Stormy

Chapter 10

I finish listening to his idea and put his headphones down. It's a slow intro, keeping the acoustic style of our original idea. Then a beautiful build-up with more electronic sounds follows, before he lays out the basic idea for a drop. "That is really beautiful, Martijn.", I say and give his headphones back to him. "It's the reason I basically got no sleep the whole weekend. I worked on it on all the flights.", he proudly explains. "I can really see that. You have such a talent for melodies. I love that there are so many moving parts, all the little details.", I compliment his work. "So can I continue working on it like this?", he checks with me. "Of course you can.", I reply, "I can't wait to hear more of it." Martijn smiles and shuts his laptop: "Now it is your turn. You wanted to show me something as well." I grab my worn notebook from my bag and open it on the page where I wrote down the ideas to the lyrics of our track. I hand him the book and he lets his fingers run across the leathern cover of it. "Is this where you note down all your ideas?", he asks. "Exactly. This book means a lot to me. It has almost all the songs I have ever written in it. Or at least the general ideas to them.", I say and offer him to read my ideas to our track. He carefully reads what I have written down and a smile forms on his face: "Wow, Julie, consider me impressed. Where did you find the inspiration for this?" "I was basically sitting outside with Emma and we were talking about how much our families mean to us. The idea forms around 'togetherness' as a main inspiration. That it is always easier to reach a goal when you don't have to do it all on your own. It is not just family, but also friends.", I explain. "It's crazy how you are able to transfer all these feelings in such beautiful words. You definitely have my respect, I can see that you are really good at what you are doing.", he compliments me. "Thank you, Martijn. That means a lot to me.", I smile. "Okay, here's a question for you: If you would have to choose, songwriting or singing, what do you prefer?", he asks. "That is pretty easy: Songwriting. It's where I can express myself to the fullest. Maybe, it's because I don't have enough confidence in my voice. There are so many singers out there, but with songwriting, it just feels special.", I try to explain. "I understand that, if you believe it or not. Choosing between DJing and producing would be super hard to me, and I am extremely thankful that I can do both. But if I'd really have to choose, I'd always choose producing music. Being able to create something that hasn't been there before, it just feels like magic to me.", he says. I take a little while to myself to think about what he said and look out of the window, while I take a sip of my drink. Martijn hands me back my notebook and sits down a little more comfortable: "Enough about music now. Tell me something else about yourself. I nearly know nothing about who you really are as a person." He's actually right with that. We never really talked about anything else than music. "Okay, so as you might know by now, my name is Julie.", I jokingly start. "Oh really? That's unexpected.", Martijn laughs, "But seriously: Where does it come from? It's not your typically Dutch name." "It's because I was born in Canada. My parents met while they were both working abroad in Toronto, they are both from Rotterdam though. We lived there for about three years, before we moved back to the Netherlands. And to give me a little part of that special story for my whole life, they decided to give me an English first name. My surname is very Dutch though, it's Nijkamp." "That is so cool.", Martijn says, "I wish I had an interesting story like that to tell. Do your parents still travel as much? And what do they work as? And do you have siblings?" "Haha woah, that's a lot of questions.", I laugh and start to answer them one by one. "So first of all, yes they still do travel as much. That's also partly the reason why I live here in the student dorms and not at home. My mom works in the tourism industry as a consultant and my dad is an engineer. He's currently in Morocco. And no, I don't have any siblings. I wish I had, though. I've felt alone a lot of times when my parents were travelling. But that is when I turned to music." "If you ever need someone else to talk you when you feel lonely, I'll be there for you if you want to.", he offers, "Sometimes friends can come close to being a second family." "Thank you, it's much appreciated.", I say, "I'm sure you can relate to this as well. Touring must be quite lonely at times, right?" Now it is Martijn who takes a while to answer: "It does get lonely. A lot of the times, actually. That is why I try to bring friends and family with me as often as I can. I have a really close relationship with them. It's good to have some familiar faces out there in the crowd. That is what keeps me sane in all that madness." "I believe that.", I say, "Now you tell me something about yourself that is not related to music." "Okay, so I have a younger sister, her name is Laura. She's amazing. And I love collecting minerals. My favorite food is pizza and I love travelling. And I especially love the oceans. It's my favorite thing to do just to get up super early and watch a sunrise at a beach, when there's still not that many people out there and it's all quiet. I get so much inspiration from that." "That must be amazing. What is your favorite beach sunset you have seen so far?", I want to know. "That would probably be Bali.", he says and smiles at the memory of it, "I love Asia. They have such beautiful scenery." "Wow, I wish I could go there one day.", I answer, as Martijn shows me a few photos from his most recent trip to Bali and China. We soon finish our food and Martijn insists on paying for it: "Please, be my guest today, Julie. It's the least I can do." "Well, thank you then.", I say with a smile. Afterwards, we head out of the café and take a long walk alongside the canals. Martijn and I take turns telling stories about ourselves and as we get back to the dorms, it feels like I've known him for way longer than I actually do. "I have to get going now.", he says, "There are still a few assignments waiting for me. But I really had a great time with you today. Thank you so much for keeping me company, Julie." "It was an amazing afternoon with you, Martijn.", I say, "We should do this again one day. I really enjoyed your company." "Can I get a hug?", he asks with his typical smile. "Sure.", I answer and give him a hug, before he turns to go home.