The Book of Dema

CHAPTER FOUR + No Radio Play

"This is just more of the same, Tyler. You are building this band without band mates." The guys were gathered around the sofa in Russ' basement. All eyes were on him, and he stared back in disbelief. Here they were: Russ, the drummer; Aaron, the guitarist; and Jesse, the bassist, all trashing the work he thought they had done together. It was becoming clear that he held a completely different view of the band's creative center and progress than the others. Russ was holding his hands up in front of him in defeat.

"We haven't been a part of this since you dropped out of school. You write everything, which I guess is great. Every band needs that creative drive. But you take no feedback. Frankly, your songs are depressing. I know you love Forest and will probably put it on an album someday knowing you, but jeez man, you turned a kid's ice cream song into a suckfest. Everything is so dark. It takes me down," Russ said, laying out his case. Aaron and Jesse were nodding their heads.

"This is the way the muse works," Tyler responded with dejection in his voice. "I write what I feel and what comes to me musically. I can't help it."

"That's the crazy thing," Russ replied. "Musically, your jams can be surprisingly peppy. I mean, my sister likes listening to us practice, so that says something. But honestly, man, when you start singing I can't help thinking to myself, if this kid doesn't stop with the whiny complaining, I'm gonna end myself. So, now that we've said something, you go off and cut a demo that's all electronic. And we've barely had any input at all."

"That's a lot," Tyler uttered quietly. "You guys agree with Russ?" He looked at Aaron and Jesse. They both shrugged and nodded.

"When I listened to the demo, I could barely hear the guitar. Russ mentioned forest. Two minutes in, I was supposed to have a solo. It was completely stripped out. I worked on it for weeks, and when I play the song, I find a little keyboard thing there. Cute man, but I put in weeks. So do I agree? Yeah. I agree," Aaron responded more stridently than Russ had, clear to all that he was deeply aggravated at how Tyler had wasted his work.

"It didn't fit the tone. You like to go for it. It needed something a little more low key," Tyler explained.

"Fine, Tyler. It needed to be something else. We practiced it like thirty times before we recorded the parts. You could have said something then and let me rework it. You didn't even tell me after the demo was done. I had to hear it later. And that wasn't the only track like that. This is a big deal. You let us down." Aaron started hard at Tyler as he released his complaint, but Tyler just examined his hands, studying his nails and then his palms.

"It didn't fit the tone," he repeated. Aaron dropped his hands in exasperation.

"It didn't fit the tone," Aaron repeated derisively. "Are you hearing this, guys? I can't play with him." The three exchanged gazes, while Tyler continued to hang his head.

"I can't do this without you," he said quietly, under his breath and almost to no one. Jesse grabbed the next of his bass guitar, ready to stand up.

"You are doing this without us," he interjected. "That's the problem. Look, I know you're a pretty good bass player, but that's all I do. I focus on it constantly. Your rhythms are hitchy, man. Your flow is off, yet just like with Aaron, you either push my bass lines to the background and cover it with keyboards or you re-recorded my sections. We aren't your backup band. Russ is the one who started it, and I was actually pretty excited about it at the time. But this is a waste of energy. I can't be a musician when my stuff isn't heard." Aaron was pointing in agreement at Jesse.

"Exactly. And do you ever think we're going to get radio play with all of this depressing stuff? Forget it. No radio play. The only way they will hear us is if we put everything on YouTube, but then who's even going to find us there?"