#r.ef

On the evening of the 22nd, Lee Hyundo makes an international call in tears

"Is it true that Daehyun died?"

"Is it true that Daehyun oppa died in a car accident? People say it was on the news this morning."

Early in the morning of March 22, R.ef fans sent the TV Times office phone into flames. A week before, a rumor that Seong Daehyun had died had peeked its head through, but today the phone exploded with calls. PC communication must have been swept up by the rumor.

Another funny happening! The same evening, Lee Hyundo, who was in LA, called sounding close to tears, "Is it true that Jeongsik (Daehyun) died?". It was Chae Rina, who was staying close to Hyundo, who ran crying and delivered the news.

To get to the point, R.ef finished their last recording at 6 P.M., March 22nd, and soon after went to Kimpo Airport, where at 8:30 A.M. they rode a plane to Singapore and arrived safely at their destination. As soon as they took out their travel gear, they notified their company that they had landed safely - they plan to return to Korea on March 27.

Recording lasted until 6 P.M. before leaving to Singapore

Park Chulwoo wore a mask due to his swollen throat

2 A.M., March 22, at the Paju King Records recording studio just hours before leaving to Singapore. Opening the studio door, Sung Daehyun, the man of the hour, was alive, but a little haggard on account of staying up late.

"Staying up all this week has made me out of my head."

The other members are the same. It felt bad to even talk to Park Chulwoo, who wore a mask because his throat was swollen, or Lee Sungwook, whose nerves were frayed having to finish recording on the day of departure.

Nearing the final stretch, they pulled a week-long all-nighter, and even worked intensively on the day they were set to leave for Singapore. Due to this, production on the album is almost finished; the rest—mixing, mastering, and jazz session playing for one song—are technical processes that will be handled in America, with R.ef not directly participating.

The final touches will be finished in America by Kim Gukhyeon, an engineer who participated in the production of Seo Taiji and Boys' 4th album, and their producer Choi Minhyeok. It will take place in Ocean Tower Studio, a spot Kim Gukhyeon found, located in the vicinity of LA.

11 songs themed on love, with rave as the main genre

Gathered an orchestra and the world's top artists

As the D-day of R.ef's second album, to release around the middle of April, approaches, its secrets are being unraveled one by one, drawing curiosity. As its title, Back to the Black, implies, the album's songs seek a "return to retro". To bring a new feel to the retro sound new generations are unfamiliar with, a sound designer—a position new to general audiences—was appointed into their team for the first time in Korea. Additionally, to differentiate the album from the digital music of other dance groups, producers scoured American instrument stores for analog instruments that they would work with.

As expected of the group that first introduced the genre to Korea, R.ef's second album is composed of various types of rave music. About five rave tracks are included on the 11-track album.

"In order to strengthen the color of R.ef's unique rave music, we made unique attempts, like adding orchestral instrumentation or metal guitars. It'll probably sound new."

One of this album's other features is the diverse range of genres, such as US house, hip hop, jazz, techno, and pop ballads, aside from the 5 rave songs. For the jazz song in particular, itself a hard feat for a dance group, more work will be put into it than the title track. While in America, the country's top notch jazz artists will be hired to participate in session recordings; Michael Miller, a famous jazz guitarist famous for his work with Chuck Korea, has already been scouted. They plan to invest generously in scouting A-class musicians.

One song composed by Lee Sungwook, 2-3 written by Sung Daehyun

Choreo and outfits will be prepared at their return to Korea, on March 27

A song composed by Lee Sungwook will be included in this album, which will show how much the group have grown musically. Lyrics will be written by Hong Jaesun, Lee Yongmin, and Sung Daehyun, who all wrote for R.ef's debut, as well as the rising star lyricist Kang Eunkyung. Sung Daehyun wrote lyrics for 4 songs, two to three of which are being considered for the album.

This album's main theme is "love". It includes stories about lovers, self-love, love for a departed partner, and things one would want to say while parting with a lover.

Aside from "Brilliant Love", which serves as a part two to "Heartbreak" off their debut, the rest of the tracklist has not been decided on—only the title of the song "Forbidden U-Turn", composed by Lee Sungwook. Kang Eunkyung wrote the lyrics off of Lee's idea, and it reportedly contains autobiographical lyrics about how he chose to become a singer.