From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 325: Producer (4)

"Ari. Carlos. Good to see you both." Jelissa greeted the two boys with a warm smile.

"Hello Jelissa." Carlos greeted her with a gentle smile.

"Salut Jelissa. How are you doing?" Ari asked as he pulled up a chair and sat across from her.

"I’m great, thank you for asking. Say hello to the cameras." Jelissa pointed to the multiple cameras in the small room, and all three of them waved before getting right down to business.

"So, you’re in charge of producing your team’s song, right, Ari? Where are you in the current process, and how can I best support you?" Jelissa asked brightly.

This challenge was one she had looked forward to the most, and she was happy to be chosen by Ari and Jamie as their mentor.

As for William, although she felt bad for thinking it, thankfully, he hadn’t asked her to mentor him through this challenge because they constantly butted heads, and she found it a tad difficult to deal with someone who couldn’t take criticism or advice to better themselves.

Shaking her head to focus, Jelissa watched the handsome green-eyed boy rummage through a bag.

Bringing out his condensed notes, he had taken while gathering ideas from the group and the temporarily loaned laptop, Ari passed Jelissa a copy before discussing the overall points.

"So our concept is a bit dark and edgy, with an almost villainous vibe. Fantasy creature-wise, our team wants to be vampires, demons, things of that nature. I’d like to add the imagery of angels falling and tie that into our overall concept somehow, but that’s currently a work in progress."

"Ahhh, I see. It seems promising." Jelissa glanced over at Carlos, who seemed confused, as if wondering why he was here, before focusing back on Ari, who seemed to have things well in order.

"Here are samples of songs that our team likes. I’ve specifically highlighted the portions and melodies they really enjoyed. We’d also like to include a hymn in the beginning. I think it would be cool to have a choir-like chanting throughout as well. Melody-wise, I want something between a sawtooth melodic shape and an ascending one with an impactful drumline threaded throughout, but especially at the bridge and dance break section. I’m not sure, but I got some samples of things that I think sound good and want to emulate in our own song. Now going into the details..."

With a bemused expression, Jelissa watched as Ari talked.

Briefly wondering when he had found the time to organize the resources and put everything together into a PowerPoint, she watched the mini presentation with interest, and she couldn’t help but compare and contrast his working style with Jamie’s.

While Jamie was the person with more formal music training in every category, the way he worked on things was very casual.

His song creation process involved him playing his guitar until inspiration struck him and noting it down.

All the melodies, chord progressions, and more were created while he was playing his guitar with a skill that always impressed Jelissa each time she saw it.

It was like his hands were blessed and solely created to play the guitar.

And even though Jamie was working to make a team song, the process was still much of the same.

But then, once that inspiration struck, he ended up forcing it back into the music theory molds that he had learned.

While it generally guaranteed a great song that could be technically perfect, it sometimes would leave that particular country flavour that Jelissa had been working with him to remove.

On the other hand, Ari worked the exact opposite way.

She knew he had no formal music training because he was like a sponge, treating every word she said like gold, and absorbing it without fail.

And even though he reminded her of a student at school, researching things for hours, speaking to people, and documenting anything and everything in an organized manner, rather than sticking rigidly to his documents, he was somebody who frequently freestyled and grabbed inspiration from many outside sources; from dreams, to random performances he watched, searching through the depths of the internet, to billboards he just happened to see.

And because he had no formal training, he ended up prioritizing his creative vision over learned structure and musical rules, and easily discarded things he didn’t like, regardless of those rules and theories.

It might not make sense, it might seem chaotic, but something beautiful that could be later refined usually came out.

And when asked why he chose to do a particular thing, or sing a particular way, he would answer in his usual casual way.

’It sounded good to me.’, ’It seemed like it would work, so I tried it and it did.’, ’The pocket sounded empty, so I tried putting something there. It doesn’t sound quite right, but it’s better than before, so why not?’

While those lackadaisical answers might be less than satisfactory to some, to Jelissa, who sometimes worked on that and had worked with others like that, it was fine.

She knew that it wasn’t that Ari wasn’t taking it seriously or was just spitting out random words; it was the sign of a budding musician who may have some intuition and not have the correct music theory vocabulary or the patience to express their thought process.

They just wanted to try something, and it worked, so there was no point digging into the formal reason why.

Intuition vs formal learning.

Freestyling vs a viciously thorough documentation process.

It was quite interesting to watch the two different styles influence each other, because this time around, Jamie had come in with a notebook filled with relatively organized notes and themes, and Ari was using more technical terms and theory to justify the choices he wanted in the song.

So Jelissa, who was quite happy with the growth of the contestants she mentored, couldn’t help but smile.

"Well, that’s everything for now. What do you think?"

"So...." Jelissa looked at Ari, who was staring at her with expectant eyes, and laughed a little before giving him words of praise, "I can tell you’ve been practicing song production along with Jamie. This was a very organized presentation, and your technical knowledge and music theory have grown tremendously. You seem to have everything in hand and a clear vision of what to try, so rather than getting help from me now, why don’t you test some things out, make a demo, and let’s sync up tomorrow to look through it? Here’s the key to your team’s music practice room. It has a keyboard along with some other instruments, so make sure you lock it when not in use. There’s a temporary recording space with microphones as well. You’re familiar with the software on the laptops, which includes pre-created samples and melodies you can use, so go crazy. Good luck. And make sure you stay hydrated, regularly get rest, and don’t work your voice too hard. You wouldn’t want to lose it again so late in the game."

"Will do."

"I’m serious, Ari. The same goes for you, Carlos. You remember the warm-ups I gave you? Make sure you do them properly, so you don’t damage your vocal cords with those high notes. Understand?"

"Okay! I will. Thank you for caring."

"Yes."

"Oh, and Ari? I told Jamie the same thing, so listen clearly. I know you both have personal laptops you use to compose, and you might have software you prefer, but make sure you absolutely do all your work on the given laptops. Don’t do any work for the show on your personal devices; it all has to be on the things you were provided, and if there’s something missing or something you want, ask me or the PD. And doubly make sure you’re always working in a room that has a recording camera at all times, got it? You don’t want to face accusations that you didn’t produce the song and scramble for evidence to prove it, okay? I wish I didn’t have to say it, but you see how messy the production team can be."

"Okay. I will. Thank you for warning me." Grateful for the advice, Ari gave Jelissa a bright smile, and she patted his hand gently.

Giving the boys one last wave, Jelissa walked out of the room to go do a quick interview with Emily.

Sitting on the director’s chair, she got comfortable while Emily arranged the cameras and lighting.

Once everything was ready, the two women of very opposite temperaments stared at each other before PD Emily started speaking first.

"So, two of the three teams have chosen you to help them produce their songs. How do you feel about it? Can you handle it? Are you offended that William didn’t choose you? Tell me more about Jamie and Ari’s song."

"I feel pretty good, and I think it should be fun! I’m not sure what contestant William is working on, but I think he’s a contestant with a plan. As for Ari and Jamie, their ideas sound very fresh and interesting. They are unintentionally heading in two opposite directions, music-wise, which is quite amusing and suits their personalities so much."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"To summarize without giving too much away, one team wants to be a hero while the other wants to be a villain. I think it suits the personalities of the two producing contestants, don’t you?"

"Oh, definitely." Quite amused by the opposing concepts, PD Emily made a note to interview more team members to find out how they came up with such concepts.

Was it organic, or was it due to the influence of the producing contestants?

"Well, then, between the two teams you’re helping, who do you think will win, or who do you think the audience will prefer? Team 1 has Jamie, who has been making music for years, and Team 2 has Ari, who is a newbie. He’s shown great growth and always has fun arrangements for his performances, but this is a music-producing challenge, not just an arrangement one."

"Which one will win? Hmmm...?" Jelissa tapped her lips before responding slowly, "I’m not sure who the audience will prefer, and I definitely won’t choose between them and will do my best to help them equally. But I will say, music production aside, both teams are considering the visual and stage aspect from the beginning, and it will be a battle of who executes their vision the best. Actually, those two teams are competing in every category: Producer Jamie vs Ariel—Rapper Benjamin vs Levi — dancer and choreographer Mathew vs Daniel —Creative director Justin vs Ari — vocals Jamie and Jin vs Ari, Carlos, and Suzuki Rei. One team definitely edges the other out vocally, but I think that it should be amazing to witness what they come up with, and I personally think that these will be the very best performances we have on the show. I’m really, really looking forward to it."

"Ohhh? The way you’re hyping them up makes it seem like you think these two teams will be on top? What about contestant William’s team? He’s had great performances in the past, and I heard he’s already made the basics of his team’s song. He’s working quite hard this time around."

With an uncharacteristically cold smile, Jelissa asked PD Emily a question that she didn’t expect to get an answer to.

"Is he, though?"

*******

"Hello. Uncle?"