Ch. 1: The True Beginning
...
Disclaimer: any songs I use the lyrics to work better if you listen to the songs when they come up, just saying. There's a list at the tail end of this story, just look them up read along. I also tend to leave some space for imagination, so just imagine what's happening if you'd like while the songs are playing.
Also, if you guys wanna point out any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors I accidentally let slip by, please let me know either through reviews, or PMs. They'd be greatly appreciated in the long run.
...
The salesgirl was minding her own business, trying to write a song in her song book. A few guys entered the door, but she paid them no mind.
"Come on," she said to herself. "I know this song needs something, but what? They wanna know, know, know/Your name, name, name/They want the girl, girl, girl/With game, game, game," she sang slowly. "Something's just off."
While she was focusing on that, the guys were fooling around with the various instruments. The blonde was holding a guitar & pretended to strum it while the redhead filmed him. He then switched to the drums & made quite a bit of noise, alerting the salesgirl to what they were doing.
"What the hell are you doing!?" she yelled at them, causing him to stop. The redhead pointed his camera at her, causing her to smack her hand over the lens.
"Oh. Sorry," the blonde got up. "Just got carried away there. I'm Austin Moon," he extended his hand out to her & she shook it.
"And I am Dez," the redhead said. She pushed the camera down away from her face.
"That's nice, but why were you pounding on the display instruments?"
"Like I said...Ally," he said, reading her name tag. "I got carried away. See, we're taking Dez's camera out for a test run & I actually was looking into getting some new gear for making music."
"You're a singer?"
"Yep. Plus, I've been taught how to play most instruments. Guitar," he pointed to the instruments as he said their names. "Drums, Bass, Piano, &, of course, singing. Plus, I know how to use GarageBand to record & mix instruments."
"Impressive, but how famous are you?"
"Not too famous, but I have a few thousand subscribers on YouTube who've been decently supportive. By the way, you're right," he said then walked toward the counter.
"About what?"
"That song that you're writing. It needs something,"
"How do you know I was writing a song & it's not working?"
"Simple," he turned around the book to get a look at the lyrics. "I overheard what you were saying. I make covers of good songs for a living, so it's my job to listen to songs & get a feeling for the chords, or beat, or whatever, to make them sound as close as I can to the originals for my versions," he peered down.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she said, covering the book.
"What?"
"No one looks in this book but me."
"Calm down," he put his hand on the book. "I won't look at any other pages than the ones with the lyrics. Trust me."
She looked at him for a few seconds before taking her hand off the book.
"Thank you. Now," he said, looking at the book. He hummed the melody she sang & thought of the lyrics. He thought for a second, then sped up the humming. "Well, no wonder the song wasn't working," he smiled.
"What is it?"
"You were trying to make it a ballad. It needs to be sped up."
"'Sped up'?"
"Yeah. Here take a listen," he walked over to the guitar he just had & plugged it into an amplifier that was nearby. He started playing the song at a faster pace than what she was singing.
"They wanna know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, make, make 'em do a double take..."
He stopped, feeling she got the point.
"Hmm...You may have a point there," Ally said, thinking about how much better it sounded.
"Yep. By the way, I'd like one of these Stratocasters & a guitar case. How much will that be by the way?"
"Somewhere in the vicinity of $1200."
"$1200?"
"I mean, I certainly have a few hundred saved up from my YouTube earnings, but not that much."
"Tell you what. If you sing my song in a video & promote the store, I'll let you have the guitar as compensation."
"Really? Deal."
"All right. Let's ring this up. Oh, & also, I want compensation for writing credit."
"Seems fair."
"All right," Dez chimed in. "Time to film a video!"
"You bet, man," Austin said after putting the guitar in a case & picked the case up.
"Wait. We need to finish composing the song," Ally said.
"Right. Dez, start setting up for the video shoot."
"On it," Dez said, then ran off.
"That'll keep him busy. So, where do we start?"
"Oh, well, I have a music room upstairs, but I don't think I can just abandon the store."
"Guess who just..." Trish said, entering.
"Trish, mind the store for me."
"Ok" she said, getting behind the counter.
"Let's go."
"Wait, you're just gonna leave her in charge?"
"Trish can handle it. Besides, I haven't had a lot of customers all day, so I think she'll be able to handle it."
"All right."
They went upstairs to the practice room. Trish, meanwhile, started seeing customers come in & looked worried.
In the practice room...
"Ok, so where do you wanna start?" Austin asked, flipping on the lights when they enter the room.
"Well, first, I need to finalize the lyrics."
"Really? I thought you had it all done."
"Well, I have it mostly done, but I'm just missing a few things. Mainly the beginning & the ending verses," she said, sitting at her keyboard.
"Well, what's the song supposed to be about?" he asked, standing against the wall to the side of her.
"I would've thought you'd know from the chorus. It's, basically, about making people think twice about you when you become famous."
"Ah. Well, let's analyze the lyrics you've got so far."
"All right, well..."
They took a look in her book & the instrumental started playing while they did various things to get it to sound right. When it was over, they looked at each other with relief that it was done.
They came down the stairs talking about how great it sounded, only to discover the shop was torn apart.
"Trish," Ally said, walking over to Trish, who was face down on the counter. "Trish," she said, shaking her lightly to wake her.
"Never again," Trish said & walked out of the store.
"What the hell happened to her?" Ally asked.
"Doesn't matter. Right now, we need to record the song & the video," Austin said, pulling out his phone & dialing a number.
"You're right. You're right."
"Yeah," he said, phone to his face. "Hey, Dez. You getting everything together?"
"Yeah, but here's the thing."
"What?"
"I have no idea what the song's about, so I'm having a hard time finalizing everything."
"Well, we just finished the lyrics & we're gonna record the final version of the song if you wanna come over to film us recording it & maybe we could do a few other things to get this out as quickly as possible."
"Sure, man. I'll meet you at your house in a little while. I just gotta give these guys back their skateboards," he said, looking out the window, seeing several dudes in skate gear looking at his house, waiting for him. "Wish me luck."
"All right then," he hung up.
"So, is he coming?"
"He should. He just needs to give some skater dudes their boards back."
"Why'd he steal their skateboards?"
"He has his process. Now, let's get going."
"Do you have a car?"
"Yep. I have my dad's truck," he said, pulling out the key & lock on a keychain.
"Your dad let you borrow his truck?"
"Yeah, he's pretty cool like that. Let's roll."
"You got it," she said.
They walked out, Ally locked up the shop, they got to Austin's dad's truck, Austin put his new guitar in its case under the top on the back part of the truck, then they got in the truck, & Austin drove them to his house. When they got there, Austin stopped outside of the garage doors. They went to the side of the garage & Austin unlocked the door, opened it, & they walked in. He flipped on the lights, showing his recording studio.
"Holy shit. This is one rockin' setup."
"Yep. It's been what I've been using for the last year now," he said, setting his guitar on the ground.
"Wait, I thought you said you didn't have a lot of money to buy equipment."
"That's true. Doesn't mean I haven't wanted to make music all my life, though. Every birthday & Christmas for the last few years, I've asked my parents for specific instruments & equipment. I have everything I need now that I've got this new guitar. Once I get a backup band, we'll be like Green Day, 2 guitars, a bass, drums, singer, & possibly a keyboard, but that's optional," he said, walking over to the computer on his desk & then sat down in the computer chair in front of it.
"You don't have anyone to play with?"
"Not right now. I'm like Dave Days. I do all the production myself. Helps keep things quick & consistent. Plus, who needs a band when you're an internet musician who records covers on a consistent basis?"
"I guess you're right," Ally said, looking around.
"Oh," Austin said, getting a chair that was against the wall behind him & put it next to him for Ally to sit.
"Why thank you," she said & sat down.
"No prob. Now," he turned on his Mac & started up GarageBand. "You know how this goes like me. Can you play any instruments besides piano?"
"Not really. I can sing, but not much else."
"Oh, really? Why don't we make it a duet?"
"Oh, god, no."
"Why not?"
"I have terrible stage fright. I freeze up whenever I have to perform for real."
"You're a songwriter that has stage fright. This might be me, but doesn't that seem to be slightly contradictory?"
"Maybe, but I still don't want to have to sing. Maybe in the future, if I'm cured of it."
"All right, all right. You don't want to, you don't have to. Now, let's get to recording."
"All right."
"All right, so you handle the recording software & I'll do the instruments."
"No prob."
Austin got to setting up his instruments & recording equipment while Ally got to work on the computer. He also put up a green screen behind his instruments with a camera pointed at it.
"What are those for?"
"For filming the video. I have the green screen for the backdrop insertion in post, then I play the instruments both during the recording & after to pick & choose which takes are the best & the video gets done at roughly the same time as the song recording."
"Oh. Smart."
"Yep. You hang around a video maker like Dez for as long as I have, you tend to pick up a few things. Now," he said, hitting 'record' on his video camera. "Hit the 'record' button on GarageBand when I tell you," he continues, taking his guitar & getting in front of the green screen.
"Gotcha," she said, taking the mouse & placing the mouse on the screen over the red button in the program. "Wait, what about your parents? Aren't they going to burst in to tell you to keep it down?"
"Don't worry. This place is soundproofed so they never hear what I do in here."
"Oh. Ok."
"All right, hit it," he said, she did, & he started playing.
The scene faded to the next morning where Austin was sleeping head-first on the table in front of him. He slowly woke up & sat up in his chair, yawning. He saw the Firefox page open on his computer & he remembered that before he dozed off that he had set a video to be uploaded the night before.
"Hey, Ally," he said, nudging her & she began to wake up.
"What?"
"The video uploaded," he said, clicking on the link on the 'video manager' page on his YouTube account.
"It has?"
"Yeah. Watch," he said, pressing 'play.'
(The video is basically an expanded version of the one seen in the first episode of the show, but expanded where needed, so if you want a visual reference, find it on YouTube.)
Austin does as the lyrics said, starting to sing the song into his mic.
Flip a switch,
Turn on the lightning,
Get it right
Show 'em how it's done
Free it up
No matter how you dress that song
Girl you know, you got a number one
Go with it, you got 'em where you want 'em
Drop the beat, they need to hear your sound
Play it up
It's comin' down to you right now
The shot showed a green screen effect of 4 of him playing each instrument while he sang.
They wanna know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, (make), make, (make), make 'em do a double take
Make 'em do a double take
Yeah, yeah!
The video showed him editing the song as the recording played over his actions.
This could be an overnight sensation
You and me, tearin' up the floor
Let it go, this party's up to you right now
It was back to him performing every instrument, but the location shifted from his bedroom to a stage.
They wanna know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, make, make 'em do a double take
Know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, (make), make, (make), make 'em do a double take
Come on!
They wanna know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, (make), make, (make), make 'em do a double take
He was back in his room with the rest of the clones. They disappeared one by one as the song wound down.
Know, know, know
Your name, name, name
They want the girl, girl, girl
With game, game, game
And when they look, look, look
Your way, way, way
You're gonna make, (make), make, (make), make 'em do a double take
"What up?" he said & the video went black, showing that it was over.
"Good editing," Ally said.
"Good writing," Austin said back, then went back to the 'manager' section of YouTube, but then saw something odd. "Huh."
"What?"
"Look," he said, pointing at the screen where the view count for the video was. He then reloaded the page. "See that?"
"What?"
"The view count," he said, reloading the page a few more times. "It's increasing really fast every time I reload the page."
"Is that good, or bad?"
"Wow, you are new to this, aren't you? Well, seeing as the 'like/dislike' ratio is generally more in the 'likes,' I'd say we have us a hit on our hands."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. Look. now the video has over 25,000 views & it's only been up since midnight."
"You mean we have a video that's gotten a quarter of 100,000 views in only," she looked at her watch, "8 hours?"
"I'd say so."
"This is great!"
"Yeah & look at this," Austin said, loading up the video's page & going down to the 'comments' section. "Most people wanna download this song."
"Can you put it on iTunes?"
"I'd have to look into it, but I think so."
"Then do it."
"I'll do it later. Ally, we have a hit song on the internet & I'm going to be a viral video star! Wait," he said, going back to the screen & looked at the views on his other videos. "That's what I thought. My other videos have gotten more views as a result of our instant hit. I'm gonna make so much money through my network! That reminds me, I just need to contact the people that manage my network & they'll help put the song on iTunes. Thank you, Ally," he said, turning to her & hugged her deeply.
"No problem, Austin," she said, patting him on the back a few times & he released her, sitting back in his chair.
"Man, this could potentially shake up my life. I might be able to sign with Reprise Records finally."
"Reprise?"
"It's Green Day's record label. Plus, those people also own Fueled By Ramen, which has several great acts under its belt. But, God, this is incredible."
"Look. It's over 30,000 now," she said after reloading the page.
"You serious?" he said, looking at the screen.
"Yep."
"Wow. Do you have a account?"
"What?"
"So I can calculate how much I owe you & pay you your cut when I get paid."
"Oh, yeah. It's allydawson196 ," she said, writing it down on a loose piece of paper on the table. "Pay me when you can."
"Ok. I will after I find an accountant to do some math."
"All right. Wait. 8:00 AM? Oh no. I have to get home, shower, get dressed, then catch a ride with my dad to open up the shop by 10:00."
"Not to mention explaining to him why you spent the night at a guy's house."
"You're right. I'll just tell him I was at Trish's. She'll go with that, I hope."
"All right. You need a ride?"
"You don't mind?"
"Nah. I don't have much to do anyways today. Just gonna relax," he said, going over to the door & opening it.
"Well, thanks," she said, walking though the doorway.
"No prob," he said, following after her out the door & drove her home.
…
PEACE
...