London, United Kingdom.
26th August.
VICTORIA'S POV
I woke up early, at half-past six in the morning. Rehearsals started at 8 am sharp, which didn't help matters as I have a hard time sleeping. I put on the first clothes I saw in front of me, ate the food I had ordered from the service and left my room, and opened Dam's room.
"Ready?", he assured, with his hands on my shoulders.
"I was always ready.", I replied.
Minutes later we found ourselves at the reception, which was empty. Quickly our driver arrived and after a few minutes of driving, we reached the arena. Now it was illuminated with a big sign: Maneskin. The information that we would have 1 hour and half of concert available had just reached Leo, who soon informed us. That is, more or less 22 songs. We had a lot of options, so I gave us the idea of doing an acoustic moment, with some ballads and covers, like Everlong by Foo Fighters, Black to Black by Amy Winehouse... Inside that space, the sound came out perfectly, without any echo, and with a sonority in my ears never heard before. The guitar and acoustic bass sounded like instruments of an angel playing, and they were joined by Dam's voice, one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard. The rehearsal finished around 1 pm, and we had arranged to go to Taco Bell for lunch with some British artists we had become friends with, but the traffic didn't help and we had to go back to the hotel and order something to eat, while Ethan, Thomas, and Leo had enough energy to go to a restaurant near the hotel. After taking a shower and putting on another outfit I went to annoy Dami, as usual. It was 2 hours until our studio session, and I didn't know what to do in those exact 120 minutes.
"2 hours to go Dami! You better get excited."
"Who says I'm not excited? I'm just exhausted."
"Have you showered yet?"
"Not yet. But you have, I can smell your shampoo from here."
"So what are you waiting for? For an earthquake to happen?"
"I'm coming.", he sighed, getting out of bed.
I stayed more than 45 minutes waiting for him to get out of the shower, and while waiting, I watched an episode of my TV series, which was on his account. The amount of episodes of The Big Bang Theory he has on there is staggering. I tried to ignore the Britney Spears music at full volume that was playing in the bathroom, but it seemed impossible.
I was so excited for the studio recording, to see my simple voice recordings and sketches in an old notebook come true. Even so, I ended up falling asleep on his bed a few minutes later.
"Vic, wake up! It's 5 minutes until the driver arrives."
"How long did I sleep?", I asked, surprised.
"An hour, maybe. The important thing is that we have to get out of here, now!"
"You could have woken me up earlier."
"I couldn't, you were sleeping so well."
"Anyway, shall we go?", I add, in a hurry.
"Of course."
We went down the lift, almost running to the outside. I felt like a secret agent since neither Ethan nor Thomas had any idea where we were going because we were keeping this project between just the two of us and Leo. The studio was far away, in almost another city, but from what Dam had told me, it was a great location. I slept through the trip again, listening to Arctic Monkeys on a headset I shared with him. He sometimes gets fed up with me always putting on Arctic Monkeys, but I can also stand him listening to Britney Spears every day, so I guess it's kind of a fair game.
We arrived at the studio after a 45-minute drive. The place was private, with really good energy compared to other studios that were in the area.
"Let's go?"
"Let's go," I answered.
Me on acoustic guitar and acoustic bass. He, on voice, plays on the guitar the only chords he knows how to play. 12 hours passed in an instant, and the next thing we knew, we were with a can of Pepsi in our hand, doing a giant brainstorming to come up with the name of the album.
"We could put the word lullaby in the name."
"Why? I didn't understand," he asked, doubting.
"I only picked up the guitar to write those songs when it was nighttime. And those melodies calmed me down. So lullabies, lullabies."
"I wanted to put rooftop sessions in. Because rooftop conversations are the best. And we're here, in the studio, next to a window, overlooking the roof."
"Gripping point Dami."
"Do you have any ideas?"
"And if so... Hope Lullabyes - the rooftop sessions?"
Hope Lullabyes - the rooftop sessions. That was the name.
"Wow, I love that!", Damiano said, startled.
"Well, do we have a name, then?"
"Hope Lullabyes - The Rooftop Sessions, available on digital platforms, coming soon."
"I can't believe we're doing this.", he said.
"Me neither.", I replied.
"When are we releasing it?"
"By the end of this year. Is that OK?"
"Damiano, you must be crazy. How are we going to do it?"
"We already have the recorded songs, the song names, the order. All that's missing is the cover. Then it's just about doing some paperwork, maybe creating a separate stage name. We can think of that name today..."
"Damiano, it's almost 5:00 in the morning. I'm dead. Literally. Please, can you call the driver to pick us up?"
"Victoria, I don't know if you realize it's 5:00 in the morning. The driver's asleep at this hour."
"Can we call an Uber, then?"
"I don't see any other option."
-
hi guys!
i'm so happy for all of the people who are attending to Circo Massimo today, and wishing them the time of their lives.
and leave on the comments cities/countries you would like to have GOLDWING taking place on!
tks for reading <3
mel.