Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

[Grey Oliver] [28 years old]

[Singing ability: Intermediate Grade 7]

[Special skill: Pop songs specialist]

___

Aiden couldn’t help but stare upon seeing the level of Grey.

He was currently seated in the recording studio, just before the recording was about to begin. Aside from Grey, who was in the booth, there were other people present here, including the sound engineer, arranger. Even Wade and Jason were sitting in the back.

As Grey was about to start the recording, Aiden had checked his level, and even though he had expected a high level, this was still a shock to him.

It was the highest level he had seen till now, and he could only imagine how it would be to listen to Grey’s singing live.

‘He even has a special skill. A pretty good one at that.’

He recalled at one point, all Grey was releasing were pop songs with electronic music. It was also the time when his career had taken off at a rapid pace.

It made sense for him to have such a skill.

“Are you nervous?” 

As Aiden was thinking about Grey’s singing levels, a voice made him break out of his stupor. Turning his head to the side, he saw a slightly fat guy with a hat.

He was Toby Ellis, the sound engineer that was handling the recording. Apparently, he had been working with Grey ever since the latter’s career took off.

“Not really. It’s Grey who’s singing. Not me.” Aiden replied, but Toby shook his head.

“Not as a singer but a composer. It’s your song, so I am sure you are probably a bit nervous. Hoping that the recording goes well.”

Toby said that because he himself was a composer and would be a bit nervous before each recording. When he pointed it out, Aiden realised he indeed was a bit nervous._.

“A little bit. But I feel like it will go well.”

Toby nodded, and at that moment, Grey gave the signal that he was ready to start the recording.

Then closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before starting to sing.

🎙🎵

“Where have the good days gone?”

“The times where we used to ask our friends for games to loan.”

“We used to have a dream of growing magically.”

“But did it all end up so tragically?”

🎙🎵

As Grey finished the first verse, Aiden noticed a silver light filling the recording booth. Until now, he had already gotten an idea that each light was unique to its own grade.

White light meant that the singer was singing at a beginner level, and Silver meant intermediate. Maybe there was gold for the advanced grade?

‘He’s really good.’

Aiden thought as Grey’s voice came out from the speakers. It was a pretty good voice that didn’t sound rough, but it wasn’t overly sweet at the same time. Moreover, it blended well with electronic sounds.

But he noticed something weird when Grey began the second verse.

🎙🎵

“Now, I’m just a guy sitting in the small space that has become my life.”

“No friends, nothing, nada, for whom I would strive.”

🎙🎵

The light suddenly turned a bit weak. Ultimately, Silver turned to white, and Aiden frowned.

“Stop for a second.” He turned towards Toby and said.

Giving the signal to stop to Grey, Toby made a confused expression. Even Grey made a similar expression and asked after coming out of the booth.

“What’s wrong?”

“I feel like we could do this one better. It just doesn’t seem right. The first verse was great, but the second one sounded very weak. Can you play both one by one?”

Toby nodded and played them one by one. In the first verse, Grey’s voice felt powerful, and the notes were all right, too, but the second verse felt a bit lacking compared to it, like the song had completely lost touch.

“You are right. It does sound a bit off.” Grey sighed, putting a finger to his lips, wondering what they could do. “What do you suggest?”

He looked at Aiden, who had pointed it out.

Thinking about it for a second, he tried to remember which part the light had become weak at.

“I think the tempo could be faster here to keep up with the music, and we can increase the volume here and fix the tone a bit too. And yeah, near the end, try to give a bit more emphasis on words, like get the notes to get a bit higher…”

Grey just stared at Aiden as the latter blabbered on. He didn’t know where Aiden got his confidence from, but Grey felt like following his instructions. Who knows? Maybe it might really work.

“Okay. Toby, handle the tone.”

“Okay.”

Toby fixed the tone a bit while glancing at Aiden. Normally, newbies would just observe things and rarely give out their views. Especially someone without any backing, but Aiden was also the composer of the song, so his instructions were nonetheless valuable.

After getting the signal, Grey again began to sing.

🎙🎶🎵

“Now, I’m just a guy sitting in the small space that has become my life.”

“No friends, nothing, nada, for whom I would strive.”

“Every day, just hitting a new low.”

“Surviving with a coffee to gooo.”

🎙🎶🎵

This time, the results were completely different. There was no white light, and the silver light was very strong too. Aiden’s instructions have worked perfectly, so much so that even Toby was a bit surprised.

“It really improved a lot. It sounds way better now. You really know your things.”

He said, giving a smile to Aiden. Even Grey looked satisfied from the booth.

“It was more on instinct,” Aiden replied, not knowing how to answer it. It was his skill that had helped him here.

Even while recording his songs for Melody, Aiden would use his skill to only present the best version of his song to the listeners. 

“Still, you have great ears and a good sense of music.”

Toby praised, and like that, they went on with the recording.

There were many times when they needed to record the same line multiple times and times when they used autotune to make the verse sound better.

This was typical in any recording these days, and throughout the recording, Aiden tried to learn different things from Toby about how to arrange a song and use various equipment.

He was being so proactive because music had already become a huge part of his career, and he wasn’t going to give it up even if he leaned more towards acting, so it was better for him to learn things.

But it was truly Toby and, to a certain extent, Grey who was surprised by Aiden.

There were a lot of instances where Aiden would stop the recording and point out stuff that could make it sound better.

At first, Grey had felt a bit annoyed, but as he saw that the song was just improving in quality thanks to Aiden, he started appreciating it more and more.

Even Wade and Jason standing in the back were shocked to see such a hidden talent of Aiden.

***

“Okay, start when I give the signal.”

After a few hours, Grey went out of the recording booth to take a rest, and Aiden entered it. As they were collaborating on the song, he was also going to sing some verses with the chorus sung entirely by Grey alone.

It seemed a bit unfair to him as he was just playing second fiddle to Grey in the song. But Aiden was already satisfied to have a song together with Grey.

He just wanted to give his best in the song.

“Okay, start!”

Getting the signal from Toby, Aiden took a deep breath and started singing the pre-chorus.

🎙🎶🎵

“The bright blue skies had turned grey.”

“Going to work, faking a smile every day.”

“If I try to tell anyone, they just laugh and turn away.”

“I just want to scream out loud, only one thing that sits in the back of my mind.”

🎙🎶🎵

The pre-chorus wasn’t easy for him as it was different from the original and had a lot of changes in it. The essence of the song was maintained, but Toby has added a lot of different instruments to it and increased the music volume.

Because of that, Aiden’s voice needed to keep up with it and, at the same time, express lyrics that seemed sad in a happy tone. To do this, he tried to focus a lot on expressing the song and putting in the right emotions.

It seemed to have worked, too, as white light mixed with a silver burst forth. As the verse ended, Aiden felt like his voice was good enough.

Although he won’t be able to sing it on the same level as Grey, Aiden was very confident in the expressions of the song. And thankfully, Toby seemed to like it too.

“Okay, that was good.”

It was at that moment that system notifications suddenly popped up in front of him, and seeing so many notifications suddenly, Aiden was frightened for a second.

But when he read the messages, his eyes widened.

[Your song ‘Hold onto me’ has crossed 100 million views (53 million on MeTube and 47 on Melody) on social media platforms.]

[You have gained a lot of experience.]

[You have advanced to Intermediate Grade 1 from Basic Grade 10. Congratulations on unlocking such a huge achievement. Rewards have been given.]

[You have unlocked more functions of the system.]

[You have gained the mastery of silver light.]

[You have gained the skill ‘Song appraisal’. Now, you could check the score of your composed songs.]

…

//DreamNote//

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