𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝙵𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚡𝙱)

Track 46 | 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴

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May

The following weeks of April saw us negotiating a contract deal with Turnstile Records. After excelling in his Business and Economics class for two semesters straight and taking a page out of the great book of management by the likes of personal idols such as Peter Grant and Sam Phillips, Levi set out to swing us a good deal.

He somehow scored us a ten-month contract to start off with. He was able to convince them that we deserved a lighter sentence to begin with based solely on the argument that we were younger and newer to the game alone. He was also able to get us a key-man clause included in our contract so that if Beau had, for whatever reason, left the label, we could opt out as well. Basically, Levi took precise measures to ensure that we wouldn't be trapping ourselves.

By the beginning of May, we had signed on. Turnstile agreed to our terms as long as we had some demos for them to preview in order for them to grant us producing funds and assign us due dates for our first official release. The moment we had logged off that video call with the team heading management over at Turnstile, we all cheered and celebrated all night long. Beau was on the phone to congratulate us on our fateful decision. This could either put us on the map or hold us back. But, Beau and the entire management team had already heard some of our stuff, and they practically guaranteed us a couple of hits in the underground indie grunge-pop music industry. Except, we weren't really indie anymore.

It felt weird, to no longer have ourselves to rely on for the production of our music. But, we got over that quickly. We didn't care that we were no longer an independent group. We had the resources available to us to make something we've always dreamed of making and actually have it sound good. It's not like we wanted to sell out or anything. We just wanted to create something that could actually reach platforms and develop our image, and now, we were on our way to fulfilling that dream.

After our brief moment of celebration, we got right back to work preparing our demos to send in. We wanted to pitch the idea of the EP we have been dreaming of making since the band was first formed. It's not like we had much to work on, though, because we had been writing songs for almost three years now and had tons of material to work with. We just had to figure out how to organize it all into something consistent and impactful. Something that can start us off in the right direction while also leaving room for growth so that listeners can expect to be introduced to something new when they tune in for future projects.

Right off the bat, we knew we wanted to include our songs 'Naive' and 'She's A Gun' on the track listing. We felt they fit so well together in both sound and attitude and energy. They just had that punch and shine to them that could very well mark our territory in the music industry once we stepped into it.

Other tracks like 'Ada' and 'Float Away' were on the fence with us, considering they featured different sound palettes and more experimental mechanics. On one hand, they'd fit well on a future project, but on the other, if we included them in the track listing, it could show off our versatility as a band and prove that we had more to offer in the rock genre.

We ended up tabling the discussion for another time. For now, we needed to focus on writing something new. We had only a few songs that were completely written, but it just felt right to create something specifically for the EP so that Ari could feel like he had a role in the songwriting process of at least one track.

Our days following the first few weeks of May included a lot of school, a lot of rehearsal, a lot of overdue homework, a lot of family emergencies, a lot of ASL lessons with Ari, a lot of recording with amateur equipment, and a lot of songwriting. Once we reached the midpoint of May, our daily schedule looked a little something like this: go to school, try your best to pay attention to the lesson but end up not caring, go to Rian's afterward, play music, write and discuss things we wanted to include on the EP, record and produce the initial mixes of our demos, work until evening, go home, sleep, wake up, panic and cram in time to hastily finish your homework from last night, go back to school.