A Melody from the Heart

When she met everyone else, I think that’s when we really started to see how different we were from each other. She was like ice and I was like fire, but for some reason when we brought those differences together in the recording studio, something special happened…

Audrey stood in the doorway, taking in the scene before her. She knew she should have expected this when she agreed to work with a rock band, but at that moment, she was regretting her decision. She noticed that most of the band members were lounging around in the studio, drinking. She didn’t think they seemed businesslike at all. One of the people sitting in the corner of the room looked up and noticed her. He got up to make his way over to her, and Audrey knew it was too late to back out now.

“Hey, you must be Audrey,” the man said, extending his hand to shake hers. She noticed he had a good number of piercings on his face and dark hair. She had noticed the tattoos when she first walked in, but it seemed that everyone in the band had their arms covered. “Matt is recording something at the moment, but he should be out soon. I’ll introduce you to everyone while you wait for him. My name is Zacky, by the way. Zacky Vengeance.”

“Vengeance?” Audrey asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, my last name is actually Baker,” Zacky replied as he walked her over to the center of the room where everyone was sitting. “But we all kind of have stage names”

Audrey fought back the urge to laugh. This just kept getting better and better. She couldn’t believe they had silly stage names they called themselves. She tried to keep the fact that she found this to be ridiculous hidden because she didn’t want any of them to hate her. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking she wished she never agreed to do this, though.

“This is Brian,” Zacky said pointing to the person who was slouched in a chair, holding a beer. Audrey noticed he didn’t even look up to greet her. “Otherwise known as Synyster Gates.”

She couldn’t help but think the names just got more and more ludicrous, and she also wondered for a second what Matt’s stage name was, and if it was the weirdest out of all of them.

“And finally, that’s Jimmy and Johnny, known as the Rev and Johnny Christ,” Zacky said as he pointed to each of them. The taller one, Jimmy, waved to her, being friendly, and the shorter one just gave her a slight smile. At least they were a lot nicer than the first one.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Audrey said as she took a seat in an empty chair. She sat on the edge, stiffly, and clearly uncomfortable. Zacky smiled sympathetically at her as he took a seat across from her. She was definitely out of her element, that’s for sure.

“We’re glad you decided to come down here and help us out,” Zacky said to her, trying to make conversation so she wouldn’t feel so awkward. “We were supposed to have put this album out months ago, but our lead singer wouldn’t let us. He doesn’t stop until he gets everything the way he wants it, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I hope he didn’t seem like too much of a stalker when he showed up on your doorstep. We told him not to do that.”

“Yeah, I was kind of hoping you had some pepper spray in your bag to teach him a lesson,” Jimmy said from the other side of the room.

“Well, living in the city for all of your life, it gets easy to tell who is weird at first glance and who might be normal,” Audrey explained with a little smile.

“Hey, Audrey!” Matt called out as he made his way out of the door that had been closed before. He had an excited look on his face, and she could tell it was because he was happy to be putting the finishing touches on his project. “I don’t know how long ago you got here, but they already prepared for you to record some stuff if you’re ready.”

“I just need to warm up a little bit, but I can record whenever you need me,” she said as she pushed herself up off of the chair. Everyone else stayed behind, but Matt followed her into the recording and producing room.

“Okay, so we have about two or three songs we want you to record on,” Matt explained as he sat down by the controls. We have everything written out already, so all you need to do is go in there and do your thing. We don’t have very much left to record, so take your time. We’ll start you off with a slower song so you can get used to our style.”

And by that, he meant he was trying not to scare her away if their music was too heavy for her.

Audrey nodded her head and then made her way into the room so she could warm up with a few exercises and scales. She took about fifteen minutes to herself, and then she turned to the room where Matt was watching through the window to let him know that she was ready to go.

“Matt?” Audrey called through the glass as she looked over the sheet music. The music that was written there wasn’t anything particularly difficult, so she was sure she would be able to get a fairly good recording just through sight reading it. “Could I hear what you’ve recorded already for this song? It would really help me get a feel for the mood and tone of the song and it will let me know how I should play this.”

“Sure,” Matt replied. He was a little nervous to give into her request because he didn’t want Audrey to hate what he played her, but he had no choice. “This song is called Afterlife.”

Already with the title, Audrey had a better idea on how to interpret the musical notes that were written out in front of her. Yes, on paper, sheet music just looked like a bunch of lines and dots, but there was so much more written in between the lines. It was the parts that weren’t written in ink that were the most important key to playing a piece of music beautifully.

She looked at the piece of paper and the music started playing in the headphones she was wearing. With the first note, Audrey was already interpreting how she should play everything that was written in front of her. She wasn’t paying attention to the fact that she never would have picked to listen to a song like this in a million years. The only thing that mattered to her at that moment was it was music, and music was something she had always loved.

She knew where she was going to put in swells in the music, lots of vibrato, and diminuendos. They had written out a guideline that told her how she should play, but she was the true author of what she was about to play. It was her job to make everything come alive with sound and feeling.

Audrey listened to about two minutes of the song before she knew she was ready to play. She looked up from the sheet of music after the music stopped, and she saw that Jimmy was now on the other side of the glass along with Matt.

“Just go with what you feel when you play,” Jimmy said into the speaker. “We’re not worried about you getting the notes right, we’re just trying to give the whole beginning this haunted feel. I trust you with however you play it.”

“Jimmy’s the one who came up with the idea for this song,” Matt explained from next to him. “I know you’ve told me you’re different than us when it comes to music, but don’t be so serious. Just have fun with it.”

Audrey nodded her head as she brought up her violin to nestle it underneath her chin. She heard what Matt said, but that didn’t mean she was going to be any less serious.

“Alright, we’ll let you know when to start,” Jimmy explained into the speaker again. Audrey nodded, indicating she had heard him, and looked at the piece of music, ready to start whenever they wanted her to.

She heard the clicks of the metronome give out two bars of beats, letting her know the tempo of the song, and she mentally prepared herself to begin playing. Usually, she was used to playing with different kinds of instruments, like different strings and flutes, but playing with electric guitars and full drum sets was going to be a lot different.

She began to play when she was supposed to, hearing what they had already recorded in her headphones. The wanted her to play like she was the lead, so she didn’t really listen to the sound much. It would have been more of a distraction than anything.

Audrey glided the bow over the strings of her violin effortlessly, and the sound that emitted from it blended and melded with what was already there in a way she never thought it would. She always thought these two worlds of music should be kept separate, and it took someone’s opposing point of view to teach her something different. As she played what was written on the page, Audrey became excited to work on this album, and a hundred ideas soared around in her head.

Audrey may have been viewed as cold and headstrong, but she always accepted when someone taught her something new and useful. She was skilled in her art and profession, but the reason why she had become such a good musician was because she always kept an open mind when working with others. These tattoo covered men just taught her something she never could have learned anywhere else. The taught her that sometimes, being different was okay.

Her part ended, and she looked up from the papers in front of her and into Matt and Jimmy’s smiling faces.

“That was awesome, Audrey,” Jimmy said with a huge grin. Of course, he had to have known she would never accept something that she recorded on the first try.

“Do you two mind if I make a couple of suggestions?” Audrey asked timidly. She was usually strong and confident when it came to her opinions, but she knew stepping over the line with another musician’s work was a delicate thing. This was their creation, and she didn’t want to change anything if they didn’t want her to.

“No, go ahead,” Matt said with a smile. He knew a couple weeks ago he had found what he was missing, and now that he heard his music and hers combined, Matt knew he was right in never giving up on her. “You’re the violin player, so change anything you think necessary. If it doesn’t sound good, we just record over it.”

Audrey smiled faintly. This time, she was accepted when she wanted to record something a hundred times. It was so much different when someone knew the same importance of getting everything exactly right.

It was that freedom that made Audrey find herself, several hours later, alone with Matt in the studio, going over another song with him. He had asked for her opinion, and she found herself wanting to work on the song with him to make everything work out. She was so used to playing what other people wrote for her that it was weird to write music herself. It was a completely different side to music she had not experienced much, and Matt had introduced her to it.

Everyone had left long ago, and Audrey rubbed her eyes as she looked at the clock to see how late it was. When she didn’t want to work on something, she didn’t give it a second thought, but when she wanted to get something done, she devoted her everything to it.

“I think this is it,” Audrey said as she held up the piece of music in front of her. It was covered with assorted notes and markings, and to Matt it looked like it was written in a different language.

“I don’t know how you do that,” Matt said as he looked at the music. When they wrote things, they usually went by ear. Audrey, however, had written out all of her notes. She had taken music theory and composition classes for most of her life, so it was nice to finally get to use those skills.

“Yeah, well I’ve been doing this almost since I started walking, so if I didn’t know how to do it, I would think something was wrong,” she answered with a smirk. Matt was beginning to realize that Audrey said the things she did because she liked to see the different kinds of reactions she could get out of people.

“I see,” he replied. He was going to see just how much he could mess up the game she liked to play. “So, why exactly is it that you finally decided to work with a dreaded rock band?”

“Well, there was this guy who hung around on my doorstep, so I figured I would have to say yes sooner or later. I couldn’t have him standing there every day, scaring away my neighbors,” Audrey answered. She knew he wanted her to say it was because she realized she would have fun working with him, or that he was actually a talented musician. No, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of saying that because he already knew she had given him her respect. She did like the fact that Matt knew she didn’t respect just anybody. Rock music wasn’t her thing, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate his talent at it.

“I’ve never met a girl who came up with as many well thought out insults as you do,” Matt said with a laugh. For some reason, he was beginning to take her insults as compliments.

“And I’ve never met someone who takes my insults as well as you do,” she replied with a smile. “Anyway, getting back to business, I think after tomorrow, my work will be done here. I just have to record that one song with your guitarist.”

“Yeah, Brian’s not too happy about rerecording,” Matt said as he started to straighten out papers they had been working with. “He thinks the record is fine the way it is, and he had all of his parts done before we came here. He hasn’t been too happy since we’ve been here.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Audrey said. “When I got here, he had an attitude that rivaled my own. Although, to my credit, I try not to show my true colors too soon. I got the feeling he doesn’t care for me much.”

“Brian’s just had a stick up his ass since we got here,” Matt explained. “Usually he has the best sense of humor out of all of us, but that hasn’t been the case. Just ignore it. He will get over it eventually. Maybe you’ll even get him to keep his remarks to himself if you show him up while you record together tomorrow.”

Audrey looked up at the clock once more. “Speaking of tomorrow, I’ve got to be headed home,” Audrey said, standing up as she yawned. “As much as I would love to work myself into my grave, I do need to get some sleep.”

“Do you need someone to walk you back to your apartment?” Matt asked.

“I think you would know by now that a girl like me can handle herself,” Audrey said as she put her coat on. “Besides, since you’re not hounding me to work with you anymore, there’s been a lack of strange men standing on my doorstep.”

“I’m just saying I look like a bodyguard, so people don’t want to mess with me because I look like a badass,” Matt said with a self assured smile. Audrey just rolled her eyes at him before heading for the door.

“Goodnight, Matt.”

Matt sighed as the door closed behind Audrey and he began to clean up everything else from the day. Originally, his plan had been to get the thought of himself stuck in Audrey’s head so she would finally agree to working with him. Now, as it turned out, she had been stuck in Matt’s head for days.

He had actually enjoyed working with he, because she was so good at what she did and because she took it so seriously. He even liked how she was able to come up with such clever insults. He liked spending time with Audrey because he had realized she had so many layers to her, and each one got more and more interesting the deeper you got.

He was just beginning to scrape the surface of who she really was, and he liked her more and more with everything he discovered. He wanted all the time in the world to study her and to figure out why she acted so distant and unemotional.

Unfortunately, like she had said not that long ago, tomorrow was the last day they were supposed to work together. This meant he probably never would see her again after that, and he just couldn’t accept that for an answer.

At first, Matt had just wanted to have her record, but now his interest in her went so much deeper than that. Audrey was a mystery he wanted to get to the bottom of, and to do that he had to come up with a way to see her after tomorrow.

He needed to know what was lying beneath that tough outer wall because he was almost positive that the person behind it had a bigger heart than most people could have wished for.