The main room was strewn with lots of coffee cups and Chinese food containers. It was pretty clear that everyone had been working for quite some time while waiting for the Princess of Pop. There were laptops plugged into the main board and mini keyboards everywhere. Every few minutes, we would hear a bouncy beat or a mean riff being played, but everything was on a computer or prerecorded in some way. As far as I could tell, no one was playing an actual instrument. I guessed Max was only there for emergencies.
Tuning and adjusting the sliders and knobs on the enormous soundboard in the middle of the room was this superserious guy, tall and thin, wearing red Converse sneakers, light-gray jeans, a gray shirt, and a pencil-thin black tie.
“Come on, guys, let’s finalize your kicks and synths so I can run the premix,” he demanded. “I’ve got another session after this.” The three engineers working with him scuttled about.
“And this is my partner, Dr. K,” Bennie said. “He’s not as nice as I am. Or as talented or as handsome.”
“I can see that,” I said and giggled. Dr. K rolled his eyes and managed a tepid smile.
“Come on, Bennie,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
“Thanks for the tour,” I said. “I don’t want to get in the way. I’ll find my way back up to the couches and chairs at the top.” He did a funny bow as I left.
Tabitha was walking down as I made my way up. I stopped and gave her a hug, but she was already in her tough-ass mode and didn’t seem to need it. She joined Dr. K at the big soundboard. He gave her a set of headphones and seemed to be teaching her the song that they had already written and produced the tracks for.
“It won’t work,” I overheard her say. And then a few moments later, “That’s not what I want to do.”
They seemed to be arguing over the song. Dr. K would try to convince her, and although there was a give-and-take, from my vantage point, she seemed to always get her way. Bennie occasionally joined in to mediate and keep everyone cool.
Up top near the entrance, I sat down next to Max, who appeared to be nodding off. Right behind us was a craft-services table on the back wall, loaded down with fresh fruit, sandwiches, cookies, a full bar, and enough sweets to stock Dylan’s Candy Bar for a week. Seriously, there was more food than at my house and almost as much alcohol.
“Okay, this is what I’ll do,” I heard Tabitha say as they seemed finally to have reached an agreement. Tabitha stood up, and Bennie escorted her to a booth inside the glass room separate from the backup girls. As the mics were turned on, I could hear Tabitha say hi to the girls. They were all very accommodating and sweet, treating her as if she was part of their sorority.
On Dr. K’s cue, Tabitha sidled up to the microphone, the way I’ve seen her do in a dozen music videos, and started to sing. But her voice was thin, even slightly off-key. Not the full-throttle vocals that I’ve listened to. I mean, I knew kids in my high school choir and had seen many others on YouTube who could sing better. Dr. K stopped her and asked her to try it again.
I peeled the label off my water bottle bit by bit as Dr. K asked her to try again and again, my image of Tabitha Eden, the big-voiced power singer who hit the money notes with phrasing and emotion, crumbling before my eyes.
“So you’ve never actually had the pleasure of hearing Tabitha sing?” Max asked behind me. He wasn’t asleep after all and must have seen how taken aback I was. I didn’t know what to say.
“It’s not really any worse than the others … Katy or Kesha,” he said. “Or Fergie, for that matter. Ever watched those YouTube vids of Britney with her onstage mic turned on? I was her lead guitarist on that tour.”
“So how does it … get better?” I asked, glad that we were outside Tabitha’s earshot.
“Auto-Tune—it’s like plastic surgery for music, and Bennie usually has some magic synths he comes up with that make it better. But even the good singers would never be able to dance in concert without Auto-Tune.”
Tabitha glanced back at me, and I smiled as if everything was great.
“But then if everyone does it, why does she feel so bad about it?” I asked him.
“She shouldn’t. Auto-Tune is like an effect that enables her to sing. She just hates the biz. I mean, they drive her hard, but I think they’re worried if she stops she’ll go off the deep end. And then she’s a brand, everyone’s making so much money, why stop?”
“Hold on, Tabitha,” said Bennie. “I’ve got a new synth I want you to try.” Bennie patched his laptop into the main console, and Dr. K pushed a few buttons. Tabitha nodded and began to sing, but this time it had an even richer texture and was much closer to the voice that I knew from her recordings.
Dr. K brought in the backup singers on the following take. Seemingly out of nowhere, Oleta burst into a rising gospel countermelody and the music came alive with soul, giving the song a feeling it didn’t have otherwise. She provided the emotional force that drove the melody, and she knew just exactly how to rock it with her voice, even cracking on the beat. The room was awash in sound—bubbly, infectious, maddeningly danceable, and suddenly soulful. Even Max couldn’t help tapping his feet. Then it stopped and started all over again.
Dr. K seemed like the crazy perfectionist, and Bennie, the wild creative genius. He had a new idea every second. It was as if they were all playing chess with riffs, beats, and synths—no real instruments, no real voices beside the backup. In the end, the song would have Tabitha’s name all over it. People like me would assume it was all her.
As Tabitha removed her headset and came back into the main room, Brit, the receptionist, left Tabitha another tequila.
“Hey guys, don’t you have enough from me?” she asked after a long swallow.
“We need another double,” Dr. K said. Tabitha gave him her saddest pout. “Come on, Tabby, we want a hit, baby. Whatcha gotta do today that’s more important?” Bennie pleaded. Tabitha threw back the rest of her tequila lemonade.
“Lisbeth and I are supposed to go shopping,” she said, as if it was the most serious thing in the world. Bennie laughed. “She’s spending the money before we’ve even made it!”
“Oh, cut it out, you little twerp. If you had any balls, you would come with us and I’d buy you some real clothes, instead of that Old Navy shit you wear. But we’d have to spend some of your vast royalty income, and we all know you’re too cheap for that.”
“Owned,” Dr. K said and laughed for the first time all day.
“Okay, okay, I know when I’ve met my match. We’ll double it with Alieya,” Bennie said and the short Latina backup girl waved. Tabitha seemed to have no problem having someone else ghost perform her vocals. “But I’ll make a deal with you. If Lisbeth is here next time, I will shop with you,” Bennie added, giving a smile that I knew was just for me.
“So, can we go?” she asked, on the verge of annoyance. Bennie and the Doc traded glances.
“Sure,” Bennie said, “get out of here.”
“Ka-ching,” Max said. “Another shiny pop performance, a supercool song, and surefire hit.” That seemed perfectly true as far as I was concerned.
“I’ll be sure to let the boss know,” Doc said, returning to his soundboard.
“Yeah? Well be sure to let him know this, too…” Tabitha said, holding her middle finger up. Everyone nodded knowingly.
As Tabitha prepared to leave, Bennie bounded up the stairs and handed me his card.
“Hey Lisbeth, here’s my number. I know you’ll dig me,” Bennie added.
I couldn’t help being a little embarrassed.
Tabitha was motioning me from the studio exit to hurry up.
“Shopping time!” she screamed in the fullest voice she had used all session.
34
“La Perla first, the one in SoHo,” Tabitha instructed Mocha as soon as we jumped into the limo. “I always seem to be losing my underwear.” She giggled. Mocha turned the limo into the traffic and headed toward SoHo.