“Ah, I see that Conwell hasn’t told you what this meeting was about.”
“If Pete did, I doubt that Julian would want to meet with us,” Wayland chipped in, smiling at me brightly. Wayland looked the opposite of Ross. He was tall and had kept his lean figure and a shocking mass of gray hair. His blue eyes were bright and friendly and he always looked so calm and collected that it was hard not to be in good terms with him. Although I knew that there was more to Wayland that met the eye.
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean? What’s this meeting about? Why am I the only one here?”
If the producers wanted to meet with our band, then I shouldn’t be the only one here facing them but then again, Wayland and Ross seemed to only want to talk to me which confused me. Come to think of it, Pete and I barely had a conversation earlier and I couldn’t even get the chance to ask him about the others. Maybe it was because of my hangover or because it was only the two of us. Pete and I sometimes couldn’t see eye to eye and on most occasions that we did, the rest of the band was there to referee us in case of any arguments. Our personalities clashed but because he couldn’t really let go of our band because we were his biggest client, he stuck with us.
I could drop Pete in a heartbeat to be honest, if only if it wasn’t for the rest of the boys who actually liked him.
Wayland looked at me with his bright blue eyes. “We think it’s about time you go solo, Julian.”
We think it’s about time you go solo, Julian.
If I had been holding onto anything, I swear I would’ve dropped it in surprise. Of all the things that they could discuss with me in this meeting, this was a statement that I didn’t expect to hear. “What did you just say?”
Wayland and Ross glanced at each other again and Ross replied to me, in a gruff voice. “We always knew you would make it big in the industry, Hudson. But your band…we didn’t have such hopes.”
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, unable to comprehend what they were telling me. “What does that mean? You had us sign with you.”
“Because you didn’t want to sign as a solo artist. We’ve seen your videos before on YouTube and we always knew you could make it on your own but Pete had explained to us you didn’t want to sign a label alone so we had struck a deal with him,”
All I could do was stare at them with my mouth set in a grim line. Pete had never mentioned this to me before but I remember him asking me once if I was willing to go solo. But just as I declined the other labels that had asked me to sign up with them before we launched the YouTube channel, I had rejected Pete’s offer too. It never occurred to me that he would strike a deal with Wayland and Ross behind my back.
And the minutes passed by in silence, and I knew they were both waiting for my response. This could go in two ways: either I could nod at them and agree, sign a brand-new solo contract and build a career of only my own that would lead me to greater heights. Or I could laugh at them right on their faces and tell them to fuck off.
I did the latter.
Letting out a hoot of laughter, I made a show of slapping my knee to make my point clear to them. Sobering up and then wiping away a fake tear from my eyes, I looked at Wayland and Ross who were staring back at me, both tight-lipped. “You’re kidding me, right?”
Wayland didn’t look like he was kidding. “We wouldn’t kid about something as serious as this, Julian.”
I scoffed, shaking my head at the two of them. “The deal you made was with Pete, not with me. While I’m sure flying solo would be a bigger adventure, people knew me as Born from Ashes’ frontman and I intend for them to know me in the way until we become irrelevant.”
Wayland sighed and then nodded his head. My eyes narrowed, knowing that he wouldn’t simply agree to me that easy. “We’ll give you time to reconsider our offer, Julian. But know that there won’t be another contract that your band will sign with our label. Do keep that in mind. “
I couldn’t help but scoff at the nerve he had to think that I would want to reconsider his offer and having the audacity to threaten me. “You really think that I’d buy that and think it over? If we lose this deal with you, there are a bunch of labels who would die to have us sign with them. Drop us if you want. It’s not our loss anyway.”
Ross tutted, shaking his head. “Ah, arrogance suits you, Julian Hudson, but careful when you use it.”
My eyebrows rose. “Pray tell, what do you mean by that?”
The chubby buffoon acted so smug, like he had something important dangling in his fingertips. “The rights to your music will be ours. There was a fine print that you were all unable to see.”
Ross was staring at me with a big smirk on his face and Wayland was just as smug and both of them looked like they had this shit already won because they thought ahead of me. What I could do to actually punch their faces to wipe off that smugness but somehow, I managed to control myself to avoid any scandal. Our music was written by me and these two assholes knew that which was why they were baiting it, dangling it in front of me and waiting for me to bite.
As if I would.
“You two have a lot of nerve to think that I would sign as a fucking solo artist to your damn company because of that,” my voice was so low and cold that it actually surprised them. I looked at them with narrowed eyes and shook my head, “so you know what? Keep our fucking music. I don’t give a fucking damn what you want to do with it.”
Wayland stared at me in disbelief. “Maybe you don’t get it, Julian. The rights to your music will be ours and you will not be allowed to play any of it. Not on any shows, documentaries, concerts and tours. Not even on a YouTube channel. It’ll be copyrighted as ours.”
“You’re an arrogant asshole since you rose to fame,” Ross mused, looking at me with his beady eyes, “but you’re aware that what you’re doing is just plain stupid.”
I stood up, shrugging so casually. “I guess I am if that’s going to make things clear with the both of you. I won’t be signing as your solo artist. I’ll be Julian Hudson, frontman of Born from Ashes, and I chose to continue being that.”
I was ready to leave their office but then since I was being reckless, an ass and a complete idiot- according to Ross anyway- I decided that I might as well thank them for all that they’ve done.
“Oh, and one more thing,” I said, turning around to face the two of them and raising both my hands to flip them off, “it’s been a good while with you both but good riddance to the both of you.”
I could hear both of them shouting at me to come back but I just casually left the building, trying to act chill and unbothered when in truth, I was seething. I’d always known it was too good to be true that a company wanted to sign our band so easily despite how quickly we’d risen to fame after the channel came out but how easy Pete pulled it all off without even having to discuss anything with us always made me a tad bit suspicious.
And now behold, he made a deal behind our back, behind my back. It felt like he was selling me off as if I was a slave or something. I’d always made it clear to him that I wouldn’t sign with anything if they didn’t want the whole package and he actually had the audacity to strike a deal like that with Wayland and Ross. He knew we were a little bit desperate but not that desperate. God, if I could see that scumbag, I’d beat him up and not care if he called the police on me.