Billie pulled up outside the rehearsal rooms and grabbed her handbag and coat. The wind blew long strands of hair across her face and, as she paused to tie it back, she looked toward the water. It had come over cloudy in the afternoon and the wind had picked up, turning the sound dark grey and choppy. Billie loved to see it in all it's different moods.
As she crossed the carpark she saw Bo and Andres arriving. She waved and stopped, waiting for them to park, get out and gather themselves.
'Hey Bill, how's things?' Bo asked as he walked over.
'Alright,' she shrugged, 'You?'
'Meh, my fucking car is dying.' he lamented, shooting it a sad look
'Oh bugger. Hi Andy.' She smiled hello to Andres, who smiled back then dropped his head against the wind, and they all let themselves in to the small warehouse that was their main band space.
Most of the band were there, though a few people had come down with a bad flu that was going around. They greeted everyone, had a quick meeting then got down to business.
Benny had put together a rough setlist which he ran by the band and then by Billie, who swapped out a couple of things and then they went over the songs that they hadn't played in a while. They practiced some dynamic and tempo flips for Sweet Georgia Brown and Sacha and Benny worked on a horn part for Glory Box.
They did a little jamming, mucking around, practicing some originals and testing some different arrangements, then they stopped for coffee and a snack.
After a short break Johnny, Sacha and Bo went down the rabbit hole on Say Say Say until the rest of the band lost patience with them and then Johnny asked Billie if she had anything new she wanted to work on.
'I do actually. Two something's' she said, rumaging through her bag and pulling out the some sheets and handing them out tentatively.
She looked around nervously, watching their reactions. She saw a few eyebrows go up but nobody said anything. To the contrary she saw a mostly some interest and a smile or two.
'I think the first one will work if we bring the horns in echoing the main riff, and go electric for the bass.' she looked over at Jordan who nodded, though she was still reading off the sheets.
'I only have my electric lever here but I thought maybe we could run Celestine's bass pickup through a fuzz pedal early in the chain, and use her for some extra deep layers' she tugged her earlobe, lost in the process of audiating her idea. She looked at Johnny
'Can you swap out the dry stuff and tune up for more cut?'
Johnny nodded, frowning in thought and sat looking down at the music Billie had given him trying to see from her notation what she could hear. Johnny knew Billie had a talent for mixing things up and he was curious enough to be excited.
'Swing feel or straight?'
'I tried it swung at home and it felt.. ' she paused to find the word, 'Caricature-ish? I couldn't seem to find the vocal rhythm.'
'And the second one?'
'Andres?' she looked at her guitarist.
'Can you make it...' she vocalized a rhythm, tapping clave on the mic stand in accompaniment.
He listened to her closely, closing his eyes and then nodded. 'Sure.'
'Just a hint yeah?'
'Mmhmm'
Andy was a man of few words.
'I think we could put some guira in there when Essie gets back'
'Ok. Well, you seem to know where you wanna go so let's just try them huh?' Johnny looked around and everyone.
