“And,” added Celia, “it would open us up to interference from them and advanced publicity leaks to the entertainment media. If they didn’t like what they were hearing in the early stages of our efforts, all it would take would be a few negative reports about our music leaked to a few reporters and people would end up hating our music before they even heard it.”
“We’ve already got enough cards stacked against us,” Pauline said. “Celia is considered a has-been and it would delight the entertainment media to report that she’s making horrible music. Jake is trying to switch genres from what he is associated with and he is going to be following in the footsteps of two former Intemperance members’ projects—Matt’s upcoming heavy metal album and Coop’s upcoming super-group album. Both of them are recorded and pending release. The media would love nothing more than to report that Jake’s music, compared to Matt Tisdale and Veteran, sucks ass.” She blushed again. “Sorry, another term I picked up from brother dear.”
“One that I can also refrain from using at the parental dinner table,” Jake said with a smile.
“Anyway,” Pauline continued, “that’s the reason we can’t use actual professional musicians. For our bass player we were able to find a guy who teaches guitar at a local community college. For our drummer, we found a former professional drum player who has an impressive resume but he’s been working as a paramedic for the last ten years.”
“He’s also more than a little messed up in the head,” Jake added.
“A premium drummer though,” Nerdly said.
“Yeah, he can pound them all right,” Celia put in.
“So that,” Jake concluded, “in a nutshell, is why we need the two of you. We’ve gone as far as we can go with just me and Celia playing guitars and using our two hired guns.”
“What about William?” asked Cynthia. “You still haven’t explained why you need me as a pianist when you have him.”
“Several reasons,” Celia said. “Bill and Sharon are our primary engineers and mixers. They are in charge of the sound of our tunes and how it plays out. Also, Bill is our synthesizer player.”
“One of the first things I bought when we became a limited liability company was a Korg M1 digital synthesizer,” Bill said proudly. “It is a premium and versatile musical instrument capable of producing a variety of aesthetically pleasing compositions.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Bill would marry that freakin’ thing if he didn’t already have Sharon.”
“True,” Sharon said. “I hesitate at times to even leave him alone with it.”
“You have no reason to be jealous of a musical instrument,” Bill told his wife. “It does not have the ability to satisfy me sexually.”
“All right,” Jake said. “I’m putting the conversation back on track now.”
“Bless you,” Mary and Cynthia said in unison.
“My point is,” said Jake, “that Bill has already got his hands full keeping on top of the engineering of the tunes and the playing of the synthesizer. Having him play the piano on top of all that is too much for him. We need an independent pianist who can play at a professional level and take direction from a composer. That’s you, Cindy.”
“Well, I’m flattered, naturally,” Cynthia said, “but ... well, I’m just not sure about this. Would I have to go to Los Angeles?”
“You would,” Jake confirmed. “That’s where our studio is and where our backing musicians are.”
“How long are we talking about, Jake?” asked Mary. “I have the high school orchestra to conduct. I can’t do that from Los Angeles.”
“It’s summer now, Mom,” Pauline said. “School doesn’t start back up until September, right?”
“Well ... right,” she said, “but ... well, that’s only eight weeks away. Didn’t you tell me it takes months to record an album?”
“We’re not recording the album right now, Mary,” Celia said. “We’re just trying to get the tunes put together in a basic format.”
“So ... you’ll use other musicians for the violin and piano parts when you actually record?” Mary asked.
“Well ... not exactly,” Jake said. “We were hoping to use you for the recordings too, but that’s a few steps ahead of where we are now. When we get to that point, we can work around your school schedule. We’ll fly you in on the weekends or on days you’re not otherwise busy and just concentrate on your particular pieces of the songs while you’re with us.”
“What do you mean?” Mary asked, confused. “How would you just work on my parts?”
“It’s easy,” Jake said. “When a song is recorded it’s not done with all the musicians playing together. Each instrument and each vocalization are recorded independently and then mixed together on a final recording. By the time we would have you come into the studio we would already know exactly what we would want you to play and would have already recorded our tracks for you to overlay your contribution onto. We’ll have the sheet music all printed out for you and all you’ll have to do is lay it down until we get it right.”
“Really?” she said, her eyes showing clear interest in the process.
“What about me?” asked Cynthia. “Would the same apply to me?”
“You would be a little more involved,” Bill told her. “The piano parts are much more extensive and part of the base melody of the songs, particularly in a few of Celia’s efforts. You would have to spend more time in the studio with us during the initial laydown of the basic tracks.”
Cynthia seemed to like this idea. “You mean ... I would get to hang out in a recording studio with you? That I would be involved in the actual making of the album?”
“Two albums,” Celia said. “One by me and one by Jake.”
“That sounds like fun,” she said.
“It’s actually kind of tedious,” Jake admitted. “We’ll get on each other’s nerves and you’ll be so sick of the tunes by the time we’re done that you’ll swear you never want to play them again. At that end of it all, however, when you hear what the final master sounds like ... well, that’s a very special moment.”
“I’m in,” Cynthia said. “It’ll be wonderful to spend so much time with William and Sharon.”
Jake chuckled a little. “I’m glad to hear that, Cindy, but wait until you’ve heard Bill and Sharon tell you for the hundredth time to play this piece again, or to make that piece a little louder, or this section a little off-timed for effect. Tell me then how wonderful it is.”
“Hey now,” Bill said. “Our job is to achieve perfection in our audio reproduction. One should not criticize the harshness of one’s taskmaster when perfection is at stake.”
“One does not criticize,” Jake countered, “but one can have one’s nerves frayed a bit by said taskmaster.”
Bill thought this over and then nodded. “I suppose that’s a fair statement,” he allowed.
Mary, however, was still having her doubts. “This all sounds like an awful lot of work,” she said. “Exactly how long would we need to stay in Los Angeles?”
“Well,” Jake said, “I promise to get you back home before school starts.”
“That’s eight weeks,” Mary said. “You want me to leave my home and my husband for two months?”
“You can stay at my place, Mom,” Jake told her. “Dad too. You’ll have your own bedroom downstairs, a pool to swim in, a hot tub to hot tub in, access to my wine collection, and Elsa will take care of your meals and the cleaning—well, except on the weekends. She gets those off. I’ll pay for everything. I’ll even pay to have someone look after your place while you’re gone.”
Tom and Mary looked at each for a moment. “What do you think?” Mary asked him.