Different Circles

They did it again. And then they did it one more time. The Nerdlys furiously scribbled away on the scores until every sheet was filled with notations and little arrows pointing to various places. Only then did Nerdly begin offering some praise. He was particularly fond of Matt’s work with the effects pedals and the way he combined them to draw unique and unconventional sounds from his guitar. Matt mostly used this technique on his solos, but Nerdly suggested that maybe he could apply some of it to the riffs and changeovers as well.

“Where would I do that?” Matt asked, pondering thoughtfully.

Nerdly flipped through his notes for a few moments. “That distortion you used on the solo for Looking Down,” he said. “You could apply something like that to the chorus to bridge transition on Faithless.”

Matt thought that one over and then nodded. “Maybe,” he said.

“Wouldn’t you have to eliminate the backing guitar for that section though?” asked Sharon. “It would override the effect you’re looking for.”

“Not necessarily,” Jake put in, already liking the idea. “You could just have Corban switch to clean output and keep it soft.”

“And then switch back to distortion after the bridge?” asked Matt.

“Why not?” Jake asked.

“I’d have to get my own step-down pedal in order to do that,” Corban said. “Either that, or I play my double neck.”

“You have a double neck?” asked Matt.

“Goddamn right, I do,” Corban said. “It’s the bomb!”

“Isn’t that a little seventies?” asked Austin.

“Fuck no!” Matt said. “Double necks rock! I used to have three of them—one was the exact guitar that Alex Lifeson played on Xanadu in Toronto when they recorded Exit, Stage Left.” He soured a little. “Of course, I had to sell the motherfucker to help pay off the fuckin’ IRS.”

“Dude,” Jake said longingly. “You should have talked to me first. I would’ve bought it.”

“We weren’t talking to each other then,” Matt reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” Jake said. “Anyway, maybe Corban could play the double-neck during live performances if we like how this goes. For now, do you have another step-down pedal here?”

“Does the Pope shit in the woods?” Matt asked.

“Set it up,” Nerdly said. “Let’s see how it sounds.”

They set it up. It took another thirty minutes for the Nerdlys to adjust everything so it sounded as close to perfect as they could make it. They then began to play around with Faithless some more, focusing particularly on the second chorus and its transition to the bridge and back. It was very awkward at first. Matt had to come up with the proper phrasing of the unconventional effect he was using. From there, they struggled with the actual transitions. They did discover, however, that Jake’s suggestion of having Corban switch down to clean output on the bridge complimented the distorted riff quite well, especially when they dialed down the drum strikes and the bass line proportionately.

“I’m thinking we go with this,” Matt said after they finally managed to squeak out a few reps of the measure without fucking it up.

“I agree,” said Jake. “It sounds badass!”

And, though none of them really paused to ponder the situation at that moment in time, the first modification of a Matt Tisdale tune under the direction of KVA Records was accomplished. And it was accomplished without argument or hostility.

There was only about ten thousand more to go.

The Nerdlys joined Matt, Jake, and Matt’s band for the post-rehearsal dinner meeting. They went to a local Mexican place. Everyone ordered Mexican beer and ate chips and salsa from well-stocked bowls. Jake deliberately waited until everyone had at least two beers in them—this was the point in the meal between ordering and receiving the food—before he started to talk music.

“All right,” he said. “I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made today.”

“Fuckin’ A,” Matt said. “I dig what we did with Faithless. It fuckin’ rocks!”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Jake said. “It means that despite our past differences, maybe we can work together and put something out that will catch attention and sell a lot of CDs. I was a little worried about how this was going to go, but so far it seems to be working.”

“So far,” Matt agreed, sipping from his third beer, which had just been delivered.

“Having said that,” Jake went on, “I want to go over a few suggestions I came up with while watching and listening these past few days.”

Jake could see Matt tensing up at his words. But he did not say anything disrespectful. At least not yet. “I’m listening,” was what he did say.

Jake nodded. “It’s just minor things at this point in the game,” he said. “Let’s start with Faithless. We did some good modification to it today in the chorus to bridge measures. Let’s talk intro now.”

“What’s wrong with the intro?” Matt asked.