“I don’t know about the greatest band out there. Those are some shoes to fill. There’ve been some great ones. But thank you for having us.” I drum my fingers on the table.
“Thank you for being here. How’s life been treating you guys?” He rests his chin on his palm, making googly eyes at my sister, who sits there, looking shy, like usual.
“It’s been crazy but good,” Leonidas answers for us, grabbing the interviewer’s attention away from Amelia.
“How is the new record label treating you?”
“Everyone on our team is so amazing. We’re being treated like kings and queens,” Amelia stammers, running her hand down her leg.
The interviewer doesn’t get the hint thrown his way as he chirps, “Is that something you guys aren’t familiar with?”
From the outside, I understand how people would assume we were living our best lives, but really, we celebrated the day we were cut free like it was the best day of our lives.
“You could say that,” Leonidas continues, seemingly unfazed.
“Are you guys comfortable sharing anything about your old record label? Totally get it if you don’t want to. It’s just hard to ignore all the tabloids.”
Amelia sends me a worried look, and we silently plead with our oldest brother to keep his mouth shut. Of course, he doesn’t catch our sibling magic because he opens his mouth.
“As a band, we don’t believe in sharing our personal feelings. It doesn’t matter how bad someone has treated us; we’d never publicly talk about it. Even if false allegations are being said.”
Poor guy looks like he’s lost all of his words.
“I can respect that. Seems mature and levelheaded.”
“Yep,” Amelia squeaks, practically singing the word out of awkwardness.
Fumbling with the headphones around my neck, I discreetly kick my brother’s foot.
What?he mouths, giving me the finger before directing his attention to the radio host.
He is going to give me a heart attack, I swear.
“So, I’m assuming you can’t say a lot regarding your new album,The Four Stages.Congrats, by the way. I can’t imagine writing an album is easy. Can you share any information?”
“Is there anything you specifically want to know?” Amelia pipes in.
He laughs, a blush coating his cheeks. “I mean, there’s lots, but maybe the meaning behind the title of the album?”
I look at my siblings to see if they’re going to answer his question.
When they both look at me, I chime in, “It’s always been difficult for us to sum up such a large piece of work with just a couple of words. In our music, we have always been vocal of our struggles. But in this new chapter of our lives, we didn’t want to shy away from making the extremely raw music we had been putting aside for years.” Tension rumbles in my chest, but I manage to go on. “The inspiration behind the title was from the five stages of grief, but we weren’t grieving, so we created our version, which was the four stages of revenge.”
“That’s why the tour is called The Revenge Tour!” he exclaims, jumping up in his seat. “The tour name and the album interconnect. That basically sums up the meaning behind the album and connects all the dots in my head.”
He sits back in awe, ruffling through his pages of notes.
“Is there a particular track you feel really captures the meaning of the album?” he asks as I take a sip of water to soothe my dry throat.
Making eye contact with my sister, I nod my head in encouragement.
“Choosing just one song is so hard since they’re all so special to us. But I find myself gravitating toward track two.”
“Is there any way you can give us the title?”
“No can do, sir.” A grin tugs up Leonidas’s mouth. “Our bosses would lock us away in a room and throw away the key.”
“Oh my goodness, Leonidas!” Amelia gasps. “Let me just clarify, that was a joke.”
