Page 22 of Rock My Girl

FORD

Cassie was quiet on the drive to the studio, but at least she agreed to come and do the vocal tracks for the demo. I’d been a little worried about that.

Everything was happening in such a wild rush so that my album could beat the competitor’s to market. I was grateful that the label believed in me again, but it was still a lot to deal with, especially since I had to hold Cassie's hand throughout the process.

I understood she was nervous. The music industry was intense, and hugely romanticized in the media. The truth was it was actually a lot of grueling work, with a ton of waiting around for your turn to jump up and perform.

Luckily, my band was incredible, and had come in at six am. They already had the bed tracks down, thanks to the label setting us up with Clark, the engineer who had recorded our first two albums.

He already knew how everyone liked their gear set up, and so far everything had been a breeze.

When we arrived, I introduced Cassie to the rest of the band. Doug, our burly, hilarious drummer looked her up and down with a grin. "Really? That huge voice came out of that tiny little pixie?"

Cassie giggled sweetly.

"Nice to meet you," Kelly, our elegant raven-haired bass player said as she shook Cassie's hand.

Nick, our lanky guitarist, smirked. "Glad that we have someone else to keep Ford in line now," he said. "I was getting a bit sick of the job."

"That's Clark, our sound engineer." He waved at us through the glass to the next room.

"Nice to meet you all," Cassie said.

Clark's voice came on through the intercom. "They just finished a keeper track live off the floor. Ford, you wanna lay down your vocals now?"

Cassie followed my lead in turning our phones to silent, as the rest of the band went into the other room.

"Do you want to go into the other room, or stay here?" I asked Cassie.

She sat on a stool, setting her purse on the floor. "I'll stay and watch."

"Okay. Put your hands over your ears."

She gave me a funny look, but did it.

Although I had already done my vocal warm-ups, there was a particularly horrible nasal grinding noise that did a great last-minute job of clearing my throat, but sounded vile.

I turned away, making the rattling whine that degraded into gravel that shook my sinuses. When I turned back around, Cassie was laughing her head off. "What the heck was that?"

Clark came on the intercom. "That's what we call the brain shaker. Don't worry, we laugh at him too."

Nodding, I took a moment to adjust the microphone, which Clark already had almost perfect for my height.

I put on the enormous headphones, took two slow, deep breaths, then gave Clark the thumbs up.

After I heard the subtle click of Doug's drumsticks in my headphones, the music took over my entire being as my eyes closed.

I loved the feeling of a song rolling through my body like a thunderstorm. When I disappeared, becoming nothing more than a conduit for the sound to flow through me, it was the closest thing to a spiritual experience that I ever had.

The song ended, my eyes opened, and I took off the headphones.

Cassie was completely still, simply staring. Then she mouthed the word, "Wow."

Clark came over the intercom. "Damn, man. I always call Kelly the one take wonder, but I think you two are going to have to share that title today. Do you want to hear playback, or do another take right now? It would just be for safety, because that was freaking perfect."

Cassie was so still that I worried she might be getting nervous.

"Let's have Cassie do her parts first," I said.

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