After the series of commotions had settled down to some extent, a man with blonde hair and a rugged beard began to speak to the men of Enfants Terribles.
"I'm glad you handled the aftermath well... but please, don't do anything that heart-stopping ever again. You damn stars."
However, Hide let the plea from the President of Ichigo Production go in one ear and out the other. The antics he pulled now were significantly toned down compared to the true stories of his past life.
He believed that a band, ultimately, was a form of entertainment. Therefore, he felt an obligation to show the public the rock star lifestyle alongside the music. In the first place, a great band isn't created just by being good at music.
His philosophy was that a band could only become great if their actions supported the spirit imbued in their music.
"By the way, shouldn't you guys release more songs to deal with the cleanup?"
What Enfants Terribles had promised the broadcasting station was that they would hold their first live and special performances there after the release of their first studio album.
"Leader, I think it would be better to release a single before we make the first album."
"Hey, Baldy. Is there really a need for that?"
"Muscle-mon, your brain is made of muscle so you wouldn't know, but singles are originally released for promotional purposes."
In fact, until the late 90s, rock bands often released singles to promote their new music before putting out a full-length album. Essentially, before the development of social media, single albums served as a vital tool for viral marketing.
'Shuji's argument is certainly rational.'
Although Enfants Terribles currently enjoyed overwhelming popularity and support in Japan, they were only hearing rumors abroad and hadn't yet received substantial recognition. The reason was their copyright agreement with ASAYAN; they had signed a contract giving the show exclusive distribution of the songs released during the broadcast within Japan for one year after the show ended.
"I agree with Shuji. Let's release a single first to make the fans abroad crave our music."
Despite saying that, Hide was fidgeting with his guitar pick out of excitement. In his past life, he had helped others release albums, but he had never released one under his own name.
"This time, I'm going to make a perfectly killer song!!!!!!"
"Are you sure you're not just going to bring another funeral dirge like last time, Baldy?"
It was good to be fired up about the album. However, before creating it, they had to decide on a concept. While a single just required picking one killer track, a studio album demanded a cohesive theme.
"Leader, how about an opera-like feel? Something experimental and dreamlike?"
"Wouldn't it be better to each write a song like we did for ASAYAN? If we all make one, another song like 'Tears' might come out."
The bald bassist's face turned red like a tomato as he began to tackle the muscular drummer's words.
"Muscle-mon, an album needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. Music is an art form where everything is connected. Art!"
"No, an album just needs to have good songs. What else do you need?"
"That's just your opinion. Imagine listeners following our usual exciting songs and then 'Tears' suddenly pops up—you think they'd actually like that?"
The two then grabbed each other by the collars and started fighting.
Actually, this was a fairly standard process for a band creating music.
Unlike idols, bands handle every stage of album production themselves, so musical conflicts occur frequently. Even if they usually got along, instrumentalists tended to lose their minds the moment music was discussed, making heated arguments an essential part of the production process.
The general rule was that the more intense the fight, the better the resulting album. Honestly, unless they started smashing guitars over each other's heads, this level of fighting was no problem at all.
But before that, there were a few songs they had used during their jam sessions. Tracks like 'Children of the Night' or 'Layla'. Since the atmosphere of these songs was similar to the music Enfants Terribles usually played, Hide thought it would be appropriate to use them.
"Hey, calm down for a second. Let go of each other's collars first. We have the songs we used when we practiced..."
"Have you never seen an opera or a musical? Songs only become art when they're connected. I'm saying we should try that in our style!"
The bald bassist's voice grew louder. But the muscular drummer was not to be outdone in terms of volume. He, too, utilized his beefy diaphragm muscles to raise his voice.
"Hey, Baldy! That's not an opera, that's called a dog's dinner! Just like that funeral dirge you brought last time!"
"What? Funeral dirge?? Do you know how experimental that song is?! And who was the one who composed the string parts for 'Tears'?!"
The bald bassist and the muscular mixed-race drummer continued to fight. It looked like they were about to bash each other's skulls in with their own instruments at any moment.
Saito Ichigo, seeing this sight for the first time, looked like he was about to faint with foam at his mouth, while Ai, who was already used to such scenes, had long since left to go eat Häagen-Dazs.
"Hide, I'm going to go eat Häagen-Dazs! Let me know when they're done! .˃̵͈̑ᴗ❛."
She chirped and skipped away. The only stabilizer capable of stopping those two had vanished.
The two men bickered for another twenty minutes before eventually storming out of the office. The space they left behind was a total mess.
"...."
The only people left in the room were President Saito, who had already mentally checked out, and Hide. Hide closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh at the disastrous sight.
"Fuck... I should leave too."
On the first day of discussing album production, just like the scene that had been turned into a shambles, there were zero results.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"You damn stars, have you decided on the album concept? What? Production is still in a deadlock? How far have you gotten?"
After a period of waiting, the voice of the blonde young man finally reached President Saito's ears. Once the full weight of the words sank in, the President clutched the back of his neck and groaned.
"You pieces of work!!!! You haven't decided a single thing in an entire week????!!! Guhh..."
As it turned out, the process of a band making an album was always destined to be a mess.