It's been a while (Johnny Cruz/Joonas Parkkonen) - Santa Cruz -

Studio Day

"Smallie, wake up!!"
Half awake she heard Archie entering the room and opening the curtains.
"Get up, we gotta head to the studio."
Suddenly she stood next to him.
"Oh gosh I completely forgot about that!"
She ran into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.
"What should I wear? I have no idea what to wear in the studio.", she panicked.
"Chill, Smallie, this is not a prom. You just wear whatever you wear on a lazy day or what you feel comfortable in."
He put two pancakes on the table and pointed at them for her to eat them.
"But.. I gotta make a good impression on Richard."
"Don't worry about that, he's all over your songs. And what do you think do I wear when I am in the studio? We all just wear whatever clothes we feel like wearing. This is nothing special. Nobody cares about what you wear."
He ruffled her hair and went out of the kitchen to get his phone.
"What if I make a mistake? Like sing the wrong lyrics or something."
"Geez, stop worrying. Even if you sing the wrong lyrics it's not a problem because you can record it again and again and again and again and again.
And besides you are not going to record much today because Richard just wants to talk to you about different things."
"Puh. Well I'm glad that you're there with me."
"Yep and you can watch us recording today too so you see how it works."
"Wait are the boys coming too?"
She didn't know about that part.
"Yes and Tazzy will pick you up in uhm.. about 10 minutes. He'll take you there because I gotta get something before I come too."
"You're kidding right?"
It's amazing how she gets to know those things so early.
Note the sarcasm.
"No, I'm not. Is it a problem?", he asked tabbing something in his phone.
"No. No, it's fine."
No, it is not fine at all.
How is she supposed to do this without him?
"Good.", he smiled and left the kitchen again.
Amazing.

"She's like super excited and afraid that she could do something wrong so maybe try to calm her down a bit if she's going crazy.", Archie explained to Tazzy.
He just grinned and nodded.
"I'm coming right after.", Archie said as Sammy opened the door of Tazzy's car.
"Hurry."
Archie ruffled her hair again and went to his own car to leave into town.

"Do you want to put in a cd?", Tazzy asked to break the moment of silence.
"What cds do you have?"
"Ughh I got quite a lot. Guns N' Roses, ACDC, Aerosmith, Stones, Steel Panther, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon uhm... you know just look through them and put in whatever you feel like listening to."
He really got quite many cds.
It took her a while to look through all of them but in the end she picked Bon Jovi's New Jersey.
They didn't talk much until they got there and her excitement grew with every minute they got nearer to the studio.
She's never been in a real studio.
"Richard is a really nice guy you don't need to worry.", said Tazzy out of the blue as if he could read her mind.
He parked the car in front of a house that looked like every other in the street.
They had to walk up to the top floor of the house.
"Welcome to the studio.", Tazzy opened the door and gestured her to get in, "after you."
Unsure she walked through the door and took a look around the hall she stood in.
It looked like a normal apartment hall.
On the right and left a few doors.
Just the posters and vinyls of multiple bands all over the wall were different.
She also spotted a poster of Santa Cruz.
When she turned around Tazzy stood there and watched as she looked at all the posters and vinyls.
"You ready?", he asked when she looked at him unsure.
She shrugged.
"This way"
He pointed at a door on the left side.
Waiting for him to go first she didn't move.
Tazzy smirked, opened the door and let her in.
All the things in the room took her breath away.
So many recording equipment, extra rooms and instruments.
"Sam?"
"Hm?", she turned around to the person who just called her name.
A tall man with long, brown hair and a beard.
He smiled and stretched his hand out to shake hers.
"I'm Richard, it's very nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too"
She smiled back at him and waited for him to tell her what's next.
"A'right. First take a seat please no need to stand all the time. Would you like a drink?"
"Uh yes a water would be great."
Richard looked at Tazzy and nodded in the direction of the hall.
Tazzy understood and walked away, probably to get the water.
"So I don't know how much your brother told you about the plan of today but I'll just tell you what's happening quickly."
Tazzy came back with the bottles of water and passed them to Sammy.
One with gas and the other one without.
She thanked him and took a sip from the one without gas.
Tazzy sat down in front of a laptop and did something on it.
"We aren't going to record today because we need to do preparations for it first. Also we'll discuss studio times and other things that are necessary for you to know."
She exhaled and smiled.
That sounds not very difficult and wouldn't cause any problems.
"Later I can show you some stuff and you can take a look how the boys record. I think they turn up around 3pm?"
He looked over to Tazzy with a questioning look.
"Archie should arrive anytime soon and the others are coming at 3."
"Good. So we still have 4 hours till it get's noicy."
Both Richard and Tazzy started laughing at this comment.
"So Sam you've never been to a studio, right?", he didn't even wait for her to answer, "well before you can start to record, doesn't matter if instruments or vocals, you have to do a lot of preparation stuff. You gotta find the right settings, instruments, microphones and all those things. It's not always easy that's why you spend a lot of time in the studio. Today I basically just give you a studio tour and explain everything and maybe we'll take a look at a microphone that would fit you. We only got four hours though and in about one I'll order some Pizza."
He got up from the couch and gestured her to follow him.
"Uhm Tazzy could give her a tour please because I have to head home quickly."
Tazzy gave him a nod and followed him into the hall.
"Okay so last door down the hall is the bathroom and next to it the kitchen. We have a fridge there too so if you want to bring drinks or whatever you can put it in there. You can also cook if you're hungry. Over here we have the recording room for percussion and drum stuff and this is the room for piano recordings. This will probably the room you'll spend most of the time here. The room over there is something like a chill room. We usually write most of our songs there or you just go there to rest for a while. And this room where we just came from is the control room connected with the cabins for vocal recording. Everything's controlled by the main computer over there. And the mix-board is for the different setting for vocals or instruments. Yup that's basically everything."
"You forgot to show her the bar."
Sammy turned around and looked first at Archie and then at the bottle of beer in his hand.
"Oh yeah well the bar is upstairs. It's not really a bar but we call it the bar because we have parties up there."
Archie sat down on the couch next to Sammy and drank the last bit of his beer.
"Is this the reason you had to go into town?", she pointed at the beer.
"One reason."
"Next time it's Johnny's turn to get the beer.", said Richard who had just returned.
Geez, she saw Johnny buying beer just last week.
"Okay well I can imagine you don't want to be here every time the boys are because it's not always very enjoyable when they have parties. So to mind your school times I'd say we meet Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm and on Sunday at 4pm if that's fine with you."
"Yup is perfect. How long is a studio session?"
"As long as you want to stay."
The boys started smirking behind her for whatever reason.
Was it a stupid question?
"Sometimes it can be possible that other bands or even the boys are here too. I think the boys are here Sunday as well but earlier. Depends on how long they stay then. If you want to bring anybody it's not a problem as long as they are here to help or just watch quietly."
"Okay sounds good."
"Perfect. Now do you want to take a look at the pianos and keyboards? I suppose you don't want to bring your own every time."
"Yeah sure and no I don't.", she laughed and followed him to the piano room.
"I'll be here when you're in the studio all the time but in like maybe a year I think it's fine if one of the boys comes with you because they know how the recording stuff works. Best is you take Johnny because he's the recording pro in the band."

Next hour was pretty interesting.
They tried the pianos and microphones and they had a great pizza for lunch.
Archie also showed her some soundtracks he prerecorded for the new tracks.
Sammy was excited to hear the full songs, she loved Archie's voice and she planned on asking him to sing with her in one of her songs.

The other boys arrived 30 minutes too late with the excuse that they had to buy strings for the guitars.
Johnny was the only to hug her for the welcome and the other boys watched it amused.
It was kinda awkward because Sammy wasn't prepared for the hug.
He was the first to come into the room and walked straight to her and hugged her.
First she just stood there stiff and didn't know how to react.
After what felt like ages she hugged him back slightly.
Middy just said hi which made Johnny look very embarrassing.
Sammy watched them doing their stuff for a while and also helped them make up a melody on the piano.
They didn't record a lot but still enough for Sammy to see how it works.
Sadly they wouldn't record any piano yet because they still had to finish some lyrics and then record percussion first.
At 11pm they left the studio and got pizza again for dinner.
None of them felt like cooking so they just went to the pizzeria next door.
Afterwards they said their goodbyes and went home.
Sammy drove Archie's car this time because he had 3 beers.
When they arrived home Sammy hugged Archie and thanked him for making all this possible.
She had such a great time today.