the weekend’s firmly behind me when I limp my way into the studio Tuesday morning.
“Have a nice trip?” Jacob sneers at me from across the room.
“I did. Thanks for asking, dick. Where were you?”
“Checking out the sights.” He scowls at my foot. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?”
“Cut my foot on some glass. I’ll be fine.”
Mark sits forward, concern etched in his face. “Are you all right to play? You were planning to experiment a little with a distortion pedal on ‘Lush Mountain’.”
“I can make it work.”
“Mallory get home okay?” Alvin asks.
“Yeah, she called me when she got in.”
“She was here?” Jacob asks.
“Yeah, bro. She came back with me. Where the fuck were you?”
He shrugs. “Recharging my batteries like Mark suggested.”
Garrett stretches, arching his back. “That’s code for fucking strippers.”
Jacob snickers and waves his lyric book at me. “They weren’t strippers, they were muses.”
“Fantastic,” I mutter.
“What’d you bring back?” Jacob asks, peering over at my own notebook.
I’d scribbled out a whole lot of rage-filled lyrics after the fight with Andrew. Worked on an aggressive new sound I’ve been trying to capture. After that, a whole lot of sappy shit flowed from my fingertips. “Came up with a few heavy riffs. I think I finished ‘In Your Hands’.
Jacob raises his eyebrows. “Yeah? Still wicked sappy?”
“Yup.”
“Panty melter.” Garrett points at me. “The song, not you. Girls love that sappy shit.”
That’s not why I wrote it but as long as they’re not going to fight me about putting it on the album, I don’t care.
“I think we all know Chaser’s a panty melter as well,” Jacob says.
“I’m flattered.”
“All right.” Mark stands and waves his hands in a settle down gesture. “Time to focus. Redirect our energy toward finishing this album.”
“Right-o!” Jacob shouts.
“We’ve recorded some solid stuff. All killer, no filler.” Mark goes through the list of songs we want to include on the album. It’s long and it’s time to start narrowing them down.
“‘Always Be Mine’ is the one that fits the Elimination Date soundtrack the best. It’s a killer song. Represents Kickstart’s sound really well. Great way to introduce you to a new audience. How do you feel about letting them have that one?” he asks.
We take a vote and it’s unanimous. My chest pumps with excitement. It’s really happening. One of our songs on a soundtrack. For a major motion picture.
“‘Misery Pangs’…I’m not loving that one as much. It’s not as strong as the others. Feels more like a B side.” Mark glances up to gauge our reaction.
So much for ‘all killer, no filler.’ That song’s kind of Garrett’s baby. We all worked on it but he brought it to the table. It’s a solid, quick rock song. But there’s no emotional pull that really grabs me one way or another. I’m not about to shit all over Garrett’s contribution, though.
“Eh.” Garrett scuffs the toe of his sneaker against the carpet. “I’m not super attached. If you don’t think it fits, let’s set it aside for now.”
“We’ll circle back to it,” I say and everyone agrees.
“The label still wants ‘Cry It Out’ on here,” Mark says. “Non-negotiable. But I thought maybe we could do something really different with it.”
“Like?” Jacob prompts.
Mark’s gaze lands on me. “You should sing it.”
“What?” My eyes widen and I glance at each one of my band mates. Did they put Mark up to this to fuck with me? “No. I’m not a singer.”
“It’s a personal song.” Mark taps his chest. “Your vocals will give it more depth. Maybe not the whole thing but the first verse.” He glances at Jacob. “You cool with that?”
Jacob, predictably is not down with this plan. “How are we going to work that out live?”
“Race the clock to get a blow job.” Alvin rolls his eyes. “It’s a solid idea. It will help set us apart from everyone else.”
“It’s also an old song,” Garrett points out. “We need to make it as fresh as possible, otherwise fans are going to be annoyed.”
“Yeah, cool. Whatever.” Jacob waves his hand in the air.
I shoot a glare at Mark. Head’s up might have been nice.
“We’ll go over some vocal techniques this week but I want it to have that raw, unpolished edge to it.” Mark squeezes his fist in the air. Guess he’s given this lots of thought.
Mallory
“You know how you always say you like my voice?” Chaser asks after sharing the news about which song they picked for the soundtrack.
Keeping the phone to my ear, I flop onto the bed and roll over