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Violin case in hand, Sodachi opened the door to the studio. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw she was neither the first nor the last person to arrive.
Umiri sat on one side of the room, fiddling with her bass guitar. It seemed she was restringing it. Nearby her, Mutsumi seemed to be sorting her effects pedals. Finally, Nyamu was sitting at her drum set, but rather than doing anything musically, she seemed to be scrolling Twitter.
Sakiko and Uika were still nowhere to be seen, but then, there was still five minutes left until practice was set to begin. Someone always had to be the last one to arrive and in this case, it was them.
Sodachi sat down next to Mutsumi and Umiri and set about preparing her instrument. While they waited, Umiri attempted some small talk.
“Oikura, have you listened to any interesting music lately?”
Sodachi didn’t especially appreciate the question, especially considering the answer. “I don’t really listen to music.” She blushed, embarrassed. She turned away to focus on her violin.
For several minutes, the room was quiet, sans Nyamu watching the occasional video. Sodachi would have preferred her to wear headphones, but she wasn’t about to argue that point.
Several minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Sodachi looked up from her violin just in time to see Sakiko and Uika walk in together. They both waved at the room, so Sodachi waved back.
Uika crossed the room and set her guitar down. Sakiko’s guitars were already set up from the day before, but as she settled in place among them, she took something out of one of the bags she was holding. She lifted it up for the room to see.
It looked like a small synthesizer. Sakiko already had several keyboards around her, so Sodachi didn’t get why she needed another one. Compared to the strings of a violin or a guitar, a keyboard had so many keys. That she needed more than one to do everything she wanted made them seem incredibly complicated. She wasn't the only one who needed multiple instruments, since Mutsumi and Uika both had acoustic guitars, but that was different. They didn't play those at the same time as their electric guitars. Sakiko's keyboards were much more complicated
Apparently, she still needed another one.
It was Umiri who took the bait and asked Sakiko the question she clearly wanted asked. “What’s that?”
Sakiko preened. “I’m glad you asked. This is a sampler! I’ve been seeing some online videos of performances incorporating them, so I wanted to try it out for myself.” Then, Sakiko turned to Nyamu. “Yuutenji, can you play a short amount?” After she asked that, she clicked a button.
Nyamu rolled her eyes, but did as asked. She picked up her drumsticks and lazily hit a few beats. When she was done, Sakiko clicked the button from before again.
“And now that I have that sound played…” Sakiko pressed a different button. The sampler began playing sound. In fact, it was the same beats Nyamu had just performed. Sakiko grinned, clearly very proud of herself.
Nyamu was less amused. “So, what? You can record my drum parts and replace me? What a crock of shit?”
Sakiko shook her head. “That’s not what I intend. This allows us to replicate small slices of sound to make our band’s music more interesting. This way, for example, we could replicate the feeling of a second drummer for our band. I can also save instruments that we can’t play, in order to add those. Isn’t it interesting?”
Nyamu still wasn’t impressed. However, Uika was beaming and Umiri was nodding approvingly. Umiri said, “That’s quite interesting, isn't it? The keyboardist in one of my other bands had one of those.”
“Thank you, Yahata.” Sakiko set the sampler down nearby. “I don’t have any songs written with this in mind, but as we practice, I’m going to try and keep it in mind.” Then she stood up so that she could address the band formally. “Now, I would like to discuss our upcoming tour. We should try to figure out our set list over the next week. I’ll be making a list of songs I want us to perform, but if anyone has any requests, please let me know. Furthermore, if anyone has any covers they wish for us to try, please let me know. Now, since we already know that KiLLKiSS, Georgette Me, Georgette You, and in your blue eyes, why don’t we start with those?”
Everyone nodded. Slowly, the room shifted as people began preparing to perform. Sodachi rested her violin in place, then glanced at the others. Nyamu counted down and the performance began. Sodachi didn’t have many parts on their first song, which meant spending most of the time waiting. Finally, the better part of a minute later, it was her turn, so she readied herself and—
Suddenly, Umiri stopped. Everyone else stopped as well as they turned to look at her. She sighed. “Sorry. My hand cramped. Can we take that again?”
“Alright,” Sakiko nodded. She gestured to Nyamu to count them down again.
The song began again. The same as before, Sodachi found herself waiting for her part. Finally, it arrived. There were no interruptions this time. At her part, Sodachi began playing. Up until the end, they continued playing.
However, by the time they were done, Sodachi was not happy with herself. She wasn’t sure if the others had picked up on it, but she had made a lot of mistakes. Despite the song being one she had played plenty of times before, both with the band and when practicing on her own, she didn’t have it perfect.
“How did we feel about that?” Uika asked, “Do we want to take it again?”
Sodachi felt she needed to practice some more, but if the others were satisfied with their performances, it felt selfish for her to ask them to play it again.
Still, Sodachi knew that Sakiko would prefer them to play the song again as long as it meant getting it perfect. The other members might grumble about it, but as Sakiko was the leader of the band, it was her vision that Sodachi had to achieve.
“If it’s okay with everyone, I’d like to take that again. I wasn’t happy with my performance.”
As expected, Sakiko went along with it. “Of course! We can take that one again.” Yet, to Sodachi’s surprise, the others were okay with playing the song again.
Maybe she had underestimated her bandmates, or maybe they also believed in the vision of Sakiko’s perfectionism. Maybe they had their own issues with their performances that Sodachi hadn’t been able to notice. It was hard to say, but either way, everyone prepared themselves to play the song again. Nyamu counted them down once more.
This time, Sodachi was content with her results.
“Now,” Sakiko started, “I think we should try Georgette Me, Georgette You next. Does that sound alright with everyone?”
A chorus of mild agreement filled the air. This song had more parts for Sodachi, so she would need to be ready. The song began and she found herself standing by. That didn’t last long, though, because soon it was her part. Thankfully, she was satisfied with her performance on the first try this time. Like the previous song, it was one Sodachi had played countless times with the band. She was confident in her abilities, so this time, it went smoothly.
Once it was done, Uika raised her hand. “If it’s okay with everyone, I’d like to take a five minute break to catch my breath.”
Sakiko smiled. “Of course, Uika. Let’s rest for a moment, then get back to practice.” Then, she turned to Sodachi. “Oikura?”
“Mm?” Sodachi looked over at Sakiko.
“If you may, could you please play a few short pieces that you think compliment your violin parts for this song? I would like to try something?” She thought for a moment. “Three or four pieces, ideally. They don’t need to be very long.”
Sakiko began readying the sampler. Sodachi waited until she was prepared, then played her first piece. It was only a few seconds long, but Sakiko had said it only needed to be a few seconds long. Besides, Sodachi was still feeling as dubious as anyone else in the band about this new tool, so she wasn’t about to give it her full effort.
One after another, she recorded three short pieces for Sakiko. In total, it took less than a minute. When they were done, Sakiko nodded at Sodachi. “Oikura, thank you for that. Now, when we’re done with our break, if everyone would like, I want to try going through Georgette Me, Georgette You again.”
Once again, that was met with a chorus of mild agreement.
Several minutes later, the break was over. Everyone readied themselves. Nyamu counted them down and then the song began.
As usual, Sodachi found herself waiting for her part. Soon enough, however, it was her turn. She lifted her violin to play— but after a few moments of her playing, she realized that Sakiko was using the sampler. But while Sodachi had only recorded short pieces, those pieces were being repeated. When they were combined with the main violin part of the song, it created a more complicated overall sound. It was like there was a violin quartet performing, except it was all performed by one person.
Despite how impressed she was, Sodachi maintained her composure until the end.
While Sodachi was impressed with Sakiko, Sakiko was clearly even more impressed herself. She was beaming. “That worked rather well, don’t you think?”
Sodachi was about to speak, but she was cut off by Uika. “Saki, that’s incredible.”
Nearby, Umiri was equally impressed, although she didn’t express it quite as much. “Yeah, that’s pretty neat.”
Sakiko picked up the sampler and began examining it. “I’m not sure how to incorporate this into our songs just yet, but it’s an interesting tool, don’t you think?” This was met with one more chorus of mild agreement.
“Alright, why don’t we try in your blue eyes next. After that, we can try some covers.”
Sodachi prepared herself once again. Practice, practice, practice. They wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon.