Speaker 1: Hey guys, It's Sammy Jay and welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Let's Be Real Podcast. You guys, this episode, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I am so excited for you to hear it. I
Speaker 1: think this may be one of my favorite episodes of
Speaker 1: all time. This week we have two guests, Abigail Barlow
Speaker 1: and Emily Bear. They are partners in crime. They are
Speaker 1: Ying and Yang. They are brilliant. Now you've probably have
Speaker 1: heard of what they're working on Britain the Musical. They
Speaker 1: are creating a musical in real time on TikTok and
Speaker 1: I do live and you can see the process before
Speaker 1: your very eyes. And I'm telling you what these girls
Speaker 1: are doing and the songs they're creating are just different.
Speaker 1: They're innovating the space. We talk about what it's like
Speaker 1: to be gen z since they are twenty two and nineteen,
Speaker 1: and how to be taken seriously in the business. We
Speaker 1: also talk about friendships, girls, supporting girls, and so much more.
Speaker 1: As always, I look forward to your feedback and enjoy.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you guys are all my pod has
Speaker 1: because I have been on TikTok not as much more viewer.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get into the creating. But I've been
Speaker 1: following you, Abigail for ever since you created uh Sober.
Speaker 1: I remember when I saw, I was I just love
Speaker 1: the creativity because I feel like there's it's awesome when
Speaker 1: you find that on this kind of platform. And when
Speaker 1: I saw you guys were creating bridgrotin the musical, it
Speaker 1: made me watch the show first. I love that. First
Speaker 1: of all, can you talk about how attractive Simon is? Oh?
Speaker 1: That's literally happy for conversation. We both have boyfriends, but
Speaker 1: we're like, oh my god, like it pains my soul
Speaker 1: how attractive that man is. It's amazing. I can't He's
Speaker 1: just perfect. His face, the structure, it's justine muscles with
Speaker 1: the British. I have a theory that if you are
Speaker 1: British you automatically get ten more points. It's just and
Speaker 1: if you're British and like studyingly handsome, it's over and
Speaker 1: you have abs like we're done, it's good. It's doing here, sir,
Speaker 1: where you're handing marriage. His arms are like perfectly chiseled.
Speaker 1: I was like, that was my first thing. I was like.
Speaker 1: After I saw, I was like, okay, I'll watched the show,
Speaker 1: like I know me oh my god, me. So how
Speaker 1: far into watching the show having Guild, We're like, okay,
Speaker 1: this should be a musical. I actually finished binging it,
Speaker 1: and there was like one piece of dialogue that stuck
Speaker 1: out to me, like beyond the rest. It was what
Speaker 1: Henry Grandville says about you have no idea what it's
Speaker 1: like to be in a room with someone you can't
Speaker 1: live without and yet still feel like their oceans away
Speaker 1: from you. And I was like, dude, that is a song.
Speaker 1: And it's basically all of the dialogue is so poetic.
Speaker 1: The music almost writes itself. It's kind of crazy. It's
Speaker 1: like so I yeah, So I just like I went
Speaker 1: to my piano and kind of started messing round because
Speaker 1: I was just tired of like the structure of pop
Speaker 1: music I was writing, and I wanted to like kind
Speaker 1: of just expand my horizons and write something that I
Speaker 1: never would have written otherwise. And I think Britain gave
Speaker 1: me that vehicle to do that. And so after I
Speaker 1: finished like binging it, I was like, what if this
Speaker 1: move a musical? You know, like it probably could be,
Speaker 1: And then I wrote that song. So, what's your favorite musical,
Speaker 1: like of all time? Your top three Pip in the
Speaker 1: revival Purple. Um. Um, is it so cliche to say
Speaker 1: is so good? I mean like there's a there's a
Speaker 1: reason it's so popular, you know whatever. I think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. My favorites are. I've did a lot of
Speaker 1: musical theater as a kid, Like, did so many shows
Speaker 1: and next to normal I got to see on Broadway
Speaker 1: it was incredible at won the Pulitzer Prize and like
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve or something like that. Um, such good music.
Speaker 1: Uh shoot, I love Into the Woods. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of the stuff, especially for writing this show, it's
Speaker 1: very much operatic and feel it's I was I was
Speaker 1: thinking about that, like I got into the wood vibes,
Speaker 1: like listening to the music. I think the duel song
Speaker 1: is definitely some time vibes on it. We tried to
Speaker 1: really lean into like the operatic style because I think
Speaker 1: it really like it benefited the show to have sort
Speaker 1: of that string feel underneath all of the dialogue and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, so we wanted to keep that for
Speaker 1: what we're creating. But yeah, I think that Into the
Speaker 1: Woods I love sometime, I love I love Sweeney Todd
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have been saying Sweeney time
Speaker 1: because it kind of been influenced for me. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just love musical theater so much, and I think
Speaker 1: that classic sound with like a pop influence on it
Speaker 1: is something that not many people have kind of explored yet.
Speaker 1: And and we have such different backgrounds that complement each other,
Speaker 1: so it kind of just fell into place when we
Speaker 1: started writing. Our our skill sets are so complimentary and
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. So we met actually working on
Speaker 1: a different musical project that's more of a passion project,
Speaker 1: and we were keeping a lot less in the spotlight.
Speaker 1: But um, that one, we had a vision of it
Speaker 1: being like very pop because there was like a golden
Speaker 1: era where musical theater songs crossed over to the pop
Speaker 1: charts wars and wanted to do that again exactly. We
Speaker 1: wanted to do that again, and so um we figured
Speaker 1: out after we're writing together for the first time that
Speaker 1: like it just worked, Like we come from like a
Speaker 1: pop background, and she has such incredible instincts, it's like scary.
Speaker 1: And then I come from like a very different background,
Speaker 1: like I was possibly trained, I like toured with like
Speaker 1: a jazz trio, So very smart and incredibly gigantic brain inside.
Speaker 1: But I also loved writing songs and I've been doing
Speaker 1: that for a while and so like us together, it's
Speaker 1: just works. It's really great it seeing and Yang. Yeah,
Speaker 1: literally it is. It's so you and Yang. So what
Speaker 1: is the process of creating a musical? Because just like
Speaker 1: the beginning of any project, the hardest part is starting,
Speaker 1: That's what I always tell and a musical is very daunting.
Speaker 1: So how do you go about structuring this show when
Speaker 1: they're you know, eight episodes, eight hours total content, and
Speaker 1: you're condensing it into songs? How do you go about
Speaker 1: doing that? Yeah, We've been saying, like we need to
Speaker 1: take these eight hours of storytelling and you can put
Speaker 1: it into Yeah. And it's crazy because this kind of
Speaker 1: just started as a passion project. Like when I did
Speaker 1: the Hypothetical What It Britain, wasn't musical, Like I really
Speaker 1: wasn't expecting it to blow up the way it did
Speaker 1: and expect people to want more. You didn't know, like
Speaker 1: I've post my original pop music like you said all
Speaker 1: the time, so like this was no different. I was
Speaker 1: just inspired on a different level by something happening in
Speaker 1: pop culture and like the world just kind of nodded
Speaker 1: in agreement, So I mean, I can tell you she
Speaker 1: texted me that night and it was like, what if
Speaker 1: British and wasn't musical? And my initial thought was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's a good idea. Let's do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the rest of the world is like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's a good idea. So we're having fun right now
Speaker 1: writing it. And I think that's why it's not so daunting,
Speaker 1: is because we're kind of taking it, like segments of
Speaker 1: the storyline as we feel inspired to write them. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you want to get more into the details, like
Speaker 1: we think that you know, what captured us in the
Speaker 1: show is their love story and how beautiful it was,
Speaker 1: and you know how they showed the struggling parts too,
Speaker 1: But we wanted the show to sort of focus on
Speaker 1: Simon and Daphne's relationship, right all the chaos that erupt
Speaker 1: from that, So we're trying to like structure it to
Speaker 1: be that, you know. I think that's also so interesting
Speaker 1: because there are many different plots within the shows, and
Speaker 1: I find it it's it's good that you're like choosing
Speaker 1: one narrative to go down and kind of touching us
Speaker 1: like someone otherwise we'd have like a cast album with
Speaker 1: seven exactly. But I feel like that's one of the
Speaker 1: really fascinating things. Like the music. It's not just like Broadway.
Speaker 1: It feels like music that's on the radio, which I
Speaker 1: think what you guys are doing, it's coming across really well.
Speaker 1: What is your songwriting process? Because you guys are doing
Speaker 1: it differently, like it hasn't been done before. I find
Speaker 1: it so refreshing. You guys are live streaming while you're
Speaker 1: creating the songs. Is that ever intimidating to know like
Speaker 1: people are watching you or do you just kind of
Speaker 1: zone them out? I mean a little bit, But also
Speaker 1: at the same time, everyone's been so incredible and supportive
Speaker 1: and it helps it there, you know. It's what you
Speaker 1: were saying before, is like I think TikTok is a
Speaker 1: platform that loves authenticity and like we're not hiding the
Speaker 1: parts that we're struggling, Like people see when we don't
Speaker 1: know what to say next. People are seeing when we
Speaker 1: are hitting writer's block, we can't find a rhyme from
Speaker 1: like Penny, and like, why can't we find a rhyme
Speaker 1: for Penny? But then they also see it when it
Speaker 1: just comes out like that, and when we hit a
Speaker 1: stride and like how excited we get when we find
Speaker 1: something that we love, and it's like it makes it
Speaker 1: a lot less daunting, It can't. I mean, it just
Speaker 1: depends really on whether we're struggling or whether it's coming
Speaker 1: out like that, because you can you can tune them
Speaker 1: out sometimes and then sometimes they're actually really helpful and
Speaker 1: give us suggestions on what to say. So that's awesome.
Speaker 1: That's advice in real time. Yeah, exactly, and exactly with
Speaker 1: the people who are going to be ultimately consuming. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's really brilliant because you're having the audience
Speaker 1: go through the process with you, so then when they
Speaker 1: see the show, it's like, hey, they're parting. Yeah, Honestly,
Speaker 1: like I was saying, you know, musicals are usually very
Speaker 1: hidden in development, like kind of in secrecy for years,
Speaker 1: and these things take years to develop, and so I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone's been ever able to see the process
Speaker 1: of that. And we didn't really have like an epiphanymore
Speaker 1: it was like, oh my god, this is a brilliant
Speaker 1: master plan and just I don't know as actually it
Speaker 1: just happened and then you're here. That's probably how it happened.
Speaker 1: It just were like, yeah, if we knew, what would
Speaker 1: have happened, Like, I don't think it would have happened
Speaker 1: the same way. No, I I think it really just
Speaker 1: hit the zeitgeist in the coolest way and and had
Speaker 1: so many people feel like they were along for the
Speaker 1: ride for this because who knows where it could go.
Speaker 1: There are some really cool opportunities for us now that
Speaker 1: you know, we've kind of developed a following around it,
Speaker 1: and it's really exciting to have people like on our
Speaker 1: team and so supportive of the idea. Lin Man Well,
Speaker 1: who's like my dream? Oh my god. We had a
Speaker 1: ramos on the podcast because even too uh he started
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, just tell me
Speaker 1: some wind stories like I need he do wedded one
Speaker 1: of the songs and died and sign and say that's amazing.
Speaker 1: How did you get into the whole podcast? So I
Speaker 1: was in my sophomore year of high school and my
Speaker 1: anxiety got really bad because mean girls, and I started
Speaker 1: listening to podcasts as like a way to distract, because
Speaker 1: if you have anxiety, probably no distraction is your best friend.
Speaker 1: And so I was listening to podcast and I couldn't
Speaker 1: relate to anything that was coming out, and as distraction
Speaker 1: is like, I'm going to create my dream podcast. So
Speaker 1: I did like research on the marketplace and I eventually
Speaker 1: pitched it just for fun, and they gave me a
Speaker 1: pilot and I got Julia Michaels on it, and then
Speaker 1: we went to series and now around season two that
Speaker 1: girl boss yees. So I had originally met Julia when
Speaker 1: I interviewed her on the set of American Idol when
Speaker 1: I was on assignment for Radio Disney. That's so exciting. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Julia would be amazing in this musical, don't you think. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I really cool so our girl Sienna. I know she's
Speaker 1: an opera singer and she'll definitely have some influence. But
Speaker 1: for some reason, her and Anthony's relationship always feels like sexy,
Speaker 1: sultry pop to us. It gives me pop vibes, and
Speaker 1: so everything we write for them is very so Julia,
Speaker 1: Julia Relia. It's like, you know, the musical theater voice
Speaker 1: is definitely a thing, and I think we should get
Speaker 1: a pop girl to sing. I completely agree. I agree.
Speaker 1: Or do you know who would be really good? Jazzy Jones,
Speaker 1: who from Hamilton's Anthony's wife, and she played Peggy. She
Speaker 1: played Reynolds that she'd be good for, you know, your
Speaker 1: musical theater, Yes, queen. My family is a music I
Speaker 1: live in New York, so I've kind of grown up
Speaker 1: with it. Got it right, Broadways, Yeah, Broadways close. I
Speaker 1: hope it that opens back soon from the pandemic. Trust me.
Speaker 1: I like it's it's like the worst thing to feel
Speaker 1: like you're so closed off, but like that's why this
Speaker 1: is such a cool thing, because we feel like it's
Speaker 1: something that could possibly at the theaters maybe, you know.
Speaker 1: I also think that, like you know, COVID is a
Speaker 1: dark time for a lot of musicians and a lot
Speaker 1: of people who work in the arts. And the fact
Speaker 1: that so many people who are in the industry are
Speaker 1: like grabbing onto this is one completely surreal Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a very weird. Like we feel like in awe and
Speaker 1: grateful that something that we wrote could ever reached so
Speaker 1: many people. I know, Yeah, we've idolized for a year.
Speaker 1: I know what is bizarre and so magical of a
Speaker 1: of a experience and journey. It's really cool. So who's
Speaker 1: the most unexpected person that's reached out to you or
Speaker 1: that you know about Bridget that knows about Bridget in
Speaker 1: the musical that you were like, holy shit. I mean
Speaker 1: there's some people behind the scenes that were sort of
Speaker 1: like freaking out internally over um that we I don't
Speaker 1: want to say too much, but like really exciting things. Um.
Speaker 1: Petina Miller, which was she was in She Needs to
Speaker 1: Be Lady Danny. Yeah, she she just DMed me and
Speaker 1: was like, finished this musical and I was like, okay, clean,
Speaker 1: you got it. Cast members like Luke, the guy who
Speaker 1: plays Colin, is like on Our Lives all the time
Speaker 1: that comes in just just like on an outed and
Speaker 1: Philippa of all like reached out to Abigail and like
Speaker 1: we saw the guy who plays what's his name Anthony Um,
Speaker 1: but the guy who plays Anthony and Jonathan Um he
Speaker 1: was on Entertainment Night like raving about the musical and
Speaker 1: we're like, is this it doesn't feel question? Has Simon
Speaker 1: Flint in the d M. He hasn't slit in the
Speaker 1: d MS, but he did post a video today that
Speaker 1: like Netflix had like a little promotional thing and talked
Speaker 1: about the musical, So he's aware of it. At least
Speaker 1: you know you're on his radarland. That's all. That is all.
Speaker 1: You will be the first to know. Great, I'll get
Speaker 1: the damn ye absolutely, So what is your favorite that
Speaker 1: you guys have written so far? You know that's hard
Speaker 1: because they're all like your babies, But I know if
Speaker 1: you had to pay. So I truly think that our
Speaker 1: favorite song is whatever we just wrote. And so our
Speaker 1: favorite right now is the opening number because we just
Speaker 1: finished it. More obsessed with this ending that we just wrote. Um,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you want to get wet? Do you
Speaker 1: want to play? Yeah? I keep in mind that when
Speaker 1: I bounced it, I accidentally caught off the ending. And
Speaker 1: also it's very rough. It's gonna sound better than no,
Speaker 1: but I'm excited. Work in progress. Okay, So this is
Speaker 1: when the doors open and she walks in and she's
Speaker 1: being presented to the queen. This is her inner monopope.
Speaker 1: I guess she's walking down and then the ensemble starts
Speaker 1: chiming in, the brothers chime in, and the very end
Speaker 1: you'll hear it. Okay, I'm ready, don't trip, don't falter,
Speaker 1: just make it to the out, don't break, don't crumble,
Speaker 1: make certain you're perfectly humble. Show her majesty the queen.
Speaker 1: That's your more than work. Don't you let it show
Speaker 1: that you're more than most. Finally, Unlaby, the power piece
Speaker 1: must be common co connected at the sun. This must
Speaker 1: be perfectly perfectly desire, So don't find just make it.
Speaker 1: You're the out must be perfectly perfect, perfect pots flawless,
Speaker 1: my dear, Okay, just help them. Okay, so many thoughts.
Speaker 1: The composition is insane. It feels like I'm in a
Speaker 1: princess movie in the best way possible. We know that
Speaker 1: she's very you know, big on the tradition, and she's
Speaker 1: delicate but strong and inspired and excited, and I don't
Speaker 1: know that was one of the times where it just
Speaker 1: like flu that's must be the best feeling. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: we were we were so we are truly rarely ever
Speaker 1: happy with something that we're right right, Okay, Abigail. The harmony,
Speaker 1: I mean, she helped me with them. I couldn't come
Speaker 1: up with all of them all. I trying to understand
Speaker 1: the writing process, but it is truly a collaboration. Were
Speaker 1: she leans obviously a little more lyric melody. Eileen Moore, Well,
Speaker 1: it's pretty we both have We're both pretty headstrong in
Speaker 1: our ideas too, and then that's good because we both
Speaker 1: every yeah, we both do everything, and we're both confident
Speaker 1: in our choices and our ideas, so we just bounce
Speaker 1: off each other really when we right, it's really I
Speaker 1: love working with her, and collaboration can be really difficult
Speaker 1: to especially if you guys butt heads, because it's such
Speaker 1: a passionate thing when you guys. Right, Yeah, we've we've
Speaker 1: talked about, like we both know that collaborations are hard,
Speaker 1: partnerships are hard, um, But we've talked you know, we
Speaker 1: need always to have open, honest communication and we're gonna argue,
Speaker 1: we're going to butt heads, but it's how we deal
Speaker 1: with those that's going to be really really important. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think mostly like we never really bud heads
Speaker 1: when we're writing together. Like more like it's more all
Speaker 1: the things that like surround this, you know, it's finishing touches,
Speaker 1: ship and all the ins and outs. I have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the music. It's more like you know,
Speaker 1: some of the external you know. Yeah, like just like
Speaker 1: but but we rarely ever butt heads anyway. We're just
Speaker 1: friends first, you know, which is like the most exciting
Speaker 1: thing that like you get to do this with your friend,
Speaker 1: and like so that you will each other. We love
Speaker 1: each other, you know, I mean, like I said, we
Speaker 1: were friends first, so honestly, that introduction, it's so beautiful. Okay,
Speaker 1: we have to take a quick break, but when we
Speaker 1: come back, let's dive deeper into bridgertain the musical and
Speaker 1: how in the world you guys have written about half
Speaker 1: the songs for show in a little over two weeks,
Speaker 1: and what it's like to live stream the whole process
Speaker 1: in front of the world. We'll be right back and
Speaker 1: we're back. How long does it take you to write
Speaker 1: a song? Like, what's the fastest it's been for to
Speaker 1: write one of these songs? Thirty minutes? Thirty minutes we
Speaker 1: wrote that Balancing the Scale song, the mother song start
Speaker 1: an hour with the recording. That's impressive. It was like,
Speaker 1: truly insert we do. We were both pretty prolific and
Speaker 1: when we write, like we just write a lot constantly,
Speaker 1: so we know how to finish the song pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: And because we're both fast, like separate or apart, then
Speaker 1: we come together and we're like boom, boom boom. Everything
Speaker 1: happened so fast. But then again, we're writing a different
Speaker 1: song that we've come back to three times, and I
Speaker 1: think we finally just cracked the code, but it takes
Speaker 1: a little more pulling and struggling. Yeah, And I also
Speaker 1: think it's one of those things where innovating is so important,
Speaker 1: especially in this time where you know, Broadway is closed
Speaker 1: and we're we have to figure out different ways to
Speaker 1: make things work. It's the time for changing things up
Speaker 1: and especially writing music. A few years ago, not many
Speaker 1: people did it on their computer. They had to go
Speaker 1: into a studio. So now that you guys are writing
Speaker 1: a full blow musical at home is pretty awesome and insane.
Speaker 1: It's it's really fun. It's like it's it's like our
Speaker 1: safe space and we just it's where we have the
Speaker 1: most fun as together writing. Yeah, is there. I know, Emily,
Speaker 1: you have a very classical background. How how has that
Speaker 1: come into you know, I know you really see your
Speaker 1: own music. How has that come into writing a musical
Speaker 1: and you know, still making it modern but also giving
Speaker 1: that classical vibe to it. I'm kind of all over
Speaker 1: the place when it comes to genre, Like she's cross genres.
Speaker 1: I do classical, I do film scoring, I do jazz.
Speaker 1: I love that your your genre list. I love that, um,
Speaker 1: And I think what I love most about that is
Speaker 1: that I can pick and you know, take from all
Speaker 1: my different influences and bring it in more it's appropriate.
Speaker 1: But also at the end of the day, I'm nineteen
Speaker 1: years old. I'm like very well aware of the pop
Speaker 1: culture and I love Mac Miller and I listened to
Speaker 1: everything now, so like I have that view while still
Speaker 1: having like this classical jazz like training blah blah blah. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's great. I don't know, I'm eighteen,
Speaker 1: and it's really interesting that I've at least experience I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys have where it's hard to
Speaker 1: be taken seriously at first because it's truly like, so,
Speaker 1: I my dream is to become a film composer. That's
Speaker 1: why I write music for TV media games. UM, and
Speaker 1: I've been really like fortunate to have, you know, I've
Speaker 1: been doing that for the past couple of years. But
Speaker 1: it is so hard because like my age is like
Speaker 1: my big asset but also like one of my biggest downfalls,
Speaker 1: because especially in an industry where there's so much responsibility
Speaker 1: attached to the writing of the music, like you get
Speaker 1: you know, people who look at you only as a risk,
Speaker 1: not as you know, a risk. But I'm really important
Speaker 1: to really yeah, and no one's really willing to take
Speaker 1: risks in the music industry right now because everything's you know,
Speaker 1: so fragile right now, like the touring community, like nothing's happening,
Speaker 1: so like any risk is just a loss of money,
Speaker 1: like that's what labels look at it as. So it
Speaker 1: is really hard to be taken seriously, and I think
Speaker 1: it will always be as a at a certain degree
Speaker 1: because we are very young women trying to make it
Speaker 1: in this business that's very very heavily men. But I
Speaker 1: think at the same time, we're kind of paving a
Speaker 1: road for ourselves right now, and that feels really good,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, I think so. We've gotten obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of messages over the past few days, but
Speaker 1: the most special ones are from the people who are like,
Speaker 1: I lost my passion for theater and music a long
Speaker 1: time ago, but I just bought a keyboard because I'm
Speaker 1: so inspired, And the ones that are like, I've never
Speaker 1: seen two women do this before, How freaking cool is that? Like,
Speaker 1: when I like see those, you know, it makes it
Speaker 1: all worth it. Sleepless nights all the christ I should
Speaker 1: so worth it, absolutely, and also like I feel like
Speaker 1: our generation is so awesome and so cool and I've
Speaker 1: I've experienced, you know, people it's hard to be taken
Speaker 1: as seriously because of my age. Um, but I think
Speaker 1: we bring a fresh perspective to things that where we're optimistic.
Speaker 1: I've noticed in meetings I'll shoot for the stars. I'm like,
Speaker 1: we should do this. Sister like, well, well, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and it's like why not. It's you know that that
Speaker 1: mindset is all you need. Yeah, exactly. Really, when we're
Speaker 1: in New York, we have to meet, Yes, yes, I
Speaker 1: feel like, no, I know, And it's hard. It's hard
Speaker 1: to find women in this industry where we can like
Speaker 1: support each other because there's weirdly a lot of competition.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it feels very competitive all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: like pushes that it's dumb, Like the media pushes it constantly,
Speaker 1: and it's like, why aren't we just raising each other
Speaker 1: up as much as possible, because that is the most
Speaker 1: important thing. Like I I want to see more women
Speaker 1: doing what we're doing, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want someone to look at us and see like
Speaker 1: two women who are you know, are very different but
Speaker 1: are each paving like your way, and you're you know,
Speaker 1: you guys are changing in the best way because frankly,
Speaker 1: we're at a time and it stands still in the
Speaker 1: pandemic where everyone's thinking, Okay, we need to change things,
Speaker 1: and it's an opportunity to where we can now change
Speaker 1: things because people typically exactly, I think I think the
Speaker 1: change is long overdue, especially in sort of like the
Speaker 1: gate keeper way of making musicals and making content like
Speaker 1: we're making like like we said, it's usually very uh
Speaker 1: secretive and in development for years and then you get
Speaker 1: producers involved, and then the producers change all the things
Speaker 1: and then but we're kind of going directly to the
Speaker 1: audience and really the only metric is do they like it?
Speaker 1: You know, so they now have like an invested interest
Speaker 1: in love for the music that you've never been able
Speaker 1: to that before, and like people who are going to
Speaker 1: come see the show if it ever makes it a Broadway,
Speaker 1: let's manifest. Let's manifest. They'll know all the words, they'll
Speaker 1: sing along. Yeah, look, you know I mean that. But like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think years ago, Netflix probably would have sent us
Speaker 1: to cease and desist you know, but because there's so
Speaker 1: many people that you know, there's so many people that
Speaker 1: love the music, and it's probably like in their best
Speaker 1: interest now that like support at least support the idea
Speaker 1: and you know, be accepting of what's happening. It's really
Speaker 1: really fascinating. I mean, you never know what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: but we know that we both have so many more
Speaker 1: musicals and songs in us, and we just like can't
Speaker 1: wait to start writing for everything. I know. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I also think one of the things is like when
Speaker 1: you're pitching people, you guys now have the power in
Speaker 1: the sense of we have the people who want to
Speaker 1: see we have the audience who are still engaged in
Speaker 1: the process. It's not like a a is they have
Speaker 1: to take because you have everything like already, which is
Speaker 1: so it goes to show like just by being authentic
Speaker 1: and being creative, you can honestly do what you want,
Speaker 1: which I don't think a lot of people will realize.
Speaker 1: I don't really know how it happened, but we seem
Speaker 1: to sometimes struck a chord and I'm just like, we're
Speaker 1: just really excited about what could be, you know, the
Speaker 1: possibility even beyond um Britain. We've always talked about since
Speaker 1: we first started writing, how we feel like this is
Speaker 1: kind of a lifelong partnership and we see each other
Speaker 1: working on multiple things together and and I think it
Speaker 1: still rings true. This is just kind of like the
Speaker 1: first thing that that popped off, and so we're just
Speaker 1: excited to make more now. So excited, I know, is
Speaker 1: there Okay, I will say oceans away and burn through you.
Speaker 1: It is like those just hit a little different just
Speaker 1: in the sense of creating the composition for that. How
Speaker 1: do you choose what goes well because there's so many
Speaker 1: different instruments and sounds and vocals. How do you have
Speaker 1: the sense? Is it just like I mean I got
Speaker 1: feeling where part some things should go or do? How
Speaker 1: do you go about creating something? I did it alive
Speaker 1: yesterday where I was just like purely just orchestrating, and
Speaker 1: I mean some of it is like instinct um and
Speaker 1: other is other parts of it. It's just very much um,
Speaker 1: try and fail sort of thing. But I mean I
Speaker 1: have never orchestrated something so quickly. Is I did those
Speaker 1: two songs. I was like, when we finished those songs together,
Speaker 1: it just fell out. When I like finished the arrangement
Speaker 1: in orchestration, it just fell out, like it's been like
Speaker 1: those songs were really easy to do. I think it's
Speaker 1: because they're inspired by the yeah, by the show, and
Speaker 1: like the feeling that was emulated through the actor's performances.
Speaker 1: I think it just sort of happened. And I always
Speaker 1: say I heard on I was watching the Bags documentary
Speaker 1: and I heard Chris Martin say this incredible thing that
Speaker 1: just completely clicked with me, and he's like, songwriters don't
Speaker 1: really write songs, they received songs. And it's so true.
Speaker 1: It's like it's just floating around in the ether and
Speaker 1: you pick the things out of out of thin air,
Speaker 1: and it's like it just happens. Sometimes. That's why I
Speaker 1: feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, like always Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think that's kind of how it happens. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's it's sort of just I I opened
Speaker 1: my mind to allow myself to just write what I'm
Speaker 1: what I'm hearing, what I'm feeling. Yeah, And I like
Speaker 1: I someone asked me on Instagram, like a question answer
Speaker 1: thing that you do in your story is like what
Speaker 1: made you fall in love with music? And I thought
Speaker 1: about it and then I was like, you know that,
Speaker 1: I feel like for me, it's when you're in a song,
Speaker 1: or for me an orchestra or the music swells and
Speaker 1: your heart just like lurches like that feeling. I can't
Speaker 1: like magical, it's magical, and I get those feelings from
Speaker 1: those two songs. So are we starting with an album
Speaker 1: and then seeing what happens with it? I mean, we
Speaker 1: have big dream and uh, we're kind of why not.
Speaker 1: We're being approached from a lot of different directions and
Speaker 1: we are still figuring them out and trying to make
Speaker 1: smart decisions and figure out what direction we want to
Speaker 1: go in and all we want to do with it,
Speaker 1: And like, I can't believe we have all of these
Speaker 1: are at our disposal. It's really crazy. It's like it's great,
Speaker 1: but it must be overwhelming too, because it's a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think we're mostly just really really yeah. I think
Speaker 1: the overwhelming stuff comes when we're overthinking things and when
Speaker 1: we just get back to the music and creating, it
Speaker 1: just feels like made like natural for both of us.
Speaker 1: I mean, so after the first two songs were written
Speaker 1: and we got together and we're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: we're gonna like try to write a musicals, like an
Speaker 1: entire musical, and like a few weeks and we're like
Speaker 1: about how we're going to do this, Like Hamilton took
Speaker 1: six years to develop, what are you doing? And then
Speaker 1: we just started writing and we got a plan and
Speaker 1: we're like and then we got half a musical one week.
Speaker 1: It's been to three weeks, two weeks, two weeks since
Speaker 1: that first TikTok wild. How much you've, like, what over
Speaker 1: half of the musical done? Yeah, like like eleven songs.
Speaker 1: We're kind of thinking twenty for the concept album, like
Speaker 1: twenty um, and we're kind of half through, halfway through
Speaker 1: telling all the big plot points of the story, you know,
Speaker 1: like for a concept album, because it is just a
Speaker 1: concept album, I think it'll be a little different than
Speaker 1: ever it was like a cast recording. It would be
Speaker 1: very different once you you know, take that concept album
Speaker 1: and then turn it into a Broadway show and it's
Speaker 1: going to be obviously many more songs, many more interludes,
Speaker 1: many more reprises, um, because you know, you you have
Speaker 1: to fill in all the dots. Was more like a
Speaker 1: detailed outline, Yeah, exactly. That's a really great way to
Speaker 1: describe that. Oh, for sure, Okay, we have to take
Speaker 1: one more quick break, but when we come back, I
Speaker 1: want to hear how you guys are balancing such a
Speaker 1: creative process with the potential toxicity of social media and
Speaker 1: maybe just maybe you'll play any more music. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back and we're back. Something that I'm curious about
Speaker 1: that I've experienced, and I'm wondering if you have, because
Speaker 1: you're now getting all this you know, notoriety and people
Speaker 1: are reaching out. Have people come back into your life
Speaker 1: that you're like, oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's inevitable. You know. I think I think
Speaker 1: people sort of if you've known them from the past,
Speaker 1: they feel like they have a stake in your success
Speaker 1: or what have you, even if they didn't. Um, And
Speaker 1: so it's just kind of like taking each of those
Speaker 1: outreaches and just being you know, gracious and and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: thank you for reaching out and being supportive. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's all you. And I like from everyone that I've
Speaker 1: experienced reaching out like, it's been more like not congratulatory,
Speaker 1: but more like sharing the law than it can get
Speaker 1: something from you. Yeah, there's been not a lot of that,
Speaker 1: but also at the same time, Like I know, we've
Speaker 1: all been in positions where we ask a favor and
Speaker 1: we feel uncomfortable asking for a favor, and so I
Speaker 1: want to give everyone who asked me for a favor
Speaker 1: in the future or now like that same like benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt, benefit of the doubt, because like, not
Speaker 1: everything helicious or or like self centered. Sometimes it's like
Speaker 1: truly like some people need a boost. And I truly
Speaker 1: think I'm nowhere in a position where I can like
Speaker 1: truly do that yet. But like I know Pass and Paul,
Speaker 1: like they were mentored by Alan Mencken and they were
Speaker 1: given that benefit of the doubt there, and I know
Speaker 1: they want to pass that along to the next whatever,
Speaker 1: so like I can do that. Yeah, Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: mentoring is so underrated and it's so powerful. It's so important.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's so important. Yeah, is there Because
Speaker 1: you're on social media a lot, how are you guys
Speaker 1: finding a somewhat healthy balance with that, because I'm still
Speaker 1: trying to figure that out because I've noticed when I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time on Instagram that anxiety goes up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think before we get into that answer, like the
Speaker 1: bridge in the musical has been so overwhelmingly positive, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think either of us can believe that, how
Speaker 1: like little negativity there has been with it, got it
Speaker 1: um so like it's been a really healthy social media
Speaker 1: experience for both of us. And I know Abigail can
Speaker 1: go off because she has a big social media following,
Speaker 1: and anyone with a huge social media following like is
Speaker 1: going to experience some stupid and dumb hate. But like right,
Speaker 1: I think, like for mental health, it's pretty short, sweet
Speaker 1: and simple on on how I handle it. But I
Speaker 1: think I've always struggled with it. I think it's really
Speaker 1: I have a lot of anxiety around it because I've
Speaker 1: been growing my social media following since i was sixteen.
Speaker 1: Like I was on TikTok before it was TikTok and
Speaker 1: it was musically um also with the hands. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: got it up to that. I mean I never knew
Speaker 1: that I could not. It was a mess. But it's
Speaker 1: become such a phenomenon of a platform, and you know,
Speaker 1: you just have to take a step back and not
Speaker 1: read all the comments. And like when my music wasn't
Speaker 1: doing as well, like I I went to the comments
Speaker 1: for all of the feedback, and when I for the validation,
Speaker 1: and when I didn't receive what I wanted to, it
Speaker 1: just absolutely broke my heart, like broke my spirit, and
Speaker 1: so I just had to take a step back from
Speaker 1: my sanity, you know. And and then that's when the
Speaker 1: magic happened, when I was just open to being creative again,
Speaker 1: because it got there was a point there before Britain
Speaker 1: where I was just like, gosh, and am I going
Speaker 1: to be able to make this happen for myself? And
Speaker 1: then you know, when I stopped worrying so much about it,
Speaker 1: that's all happened place. Yea. I think the industry like
Speaker 1: it's filled with extremely high highs and extremely and I
Speaker 1: think the sooner we learned to come into any situation
Speaker 1: where we're like, you know, if this works out, oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's amazing. If it doesn't work out, well
Speaker 1: that's okay, will be okay, because it's the experience. And
Speaker 1: that's what I always tell people. I didn't when I
Speaker 1: pitched this podcast. It wasn't to like have a podcast.
Speaker 1: It was just for the experience of it. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: now like what you've done it because we need we
Speaker 1: need more of this. You guys are so sweet. Thank
Speaker 1: you now like me. You guys have worked professionally growing up.
Speaker 1: You're both in l A now, But Emily, you've spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time in my hometown, New York, right.
Speaker 1: I missed New York so much. I studied at Juilliar
Speaker 1: NYU for like ten years, so I was in New
Speaker 1: York every month for like ever, and I dream love
Speaker 1: New York. It's like my life. Okay, can we talk
Speaker 1: just for a second about high school and having a
Speaker 1: professional career at the same time. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys feel us, but I feel so much older
Speaker 1: than my age, so dude, I truly have I get
Speaker 1: only Oh my god, I'm getting so flustered. I never
Speaker 1: talked about my career with any of my friends growing up.
Speaker 1: I hated it. Yeah, I didn't talk about it because
Speaker 1: like my issues where I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm playing in the Palace and Meena next week, and
Speaker 1: I'm freaking out because it's a really hard thing, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, if I ruined this, it's gonna like ruin
Speaker 1: my career sort of thing. And then they're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, did you hear what? Space My problems are
Speaker 1: bigger than this, y'all. Nothing and like I get it,
Speaker 1: but it's hard. So I felt like I was just
Speaker 1: it was in this weird New York high school thing
Speaker 1: where it's just like so petty, like I don't I
Speaker 1: was like, I can't know. Yeah, we come. I did school.
Speaker 1: I went to a regular like junior high, and then
Speaker 1: I graduated high school or because I was so done
Speaker 1: with it, so like we get you, girl, I have
Speaker 1: one more semester left. I am so close. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: You know, we want to go to school yet, right,
Speaker 1: So I've gone into five schools so far, which is
Speaker 1: really exciting, so exciting. But I'm also considering taking a
Speaker 1: gap year and going out to LA for just to
Speaker 1: see what I did that. I did that, but then
Speaker 1: I also didn't go to college, so you never know
Speaker 1: what happens. I would do it. Gap years are fun,
Speaker 1: gap bears are fun, and I want to live my
Speaker 1: life because I give it up. Dude, you should do
Speaker 1: I like, especially with how well you're like doing the
Speaker 1: school life right now, I think it would be really beneficial.
Speaker 1: I I did that. I graduated high school to two
Speaker 1: years early. I took a gap year, I went on
Speaker 1: this tour and then I came back in January, and
Speaker 1: I was supposed to go to Berkeley School of Music
Speaker 1: in the fall, and I was like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to spend the next six months in Rockford, Illinois doing nothing.
Speaker 1: So I started spending time in l A and then
Speaker 1: I moved here, and then by the time September rolled around,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not moving so much happening. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to school right now, and so that's here we are.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a gap year can show you exactly what you
Speaker 1: want to do exactly, and that's what I'm thinking of doing.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I'm out there, we shall get lunch.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I know. Also, i've seen before we
Speaker 1: on this podcast. I feel like we should talk about
Speaker 1: just go into a little bit more in the music
Speaker 1: to see if you can play me something from Britain.
Speaker 1: I know we can, of course, you want the intro.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want the intro or if
Speaker 1: I want Oceans Away or Burned. See this is so
Speaker 1: cool because usually it's like you can't listen to anything,
Speaker 1: But I love that I can listen a while. You
Speaker 1: guys are making it right right, Let's do burn for you?
Speaker 1: Would that be? Would you want or playing the second
Speaker 1: half of burn for you that not a lot of
Speaker 1: people have heard. Okay, excited, this is what you want. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is obviously still a work in progress, but you
Speaker 1: got a good idea. They kiss, they kiss. How do
Speaker 1: you feel? I feel wonderful. From the mornings you ease,
Speaker 1: to the evenings you quiet. I'm always thinking of you.
Speaker 1: I'm always streaming of you, from the mornings too late
Speaker 1: to night. It is your like. I'm not sacrifice clean
Speaker 1: my eyes side. I really I bla sall name say
Speaker 1: this one now, I'm gonna be list It's I'm yours, Stefani.
Speaker 1: I've always been yours, and I'm yours. It's so good.
Speaker 1: Thank you, I have we haven't listened to that back
Speaker 1: and I know it's magical. Bridge see my name. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness. Well I think that was a great way
Speaker 1: to end it. Thank you guys so much for coming
Speaker 1: on my podcast. Thank you so much for having us
Speaker 1: so I know you guys. Please check out the tip
Speaker 1: Talk follow like watch live streams. It is truly so
Speaker 1: incredible to watch. It was so great to meet you guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking the time. I followed you on Instagram.
Speaker 1: We must meet. I'm down. I just want to thank
Speaker 1: Abigail and Emily for coming on my podcast. I felt
Speaker 1: like I'd known them for years and I love this
Speaker 1: conversation so much. I hope you liked it. If you
Speaker 1: haven't already subscribed to my podcast, leave a comment because
Speaker 1: I always love to hear your feedback. And follow me
Speaker 1: on Instagram at its Sammy J. That's I T S
Speaker 1: S A M M Y J A y E. And
Speaker 1: also follow Abigail and Emily on all of their socials.
Speaker 1: Follow them on TikTok you can see them create a
Speaker 1: musical in real time. Keep up with the content as
Speaker 1: it's coming out. Follow them on Instagram as well. It's
Speaker 1: Abigail Barlow and Emily's is m L E. Bear. Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. I hope you guys had a great
Speaker 1: day and I hope this episode made it a little better. Bye, guys.
Speaker 1: That's tw