Kara laughs a little as Nire protests further, “I stand by what I said. Come on, New York is the culture hub of the entire globe. Granted after this seasons performances you do have a better NFL team than what New York can offer right now. I will allow you that.” She knew Nire was big on the Lions and almost making it to the Super Bowl was certainly a huge achievement for a team not expected to impress in such a way. “I almost thought we’d be booking a private suite in Vegas for the big dance.” She says with a smile. Although a general sports fan, she was a big NFL fan.
She laughs a little as he talks about potential red flags, one thing she had always been is just completely herself which was quite often more of a hindrance than a help for her. She wasn’t just your typical famous female celebrity, she walked her own path, she didn’t follow trends and she wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. “Hmm, red flags?” she says before running through his list of potential red flags, “House full of cats? Nope, hate them. I’m a dog person. Just me and Wolfie at home.” She says with a laugh in reference to her pet Husky. “Weird fetish or strange kink? I’m pretty sure you know what I like in that department and you ain’t ran away yet.” She says with another laugh. “I’m not hiding shit. I’m literally just this damn cool.” She shrugs her shoulders.

She nods as he talks confidently about what he believes they’ll be able to create in the studio, “Seriously though, if it doesn’t fit the project feel free to take it and run with it. Three weeks in a studio, I’m sure we’re gonna have a lot of stuff to work with.” She knew it was a big commitment for him to jump on board, so if he could get some extra material out of the sessions to use down the line, she was more than happy for that to happen. “So I’m ready to go as soon as possible, if you got the space to commit a few weeks I can call the label and book the studio time.” She wasn’t entirely sure what his living situation would be during this time, she wanted to ideally keep home and work separate as much as possible, “I usually record at Basement Studios, it’s like ten minutes from my place.” She knew it would be likely that they’d end up hanging out at her place occasionally, but didn’t want it to be a set thing, “You’re more than welcome to stay with me for a few days while you find a place to stay or there’s a hotel across the street from me. Ideal distance for those late night booty calls.” She winks and laughs playfully.

Kara laughs and mouths the word ‘help’. “I thought about relocating to the west coast last year but when it came time to make the decision, I just couldn’t leave this place. It’s always been home.” Despite being half Spanish and born in Seville, she has lived in New York since being young and owes the person she is now to the upbringing she had in New York. She laughs a little at the Scott Pilgrim reference, “Man, one thing I can’t do is try to act a certain way or try to be someone else. I’ve tried that shit before just to fit in and it definitely doesn’t work for me.”

“I like the idea of going into the studio together with no set expectations. Lets just see what we come up with, shit maybe none of it will be good enough to release. But something tells me that we’ll be able to create something pretty great together. We’ve done it before on a smaller scale, let’s just set the bar a little higher this time and aim for a project rather than a one-off track.” She knew that Nire’s time was valuable, so if he could take anything extra from the sessions to take onto some of his other projects too, she had no issues with him doing that. “We’ll book the studio out for a two week block. Essentially it’s ours any time of the day however long we need it. We can definitely crash there some nights if we feel like we’re on the cusp of really figuring something out.” She shakes her head no as he says he expected her to have some sort of studio set up at home. “Nah, I’ve got a little something to record some audio if I’m feeling inspired, but nothing legit.” She laughs a little at the idea of having the space to have a studio, “You know, maybe the West Coast relocation is looking more and more tempting. Alicia Lena’s place in Arizona has a fuckin’ serious home studio. Definitely don’t have that sort of space in NYC.” She nodded as he agreed to taking a key to her place so he could come and go as he pleased, “Yeah, I got you. Whatever you need, you’re more than welcome to crash.” She laughs as he mentions Wolfie, “Wolfie is definitely a Liver animal. But we can arrange something once we’ve finished up recording.”

Kara nods, “Yeah, I get you. If you grew up here it means a lot to you. If you aren’t, you wanna visit here but not stick around too long.” She says with a laugh, “But you can definitely show me around Detroit sometime, I wanna see the place that you defend so enthusiastically.” It occurred to Kara that despite how often they had spent time together, it was always either New York or California. Both are of course the social and central hubs of the music industry, but she knew Detroit had a history in the music industry too, even just being the hometown of not only Younghood but also her close friends from the group ‘Orion’. She had heard both Younghood and the guys from Orion speak so passionately about the place they were raised, so she knew there must be something in it.

Kara laughs and folds her arms, “I expect you to really take the lead on the beats and music part of things. You’re the mad professor of the biz.” She says, acknowledging the experimentation that he tends to use in his own music, she was looking forward to trying all kinds of different elements, it wasn’t just about creating a successful release but about venturing out of comfort zones and figuring out how to work with different elements. “I’ve always recorded at Basement Studios, it sort of already feels like my own place. But I don’t own it. Maybe I’d look at buying a space to build a studio in New York sometime. Right now, I ain’t got that time to focus on doing that.” She loved the idea of having her own space that she owned and allowing it to be used for up and coming artists, but she didn’t feel like she was at a point in her career to start spiralling off into other business ventures, she still felt like she had to prove herself as a recording artists first and foremost.

She had a lot of friends that were trying to make it in the big city, upcoming producers, writers, actors and artists and she had the luxury of space in her home since it was just her and her dog so it wasn’t unfamiliar for her to have someone crashing at her place. Although they already had a friends with benefit type of relationship, they had only ever hooked up in hotel rooms previously or while on tour. Often at industry events they gravitated towards each other and usually ended up spending the evening together in either one of their hotel rooms. So Kara wasn’t entirely sure how inviting Nire to crash with her while they recorded together would work out, but she knew they were on the same page in terms of their relationship situation.
Kara nodded as Nire asked if she was free right now, “Yeah, I’m free right now. We good to go?” she asks.

Kara nods her head in confirmation of her statement, “I ain’t just blowing smoke. If you listen to most artists around right now, their songs could literally be a copy and paste of four or five other artists. Majority of people in the industry are interchangeable, ya’ll can probably throw me in that category. But there’s an exception of maybe one or two artists that release tracks that are completely their own vibe and couldn’t be mistaken for anybody else. You on that platform pretty much alone, maybe alongside Billy.” She thought for a second to try to think of any other artist that could fit that category but drew a blank, “That’s why you the guy I thought of for this project because I know we ain’t just gonna come up with four or five generic RnB Rap hybrid love songs. I knew you’d bring ideas to the table and I knew it would be interesting at the very least.” She had a number of people in her phone that she could have made the call to for this project and it would have no doubt been fine and probably more commercially friendly but she wanted to step out of her comfort zone a little and experiment and she felt that Younghood as a person and as an artist would be the perfect person to challenge her.

Being 27 years old was a strange age where she had some of her closest friends settling down and having children, incredibly mature and sensible while some of her other close friends were very much being free spirited and wild and a little reckless all in the name of fun. Kara felt she was mature beyond her years but she still wanted the freedom and felt there was more fun to be had without being tied down to commitments. From day one, she felt like herself and Nire were both on the same page with their relationship, they got along, had fun together and embraced the term friends with benefits completely. She understood that Nire wasn’t exclusively hers and it was clear that she wasn’t exclusively his, they both had separate lives primarily in different cities and that they were both entitled to have their fun separately. She knew Nire wouldn’t be afraid to speak up, so if he did ever have an issue with the situation she knew it would be made clear swiftly.
However, she knew that if Nire was in town he would always take priority over anybody else, she had enjoyed other conquests with both male and females in the time that she had known him but she knew that it was always on a different level when she was with him.

She led the way towards the recording studio, it was a couple of blocks away but she navigated the busy streets like a pro, the occasional glance back from strangers realising who they both were didn’t ever faze her. She smiles a little as they arrive at the studio, opening up with her own personal keys, it was like a second home to her, “I hope I haven’t hyped you up too much.” She says with a smirk as he appears eager to get to work, “Oh shit” she says with a smirk as he delivers his expectations of them working through the night, “Fuck it, we can order some food later. I don’t like to drink when I’m recording but there’s some alcohol if you want. I’ve got a couple of blunts rolled and some other stimulants if you require.” She laughs as she locks the door behind her and leads them upstairs into the recording hub of the building, there’s a couple of central recording areas, some private mixing booths and a large lounge area designed to enhance creativity. She opens the doors to each of the rooms, heads into the mixing booth and places her small leather jacket onto the back of the chair, “Make this place your own, we got it locked down for three weeks.”

Kara had recorded at this place almost religiously since she debuted in the industry, every track that has her name as the primary artist was recorded at Basement Studios, it had all of the modern tech that you’d expect from a state of the art studio but it had a much more homely feel to it. There was breakout areas in order to get away from the stresses of being in the recording and mixing booths, it was literally directly across the street from her own home and wasn’t an in-demand studio which meant that when booked by Kara the place was essentially just hers for the duration, she would literally shut off the equipment and lock up when she left and it would remain the same until she returned. “I’ve wanted to buy this place for like seven years. The owner won’t give it up though.” She says as she makes herself comfortable, switching on a couple of lamps in the lounge area.

Kara smiles as she notices Nire making himself comfortable immediately, “Light em’ up!” she says with enthusiasm, “It’s gonna be a long fucking night, we should definitely get the food in early. Don’t want anything to stop us when we’re in full flow.” She thinks for a moment, “I’m happy with whatever. Usually I go with Thai or Asian food when I’m deep in studio mode.” She shrugs, “Whatever you’re feeling, I trust your judgement.” She says as she starts setting up one of the recording spaces, moving between rooms getting things ready to go. They were going to be spending some time just talking ideas through first but wanted to make sure everything was set up and ready to go whenever the inspiration started flowing through them, she knew that the spontaneity of these sessions was where they would get the most interesting things, so didn’t want any delays to occur. She wanted to set the place up ready for nothing to stop their flow.

As she finishes setting things up in the mixing booth and recording booth, she comes back through to the lounge and sits down on the sofa, there’s notebooks piled up on a table next to the sofa and she grabs one and opens it, she just scribbles ‘Day One’ at the top of the page and leaves it open on the sofa next to her ready to use, she takes her phone and puts the microphone onto record and sets it down on the coffee table, grabs one of the blunts and lights it, taking the first hit, and a couple more before setting it down resting on the ashtray.