The three owners nodded their heads in unison, starting to understand where Matt was coming from now. He was talking about the ebb and flow of royalty income that occurred due to the circle of life of an individual CD. When first released—as V-tach’s CD would soon be released—sales were generally slow, which meant the royalty rates in the first few quarters were correspondingly low. But as a few hit songs were heard on the radio, those sales would start to pick up exponentially, thus putting the CD into its most profitable run and increasing those royalties to their highest level. Eventually, however, most everyone who wanted to own the CD would own it and the sales would drop back down to a stable background level of a few thousand per month. That was where Matt was now. He no longer had any tour or endorsement income coming in and his quarterly royalty checks—in which he was paid for sales of all the Intemperance albums and all of his solo albums—would be a mere pittance compared to what they would be at the height of a CD’s popularity. Matt had nothing else to draw on, but he had the same expenses, bills, and obligations to fulfill.
“I need more royalty income,” Matt explained. “I’ll fuckin’ drown without it. If I can’t slap down at least three-quarters of a mil on my tax debt every quarter, the fuckin’ penalties and interest add more to the debt than I’m able to pay off. It will end up not getting any smaller no matter how much I pay and will probably even grow. If that happens, I’ll never be able to pay it off. The shit will hang over my head for the rest of my fuckin’ life.”
“That is a very depressing situation,” Jake had to agree, “but I must ask you one more time: How will signing with KVA help you out? You understand that we are in the business of making money as well, right?”
“I know that shit,” Matt said, “but there’s a difference.”
“What’s the difference?” Jake asked.
“You are not a bunch of heartless corporate suits,” Matt said.
“That is true,” Pauline said, “but we’re also not a charity.”
“I ain’t askin’ for fuckin’ charity,” Matt said. “I’m asking you to sign me for a CD deal so that both of us can make some fuckin’ money. Those suits at National don’t think I got another one in me—at least not one that’s gonna sell as well as the last two did. All they want is for me to pound out something that will sell just enough to cover the expenses of producing it so they can justify sending me back out on tour. I’m telling you that I do have another one in me, maybe even a couple more. I can put out another CD that will go fuckin’ double or triple Platinum if you just give me the time to work it up and a studio to record it in.”
“An interesting offer,” Jake said thoughtfully. “And, for what it’s worth, I do believe that you have a few more multi-platinum CDs in you.”
“Well, all right then,” Matt said. “Where do I fuckin’ sign?”
“Nowhere just yet,” Jake told him. “There are a few issues that need to be discussed before the four of us even take a vote on whether or not to sign you. And I should point out at this point that that vote needs to be unanimous. That means that all four of us will have to agree to sign you or there will be no signing.”
Matt looked at the four of them, his eyes tracking from one to the other. “Damn,” he whispered. “Should I just leave now then?”
“No,” Jake said. “I’m willing to keep an open mind about this. Hopefully everyone else will as well—including you, Matt.”
“My mind is always open,” Matt said righteously.
Jake could not help but laugh at this statement.
“What?” Matt asked angrily.
“You are the most closed-minded person I’ve ever met, Matt,” Jake told him. “And if this proposal of yours is even going to have a hope of working, you are going to have to change that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Where to begin?” Jake said. “How about we start with the fact that you have accused me and Nerdly and Pauline of murdering Darren. You have done this publicly on multiple occasions. Do you still feel that way?”
Matt flushed, finally giving some color to his face. His hands clenched into fists for a moment and then released. “No,” he finally said. “I don’t believe that anymore. Darren caused his own death by going back to the fuckin’ heroin one too many times.”
“That is true,” Jake said. “You have also accused us of being the force that drove Darren back to the heroin because we voted him out of the band. If you’ll recall, you talked his mother into not allowing any of us to attend his fucking funeral—his bandmates who had played with him for years, his manager who lifted him off of the trash head, his fucking brothers who used to get stoned with him and party with him and bang groupies with him—we didn’t get to say goodbye to him because of you. Do you understand that we have a few hard feelings about this?”
Matt took a deep breath and swallowed a little more pride. “Yes,” he said. “I understand that.”
“You’ve done some hateful shit over the years, Matt,” Jake said. “I’m not sure that I’m able to forgive and forget, even if there is money to be made. I don’t know that it is possible for me to work with you after all of that.”
“You don’t need to work with me,” Matt said. “Just sign me up and you’ll never even have to be in the same room with me again. Just give me some place to work up my tunes and a recording studio to put them together and I’ll give you a multi-platinum CD to sell.”
Jake was shaking his head. “I’m afraid that is not how we do business.”
“What do you mean?” Matt asked carefully.
“Any release that we put KVA’s good name on is a release that is going to be mixed and mastered by the Nerdlys and produced by me. Any deal we agree to would stipulate that in writing in the contract and would give me absolute veto power over any cut on the album that I do not approve of and absolute veto power over the entire CD if I find that necessary.”
Matt’s anger returned in a flash. “I’m not going to fuckin’ sign anything that says that!” he barked, raising up in his chair a little.
“Then I guess this meeting is over,” Jake said calmly. “We wish you luck on further ventures.” He began to push his chair back so he could stand up.
“Wait just a fuckin’ minute!” Matt said.
“Why?” Jake asked. “You just said you would not agree to a non-negotiable stipulation of any contract we presented to you. That puts us at an unbreakable impasse. There is no need to waste our time talking further.”
“We can negotiate this shit,” Matt insisted.
“I just told you it is a non-negotiable stipulation,” Jake reminded him. “That means we cannot negotiate this shit.”
“We can talk about it though, can’t we?” Matt asked.
“What is there to talk about?” Jake asked.
“Come on, Jake!” Matt said. “You’re not some fuckin’ heartless record company suit! I know you’re not! You don’t want to dictate how my music should be just because you can!”
“That is true,” Jake said. “But I also cannot just let you slap down whatever strikes your fancy onto a CD and put our label on it. Your first release—Next Phase—proves that you do not always act in your own best interest.”
“Next Phase was a mistake,” Matt said softly. It obviously pained him greatly to admit this. “I learned from it. I let them do engineering and overdubs on the next two releases and that is why they sold so well. I will do engineering and overdubs on my next CD as well.”
“If they are recorded under our label,” Jake said, “you most certainly will do them. And that engineering and overdubbing will be done at the direction of myself and the Nerdlys. I am not saying you will not be allowed input during the process, but I will have the final say so. That is the non-negotiable part. I will not put KVA’s name on a single track that I have not personally approved of. I am not doing this to be a dick or to throw my weight around or to get revenge on you for all the shit you’ve put me through over the years, but because I want anything that we release to be quality, to be something that all of us can be proud of.”