Page 149 of The Scientist

I smiled back at her. “Ship told me a lot of great things about you. He said you’re destined to be one of the biggest stars there is. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that.”

He gave me a disparaging look, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I guess that was a bit of an exaggeration. What he actually said was that he thought she really had something. But for Logan, that was basically saying she was a superstar in the making.

Her cheeks turned bright red as she looked over at Logan, smiling shyly. I was grateful the record company had paired her with him. He could be tough to work with, but he was one of the few producers in the city who wasn’t an absolute creep.

“What kind of song are you looking to compose?” I asked her.

“Well, I’ve released a few singles that had some moderate success on the charts. But the label is asking for something a bit edgier, something more dramatic, and Logan said you were the best.”

“He’s right,” I told her before I glanced over at him. “For once.”

He rolled his eyes. “Alright, enough chit-chat. Time is money.”

After that, we got right down to business. We worked all through the night and into the next morning, coming up with different mixes and samples of a really melancholy song about a couple who drifted apart, and the singer was left wondering if any of it was real. I wouldn’t look too deep into where that inspiration came from.

Fiona was an incredible singer and had a great ear for rhyme schemes. She came up with many of the lines herself, and by the end, I was just as convinced as Logan that she would be a star.

We laid down the track the following evening. Fiona and Logan thought it was perfect, but something was nagging me as I listened to it back. I couldn’t put my finger on why the song seemed so familiar. I kept racking my brain, trying to figure out if I’d heard it before or if I was copying someone else’s composition, which sometimes was easy to do when it came to songwriting, since we all used the same twelve notes and intervals.Logan suggested it might be the pitch she was using, so he made her go back and try it in a different key.

As I watched Fiona in the booth pouring her heart out into the song, it hit me like a ton of bricks as to why it seemed so familiar. I realized I’d inadvertently written the female perspective to“The Scientist.” In Coldplay’s version, we hear him trying to win her back after letting their relationship fall apart because of his work. In this version, we were hearing her side of the story—every heartache, every moment of doubt that they were ever going to make it.

I stand alone in the pouring rain

One last attempt to wash away the pain

Lost in thoughts I can’t explain

Searching for any reason to remain

I stand alone in a crowded room

Echoes of laughter fade into silent gloom

You thought it would be easy, just like our song

I thought it would be easy, now we’re both wrong

Help me rewind the time

Help me get back what’s mine

Help me rewrite our song

Before this feeling’s too far gone

You said you’re sorry, didn’t want the fight

Now every breath just feels too tight

I claw my way back to the start

Do you know how to mend a broken heart

I look down at all the shattered pieces

You pulled it apart, now tell me your thesis

Did you think it through to the end