Status: Currently writing
The Stars in Your Sky Aren't the Same Stars in My Sky
Spider Spray
He chuckled as I finished mixing the music.
"I'm surprised you can mix shit this fast. Will trying to mix 12 songs in 4 days was scary, I feel like you could've done that in one." I chuckled.
"No, this is super rough. It still sounds good I guess but I usually pull it all apart and put it back together in post. That's when we add in the odd bits, things like harp and brass parts." I stood and grab the headphones.
"I'll do one take for each part and then we can go ok?"
He helped me finish and I took both songs and added them to the dropbox with the stems. We went back to the house and found a real party in full swing.
"I'm assuming your friends invited their friends and their friends friends?" I asked as we parked across the street since there wasn't any room in the driveway.
"Probably, but they're gonna need to go home. My neighbors already hate me."
He opened the door and told me where the office is. I followed his instructions and pulled up the songs to show the guys. I played through them a few times to try and get a feel for them. I also played them with our three finished songs and a few of the part finished ones. Soon, I felt a presence in the room and heard the creak of people sitting down.
"So I finished two new songs T-" I stopped talking when I turned around and saw Ahren's friends from earlier, including the punk that said I wasn't a bro, and my guys.
"New songs..." Nikki encouraged me to continue.
Instead of saying anything I just clicked play and took out my phone to look over social media while they played. I let them run into the three finished songs to kind of give them a feel for the overall album.
"Yeah?" I turned around and stared the boys down waiting for a response.
"It sounds fucking amazing." One of Ahren's friends answered instead.
"Thank you."
"When did you write those first two? I know some of the music was from Mikey and I." Christian asked.
"Just now, that's where we went." I pointed to Ahren, standing in the door with his beer.
"You finished that whole song in an hour?" I shrugged.
"Most of it was already done, look I'm tired. Can we go to bed?"
"We're gonna stay up since tomorrow's our last full day here." I looked at my phone.
"There's two more days..." I corrected him. The boys just stared at each other before looking back at me.
"Don't call it a party 'cause it never stops!" The boys cheered at Ahren's friend's words before everyone got up and danced out of the room.
"Casey put sheets on the guest bed before she left." Ahren opened the door next to the office and pointed inside.
"Thank you, for everything." He smiled.
"You know we're always here for you, like you were here for us."
He went back down stairs to the boys and I took a shower before passing out.
The next day was a rapid fire of new writing from the boys. Sure enough there were all the pieces for several albums of songs. We all sifted through the stems and ideas for full songs well into the next day. I ended up pulling an all nighter packing up the gear for tour. Christian was pretty upset that I had done it alone, but he made the guys handle the actual shipping of the stuff while he and I went through the songs.
"I just feel like we're not leaving you with enough finished product. You're going to end up recording some stuff by yourself." He was sticking to his 'Jax does too much' philosophy.
"It's fine Nik. You know I like doing this and it's less time I have to spend at home." Our heads shot up as we heard a cymbal hit the ground. Christian just looked at us before looking down to pick it up.
"Why don't you want to go home? Everyone else is so ready to be home."
"I just need time away from Jake after everything that happened. It was hard seeing him for just three days." I hadn't told them what Jake had done yet.
"Well what if you went to see Vinny?" I grimaced, had forgotten to tell him that too.
"Yeah about that," I dropped a clip into place and hit play to listen,"We broke up in Denver." Nikki reached over and hit the stop button.
"Why? You guys were so happy..." I sighed and looked to see where everyone else was. Christian was packing drums, Andrew was printing off labels, James and Mikey were cataloging everything, and Mark was documenting the whole process.
"That was the problem," I turned to Nikki," I was so happy I would have done anything to be with him if we lasted any longer..." He seemed extremely confused. We both jumped again when Christian dropped another cymbal.
"Hey Christian," I demanded through the com system,"We don't have the money for more cymbals right now. Please be careful?" He gave me a thumbs up and turned back to Nikki.
"As crazy as everything has been lately, I wouldn't want to leave this behind for anything in the world. When I looked at Vinny one of the last times we went out and all I saw was us with kids and married, I knew it was time to jump ship...." His eyes wouldn't meet mine as he realized exactly why I gave up one of the few relationships I had ever had.
"Thank you..." He responded calmly a few minutes later.
"It's all I want is to help you guys succeed." He chuckled and gave me a hug but pulled away quickly.
"Wait, is Follow You about Vinny?" Having not told him about Jake, I just nodded.
"Wow dude, I didn't realize how much you loved him." I shrugged and went back to editing the current song together.
"Hey it's getting kinda late," I reminded him before he could respond to my previous comment," ask them how much more we have to do please?" He just stood and walked into the booth while I saved all our progress.
"Christian is just stacking the hardware and then we only have to label."I gave him a thumbs up when he walked back into the room.
After I packed up my bag, they were done and we all went back to Ahren's. He had his bags by the front door already since we were leaving tomorrow.
"Do I need to pack spider spray?" James asked Ahren as we all sat down in the kitchen.
"Seriously," Ahren pulled out a bottle of Jameson and poured himself two shots," All you Americans and your spider issues."
"To be fair I am deathly scared of them...." I scoffed at Mark.
"Pussies..."
"I'm surprised you can mix shit this fast. Will trying to mix 12 songs in 4 days was scary, I feel like you could've done that in one." I chuckled.
"No, this is super rough. It still sounds good I guess but I usually pull it all apart and put it back together in post. That's when we add in the odd bits, things like harp and brass parts." I stood and grab the headphones.
"I'll do one take for each part and then we can go ok?"
He helped me finish and I took both songs and added them to the dropbox with the stems. We went back to the house and found a real party in full swing.
"I'm assuming your friends invited their friends and their friends friends?" I asked as we parked across the street since there wasn't any room in the driveway.
"Probably, but they're gonna need to go home. My neighbors already hate me."
He opened the door and told me where the office is. I followed his instructions and pulled up the songs to show the guys. I played through them a few times to try and get a feel for them. I also played them with our three finished songs and a few of the part finished ones. Soon, I felt a presence in the room and heard the creak of people sitting down.
"So I finished two new songs T-" I stopped talking when I turned around and saw Ahren's friends from earlier, including the punk that said I wasn't a bro, and my guys.
"New songs..." Nikki encouraged me to continue.
Instead of saying anything I just clicked play and took out my phone to look over social media while they played. I let them run into the three finished songs to kind of give them a feel for the overall album.
"Yeah?" I turned around and stared the boys down waiting for a response.
"It sounds fucking amazing." One of Ahren's friends answered instead.
"Thank you."
"When did you write those first two? I know some of the music was from Mikey and I." Christian asked.
"Just now, that's where we went." I pointed to Ahren, standing in the door with his beer.
"You finished that whole song in an hour?" I shrugged.
"Most of it was already done, look I'm tired. Can we go to bed?"
"We're gonna stay up since tomorrow's our last full day here." I looked at my phone.
"There's two more days..." I corrected him. The boys just stared at each other before looking back at me.
"Don't call it a party 'cause it never stops!" The boys cheered at Ahren's friend's words before everyone got up and danced out of the room.
"Casey put sheets on the guest bed before she left." Ahren opened the door next to the office and pointed inside.
"Thank you, for everything." He smiled.
"You know we're always here for you, like you were here for us."
He went back down stairs to the boys and I took a shower before passing out.
The next day was a rapid fire of new writing from the boys. Sure enough there were all the pieces for several albums of songs. We all sifted through the stems and ideas for full songs well into the next day. I ended up pulling an all nighter packing up the gear for tour. Christian was pretty upset that I had done it alone, but he made the guys handle the actual shipping of the stuff while he and I went through the songs.
"I just feel like we're not leaving you with enough finished product. You're going to end up recording some stuff by yourself." He was sticking to his 'Jax does too much' philosophy.
"It's fine Nik. You know I like doing this and it's less time I have to spend at home." Our heads shot up as we heard a cymbal hit the ground. Christian just looked at us before looking down to pick it up.
"Why don't you want to go home? Everyone else is so ready to be home."
"I just need time away from Jake after everything that happened. It was hard seeing him for just three days." I hadn't told them what Jake had done yet.
"Well what if you went to see Vinny?" I grimaced, had forgotten to tell him that too.
"Yeah about that," I dropped a clip into place and hit play to listen,"We broke up in Denver." Nikki reached over and hit the stop button.
"Why? You guys were so happy..." I sighed and looked to see where everyone else was. Christian was packing drums, Andrew was printing off labels, James and Mikey were cataloging everything, and Mark was documenting the whole process.
"That was the problem," I turned to Nikki," I was so happy I would have done anything to be with him if we lasted any longer..." He seemed extremely confused. We both jumped again when Christian dropped another cymbal.
"Hey Christian," I demanded through the com system,"We don't have the money for more cymbals right now. Please be careful?" He gave me a thumbs up and turned back to Nikki.
"As crazy as everything has been lately, I wouldn't want to leave this behind for anything in the world. When I looked at Vinny one of the last times we went out and all I saw was us with kids and married, I knew it was time to jump ship...." His eyes wouldn't meet mine as he realized exactly why I gave up one of the few relationships I had ever had.
"Thank you..." He responded calmly a few minutes later.
"It's all I want is to help you guys succeed." He chuckled and gave me a hug but pulled away quickly.
"Wait, is Follow You about Vinny?" Having not told him about Jake, I just nodded.
"Wow dude, I didn't realize how much you loved him." I shrugged and went back to editing the current song together.
"Hey it's getting kinda late," I reminded him before he could respond to my previous comment," ask them how much more we have to do please?" He just stood and walked into the booth while I saved all our progress.
"Christian is just stacking the hardware and then we only have to label."I gave him a thumbs up when he walked back into the room.
After I packed up my bag, they were done and we all went back to Ahren's. He had his bags by the front door already since we were leaving tomorrow.
"Do I need to pack spider spray?" James asked Ahren as we all sat down in the kitchen.
"Seriously," Ahren pulled out a bottle of Jameson and poured himself two shots," All you Americans and your spider issues."
"To be fair I am deathly scared of them...." I scoffed at Mark.
"Pussies..."