Arcades On Writing For BTS, Constructing K-Pop Bangers, And Their Future Plans
The production duo speak to Clash...
North London is an incongruous address for a pair of K-POP hitmakers, but that's where Clash find production team *Arcades* when our call clicks through.
The team - Max Graham and Matt Thomson - were drawn into the mighty orbit of BTS about 18 months ago, with a mutual associate playing the South Korean megastars their music.
J-HOPE in particular was a fan, sharing an Arcades cut in one of his regular Spotify playlists, sparking a viral rush on their music.
A collaboration was struck up, with Arcades finding themselves at the centre of the BTS whirlwind.
The group's new album 'MAP OF THE SOUL : 7' is out now, and it contains more music from the London based production team.
Clash decided to find out more...
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*So: what are BTS like?*
*Matt: *Haha! All the work we do with them happens back and forth with them online, we've never met them in person.
*That's so common - massive hits get made by people on different continents...*
*Max:* I think it happens so much now, I think even in the dance world - you see these songs that end up being global number ones and they've been written by a kid in their bedroom. But yeah, that's basically exactly what happened - we worked on one song where the chorus has this big anthemic vocal chant and for that to happen and really pop, they needed as many vocals as possible so we ended up recording extra vocals of ours in our bedrooms.
You think sometimes these records are being made in massive studios but a lot of it has just been working on our laptops from home.
*What's it been like to enter into that K-POP maelstrom?*
*Matt: *The whole scale of working with BTS has really impacted us, we get tonnes of messages online from their fans - it is lovely, everyone that approaches us is so welcoming and it is sort of like being entered into a big family of people online, everyone has this sort of common ground. And their fanbase just seems really creative as well, we get a lot of messages from people that are sort of aspiring songwriters and lyricists and they all want to throw their ideas around with us - it's really cool.
*Max: *I think when we worked on 'Map of the Soul: Persona', it was quite slow and steady but when we obviously announced that we were on this new one - we already had a kind of core group on our social media who knew us through BTS, so the second we announced we were getting messages saying "does it sound like this one? If it does drop me a little wink face, you can trust me - just tell us what it's like or what it's called!" (laughs)
The problem is though, obviously, you have to be so careful with something on that level - if something gets leaked, you don't want to be the guy that caused that! But really, they've been so sweet and so kind, every day.
*The level of devotion those fans show is really inspiring.*
*Matt: *The nice thing about that fanbase is that they reflect BTS message of loving yourself and their whole positivity thing that they put out there - it's a really big statement. I think for the ARMY as they call them, they try and keep that messaging going as well. It's really common from us to just get sweet and kind messages from their fans. We try and stay in touch with as many of them as possible.
We haven't been out to Seoul yet but we are desperate to go, we were trying to plan a trip but we think everything has had to be postponed because of Coronavirus - which is really sad. But we are still hoping to get out there at some point this year.
I haven't had a look at our stats for our music to see if we have a fanbase over there, but I feel like because the BTS family is so international, a lot of the messages we get are from people around Europe, the States and everywhere.
*Max:* I think that even one of the songs we have on the new album, which was the V solo one ('Inner Child') - that was never intended as a single, but I think now in 13 countries it's got to number one in the iTunes chart. And it's all these countries that you would never necessarily in a million year think they'd be listening to anything that you were part of. I guess it's that thing that a lot of people, maybe ignorantly have, that you need something like this to open your eyes.
Again, living in the UK, you grow up under the impression that UK music really matters - and then you branch out to the US stuff and then you just start to realise that there are all these countries with so much to give. I'm so pleased that Korean stuff is blowing up around the world. It's a great thing and a great message.
*Matt:* It's fourteen number ones now on iTunes, another one - I think it's like Kazakhstan and Chile and Saudi Arabia and India - it's everywhere.
*The reach of it is incredible.*
*Matt:* Everything those boys do kind of turns to gold. We've got a tonne of other offers on the back of the BTS co-sign, we have actually got another Korean one coming out in a few weeks. But they've not announced it yet so we have to keep our lips firmly sealed on that.
Again, that's driving this whole Korean side of things, we kind of just fell into that side of things - it's been really really good and to be honest, it's what we want to focus on for this moment because it's a lot of fun - it's just great to work and meet with all the people that work out there. There is so much happening out there, it's not just BTS.
*Max:* I guess what's quite nice as well about that, is that we don't feel like we're having to change our core sound or strengths in music - we are both guitar backgrounds and have that indie feel to all the music we do and that's been picked up by a lot of Korean artists so it doesn't feel like we have to go and adapt to another market - it's like we almost already belong there.
*Matt: *Also, in that slightly strange way - some of the messages that we've seen, I mean, K Pop as a name kind of reflects pop music from Korea but I think when people hear that they think of a specific sound, but I think over there they just want to be known as Korean pop music. Because y'know it does have so many different aspects to it and I think the word K-Pop does imply just one specific sound and there's just so much good music coming out of Korea.
There's a band called The Rose, who are like a three or four piece guitar band and they are making great indie music. Red Velvet and Itzy as well, both great girl bands doing really high energy almost a little bit like Little Mix at times but with their own sound - then you obviously have bands like BTS who just have their own thing, every song is different but still sounds like BTS.
*It must be refreshing moving between writing for other people, and for Arcades.*
*Max:* It is refreshing moving between working with artists like BTS and then working on our own thing, I don't really know what difference there is.
*What's the difference between writing for yourself, and for someone else?*
*Matt:* Well yeah, I guess the biggest difference is that when your working with anyone else, they fall under a bit of a brief, so you kind of have to work towards what they are looking for. Quite often though we have sent them tracks we already have, it's not specifically written for them but we know they are looking for this kind of sound. But you still have to work towards what they are after.
They tend to come towards us when they want a slightly more rocky thing, guitars. Every song we've done with BTS, has been like that. I think BTS have people they go to for a hip-hop style or a pure pop style - we are that for their indie rock thing. Whereas for us, we can do whatever we want but what we are trying to do is have our own kind of sound.
So that is reflected in everything we do, like our sound is still part of the records we produce for other people. Music changes every single day, so it's just trying to keep up with everything and stay one step ahead.
*What will you be doing next?*
*Max:* Going forward we are super busy working with a lot of Korean artists but we do have our single coming out next Friday, which is featuring Prides - another Scottish band. So we wrote that with them and that is called 'Stars' - we are really excited about that. There is another remix coming as well but have no official date for that.
*Finally, will there be a fresh chapter for Arcades and BTS?*
*Matt:* Hopefully, we'll do more work with BTS as well, we are really good friends with the guys at Big Hit and they seem very loyal, both with people in their team and with people they work with. We'd love to do more and hope it continues.
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Watch out for Arcades' new single on March 13th.
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