Center Stage
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 30
Up to this point, we’d done all of our recording in Raleigh. That studio had been nice, but walking into a label’s primary recording studio it was clear we’d been small-time up until that moment.
The equipment was state-of-the-art with the latest recording gear and mixing consoles. The recording spaces themselves were spacious and beautiful with what looked like wooden sound baffling, and incredibly comfortable accommodations.
Tran, who I guess would be our producer on the full album, was already inside and getting things set up. I’d asked Hal who we were going to have as our producer, and at the time he didn’t have an answer for me. I don’t know if he knew it was going to be Tran or not, and it didn’t really matter since, considering the money they were shelling out, it wasn’t like I could argue it very much. They were footing the bill, and we’d already made a lot of money with them, so it made more sense to just shut up and stick with the program.
We’d just gotten to the main recording studio when I unexpectedly heard Quinn’s voice behind me.
“Charlie,” she said, coming out of a small side room that looked to be some kind of waiting or green room. “Finally. I’ve been waiting forever.”
Quinn had moved her office to LA after I’d gotten my contract with ARC and things had started taking off. I guess on the back of the work she’d done for me, she’d started picking up some smaller clients, which I’d signed off on when she’d proposed it. Warren had actually given me a heads-up about it and made it clear that it was common for producers, publicists, and even managers to have multiple clients at the same time. I didn’t doubt him, and she’d told me that she was going to keep me as a priority.
She’d kept her word, too, so I knew she was going to be out here, but there wasn’t really any reason for her to come by the recording studio.
“What are you doing here?”
She gave me a somewhat smug smile and said, “I stopped by to go over the album release and the tour marketing schedule. I know how you feel about it, so I figured I’d have an easier time getting you to sit still in person.”
“Since you already told me you’d have the schedule this week, that sounds more like you think it’s a lot worse than I’m expecting and that it’ll be easier to get me to agree to everything here than over the phone.”
“Just take a look,” she said, pulling a tablet out of her purse, turning it on, and handing it to me.
The more I scrolled through the calendar, the more I realized how right I’d been. “Jesus, Quinn. This is insane. Nearly a hundred call-in interviews? And a full week of travel between the album drop and Tokyo? Hal talked to me about doing some call-in shows while I’m in Tokyo, but this is not some. This is like an hour very early every morning I’m there! I’m not going to be getting any sleep.”
“You’ll manage, and it’s not as much as we should be doing. In any sane world, two weeks after an album drop, you’d be out every day doing a dozen call-ins and in-person interviews pushing it. You wanted to have two whole weeks of nearly no interruptions; this is how we’re getting it done. Now, beyond the album release marketing, we have to look at the pre-tour marketing, which is an incredibly short timeline.”
“If you mean other than those call-in interviews while I’m in Tokyo, then yes.”
“That is what I mean. You only have four days between the closing ceremonies and the start of your tour, and one of those is going to be spent mostly traveling, meaning we have to make the most of the final three days.”
“Which means?”
“Fifteen in-person interviews, maybe a dozen more call-ins.”
“Do you know how jetlagged I’m going to be, and then I have to perform a show right after that? There’s no way I can handle that.”
“Charlie, I don’t know how many times I need to say this, but this is how it has to be. If we had the two weeks you’re in Tokyo, maybe we could have made it work without pushing so hard, but this is the bed you made and what you need to do unless you don’t want the shows to sell well. You’re getting pretty popular, I’m not going to lie, but everyone has to sell their shows, especially for the venues you’re booked at. You wanna aim big, you gotta put in the work.”
I didn’t love that she was right, again.
“Fine. Just make sure I have the schedule and Warren has it.”
“It’s not all doom and gloom,” she said. “I did come bearing good news. The day after the album drops, I’ve got you booked on The Late Show. That’ll be fun.”
“Maybe,” I said, not sounding like I believed it would be cool at all.
“Come on. It’s The Late Show. Your last appearance there went really well.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t have the best experience. The whole thing was just ... weird. When the cameras went off, I might as well have been invisible. They kind of hustled me out as soon as it was over.”
“That’s just how those shows work. It’s not personal. They have a tight schedule and a lot of moving parts.”
“Maybe,” I said. “It wasn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy feeling for me.”
“Well, warm and fuzzy isn’t what we’re going for here. If I have to say it again, I will. This is a business, Charlie. Sometimes you have to suck it up and do things you don’t love for the sake of your career.”
Knowing that and accepting it wasn’t the same thing. And it wasn’t just the Hayden interview.
“It seems you end every argument with ‘suck it up and do your job.’”
“Because that’s the truth every time. You’re paying me to do a job, and for me to do mine, you’ve got to do yours. I’m not in this for my health, Charlie.”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said.
“Charlie, we’re waiting,” Lyla called out from the recording booth where she and Seth had been talking to Tran.
I gave her a wave and said to Quinn, “Just get them all set up and don’t mind my grumbling. I’ll do it.”
“Good,” she said, taking the tablet back and heading to the front door.
I watched her go for a second and then headed back into the recording booth where all the equipment was set up.
“Sorry, Quinn needed to talk to me.”
“Yeah, she’s been hovering around since I got here,” Tran said, reaching out and offering his hand. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You too,” I said, shaking his hand.
“I know we got off on the wrong foot last time, so I wanted to start off by apologizing and saying I was wrong and you were right about End of the Blues. People are loving it and I’ve read a lot of reviews talking about how much you understand the history of the genre. Clearly, I have some learning to do. So, I’m sorry about that and I’ll try to be more open-minded this time.”
“Thanks, Tran. I appreciate you saying that.”
He gave a nod and released my hand, “So, let’s talk about the album. I’ve listened to the temp tracks you recorded and can see that you guys have done a lot of work. I like that it’s more focused than your last album, with a pop-rock basis underscoring everything. It feels cohesive but I wanted to see if you had any feeling about an overall theme for the album.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t really have a coherent plan or anything when I wrote the songs. I just ... had ideas and ran with them.”
“Really?” Seth asked, actually looking a little shocked.
“Uhh, yeah. Why?”
“Because I was almost certain you two had discussed some kind of idea, because it was all so cohesive. Hell, I wrote Velocity to try and match it. Well, I wrote the words, at least.”
Seth was still a little gun-shy after his accidental plagiarism. We’d managed to rewrite the music while keeping the sound right for what he’d written, and I’d insisted he keep the sole writing credit, partly for his self-confidence and partly for the separate earnings he could make from it for licensing.
I hadn’t, however, realized the thought he’d put into it when he’d written it.
“Really?”
“Yeah, I didn’t know if you two were doing it on purpose, but I tried to match what you both were doing.”
“I’m not sure I was doing anything on purpose,” Lyla said. “I just liked the ideas.”
“Me either,” I said.
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