Studio No. 6, BMG Entertainment
Ajay was at a loss for words, sitting on a sofa at the edge of the studio, breathing in all the smoke.
Lil Tjay was continuously humming the song he had just given him, and a producer was cooking up the beat.
He still couldn't recover from what had just happened a few hours ago.
When he started to sing "Thrift Shop," Lil Tjay and the bodyguards simply laughed, but as he continued to sing, Lil Tjay's expression changed, and he looked at him with amazement.
"You really wrote this?" he asked.
"Yes, I did. I did the arrangement as well. I can write down the music sheet if you want."
Lil Tjay showed a sly look that only appeared for a split second, but Ajay caught the fleeting emotion and immediately understood what was going on. Without hesitation, before things could go further, he blurted out, "I have a way to prove that I wrote the song." This was both to reassure him that he was the original author and also to warn him not to think about stealing his work. He didn't want to be rude, so he said it in such a roundabout way.
As he expected, Lil Tjay smiled and patted his shoulder.
"How much do you want?"
Ajay thought about it and said his expectations. "$40,000."
Lil Tjay burst out laughing. "Pffff! Ha ha ha!"
"Bryce, can you believe this motherfucker? He wants 40,000! Ha haha!"
Ajay's expression turned ugly, and with hesitation, he lowered the price. "35,000 will also do. I'll not even ask for the authorship."
Tjay began to laugh even louder.
Ajay stared at Tjay, unable to understand what was so funny, but he did not try to reduce the price any further because he understood that he probably was not in the same ballpark at all. He might have overestimated the cost of a song.
"Nigga, listen up." Tjay stopped smiling and looked at him with a threatening stare while maintaining a smile on his face. "I'm telling you this since you look like a nigga who doesn't know anything about the music industry. Newcomers without any work don't get paid until the song is released, and even after it is released, you can only get a thousand or two."
"So forget about 30 or 40 thousand. You won't even get 5,000."
"But I like your song. I'm a generous person. Take 3,000 and call it a day. How about it?"
Ajay's mouth was wide open, but in the end, he couldn't help but nod.
If the industry were really as Tjay said, there really was no hope of getting all the funding for his film from this song alone.
"If only I had recovered earlier, god fucking damn it, I might have prepared better."
He cursed at himself and got in the car when Tjay motioned him to.
And hence he was here, in the 6th Bertelsmann Studio, watching the song "Thrift Shop" being produced right in front of his eyes.
'Maybe I should pause my film dreams for a while longer and lean more into the music circle.'
'Meeting Tjay might be my biggest opportunity. So what if he only gives me $3,000? If he doesn't want to make a movie, It's already a lot. Not to mention, holding on to Tjay's coattails, I could meet a lot more artists and professionals in the music industry.'
Taken from NovelPhoenix, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
'Maybe I can use the music industry to leverage my way into the film industry.'
His eyes started to brighten, and the more he thought about the situation, the clearer his future path became.
With his mind made up and excited for the future, he got up and stood behind the producer as well as Tjay, who was bobbing his head up and down to the beat.
He heard the beat carefully and felt it was different. Although the rhythm was the same, the sound was different.
"It needs a thumpier kick," he said to himself, but coincidentally, the song was paused right at that moment, and his words came out louder than he expected.
"What?" Tjay asked as he looked back.
Ajay took a big gulp and responded, "It needs a thumpier kick, like the ones in electronic music. Kick doesn't need to be too big."
The producer frowned and looked at the guy with a questioning gaze. "Are you a producer?"
Ajay waved his hand vigorously. "No, I'm not, but I wrote the lyrics and made the arrangement. I can hear the song in my mind, and it has thumpy kicks."
"Thumpy kicks?" Lil Tjay enquired.
"Thumpy kicks," Ajay confirmed.
The producer was about to refute, but Lil Tjay stroked his chin and patted the producer's back. "Try it!"
The producer stopped what he was about to say and made the adjustments in the synthesiser.
The music started playing once again, and this time the kick was much more thumpy. Ajay simply closed his eyes and listened to the beat carefully. To his surprise, he felt like he could point out exactly what the sound needed.
"Can the echo be removed?" he asked.
"Echo? What the hell do you mean, echo?" The producer paused the song and looked at Ajay as if looking at a fool.
"Echo, the thing that bounces off the walls?"
"Reverb?"
"I don't know the terminology. It might be that, but could you remove it?"
"Hey, Tjay, where did you bring this guy from? What nonsense is he talking? I haven't even added reverb to anything."
Lil Tjay looked at Ajay, his brows furrowed and eyes squinted.
Ajay was in a hurry. "There really is an echo, ah... reverb. It is in the kicks. It is clashing with the snares and the hi-hats. I swear I'm not lying."
"You could hear that?" Lil Tjay asked, unsure of whether what Ajay was saying was true or not.
Ajay profusely nodded.
"Hey, Jake! Isolate those kicks and push up the gain."
The producer grumbled under his breath and did as Lil Tjay said.
The music started playing once again, and this time the producer's eyes widened.
Lil Tjay could not hear the reverb, but Jake could. "There really is a little reverb. It's too subtle, so it could not be identified before."
Jake looked at Ajay, pleasantly surprised. "You have a very good ear. Did you have musical experience before?"
"Ah... I was in a church choir for a few years. Does that count?"
"Never mind." Jake shook his head and started to make adjustments. "You should really consider music production."
After the adjustments were made, the track was played once again. This time, the kick was extremely crisp and clear, so when the entire track was played along with the snares and the hi-hats, the effect of the beat was much cleaner.
Impressed by his talent, Lil Tjay invited him to the production sessions for several days in a row, where he worked with Jake whenever he felt that there was something wrong with the song.
"Hey Jake, instead of brass, could you use trumpets?"
"Trumpets?"
"Who uses trumpets these days?"
"Just do it, Jake. Trust me."
Thankfully, Bertelsmann Music Group had a lot of musicians stationed at its studio so that all the signed artists could produce music and experiment whenever needed.
So the trumpet players were brought in within a few minutes, and they started to play the piece of melody in the chart sheet.
Ajay listened to the piece carefully, and he immediately knew what needed to be done. "In the same key, could you play two notes up?"
The trumpet player wiped his mouth and nodded.
When he played once again, Ajay's eyes lit up. This was it.
Jake recorded the sound and loaded it onto the machine.
When the beat was played once again, Jake's eyes widened. The beat suddenly became several times more catchy. It even gave him trouble when he tried to play around with its reverb, brightness, and saturation.
It was as if the recording alone was perfect, and no matter what he did after that would only make the music duller and less vibrant.
So he left it as is and directly asked Ajay what he would like to add next.
Ajay thought about it, and the last part of the song was actually the vocal cuts. He didn't know what they were called in music-making, but they were very recognisable. He didn't think they were vocal instruments, so it had to be another song that was chopped up and edited to make the melody.
He explained his concept, and Jake, stroking his chin, replied, "Then we have to look for a suitable sample."
"Can you sing the melody?"
Ajay thought for a moment and nodded. The melody was weird, but he felt like he could do it.
Jake was surprised that Ajay was actually a good singer, but he quickly recorded the sound for reference and started his search. "It's a male singer in a high-pitched voice."
"I'll search for a similar sample, but if the song is not found in the BMG library, let's simply use a singer."
Turns out a suitable song could not be found, and a black singer was used instead.
Nearly a week later, the track was done.