Blood And Guitars

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I strolled into the recording studio with a million dollar smile on my face and a small stack of papers. O’Shea and I had recorded our vocals for “Midnight Poison” the day before and things had gone really well. I hadn’t heard everything put together yet, but I was sure the song could be a hit, especially with Karatz’s magic touch.  I found everyone in the control room but Jonas, who was apparently posting some video footage of us online for the fan club.

“You’re in a good mood,” O’Shea observed.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” I asked.

“I don’t have everything on ‘Midnight Poison’ worked out yet,” Karatz said. “But I spent a few hours piecing it all together last night after you left.” He was sitting on his big black leather chair, rolling from left to right in front of the soundboard.

“Let’s hear it,” Chase said enthusiastically.

I watched as Karatz made a few adjustments on the board and then turned up the volume on the monitors from his computer screen. He started the playback and I listened intently. The guitars sounded incredible. It started with just rhythm guitar which, thanks to Karatz’s suggestion, was actually O’Shea and I both playing rhythm in two parts combined. When my voice flooded the room, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. It was better than I had imagined.

We listened to the rest of the song in silence, although Chase was now dancing around behind us, and then in a succession of high fives and manly slaps on the back, expressed just how much we liked it.

“The rest is in the details,” Karatz said. “I’ll have it finished by the end of the week. But you guys did a great job. It sounds amazing.”

“Thank you … thank you.” Chase gave a little bow. “I’ll be here all week.”

“Don’t remind me.” Jonas rolled his eyes at the drummer.

I chuckled and sighed. “Oh yeah, I have a little something here I’ve been working on.” I took the first two sheets of paper in my stack and handed them to O’Shea. Then I walked over to Chase and handed the next two to him, saying, “I took your advice. Again.”

“Which was what … exactly?” Chase questioned, not sure if he wanted to own whatever it was I was about to blame on him.

“Its called ‘Sweet Disguise.’ Let’s just say I had some stuff I needed to sort out.” I handed Jonas and Karatz their copies. Everyone was silent for a moment as they read over the lyrics. I waited patiently for their responses. O’Shea was the first to speak up.

“Specifically Nikki stuff, it seems. It’s about time. Why don’t you show us what it sounds like?”

I headed into the live room to find my guitar. Since all of our instruments were there, it only took a few minutes to get ready. Karatz gave me a mic and was in the process of setting one up for O’Shea as well when I began strumming the chords I had written about my last relationship, if you could even call it that.

I’d met Nikki on a plane, believe it or not. I’d been traveling with the band to Los Angeles to make an appearance on a late night TV show and she ended up next to me in first class. I know, it sounds like the stuff of movies, but as you can guess, the ending wasn’t so happy. I hadn’t had a serious relationship since Catalyst had made it big. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to have a girlfriend, but everything about dating was hard once we had success. It was hard to meet people in a real setting and have actual conversations, let alone get to know someone well enough for a real relationship.

Hindsight is 20/20, and so looking back, I can see all of the things that I refused to see then. Nikki was an aspiring actress who was moving to L. A. to get her big break. She was from a small town and had seemed really innocent and genuine at the time. She was also really cute, with long blonde curls and brown eyes. We’d talked the entire flight, and although she obviously recognized me and knew the band, it didn’t bother me. I realized that if I was going to have to try to find people who weren’t fans to date, then becoming more successful as a band would only hinder my chances at having a girlfriend. I had blindly followed my heart and called Nikki two days later. We’d started dating, although it was often long-distance. It was nice to have someone to call during a long day on the road, or after a gig. Nikki was all too willing to fly out to see me in whatever random city I was in at the time, and so I often brought her out to shows and events that I was expected to attend. Then she would go back to California to work.