Page 24 of Next Time I Fall (Excess All Areas 2)

Jase huffed in spite of himself. “You’ll be wearing pleated chinos and a polo shirt next with all that kind of talk.”

Alex hid his smirk behind a napkin, and Matt just raised a single eyebrow of disapproval.

Luke shoulder checked him. “Doesn’t being a prick get exhausting?”

Jase laughed. “Not when he makes it so easy for me.”

“Fuck off,” Matt said. “I’m serious. Anyone got any concerns?”

“I’ve got something.” Ben topped up his coffee. “I’m worried that the vibe will be different on the songs where we’re recording pieces individually versus songs we’re recording together. Taking Luke off to lay down the drum track and then me playing to it later doesn’t feel as natural, and I wonder if you’ll be able to hear that in the songs.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah. I’d back that. I realised how much I watch you guys for cues when playing. It’s more inspiring that way.”

Matt made notes in his phone. “Okay, so we’ll talk to Bexter about that. Didn’t Cerys say they’d put us in that studio so we could play together?”

Jase thought about Cerys. In fact, if he was honest, he may have thought about Cerys a little more than he should. There was something so inherentlygoodabout her. Perpetually cheerful, insanely knowledgeable. He’d also woken up hard as a rock on Sunday morning from thoughts about her lips. Smiling at him, kissing him, wrapped around his cock. “Yeah, she did.”

“Anything else?”

“We need to keep an eye on how replicable playing these songs live is going to be,” Luke said. “It’s pretty cool that we have access to a shit ton of equipment right now. But if Alex layers piano onto a song, as well as percussion, we’re going to need a pianist to play the song completely live. I don’t like the idea of introducing some kind of backing track that we all need to play along to. So, costs and logistics start to rise.”

Matt nodded. “That’s a really good point. I’ll talk to Moseley about how all that shakes out.”

Jase finished his breakfast and put his plate to the floor. “Anybody feel like we’re being nudged in a direction?”

Matt leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

He hated that he had to answer to Matt, rather than the group broadly, so he looked over to Ben to answer. “‘Until It’s Done’, the song that brought us all this, wasn’t one of our favourites.”

“Jase, don’t shit on Matt’s songs again,” Luke said.

“I’m not. But honestly, it’s fair to say it’s a lighter song than much of what we play. I feel like Bexter and Moseley are cheering on the songs in the catalogue that feel lighter. And then their suggestions make them less indie rock. And we haven’t even heard all the post-production shit that’s going to happen yet. I don’t know, maybe it’s nothing, but I get a feeling like that’s the vibe they’re expecting because of the song that went viral.”

Silence filled the room for a moment. And yet again, he’d somehow managed to say the wrong thing.

“I don’t know if that’s what’s happening. It feels a bit too organic for it to be something deliberate,” Luke said.

Ben nodded his agreement.

“But, like, do you love the list of songs we’ve focused on so far? Think about them. Think about being one of our fans, buying this album, and playing it. Does it sound like something you’d be expecting from us?”

Alex leaned forward. “I sort of get what Jase’s saying.”

“You always back Jase up though,” Luke replied.

“Oh, fuck off, Luke,” Alex said. “You aren’t impartial when it comes to anything he says, either. I’m listening. I’m thinking about what Jase is actually expressing. Hadn’t thought about it the way he said, but it’s true. If you take the four songs we’ve made the most progress on, they’re all now lighter than when we played them at our last rehearsal before we came. They’re good, but they’re missing that edge, the rawness.”

“The drums are exactly the same, how can you—”

“Luke,” Matt warned. “I’m not sure if Jase is making a good point or not, but we should pay attention to the way the song list for the album is shaping up. And I think we can prioritise some of the heavier numbers this week with a conversation with Bexter. And we’ll keep an eye out for how Bexter responds when we tell him that’s what we want to focus on.”

Jase didn’t look up from the carpet he was staring at. He couldn’t decide if Matt was just humouring him, or he genuinely saw the concern Jase did. “I think if we’re going to push back, we should do it now, when there is time to make changes,” Jase said. “Seeing how it ends up is a recipe for disaster. But I don’t know how much of a say we actually have. Like, can we say no? Or did we just sell the soul of the band to the highest bidder?”

No one said a word, and he couldn’t decide if he’d just completely said the wrong thing again, or if they just thought he was a dick who should get on board with the program.

Unable to bear the silence, he stood. “Fuck it, I’m out. See you at the studio.”

When Jase pulled up an hour later, he wondered why he’d not just gone back to his room to wait for the rest of the band and the cars arranged to get them to the studio. What the hell was he supposed to do now he was here, alone, without the band?

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