A Different Pace

After the opening night of the tour, everything felt like it was moving at a breakneck pace. The media was relentless with spinning stories about my return to the stage, my cryptic message about my hiatus, and most frequently, my relationship with Kiia.

The first show in Pittsburgh was perfectly picturesque in my mind, but Buffalo was a fragmented memory. The performance was great, I knew that much, but the details were hazy at best.

After the show I was doing some media with local radio, and after deflecting questions about my hiatus, I ended being asked:

“When should Ozean Horizon fans expect you to move on?”

“Well, I’m not sure what you mean by that. Beyond this tour, I still have a four year contract with them,” my voice was combative.

“Yes, but you’ve been close with so many female-fronted bands, and it’s always ended abruptly, what makes this any different?” The radio host pushed harder.

“Well, I just answered your question. If you want to keep pushing this line, you won’t have a Twilight Reverie artist on here again,” I seethed, not wanting to play this game.

The interview ended immediately after that. I didn’t care how the media was going to perceive my response.

***

On the bus ride back to Foxboro, I tried to relax with Kiia, but I was handling as many interviews and video calls as I could before we got there, mainly so I could enjoy the hometown show with her.

Sometime after we crossed through Vermont, I got a call from Borgen.

“Cy, so, I heard that you were bearing your fangs at a radio host up in Buffalo,” he said, his tone neutral as always.

“Yeah…I wasn’t vibing with them trying to ask the same question a different way in a gotcha situation.”

“That’s all well and good, but please don’t invoke the label’s name unnecessarily…it’s bad for business.”

“I disagree. A media outlet stooping to back page tactics is terrible for our label. It doesn’t make sense to continue to work with people who don’t respect our product.”

“I don’t want you damaging our reputation in the Buffalo area. That part of New York has always been difficult for us to sell tickets in.”

“Well, we had a sold out show there two nights ago, so maybe you just need to develop other artists better instead of relying on me.”

There was silence on the other end. I struck a nerve.

“I see that we’ll agree to disagree on the matter. Just be more mindful in the future,” he relented.

The call ended, and I let myself use it as an excuse to nestle down for a nap with Kiia.

***

The first day in Foxboro was a media circus. The return home after the triumphant tour kickoff summoned all of the local media to the stadium. Due to how the venue was, a complex around a stadium, our hotel was within walking distance of the artist entrance; however, this created the need for a significant security presence for the artists.

I found myself in an open media availability with Kiia with a mixture of national and local radio hosts, podcasters, and vloggers, all looking for insight on us.

“So, two nights into the tour, does the pressure of following up Cy Rondeau get to you, Ms. Salo?”

“No. It actually helps me focus better. Seeing someone you care so deeply about push themself so hard is such an inspiration,” she maintained complete composure.

“Well, do you worry about playing to empty stadiums after his set?”

“No, so far we’ve retained most of the audience when he’s done. We’ve done more than enough in our career to not worry about something trivial like that,” this response was a touch more condescending.

“Mr. Rondeau, do you feel weird about your girlfriend headlining over you?”

“Ugh, I hate that word, it feels so patronizing; please use ‘partner’ moving forward,” I spewed. “And no, I've seen how hard both Kiia and OH have worked for years, they’ve earned this opportunity to headline.”

I felt Kiia’s hand grab mine under the table, making a plea for me to relax.

“The video is out there of the faux Beyond the Realms reunions, is that something you’d consider taking on the road?”

“No,” I answered. “This is just something that came about organically for this tour. We’d hoped that we could do a true reunion at some point, but that doesn’t appear to be in the cards.”

“Well, don’t threaten me for asking, but after seeing you two perform When Angels Cry together, is there really any value in a true Beyond the Realms reunion?”

I tilted my head, but didn’t answer at first. It was a great question, one that I hadn’t even thought about yet.

“That’s…not something I’ve really thought about yet, but that’s not really my choice to make at this point in time.”

The reporter gave a deep sigh of relief, happy that I didn’t give him a more intense answer.

“Cy, we’ve also seen the video of you performing some new material at these shows, is there any plan to release those?”

“Not yet,” I lied. “Right now I’m just focusing on getting through my first tour since the pandemic. It’s a little intricate to explain, but doing all of this again is quite difficult.”

The interviewer was not satisfied with the answer, but was afraid to push any further.

“On that subject, when should we expect a new album from Ozean Horizon?”

“Well,” Kiia started. “We’ve been working on some new material, and will probably head into the studio after the tour, so my optimistic, unofficial answer is early 2024.”

At some point I noticed Borgen joined the throng of reporters in front of us. I felt like I was being micromanaged in case I pushed back too hard again.

“Tomorrow night’s show is your first time playing here since 2018, what does it mean for you to be back here?”

“Honestly, I don’t have much nostalgia for playing here, but this show feels incredibly special to me,” I started calmly. “When we first started our journey in music we weren’t even teenagers yet. I remember playing a small local festival up the road from here in 2008 where Beyond the Realms and Ozean Horizon were playing opposite stages at the same time. To have two bands from this area playing a sold out show here fifteen years later just feels important.”

Kiia’s eyes had turned to me. Her expression was one of loving shock that I remembered that detail from so many years ago.

“Wow, Cy, I can’t believe you remember that…I don’t think any of our songs from that era were ever recorded or released,” she said, blocking out the world around us.

“Yeah, all of our stuff was so raw back then. We didn’t really start writing anything decent until 2009,” I replied, falling into our little world.

Our eyes were locked as we were in daze with each other, but we were still aware that we were in public.

“Um, does this kind of thing become difficult on the road for the bands, when you two do whatever this is?”

We immediately snapped back to the reality of our situation.

“No, not usually,” I said, flustered. “These are usually private moments, we just fell down a rabbit hole for a second.”

“Sorry about that,” she paused. “I just unearthed a core memory from my youth and was overwhelmed.”

The media session died down quickly and quietly after that. I expected Borgen to find us after the cameras were gone, but he was gone as swiftly as he appeared. That left Kiia and I alone to follow security back to our hotel room, where we took advantage of our kindled youth to further deepen our bonds without prying eyes.