RM Reveals What “Fake Love” Almost Sounded Like

BTS‘s RM, while describing the process of how the group produces the album’s title track, revealed the original, early versions of “Fake Love”.

 

According to RM, BTS does not select from a pool of potential title songs. Instead, these group of musicians brainstorm the concept first then work with the ideas on which they come to agree. Meaning, the title song is fixed from the beginning of the album production.

 

For “Fake Love”, once RM and Suga created the initial melodies and beats along with the overall concept, they knew it had all the potential. From there on, BTS had to focus on making it perfect.

“We thought that it’s amazing and unique… That’s why we had the most difficulty working on the song.” — RM

 

While BTS liked the original version of “Fake Love”, they thought it was “too pop”. RM and members weren’t sure that would work with their performance-driven styles.

 

To come up with the most catchy but fresh melodies, RM went over his work over and over again. With the help of Big Hit Entertainment‘s in-house producer Pdogg and Bang Si Hyuk himself, the song became complete.

 

RM showed great respect for the way these producers turned the song into something even more explosive.

 

The final version of “Fake Love” that A.R.M.Ys hear now is actually six-and-a-half pitches higher than the original guide version. RM explained that, by this point, it was a whole other song.

 

While the original used to be a lot more depressing and deep, the final version features a main guitar riff that lightens up the song and makes it more performance-friendly.

“It wasn’t what we could pull off in the beginning. With the guitar sound now, it has become the “Fake Love” that we could pull off.”

— RM

 

Fans can only imagine the amount of trial and error that must have went into the production!

 

Listen to what “Fake Love” sounded like in its early production stages: