More than Music

30

The bassist even got hit with s****l assault charges. The show had a pretty bad rep for a while because of them, with the network threatening to cancel The Sound entirely. Ever since, the producers have wanted a nice, no-risk, low-drama winner. That means, no edgy rock bands and no bands that have any sort of romance angle at all.”

“There is no romance angle,” I said quickly. “We’re just friends.”

Jared shot me a sharp look, but said nothing.

“That’s good,” Dan said. “I know the show has been trying to feel out what kind of relationship you two have. They don’t want another repeat of Addicted to Chaos, so don’t do anything to fuel those rumors about the two of you being together.”

I nodded. Being part of the band and winning the show were the only things that mattered, and I couldn’t let my attraction to Jared mess that up. I’d just have to stay away from him as much as possible over the next few weeks.

“Fine,” Jared said, though he didn’t sound happy about it. “But do we even have a shot at winning if they don’t want another rock band?” “Yes, because it’s up to the voters who wins. No matter what the producers want, your band is one of the most popular ones this year. I think you can make it all the way to the end, but you’ll need to keep winning the viewers over and not just when you’re performing. I’ll be coaching you on what to say in interviews, what to wear for the live shows, and how to act when you’re in public. You have an image to keep up now. You’re not just a band anymore—you’re a brand, too. ”

I wasn’t sure how to process all of this. We could work on cohesion and I could try to avoid Jared, but I’d never thought about our “brand” before, other than how I dressed to fit in with the other guys. Now it sounded like everything we did from this point on would be scrutinized, especially if we didn’t fit with what the producers wanted.

Dan checked the papers in front of him again. “Jared, from the rumors I’ve heard and things I’ve read online, you seem to be something of a playboy, right?”

Jared coughed and stared at the floor. “I guess so.”

“Good. Play up that angle for the show. Stay single, flirt with women, make everyone at home think they could have a shot with you. That will prove you’re not with Maddie and might get you more votes. Ladies love a bad boy.”

Hector smirked. “Shouldn’t be too hard for him.”

Jared nodded, but his hands were clenched at his side. Dan’s advice made me want to punch something, but I didn’t know why it would bother Jared since it was the same thing he was already doing now.

“The rest of us don’t have to do that, right?” Kyle asked. “Because I have a girlfriend.”

“Nah, you’re fine,” Dan said. “In fact, you should mention that. You have the edgiest look in the band and having a steady girlfriend will make you seem more relatable. And Hector has the diversity angle covered, which is good for attracting a wider audience.”

Hector scowled, and I didn’t blame him. There was more to Hector than just being Latino.

“Hector’s an artist,” Jared added. “He has a graphic novel that just came out.”

Dan wrote something down. “Okay, we’ll see what we can do with that.” He turned to study me again. “And to attract the male vote we’ll have to make sure Maddie looks hot every week.”

“Should I wear my contacts instead of my glasses?” I asked with a sigh.

“No, keep them. The glasses make you seem more relatable, more real, especially to other girls.”

I hated this. For the live shows, it wasn’t just about being musicians anymore; now we had to look and act certain ways to get votes. I just wanted to play my guitar, not worry about manipulating the viewers to like us, but I had no choice but to go with it for a few weeks. It was a game, and if that’s what it took to be on the show until the end, so be it. And unfortunately, my contributions seemed to be “looking hot” and “not getting involved with Jared.”

The next few days went by in a blur of practice, and Dan actually showed up for every single one of them for at least an hour while the camera crews filmed from the sidelines. We’d been working on everything he’d told us, and I could already tell we were improving a lot. One day Dan even had us switch instruments to try and give us a better understanding of each other. Turns out, I was terrible at drums (though they were fun), not too awful at bass (maybe I’d learn it next, once this was all over), and playing keyboard was as easy as guitar for me, even if I wasn’t familiar with Kyle’s setup. Hector was a disaster with anything other than the drums, while Kyle could scrape by on every instrument, even if he obviously never practiced them. Jared was good at everything, of course. It shouldn’t surprise me, since he wrote most of the band’s music, but it’d be nice if he were bad at something for once.

Our rehearsals were interspersed with photo shoots and interviews about what it was like to work with Dan now that we were on his team, along with questions like why we chose this song and why we wanted to win The Sound. Dan had coached us each on what to say, and we repeated his sound bites until they lost all meaning. The show especially loved to ask me and Jared about our relationship status. We both chimed in that we were single and, yes, we would definitely date a fan. Those lines sounded fake when I said them, but Jared was much better at pulling them off than I was. I avoided him entirely outside of rehearsal, which was easy since I kept to my room a lot…until Kyle insisted I come to their