When Iris first informed JJ that she wanted to collaborate with Pandemonium, JJ didn't like the idea. He thought that she should collaborate "up" with veteran musicians rather than "down" with newbies like Pandemonium.
"We can collaborate 'up' as you say, Mr. JJ, but later. I want to work with Pandemonium now. I already wrote a song for us," she told him.
When it came to music, she knew what she wanted and could be very stubborn when persuaded to change her mind.
"You brat! My advice is for your own good but you never listen to me! Hmph! Where's the song then? Let me listen to it!"
Iris played the demo tape.
As soon as JJ began listening, shock appeared on his face. He frowned and looked at Iris.
"What the hell is this?!"
She nonchalantly sipped tea instead of replying to him. Her calm expression was the total opposite of JJ's. She wanted her music to speak for itself. Just as she had confidence in the music she created, she also had confidence in JJ's ability to judge quality music.
Seeing that she was ignoring him, JJ harrumphed and continued to listen to the song. The frown never left his face. In fact, it only deepened after the song ended. He played the song again, listening more intently this time. In the end, he listened to the whole song a total of eight times before stopping.
He was frowning the entire time. His frown, however, wasn't because he was displeased but because he was bewildered.
"Of course," Iris replied, tilting her head to the side and raising her eyebrow at what she thought was a stupid question. Of course she composed the song. Who else?
"This…I don't know how to categorize this kind of music," JJ mumbled. Although he was frowning, there was excitement in his eyes. "It's hardcore rock but more fluid and melodic…and at the same time, it's also classical music. What the hell is this? It's like you've combined pieces of heaven and hell and made a harmony out of such incompatible elements."
"I think it's the most appropriate song for a collaboration between me and Pandemonium given that we have very different musical backgrounds. I want to collaborate with them but I'm not comfortable releasing an entirely rock music under my name. And I'm sure that they also won't appreciate leaving rock aside to perform my classical-inspired style. So why not merge the two?"
JJ looked at her in amazed disbelief. "You make it sound so easy. I'm sure that there are other musicians in the world who have done this before, but I bet that nobody could do this as well as you do, brat. This is a highly technical piece that needs a lot of finesse in order to make the merging of the different styles as seamless as possible. I have no doubt that this is a breeze for you, but can those Pandemonium brats even perform this?"
"Not sure," Iris replied in a careless manner, shrugging her shoulders. Then she continued to sip her tea.
"You! If they can't do it, we still have time to find a more capable rock band."
"No, Mr. JJ. I wrote this song because I want to collaborate with Pandemonium. If I can't perform this song with them, then I won't release it."
"You brat!"
After ironing out the details, JJ was able to frighten the smaller record label handling Pandemonium's music into lending the rock band to his record label for this one-time collaboration with Iris Long. JJ's record label would be producing the single.
As a result, he appointed himself as her mentor, showing her the ropes in becoming a music producer. After all, a music producer's job wasn't just limited to recording songs inside the music studio. Good producers also needed to have extensive connections within the music industry.
But before anything else, Pandemonium needed to learn the song first. When they first listened to it, their eyes blanked out for a few moments. Could they even play this?
"Senior, are you sure this is the song that you composed for us?" Blazed asked her.
"Yes."
Eros had a worried expression. He clenched and unclenched his hands. "This kind of lead guitar…I think it's beyond my current ability."
The quiet Night also looked worried. However, determination flashed in his eyes.
"Giving up?" she asked them.
"No!" Eros said in a hurry. "I said it's beyond my 'current' ability. I'll train hard. I'm sure that I'll be able to play this. F*ck! This song is amazing. I want to play! I will play it!"
Night nodded his agreement.
While they were learning the song, they were also training to improve their technical skills. Iris took it upon herself to coach the four. She was very strict and her standards were extremely high. The four band members trained almost every day. They had never worked so hard like this in improving their technical skills.
The four were already talented to begin with. Iris was pleased that they learned fast, especially Night. He only needed to be shown something once or twice.
Finally, it was time to start the recording sessions.
Eros would play lead guitar, Night the bass guitar, Thunder the drums. Iris would play the piano in addition to being the lead vocalists together with Blaze. They also hired other musicians to play the flute, violin and cello.
As usual during the recording sessions, Iris and JJ butted heads like two evil dragons. The arguments were even more intense this time because Iris had more authority as co-producer.
The poor Pandemonium members who never experienced working with these two stubborn perfectionists quailed and quaked every time Iris and JJ halted the recording to bare their fangs and claws to breathe fire—COUGH COUGH—to argue with each other. They already expected that JJ would be scary based on his reputation in the music industry. What they didn't expect was that Iris would be scary as well.
While they were busy recording, Jin Chonglin's announcement of his comeback album reached their ears. JJ became excited and wanted to release the single around the same time as Jin Chonglin's album.
"Mr. JJ, we are NOT rushing the production of this single," Iris said, displeased at the idea. "There's only about a month left before Senior Jin Chonglin makes his comeback and releases his new album. With our current slow progress, we won't make it in time. I don't want to release substandard music just because we're chasing a deadline."
"And whose fault is it that we're so slow? Tell me, brat! If you'll just listen and follow my suggestions, we would've finished this song ages ago!"
"What did you say, brat?!"
Before the two could start arguing again, the usually quiet Night interrupted them.
"I know that a big part of the delay is because our skills aren't up to your high standards yet. I have no problem with that. In fact, I want to improve my skills to make this song as perfect as we can. But I'm going to side with Mr. JJ this time. I want to compete against someone like Senior Jin Chonglin."
Blaze: "I want to compete, too! Senior Iris, please make it possible!"
Eros: "Competing against Senior Jin Chonglin? Hmm. Sounds interesting. I'm in!"
Thunder: "Goddess Iris, please let's do it! Come on! I'm so stoked!"
JJ straightened his back and crossed his arms over his puffed out chest, while looking at Iris with a smug expression on his face.
Iris swept her cold eyes across the four band members. Blaze and Thunder shivered under her gaze, but Night and Eros looked back at her with determined eyes.
"Fine," she said, sighing. But before they could celebrate, she added, "We'll only release it that time IF I'm satisfied with it. If not, even if we have to renege on a promise, we'll have to delay the release until the song meets my standards."
"Yeah!"
Everyone was pumped.
Iris may look disinterested, but her competitive spirit already began burning inside.