Come Back to Me

I stood there in the “live room” of the recording studio, my back facing the small glass window which was put there for obvious reasons. The main one being to easily observe and communicate between the musician, engineer and any other personnel who might want to critique the sessions. That one window built into the wall that separated the studio room and the control room was slowly beginning to lose its “purpose” seeing how nobody was able to see my face. I stared long and hard at the wall in front of me, quickly zoning out as I always do when put under pressure. I'm barely hanging onto my violin; my fingers lightly gripping around the wooden neck as it lays against my side; in my other hand I hold my freshly rosined bow; it dangles loosely on the crook of my index finger and every so often, as if it were a force of habit, I would sway the bow back and forth slowly giving off the impression that I was bored but really I was in my own world, trying hard to go over the melody line in my head. Even though my mind was elsewhere I could feel eyes burn holes in the back of my head and suddenly a boom vibrates loudly through my headphones causing my ears to ring, snapping me back to reality. I quickly remove the headphones, clamping my hands over my now damaged ears and whip my head around to surprisingly see everyone present in the control room staring back at me.

“Kelsey!” One of the engineers finally spoke up, obviously annoyed by the way his face was scrunched up and had his arms crossed firmly against his chest. He leaned forward against the console to speak again, “What the hell are you doing?? Stop daydreaming and focus on the task at hand. You've already wasted too much time and we still have other parts to record before the end of the day!”

I guess this would be a good time to introduce myself, it seems like a perfect segue. I'm sure you could already guess, my name is Kelsey...Kelsey Jeon. I'm in my mid 20's, 5'3, with black hair and dark brown eyes....I'm also Asian American...Korean to be exact....okay I don't know why that's really important but just thought I would give you a mental image. Right...so, obviously I'm a musician...a violinist. I got my Master's degree in music performance a couple years back and I knew I wanted to have a career in music....music was my passion. You'd think studying, performing music and practicing in a small enclosed room for over 8 hours a day for over 6 years would burn a person out, but not me. I eat, sleep and breathe music, of course I'm not an addict, I do get overwhelmed at times, sometimes resulting in having a nervous breakdown and then I am forced to lock myself up in my bedroom for a couple of days in complete solitude until I'm back to my normal self again, but I digress.

I knew 3 other people, both colleagues and good friends. We would always joke about being in a famous string quartet, traveling around the world and sharing our passion for music with everyone we played for, so it wasn't a surprise when we all agreed to fully commit to being in a group and here we are. We're not world known but we are slowly reaching that goal by getting gigs here and there, performing concerts and if we're lucky, get asked to record for other musicians which brings me back to the here and now.

We somehow got offered to play as background music for this semi new band “Avenged Sevenfold.” I say semi new but they have put themselves out there enough to become well-known around the country. They are by no means a classical music group like us, but we are always open to new music styles plus it gets our name out there bit by bit. This isn't our first meeting with the band, we've played a few tracks with them before in the past and they seem to like our playing so we've become their “top of the list players to call back,” I guess you could say, whenever they need back up strings. They really are a nice group of guys. I guess I'm so used to seeing rock/metal bands be complete cocky douchebags, letting the money and fame get to their heads, but these guys are different. They take their music seriously but outside of “work” their just normal everyday goofballs.

Both our groups have become close over the past months of working together, almost like a family. I guess it's because we have so much in common when it comes to music. We all have the same passion....but again I'm getting way off topic now. We've been helping the guys out with their new upcoming album “City of Evil” and all I can say is holy crap! Every single track on the album is just amazing, I almost envy them for their special talents to be able to compose stuff like that. It makes me want to work harder, but at this very moment I feel like dropping my instrument and crawling underneath the carpet of the recording room and die ever so slowly. Right now we are “trying” to get through the intro, mainly the violin solo, of “Strength of the World” but for some reason I can't concentrate causing my intonation to fail miserably. I guess I should say something instead of standing here like a moron resulting in wasting even more time.

I softly sighed at the words of the engineer and mentally reminded myself not to roll my eyes as that would only make matters worse. I had a bit of a temper and once it reaches a certain level all I see is pure red and I'm unable to control myself and the aftermath is never good. I guess it's the Korean blood in me...we seem to always have a hard time toning down our shitty attitudes. I decide to put my frustrations to the side for now and quickly say my apologies.

“I'm sorry everyone....it won't happen again I promise,” I show a nervous smile but it quickly fades as I see some of the others just shake their heads and breathe out harshly.

It always killed me when I would disappoint people whether it be my friends or my colleagues but especially everyone here at the studio and the Avenged guys who counted on me to perfect this violin solo for this one track. I quietly took a deep breath and shook my body off of any nerves mumbling to myself as if it were a pep talk before a big game. I reached over, picked up the headphones and placed them securely back onto my head before giving a quick nod to the control room.

“Alright....let's take it from bar 8...the measure right before you come in with your solo,” the engineer said as he rubbed his hand across his forehead, clearly still frustrated from the small incident that occurred a few seconds ago.

I lifted my violin up to my chin, bow not on the strings but at my side ready to set on the strings the moment my entrance was about to come. It was my cue to play and a bit more focused this time I successfully glided my bow on the strings making sure to put all my emotion into that one melody line. I kept my eyes closed, as I always do when performing, praying my memory doesn't fail me. I was never good at memorizing music, I always had to have the sheet music in front of me, but it is said that music is played more emotionally and gracefully when playing it by heart. I sensed the solo coming toward the end and then let out a sigh of relief but also with a hint of disappointment. I opened my eyes to see everyone in the control room smile obviously pleased with the results, but I just jerked the corner of my mouth to the far left showing displeasure and shook my head.

“Unni!” That's Korean for 'sister.' It's what younger females call other females who are older than them out of respect. “What's wrong? That sounded good!”

I looked up as I saw my colleague and best friend Mina call to me from the control room. Mina and I were not related but we've known each other almost our whole lives and are so close we practically see each other as sisters. She plays second violin in our quartet, me being 1st violin, then there's our middle player, violist, Katherine and last but not least our cellist Grace. We are all good friends and ironically we were all Korean hence why we were called “The Seoul Quartet," but Mina and I tend to always stick together while Kathrine and Grace did the same. It's kind of not surprising how we split ourselves up, it's not that we don't always get along, everyone has that one BFF who they can trust their life with and that's exactly how we were.

Even though Mina and I were close our personalities were different. She is always this giddy, hyper and sometimes whiny brat but I loved her to death nonetheless. Katherine and Grace on the other hand practically shared a brain. They were constantly always serious and hardly ever cracked a smile; they were all work and no play I guess I should say. The only slight difference between them was that Katherine was more of a dictator whereas Grace was the neutral one out of the four of us, but they're still great friends and I'm grateful to have them in my life. I must have zoned out again because I hear Mina repeat the Korean honorific.

“Unni? Are you phasing out again?” I shake my head from my thoughts and see her waving a hand in front of her trying to get my attention. I just smirk and roll my eyes before I begin to open my mouth to speak.

“Are you tone-deaf Mina? That sounded horrible,” I say and give her a look that reads 'are you kidding me?'

Mina just shakes her head obviously tired of my negativity, “You're too hard on yourself...nobody's perfect.”

I let out a short laugh, “Yeah, try saying that to her,” and point a finger over to Katherine, in the back of the studio, who is chatting it up with Johnny, the bassist from Avenged Sevenfold aka Johnny Christ.

Probably bitching about how 'middle voices' always get the short end of the stick when it comes to being in a music group. They hardly ever get any melodic line, mostly harmonizations or off beats to keep the rest of the group on tempo. I begin to feel at ease when I notice Katherine is too busy conversing with somebody else to even pay attention to my screw ups but that slowly fades as I see her end her conversation and quickly waltz over towards the console where Mina and the engineers are. Luckily, Brian aka Synyster Gates; lead guitarist of Avenged Sevenfold, suddenly appears next to Mina semi-blocking Katherine with his tall athletic form.

“I honestly thought it sounded great....right on spot. You're too much of a perfectionist Kels,” he simply said, a small grin tugging at the corner of his thin lips. I just chuckled to myself shaking my head side to side determined not to give in to that signature smile of his which would practically make any girl go weak in the knees and he knew it.

“This coming from a person who will literally repeat a note over and over again until it's perfectly in tune until his fingertips bleed. Seriously Brian, I have so many video montages of you cussing up a storm every time you make even the smallest mistake,” I comment back in a serious tone but am unable to hold back my laughter.

Brian just smiles as he holds up his hands defensively, “Okay, okay, point made, but I can't help it that I have perfect pitch. If I hit a note that's even slightly a half step flat, it drives me bat shit crazy and you know I hate that auto tune crap.”

I tilt my head back and roughly let my arm hit the side of my hip as if to agree. “Tell me about it....but don't be so anal about it, you're starting to sound like Katherine.”

“If you guys are done with your incessant flirting.....” speak of the devil, there stood Katherine next to Brian with her arms crossed and signature death glare, “.....I would highly suggest we get back to work.”

I slightly roll my eyes and scoff at her childish comment. Sure I thought Brian was hot...really hot, but we only saw each other as friends, nothing more plus he wasn't really my type. We both loved music and would always get revved up when the topic would come up. Not wanting to get caught zoning again, I quickly stood up straightening my back giving a two finger salute to my colleague as if to mock her, both Mina and Brian holding back their snickering, but she kept staring unamused which was predictable. You could probably already tell who the leader of our group was.

Katherine's face remains cold. “This is serious Kelsey, we should've already been moving onto the next recording session by now. Brian is obviously being too easy on you because you and I both know that you were slightly sharp around bar 17 before you shifted into 3rd position making you put unneeded emphasis on the the pick up note when you tried to recover from your mistake. Focus and get your head in the game....we're here to work not screw around.”

My face turns serious as I give a quick nod letting her know I'm in 'work mode' now and after she turns around to walk back to her spot next to Johnny, I playfully stick my tongue out at her while at the same time flipping her the bird. She obviously can feel my inappropriate gesture from me and without looking back she returns the favor making me laugh and I swear I see a faint smirk on her face. I turn my attention back to the others and I ease up a bit as I see Brian waving his hand up and down in a dissing motion regarding Katherine's criticizing comments as he mouths the words 'don't worry you're fine.' I sort of feel relieved but can't help but hear Katherine's words repeat over and over in my head and this is where I stubbornly admit to myself that she's right. Rubbing the back of my neck I review the solo in my head yet again and think of alternatives then start to speak again.

“Brian, regarding the melody line, did you want me to play with a slow wide vibrato or do you prefer it to be quicker? I ask this because the reason why I'm struggling with intonation might be from the fact that in order to get a wider vibrato, it requires me to move my fingers more towards the bridge, causing it to slightly increase in pitch. That's probably why I keep going sharp on some notes.”

Brian places his finger on the tip of his chin clearly deep in thought before he simply shrugs his shoulders and responds, “I mean I'd prefer you keep playing it as is only because it sets the tone and mood for this particular section. It's supposed to start out slow and lazy giving off sort of a somber western style and then segue into the exposition which is more fast paced. If you play it with a more sharper and clear vibrato it's going to sound a bit rushed and the whole idea is to have people think the song is going to be just another ballad but then you get this surprise entrance with the guitars. Does that make sense?”

I take Brian's words into consideration and nod my head in agreement. Whenever he's in music mode he becomes a different person. All the guys were like that. They have visions when they compose/write, each section thought out carefully, wanting to tell a story within each of their songs and they were damn good at it. Making sure I review all of Katherine's critiques, Brian's wisdom and basic knowledge, I give the control room a heads up letting them know I'm ready to record again hopefully for the last time for the day. I get through the solo perfectly with no mistakes and I can tell I did my best as I noticed everyone in the control room giving me a thumbs up. I hear one of the engineers announce something as I remove my headphones and gather up my belongings before exiting the recording booth.

“Great job Kelsey, you're done for now. I'll let your group know when we are ready to start recording the strings section in 'The Wicked End' track.”

I politely nod and say my thank yous before I carefully set my violin down in it's case. I sense Brian walk up behind me and simply pat me on the back adding in a quick wink before smiling at me. He didn't say anything but from his friendly gesture I knew what he was thinking. I watched him pass me and walk towards the back of the studio where Matt, aka M. Shadows; front man and singer; and Jimmy, aka The Rev; drummer; stood to go over some lyrics before the next session. I spotted my favorite black hoodie lying next to my violin case, picked it up and quickly slipped into it to stay warm. I was always cold for some reason. If the temperature outside wasn't at least over 75 degrees you would always see me wearing some type of sweater or jacket. It didn't help that Fall was just around the corner. The weather always seems to cool down a lot faster here in California compared to where I used to live. Again I seem to drift away into my own thoughts....that's my number one problem, if you couldn't already tell, I think way too much. It surprises me my friends have put up with my bad habit for so long.

As I come out of my thoughts, I spot an empty couch on the other side of the studio that has my name written all over it. I was mentally exhausted and I was so looking forward to shutting off my brain for a bit. I quickly raced over to the couch, plopped myself down and sunk down into the squishy couch cushion. I pulled the hood of my hoodie over my head to give off the impression that I did not want to be bothered and I swiftly propped my feet up on the coffee table in front of me. I leaned my head back into the pillow behind me and let out a long exasperated sigh before shutting my eyes.

My relaxing nap didn't last long as I suddenly felt the other side of the couch shift and dip in harshly causing me to slightly fall over to the side, my head inches away from someones lap but luckily my reflexes were fast as I reached my arm out and balanced myself on my hand. Irritated, I sat up and let out a loud groan, wanting to strangle the crap out of whoever disturbed my slumber. I quickly removed my hood giving me a better view of who the perpetrator was. When I recognized the face my anger subsided and my facial expression was replaced with shock.

“Hey you,” I heard him say...

Notes

A/N: First chapter is up. I didn't mean for it to be this long but i couldn't find a better place to stop. This is my first story on this particular site. I used to write stories (mainly anime) over at fanfiction.net, but that was back in 2005 and since then I had stopped writing b/c I didn't have the time. Now I've picked it back up and I really hope you all like this story. I haven't written in almost 10 years so forgive me if I'm a bit rusty.
I am a violinist in real life so everything that I describe or write about involving music, my education background, musical terms and theory is right since I studied it for over 6 years, except maybe when talking about guitar, so I apologize if I'm not spot on with that.

Let me know what you all think and if I should continue with this story or not, I love getting feedback.
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