After becoming a star, Aiden had never really gotten time to connect with people outside work. Like it's been years since he had met his acquaintances in 'The Rabbit hole' bar or a few of his friends that he had before becoming famous.
It wasn't because he looked down upon those friendships after becoming big. He just never had time.
His work was exhausting and Aiden was a person who liked to spend time with himself more than someone else — The true definition of an introvert.
But whenever he would meet someone from his past, it would be interesting to see how they have changed. Some would be doing extremely good in life while others not so much.
When he met Jackson, he felt like he came in the middle.
"What happened to your hair?"
"You are asking why I'm bald?"
"Yes. Last time we met, you were trying to grow your hair. Why have you suddenly gone bald? Are you getting hair fall with age?"
Aiden asked the question that was in the mind of Wade and Tom too. Even other people in the studio were staring at Jackson who still had the same goofy smile on his face.
It had been a few years since Aiden saw him and although Jackson did look a bit older, the most striking thing about him was the loss of hair.
He was completely bald now. Even giving Aiden the impression of an actor who would do a lot of 'family action movies'.
"No, it's not a hairfall or anything. I just shaved it off." Jackson said as a matter of fact.
"But why?" Wade asked, looking at him with pity. He knew a few bald agents himself and none of them had been happy with their bald head.
One of them had to resort to growing his beard and putting on his sunglasses to get girls these days. Whenever they meet, the guy will be in a cap to hide his bald scalp.
"Well, I told you that my band broke up right. We were doing a lot of shows in Europe and the Middle East when a few people had a fight and the record label told us to break off as we didn't reach their expectations."
Jackson had been telling that story straight from the airport to the studio. Aiden had felt bad hearing that but it looked like he was already over it.
But it didn't explain why he had a bald head.
"Anyway, I was angry about it, so I kind of shaved my head off in a hotel room and started liking how I looked. I mean, the guy who has gotten the most chicks in the world is a bald guy, right."
Jackson laughed saying that and Aiden could only think that this was a very silly reason.
He was expecting something like a superstition but this reason was even worse than that.
'At least he looks like he's enjoying life.'
Ignoring his bald head, Jackson had really become a pretty famous drummer, especially among musicians. He also had earned good money and was now just travelling the world these days.
That's why he was free when Aiden had called him.
"Anyway, you have not lost your skills alongside your hair, right?" He asked and Jackson smirked.
"I will never lose them."
As he said that, the door to the room opened and Eddie and Drew walked in. They walked towards Jackson and Eddie squinted at him.
"He's your drummer."
"Yup."
"Jackson Brown."
Jackson introduced himself and shook hands with both of them. The atmosphere quickly got serious as all of them were professionals and not friends.
Having older guys working with you meant that they would strictly talk about work as there was hardly anything common to talk about due to the generation gap.
Music was the only common thing among them.
"I have seen some of your videos. You are good but we would need more from you on this song."
Eddie said, looking at Jackson and he raised one of his eyebrows.
"More? Like how?"
"Like I want someone who can put on a performance that seems like he's possessed. That kind of performance. Can you show me a sample?"
He said and passed him sticks. Eddie was only going to be able to tell more after seeing Jackson perform live.
Jackson nodded his head and walked towards the drum set that was already arranged for him. He sat down and took a deep breath, trying to concentrate.
A few people whispered among themselves, wondering if he would be any good. Only Aiden looked at him with confidence on his face.
It was because his skills had increased to another level.
[Drumming: Level 9]
For the next twenty minutes, everyone kept looking at him as he played drums with all his heart. And he played it in a way that stunned everyone.
***
His song with 'The Boys' was going to be the main title song for the mini album. Aiden had decided that and because of that, the song needed to be perfect.
It needed to be a song that could connect with the audience in a way that they could share it with everyone they knew. For this song, Eddie and him went through a couple of themes and tunes.
Although Eddie has a higher skill level than Aiden, he wasn't bossy or arrogant and fully realised that it was Aiden's song and not the 'The Boys'. Moreover, he was also curious as to how Aiden made his songs.
It was rare to find a musician who does all of his songs by himself.
So, Eddie just observed him as he talked about the type of song he wanted to do. He did give his advice once in a while but they were making good progress everyday.
For the style of the song, they were clear on what they wanted to do.
A theme that suited both 'The Boys' and Aiden. The theme of struggle but Aiden wanted it to be a song more about destiny.
They worked hard to prepare a base tune for it. They needed a tune that was strong yet something that grows on people. An electric guitar or just something else.
After struggling with it for a few days, they finally got a good tune that satisfied the both of them. Eddie decided to work on it alone to make it even better and Aiden took the chance to write up the lyrics for the song.
'The lyrics need to tell a story like always.'
There were a few basic things always in his style of composing. So much so that it was more about telling a story than anything else.
The story could be his. Someone else's or just a story that he made up in his mind. But for this song, he was clear as to what type of story he wanted to tell.
A story of destiny and fate.
These were very complicated topics for everyone in the world. After all, were they even true? A lot of people think that our lives are already written and we were just puppets doing things that we didn't choose.
But Aiden disagreed with it.
He felt like our destiny was around us and more often than not, life would try to guide us to choose it. But in the end, it was still our decision.
If one wanted to stay in the slums or rise above them to get a better life for himself. One doesn't have anyone else to blame for the decisions he makes.
It won't always work out and not everyone is bound to be special. But that's just how the world worked and there was no going around it.
Aiden added his story to it and tried to put down lyrics around it.
He scraped a few papers while writing down lyrics as it was hard for him to pin down the lyrics that really suited the tone. But in the end, he made progress, albeit slowly.
With a song like this, the problem was that it was sounding more like a motivational song than one that sounded more personal. Aiden wanted to create a song that a person could hear and get hope that one day, it will be fine while at the same time, thinking that the novel was extremely nice to listen to.
Not a motivational song to hype up the person for a small time.
In the end, he was able to pen down a few good lines and then Eddie helped him out to build on it.
The man was really a professional and as he saw Aiden's lyrics, he was quickly able to deduce what Aiden was trying to do.
Working with him, Aiden felt like he was learning a lot of things.
His skills were also slowly rising.
[You have gotten experience.]
[Your composing skills are rising.]
[Your Lyric writing skills are rising.]
These notifications were the reason that Aiden was able to put more thought into composing. After all, knowing that he was improving, Aiden was more motivated.
