How Many Times Can You Race Around the Tree Before You Catch Me?

I was exhausted after a few days without sleep and I was even more exhausted the next couple of days when we decided on how to finish these songs. I had to find an orchestra for certain parts and then record and mix everything. I was surprised I had them done on the 26th. When I brought my phone into the Motionless bus and played it for them in Orlando they were shocked.

"Those were your vocals?"

"Most of them, the guys are in some of them plus the gang vocals."

"Holy shit dude, that's some talent. Which one are you releasing as the single?" Balz asked.

"I think we're gonna release the first one I showed you, but the guys and I talked about possibly throwing the techy one into out set as a tester." They all seemed to approve of the idea.

"The kids are going to go mental over these tracks." I smiled.

"That's the idea." I smiled again.

"What are you going to do about the tour issue?" I sighed.

"Honestly, we're gonna be doing openers all fucking year now and if we book a single show around the label, we're fucked."

"Do you guys have the money to go independent?" I rolled my head from side to side while I thought.

"Yeah but it'll be stretch. I'd have to produce the album and we would be cutting it close with the amount of advertising we would have to do. It's a huge risk."

"With this," I looked at Chris," I think you're set." I hummed in response.

"Have you talked it over with the guys?" I shook my head to Ricky's question.

"No," I stood," but I probably should. Thanks guys."

The few days were insane. The guys and I agreed to add the song to the set and the reaction was nothing short of astonishing. Our crowds grew massive and we soon found ourselves playing after 6 everyday. Kevin even came by to congratulate me on the success. I was shocked at the reception to say the least.

"Hey," Nikki came and sat next to me at lunch in Milwaukee," How your day going?" and we was asking all the suspicious questions.

"Well fine I suppose, yourself?" He seemed pleased that I answered that way.

"Andy called." I rolled my eyes with a groan.

"What did he want this time?" Nikki averted his eyes at my question. I pushed my plate and drink out of the way and folded my arms onthe table.

"I'm waiting."

"He didn't like the song." He frowned.

"Is he going to do anything?" I asked calmly. Nikki was starting to get uncomfortable. He always did delivering bad news.

"He won't let us release it. It's a breech of contract according to him." I wanted to bang my head on the table.

Of course Andy "my way or the highway" Herrara would pull that card on the guys when I wasn't there to tell them otherwise. He was playing a game he was going to lose.

"Nikki, I have something I want you and the guys to seriously consider. I am going to beg you to consider." I took both his hands from across the table.

"What?" He was extremely confused, I usually didn't ask questions like this.

"Let the labels drop you guys and go independent." His eyes widened when he heard me.

"Do you have any idea what you're asking of us?!" He caught the eyes of more than a few people when he raised his voice.

"Keep your voice down Nikki, yes I'm fully aware. These songs are hits Nikki, you know it. I can produce like I did for those ones and we can bring Jake back to do the better vocals and I can book more tours for you guys. They won't be headliners for a bit, but they'll be decent." An awkward silence settled between the two of us while we stared each other down.

It ended with him getting up and walking away. My head dropped down on to the table and I groaned.

"Rough morning?" Vinny sat where Nikki had jsut been seated and slid a bowl of Ice cream in front of my face.

"The label said if we release the single, they're dropping us." I didn't have to look up to know how he was gonna react. Any musician would react the same way.

"I'm trying to convince them to let it happen." He moved to the bench seat next to me so I could see him from where I was seated.

"Why?" My back popped as I sat up straight to look at him.

"We have the resources to do it. Tours would be scarce to start out, but we would make do. I handle all the financials anyways. Jake could come back too." He sighed.

"Do you really want him to?" His question confused me.

"Why wouldn't I?" Vinny Chuckled.

"You like the position you're in now. I can see it on your face. Every time you get on that stage, you turn into an other worldly kind of person." I chuckled.

"Funny, I hate being on a stage. I do it for the guys and I do it the best I can." He followed me when I stood.

"Whatever you say sweet cheeks."I rolled my eyes as he kissed my cheek.

"I have to go find them and see what they want to do." He nodded.

"Can you come to my bus later? We need to talk." My eyes widened. No one ever wants to hear someone say those words.

"I just wanna talk about what we're gonna do after tour." That didn't calm my nerves, it sure as hell made them worse. I promised him I would be there though and went to my bus.

Opening the door I could hear them shouting, Christian and Mikey agreed with me and Nikki was now on edge while Andrew thought it was a bad idea.

"If they drop us we lose our tour support, our recording advances, everything. How are we going to continue?" Andrew asked.

"We have the money to do that ourselves at this point and you know it. Are you afraid of going back to the DIY route we were apart of in the beginning? Honestly, I think those were some of the best times and now that we have the money it shouldn't be an issue." Everyone grew quiet at Mikey's "best time" comment.

He was still a sore spot that Jake wasn't here and I knew that that's why they were as upset as they were about this. They would be making a decision over his head and they were branching into new territory. So I let them hash it out. I went to the back and started writing myself. Part of me was mad at Jake and part of me was mad at Bryce and part of me was fucking done. I don't really know what I expected when I started laying down the tracks. The guitars were plain, but man I knew exactly how to beef this up. An hour later Nikki walked into the back room and the other shuffled in.

"You guys done hashing it out?" I chuckled as I continue to play through the guitar part I had written.

"We're releasing the single tonight." I stopped and looked at Christian.

"We're playing it today too."My eyes were wide.

"Guys that song isn't ready." Nikki sighed.

"We're playing the headliner slot today. It's more than do able ok??" His assertiveness was a little off putting.

"Once we do this there's no going back. You are all aware of that right?" They were all quiet.

"Someone should call Jake. He needs to know." Nikki, Christian, and Andrew looked at Mikey.

"Fine," Mikey threw his arms up and then looked at me,"If we do this we want you to stay." My lips set into a tight line.

"Guys...." I didn't know what to say. I didn't even know if I was ready for this.

"Don't say no, you're already here. Just stay." I sighed.

"And what are you going to tell Jake? Someone tells him before we announce it."

"I already did." Christian looked upset to begin with, but now I knew why he looked worse than others.

"What did he say?" I sat up and moved the guitar to my right.

"He flipped out and they put him in the isolation ward." Christian looked almost defeated.

"Well...." The next few minutes were awkward as silence set in.

"I'm gonna go practice the new songs I guess..." The boys all broke off and left me to sit in my mind.

How did everything end up like this?

That night we played through our set starting off with all our hits from the past. We even played our single from the first album.

"We have two songs left and a little announcement to make." Nikki handed James his guitar and took the new one handed to him while speaking into the mic.

"Tonight," He threw his hands up and pointed down as emphasis," Our new song Throne will be released on every major digital media outlet." He looked over at me while I set up the keyboard that I borrowed from Balz ever night since we started playing Throne. I took that as my turn to speak.

"Please go pick it up," the crowd cheered as I grabbed the microphone," We will need a lot of support from you guys through this new year."

"Before we continue into this next song," Mikey hopped in," We've welcomed Jax into the band full time. Our new album will be out in January." The crowd cheered more than I expected. I had to look at Mikey and Nikki with wide eyes as they started chanting my name. They wouldn't stop so the guys joined in.

I chuckled and gave Christian the thumbs up to start the tracks. When the kids heard it they screamed.

"This is Drown, it's for Jake." I turn to my side and helped bring in the song on keys. We had put the gang vocals on back tracks.

Man I wasn't expecting the kids to like this, much like anything else we had put out. I had stepped away from screaming of any kind and it was weird letting everyone hear my voice. Not imitating Jake for a few songs felt great.

"Thank you, this is our last song it's called Throne. See you all again soon." I waved them off while I played the intro to drown.

Since we played last I had gotten the ok for some creative lighting for this song. It followed our keys perfectly. As crazy as everything had been, this was like saying goodbye to me and my old ways. From here on out I was going to move forward as a new person.

I couldn't help but smile proudly as the song faded out.

"See you again soon Milwaukee!"

And that was it. The last three shows would probably same, with the last show of tour being super super emotional. Same as it had been every Warped before this one. That thought alone made me frown as we packed the trailer.

"What's wrong?" Nikki asked.

"Tours over in a few days and I don't really know what the future holds for us yet...." He nodded.

"We'll figure it out dude. Just take a deep breath and let us figure it out this time ok? You've already done so much." I smiled at him.

"Thanks dude, but I need to be more involved for this to work. We still haven't found any tours for the rest of the year."

"Actually,"He pulled out his phone, "Joel was more than willing to help with that." He handed over his phone.

The screen held an email with three tour posters, all of which were for The Amity Affliction's Let The Ocean Take Me headlining tours in Australia, the US, and Europe.

"So he sent us tour posters?" I tried to hand him the phone back with a chuckle.

"Look who is playing those shows." His hand pushed the phone back towards me.

"Uh, ok?" I read them off in my mind, starting with Australia since it was the soonest.

Amity
Architects
Have Fun Trying To Get This On The Flyer
Issues-

"They put us on their Australia tour?" My eyes were wide with disbelief as I starred at Nikki.

"Keep reading."

The US tour had us as the openers and in Europe we were the direct support.

"All three?! You guys haven't even been to Australia yet...." Nikki chuckled.

"Yeah that was a tough sell to their booker but he pulled through."

My face was still in a shocked state. This was fucking insane.

"How even?," He chuckled and brought me in for a hug, "I mean I know those guys are always down to help but still." Nikki sighed.

"Joel said specifically that this was to you." He confirmed as he stepped back.

"Well shoot. That takes us through to the end of the year. The album will be out in time for us to do a tour in the spring and then the summer even...maybe even get picked up by a different label..." My mind was reeling at the possibilities we had.

"Exactly, that's why I made a call to some friends. We have tours lined up for the year now. We just need to finish the record now. Do you have any idea who you want to go to produce?"

"No one," My arms crossed," I'm gonna do it remember? We can't afford to get who we would want and/or need." He nodded.

"Yeah, I just figured that since we had the guaranteed income now we could." He sat down on the wheel well of the trailer.

"It's a lot more than you think. I'll run numbers for this but the tours actually pull more money out of us then you think." He nodded.

"Well I guess we will leave that up to you then. I still haven't gotten a call from Andy." I chuckled and started walking to the bus.

"Andy can suck my dick!"