I have an extremely clear and detailed picture of the song and the MV of "September" in my mind. But I honestly have no idea if I managed to write it down so that other people can imagine it as well. If you have any feedback to this, I'm glad to hear it. And thanks for the support so far!

here is one fan-cam reference that inspired me with regard to the ferocious dancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPEQj4bQNK4

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I’m surprised to discover that the MV is over 5:30 long, but yeah, I remember that was part of the problem. Taemin’s solo dance was about 30 seconds, which is pretty long for a solo. But Key’s was even longer, almost an entire minute.

The song starts with Taemin singing an a capella verse that emerges into a duo then a trio with first Jong’s and then my cue. It’s an up-beat harmony that was quite challenging for me, since I never was as secure as Jonghyun in tuning in second or third voices. But I managed it and it’s really beautiful.

They had dyed our hair in colours matching the motive of the song: Taemin a summer-blond, Jonghyun blond with a reddish hue, me a rich autumnal red-brown and Minho a warm dark-brown.

Minho could never be persuaded to go further than that but it was just fine because his rapping led the melodic summer part over to the sinister winter-theme.

Key was supposed to wear his hair original shiny black marking the end of this seasonal colour scale. But he suggested to go for white instead. He said: “My hair’s almost bleached to death anyway and I guess I’m gonna have to shave it off and start all over again after this. So why not go all the way?”

The reaction from the stylists was enthusiastic. That settled it and the MV script slowly developed into what is still one of the most famous and praised video-clips of all times.

At that time Key still struggled with the choreography. He could already get through it but there were a lot of kinks and edges to work on with Rino who insisted on supervising. He was whining a lot when he got back from practice but we all knew he was really keen on getting it right and working his of.

But dancing for the MV shoot where he could take breaks and sub-divide the whole solo into sections was one thing, the prospect to perform live on stage after an already demanding general choreography, not to mention during a concert, was something entirely different. He knew he still had a long way to go.

I remember that he once posted a picture of his right thigh on Instagram commenting “look forward to major pant-rips”. His body actually changed a lot during the preparations for the shoot. He lost weight and apart from strong thighs even developed visible abs that he showed us with a hilarious expression of awe on his face. He still wasn’t anywhere near Jonghyun’s built, that would have been ridiculous but his appearance had changed considerably. Although looking back I believe that this development had started much earlier. Watching recordings of our 2014 tour I can already see that lean and ferocious winter-demon emerging.

We shot the larger part of the MV on Jejudo in the fields and the mountain scenery. Taemin fearlessly danced his solo on a cliff 30m above the roaring ocean. Kibum had crawled on his stomach to the edge to take a look down and pretended to faint at the sight. It made Taemin and Minho laugh off their asses.

The general choreography was shot at the studio and remembering the exhausting filming-marathon of “Everybody” we were all pretty glad that because of the different sets we didn’t have to do “September” all at once.

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I think I need a minute to prepare for Kibums entrance so I watch until Minhos rap has beautifully led from the summer-theme to the winter and stop after Key’s huskily spoken offstage line: “it’s time”.

That is actually the only vocal contribution Kibum made to the whole song. Kenzie had assigned some passages of the main part to him, but after talking about the set-up of a live performance Key himself suggested to let Minho take over those parts. I think Minho was really grateful for what felt like an unexpected gift and touched by the faith Kibum had in his singing abilities. I too thought Minhos singing was generally underrated. It was just that his voice wasn’t as distinguishable as Key’s which you could always make out no matter who he was performing with. And since we were trying a new set-up anyway the management agreed to let Minho sing.

I press the play button again and there he is. The eerie but beautiful winter-demon. They shot this part in a cold storage house. We all went for support but also out of curiosity. Kibum was joking around and asked where the frozen beef was, referring to the old “Rocky” movie and making a few boxing moves while we were standing around in quilted jackets trying to keep warm.

It was really freezing cold in there, much colder than we had expected. But the producer didn’t want to use a made-up set or blue-screen. He wanted to make the cold genuinely visible with steaming breath and gleaming ice. There was a single spotlight illuminating only a small area that was prepared with slightly blue coloured snow. Everything else was in darkness.

They had put up a similar circle of cameras like those we had used for the “Everybody” shoot to apply the matrix-effect again. And there was another set of cameras on the ceiling as well as in all four corners of the room.

When Key entered the spotlight we were speechless although we had seen him in full make-up and costume already. But on set with the unearthly lighting it was something completely different.

His face was porcelain white almost translucent, lips pale, eyes dark with snow crystals glistening on the lashes, hair silver white. He was dressed entirely in white with the obligatory skinny pants and a shimmering top under an open lace-shirt. Around his neck he wore a filigree silver necklace with a huge black pendant, one of those painful accessories that may kill you on stage if you dance too hard, and matching earrings.

The top had an extremely low-cut v-neck that Key must have covered up during dress-rehearsal since I didn’t remember it revealing so much of his bony sternum and prominent collarbones.

He had never been one to show off a lot of skin. A little shirt-lift here and there was pretty much all you could get him to do and except for the shocking skinny-revelation on the “Sherlock”-cover after which he and Taemin had been flooded with “eat more oppa”-fanposts, Kibum had never taken any shirtless pictures or stripped on stage. So seeing that much of his upper body was surprising and even a bit disturbing and he didn’t look too comfortable with it himself.

I remember thinking “he’s gonna catch pneumonia” and Taemin, thinking the same thing, actually said it.

But then Key took his starting position, a low crouch, and everything made sense. On stage or in the spotlight he could change into anything he wanted to and at that time it was the winter-demon.

Of course they didn’t shoot it in one take. It took two days to complete it and satisfy the producer. Kibum had to break off twice because the enormous exertion at freezing temperatures took its toll. He went down with muscle cramps and had to be warmed and loosened up again to be able to go on. But he didn’t disappoint. In fact the result was so good that SM considered a feature about him and the effort he put into it.

At first there’s a single dark contrabass line accompanying Kibum’s dancing that increases in speed and ferocity until the drums set in and push him further towards the . It becomes wilder and wilder and is so sharp and beautiful it still gives me goose bumps. In the end he collapses on the floor and you only hear and see his heavy breathing for a couple of seconds, before the final part of the song begins.

We used to call this performance “the ” for obvious reasons.

Then the summer-theme returns and colours bleed back into the scene while we sing the last verse. And it all ends with another a capella by Taemin.

As I watch the dance now I marvel again how Kibum had managed to get through the choreography in one go, when we later performed it on stage.

But then again ... we did it only once.