Rock Starz

18| Radio Irritation

"Hush, hush, hush!" Nathan had put his finger in front of his mouth to show his father and sister to shut up. His words.
"And now we're moving on to another fairly new band, but I understand they've had years of experience. This band started out as a favourite at their local bar, but now they're ready to break through. Here are the Rock Starz, with I Wanna F You." Nathan's jaw dropped.
"That wanker-" Nathan stood up and walked away from the radio, striding over to the phone and dialling a number.

"I wanna f you! I wanna effing, effing f you! Hey girl let me f you, let me effing, effing f you!" Devon sang along enthusiastically as he heard his own song officially hit the radio. He started drumming in the air, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth. Suddenly the phone rang. Isaiah stood up from the couch.
"Hello?" He leaned against the wall and blew out a cloud of smoke.
"Isaiah, who suggested the song for the radio?" Isaiah stood there relaxed as he thought.
"Songggggg." He grunted as he watched Devon start headbanging with the long hair he didn't have. To his own song, no less.
"Isaiah? Hello?" Isaiah woke up from his trance.
"I think James did that. Now before you say anything, just try to enjoy this moment for once, Nate. We're on the fucking radio, so sit down, have a beer and be proud." Before Nathan could respond, Isaiah had already hung up.
"Did you write this song Nathan?" Clara asked with wide eyes. Nathan sighed.
"No, this ones done by good old Devon." He mumbled and Clara nodded.
"I surely fucking hope so, I don't think this is very appropriate." Nathan's father said. Nathan looked at his father in annoyance.
"Can't you just be proud? Me and my band are on the radio, Dad. Before we know it I'll be performing for the whole fucking world." Nathan turned up the radio and slowly but surely began to enjoy the song. It felt strange to hear something of theirs on a device like the radio, but strangely enough it was familiar. Like they had been famous for years.

For the next few weeks, the song followed Nathan everywhere he went.When he heard it in the supermarket two days later, he was pleasantly surprised and proud. Although no one knew yet that he had done that one guitar solo in the song.As soon as he heard it again a month later, everywhere he went his ears started to bleed.
"Seriously can you change the station?!" he shouted when he just wanted to get something to eat.Even on the street he could hear people humming the melody of the song, it just wouldn't leave his head.

"I just can't handle it anymore! Day in, day out, I get bombarded with that shitty song! And now we have to play it?! On live television?!" Nathan walked through the dressing room in frustration. Isaiah took a drag of his joint and looked at himself in the mirror in surprise.
"Oh come on, as soon as the album is out, other songs will be played." Lynx reassured him.
"I think you're just jealous because I wrote the masterpiece." Devon said, enjoying all the attention.
"You know Devon, that's honestly one of the things I don't care about! I just want to play something else!" The door to the dressing room opened and a woman who works for the tv walked in with a clipboard.
"What's important is that you sit according to the schedule, so all the way to the left, Isaiah, next to him Devon, in the middle Lynx, then Nathan and on the right, closest to the host, James." Nathan rolled his eyes.
"Do I have to sit next to James?" James looked at Nathan in annoyance.
"Do you have to make such a big deal out of everything?" The two looked at each other hostilely and Isaiah raised his hand briefly.
"Why am I sitting all the way on the left?" He asked confused, since it was clearly done on purpose.
"So that the diversity stands out more." Lynx's eyes widened and Isaiah's mouth fell open.
"Oh yeah, put the black guy in the spotlight! Look ladies and gentlemen, less than a century ago they were slaves but now they can make music too." James bit his lip in resentment. The woman ignored what Isaiah said.
"Now a few things about the interview itself. There is no swearing, you don't say anything when the host doesn't ask you anything, and you don't talk back, except when answering the questions." Nathan looked at the woman in disbelief. The rest of the band wisely decided not to say anything, but they disagreed sharply.
"And when you perform, the singers can lip-sync and the rest can just play their instruments like they normally would, except there's no sound." Isaiah dropped his face into his hands and sighed in disbelief.
"You've got to be kidding me." The woman stood up and smiled briefly at the band.
"You're up in five minutes, you can go stand backstage." The woman walked away and the band was left speechless sitting on the couch.
"This is bullshit, let's get the hell out of here." Isaiah stood up but Devon pulled him back onto the couch.
"We could leave, yeah." James grinned when he heard the suggestion in Devon's voice.
"Or we could go up. And pretend we didn't hear all the rules." James said, Isaiah started to grin. Lynx was also happy with the idea. Nathan bit his lip in thought.
"Fuck it, it doesn't matter what we say, we're going to be on TV anyway. It's live."

"Recently there's a new song that's really popular with the youth, named I Wanna F You by the Rock Starz. The song is being played everywhere, and there's no escaping it anymore. Well, when I listen to the title, it sounds pretty crude, don't you think?" The host looked over his desk at the five boys who were sitting exactly as they wanted to.
"Well, actually it's a pretty feminist song." Devon began, and the four boys nodded convincingly, even though they had no idea what Devon wanted to say.
"Are we talking about the same song?" The host looked into the camera with a fake smile and the audience laughed too, nicely in sync.
"You see, everyone thinks we mean fuck." The boys nodded again in understanding and the host's eyes widened a little when he heard the first swear word.
"But we actually mean finger."
"Yes." Isaiah said seriously.
"We as men also think it is very important that the woman comes during sex." He explained further.
"And that is why the song is not about lust, but about respect." Devon nodded again with a serious look.
"The line 'I wanna f you' is about the fact that we want a woman to have fun, and that we have nothing to do with it." The host was left speechless for a moment.
"Okay, let's move on, your album will be released on June 30th, what are the other songs about?" The band looked at Nathan expectantly. Nathan felt a certain tension about what he would say. He wanted to sound decent, but he also found the rules of the show a bit inappropriate.
He cleared his throat and shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh you know. Shit." The second curse word of the evening had been spoken. The rest of the Rock Starz started to grin when they noticed that Nathan could misbehave himself too. The host felt his patience losing.
"No, I don't know, actually."
"Then I suggest you listen to the album as soon as it comes out, maybe then you will know." The audience made shocking noises. The host looked at Nathan irritated, but he tried to fake a smile on his face.
"Okay, since we don't know much about you yet, can you introduce yourselves one by one?" The camera zoomed in on the person sitting furthest to the left. Lynx, in this case.
"I'm uh, Lynx. I'm twenty years old, I play the keys, and I do back vocals." Lynx nodded shyly into the lens and the camera now focused on Devon.
"Devon, nineteen, I'm the drummer." The cameraman moved the camera towards Isaiah who sighed before he spoke.
"I'm Isaiah, I'm twenty. I'm the black one of the group, I'm the one who brings diversity, don't I?" Isaiah looked backstage where he saw the woman with the clipboard. His bandmates laughed when they heard the joke.
"And I play bass."
"I'm James, nineteen. I play guitar and I do lead vocals." Nathan felt his throat tighten when it was his turn. There was something, he felt uncomfortable in the situation. This was not at all how he wanted to be known as a band, but it was too late now anyway.
"My name is Nathan, I'm eighteen-"
"The youngest, then?" The host interrupted him. Nathan looked at him with a disturbed look.
"Yeah, so? Interested?" The audience laughed and the host looked at the people in shock. This wasn't going according to his plan.
"Anyway, I play the guitar too." Nathan looked over his shoulder at James, with a sly smile. "I'm just a little better than him."
James grinned back."Like fuck, he is." He mumbled, grinning.
"So these are the five members of the Rock Starz, we're going to continue-"
"Rock Starz, it's just Rock Starz. Not 'the Rock Starz'." Nathan interrupted the host as the cherry on top.
"Fine." The host took a deep breath before continuing.
"These were the members of Rock Starz, they're going to perform their song I Wanna F You-"
"By perform, he means lip sync. He doesn't believe we can actually do it." Nathan said as he looked into the camera.
"We're going to go to the commercial now." The host said, giving up.