Versatile Superstar: Rise In Hollywood
chapter-74

[Attack for Freedom] was a fantasy action manga series that was very popular since it was released. It has sold over a million copies in Japan and all over the world and after the release of the anime, the sales have just increased.

The manga was set in a Victorian era world and it showed the story of Eran Joseph who joins a secret society called 'Black Crown' after his brother, a freedom fighter, gets killed in front of him.

Throughout the manga, the main character and the secret society would try to topple over the empire that was ruling over all the people. To fight the empire, the main character would use 'Devices', magical weapons that could only be used by a couple of people in the whole world.

The nobles from the empire would use the same weapons, resulting in great action sequences.

The theme of the manga was taken from the revolutions in Europe and the secret societies that had formed in those times of great turmoil. The story was filled with magic powers, and a lot of character driven plot points, often ending in the growth of the main character.

Because of the characters and the scale of the story, it was very popular and almost had a fanatic fanbase.

[It doesn't matter how strong the opposition is. It doesn't matter how many soldiers they have. We are not defeated until we stop fighting!]

On his laptop screen, a man with blonde hair was giving a heroic speech to his companions as they prepared to head into a battle with the soldiers of the empire.

This was the last scene of the last episode of [Attack on Freedom].

"It's a pretty exciting series."

Aiden muttered, closing the website in which he was watching the episode. He hadn't slept since last night as he was just binge watching the whole anime again, to try to understand the essence of it more clearly.

He had watched it before too as Aiden was a fan of anime. In other words, a weeb.

He was always fascinated by how animes would show epic battle scenes, character arcs and especially how some of them would also show the backstory of the villain, to make the viewers better connect with him.

Some of the villains were even more famous than the main characters.

As for [Attack for Freedom], Aiden really loved the series for what it showed. He was truly able to connect with the fight for freedom that was shown in the anime. But the problem was how to compose a title track that was good enough for the series.

"The original Japanese song is pretty much about freedom and the fight for it."

Aiden muttered, looking up the recorded version of the Japanese title track that he had downloaded. It was simply titled 'Fight for freedom'.

When he played it, a sweet voice came out with the lyrics in Japanese.

He didn't understand the meaning of the words but the song was more like a ballad with the chorus transforming into a rock song, a mix of different genres.

'It's a pretty great song but I don't feel like something like this would turn out well in english.'

He put a hand on his chin and thought about it clearly.

If he really tried to do something similar for the title track of the dubbed version, Aiden was confident that he would be able to make a good enough song.

After all, he was pretty proficient in ballads.

But will it suit the theme of the show? That question lingered in his mind.

'I don't think it will. At least for the western audience, maybe fans of anime will like it but not the general public.'

Moreover, Aiden wanted to avoid making something similar to the Japanese title track at all cost. Otherwise, some fans could say that he had just copied.

"Then, what type of a song should I go for?"

He sighed, before muttering. Normally, the perception of people about him was more of a ballad or folk pop singer.

They have seen him sing romantic songs, wedding songs and even a pop song.

But there was no way that Aiden could do something like that here as the theme of the anime was very hard to express in these genres.

"The theme of the anime is struggle for freedom, fight for equality… The main character is literally trying to bring up a revolution. Ah, yes! Revolution!"

Something suddenly clicked in his mind.

Taking out a blank sheet of paper, Aiden quickly wrote one word on it.

'Revolution.'

That was going to be the name of the song.

Aiden was also quick to think of the genre that he wanted the song to be in - Rock.

Yes, it was going to be his first rock song!

***

A box of pizza was on the table and the setting sun was reflected on the glass window.

It had been a few hours since Aiden had started working on the song and he was yet to finish the first step which was to get a good enough hook.

It was a very important step in any song, especially in a rock one. He needed to base the whole song on a good hook, which is flexible enough.

At first, Aiden was going for a pretty complex hook but he soon realised it won't be harmonious that way, so he had changed it to a pretty simple one.

Even great musicians would mostly keep the foundation simple enough that the other instruments could easily be harmonious.

But it wasn't a simple thing to do for him.

"Should I just go for a simple chord like A5 but…"

He muttered, looking up at the music software in which he was making the guide version of the song.

He planned to record it later and then send it to Animeroll.

"Let's try this."

Aiden sighed, before picking up his guitar that was connected to his computer and trying out another rhythm. A white light came out of it after a while.

It was not a strong white light but a pretty weak one.

Thanks to his skills, he was able to get lights from even instruments and because of that, it was easier for him to compose as he would just change the melody if the light is too weak.

If it's strong and good enough, Aiden would go ahead with it.

The problem was that he was not really looking for a white light this time. After reaching Intermediate Grade 1, he was trying hard to increase his composing skill too.

He wanted to make a song whose melody would give out silver light.

[Composing: Level 6]

[Lyrics writing: Level 5]

These were the level of his skills and for Aiden, these were the hardest skills to increase.

Even if he had improved his singing skills a lot, his composing and lyrics writing have barely improved in the past few months.

'Ah, let's try something more like classic rock.'

He suddenly thought, wondering how it would fare well and tried to go for a more solid foundation which was kind of like a sponge that would sync well with other instruments too.

As his fingers danced on the strings, a catchy but strong melody started to flow out.

Suddenly, white light flowed out from the guitar. Aiden concentrated on it and noticed that it was a lot stronger this time.

He tried to keep up with it and the light just got stronger and stronger. His fingers on the guitar strummed with a more rapid tempo as more time passed.

It was at that moment that a tinge of silver got mixed in with the white light.

Aiden smiled at that but then, when he was trying to increase the silver light, his phone on the table suddenly rang and he got interrupted.

The light disappeared like it was never there.

He frowned and put down his guitar before picking up his phone to look at who was calling him.

It was Wade.

'He must have called to check up on the progress of the song.'

Aiden thought, but he was still feeling disappointed that he got interrupted when he was on the verge of finally making a silver rhythm.

Shaking his head a bit, he accepted the call.

"Aiden, how's the song going? Have you got an idea yet?"

Wade's husky voice came out from the other side and Aiden quickly replied.

"Yeah, I am going for a rock song. I'm currently working on the foundation of the song and I think I can finish up a guide in some days." Aiden said. "It's going to be titled 'Revolution'."

"That's a good name. Matches the show too but you have never done a rock song, right? Would you be able to sing it well?"

From what Wade knew, the only time Aiden had performed a rock song was in X-Star and he was more or less a supporting figure.

"I think I will be able to. Although, I have some other ideas too."

Aiden suddenly said, making Wade curious.

"What idea?"

"Well, as I'm going for a rock song, I feel like it would better suit a band. You do know that people associate rock with a band right?"

"Yeah, I know. Do you want me to get you a rock band to accompany you?"

Wade asked. It won't be hard to find an accompanying band as there were a lot of small bands performing in bars around New York.

But Aiden had a completely different idea.

"No, I actually want to create a band myself."

...