Always You |harry styles| - completed

EIGHT

Coldplay: Everyday Life

Saturday morning was very cold and instantly made me regret saying yes to this trip, especially over the weekend, when Dulles airport was packed with travellers – screaming children, exhausted parents, clueless tourists and the occasional business passenger. Lilian was waiting at our gate with two cups of coffee and I couldn't be more thankful for her thoughtfulness.

"Morning. How did you sleep?", she managed to look like a ray of sunshine even on days where it was very apparent she didn't get that much rest.

"Okay, but the thought of the five plus hours of flying makes me tired.", Lil' laughed, knowing how much I despised long flights and we settled into a comfortable conversation about the best holidays we'd taken.

Boarding the plane seemed to take three hours and I thanked heavens that Lil' booked us into business class instead of economy, because I had the terrible misfortune to always be seated next to crying children. We'd get to L.A. at nine in the morning, local time, which meant we'd still have plenty of the day to get work done. I thought about telling Harry to meet us at the airport, because I was really looking forward to seeing him, but opted not to because I didn't have an estimate of the time we'd spend in meetings. We'd just see each other later in the day, or on Sunday. The flight wasn't actually that bad and seemed to last a lot less than it really did. Lil' had a car waiting for us at LAX, and we'd be taken straight to a recording studio to meet with Chris and the rest of his team. I was really excited to work with him, since he always seemed so genuine and down to Earth.

"He's gonna love you, there's no need to worry, you'll see. I've known him for years and when he asked if I could join them on tour as a producer I instantly thought of you for that role. I really don't have the energy to be an EP for a world tour any more, but you're young and talented enough to pull it off without dying from exhaustion.", she told me as we drove into the L.A. morning traffic, which was ten times worse than rush hour in Washington.

Lil' and I walked into the studio and a group of seven or eight people was huddled over a large computer screen. They were all quietly listening to something.

"Ubuntu. I am because we are.", a voice in the video said, and I felt the wind knock out of me.

"Wow, that really is something.", I spoke quietly, not wanting to disrupt the creative process they were all so clearly immersed in.

"Sorry, I didn't even notice someone walked in. Hello Lil', it's lovely to see you again!", Chris turned his attention to us and got up to give Lil' a big hug.

"We didn't mean to intrude, they told us to go in. Anyway, Chris, meet your possible new EP – Thea.", she motioned to me and I extended my hand to shake Chris', but instead he wrapped me in a hug as well.

"Oh come on! We're huggers here! Lovely to meet you, Thea. Let us wrap this up and we'll go grab a cuppa downstairs, okay?", his Britishness was apparent as soon as he spoke, but I really missed someone saying, 'let's have a cuppa' instead of 'let's go for coffee' like the rest of America, so much.

"I love the message of this song. No matter where you come from or what your personal beliefs may be, we all have humanity in common. We all experience emotions, we all have pain, hurt, and sorrow. We all have moments of joy and happiness.", Chris told us a bit more about the song we heard in the recording studio, Everyday Life.

I knew we'd be a good fit from that very moment, because he was human. He wasn't like so many horror stories about celebrities I'd heard from coworkers. He was kind and caring, he wanted to make sure everyone in the team was taken care of and mentally and physically okay when they were on tour. Chris wanted to be included in the process as much as he could, from the designs to the visuals to the lights, because he had a vision for this tour and I really hoped our visions would overlap and mesh well together. Lilian went to the hotel and left me to talk to Chris about my ideas and just get to know him a bit more. He was truly one of a kind, and I had no doubts that working with him would be one of the best experiences of my life. He told me about the album, which was in the finishing phase, about the tour and where we'd be going. It would be one hell of a journey: 21 shows in the US and Canada, 15 shows in Europe, 2 shows in China, 1 in Japan and then 5 shows in Australia and New Zealand. We'd have a small break after the Athens show, for a special Brit Awards ceremony in London, and then we'd be off to the other leg of the tour. It's a stadium and arena tour, which meant we had enough space for a massive stage that'd make other artists envious, and the ticket sales were going incredibly.