Chapter 3
The next day, Eve tells Clay that she wants her album to be a hit.
“Sure,” Clay says. “That’s a pretty niche hope, actually.”
Clay was the guitarist from Stella Seaport’s tour, but he’s also a good producer.
Eve and her manager couldn’t find anyone else who felt like the right fit, so they’re giving Clay a shot even though he doesn’t have a ton of production credits to his name.
Eve still isn’t used to the experience of collaboration.
PRELAPSARIAN she wrote alone in her dorm room, and most of ski rat felt fully formed by the time they recorded it.
But Clay is a much more skilled musician than Eve, and he suggests things that would’ve never occurred to her.
She is probably better with lyrics and has a nicer voice, but he’s great at crafting a four-to-the-floor pattern that will really make a song danceable.
What Eve appreciates most about Clay, though, is that he’s honest. A month ago, her label asked for an update on the progress of Sunbeam, Baby, and Eve considered giving them what they had; Clay told her she’d regret it if she didn’t work on it more, and he was right.
He’s also become her friend. He and his boyfriend, Matthew, are regular double-date partners for Danny and Eve. Matthew is very clean-cut—a straitlaced, corporate lawyer type. They’ve been together for five years. He always orders fancy wine for the table.
Now, Eve and Clay are in the studio—ostensibly rerecording “Evergreen” for the thirty-second time.
“I’m tired of chasing something that awards people will like,” Eve says. “I want to make something popular.”
Clay raises his eyebrows, and she tells him about her dad.
“So you want this album to earn a bag?”
“I mean,” she says, “sure, but mostly, I think I just want to write to an audience that my parents have no part in.”
“I have some ideas,” Clay says. “You might not like them. But can I take the album to a friend and come back with some feedback next week?”
“What friend?” Eve asks.
“Do you trust me?”
“I’m a brand-new Eve,” she says. “Let’s live a little.”