Westwood School

Autumn Haze

Magnolia:

The few days I had in Nashville seemed to float by. I was not really conscious of their passing, the time seemed to melt away in an autumn haze.

Rowan and I would sit in Centennial Park on the steps of the Parthenon, and laugh and joke while Gram Parsons would play softly. The trees were in a glowing amber blaze, and despite normal falls in Nashville bouncing between 30º and 80º, it stayed a nice 50º, the perfect temperature to cuddle up in sweaters with coffee as we tried to absorb every moment with each other.

I'd be lying to say Rowan and I didn't have our own... fun, (if you know what I mean). We decided to go on a lot of "hikes" together, which generally resulted in walking half a mile and then going back and making out in the car. I know, I know, horny teens. But what can I say? Have you seen him? I can't keep my hands off of him.

We only had about 4 days in Nashville, but it may have been the most productive songwriting days of my entire life. We called the boys, and they were pulling together songs of their own, but I honestly think I wrote about 20 in the days we had.

The songs were testament to not only the love between Rowan and I, but the love between so many historical people. I loved to mix writing about greek and roman myths, and also stories of rock and roll. I mixed it all together creating this larger than life romanticized idea of this desperate love. But honestly, I related to it more than anything.

I was writing about what it felt like to be in love not only with a person, but with their music. Maybe in my past life I was a groupie- but to me, nothing is more attractive or romantic than music. Like the playlist Rowan made me was better than a thousand dates. I honestly thought my ovaries were going to fall out.

I think Being in love with someone just as much as you're in love with their music makes so much sense. To me, my identity is so deeply intertwined with music in every form. When I get dressed in the morning, I play music as inspiration. I have this deep desperation to be someone's muse, to be the girl in the song, but not only that, to create music of my own. It might sound dumb, but if there are such things as love languages, mine is music.

And so is Rowan's.

So the days flitted by, images of old Rolling Stone Magazines, buying ungodly amounts of records, and playing guitar in fields filled my mind.

I don't know if I believe in past lives, but if there's such a thing, I think Rowan and I have always been lovers. Maybe he was an ancient poet and I was his Calliope, maybe he was a devilishly handsome rocker and I was his groupie. All in all, I love him.

***

I scoured the pages of my notebook, piecing together the songs I had written, trying to ignore the rush of the airport. Rowan and I sat side by side, peering over the book on a bench outside our terminal. I had a dependency to write super poetic lyrics, and so I liked to write the verses, while I could tell Rowan constantly had melodies floating through his mind, and could come up with the most compelling choruses around.

When we sang together, it almost eerily sounded like Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons when they sang together. I could sing in plenty of different styles, but somehow that old twang just... moved me.

"I'll be damned if we don't have a steel guitar," I mumbled to myself.

I could see Rowan laughing out of the corner of my eye, "Nola, I think the world is either going to be super disappointed by our album, or absolutely love it, but it'll be revolutionary either way."

"I want it to sound a bit like the Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers or Most Girls album, full of old electric guitars and full drums. And obviously a steel guitar- I don't care if that's too country for people. I am so sick and tired of every fucking teenager i know saying 'I like all music- except country'", I grumbled.

"Nola- you were literally making fun of those people's country the other day," Rowan said with a silly smile on his face.

"That's only because they had fake accents! And it was just all around shitty music!" I defended myself, "I want like... the Nashville sound. folk music. Also Dolly Parton owns my entire being, she deserves the World."

Rowan rolled his sea-foam green eyes, and smiled. He looked somewhere between exacerbated and assumed.

Suddenly, the lady called first class boarding, direct to Heathrow, and Rowan and I were herded on board.

Rowan and I spent the entire flight awake, sending each other songs, and writing notes and fixing up the songs we were working on.

I couldn't help fantasize about the name of the album as well- and we had to decide if we wanted to change the name of the band since I was not a boy, and yet I was an official member.

Our instagram handle was just "Branded" (and it boasted quite a few million followers), but who knows if we were gonna keep that.

I mean, I think this album would revamp or change our image a lot. It definitely wasn't what people were expecting. So far it seemed like a 60s and 70s inspired rock and roll meets old county.

When we finally reached London, the songs were a perfect storm of music, hunting melodies and fantastical lyrics. It just felt... magical.

It felt so right and so good to have it written, and I was only worried about what the other boys had pulled together. God only knows what else we have to do. 

HI GUYS! sorry It's been a while- school is killing me. I wanna take a pole- would you rather me finish up this book and start something else but similar, make this jus super long, or make a second book?

ALSO- the video on the top is what I kind of imagine Magnolia's voice to sound like... It's one of my personal idols, Emmylou Harris. Honestly as this book goes on and literally since I started the book back in march, I feel more and more similar to Magnolia- I think I've changed a lot as a person, and its like I'm turning into her (lmao send me to London and give me a hot rich musician bad boy boyfriend). 

From the get go I've sort of based the two characters extremely loosely on Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris- if y'all are interested in the details of that let me know! Also- don't hate on my music choices or Emmylou Harris... thats super mean. I've said from the beginning what makes Magnolia a great singer isn't having a super beautiful or powerful voice like Ariana Grande (just an example- love her), But it being super unique and folk-y. thanks!