Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
EchoZone – Private Message Thread
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Marryoke? Way to self-sabotage yourself. No one is going to want to hire you.
MustLoveMusic: It’s like karaoke for marriages.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: We need a band that is enticing for weddings, anniversaries, baptisms . . . all kinds of events. Not just karaoke.
MustLoveMusic: There won’t be karaoke. I’ll do the singing.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: How do you think this is going to go?
MustLoveMusic: Excellent.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Jules’s friend (the drummer) won’t be able to do any gigs.
MustLoveMusic: I might be able to convince my friend. He’s a diva, but he owns a suit and can beat the shit out of a drum.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: No beating. I need someone who knows how to play.
MustLoveMusic: He does.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I’ll email you the number for the other two guys later. Can we just discuss names for the band?
MustLoveMusic: I’m open to suggestions.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Good. Because Marryoke makes it sound like drunk aunts will be fighting over the mic by dessert.
MustLoveMusic: You say that like it’s a bad thing. I’ve seen a mic fight end in tears and a toast. It brought people together.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: You’re not helping your case. This band needs to sound professional. Like something someone’s grandmother will clap along to without clutching her pearls.
MustLoveMusic: So you want safe and boring? Got it. How about . . . Mood Lighting?
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Are you naming a band or a motel off I-5?
MustLoveMusic: You’re judgy.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Try again.
MustLoveMusic: Fine. What about Midnight Vinyl?
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Not bad. Sounds vaguely seductive and doesn’t scream “please don’t book us.”
MustLoveMusic: That’s high praise coming from you.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Don’t let it go to your head.
MustLoveMusic: Too late. I’m already designing fake album covers in my head.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: As long as none of them involve fire, shirtless sax players, or doves.
MustLoveMusic: You’ve clearly been traumatized by ‘80s band flyers.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I plan weddings. I’ve seen things.
MustLoveMusic: Now I’m curious.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I once had a groom request a fog machine and red uplighting for a noon garden ceremony. He said he wanted the bride to walk down the aisle like it was “the opening act of a rock ballad.”
MustLoveMusic: Okay. That guy’s a legend. I want to meet him.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: He wore sunglasses during the vows. Indoors. In December.
MustLoveMusic: What about The Afterglow?
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Hmm. Romantic. Slightly moody. Not too embarrassing to print on a cocktail napkin. I’ll consider it.
MustLoveMusic: We’re making progress.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Maybe, but that can’t be the final cut.
MustLoveMusic: Okay, new idea. Champagne Reverb.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: God, no. It sounds like a perfume that gives you a headache.
MustLoveMusic: Or a band that opens for Seal.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Exactly. And you're not opening for Seal. You’ll be playing at a barn in Tacoma for a couple who think Everlong is a processional.
MustLoveMusic: . . . that’s kind of brilliant.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Only if you like crying before you make it to the altar.
MustLoveMusic: You don’t cry during Foo Fighters?
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Not unless I’ve been dumped or watching a late-night music video marathon.
MustLoveMusic: Right, songs wreck you and have you all magically whippy.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: You did not say that.
MustLoveMusic: Listen I don’t cry but Vienna wrecks me. There’s this line—“You can’t be everything you want to be before your time.” Billy Joel just says it with heart and hitting you right in the soul.
First time I heard it, I thought it was bullshit. I was fifteen, thought the world owed me applause. Thought success meant I’d finally stop feeling like I was running out of time. But that song . . . it crept up on me.
You hear it when you’re young and it feels like a bullshit. You hear it again years later, and it feels like someone handing you mercy.
It’s about slowing down without giving up. About realizing that maybe you don’t have to prove your worth every damn second of your life. That it’s okay to want things and still not have them all figured out.
When Billy Joel sings it, it doesn’t sound like advice—it sounds like someone who’s already made every mistake and survived it anyway.
I guess it wrecks me because it reminds me I don’t know how to stop chasing.
And I don’t know what to do with myself when the music stops.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: A piano ballad isn’t what I expected, but it makes sense. I like some stuff by Billy. You also sound like you know more about music than you let me believe during our first call.
MustLoveMusic: Forget about that guy and focus on me, Ali.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: It’s Alyssa or Aly.
MustLoveMusic: Okay, focus on what you know now. I do know a lot about music. I come from a long line of musicians. My grandfather taught me everything he knew.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Are you a full-time musician?
MustLoveMusic: I’m between jobs at the moment.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: That must be scary. I panicked when I decided that PR wasn’t my thing but I was good at organizing and fixing things. Jules helped me at the beginning but didn’t leave her job until this event planning thing took off enough to pay our salaries.
MustLoveMusic: You seem to be good at it.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I love it but sometimes it doesn’t feel like fun—like today when I have to deal with the downfall of Love & Vinyl.
MustLoveMusic: It was a downfall?
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Sounds wild, but they were the wedding band around here. Now that they’ve imploded, every planner and bride is spiraling like you have to prep for Y2K all over again.
MustLoveMusic: If we can’t pull a band together in time, I can build a set—just me, Rosie, and a mic. No backup required.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I have to see that.
MustLoveMusic: Challenge accepted. Name the time and place, Wedding Planner.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: I will, Wedding Singer. Just don’t choke when it happens.
MustLoveMusic: You have to send me a playlist in advance. Not five minutes before the meeting.
AlyEuphoriaEvents: Oh, I’ll have it for you, don’t worry. Talk soon.