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Ewan saw that Jude had warmed to the idea of being there. He was much more relaxed than when Ewan had visited at Christmas – which is not to say that he was always laidback, but it was a start. He had taken the master bedroom, but had asked Sienna not to share it with him. It would seem a bit disrespectful, to share his parents’ bed, he had said, and although Sienna was probably a bit lonely sleeping by herself, Ewan could see where he was coming from. That left four people to share three bedrooms in the main house. Gallantly, Jonny had offered to solve the problem by sleeping in one of the gites in the expansive garden. Ewan was glad – he was probably trying to get away from the toxic tension between himself and Jude.
They’d set up all their gear in the drama studio. The luxury of being able to get up in the morning and go straight to practicing without worrying about the neighbours, or getting a taxi to their sound-proofed practice room was both novel and useful.
Ewan hoped that being out here, in a different country, in the middle of nowhere, would help them to make good progress on the album. Sure, they had a few songs down, but not the twenty or so he wanted. A good range of choice for what to include on Eminence Front, a few less stellar songs to act as B sides, and some that just wouldn’t make it. He had two whole notebooks of fresh lyrics that he had written since ‘the divorce’, and he was just itching for them to become fully-fledged songs. He loved writing lyrics, but it was so exhilarating, still, for him to see them go from words on a page, to words set to a melody and sung. It was as if they weren’t really alive to him until that had happened.
However, it wasn’t always an easy process. The others would pitch in with suggestions, but the lyrics were still almost all his own. He recognised this, and would take a backseat to Jude and Sadie when it came to composing. He would play whatever they put in front of him, provided it suited his words.
Ewan thought that the writing dynamic might change now that they had two new band members, but Sienna and Jonny were quite easy-going. They weren’t shy on giving their thoughts, but they weren’t stubborn with it.
Predictably, it was Jude who was being the difficult one.
It was hard, though, because Ewan could see where he was coming from. It was, after all, his band, and he loved playing guitar. Even if they had (well, the record company had) decided that he needed to hand it over to someone else to concentrate on his singing (and staying stable) that didn’t mean that he didn’t miss it. It was understandable that he would feel a bit possessive, and that he wanted to be the one to lay down the guitar parts himself in the recording studio, but that didn’t mean that he had to keep rejecting Jonny’s ideas outright.
He never went as far as to suggest that as a rhythm guitarist he wasn’t a ‘proper’ member of the band, but the way he was acting about Jonny’s presence made it clear that that was how he felt. Either he completely ignored his suggestions, or greeted them with a withering look.
Jonny still took it all calmly, and there didn’t seem to be any likelihood of the scene in the hotel carpark reoccurring. Ewan didn’t know how he stood it – he knew that he couldn’t work with someone once they’d punched him in the face.
It was a shame, really. Ewan had thought that after that night in Birmingham, the two of them had reached some sort of tacit understanding, but it seemed to be breaking down.
Perhaps the isolation that was good for the band as a whole, wasn’t good for Jude. Not enough going on, not enough distraction. Ewan was reminded of children driven to cruelty by boredom.
He didn’t like to see Jonny, who, all told, seemed like a perfectly nice guy, be treated like shit, but it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it. Sienna spoke up for Jonny, and got away with it with nothing but a black look. She had the girlfriend’s prerogative of being able to call Jude out on his shit, even if it was something that she rarely did.
This did, however, mean that Jude only had one ally left in this fight: him. So his lack of comment was regarded less than as a Switzerland-like neutrality and more as a tacit agreement with his actions. If Ewan told Jude that he was being out of order, the way Sienna did, it would be a betrayal.
So he kept his peace, but it wasn’t easy, any of it.
Overall, though, coming here had been a good idea. They were getting lots of work done, and he was spending more time with Jude, even if it was just lazing about around the pool, drinking beers and wishing it was warm enough to swim. It was nice to just write, play and relax. He knew it wouldn’t be the same once they got in the recording studio.
Frankly, recording was harder for him than it was for Jude. He knew from the past that he found it stressful. Ewan just had to play, but Jude would have to lay down a guitar track, then go back to lay down a separate vocal track. Not only was it twice as much work in that way, but when it came to his singing, Jude took mistakes and criticism to heart. That was part of the problem.
Still, at the moment things weren’t too bad. Jude and Sienna had had the odd spat, but weren’t actually at loggerheads. The friction between Jude and Jonny was practically normal now. Ewan was pretty sure that as long as nothing dramatic happened in the next couple of days, they would be okay.