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Early Access: SKZ - Hyunjin 'Quill Pen' (낙서장) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-04 07:00:07
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Here's our reaction to SKZ Hyunjin's newest track, Quill Pen (aka 낙서장)!

Best of Hyunjin we've seen. Seriously.

Enjoy <3

Files

Previews only

Musicians react & analyze ♡ SKZ - Hyunjin 'Quill Pen' (낙서장)

THE BEST OF HYUNJIN :0 Did NOT see this one coming. The more we learn about Hyunjin, the more he strikes us as someone who is genuinely multi-talented. Not only is he an incredible dancer (which everyone knows already), but his music production skill has been improving exponentially every time he put out a new track, and THIS might be his BEST so far. It's not just that the genre & style of the song was unexpected; it's more so that he managed to, first, write this by himself, and two, actually match his vocal style to fit the song that ALSO happens to capture everything that is great about his vocal tone. We were always slightly worried about his usual singing tone being a limiting factor but....this........this is perfect. Alright, let's get to it because there are A LOT to go through! :D And as usual, if you liked what you saw here today and want more SKZ related contents earlier than others, contents like SKZ Code, Survival Show, Two Kids Room, SKZ night livestreams and more, then HOP on and join the party at http://patreon.com/handsomesausages !! :D Kpop producer and singer-songwriter react to SKZ Hyunjin's 'Quill Pen' (낙서장) (SKZ Record Video). Enjoy! Sound at http://soundcloud.com/hsausages Follow us on IG: @handsomesausages Timestamp 0:00 - Intro 0:51 - Reaction 4:18 - Hyunjin's Production & Lyrical Skills 6:20 - Korean Lyrics Explanation 6:58 - Genre & K-Indie Explanation 7:57 - Quill Pen VS Scratch Paper 8:47 - SHOUTOUT #skz #straykids #kpopreaction

Comments

Kwestleo

Yesss. RIGHT?!? like when do they rest. I mean it's a Hyunjin song so you can hazard a guess that its gonna be sentimental and tug at your heartstrings. He sounds so ridiculously beautiful on this track. Yes that part is absolutely amazing. His lyrics are so haunting. I LOVED your reaction to the whistling D'Some. Bcuz same, but i also started crying when I heard it. I wanna know who hurt my love. Or if he wrote it from the view of a movie or show. I feel like there might be a story behind the choice of quill pen. I feel like Hyunjin is too sentimental to just randomly choose an English word. I never asked before and i can probably just look it up but what is the difference between an arranger and a composer? Like what do they do specifically?

J.A. Moore

I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with Hyunjin's songwriting over time. What a beautiful, poetic mind he has.

J.A. Moore

FYI - when Quill Pen was first released, a *lot* of commenters said it sounded like it was from something called "cigarettes after sex." I'd never heard of that (turns out Cigarettes After Sex is a band), but I get the association with that feeling.

your name here
>>160251279

Cigarettes after Sex is a band. They're probably relating it to the song Cry, which follows a very similar chord progression.

your name here

Credits Lyrics: Hyunjin Comp: Hyunjin, Joha Arr: Joha Joha and Hyunjin have previously made Hey You, Long For You, and So Good together. As for the title, in English, I feel like "Scrap Paper" would be the more accurate translation, but I don't think in English it holds the correct tone. Scrap paper feels very casual and unimportant, even though thematically, it lives in that place of "something to place an important idea upon, but is easy to discard when no longer needed". I think Quill Pen holds the poetry nicer, but doesn't fully embody the feeling of being discarded, left only with the dreams of a beautiful future with someone that were sketched out, but never realized. Quill Pen sonically however makes the most sense in English, as the sound of a quill pen on paper is that of soft scratching like a rough draft or sketch.

zymilla

When you'll get to react to the 2KS with Changbin and Hyunjin, Changbin will complement him for his skills in songwriting (Cover me and Rockstar were just released) and make a comparison with himself as a composer. Thank you for your reaction as usual!

Ann Canovill

Hyunjin's song writing penetrates heart and soul. His beautiful mind as a poetic lyricist, creates emotional images. I'm so happy that SKZ get the creative freedom to explore their own musical journey, and they share it with us. Not to forget Hyunjin's "Long for You" and "Hey You".

Tealeafer

I -adore- this one. Literally I can’t count the number of times I just dragged the scrub bar on the video back to the beginning so I could listen to it again. In terms of genre in general, I think y’all definitely nailed it with alt rock with a bit of shoegaze, but in terms of specific influences, it reminds me SO much of the music of Cigarettes After S*x- I wonder if he listens to them at all? It also has the vibe of a movie scene of like, a scene from a 90s movie where it’s a prom and a feuding couple is sharing a final dance before they know they’re gonna part ways at a kind of very lowkey prom, and the camera keeps cutting between their silent slow dance and the live band. Overly specific? Yes. But I still get The Vibe™️. In terms of its titles, I think they play into each other- they wrote all over his heart with a quill pen, which is a pretty rough way to write to begin with, leaving him with the blue prints for being torn apart, and it turns out he was only being used for scratch paper, and was torn apart in the end.

Rina

This song is so beautiful. I had pretty much the same reaction as you, I just went quiet. It's always emotionally raw with Hyunjin, you believe that he's really going through it when he's singing. I can't wait for you to check out "long for you" and "hey you", which he gave out earlier this year, also together with Joha. Those two tracks are two parts of the same story and he released them a day apart. They are both *chefs kiss* I have the impression that he's always very meticulous in the choices he makes, across all his mediums. Nothing's left to chance with him. Like, I can hear his paintings in his songs - if you've seen them, I think you might get what I mean. He's so sure of himself, and he's not scared to go out on a tangent and just explore it. Absolutely breathtaking as an artist and I'm so amazed by him. He seems to always have had a feeling for the artistic - he didn't dance or sing before becoming a trainee, he was casted off of the street, and look at him now. The same with his painting, he learned that on the side after joining skz and he just creates. He just experiences the world and needs to share it with us. It strikes me as very instinctive for him. The same with the music, he just had an ear for it, I suppose. Obviously, he also worked extremely hard and improved a lot, but he's just got that something. I remember Changbin talking about Hyunjin in the "I am Who?" Intro, comparing him to the Hyunjin of "I am Not!" and already then, he spoke about how he no longer really directed Hyunjin, but would ask him to do it "Hyunjin-style" because he already wanted to do it his own way and it worked. In Two Kids Song as well. That was back in "Go Live" era, and Hyunjin already had his own equipment and was dabbling in producing. He even comments during the show how skijigi had asked him to bring his stuff for the filming. It was preplanned at that point that he would be on the team without a 3racha member, because he could do that. I'm also pretty sure it wasn't by chance that he lived with 3racha when they split into two dorms. He's just been soaking up knowledge from all three and then he puts his own twist on it. Aaand I was just flipping through my HOP album, and I noticed that he recorded "So Good" himself. Not even together with another engineer, like you'll sometimes see several names, but it was just 현진. Not even Changbin or Han does that, only Chan records himself for the official tracks. Hyunjin's the first after Chan (as far as I've noticed), who is credited on an album as Recording Engineer. I think nothing's random when it comes to him. Of course "Quill Pen" sounds more poetic in English than "Scratch Paper", but to me, they give different nuances to the same story. The scratch paper is just scribbled on and discarded, useless and easy to forget. This is the feeling he's trying to convey from his pov. The quill pen was the one who used him. Harsh and sharp, no regard for him, for what they had or could've been. Just ripping through his pages, one after the other, and moving on. Obviously, here, it's a metaphor, but I have no problem imagining a pensive artist Hyunjin, Hyunjin the painter, putting himself in the place of his sketchbook. How he himself is known for being emtional and impulsive until the right idea takes him and consumes him. So then to realise he didn't like where something was going and ripping out a page, starting over, scratching out something he didn't like, it would leave an impression on him, I think. As a person who just goes where his emotions lead him, he's bound to have left some crumpled pages behind. And still, he's not a careless person, he just needs to act on what he feels. But I might be reaching here🤣

Hazel

I had Quill Pen on loop for good chunk of time after it was released, it's beautiful and is (i feel) so innately him. I agree that the lyrics feel genuine - knowing he acts on emotional whims, I'd guess that most of his songs are somewhat based on lived truths. All of his recent songs are so pretty, but this definitely takes the cake! I have no set theory on the quill pen/scratch paper, but they kind of oppose eachother in my mind? Like scratch paper is just scraps, not 'special' and a quill pen is reserved for special things? Like one side saw it as a special thing, and the other saw it as a throwaway. Unsure XD whatever the meaning, his songs are always on my go-to painting playlist. The flow of his music paired with his vocals always feels like slow brushstrokes ♡

EL Knox

I love this song!!! ... Everyone has already sad most of what I feel, but in addition, I don't know why but it reminds me of Paris... maybe I was listening to alt rock indie music walking in the rain down the Seine at some point ... cause that is where this song takes me .. a mid/late afternoon drizzly blue/grey Parisian sky and the scent of fresh rain melancholia ... that sounds bleak ... but for some reason it is just so beautiful as well ... dam you Hyunjin hitting right in the soft zone

Mocha_frap

After listening for the first time, the one thought in my head was: He's been working on his vocals and it shows. Tbh to me he's an example of hard work paying off. He was a decent dancer but really worked hard and is now one of the best in the group. He wasn't naturally inclined for rap like changbin or han but put his mind to it and became one of the main rappers in the group. And i tend to especially like his rap parts and deliveries in their songs. He wasn't a great vocalist but here we are now. And i think he's been working to try to make/ produce music like 3racha have been, like he's been showing more and more interest in doing it the past few albums. And of course the drawing/ painting. He started during the pandemic and we've seen in his posts how good his works have been. Hyunjin's perseverance is inspiring

Mocha_frap

Also in my head, this vibed with V's album.

Quiet Type
>>160252575

Yes! I was just going to say it reminds me of their music and he definitely does listen to them. On a live a couple/several months ago, he was drawing with that playing very low in the background.

Gail Palmer

Haunting, mesmerizing, I want/need more. Everyone has voiced most of my thoughts. As odd as this will sound, I usually hate whistling. My husband whistles beautifully (I can barely hit four accurate notes) but I run screaming out of the room if he starts. But give me Hyunjin or Chan whistling on a track and I am enthralled. WTF??? I have been observing over the years, mostly through the making of videos, Hyunjin’s increased involvement in the production of each album. He should be held up as the perfect example of what a person can do when they become a student of their craft. A sponge, absorbing and then applying that knowledge to whatever it is that they are involved in. His absolute resolve from the beginning that he was not going to be “just a visual”, an insult to his personal integrity. He then has gone on to discover within himself the artistic nature of his sensitive soul, through dancing, art, poetry, lyricism, composition and the presentation thereof. He is simply amazing. If only the rest of us had simply one eighth of that drive and dedication - what could be accomplished….

DM Wilson

I love how Hyunjin is evolving as a writer and composer. His last few releases and Cover Me. Have all really hit me hard. I love his music with Chan's tracks a lot (and know there are so many songs we haven't heard), but also producing with Joha seems to have really enhanced his singer-songwriter style more. He's really fine-tuning his craft, and his love of words and poetry really shows in his work. I also love how he gives us a painting to look at while we listen to his music. I think that is how he experiences art in a museum, and he is giving us different visual experiences to go with his songs. A true artist.

J.A. Moore

Hey Everyone - Stray Kids are asking fans to fill out a survey about your favorite SKZ-CODE episodes. At the end of the survey, they also ask for new SKZ-CODE ideas. You can only fill it out one time. It won't allow you to do multiple surveys. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15RV3ErDrd/

Tealeafer
>>160252575

Oh, cool, good to know! Like they were the first musical influence I thought of when I listened to this- it’s definitely 100% Hyunjin (that chorus- ooooof) but the CAS vibe is so there

Neuter Lover

After watching your reaction and knowing the meaning of the Korean title of this song, looking at Hyunjin's cover art, I think quill pen writing/drawing symbolizes the love that used to be beautiful when writing gently with ink. But in the end, it was too sharp, and too intense when the ink dried, it left scratch or tore the paper. “I” supposed to be that paper, “You” supposed to be that quill pen. Oh, thank you very much for correcting the English translation!

Tristana Keauna

I love it when he just lets himself go and expresses himself as only he can.

Kaiwren

When I heard this, my first thought was that it sounds like what I imagine walking through Paris at night feels like

Paulina Pena

This type of music wasn’t too much of a shock for me. I was surprised by how beautiful he sang the song and how different he sounded. This was perfectly executed! His MBTI is INFP. I am an INFP too, so when I think of Hyunjin I am reminded about myself. I tend to like music where I can dig deep to understand the meaning behind music. Hyunjin is super artistic and creative, so this type of music is so fitting for him. I can see him definitely being in the indie type of music scene. Indie music tends to have those deeper lyrics that are poetic in a way. This is definitely my favorite Hyunjin song. For me it just fit his aesthetic so well!

Tenby

I can't wait for the next SKZ Replay album! I want this song and so many others that the members have released online in an album that I can just listen to again and again and again. <3