Page 103 of A Country Kind Of Love
“I did. And there was a song you performed... what was it? I caught your set towards the end, so it was the last song. I couldn’t get it out of my head for the rest of the night... Howdid it go?”
“How did we go from friends to more; it’s a feeling we can’t ignore. We’re off the wrong side of the tracks, with no way of climbing back—”
Alisha hums the melody. “That’s it! That’s agreat song.”
“Thank you.”
Is Jesse blushing? Peyton looks again. The sexual chemistry is obvious. She can practically see the magnetic pull between them.
Alisha looks back at Peyton and Cleo, then down at their hands intertwined.She smirks.
“Okay, Shonda?”
She rises from her desk and strolls over in her six-inch designer heels. Her curls bounce up and down as she walks—even her hair has attitude. Peyton is jealous because hers in comparison is terribly flat and still wet from the “burst pipe”.
“This is a room full of talent; wouldn’t you agree? Jesse, we might have to take a look atthat song.”
He nods enthusiastically. “Sure.”
“Now we’re all accustomed. I have a new contract I need the two of you to look over. I think you’ll find it to be generous. Once we have all the formalities out of the way, we will snap a few pictures for our socials, and release you into Alisha’s capable hands.”
Peyton compresses her hand so hard against Cleo’s she can feel Cleo’s ring carving a skull shape into her palm.
Is this happening? She wants to jump up and down, run through the halls with excitement, eat cans of whipped cream until her cholesterol levels rise, consider moving back to California to get away from the fear, and pass out through sheer disbelief and panic—all inthat order.
“I’ll see you in the studio when you’re ready to get started.” Alisha nods at them like a cowboyand departs.
?
Peyton doesn’t want to seem too optimistic. Hell, she’s never been sure about having a singing career. If the opportunity arose she told her mom she’d take it, or at least try. She didn’t get to tell her mom face to face, but she prays to her most nights, and somewhere along the way that became her way of communicating. She likes to think her mom is listening, and keeping her on the right path even if she can’t answer back directly.
In Peyton’s Nashville itinerary, she dedicated a page to,Contracts. She can’t afford a fancy lawyer. She loves Jesse, but his legal knowledge is limited, so she’s thankful for the days and weeks she spent researching what to look out for—just in case. She familiarised herself with the contents of said itinerary on the way over, so she felt more prepared than the last time she was presented witha contract.
The length of the agreement—one album. She can deal with that. The shorter the deal the better, that way if things aren’t going great, she can pivot, or if they’re going exceptionally well, she’ll have leverage to negotiate a better deal. It’s a win-win.
Pay—the advance is enough to cover rent and general living for the next couple months. Peyton and Cleo have the benefit of being the songwriters as well as the singers, so they’ll receive publishing income. They’ll each get a 10% share of the royalties which Peyton accepts as standard—unless you’re Taylor Swift, which she is not and therefore has no power over the label todemand more.
Deductions—or as Peyton thinks of it, the expensive part. There’s a list of expenses long enough to make anyone lose their attention span, but she sticks with it. Standard deductions will be costly. At this stage it isn’t just about money; they need the exposure. Getting a record deal is not the be all and end all for Peyton. It’s a means to an end. She knows it’s hard to achieve anything in the music industry without the backing of a reputable record label. She watched her mom struggle for years. Only when she died, did they come knocking for her unreleased songs like vultures. It’s a business; it’s about making money; it’s about popularity and having a story to tell or sell. They come hand in hand. Peyton absorbs the contract with aheavy heart.
The goal is simple. Write songs. Sell songs. Reap the rewards without being up front and centre. That goal hasn’t change per se, but it adjusted when she met Cleo, and she wrote song after song about their love. Her goal reshaped when she felt an overwhelming desire to take advantage of a gap inthe market.
LGBTQ+ artists are limited. That’s a fact. The modern world moves forwards in time, but many outdated stigmas come along with it. She read an article last year that labelled country music as a “straight” genre. That pissed her off. The stereotypes are real, and they’re strongly embedded in southern culture. Peyton sees the opportunity for growth. Women only comprise a small portion of the country genre. Minorities are poorlyrepresented.
Thank god for Brandi Carlile.
Her dream is one she hasn’t shared with Cleo yet. She’s hinted at it over the weekend, but saying it out loud makes it real. As soon as she admits her intention and casts her vision out into the world she can fail. She’s scared to fail, really scared.
She dares to dream of seeing their names in lights, maybe even on a stage as immense as the American Music Awards. Or a regular slot at the Bluebird.
Peyton and Cleo.
Cleyton.
The Landrys.
Yikes. No need to jump ahead to marriage. They can work on their duo name down the line.
She has visions of intimate venues selling out in seconds. Or minutes is fine. She imagines a simple backdrop displaying their names, a small stage, a piano, a guitar, two microphones, and two women gazing into each other’s eyes and serenading one another. The title of the tour will be,Love on The Road. Or,A Country Kind of Love. She can work on thosetitles too.
