my breathing, trying not to think about anything else. Meditative stuff one of my therapists had taught me long ago. There was no need to think about anything else, really.
The car wasn’t going to crash.
We weren’t going to drive off the bridge.
Nothing bad was going to happen.
Just breathe.
But the music from the Static Ice Divas’ album kept playing in the back of my mind, the way it had for so long now, on repeat. And even now I couldn’t help wondering if the songs were really done.
In a way, they were never really done.
But that was the perfectionist in me talking.
When I was on tour, it was different than playing in the studio, recording an album. Playing music live, with a group of musicians I had chemistry with… I’d always liked to take the music to new places, as if the recorded songs were merely a starting point. Try new things. Let it breathe. It was live music, and that was what Alive was all about. Giving people something they didn’t expect and letting them become part of the live experience. In a way, the music wasn’t what it was until it was performed for that particular audience, and no two shows were ever exactly the same.
Me, Gabe, Xander, Dean… we all liked to perform that way, together.
But that was in the past. When I was actually in a band.
I wasn’t in this band.
This album was out of my hands now, and in a way there was an incredible relief in that; the Static Ice Divas would tour with it now, without me. And divas they truly were. Whatever they did with those songs on tour—however they rearranged them or if they butchered them or played them note for note—it no longer had anything to do with me. People would say it did. They’d ask me for interviews. They’d credit me when the songs climbed the charts. They’d nominate me for awards, possibly.
But none of that had anything to do with me now.
The music I’d produced was already recorded. It was an expression of a moment in time—or in this case, eight months—and now it was done. At least, it was for me.
That album was the past, and I was looking forward.
The day after tomorrow, I’d start working on the Players’ debut album. They’d put together a killer lineup, including my best friend and former bandmate, Xander. The band and their manager, Brody Mason, had chipped away at me for a good six months trying to convince me to produce the album. In the end, when I was able to come up for air and give it fair consideration—when the Ice Divas’ album was finally nearing completion—the decision wasn’t all that hard.
I had other offers. Plenty of bands, old and new, wanting to work with me, despite my reputation for being… well, difficult to work with. But when it came down to making a choice, it was between the Players and a few other artists I’d worked with before, ones I was, frankly, feeling pretty lukewarm about.
Maybe I just needed something fresh and new.
And there were a lot of reasons to work with the Players.
I’d spent as much time as I could over the last few months listening to the band members’ recorded work; everything that Ashley Player, Summer Sorensen, Matt Brohmer and Xander Rush had ever recorded in their musical careers, before they came together as a band. And although the four of them had never collaborated on a project before, they all had something in common: that special something I looked for in a musician. It was a mix of raw talent, hunger, and uniqueness.
Maybe it was the personal “blood, guts and soul” that each of them brought to the music they made.
Whatever it was, even I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It had to be this way; it had to surprise me. Intrigue me. It had to be something I couldn’t have come up with myself.
Otherwise, what was the point?
But it was also something I knew I could take hold of as their producer, shape, direct and elevate to a higher level.
They all had serious writing chops, too, which was a must for me.
With Brody Mason at the helm as their manager, and Trey Jones, who’d just signed them to his label, Brick House Records, they also had the right team behind them.
On Monday, the Players would walk into a studio together for the first time. And while I’d be co-writing and producing the album,