Soundtracks of a Life (5 page)

Chapter 7

Our taxi pulls up to the building where the offices of Susan Carmichael are located. It’s a posh high rise in the heart of downtown LA. When we called to set up the meeting three days ago, her office staff booked us all plane tickets for today. As we walk through the office everything looks very modern and white.

“It’s like walking into heaven,” Ted says.

“Well if your idea of haven is a Scandinavian Designs store,” James replies, laughing.

All along
the walls there are pictures of Susan with many famous musicians, many of whom she managed before. We are taken to a conference room and told to wait there. Some minutes later, Susan walks in with an older gentleman by her side.

“
Hello, I’m Susan Carmichael, nice meeting you all,” she says introducing herself. “This is George, he is our lawyer and he is here to handle the managing contract for us and to discuss any questions you may have about it. First, I would like to say I’m very excited to become the manager of this band. I really believe in your talent and your music. I haven’t been this impressed and this excited for a band in quite a while now. I really hope to take you guys to the top.”

After all the pleasantries are exchanged we start the business part of the meeting pouring
through all the details of the long, long contract. After an excruciating boring time we finally agree that we are in accord with all the clauses in the contract and proceed to the signing. At this moment George leaves the meeting as his job here is done and Susan’s assistant brings us champagne for a toast.

“Okay, now that the boring part is out of the way let’s get to what matters,” says Susan. “I would like to get you guys into the studio as soon as possible. Since you’ve been playing only locally there is little awareness of your
group outside of California. I want to record a single right away so we can hit the radios with it and create some buzz for the upcoming album.”

“Sounds awesome,” I say.
“We are ready.”

“Okay. I’ll book the studio for later this week. I’ll let you know when we have a date. In the meantime, practice the songs and think about the set you want to include on the
CD. We’ll go over them when you come back.”

We
agree, hardly being able to contain our excitement. It’s easy to see we are all feeling giddy. We are going to a real studio to record our first record. We can hardly believe this is really happening.

“One more thing I would like to say,” Susan continues. “I’m very flexible as manager. When it comes to the band, I like to let you guys have total creative control musically and I don’t like to get in your way if I can help it. But I do have one rule and it is an important one to me. No relations between band members. I do not want the complications. There will be lots of money spent on taking this band, as it is now, to the top. We’re making a significant financial investment in your group and sexual or romantic relations usually only bring about the demise of a band. To make myself very clear on this point, so there is no misunderstanding, Lorelai is untouchable. If any of you guys have sex with her, I’ll kick you out of the band
faster than I can snap my fingers. Do I make myself clear?” The guys just nod with their heads a look of shock stamped in their faces.

She then steps out of the room to take a call and leaves us there stunned at her statement. Ted finally breaks the silence.

“Is it just me or she is bit scary?”

Chapter 8

Susan’s management company flew James and Ted down to LA again where we would be recording at the beautiful, “The Village” studio. A lot of famous musicians have recorded there and we are extremely excited. We have our set of the songs we think should make it onto the album and we are eager start.

Instead of flying, Chris and I ended up driving to LA a couple of days early, as Chris wanted to stop by his parents first and he invited me to go
along. The idea of not having to fly was appealing to me so I agreed. I have no problem flying, as long as it’s a big enough plane, but I can’t say I’m a fan. So, if at all avoidable, I always chose that route plus hanging with Chris didn’t sound so bad either.

His parents, while very unhappy at first, were finally coming around to the whole full time band thing. They were starting to feel proud
with the idea of our upcoming album that would be launched country wide. My stay at their home was once again very pleasant and we enjoyed the little down time we had.

Now in a
LA though, the fun was definitely over. We start working hard on the album, sometimes staying all through the night recording a song.

Then came the photo shoots. Susan wanted to work
on the album cover right away so she could release the first single as soon as possible, before the album itself came along.  Since they needed a cover for the single we worked on both covers at once.

It was hours of hair and make-up to get ready. Then there were the clothes
… put this and this and that… I must have changed a million times into different outfits. That part was easier for the guys. They didn’t fuss about the guys’ hair and clothes nearly as much as they did with me. It was exhausting but kind of fun. Finally, they decided on a look they liked and that, more importantly, I liked too. I finally get to check out the guys and they all are looking very sharp and cool with their made up hair and fashionable clothes. I have to force myself to stop looking at Chris who is looking so handsome it was hard to look away. When it came time to strike a pose and I can’t imagine feeling more ridiculous than how I felt in that photo shoot. They just keep yelling at us to make faces and poses and you just feel so self-conscious! It was fun, in a way, but we were all very happy to be over with it once it was done.

Soon after, we received our first copy of the single. It was a very exciting moment but not nearly as exciting as when we heard our song on the radio for the first time. Chris was driving when our song came up on the
radio. He immediately changed his route and speed towards where we were staying and called my cell screaming.

“Come downstairs, now! Hurry, hurry.”

“What? What’s the matter?” I say.

“Do it now!”

As I get downstairs, he is parked in front of the place his car door open blasting our song full volume.

“It’s us, we’re on the radio!”
He screams excited.

I start screaming and we are jumping up and down
, the passerby’s looking at us like we are crazy people. Then I see James and Ted running down the street towards us. They join in the screaming and jumping up and down until the song ends.

Within days, we start to hear
our song on the radio more and more often. It’s amazing how things happen more easily when you have the backing of a big label.

A couple of weeks later
we are in the studio recording when Susan comes in holding an issue of Billboard magazine.

“Congratulations, your single just made number one!” She announces
handing us the magazine.

We just go crazy and end up hardly getting much work done that day.
We finally just give up and get together in the evening in a posh LA nightclub to celebrate our latest accomplishment.

After that things started happening even quicker
. Because the first single did so well, Susan decided to strike while we were hot and put another single out right away, before the CD launched. Our second single started already number 15 on Billboard and soon shot to number one as well. Now we had two singles in the top 100.

Wiped out, tired and emotionally spent, we finally wrapped up the album a week later. It was good to be done and we are all very happy a
t how it turned out. We all believe we have a really solid album. Susan is confident it would do well.

It’s finally our last day in the studio and so
I say a few words to the band and the sound engineers who had done an excellent job.

“Thanks everyone for your hard work. This has been an amazing experience already and no matter what happens with this album I’m really proud of all of you and the work we did here. You guys gave wings to my songs and for that I will always be grateful.”

They all applaud and we hug each other and crack open champagne for a toast before we finally leave.

As I’m walking out, Chris says to me, “Can I walk you home?”

“Sure.” I say happily.

“What a whirlwind, huh?” he says.

“No kidding! Things have been happening so fast it’s hard to process it all. I don’t think it all has quite sunk in yet.”

“I know what you mean.”
He agrees whole heartily.

“How are your parents doing?”

“They’re great. They’ve heard our songs many times now. They’re very excited,” he laughs, “they are telling everyone in the family about it.”

“That’s good.” I smile
and say “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”
He replies confident.

“Are you happy with the decision you made?”

“Absolutely,” he replies, no hesitation and without a shadow of a doubt in his eyes. It makes me happy to hear that as I know his choice to do this was much bigger than it was to any of us.  “Now I guess it’s my turn!” He says to me excitedly. “Truth or dare?”

“I always pick dare.”

“Why?”

“Truth can be scarier”.

“Hmmm, that’s because you never played that with me. I’ll make you change your mind.” He says wickedly.

“So what’ve you got for me?”
I challenge him. We are now stopped on the sidewalk as he is pondering my dare. He looks at the restaurant we are standing next to. It’s one of the fanciest restaurants in town. He gives me a devilish grin and I know I’m in trouble.

“Ok, so you have to go into the restaurant. I’ve been in there once before, just to take a look inside.  I just so happen to know that they have a grand piano in the middle of the dining room. Your dare is to go in and start playing one of your more wild piano melodies.”

“What? No way!”

“It’s a dare. You have to do it
!”

“Yeah, but you do know your dare will land me in jail right?”

“Not if you are good enough. So you better be good.”

“You’re nuts.” I say but
he starts making chicken sounds.

“I see you’ve been hanging out with the guys
a lot,” I mock and he cracks up remembering his own chicken sounds experience but continues making the sounds anyway.

“Crap.
” I say defeated, those chicken sounds are effective after all. “Ok,” I say, “I always knew I would have a run-in with the authorities eventually… might as well be today. C’mon.”

He looks at me impressed. I’m
going for it. I have jeans on, hardly the attire for this place. I take advantage that the receptionist is on the phone to make my break into the restaurant. We casually make our way to the piano, I sit down and immediately before anyone can notice start playing a melody. Unfortunately for me, the guests don’t even take a second glance. They must have just figured it was part of the restaurant dinner entertainment so the only people looking at us now are the restaurant staff. Chris sees the Maître D wildly talking to the receptionist.

“Oh, you better do better than that.
” Chris says. “You’re in trouble. They’re coming for us.” So I pick up the tempo on the melody. Now I’m wildly playing the piano and I get results immediately. All the guests stop talking and now turn their attention to me. Obviously this is hardly the calm melodies they would normally hear during dinner. My fingers are moving so fast over the keys that if the piano strings could catch on fire, they would be smoking by now. I’m giving all I got. It’s all or nothing. With all of their very wealthy patrons now curiously staring at us, the restaurant staff hesitates to come for me and make an even bigger scene. They don’t know what to do now so they let it go on. As I start my grand finale, I see Chris grab his cap and start passing among the diners collecting money. When I finish the whole restaurant bursts into applause! Immediately the Maître D is at my side ready to escort me out. Chris thanks the crowd for supporting the arts and leaves too, escorted by the receptionist. When we are out of the diner’s sight the Maître D grabs Chris by the arm angrily and says, “If I see you two come back in here, I’ll call the police next time.” We run out of door, bursting out in laughter.

“You are one crazy girl. I never thought you would actually go for it,” he says to me,
catching his breath still laughing.

“I can’t believe you went to
collect money! Are you nuts pushing our luck like that?”

“Hey, you had them at the palm of your hands. I thought I might as well.” We look inside the hat which Chris still has clutched in his hand.

“Holy crap! There are some $100 dollar bills in there!” I say amazed at our bounty.

“See, told you! You are THAT good,” he laughs.

“C’mon, let’s keep moving before they decide to come for us,” I say worried they might still call the police.

As we continue
our walk, we pass by a shelter, so I decide to go in and donate the evening’s proceedings. The guy in charge could hardly believe someone walking in at that hour donating a bunch of cash, but was very grateful, nonetheless.

“Aren’t we regular Robin Hood’s,” I say.

Chris laughs. “I guess we are.”

We finally get to the apartment the record label was renting for us
to stay while we were in town working on our record.  I start to say goodnight when Chris says to me, “I missed you.”

“We’ve been working every single day together. How can you miss me?”

“I mean, I miss just spending time with you like this. We’ve been so busy. I can’t remember the last time we just hanged out.”

“Yeah I miss this too. I guess ever since we got here we really haven’t ha
d any time for ourselves.” We hang quietly in awkward silence. I may be reading more into it than what it was but I would almost say Chris seemed conflicted.

“Good night, Chris,” I say at last
, putting us both out of our misery and we walk our separate ways.