Before Sherri could respond, Jonathan entered the room with a document in his hand. He picked up where his mother left off. “Originally, yes, that was the plan, however, my dad couldn’t resist the success your single was having. He was over the moon.”
He met her eyes. “And yes, he was serious about the Kit-Kat global phenomenon thing. Kit, how many songs do you have in the hopper right now? Excluding the B side to your current single.”
She thought about it. She had been writing pretty consistently since the shooting and the separation from Sully had only contributed to her prolific songwriting. She had six songs to record.
She had been surprised at how easily they had flowed through her. “I’ve got six roughly on paper, Jon. I showed them to Lew. They need to be arranged. I could probably squeeze out two more. Why? The ones I have still need work. They’re barely formed.”
Sherri was quick to jump in. “That explains things. Among other things, he left notes on arrangements for six songs. Those must be the ones that you shared with him. Lew also wanted a much tighter timeline for release than what you had originally been discussing.”
She nodded and continued. “He’s already had the paperwork drawn up for your song with NARAS for consideration. It’s being submitted by Jonathan on Tuesday. He’s put a bug in the ears of the powers that be to watch you as a rising star for the pop genre. In other words, he had Grammy fever over you. I hadn’t seen him that excited in years and it was fun to witness last night. He was like a child on Christmas Eve who could hardly wait for Santa to come.”
Sherri contemplated the memory introspectively, grinned and continued. “He wanted to see if he could get you into the studio to cut more songs in addition to the ones you already have, so you have a complete album as soon as possible. He wanted to push for having you complete them in a week or two, but I told him that wasn’t fair. He did back off on that. So, you do have some wiggle room, but you know my husband, it’s not much.”
Kit’s eyes widened. She was still stuck back at what Sherri had said moments earlier. “So, Lew actually filled out the paperwork. Lew is submitting my song for consideration for a Grammy?” She looked perplexed. “He really went through with it? I thought he was joking.” She sighed and sat back, stunned.
Her next words slipped off of her tongue before she could retract them. “What the fuck? I thought this single and album thing was just for positioning to give me a leg up on the CEO position? I thought the whole Grammy thing and global phenomenon was a joke!”
Jonathan shook his head and grinned. “Not so, apparently. As you know, my dad is… er, was, full of surprises. And, he never joked about Grammys. Ever.” He held up the documents. “Here’s your revised record deal. I did my best to honor Dad’s intentions in its structure including a massive bump in promotions spend. Mom reviewed it too.” He slid it across the table to Spencer.
Kit glanced at her brother, desperate for a reaction. Spencer started reading through the contents of the contract. He couldn’t deny it, the terms were tremendously generous and released Kit of any long term obligations whatsoever once she delivered the album and the tour.
Spencer was happy to see that Lew hadn’t missed one detail and in light of all the turbulence going on with Diamond and Majestic, had created a deal that gave Kit wings instead of trapping her. There was only one red flag.
Spencer looked at Jonathan and Sherri as he handed the contract to Kit who seized it and immediately started scouring its contents.
He continued. “It looks good, Jon. Realistically, I don’t know that we can hit that date for an album. An EP, maybe, but we’re not talking EP.”
He leaned forward and locked eyes on Jonathan. “The deadline is four weeks from today. Four weeks to get the right team in place, figure out the concept, start sessions to develop the album and rehearse. Not to mention all the promos, shows and videos that go along with it. That’s insanity, Jon. You’re well acquainted with the video production side. Kit is a pro and even for a pro that’s a stretch. Seriously, even Sully wouldn’t be able to tackle this. It’s beyond aggressive. We need more breathing room here to produce quality work.”
As Kit read the document, she felt a tremendous nudge to do it. She thought it was crazy too. They wanted her to deliver a video for her single in a week. She had never been the subject of the video shoot. She’d been on countless shoots with Gypsy Tango for their videos, but that was different.
The song was so personal that she struggled a bit knowing it would be put into another medium—video—that would blast her innermost thoughts out on MTV. She had no idea how it would get done, but with the right team, she knew she could do it.
She interjected. “I’ll do it. But, I need the right team. I need a good manager because Spence is being spread too thin. I want a good creative team on the video that is congruent with my vision for the song and sensitive to its deeply personal nature. I want Bryan Donald to be released from his touring contract so he can play on my album and any shows I do when I need him to.
