“Oh, hey, Ben. What’s this I hear about you taking up studio time?”
Markus ducks his head into my office later that day. It’s nearly five and most of the floor is starting to slowly file out for the afternoon, tired from a long day, but I feel energized. I feel like I have a new purpose.
Except for this conversation.
I’ve been dreading this ever since I came up with the idea.
I should’ve done it right away. Hell, I should’ve done it before I even approached Alice at all. I just couldn’t help myself.
I was excited. I was energized.
“Shut the door,” I say to him, not wanting this to spill out into the hallway.
Markus is the other half of Somesuch and any big decisions are supposed to be run past him first. We don’t do anything without each other.
Well, that’s not totally true. We have our own little areas of expertise and we don’t really bother checking in on each other for stuff like that. I do talent, he does business. It’s always been like that.
Unfortunately, this situation is a little bit of both.
“What’s going on?” he asks me, sitting down.
“I’m making a little change,” I tell him.
“Little change?” He raises an eyebrow. “It sounds like you’re starting to record your own stuff.”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
He nods a little. “Okay, okay. That’s cool, man. You know I’ve been encouraging that for a long time now.”
“I know, and I’m finally doing it.”
“But you gotta run it past me first. At least for the procedural stuff, like studio time and all that.”
“I know. I meant to sooner, it’s just… things moved fast.”
He sighs a little, shaking his head with a smile. “Always does with you.”
I grin. “Slow is boring.”
“I know you think that.” He stretches a little. “Look, if you want studio time, take it. Just make sure it’s on the schedule. I’ll work around it.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“As for other resources…” He trails off, giving me a look.
It’s my turn to sigh. “You know about her?”
“I saw the contract you set up.”
“The money came from my pocket,” I say quickly. “That wasn’t a dime of company money.”
“Good. That makes this conversation much simpler then.”
“What do you mean?”
He leans forward, staring into my eyes. “You’re being dumb as fuck.”
I blink, taken aback. I don’t think Markus has ever been that up front or harsh with me in all the years we’ve known each other.
We’ve had disagreements. Everyone does. You can’t be in a long-term partnership with another human being and not have disagreements. It just doesn’t happen.
But we’ve always been cool about it. That though, that was harsh.
I suck it up and refuse to let myself lose control. “How am I being dumb?” I ask him.
“I know you’re into this girl, but bringing her on to your album? What do you even know about her?”
“Enough,” I say.
He waits for me to go on, but I refuse. After a second, he sighs.
“So basically, you know what she fucks good and can play the piano.”
“What else do I need to know?”
“Come on, Ben. You’ve been wanting to make something on your own for a long time. Are you really gonna risk it on this girl?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But for now, it looks like I am.”
“I think it’s a mistake. If you want players, we can get you some players. Real guys with reasonable rates. Hell, we can even get some songwriters if you want.”
I glare at him. “I don’t need that. Plus, I already gave her the money.”
His eyes bug out. “You fucking gave her three hundred thousand up front?”
“Wrote her a check.”
“Jesus, man. What’s stopping her from running like hell?”
“Nothing, I guess,” I say, shrugging. “She could disappear tonight if she wanted.”
“You don’t think she will.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I wish I could understand this faith you have in a total stranger.” He stands up and walks back toward the door. “It just makes no fucking sense to me.”
“Come tomorrow morning,” I say quickly.
He stops and looks back at me. “What’s that?”
“Come tomorrow and hear her play. Talk to her a little bit. Maybe you’ll understand.”
He watches me for a second. “Is this really important to you?”
“Yeah, man. It’s important.”
He sighs. “Fine. I’ll wake my ass up early and meet you at the studio.”
“Good. You’ll get it then.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He doesn’t look confident as he leaves my office.
I’m sitting on the front stoop when Markus approaches with a cup of coffee and a frown.
“Morning,” he grunts.
“Morning,” I say, standing.
“It’s fucking early.”
“I know. When was the last time you got up around now?”
“College,” he grumbles. “Maybe never. I don’t know.”
“Well, come on. She’s already inside.”
He gives me a look but doesn’t say anything. I know he’s really protective about the studio, but it’s a little silly to worry about a woman that’s been tuning our pianos all alone in there at two in the morning for months. If she wanted to fuck with the equipment, she could’ve done it by now.
I unlock the door and he follows me inside. We walk down the hallway together, not saying much. I wonder how many times he’s been in here in the past year.
Markus doesn’t do any production work. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have all that much interest in the creative side at all. I mean, he likes music and likes talking about the new acts, but for him, it’s about the money.
I appreciate that. I’m like that too, although maybe not so much as him.
I want to make money doing this. I’m not in the music business for free. At the end of the day, Somesuch has to be a profitable business.
But I also love the art of making recorded sound. There’s so much involved here, from the microphones to the studio space itself. There are so many layers that can go right and wrong, and playing with all the variables is one of the most exciting things in the world.
One tweak and a mundane track can turn to magic. It’s thrilling, finding that tweak.
We walk into the control room. Alice is in the live room sitting at the piano, noodling around with some new tune I haven’t heard yet. I let her just play while Markus sits down on the couch, sipping his coffee and looking miserable.
It’s a pretty tune, but she’s clearly not happy with it. She keeps stopping, going back, making slight tempo changes. It’s the sort of stuff I’ve always done, little obsessive tweaks, just trying to find that perfect sound.
I look back at him and Markus just shrugs. “Decent player, sure. Not worth three hundred thousand.”
I roll my eyes. “Okay, fine.” I turn back to the console and hit the intercom. “Hi, Alice.”
She jumps a little and looks over at me. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, asshole.”
I hear Markus snicker behind me. “Can you play that song?” I ask her. “The one I really like.”
“Sure,” she says, looking at me skeptically. “Any particular reason?”
“I just want to hear it.” I glance back at Markus. I know she can’t see him from the piano’s position when he’s down on the couch like that.
“Okay, sure.”
I release the intercom button. “Listen,” I say to him, and she starts playing.
I lean back in my chair, content with just listening. She’s so beautiful, every single keystroke like a revelation. The music flows out of her, rolling along, pausing and building and climbing and hesitating just at the right moments until it all drops again into a smooth rolling cloudlike motion.
She plays through it twice without stopping. The first time, she does it pretty straight, keeping to the melody. The song time, she adds a few twists and fills here and there, making it into something a little special, something else.
When she finishes, I look back at Markus with a grin. “See?”
He’s frowning a little bit, like he doesn’t understand something. Slowly, he sips his coffee. “Yeah, okay. That was good.”
“She uses that to tune pianos. Came up with it herself.”
“To tune pianos? What a fucking waste.”
I laugh softly. “I know, right? But that’s all her right there. I know she has more of it.”
“So why not sign her to record her own stuff?”
I turn away, looking back out at her. She smiles at me and waves. She says something, but the intercom isn’t on, so I can’t hear.
I smile back at her. I know the real answer to that question. I’m not signing her to her own deal because I want her all to myself. It’s selfish, I know, but that’s the truth.
I want her close. Hell, I need it.
“She’s talented. She’ll help take what I can do to the next level.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he says. “We’ll see about that.”
I look back at him but he’s already getting up and leaving the room. I stand up to follow, but I think better of it.
That’s his tacit permission. I know I’m not about to get any better than that out of him. I might as well take what I can get and move on.
I turn back to the intercom and hit the button. “Who was that?” she asks me.
“Markus,” I say.
“Your partner.”
“And he approves.”
“Of what?”
I grin at her. “Approves of you.”
I turn off the intercom. I don’t know if he approves of her, exactly, but it doesn’t matter.
We have the green light. It’s time to get to work.