Not So Little Secrets

Chapter Twenty-Five: Things Change

2 Years Later...

Santana's POV:

Over the past two years things have moved along at a pretty good pace... Actually things haved moved along better then I could have ever expected.

My music career really took off faster than even I thought possible. When my Debut album dropped I didn't expect it to sell the way it did. Don't get me wrong, I have confidence in all the things I do... But I thought that I would maybe sell about 250 thousand units my first week. Even that was wishful thinking. I was expected to sell about 150k.

Now I know what you all are thinking... That 250 thousand albums sold in the first week of your album being realeased is huge for a new artist. But come on, I said I have confidence in myself... So I aim high, even if I fall short.

It's like being in school. If I have a test that I didnt study for... I may get a C on it but I at least aim for an A+.

250 thousand is what I wanted to sell in my first week as a minimum. But I definitely did not expect my album to sell almost 400 thousand copies in it's first week.

I was really amazed at how well people took my album. It officially went platinum a month later and was the number 2 album on Billboards 200.

I won a Grammy for best new artist and that was when I knew that Anna and I were really doing something great. Not that I really needed a Grammy to define how good my music was, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have my music acknowledged.

While I was touring for my album, I had 3 opening acts. A guy by the name of Paxton Frank was one of them, he and I shared a tour bus together. Paxton was a solo artist on Interscope as well. When we were not on stage, we would be on the tour bus writing and recording new songs with our producers.

We toured for three straight months and Paxton and I would try to have at least one song made each day. We had made enough songs to make at least 3 albums. Anna and Tim, who is Paxton's producer, thought that it would be a good idea if we created a joint album. Paxton and I were definitely in agreement with that idea.

I called Holly and told her to let the label know about Paxton and I doing an album together. They of course wanted to hear the album as soon as it was ready so that they can decide if its a good idea.

Once Paxton and I picked the songs we wanted to go on the album, we sent the finished album to Holly. Holly and Paxton's manager Gabe, took the album to the label executives so they can hear it. Once they approved of the joint album, they told us to it would be released three months after the tour ended. They didn't want it to interfere with my debut album.

Three months after my tour, Paxton and I released our joint album. We didn't do a tour for the joint album because the label thought it would be better to wait until we both released our next solo albums and just Co-headlined a tour together.

Three months after the release of the joint album, I dropped my second solo album. It had been almost a year and half since the release of my debut album. The label wanted me to strike while the iron was hot coming off of the joint album.

When I signed my contract with Interscope, I signed for 3 million dollars per album for 3 albums. Because the joint album with Paxton was an official album released through Interscope, my contract with Interscope is officially complete.

The label has been wanting to meet with me and Holly to try to see if we can come to an agreement on a new contract to stay with Interscope records.

Ever since I dropped my Debut album, I've been making moves to start my own label. Once my contract with Interscope ended, I made my label official. Anna and I are now the co-founders of Mountain High Records.