Rise To Stardom - Chapter 104

Chapter 104: Snubbed
The first, major thing Kyle and Oliver had done when they got back to Canada, was to build a recording studio.

Yes, build.

It took about three weeks and a half but they had it done.

Having spent the first few days scouting out a location with that was near his apartment with a real estate agent Oliver had hired, both finally settled on a 700 square feet location, the size similar to the size of two standard car garages, merged together.

Considering Kyle did live in an estate initially, finding a location close-by, wasn’t too much of a hassle.

The price, per square foot of land though, as the real estate agent had told them, was $142, bringing the cost of the land Kyle had bought to $99,400, a few dollars short of cracking $100K.

Expensive, yes… but in the long run, it was a necessary expenditure, one that Kyle himself knew would be better to build now, considering the costs of things were gradually spiking as they moved towards 2020.

Besides, they couldn’t always keep renting studios whenever he needed to produce a song.

Simply put, building the studio was for convenience purposes.

That said, the costs for building the studio itself, now that, required quite the sum.

Considering the fees they had to pay for hiring an architect, designing the studio itself and equipping it with all the necessary equipment, the total costs, minus the land costs itself, came down to $400,000.

Still, when taken into consideration how big the space of the recording studio was, the total costs, weren’t completely unexpected.

General upkeep for electricity, insurance and internet was a bit of a money-grubber but, it was all a necessity, even if Kyle had to keep paying for it monthly.

That aside, the range of equipment the studio also had, from the consoles, to the dynamics processor and effect modules, studio monitors, microphones, musical equipment, along with other additional, necessary equipment, made the cost worth it.

The rehearsal space and the recording booth were also spacious, enough that it could easily fit four people at the same time.

However, Kyle was the only one present in the rehearsal space as he sang and rehearsed his latest song.

🎹 🎶 ♪ 🎶 🎹

Time, goes,

So we pave on our path…

🎹 🎶 ♪ 🎶 🎹

Smiling to himself as he stopped playing the piano, glad that song had turned out exactly the way he had hoped, Kyle heard as Jennie, commented from the other side with an extremely curious, yet genuinely impressed expression;

“How exactly did you come up with that piano riff Kyle?”

“Lots and lots of hair pulling.” Kyle honestly replied, getting up from the piano stool with a sigh.

The audio engineer on the other hand, just couldn’t seem to wrap her head around it as the tune itself, despite being repetitive, was still quite hypnotic and haunting… in a good way.

It really was, the kind of tune that would become an earworm.

“Do you perhaps use sheet music?” Jennie curiously questioned again, trying to make sense of it as best as he could.

The reason she was asking, was because, even though Kyle had explained that the tune wasn’t anywhere near completed since they’d still need to have other musical arrangements, the piano riff itself, was more or less, the signature motif and the backbone of the song.

Added to that, she’d always found it quite amazing how Kyle seemed to know exactly what ingredients he needed to add to his songs to improve it, despite not having tested it out previously.

“Jennie, I can’t read sheet music to save my life.” Kyle truthfully stated, gently massaging his temples as he did.

“Most times, I just tinker around till I get what I’m looking for.” he continued, a concerned expression on his own face at his inability to understand sheet music.

Well…

It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand it…

It was more of how frustrating it had been back then for him to try to understand it in his old life.

As a result, he had ended up kicking the idea of learning the darn thing to the curb.

“Hmmm… I should try picking it up again…” Kyle muttered out loud, a noticeable glint of interest in his eyes.

Considering he now had a system and his composing skills had improved by quite a lot, he had a feeling he’d be able to understand it much easier now.

Jennie on the other hand, turned around to watch Oliver who was scrolling through his feed, trying to keep up to date on everything important in Hollywood.

“Does he even get enough rest?” she quietly questioned, one to which the agent casually replied with a hint of resignation in his tone;

“I wish he did.”

And yet, not even a second later, Oliver’s fingers paused, a frown forming on his face as he read something on his feed.

Kyle and Jennie who noticed this, were even more taken aback when an unexpected curse, silently escaped the lips of the usually reserved Oliver;

“Those bastards.”

Even Christina whom had been in the recording studio all along, purely focused on jotting down a few ideas for the music video script, one that she and Kyle had conversed on a few days back, raised her head up in surprise when she heard that.

Realizing that Oliver’s frown was deepening by the second, all whilst still staring at his smartphone’s screen without explaining the reason for his cuss, all three soon made their way towards and huddled around him.

Seeing the cause of it, the ladies had a similar frown quickly form on their features.

Staring at the screen for a few more minutes, reading the article that had been posted, their frown got deeper.

Yet, as all three, turned their gaze towards Kyle who seemed completely unperturbed by said article, save for a slightly disappointed expression on his features, Oliver let out a deep sigh to calm himself and then stated;

“Kyle. You weren’t nominated.”

“I can see that.” Kyle responded, his eyes scrutinizing the Hollywood Star Awards Article.

It was a long, long article, detailing everyone whom had been nominated for the different kinds of awards in various, respective brackets.

From Best New Artist, to Best New Album, Best New Song, and even genre-specific awards such as Best New Rock Band or Best New Pop Solo Artist, the Hollywood Star Awards had everything.

And yet, despite all these, Kyle wasn’t nominated for a single award.

This, was quite interesting to say the least because, asides from [No Clue] reaching close to a 100 million streams now, especially with no record label backing him up, [Strange Canvas], after becoming such a critical and commercial hit, had GrooveBox migrating the song over from the ‘Buzzing 100’ to the ‘GrooveList Top 100’ charts, one where it had comfortably settled on No. 17.

To put into perspective, having a song on ‘GrooveList Top 100’, was more or less a chart for mainstream musicians, one that was very territorial with songs in its rankings.

Now, for an indie musician to have a song that settled on such a high ranking, it could be likened to an almost impossible feat. A once in a blue moon occurrence.

This exactly, was why Kyle not being nominated for a single award, felt very distasteful and unfair.

Even some individuals whom had read the article online, some of whom were from his fan club, couldn’t help but point that out, their dissatisfaction on full display;

–

WaifuWithARocketLauncher: Yep. That’s it. I’m nuking this damn award show to oblivion tonight.

N0c: Um, what?! Are these guys for real?

Princess Peach: I swear to God I hate these people. What kind of reputable award ceremony snubs an artist who literally had a song that topped the charts for four consecutive weeks!

Sparkinwa: Ah yes. Hollywood strikes again with their bullshit. Even Lily wasn’t nominated for any awards.

WeDoABitOfTrolling: Man fuck the star awards show! Unless you shake hands and send gifts, it’s literally no nominations for an artist. Maybe Kyle should send a basket of chocolates next year.

–

“Maybe I should…” Kyle joked after reading that particular, sarcastic comment, a small chuckle, one which was then followed up with a resigned sigh, escaping his lips.

Yet, for everyone in the room, his reaction was equal parts expected and equal parts sad.

“I mean, even an invite would’ve been nice at the very least. This sucks.” Jennie commented, the frown never leaving her face as she pulled up her phone to go check out more of the internet’s reaction to Kyle being snubbed at the awards.

Even the notifications from Kyle’s fan group were getting alarming, most of the messages, complaining about how the Star Awards were being such dicks.

That was something Jennie would be checking out later in her spare time though.

<It’s not fair.> Christina however, her frustration evident, signed to Kyle, one to which he responded with an assuring gaze;

<I know it’s not. But it won’t do me any good being sad over it.>

Seeing the expression on his face, realizing that to a certain extent, Kyle was doing his best to keep his spirits high and unperturbed by the information, Christina then asked with a sympathetic expression;

<Want a hug?>

Tilting his head a bit, pleasantly surprised by her request, Kyle replied, a warm smile blooming on his features;

<I appreciate the gesture Christina but I’m alright. That I’m sure of. Thank you for caring.>

Seeing the genuine appreciation for her gesture in his response, Christina gently nodded in acceptance, a light smile, replacing her previously sad expression.

Oliver on the other hand, despite everything happening around him, didn’t say anything but instead, reeled in his frustration.

It was rare for him to even get angry on an average day but somehow, Hollywood and their propaganda sure knew how to push his buttons.

‘Hollywood Star Awards huh…’ he mused to himself, his mind, much calmer now.

Though not as prestigious as the GRAMMY’s, it was still a very well-known and respectable annual award ceremony all over the US for new and upcoming, music artists.

Usually, it would nominate and give awards to rising musicians whom had achieved significant milestones in their respective careers.

Those who won the respective awards in the brackets they were nominated for, usually went on to become very successful in their music careers too.

Yet, it wasn’t a particularly new thing for them to purposely snub certain musicians or actors despite critical and commercial success, just because they could.

However, for Kyle, Oliver had a gut feeling that he was snubbed, purely because he wasn’t signed to any reputable record label or agency.

‘I just hope this doesn’t become a running theme with him…’ the agent could only hope as he pondered over it.

No sooner had he finished up his thoughts on the matter, the doors to the studio opened and in walked Maria with a group of people; two males and a female.

They were the hired, session musicians that was going to work with Kyle on his new song.