It’s so interesting going from Han’s “Raining Stars” to this song. One, they are completely different vibes both lyrically and musically. And two, Han wrote and performed “Raining Stars” while Changbin wrote “Still Here” and Seungmin performed it. Neither is better than the other, but it is interesting to be moving back and forth between “Seungmin sung this line in such an interesting way” and “this is such a Changbin way to write.” I don’t know if that makes sense, but it was a really cool partnership to delve into.
A little background you may already know: Seungmin asked each member of 3RACHA to write him a song, and this is Changbin’s. We got Chan’s last year – “Goodbye” – and we have yet to get Han’s.
I really love the idea of Seungmin asking 3RACHA to write songs just for him. It’s very on brand for him. He’s so obviously grateful for 3RACHA and the work they put in to making SKZ’s music. Even his IG caption when talking about this song said something along the lines of “And you can even write ballads, Changbin?” He gave credit where credit is due. And it’s just very sweet to think that he asked and wanted to sing a song they wrote just for him. In comments he made on Fans, it sounded like he worked really hard to do the song justice. Ever our devoted puppy.
Anyway, let’s look at the lyrics. And here is the audio to listen to while you read.
Couple disclaimers: I’m a pretty new STAY, and I don’t speak Korean. I am using my limited SKZ knowledge and the English translations from Genius. These are my own thoughts based on those translations and not meant to be a definitive interpretation.
As you may have noticed, I read this mostly as grief. And I think it can apply to a lot of different types of grief – breakup, loss of a friendship, death, etc. More abstractly, I think it can be interpreted as loss of any kind – opportunities, dreams, goals.
In any case, I think it really captures grief and the grieving process well. There are nods to common phrases used when people are trying to comfort. I mentioned some of them in my annotations:
- One step at a time.
- One foot in front of the other.
- Just keep going.
- Time heals all wounds.
These are (usually) said very sincerely in situations where nothing is really the “right” thing to say. And they’re more or less true. It always looks different for each person, but taking life one step at a time and trying to move forward does help. And time might not heal all wounds, but it certainly helps. Distance from whatever painful thing happened helps.
But grief isn’t linear. Healing isn’t linear. Growth isn’t linear. Life isn’t linear. Even that’s a cliché, isn’t it? Something to make you scoff. But it’s true. And so much of the imagery used in the lyrics drills this home.
I mean, the title is “Still Here” for starters. Changbin uses words and phrases like “can’t leave,” “linger,” “trapped,” “wandering,” lost,” and “going in circles.” This endless echo of feeling stuck even when you think you’re moving forward.
The line at the very beginning “So, I linger around our beginning and end” jumped out at me for this reason. It’s such a specific way to phrase it. It’s not “stuck in memories” or even “stuck in the good times.” It’s “beginning and end.” And that really correlates to the whole point of walking around in a circle and ending up where you started. That kind of lyric choice really drives home the message.
The whole song has a lot of repetition. The format of a song in general is repetitive – the pre-chorus and chorus are often the same, the melody is usually the same from verse to verse, and there are rhymes and a constant rhythm. What’s interesting about this song is that there’s only one verse. It feels extra repetitive in that way. Both pre-choruses and choruses play one right after the other with only an instrumental break between them.
And the lyrics! The line that is repeated the most is “Just the way it was back then.” In Korean:
그때, 그때 그대로 (geuttae, geuttae geudaero)
The melody is incredibly catchy, and it’s the line that gets stuck in my head the most. But even the very words are repetitive. The same sounds over and over. It almost feels like a record scratch, like it’s skipping. Like you’re stuck. Like you’re trudging through mud. And the way Seungmin sings it, especially the last time at the very end of the song, sounds exhausted.
It’s not just the actual meaning of the lyrics giving this feel of wandering in circles. It’s all of these little things coming together to paint the picture.
There are two layers to this, too, when it comes to grief, shown brilliantly in the line “I can’t lose you, nor can I forget you.” Is this saying “I can’t lose you, because I don’t want to let you go” or “I can’t seem to lose you, because I can’t get you out of my head”? Mourning is often a double edged sword. You want to forget, to not think about it, to not feel the pain. But you don’t want to forget, because you don’t want to lose something or someone that you love.
Something about the artwork struck me in this way as well. Little context again: Seungmin wanted a three panel comic style background, so he enlisted the artist Park Hye (@parkhye_n3 on IG) to do the artwork. Check out the artist’s post about it on IG. His description is really interesting.
But he specifically talks about using a Möbius strip to tie the three images together. If you’re like me and have a vague idea of what a Möbius strip is but couldn’t explain it if asked, imagine taking a strip of paper, twisting it once, and then taping the ends together. It’s become a symbol of eternity, basically, since it has no beginning or end. This once again speaks to the endlessness – going in circles over and over.
But what interested me, too, was the figures in the artwork. The first is standing in a snowy field, the next in water staring at the stars, and the third is kneeling in a pond holding a light. The third one almost looks too hopeful for the song. The person is holding this light like it’s precious, like they can’t bear to let it go and – oh wait.
Isn’t that what I was just talking about? The duality of grief. Moving on vs. remembering. And I really think it’s both. Two things can be true at once (hello, another cliché). Moving on doesn’t mean having to forget. Do memories fade? Yes. Should we dwell on pain 100% of the time? Of course not. But remembering, still being sad, missing someone, holding on to the good memories isn’t a sign of failure. It’s a sign that you’re human.
It’s a really bittersweet and hopeful feeling.
I keep coming back to the Do It intro when they were talking about Photobook. One of the lines they gave Changbin a hard time for was something “obvious.” And he laughed about it, too – saying something obvious and making it a lyric. And that’s how this song feels a bit.
It’s not a complicated song. There are double meanings and subtle layers for sure. Like all good art, there’s room for interpretation. But at the word level, it’s all very simple, “obvious” stuff. And I think that’s the brilliance of music, at least for me. When someone takes a feeling, puts it into words and sets it to music, it changes the way you think about what could be very simple words. Songwriters have his way of manipulating language that is unreal to me, truly.
And Seungmin! The performance is just as important! A song is not a song without being able to hear it, to feel the emotions. And Seungmin does that so brilliantly. I love that the music is kept simple, so his voice really stands out. And even in the parts where the full strength of the music is playing at the same time he’s singing (really only during the post-chorus), his voice is clear and blends so well with the music that it creates this momentous effect.
I could seriously listen to him all day and never get tired of his voice. The emotion he brings, the tone he gives…I really don’t have words to describe it. That is where language fails me, unfortunately. Maybe someone can write a song about how Seungmin’s voice makes them feel, so I can say “Yes! It’s so obvious, but I couldn’t explain it until you put it to music!” That would be much appreciated.
I very much look forward to Han’s song for Seungmin, whenever we get it.
Sources
“Still Here” by Stray Kids Seungmin
Also check out SKZ-Talker Ep. 81 where Seungmin and Changbin talk about this song after it dropped.
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