Chapter 7

Cederstrom recorded their entire first album in spring. Katie worked really hard to finish it before summer started.

She and Fara stayed up the last 48 hours of spring finishing it.

Steven didn't really care.

The sound engineer, Randal, who recorded and mastered the tracks was so impressed with Katie's voice that he used every ounce of his considerable influence to make their single the itunes free download of the week.

Unfortunately for Cederstrom, people, in general, didn't like it. When they wrote reviews, they found it to be either "good background noise", or "boring".

Fortunately for Cederstrom, people, not in general, loved it. When they took the time to find the band email, they wrote very, very nice things about her and the drummer.

Katie found it remarkably funny when they said that the bassist sounded deeply moving, but distinctly indifferent. When she told Steven, he smiled.

It was the first time she could remember seeing him smile.

Since everybody downloads the free song every week, no matter who they are or what it is, it was downloaded 9,875,622 times; or about 10 million times.

Katie received 1,124 emails; or about 1,000 emails.

The band's fame grew as fast as their self-esteem and confidence, which was pretty fast considering. You would feel pretty good if you received about 1,000 emails telling you how amazing you are.

They were invited to play a show in New York.

This usually never happens to new indie bands, but I wanted to speed up the story a little bit, so I made Randal's half-deaf son who runs an underground indie hub of music in New York invite them.

It is really sad that Randal's son is half-deaf. It's like that movie Mr. Holland's Opus, but only half as sad. It frustrates me that Mr. Holland conducts with his left hand in that movie. Nobody conducts with their left hand. Ever.

Randal's son could still hear low frequencies, but had a really tough time with high ones. Even with hearing aids. He played upright bass. He was unbelievably good at it.

Months later, upon further personal reflection, Randal's son couldn't imagine why he did it, but considered it the best decision he ever made.


Randal was always proud of him.


Randal was instrumental in my life as well as Katie's.


Katie's parents wouldn't allow her to go because they wanted her to go to college and be successful. It was the typical story of parental oppression.

Obviously, Katie ran away with Steven and Fara. Fara drove all the way to New York from LA. At the California state border, he was strip searched.

From that point on, Katie drove across state borders.