Chapter 7: "Juke Box Heroes"
Approximately one month to the date of when Ember and Rockwell first discovered the Ghost Zone for themselves, they are practicing their singing skills together in their house. Being playful like always, Rockwell decides to mimic the voice of another artist rather than simply covering their song in his own natural singing voice. The song in question is Genesis's "Land of Confusion," and while he covers a line from the song's chorus, Ember notices how remarkably similar his voice is to Phil Collins's. "Uh, Rockwell, could you please sing that again?" she asks him politely. He shrugs and does as she asked him to, when he sees her eyes widen and expression become surprised. "Rocky, your voice! Your voice! It sounds exactly like the original singer's!" she exclaims. "Whoa, you're right, it does sound similar!" he agrees, singing two more lines to make sure. "Ember, I have a theory. Try singing one of your favorite songs and sounding like the original singer while doing so," he recommends. She takes a moment to decide on a song, selecting Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach." While singing the chorus, she stops mid-sentence and gasps at her voice's insanely imitative quality. "It really is true! We can sing like whomever we want to! The only thing left to wonder is why we never learned of this amazing ability before…," she notes. "Hmm… perhaps we never noticed before because we always tried to cover a song, not imitate the original artist's voice exactly," he explains. They settle on that reason and have much fun imitatively singing all of their most favorite songs at that point. "It must also be our ghost powers that give us this ability or something. The times I imitated singers' voices when I was younger never turned out this good at all," she tells him, Rockwell nodding back at her in agreement. "We should totally use this newfound talent at our street concert this weekend! I'm sure everyone there will enjoy it very much, heh heh!" he suggests with a clever wink. "Ha, totally boy!" she replies, giggling for a moment before smirking impishly. Even he never imagined what would ultimately be in store for them, though.
The following weekend, Ember and Rockwell have just finished up another one of their weekly street performances (to which the audience went absolutely berserk in cheering over their new singing talents) when they are approached by a clapping man in a fedora and a trench coat. His figure is rather slim and tall, but his face and head are fully cloaked in shadow due to his wide hat's rim, making his appearance all the more imposing to witness. "Bravo bravo you two! It's not every day you hear someone sing exactly like another established artist, let alone two people. That's why I've got an astounding proposition for you both. Follow me if you care to learn more, and know that an opportunity like this is often once in a lifetime!" the man says with a shady snicker. Though somewhat suspicious of who this man is and what his ultimate intentions are, they pack up their equipment and follow him as he instructed. He leads them downtown, near the center of the bustling Amity Park business sector, and into a tall skyscraper. Next, they enter an elevator with him and take it to the sixty-sixth floor (out of seventy). During the long elevator ride, Ember whispers to Rockwell, asking if he noticed his ghost sense shortly after they first met the man. He nods silently, glaring at the man behind his back with even deeper suspicion than before with this in mind. At the destination floor, the door opens and they follow a long darkened corridor to a room at the far end of it.
Shutting the door behind them, the man walks across the room and sits in a large armchair in front of a small blazing fireplace. "Please help yourselves to a seat of your own," the man tells them, his voice strangely suave and cool. Ember and Rockwell put aside their equipment and take their seats as offered while the man produces a clipboard with a single piece of paper on it and a pen to go along with it. He pauses to fill out a few things in the somewhat dim lighting, then clears his throat and looks across at them both. "Let's keep this short. This is the headquarters of Sinister Records, and I'm the CEO and chief producer here at the company. The company hasn't been around for very long now, but as it stands, it's still reasonably successful for a young corporation. We here at Sinister Records have been searching direly for an act so successful, it'll finally put us on the map and draw investors (and their money) from all over the world to our company. After years of searching, I believe I've finally found the perfect flagship act for us: you two. All I need is for you both to sign this measly paper here, and it's all yours! Fame! Fortune! Respect! Think about it!" he explains. He gives them a moment to let it sink in before walking over and handing the clipboard and pen to Ember. "Oh gosh, I uh… I never actually though this would happen, er… aw heck, is this even real?!" she remarks, shaking nervously and exchanging unsure glances with Rockwell. "This deal… this is what we've prayed and waited for all this time Em! Remember? All those times we dreamed of becoming global rock stars? This is it! This is finally it! We can't afford to let this opportunity pass us by! I mean… can we?" he responds, feeling slightly puzzled at all this too, a part of him wanting it to be true while the other part wonders what they are actually getting themselves into. This man was very suspicious from the start, especially to him, and he only seemed to grow all the more so with every passing minute – no, make that second. Why had their ghost senses actively warned them to the presence of a ghost the moment after they met him? Even now, the feeling still remained, and it felt stronger than ever the more he considered its implications. "Let me answer your question for you. You CAN, so just do it! I don't like wasting valuable time, you know…," the man trails off, almost coming off as threatening in tone. Having read the full terms of the agreement on the contract, which were actually highly lenient for a first-time artist, Ember decides she has nothing more to lose and a whole lot to gain and signs the contract using her legal birth name without a second thought (though she spells her last name with an e tacked on, appearing as McLaine and done purposefully to superficially dissociate herself with her parents), passing the clipboard to her trusty canine companion. Rockwell hesitates a bit longer, but shakes his head slightly knowing his master has already signed it and loyally signs it himself anyway, despite his now suppressed better judgment.
"Congratulations you two! You're now official artists of Sinister Records! I have no doubt you'll both become global superstars in no time at all, ha ha ha!" the man proclaims, chuckling heartily in such a way that almost resembles malevolent cackling to Rockwell. The man snatches away the clipboard and pen from Rockwell's grasp without warning, slips them back into his trench coat, checks his opulent platinum wristwatch, and escorts the two to the door once they have retrieved their things. "Your services here today have expired, I'm afraid. I'll be expecting you both here in the main studio room by 9:00 AM sharp tomorrow. There, you'll find some of my most eager recording personnel awaiting you, as well as some very experienced backing bandmates for you both. The best of luck to you both in all your future career endeavors!" the man assures them, patting Ember on the back a little too low for her taste, discomforting her greatly and causing Rockwell to raise his hackles slightly before standing down. On the way back to the elevator, they notice an exceptionally large fully illuminated portrait of presumably the exact same man they just met with mere moments before. A small plaque below the picture reads: VLAD MASTERS, SINISTER RECORDS FOUNDER & CEO. "Vlad Masters, huh? I'll be sure to keep a special eye and ear open for that name whenever else I hear it again," Rockwell thinks to himself, glaring at the smug expression depicted by Masters in the painting, one that struck him as being fairly foreboding. When the elevator arrives for them to take downward, he enters it with Ember and discusses his instinctive thoughts on the whole scenario, which she mostly agrees with and completely understands, since she shares many of the same gut feelings as him. "We'll talk about it later tonight once we're back home. Sound like a plan Rocky?" she asks him, leaving the elevator and approaching the building's glass doorways across the wide lobby. "You know what? I was thinking exactly the same thing!" he discloses with a slight chuckle, exiting the building and taking note of its location for future reference before trekking it all the way to their distant suburban home. She makes sure to call her manager at Backstreet Blue Jay's and sever her employment their indefinitely, much to the disappointment of her manager and regular patrons, especially the young man she met their every week she was ever there.
That night, Ember and Rockwell review everything occurring earlier that day, particularly the part concerning their surprise record deal with one Vlad Masters. "He just seemed so very eager to get us to sign the contract, you know? It's what bothers me most about this whole thing. That, and the fact that the man wouldn't even show us his actual face in person. We had to find out who he really was from that big picture of his hanging by the elevator," he expresses. "Tell me about it. Also, the way he treated me was particularly offensive. His hand was nearly touching my butt at one point!" she mutters angrily, her face looking greatly displeased. "I say that we should keep a close eye on him as time goes on, but for now, let's focus mainly on our new career. This is the big break we've both been waiting for, and we've gotta give it all we've got!" he states with an affirmative bark once Ember nods in agreement, moving closer to him. "Rocky, this is the start of something awesome, and there's nobody else I'd rather share it with than you. Let's do it!" she tells him, smiling warmly. The two share a close hug together and set their alarm clocks to 8:30 AM before heading to bed soon afterwards.
Ember and Rockwell arrive bright and early the next morning at the recording studio, meeting the recording crew and checking in with Mr. Masters himself for their first time there as official Sinister Records personnel. "Welcome back! I knew you'd be right on time! Now then, get to it!" he commands everyone in the room, including them, before returning to his head office. They soon meet their new bandmates: Tony the keyboardist, Peter the bassist, and Dennis the drummer. Shortly after meeting them, though, Ember and Rockwell's ghost senses detect their presence, confirming to them that they are all three ghosts (or at least part ghost). They keep this fact to themselves as usual and press onward in working with their new team, filling out the rest of the main band roles as lead female vocalist/rhythm guitarist (Ember) and lead male vocalist/lead guitarist (Rockwell), with Rockwell taking the rhythm guitar role for himself if there was only a single guitar in a particular song segment. Once they have had several practice sessions together, Ember and Rockwell were highly satisfied with the band's overall synergy and great adaptability potential, leading to all of them having a much deserved lunch break together, during which Ember discussed her ideas on an original song concept of hers. Although they were a cover band first and foremost (with Vlad Masters taking care of all the legalities and copyright issues for performing others' songs for them), their contract allowed them to put out the occasional original song too, including their leadoff single, of which Ember already had in mind. Pulling out a small scrap of paper from her pocket, she shares its lyrical contents with the rest of the band. "So guys, what do ya think? I've been writing this for the past couple years now and I think it's more than worthy enough to be our lead single. I call it: 'RemEmber!'" she describes. To her surprise, everyone acts as if they really like her efforts here, though Rockwell offers a few more lyrical suggestions fitting within the song's rhyming meter. She takes most of them and reviews the song again, liking it even more than before. They decide posthaste to begin preparations to write music befitting the song and rehearsing it with and without vocal arrangements, which easily takes up the rest of the afternoon that day and the rest of their first full week of work as recording artists. They also determine the official name of their band: the simple and obvious Ember and Rockwell.
The next week, Ember determines it is time for a new style for her and Rockwell, since they were now real rock stars in the making. The product of much internal deliberation, she dyes her hair a vibrant cyan color and eventually puts together the following onstage getup: a black top (ending just above and exposing the midriff), black pants, black socks, and silvery gray platform shoes, some specially shaped makeup markings around her eyes (with her right eye's design similar to the tail of a treble clef and her left eye's design similar to that of a bass clef to symbolize her love of music), dark black eyeliner, and deep purple lipstick, in addition to several miscellaneous accessories and features. Rockwell's preferred onstage look is not nearly as fancy as his owner's, comprising of his usual clothing with some added flair from a cool pair of sunglasses, a black leather jacket, and a spiky black collar. They both agree that their new appearances are highly befitting their individual personalities and are, as Ember put it, "totally cool!" Even their "big bad CEO" Vlad Masters thoroughly agrees with this. They especially enjoyed posing for their future liner photos, Rockwell being playfully silly in a few of them. Ember cannot help but laugh at his classic canine antics.
Soon enough, Ember and Rockwell are finally ready to record their first demo of "RemEmber." It turns out really well, so well that it ends up being the only demo version necessary to be recorded prior to the official studio recording of it, which occurs the day afterwards. "All right, nice work everyone! Once we have the boss's approval, we can start making duplicate copies and release the record nationally at every major retailer by the end of next week," the recording manager explains, sealing the original master copy into a glass-coated plaque on the back wall of the studio at Masters's recommendation. Between then and the official date of their debut single (set to July 27, 2000), their agent arranges for an outdoor concert in Amity Square downtown that is to be composed of their single as well as various song covers. This, they hoped, would be more than enough to permanently propel them into the public consciousness and get them many a company begging for them to endorse their products, bringing in that much more money to Sinister Records and ultimately themselves.
As it turns out, their "RemEmber" song release breaks all records for a debut single at that time by literally going platinum in a single day, with both the general public and the media absolutely abuzz over them for it. Vlad Masters is, of course, highly pleased by these results, and has a studio representative speak in an interview with The Amity Park Gazette on their behalf. "What would you say is the secret to Ember and Rockwell's unprecedented debut success?" the interviewer asks. "Well, I'd say for them, it's most likely their unbridled passion for music as well as the unrivaled direction they've received working for us at Sinister Records, particularly our charismatic CEO," the representative states. Once details from the interview are released, though, Ember has some choice words to tell the newspaper herself. "Look, I don't care how 'wonderful' and 'charming' our executive supposedly is. Our success is purely our own and our band's. That's it. Frankly, if they've got a problem with that, the studio staff can suck it," she tells them, Rockwell seconding her assertion. While the rest of the Sinister Records staff are more than a little irritated with what they believe to be a rash assumption on Ember's part, Mr. Masters is surprisingly calm about it all, not taking it personally and issuing an anonymous press release statement saying that he "fully supports that same rebellious attitude they so astoundingly espouse." After all, for him, it meant attracting more of the youthful crowd on that front while still drawing adult attention for all the older songs they covered from the previous generation of artists (though not quite reaching most of those in the elderly generations for obvious reasons). "Nice to know that at least our boss knows what's up, unlike the rest of his dipstick staff," Ember tells Rockwell one day, rolling her eyes at the mere thought of anyone daring to speak for them falsely. "Yeah, heh! Who has the right to speak for us but us?" he responds, smirking momentarily and readjusting his shades a bit before practicing another epic guitar solo. Fortunately, this never happens again for them, since they answer all their interview questions for themselves rather than via proxy.
Later that same year, they release their first album, consisting of their now globally famous "RemEmber" single as well as a bonus remix of it as the opening and closing tracks of their album, respectively. The remainder of the album is purely covers of preexisting songs. The critics were virtually all in agreement about the insane unrealistic level of talent they must possess to sound exactly like the artists they covered in their prime (or at least however they sounded the time of the original recording of each song). However, one in particular regarded it as a "pathetic" debut since they relied far too heavily on "cloned cover recordings" plus a "cheesy clichéd" pop single to make their sales. To this, Ember personally replies: "You know, some people out there apparently have a problem with our music. For those that simply dislike it due to it 'not being their thing,' that's fine. I totally understand and respect that. However, for those that hate it adamantly because they hate us personally, our image, or the fact that we're mostly cover artists, I challenge them to respectfully shut up, shove it, and screw off!" Naturally, some people heavily criticized her comeback as being distasteful and immature, but guess what? She did not care in the slightest, nor did Rockwell, since he was equally offended by those certain critics' statements. Most youths hailed her as a hero of sorts – a harbinger of the "youth liberation front." Most of their parents were torn, though: while the majority loved and identified with many of the group's older song covers, they also highly opposed Ember's general style and attitude.
Each passing year signaled the rise to even greater prominence for Ember and Rockwell, their fame having grown to global proportions in a matter of months once their debut record is released internationally. Additionally, they experiment in incorporating a much more diverse selection of genres into their work, from electronica to jazz and even a little country and hip-hop at one point, along with the obligatory wide variety of rock and pop. They tour in North America only their first year (primarily in the United States as their country of origin), but by their third year, they are touring everywhere from New York City to Tokyo, from London to Rio de Janeiro, and from Sydney to Johannesburg. During the end of their third tour in mid-2003, Ember inadvertently discovers a new ability of her guitar, which makes her wonder if it is a glitch or a feature: if she sets the dial exactly halfway between the heart symbol (for love spells) and the spiral symbol (for general mind control), which is later the location of a special flame symbol she adds after discovering this, she can cause anyone that's not part-ghost (or otherwise immune via anti-ghost technology) and that has any legitimate love for Ember and/or her music to be under an indefinite fanboy/fangirl "spell," becoming indefinitely influenced by her propaganda much more actively than usual, just by striking a simple guitar chord with the dial set as such. The guinea pigs for this little mind trick are the audience at her Los Angeles leg of the tour. Upon noticing the effect taking place, yet not making her fans too obsessively crazy for her, she gets the dark idea to begin secretly spreading her influence through her live concerts wherever she goes, not even telling Rockwell about it at first, since she knows he would likely try to convince her to stop abusing it. But it was SO tempting for her to abstain from doing, and hey, as the saying goes, what they don't know won't hurt 'em, right? This is what she chose to believe, and as such, she continued her hidden plot until nearly every single fan of hers was henceforth genuinely crazy for Ember McLaine, chanting her name almost religiously at every concert by the summer of 2004. Before the final performance of her fourth tour (from 2003-2004), Rockwell verbally prayed alone with her for God to continue to bless them in all they do in their lives. Being the less faithful of the two, she felt very uneasy and even convicted for her illicit actions against her own unsuspecting fans. "Something wrong Em?" he asks her following the prayer. "N… no. I'm fine. I think…," she mumbles, her face seeming guilty for a moment before returning to its normal state soon before the concert begins. Rockwell keeps his suspicions inside for now, but he never forgets her reaction that day and plans to eventually approach her about it in the near future.
Unsurprisingly, the many critics that already heavily lauded Ember and Rockwell lauded them even more when they became victims of her coercive fan spell, practically writing literal love letters in their reviews about everything from Ember's music to her looks and even her personal dietary preferences. One publication heralded her as being a "veritable cross between Madonna and Avril Lavigne mixed with some Pat Benatar and a little Kelly Clarkson," a "modern pop princess," and the "Cover Girl" to Madonna's "Material Girl" status (since she's billed as a cover artist first and foremost). Rockwell, strangely enough, did not receive even half of their attention despite being previously considered Ember's equal in the band. While some lesser popular periodicals (including Dog Fancy, which declared Rockwell "Dog of the Year" every year since their debut, from 2001-2004), all major ones (from Time to Rolling Stone, the former headlining her as being "The Ember that Started a Musical Wildfire" and the latter doing so as simply being "The Ember to Remember") focused almost exclusively on Ember. This annoyed Rockwell to no end, but he respected and loved his master greatly and did not dare attempt to steal the spotlight from her by any means. It did make him seem as the much more respectable humble one of the two, though, which benefited him passively in other ways. In some respects, the future seemed brighter than ever for the two rising superstars, but at the same time, it also seemed wildly uncertain and perhaps even a little foreboding in ways. Rockwell was almost questioning if they were starting to forget who they really were anymore, but as before, he kept his muzzle shut in lieu of more indulgence of all the worldly prestige he could ever want and more. As far as Ember was concerned, they were on the verge of something huge: a revolution. And who was all alone standing at the forefront of all this? One feisty Ember Ann McLaine, that's who!
