The Look Of Love

A 'brief' history

AN INTRODUCTION INTO THE MIND OF MARIA 

Hi. I'm Maria, ri to my friends (pronounced ree) And before this story ventures into more present times,  I am here to give a brief history on myself and my friends. I'll try and make it brief. 

It won't be brief 

sorry :I

ANYWAY

I am a 21 year old Woman from London. No, not the rich part. Lots of people assume that me and my friends came from money and bought our way into the music industry, however that could not be further from the truth.

My mum is a druggie who seems to lean towards abusive drunks and my dad was one of those abusive drunks. 

 Finn lived next door, we didn't go to the same school and didn't actually speak to each other until we where around 13. What i mean by that is, his bedroom was next to mine, so that meant i constantly heard the loud banging coming from his dads drum kit every evening while i was trying to read or listen to music or basically anything. It got so unbearable that one day i nicked a small amp from my schools music office and started playing a guitar that one the abusive drunks had left in our flat. At first i plucked random strings and strummed the guitar in all sorts of patterns and fiddled with all the buttons and nobs on the guitar amp just to piss him off. However, it ended up turning into a skill battle rather than a 'who can play the loudest' battle. I bought a second hand guitar book from a charity shop down the road and practised and practised just so i could beat him.  That went on for ages until one day, when i was running late for school, he exited his flat at the same time i did and we basically just started talking, we waited at the bus stop together and then found out we got the same one just at different times. After that day i was purposely late just to talk to him. It wasn't that i fancied him, it was just nice to have a friend with so many similar interests so close to me. I started going to his after school and we would talk or listen to music and practise our instruments. 

Thats how the beginning of the band started out, me and Finn mucking about in his bedroom at the young age of 13. It went from practising songs individually, to practising them together, to creating our own. 

His dad, Steven, became my father figure, and only parental figure. With my mum gone doing god knows what all the time, Finns house became an escape, however i never looked at it that way.  Although, i have always looked at music as an escape. When the abusive drunks did what you'd expect music helped disguise my helplessness with power and bravery. When my mum was replacing water for liquor and blood tests for heroin, music took me like a rocket to a new world, away from the depressing one that was my reality. It helped increase my mood when i was happy and let me seek comfort in my sadness. I've never been the type to say that "music saved my life" however in many ways it did, i'll just never admit that out loud. 

My other friends and future band mates, Dylan and Cooper, i met at school.

 Dylan was in  year 10 when i was in year 9 and was in every single one of my detentions, and i had A LOT. We noticed the pattern pretty quick and started passing notes and whispering when the teacher wasn't looking.  They eventually gave up with supervising us because we were there all the time so the 30 mins to an hour spent in detentions became a 'get to know each other' sesh. We learnt a lot about each other fast. We started sneaking into the music room as soon as we found out we both played guitar and the pattern of practising to creating continued. I soon told Dylan about Finn and vice versa, and then we were all meeting in Finns flat to muck about. 

Dylan was better off than me and Finn and lived in a small house with his parents not far from us. He had two guitars, one that he got for Christmas one year that soon claimed a spot in Finns room for when he went over and another at home that used to belong to his mum. 

Cooper was the last to join our little group. He moved onto mine and Finns floor in year 10. Finn and i both met him at the same time, we where at the bus stop like normal when he appeared at the other side. I noticed he had the same uniform as me so we decided to go and talk to him. (i was the only one from my school to get that bus stop before he arrived so i wanted to introduce myself). Long story short we all became friends pretty quick, he was in most of my lessons and once the topic of music came up it was revealed that he played bass and i invited him to Finns house after school one day. The same pattern repeats and suddenly, after we'd finished school,   we had many full songs written and ready. These where released on an app that Dylan found when we where 17 and 18. Later on, when we signed with a company, these songs where released officially when we where 19 and 20 . 

The rest i cannot be bothered to explain but to summarise we basically became siblings. We knew almost everything about each other, was around each other every spare moment. They gave advice and comfort when i had messy teenage relationships and i gave the same back. We where the best of friends and still are. It was this relationship we had that encouraged us to write our first songs and try and get them released, we didn't do it for the idea of fame or money or success, we did it for each other. And that's what got us to where we are today, being nominated for brit awards and performing in front of celebrities and thousands of people. What. a . shock.

Oh, i almost forgot to mention how and why i wrote my own album, as a solo artist. Well, after the release of our singles and their major success i began to write more songs individually (this was when i bought my first piano and started learning and writing songs with it). We hadn't written anything else as a band and the image of a full album had never been thought of before. It was only when we where approached by our recording company did we decide to make one. That was when i pitched my own songs to the band. Some where used and others weren't, only for the reason that they didn't match the bands 'aesthetic'. We wrote the remaining songs and released a few more singles over the course of a year before releasing our highly anticipated album "No Surprises" at ages 20 and 21. 

Everything was great and i was still working on my own songs behind the scenes. It wasn't a secret, in fact the boys encouraged me to write and when the recording company came to me with the idea of a solo album the band practically signed my name for me.  The album was released late 2013,  titled "Back to Black". 

I didn't make a scene or promote it as i didn't care for that, all i wanted was to release something of my own. It still hit the public just as hard as the bands album did and became an equal hit.

Yeah. That's how that happened. 

I moved out as soon as the pay checks started coming in and bought an apartment in Central London as soon as possible making sure i was close to the boys new places too. Everything was going great and who knows, maybe after the brit awards it'll get better?

A/N: sorry for the massive information dump but i am literally making this up as i go so there will most likely be many mistakes.  I would like to write from Alex or the band members point of views (as well as Marias) however i have no idea where to start or how to write their personalities. For some reason, because they are real people, the pressure on creating their personalities becomes much harder for me. BUT, i will try my best and hopefully it turns out half decent. This is my first book so please feel free to dump as much criticism on me as you want.  

But yeah i hope you enjoyed Maria's and  the bands little backstory. :)