Glitter And Ash (Jalex)

Chapter 2

Jack had only been home about a week when he received a phone call from Pete. Apparently, Taylor had had an impromptu strike of lyrical inspiration and wanted to get in the studio to write and record some demos.

Personally, Jack thought the two of them getting into a studio together so soon after being on tour was a recipe for disaster. There had not been a long enough break from one another to be able to guarantee no one would get hurt.

Pete had simply laughed when he'd mentioned it and had said that passion and emotion were a key part of making music. Jack had told him to tell that to the lawyers when one of them was in court facing a murder charge.

When Jack entered the studio with a large mug of coffee Taylor was already there, papers strewn all over the table like a mad scientist. I do not have the strength for this.

"About time." She muttered, not looking up from her notepad. With a sigh he sat down on the couch next to her, gently placing his acoustic down.

"So where are you at with this? Pete didn't really give much detail on the phone."
"Okay, so I've got three solid songs that definitely need to be recorded today. I've got another two that are nearly there, but I could do with your input and then a few that are still in the ideas phase."

The 'ideas phase' usually meant she had a few random parts that she currently had no idea what to do with.

"Alright. Let's start with the solid ones and then work our way from there."

You could say many things about Jack and Taylor and their mutual dislike of one another, but one thing they did have in common was their passion for music. It was the only thing that could bring them together and the only thing they could agree on.

"What if we try something like this?" Jack played a few chords as she continued to frown. "It's better but it still doesn't have the right energy to it. Can you make it bouncier?" Jack frowned just a little. He had no idea what 'bouncier' was supposed to sound like. "You mean like this?" He played it again this time gaining a grin. "That's perfect!"

They were interrupted by a knock at the door and glanced up to find Pete poking his head in. "Everyone still alive in here?" They both rolled their eyes. They were capable of being professional thank you very much.

"How's it going?" He asked, handing them both a Starbucks cup as he sat down opposite. "Pretty good," Jack said as Taylor nodded.
"Yeah we've got four tracks demoed and we're almost finished writing a fifth. I'm still not sure on this one though." She aimed at Jack, pointing towards a scrap of paper he'd been actively avoiding. "Yeah... that one kind of sucks." Pete cringed and braced himself only to be surprised when Taylor just nodded. "Yeah, it's probably worth scrapping, to be honest." The demo stage was the only time she'd accept any criticism or opinion from Jack. "Great, well I'll leave you guys to it. Let me know when you're done, and I'll get them sent over to Brendon and Patrick."

By the time they'd finished up that evening, they had eight songs that were ready to go through to the next stage of the recording process. Jack was pretty sure he knew which ones would make it onto the album and which ones wouldn't but there was always a chance one might surprise him once Brendon and Patrick had added their parts.