melody I actually send it with a bunch of other things because I feel like just one won't do it, so I send it hoping just one will work. But when I sent this one, I felt like I got a hole-in-one.
Actually, this is really high for me. When I sent it, I changed the key a bit higher.
So when the producer first listened to it, they were like "This is really good and all, but I'm not sure about you singing it" hahaha.
"You're singing it, so I'm not sure, it is good, but with you singing... I think someone doing vocals will have to sing it."
Hah, so I was like, "Right? I don't think it'll be that great if I sing it. It'd be better if Jungkook, Jimin, Taehyung, or Jin hyung sang it, haha."
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So I thought it must be done, and it really worked! I felt so good and I ended up writing about half of the lyrics to "Spring Day," including the chorus part and my rap part.
Originally it was "nakyeop," but I changed it to "nunkkot" to match the season, and a bunch of other people helped with the lyrics and melody, so I think it turned out to be a really great song.
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I wrote the song thinking about friends that I miss but can't see often, or friends from the old days.
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A while back there were some friends that I used to contact a lot, and I reached out to them again for the first time in a long while. So these friends that I finally talked to after a few years tell me, "Hey why didn't you ever contact us? You should have."
And they tell me that they felt like if they contacted me first, it would seem like they're just trying to be friends with me because I'm famous and want to sort of use me. And because they didn't want to look like that, they said it was hard to contact me even though they had my number.
I was always wondering why they never contacted me, but now that I think about it, I should have done it myself first... I never thought that they could think about it that way. They did want to contact me, but they were hesitating.
So I was really surprised. I was really thankful, but also really sorry, and I thought a lot about how I should have contacted them first.
If any of you guys have any friend you miss, even though it may not be easy, send them a message first. You can maintain that friendship that you may have forgotten about, really.
By Bongbong and Malina Fairchild voomvoomk@gmail.com
