Dissonance - Chapter 7

I’d been ‘out on the town’ in Raleigh before, but we’d gone to clubs Victor had known about in the college part of town where every other building was a bar or nightclub. The place Kent had us meet was a level of fancy I’d only ever seen on TV. Lyla called it bougie, a term I’d heard before but never actually been in a place where it would apply. When he’d come by to see us in Wellsville, Kent had mentioned we’d be going out the night after we finished to celebrate, so I’d brought my best clothes, just in case.

My best, unfortunately, wasn’t even close to good enough. I was basically wearing my church clothes again, minus the jacket, and looked like a little kid going to a social function with his parents. The only thing that kept me from getting back in the car and driving away was the fact that the rest of us, except for Kat, looked out of place, too. Seth and Marco, although dressed nicer than I was, still stood out as awkward and low class. Lyla had stuck with the ‘screw it’ attitude that she used everywhere else, and wore the same thing she’d worn to record, except with a little heavier makeup and some extra jewelry. She had enough ‘I don’t care’ vibes that I didn’t think anyone was going to give her a hard time.

Kat was the exception. It was sometimes easy to forget she’d grown up with money. Since she’d ditched the popular crowd, and especially since she started living with Hanna, she’d stopped wearing stylish outfits and switched to the standard t-shirts and jeans like the rest of us wore. Tonight, however, she was in a knee-length ‘little black dress’ that seemed tight enough that I would have thought it’d be hard to walk in if I wasn’t watching her do it.

Besides showing off her figure, something she usually hid with baggy clothes, it also had no sleeves. I regularly forgot how muscular Kat was until I saw her dressed like this.

“Feeling okay?” I said quietly to her, so no one else could hear.

I knew she wore baggy clothes most of the time for a reason. She was uncomfortable any time anyone paid too much attention to her body or made comments that were even remotely sexual. Considering what she had gone through all those years with her father, it wasn’t that surprising. Now that she was out from under his control, dressing in ways that made it hard for people to tell what her body looked like was one of the ways she was able to control her life, which was why I was so surprised when she’d come out dressed like she was.

“Yeah. I just wish people weren’t staring.”

“They’re only staring because you look amazing,” I pointed out.

That at least got a reaction, although not the one I expected or wanted. Even after my talk with her doctor, and making it clear to her multiple times that any romantic relationship between us wouldn’t work while she was still recovering, she’d grown steadily more aggressive in making it clear she was interested in being more than friends. In some ways, maybe it was a good thing, since I’d specifically asked her not to, and she was going against that without falling into panic attacks or the other reactions she sometimes had when she tried to push her own opinions. Of course, it may just be she felt comfortable enough with me that she felt safe to push back, even when doing the opposite of what I asked.

“I’m glad you like it,” she said, hooking her arm through mine. “I could wear it more often, if you wanted.”

“Kat,” I said in a warning tone, pulling my arm out of hers. “We’ve talked about this.”

She just shrugged and kept walking, but her expression made it clear she didn’t feel the least bit bad about pushing things. Instead she caught up with Hanna, who’d missed the by-play because she was talking to Seth. I couldn’t help but notice the glance she threw over her shoulder to see if I was watching her walk away.

I took a breath and pushed it away. That was something I’d have to deal with another day. We’d finished recording our first album and were walking into one of the nicest places I’d ever been in. I wouldn’t get another chance to experience this moment and didn’t want to waste it worrying about whatever game Kat was trying to play.

The guy by the front door gave the group of us a look up and down like we’d tracked something in behind us. I might not have been in a place this nice before, but I’d definitely seen that expression before. It was all too common when you were poor and happened to bump into the rich. They didn’t mind us doing their work, but they preferred for us to do it without being seen or heard.

“Can I help you?” he asked in a tone that made it clear he wanted to do anything but that.

“There should be a reservation for Charlie Nelson. It might be under MAC Records of Kent Graham.”

It was like a light switch flipped. His frown suddenly turned into a completely fake smile.

“Ahh, yes. I was told you were coming. You’re in one of the private rooms,” he said, gesturing for us to follow him.

He couldn’t help giving our clothes another once over, barely suppressing a sneer. He led us through the restaurant to a set of double doors made of some kind of smoky glass, transparent enough to tell there was something going on inside without actually being able to see what was happening. Inside, the room was painted in a light brown with what I guessed was nice art on the walls and a long table covered with a white table cloth and place settings laid out.

Kent was already inside sitting next to Rowan, both looking comfortable in tailored suits. It was a little weird to see Rowan, who normally dressed in jeans, button-up shirts, a ball cap and a big chain wearing a dark suit that, to my untrained eye, looked nice.

At least he still had the chain, so it wasn’t completely weird.

“Charlie. You made it,” Kent said, standing up to shake my hand.

I still felt a little self-conscious about how he always addressed me first every time we met him, especially with the off-hand comments Marco had been making, but I mostly wanted to just get through tonight so we could focus on the tour.

“Yeah. This place is really nice.”

“I know. The chef does this paella that you have to try. It’s astonishing. I listened to a rough cut of the record a few hours ago, and I gotta say, I think it is going to do well,” he said, indicating I should sit in the chair next to him and across from Rowan.

Hanna came around and sat next to Rowan. She was really focused on finding out more about the industry, so any time Rowan or Kent had something to say about the business, she always made sure to put herself in the conversation. Not that I minded.

“I’ve looked at some of the stuff you gave Mom, but I’m still unclear about what a record ‘doing well’ looks like.”

“They do family-style here, so I already ordered a bunch of food for the table. For those of you not underage, feel free to order something to drink and enjoy the food,” he said to everyone at the table before turning his attention back to me. “I think that’s because it’s a hard question to answer. Had you asked me seven years ago, the answer would have been very different than the one I give you today.”

“What’s changed?”

“The internet. I mean, yeah, it’s been around for a while, but in the last ten years streaming has really started to take over. At first, it was just an add-on for record sales, but these days if you add up all the different streaming platforms it’s almost eight percent of our annual revenue. Sure, older people still go out and buy a CD, but for anyone under thirty it’s all about streaming. Of course, I don’t have to tell you that.”

While I knew what he was talking about, I didn’t want to point out that until very recently I hadn’t really had streaming. Dad could barely keep a cell phone plan alive long enough for us to use the internet, and being on the move all the time meant we couldn’t get it in a more traditional way.

Of course, since moving to Wellsville, I’d made up for that by a large margin, so I guess he wasn’t wrong. When not working on stuff, doing homework, or just hanging out with Hanna and Kat, we listened to a lot of music on streaming. Partly because we’d convinced ourselves we were doing ‘industry research,’ but mostly because we liked it.

Instead of pointing any of that out, though, I just nodded.

“So when you say regional, that just means where you’re advertising, not where it’s going to be sold. Right?”

“Pretty much. There’s some advertising on streaming platforms that we geo-target, but believe it or not, radio is still one of our biggest marketing tools.”

“What about social media, like the dancing apps? I see a lot of new music getting played on them, people making them into sounds or whatever.”

“That is a place where we’ve started putting in a lot of effort,” Kent said, looking slightly impressed. “At first, it kind of happened on its own. People would find a song on streaming and upload it to one of the dance apps, and our marketing guys got the bright idea of putting pieces of our new stuff on the app directly. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think much of it, but when one of these sounds goes viral, we see a serious uptick on streaming services and even physical sales. We haven’t gone all-in like some of the other labels, but we’re starting to invest in it. The hard part is getting a song to go viral.”

Rowan had kind of touched on this earlier, but it hadn’t really been the point of that conversation. I didn’t really look at those apps much, but Hanna and Kat loved them, so I’d watched a few things they’d shown me. It seemed so random; I couldn’t imagine something manufactured would really stick. People my age and up to ten years or so older, who seemed like the main user base for these things based on who was making videos, were pretty savvy when it came to marketing.

“You can do that? From what I’ve seen, based on who’s making videos at least, most of the users are people my age up to, like, ten years older. Our generation is pretty immune to being advertised to,” I said.

He gave me a look I recognized, since Chef, Mr. French and my mother all gave it to me from time to time, where they found my naïveté funny.

“I hate to tell you, but you guys aren’t all that immune to being advertised to. Sure, the really blatant stuff maybe, but if we get an influencer to push one of our albums, your generation buys it up in droves.”

“So is that what you’re doing, paying people to make viral videos with new songs?”

“Sometimes. If it’s one of the big artists, we make sure they have some requirements for assisting in marketing, which sometimes means radio spots but now also means having an account on these apps and making a few videos about their newest release. But yeah, for a big release we’ll pay a few influencers to make videos with a song we’re pushing. But, like I said, we’re not to the point of doing that widely, yet. It’s mostly the focus of our main office ad team, which works on the big names.”

“I get it. I was just curious,” I said.

He’d already explained what kinds of marketing they were planning on doing, and that had not been included, so I knew what to expect. I just hadn’t really thought much about this end of the industry, and found it interesting.

“What if the artist tried to do it themselves?”

“Like I said, in a lot of cases we mandate that in contracts, but even if we don’t we really suggest you go for it. Beyond increasing your sales, it helps build a following, which will give you larger crowds for your concerts and make it more likely the label will invest in you more.”

“Interesting,” Hanna said.

The food showed up and the conversation wound down as we ate. He wasn’t wrong, the food was amazing. I loved Chef’s cooking, but this was very much a different level of food that was hard to compare. Some of the things I ate I couldn’t even identify.

The rest of the guys were having a great time. Being over twenty-one, Seth, Marco and Lyla were drinking and talking about what they planned to do after dinner. Lyla, who was smaller than the other two, was also putting away twice as much as they were, and I wasn’t sure she was going to make it anywhere later that night. It was good to see them relaxing. They’d worked their butts off for the last week, going over songs again and again, fine-tuning everything.

We’d come to learn why Rowan was so sought after. While his changes were both specific and insightful, he demanded a really high level of perfection, and would have us go over a section again and again until we got it right. It was an exciting and fascinating process for all of us, but it was also exhausting, so they deserved to let their hair down.

Hanna wasn’t eating much since she was too busy peppering Kent and Rowan with questions. She seemed determined to learn the entire music business tonight. To Kent’s credit, he put up with it and answered everything he could, and even promised to get the answers to the ones he didn’t know.

Kat was the only one not seeming to have an amazing time. For once, it wasn’t her DPD causing her problems, but a more run of the mill source of anxiety. The girl could put away an impressive amount of food and I’d watched her polish off entire meals and ask if there was anything else to eat afterward, but she wasn’t adventurous. She liked being able to have the same thing to eat day after day, and always wanted it to be something she already knew she’d like. She did not do well with new foods. Since she moved in, any time Hanna’s mom decided to try making something new, she always set out the stuff to make sandwiches so Kat didn’t feel pressured to try it.

“Did you want me to see if they have any sandwiches or something like that?” I asked her softly, hoping to not draw too much attention to her.

“No, I’m fine. I’m not that hungry.”

I gave her an unconvinced look and said, “We both know that isn’t true.”

“Okay. I just don’t want to cause a fuss.”

I knew her well enough to know that me walking over to the waiter and requesting something different for her would be almost as bad, as far as her anxiety went, as her having to go do it herself, because she’d spend the rest of the meal feeling like they were judging her.

I looked around the table and said, “How about this. The bread is good, and really normal. Eat a bunch of that so it fills you up, and we can grab you some fast food on the way to wherever we go tonight.”

“I don’t want everyone to have to make a special stop on my account.”

“They won’t. I’ll suggest fast food to Lyla, who will be hammered by then. Word is, when she’s drunk, she’s like a garbage disposal when it comes to trash food. I guarantee you she’ll say she wants to stop if it’s suggested to her. Then it’s her idea and not yours.”

She looked down, smiled, and said, “Okay. Thanks.”

“I’ve got your back,” I said.

I pulled one of the baskets of bread in front of her and she looked to make sure no one objected before she grabbed a piece and started eating.

“So, beyond congratulations, I had some more news,” Kent said as the meal started to wind down. “The first is that we’ve added a new stop on your tour for when you’re in Virginia. It’s not part of your actual tour, since you’re going to be the opening act, but Linda Chapman somehow got a copy of your schedule and saw you’d both be near Richmond at the same time. Since you guys are free that night, she asked for you to be the opening act that night on her current tour. She’s only on the East Coast for one week, and all but that one night is up in New England, so this is going to be a big show for her. She’d already completely sold out the open-air venue, so that means a chance for a lot more people to hear your playing than you’ll have at one of your stops. Plus, they wouldn’t have needed to hear about you first to come out, so it’s going to be an audience you wouldn’t reach on your own. It’s a really good opportunity.”

I knew Linda liked our music, since we wouldn’t even have a contract if it wasn’t for her, but asking for someone to open for you is very different than just liking their music.

“Did you say something to her?” I asked Rowan, since he was the most logical choice for who was behind this series of events.

“Nope. I haven’t talked to her since I left LA. In fact, this is the first I’m hearing about it, although I’m not surprised. She prefers to have people she’s comfortable with on her tours than an opening act she doesn’t know.”

“I mean, she doesn’t really know me. We’ve only met two times, and that first time lasted all of twenty seconds.”

“Yeah, but she likes you. She said she got good vibes off you the first time she met you and loved your music. I mean, she liked you enough to make sure you got a second chance at having the label hear you and then flew out to the middle of nowhere North Carolina. Arranging for you to open for her for one show when you’re both roughly in the same area is small potatoes.”

“I guess,” I said. “It still feels weird to have someone at her level even knowing who I am, let alone going out of her way for me.”

“You’re going to have to get used to that,” Kent said. “Pretty much every part of the entertainment industry runs on who you know. Haven’t you ever wondered how bands whose second album flops gets a third and fourth bite at the apple? Same thing for movie people, from what I hear. They can bomb movie after movie and keep getting roles, because they know the right people. The skill you need is to recognize when that happens, say thank you gracefully, and then milk that opportunity as hard as you can. Save all that pent-up guilt and humility for after you make it, and then give someone else the same shot.”

“That’s good advice,” Hanna said.

She’s said something similar to me one of the nights she, Kat and I sat around and dreamed about what we would do when we made it. She’d pointed out that I needed to be more ruthless and take the chance to turn good luck into opportunity, and ignore if I felt guilty or not. She’d also pointed out I could always pay my good luck forward when I didn’t have to worry so much about the future.

It wasn’t so much that I hadn’t believed her then, but I did have a hard time accepting good things just falling into my lap. I’d have to apologize to her later for doubting her advice then.

“It sounds fun. Even if we bomb, we still get to hear House of Grace play live from right off stage. So … bonus.”

“No kidding!” Hanna said, the realization that she’d get to be that close to one of her favorite bands as they played hitting her at that moment.

“The second piece of news,” Kent said, once everyone settled down, “is that we’ve got your tour manager assigned. I checked with Hanna and she confirmed you all had accommodations until the end of the month, so we’re going to go ahead and hold you guys here until the middle of next week. You’re first tour date is here anyway, so you’d have to come back anyway. This way if we need to do any pickups for the album, we have you all nearby and we can schedule something. It also gives us the extra chance to try and get you some promotions for your tour, if we can get you on with one of the morning or drive-time shows. Those are hard to plan ahead, so it’s best if we have you here to act at the last moment.”

“I need to call home about that,” I said.

“I already called your mother earlier this evening and checked with her. Don’t look surprised, as a minor, it’s in your contract. Not that I wasn’t happy to do it, but since we’re also legally required to get approval of schedule changes through a parent or guardian, I also didn’t have a lot of choice.”

“I still appreciate it,” I said.

I knew I was still going to have to call home. Mom might have given Kent the okay, but I knew she was going to have a few choice words about my schedule changing before I even started the tour.

“Your agent’s name is Brent Clarke, and I’ve already had a conversation with him about your … unique situation and some of the challenges he might run into with you guys. He’s aware of your schedule and the new stop, so you ought to hit the ground running.”

“Unique situation like my age?”

“That and Hanna here. I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical about you bringing in someone as a quasi-manager, especially someone with no experience or training, but I’ve been very impressed and I think you’ll all make a great team. I made it clear to Clarke that you’ve requested Hanna be included in all your dealings, and that you value her input and asked that he continue honoring that request; just as Rowan has, so far.”

“Thanks,” Hanna said. “Although that’s only for this summer. Once the fall starts I’ll be off to college to learn how to do this for real, and be out of your hair.”

Although she’d been really confident when she’d declared she wanted to help manage us, I know she’d been feeling a little out of place when confronted with the real thing.

“Well, when you get back you’re welcome to join the team again,” Kent said. “Although the tour has already been booked out, Clarke will start working on getting you bookings when you’re available. A lot of these will just be short PR hops to promote your music, so it won’t be that big of a drag on your time, but some will be gigs, so people can hear you play. This summer is a good start, but we need you to keep pushing the album until basically the end of the year, so we can get as many sales through as possible. First week and first-year sales are really what the bean counters will be looking at when they decide if they want to give you another shot.”

The thing I’d noticed about Kent was he liked to talk like he was one of us, in the trenches, working against our masters back at the label. Of course, I’d already talked to Rowan about what he really did over there, so I knew that he was one of the major voices in looking at our numbers and deciding our future.

Since no good would come of it, I hadn’t called him out on it, but I also wasn’t going to let him snow me under when the time came.

“He knows about my availability once school starts, right? Weekdays are going to be really hard for me.”

“Yes. Your mother made sure to include it in your contract and for the life of me I’ll never understand how she got our lawyers to agree. Clarke knows we have to work around your schedule and we just ask that you try as hard as possible to do as many of these events as you can. Some of them you can send your band mates, but the label is pushing you over the band.”

I saw Marco frown at that, but thankfully no one said anything. We’d been through this enough times that I hoped we wouldn’t have yet another argument over the label’s decision to prioritize me over the band.

“Okay. I hear you guys have planned a night out to celebrate, so let’s finish up this meal and you can all get out of here.”