Choke on Your Misery

Alex

The judges spent a few more minutes talking and giving the three bands our checks, and then all eight of our bands stood together for the newspaper picture. We were finally able to leave the stage ten minutes later and we headed over to our families. They had walked over near the stage. The crowd had broken up and people were now scattered everywhere.

“You boys did a great job!” my mom exclaimed, smiling as we walked up to them with our guitar cases.

Joyce Barakat nodded in agreement, “I didn’t realize quite how well you boys play as a band! I’ve heard Jack play by himself, but not all of you together.”

“I think my mom and Dennis are the only ones who have actually heard us play as a band,” Rian said with a laugh.

“Probably. After a while we just started to ignore the noise though,” Rian’s mom chuckled.

“It’s not noise,” Jack scoffed.

“You won second place, so it’s obviously a little more than noise,” Zack’s mom said with a smile.

Zack nodded, “Definitely a lot more to it than that.”

Jack nudged me in the side with his elbow as the others talked, “Alex, you’re being awfully quiet about this whole thing.”

“I’m kind of bummed that we didn’t get first place. Other than that, I’m happy,” I said, smiling slightly.

“Second place is better than third place! And it was fun anyway,” Jack said, hugging me around the shoulders.

“I suppose so.”

“Gaskarth!” I heard someone call my name and I looked around, jumping in surprise as Matt and Evan suddenly came over. “You guys were awesome!” Matt said.

I grinned, pushing Jack off of me and walking over to them, “Thanks.”

“We were in the back and a bunch of people were there from venues around Maryland. They came to watch the bands and look for some new ones to play at their venues. I made sure to look much happier when you guys went on,” Evan said, looking satisfied with himself.

I laughed, “You’re such a dork. I bet you looked obvious doing it.”

“Oh, he did. They seemed to like you guys, though,” Matt said. “Maybe you’ll get contacted and book some more shows to play.”

“I hope so. I want to expand from Lutherville a little,” I admitted.

“Well if they don’t contact you, you can always contact them.”

“True. How’s your band going?” I questioned.

Matt grimaced, “We broke up. We were all fighting and just decided it would be best to stop playing completely. We were just starting to piss each other off.”

“That’s not good. Sorry, man.”

Matt shrugged, “It’s alright. Now I have more time to do other stuff. I knew the band wasn't going to last forever.”

“Alex, your mom wants you,” Zack said, coming up behind me. They had been standing a few feet behind us.

“I should probably get going; go ahead and go back to your family,” Matt said with a smile, waving and walking away with Evan.

I turned to look at Zack, taking his hand in mine and walking back over to our families. “Zack said you wanted me?” I asked my mom.

“We were thinking of treating you boys to dessert. How does ice cream sound?” my mom asked.

I raised an eyebrow, “Mom, I’m lactose intolerant. Do you want me to be in the bathroom for the next day?”

“I want ice cream!” Jack whined. “Just eat some ice cream, Alex. Be a man!”

“Even men don’t like to be sick,” I said, rolling my eyes at him as the others laughed.

“We’ll get you a slushy or something, Alex,” Joyce told me.

“Sounds good to me,” I shrugged.

My mom turned to the others, “Are you guys going to come?”

The others agreed, and Joyce smiled, “Let’s go, then. We’ll meet up at the ice cream place down the street.”

We picked up our instruments and began to leave, making our way toward the parking lot. Jack and I were trailing behind the others because we kept tripping over each other as we were making our way through all of the people. As we broke free from the crowd and were heading toward the parking lot, we were stopped by a man who looked like he was in his twenties.

“Um, can we help you?” I asked, frowning.

“You boys are in one of the bands that performed, correct? All Time Low?” the man asked.

“Yeah, we’re half of the band,” I said, shooting a questioning glance over at Jack. He shrugged.

The man smiled, “You were very good. I love the alternative genre of music, and you covered those Blink-182 songs very well.”

“Thank you,” Jack and I said in unison, smiling.

“You’re welcome. Anyway, I’m Matt Boylan, founder of Emerald Moon Records” the man said, holding his hand out.

We both shook his hand politely before Jack said, “I don’t think I’ve heard of that company before.”

“That’s because I just established it in the last few months. It’s a brand new company. I’m focusing on the alternative genre and pop-punk fits into that very well. I came to the Battle of the Bands here at Dulaney to scope out some new bands who may want to record with me,” Mr. Boylan explained.

“I see...” I said, looking at him to see if he was going somewhere with this.

“Most of the bands here tonight were rock or pop, as you already know. Of the two alternative bands here, All Time Low was the one that really stood out. Would you boys be interested in recording with my studio?” Mr. Boylan asked.

Jack and I looked at each other, surprised. “Seriously?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Boylan chuckled. “Do you boys have a few original songs, or just the one you performed?”

“We have a few of our own songs,” Jack said, nodding eagerly.

“Well, then I would most definitely be interested in hearing them and possibly recording an EP with you boys. It would cost a bit of money, of course; but seeing as you’d be the first band to record on this record label, I think I could lower the price a bit.”

“That sounds really cool. We’d have to talk to the other guys in the band, and our parents, but I’m definitely interested in recording with you,” I said with a grin.

“Great. Here’s my card,” Mr. Boylan pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to me. “Give me a call when you make your decision, and I can set up a meeting with you boys. If your parents have any questions, I’ll be happy to talk to them too.”

“Okay, thank you!” I said, smiling as he walked away. “Jack, tell me that actually just happened!”

“It just happened!” Jack exclaimed, grinning.

“Maybe being second place isn’t so bad, after all.”

Jack laughed, “Hell no; not if it gives us some recognition like that!”

“C’mon; let’s go tell the others!” I said, shoving the business card into my pocket. We both grabbed our guitars, running to the parking lot to catch up with our families.

••••••••••

“Boys, are you sure this is an actual record company?” my mom asked, looking at the business card we had given to her. Jack, Zack, Rian, and I were sitting in the ice cream place with our parents. After getting our ice cream (or slushy, in my case) we had all finally sat down to discuss this.

“I think it is,” I shrugged.

Zack frowned, “I don’t know, Alex. He didn’t give you much information.”

“I’m not sure I want you boys going to this place. We’re not even sure it exists,” Rian’s mom said.

“I agree,” my mom said, and the other parents were nodding in agreement.

“Aw, come on; this is a chance to actually record some songs and get our band out there!” I insisted.

Jack nodded, “We can actually start playing gigs in places other than Recher!”

“It could be a scam; recording in a studio can cost a lot of money, and a lot of people take advantage of new bands like this,” Zack’s dad spoke up.

“We’ll never know until we go and find out,” Rian pointed out, and our parents looked at each other. They knew he was right.

“Mr. Boylan did say that you guys can call him or come with us to talk to him,” Jack added.

“I suppose one or two of us could come,” my mom said tentatively, looking up at the other parents.

Zack’s mom sighed, “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to just check it out...”

“So you’ll let us go?” I asked, my excitement growing.

“Yes, I-” my mom began, before I cut her off.

“Yay! Thank you!” I said, jumping up to hug her briefly before sitting back down. The others laughed.

“You sure are excited about this,” Jack’s mom mused as we were talking quickly to one another, rambling on about how cool it was going to be to record a demo album..

“It’s awesome, of course we’re excited!” Jack grinned at her.

Zack’s mom chuckled, before looking at us a little more seriously. “You boys are really serious about wanting to make something out of this band, aren’t you?”

I nodded, looking around at the others. They were nodding also. “I know I definitely do.”

“Yeah; I mean, if we can get somewhere with this, that’s great. If not, it was fun while it lasted,” Zack said with a shrug.

“Exactly,” Rian agreed.

Zack’s mom looked at us, smiling slightly at the happy looks on our faces. “I don’t think I’ve seen Zack look this excited about something in a long time,” she said, looking at Zack’s dad for his input. He sighed.

“You’re right; it has been a while,” he admitted. Zack blushed and I chuckled, reaching over to hold his hand underneath the table.

My mom smiled at the hopeful looks on our faces. “Alright; we’ll call Mr. Boylan tomorrow to set up a meeting.”