The shooting of [Disconnected] was going to go on for another half month, but Aiden's scenes had been completed, so he left the set after a small farewell party.

But he didn't leave LA to go to New York.

He stayed there for another week to finish the recording with Grey, who had just returned from his Spain tour.

From the last time Aiden had seen, both of their careers had gone through quite a bit of ruckus.

Grey had successfully made a great comeback and had gone on to do housefull tours in Canada, France, Mexico and Spain. He had also released an EP which consisted of five songs which had done quite well on the charts, and the streaming numbers were also good enough.

Neu Entertainment, his record label, was promoting him hard as their premium artist and had no intention of moving on from him until Grey himself decided to start his own record label like so many other established singers.

That's why, when Aiden had contacted them for a song, Neu Entertainment was looking forward to it as it was another chance to cement Grey's position as a leading pop star all over the world.

Their only request was that the song needed to be a commercial pop song that would have all the necessary ingredients for it to get viral on short video platforms like Tiktak.

Record labels in recent times have found out how easy it was for a song to get viral on platforms like that. The song just needed to have beats and lyrics that would make an excellent 30-second video.

A lot of indie artists and songs had come up due to this, and it was touted as another phase in the music scene.

As for Aiden, he felt like it was going to mislead musicians into making more catchy and trendy music instead of a song that had a meaning behind it.

But he did understand how big of an opportunity it was for indie singers without any reliable connections.

So, he didn't mind taking up Neu Entertainment's request and made a catchy pop song.

In the past, Neu Entertainment had taken the help of short video platforms to popularise their songs, and it had worked as a marketing strategy quite well.

This time too, they were going for the same.

"I really think this would rule the charts for a long time."

Grey muttered, listening to the chorus part of the song and vibing alongside it. They had been recording since the morning; until now, only Grey's parts had been recorded.

"Let's hope it does. We are working hard on it."

Aiden said, and a man next to him opened his mouth.

"Can you sing your part next, Aiden? Just for a bit of practice. I think your vocal range has increased a lot in the past months. I kind of want to know what you could do at your current level."

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The man was Toby Ellis, the sound engineer that had been actively working with Grey over the years. Aiden had earlier worked on 'Lonely' with Toby, and he was also the one to mention that Aiden was someone who was constantly improving.

Currently, he is assisting on the song 'Shiver'.

"Yeah, sure."

Aiden said and entered the recording booth.

Wearing the headphones, he picked up the paper on which the lyrics were written. As he was making more and more songs, it was getting harder for him to remember the lyrics of each of them.

He kinda wished that there would be a skill for that too.

"Should I go with the first verse?"

"Yeah. I will start the music."

"Okay."

Like that, the recording started, and Aiden took a deep breath feeling the music flowing. The retro piano beats came, and Aiden started singing.

His voice was followed by a silver light that he had mastered by now.

"When was the last time we were alone."

"Sitting beside the river, throwing stones."

"Just watching you."

"So, let's turn off the world tonight."

"Dancing under the moonlight with each other."

The song started off as a simple love song that has already become Aiden's natural style, but the music was completely different. Despite that, it suited the singing style, and it didn't feel off at all.

For this song, Aiden was going with a theme of a couple getting some time with each other after a long time. Though it started off like a love song, the song would slowly turn into a pop song with Grey joining Aiden at the pre-chorus.

The music would also become more cheerful.

The notes for the first verse were also in the low to medium zone as, unlike 'Firefly', this song needed to be easier to sing.

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'He's certainly way better.'

Toby thought with an interesting smile on his face.

When he got the news that Aiden would be joining them to make another song, he tried to catch up on the songs he had released after 'Lonely'.

He realised that Aiden had improved a lot. His vocals really stood out when he sang a rock song like 'Revolution', and in 'Lost in the Sky', there were all sorts of emotions attached to each note.

In a word, Aiden was soaking up experience like a sponge and using it to increase his singing skills.

It was very fascinating to Toby, who had been in this business for years.

'Not a natural genius but a person who constantly improves.'

It was something very rare and needed a lot of hard work.

"Do you also feel that Aiden's voice has changed?" Grey suddenly said. "Like the voice itself, but he has gotten a lot of control, so he's able to change the voice a bit."

He had also noticed it. After all, he was an Intermediate Grade 7 singer with a special skill. He was one of the masters.

"Yeah, that kid is fascinating."

"I don't think he's going to stay a kid for long. 'Lonely' was released one and half years ago, and he's already a lot better than I had imagined."

Grey muttered and secretly thought that 'Shiver' was surely going to be way bigger than 'Lonely'.

***

"One, two, three"

In a dance practice room, Rachel was practising her steps. Sweat was trickling down her forehead, but she still kept dancing.

Since the recording of 'Firefly', Rachel had made a resolve to get better by the time Aiden's album would be released. She still remembered a conversation she had with Aiden.

'I think 'Firefly' is going to be the main song of the album. We might have to perform it a lot because a lot of the marketing budget would go towards it.'

'Really? I thought you would go for a solo song for the main one.'

'Nah, 'Firefly' is the most complicated song, and it suits me the best.'

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It was a short conversation but something that had motivated her a lot.

She was not going to perform just any song but the main song of an album. It was not her album, but in the last month, she had gotten attached to 'Firefly' a lot. She had practised it every day to get better at it.

Now she was confident that she would be able to perform it on stage.

As she was thinking all that, the music stopped, and Rachel stopped with it. Panting, she took deep breaths and sat down on the ground.

It was then that Linda walked in.

"Rachel, you are working hard today, too, as usual."

She smiled, and Rachel took a minute to respond. While tilting her head, she asked.

"You look to be in a good mood? Did something good happen?"

"Yeah." Linda nodded. "Yeah, I heard some good news. Aiden's album is confirmed to be released on March 18, and promotions are going to start just next week."

"Really?"

Rachel's expression brightened up hearing that. This was big news.

"It looks like you are going to need to shoot for the music video of 'Firefly' with Aiden. Apparently, they would be having music videos of 3-4 tracks and release the others by audio."

Music videos were a pretty good way to promote a song on MeTube, and some of these music videos would even get a billion views. There was almost an exclusive club of musicians whose songs have reached 1 billion views on MeTube because of how few songs do that.

Artists would usually hire actors for their music videos but sometimes, they would act on it themselves.

It mostly depended on what an artist wanted and how the record label wanted to promote him.

"Did you get to know about any shows? Which stages is he aiming for?"

"I don't really know a lot about it, but I'm pretty sure he's going to perform in a few music festivals. Even some award shows but going by the response; he might look for a bigger stage."

Linda said after thinking for a bit. There were so many stages all around America just, not to mention in other countries.

But a lot of it just depended upon the success of the album.

"What big stage?"

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"Probably something like Radio City music hall. A stage that only top musicians could stand on."

New York City has a lot of stages that singers only dream of standing on. These were stages that were tourist attractions, and only top singers got a chance to perform.

Knowing Aiden, Linda was sure that he must be aiming for something like that.