Page 47 of The Sound Between Us (Vinyl Hearts #1)

“Right, so... where do we start? Also, your flat smells like jasmine and something I can’t place. It’s distracting. In a good way. - H

PS: Is it weird that I’m nervous? I haven’t written anything real in years.”

Seren: Voice Note

“The something you can’t place is probably the lavender candle I lit to mask the smell of my tragic dinner attempt.

And yes, it’s weird that you’re nervous.

You’re Harrison bloody Carter. I’m the one who should be nervous.

I’m the one who hasn’t written a proper song since.

.. well, since forever. [pause] But maybe nervous is good? Maybe nervous means it matters?”

Harrison: 9:23 p.m.

“Lines that definitely won’t work:

·‘You’re the song I never knew I needed’

·‘In your eyes I see my future’

·‘Love me like a radio hit’

Christ, I sound like every ballad ever written. Why is this so hard? You make it look effortless when you hum random melodies. -“

Seren: Voice Note:

“Okay, first - the radio hit line made me snort-laugh, which is very attractive, thank you. Second, stop trying so hard. [sound of piano keys] What if we don’t start with love?

What if we start with... I don’t know, the feeling of being lost?

Of not knowing who you are anymore? Because honestly, that’s what this feels like.

Sitting here with you, trying to create something real when I’ve spent years hiding from anything that felt too much like. .. like this.”

Harrison: 10:15 p.m.

“‘Hiding from anything that felt too much like this’ - can we use that? Not the exact words, but the feeling? The idea of hiding from the things that might save us? Also, when you play that descending melody, something in my chest unclenches. Keep doing that.”

Seren: Voice Note

piano playing softly in background

“Something in your chest unclenches? God, you’re such a poet.

[laughing] But I know what you mean. When you wrote that line about ‘standing on the edge of something real’.

.. I felt it. Right here. [pause] What if the whole song is about that moment?

The one where you have to choose between staying safe and hiding, or stepping into something that might destroy you? ”

Harrison: 11:01

“YES. That’s it exactly. The choice. The moment before you jump.

And what if - what if the music reflects that?

Starts small, intimate, just piano. Then builds.

Then breaks apart. Then comes back together, different.

Changed. Like we are. Like this is changing us.

Am I making sense? I feel like I’m not making sense. ”

Seren: Voice Note:

“You’re making perfect sense. [sound of shuffling] And yes, the music has to mirror the emotional arc.

Starts vulnerable, builds to this massive.

.. this overwhelming... and then strips back down to just the truth.

Just us. Just this. [long pause] Harry, I think we’re actually doing this.

I think we’re actually writing something that matters. ”

Harrison: 11:47 p.m.

“Question: when you sing ‘the spaces in between the words, where all the truth lives’ - your voice does this thing. This break. Like you’re remembering something painful.

Is that intentional, or am I reading too much into it?

Also, we need food. My stomach is making noises that are definitely not in the key of the song. ”

Seren: Voice Note:

Kettle boiling in background

“The voice break... [pause] It’s not intentional.

It just happens when I sing about truth.

Because truth hurts, doesn’t it? And I’ve been avoiding it for so long that when it comes out in the music, my body doesn’t know what to do with it.

[sound of cupboard doors] I’ve got biscuits and questionable cheese.

Will that do? And Harry? Don’t change that line. The break is part of the song now.”

Harrison: 12:33 a.m.

“I nearly kissed her during the second verse. Right when you hit that high note that sounds like heartbreak and hope at the same time. Had to physically step away from the piano. Is that pathetic? Don’t answer that. Focus on the music. Just the music. - H”

Seren: Voice Note

[Whispers] I was thinking about him when I hit it a high note. About him sitting next me, that frown of concentration that folds between his brows, he bites the side of his mouth when he’s focused.

I could write twenty songs about that—I won’t tell him.

Harrison: 1:15 a.m.

“We’re so close. I can feel it. The song is right there, just out of reach. But what’s the ending? How does it resolve? Do we fall? Do we fly? Do we crash beautifully? My hand is cramping and my heart is racing and I’ve never felt more alive. What does that mean?”

Seren: Voice Note

Piano in background

“It means we don’t resolve it. Not completely.

[sound of keys, melody shifting] The ending is the beginning.

The moment of choice, suspended forever.

Because that’s what real life is, isn’t it?

Not the resolution, but the courage to keep choosing.

To keep jumping. Even when you don’t know where you’ll land.

[pause] Harry, play the opening again. But slower. Like a heartbeat.”

Harrison: 1:52 a.m.

“Like a heartbeat. Yes. And your voice over it, just barely there, like you’re telling a secret to the darkness. And then - THEN - it builds, but not how they expect. Not triumphant. Just... honest. Raw. Real. We did it, didn’t we? We actually did it.”

Seren: Voice Note:

“We did it. [sound of piano, the full song playing] Listen to that. Just listen. It sounds like... like everything I’ve been too scared to say out loud.

Like everything you’ve been hiding behind those manufactured pop songs.

It’s messy and beautiful and completely ours.

And I’m terrified of what happens now. What happens after we’ve created something this honest? ”

Seren: Handwritten note in Harry’s notebook

Maybe less rhyme. More truth ;- )