Dissonance - Chapter 3

The rest of the meeting was mostly Hanna peppering Kent with questions about procedure in the studio and what would happen with our album once we were finished with it. I had to hand it to Hanna, she was really prepared. While I had some of the same questions she asked, she had a lot that hadn’t even occurred to me. Things like release schedule and getting air time on radio stations were questions I was going to ask if she hadn’t beaten me to them, but she had a lot of questions about what we could expect from marketing and specific areas of marketing beyond radio play that I hadn’t considered.

Most of the answers were that they wouldn’t put that much money into marketing, which wasn’t surprising but did mean people outside of about a four-state region wouldn’t know we existed, unless we just got lucky.

The reason so much music is regional is how labels market their product. On big-name acts, they would do national pushes which included marketing on TV and in national publications, pushing for both daytime and late-night talk shows, pushing for placement in movie soundtracks and popular TV shows, and setting up national tours. Only a handful of artists could get that kind of push, though.

The main way everyone else got pushed had been through local radio, and even with streaming music taking over, it was still the go-to method for letting the general public know you existed. They would send a song or two out to stations the label had a relationship with and try and get station managers, producers, or individual DJs to give it air time. If a DJ liked it, they might put it in regular rotation, which meant an increase in sales in whatever market that DJ covered.

Surprisingly, that hadn’t changed much even though the Internet was rapidly taking over how people listened to music. Streaming might be taking over how people listened to music, but that usually meant listening to artists they already knew, which meant radio was still the main way a label could actively market new artists. Unlike other industries, where the Internet made it easier for people to break through, the Internet was making it harder for musicians to get discovered.

While that was partly due to how people used the Internet to listen to music, it wasn’t helped by labels being so slow to adapt to the new way people got their music. Social media and Internet presence was still mostly left up to the individual artist, which meant getting a record deal didn’t automatically make a group more likely to break through than groups without a deal. Because everyone was doing it themselves, we were all left just trying to figure out how to reach new people.

The answers Kent gave weren’t necessarily encouraging, since it all amounted to only getting us some air time on radio, Hanna didn’t seem bothered by it. She took notes throughout and was nodding along with his answers.

I’m sure she’d have ideas on how we could get more exposure, but I was more of the mindset that we’d get what we could get. I’d seen enough of the industry to know the labels were all about the bottom line, and they weren’t about to take a risk on someone new, especially if money was involved. They’d put us in front of radio stations because that was essentially free marketing. They’d put some paid marketing in areas where we’d be performing, but that was because they were taking part of the house, since we were too small to carry tours on our own, but they wouldn’t do much there.

When we finished up, Hanna chased Kent outside, probably to hit him with more questions, and I decided to let her do her thing. I’d have been shocked if anything came from it, but if she was willing to try, I wasn’t going to stop her.

Instead, I wandered into the kitchen looking for Chef. Ever since the call from Victor, I’d been thinking things over. Over the last year, I’d kind of just gone with the flow, happy to let people like Chef, Willie, and Mr. French push me in directions they thought I should be going.

Mostly, I was happy to just follow their lead, since all of their advice so far had been pretty good. With the music contract though, things needed to change. If I was going to take this seriously, I needed to take charge of my life more. I still needed the advice, but I needed to get better at saying no, and that had to start with Chef.

“Hey, Charlie, how was the meeting?”

“Good. We’re all set up for next week and the tour after that. I know we’ll be gone for a while, sorry to leave you in the lurch like that.”

“It’s okay. I knew from the moment you played up there the first time, that it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the world discovered you and you went on to bigger and better things.”

“You still have Willie though?”

Chef paused. It wasn’t a long pause, but Chef didn’t normally hedge before something like that.

“What?” I asked.

“Neither of us wanted to say anything, because we didn’t want you to do something dumb like throwing away your big shot because you felt some kind of responsibility. Willie’s going to be backing off playing as often. He still wants to play once a month or so, but it’ll be short sets, and the rest of the guys were only playing here because Willie was. I’ve started making some calls down to Ashville and to a few people I know in the area to fill in music on weekends while you’re gone.”

“Is he okay?” I asked, suddenly worried.

It felt like my stomach had dropped out. Willie was the first guy to give me a shot and he’d taught me so much. We hadn’t known each other long, but we’d spent so much time together over the last year, he’d become almost a grandfather of sorts. It was almost impossible to think of the Blue Ridge without him.

“Mostly. His arthritis has been getting worse, and it’s just too much of a strain to play every weekend like he has been doing. He’ll still be around and this will always be his home, but he just can’t keep up with it. Honestly, if you hadn’t taken over so much of the music time on weekends, he might have pulled back months ago.”

“Why didn’t he say anything? If it was that bad months ago, then it can’t just be about my music contract and not wanting me to make a bad decision.”

“It’s tough for an old warhorse like Willie to admit that he can’t keep playing anymore, especially to himself. He liked to just pretend it wasn’t happening, and he liked how playing with you made him feel younger. Getting old is hard to accept. You’ll understand it one day.”

“I guess,” I said, the news of Willie’s health suddenly taking the wind out of my sails.

“So, what did you want to see me about? Or were you just coming back here to socialize?”

“It’s nothing,” I said, starting to turn and head back into the dining area with the rest of the guys.

“Hey,” Chef said, reaching out and putting his hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “One of the reasons we didn’t say anything is because you have a bad habit of getting in your own head when something bad happens. You’ve sometimes got to compartmentalize things and keep moving forward. What did you need?”

I sighed and said, “I wanted to talk to you about Victor.”

“Did you two talk?”

“Yes, and that’s what I wanted you to talk to you about. I know you told him my schedule and pushed him to call me and set up training. I know you mean well, but I’d really like for you to stop pushing me into things and just talk to me about them.”

“I see,” Chef said, putting on his serious face. “I’m sorry if you felt like I was pushing you to do something you didn’t want to. I know you’re not going to be able to do any actual training while you’re on tour, so I thought you might like to at least keep it up while you’re in Raleigh. I can call Victor and tell him not to bother you.”

“That’s not what I meant, and I think you know it. I really do appreciate you trying to look out for me, but instead of arranging it, did you consider suggesting that I call Victor, and leave the choice up to me, instead of calling him yourself?”

“I didn’t, but you’re right. I probably should have done that. I knew how busy you were getting ready for this and how much it meant, so I was trying to keep it from being something else you had to deal with.”

“Again, I appreciate it, but I need you to let me make my own decisions. I did talk to Victor and I am going to train with him when I can, because you’re right, I don’t want to lose what I’ve gained here and I won’t have much chance while we’re on the road, but I really want you to hear me on this. I need to be able to make my own decisions.”

I could see I’d hurt him a little bit, and I was pretty sure he hadn’t been purposefully trying to manipulate me. It was one of those things where, if you do something one way for long enough, it just became habit. Chef had been helping out people in distress for so long, many of whom were part of the problem they needed to be pulled out of, that he’d become accustomed to directing people the way they needed to go instead of talking about it outright.

I could appreciate that, but it didn’t make it any less annoying.

“Okay, I hear you Charlie, and I’ll try and talk to you about these things ahead of time, okay?”

“Good. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I really do have you to thank for all this stuff that’s happened this year. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have gotten to do any of this.”

“You don’t sound ungrateful. I understand where you’re coming from. You’re not the first kid I’ve seen grow up and become their own person, you’re just doing it a lot faster than any of the others who’ve come through here.”

“Thanks. On the same point, there was something else I’d been thinking of. I appreciate you wanted me to compete in the martial arts competition last month, but I don’t want to do that again. It was a good experience and I learned a lot, but if I hurt my hand or something, I might not be able to play guitar again, and this whole thing could go up in smoke.”

“Okay, no more competitions.”

“Good,” I said, a little off balance.

I don’t know what I’d expected, but this all seemed a lot easier than it had been. He’d basically agreed with everything I’d said, which was unlike Chef, at least when he was training me. It was strange to see someone who always had the answers so ready to just give up when challenged.

I guess he could see my confusion, because he chuckled and said, “I’m not as callous as I seem, Charlie. When we’re training, I do demand a certain level of excellence, because I know what you’re capable of. That doesn’t mean I don’t, or won’t, listen to you. I might be hard-headed, so you have to say it a few times, but I do listen. You’re right; it’s foolish to put your hands, or any of the rest of you, at risk now that you have this opportunity in front of you. I probably shouldn’t have had you do the last competition, but that had all started well before this opportunity had come up and I didn’t even think about it. For that, I do apologize. Even old men like me can sometimes get too focused on things to miss the bigger picture, especially when our pride is on the line. I didn’t want to give Sergei or the rest the satisfaction of backing out once we agreed.”

“Okay, I understand that and I never asked to not do it, so that’s as much on me as it is on you. Let’s call it even and agree to talk about this stuff first next time, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, putting out his hand for me to shake.

I was relieved as I left the kitchen so Chef could finish preparing for dinner. That had gone better than I’d expected, although I couldn’t really say what I thought could have happened that had me so anxious beforehand.

In the dining room, the guys had everything set up on stage for our set that night, which meant I could go out and chill on the porch, hopefully getting to talk to Willie when he showed up.

I was halfway out the door when Hanna came running up, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the doorway.

“I have an idea,” she said, excited about something.

Kent, the studio rep, had already left, but she’d been talking to him when I’d gone back to see Chef, so I assumed it had something to do with that.

“About?”

“I was talking to Kent about the tour and what we could expect, as far as support from the label,” she said. “He said they’ll support us with some marketing, but that’s it. Because we’re so new, they won’t put anything into the tour other than setting up the bookings and doing some small-scale free marketing, which means all of the merchandising beyond CDs is left up to us.”

“Everything you just said sounds bad, but you sound excited about it, so I think I’m missing something.”

“It’s an opportunity. I was reading over your contract yesterday and then I called Mr. French to make sure I understood it. So, you know how your contract is 360?”

“Uhh … no,” I said.

I’d read the contract when we’d signed it, but there was stuff in there I didn’t understand. Mom, Mr. Eaves, an attorney friend of Chef’s who’d helped us out several times, and Rowan had all been there when the contract was signed and all approved of the terms, so I’d gone with it. Probably a little naïve on my part, but there was some pretty dense language in the contract that would have taken several years of law school to work out. I was wracking my brain trying to remember if I’d ever seen the term 360 before, and I was drawing a blank.

“As Mr. French explained it to me, a 360 contract is one where the label takes a share of everything you do and not just music sales. Apparently, it used to be that the record label only took a cut of music sales and everything else went to the artists, but with the internet taking over everything and digital music, most are switching to this. Normally, they do this whether they are involved in it or not, but Rowan apparently pushed for a clause that the 360 deal only applied to areas where the studio had a hand in the deal. Anything you set up on your own you don’t have to pay out a percentage, which includes paying out to the tour manager if they were assigned from the studio, since they’re paid by the studio and not you. So they only get a cut of concerts if they help arrange it or put money into its marketing, which is why they agreed to set this tour up for you. Same thing goes for merch, which they decided to not put money into, when they declined to have it produced or help pay the up-front costs.”

“So you’re saying if we make our own merch and sell it at the concerts, we can keep all of the money.”

“Exactly, which is why I’m excited. This is a good opportunity to get a little ahead, since you won’t start seeing royalties for a while.”

“But that’s going to take a bunch of money up front to pay for it, right? Which is why the label didn’t want to do it. I’m not sure how much it costs, but we didn’t get that large of an advance. I’m giving everything I make to Mom to help cover our living expenses and the guys are basically just living on our gigs here at the Blue Ridge, and not in style. I don’t think any of us have the cash to pay for the up-front costs. It’s definitely something we should look into for the next time we tour or even for when we’re playing here. We can use the money we make off of record sales and the tour to help pay for it.”

“That would be a bad idea. Once you start showing you’re worth investing in, the label will want to get involved in merch, and we can’t tell them they aren’t allowed to pay for it. Although you have the right to contest merch for bad quality, something else Rowan got added into the contract, we are required to allow them to contribute, and profit, from anything you do as an artist, whether it’s with the band or not, since the contract is specifically for you. They made sure to cover the band and anything associated with you in that, however, so you can’t have the ‘band’ do it separate from you. This is an opportunity, and if we wait, we’re going to miss out.”

“That makes sense, but it still doesn’t explain where we’d get the money from. It’s not like we have any money to put into something like this. Do we even know how much money we’re talking about?”

“Not exactly. I’ve looked into it a little bit, but I wanted to have this conversation with you first before I started calling around and getting quotes. To be able to offer a small variety, shirts in several sizes and styles and hoodies would probably cost a couple of thousand, which wouldn’t give us a ton of product but should last through the tour. That doesn’t count the costs of getting them designed. I mean, you don’t even really have a logo yet. We’d also have to coordinate that through the label’s marketing team, since we’d want any logos or anything to match what they might end up doing on your album art.”

“So we need, what? Like five grand? That’s a lot of money, Hanna.”

“I know. The thing is you know enough people that could fund at least part of that. I wanted your permission to put together a presentation for them to invest in your merch, in return for a cut of it on the back end. It’ll mean you don’t make as much as if you were paying out of pocket, but they’re not going to take sixty percent like the label will when they decide to start bankrolling your merch.”

“I don’t want to go begging for money from Chef,” I said.

Dad had a bad habit of coming up with wild schemes to get ‘back into the business,’ always trying to convince people he had a sure-fire money-making idea. It got to the point where most of the people he met who could have helped out his career began avoiding his phone calls begging for another handout. I didn’t want to end up like that.

“I’m not talking about begging. I’m talking about a legitimate business proposal that, although it has risk, has a good upside for the investors if we can sell through all of the merch. Also, the amount of money we’re talking about is a lot for us but wouldn’t be a stretch for people like Chef who, by the way, isn’t the only person I was thinking about.”

“I’m still not crazy about the idea.”

“Charlie, you have to stop thinking about this as people doing you favors. This is a legitimate investment. I wouldn’t even bring it up if I didn’t think this could work, but I think it can. I’ve spoken to Rowan, Mr. French, and the rest of the band about their experiences with merchandising, and they all agree that not only is this something that makes you money, but the audience will be expecting it.”

“Willie never had merch,” I pointed out.

“No, but Willie was playing mostly bars. You’ve seen some of what was set up. Think back to the festival we played. Every other band had a merch table somewhere, even House of Grace, who’s too big to really need it. Let me make my pitch. If you don’t like it or if no one wants to put up the money, then we won’t do it. Hell, it’s not even going to take you any time, other than listening to the presentation with everyone else. I’ll do all the work.”

I knew Hanna had been getting into the idea of managing us when she got out of school and she’d already been reading material she’d cover in school in the fall. It was a testament to how much she was finding she liked marketing and everything, since it had been all but impossible to get her to do her actual homework in high school. I also knew she was aware of how much I disliked taking charity and I trusted her to not put me in a position where it would end up being that. Besides, she could be right and we could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

“Okay,” I said.

When she did a little hop, clapping her hands, I added, “I’m not promising I’ll go along with it, just that I’m okay with you making the pitch. Who all were you thinking of inviting?”

“I don’t have a full list yet, but I was thinking Chef, of course, plus Mr. Eaves, Rowan, Mom, Mr. French. There’ll probably be a few others.”

“Several of those people are already involved. Rowan’s going to be producing and Mr. Eaves is officially our lawyer, so I’m not sure if there will be any conflicts of interest if they then back us on the upfront merch costs.”

“I know. Like I said, it’s not an exhaustive list. There’ll probably be more and I’ll talk to at least Mr. Eaves, and maybe Chef, to make sure I’m not getting you into any trouble.”

“Okay. I trust you. Run with it,” I said.

She repeated the hop, this time ending it in a hug before she ran over to where the rest of the band was sitting. I just shook my head at her antics and walked out the front door.