Different Circles

“He gets better gash that way,” Matt explained. “If he goes to score some on his own, he can’t attract the high-class skank and has to settle for mediocre skank. When he’s with us, though, the bitches treat him just like a member of the band.”

“It’s good to hear you’re having a positive effect on his gash scoring,” Jake said. “What’s your normal routine for first thing in the morning?”

“We do a quick sound check and make sure everything is in tune and then get to work,” Matt said simply. “Usually, we’ll work on tunes we’ve already established in full for the first part of the morning and then work up some of the newer shit after lunch.”

“I’ll just watch from over here,” Jake said, pointing to a lone stool that sat twenty feet in front of the microphone stand where Matt would be playing. The stand had no less than eight separate effects pedals arranged at its base, all of them wired together and then patched into a master cable that led to the amplifier.

“Good deal,” Matt said. “We were just going to run through everything we’ve got for the morning session. That way, you can check out what we’ve come up with so far.”

Jake nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” he said.

Matt seemed a bit on edge but seemed to relax a bit now. He turned back to the band. “All right, motherfuckers,” he said. “Let’s get everything powered up and get started.”

Jake took his seat and opened up an eight and a half by eleven notebook he had brought with him. His plan was to write down the tunes as they were played and scribble down any thoughts he developed as notes. Matt went over and opened up a guitar case that sat on the drum platform. He pulled out a red Fender Stratocaster—a much newer model than the iconic black Strat he played on stage (that one was currently locked in a display case in his house). He slung it over his shoulder and then went to the sound board and powered it up. Once it was live, he picked up a guitar cord and plugged in. He then sat down on the stool before his microphone and began making sure the instrument was in tune. It was slightly off but this was quickly rectified.

Corban and Austin tuned their instruments as well and then Steve went through his drums and cymbals one by one, warming up and making sure all of his equipment was in tune as well. Matt then made a few adjustments to the sound board, tweaking the volume levels here and there and then directing adjustments to the individual instruments. In all, the entire warmup took about fifteen minutes, about a third of the time it would have taken had the Nerdlys been involved.

“All right,” Matt said, sitting back down in his stool. “I think we’re ready.”

“Let’s hear what you got,” Jake said, actually looking forward to what was coming.

Matt nodded and then turned to his band. “Let’s do Faithless first,” he told them. They all nodded in understanding. He turned back to Jake. “This is Faithless. It’s the first tune we started working on and the one we’ve nailed down the best so far. I’m thinking it might be the first cut on the new CD, maybe even the title cut.”

Jake saw that there was a bit of challenge and defiance in Matt’s eyes and realized what it meant. Matt was expecting Jake to start throwing his weight around immediately, just to prove that he could, to say something like: “I’ll be the one to decide which tune is the title cut and which is played first.” Jake had no intention of doing this, however. He knew that this experiment could only work if he used that weight only when necessary and then as gently and delicately as possible when he did have to throw it about. He simply nodded and said, “fire it up.”

They fired it up. It opened with a fast-tempo riff backed by a solid drumline and strong rhythm guitar. The lyrics seemed to be a proclamation that the vast majority of the human race was untrustworthy and hopeless. Jake did not entirely disagree with this sentiment, though his view was not quite as bleak as Matt’s. The primary melody was a complicated six-chord riff that was only semi-repetitive—it cycled in and out of three distinctly separate manifestations. It was classic Matt Tisdale shit. For the choruses however, he switched down to a slower tempo, shedding sixty beats per minute, and changing to a complimentary four chord riff to support it. Jake listened with the ear of the professional musician and producer that he was and found he liked what he was hearing. He also could hear where improvements could be made. He began jotting notes down under the heading FAITHLESS on his notepad.

More abrupt changeover from verse to chorus? Rhythm guitar semi-clean for the chorus? More fills from the drums on the verses! Gradual build-up on the intro instead of launching right in? Will have to if this is going to be the first promoted and the title cut.