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