Page 43 of Polly

Chapter 12

Flynn

Late Nyght Smoke and their manager gathered around the conference room table and waited for the record label executives to show up.

“I understand the high-ups want to try a new sound to bring in new fans. Try to be receptive to what they say,” Miguel said.

“Why?” Will, their lead singer, asked. “We’re doing fine.”

“You can never have enough fans. Try to be open to their suggestions,” Miguel said.

The door opened and two people walked in, a sharply dressed man and woman. They took seats at the end of the table.

The man smiled. “Hi, nice to meet you all. I’m Brad and this is my associate Jane.” The woman waved.

“Sorry to bring you all down here,” Brad said. “I won’t keep you long. I’d like to discuss a sound change.”

“To what?” Flynn asked. He wrote most of the songs and didn’t like the sound of this.

“We’d like a few songs with a pop vibe. Peppy. You have a dark sound, which your fans obviously love, but we’d like to add a few more upbeat songs and maybe bring in some new fans.”

Flynn growled. “The fans will hate it.”

Brad held up his hand in a placating gesture. “Not if you do it right. Just a few songs. Let’s say three. We’ll bring in one of our top writers to help and make sure you stay true to your roots but meet the sound we’re looking for.”

“I don’t like it. I won’t do it,” Flynn said.

Jane cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Mr. Morgan, but you are under contract with this record label and we are telling you to do it. You do what we say. You don’t have a choice.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.” Jane and Brad stood.

“You’re going to lose good fans. They’ll say we sold out,” Flynn protested.

“We’re counting on you to write peppy enough songs that it won’t matter,” Brad said. “You’ll replace any fans you lose.”

“This is bullshit.”

“Give it a try,” Brad said. “Consider us the experts.” He and Jane walked to the door of the conference room. “Thanks for meeting with us. We appreciate your time.” Brad closed the door behind them.

“Fuck,” Flynn exploded and banged his fist against the table. “Why didn’t you warn us, Miguel?”

“I didn’t know. No one said anything to me.”

“The fans love our sound. This is a really bad idea,” Flynn said.

“I’d say write the songs. If you don’t make any progress or don’t like them, then we won’t release the songs,” Miguel said.

“You heard Brad and Jane. They’re threatening our contract.” Flynn gestured at the door.

“Right now they are. Write the songs. Cooperate. I’ll work on them in the meantime. When the release date gets here, if you don’t like the songs for the band’s image then we won’t release them.”

“That’s not what they said.”

“I’ll work on them. Trust me.”

“If they insist on this, we need to look at getting out of this contract and finding a new label,” Flynn said.

---