Leviathan

An Awful Start

"I knew this was going to be a bad idea, nobody likes us", Karl cried. "Don't worry little brother there's still options, just because a certain amount of people don't like us that doesn't mean other people will feel that way", Keith told him. "She's a real brat", Sterling cried. "Guys I know, they probably don't like us because New York is used to pop music and hip hop so metal is not their thing. We shouldn't give up on our dreams because we have a lot of talent", Ricardo said. "But this is us, we are entitled to create whatever we want, we shouldn't change our passions just to please somebody else", Sterling said. "That's right, we're going to continue to make more music and forget about what they all say", Keith said.

Even though many of them struggled a lot with a lot of hatred, nobody has it worse than the Williams brothers. They can't even practice outside if they wanted to. There's always a lot of negative criticism that they both face.

I took Karl outside to practice with him. We both sat in the park away from everybody so we could have the space to ourselves to freely play our guitars. Also we also like to turn our amps up really high to get that distortion effect. It's a difference because our guitars are too loud to be played in the house and we could get many complaints. Besides, playing really loud makes us feel like the rockstars we want to be!

"So what should the key of our next song be?", he asked. "Hmmm, we currently have a lot of songs in the key of C minor so I was thinking that we should try F minor next", I told him. "Great, so how are you going to write this solo?", he asked. "Don't worry about it, in the meanwhile continue to come up with chords, make sure to play like you mean it", I joked with him. While constructing something new a bunch of teenagers came over to bother us.

"What in the world is that? Do you really call that music? You guys sound absolutely atrocious", one teenage boy said. Since he was messing with us I decided to solo just to taunt him. "I hate that, my ears hurt, turn it down", another teenage boy cried. My brother tapped me but I chose to ignore him. It was all going good until one of them threw a bottle of water at me but instead it hit my guitar and it made my guitar ring and the other one unplugged my amplifier. They then started running off and laughing at me.

"Hey come back here you freaking imbeciles", I yelled out loud. "Hey, that's so not fair, why didn't you chase them", my brother cried. "Don't worry about it, see it's people like them won't be successful in life because they're always trying to take away other people's joy, let's get back to work", I told him. Round 2 of attempting to write a song and not even 10 minutes later we got approached by an older lady.

"Cut that trash off, you guys should know better. Where are you guys from eh? We don't listen to music like that up here. Your parents should know about this. I'm reporting on you guys right now. How dare you two come over here and disrupt our town with this ruckus", she replied firmly. "Ma'am just because you don't understand metal that doesn't mean it's ruckus. You can't report us for playing guitar, it's nonsensical", I replied nonchalantly. "You sound nonsensical, that's why nobody is going to want you or that little billy goat over there to be in their band", she replied with an attitude. She then stormed off.

"Keith I don't want to do this anymore, I'm sick of the hatred. I'm going home", he replied sadly. He then packed his things up and started walking home. I started trailing behind him too. This is not my little brother, this is his passion. Matter of fact this is our passion. We'd been doing this ever since we were 7 and 8 years old. I'm not letting him quit!

As soon as I arrived home I found him curled up on his bed. He was also crying and that's when I knew I had to step in as the older brother. This is not him and I don't like seeing him this way. "Come on, you're way too talented to give this up. You've been in this game for a whole 11 years straight. Don't you dare put that guitar down", I told him. "But nobody likes us, I can't explain what it is", he mumbled. "They don't understand us", I replied back. Our dad came storming through the room door wondering what's going on.

"How's my musicians coming along- what's wrong guys", he asked us. "Lately we've been going through it all Dad. A couple of days ago me and the clique went to perform and we got booed and yelled at by the judge and audience. Today we also got shamed and two teenagers threw a water bottle at my guitar", I told him. Our dad was speechless and I knew he was getting disappointed.

"That's absolutely disgusting people are so revolting. How dare they do something like that! Don't let it get you guys down I'm pretty sure other people like you guys probably went through something similar", he told us. "Yeah right, nobody has it worse than us", my brother mumbled.

"Dry your tears son because I'm about to show you both that you're not alone and the greatest people have scars just like you guys. Look at my favorite guitarist Damien Miles from the group The Infernos", he told us. "But Damien could play and besides he didn't receive backlash", I told him. "But what do you think he was before he got into heavy metal? He was just an ordinary man of color with a guitar just like you guys. He faced criticism too. People used to throw rocks at him. Even worse one time somebody broke his guitar and another time somebody stole one and he'd never seen it again. Despite all of what he'd been through, this man made a legacy for himself and he is known as the greatest ever", he told us.

"Wow Dad, that's one crazy story. Now I see why you like The Infernos so much", my brother told him. "Exactly, I don't listen to heavy metal because I think it sounds good. I listen to it because a legend gave it a whole new sound and changed it forever. Especially since he's a man of color since he's biracial. Continue doing what you guys do best. Never let anyone steal your joy. In my vision you guys are going to be successful. You guys, Sterling, Dustin and Ricardo too", he told us. "Thanks Dad you're making me want to dream right now", I told him. "Stop dreaming, go out there and get it", he motivated us. After that we hugged and my mindset changed.

For the next few weeks people were really trying to stop us. A couple of times people tried to steal from us, they tried to vandalize our stuff, they continued to harass us. Even though it hurts like crazy we tried our best to stay focused. I didn't even know that New York people were this selfish and closed minded! I made sure to spread the news to my friends and tell them to be on the lookout because anything could go wrong and I don't want them to stop just because of some uptown snobs. I hope these snobs don't get too offended by us because this is just the beginning!