“One of the themes of the song is you’ve taken it all from me, so that could also be part of it, either the line before or after. Where do you think it would work best?” he asked gently. “Or is there another way you want to say it?”
Hesitating, she hummed again and closed her eyes, tapping into the darkest part of her soul, the part she usually tried to avoid. She heard rather than saw the clicks of buttons on the board just before she began singing:
* * *
You’ve taken everything from me:
My soul, my heart, my bones, my art.
All that’s left is an empty room,
A shadow where my heart used to be.
* * *
“No, no. Wait,” she said, and tried it again. This time her eyes were open, but she still couldn’t look directly at Quentin.
* * *
My soul, my heart, my bones, my art,
You’ve ripped it all away from me.
All that’s left is this empty shell,
A shadow where my heart used to be.
* * *
What was that feeling inside her? It was like she was pouring out every ounce of pain inside herself, like blood was flowing from her veins. No, like she was bailing water out of a lifeboat…and right behind it was a sensation of lightness—as if she had wings for the first time in her life.
“Yes. This is exactly what the world needs to hear from you.”
They spent another hour getting the lyrics exactly right and then they moved on to solidifying the music that would accompany them. Although this song was pure Raine…it was different. She said, “These words shouldn’t have my usual sound. I mean…they should, but I think it should be different somehow.”
“I agree. What about this? One electric guitar, but not in a way that it overpowers your voice. It needs to be restrained. And no distortion. Your voice needs to be the main performer here.”
“Okay—but I don’t know how to not let the guitar fill in all the gaps.”
Quentin smiled. “Think ‘23’ by Jimmy Eat World or Paramore’s ‘The Only Exception’ until the last part of the song. But not an acoustic guitar. An acoustic would be—”
“Cliché.”
“Exactly. You can perform it that way onstage but for the album, let’s go with that. If we avoid cliché, it’s less likely this song will be dismissed out of hand. It still needs to be you.”
“Okay, I think I get it. My same sound, but restrained. Not necessarily slow.”
“You got it. We’ll still need some bass to fill it out and ground it—and the drums need to be soft. No crashes, no huge fills—just muted and soft, and maybe we wait to bring them in until the middle of the first verse or the first chorus.”
Raine felt her heart swell as she imagined the song in its entirety. “Yeah, that’s great.”
“Again, the drums need to be restrained—so much that people can feel them holding back. And that puts your voice, your words front and center.”
“But…some silence in there, right?”
“Yeah—the silence, those beats, they’re going to be part of the song too, and they’re just as important as when you are singing. They have to carry some weight.”
“What about piano or synth? Would that be too much?”
