Brian and Zoe discuss strategies to keep the fire going when their day job pulls them away from writing music. From finding time to write to creating a process to facilitate writing in their daily lives and, of course, taking care of themselves, they share their struggle and their successes.

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Welcome to Making a musical a writer's journey from blank page to Broadway. Well, hopefully we'll see what happens. But we're a day closer, I guess, Zoe, we are anyway. I'm your host, Brian Strohmetz, and I'm here with the wonderful Zoe de York, and we're back episode three. Are you excited

we are on episode three. I am excited. I'm I, I'm very excited to speak about what we're speaking today, because I have none of it. It being time which, which you've mentioned as well, because you're back on full school. Yep. So welcome everybody to our time machine episode.

Yeah. Here we go.

Hey, Brian. Before we start, I wanted to, you know, check in with you. You, you're back in school, your your kids know what show you're doing today, this this year,

yep, yep. They do. They do. And I'm happy to report they're excited. We're doing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

So I've got to ask you one question, of course, doing that when you just started a podcast with a Belgian person. Did you do that just for me?

Of course, of course, just I needed to summon the Belgianness. Yes.

Well, I mean, yeah, it's not. We know the Chocolate Factory is not in Belgium people, but we do have really good chocolate here.

You do. You brought me some one time and Oh, eat your heart out. Hershey, I know we're excited. It's a it's a fun score, if you haven't listened to it, Mark Shaiman, Scott Whitman, plus the songs from the film, The Gene Wilder film. So yeah, I'm excited.

That's really cool. Yeah, yeah. On my side, I just wanted to take just a minute with you, because when we'll air this episode, all of this will be behind me, and it'll be done for some time. But as we record, I just got out of tech for my show. Knocked yesterday, and so I don't know. I'll put it to you. I don't know if I need to be worried. Tech went really well. Every tech I've ever been to has been a nightmare and a disaster. And this one was long, yeah, but we, we got done about 80% of the things that we needed to get done, which has never happened. I don't understand.

I would call that a success. It just means you're more efficient knowing what you're doing, especially because you're working with an amateur group. You went in with a plan, you improved. You know, you got in, you got out, I would say that's efficient. Good. Okay. I mean, I look at, you know, doing the shows at school. I, you know, didn't know what I was doing the first couple years, but as years have gone on, we've, you know, first of all, I surrounded myself with people who didn't know what they're doing and are very good at what they do. So if you're listening, thank you. You know who you are. But also, we've just gotten more efficient and learned where our boundaries are, and learned how to work around them, right? So that's a that's another huge part of it. So I wouldn't look at it as an omen. I would look at as a win.

Okay, okay, I'll take it. I need that. Yeah?

Because, because, I mean, if you think about it, when you did knocked a year ago, you wouldn't, you were in a totally different head space thinking about, I mean, I remember we talked about it. You were learning how to use all this equipment. You were learning of what you want. Now it's okay, you understand the fundamentals and you can execute a basic level. But I bet you, you've added some stuff now that you're like, ooh, now I know how to do this. Well, yeah, exactly now, oh, I want this. How do I do this? Not just, how do I press file, say, file, close, file, exit. You know,

yes, it's pretty much that. I mean, yeah. I, last year I basically launched sound cues, and this year I created all of the cues. And we just, what we did yesterday was mostly lightning and lightning, interesting lighting. So, yeah, so we did, we did all of the we got all of the light cues in Qlab, so that I'm actually going to control the sound and light, which is going to be slightly more stressful than last year, just because actually the group has gotten smaller in terms of tech. And so there's only two people in the tech booth. I've got Steve doing the sound next to me, who's amazing. And yes, shout out to Steve O'Byrne, and he's doing the sound for us. He's amazing at the sound, and he's he's a really, he's a the person you want next to you when you're in the midst of, like, messing up a show or not messing up a show and rocking it, but in both situations. So I've got Steve next to me, and then there's me. And last year we had Finola Southgate, who was one of the other co writer who was next to me and doing the lights, and this year, it's just she's not here. She's just moved on to greener pastures. So, yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine. But I did. I did get out of tech and think, oh no,

oh crap. This was too easy.

I say this, one of our lead is sick, and we're not 100% sure they'll be, they'll be, you know, right as rain, when we open. I we, I mean, I hope they will, because, yeah, they sing. They sing all my songs.

Do you have an understudy?

Nope.

Do you have a plan?

Nope.

All right, it's my favorite thing,

the magic of theater. The magic of theater, exactly. I've been thinking of you saying, like, you've said this to me a few times already, and it's like, oh, that's the magic of theater. And every time something happens, I'm like, yes, the magic of like theater,

it's a gift and a curse. It depends on what kind of magic we're looking at. Yep.

So yeah, look, we're three days away from dress, four days away from opening. It'll be funny, kill us something, something will happen, and it'll be

great. And at the end of the day, it'll start and it'll end. Yes, time marches on.

Time marches on. Indeed, speaking of time indeed, you texted me and you said, I've had a really hard time with keeping up writing. With school starting and all of this happening, you have a lot on and you're finding it difficult to write or find time to write. You want to speak about that a little bit?

Yeah, it's a little bit of both. So this year, this year, I've kind of felt a little more reinvigorated about my teaching job, not that I haven't been invested. So if I have any students listening, don't worry. I've been invested.

No, you've been plenty invested, but you've also been working a lot and trying to build this new writing gig and composition and arrangement and all of that, the side, the side, stuff that you've been doing that you'd like for it to take more, more of a space. So it's not, it's not that you're not invested in in teaching. It's that you're doing a lot of everything. And here that side you've kind of figured out so you're coming back to teaching, is that,

yeah, pretty much, yeah, I'm kind of reinvesting in restructuring the way I do a lot of things, and so I've been spending a lot of time prepping that, thinking through that, and also I've been trying to do a better job of taking care of myself, just as a human being, something that I'm not good at. Yeah, I've been working on a making a concerted effort to do that. So it's, it's challenging, because essentially, it's, I have two or three full time jobs that I have going at any point, whether I'm actually employed for them or not. Technically, you know. So this year, I don't know, I've just been really struggling with finding the time to write or the motivation to write at times too. Like I have, I have about four or five Sibelius files, and they're, these are arrangements. These aren't even originals, just arrangements that I want to get out there into the world. Because A, I want to do them, and B, I think people would like them, yeah. And their files that are sitting there, and they have, you know, Oh, I did 10 bars at a time, and then it's like, oh. And then it just sits there for six months. I mean, I have, I've been working on no good deed for wick from Wicked for how long? Zoe, if I've been talking about this a long, a long time.

I mean, no, come on you. You start in the summer, somewhere in the summer somewhere.

I think I might have started it earlier, to be honest with you.

No, we don't accept this.

Okay, I honestly don't remember it's been sitting on my

desk. But yeah, I know, I know we've talked about this, because obviously wicked for good is coming out, yeah, the end of November, isn't it?

Yeah? Look, look for our wicked special, yeah.

Well, please, please do, because that's gonna happen. Yeah, okay, not to turn this into a cheap therapy session.

Obviously. No, please do. I'm a public school teacher in America, and I teach music, so you know, I'll take the cheap way I can get it.

Do we keep this in? I don't know. We'll see. So there's several, there's several things I have to say about this, and obviously I have questions. But do you know the 15 minutes method? No, I don't. I don't remember who said this? I heard this on a podcast, because I listened to podcasts, surprisingly, and someone was saying, How are you, you know, keeping up writing when you have a full time job on the side. And they were saying, I write for 15 minutes every every day, whether, whether I'm tired, whether I'm you know, I have a full day, I write for 15 minutes every day. Now, the rule being you write for 15 minutes and you stop after 15 minutes, you try not to go beyond basically, you're just setting up a habit of writing every day and giving you that 15 minutes is easy, because you can find 15 minutes in a day, yeah, and, and even if it's before you go to bed, you can, you can, you know, linger Just a little bit longer. The big thing about not going beyond the 15 minutes is, obviously, if you start going beyond you might, you might end up writing for two hours and say you're doing that before bed. You're now in bed at, you know, the wee hours of the morning. And therefore you're jeopardizing your next day. And if you're jeopardizing your next day of work, you're also jeopardizing your next day of writing. So the idea is, you know, you keep you keep the writing session small. And I subscribed to that method for quite a long time when I had a very, very busy day job and I was still trying to write a musical, I find it good to. To keep the habit up when you don't do it. And then I lost like, like you did. I lost motivation. I guess there are methods. And you know, this is we were talking to Brett balls in our last episode, which was really fun. And one of the things that he said is, at Berkeley, he did, he they do these sense, bound writing exercises. And so that's one of the main, main things that you do when you start Brett's program as a songwriter student. And you know, finding the smallest step possible to take every day, or nearly every day, is something I find super useful. I don't know if you've tried that,

I go through phases, phases. Well, I do it, and then I don't, you know, and I so one of the things I've been working on to talk about taking care of myself and all that is kind of my self talk. You know, how we talk to ourselves and all that. And it's something I've been working on in therapy. And so one thing I found difficult this year, or like the the voice that I'm fighting. I should say, you know, if you know the show, title of show, the vampire inside your head for the so from the song, die. Vampire die. If you don't know it from title of show, go give it a listen. It's great. This time last year, I was in hyper writing mode all the time because I was in the middle of Holiday Homecoming. So we had the show, rewriting songs. I was knee deep in orchestration at this point, like I was taking days off of work to get this casting. Oh, yeah, we were casting at this point. I was, you know, helping, doing social media promotion, like I was literally writing and rewriting songs, orchestrating them, because I had a deadline to get them out to the band, all sorts of stuff. So part of me is like, Oh, my God, I'm nowhere near that productive. Because there was, there was part of me, when all that was done, I was like, I have to keep this pace up, because I got a good pace and momentum going. And of course, that goes away. And I know realistically, it comes in waves and phases. Realistically, yeah, we're it's getting back on the bike, okay, kind of like, Have I been failing myself, or did I just do an insane sprint and I needed eight months off?

I'm going to say that that's probably more of it. Part of the reason we have the podcast on now is because we had a very similar journey. I was, I was not only staging knocked, I we were writing knocked last year, and so up until, really this moment, we were writing, rewriting. I think we did the last script change. We delivered the last, the final script to the performers a month before the show. So, yeah, I understand that. I so here's the thing, here's what Dr Zoe would say. This is

terrible. I'm on your couch. Go ahead, yeah, analyze away.

Your chair is too squeaky to be my couch. I do there's something I've been thinking is having having a framework, and certainly having a deadline is something that you can't escape. And so you had holiday oncoming, I was working on knocked. And therefore we both sort of stopped sleeping for two months, and, you know, plowed through the day going on excitement and caffeine, nothing illegal people, so that there is that, and that's and that's not a sustainable way of living your life. But also, we had something to work towards. And I've had this conversation with several people who've worked in musical theater or written musical theater pieces, if you have an outlet, if you have like we had booked the theater, if we didn't put the show on, we were losing money. We had paid for the theater. If we didn't sell tickets, we would have we would have lost money. So we so glad, glad we did

knock on wood. No pun intended.

Yes, you should intend all of your puns, you coward. We had that and you and you had your Holiday Homecoming dates. You know, you knew the run was going to happen, and you knew you needed your performance to be ready, but you also needed your music to be ready. Now, not having that is, is what is keeping it in a distance so you so when you work on an arrangement, you know you want to put it out a certain date, if it's too far away in in the future, I wouldn't look at it like I've, yeah, I've, I've shown up for workshops that I'm supposed to lead, and having prepared them the day or the two days before, I'm giving them, even though I know that's it's happening. I've booked the gig for maybe two months. There's no impetus for me to do it before the last minute, which is a problem, probably, but we're not going into this. And if my niece is ever listening to this, this isn't true. I do everything on time, and you should never wait until Sunday night to do your homework. Okay, good.

Sunday. Nah, I was going for Monday morning, but

neither is great. No, no, it's there is something of and I think there's maybe something of working in a creative space that you need that light at the end of the tunnel. You need to know that this is happening to truly throw. Yourself into it, and I think you and I are in the same position today is that we don't have, we don't have a show happening. We like, I haven't booked another theater. Yes, I have for knocked but not for another project. And so I've had this other show on, on the, you know, on my on my bedside table, that I've been trying to write, and that I'm working with a really great book writer on but I've not made headway because there's been other stuff, but also because I think we don't, we've, we've not set something solid, and I and I think in a way, maybe it's a table read, maybe it's a workshop, maybe it's something, but setting something, some kind of deadline, is super beneficial. Now, having said that, that means that you'd be either you'd you'd either have a producer with you, which we don't yet, really. I mean, you know, we need to build that up. So right now, all of the shows that I've put on have been self produced, which means self funded, self everything. Right now, I'm not the only one self funding them. There's always a team. So it's not like I'm not throwing money out the window, right? But it also means you have to do everything. You just, you don't just have to be doing to be writing the show and getting getting a show ready. You're you have to do everything. And I think, in a way, this is where the networks comes in, which, which is something Brett was talking about, having a network being where the people are, having people hold you accountable is probably a good way of making sure that you keep you keep it up. If you can't have an end date, because we can't always afford that, that's fine, but having a network and having people hold you accountable. Now I don't, I, you know, I don't have the answer, but this is something that I've had in my head for, not just for music, for other stuff, but like, have a regular meeting that happens, say, every fortnight or every month. Yeah, and just check in with someone who's doing pretty much what you're doing or similar. Yeah.

I mean, it's that human connection. I mean, I've heard of people who, you know, working from home. They just have a set group of people. They don't even necessarily work together, where they just all hop on a zoom, yeah, just so they all know that they're all working, yeah. Well, then yeah, it makes a difference.

It does. So there is that. But that's, yeah, I don't know. It's look, it's Writing is hard too, because you need, you need some brain space if, if your brain is filled with other stuff, just writing isn't going to happen. Because you need, you need the brain space to be creative. You need the being bored enough so that you, you start inventing things.

Yeah, well, it's just, it's the showing up thing. I know Jerry Seinfeld's talked about that. A bunch of you just got to show up and do stuff, which that's the 15 minute rule. Yeah, I'm hoping, now that, you know, we're well into the school year, now that I can now kind of establish new routines with school stuff now, so now it's trying to fit in the writing and make space for that. But I mean, will you be my accountabilities buddies? Of

course, we should use this as our accountability instrument.

Yeah, will you be our accountability buddies? Audience, thank you, yay. We appreciate it. But, but also for me too, like, I'm thinking ahead of like, you know, we're, I don't know if you want to talk about this on the pot, but we're gonna see each other in November, yes, and we're gonna see each other in November, and then I'm gonna meet up with Jess to write in the same room for the first time in a year, in that same time period as well. And part of me is just like, I'll just wait till then. That'll be the kickoff. But I'm like, but is it like the gym where, okay, Tomorrow's the day, and then you never go to the gym? Yes, whereas it's like you just got to start grinding away at it. And I feel like it's a little bit of both, because I feel like it's going to be invigorating to, like, be in person with you guys, but

Oh, for sure, 100% Yeah, I I've been, I've been taking voice lessons, which is been really good for me, because it's pushing me to do stuff that I don't really do, and it's what I wanted to kind of grow into my writing as well. And I've been learning new techniques to sing. I've been learning I've also been building confidence. And I was talking to my to my singing teacher this week, and she was telling me, every time we have a lesson, I have your songs stuck in my head for the rest of the day. And I'm like, You know what? That's good? I want that. You know, pop songs stuck in your head, good? And she was asking me, do you like, do they stay in your head as well. I'm like, my answer to that is, yes, they're always in my head. I've written them so that, you know, that's where it starts. But also I feel so this is, this is where the gym image comes, comes in handy. I feel like and especially for music, when I'm talking about music more than lyrics, because different skills. I feel that if I open that tap and I say I'm going to take my guitar and noodle for 15 minutes, something might come, something might not come. I also tend to do that in long meetings when I'm not on camera and I don't have to speak like I will have an instrument in my hand and I will start noodling, and sometimes something will come out of it. And sometimes nothing will come out of it. But it's just exercising the must the music muscle. And I find that really, really useful. I'm not saying that it will work for everybody. Well,

I've done similar things that, yeah, can help me, like, like, like, again, being a high school choir teacher there, you know, I sit at a piano between periods, and I think I haven't been doing that as much this year. Oh, I'm busy. So I'm wondering if that's part of it too.

Do that more, because I know I remember this from last year and the year previous. You say a piano, and then you would come up on one of our songwriting classes and you would say, Oh, I've just written this. I've just been noodling around with this. And my point about this isn't, it's just just like, not just exercising the muscles, everything that you like or that you think might be interesting, you save, and at some point, you're looking for a piece of music to come in between two song lyrics, or you're looking for your next song, or you're getting a you know, lyrics from Jess Yeah, and you're like, Oh no, hold on, I have the perfect piece of music for this. Yeah. And so I think noodling is a is a really big part of it. And, yeah, why do you not noodle in between periods?

Some of it's been just the way my schedule is for school this year. So like and like, I'm, I'm also, again, working on my piano skills. I'm not a great piano player. So there are certain songs also that I'm doing that I want to be able to, at least in rehearsal, accompany the choir some with too. So I'm also just now practicing that at the limited time I get at the piano. And then I have my first choir class, and then I have a special education class, and then the next class starts, and then and then I teach band lessons, and then I and then I have another choir class, and then I teach more band lessons, and then it's band class, and my day is over.

So you basically have no time in between periods.

Exactly like I just everything's piling on top of each other.

So maybe what we what we do when we look at this again, you know, being Dr Zoe here for a second, what we do when we look at this is not beat ourselves over the head with I'm not doing as much as I was doing last year, but recognizing that the space you need to find this year is maybe harder to find than it was last year.

Yeah, because it's there sometimes because I I did it. The other day, I was noodling with stuff, which was nice. It felt it felt good.

Okay, you know this, and our audience don't need to know this, but I've been editing the they do need to know this, so you know this, and our audience doesn't, but I've been editing the episode that we we released a few weeks ago with Brett. He says in it is that there's a moment where he was hired to do a show, to write a show, and he was writing all the time. He was writing when the kids were in bed. He was writing in between period, the same, the same that you said he was, he was, you know, staying up and writing and writing and writing and writing. And I think there's the compulsion to write that I don't know how you feel about because I know, I know myself, I can go maybe a couple of weeks without really touching a guitar more than just, you know, noodling some something, or practicing a song I like, but nothing, not writing anything. And then there's a moment where I'm just gonna write straight for a week and not stop and barely get any sleep, because that's how my brain works, is if I'm doing something that I like, I will not eat, not sleep, just do the thing. Yeah, and in that, it's a compulsion, but it's also it comes in waves. So do you do you relate to that at all?

I do. I definitely, really in the comes in waves. Part because I think it's a little bit again, also, as I this is a lot of this too, is also me just trying to take better care of myself. So I'm trying to be aware, as you should, yeah, like, Okay, I need to just stop and watch TV now. Like it's I'm done for the day. I can't, like, push myself anymore. I definitely think, like, summers are more productive and freeing for me, because I there are some days and times where I just go my brain is tired of music, because that's all you do. So if I'm, if I'm, let's, let's take my most full swing, which will be in the middle of theater season, right? I will teach music. Let's just take rehearsal time. I'm going to take so I've this year will be three rehearsals. It used to be four. They cut one of my classes. That's a whole other conversation. But whatever, I'm gonna round up those 43 minute things to an hour to say it's an hour, right? So three hours of rehearsal during built into my school days, part of my day job. Then we'll put in theater, music rehearsal, you know, or blocking rehearsal, whatever it is. And that's a good the bulk of the season, it's two hours. As it gets towards the end, it's three to four or more, but we'll stick with two.

So we're already at now five hours of rehearsal, and then depending five hours of music and five hours of paying really close attention to music.

And then on top of that, depending on what I have, either gig or ensemble wise, you know, Monday nights I orchestra rehearsals there. An hour away. And those are two to two and a half hour rehearsals. Tuesdays. I have an hour and a half music rehearsal for their for ensembles that I play with. So it's, it's and then that's not talking about, you know, I help. I teach a cohort for Brett's class. I teach private lessons on top of that, once a week, you know, I it's almost like my brain can only handle so much. It feels almost like a hamster wheel, something.

I know what you mean, and it's

not in a bad way. And I'm not complaining. This is, this is the life I chose, the life I want.

Brian, Brian, finding the balance. You're allowed to complain about stuff.

I don't want to seem ungrateful.

No, you, you never seem ungrateful. Come on. I think this is part of this. This issue that we're discussing is we're essentially trying to do multiple jobs at one you and I, both of us, and any, anyone who's writing music with a goal of producing that music in some form, whatever the form it is, for for people to hear, say, live or on a recording somewhere, and that's you have a day job that pays your bill, that makes sure that when you get home, your cat has been fed, and on top of that, you're trying to make something else happen. And it's not just a hobby. It's become more than a hobby. And I can relate to that in the same way that I'm now trying to, you know, I'm trying to put a show on next week, and I know that when this show is done, I'm moving on to the next so it's keeping, keeping the fire going when you when life is throwing, you know, buckets of water at you, because you need, you need to pay your bills essentially, and you need to make a living, and you need to be a functioning human in A in society. You know, I'm not saying it's impossible, and many, many people have done it before we even tried, yeah, but it is, you know, you need to recognize that it's, it's not going to the gym and exercising at the end of the day, and maybe, and maybe, so now I'm speaking to you as much as myself. Maybe it needs to be just that maybe it doesn't need to have everything else attached, as in, like, I need to get this no good deed arrangement ready for late November when wicket comes out, because it's going to sell. Because I also know myself that your arrangements are always spot on. And therefore, if you, if you put it out a month after the movie comes out, it will still sell because it's good. So maybe, maybe part of the journey that we are on, and I'm not saying that I have the answers, but this is something I'm definitely mulling over, is reminding ourselves to not take it too seriously, even when it feels serious,

yeah, to keep the keep the joy alive.

Yes, that's exactly it. And you should know this, because you are, you are the joyous person.

Thank you. I try. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. So I don't know. I hope this discussion was helpful for people.

I hope so. I don't know that we said anything that was

I don't know if we solved any problems, but it felt let's just get it out.

And I think when we started this podcast, the goal was also to say, this is the kind of conversation that we'd be texting each other all day and like, how do you do this? And how do you do that? And in between that, there would be a song or a music theory question or whatever. Yeah, but this is but this is the gist of it. And so I think if we're just letting people into our process and trying to show how messy it can be, but how Okay, the, I think we've said, how difficult it can be, and, you know, all of that, but also it's really rewarding, yeah, when you get the really good song, when your show comes on stage, when, when

you can just sit back and enjoy and go, I made that, yeah, that didn't exist, and now it does. Yeah, I was

gonna say like that yesterday. I worked on the on the lights. I'm coming back to my show. I'm sorry.

No, I will listen about your show all day. I'm very excited for it. But we were

working on the lights. And we were working on the lights for the song that we mentioned in our first episode. Everything stopped the covid song. And, you know, there's this, this piece where she goes, and the world, wait, oh, I wrote this, and I can't remember, and the world got so small. And I was looking at the lighting, and I thought, this is a good moment to have just that one single circle of light on the performer and black out everything else, because the world is so small, you know? And it was that moment of, oh, we are, hold on. We're creating something, yeah, and we'll see how it works when, when we go on, but just that moment of, this is a special moment, and this is a special art that's coming to life. Yeah, it's all worth it. That's, I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

All right. Zoe, that was a fun conversation. How about we try something a little lighter now? Yeah, let's play a game.

There was a big smile on my face when you say that was a fun conversation, it was but also, yes,

it was heavy. You know, now that the at one ton gorilla has moved out of the room, let's play some lyric or live, folks. Shall we? Yes, you're up first. I should say, if you don't know what we're doing, first of all, it's episode three, get on it. Also welcome, if it's your first time, I'm happy you're here. I sure zo is too I am. But we each take turns. We present each other with a lyric from a show, and we have to guess, or just know, whether the Lyric is as it is presented, or if it's a lie. So Zoe, what's our Lyric?

I will hit you with some lyrics. I should tell everybody we do not consult each other before we do this. So Brian has no idea what I've worked on. I have no idea what he's worked on. And maybe one day we'll work on the same lyric, and that will be fun. But until that day happens, this is how we're doing this. So Brian, I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter. I hear her soul so ignoble, pure water can melt her. Oh, okay. Can I hear it one more time? Yeah, you can I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter. I hear her soul's so ignoble, pure water can melt

her. I'm gonna say that's true. Okay.

Can you tell me that what show it's from Wicked Yes, I was afraid that you wouldn't get that. Is that march of the witch hunters? No, it's, thank goodness.

Oh, it's, thank goodness that was going to be my, my other Yeah, it's the opener, isn't it? Yeah, it's Act Two over, yeah, yeah. Oh, what a celebration we'll have today. Thank goodness, yep.

So you didn't get this right, because I, I'm I changed the lyric. The original lyrics were, I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter. I hear her soul is so unclean, pure water can melt her and I changed that to ignoble. Yeah,

it jumped. It did not jump out to me. It felt like a wickified word, awesome.

All right, you go. You ready? No, yes.

Tonight, we serve perfection in a cup. Drink it up. Tomorrow night, we serve flawless bods for the gods every other night we serve.

I don't think I know it. Do I know it?

I don't know. Do you want to hear it again? Yes, okay, tonight we serve perfection in a cup. Drink it up. Tomorrow night, we serve flawless bods for the gods every other night we serve.

I don't know Brian. I don't I don't think I know the show. So I'm going to say it's not a true lyric, because I know you and I don't know the show.

It is a true lyric. It's a true lyric, and it's from Death Becomes Her.

Oh, I don't know that show. Oh, tell me about it.

Okay. It was a lot of fun. So this is kind of almost like a clubby song in it for like it was like a party scene. I actually had a really hard time not reading it in rhythm, because tonight we serve perfection in a cup. Drink it up. Tomorrow night, we serve flawless bodies for the gods every other night. Like it's so rhythmic. Yeah. Anyway, it's a fun one. So death becomes her was a new show last season, so came out in 2024 dark comedic musical adaptation of the cult classic 1992 film with Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis, music by Julia Madison and old Carey. Show reimagines the campy satire of vanity, immortality and rivalry for the stage, following glamorous frenemies, Madeleine Ashton and Helen sharp as they drink a mysterious potion promising eternal youth with hilariously disastrous results.

Yes, I know we've, we've talked about it, and you said it was really good. So, yeah, it was fun. That was a really nice lyric, too.

Yeah, it's a fun tune. It's, honestly, it's a good gym one.

So my turn, Brian, the plan was, get to a bus. Next thing you know, the two of us are floating, drifting somewhere new. She said, we take a shortcut. I'm trying to be a good sport, but I don't see how we make it

through that feels like a true lyric. I don't know what show

you don't know it. I yeah, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't know it, because I get then I

get to talk about it. Okay, yeah, I feel like part of me might kick myself, but no, you

want this is, this is a true lyric. This is a song by Lin Manuel Miranda for Netflix animated movie that was called vivo. It's about a Capuchin monkey. Okay, I don't know that. Who lives in Cuba and then buy some, you know, storytelling trick now needs to deliver us a letter in Miami, and so it's the journey of the monkey. It's a beautiful film. The Capuchin is played by Len Manuel Miranda, which is also fun. Not many people know about this. This is the song is called, keep the beat. And it's one of my favorite songs, because it kind of the whole, you know, score is mixing Cuban music is mixing, sort of, you know, Miami beats, it's really, it's really, really fun music to listen to. I think it's got Gloria Stefan singing one of the tracks. It's a nice little movie for kids and for grown ups as well. It's one of my favorite songs ever, just because it's just a nice song to kick off the day. So, yeah, keep the beat.

I love that. I do that with I always find Jon Batiste songs for me are great, man, yes, he's just so filled with joy.

Yeah, just like injecting your, you know, joy into your vein, through

your when he does that like, it just makes me happy. There you go. Yeah.

Did I ever tell you I saw him in a in a tiny, little jazz club in

Paris? No, that sounds fantastic. It was

amazing. It's one of the best concert I've ever seen. And he it had him, Matthieu Chedid, who's a who's a famous sort of pop star guitarist, but jazz, also jazz guitarist in France, and Ibrahim Maalouf on trumpet, oh man, right after the pandemic that that show was everything.

I wish I could have been there. That sounds fantastic. All right, you ready for the last lyric? Yes, I appreciate your your confidence in a bar once I met this guy, Dewey, and he brought me, like, 14 beers, and he told me that he was from Ireland, so I lived with him for 10 years.

I have no idea at all. I'm terrible at this game. I don't know enough shows.

What is it? All right? It is, it is a true lyric. It is a

truly you only did true lyrics today. I only just because it's the morning, it's you didn't feel like we need to do this in the morning more often. I've

done so so many tricky ones. I figured I'd give you a couple softballs, I guess, of true lyrics. It's from Legally Blonde.

Oh man, I should know this. I was sound, sound tech assistant for, I think it was, it wasn't even show day. It was the dress for Legally Blonde that was done here. So I Okay, I was mostly sat next to the pit. So I mostly had, you know, the score, not so much. What

people I played in this pit twice. So legally I have, I have opinions about Legally Blonde. I like it generally, but it's always interesting the way, the way that side tangent, the way that show is orchestrated, is so loud and ridiculous, yeah, like the because I played the trumpet to book in it, and it's just everything's in the stratosphere. And I think every production I've played with it, you know, I've played him, which, you know, to somewhat intermission comes up to the band and goes, Can you guys play quieter? We can't hear what's going on. And I'm like, physically impossible, no, but yeah. So if you don't know the Legally Blonde musical, check it out. It's fun. Also

asking the band to play quieter when you're going through a show is kind of, why are you coming?

Yeah? Oh, you'd be amazed. I've been at shows in pits where we have to ask the audience members not to put their feet up on the lip and all sorts of stuff and stuff. Oh, Zo Oh, I got stories.

Oh, my gosh, okay, I don't want to know. Well, I got zero and you got one. Yeah, all right, we'll keep doing this until we get better at it. You know, yeah, keep practicing. Did

you do better than us? Audience, let us know before

we leave. Brian, we wanted to mention the Patreon. Do you want to

do that? So, folks, we got a Patreon. If you're not familiar with Patreon, it's a fantastic website. I'm sure a lot of your other favorite podcasters and creators use it. It helps us fund these episodes we're delivering to you. This is all on our free time. This is all for you for free. We want it to stay that way. However, there are some costs associated with doing some things, with hosting fees and all of that, and getting the word out there about our podcast, you know, getting some ads costs a little bit of money. So if you want to help us support and grow this and get to Broadway, maybe check out our Patreon. You know, $1 a month can go a really long way. This is true. Feel free to visit our Patreon making a musical pod, or visit our website, making a musical pod.com, for more information. And I think as we continue to grow this, we're going to be adding some perks there if you join. But right now, we're just the perk is out of the love of your heart, but know that there's stuff coming for you down the road. Yeah,

thank you for tuning in to this episode. If you like it, you know, as always, make sure you rate it, you review it on your preferred podcast platform, and then make sure that you subscribe to our feed.

Until then, you can find us on Instagram at making a musical pod, and you can find me on Instagram at Brian strometz, music

indeed, and we'll be back with our next guest episode. Until then, this one was produced and edited by me zo de York, co hosted with the amazing Brian stromers, and he also wrote the music for our podcast. So you should hire him, and you know what? We'll see you on the next one. Totally you.