But you don’t say a single thing,
Mouthing lyrics even as you don’t sing
Now we’re so close and before I can blink,
It’s a whole different kind of lip sync,
I just act — I don’t think,
Your lips on mine like the missing link
I just had to get it out of my system. Obviously I couldn’t ever record it. Someone might figure out it’s about Riff.
Yes, I’m going to be referring to him as “Riff” from now on. Mainly because the last time I said “Griffin” aloud was the same moment I was rocking against him, just about to—
Never mind.
Anyway, sometimes feelings need to be felt and written down, and then it’s easier to let them go. That’s all “Lip Sync” is. I’m going to delete it eventually.
I am.
Besides, the team almost never looks at the folder anymore. Not since the label agreed they want me to pursue a collaboration. Until then, all writing is on hold. I finished “Friction” so fast and they liked it so much, they couldn’t reallyargue and they let me release it as a single, but Stef made me promise it was my last distraction from “the goal.”
My thumb hovers over the DELETE button as Stefanie suggests that Lori open a browser and do a search to see what comes up about me, just so we have an idea what’s causing the spike.
“If there’s a good wave,” Stefanie says, “then let’s find it and ride it.”
And as if the universe has inspired this surfing metaphor for its subtle applicability, a Muse News video about a new song by a particular coastal California non-cowboy musician comes up first in the results, with the title in all caps.
FINALLY A SOLID BANGER ABOUT HARMONY SONORA
My stomach drops.
A cutout of Riff Hurley and his matte black Gibson SJ-200 acoustic-electric guitar takes up half the thumbnail, while a cutout of me in a sparkly outfit at one of my concerts takes up the other half.
“What the hell is that?” Stefanie says.
Lori clicks on it and the Muse News guy’s giant head fills the screen.
“You know Harmony Sonora as the girl who sings about her exes,” he says in a voice louder and more boisterous than necessary, “but rarely do her exes sing back. Even though Bleak Sons frontman Kelton Roth tried it back in 2018 and Dylan Wentz made a solid effort last year, no one has ever gone viral for it—until now. Wait till you hear this, friends. Riff Hurley does not hold back, and we know this one’s for Harmony.”
The video cuts to a clip in vertical format, with Muse News reacting to it on the side in another vertical video.
Riff says in his country accent, “I got special permission to do a demo of this one for y’all. If it gets enough likes, we might have a brand new single on our hands. It’s called ‘In Harm’s Way.’”
After a lively string-plucking intro, he sings:
Heard her on the radio,
Same old story, dealin’ blows,
Always gotta make a scene,
She’s a lit match next to gasoline
Mighty words, Miss Five-Foot-Three,
Got her weapon trained on me,
