In The Blood

Brothers and Sisters in A Cappella

(Tim)

No, no, no, that doesn't sound right.  I shook my head at my own writing.  It had started out good but the beat wasn't hitting these lyrics right.  I had a beat in my head, an idea in my head, and a general direction of the lyrics, but getting the ideas out and putting it on paper was proving to be a difficult task.  I needed to write this out though—what I heard in my head and what I was envisioning was good.  Catchy and deep too.  I was feeling sentimental here. 

    I flipped the page in Dana's cute little Mickey Mouse notebook and shifted in place, starting back at the verse I was struggling to transcribe from my head.  Kevin was now stretched out on the pew just behind me playing on his phone, now hooked on Cheryl's charger, having been brought back to life with electricity.  Kirstie, Scott, and Mitch were whispering to each other, glancing at me occasionally.  I kept peering at them over the arm of the pew and a good two-thirds of the time caught them looking at me.

    I glanced over at Avi for the umpteenth time.  A good portion of this song was based off what he'd said earlier and had really struck a chord with me.  'Family is who you love and who loves you, not who you are related to.'  I loved the sentiment behind it and the conviction with which he had said it.  According to that philosophy, I had a huge family that had doubled in size over the last two weeks although I'd lost a few along the way.  Not just my core medium-sized family in Texas, but spread throughout the country.  Brothers and sisters in a cappella.  I loved these nine.  Wholeheartedly.

    Ooo, that could be the ticket.  Letting my foot tap on the other end of the pew, I penned out a whole verse.  And it worked with the beat I had in mind.  I went back to the hook and made a quick adjustment.  Yes, that's better.  Feel the love I want... the love I need.  And I can feel it, in the here and now, in the people round me.  None of us may be saying much, but it—their love and interminable support was permeating the air.  Yeah.  I was feeling poetic here.

    I clicked my tongue twice, went back to the chorus, crossed out two words and changed them up and—fuck, did I misspell that?  I squinted at the word.  Yep, I had.  Sad thing is, I knew how to spell it.  I am a good speller.  Shaking my head, I fixed it.  Jellous love, good God, Tim.  The song is not gelatinous.  I looked at Avi again as he pointed to Jessica's paper.  Think he was trying to teach her how to draw human faces.  Those are hard.  I'm a decent artist, not as good as Avi is, but I can sketch. 

    I went back to the first verse and added two lines quickly, tapped the pen on my lower lip, crossed out the first line and tweaked it, tapped the pen on my nose, and tweaked my tweak.  Yes.  Better. 

    OK, so what I got here?  I went back and started re-reading it from the top, moving my finger along the line and considering each word.  I changed one in the second verse, finished the read-through, and started reading it again.  The second verse immediately popped out at me.  Chance.  Chance had to sing this part.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

    Starting to hear music in my head, I flipped to the next page.  I had no music sheets so I made do the best I could using three lines and two spaces.  I started with the second verse, just the leads, because that was what stood out to me.  I'd play with harmonies here in a few.  Got nothing but time on my hands here right now anyway.  But it didn't bother me.  I was in my happy place mentally, engrossed one hundred percent in the music I was creating out of my head, out of nothing.  Avi had planted the seed of inspiration and here I go.  And if I do say so myself (and I do), it was good writing too.  It was heartfelt.  Sometimes you can get real gems in the aftermath of the darkest times.  I went back up to the opening verse and played with that.  OK guys, think this one's going to be all me.  Literally.  I wanted no backing vocals.  This is my song.  And Chance's.  Our turn to shine.  Except I did enter backing vocals on his verse, no harmonies though.  I went down to the chorus then eyed my choices in here.  I stared at Adam a minute.  No way he'd be willing, and we had to have the strong driving beat anyway.  Austin.  I looked at him for a minute.  He looked up at me and gave me a slight smile.