“Seven true things. Zane’s got a reputation, right? For being a cocky asshole. Maybe that reputation is deserved. But not many people really know Zane. There’s a lot more there than meets the eye. If it weren’t for Zane, Dirty wouldn’t be the band they are today. They might never have gotten off the ground. They’d probably have ended up just another garage band that became just another bar band playing endless cover songs to fifty people anight.”
Well.
Jesse was not gonna love that. Not sure I dideither.
Yet I respected Seth for saying it. Whether it was strictly true or not, it was his opinion, clearly, and he was standing byit.
“What about Elle?” Livasked.
“Elle is the best bassist I’ve ever played with, by miles,” was hisanswer.
“Howso?”
“Well, a lot of bass players end up picking up the bass by default. They start out as guitarists, but migrate to bass because the band needs a bassist. And they never really bring anything sensational to their instrument. They’re just laying down that bass line, and if you’re not even conscious of hearing them in the song, they’ve pretty much done their job. But then there’s that rarer breed of musician who was just born to play the bass. Elle is one of those. She just feels it, you know? She brings the funk to Dirty in a big way. If not for her, they’d just be another group of white guys rocking out. And who needs that,right?”
Liv actually laughed in the background. “Can I play that back forthem?”
Seth smiled a little and shrugged. “Do what you’ve gottado.”
“Okay,” she said. “Now tell us something we don’t know aboutElle.”
Seth went silent. He looked off, maybe trying to think of something. Maybe choosing his words. I noticed, though, he didn’t hesitate this long to sum up the other bandmembers.
Finally, he said, “Elle’s got this thing about her. It’s like two sides of a coin. Hot and cold. Strength and vulnerability. It’s always been there. Makes you want to protect her, and at the same time, set her loose, see what she can do. She probably has the most untapped potential of anyone in the band. She’s the most diverse. That’s why her solo album was such a success. Why she’s able to dip her finger into so many pies and find success, again and again. No matter what happens with Dirty, you’ll be seeing a lot of Elle in years to come. She’s got staying power and the ability to grow andevolve.”
“And what about that hot-cold thing?” Liv asked. “I’ve heard people say that about her before. Can youelaborate?”
“It’s like I said, it’s two sides of the same coin. Or maybe it’s a double-edged sword. It’s that thing that makes her hard to know. That thing that makes guys want her and girls want to be like her. She’s fierce, and she’s fragile. She’s real. You sit her down in an interview and ask her a bunch of prefab questions, you’re not gonna get the real Elle. But put her onstage and you’ll see her pouring out everything she’s got through the music, she’s sweating, breaking down in tears, and that’s just her. That’s where you’ll find her, at that intersection between the real person and the rock star. But how do you touch that? It scares some people, I think. She’s kinda like Zane that way, I guess. The two of them are kinda larger than life. They’re hyper-real. If you really want to know them, you gotta be fearless. I don’t think many people are thatfearless.”
“And how about the other guys?” Liv asked. “Would you describe them like that? ‘Larger thanlife’?”
“Not exactly. Jesse’s a star. No doubt about that. But you can get to know him. As long as you can get him to sit still long enough. And Dylan you can get to know, if you can keep his attention longenough.”
“And how aboutyou?”
Seth shook his head, and in that moment, I could feel that the interview was over. It was the last question he was going to answer for Liv. “Me?” he said. “I’m just a regular guy, who likes to play guitar. That’s all I’ve got, Liv. I’ve got a plane tocatch.”
The videoended.
I played it again, from start to finish. Then I played itagain.
I listened, carefully, to everything Seth said about himself, about the band, and about me. And with every word he said, with every new thing I learned about Seth, I liked himmore.
He intrigued me. And it worried me that he intrigued me somuch.
But it did not freak me out as much as itshould.
I wasn’t sure what to think. What to do. I did not know what this was… This strange flow of feelings beginning to build in me. This growingthing.
It was more than mere sexual attraction,though.
Acuriosity?
Aninfatuation?
I did not know what I was getting into. But the fact was, I’d followed him here. I’d flown to Vancouver for one reason only: because I knew Seth washere.
And yet, I didn’t call him. I didn’t reachout.
