Page 124 of Hard Rock Tease
Wassomeone being an ass to you again?
Surprisingly, no. For once.
I knew they’d see how awesome you are.
My heart clenched. I thought Neil was awesome, too. I’d agreed to go on a date with him, after all. But I’d just been making out with Jayce. I liked both of them so much.
And I knew just how wrong it was to feel like that.
***
“KELL, WAS YOUR family into music when you were growing up?”
There were a handful of cameras surrounding the guys from every direction as they sat upright in their stiff chairs. They had been placed on the empty stage where they’d be playing that night. On today’s filming schedule was a group interview. Deena and the film crew had worked together to come up with a list of questions. Some of them were the standard ones any musician might expect to answer during an interview, but they threw in a couple questions just for the guys. Deena read the answers off camera.
Kell was a bundle of energy as always, practically vibrating in his seat and throwing wicked grins to the camera every time he managed to slip a double entendre into his answer. His blue jeans weren’t fashionably ripped for once. Instead, they were a dark, fitted denim. He paired them with a graphic tee designed with cartoon mice chasing cheese. It sounded cute, but the mice were on motorcycles with hard expressions. They looked as badass as any motorcycle club biker. I wondered just where in the hell he’d gotten something like that.
“Yeah, my family was very musical while I was growing up. One of my first memories is of my dad sitting down and teaching me how to play a G chord on my little plastic toy guitar. He used to play in a bluegrass band with his buddies. My mom was never a professional vocalist, but she was always singing something. They really encouraged me to go for my dreams.”
I was impressed. The guys had clearly been given lessons on how to give on-camera interviews. They each made sure to repeat the question in their answer and add a personal touch with anecdotes. It shouldn’t have surprised me how good they were at this kind of thing. Dark Sound Studios was putting a lot of money into Feral Silence. I had no doubt they had been media trained.
I sneaked a glance at Jayce. He was steadfastly avoiding my eyes. There was a palpable tension whenever the two of us looked at each other, so we mostly tried to avoid speaking to each other as much as possible. I wondered if the rest of the band thought we didn’t get along. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Kell gave us a few looks and I wondered if he’d noticed something going on with the two of us, but I didn’t worry too much. Kell was usually too self-absorbed to notice much about the people around him.
“Ren, aside from the bass guitar, what other instruments do you play?”
Ren was dressed much more casually than usual. Considering he sometimes wore full three-piece suits on stage, casual didn’t mean the same thing for him as it did for someone like Kell. Ren still wore a white collared shirt and exquisitely tailored black pants, but he’d ditched the jacket and skinny tie. His long black hair fell over one shoulder, glossy as ever. The harsh lighting set up for the film shoot would have made his angular face look austere and somber, but his easy smile softened his expression.
“I play a few different instruments, including piano and violin. My parents—" he paused for a moment, lips pressing together, then continued smoothly, “—my parents insisted I take classical music lessons growing up. I can also pound away on the drums a bit, but I’m no match for Morris.”
“Is it true that the violin piece inBlue Stormis you?”
“Yeah, that was me playing the violin parts inBlue Storm.If you ever see me in concert, about halfway through the song I put down the bass and pull out my violin for a solo.”
“Will we see more of your musical talents someday?”
“Someday I’d love to compose classical versions ofCrossroads RageorOut of the Darkness. Fans seem to love Jayce’s acoustic versions. I’d like to find out if there’s an audience for a piano remix.”
“Morris, what advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a similar career path?”
Plain blue jeans and black or white tees were almost a uniform for Morris. I rarely saw him in anything else. I always wondered if he preferred t-shirts because they showed off his upper arm muscles so well. They were certainly something to be proud of.
“If someone wanted a career in music, I’d tell them it’s tough. This life isn’t easy. It’s a one in a million shot. But if you work hard and you’re determined, anything can happen.”
Typical Morris. Short and to the point.
“Jayce, do you ever get nervous before a performance?”
I held my breath, wondering how he was going to answer. Would the question trigger his anxiety? He didn’t have that sickly, pallid look to him. Instead, he was relaxed, confident, giving the camera that patented Jayce look, cocky and mesmerizing at the same time.
“Do I ever get nervous before a performance? I think it’s only natural to get nervous before going out on stage, whether it’s the first, tenth, or hundredth time. It’s a good thing, I think. It means you’re taking the show seriously.” He wore his ever-present leather jacket and a white tee that molded to every delicious ab. I snapped picture after picture, trying not to focus too much on Jayce. “If you’re nervous, it means you feel the pressure to put on the best show you can. You never want to take your fans for granted. You should feel nervous because each show should be special and unique. I want every fan to have an amazing experience, every time.”
It was the perfect answer. I let out an inward sigh of relief. I should have realized Jayce could handle himself. He was a professional. He’d done dozens of interviews before.
“Kell, how do you handle mistakes during a performance?”
“Mistakes? What’s a mistake?” Kell turned to the rest of the band. “Guys, have you ever heard of this mistake thing before?” Then he grinned and sat back in his chair. “No, but seriously, all musicians dread making a mistake on stage, but it’s going to happen, and more often than you’d like. You can’t let one mistake trip you up. It’s hard, ‘cause sometimes it makes you lose confidence in yourself, but I just remember that even the greatest artists make mistakes. The trick is to just power through it, keep on going and continue putting on a great show.”
“Ren, what are your inspirations?”
