From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 323: Producer (2)

"Alright, let’s begin. We can touch on the music in more detail later, but let’s talk fantasy creatures and/or concepts everyone wants to do, starting with... you."

Ari clapped to get everyone’s attention, then grabbed the whiteboard and pointed to Carlos to speak first.

From his previous experience working with Carlos, he knew that although Carlos was older and talented, he was ultimately a pushover.

Carlos wouldn’t bother saying his ideas anymore if others went first; he would just go along with what the group said, so it was better to get his ideas out first.

"Someone else can go first."

"We’re going in alphabetical order, and you come after me. So go."

"Are you sure?" Carlos asked again.

"Very positive. Go."

After several seconds of contemplative silence, Carlos spoke with his usual gentle voice and smile.

"I like really pure, clean, minimal concepts. Maybe something like an angel, a swan, or a fairy? Ideally, an all-white color scheme. White feathers drifting down. A white piano playing along. Song-wise, something vocally challenging, with a lot of high notes and vocal runs."

At his words, Ari looked at Carlos’s darkly handsome face, his all-black outfit and leather jacket giving him a bad-boy impression, before nodding.

If the soft-spoken, bad-boy biker wanted a pure concept, he would write it down.

"Sure. Why not. Next?" Ari pointed his marker at Suzuki Rei while he scribbled the key points.

"I thought we were going alphabetically? That means Daniel is next."

"I changed my mind. We’re going by seating order now. Thoughts?"

"I want to do a dark and sexy concept. Leather, spikes, chains, red and black color scheme, kind of like a sexy vampire. I know you said we’ll discuss it later, but I’ll still put it out there. Songwise, I want something that sounds villainous." Suzuki Rei said after giving up trying to understand Ari’s thought process.

Even though he had taken out the lip piercing he had in the beginning and toned things down for the show, his style had always been a bit avant-garde and edgy, and he would like to do a song that suited his ideals.

"Sexy...uhm...I’ll put that down. Villainous vampire sounds good though the sexy part, hmm....okay. Got it. Daniel?" Ari pointed at Daniel, expecting him to say a cute concept or something that agreed with Carlos, since that was his whole vibe.

Instead-

With a smile that brought out his dimples, Daniel spat out the most shocking words.

"I want to be a vampire, a zombie, or a demon! Something edgy, scary, and fierce! Leather, whips, blood, spikes, and darkness! I want a coffin on stage and to hop out from it like a jiangshi before transitioning into a fierce dance."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

Everyone else: ಠ_ಠ

Have you looked in the mirror lately?

Edgy? Fierce? Blood? Darkness?

With those dimples, orange hair, and bright smile?

Even though you’re older than everyone in this room except Carlos, with that baby face of yours, you look even younger than everyone, including me!

Although he was internally shocked at what was coming out of Daniel’s mouth, Ari blinked and wrote it down.

"Okay. Daniel wants to be darkness incarnate. Noted. Levi?"

"Something dark and fierce. Demon or vampire sounds good." Levi added from the corner of the room where he sat.

"Alright. Everyone, take a look." Ari held out the whiteboard, which had a line down the middle, splitting it in two.

On one side: angel, fairy, white, cute - 1 person.

On the other side: demon, vampire, edgy, leather, sexy(?), blood, darkness - 3 people.

Two very opposite concepts with no middle ground whatsoever.

"Since the majority of the team wants a darker, edgier concept, we can just scrap my idea. It was just a random thought," Carlos said with a smile.

"Well...that’s fair." Ari really couldn’t disagree, even though he felt bad.

"We’ll keep it to the side for now and discuss the song direction. I’ll be honest here, I am a complete beginner in producing songs, so I will be getting a lot of feedback from you all and help from Jelissa. Everyone also needs to help with the lyrics once we have a basic instrumental. Choreography is also not my wheelhouse, but before all that, what kind of song do we want to make? Carlos wants something vocally challenging. Rei wants to sound like a villain. What else?"

"...a sharp rap portion?" Levi commented after several seconds while Daniel nodded before chiming in."

"I want to sing this time around, too, if possible."

"Okay. Anything else?"

As they stared at him blankly, Ari changed his question.

"First, let’s narrow our genre. Does anyone want a ballad-type, vocal-heavy song?"

Carlos’s hand twitched, but eventually he didn’t raise his hand as the rest of the room shook their heads.

Noticing it, Ari sighed.

"Let’s try that again with everyone’s head down and eyes closed. If you peek, mmm, extra practice? It will be fun."

Everyone’s head immediately dropped, and Ari nodded in satisfaction.

There would be extra practice anyway; they just didn’t know it yet.

"Genre is pop song, hands up if you want a song with that influence."

All hands went up.

"Great. Rock?"

All hands went up.

"Trap?"

All hands went up.

"Edm? Dance-pop? Hyper-pop?"

All hands went up.

"Country?"

No hands went up.

Jamie would be sad.

"Hip hop?"

All hands went up.

"Ballad."

Two hands went up.

Seeing the inconclusive results, where they basically wanted everything, Ari felt a headache coming on and decided to change his approach.

"Let’s scratch that. How about everyone recommend a song similar to the vibe that fits our criteria, or that you like, and we can go from there."

"Thriller by MJ."

"Hala Hala by Teenz"

"Love Bite by Hyphenate"

As people began listing songs they liked or wanted to perform, Ari played songs on the tablet while taking notes.

He repeatedly asked questions while they listened to the songs, since he was really trying to understand what caught their ears, why a song was their favorite, which lyrics they liked, and why.

After listening once, he would change the song, ask the same questions, and circle back, all in the name of understanding what each person was really looking for.

Daniel liked songs that were hardcore and had an impactful drumline, so he could dance hard. He didn’t really like slow songs, and while he usually rapped, he wanted to sing a bit more, the way Benjamin and Levi had been doing lately.

Rei didn’t really care about the songs. His taste was all over the place, and as long as the visual theme matched his requests, he was fine.

Levi was relatively indifferent. Any song was fine with him. He just preferred sharp rap sections with good beats and punch lines, which Ari already knew.

And Carlos.

He liked things with harmonies, vocal stacking, runs, and anything with high vocals.

And even though he didn’t say it directly, Ari could tell that he was a bit bummed about his theme not being used.

Vowing to talk to him privately later, Ari continued his musical interrogation, and although everyone’s faces began to look a bit tired, the discussion was quite productive.

As the theme and song direction were solidifying around a song written from a vampire/demon/jiangshi(?) point of view to the listener, the discussion slowly transitioned to stage design and costumes, and, seeing how conservative everyone was being, Ari shook his head.

This had to be corrected immediately! 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Otherwise, wouldn’t he just be saving the production team money?

"Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen. You’re thinking too little. According to production, there’s no budget, and after working with Justin, I’ve learned that more is more. Ask for everything on your wish list, and the worst that can happen is that they say no. But in this case, do you really think they’ll do that? Let’s go all out and make this a performance to remember. Rei, what’s one thing you really want that you haven’t gotten to use?"

"Props like swords? A battle would be fun."

"Why not? Adding it to the list. Carlos?"

"Really elaborate costumes?"

"Your wish is my command. Adding it to the list. Daniel."

"I’ve always wanted to fly in the air with a wire," Daniel said excitedly.

"I’ll ask production if the venue can support it, but why not. Adding it to the list. Levi?"

"Fire."

The room suddenly became silent at the sharp, single-word answer that sounded like a threat, but Ari nodded with a smile.

"Ah, you mean the pyro flares. Excellent. Adding it to the list."

"Oh, then I want fireworks! And a coffin! And a stage riser that goes into the air and spins around."

"Maybe a motorcycle then? Like Blade."

"Yes, yes, yes. It all gets added. Why not?"

Pleased at the increasingly absurd requests, Ari gleefully wrote them all down as he imagined PD Emily’s expression when she began calculating the price.

Of course, all of this would be trimmed down once their song and concept were fully solidified, but for now, it was fun to imagine a stage packed with everything they listed.

One day, if he ever achieved becoming a superstar, just for fun, he would do it as a treat to himself.

"What about you?" Levi asked suddenly as Ari was wrapping things up.

"Me?" a bit surprised at Levi speaking up unprovoked, Ari just blinked at him.

"Yeah, you wrote all our wishes down, but never offered an opinion. What do you want? It’s your performance too."

He thought about it for a second before smiling.

"I’m not picky and didn’t want to offer an opinion because my opinion will be felt throughout the song anyway. The opinions are good as is. I like them all."

"Still. Add yourself too." Levi glared stubbornly.

"Hmm."

"Add it."

"Well... if I had to choose, I’d want two things. I really want to include live music in some way. Either us playing instruments or having someone else do it while we perform. Secondly, somehow, I really want to merge Carlos’s idea into the main dark theme. Kind of like we did for the Swan performance. Unfortunately, I can’t reuse my own idea, but turning the light into darkness would be fun to do. It’s a fantasy, right? We can get creative and turn an angel into a demon/vampire/jiangshi. Actually...hmmm?"

Ari’s brain began spinning as he stared at what he had written on the whiteboard, Carlos’s face, then back at the whiteboard.

Maybe it was because he had recently played hours of music on the piano, many of which were classical music, but some of which were catholic hymns with words on them, that he began thinking about religious themes that fit their criteria.

Ari wasn’t particularly religious himself, but knew enough. Every French person knew Notre Dame Cathedral, had heard the bells ring in the city, or had listened to the priests sing at different assemblies.

Even Grace’s dad, the priest, Mr. Steven Choi, sometimes sang those hymns when he walked around.

Personally, Ari always thought that even though the hymns sounded beautiful, they were haunting and scary, especially when sung by old men with stern faces and all white outfits.

It just reminded him too much of horror movies, where some crazy exorcism was happening to a poor demon-possessed child or doll.

But thematically, didn’t it fit their needs?

"Ari?"

"Ari?"

"Ariel?"

"Wait, I’m thinking." Ari began tapping his fingers against the whiteboard as he continued to urge his brain to work faster.

Dark fantasy monsters and angels.

How could he tie those two things together?

Think.

Think.

Think.

Ari felt like something was just at the edge of his brain.

Singing.

Bible.

Hymns.

Darkness.

Hmm...

The most popular bible story was the fall of an angel with the most beautiful voice from heaven to earth, turning him from pure white to pure black, from a good angel into a fallen one.

In fantasy, a fallen angel was also known as a demon.

In some stories, vampires were demons; it depended on the writer’s interpretation.

He wasn’t a historian, so he could do whatever he wanted.

And if he included a hymn in the song, then that part could have the concept Carlos wanted.

Closing his eyes, Ari quickly ran through all the songs he had played at the hotel and picked the most haunting one.

"Hey Carlos, you’re catholic, right? Didn’t you say you sang a hymn for your audition? Have you ever heard of Dyes Iray?"

"Dyes Iray?" Carlos looked a bit confused before a lightbulb went off in his head.

"Oh, you mean Dies iræ, Day of wrath? Yeah, it’s sung at Mass for the Dead whenever the catholic church holds funerals. I’ve sung it plenty of times. Why?"

"Well...it might be a little sacrilegious or is it blasphemy, but how do you feel about being a fallen angel?"

"¿Cómo?"

Carlos looked completely confused at the sudden mention of sacrilege and blasphemy, but Ari was completely excited.

"You wanted an angel concept, right? Everyone else wants something dark and edgy. Why choose? Let’s try to include it! However! We have to fall and become a denizen of darkness, biblical style. The majority rules, so we’re going to be demons or vampires or"

"Jiangshi!"

"Daniel, once again, I don’t know what that is, but sure. But before that, why don’t we start off as good people? Angels, if you will. Picture this, we’re wearing all white robes, singing a beautiful hymn that nobody understands because nobody speaks Latin anymore."

As Ari continued describing his vision, including every item that everyone wanted, the excitement in the air was palpable.

"We get on stage singing beautifully. We pause. Pyrotechnics go off, and the audience figures out that it’s body doubles instead of us. Daniel flies in from the top. Carlos rides his motorcycle from one side, Levi from the other, and I appear in a puff of smoke from the bottom. Our white robes are illuminated with patterns before slowly burning with fake fire. We whip our flaming robes off, and then-

***

"Absolutely not. Are you crazy? Do you know how much this would cost? Go back and trim this down."

Ari: ಠ_ಠ

What do you mean, no?

What happened to my unlimited budget?