The Beauty & The Tragedy

Band Rehersals and Bar Hopping

"I told you she was good." Nick grinned as he sat next to me. They were taking a break.

"She's amazing." I said agreeing with him.

"Hopefully it works out." He said lightly nudging me.

"I think it will." I said genuinely optimistic.

"Joe and Demi might be a problem." He said as he glanced over at his brother. Joe was sitting there with his arms crossed against his chest scowling at Demi.

"We'll just have to manage them." I said as I continued to look at Joe.

"We?" Nick asked raising his eyebrow.

"Yes." I smiled. "We. I can't let you do this alone."

They spent the rest of the afternoon writing and playing together. I noticed Demi and Johnny seemed to hit it off right away. They were smoking and wrestling around like a couple of old friends. I could tell that they were going to be the troublemakers. Joe and Nick were the more serious ones. Matt was like Switzerland, he was chill and just went with the flow. I was surprised at how serious Joe was behaving. I guessed it had something to do with Demi. I had no idea what actually happened between the two of them, but my guess was it was pretty brutal. I had never seen him act so hostile toward someone.

I spent most of the day sitting there being ignored while the five of them worked on music. The longer I sat there, the more bored I became. It suddenly occurred to me that I had a phone, with a camera. I pulled it out and started recording them. I didn't know it at the time, but these early videos would eventually play a part in getting them signed.

I recorded Nick as Demi goaded him into playing the drums better. She insisted he play faster and hit the drums harder. She kept telling him he was too basic and he needed to take risks. I could tell he was frustrated, but he listened anyway. Her playing style was different from what he was used to. If he wanted to work with her, he was going to have to meet her halfway. She had a huge smile on her face when he played something that she really enjoyed. I was actually quite impressed as well. I'd never heard him play that way before. He looked exhausted.

"That's a fuckin drum fill." Demi said as she nodded her head. "You gotta play like that every time. It was bad ass."

"I agree with Demi." Matt added.

"It sounded a little too complicated to me. We should keep it simple." Joe said shaking his head.

"That's why you're the rhythm guitarist Joe." Demi sighed. "Because you play guitar like its a fucking recipe."

"What the fuck does that mean?" He said frowning at her.

"It means you're boring and predictable. You write songs the same way you play them. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. It's a pop radio hit recipe and it's stupid." She said rolling her eyes. "We need to make music with fucking guitar solos and crazy drum fills. I want people to hear breakdowns in our songs and just fucking destroy shit."

"Yes!" Johnny said giving her a fist bump. "All in favor of Demi's idea raise your hand."

Everyone but Joe raised their hand. "Whatever." He said. "Fine."

There was a lot of tension in the room. I could tell Demi wanted to say something about it but for whatever reason she held her tongue. I also noticed that once they started brainstorming more music, she stepped back a little a let the guys take more of the lead. She was smart. She knew that she could be strong willed so for the sake of fairness she'd back off and let them make some of the choices. Her strategy seemed to work. Joe's mood improved drastically and once they all started to agree, they quickly wrote four more songs. By the time their first rehearsal was over, they had written and perfected five songs. I recorded the final run through of each one and posted it online. That was the beginning of what I would spend the better part of a decade doing for these guys.