If A Pixie Cries

PMM: So how was that first recording session for the third album?

MW: You may want to ask Max or Dustin that question.

- Pop Music Magazine

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Mike looked back. The El Hopper had her face in her hands and she was crying.

Did he do that? Almost instantly his heart went out to her. This wasn't right, no matter how she had treated him. He went back to her.

"Uh, listen, I'm sorry. Um, I didn't mean to make you cry."

She cried harder, and when Mike couldn't think of what else to do he put his arms around her. "Please don't cry. I'm sorry. You haven't been easy to talk to."

He then gave her some philosophical advice he never thought he could come up with. But it was the right thing to say.

He managed to get a little smile out of her. Who knows how long her humility would last, but Mike knew he'd feel like shit for a long time.

He told her he would see her later, and he half expected to, but it was weeks before he saw her again. He missed opening his bedroom window to hear her singing. He was still not looking forward that much to talking to her again, but he could listen to that voice for hours.

He was in his basement one afternoon playing with a new guitar, when he heard a knock on the basement door. He answered the door and saw Holly. She was holding someone's hand and she looked like she'd been crying.

Mike got down on one knee and said, "are you ok? Are you hurt?" He hugged her quick.

"Eleven saved my life."

Mike looked up at the person whose hand she was holding onto.

It was El. But she had her hair in a pixie cut. It must grow really fast. He couldn't take his eyes off her.

"Holly is exaggerating a little bit. She fell off her bike and scraped her elbow, I gave her a makeshift bandage, and here we are."

Mike could see a cloth wrapped around Holly's elbow… and he saw El with only half of a sleeve torn off her plaid shirt.

"Ok, Holly maybe get mom to clean that up for you?"

Holly turned to El and held her arms up, "thank you Eleven."

El squatted down and gave her a hug, "you're welcome sweetie, now go do what you brother says. Get your mom to clean you up."

Holly ran off up the basement stairs.

"Um, thanks El-" She cut him off right away.

"Mike, could you do me a favour and call me Eleven?"

"Um, ok… I guess El is short for Eleven? Thanks Eleven, that was a lot of kindness you showed to someone you didn't know. And you sacrificed your shirt. I'll replace it for you."

She got suddenly very shy, tapped her heart and said, "pretty inside?"

"Yes." Mike gave her a genuine smile. Who knows what had happened to her in the last few weeks.

"I have a present for you," she said brightly.

She unslung a tote bag she had over her shoulder and pulled out an LP. "This is for you."

Mike looked at it. His heart thumped. "Um, wow... Uh, wow, you have really pretty eyes."

He could see her cheeks turn pink and she looked, down, "thank you Mike."

"I think my older sister Nancy has this poster on her wall. Did you model for this album cover?"

"Look at the fake tattoo on my forehead."

Mike saw the '011'. "Eleven, ok I get it. It's your stage name?"

"It's my real name, everyone calls me El. Everyone but you, Holly and my dad can call me Eleven. When my ego was larger…" she hesitated blushing again, "I thought it would make a good name for my band. It was the record company's idea to use that photo for the first album."

"Ok, I"m going to make a fool of myself here and guess that you guys are fairly popular?"

"You don't listen to the radio." Mike could tell she was being very careful bringing up the radio again.

"I only listen to HawkFM and it's mainly AOR music."

"A-O-R?"

"Album oriented Rock. They tend to play full cuts off of rock albums, and the dj's don't talk over the beginning or end of every single track."

"What kind of bands?"

"Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes. Most of that stuff you won't hear on HawkAM, or any AM station. So I don't really listen to AM… and suddenly our very awkward meeting a few weeks ago makes complete sense now. That's why I never heard of you or your music… and I'm guessing you want me to listen to this album?"

She looked down, "if you wouldn't mind… and give me your honest opinion of it?"

"I will always be honest to you." And then he did something that seemed so out of character for him he would revisit this moment for the rest of his life. He leaned forward and kissed Eleven on the forehead.

"Thanks again for Holly, Eleven. Pretty on the inside… and the outside." Mike's cheeks flamed, but he didn't regret saying it one bit.

"Can I come back tomorrow some time and talk to you about the music?"

"Sure, tomorrow morning if you want. I'll listen to this on my headphones tonight and you can have album back."

"It's a present. It's yours to keep… even if you don't like it." She smiled, turned and left.

Mike snuck a quick look at her bum when she walked away. Then felt ashamed he'd done that, even though he liked what he saw.

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PMM: So it's safe to say that Mike Wheeler is responsible for the changing of the band's sound?

MW: No it's not safe to say that. It was a collaborative effort. Not that El didn't have final say, it is her band after all. But everyone worked hard on the sound.

- Pop Music Magazine

XXXXX

The next morning, he was staring at the album cover. He could not stop looking at Eleven's eyes. They were stunning. He wondered what it would be like to have a girl with eyes like that look at you that way because she was in love with you. That was an unrealistic dream for Mike, but it was a nice day dream. He was sure he'd wear that cover off if he looked at it long enough.

He started to think in dangerous terms of actually kissing her on the lips and not on the forehead when he heard, "you look lost in thought."

Mike jumped. He was startled out of his reverie, Eleven was standing there looking impossibly pretty. His heart twinged a little.

He gestured to the end of the sofa for her to take a seat.

"You listened to it last night?"... what did you think?" Her voice had no confidence in it at all. This was a different Eleven then a few weeks ago. Maybe even since last night.

"You want my honest opinion right?" Mike looked into her eyes. It was one of the hardest things he could remember doing. Presenting a project in school in front of the whole class had been a piece of cake compared to looking into those eyes.

She looked down, her soft and low, "...please."

"This is some of the catchiest music I've ever heard. I don't listen to AM radio, so I don't hear a lot of teeny bopper music, but I have heard some of these songs before, when I've been around town. Two songs stood out for me right away."

"Which ones?" Her face lit up.

"Funny guy. The interaction between you and the guy is smart and fun."

"That's Dustin our drummer."

"Oh, and that drummer is tight, you can tell him that. And the bass. Reminds me of a cross between Suzi Quatro and Chris Squire. You can tell the bassist that he's really talented."

"Well she thanks you…" Eleven's smile was ear to ear.

"Oh, that's you? I've always thought bass and vocals were a good combination."

"What's the other song you liked?"

"Well I liked all of them, but the one that stood out for me was, Make War Not War. I get the feeling that the title is too clever for a teen audience, but it's a great protest song. Not too much time left for protest songs to make any kind of impact."

Eleven threw up her hands, "finally, someone gets the title." The more her face brightened the prettier she got.

"Oh before I forget, I heard you singing After The Goldrush before you left. It made my spine tingle, you did it exactly like it is on this album. I'm going to wear the grooves out on that one. Your version is better than Prelude's"

She was flushed. Mike could see that she wasn't used to getting compliments. He smile faltered.

"So, I want to play you something. My sister has Make War Not War on 45, so I had an idea. I put the single on my turntable, and played it at 33. Of course that slows it down, now your voice changes and sounds a bit weird, but listen to the music and this…"

Mike took his electric guitar off the stand, and turned up the volume a little on it. When the song started to play, he started to play over top.

Eleven's eyes widened in fascination, "oh, that's good! I almost want to run to the studio and re-record that. I'll wait until our sessions start again, but I think I want to do it that way on the new album. Um, what you are playing there doesn't really look…" she stopped and looked at his left hand and saw her torn-shirt-to-bandage tied around his wrist.

"Is that the strip of shirt I used on Holly?"

"Yes."

"Can I ask why you are wearing it?"

"It's a reminder for me that, people are basically good inside, and that even if someone doesn't seem to be, they can change. It's also a reminder that I never want to make a girl cry again. I still feel like shit for doing that to you… I'm sorry."

Eleven's hand went to her mouth, she nodded. Mike gave her a few moments and waited for her to speak again.

"What I was going to say is that what you are playing doesn't look particularly easy, and I don't think I could explain everything you just played to a session musician… would you… " she took a deep breath, "...would you consider sitting in the studio and recreating that part, and the same sound… how are you getting that sound?"

"Slowing down the 45 made me think of a slow brooding guitar, so I tried to duplicate Robin Trower's sound from A Bridge of Sighs. I use two pedals, an octave divider and a distortion pedal but with distortion turned way down."

"I also hold on to my pull-offs like he does, and that's the sound I thought would be good on a song slowed down like that. Uh, I've never been to a recording studio before. That would be fun."

"It's in New York. You'll need to ask your parents."

Mike looked down, how to explain this? "Um, you could have lived in my basement for a week in a blanket fort and they wouldn't have known. I'll tell Nancy, she'd cover for me."

"I can't wait to tell the rest of the band. We've been, looking for a bit of a change. You just might be key."

"Geez, Eleven, no pressure if your next albums sucks."

"It'll be fine, " she got up, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and said, "thanks for being honest about the album… and thanks wearing that bandage. She toodle-oo'd her fingers and ran back up the basement stairs.

She kissed him on the cheek. Mike's heart hammered relentlessly the rest of the day.