Cat sat cross-legged on the floor of the songwriting studio, her notebook sprawled open in front of her, filled with scribbles of half-written lyrics, doodles, and crossed-out lines. Andre was at the keyboard, lightly playing a few chords as they worked on their first song. It had been two weeks since they started the project, and although they had a solid foundation, there were still some kinks to work out.
Andre played their half-built track out loud again. It was retro-inspired vibe. It features a blend of pop and R elements, with prominent brass and horns giving it a vintage, jazzy feel. They had already laid down the core structure: a steady 4/4 time signature, catchy syncopated rhythm, and a simple yet effective chord progression that made it easy to sing along. Cat was the only one singing in this track, with Andre wanting to fully focus on producing they decided it would be Cat's fake album, and that he'd only 'feature' on one. This first song, the Pop Song, was suposed to be the one that came easiest to them, but they quickly found it was hard to make it stand to from the hundred of others they'd written before. They ended up going with a subtle hint of the 1960s girl group sound within it to give it a feel of difference. The basics were there, and they both loved the feel of it, but the lyrics were where they kept getting stuck.
"So we've got the first verse and chorus locked in," Andre said, playing the track again. "But I still think the pre-chorus could use more punch."
Cat, with her ever-present notebook full of ideas, leaned forward to read over the lines they had written. "I dunno... maybe it needs more contrast, like, softer here, then we speed things up here." She pointed to various lines. As much as they played with track, there were still a few lyrical lines they couldn't quite nail down. They had the foundation—about longing, about not knowing what you could've had until it was too late— this was their final project and they couldn't just rush it, each word needed to be perfect. They'd spent two weeks on this already, practicing during every class, but most groups were apparently no where near even starting. It took Tori a week to even pick her partner and now they were still deciding on the tone. She'd chosen a boy called Thomas, very reserved but she liked that as he'd let her take control on the pop song. He was also a piano genius so their ballad would be beautiful no doubt.
"You're right," Andre agreed. "We could switch the dynamics—do you mean like a rap almost for the pretors before blast into the chorus."
She shook, trying to imagine it. "Not quite rap. Please don't make me rap." She giggled to Andre, "But maybe just a tad quicker like - OH!" An idea struck her and she started scribbling away.
"Would you like to share?" Andre laughed, happy that Cat has had a breakthrough.
"It could be a list!" She replied, not really giving Andre any more information.
"Huh?" He asked, walking over to where Cat was scribbling away and looking over her shoulder. "Yeah you maybe should have manned up, not gave up, tell me how you really felt?" He read.
"Yeh like- play it again." She flapped her hands at him, unable to express what she meant.
Andre instantly jumped back into the share by his mixer and played the track again, for a bar before where the pre -horus would start.
"Yeah you maybe should have manned up, [beat] not gave up, [beat] tell me how you really felt?" She sung over the song. "Da da-da-da-da, da-da, da-da-da-da-da-da da-da, da-da-da-da do-do da-da." She kept going, finding melody, with phonetics rather than words.
Andre paused, the melody still echoing in his ears as he absorbed her idea. "Oh we could bring the horns in like - OH!" Now it was Andre's turn to get excited and now be able to explain what he was thinking, moving sound clips around on the screen. After a few moments he gained her, a spark of inspiration in his eyes. "Let's try it out! I'll play it from the top, and we'll see how it flows."
Cat nodded, feeling a rush of energy it played again through the speakers, adding her dos and das back in, feeling very happy with their new direction. "Yaaay!" She squealed, clapping her hands together happily. "Andre that sounded so good."
"See? This is it!" Andre exclaimed, his enthusiasm matching hers. "I can already picture how it'll sound, we just need to tighten up the rest of the lyrics."
"I'm on it!" Cat beamed, she already had the next line in her head. These were all just a first draft of course, but it was better than just dos and das.
A/N - Worked out what their first song is? Fun fact, Leon Thomas helped write it irl too (amongst other people but I'm not about to write The Rascals into this fic.