Revelation Records And Its Shoestring Budget

One warm summer day, Robin and I decided to go to the beach near his apartment. We had just started recording our album, but we needed a little bit of a break, so we relaxed on the beach for a few hours, watching the waves roll towards the shore and then pull away. After a while of enjoying the ocean, Robin said, "Bianca, we should have a song."

"Why do we need a song?" I asked.

"Every couple should have a song," Robin insisted. He took out his MP3 player and pressed shuffle. "Whatever song comes up will be our song."

I rolled my eyes. "What if it's not a love song?" I asked.

"We'll figure that out later," Robin said, glancing at his MP3 player. "I didn't know I still had this on here."

"What song is it?" I asked.

"'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' by Green Day," Robin said.

"Robin, that's not a love song," I said.

"I don't care," Robin said. "I don't listen to romantic music anyways. Besides, we can make it our own. It's our song now, and that makes it a love song."

"I suppose you're right," I said. "You have to have at least one love song in your musical collection."

Robin scrolled through all of his music, but just by looking at the song titles, I could tell that most of the songs he listened to were about breakups, politics, or both. "I think the Green Day song is the best that we're going to get," Robin said. "You know, I can't wait to get a turntable."

"Why do you want that?" I asked.

"The sound quality is better if I listen to my music on vinyl," Robin stated.

"I think it's perfectly fine on the MP3 player," I said.

"Well, you're wrong," Robin said. "I won't argue though. I love you too much."

"I love you too, Robin," I said.

"We should go back to the studio," Robin suggested. "I'd like to work on our album a little bit more."

"Me too," I said.

Robin sipped his coffee one last time before taking my hand, and the two of us walked to the studio together. I never understood why Robin insisted on drinking hot coffee even in the summer, but although Robin had his quirks, he was worth it.

Over the next several months, Robin, Kyle, and I toiled over our debut album, which we decided to name after the band itself. By the end of the year, we had fifteen tracks ready for the album. However, we didn't want to make the album too long, so we chose the ten best tracks and had the engineers finalize those songs. "It's so weird having record producers," Robin said one day as we watched various producers work on our tracks. "I don't like other people meddling with my music."

"They're not meddling with it," I told him. "They're making it better."

Robin sighed. "I just don't want us to end up like Beverly," he said.

"We won't end up like Beverly," I said. "Revelation Records promised that they would give us complete creative control, remember?"

"I remember that," Robin said. "I'm still nervous though. What if they're making us into a pop band?"

"Revelation Records wouldn't do that," I said. "They're supposed to be a punk label."

Robin laughed. "Phantom Cat's not punk!" he exclaimed. "They're pop punk at best."

"What's this about me?" Alan asked.

"You're not punk," Robin said.

"I'm totally punk," Alan said. "Anyways, do you guys think a June release would work for Madhouse? I'd like a little bit of extra time to promote the album."

"That's fine," I said before Robin could object.

"Great," Alan said. "What do you think the lead single is going to be?"

"Chameleon, for sure," Robin said. "It's a fan favorite."

"I agree," I said.

Alan shrugged. "I guess that works, although I personally prefer Double Vision," he said. "Maybe that could be a second single?"

"That sounds good," I said.

"Fantastic," Alan said. "You guys just keep on rocking, and I'll make sure that this album becomes a hit."

Sure enough, Alan started telling every media outlet he could about Madhouse, and with his help, Chameleon started climbing the alternative charts before we had even released the album. Robin continued to worry about "selling out," but all of his fears disappeared once he heard the final product. All three of us were thrilled with the finished album, and with Alan's help, Madhouse sold well upon its June release.

Despite Madhouse's strong sales, Revelation Records was still hopelessly in debt. Alan assured us that the record company's finances were improving every day, but it appeared as if he had blown all of the company's money on expensive equipment and talented staff. When it came time to create a video for our second single, Double Vision, there wasn't even enough money for props.

"Robin wants a ping pong table in the video," I told Abby as we prepared for filming. She had just graduated with a degree in music management, and had thankfully returned to manage Madhouse full time. Although she had not yet made the move to Los Angeles, she had plans to follow us after we finished touring to support Madhouse's release.

"Does Revelation Records have the money to pay for it?" Abby asked.

"Of course not," I told her. "Where are we going to get it?"

Abby contemplated this for a moment, and then said, "Didn't Phantom Cat have a ping pong table in the video for Glowing Lights?"

"I don't know," I said. "I didn't pay attention to it when it came out."

"I think it did," Abby said. "You should ask Alan if he still has the ping pong table."

I sighed and went upstairs to talk to Alan. Due once again to budget constraints, the film crew was filming the video in the basement of the Revelation Records building. "Hey Alan," I said when I found him. "Do you happen to have a ping pong table around here by any chance?"

"There's one in the prop closet," he said. "I used it in the Glowing Lights video."

"Where's the prop closet?" I asked.

"Follow me," Alan said. He led me back into the basement, and opened up a closet filled with props. "Most of these are from our previous videos. You can use whatever you'd like."

Robin immediately pulled out the ping pong table and started setting it up. "I wouldn't use that," Kyle said. "Alan spent the entire Glowing Lights video rolling around on it."

"Without his shirt!" Abby added. "It was quite the video."

I shrugged. "We don't have enough money to get another ping pong table, or any other props for that matter. We'll have to use what we have."

The film crew helped us plan and set up for the video, and Alan came downstairs every few hours to check on us. It took a surprisingly long time just to get ready to film, and even longer to actually film the video. Despite all of the time it took, the video itself was relatively simple. Most of it was just Robin, Kyle, and I playing in the Revelation Records basement, with a handful of humorous background events, such as Robin and Kyle leaving in the middle of the song to play ping pong. Thankfully, by the end of the evening, we were finished filming, and the video was uploaded to the Internet shortly afterwards.

Although Madhouse's career was taking off, and we were certain to gain more publicity if Robin and I announced that our fans' suspicions were right and we were in fact dating, Robin wanted to keep our relationship a secret from the fans. "I don't like the idea of our relationship being everyone else's business," Robin told me. To some degree, I agreed with him. I wasn't fond of the thought of the tabloids chasing the two of us around.

Meanwhile, Alan was still devising more ways to help Madhouse gain even more success while Phantom Cat returned to the studio to record their sophomore album, Fire and Rain. One day, he approached me and said, "Bianca, how would you like to sing on one of the tracks for our new album?"

"I'd be happy to do that," I told him.

"Great," Alan said. "Meet us in the Revelation Records studio tomorrow afternoon."

The next day, I arrived at Revelation Records Studio, but the door was locked. I noticed a handwritten sign on the door that read, "Recording In Session: Please Knock If You Need Immediate Assistance. Phantom Cat Members: No Girlfriends In The Studio!"

I knocked on the door and Alan opened it. "Hi Bianca," Alan said. "Come on in."

There are a lot more members of Phantom Cat than I thought, I observed upon entering the studio. There were five men and three women, excluding myself, lounging around the studio when I entered. I already knew Alan, and I recognized Kaylee Kartrashian, the latest in his long line of celebrity girlfriends, but all of the others were unfamiliar. "What happened to following the 'No Girlfriends In The Studio' rule?" a man with blond hair and square glasses asked.

"Don't be such a hypocrite, Miles," another man with brown hair said. "You're breaking the rule too."

"Ian is my boyfriend, not my girlfriend," Miles said. "He doesn't count."

"I thought we agreed that 'girlfriend' in this context refers to any romantic partner, regardless of gender," the second man said.

"We still haven't changed the sign, so the rule hasn't changed," Miles said.

"That's only because we don't have enough money to do that," a third man with curly hair chimed in.

"Don't even talk, Gabe," the second man said. "You're breaking the rule too."

"So are you, Byron," a small Asian woman said.

"You're an exception, Sara," Byron said.

"Can we all stop arguing for once?" another woman, who I presumed was Gabe's girlfriend, said.

"That's a good idea," Sara said.

"Yeah, we should get started on recording this track," Miles said.

"I should also introduce all of you to Bianca Madison," Alan said. "Everyone, this is Bianca. She's the lead singer of Madhouse, and she'll be singing backup on this track."

"Hi everybody," I said.

Alan gestured towards the tall, curly-haired man in the back. "That's Gabe Mirtenbaum. He's our drummer." He then gestured towards the brown haired man who was attempting to tune his bass. "That's Byron Shaw, our bassist. The guy next to him is Miles Hawthorne. He plays rhythm guitar, keyboards, auxiliary percussion, cello..."

"You're forgetting something," Miles said.

"What am I forgetting?" Alan asked. "Organ? Clarinet? Flugelhorn?"

"I don't play any of those, although I've always wanted to play the flugelhorn," Miles said.

"I give up," Alan said.

Miles shook his head and turned to me. "Once I'm done recording my part, you can record," he said before entering the recording booth. From outside the booth, all of us could hearing Miles warming up. "I'm ready," Miles said to one of the engineers, and after a few takes, he decided that he was satisfied.

I also realized that Miles had quite a nice voice.

After Miles was done, it was my turn. Alan had already given me the lyrics that I needed to sing, and I knew the tune from listening to Miles. It was a relatively easy job, but the members of Phantom Cat seemed to be impressed with my singing. "That sounded nice," Miles told me after I was done.

Kaylee Kartrashian rolled her eyes. "I've heard better," she said.

I left the studio as quickly as possible, not wanting to interfere in Phantom Cat's recording process. Instead of sticking around, I called Robin. "How did it go?" he asked me.

"Phantom Cat is such a peculiar band," I said. "Do you want to hang out at Starbucks?"

"Sure," Robin said.

Robin and I met up at Starbucks, and even though Robin still wasn't a fan of coffee in LA, we had a good time. As I heard our song playing in the coffee shop, I realized that nothing was better than being with my lovely boyfriend Robin Stanley.