The Truth in the Stars

Part 29: Auditions

It was nearing spring break when Alex finally texted me some good news.

Hey Mark! It's been a while. I finally got permission to invite you to audition for us! There'll be three judges, but you only have to be accepted by one and they'll be your personal manager throughout your career. Depending on which one you impress you might get me as your business manager so fingers crossed. Auditions are on Saturday when you shouldn't have any classes.

You would think I was excited to hear this, but my excitement was overwhelmed by nervousness. I mean this is the music industry we're talking about! Even if I did make it, my career would be decided by how well people would perceive me, but that was the least of my worries. My real worries were whether these judges would actually like me! If they decided I wasn't worth taking as an asset I probably wouldn't even make it into the industry.

When Saturday came around I was a nervous wreck. I had spent all week singing, and I even had Shauna teach me what she could. I didn't like the idea of walking into this audition with whatever talent I had and a few lessons I got when I was a kid. All the practice with Shauna definitely  improved my vocal abilities, but a week of practice can only fix so much. If I made it in, I would have to take some serious vocal lessons to keep up with the real professionals.

The building still had the new building feeling and smell to it even though it had been built ten years ago, although that might be because of the amount of success the studio has given them the opportunity to keep it clean. The exterior was coated in glass panels and their logo was hung over them. What the interior showed visitors, was much more interesting than that. It felt like a normal business, but had the layout of a mall. The decorations were pictures of their stars and accomplishments, reinstating the type of people I would be indirectly competing with for a spot.

I approached the lady at sign in desk and she pointed me towards the room Alex had texted me about the day before.

Inside I found three people standing around having a conversation as they were messing with the recording studio set-up. They didn't notice I had walked in for a few moments.

"Mark Murray, so good to meet you! I'll be one of managers examining you. You can get your guitar out for now, but we're still setting up," the tall man dressed in Hawaii appropriate clothing motioned toward the lady messing with the microphone. His beard was grown in with gray hair and his eyes showed a more casual approach to things, although I highly doubt that would be the case in my audition.

The lady in the microphone donned a gray skirt and a red cardigan over her white button-up reminding me of one of my high school teachers. She was definitely going to be strict during the audition, and I highly doubted that I would impress her; although appearances could be deceiving seeing how I'm here. She gave me a quick wave, but said nothing.

"My name is Aaron, and that's Kelly working on the microphone right now. I assume you're pretty nervous to be here?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm definitely nervous," I said as I felt my hands shake. I had to get my nerves under control if I was going to play guitar while I played. 

I had decided to learn to play and sing my own version of Ed Sheeran's Photograph. I had spent hours trying to perfect it since I had last seen Alex for the time I would present it to my judges. I practiced so much that I could feel my fingers moving to the notes on the fretboard as I stood there. It took me a while to realize, but I was accidentally placing my fingers in the correct places as I stood there waiting nervously.

Aaron and Kelly left the room to join the farmer dressed man sitting behind the sound proof glass, and the man gave me the signal to begin. I sang to the best of my ability, and my fingers moved along the fretboard almost like the hand itself was possessed. Luckily my hand was hitting the right notes, otherwise I would have been in huge trouble.

When I finished the farm dressed man came to get my contact information and escort me out. My nerves had calmed down by the time I had finished.

"One of us will contact you if we decided to hire you as one of our singers. Don't worry if you don't here anything for a few weeks. We have you recorded so we can review it multiple times," the farm dressed man explained.

I never got to hear his name.