She surveyed him closely. “Yes, I wrote and produced those songs, but I didn’t perform them. What if I suck?”
He chuckled. “I doubt that. Lew never would have called me in the first place if there was even one ioda of a chance of that. Stop backpedaling. Let’s give it a go. Are you ready?”
She sighed. “I’d prefer my new baby grand to be in here. The sound is better. The one that’s in there now… well…”
He leaned forward and perched on his knees. “And that’s a fucking excuse. Play it with the piano in the studio first. Or if you want me to play it first we can. If it’s out of tune or doesn’t feel right when we listen to the playback, then we can go mic up your new baby grand and track it.”
He gave her a look of warning. “Don’t fuck with me, Miss Producer. It’s time to chill out, take off that producer hat and put on your artist beret. Let go of control and let me do my job. I know you have a vision for the song and I have every intention of working with that vision to bring it to fruition. So let’s use what we have before throwing in unnecessary road blocks. Agreed?”
She chuckled. “Yes. Agreed. Sorry. This takes some getting used to for me. And I’m taking you up on your offer. If you can take the piano parts that would be awesome.”
He nodded as he got up and grinned. “Gotcha.”
She held up a sheet with notes jotted on it. “I’ve got the chord progressions in here. I haven’t written music in ages, so I hope you’re ok with scribbles instead of sheet music.”
He chuckled. “That’s more than most have given me. That’ll work. Let me start tracking. Ok, the mic is hot.” He ran in and took a seat at the baby grand. Let’s go.”
She was amazed at how easily the pieces of the puzzle started coming together as she performed the song, concentrating solely on her vocals. She found her zone and was perfectly comfortable laying down the track immediately. Her self-consciousness was now a distant memory. The recording was effortless, recording only vocals and piano to capture the essence of the song.
After a half hour of recording, they sat back together sitting side by side at the boards, listening to the raw, first run of the song, “All of Me.”
He glanced at her and hit pause. “You were right about a true baby grand over keyboards. It sounds richer. And I have some ideas for the arrangement too.”
She nodded. “Strings?”
He chuckled. “Kinda nice working with a producer turned artist. You’re clearly picking up what I’m putting down.”
She giggled. “Yep. The song needs to be filled in.”
He nodded. “C’mon, let’s keep going. We’ll retrack your vocals later if we need to.”
She hopped up to head into the vocal booth, elated to be stretching the bounds of her own creativity and feeling tremendously inspired. She understood very well now why A-Dub had won so many Grammys and lined his hallways with platinum records. He got it on a level that was beyond her and it thrilled her to no end. He was brilliant.
After laying down an alternate version of the track, they started dropping in her own harmonies as backing vocals. They were rounding the bend of completion. Now came the part that made her nervous, honing in on her vocals.
She stood in the booth, her headphones affixed, the mic hot and ready. She gave him a thumbs up as he started the track. She started singing and then lost her groove. She shook her head, feeling a bit frustrated. “Let’s go again.”
He came on the mic. “Let go, Kit. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just feel it. Think about what’s behind the song. Why you wrote it. What you were feeling. Dive deeper. This is a safe zone to let it all out. Close your eyes. Get fully immersed.” He raised his finger in the air and spun it around indicating for her to go again. “Playback when you’re ready.”
She closed her eyes and took his advice. All she could see, feel and hear was Sully. Their last argument. The words exchanged. The heartache. The gut bombs she felt when Sean told her about the groupies one of which she later found out was Sully’s girlfriend. All the times Sully let her down and all the times when she put her neck out for him or the band or both.
The tears welled up for a moment as she paused. She let them flow down her cheeks, keeping her eyes closed to fully take it in. She breathed deeply and nodded, as her eyes fluttered open. She was there—back in that zone she had found when she originally wrote the song. She nodded again to A-Dub and closed her eyes again as he started the track.
She entered the song slowly hearing the first few notes on the piano, as if she were entering a cold swimming pool. She let the song build, the emotion build, going deeper into the emotion and the expression, letting the flow and connection of the muse take her away.
She surrendered fully and lost all concept of time and space. Minutes later, she had finished. She took a few seconds to let it sink in and then felt like she was returning to reality from some kind of dream world.
A-Dub was on his feet, clapping and cheering from the control room. He leaned down and spoke into the mic. “We got it! You’re done, sweetie. We’re good. Come on out here.”
She joined him in the control room and he high-fived her. She searched his eyes
