“How did you improve so much?”
Jackson asked him as Aiden finished drinking water to cool down his throat. He was in the booth for over two hours, singing nonstop, so his throat needed so rest.
“I just practised.” Aiden smiled, but Jackson shook his head.
“You improved that much in just a few months. You weren’t even able to hit high notes properly the last ti I heard you live.”
That was true.
The last ti Jackson had heard him was the face off round in X-Star. His voice and ability has changed a lot since then.
“It was more like I was on the verge of breaking through sothing back in X-Star. It was as if a wall was stopping in my tracks. After the show, I was able to go past it and I realised my singing has improved a lot. I don’t know if I’m making sense.”
“Not too much, but it’s alright, we get it.”
Aiden just shrugged. It was hard for him to make others understand how his system worked. Other singers would gradually improve over the years while he could just grind experience and level up.
Though it was unfair for others, Aiden was glad he had the system.
‘Looks like Caron is starting.’
He thought, walking a few steps to sit besides Emily who was working on the DAW (Digital audio workstation).
Aiden was pretty curious to see how Caron would do on the parts he had given him. Thinking about it, he tried to look at his current skill level.
___
[Caron Bryce] [22 years]
[Singing level: Interdiate Grade 2]
[Special skill: Limit break].
___
‘He hadn’t improved at all.’
Aiden thought, sighing. He was pretty sure that Caron with his ani protagonist-like skill would surely gain at least one level over the months.
But he was still the sa.
‘Is it because it’s very hard to gain levels in Interdiate Grade? Am I going to be stuck in it for decades?’
Aiden gulped, wondering about a scenario like that. Shaking his head, he tried to calm down and think about it later.
“Okay, get ready. I’m starting!”
Emily said, starting the recording and Caron gave a thumbs up as music hit his ears. The verse Aiden had given him to sing was just after the first chorus.
Caron took a deep breath before starting to sing. This part needed a lot of screaming and at the sa ti, certain parts in the lyrics were emphasized a lot.
🎶🎙🎵
“I have fought this war from the day I could walk.”
“Doesn’t matter even if I’m forsaken.”
“The blood in my mouth just makes the pain sweeter.”
“Push down! I will get up! I’m still a believer!”
🎶🎙🎵
Caron started off with a loud voice, full of high notes from the start. For a mont, even Aiden was surprised by him as currently, he can’t stop a verse straight with a high note.
And would need so ti to make it high. But Caron was truly a lot better than him.
‘He’s really good. I hope he could keep this—’
As Aiden was thinking, he suddenly noticed sothing strange. The silver light coming off from Caron suddenly turned white slowly, like it was losing its strength.
Caron’s notes were still high and he seed to be lost in his singing, but sothing didn’t feel right.
Slowly, the white light disappeared and only faint traces of it could be seen. It was then that even Emily noticed that the recording wasn’t going as she expected.
“Wait! Caron, stop!”
She quickly stopped Caron who looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“What happened?”
“That part was totally off. Can we do it again?”
She asked and he nodded quickly, getting ready to sing again. But the sa thing happened once again, like it was a replay.
Caron started off well, with full confidence but his voice slowly lost any feeling. The notes, powerful voice, resonance and pronunciation was there but there were no emotions.
Even with him covering up the basics, the singing lacked a lot.
Aiden felt stranger and stranger as he listened to Caron.
‘What’s going on?’
He wondered in his mind as Caron, who was cut off several tis by Emily, already ca out of the booth with a hardened expression.
“Are you okay? Does your throat have any problem today?” Emily asked.
“No, it’s not anything like that.” He said, frowning. “Give a while. Maybe it’s because I’m singing after a long ti.”
After saying that, Caron left the recording room to get so fresh air and the three people inside the room looked at each other with strange expressions.
“Do you all have any idea what’s with him? His singing sounds strange.”
Jackson said, getting a nod from both Emily and Aiden.
“Yeah, it’s like a different version is singing. His voice was way more vibrant and alive back in X-Star. Aiden, do you know what’s going on with him?” Emily asked, looking up at him.
“No, I don’t.” Aiden said, then stood up. “I will check up on him.”
He thought before quickly leaving the recording studio. His mind was in a ss, wondering what had gone wrong with Caron.
‘Is he going through a breakup or sothing?’
He thought, walking towards the lounge area.
There were a lot of theories in his mind about him but all of them were just that, imaginary theories. He could only ask Caron if he had any problem.
‘Here is he.’
He discovered him in the lounge area but surprisingly, he was smoking.
“I didn’t imagine you to be a smoker.”
He said as he walked towards him. A puff of smoke ca out of Caron’s mouth as he looked at Aiden, a bit shocked by his presence.
“I started so months ago.” He said, looking like he didn’t care a lot. “Why are you here?”
“To talk to you.” Aiden said, then looked at the cigarette in his hand. “It’s strange to see you smoking.”
“Why?”
“Singers are advised not to smoke. You know that well.”
Normally, smoking could easily damage the throat of a person. So, as singers’ careers depend on their voices, they are advised to not even touch a cigarette.
“A lot of singers smoke.”
“That’s because of stress, they want relaxation so they get into smoking. After that, they struggle to co out and ruin their voices as they grow older.”
There was not just one case in the industry like this. There were countless good singers who had got into a smoking addiction which has damaged their throats, eventually ending their career early.
As the grandson of a composer, Caron obviously knew the implications of smoking.
“I don’t really care about it, Aiden.” He said, frowning. “Why are you here?”
“Like I said, I want to talk to you because your voice sounded strange back in the recording. But I guess, I already found the reason.”
“What?”
“It seems like you are depressed. Probably lost confidence in your own voice.”
Aiden was taking a wild guess but when he saw the look on Caron’s face, he was sure that he had hit the right spot. His strange behaviour was very easy to decipher for Aiden.
“I’m not depressed. You are just saying anything.” Caron raised his voice, anger clearly visible in his tone.
“It’s easy to guess. When I told Wade to contact you, he found out that you were nowhere to be seen in the past few months, after X-Star ended. It was like you disappeared but you were always in LA. At first, I thought you were taking a break but your voice seems like you have not practiced in a long ti. You can take a break but you won’t stop practicing.”
Aiden gave out his analysis and for a second, Caron was stunned. It was mostly coming from an observant point of view.
After all, he had spent enough ti with Caron in X-Star. They weren’t friends but they did talk once in a while.
A highly ambition driven person like him would never lose touch in his voice suddenly until he was too stressed or was in depression.
“So, what are you going to do about it?”
Caron asked, throwing the cigarette on the ground in a fit of anger, then crushing it with his shoe.
“Nothing. I’m not a therapist. I am just here as the composer of the song. Tell one thing, do you want the song to suffer because of you?”
When Aiden said that, Caron just stared at him without saying anything. He continued with a smile.
“I got you on board with the project because I wanted your voice to be a part of the song. But it has already lost its touch, so the song will inevitably suffer, especially if you keep smoking.” He sighed. “You are not the type to co here to be a part of the recording if you have entirely given up on your voice.”
“I lost to… Rachel.”
After a while, Caron finally muttered with a frowning face. He clearly wasn’t happy with sharing the one thing that had made him lose confidence in his voice.
“That makes the two of us. At least you lost in the finale.” Aiden said with a laugh. “It’s not a competition now. I just want to make a good song. You need to get over your defeat sohow.”
Aiden said, then leaned on a wall.
“We have a lot of ti to finish the recording, so think if you want to keep thinking of a loss that happened months ago or move on from it and try to make sothing that might make you proud.
“My dad once told , it’s not the failures in our life that define us, it’s the monts when we decide that getting back up is all that matters.
…
//DreamNote//
Thank you for your support for the month of June! A new month begins tomorrow, and I hope to see you once again!
The privilege chapter count will be increased from tomorrow! Please be ready for binge reading session tomorrow @9:45 IST!
⚠️ Today is the last day of the months, please vote this novel with all your spare golden tickets!
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