Chapter Ten #2
Jesse lowered his gaze from Kenny. All his life, he had been proud to know there were two people who would never lie to him.
Now, he only had Brandon. He set his hand on the contract Kenny had pinned to his chest and eased back down in the chair.
Kenny sat beside him and began reading his copy, or at least, made a good show of trying. Jesse stared blankly at the first page.
“Hey, guys. How’ve you been?”
Jesse and Kenny both turned to see Greg standing in the office doorway.
“Great, Mr. Hansen. How about you?” Kenny said.
Jesse ground his teeth at Kenny’s cheerful, everything-was-lovely tone.
“I’d be better if you just called me Greg. I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for the start of the meeting.” He gazed around the office, his eyebrows furrowing closer. “Where’s Tim?”
“He went to get some coffee,” Kenny said.
“Did he go over the contract with you already?”
“He mentioned a few key points,” Jesse grumbled, and thought he saw a flash of annoyance on Greg’s face before his demeanor shifted back to friendly business oriented.
“I apologize for Tim getting a caffeine craving in the middle of your meeting. Let’s move down to my office where it’s more comfortable and we’ll go over the contract page by page.
This is where you’re going to take the first steps toward success with your music, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. ”
Kenny bounced up to follow Greg. Jesse rose and trailed behind them down a hall leading to Greg’s office.
He wondered if he should tell Greg about Tim’s accusations, then refused to entertain the thought.
That’s all he needed was to get a reputation for being difficult when he hadn’t even signed the contract yet.
Once he signed the contract, he’d be locked into Phoenix and there wouldn’t be anything Tim could do to get rid of him, then he could retaliate.
He felt a little more ease at the thought and turned into Greg’s office, twice the size of Tim’s with a view overlooking the Chicago River.
His eyes fell on the four framed concert posters of Evan, the Gold and Platinum records, the case filled with awards.
He pointed at the wall and case. “Those are all Evan’s? ”
“Yes,” Greg said. “He covered a lot of ground when he was performing. All of his albums went multi-Platinum, and his fourth, One More Time, was a masterwork.”
Jesse went to the case and gazed down at the awards. “I knew he won a lot of awards, but I never knew it was this many.”
Greg moved to Jesse’s side, also looking down in the case.
“Well, they never meant much to him. That’s why I have them.
It was always such a pain to get him to those award shows unless he was booked to perform.
He’d go up on stage smiling for everyone, say a quick charming acceptance speech, then walk offstage, shove the award at me, and wait until he was called up again. ”
Jesse looked at the awards, wondering why Evan didn’t want them. It was a huge accomplishment for a musician to win as many as he did. For every album he released there were awards.
Greg gave him a warm smile. “Evan was very taken with your music. That’s a great compliment coming from him. He doesn’t acknowledge other musicians unless he truly feels they have talent, so you can imagine that’s a rarity with him since he’s well aware of the enormity of his own gift.”
Jesse faced Greg and met his eyes with an unwavering stare. “Is that why you called us for this deal? Because he told you to?”
Greg’s smile shifted from warm to sympathetic.
“You’re a fan of his, aren’t you? I could tell when you met him.
You must have been very excited to speak with someone who carries as much weight in this business as he does, but the truth is Evan has little interest in the careers of other artists.
He brought me to see you guys because he saw your talent, he gave me his input on your style, but that’s it.
I’m sure you admire his work and would like to see him again, and if he’s still in town by the time we hit the studio, if all goes well today, I might be able to convince him to come down, but I couldn’t promise anything. ”
Jesse stood silent. Either Greg was doing a hell of a cover job pretending to not know about him and Evan, or he really didn’t know.
Pure elation began to fill him. Greg didn’t know.
Evan really hadn’t set this up. He had been honest when he said all he did was bring Greg to see him.
Not that he thought Evan had lied, but with all the accusations from Tim and Kenny, his belief in Evan’s words had gotten a little shaken.
And that meant Tim really didn’t know either, but had assumed it from what he saw and his impression of him.
Jesse shot Kenny a triumphant smirk. Kenny pointedly looked away.
Greg patted Jesse’s shoulder. “I said I couldn’t promise anything, so don’t get your hopes up.
Right now, we should concentrate on getting down to business.
” He walked to his desk and took a seat in the chair behind it.
“I take it Tim already discussed the advance amount with you, but just so you know, that’s where all your recording costs are going to come out of, so try to optimize your studio time.
If you have a dream of recording in New York, L.A.
, or anywhere else, we can send you there, but it’s going to cost more than if you use our private studios here in Chicago. ”
Jesse sat down beside Kenny. “Is this a warning to not blow all the cash on booze and strippers?”
“Pretty much. You could do that, but then you’d end up more in debt to the label.”
“Well then, maybe our advance should get bumped up,” Jesse said.
Kenny choked out a horrified gasp.
Greg leaned back in his chair, grinning at Jesse. “Are booze and strippers key elements to your creative process?”
“No, but Pizzeria Uno’s and a shopping spree at Saks are.”
Kenny buried his face in his hands.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Greg chuckled. “Let’s start working out some of the other details, and we’ll negotiate at the end.”
Halfway through Greg’s explanations of the countless clauses in the contract, Jesse sat back in the chair, rubbing his eyes.
“From what I’m getting out of all this crap in the promotions section, we pretty much have to do whatever Phoenix tells us to do since you’re handling all our publicity and promoting.
You basically own us. We’re your indentured servants. ”
“I prefer to think of us as all on the same team, striving for the mutual goal of your ultimate success,” Greg said.
“That’s some nice sugarcoating.”
“Yes, I thought so. But you could seek outside representation in the form of an agent to handle your publicity if you’re not comfortable with Phoenix doing it.”
“So long as your people can get the job done, one evil’s just as good as the other as far as I’m concerned.
And just to make sure I’m completely clear on this, the songs we record become the property of Phoenix, even masters that aren’t released.
Then if you guys decide to let us go, we can’t record those songs again with another label? ”
“That’s the gist of it, but it doesn’t mean forever. After a certain time period we can relinquish those songs back to you. See here, it’s written in case you are cut loose by us, after a period of five years from that date, you can release the songs under another label.”
“I understand you guys need the copyrights so you can distribute and promote the music, but the last thing I want is to be watching TV and hear ‘Shattered’ as the background music for a tampon commercial because you guys got offered an endorsement deal. I want a clause written in that no songs bearing songwriting credits by myself or any other member of Conquest can be exploited or released for endorsements or other promotions without my direct written consent.”
Greg’s lips parted in shock. “I’m not sure I can agree to that.”
“Then I’m not sure I’m capable of holding a pen.”
Kenny looked at Jesse in alarm. He glanced at Greg and watched him and Jesse stare each other down.
Greg’s face broke into a slow smile, and he scribbled down Jesse’s demand. “The attorneys will adjust this into the final contract.”
Jesse glowed at his victory as he flipped to the next page.
He didn’t care what Tim said. He knew he had everything it took to reach the highest levels of success in music, and he wasn’t going to stop until he stood on top of the world, the conquering hero for all who had ever doubted him to look upon.