 Finally it did and they said how would you guys like to try your hand at writing a song for a Winnie the Pooh movie they want to capture the essence of the Sherman brothers old, you know classic songs and It's gonna be a 2d Movie and we're gonna reboot the franchise right we're gonna do the real watercolor backgrounds and all the stuff And we got so excited because finally it was on spec and it was against other teams Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't exclusive it was we got the gig We got the gig and I had a two-week-old or like I think they asked This was all going down when we were living in the twilight zone with a four-year-old and a two-week-old infant I remember writing that demo like a three in the morning Breastfeeding like we're up anyway. Let's let's just do this But we were just so excited because Finally a real Disney animated movie and everyone's gonna know about so we were telling people. Oh, yeah, we're gonna we had this movie Disney movie. It's gonna be great. You haven't heard of it yet, but you will and and then the the studio leadership changed and the guy that took over said why are we doing in Winnie the Pooh movie because little kids don't go to the movie theaters anymore and You know Over four wouldn't be caught dead doing Winnie the Pooh. That's for babies and blah blah blah So he said we're shelving this movie. We're gonna release it same day as harry potter and they there was like no advertising and all of a sudden we were like, oh People would ask us If we'd had anything come out lately and we'd be like, yeah, we did this Winnie the Pooh movie They'd be like, oh really? When's it coming out? And then so then when frozen They they offered us frozen. We were like, all right fine. It's a disney princess movie probably be nothing but It was a good lesson in not getting your expectations just doing the work for the sake of the work And we got to really spend some great time and learn amazing lessons from the story minds in the in the brain trust at disney and Pixar Which is a pretty extraordinary experience to be a fly on the wall for Because there are some really smart story minds in there. So you had some experience already before they asked you about frozen Yeah, I mean they saw We were chiming in on like tickers arc during Winnie the Pooh And they saw that we that we had there really isn't an arc. You can't give these characters too much of an arc More than just I need honey He's hungry He's hungry and he's gonna get honey at the end of the movie But they saw us try and make it slightly more complicated and and said like oh These guys like to chime in on story and they think a lot about story and music and we do I mean that's that's what we do and in our collaborations with disney Is we're very much involved in the story on a dna level down to what the character wants And how the character speaks and all of that so that Then we can write songs that don't feel Inorganic or just popped in Well in the original script Elsa was a villain, right? That's right And you were going to write a villain song for her, but you wrote let it go instead And they rewrote the whole movie based on that song. Is that true? More or less. I mean that's a simplified version of it as as these things happen in the press But yes at the time we didn't know whether Elsa we were already on the side of like Let's not make Elsa a villain like why make the powerful magical one a villain? And So it was on the fence, but in the In the outline that we had it was called Elsa's badass song And we knew it was going to be the things that we knew were it wasn't going to be your typical disney princess song It was going to probably be more in the singer-songwriter genre type of song like sarah berellis or amy man or tory amus or And we when we started writing it it was actually bobby We were walking through prospect park and bobby was like, you know I just feel like it reminds me of when I was in high school and I worked so hard and I didn't drink and I didn't do drugs and I didn't do anything except study and work really really hard And then I blew one test And I blew that test No, I never blew a test. I just imagine what it would be like He imagined what it would be like If he had blown his test Yeah, I know like yeah But he imagined how terrible it would be because he was trying to be perfect through his whole high school career And that really got us thinking more and more about what does it feel like to be living with that kind of pressure to be perfect? And how many of us have these things? I mean me as a mother I spoke about how hard it is to like the the Expectations for a working mother today are so Impossible to match like what's the why do we have to make quinoa salad like it's just a stupid thing to do But you're supposed to and And you know, they're just so many hoops We're supposed to jump through and so I put that that part of it and bobby put his perfectionists I guess I had a little of the perfectionist high school girl in me too just not as perfection as yale I just got myself to williams and And yeah So, uh, I understand that the vamp was bobby's and the hook was yours. Yes Yes, and you stood up on the bench on prospect park on the table Yeah, I think christen did I don't think I don't remember standing up there myself. Did I in my mind? I like that picture But I think it was just me Yeah, I think I was just sort of fanning her to get the wind going through the hair I mean, you do really stupid things in the creative process. We do stupid things in the creative process I mean you I I if you see me rewriting lines right now in the rehearsal room People think like I'm angry Because I'm acting I'm I have to like act it. I have to get into the character and be like Oh And for Elsa, I was trying to be up on a mountain Feeling like all of my secrets had just come out and everyone had turned on me And that's where where the improv language can start to come out and you can get stuff to grab from It's like playing I want them to put an ice statue of you up Coming up with that song. I think it's a terrific story Tell me about do you want to build a snowman the song was in and then it was out and then it was in again Yeah, um that song we We really loved That song when we first wrote it It was a different form than we then it ended up in the film because the song does so much storytelling and all of the But actually the song itself doesn't really do the storytelling the storytelling is in the The the breaks and montage is between each verse And so the first version of it started at a different point in the movie and ended at a slightly ended at the same point but It just didn't it just didn't have the same feeling when we saw it all together And there was no I want song in that draft So everyone said look cut that song you need an I want song and we ended up writing the for the first time in forever song and Once we saw it with that the film worked, but everybody missed the snowman song And we saw an opportunity to kind of Uh rally for for that to come back in and in fact Even like rank and file disney people would write emails Saying oh what happened to the snowman song we liked that and they actually It's the first time that they said that was the first time that it ever happened at disney that people had written Requesting a song back in they usually write in saying please cut that um The one thing that's fun a fun fact about that song is our daughter sings it Sings the first verse and so that's I it's always a warm thing for me And that it was all inspired by we were talking about talking and talking about the girl's backstory And one of the uh, his name is paul Briggs Briggs our head of story was just doodling and he doodled this picture of these two girls behind a door And I think it was one of them Yeah, I remember he was like he was writing and all we could hear over the over the telecon for the video conference was Squeak squeak squeak of his marker and we're like, what's paul doing? What's happening over there? I just showed us this picture of a door and two kids on either side and we're like now that's the song Yeah, that that is what our song is that that is their backstory is That thing that the older sister does the younger sister and we know it in our own life of slamming the door You can't play with me It happens every day Were there any songs from frozen that were that you like that were cut from Yeah, yeah, they're relaxed. Yeah, um, we're gonna show some at d23 in august We're doing a whole panel on the cut songs that came before the songs that stayed in the movie There's a song that no one has seen except for A few people um called cool with me back when when elsa was a villain And it was sort of um the kind of older sister song of like stop hitting yourself stop hitting yourself stop hitting yourself It was like an older sister. Stop freezing yourself. Yeah, it was freezing yourself. Um, but it it also had that sort of, uh Cerebralacy kind of feel that was a fun one Writing songs for something like frozen is a tough assignment. What's the difference between writing songs for musicals than writing songs for any other genre? you mean um What's the difference between a theater song and a theater song and a pop song or oh, yeah, um Well, I I wouldn't know because I can't write a pop song every time I try to write a pop song Somebody in the pop world says that's really broad way Um, and I can't grasp the difference. I can't quite I personally have a hard time Because they they have the same form, you know, it's like verse chorus bridge All that stuff, but I think I think the relationship of words and music is it's just vastly different They think of melody in different terms They think of the function of lyrics in different terms and of course we all know and love pop songs But but my brain doesn't have the the necessary equipment to write one when we turn let it go When demi lavato was doing let it go as a cover We were told by the pop producer That we had too much melodic material and that we had to take out some some of the melody Which is how we ended up with the bridge that's like standing frozen in the life of chosen You won't find me the past is all behind me It's like dunna dunna dunna. He was like gives that you're a break from your melodies Yeah, he was like there's just too much melodic information Which is a totally different way Of thinking about it. You know, he he diagrammed it for us. He was like, okay first you start with Okay, I got that and then you go on this other thing Okay, then you have the chorus And then you have another thing Um, but if you listen to Taylor Swift, which we have been doing a lot She she has this ability to have like these simple rhythmic things like shake it off. Shake it off. Oh, oh Shake it off. Shake it. I mean that and playa's gonna play like they're two components And she mixes them up in really interesting ways and they're and it's produced beautifully But they are like these little things that stick in your brain um and I just remember I just remembered one asking the disney executive like when he said think about a pop version of let it go I was like, okay, all right. Um pop songs have uh, like guitar solos anymore like And I was like, oh, I could probably find that out by just like listening to So bobby you wrote avenue q book of mormon winnie the pooh and frozen how on earth do you switch hats like that? Oh, yeah, I've been wanting to to um create a medley like a x rated g rated medley But no, I don't know it for me, I guess I think all this stuff exists, you know in everybody's head every adult's head, you know We've all been kids. We've all and we've all grown up and um Well knowing the original title to let it go now it explains a lot to me. Um Fuck it Tell us tell us about the you'll cut that bit, right? I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm you too. Just close your ears. Okay Tell us about uh, tell us about the show in la joya Um, it's called up here and I I have to say this is a brainchild of bobby's from Back in his bmi days actually this is it was something that he's always been thinking about and he pitched when we were dating Um, he would pitch me and and he was gonna he was reaching out to like Pula surprise book writers and I was helping him write the letters to it Uh, and then I was starting to shape it in those letters to to like tony kushner Um, and he was like, maybe you should write this with me. Um, and and I was like, yes, okay I will. Um, so you should tell because it's his brainchild. Yeah. Yeah. Um The idea was I mean, I always called it the consciousness musical because I wanted to write a musical about consciousness and more specifically my consciousness because I'm I'm sort of a Very I could have more withdrawn Guy and like christen said it takes a while to get to know me and I'm shy and I I'm often in my own way and get a little social anxiety and don't don't mix quite as quickly with people even though I'm likable and I'm nice and Anyway, so, uh, so I always wanted to and I always felt like I've got a lot going on that doesn't show To to anyone else when I'm interacting with them. I've got a lot of I've got like a musical in my head I've got a I've got a you know a whole Weird symphony of mixing styles and all that stuff and I also was fascinated by the idea that we can't ever fully Grasp what what's in someone else's head? You can't you can't ever really get out of this universe that's in your own head And when christin brought up the idea of well, why don't we put to take this guy and put him in a relationship? To bring out to really fire up the story and that totally made sense. So really it's a love triangle story between Guy a woman and his own head And and the the fact that it's a guy who has this incredible inner universe and he His arc is to learn how to have this inner universe and still be able to Communicate and have faith and communication in this outer universe And along the way we go to some pretty crazy kaleidoscopic places because we're bringing to life the the critical and the joyful and the sexual and the memories and the things that we love and the things that we hate and all of the things that that Even when you go to make the phone call after you've met the girl that you love And you you're just thinking about do I call her do I have the courage? What do I say it's such a small thing on the outside and it's such an epic battle on the inside so We have an epic battle happening then and that's kind of the And when people would when people would read our first draft they'd say oh, it's very cute It's a little a little musical like a chamber musical right and we're like did you read the stage directions though? Because because the life of the mind like the world of the brain is is enormous. It's infinite and The the key ingredient to us was that the show Feel big it would be a big show about a small story and and that was a hard sell to producers because It's very hard to take that visual jump excuse me And and imagine what that would be like in a theater and what's very cool is that la joya playhouse Committed to this to this kind of rather elaborate Production headed by alex timbers who has brought his visual um palette to the to the production and embellished it even more And we're right in the middle really of of figuring out this is the first time we've ever seen things like The beautiful dancing cactuses brought to life So and these levels and what is what is it like when you lock up those two characters in a cage and they are hanging over a love scene? Um, we're we're just seeing what are what we've got right now And which is thrilling and terrifying and we're so lucky to have this developmental step because there's no There are other projects where you can like my acapella project You can do with six chairs in a in a studio and know kind of what you're getting In this case, we really didn't know the full story until we realized it visually um, and the other fun and rather Interesting thing about this show is that when we were when we went to brainstorm about it We wrote in a big on a big sheet of paper and the b-plot is about a rock And and it's the kind of thing that you were like you would normally look at and be like, I don't know what I meant by that but um in this case we did and we so we also tell simultaneously the story of a non-conscious being and um So that we can make that juxtaposition from the big bang through the formation of the sun and um and the continents colliding and I don't want to tell too much I don't want to give it away, but it's about the what happens when these two collide a little bit. Um, so it's not your typical romantic comedy So you start previews when July 28 All it all goes well. Yes. Um, okay. Well, do you have any advice to songwriters out there starting out? Our biggest uh advice is to join join bmi workshop join bmi if you want to not only Learn the craft, but you also get a community you find your tribe in new york um It's certainly what I had my sister My one sister do and I think i'm gonna have my other sister do it when she moves to new york And anyone anyone who is creative and loves musical storytelling. It's just it's the best Free resource in the city. It's it changed my life completely I would not I would be who knows what I'd be I'd be working with schizophrenic patients at the bronx va hospital Which is what I was doing when I joined the bronx my old job So any questions Yeah That's Great question. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean for me Matt stone tray parker were my comedy heroes after graduating college. I mean that was the They were they were definitely it for me and and um, you know like um tf a Amy polar for me. Um, absolutely fabulous Uh Christopher guest Oh, yeah, although like the way for guffman. Um, all of that stuff What else? Bobby loves mystery science 3000. Yeah, mr. Science theater 3000. Yeah, I just met Joel. I'm I'm just freaking out I love it too. It's just I just can't get her to watch it with Every night I fall asleep. I fall asleep. Um Yeah anybody else? Yeah Which song It all starts with fucking right Sorry Get it again. I wish they were more in my line of sight. So I'm not do that. Sorry. You're trying to give her the message or You know, I think it's online. I think you can find it. Um, I uh, they did it for that bmi song book Um special and it was sung by oh, who was it? Lauren Kennedy. Yeah. Yeah If you've put Lauren Kennedy I think it's called the pregnancy song Because it was written for a cabaret that a lot of when actresses are pregnant. They have to leave their Broadway shows Um, so it's a great and then they can do cabarets and stuff So we wrote it for pregnant actresses when they have to go out of their shows because the costumes don't fit Yeah, they call themselves the hot mamas. Yeah The pregnancy song Yeah For disney. Yeah, it's their um, their uh They have a different deal than almost any other studio the animated the animated side of disney. Yeah I don't know. I mean, it's uh, it's we're so bad at this stuff. We're not really very smart about it But the the thing the thing the thing about it is I think it all came from when you wish upon a star They took that song. I think it was pre-existing or they they had it written for Pinocchio and um And they split the publishing with the writer and in in the normal way and it's a dis I mean It is it is the disney song. It's totally related to disney and they realized that um They should not um, they should control the publishing because they have a different relationship to Sorry, I'm arguing their case. I shouldn't but yeah, no I mean Other people who have done work for them and the contract it's been a work for hire Yeah, that's what movies are. I mean you guys know you've worked for disney, right you two. Um, it's like that, right? Yeah, let's work for hire Yeah Yeah, your music publishing you get your bmi your mechanical royalties. Um, and you try and maximize that honestly There's a little box in my head where I take all of that stuff and I and I put it and I And I file it away like I know it and I just don't want to know it because it it has Nothing to do with the creative process And it can really get in the way sometimes if you start thinking about things like that So I I do really it's it's completely blocked It's a chicken and egg kind of scenario you write to um to a story that you've all agreed on And then that song is storyboarded um And then quite often you rewrite um based on what you see very often you chuck the whole thing But with the case are you talking about do you want to build a snowman? Yeah, that one in particular, um That was a that was a very special case because we always knew That it was going to be a film montage as well as a song and we'd never written the music for a film montage before So we just sketched in dummy stuff for for a for a very long time until the end and you know, actually we We got to know chris beck the guy who wrote the the film score and that we thought oh my gosh this would be a wonderful collaboration between his skills and our skills and um and he he took a pass at those At those um middle sections and we just loved what he did another fun fact is that bobby and chris beck were in the same acapella group at Yale just different times They never overlapped, but they both came from the same world of men hanging out and singing Todd has been waiting um well So moved to new york I I mean One is just keep writing you keep writing and listen to what find out what you love and write from that place um again, we're we're right in the middle of a A high pressure project and our one true north is for us is to Write the show we want to see and when we get lost when we get a lot of voices and notes Sorry It's it's very important for us to know our aesthetic and and what we love and how we love stories being told You know, I watch bobby Bobby loves to immerse himself in the things that he loves As do I um, they're very different, but bobby bobby will watch like waiting for guffman Over and over and over and over again Um self soothing it is a little self soothing. Um, I guess it's better than like sucking his thumb, but That was the g version by the way But I I think knowing what you love and knowing how to craft what you love I you know, I just I just saw fun home and I wrote a note to I want to go back and see fun home again and again and again because it is something That it brought up that ache in me that was like I want to do something like that And I want to know how to do something like that and I want to know How every choice led to this beautiful feeling that I had while watching it. So I think I think that's a huge Um, and then resilience just resilience Like don't don't let the voices in your head saying like you don't know what you're doing Speak too loud. Make sure you got you surround yourself with those other voices that are like This is beautiful magical stuff. You're putting in the world Yeah in musicals Um, well, I mean lyrics It's so one of the things that I always pay attention to is that in lyrics You're going to hear them once if any audience member or moviegoer is going to hear the lyrics once So you don't want to be putting The exposition that's like at seven o'clock the car is going to come by and when the car comes by if it has a yellow flag Then you're you can go like you that does not belong in a lyric because it'll it could wash over You and then you won't know that's book material stuff. But um, the lyrics Yeah, you want to tell the story especially on stage on stage What you're watching is not really a series of events happening You're watching a character go through an emotional crucible and every part of the story Especially the musical parts have to be um An emotional turn so every every song needs to take a character or characters from one place to another And um, the both the music and the lyrics need to be taking you on that journey with that character That's the most important That's the fundamental thing that they need to do and I think that there is yeah There's the clarity thing you can overdo the clarity thing too because think of some of your favorite songs You didn't understand all the lyrics the first time and yet you wanted to sometimes they leave little Little um, pebbles of mystery of like, what was that word? What was that line? I want to go back and read that Yeah, that's a gelical cat. They kept asking it, but they didn't answer Thanks, all right. I appreciate that. Well, thank you. I played kanga. Is that the one in la? Oh, yeah, cool In our very limited experience The the pool they're gonna pull from tend to be those people that they've that are already on their radar um, so They might have a couple of different teams Try and compete for a job But they will be teams that have already kind of Gotten noticed in some way um, so I think the best in terms of like how to get yourself in that pool um, it's Right to show and get it produced and get it out there in the world or You know for us our we our first jobs were for theater works usa Both of us had our our first job for theater works like writing for a young audience It's always a great stepping stone to learn Um, what it's like to have to tell a story in 50 minutes with song It's practical experience getting getting the experience of what it's like to realize Oh, that song didn't work got to rewrite it now Got none of your arguments can can um trump that the thing didn't work Unfortunately, we have run out of time and I'm very sad because this hour has just flown by So thank you all for coming and a big hand for bobby and christian Anderson Lopez