Boy Couch

@boycouchband

Jeremiah watched Tiberius through the window. He was hunched over the soundboard trying to figure out some setting or another. They shifted their weight and fidgeted with the cord on the microphone in front of their face. Leif had disappeared completely. After three days of recording, he was more than a little irritable. As soon as he wasn't needed at the studio, he took off.

Finally, Tiberius looked back up at Jeremiah and gave them a thumbs up. They shifted their headphones and positioned their hands on their bass as the track Tiberius recorded began to play through the speakers. Jeremiah played their rehearsed part, focusing intensely to avoid making mistakes. They were exhausted, and the sooner they were done with this song, the sooner they could go home.

When the song ended, they looked toward Tiberius again. He was messing with something on the monitor. The exhaustion and irritation they felt must have been clear on their face because when he looked at them, he flinched a little. With a wave of his hand, he beckoned Jeremiah to come out. They unplugged the bass and draped the headset over the microphone.

When they joined Tiberius at the soundboard, they said, "alright. Let me hear it."

This particular song, finally named "Dawning," was light on the drums and a bit slower, which is why they'd saved it for last. Jeremiah had predicted Leif's lack of patience with this whole process, and Tiberius pointed out that after three days and five songs, the exhaustion that all of them felt might add to the mood of the song.

Tiberius clicked around the recording software on the studio computer, adjusting some settings that Jeremiah didn't care to even try to understand. Finally, he clicked the small play button at the top of the screen, and the sounds of their guitars and Tiberius's voice poured out of the speakers. They both stood there silently until the song was over. When it ended, Tiberius looked over at Jeremiah. "So?"

Jeremiah nodded exhaustedly. "Sounds great. Are we done now?"

Tiberius shrugged. "I'm gonna burn this onto a few CDs so we can start trying to send them out and stuff. Maybe I can get Mr. Gale to play some of the songs on the radio," he suggested.

Nayden Gale owned the building they were in. He also owned the local radio station, 42.0 FM, The Apothecary. Tiberius had apparently worked for him before. "Sounds like a great idea. It'll get us out there at least a little. But we should probably put our music up somewhere if we're going to have it playing. You know, so people can find us?" they remarked.

Tiberius smirked at them. "One step ahead of you." He pulled out his phone and clicked around to pull something up. Finally, he turned it back around and Jeremiah leaned in to read the screen. It was an empty Instagram profile. The username was @ boycouchband, and the bio listed their names and what instruments they played, but the account didn't have any posts or even a profile picture. The bio also said to "Check out our music on YouTube," but there was no link connected.

Jeremiah gave Tiberius an incredulous look. "This is... kind of pathetic, Tib."

"It's empty right now, but I'm going to upload the songs to YouTube and link it to the profile. And then I'll start posting on it. I made a Twitter and Facebook profile, too," he added, scrolling through his phone again.

"Facebook? Are we 50?" Jeremiah snipped.

"Professionals use Facebook," Tiberius told them haughtily. They rolled their eyes. "I made a Bandcamp, too obviously. I'm planning on uploading songs on there, too, as soon as I get them edited and ready."

Jeremiah crossed their arms. "That's the first normal thing you've suggested for the band."

Tiberius squinted at them. "Okay, wise guy, since I'm doing all the work so far, how about you look for gigs?"

Jeremiah cringed. "I... Will look into it," they conceded. Where the hell were they going to start looking for gigs?

"How do you find gigs for your band?" Jeremiah asked without looking up from their phone. They were leaning their elbows against the record store counter as they scrolled through a local bar's website.

"What?" called back Ruben from where he was reorganizing a box of records. "Why?"

"I've never been in a band before, I don't exactly have 'connections,'" they replied, forming quotes with their fingers.

Ruben thought for a moment. "I don't know, you just kind of... ask around. Plenty of bars will take local bands."

"Yeah, that's what I'm looking into now."

"Nah, Jay," Ruben said, leaning against a shelf, "you need to actually go to those places and ask them. Managers, owners, or whatever of venues are way more likely to hire you if you actually talk to them." Jeremiah pursed their lips thoughtfully. "Just go into some bars, ask if they have any open slots for your band to play. You'll probably find something."

Jeremiah opened a note in their phone and started typing up his advice. "Okay, thanks, man."

"Oh, and pro tip?" He asked as he walked a little closer. Jeremiah raised an eyebrow in response. "Don't just play original music, to begin with. Throw in some crowd-pleasers, that's how you'll make venues happy."

Jeremiah blinked and nodded at him, typing that up, too.

"Crowd-pleasers?" Tiberius echoed. "Like what?"

Jeremiah shrugged, strumming lightly on their unplugged bass, sprawled across the sofa. "Popular songs. Like, I dunno, Queen maybe? Nirvana?" They wracked their brain for a moment. "Pink Floyd. I like them, maybe we can learn some songs from the Wall."

"But learning covers, that's going to take up all of our time, when would we be ready to actually perform my music?" Tiberius complained. Jeremiah pushed up onto their elbow and glared at him. He cleared his throat and corrected himself, "I mean our music." He continued to pout.

"No one knows our music, but if we play music people like and we play it well, then venues will like us enough to hire us back," they replied, lying back down again. They strummed the strings of their bass to punctuate their thought. "Then we can start playing our own music more. Plus, we'll have the Apothecary and the YouTube channel."

Leif played a short fill he'd been working on. When Jeremiah and Tiberius looked over at him, he put down his drumsticks and signed out "CAN WE PLAY VAN HALEN?" fingerspelling the band's name. Still trying to learn Sign Language, both Tiberius and Jeremiah looked at him silently for a minute.

"Van Halen?" Jeremiah asked when they'd processed the question. Leif nodded. "Hm. Which song?"

"HOT FOR TEACHER," he signed in response.

Tiberius quirked an eyebrow. "Why that song?"

"SONG HAVE A-LOT DRUM," explained Leif with an eager look.

Jeremiah snorted. "Fair enough. Tib?"

Tiberius gave a sigh so dramatic, you would have thought he was being asked to climb a mountain and not to learn a song. "Fine."