Different Circles

They knew. Rock was the tune My Rock to Cling To, an alt-rock love ballad that featured both Ben and Lenny on the acoustic guitars, Lenny playing a fingerpicked melody while Ben played chords (with a generous helping of distorted electric overdubs engineered in by Jake during the recording process). The song was widely popular since first debut and was currently shooting up the charts in several crossover demographics.

“It should reach the top ten by next week,” Pauline agreed.

“That’s right,” Jake said. “And CD sales picked up in correlation with the popularity of Rock. We’re on track to break Platinum before the first of November. V-tach is definitely going to be happy with their fourth quarter royalty checks. And we still have three more radio friendly tunes to promote after Rock. I don’t mean to toot my own horn or anything, and I’m not trying to minimize the contributions of everyone else involved, but it seems clear to me that my involvement in V-tach was helpful to the cause. I want to be involved on that level in all future projects.”

“I agree,” said Celia.

“As do I,” said Pauline.

The Nerdlys both nodded, though with perhaps a bit of reluctance. “It does seem that your production skills combined with our engineering is a respectable collaboration set,” Nerdly said.

“All right then,” Jake said. “So ... no Brainwash III until at least we have a master in hand for my next CD.”

“That will likely be ... when?” Pauline asked. “Next September?”

He nodded. “Assuming no delays,” he said. He reached over and patted Laura’s bulging stomach. “We are about to become parents, remember? We have no idea how much that is going to affect production.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that at all, Jake,” said Pauline with a smile. “Having a baby is nothing. You’ll hardly even notice a difference in your life.”

Jake looked over at her. “I sense a bit of sarcasm there,” he said.

Her smile got bigger. “You sense correctly,” she said. “Your entire existence is about to change. I really hope you’re bracing yourselves for it.”

“She speaks truly,” said Sharon. “I hope you both are appreciating sleep when you get it. There is not much of it in your immediate future.”

The work went on. Matt and his band continued to work in Studio A five days a week while Celia and her band continued to work in Studio B. Jake and the Nerdlys continued to bop back and forth between the two studios, trying to keep their eyes and ears on everything that was transpiring. Progress was made slowly, like a stream eroding a rock, but this was normal and expected. Both projects remained reasonably on time and only slightly over budget. Most importantly, the relationship between Jake, the Nerdlys, and Matt, while strained at times, stayed in the land of copacetic.

There were a few incidents, of course, but they occurred outside the studio, not inside.

On the first weekend in their rental house, the Coos County Sheriff’s department paid the band a little visit because Matt and the boys had been out on the beach trying to pick up on passing women who were out for strolls on the public beach. They did not succeed in this endeavor, but they did manage to infuriate the boyfriend of one of their prospects, a man who wisely did not try to engage them in physical combat to protect his lady’s honor, but did know the right thing to say to get the cops there in force: “One of them is a black guy.” Four units showed up (half the deputies on duty in the entire county that night) and, once discovering who the perpetrators were, sternly advised them not to repeat the behavior or they would get to tour the inside of the Coos County jail. Matt, showing a little wisdom of his own, did not antagonize the deputies, but simply promised that they would try to keep their pickup attempts confined to single women only.