Page 14 of Hard Rock Temptation
And how could I list a dozen reasons we shouldn’t be together when sometimes it felt like being with Kaylee was the only one true thing I wanted in life?
The other members joined us in the practice room as Zain and Kaylee talked shop and I stood there doing fuck all, my mind a mass of swirling chaos.
I waited until there was a lull in the conversation before clearing my throat.
“We all know the label is asking about our second album,” I started.
“Bitching about it, more like,” Finn mumbled. “So what else is new? They’re always bitching about something.”
“Says the person they’re always bitching about,” Zain said with a snort.
“I keep telling everyone, I’m a reformed man!” Finn protested. “No one’s complained about me in months.”
“That just means we’re overdue,” Zain ribbed.
“Seriously guys,” I interrupted. “We’re behind. Way behind. We haven’t even decided on the track list yet. All of you are still working on songs.”
“You mean all ofus,” Kaylee interjected. “I know you like to think you’re on the production side of things now, but you’re still a part of this band, too.”
I tried not to grimace. Fuck, talk about being called out.
“All of us,” I corrected myself. “We really need to start finishing things. I know you all love to tweak until you think everything is perfect, but you know the saying?—”
“Don’t—” Zain, Finn and Kaylee all groaned together.
“Perfect is the enemy of done,” I said firmly.
“You know we hate it when you overuse clichés,” Anya mumbled under her breath.
“So, what, you want us to put out crappy songs?” Kaylee asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You know that’s not what I’m saying,” I said, praying for patience. “But you—we—have more than enough songs to at least go into the studio and start recordingsomething.”
The others all murmured their agreement, despite the look of distaste on some of their faces.
“So what I’d like is for each of us to pick a song we think is ready,” I said. “That’ll give us six songs. That’s more than enough to start with.”
“What if the first six songs end up not vibing with the rest we choose?” Kaylee spoke up. “Don’t we want a cohesive sound?”
“We can cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said. “Let’s think of them all as singles. We’re not doing a concept album, after all.”
“Hey, that’s a cool idea!” Finn said excitedly, sitting up from his usual languid slouch. “What if we?—”
“No,” Anya said. I was grateful she’d spoken up before I had to. “It’s too late into our process for that. Maybe on our third album.”
Finn slumped back down with an airy wave of the hand. “Fine, fine, kill the fun.”
This isn’t supposed to be fun.
The words almost slipped out of my mouth but I caught them in time. I didn’t want to imagine the horrified look on Kaylee’s face if I’d said that out loud. If she was pissed at me now…
But it was true. Making music was making music, and doing business was doing business. Unfortunately, as much as some of the band members might not like to hear it, those two things had to go hand in hand if we wanted to succeed in this industry. Otherwise we could have just stayed indie and kept putting out songs by ourselves.
Of course, that would have meant no mansion. No stadium concerts. No bank accounts with positive digits. We’d probably all still be crammed into that two-bedroom apartment, just scraping by, barely able to afford groceries, and definitely not able to save for things like fancy cars and vacations, or the more practical emergency funds, or any unexpected medical expenses.
My mind immediately shied away from that last thought. I didn’t want to go there, not today.
Anyway, it was my responsibility to take care of the band. To watch over them, to make sure we were all on the right track. That has always been my role, and I took it seriously.
