Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / Why Hard Work Will Always Exceed Talent with Emily Bear (Composer + Songwriter)

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Why Hard Work Will Always Exceed Talent with Emily Bear (Composer + Songwriter) · QUESTION EVERYTHING

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: This is pretty smart. Hello. Hello, I hope you are
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: having a beautiful day and a beautiful week. I'm coming
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to you from Chicago. Actually, I came here to hang
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: out with my brother for the weekend. It's the first
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  Speaker 1: time I've ever done that. He lives in the city
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and I've been staying with him downtown and it's actually
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  Speaker 1: been really special. But before this, I was in New
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  Speaker 1: Orleans for Halloween. I can't think of a spookier place
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  Speaker 1: to be. It was really fun. I truly cannot eat
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  Speaker 1: any more food from New Orleans. I felt so stuffed
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  Speaker 1: every breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but everything's so delicious there.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I had the Cafe Dumont Beignet's with coffee in the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: morning and I'm still daydreaming about them. Anyways, I'll be
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: flying back to LA today And I realized looking at
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the date that we have fifty five days until the
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: new year, and that means we have eight thursdays until
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the new year. We're gonna have a new episode every week,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm actually flying to New York next week to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: record with two celebrities that I'm bringing on the pod.
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  Speaker 1: Two people I think you're really actually I know you're
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: really gonna like them. One of them is absolutely hilarious
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: and the other has a pretty smart story that it's
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: just it's very us. I know you guys are gonna
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  Speaker 1: want to support her and we'll connect to her story.
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  Speaker 1: So let's dive into today's episode. I guess before I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: start the intro, I should tell you that Emily, who
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: is our guest today, Emily Bear has become a friend
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: of mine and I met her through work via Hello
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Sune and when we met at an event, we connected
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: right away and I felt like I had known her
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  Speaker 1: for years. But I also felt like she was maybe
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: a little younger than me, but probably around my age.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't until she came to record Pretty Smart
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: that I realized she was just twenty three years old.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I was ten years older than her, and I had
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: no idea because she is so just beyond her years
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: and people have been telling her that for years. I learned,
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  Speaker 1: so I'll explain what that means in a second. Let's
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: just dive in. You know, there's a lot of gifts
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: that you can have in this life, but having musical
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: talent has to be one of the most alluring for me.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Every time I'm in the presence of live music, my
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: first thought is what does it feel like to be
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: able to insert verb, sing, play strum like that? Have
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: you ever been to a party where someone picked up
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a guitar or at a karaoke night where someone steps
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: on the mic and just blows everyone away. It changes
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: the whole vibration of the room, Like I feel it
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  Speaker 1: in my body. When I look at live performers, I
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: just I marvel in amazement. Do you all feel that way?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's just me. It's like this
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  Speaker 1: skill that you know what. It's not a skill, it's
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  Speaker 1: a gift, and it's not a talent. It's a calling.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Our guest today has a true calling. Composer and musician
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Emily Bear is used to her skills being center stage.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: She's been making music since she was four years old,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't mean four years old walking and singing.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Mary had a little lamb like maybe some of us were.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I mean she was featured on The Ellen Show at
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: six for being a piano prodigy. She's gone on to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: become a Grammy and Emmy winning composer, producer, a ranger, pianist,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and singer songwriter. She's worked with some of the greatest
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: musicians of our time. She toured with Beyonce on her
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Renaissance tour and counts Quincy Jones as her mentor. This
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was recorded a few weeks before Quincy Jones passed, and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's important to note that. I also think
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: it's worth mentioning how instrumental Quincy was. He lived his
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: life like a symphony, a conductor of culture and an
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: architect of timeless sound. From the vibrant days of big
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: band jazz to the electrifying energy of pop, Quincy touched
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: almost every corner of music, and he left an indelible
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: mark on so many people's lives. He was notoriously kind
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and generous with his time. He went out of his
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: way to mentor people he believed in, people like Emily,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and in watching videos of the two of them together,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: one of the things that stuck out to me was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: how he talked about her work ethic. It'd be easy
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to look at Emily and think that her success is
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: rooted in sheer talent. But what Quincy pointed out, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: what I so quickly picked up on in our conversation,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: is Emily's relentlessness and grit. I think Emily realized pretty
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: quickly that when it comes to longevity in her career,
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  Speaker 1: hard work was going to trump talent every single time.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever natural talent I had is only going to last
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  Speaker 2: me so long, like I need to keep learning otherwise
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  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna again fizzle out once the spectacle is gone,
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  Speaker 2: and I won't have anything to show for it afterwards.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I have this James Baldwin quote printed on my whiteboard
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: in my kitchen. It reads, talent is insignificant. I know
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  Speaker 1: a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: usual words, discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And as I was.
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  Speaker 1: Talking to Emily, I kept thinking about that quote on
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: my whiteboard in my kitchen. Emily has endured, and today
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: she gives us her unofficial guide to breaking barriers, how
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: she found the magic in creating her own opportunities, plus
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: why creating your dream life will inevitably come with some
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: night marriish moments.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Anyone who's at the top of their game in medicine
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: or science or acting or whatever, Like anyone who's there
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  Speaker 2: has put so much shit into getting where they are,
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  Speaker 2: and it's not always fine. It's gonna be hard, it's
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: going to be terrible, but you do it because you
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  Speaker 2: love it.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: At just twenty three years old and maybe the wisdom
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: of a forty something year old, but at just twenty three,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Emily's life has been a blend of big wins, tough lessons,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and moments that make her stop and say, wow, that
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: really happened. Today, she's taking us behind the scenes from
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: her early days when her grandmother noticed her gift to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: her biggest challenges in an industry that still has a
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: pretty long way to go recognizing women.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Every musician grows up every year you watch the Grammys
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: and you're like, oh, I want to be up there.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that'll be me one day. But there's no way
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  Speaker 2: that's never gonna happen. There's no way. So then like
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: it happens, I'm like, WHOA.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Emily Bear isn't just an artist, She's a revolutionary voice
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: for the next generation of composers. And I don't say
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: that lightly. Those of you who listen weekly know that
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I don't use the words revolutionary or iconic even as
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a joke. I mean it when I say she's the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: type of person you're going to tell your friends about
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and say, oh my god, I listened to an interview
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: with her I'm Pretty Smart a few years ago. I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: really can't wait to see where Emily's calling takes her.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: This is her story. Let's buckle up, Emily Bear. Welcome
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to Pretty Smart.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: It's my first podcast, So your first podcast.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I want the full story today.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: All right? Yeah, I see all these note cards and
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I feel like you're very well educated, So I'm excited
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: it's gonna be.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I cried preparing for your interview.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Which blows my mind, but it means a lot.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Why does it flow your mind?
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I just I feel like I have
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a very like detached perspective on my life. It's like, yeah,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: I see everything that I've done, and to me, like
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: it almost doesn't count because I was little. But it does.
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  Speaker 2: But it doesn't. I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: It's I want to get into that more.
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  Speaker 2: So.
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  Speaker 1: You said, I always find that when I'm saddest, all
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I want to do is write music. When I'm happiest,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: all I want to do is write music. How did
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: music become that outlet for you?
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  Speaker 2: I honestly don't even remember a time where music wasn't
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  Speaker 2: like the biggest part of my life. Yeah, because I
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: started so young, and so I don't I don't know
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  Speaker 2: what life looks like without this, So I don't know.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: But people used to always ask me when I was
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: growing up because as a kid, everyone's like, well, is
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  Speaker 2: it fun? And now, as an adult doing this full
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: time as a job, It's like, no, it's not always fun.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: But in any field that you want to be successful in,
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: it's not gonna always be fun. Like anyone who's at
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: the top of their game in medicine or science or
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: acting or whatever. Like anyone who's there has put so
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: much shit into getting where they are, and it's not
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  Speaker 2: always fun. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be terrible,
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  Speaker 2: but you do it because you love it. And I
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  Speaker 2: want to do this because I would rather put the blood,
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  Speaker 2: sweat and tears into something that I can't live without
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  Speaker 2: and something that I love and I'm so passionate about
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  Speaker 2: than somebody else.
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  Speaker 1: You know what, instruments do you play?
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  Speaker 2: I play piano and I sing, and I can fuck
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: around a little bit on like a couple other that
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: don't even really count because I'm so bad at it.
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  Speaker 2: But I write for everything, so I write for orchestra,
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  Speaker 2: so I can write for everything, but I can't play everything,
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  Speaker 2: if that makes sense?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Of course, who discovered your talent?
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  Speaker 2: Like we used to always joke because I have two obviously,
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  Speaker 2: I have two grandmas, but one is like a piano
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  Speaker 2: teacher and one is a crazy Moroccan. And the crazy
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Moroccan is the one who like first was like what
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: the fuck is going on with this baby? And she
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: was as a baby as a baby, yeah, and.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Were you doing as a baby?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I guess I would just like go mess around on
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the piano when she was watching us when my parents
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: were out of town, and she's like, why is the
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: baby playing the piano? Obviously I don't remember any of
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: this because I was a child, but she was the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: first one who was like what and I she called
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: my parents while they were on vacation and was like
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: wigging out and my parents were like, I don't know
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: what do you want? Like do what do you want
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: us to do? She's two. Yeah, but then my other grandma,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: it was it was kind of like found by committee.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: Incredible because there's videos of me when I was like
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: dressed up for Thanksgiving to go to my grandma's house
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: and I would be like two or three years old,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: sitting like standing on the piano bench and doing scales.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Obama called you baby Mozart.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: I have no comment.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So you were considered a child prodigy. Do you lean
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: into that term or does it make you cringe? Like,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: how do you feel about it?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I mean it still makes me cringe a little bit
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: because I hated it so much growing up. I truly
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: hated being called a child prodigy because I feel like
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of the child prodigies and I think it's
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: it's less now than it was back in the day,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: but like it was very much like a dancing monkey
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: situation where it was like, wow, look at her hands
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: go like she can play the piano so fast for
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: a five year old, and it was just like very showy,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: and I hated it, and I always wanted to be
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: taken seriously even from a young age. Plus, I didn't
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: feel like I related to the child prodigy thing. I
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: didn't feel like I was any different from like a
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: kid who was super competitive at soccer and was like
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: traveling all over the world as like you know, in
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: middle school to go on that track. I was just
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: doing it with music, So I just never wanted to
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: be judged based off of like, wow, that's really great
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: for a blank year old instead of like it's just
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: good music.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use the word one more time. I'm
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: sorry to make it.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I'm fine with it now because I'm kind of proud
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: of my past. I think it's cool, especially now that
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've gotten past the hump of like
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: because I feel like a lot of child prodigies also
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: fizzle out once they become adult, because like the spectacle
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: is gone, so there's nothing left. Like they're just you know,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: one of a million again instead of like one of
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: a hundred. And honestly, with the Bridgeton thing, I feel
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: like I'd gotten past that hump because I was judged
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: purely based off of work that I was doing as
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: an adult, and no one even knew anything I'd done before,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: and then they found out later it was like what
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: she was the girl I watched on Ellen, and I
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: was like, that's cool. This is cool. So now I
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I love my past. I think it obviously has shaped
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: who I am as a musician and a person. Yeah,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm proud of it. But like the word prodigy,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I'm still.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Like, so I read about child prodigies to prepare for
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: this interview, okay, and a lot of them said that
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: music flows naturally within It's an intuitive language that they
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: understand even before they grasp technical aspects of it. I
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: kind of compare it to how walking would be for
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: any of us, like we have the instinct to want
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to walk, even though we don't know how. Other people
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: have described it as a creative force that they channel.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Some describe it as a language, and then some just
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: say it's otherworldly, it's mysterious. They don't even know how
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: to describe it. Yeah, how do you think about it?
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: What did it feel like within you?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously I can't really talk about how it
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: felt as a kid, because I don't really remember. But
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I do think it is kind of like a language.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: But then sometimes it's also weirdly mysterious, because even now
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: I'll get things that I wrote a couple years ago,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, how the fuck did I I don't
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: like abiol and I feel the same way too. It's
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: like sometimes we write something and it's flowing and it's
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: like the greatest feeling ever, and then afterwards we're like,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: how did that have?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: How did it come out of me?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: But I use tools just like we do with language,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and like any skill that we have. It's like I
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: have a toolbox that I can pull from and things
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: that I know work. And the more tools you have,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: the greater the thing you know you can create.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Do you mean tools like inspiration or like I.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Mean inspiration, yes, but also like skills. So like I
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: studied a lot and I learned a lot, and I
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: tried really hard growing up to always push forward and
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: always learn more. Because I don't remember who told me this,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: but it was like a really big mantra for me
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: growing up. Hard work always exceeds talent, So like whatever, Yeah,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: it's like whatever natural talent I had is only going
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: to last me so long, Like I need to keep learning, wow,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: otherwise I'm just gonna again fizzle out once the spectacle
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: is gone, and I won't have anything to show for
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: it afterwards, you know what I mean?
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: So I think every great composer has a signature. What's
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: the Emily Bear signature.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I think that's a TVD thing. I feel like that's
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: something that you acquire over many, many years of writing,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: and like once you look at a whole body of work,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: you can like understand what your signature is. I mean,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I feel like personally my signature is that, like I
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: I mean one, I love orchestra, so I'll use that
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: in everything, but it's not really a signature. I just
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: love to make people cry, like I love that sweeping
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: you do well with music.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Because if I like making people cry with my interviews, yeah,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: like if.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I make someone feel something so strong that they're moved
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: to tears, then I've done my job. So think about
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: music that I love so much and that always just
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: keeps me going. It's like that feeling when you hit
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: like a peak of a song, or you hear the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: strings swell and you just feel something and you don't
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: know what that feeling like, I don't know what it is,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: but like when I hear the strings play like a
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: beautiful note and it's like that climactic part and you're
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: just like, oh my god, this is a feeling that
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: I can't find anywhere else. That's what I love, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: I love epic, lush, beautiful soundscape. So maybe that's my signature.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel like someone else has to
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: tell me what my signature is. I can't tell.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Do you cry when you compose your own music?
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: No?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Interesting?
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: No, Yeah, that's weird. I've never thought about that.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think that's probably your signature. Yeah, you
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: move people to tears.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I would like to if I have again, I've done
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: my job.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: So there was this amazing documentary about you when you
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: were six years old. So your mom in that doc says,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: my goal is for her to be happy, to have
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: good values, to have peace in her heart, and to
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: be a really good grown up.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: She my mom. It's funny that you mentioned that quote
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: because last week we were on the phone and she
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: starts cryingcause she's like, remember that thing I used to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: always say when you were a kid. I feel like
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: it's come true. Like I see everything you're doing in
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the way you handle yourself and blah blah blah, and
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: it's like I feel like I've done my job and whatever,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, huh.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: So she like, I know that your mom cared about
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: your dream of music, but in that dock. It seemed like, oh,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: like she just wanted you to be a good adult.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I feel like that was a really important
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: thing for my parents is to like a lot of
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: the times, especially with the child prodigies, it can become
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: a cash grab and it's like, how can we get
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: the most amount of exposure in the quickest amount, like
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: in the quickest time possible before this shit goes away?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: And that was never our goal. And they kind of,
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: you know, drilled some good values into my brain.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: What were the ways that you think they were the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: most supportive of you.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I certainly didn't have like a normal childhood. I moved
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: out when I was sixteen, I graduated high school early.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: They allowed me to come to LA and like my
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: mom visited a lot more back then. But like they
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: were always really supportive. Like I just if I had
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: been born to different parents with a different circumstance and
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: a different view on like what a life is supposed
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: to look like, I would have never I would never
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: be here.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Like they were open minded and trusting.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: It sounds they always believed in me, probably a lot
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: more than I believed in myself, And so I think
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: that's a very valuable in Priceless Gift.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Quincy Jones is your mentor. How old were you when
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you met him? And how old was he?
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Oh? I don't know how old he was, but I
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: met him when I was like eight, and then he
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: became a very big part of my life. And now
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: he's ninety one, so he.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Was in his eighties.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I think he was not eighty yet. I think he
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: was like late seventies, okay, which is crazy because I
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: remember a couple of years ago I was at his
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: birthday party and we were talking about how he's known
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: me for over half my life, and I'm like, that's weird.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: It's weird.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because here's the thing I'm watching this doc. You
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: meet Quincy Jones, he quickly wants to become your mentor.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: You can tell he's in his late seventies. You're eight, yeah,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: and he is twenty seven Grammys and he produced your CD.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: He hadn't produced a solo record since Michael Jackson.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It was it was wild, man. I mean I think
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: when I first met him, like I knew who he
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: was and I knew what he had done, but it
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: didn't quite I didn't quite understand, Like I didn't grasp.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Of course it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: But again, like his love and passion for the craft
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: of music always shone through, and so like when we
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: would talk, it wasn't like I was talking to a
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: seventy five year old. It was like just two people
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: who loved music. And I think that's why he has
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: such an incredible legacy and why he's decided to to
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: mentor people at his stage of life, Like he doesn't
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: need to be doing this shit, like he he's done,
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: he's done the most, He's done everything any musician could
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: ever want to do. But now he chooses to spend
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: his time helping young people and people that he believes in,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: you know, yeah, learn about the business and music and everything.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: So it's just I think people that really truly have
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: passion for their craft, like age doesn't matter, like it
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: just falls away. As I've gotten older, I've heard more
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: stories about Quincy, you know, in Quincy being Quincy.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: But I just but you got a different version.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I got a different version of him. Yeah, he like
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: he's like my grandpa. Like I don't know how to
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: describe it, Like he was the most paternal, like the
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: most loving and wonderful and generous and kind. Yeah he was.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: He was great. I like I I cherish my time
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: with him.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: But you said he taught you the most. What did
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: he teach you?
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: I mean the amount of time we've spent together. I've
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: heard and have learned so many life lessons and a
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: lot about music. And you know, his stories are incredible.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: He would nail me CDs and like actual physical copies
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: of revel symphonies that he loved and he wanted me
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: to listen to. And wow, I don't know, it was
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: just I also learned a lot about life.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: In every interview, Quincy talks about your work ethic. It's
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the first thing he says.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Means a lot.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the things that I realized is that
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Quincy was one of the first composers to cross genres.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Like before him, it seemed like everybody was sort of
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: siloed into their lane, and you very much do that.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Maybe that's why we like really connected when I was younger,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: And I'm not claiming to be the first person to
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: cross genres in my field. There's especially nowadays, like, yeah,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: genres are falling down and everyone is multi genre in
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: my mind, or a lot of people are, because like
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: top forties, not just pop music anymore. It's everything. But
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I will say that from a very young age, I
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: was really like there were people that did like classical piano,
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: there were people that did Jeff piano, and I just
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I loved it all, Like there was something that I
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: found satiated a part of me from each thing that
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I had my foot in, like from you know, sitting
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: with my Cuban drummer in my jazz trio learning Mantuno's
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: to like learning about revel and how you orchestrated something,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: or you know, there's just I always felt that it
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: was too boring to stay in one lane. So I
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: think I think that's what Quincy felt too, Like.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: You both had an expansiveness, or have an expansiveness, Yeah,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: because why not? Yeah. So I don't want to take
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: away from your work ethic, because it's clearly incredibly rigorous.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Anyone successful, I've now realized, has worked fucking hard. I
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: used to think, like, oh, I don't know how much
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: much of it is the artist and how much of
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: it is a team. But like anyone who's at that level,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you know, deserves to be there in some way because
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: they've they've put it in one way or the other.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Who do you look to like when I think hard work?
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I think Gaga?
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in what way? Who do I look to hard work? Like?
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Who do you think about when you think hard work?
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: I will say, after being on the Renaissance Stoor, I
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: don't know how she does it? Man, Like she she
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: works so hard and like as a woman and a musician.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: It is so cool to see the way that she
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: like runs the room and it has a family and
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: mothers her kids and does like she was there before
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: us every day and left after us every day like she.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: I was like, damn, okay, I get it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: When you say she runs the room, What do you mean?
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Well, it's just you never know how much someone at
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: that level has their hand and everything, you know. So
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: I really had no idea what to expect. But the
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: vision that she had is so clear, and especially I
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: mean I didn't see her in you know, the costume
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: rooms or the dance rehearsal rooms. But what I did
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: see and is like all of our music rehearsals and
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: all the tech rehearsals, and like she knows exactly what
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: she wants and she knows how to communicate it. And
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I'm sure that's also like culminating of thirty forty years,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: you know, working as Beyonce in the industry, but every
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: hit that the band did, every transition was dictated by her.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: She might not have been the one who was putting
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: the paper to pen, but she knew what she wanted
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: and she was able to communicate it in a way
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: where our mds and all of us understood her and
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: were able to like make it happen.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I think you're touching on something so interesting
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: that very few people talk about, which is the different
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: languages that you have to speak when you're a boss
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of anything, because you have to be able to speak
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: to the tech people in their language, to the costume
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: people in their language, to the musicians and their language.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Everybody else just has to speak their own language.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: You know. It's so like I wish I could have
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: seen her do the same thing on her first tour,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: because I wonder, like I would just love to see
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the difference, because obviously she's had one of the most
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: insane careers of all time, and what I saw during
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the Renaissance tour is a culmination of everything she learned. Yeah,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: over the past I don't thirty years I don't know
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: how long she's been working in the industry.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, since she was like nine or its like you. Yeah.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: So it's like, on one hand, yes, we need to
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: know all these things, but on the other hand, it
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: takes time. You know, you don't learn everything. Even now,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Like looking back on the last couple of years and
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: projects that I've been on for a couple of years,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I now know how to deal with things moving forward
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: on the next one. Right, I didn't know. Then.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Do you keep a list? I keep a list of
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: things I messed up. I don't, but that's actually really
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: good because you forget them.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, you're right, you're right.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I have a Google dot called things I Messed up?
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Oh or ways, I've been have that curse because on
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the next job you already forgot it.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: No, you're so right.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, So I see this photo of you on Instagram.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: You have this silver bob.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, yeah, whole silver.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Dress, boots yep, beyonces on top of your piano in
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: her uniform, her costume. You are both so embodied and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: full in what you're doing and then in sync together.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: It kind of gives me chills to think about you,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: especially at such a young age. You've called it a
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: transformative experience, and I know we all talk about Beyonce
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: as like the queen and so like you could just say,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: oh my god, it was transformative, but how was it
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: actually transformative?
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Like honestly Beyonce aside, I didn't go to college, Like,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: I've never been surrounded by a bunch of people like
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: around my age that are that creative and you know,
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: are doing the same thing that I'm doing and to
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: be and also like composing. Yes, especially like on a
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: movie like Mulwana, you are part of a huge team
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: and it kind of like the tour kind of reminded
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: me of a movie set. But most of my job
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: is like pretty isolating, yeah, and it's either a me
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: loone in a room or me and Avigail alone in
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: a room. And so I'd never really and I've been
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: on tour before, but it's and I've been on big tours,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: but it's different at this level, and it's different as
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: an adult. And so to like be with this group
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: of people and travel for eight months and like live
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: an entirely different version of life than I usually do
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: on a day to day basis was like really eye
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: opening for me, and it almost felt like, in a
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: weird way, this is going to sound stupid, like like
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: a college experience.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where like it doesn't sound stupid at all.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Yeh know, Like I was just learning a lot about myself.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I learned a lot as a musician, Like it was it.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Did you learn about yourself?
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Me? One thing, I learned a lot about my personality
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: and what I need to be happy. In a way,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: I'm a much more of an introvert than I thought
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I was. I need a lot more time to recover
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: than I thought I did. And it's also I was
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: writing Mowana and a couple other things on the road too,
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: and you're kidding. No, it was fun and I have
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: some fun pictures. And before I said yes, well because
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: I got the call for the Beyonce gig, which was
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: so fucking random and like something I never expected to
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: get on like a random Thursday night from who calls you? Okay,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Well it's kind of complicated.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Because it's a great lesson to be learned to, like
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you never know what person will lead you to what
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: thing is on Quincy Tours.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: When I was sixteen, I became close and me and
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: my family became like friends with a couple of like
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: the tour managers and crew members. And this guy Fred,
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: who's like a dear family friend now, was the tour
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: manager on that tour and has like we've stayed closed
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: for years and he's helping with Bridgerton things like he's
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: been so wonderful. But he worked at Parkwood for many,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: many years and I was I was doing a show
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago, and he helped me like
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: put some people together to like run the tech shit.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: But of course he called all his buddies at Parkwood,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: and this front of house engineer knew about me, like
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: it was during COVID, so I never actually met about
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: met him in person, but like we were we knew
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: each other sort of. Yeah, but he's been Beyonce's longtime
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: engineer for like twenty something years, and I guess they
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: were looking and they were auditioning people to do my.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: Job for the tour, which is what well.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I was like they wanted a woman. Yeah, first of all,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: to play the piano, which she.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Was like one of the first people to do that.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: This was the first time that I think she didn't
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: have an all female band, but she specifically wanted a
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: woman at the piano and I also musically, like they
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: wanted some virtuosi classical shit, but they also needed someone
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: who could play, you know, all of her music, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: they I guess they didn't find what they were looking for,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: so they called me. And I got a random call
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: from that engineer on Thursday night being like hey, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I'm like.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, and did you have to audition?
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: I mean I went in and I, you know, played
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: for everyone.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: What'd you play?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: A bunch of random stuff? They had me learned some
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: stuff on the spot. They I played some crazy classical stuff.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: I played a wide variety of things.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: How did you feel when you met her in person
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: for the first time.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: People asked me after the tour. On the tour, I
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, is it so scary to
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: be with her in front of, you know, fifty thousand people? Like,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: nothing compares to how scary it was the first time
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: I played for her with like three people in the room.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: That was scary. That was really scary. So everything after
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: that is not scary.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: That's way scarier to be one on one with Beance
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: for the first time.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Scar Yeah, But yeah, and then I was already worked.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I've been on Mawana for two and a half years,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: so like I was already on it, and I was like,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: oh my god, I can't I can't say yes. I
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: have all these other jobs that like I'm contractually obliged
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: to do, and Abby and I hated working on Zoom.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: We hated it. We would try Zoom and then like
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: ten minutes later, like okay, just come over. Couldn't do it.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: But I was like, I feel like I can't say
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: no to this. I don't know. Something was telling me
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: that I couldn't say no to it. I wonder what
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: I know, But like at the time, I was like,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I can't fuck things up with Disney. Yeah, like that
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: would be really bad and I can't sacrifice that for
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: you know, beyond. I don't know.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: So I also learned how much you could like your capacity.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, Honestly, it wasn't I mean it wasn't easy.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: Like there's some pictures of me which I'm saving for
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: my like happy release Day Moana of like me on
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the bus home from like a show, like zooming into
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: recording session from Majuana and like all of like I
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: had a Schleppa studio setup and it was a pain
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: in the ass, and the hours were not that fun,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: especially when you're working us hours in Europe. So like
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: I'd get home from rehearsal or a show at midnight
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: and I have to work till five am. It was
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: it was, It was tough, but it wasn't It wasn't
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: that bad. And I mean when I learned that we
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: can work really.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Well on Zoom, that's all you stretched yourself.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we were good, So now we can work anymore,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: which is great.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: But so I read a few fan comments on that
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: photo that I loved to view, and fans called it
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: the best version of Dangerously in Love and their favorite
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: part of the tour. That's like, that's pretty moving.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean to be a part of something that
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: culturally big was wild style.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Do you think you brought to it?
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, my classical background definitely influenced the way that
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I played, so especially in that song. It was very
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: like arpeggio and florally and noodlely and just all over
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: the place.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Did you learn anything from her as a performer
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: or did you feel like you learn more from her
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: as a person.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: I learned that I will never be able to shake
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: my ass like that my god, you don't have to,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: so it's okay. Yeah, no, like, because I at some
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: point want to put out like music for myself, but
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: not in like a I will never be that type
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: of artist. I will never be a like get on
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: stage and I'll be like maybe if it ever happens,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: if I ever, you know, have the balls to do something,
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: it'll be more like a John Mayer or like Norah
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Jones esque type situation.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: There's a photo of you on Instagram and you write
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: who says you can't play piano and six inch platforms?
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: And I know you were being cheeky, but I actually
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: felt like it meant something deeper. What were you really saying?
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean there's a certain look that you associate
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: with classical pianists, and I'm by no means saying that
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: I am even remotely close to the level of like
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: touring classical pianists anymore. At one point I had the chops.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: I haven't practiced them a long time because I spend
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: ninety nine percent of my time writing music, but I
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: pull out the classical chops here and there for certain things.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: And it was this July fourth thing and growing up,
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: my panel teachers are like no nail polish, eah, And
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: they were very much like you can't and to a
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: certain degree there right with heels, you sit differently and
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: so your technique is different. But like, you don't need
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: to not be cute to play the piano. So I
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: always have my nails done and every show that I
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: did growing up, like they would be color coordinated with
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: my outfits because I'm like, there's gonna be cameras on
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: my hands, this is stupid. My nails are gonna be done,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: and I'm gonna be wearing tall heels because I think
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: they look cute.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times we strip the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: femininity away from things, and I just love that you're
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: putting it back in.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Like the first time that I conducted like an orchestra
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: in a concert hall, I wore dress because like most
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: conductors wear pants, which is fine. I'm not clocking that
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: I love pants. I just I just wanted to wear
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: a dress because I'm like, when did you see like
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: a conductor wearing like a really cool, like designer dress.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: You know completely, I don't know. Well, you've said that
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: your goal is to break the mold for what a
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: composer in the industry looks like and I read that
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: less than two percent of composers scoring films are female.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Less than two percent, Yeah.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: I think I think it's slightly higher now, maybe like
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: five or six.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: But still, why is it so male dominated? And why
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: is it so hard to break into.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: You know, to be a composer. It's interesting and I'm
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: still learning a lot about it. But the relationship between
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: a director and a composer is like this, and it
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: really has been a boys club for a very long time.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: And I don't really have an answer for you, because
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: I know that there are sick, incredible, talented women composers
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: out there. There's so many of them, and there's I'm
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: not saying that I'm the first either, it's just we
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: don't know that. Like there's been an amazing woman before me,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: going into the sixties and seventies that have been scoring films,
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: but like, yeah, they somehow just don't get the recognition
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: that they deserve. And I don't know where that is.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: But even to this day, I'll walk into a room
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: as a composer and I'm like, are you the assistant?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Or like me and Abeuiel walked into this busy thing
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: and they thought we were hair and makeup, which is fine,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: but like.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: The assumption comes from somewhere.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, can you name me a female composer?
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: No, can you? Yeah, you can name a few female composers. Yeah,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: but right, but I can name a few male composers.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: So like the general public can name a few fixed males,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I can't.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: I went to go see Barbie at the Hollywood Bowler
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: other day and like, the movie is fine, I actually
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: really liked a lot better this time I saw it,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: but it was of all women orchestra with a woman conductor,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: and I had never seen something like that at that level,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: and for some reason it just immediately ten seconds in,
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: I was bawling in my seat. I'm not a crier
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: like that, Like I don't, I don't do that, but
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: something about seeing all those women out there at that level,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: I was like, the amount of times that I have
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: been the only girl in the room is like ninety
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: nine point nine percent of the time. Like with Adago
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: now it's really nice because we have each other, but
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: like when I'm scoring movies, in my entire life, I
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: have been the only girl in the room all the
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: time with the bunch of bolder dudes and I'm not
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: saying very bad people. I'm not. It's just to see
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: a room full of women on one of the biggest
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: stages in the world playing to one of the biggest
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: movies in the world was just really moving because I
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: can't even imagine what that feels like for them. I've
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: never been in that situation. I've never been in a
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: room full of all women ever.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Were you crying because like you yourself had felt lonely?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, whether we like it or not, like working
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: with a woman feels different, like it just does. It
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: was just really cool to see. And they showed a
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: slide show at the end of all of them when
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: they were young, like with their instruments as babies, and I.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Was just like, oh my god.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: But what I said during our Grammy speech is how
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: I feel. It's like I don't want to turn this
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: into like a preachy, bullshit moment, Like it's not that
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: we don't exist. We do. Like I could give you
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: the names of a hundred like incredible assistance that are
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: amazing composers that are women. If you go into any
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: of the film scoring, you know, undergraduate programs or graduate programs,
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: there is a lot of women now, which is great,
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: but still we don't see those numbers reflected in the
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: jobs somehow, and so well I said during the speech,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: still rings true. It's like it's not that we don't exist.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: It's clear that we do. And why the Bridgeton thing
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: felt so powerful to me, And like awards don't really matter,
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: but like that one really it meant a lot because
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: we were the only two women out of thirty six nominies.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: We were the youngest ones by far. But like the
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: fact that we were the only woman I don't want
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: to make this a gender thing whatever, but like it's true,
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: like we exist, and the fact that we were able
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: to like force them to listen by using social media
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: and force them to like realize that there are a
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: lot of us out there, it felt it meant a lot.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about that in a second cause
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: that moment made me cry too. But you keep mentioning
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Abigail Yeah and talented women, which she is, so to
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: catch everybody up, Abigail Barlow's a musician and you guys
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: team up as Barlow and Bear Yeah, which is very cool.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: And you created Bridgerton the unofficial musical. It became a
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: huge sensation. What's an unofficial musical? First of all, well,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and how does this come about?
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: The whole thing was kind of a happy accident because
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Abigail and I had met like a year before and
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: randomly someone put us together. I was like, you should
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: write together, okay, And we started like fucking around with
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: this little musical idea. But the more we wrote, the
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: more we're like, wait, this is kind of fun. Like
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: I never thought that I would be writing musical theater
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: and be so passionate about it at this stage of
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: my life. I'm like, oh, like maybe when I'm seventy
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: five and I'm you know, at that stage of my career,
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: I'll write a musical. But we started writing together and
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: I was like, hey, this is great. It's like a living,
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: breathing version of film music, you know. And then the
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: pandemic hit and then we had no jobs and I
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: literally did not get a single gig for like a
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: year and a half, and I was losing my mind
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: and so is Abigail. And this was like post Ratituey
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: the musical like that like had taken over TikTok maybe
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: six months before, I don't know, or a year before,
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: and Bridgington was like blowing up. And I got a
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: random text from Abigail and I being like, what if
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Bridgeton was a musical And she sent me this like
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: little snippet of a song and I was like, wait,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: this is good. So then we just started writing it.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: Is it true that you wrote the first song in
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: forty five minutes?
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I mean I added my shit to it in about
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: forty five minutes. Like again, I feel like all creatives
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: when we're writing music, ninety five percent of the time
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: it's excruciatingly painful, and the five percent of maybe not
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: that much, maybe seventy five to twenty five. Yeah, it's
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: like we keep chasing that feeling. When it flows, it's
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: like the best feeling in the world, and you're like,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: oh my god, it's so amazing to like watch the
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: puzzle pieces come together. And that was just one of
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: the times where it just flowed out of both of us.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: So it took off on social media.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I was not really a social media girl pre
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Like I started using TikTok like a few months before,
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: honestly inspired by Abigail because I saw how she was
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: using it, and I started using it to like talk
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: about being a comp whatever, and I had some like
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: the first few my videos go viral and I was like, oh,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: this is cool. And then I started getting like job
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: interest from TikTok and I'm like interesting. But I was
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: not a social media girl. Yeah, and Abigail had been
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: on social media forever, and so she posted a clip
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: of her singing it, and then it blew up and
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: we're like, we had no jobs, We had nothing going on.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: So we're like, so you built it out, keep going
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: if it's working. Neither of us we had no plan.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: We weren't expecting it to like do what it did.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Wait, I just want to let everyone know what it did.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Number one album on the pop charts, number five album
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: on overall worldwide charts, over ten million streams in two weeks,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and a top ten Spotify album debut.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was wild because there was no We made
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: no money off of it, Like I still don't know
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: how people make money off of us, Like I don't
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: get it. And we put no money into it. Like
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: everything that happened just kind of happened, like I don't
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: even know looking back at it, it was like a
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: fever dream. Even when we put the music out, I
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: was expecting like the first you know, few like really
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Bridgerton obsessed lovers to listen to it and it would
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: just be like a nice way to commemorate like that
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: time in our life. I was not expecting it to
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: do what it did. I was certainly not expecting it
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: to get nominated for a Grammy. I didn't even know
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: that was like, I didn't, I don't know me, Like,
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: it was just Addie and I, like I produced it
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: and she sang on all the parts and it was
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: just the two of us. Like I was like, there's
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: no way an album of basically like mock up demos
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: is going to be nominated for a Grammy and win one.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: So the whole thing was fucking crazy. Honestly, it was
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: just it was just insane.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: So you two win the Grammy. Yeah, and you look
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: truly shocked the video, the camera pans to you, and
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: you look so shocked. And the first thing you do
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: is you hug Abigail, and the two of you walk
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: on stage and I started bawling. I was bawling, So
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I want to hear why you were bawling, But I
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: want to tell you why I cried. You're in this
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: room full of adults, older people, mixed room of men
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: and women, people who have been in the industry for years. Yeah,
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: and you two look so young and so girly in
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the best way, right, And you walk on stage, and
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: it was like the power of friendship up there, Like,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: you two were so I get chills thinking about it.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: You two were so talented individually and it had success,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: but to come together and win a Grammy was like,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: that's the power of female friendship.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: No, And it's it's funny because me and Abail started
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: as friends and we're still friends, and we're very, very,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: very different. Yeah, in almost honestly every way you can tell. Yeah,
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: but like I think we like celebrate each other's differences,
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: and I think our differences is what makes us so
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: good as partners, is because we view music totally differently.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Why did you cry when you were up there?
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: Well, because it was really unexpected and because it was
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: such a like grassroots sort of thing. We're like, this
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: was so out of the realm of possibility for either
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: of us to imagine the fact that it did happen
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: like meant the world and the fact that it happened
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: with only Abigail and I like and we were like,
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: in the back of my mind, I was like, oh,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: maybe it could, but I was saying, there's no way.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: We were up against Android Weber and Bob Dylan, all
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: these legendary writers and they all have like, you know,
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: huge teams behind them. Each of the projects had like
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: six seven, eight, nine, ten nominees because these things to
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: a lot of people to work. But then on Abigail
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: and Is it was just us too, And I was
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: just like, we didn't campaign like a lot of people
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: who are nominated for a Grammy or like try to
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: get an award, they like do all this shit to
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: campaign and get voters, and like, we didn't do anything,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: Like I just I don't know. It was just it
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: was just so crazy and it felt so powerful, because again,
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: awards are nice. We love the validation. At the end
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: of the day, do they change everything for you? Not really? Well,
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: does Grammy pay my rent forever?
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Not really?
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: To get an award for something that was like just
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: born out of passion, I don't know, it was it
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: meant a lot.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: Did you grow up envisioning yourself on that stage?
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: Every musician grows up Every year you watch the Grammys
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: and you're like, oh, I want to be up there. Oh,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: that'll be me one day. But there's no way that's
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: ever going to happen. There's no way. So then like
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: it happens and you're like, whoa.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. Yeah, was your mom freaking out? Oh?
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: Everyone was freaking out. So they were the first award
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: of the night, and it was like, okay, let's go
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: right in.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: So petty, how do you hope that because it was
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: kind of like this wildly successful experiment. Yeah, how do
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: you hope that it changes the game.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: It's funny because Abigail and I were I was demoing.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: So when you're in the scoring world, you dip to
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: demo for a lot of jobs, especially when you have
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: no credits and you're a teenager like I was. And
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: I had amazing agents who are still my agents now,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: and they're like the best of the best, top of
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: their game. And I was going out for all these
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: jobs and I would almost get the job, and I
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: would get it. I would almost get the job and
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't get it, And I like spent almost two
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: years demoing for things that I didn't get and I
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: was like so frustrated, and I feel like I was
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: putting out all this great music and I was going nowhere.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: And there was one job that I was going for
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: like three months, and it was crazy because you shouldn't
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: have to demo for a job for three months, but
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: I was because I was desperate. And some of these
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: demos also included score and song and I would bring
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Abigail on and I was like, do you want to
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: write these songs together for this demo and see, like,
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: see what happens. There was this animated TV show for
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: kids that I was going out to be the composer
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: and then Abigail I would have written songs. There was
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: score and songs, and I brought Abagail in and they
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: were like, yeah, you got the job of school. Like
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: I was demoing for three months. I scored animet ix
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: and wrote songs and did score samples and like spent
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: so much time and energy on this, and.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: It was like, how could they not give you the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: job after all this?
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: Well, they said I was getting the job, But then
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: the holidays came around and then they went in different
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: dark they went in a different direction, and that was
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: like a week before Bridgiston blew up. So honestly, it
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: was a Blessing in Disguise, because if I had gotten
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: that job, I would have never sat in a room
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: with Abigail and wrote a fake bridget and musical for
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: four months, So like Blessing in Disguise. But I hope
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: that what happened next with the Bridgerton experience like inspire
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: someone else to show that, like, if they're not giving
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: you the opportunity to show what you can do, you
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: can do it yourself too. Like obviously it's not gonna
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: work every time, Like I don't think if we tried
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: to recreate that whole thing it would work. But it
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: just goes to show that, like you don't always need
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: some you know, fucking studio executive to like take a
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: chance on you and give you the job you can
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: you can do it yourself, Like it's possible now today
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: with social media to do it yourself and force people
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: to listen, which is what I think we were able
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: You have to make your own work.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again, I also know how frustrating it
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: can be to like try a bunch of things and
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: have it not work. Yeah, because even now, like I'll
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: have something really work well on social media, but then
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: it won't work again, and then I'm like, I get
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: so discouraged because I'm like, what the point in wasting
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: time and energy and money into something that's not gonna happen?
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: But you never know, like it's the one that you
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: least expect. Did I think that an unofficial, fake Bridgeton
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: musical that was never staged would be the thing that
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: would blow the doors open? And honestly is the reason
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: why we got Muwana and all these other things.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: No at all in those two years when you were
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: demoing and not getting anything, did you ever think maybe
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: this isn't for me?
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Oh my god. I yeah, I remember during COVID and
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: this is gonna sound horrible, but I would just like
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: watch people walk to work when I was driving in
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: my car, and I was like, what I would fucking
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: give to like have a job every day and like
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: something to do, because it's great to self start, but
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: it gets really frustrating when like all you're doing is
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: try to create opportunities and then have them that work.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: And I was just like, maybe this is maybe I
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: should have gone to college. Maybe this was a mistake.
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know. You go through all the thought because
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: two years is a long time and like there were
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: teeny tiny little winds but nothing that really changed anything.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I went through a period of like of that too. Yeah,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: and it actually took me time to recover from it.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Mm hmm. Yeah. So it's it's difficult and it's easy
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: to fall back into that headspace because like, yeah, maybe
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: these last few years were great, but like what's next?
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: How like how do I not fall back into that hole? Yeah?
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, now looking back on it,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: those two years of demoing and writing music and all
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: styles imaginable and Abigail writing all these random ass songs
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: for all these random ass projects like prepared us so
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: well in a way that I can never predicted for
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: what we're doing now.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: You said that people listen to songs every day, but
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: they don't know how they're created. Can you give me
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: a behind the scenes look into what it takes for
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: you to write a great song?
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: I need more specificity on like project, and like, are
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: we talking something for like Malana or something for myself
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: as like a more poppy whatever, or like something for
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: like score for a movie, whatever.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: A score for a movie, And give me the details,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: Like Okay, I get a diet coke and then I like,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I want every detail.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Well, again, it's so project based because each process is
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: so different and how you work with the team and
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: how you get the materials. But I will say almost
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: every single time I get a project, I get excited.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, I got the job. Yeah,
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: and then I'm like, oh my god, I don't know
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: how to do this. This is gonna be horrible. I'm
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: gonna fail, I'm gonna get fired. This is gonna be
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: the one that really ends me. Like this is the one,
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: and I like freak out for a minute because that's
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: what you do, and then I start working and then
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: you just you gotta do it, and then it starts
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: coming together and you're like, wait, maybe I got this
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: ababy need to freak out. Maybe everything's okay. And I
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: go through this whole cycle and it happens every time,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: and people will be like, Emily, you said this last
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: time and you were fine, and I'm like, no, but
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: this is the one. This is the one that I
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: really I don't know how to do this shit like
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: this is this is gonna be the one where, like
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: I really mess things up to the point where I
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: can't come back. But it hasn't happened yet. So I
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: go through that little thing, but once I'm actually in it,
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: it just like I was working on two movies this
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: summer and they were sow Well two movies plus Majana,
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: and they were so different and the processes were so
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: different than how I worked with. The directors were so
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: different that it's almost incomparable. But like, let's say this
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: one Netflix movie that I was talking about a lot
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: on my Instagram, I had like a very traditional, orchestral
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: like celebratory feel for a season that we all love
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: to celebrate. And I before I got the job, and
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: even after I got the job, before I started writing,
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: like I had never written Christmas music before. You know,
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know. So I just started listening to a
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: bunch of things and watching a bunch of movies that
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: are in the same vein and figuring out what I
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: liked and what I didn't like that people did, and
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: I just you just have to start, and it's like
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: some trial and error. Sometimes you spend six hours on
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: something that is terrible, but then sometimes it just flows.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: And I usually sit there and I watch the scene
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: and I either start on piano or I start I
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: usually like to start with like a string patch or
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: a lot of times I like, I'll just let the
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: movie play and I'll just sit and muse, and I'll
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: keep it rolling over and over again, and the fear
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: that feels good, Like that feels good, I'll get there
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: and then I'll orchestrate it out. Or sometimes I'll start
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: with a string patch or like a certain instrument that
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: like gets me in the vibe. But how I wrote
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: those two scores is like a lot of movies, even
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: if they have like the Netflix one has a great
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: cast with big people that we all know, and the
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: movie's really well done and it's cute, there's not a
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: lot of budget nowadays, so like I couldn't hire a
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: whole orchestra to record sixty minutes of music because it's
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: too expensive. So a lot of it was just programmed
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: in my studio by me and orchestrated by me, sort
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: of how I did Bridgerton. I had a little more
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: wiggle rooms. I was able to hire a few people.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: But knowing that I had that constraint, I write in
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: a certain way. If I knew that I was gonna
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: be able to hire an orchestra, I'd write in a
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: different way, but like it just it depends.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: Does that make any sense completely? Okay, how do you
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: feel about the state of pop music right now?
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: I think it's great. I'm not a top forty person,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: I you know, it's just I always lean like a
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: little left of center on like music tastes specifically.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: What does that mean to you? Give me a few names.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: Like I think my favorite artist right now is Yeba,
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: and like she's not like avant garde by any means,
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: but she's definitely not top forty right, you know, but
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: like her artistry and just m she's perfect. I would
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: marry her anyways. I think pop music is having a
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: renaissance right now. Like I'm not gonna say that I
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: love everything that's like super popular right now, but like
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: I love Suprita Garpenter, and I don't usually like a
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: you know, a bubblegum pop princess, but I think her
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: stuff is really great and I think she's really talented.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: Chapel Roone obviously, like everyone's obsessing over her and for
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: good reason. She's amazing, And I just that there's there's
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of variety on the market right now. Olivia
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Dean is like she's not a household name yet like
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Superta Carpenter, but like she's getten.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: There, what's the most fun you've ever had on a project?
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: Luana Too has been the most amazing experience ever. And
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: since it's not out yet, I can't really talk about
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: Scifixed because obviously whatever. But I mean, to even be
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: considered to be a songwriter for a Disney animated movie
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: is crazy, And the fact that we were able to
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: do it and how it came to be is even crazier.
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: So like every time we walk in.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: What do you mean how it came to be?
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: Well that we got hired for it, and how it
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: started as a TV show but now as a movie,
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: And I mean, it was crazy, But it's every songwriter's dream,
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: I think, to be able to do what we've been
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: able to do the past couple years. Like I never
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: in a million years thought that we would be given
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: this opportunity. Yeah right now. But Disney has been so
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: wonderful and it has been so cool to work on
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: and it's been so incredible to see the process, and
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: I've to this day I still don't really understand how
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: it's made because the amount of detail and work and
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: love and passion that goes into creating animation at that
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: level is insane.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: As I hear you talking for the last hour, I
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: can tell, like the skill, the hard work is paramount
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: to you. It's clear Quincy felt that way about you too,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: and I don't want to take anything away from the
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: hard work because it is paramount. But this to me
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: feels like a gift. Also, how do you make sense
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: of it?
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: I think I don't, like, I can't really view it
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: like that because to me, it doesn't feel like that.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Like you don't feel like you've been reincarnated.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: There's people that I'd love to think that I am
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: reincarnated as, but I don't know. Like someone that I
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: think I is a completely different level than I am.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: But someone who I aspired to be like is Leonard Bernstein.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: Like I think he's one of the most genius musicians
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: of all time, And yeah, I hope to be like him.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: But do I think I'm him reincarnated? I don't know.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I think that's I don't know.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Is there any drawback to a gift this powerful.
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: I'm sure there was a level of like ease that
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: it came to me when I was little and I
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: understand that. And I can't explain that either, Like I
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: don't know why I was playing scales as a two
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: year old and why I loved it so much and
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: I was like making up songs at three, like I
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: don't know. I also don't really remember it. But it's
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: like to have had the journey that I have had
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: and to now like what got me to the place
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: where I am and now so many words. I I mean,
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: I had to sacrifice a lot, Like I can't even
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: like count the amount of times that I missed out
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: on things because I was doing something for this or
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: practicing for that or whatever. But I feel like each
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: each sacrifice and each misstep and each thing that seems
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: really hard on the moment, but now I look back
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: on and was like, Okay, I guess that happened for
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: a reason. Yeah, is all part of the bigger picture.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: And I try to remind myself of that every day
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: that like hindsight is twenty twenty and everything that sucks
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: now is gonna feel like it was there for a reason,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: and I went through it for a reason, you know,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: whether it's six months from now or ten years from now.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: So like all the shitty parts of my life and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: all the stuff that I don't want people to see
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: and don't want people to know and I don't want
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: to think about. I think all happened for a reason, yeah,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: and allowed me to like do what I'm able to do.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: It's like it's very easy to lose perspective on want
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: like what music can bring people when you're in.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: It, rapid fire, the fun part. Ready, you grace the
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: stages of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Hollywood Bowl. What's
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: the most memorable place you've stepped on stage?
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: Mantro Jazz Festival is my favorite place ever, and I'm
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: counting down the days till i can go back, because
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: it's just, oh my god. You're like on Geneva in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: Switzerland looking out into France. It's beautiful, and this music
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: festival is like there's hundreds of vendors that line like
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: the water, and there's just people everywhere, and there's music everywhere,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: and it's just beautiful and wonderful and amazing and perfect.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: It's great. Okay, you're making me want to go, Oh
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: my god, you have to go. You're very humble. I
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: want you to lose your humility for one second an
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: accomplishment you're most proud of.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: All Right, scoring my first future film, I was really bad,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: and I like, I don't know, I think I was
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: just so happy to finally be going through the motions
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: and doing the thing. Yeah that nothing else mattered, I was.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 2: It felt like a really huge accomplishment for me because
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: no one my age had ever done that before. I
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: was the youngest person to do it for a movie
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: that came out on streaming. So it just felt very
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: very cool to, like, ay, be given the opportunity and
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: for the director to have taken the chance on me.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: An artist that you don't think we're listening to that
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: we should be.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: Listen. I know a lot of people listen to Yeba,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: but she is so criminally underrated, Like it's actually it
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: actually blows my mind. I think she is one of
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: the craziest musicians to walk this planet. Also, my friend
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: Lindsay Lomis that girl's crazy, Like, oh my god, just
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: listen to her, saying go look her up on Instagram.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: She's amazing.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: Sorry, no, don't worry, Okay, song that puts you in
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: a good mood instantly, rich girl. Really I love that. Carol,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: what's your go to tour.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: Snack pickles.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: I love pickles too. Okay. A book that changed your life,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: something you think everybody should read Outliers. The smartest decision
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: you've ever.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: Made, getting a dog.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, last one question everything, open the box, pick a card,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: any card?
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: Do I get to ask you question now?
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: No? We can answer together if you want. Okay. Ooh,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: what's your all time most memorable meal?
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a good question. Okay. It has to be
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: with Quincy because we were in Japan together on tour
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: and we were sitting We went to this crazy restaurant,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: you know, Kobe beef. It's like like the most crazy
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: beef whatever. We were sitting at this table and I
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: was like a little fucking child, and we were sitting
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: with all these like world leaders and ambassadors, and Quincy
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: has crazy friends and like the Prince of Dubai, like
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: all these people, and I was just there. I think
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: my whole family was there. But we were having the
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: most insane meal of like the craziest Kobe beef and
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: like all this Japanese delicacies, and I will never forget it.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: It was wild.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: You know. I think that a great memorable meal is
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: both the people and the food. So I love that
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: you chose that.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: No, I'm like, why am I sitting here talking to
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: like the Swiss diplomat to blah blah blah and like
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: some you know, Saudi royal. I'm like, what is going on?
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Wild Emily, thank you, thank you. Okay, you know what
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: time it is. Today's a good day. To have a
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: good day. I'll see you next week.