Band On The Run

Music When The Lights Go Out

With a frown puckering my brow, I leaned forwards a bit more and put all my weight onto the hand I had resting on the edge of the enormous soundboard.

 It still didn’t sound right…

Why didn’t it sound right?

At least no one could hear the thoughts running through my head, I knew I sounded like a whiney child, but I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t understand and this was something I was supposed to be good at. No, not “supposed” to be good at, I was good at it, I knew I was. So why couldn’t I make this one damn track sound the way I heard it in my head.

“Do you think we should try recording the vocals again?” I asked, not looking up from the board but deciding that those thoughts were safe enough to say aloud.

“We’ve done about a billion takes for the vocals,” Seth reminded me in a patient voice.

Running my hands through my loose hair, I gave the ends a resounding tug in my frustration. “I know,” I groaned, turning around to face him. “Something’s off, though,” I added, “And I just can’t fucking figure out what it is.”

“It’s not the vocals,” said Seth unhelpfully as he ran a hand wearily over his face.

All the sudden I found him slouching relaxed in his chair all too annoying. “Well, why don’t you enlighten me, you jackass?” I snapped.

Apparently he was in such a relaxed mood that he didn’t even rise to the bite of an open invitation to fight, because he just leaned back in the chair as I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned my hip against the board. “Rebel, I’m not trying to fight with you right now, okay?”

Letting out a huff, I averted my eyes over his head and asked, “Why does it sound wrong?”

“Because it didn’t sound right in the beginning and we kept trying to force it to sound right, it’s just overproduced,” Seth explained to me and I found myself biting my lip as I thought over his words.

What he was saying sounded oh so reasonable and simple. And it still grated on my nerves slightly that he could have the answer on the tip of his tongue. Maybe it was because I couldn’t figure out the answer to save my life, yet there he was with it at hand and he didn’t even bother to speak up.

When I felt his hand brush mine, I was surprised out of my thoughts and looked down at him automatically. He gripped my hand and pulled it away from the way I had it locked tightly against my chest until it was held lightly in his while he leaned forwards in his chair. There was a lock of his hair that was standing up right in the front, his golden eyes were glued and smouldering as they looked at me and he was grinning.

Oh, mother of fucking hell.

“And you know what we’re going to do about it?” he asked once he had my full attention on him.

With a sigh I felt the tension release from my body and I slouched slightly, leaning my weight back against the board as I stared down at him. Finally letting go of my lip, I reached out with my free hand to brush the soft tendrils of his hair out from his eyes. He really did need to get a haircut; it was touching his shoulders these days.

“Probably,” I replied simply as I looked down to him.

 He lifted a single dark eyebrow at my unwilling response and wordlessly tugged me forwards with the hand, causing our knees to knock against each other.