Saturday Night Séance
By S.J. Drew
Story and Cover Copyright 2014 S.J. Drew
Introduction
Track 1 – Bad Fairy
Track 2 – Unhappy Medium
Track 3 – Always Less
Track 4 – Heart’s Desire
Track 5 – Page of Swords
Track 6 – Looking-Glass
Track 7 – Haunted Castle
Track 8 – Uncanny Valley
Track 9 – Möbius Strip
Track 10 – Crazy Like a Fox
Track 11 – Bridge to Nowhere
Track 12 – Saving Grace
Track 13 – Where Silence Reigns
Wrap-up
Introduction:
Jana Henrike: Hello everyone and welcome to "Entertainment Now!" I'm your host, Jana Henrike.
Nico Syv: And I'm your other host, Nico Syv.
Jana: And tonight we're talking with Nevermore and the Ravens, Anna, Belle, Lee, and Lenore, about their third album, "Saturday Night Séance."
Nico: And we'll ask them questions about things other than their album and music, and they probably won't answer us.
Lee: That's what we do. Or, well, don't do. I guess.
Jana: So should we start with questions about the album, or the other questions?
Anna: Whatever you want. We've got time.
Nico: That's right. The whole interview will be available at the "Entertainment Now!" website under "Entertainment Extras!" We've even included the song lyrics so you see how the inspiration behind the song turned out. Well, if they actually answer us.
Jana: Yeah, you're notorious for not answering questions about your private lives. Why is that?
Lenore: We don't like being stalked by paparazzi.
Nico: Obviously, but you never appear out of make-up and you always use your stage names. Why is that?
Lee: KISS did the same thing.
Jana: They also took off their make-up. On camera.
Belle: That's a career move we're not ready for yet. We enjoy mystery and think that helps us sell more albums.
Nico: But it's like you have secret identities. You're rock stars, not superheroes or CIA agents.
Lee: As far as you know anyway.
Jana: [laughs] No, really, why the obsession with privacy?
Anna: For the fans.
Nico: How is that for the fans?
Lenore: Because to me there's almost nothing more depressing than recognizing your favorite celebrity and then realizing they've just bought groceries or something. That's so mundane, you know. Who wants to see their rock icons buying milk or socks or whatever? I guess it's nice to know they're like other people, but they lose some of that larger-than-life glamor.
Jana: Who did you see buying socks?
Lee: More childhood icons than I want to think about right now. But anyway, we like our secret identities and the mystique.
Lenore: And honestly, it's not like people can't find out who we are. It's pretty hard to hide, really, but we'd rather not make a big deal of it.
Nico: Okay, fine, we'll leave that one alone. So this is your third album in only three years, plus you've done two concert tours. Short concert tours, but still, and there's rumors someone got married or had a baby, or both. You've been really, really busy.
Lenore: We do push ourselves, but one thing we learned when studying really successful musicians was that they were generally prolific. Now, there is always the question of whether quality will be sacrificed for quantity, but if we take too long to produce an album, even if it's our best album, we may have lost too much of our relevancy and audience.
Lee: We want to be appreciated for good work, but we also want to, you know, eat and stuff. Art alone, no matter how great, isn't enough to pay the bills.
Jana: Aren't you concerned this kind of pace will cause you to burn out?
Belle: Of course. But remember, we were active for several years before we got our big break. We've got lots of material from those years that we can use.
Nico: Do you recycle songs from those early years?
Anna: No, but we were careful to limit the number of songs we put on our early albums just in case.
Jana: You really thought you'd make it big that long ago?
Anna: I did!
Belle: And the rest of us figured it didn't hurt us to prepare.
Track 1 - Bad Fairy
The Interview:
Nico: So the first track has is a straight up modern pop-rock tune. What was your inspiration for this song? I mean, besides the obvious?
Jana: Is this part of the dark fantasy genre you're known for using?
Lenore: You know, that question has been asked before and we still don't know what that even means.
Lee: And Anna owes me ten bucks.
Nico: What for?
Anna: She bet me ten bucks one of you would bring up that "dark fantasy genre" thing. I was wrong.
Lee: And I get ten bucks.
Belle: The inspiration was fairytales. But who hasn't been influenced by the modern interpretations of fairytales? Usually the villain comes out looking a lot better than the hero, especially in the case of a wicked fairy versus a princess.
Lee: Being sympathetic with the villain isn't really a new concept. Heck, this is pretty mainstream for us.
Lenore: But you can only be so sympathetic. At some point, the wicked fairy chooses to be wicked. Cursing a baby, for instance, as revenge on the parents is pretty unforgiveably evil.
Nico: I guess that's true, but this song still seems firmly on the fairy's side.
Anna: Well, we want good to win, but, well...
Lee: It'd be easier to write a song about that if the side of good wasn't so dumb.
Lenore: Or had some style.
Jana: Evil does always seem to get the best fashions.
The Story:
Maryann burst into the study lounge. "Hey, everyone I got us a job!" she said excitedly.
Leah, Nora, and Isabella looked up from their study group with much less enthusiasm.
"You're late," Nora said. "And you didn't bring dinner like we asked."
"But I got a job!"
"Okay, what job?" Leah asked.
"The Fairytale Ball!"
The other three groaned.
"Really?" Leah sighed. "And you're going to make us dress up too, aren't you?"
"It's for charity," Maryann retorted, looking put out. "It's a pretty high profile event, you know. It's better than playing prom or something, right?"
"We're trying to get a job doing that too," Isabella said mildly.
"Oh, right. Come on, I thought you'd be excited. It's a good job!"
"You're right, Maryann. We should be excited. We need the exposure and practice."
"A Valentine's Day dance for charity with a fairytale princess dress code," Leah said, clearly disappointed. "It's like a bunch of grown women trying to re-do prom."
"What's wrong with that?" Maryann asked. "Our proms didn't turn out the way we expected, right? And I don't think any of my girlfriends got the romantic night they were hoping for. What's wrong with romance?"
"You are such a hopeless romantic," Nora sighed.
"So? There's nothing wrong with that."
"If you're such a hopeless romantic, why do you hate the Twilight girl?" Leah asked.
"She doesn't do anything," Maryann said. "She's just there while Edward and Jacob fight over her. She's not interesting. I like heroines who do stuff, who are awesome by themselves before the guy ever comes along."
"Spunky? Plucky? Dynamic?"
"Sure!"
Leah paused a moment. "You wanted to be a Disney
princess when you grew up, didn't you?"
"Um, no."
"Oh, yes you did. Which one did you want to be?"
She crossed her arms, annoyed. "I'm not telling," she huffed.
"Ariel, obviously," Nora said.
"Hey! I mean, no."
"And this also explains why you worked to get us a job at the Fairytale Ball."
Now the redhead was pouting. "Why are you all so against this?"
"It just doesn't seem to fit with our theme," Leah said. "We're Nevermore and the Ravens. Ugh. If we were playing prom at least we could be ourselves. Prom organizers would probably want a cool indie band. This is like playing at a wedding. We'll just do covers of cheesy pop songs and '80s power ballads while wearing fluffy dresses that won't even match. Ugh."
The other three were startled at the forcefulness of her reaction.
"I'm sorry. I thought you'd be happy."
"It's fine," Isabella said. "It's just fine. We're sorry. I guess we've just been frustrated."
"Yeah, we're sorry," Leah said sincerely. "And I know a lot of girls like princesses and stuff, but I wasn't into that at all. And my parents didn't really get that, so I'm kind of resentful. So, um, sorry about that. I'm just not that kind of girl. But a gig is a gig, so, well, just don't put me in pink."
"Actually, pink would be a good complement to your skin tone," Nora said thoughtfully.
Leah glared at her.
"I'm just saying."
"No pink," she said with gritted teeth.
"Okay. Well, we will need dresses. I've got my old prom dress and a bridesmaid dress too."
"Ugh," Leah said again.
"We've got some time, and you've got a sewing machine. I'm sure you could