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Chapter 13
“Then how about joining my crew?”
At that, Jalen’s eyes went round in an instant. All he’d done was help with a piano accompaniment, and now he was being invited into a crew. He seemed a little flustered, but the corners of his mouth lifted slightly, so he didn’t seem to dislike the idea.
“Your crew, Sinu?”
As a broad smile slowly spread across Jalen’s face…
“Oh, Sinu. What’s this? Getting another crew member?”
Hjalmar, who had come out of the classroom a step behind, walked up to us. He smiled and greeted Jalen.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Hjalmar. I play bass.”
“Ah… yeah. Nice to meet you.”
Then Itai, who had been waving goodbye to friends who were leaving, trudged over to us.
“Hi. I’m Itai. Drummer.”
“Ah… hi.”
Jalen’s expression began to stiffen. When I’d invited him into the crew earlier, he had looked like he was about to say yes any second. Now he seemed a little hesitant.
What’s going on?
As Jalen sank into thought, hmm…
Don’t tell me he doesn’t trust Hjalmar’s and Itai’s skills? Is that why he’s hesitating to join?
Come to think of it, that could be it. He knew my skills from the song we’d just played together, but he hadn’t seen Hjalmar’s or Itai’s yet.
It’d be a real shame to lose Jalen like this.
Playing together today had made me even more certain. If he joined my crew and later became a member of my band, I could give my future songs a far richer sound. I thought hard about how to change his mind, then my eyes flashed and I spoke again.
“If joining the crew feels like too much, could you do me one favor?”
“A favor?”
As Jalen tilted his head, I smiled and continued.
“I want to put together a rough band version of my demo song today. So I need a keyboardist to help, and I was hoping you could.”
“Ah, but I don’t know the song yet…”
“It’s okay. Don’t overthink it. Just match it the way you did earlier.”
Then I turned to Hjalmar and Itai beside me.
“Hjalmar, Itai. I’d like you to help too. Is that okay?”
“If it’s for you, Sinu, of course!”
“Yeah. I’ll help.”
As Hjalmar and Itai gladly accepted, Jalen looked at the two of them again, deep in thought. I spoke again, as if to coax him.
“Just think of it as jamming. It’ll also be a chance to see whether we click with our crew.”
Jamming. Improvised playing where you listen closely to one person’s performance, feel the mood with your whole body, and layer your own melody on top to build the piece together. It’s a musicians’ game that demands not only skill from everyone involved but also good chemistry with one another. When I looked at Jalen, he nodded as if he roughly understood. He’d realized I was giving him a chance to see Hjalmar’s and Itai’s skills.
“Hmm… Then do we go to a practice room now?”
“Instruments first.”
I smiled at Hjalmar and Itai.
“Let’s go, guys.”
To LSPA’s equipment rental room.
“Hi. How can I help you?”
At the huge equipment rental room tucked into one corner of the third floor, a staff member came up to the desk with a bright smile as we arrived.
“Ah, so, we…”
Maybe because he didn’t know how to use school facilities he was encountering for the first time, Hjalmar met the staff member’s eyes and flustered, his eyes darting around. The staff member chuckled and asked him.
“Freshmen?”
“Yes…”
“Just tell me what equipment you need and hand over your student ID.”
“Um… we don’t have our student IDs yet…”
As Hjalmar’s voice trailed off…
“One acoustic guitar, one bass, one dynamic mic, and one pair of drumsticks, please.”
“One acoustic guitar, one bass, one dynamic mic, one pair of drumsticks. Okay. Hold on.”
At my words, the staff member headed to the back of the rental room, where countless pieces of equipment and instruments were lined up. After disappearing for a moment, he came back to the desk with an acoustic guitar and a bass in his hands.
“Here, the guitar and bass. And hold on.”
He stepped away again and came back with the mic and drumsticks.
“Here. The dynamic mic and drumsticks too.”
“Thank you.”
I handed the instruments and equipment he gave me to my crew, then looked at the staff member again.
“Oh, and since we’re freshmen and our student IDs haven’t been issued yet, could we borrow these using our student numbers?”
“Sure. Technically we’re not supposed to, but it can’t be helped at this time of year.”
“Thank you.”
I wrote my name and student number on the rental record sheet he handed me. When everything was borrowed and we turned around to head for the ensemble practice room…
“By the way, Sinu, how did you know how to use the equipment rental room? I don’t think the opening ceremony presentation explained this.”
“Ah.”
At Jalen’s sudden question, I raised my eyebrows. Right. I’d figured this question would come up at least once. The school hadn’t yet explained how to use the equipment rental room.
The professors only first tell students that it exists in the first ensemble class.
I looked calmly at Jalen and gave the answer I had prepared.
“I walked around the school before the theory class. I saw other people borrowing equipment here, so I figured out how it works.”
“Oh, really? That explains it. You seem to already know the school well.”
Jalen smiled as if his curiosity was settled, then continued.
“Anyway, this place is great. They have everything, don’t they?”
“Well, yes.”
True to its enormous appearance, LSPA’s equipment rental room had everything for performance, practice, recording, and even the video shooting needs of the dance and acting students. It was as well stocked as any private equipment rental shop. In fact, even without personal gear or instruments, you could carry out all your artistic work with just the school’s equipment.
“So where do we go now?”
“The ensemble practice room. This way.”
Fortunately, neither Jalen nor the other crew members seemed suspicious of my earlier excuse. Calming my slightly startled heart, I led them to the ensemble practice room.
“But can we really finish all this in one day?”
“Come on, Jalen. That’s impossible. Today we’ll just try putting the demo together here. We’ll record it properly in a studio later.”
“Right, that makes sense.”
“No. We’re finishing everything here, today.”
In the ensemble practice room we had arrived at, Jalen, who had spoken up, Hjalmar, and Itai all looked at me in surprise at my answer.
“I-is that possible?”
“Sinu. I believe in you, of course, but I think that’s a bit too much…?”
“Hmm. I agree it’s too much, Sinu.”
I knew it too. Recording a proper demo takes far more than a day. But the first social event we planned to attend, the Silent Disco, was tomorrow. And there I needed to show someone important a song made with a band sound. Only then could I step in front of people at the remaining two events.
“Think of it as just a sketch. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Like I said, think of it as jamming, run through it a few times, and then record right here.”
“Record here? How…?”
At Jalen’s question, I took my phone out of my pocket.
“With this. To be precise, video.”
Of course it would be great if I could book a school studio right now, but that wasn’t possible. Studios big enough for a full band were always fully booked.
Even if I booked now, I wouldn’t get one for another month and a half. And only in the early morning hours.
So for me, needing a demo file by tomorrow, there was no other way. Still, wouldn’t a video of us playing, shot on a phone, at least show the overall mood of the band’s performance? Thinking positively, anyway. I surveyed the ensemble practice room: the positions of the drums and keyboard, the guitar, bass, and mic amps. Calculating everything together, I placed an empty chair far from the drums but a little closer to the mic amp. Then I propped my phone on the chair and set the camera angle so every member was in frame.
“If we do it like this, we can use it as a reference when we make a proper demo later. And it’ll be handy if I need to show it to someone in a hurry. So I’ll just record it this way for now.”
“Ah.”
Jalen nodded as if convinced. Hjalmar followed suit, then asked with his usual playful smile.
“So, Sinu, what do we start with? Should we do that song we heard yesterday as a band?”
“Yesterday’s song?”
When Jalen tilted his head, Hjalmar raised his eyebrows and explained.
“Oh, Sinu sang an original at the open mic yesterday. It was called Again, right?”
“Ah, right. The others said earlier there was an open mic yesterday…”
Jalen clicked his tongue, regretful. He clearly felt sorry to have missed yesterday’s chance. Jalen was famously gentle and polite to everyone, but his drive to succeed as a musician was formidable.
That’s probably why he hesitated to join my crew. If Hjalmar’s and Itai’s skills weren’t good, he’d have judged there was nothing to gain from getting tangled up with them.
It was the typical mindset of a student who succeeds at LSPA. No matter how kind a person is, succeeding takes a certain amount of calculation. In my previous life, too, Jalen had gone on to have a fairly successful school life and career off campus. I looked at him.
“Right, I sang that song at the open mic yesterday. Then let’s start with Again.”
As I shifted my gaze to the other members and got ready to sync up, Jalen spoke in a hesitant voice.
“Sinu. But I’ve never heard that song once…”
“Ah, then I’ll start by playing guitar and singing, and you come in partway through. Like in class earlier.”
“Hmm… I don’t know if I can do it right away. But okay, Sinu.”
After giving Jalen his direction, I immediately turned to Hjalmar and Itai.
“Hjalmar, Itai, you too.”
“Got it, Sinu!”
“Okay.”
“Then, I’m starting.”
