The Jonas family is very tight-knit, but no one gets along better than twin brother and sister Joe and Brexley. They've been inseparable for their entire lives, and even during the Jonas Brothers years, when Joe was off touring with Nick and Kevin...
Today, we're back in the studio so that we can start on the new album. Though we knew the album would have to be great, so as to be better than our old stuff, now it really needs to be awesome. Pom Poms and First Time have been popular since the release last month, and those two songs need to be part of a really good comeback album. At least now we have two hit songs to design this thing around.
"Do you guys have any ideas? Any songs prewritten already?" Kevin asks, probably hoping this session goes like last time. However, both Nick and I shake our heads no.
"I wanted to wait and see what vibe you two were interested in going with for this, since both singles were different," Nick says.
"Yeah. I mean, it doesn't matter that much to me, I just want this album to sound different than every other song on the radio. I don't want it to be that cookie cutter pop star shit," I say.
"Right. That's all well and good, Joe, but what if we have to do that to make this album popular?" Nick asks.
"I'm just not doing it. I'm not conforming my music just so that more people like me. I want our music to sound like it's actually ours and that we wrote it, not that someone else made it for us," I say.
"But it won't do us any good to have music that sounds like us if no one wants to listen to it!" Nick retorts, and I roll my eyes at him.
"How do you think no one would want to listen to it? All our old music was written by us and showcased who we are! That stuff was popular!" I argue back.
"Because that was a few years ago already, Joe! People's taste has changed since then! We can't afford to keep putting out the same material! We have to move on!" he shouts.
"We aren't putting out the same material! Pom Poms and First Time were different, but they still felt like us! All I'm saying is that we should make songs we think will be popular, but ones that also show off our personalities. Songs we can take pride in. It does us no good to write music we don't even like," I tell him, trying to keep my temper under control.
"Whatever. I'm not going to argue with you about this right now," Nick says. "Kevin, do you have any input?"
Kevin continues typing on his phone, seeming completely oblivious to what is going on around him. In fact, I don't think he's heard any of what Nick and I were just discussing.
"Kevin!" Nick says, raising his voice, and our older brother jumps, shutting off his phone and looking up at us.
"What? Sorry. I was texting Danielle," he says.
"Were you even listening to the whole conversation we just had?" Nick asks.
"Uhhh, I mean, I heard something about taking pride in the music we write," Kevin offers lamely.
"New rule! When you're in the studio, focus on us! Not your wife! Our music is what's important right now!" Nick says irritably.
"Dani is important too! I have to be there for her, I can't just shut her out because of our stupid songwriting!" Kevin snaps back.
"Stupid songwriting? Kevin, we have to do this, we have to be focused on this if you ever want to put an album out! Hit songs don't just appear overnight!" I join in, appalled by what just came out of his mouth.
"I know that, I'm not an idiot. But you guys can't get mad at me for texting my wife when she needs me! If you guys were married you would understand," Kevin defends himself.
"Maybe so, but Kevin, this is our job! You have to put your career over your wife right now!" Nick says.
"I'm not doing that. I could never do that."
"Well, then maybe we shouldn't have tried to do this again! If you won't commit to it, and Joe, you're not willing to do whatever you have to do to be popular, then we should've just ended this band and been done with it!" Nick yells, completely flying off the handle.
"You're being totally ridiculous! I am committed to it, but Nick, I'm five years older than you and I have things in my life right now that you haven't had the chance to experience yet! You don't understand them at all! If you did, you wouldn't be acting this stupid!" Kevin screams back at him.
"I'm just focused on the band the three of us said we would put our hearts into!" Nick says.
"WHEN WE WERE TEENAGERS!" Kevin retorts.
"YOU JUST AGREED TO IT AGAIN LAST YEAR!" Nick screeches.
"Guys, can you quit yelling at each other, please? Maybe today isn't the best day to be working on music. Can we just try this again next week? Everyone can be a little bit more open minded about song styles and other things going on in life and all that. This will go a lot better if we do that," I say, trying to create some sort of peace again, and Kevin takes a deep breath, closing his eyes briefly before responding.
"Okay. Yeah, that sounds good. We need to do that. Same time?"
"Yes. That works for me. How about you, Nick?"
"Sure. Whatever," Nick huffs, standing up and leaving the studio at once.
"That went well," Kevin says to me as we exit together.
"Oh, yeah. Exceedingly well," I tell him, waving as we both get in our separate cars and he heads back off to his New Jersey home.
Before I start my car, I text back and forth a few times with Sophie, telling her all about what went down today. I'll fill Brexley in when I get back to the apartment.
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As I drive down the road towards home, all I can think is I hope next week goes better. Much better. Because if it goes like today did, we're gonna be in trouble before we've even really gotten started again.
