Chapter 179 - New music for the show

    The next day I had to go to the set so we could record the scenes at the Duncan house in preparation for the fishing trip and the scene that would take place after we returned from the fishing trip, which didn''t take long so I could go home early.

    The rest of the cast stayed to continue shooting other scenes for their characters, including Laura.

    Back home, my idea was to get ready for the opening of the Dark Pistol concert.

    According to Selena, her audience were real rock fans, an audience that was a little prejudiced against music of other styles, which made things a little complicated for me, as my repertoire was very diverse.

    Of the pure rock songs I could sing, there was only Numb, In The End, Up Down (which I did a rock version of), and maybe A Bar Song and Boyfriend.

    That took The Lazy Song, All of Me and Bailando out of the possible songs I could sing.

    Of course, if the crowd was excited, I could add those songs to the list I would sing and they would still have a good time, even if it wasn''t the kind of music they liked, but it would depend on me really getting the crowd excited.

    So just in case, I had to prepare a strong rock repertoire to sing there in case things didn''t go 100% smoothly.

    While I was thinking about what to do, I decided to open up my analytics to see how the channel was doing and how my growth had been over the last week.

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    Monetized Views Songs: 3,414,000 (+3,414,000) = $4,016 (+$4,016)

    Monetized Views Vlogs: 1.621.000 (+1.621.000) = $10.549 (+$10.549)

    (810k views of Orphanage videos)

    [428,000 subscribers +28,000 subs

    [Spokify music plays: 9,400,000] +1,760,000 views Spokify Monetized Views: 1,760,000 = $7,040 (+$7,040)

    [Instabram: 200k followers] +30k followers

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    The two vlogs I posted for the orphanage had over 800k views combined, and one of the vlogs I posted today meant that of the $10k I received from the channel this week, I had to donate $5k to the orphanage.

    This song didn''t make the guys as uncomfortable to listen to because I wouldn''t sing it in a way that sounded like I was talking to their girlfriends, but the girls would be so interested in the character of the song that the result would be very similar to Boyfriend.

    So with the days I had available before I could sing the opening for Dark Pistol, I spent that time practicing my old songs, practicing my skills, as well as developing and recording this new song.

    Since it was going to be a big show, I called Mark and Frank over to my house so we could practice a few times as I wanted them on stage with me.

    Their reaction to knowing we were going to be singing in front of 3,000 people was priceless.

    From performing to small audiences of no more than 100 people before meeting me, to growing that audience to a few hundred with our shows together, and now making the leap to over 3,000 people, our improvement was clear to see.

    "Noah, Noah... coming to play with you was the best decision I ever made!" Mark laughed as he gave me a half hug.

    Frank next to him also nodded in agreement.

    Considering that they each made $350 per gig with me, and that they only made between $50 and $100 per gig with their old band, the difference was huge.

    And when they saw how much I was growing, they saw that they were going to get more and more with every show we did in the future.

    To open for the Dark Pistols, I wouldn''t get paid that much, only $2,500, something Selena had to give up to get them to choose me.

    For a show like that, her band would make a profit of over $200,000, so paying me $2,500 to open the show was very little.

    But considering that I was a bottom of the D-range artist, just climbing from the E-range, and they were top of the C-range artists, almost climbing to the B-range, this opening was more of an opportunity for me to get known to their San Francisco audience than an opportunity for them to have me open the show, since they didn''t need me to sell tickets.

    The advantage is that after opening for them, my popularity in San Francisco would be so hot that we could start organizing solo shows for me.

    Even if they were small gigs, gigs that could bring in five figures a night, which was a big change from what I was getting paid now.

    As we rehearsed, Mark and Frank loved the new song I was going to sing, especially Frank, who liked it so much that he gave me some tips on how to improve the guitar and bass parts of the song, which were the main instruments, as well as some small changes in the editing of the song that could enhance the feeling I was trying to convey even more.

    His editing tips were to add some sound effects or parts of a choir in the background of the song to enhance my singing voice, which we had to record in advance to be able to use in the show.

    With his changes, I could close my eyes and imagine this song being sung by a cowboy from the far west, rejecting a beautiful, innocent city girl.

    Frank said that he saw the character in this song as the jerk in Boyfriend who tried on the girl he was trying to win over and realized that they weren''t a match, so he had to reject her in a way that didn''t hurt her, but still seemed very elegant.

    Mark, on the other hand, said he couldn''t think of anything as deep as us, he just liked the lyrics and the melody of the beat and thought it was a good song, more to his liking than Boyfriend''s.

    Even though the three of them had different opinions about the song, I was sure that the public would like it and that it would be a big hit!