Read the articleYour browser does not support theaudio element. 0:00 “Rather than a grand message, this is a song that records the time of recovery.” The song ‘We, Together, Again’, containing sentences and voices written by children in Yeongdeok, Gyeongsangbuk-do, which was devastated by fire last year, was recently released and is attracting attention. Students from Yeongdeok Jipum Elementary School, who suffered damage from forest fires caused by the severe winter drought caused by the climate crisis, participated under the name of the ‘Hope Exploration Team.’ The children's desire for the 'recovery' of nature, not just 'recovery', is captured in the song. The person who created the song is Ahn Bok-jin, a member of the indie band ‘The Band I Love.’ When we met at a cafe in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on the 30th of last month, he called this project “a record of recovery.” The song is the result of the ‘wildfire damage recovery program’ conducted by the international environmental organization Greenpeace with Jipum Elementary School in October last year. It was completed by combining the sentences written by the children into lyrics and recording their voices in the classroom. Bok-jin Ahn said, “Reflecting the children’s sentences as they are was the key principle,” and “It was a healing process that showed the children that they could become the main characters and that their language could soon become music.” What Greenpeace expected from him was ‘the power to bring out the lyrics’. Ahn Bok-jin has consistently run lyric writing classes for adults and teenagers, and as the music director for MBC’s children’s program ‘Kiss, Kiss, Let’s Play,’ he has been working to transform children’s language into songs for seven years. “I’m used to being asked to make a song, but this one had a slightly different direction. It felt like the song had a separate owner.” Ahn Bok-jin, who went to Yeongdeok to hear directly what the children were thinking, completed the lyrics with the children in the classroom. “I said let’s fill in the words in the circles. I took the first line, and together with the children we chose and filled in the middle sentences.” Once the lyrics, full of hopeful messages such as “Let’s walk together, let’s do it together/ Filled with warm sunlight, I’m here now,” were completed, recording began immediately. Using the laptop and audio equipment we brought, we divided the children into teams of 4 to 5 people and recorded their voices. "If you sing them all at once, it's hard to hear them. It must have been an amazing experience for the children. When will they put on headphones and listen to their own voices?" What I was most cautious about in this work was the way to talk about ‘climate disaster.’ “It was easy to look at it from an adult’s perspective. I felt that the lyrics should come from the hearts of those who have experienced disaster.” One of the sentences he remembers is, “The mountain is like my mother.” Bokjin Ahn continued to ask questions. “What comes to mind when you think of trees? Mountains. When you think of mountains? Mom. Let’s make that connection into a sentence, like that.” He also suggested releasing the music first. This is because of the “judgment that it should remain as a record.” “The power of a song ultimately lies in its ability to be heard by more people. It is realistically difficult to bring Yeongdeok children to Seoul, so I thought I should go down and record it.” It is in the same context that the entire music revenue was decided to be donated to support climate disaster recovery activities. He said, “When people hear the word donation, they are more interested and share it,” and “Because it is a song about children, I hoped it would become more known.” The career of musician Ahn Bok-jin has continued to expand. Debuting as a ‘band that I like’ that plays acoustic music, I have comfortably sung about everyday emotions, and have also explored electronic sound-based sounds in solo works such as the mini album (EP) ‘Zero Zero’ released in 2021. He also participated in writing lyrics for BTS’s ‘Filter’ and expanded his scope to include K-pop. Various experiences lead to conclusions that are always brought out in lyric writing classes. “The most lasting thing is ultimately writing my story. Once that happens, I can endure whatever I do.” Personal work doesn't stop either. “Now, I think less about ‘who will like it’ and try to write more for myself. I leave the responsibility of the listener to the listener.” ‘The band I like’ is preparing for a solo performance in April. We plan to continue working on new music and film and animation music under Ahn Bok-jin's name. Lastly, he revealed the simple wish he wanted to achieve with ‘We, Together, Again’. “You don’t have to listen to this song and try to understand everything about the ‘climate crisis.’ All you have to do is listen to the children’s voices one more time and pay a little attention to what happened.” Reporter Lee Jeong-guk jglee@hani.co.kr