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The summer breeze gently ruffled his hair, while he was standing in front of the venue that he was supposed to play in a few hours. He slowly tipped his head back so he could see the sign that was displayed over his head on the building - which had his name in big letters. Which he found absolutely unreal, not that he was some really small artist or just started playing venues. But seeing this never gets old for him, because he liked to think that he was one of those humble people who were grateful even for small things.
After a while of staring at the sign and contemplating his life and life choices he made that led him to this point - he decided that going inside wasn’t a terrible idea as he still had to do a soundcheck and talk to people.
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“Hiya Charlo, long time no see! Everything alright in your super famous world?” one of the guys from the crew asked him while he was passing through the halls of the venue.
“You can bet your ass mister, that everything is absolutely bright and golden in my life,” Charlie just brushed it off with a small laugh and continued his way to the backstage.
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“So let’s quickly go over the setlist for tonight and then I have some things I wanna talk to you about, sounds good?” one of the crew members stopped him again once he opened the doors to his dressing room.
“Yeah, it sounds great.” Charlie just muttered under his breath because he was becoming more fidgety and just restless as the time was going faster than he liked it to go.
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As the person said, they really quickly went through his setlist for tonight and then they shared some basic information about how the night should go. The big news was simply that there will be a person from some newspaper or magazine, (he had no idea - go figure) taking pictures and after the show they would like to talk to him and from what he gathered basically do an interview with him. And after receiving that information he just stayed standing in the middle of the room with nothing in his head. Someone wanted to have an interview with him, with Charles Barnes that just sang some silly songs for a few people that found it pretty decent to listen to. Lord have mercy on that poor person that was about to witness his awkwardness in front of people he never met before.
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The show actually went absolutely smoothly and without any bumps in the road or anything. He saw the person taking the pictures but he tried to not pay much attention to them, because otherwise he would stop in the middle of the song just to stare at them. Don’t get him wrong, he finds people as attractive as anyone else, but it’s been a while since he found someone that caught his eyes simply with the way they moved and presented themselves. The person that took the pictures and was about to talk to him about his life was at the moment the most interesting human being for Charlie. Tall with dark fluffy hair sticking to every possible direction and had the most amazing smile Charlie ever saw.
After he said all the thank yous and byes and promises with being back soon, he finally made his way back into his dressing room where he quickly changed his clothes into his usual go-to shirt and jeans and some beat up pair of converse that was as he said in his own words “lucky converse” . He said bye to all the people that worked hard tonight to make all of this happen and then he simply went on his way to find the person that wanted to know about his simple life something more.
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Actually finding that person was the hardest thing so far, like at how many places could you hide in this big ass venue. The answer is - there is a fuckton of places you could be. And the irony of this all is that Charlie found them standing outside leaning against the wall right next to the main exit just chilling and aimlessly scrolling on their phone.
“Hullo, are you the person I was supposed to find, the interview with me?” Charlie asked quickly, words jumbled together.
“Hello, could you please repeat your question just a bit slowly this time, couldn’t understand shit bud,” the pretty person just laughed quietly.
“Yeah sorry, I talk really fast when I'm nervous. I was just asking if you’re the one I was supposed to find about the interview?”
“Oh yeah, then that’s me. Name is Daniel, you can call me Dan, absolutely no big deal. The pronouns are he/they, just so you know. And that’s all I can think of that’s really important to know for the first five minutes that we are standing here.”
(Okay, so the pretty person - Daniel was the coolest person Charlie ever met and don’t get him wrong his best friend Ben is a really cool person too, but like this level of coolness? Never heard of-)
“Alright, good to know all the basics for the start. You probably already know my name or at least I’m assuming you did your research as you are the one that wants to do an interview with me?” Charlie asked thoughtfully.
“Yeah, I do know all the small basics that you can basically find on the internet if you dig enough,” Dan smiled with all his teeth.
“Okay, so where do you wanna go? Find some dinner that is still open or we can go to my studio where we can have a relaxed atmosphere, maybe? It’s literally up to you and I don’t mind either option.”
“If you’re okay with that we could go to your studio, that way I can maybe take a few shots of your creative space too for the article I’ll be writing,” Dan said confidently.
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London was getting chillier everyday as September slowly approached and the evenings were kinda cold, so they just took a cab so they would be in warm parts of Charlie’s studio as soon as possible.
“Welcome to the place where all the dreams come true, well at least mine did,” Charlie laughed while he opened the front door.
He let Dan wander around the place while he shrugged his jacket and went to the small kitchen area he had in the studio.
“Do you want anything to drink or eat? Because I’m making myself coffee even though it’s late I do need the energy for this,” Charlie asked into the studio space.
“Water will be fine, and you’re talking like I’m gonna hold you here overnight or like we aren’t just planning to have a simple chat about your job,” Dan laughed and tipped his head slightly backwards which to that Charlie quickly looked away and busied himself with preparing the drinks.
“Well to give you at least some credit - I have zero idea how long these things usually run. So we’ll see if we don’t end up staying here longer than you anticipated,” Charlie smirked at Dan, while he took prepared drinks into the sitting part of the studio.
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They ended up chatting for a really long time like Charlie predicted, just simply because they were always diverting from the topics Dan had written down for the article. They laughed half of the way through the whole chat.
“Will you let me know once the article is out?” Charlie suddenly asked, all shy.
“So you could share it with all your family members?” Dan laughed quietly.
“Of course I’m a big star and people must know about me, why else would you be writing about me?” Charlie joked back and gently pushed at Dan’s arm.
“Well I could be writing about you, simply because you are a really interesting human being and the job you do isn’t really the easiest in the world,” Dan said gently and looked at Charlie with soft eyes.
“Oh,” that’s all that came out of Charlie after that. He was not expecting something like that. To his credit he was not expecting to have those freaking butterflies in his stomach, but here we are aren’t we?
“Alright, it’s getting pretty damn late and I do need to get myself home as soon as possible, simply because I hate the dark. So thank you so much for taking your precious time to hang out with me and chat along about your simple life as you said yourself. I’ll let you know when the article is out so you can read it and maybe share it with the world if you want,” Dan yawned softly after his monologue and smiled at Charlie.
“Yeah, of course, thank you for being interested in my life enough to go to my show and talk to me about all of this mess. Random question, if I give you my private number will you let me know that you got home safe, please? And maybe later in the week would you go out with me for some lunch or dinner?” Charlie asked shyly.
“If you end up giving me the number, maybe we will end up going somewhere this week,” Dan laughed quietly.
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Dan did end up going home with Charlie’s number safely saved in his phone and spoiler alert - they did end up going to the promised lunch. And then to many others where they talked even more about Charlie’s simple life and Dan’s fascination with it.
“Charlie Barnes is one of the most boring but yet the most unique person you could find. Don’t get me wrong - he is also the coolest person wearing the simplest clothes. But when he opens his mouth to sing, it's possible you will hear and you might even see a god whether you believe in one or not. He is also a huge nerd to anything that has to do with producing music. And I can tell you, you would not guessed any of this if you just saw him in the coffee shop or passing him on the street.” - Daniel Smith for The Journal /2021