Chapter 4: North Star Records
The first thing I noticed when I walked into North Star Records, was that it felt like a nice, calming place. It seemed deserted, so I walked into the front desk aria, to take a look around. On the left side, there was a sitting aria with five comfortable, dark brown leather chairs around a white table with a beautiful, white lilly in the middle, the was imbedded into the table. On the right side there was an abandoned, chest high, white front desk with another lilly imbedded into it.
The whole room was formed as an hexagon. On the wall opposite where I had entered, there was an silver elevator, and the rest rooms were places at each side of the elevator (one for the ladies and one for the men) on the walls on each side of the elevator-wall. On the other side of the same walls, there were two doors, both blue with white signs saying:
Offices/ Record Studios
Everything was white, brown or blue. It was so calming and friendly. On the walls were large black-and-white photos of musicians playing different instruments or singing. I couldn´t believe that I was might going to be a part of this.
"Excuse me miss, can I help you?"
The soft, male voice gave me such a fright that I dropped my guitar, and it hit the floor with a loud bang. Forgetting that I had no coordination what so ever, I tried catch it. I twisted, and managed to loose my balance and fell down on all four. I felt my face reddening, and it didn´t help that I heard the unknown man laughing hard. I quickly got to my feet, and slowly turned around to face the man.
He was tall. No taller than Jake, but about the same size as him. I flinched internally at the thought, but kept looking at the man. His skin had a healthy, brown glow to it, and his face was sharp, but somehow still soft. He had brilliantly blue eyes that seemed to sparkle as he laughed. His hair was short, blond and messy, like he just rolled out of bed, and he looked about 25 years old. He wore blue, faded jeans, a grey t-shirt and a black leather jacket.
But the thing that held my attention, was his smile. Oh, how pure and careless it seemed, that smile on his face. Like his heart had never been broken like mine had. I felt a little, bitter sting in my heart, because I could never smile like that again. How I envied him, in a way.
I pulled myself together and looked right into his eyes.
"I´m looking for Mr. North, I have an appointment whit him now," I said, trying to sound professional and cool.
The man looked curiously at me.
"Oh, you´re the girl Mr. N was talking about, aren´t you? The girl from the bar," he said, looking me up and down. I felt very uncomfortable under his stare, even more so as I could guess what he was thinking right now: "She was awfully normal, nothing special about here."
He shook his head a little, then reached out his hand.
"I´m so sorry, were are my manners. My name is Christopher Blakely, producer," he said in a light tone, and I shook his warm hand.
"Isabella Swan, hopeful musician," replied and smiled back. I was not sure if I liked Christopher Blakely, but I was determent not to get on anyones bad side before I´d even started working at North Star Records.
"So Chris, you have meet Ms. Swan already." Mr. North came out from the left office/ studio door, and smiled at me. I quickly let go of Christopher´s hand and turned to look at Mr. North.
He looked the same as he had done the previous night, the same, mild expression on his face, and dressed all in black.
This time it was my turn to reach out my hand.
"Mr. North, thank you so much for seeing me right away," I said earnestly as I shook his big hand.
"Not at all Ms. Swan, not at all." He gestured to the leather chairs "Sit, sit!" Grateful I dumped down in the nearest chair, suddenly feeling tired. It couldn´t be more than 11.30 a.m, but I still felt like taking a nap or something. How could I be so tired? Then I remembered what I had done last night to cause me to be so tired, and instantly felt sick.
"So Ms. Swan..." Mr. North begun, but I interrupted him
"Please, call me Bella," I said, getting that part out of the way. To mu surprise, had Christopher joined us, taking the chair opposite me and next to Mr. North, who was smiling at me.
"Ok, Bella then. I can´t tell you how glad I am that you chanced your mind. I did have a feeling that I would see you again when I you left last night, but I have to admit, I had no idea that our separation would be so short." There was a hidden question somewhere in the last sentence, but I
wasn´t going to tell him why I had suddenly changed my mind. I figured I had to offer him some kind of explanation, so I settled for a shortening of the truth.
"I just woke up this morning and figured that there were no other place I could go, than to Seattle," I said, but I felt that it wasn´t enough, so I added: "And I really loved to preform last night." I hoped I sounded like it was no big deal, but in my peripheral vision I could see a crease between Christophers eyebrows. He didn´t believe me.
"No mather, Bella, I´m just glad you came." He leaned back in his chair. "You see, Chriss and I just reopened this record studio. It originally belonged to my grandfather, Mr. Jimmy North, but my father didn´t care much for music, so when my grandfather died, my dad shut down the label, but he didn´t have the heart to cell it either. So it just stood here, gathering dust."
This was really interesting, and I leaned absentmindedly forward, wondering how Mr. North had gotten this label.
Mr. North continued.
"I think that the music just skipped a generation. I loved to play the piano growing up, and I didn´t do anything else than listen to music. I was only ten years old when I decided to become a producer. I loved to work with other peoples music, and about ten years later, I got an internship at a great record label in New York."
Mr. North shook his head.
"I spent four years there, learning from the best there was, and I really loved it. Until I actually started to work with the musicians. Through 15 years I worked at different record labels, trying to find a label that wasn´t about making money, but spotting real talent, shape them and help them becoming a star. I saw so many good musicians loosing there way, trying to make music for others rather then for them selves."
A smile crept up on Mr. North´s smile, and he shot a side glance at Christopher.
"And then, about a year ago, I got talking whit this young fellow." He gestured to Christopher, who gave him a fleeting smile. "He was an intern at the record label I was working at, at the time at least. We figured out that we both really hated our jobs, and Chriss said that he wished I owned his own record label. And then remembered this dump, and here we are, a year later. Chriss had a lot of money, and he put it all into renovating this place, so this can be the record label we want it to be."
I was mesmerized by his story. This place really did have heart. It was made with devotion, and to peoples vision for their label. It sounded like a label for me. Not that I had a vast experience with record labels, but I felt confidante that this had to a place where I could be me, just Bella, and make music my way.
"It´s a beautiful story Mr. North. I really think that I could work here..." I hesitated. "That is if you want me of course. I mean, I´m sure you have a lot of musicians knocking on your door every day wanting to sign a contract with you, I mean..." Then I shut up, feeling like I was rambling.
Christopher laughed a short laughter.
"You see, that´s it. We like to be an anonymous label, because then we find the real talents and ask them to come to us, like we did with you. The only one that has signed anything with us yet, is your band." Christopher said. I gasped
"You have already gotten me a band? But how did you do that in such short notice?" I was astonished.
"Well, truth to be told, we found this really cool band called the Mad Cows a month back, but we didn´t like the lead singer. Figures out the band didn´t like the lead singer either, so they split up, and the rest of the band signed with us. We have been on the look for a new lead singer, and now it seems we have found one," Christopher smiled, resting his hands behind his head, looking really pleased with himself.
I rinkeled my nose. "The Mad Cows. Please tell me we don´t have to keep that name?" I said in disgust, that was a really weird name for a band.
Both men laughed at me, and I felt my face reddening, again. What? It was an hones question.
"No Bella, you´ll have to figure out a new name for your band. I agree, it is a TERRIBLE name for a band," Mr. North said, while taking something out from his pocket. A peace of paper. He handed it to me, and I immediately identified it as a record contract.
"Don´t sign it today. Read through it, give it some thought, then if you decide to sign it, deliver it to me first thing tomorrow," Mr. North said, and I nodded. I was going to sign it anyway, no matter what the contract said, this was what I wanted. "I´d have to get myself a motel room tonight," I thought, and the thought made me flinch again.
Christopher looked intensely at me for several minutes as I read the contract, like he was trying to figure something out. I didn´t see that he was looking, it was more that I felt it. Then he suddenly spoke again.
"Have you ever recorded something before in a real record studio?" he asked, his eyes shining at some thought in his head. I shook my head, putting the contract into my handbag. It would be way to typical of me to loose it.
"Do you want to have a go at it now?" he asked curiously. I felt my own curiosity creeping up on me.
"Sure, I would love to," I smiled.
Mr. North stood up, clapping his hands together.
"Excellent. Follow me Bella," he said playfully, offering me his hand like an old fashion prince.
What kind of adventure was this going to become? The beginning of a fairytale? Or just a noter step upwards that was going to make my downfall that much harder. I didn´t know. The only thing I knew, was that there was no "happily ever after" for me, that ship was long gone.
I hope you all liked this chapter. I´m at home withe the swine flue now, so lot of time for writing.
Review please =)