Chapter Seventeen
Jonathan
I shake hands with Eric, the head of the label, a man in his forties with a shaved head and a strong grip who favors charcoal gray suits and pastel shirts with coordinating ties. My jeans and T-shirt, even if I did throw on my favorite jacket to dress it up at the last minute, makes me feel distinctly underdressed compared to him. But then again, I’m the talent. It’s not my job to look like an executive.
He ushers me into the conference room, where several people sit around a large table. My manager, Angela, sits in one chair, an empty one next to her obviously for me. She makes eye contact and nods as I pull out my chair and stand next to it while Eric makes the introductions.
“Joan and Peter are in PR.”
I reach out and shake their hands one by one, first Joan with her burgundy hair and low-cut blouse, then Peter with his black-framed hipster glasses and tailored vest.
Eric indicates the woman next to him, who could be anywhere from thirty to sixty with her dark hair with tasteful highlights, Botoxed forehead, and red lipstick. “This is my assistant, Melinda. She’ll be helping me confirm all the details for your album and concert schedule.”
I nod and shake her hand before taking the seat next to Angela. Melinda slides a paper across to me, and Eric says, “Here is a list of the concerts we have scheduled. We’re starting close to home prerelease to help build buzz. San Diego, Bay area, San Jose. Then expanding to cover the major cities around the country. I’ll let you look over the list. Let me know if you have any comments.” He gestures to the PR team across the table. “Joan and Peter have the information on your other appearances.”
Peter smiles and passes a paper to me as well while Joan starts talking. “We have you set up already to go on a few radio shows and podcasts, plus magazine interviews and questions from some popular music blogs. We’re working on the late night talk shows, but haven’t nailed those down quite yet.”
My eyes widen as I stare at the list of things they’ve already booked. There are a lot, and a few of them are coming up soon. The memory that magazines always do their interviews and photo shoots months before the final product appears in stores makes its way to the front of my mind, and the fact that several of these are next week or the week after makes more sense.
Wow.
That they managed to get interviews scheduled this quickly surprises me, but is also really cool. Once the initial buzz died down after the YouTube video went viral last fall, I’ve been largely left alone. My video updates and snippets of songs are well received by fans, and I know I have a pretty good following on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But I didn’t realize that mainstream outlets would be interested enough to get someone out on such short notice.
That, or Joan and Peter have connections.
“As you know, we’ve been planning a mid-September release.” Eric’s voice pulls me back to the meeting. “We’ve decided on September 22. It’s a shorter promotional period than we usually do, but we didn’t want to make the fans wait any longer than necessary. We’ll release the singles ahead of time, of course. And your concerts will help drive sales.”
Angela slides the paper with the concert schedule back to me and takes the PR schedule to look over. I glance at the concert list again, and notice a glaring omission.
“No Spokane stop?”
Eric raises an eyebrow, but otherwise gives no reaction. “As I said, we’re more focused on the larger markets.”
I glance back at the paper and see he’s right. I’m in the major cities all across the country, mostly focused on the coasts, but a few others like Chicago and Austin. Gabby might be able to see me in Seattle and Portland, but those dates are really far apart. I hit Seattle as the first stop outside of California, but Portland isn’t until after my East Coast swing.
Shaking my head, I meet Eric’s icy blue eyes. “I understand, but it makes sense to add a Spokane stop somewhere in there. They have decent venues, and other performers have done very well there. Both in the arena and at some of the smaller places like The Knitting Factory. Since I’m a Marycliff University alum, I’d be sure to draw a crowd. We could even make an extra signing stop on campus. It’d be great PR.”
Eric’s eyes flick to Joan and Peter, his eyebrows raised.
Joan clears her throat, looking down at her notebook. “I haven’t done much research on the possibilities there for Jonathan. But he makes some interesting points.”
Pinning me with his stare for a moment, Eric seems to consider the idea. I hold my breath, because if we add a Spokane stop, maybe I can make that a rest leg, too, where we get a break for a few days between traveling and playing concerts. Then I could spend time with Gabby.
Finally, Eric nods, looking at Joan again. “Look into it. It sounds like a good idea. We’ll have a built-in audience there already. It should be easy to get some good promo with some of the local media, too. Make it happen.”
Joan nods and scribbles something in her notebook while Peter rifles through a stack of papers.
My manager starts firing off questions, and Eric and his people take turns answering, but I’m still stuck on my relief at his easy agreement. After a few minutes, I clue back in, contributing where necessary, but the meeting doesn’t last much longer.
Eric brings the meeting to a close, standing and buttoning his suit jacket. Angela and I stand too, while the others gather their things. Eric reaches a hand out to me. “Nice to see you again, Jonathan. We’ll be in touch about the updates.”
I shake his hand. “Sounds good. I look forward to it.”
Angela and I exit together, and she gives me a little nod before leaving. Our business is done, so no sense wasting time on chitchat.
I pull out my phone to call Gabby and let her know the good news. But all I get is her voicemail. She must be practicing.
I guess I’ll get to tell her in person. Even better.