Taylor was frantically looking through a bunch of manilla folders spread over the dining table.
"Nat?!" he called, "have you seen the folder I had last night? The one that had a... blue thing on it? Sticker?"
Natalie and Isaac
"Umm."
Natalie considered the matter as she walked into the dining room. Ezra was in her arms, resting against her chest as she patted him on the back to burp him.
"Did you leave it on the coffee table in the lounge room? There's more folders in there."
The doorbell rang at that point, and Natalie moved to answer it.
"Oh, hi Ike, come on in."
"Hey," Isaac replied. "This is a switch."
It took a moment for Natalie to twig to what he was talking about, and laughed.
Taylor
Taylor ducked into the living room to check the folders in there.
"Ah ha!" he exclaimed triumphantly, holding up the folder as he made his way back to the kitchen area.
"Hey Ike!" he called, trying to put the ones he'd messed up back into some kind of order, "it's you I hear, right?"
Isaac, Natalie and Zac
"Yeah," Isaac replied.
Natalie started to close the door when she heard Zac's voice call out "Keep the door open!"
"Oh, hey Zac," she said.
"Hey Nat! Hey Ezra!" Zac greeted. "Hi Ikers."
"So, everyone gets a hey, except me?"
"Yep," Zac nodded. "Hey Tay! Hey, that's rhymes."
"Like we've never noticed that before."
Natalie smiled as she closed the front door.
Taylor
"Hey Zac!" Taylor called.
"Be with you guys in a minute! Why don't you head for the studio?"
Natalie, Isaac and Zac
Ezra took that moment to burp.
"Ahh, lovely," Zac nodded.
"Well, you would know," Isaac teased.
Natalie gave them an amused smile and headed off to get the spewed on towel off her shoulder. Isaac and Zac headed to the studio to wait for Tay.
Taylor
Taylor managed to gather the folders into a box and went to collect the ones from the living room as well, before following his brothers to the studio.
"Sorry about the mess, haven't had much time to clean up," he said, dumping the box on the main table.
He took out the folder with the blue sticker, moved some random things from the table, and put it down between them as he took a seat.
Isaac and Zac
"By the way... who's idea was it to meet this early in the morning?" Zac asked.
"Sore at getting up before 12?" Isaac asked.
"Ha! I wish I could sleep in that long."
Taylor
"Mine," Taylor admitted.
"We haven't seen each other in almost a week, I figure if we get a good start on things who could actually get alot done this time."
He opened the folder.
"I wrote down a few scouting locations that we could check into. Mostly through word of mouth and rep."
Isaac and Zac
"Excellent," Isaac said.
"So, what? It could have waited another hour or two?" Zac asked Taylor.
Isaac rolled his eyes.
"Where to first? Or who first?"
Taylor
"There's this band called Glazing Mines, they're playing downtown tomorrow night at some hideaway bar. They could be worth checking out. Word has it they're not out for a rush on fame ar anything," Taylor shrugged.
Isaac and Zac
Isaac nodded.
"Okay, sounds good," he said.
"So, what we all go? As a group? Or shallwe try to be inconspicuos and go in seperately?" Zac asked, rubbing his hands together.
Taylor
"Well..." Taylor considered.
"Maybe we could all go see them on separate nights? There's always the chance that that one show might not be their best, and it'd would be healthy to have different takes on the band to bring to the table."
He shrugged.
"There's two more bands playing around the same time. Days, I mean. Maybe we could take one each and rotate. There's no rush after all."
Isaac and Zac
"This is true," Zac nodded.
"Are they call playing the same days?" asked Isaac. "Or is like, one doing Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and someone else doing Tuesdays Thrusdays and Saturdays or something?"
Taylor
"Yeah, we've got the Mines playing Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Strata Fear playing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And... The Oakalies are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday."
Taylor took out a street map that showed the venues.
"They're not oo far from each other and they all average a show time of around 7 to 9pm, so it won't be hard to meet up with each other before and after."
Isaac and Zac
"Okay, well, I guess it doesn't really mattter who sees who in what order so..." Isaac shrugged.
"Who wants to do a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday?" Zac asked.
Taylor
"I just need to organise a babysitter, but I should be good for any of them," Taylor shrugged.
"Let's just work arond your schedules for now."
Isaac and Zac
"I have nothing," Zac said. "Well, not really. But they just going to have to deal with me going outside the house occasionally."
He muttered something about needing a second nanny.
"Imagine if you had all of your kids living under the same roof," Isaac teased. "Yours and Julie's."
"Don't even joke about it."
Taylor
"You could make money as the newest circus in town," Taylor suggested with a smirk.
"What about you, Ike? Anything lined up this week?"
Isaac and Zac
"No," Isaac replied.
"What? No hot dates with Nikki?" Zac asked.
Isaac didn't respond.
Taylor
"Everything ok there? Anything to talk about?" Taylor asked, reading his brother's body language.
Isaac and Zac
"We broke up," Isaac muttered.
"Again? See! I knew this would happen," Zac nodded. "Didn't I tell you that -"
"Zac, just... shut up," Isaac glowered at him.
"Geez, sorry," Zac replied, a little taken aback at Isaac's reaction. "But I mean... I don't know why you're so cut up about it."
"Maybe because I love her and it turns out she's just a... a... a crook and a whore. Literally. I don't really want to talk about it."
Taylor
Taylor opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again at the last statement.
"Ok, so we'll move on," he suggested.
"Anyone want a particular band on a particular night?"
Isaac and Zac
Zac shrugged.
"Whichever. Fine with me."
"Maybe we should put all the options into a hat..." Isaac joked.
Taylor
"It's cool," Taylor shrugged.
He grabbed a pen and randomly put their names next to the band playing times.
"Does that look good?"
Isaac and Zac
Isaac looked at the list, while Zac merely glanced at it.
"Nope, totally unacceptable," Zac declared. "I wanted to see -"
"Zac?"
"Yes Ike?"
"You're a dork."
"That's Mr Dork to you."
Taylor
"So that's that," Taylor nodded, reaching up to grab another folder.
"Now. If we do decide that any of these guys are right for us, this is what we have to offer."
He handed them some printouts.
"Let me know if you think any of this is going overboard. But we have studio time and connections to distributors. Producers. Maybe some co-writes. It really depends on the material they bring to the plate, but we need a selling point to make them interested also."
Isaac and Zac
"All true," Isaac said, flipping through the printouts. "Hey this is good stuff."
"You've been busy," Zac observed.
"He only has one kid to look after."
"You don't have any, what's your excuse?"
Taylor
"I just haven't been writing much, so this is where my muse has kept busy," Taylor shrugged, looking over the fine print one more time.
"And I went out to scope a few bands myself and to try and get some inspiration, but no dice."
Isaac and Zac
"Fair enough," Isaac nodded. "I think my muses has been making up for all that time I spent unable to writea anything. I even... nevermind. I've been writing lots of stuff lately."
"Okay, these all look cool," Zac said. "We keeping these, or are you going to keep them or what?"
Taylor
"You can keep them, I have them on the computer," Taylor assured.
"We can hand them out to the respective bands once we've all agreed on them. I'll jsut draw up a contract and get a lawyer to sign off on it. And Ike, you know you're welcome to use the studio anytime, right? If you've got something you really want to record..."
Isaac and Zac
Isaac nodded.
"Thanks," he said.
"Right then," said Zac. "What's next on the agenda?"
Taylor
"The tour," a grin hit Taylor's face almost immediately.
"We still have to organise some accomodations and a few of the last venues."
Isaac and Zac
"What do we have to check out?" asked Isaac. "Anthing I can help with?"
"Yeah, anything Ike can help with?" grinned Zac.
Taylor
"Taking half my work load off me would be great," Taylor mused.
"We havent even booked flights yet. That's got to happen in the next month or so."
Isaac and Zac
"Okay," Isaac said. "Gimme a list."
"Yeah, gimme a list too," Zac replied seriously this time.
Taylor
"Okay well, you know the drill," Taylor sighed, looking through his folders again.
"Ike if you could take airlines, that would be great. I'll do accomodations... Zac, can you take venues? There's really only about... five more shows towards the end we haven't scored yet."
He handed them a list of proposed tour dates, most of them crossed off already.
Isaac and Zac
"Yay! I get the easy stuff!" Zac cheered.
Isaac decided that Zac needed to have a whack upside the head.
"Hey!"
Isaac grinned at him.
"No problem," he said to Taylor.
Taylor
"Awesome," Taylor nodded.
"So that's that sorted. Any accomodation preferences? I know we don't want that four star in Toledo again..."
Isaac and Zac
"Yeah, I still think someone must have bried whoever gives the stars out," Zac nodded.
Isaac shrugged.
"I liked the place we were staying at last time we were in Kentucy," he said.
Taylor
"Right. I'll see if I can find where that was," Taylor said thoughtfully, stopping tot hink of where it might be.
"It'll be in last year's books somewhere."
Isaac and Zac
"Patterson's Inn, I think. Or maybe it was Peterson's Inn..." Isaac considered.
"Oh I think I know the place you're talking about," Zac said. "Yeah, that was nice."
"Do you remember the name?"
"Umm, nope."
Taylor
"I'll find it," Taylor wrote himself a note.
"You remember which airline to go with, right Ike? They promised us a deal this time because of all our gear."
Isaac and Zac
Isaac nodded.
"Yeah, I remember," he replied.
"I wonder how much money would we have saved if they offered us that in previous tours?" Zac mused.
Taylor
"Probably not that much," Taylor shrugged.
"I think it's just an excess luggage discount to get us to fly with them. One of the owners was a fan, remember?"
Isaac and Zac
"Yes," Zac said. "Of course I remember. I was just... testing you. To see if you remembered. Congratulations, you passed."
Isaac snorted with laughter.
Taylor
"Sure thing," Taylor chuckled.
"I miss this. You know, the three of us being all business-like. It's been a while. Seems like getting the three of us together at any one time has become a chore."
Isaac and Zac
"Yeah," Isaac nodded. "But yay not like that now."
"I dunno... we spent a great deal of time in each company for a few months last year," Zac grinned.
"That was us working and playing music and doing interview for people who ask dorky questions," Isaac replied. "This is just the three of us with no roadies or anything."
"Just Nat and Ezra a couple of rooms away."
Taylor
"Why, got something against them?" Taylor mused.
"Because you missed your chance at the wedding with the 'speak now or forever hold your peace' part."
Isaac and Zac
"No, no," Zac dimissed. "But Ike said it was just the three of us so..."
"There's just the three of us in this room enjoying this conversation," Isaac amended. "Zac... are you just in the mood to be annoying today or something?"
"Hey, I had to get up early."
"You are such a baby."
Taylor
"How about we channel it into some creative energy?" Taylor suggested.
"Ike, you up for it? I can't remember our last jam session with just the three of us. ...In the room."
Isaac and Zac
Isaac grinned and rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Let's do it!" he said.
"You make it sound so omnious. In the room," Zac mused.
Taylor
"Just thought I should make myself clear, seeing as the youngest of us gets confused at the best of times," Taylor teased.
He started putting the folders back in the box.
Isaac and Zac
Zac poked his tongue out at him.
Isaac got up and started considering the guitars.
"Accoustic or electric?"
Taylor
"Acoustic," Taylor suggested, closing the box and going to fetch his tambourine.
"Let's see if we can write something new."
Isaac and Zac
"Sounds like a plan," Isaac said and pulled down one of the accoustic guitatrs.
"I bags the keyboards!" Zac declared.