Band Together

“Of all the names…” Rick began. “...swimming in that head of yours, that is the one you fished out?”

“What is wrong with, ‘Sm-” Freddy began.

“No! Shut it and think of something cool!”

The two sat there in the gloomy room. The walls were the same cold dark grey as the clouds outside, there thoughts seemed to mingle with the mood of the weather. Guitar and drums waiting in the corner, the sticks and strings growing cold.

“What about…uh…’Red-” Freddy murmured.

“Taken,” Rick replied. With that thought he opened his phone and began browsing the online dictionary. “A...ab...ac..ace...ad...adapt…”

Rick pondered this.

“Adapting something?” Rick suggested.

“Adapting what?” Freddy asked a little upset that his suggestions fell flat. “Adapting squirrels?”

“Are you calling me a squirrel, mate?”

Freddy held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Nah, mate, but I think you’re onto something,” Freddy nodded. “Adapting...adaptive...”

Rick grew tired of talking and walked over to his guitar. He could feel it calling for him. Pulling it up by the neck he laid it on his lap and began flicking and plucking at it mindlessly till his mind made a tune from the noise.

“Is a name really that important?” Freddy muttered crawling over to his drum set.

“The fans need something to chant while we bring the roof down,” Rick smiled softly.

Suddenly Freddy paused just before starting a beat to go with Rick’s strumming. An idea hit him harder that any fist in a bar fight.

“How about...Fred ‘n Rick?” Freddy suggested.

“You want to name the band after yourself?” Rick asked.

“No, no...Fred…’N...Rick,” Freddy stressed. “Sounds like Frederick, but really it is both our names, see?”

Rick pondered it for a moment. If they were to use their own names he wasn’t too keen on Freddy’s name coming first, but suddenly a picture of the crowd cheering, ‘Fred ‘n Rick’ was too good. The fact it sounded like Frederick made it roll off the tongue easier, it was catchy enough to be a band name.

“I guess that will work,” Rick murmured.

The two continue to play aimlessly, creating music from randomness. Finding peace amongst chaos, as Rick’s mother would put it. Of course, those days have long since passed, but the words carry on.

Eventually a tune was formed, a song in the making. It was at this point that Rick began to murmur lyrics along to the music. Each minute passed with a lyric being adjusted, sang in a different tune or replaced with a new line entirely. An hour passed, his throat grew sore and their arms tired.

“Right, let’s try it,” Rick nodded.

With that the two set up recording equipment, not the best quality but good enough. Once that task was out of the way, it was the moment of truth. Tired and sore, the two played their new song, Rick singing better than any of his iterations, throat rasping at points, adding emotion to some lines. Once the song was done the two smiled and closed the recording, adding it to the list of hundreds they created.

Success was something that both hoped for, but never relied on. Roommates posted their music online, shared it wherever, but in the morning they woke up and went off to work. Rick worked as a librarian, organising books, but mainly passing time surfing the internet on the libraries computer.

Freddy worked in something that paid more, freelance accountant. The work was dull, but logical. It was for that reason that Freddy found the work easy. Something logical could be easily solved and understood, but music was often illogical and this challenged him. It was for that reason he bought drums, to create logic from the illogical. To develop music from noise and Rick helped him find that logic. The music seemed to form from their fiddling and eventually they were both smiling as they bobbed their heads to the flow.

Success came sooner than they expected, which is why when they hit their stride in music they barely noticed. Didn’t notice the views on their music rocketing upwards, didn’t notice the talk online, didn’t notice the many emails and offers till weeks later. While Freddy was taking his break from the reams of paper on his desk he opened his phone and noticed an email appear at the top of his screen. The subject interested him and he tapped it lightly.

Two minutes later he was calling Rick, waking the librarian up at his desk. The conversation was panicked, but happy. The two took a long moment to calm down and decided to check things out at the end of the day. Neither one slept that night, instead reading through the hundreds of emails that they could get to that day, the tens of thousands of comments. They could not believe their luck as the hundreds of videos they posted were suddenly circulating the internet fast and strong. A month ago they were barely noticed, some stray views being counted and no more. 

Now, they were considering so many offers that they could not decide upon. Instead, they decided to do it on their own, creating music and developing their platform. The amount of attention they were getting only grew, their popularity was exploding ever upwards as they responded to the public, thanking for every piece of support. Through all the excitement of fame, the two made sure not to make the mistake of stopping.

Rick is still a librarian, answering comments on videos and songs in-between work. Freddy took less job offers, no longer needing to rely on them, doing the same as Rick. It was curious to the public how these musicians were being so vocal and positive towards their community when no other musician would. Legally bound by contracts, those musicians watched as a new age of music grew from these two roommates, who have yet to reach their peak.

It was a remarkable, but Freddy and Rick would soon be deafened by the countless number of musicians following in their footsteps. Still, they would remembered always, by every viewer, as the two who started from nothing and showed everyone that they had a chance to reach their dreams.