Reborn in America

Chapter 20: Recording Records

The Carpenter family lives in a residential area. The building area of the house is 240 square meters, which does not include the garage and back garden. The house has a total of two floors. The kitchen and living room are on the first floor, the bedroom is on the second floor, and the upper floor is the attic.

This house was bought after Richard was born. Most of the money came from Alex’s performance, otherwise he would not be able to buy such a good house if he wanted to feed a family of five with Bart’s salary. Now Alex and Richard are both practicing music and composing in the attic.

There was a bed in the attic next to the window, and beside the bed was a small round table.

At this moment Alex was sitting on the bed, holding a guitar in his arms and playing softly. Richard leaned on the table and quickly recorded Alex's tune.

"Ding Ding dong dong!" After finishing the last few notes, Alex stopped and breathed a little.

"It's really wonderful!" Richard kept writing with the pen in his hand, and praised: "Alex, your song is very nice! I really like it!"

Indeed, Alex has "created" five or six songs for later generations these days. He considered that the two were too young, so the songs he took out were sung in accordance with the status of children.

"Hey, Alex..." Richard suddenly took out a stack of music and handed it over, "Can you sing and play these?"

Alex took it over and saw that these were all songs that Richard used the remaining time to write these days. He was surprised to ask: "Are these all new ones you wrote?"

"Yeah!" Richard nodded and said, "I was inspired by your songs! In order not to forget, I wrote them all down!"

"It's all?" Alex is incredible!

"All of them!" Richard replied affirmatively, and then repeated: "All of them! Of course, there are still many inspirations that have not been written down, but that is not enough time."

Alex lowered his head and hummed to the score.

These songs are obviously influenced by the songs "created" by Alex, and still retain a large part of the current song style. Unexpectedly, these tunes can be considered pretty good with a little modification.

He looked at such a powerful brother Richard, and he was rushed by tens of thousands of elephants: "This is the real genius!"

The song they were going to dedicate to their mother has become so familiar that they can't learn it anymore. Now they are waiting for Bart's news. There has been no news for many days since Bart went out, and he doesn't know how things are going.

Angel didn't care about Barthes, and she didn't ask her sons about it. It's just that Alex is a little worried, he is afraid that Bart will not go well.

In the eyes of Alex, his plan should not be difficult. Just find a company that is willing to record records for private individuals, and after the songs have been recorded, they will be broadcast on the radio. If he is older, he thinks he can do it himself, and he shouldn't waste any time.

While Alex was guessing what happened to Bart, Bart returned. He came back with good news.

"Pack everything, let's go to New York!" Bart said loudly to Alex and them.

new York! This is the economic center of the United States! It is also the entertainment center of the United States. The major record companies of this era all have offices in New York. If you don't open a record company in New York, you will almost never succeed.

Alex has never been to New York. After he was reborn, he has been following Bart, and he has not been in a hurry to travel alone. Not to mention Richard, his impression of New York is just hearsay.

Richard suddenly jumped in front of Bart and exclaimed with joy: "We are going to New York! New York! New York!"

Bart put his index finger to his lips and made a silent motion. Everyone knew what he meant. He didn't want Angel to know their real purpose for going to New York.

They told Angell that Bart had contacted a nightclub and needed to go out to perform. The journey is relatively long and may take a few days. In this way, they quietly got into a broken car and drove towards New York City.

Chicago is not very far from New York. If you fly by plane, you will be there in about 2 hours. However, they are in a car, which takes at least 4 to 5 hours.

Along the way, Alex looked at the scenery outside the window quietly. The people and architecture of this era gave him a peculiar feeling, as if walking into a distant picture, which was blurry at first, and then became clearer. In the end, he also slowly integrated into this picture.

In the 1950s, New York was already the world's super city, with tall buildings and cars coming and going. It feels like a very busy city, everyone just walks and never pauses to look at the surrounding scenery.

The car stopped in front of an old yellow building, and Richard jumped down impatiently.

"Ahem! The air in New York is terrible!"

As soon as Richard landed on his feet, he hurriedly covered his nose with his hands, and an unpleasant smell rushed to his nostrils. He couldn't help coughing and was almost choked.

Alex seems to have returned to the big city where he used to stay. The smell of car exhaust is so unpleasant at all times.

He patted Richard on the back and said comfortingly: "It won't be so uncomfortable when you enter the house."

This is the location of the recording studio of a small record company, and no one came out to meet them. Bart had to lead the Carpenter brothers, took up the musical instrument he had brought, and walked upstairs to find someone related.

Bart found this company through a friend's introduction. Originally, he could also record records elsewhere. Those companies had a business to record records for private individuals, but the recordings were very bad and only amateurish. He doesn't want to record such a record, just record it, professional record.

His friend is the cashier of this company, and she also does front desk and personnel work. She is a black girl.

Although this record company is small, the recording equipment is quite complete, and the effect is pretty good. They were taped by a white man with messy hair, his name is Rudy.

Rudy is very addicted to cigarettes. He keeps smoking a cigarette in his mouth, smoking one after another. He nodded to Pakistani, indicating that he already knew their intentions. However, he was quickly attracted by the age of the Carpenters. He somewhat doubted the abilities of these two children.

"Hey, kiddo! You guys want to record a record! Huh?" When Rudy spoke, the cigarette swayed up and down, and a lot of soot was scattered.

Alex frowned and said in disgust, "Yes!"

Richard looked around, and then exclaimed: "Where is the accompaniment? Why is there no one?"

When recording in this era, single-track recording is still used, which is not as convenient as using a computer to perform multi-track recording. When recording a record, it needs to be recorded all at once. If it is a song that is played by multiple instruments at the same time, the entire band has to go into the studio.

"Do you want accompaniment?" Rudy thought that these two children were just playing tickets and didn't need to be treated so professionally. He didn't expect to ask someone to accompany him when he came up.

"Of course, if our song lacks accompaniment, it is absolutely impossible! Didn't you say that there are professional accompaniment bands to choose from? They are!" Bart decisively asked Rudy to provide band accompaniment services.

Rudy scratched his messy hair and thought about it for a while and said, "Okay, but in this case, your expenses are more than 100 dollars a day, you have to cost 200 dollars."

This recording price is 10 times more expensive than the amateur-level record outside! But Bart thinks the money is well spent.

When an ordinary person goes to that kind of recording studio to record a record, it may only cost $10. Most of the records of this era sell for around US$2, which means that it takes more than 5 times the price to record your own records in the studio. If an accompaniment band is needed, the price will be doubled.

"So expensive...this..."

Alex, who was on the side, originally wanted to suppress the cost, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted.

"No problem!" Bart readily agreed to Rudy's price.

"As long as it succeeds this time, the money can be earned back at any time!" Bart thought to himself.

200 US dollars is not a small amount of money in this era. When Bart used to work in a car factory, he would need to work for two months to get that much money.

Fortunately, the "Carpenter Brothers" are very popular in the tavern. The tips they often get when they perform, plus the money from the tavern owner, make them a lot of money.

"But if the level is not good, we have to change." Alex said immediately.

"It's okay, I have several bands to choose from, or you should listen to their samples first and then think that you want that band to accompany you!" Rudy replied indifferently. How could the record company have no resources ?

They listened to several records that the band had previously accompanied, discussed a little bit, and finally decided to choose one of the bands as accompaniment.

Rudy quickly called to inform the band to come over. Unexpectedly, the band was all black.

There are four people in this black band. The leader is a black uncle in his fifties, two young people, and a child who seems to be only fifteen years old.

After seeing this combination, they wondered if Rudy had made a mistake. The band level of the record they chose is not weak, at least it doesn't look like this kind of mob can play it.

Before they could say what they doubted, Rudy noticed the abnormality in their eyes.

"Gentlemen, let's listen to it first!" Rudy said to the black band with a wave of his hand.

Without a word, the leading Uncle Black took out the instrument on his back. It was a saxophone. It looked quite old, but the sound was very thick.

Under the leadership of Uncle Hei, the other three also showed their unique "weapons".

Of the two young people, one used an accordion and the other a cello. As for the fifteen-year-old child, he took out a harmonica.

As the saying goes, once an expert makes a move, he knows if there is any.

This black band, which looks like a mob, actually cooperates very tacitly, and more importantly, their accompaniment has a sense of integration.

"Very well, then come in!" Bart had to interrupt their perfect performance, because the rental time of the recording studio started after they came in. If you don't want to waste time and money, it is best to start recording immediately.

Usually it takes many times to record a record to achieve the best results. Bart hopes to be able to record successfully as soon as possible, if it is delayed, he really has no patience.