Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood

Aiden's attention wasn't garnered for too long by the news of his album breaking out. His team never had the intention to hide it for long as such news would always break out due to 'Insiders'.

They were media contacts inside companies who would never come out in the open but always provided secret information to media companies.

So, they decided to just confirm it to create anticipation among Aiden's fans. Even a lot of casual listeners to his songs were looking forward to the album now.

Aiden kept working on the song alongside Rachel.

The recording was pretty slow, but as they were making progress, no one was dissatisfied. Both of them felt like they were creating a great song and enjoyed the process a lot.

"Are you ready?"

The sound engineer asked as he looked at Aiden, who was inside the recording booth.

"Yeah, let's start."

"Okay."

Currently, he was going to record the third verse.

The one that was better-called pre-chorus. It was a special part of the song just before the highlights - the chorus.

He was being watched by both Linda and Rachel, who were standing in the back. Rachel had just finished a one-hour recording session and was now given a break.

"He's pretty hard working. There's a reason why he's doing so good in the industry currently."

Linda muttered, smiling, looking at Aiden. She had gotten a very good impression of him after watching him work on the song. As a manager, she had heard all sorts of rumours and not one of them was bad about Aiden.

"Yeah." Rachel just said that in reply, and Linda glanced at her.

"You don't like him?"

"It's not that. He's a good singer and very talented. Probably better than me. Just look at him."

Rachel pointed at Aiden, who was singing in the recording booth. His soft voice was very clear, and emotions could clearly be felt just by listening to him. Moreover, the control he had over his voice was something that was missing from him in X-Star.

She, who had watched him closely during the reality show, was the best person to know how much he had improved in such a short time.

"He's probably better than me."

Rachel just said, and before Linda could reply, Aiden came out of the booth.

"Let's head for lunch now. We have been recording for a long time." He looked at both of them.

"Yeah, should I order something?"

"That would be good."

***

'The chorus would be the first difficult part to record.'

Aiden thought, taking a deep breath. Rachel was standing in the booth as they were recording her part first. She didn't look nervous and had a blank face.

Compared to that, Aiden was more nervous, knowing fully well that it was not going to be easy from here on.

"Let's start now, Rachel."

"Okay."

Muttering that, the sound engineer started the music and feeling the melodious tone, Rachel waited for a while until the part came when she needed to sing.

She opened her mouth with a breath and tried to put in as many emotions as she could. This was the part where a singer needed to be very expressive.

High notes and emotions - Two things that were the basics of 'Firefly'.

"So, why can't we be like fireflies?"

"Alive and bright, flying across the night."

"No one to hold us, no one to bind us in our skin."

"Just brightening the darkness within—"

As Rachel was singing, Aiden suddenly stopped the recording.

"Wait! I think it could be better. Can you do it again?"

Rachel looked at him with a confused expression but didn't say anything else. One thing she had gotten to know after working with Aiden was that he had very good ears.

Whenever the singing would start to get worse, he would point it out and sometimes, he would even tell what to do to improve it.

'The silver light was becoming very weak and almost became white.'

He thought in his mind.

Rather than good ears, he had the ability to see music and the singer's singing in the form of light, which made it easier for him to notice where the singing went wrong.

'It didn't start off good. Hope she improves.'

He thought in his mind but didn't mind it a lot. Rachel had sung well till now.

In the recording booth, Rachel began again. This time, she tried to focus more on the tone and keep it even higher.

But it didn't work out again.

She wasn't able to control the high notes, and the song just crumbled here and there because of that.

"Rachel, try to take a deep breath and slowly go on with the chorus."

Aiden said from outside the recording booth, and she nodded. The sound engineer started the music again, and she began singing.

"So, why can't we be like fireflies?"

"Alive and bright, flying across the night."

"No one to hold us, no one to bind us in our skin."

"Just brightening the darkness within."

This time, it was better, but the light still remained very weak. Even without it, Aiden was not really satisfied with it. The high notes were good, but she was not able to control them as well as he had hoped.

The emotions were lost halfway through the song too.

"Rachel, let's go again. Try to focus."

He said, and the recording began again, and even this time, it didn't come out good.

It looked like Rachel was struggling with it, but even she herself didn't know why she wasn't able to control everything in verse at the same time. It was like there was a mental block stopping her.

With no other choice, they could just keep going.

Sadly, no matter how many times they recorded it, it just wasn't working, frustrating both Aiden and Rachel. Even the sound engineer was wondering why Rachel had suddenly become so bad.

In the end, Aiden could just frown.

"Let's take a break. You should rest and try to go at it again. No point continuing it currently."

Rachel's expression was also not good as she came out of the booth. Aiden wondered if he should have a talk with her, but before he could say anything, Rachel opened her mouth.

"Can you give me a moment? I want to be alone for a while."

"Ah, yeah."

She left the recording studio, and seeing her like that, Linda, who was sitting in the back, muttered.

"Her mental state is really affecting her."

"What do you mean?"

Aiden picked up those words and turned his head to look at Linda. She hesitated a bit, wondering if she should talk about it or not before replying.

"It's just that Rachel's having a lot of problems these days. Even during practice, sometimes she would sing very awfully. It's not like her. Like she had forgotten how to sing. I thought she was fine till now, but again… it's resurfacing."

Hearing those words, the sound engineer also gave his thoughts.

"I think it's also because of how difficult this chorus part is. Maintaining a high note while portraying strong emotions is very hard. Singers learn to express more only after experiencing a lot of different things in life. It's something you get with age, and Rachel is very young."

Aiden agreed with his words and folded his arms to think about it.

'It's true that this part is very hard to execute. I had so many problems singing it, and I would still need a lot of practice to perform it in front of a live audience, but Rachel does have her skills. What is actually going on with her?'

When he thought about it, something stood out.

Her skill level.

He couldn't think of any reason why it hadn't improved in more than a year. Rachel had a hit debut single, and even her EP wasn't bad. He had listened to those songs to learn more about her singing style and had found out that it wasn't bad at all.

But it was indeed missing something.

It was like she was just singing it and wasn't able to give her all even if she tried to.

'It's really like she's having a mental block.'

Aiden had read something about it before.

Artists would usually go across a phase where they themselves would think they were not good enough due to various reasons. In those times, no matter how much they tried, their work would look lacklustre.

Just because they didn't believe in their talent.

'Maybe Rachel is going through something similar. Probably an inferiority complex.'

Thinking of it, he walked towards Linda. She was the person who was closest to her.

"Linda, can you tell me one thing?"

"What?"

"Have you noticed moments where Rachel would say things like 'I'm not good enough' or anything similar to it?"

Linda was surprised when Aiden mentioned it and nodded.

"Yeah, there are times like that. She's been under a lot of pressure, and Cyco media isn't really supporting her in this phase as they are looking for other singers. It was hard even to get the chance to collaborate with you."

"I thought they liked her?"

"They did, but the EP didn't perform so well, and there were questions about her as a performer. She's trying to work hard to improve herself, but as nothing is moving in her career, she's been under a lot of pressure."

When Linda explained all that, Aiden felt bad for Rachel.

She was a very talented singer, but due to so many reasons, she was losing trust in herself. It was very evident in how she wasn't able to sing the chorus properly. It even looked like it was sung by a complete newbie.

...