Passion Project

By M.W. Stevens

Nick Scoville is the lead singer of a somewhat popular local rock band named Out to Launch. After a terrible performance at a major festival causes the band to experience growing pains, Nick befriends an energetic fellow rock musician, Cathy Caulfield. They fall for each other quickly, but there is much more to their relationship than meets the eye, as they both conquer their own inner demons.

Passion Project is the daunting tale of a man who may legally be an adult, but he isn't a grown-up. And in his new world of love, lust, challenging relationships, and toxic friendships, he must learn to put his past behind him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.W. Stevens
• Release date: Nov 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463807194

M.W. Stevens

M.W. Stevens is an adventure/comedy writer from the United States. He started writing original fiction in middle school with very short stories, and continued writing fiction through college where he won awards and scholarships as presented to him by two college presidents and one state governor. After a four year break to try new things, He has returned to writing and hopes to bring joy and emotion to his readers for years to come.

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Passion Project

M.W. STEVENS

Copyright © 2018, 2019 M.W. Stevens

All Rights Reserved. Passion Project is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND DEDICATION

For Abby, who I will never stop praying for.

CHAPTER 1

I was destined to become a mall walker. Those are the retired people in spectacular physical condition who wake up at the crack of dawn and take power walks around shopping malls. I can’t explain it, but taking laps around an enclosed space with so much humanity is refreshing, almost joyful. Although in this case, I had an ulterior motive that day in the late summer of 2000.

Being that my 27th birthday was fast approaching, I decided to treat myself to an early birthday present. Sam Goody had one copy of Metallica’s S&M live concert on DVD remaining, so I picked that up before some kid who doesn’t know who Cliff Burton was got his hands on it.

I had heard about the concert for months, and I was excited to finally get to hear it. Track one is, of course, The Ecstasy of Gold. This is followed by The Call of Ktulu, an eight-minute instrumental masterpiece originally on the Ride the Lightning album. The live version with these four monster rock stars being backed up by an entire orchestra can only be described as an irresistible force of nature. But what impressed me the most was watching the band enter the stage. James came in first as the orchestra swelled during their overture. Then Lars entered from stage left. Jason came in from stage right. Ultimately, Kirk Hammett was standing in the middle of the orchestra playing alongside the tuxedoed performers. After finishing the song, I took advantage of the DVD technology, and skipped back to watch it again. I was so enamored by the performance, that it gave me an idea I could use for my band.

With only two days before the Gregory College Battle of the Bands, I wanted to create a decent-enough gimmick for my band Out to Launch that was going to melt the faces of the young crowd and destroy the competition. So I called up my band mates Rob, Miguel, and Day-job Dustin (nicknamed that for obvious reasons), and we met up at J. Byers Music Store, since it was an easy meeting point for all of us. After checking out sheet music for a short while, I made my presentation to the group: entering the stage from various spots in the auditorium while playing our instrumental masterpiece Danger City.

Are you fucking crazy? questioned Dustin, our drummer and general publicist (poster bitch). That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!

You want us to physically walk into a packed arena while playing our most complicated song? asked Miguel, bassist extraordinaire. Seriously, that is a terrible idea.

Whoa, hold on a second, interrupted Rob, the lead guitarist. Yeah, this is crazy. But I see where this is going. If we practice it a few times, and commit to it, the stunt may actually work.

I don’t know, replied Dustin. This sounds complicated. Do we even have the gear to pull it off?

No, I said quietly. We would need to invest in some new toys to make it happen. And I’m pretty sure that all of the toys we need are sitting right over there just waiting for us to grab.

Dude, said Miguel, I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re fucking broke. I am not ready to invest more money into your passion project. It’s time we start making money, not spending money.

Yeah, but hear me out, I belted out excitedly. It’s not going to take very much investment to make this work. All we needed was a simple wireless transmitter with a minimum three-input receiver for the guitars and bass. If we split the cost four ways, it’ll be affordable. Worst case scenario is that we don’t win the competition. That sucks, but we’ll still end up with a wireless system to take to future gigs.

I see what you’re getting at, and it is kind of cool. But do we even have time to practice this setup? asked a slightly more optimistic Dustin.

We have two days, replied Rob. Today is pretty much out of the question because it’s getting late. Tomorrow is really our only chance to work it out, not counting sound check.

Guys, don’t be distracted by the shiny object. Focus! What’s more important is the quality of the music, said Miguel. I still think there are a few places in Danger City that we need to clean up, especially the ending. It’s our most dynamic song and it needs to sound polished.

That’s what tomorrow is for, I added. Come on, we are going to share that stage with ten other bands and if we don’t have something that separates us, we’re going to be average. And I don’t want to be average.

I don’t want to be average either, added Rob.

Me neither, said Dustin. How about you, Miguel? Do you or do you not want to be average?

No, of course I don’t want to be average, said Miguel with a determined demeanor. You want to rock? Fine. We’ll rock. Let’s get the fucking system.

Suddenly there was a new life breathed into this band. This simple wireless system was something different, which would hopefully give us something special.

*

The Gregory College Battle of the Bands is considered one of the premiere live music showcases in the country. The school’s hundred year reputation of graduating talented musicians each and every year was known among most circles, with the winners taking home very credible bragging rights. After three years of trying to get in, we finally got accepted into this year’s contest. If you aren’t enrolled at the school, it is incredibly difficult to get a slot on the roster.

We knew how lucky we were heading into our dedicated weekly practice day. Six hours were set aside to perfect the three-song set. The day went smoothly, until the point where we tested the new wireless system we bought mere hours earlier. It took us about a half an hour to realize that we actually had to do a little more setting up than just taking it out of the box and turning it on.

While we kept tinkering with the new device, Miguel got himself lost in a world of generally unhelpful message boards on the internet. In the end, it was Rob’s infinite wisdom who suggested we should set the frequencies to match each other. Thanks, common sense! It worked, and we all hid our heads in shame for not realizing this simple solution sooner. We were relatively impressed with the sound. It wasn’t a perfect setup; there was clearly some slight interference and signal-to-noise issues when the sound was mixed into the amps. But we figured that this was something only we would notice, and in such a large space, wouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Danger City was a tough song to nail down perfectly, and I will take full blame for that one. I wanted to write an epic magnum opus, so I wrote it in a 6/4 time signature. This was a little above the others’ heads and