November 2, 2023 • 44 mins
Gleeks, grab a cup because this tea is piping hot and ready to be served!
Glee's Executive Music Producer, Adam Anders, joins Jenna and Kevin with even more exclusive behind-the-scenes scoop . . . like which cast member locked themselves in a closet at the studio, which cast member almost passed out during their first recording session, and when Adele said no to the show using her songs what Adam did to change her mind!
Plus, there are roughly 100 songs the Glee cast recorded that never made air . . . and he knows exactly where they are! He also admits he and his brother were tough on the cast in the recording booth and how his time working on Glee helped him with his directorial debut, "Journey to Bethlehem," in theaters November 10th!
**We stand in solidarity with our union, SAG-AFTRA, during the strike. For more information, go to SAGAFTRAStrike.org.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to You, and that's what you're really miss this podcast,
No No No Exclusive Exclusive Part two Part two, Part two.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We had Adamanders, the music producer extraordinary, talking about his
new movie and all things Glee, and I mean, you
couldn't shut us up.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
There's so much to talk about still, so there was
too much to put in one episode. It's really the truth.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We might even have to have him back again, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I know.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well he wants to turn the tables on us, so
maybe he can interview us instead.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, you're right, Okay, get into it. This is part
two with Adamanders.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Talk to me about the mashup?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh the pain of my existence?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Really?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So I think Bill. I didn't interview with Bill when
they asked me once because that was like a thing
we came up with it. Yeah, yeah, but it was
a lyric thing, right, because they were trying to tell
a story in the scripts, Well what if we take
the verse of this song in the chorus of this song.
So Bill Magazine was like, so what is a mashup?
And I said, well, you take two perfectly good songs
and you put them together to make one bad songs.
(01:17):
How I described the mashup, that's funny, and usually it
was true. There were some good ones, so, like singing
in the rain Umbrella was really cool.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, the coolest.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
My favorite was the Adele mashup.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean that's the best.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
That was the best. That was probably my favorite moment
on the show. Yeah, so the cool thing. So behind
the scenes thing there was Adele did not approve us
smashing those two songs up. And it was someone like
you and rumor has it, and she said no, she
denied us. So then I said, well, crap, let's just
do it and hopefully she'll like it and she'll change
her mind. So we produced it without approval. So we
(01:55):
did this version and I sent her the demo and
or wrote to rock Stream a rough stringer because she
signed it. She was signing from it. Yeah, and she
came back said, I freaking love this. It's approved, and
only that then she started tweeting about it. Remember she's
got it like eighty million views on it before the
show even the episode came out.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Wow, she loved it so much.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So that was really one of those moments you're like Okay,
that's cool, Like what we did enough to change her
mind and improve it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So I mean that was undeniable. That was taking two
brilliant songs and also making a brilliant matter. So yeah,
it was really really good.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Some of them are awful, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Some of them didn't work as well.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Now you know who I ran into the other day
with croudy Mouth chord or I was golfing and he
was just there. I'm like, what are you doing here?
Sounds right? Yeah, were some of the reason I thought
of that when you said that, because that those songs, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Those of those weird those those okay, those like funny
original songs that you'd be given lyrics to, like Trouty.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
The know, like I'm supposed to make a song?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What Ian? What we were talking like Ian would normally
sort of write these insane lyrics and then you like,
good luck to you figure out I got some lyrics
that were so awful.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And then and then Ryan with the song was like,
the song's not good. I'm like, yeah, it's terrible, terrible, like,
but the lyrics like what am I supposed to do
with it? I mean, it's mouth?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And then what was like a my my Cup.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And then my Cup was a jam?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
You guys, what was the big ass something?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Held to the know?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
There was something.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
My big ass heart, My big ass heart. That's the
one foor song I've ever written. I can't I can't
win them all. Hell to the and My Cup are jams.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
They're jams, They're classics. Now I feel pretty pretty. That
was a great mashup.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Oh that was so good. I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think the original mashups were also brilliant. Halo Walking
in Sunshine it's, oh my god, so good.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, you guys liked them more than I did because
Aaron I had to figure those out and vocals together.
It was so much and with the time constraint, right
when they would give us things like warblers, right thing
for this crap right messing with the system man.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Trouble were two songs together, that's like twice the work
for one song, and then a cappella that takes days
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Turn around one song. I'd be up all night all
the time. I remember Blackbird y Oh yeah, freaking I
had to. I started that at ten at night and
finished at six in the morning, just singing with a
mic and I had a baby in newborns. I'd go
feed him in between takes. Oh my god, I got
I got night shift.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I guess, just give me.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I had the baby monitor by my pro tools and
I'd just do vocals and then see him wake up
and I go feed, take a break, and then keep working.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
The MASHs were pretty crazy, and they just threw two
songs and like make these work basically.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, yeah, no, no regard for if ones three four
and one's four four and.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Yes, like oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It was just complete chaos.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
You can also tell there were some of those who're like, oh,
they really like they got lucky on these two over
here because you guys were able to make or these
two songs have nothing to do with each other. Yeah
that's right, yeah, music lyrically nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So then we had to we'd have to pick a horse. Okay,
who's the boss like of these two songs? Yeah, destroyed
right right coin Yeah, it was pretty early, but man,
it was fun too. It was they were good challenges.
I like a challenge, so I would never say no,
(05:41):
like because there was a something I don't know button
for punishment, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yah, I mean you're creative, like Okay, how do we
problem solve?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
This? Actually was fun on the standpoint, like we have,
these are horrible ideas, let's figure it out, let's make
it work. So there was some some something fun about
it too, but it was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Speaking of challenges, did you when you first started we
met you, like when Jenna Amber, Chris and I or
with Brad Ellis and we were practicing for the pilot
and you came in, introduced yourself to us, and you
hadn't worked with anybody yet because you're also asking Brad
about Leah's voice. You were asking about Corey's voice and
(06:23):
our voice, and Brad had.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Been in the auditions at least and kind of around us,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
How did you go about from then and out?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Sort of?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Was that something to consider this? I mean, because you
obviously got the scripts. This person has to sing of
this song, this person has singing that song. Working around
everybody's we all had very different styles of singing, and
some people hadn't sung before coming into it.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
On in addition to figuring out how to turn around
these songs overnight a lot of times, also, how do
you get hurting us cats over here who all sing
differently onto the same record was a challenge.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I mean, and you're tired and you pull up the
next song and I'm looking at the lyrics and I know,
I got five of you that have to be able
to sing on this thing, and oh my gosh, like
how do I split this up? And then the script
and you're trying to make it work with the story too.
You know, he's singing, yeah, but that doesn't work the
way they have it. Script doesn't work at all musically,
and that person can't sing that part.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And who would end up most of the time singing
which parts?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah? I decided all that. Yeah. Wow, So that was
always the mind meld, Like that was so hard and
knowing you obviously, I got to know your voices really
well over time, and in the beginning, like we did
stuff that was a complete like, well that didn't work
because I didn't you know. I remember we had done
(07:44):
Chord's first song before he even was cast, right, so
he comes in, it's completely the wrong keyboard guy. This
guys killed on the first song he did. But then
you learn, okay, I'm not doing that again. You keep
notes and yeah, but it was hard, man, when you
had to weave five six cast members into one song
and make it work for everyone. How do you even
pick a key? Yeah right, you know it's all you
(08:08):
wanted in a different key. But I have to make
all of you sound good. So it was that was
a huge challenge every song man we got We got
pretty good at it. You know, if you do something
eight hundred times, what's the rule? Seven thousand hours?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah one, so expert expert? What about those original songs,
like original original, like the good ones like Loser like
Me and get It Right? What were those like for you?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That was fun? I remember Ryan call then you wanted
to do the first original and it was actually Christmas
in Iowa again, and I had this idea first of
all to bring in Max Martin, who's you know, the Swede,
you know, amazing songwriter, probably the greatest pop songwriter of
all time. Well we were kind of a Juggernau at
(08:54):
that point, so I figured he wants he likes being
part of pop culture stuff. So yeah, yeah, I'm man.
Actually pair of called him in Sweden and we got
him in. And so he sent this kind of riff,
this guitar thing and kind of a verse jam that
you know that guitar riff that that's right. I got that.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Track, and then you know, I was charged.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I had to write melody lyrics.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And no pressure. Just that's the biggest Max.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, and this idea of the loser like me hit
me and I wrote this whole lyric for the chorus.
I sent it to Max, whose name is actually Martin
by the way, Martin to the Max crazy, So I, uh,
that's so Swedish. By the way, if you know Swedes,
Max Martin, it's the most Swedish thing ever. But anyway,
(09:43):
I sent him this lyric and he's like, I don't
get it. Why would anyone want to be a loser?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
And I'm like, dude, have you watched the show?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
No? And I'm like, watch the show and call me back.
So he watched the show and he calls me back. Okay,
it's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This is key here. It's very important for TV.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And uh yeah. So that was the number one. That
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I love that song. And that same episode, the number
two song was get It Right, which was a song
Nikki and Parre and I wrote. It was just really
pretty valid and we'd actually written that for something else
and we thought it fit really well, and it did.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It's like you wrote it for the show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah, it's so great. So those were the first two
originals and they did did really well.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, monsters.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I like doing the other Loser like me. The second
one too, that we did Kevin in the World, No,
the Ballad version hundred episode version.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I loved that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That was cool.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, that was really cool.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I wasn't invited to those parties. I'm still.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know what. I wasn't invited to the hundred two hundred,
three hundred, four hundred, five hundred song parties.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You guys, the department just got neglected. There were we dude, mind,
it can't have time off. You have to make eighteen
more songs.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
He's busy working.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
There's like. So then I finally got a spy. It
would like tip me off. They're having a party. I'm like,
I'm coming over, and I show up.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I'm like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We didn't invite you. Funny story, So you remember we
did our rap party for the whole series and they
were handing out sweatshirts. It's great. So I go to
that table and I go to the thing and it's
a music department and I look at the sheet with
the names on there, and there's six names on there
I've never heard of.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I don't know any of these people are. And I
look and I'm not on there, and neither.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Is anyone from my team, and I go, huh, that's interesting.
So I look at the the guy manning the table
and I go, so we got two options.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I said, hand me a double X or call security.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm walking out of here with a freaking sweatshirt after.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
All this, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That's a struggle, though, would be not being on set
every day. You guys were working so hard, like we
talked to him, Davis, like, you guys were working so hard,
literally sleepless, you know, to produce all the things that
we could do on set, and but you didn't get
you know, you're not like the face. So it's like
people don't know exactly who you are. I remember you
(12:20):
come to set. We'd be like this as a you know,
responsible the guy.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, I mean I hired him to be on set
in the beginning. You know, he contracted the background singers
from the very first from from the rehab, the first thing,
like truck a one hundred singers through and I picked
up the twelve, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's how we started such a skill that's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
And I sent him on set to do lip sync,
you know, so at first, because I couldn't be ei
there I was supposed to do. There's like, no way,
I don't have time for this. So he was a
little more yeah guys than I was even yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
And then he got even busier too, and so then
he had to hire you know you guys, hired On
Lunn and just right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And I kept giving him more and more responsibility because
I just needed help. And we run a couple of
studios and do when we have especially if we do
all the choir stuff. He's a brilliant you know, a
choir arrange that stuff. And then I'd be in another
room and it was just it was a factory. It
was just bonkers. But yeah, it was gosh, you are
(13:21):
out of sight, out of mind to some degree. But
you know, the people that need to know no, you know,
so I never really worried about that. I've never actually
liked being in the spotlight. Actually with this movie too,
it's very uncomfortable for me to be doing it. You
have to be and with the strike, I'm the only
one who can do press right as the director, and
I'm like, I hate this so much. I want to
(13:43):
go back behind the camera now. So I was quite
comfortable with my anonymity, but I wanted a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You deserve a sweatshirt.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I did deserve a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Do you have any memories of like songs where you're
like I, I mean other songs like besides we were
we the Fun Yeah, thank you the fun song like
the Bohemian Rhapsodies of the.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
World, And that was a crazy session dashboards. Oh my gosh,
we sang forty eight hours on Bohemian Rhapsody.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I mean it's so good.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, we like slept at East West Studios and the sunset.
It was balkers. It was the biggest vocal session we
did on the whole series. Wow, Wow ever freaking ended.
And it was fun though. Man, I think everybody who
sang on that we had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I got it because it's a song, incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, we loved it. I got to be Freddy for
two days, which was fun. But yeah, it was really
fun taking some of those You know what was amazing
is even as a songwriter, I'm a way better songwriter
than I was before Lee. And that's what I did
up Untitally, I was a producer song writer in New
York and in Nelly and fancied myself pretty good. It
had a bunch of hits even at that point when
(15:07):
Ryan hired me. But I got so much better with
Glee because we got to dissect like eight hundred of
the greatest songs in history and then put it back
together again. Right, You can't help but learn something about songwriting, right,
And it got so ingrained in us that now when
I write songs, it's so different than it was pre Glee,
(15:27):
and I feel so much more confident, and I know
if it's good or bad. It's like I have this
like library of knowledge that planted in me from all
that work, and you figure whether you know it or not,
it goes in you're sub conscious. You're dissecting a song
like Rhapsody and putting it back together. You see how
it was made. You're like you're under the hood on
every single song. That was awesome too.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
When we would get to do those types of songs,
or any of the songs, because some of those tracks
you hear sound so good and in like great way
so reminiscent not in like a cheap copyright of the original.
But I would always like, do they have the actual stems?
Do you get the original recordings and can sort of
(16:11):
dissect like what instruments are they using it, what sounds
are they using, so we can try to recreate this,
or you just sort of guessing.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Oh, sometimes the stems are available online. You can find
some nerd who like or some guy that should be
fired that like posted hair is brilliant at like finding
all that stuff. So you wreaming rhapsody, so we could
recreate that like literally to a t and then every
(16:41):
track like it's identical. It's amazing how but then the
other times you just had to do it by your
because nothing else. That was the majority of the time
it was about your but it was Yeah, so that
was a big challenge. But then you do research, like
what keyboard they use for this sound? There's always interviews
and things you could find if you dig. You imagine
(17:01):
how much time that takes.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, right, and there's twelve hours you have to turn
around a song. You also have to research.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So that's where the Swedish factory came in.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
When we had an army of people doing that too
and working on the programming trying.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
To find that information and pair around that thing.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
He ran himself into the ground too, but it was, Yeah,
that was It's very stupid that you brought that up,
because that was always the challenge is we got to
figure out how they did this.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And for anyone who doesn't know, stems are the breakdown
like each individuals.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Based the drums, keyboard, each part, so you can actually
isolate it and go, what are they doing now to
train here? We can isolate listening to the whole thing.
We can't do that, but when you can turn everything
else off, it's much easier to find the correct DAX
seven patch. You know. That was you know it's hard
and you're like, what is that? You do your best,
but much much easier if you have the stems for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
But which Ryan also lucked out by hiring you guys,
because I remember we had talked about at some point
when there started to be more and more songs and
your workload was becoming at some point before you really
had I would say like going into second season there
was more of an effort. You knew what you were
getting yourself into. We need more budget to sort of
(18:16):
build out the team. Yes, and I remember maybe it
was the beginning of season two and you were telling me,
like what happened over the break and like they were
talking about bringing in some other producers to help, and
you're like, they don't. No one else is going to
agree to this because it does so much work. And
also they lucked out by hiring your team, you and
pair who have the ear to be able to figure
(18:39):
this out because it's one thing too sure, we'll recreate
a one off track and do this thing if Timbaland
comes in to do this track whatever. You guys are
also having to pay attention to every single song, hundreds
of songs a season, and listen for what keyboard they're
using in a different.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Skill to different to make a track is a beats guy.
To do something from scratch and you can do everyone
is a very different skill set, which we do as well.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's so different. We need to recreate a track and
you know, Ryan.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
One exactly the original, just look the original. Okay, Well,
you don't know how hard that is when you're talking
about you know, west Side Story for example, good luck,
We turned around all the west Side Story in a week.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
With oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Crazy stuff we did.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I always kind of was looking over my shoulder and
this is really good. I don't know, you know, a
lot of stuff I remember. But there was a there
was a contingent at Fox that wanted to replace me,
first of all, and wanted to bring their own people
in and and have a bunch of people doing it.
And they thought they could do it cheaper, of course,
and I'm like, okay, Because I was smart, I negotiated
(19:53):
to make sure that I had a record budget for
each song, like a proper budget, so I could do
this right and hire the team that I needed. Do it.
On a normal TV budget, you can't do this. But
they were determined to figure out how to do it
on a TV budget and save the money, right. And
so they started on this quest of finding other people.
And I'm just like, good luck. And we'd sit back
and we do our thing, and then Ryan would hate
(20:14):
the stuff they would turn in, and the guy might
get one song and then you get fired, and you know,
whoever it was, it just never stuck because, first of all,
the other thing happened. It ended up costing more than
mine because they'd have to redo it so many times
because Ryan was never happy and they had to keep
hiring musicians over and over and over again, and that
gelds expense very fast. But we almost never had to
redo a track for Ryan. We always nailed it, and
(20:37):
so they kind of gave up after I think season
three or three or four seasons.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
They were always gunning for me, but it was that long.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was long. Yeah, there was a long period where
I had allies. Don't get me wrong, but there were
people who, you know, they want to save money. They're
always looking at the bottom line. They're like, how do
we get rid of this guy?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, because teams no idea how music works.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
You don't get it. They had no idea what we
were doing. They thought I was pocketing all the money.
I'm like, no, I've got like freaking armies on two
sides of the world.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You running the entirety of Challice Studios, not cheap, cheap.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
It was a huge operation, and so I felt at
the same time I was looking on my shoulder.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I felt very secure because.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I knew Ryan would have my back number one. Yeah
and extreme. Yeah. Ryan's extremely loyal, That's the enough thing.
He's so loyal, and he liked what I do, so
he's not going to let them replace me. But they tried,
and so I looked on my shoulder. I was like,
never really that nervous because I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Like, you can't.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, nobody can do this is bonkers.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
So yeah they tried.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But yeah, there were times I did walk away.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
At one point.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I can't remember which season it was, because I think
it was around there when I said when things up
changed and they stopped gunning for me, I just said,
I'm done. I'm just going to walk away. And in
the off season I quit.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
And that lasted a day.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Right right, Yeah, he fixed it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
You know, so, uh yeah, it was overall them.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know. Dana Walden was such a supporter, Jen Sulky,
huge champions mine, and they were so great and they
still are.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
I mean now they've gone on to run the world.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah literally, Box Disney.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
It's crazy what they're doing. But they were huge supporters
of mine and always took care of me.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So in the end it worked out.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
But it's weird, man, when you're doing something well and
they're still want to get rid of you. That's a
weird feeling.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm sure it is. And it's like I have
no time to sleep, and you also, this is how
this is what I'm getting so I have to deal
with on top of this cool.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, it was yeah, that's that's that's life.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I mean, I mean, the phenomenon it is. It was
like and you know, the way everybody was looking at
the baseline. There's so many of us in the Cats
that like, at times like I felt expendable. You know,
it's just like, how do we get rid of characters?
How do we make this cheaper? How do we you know?
And it just felt like I think it was just
the juggernaut of it all, like you know, them trying
(23:05):
to kind of, I don't know, manage the empire.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So you know what I did though, And I'm I
think it happened late enough in my career, like still
at pretty early. I was young, but I had been
around enough that I recognized what a special moment this
was and how unusual this success was and that this
was like the Beatles, And I did appreciate it while
we were doing it as far as it was you
were you both of you were two of the cast
(23:32):
members that I felt like appreciated what was going on,
and not everybody did. You guys know, that and kind
of want it out right away, And I'm like, why
would you want out something that's lightning in a bottle?
Like this is never going to happen in our lives again,
Like that will literally still be the most successful musical
on TV. Ever.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It's never going to be topped.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, no chance. And we're part of that and that's
special and that happens once in a career. Really, Frankly,
I was kept trying to remind people, my son, you
know how special this is, Like I know it's hard,
I know it sucks, but hang in, you know, because
it's Yeah, it's really an amazing ride.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That' wrong.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
That's hard for young really young people starting their career.
Most of you, I don't know most of you had
it was like your first thing.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Almost, yeah, all of us.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, so that's hard to have any perspective. You have
nothing to compare it to totally.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You had a lot of the adult guy you know,
actors come in and they would kind of give their peace,
but they would always say, you know, like this is
really special, you guys, and you know, we're lucky to
have jobs, and you know, as simple as that, like
you're just really lucky to have a really amazing job
with good people, and then you know, take it to
another level. This is a one Ryan said to us
(24:41):
a lot. This will never happen again in your real life,
so really try to you know, take that perspective. And
you know, he's try.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's not that easy just to go do something else.
I mean, it's not. It's just easy.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It is because when you're surrounded by success and you're
during that time, everybody's getting asked to do a billion things,
and it feels like that's just how it's always going
to be. It's like, well, no, people want you because
you're a part of this thing that is very successful,
so once you're not.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Not so much. Yeah, it's one hundred percent. But I'm
very proud of what we did and I'm proud of
you know you guys and so many that have gone
on to do things and are still doing things. And
which is it's hard because we all have like this.
When it ended, there's like there's a deflating feeling to it,
(25:30):
like we peaked. It's over now and then yeah, and
it's a weird thing. And I remember telling Perr when
Glee was ending, he was like, oh, you know, we're
going to go do a bunch of things now, I said,
we're not going to get hired for a while. What
what you talked about? We just did the biggest thing ever.
I said, yeah, but everybody wants to do musical, but
(25:53):
nobody wants it to sound like Glee. Yeah, don't want
something different. So we were like a pariah for a while.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We want to.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
So the reason I got into creating my own content
was because I had to create my own work.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You had some foresight, Yeah, so I.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Started selling shows. I knew it was coming, and I
started selling my shows before so I could give.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Myself work basically, keep my team working.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
We're walking into them like we're here.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You could have just sent that out to all of it.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
It was just a memo, ya, and you know what,
We're back.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Right, It's been enough time.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, it was definitely sad. It's like, you know, even
like doing this movie. You know, you work so closely
together and then just gone everything.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
It's like summer camp.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah, it's a huge hole. But then we get back
together like this is like we never.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Left exactly, did Alex? Your whole everything you do is
I feel like such a wonderful like family, affair. Your wife,
Nikki is an incredible singer and songwriter and like the
loveliest person. Alex is extremely talented. I mean the vocals
he would get out of us. We would go back
to set and say his little mannerisms. He became like
a part of the glee club to us. He probably
(27:04):
didn't even know it because.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He'd be like scoop to the new would always do
that make.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Us laugh so frustrated at us. Court had a very
good Alex impression.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
He really did.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
How was that, you know, being able to just you know,
you have this base to rely on people you trust
inherently to pull from, to be like, okay, I have
to stay in the studio to arrange all these things.
Let me pull on you know, my brother for example,
to come and sort of run this well.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Season one was the hardest season because I had no team.
It was Parana both.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
You were doing everything literally every session.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
And I got it was so hard that I don't
know how many people know. I got very ill after
season one. I actually got a tumor in my spinal
cord that they said was probably stress replated and I
had like spinal cord surgeony and it was on my
brain stem. I always died between season one and two.
It was so bad, and I'm like, I can't do this.
I need clone myself. And I'm like, wait a minute,
(28:03):
he's on the East coast. Hey, bro, what are you doing.
We grew up together in the studio making records. That's
how we grew up. And you know, we mixed together,
we wrote together, we were in a band together. Like
we literally had the exact same musical upbringing. How much
closer can I get? He's a singer like me. He's
probably even more anal than me, because there's not many
people that have the level of perfectionism a parent I
(28:25):
have worse than me.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Yes, I tried to calm him down.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Leah like we did her Christmas album and she was
so relieved it was me and not him. We didn't
hear this.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Oh, it's so much easier. He's so tough.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
He is really tough, tough. You're tough too, but he's
really tough.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
But what you go do vocals with anybody else after
the two of you, and it's a braz no, but
like no is good. Nobody gets the vocals that it's
so true, it's so true, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
What's funny is the reason he is more difficult to
work with than me is because at the end of
the day, I can say that's good enough, right, and
I can say, yeah, you can change that, or no,
you know, I like that's better. Whatever. Since he wasn't,
the buck didn't stop with him, so he was His
job was to get what I had arranged on tape
(29:20):
with you. Period. He wouldn't stop till he had it.
But he wasn't authorized in a way.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
To go, that'll do.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, I can go, I'm sick of this crap, moving on,
moving on, like my whole doll said. So that's why
it's probably easier with me, but we're both just as anal.
So he moved out to work on Glee season two,
and yeah, it stayed from that point on, and it
was like having a clone and then freed me up
(29:48):
to just doing all of it. Was just impossible do
this and who else. There's nobody else that I know
that can do this like I do. Right, So that
was a huge blessing to have him come out and
everybody took to him and loved him and.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Did an amazing job. He worked his butt off.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
He sure did.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, So yeah, the team and Alex and Pair and
everybody in Sweden, that whole team. They were amazing Nicki.
You know all the duets for Nicki and I together
ranging those together, Which that's why it has a magic
when you know the Corey and Leah duets.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
That was.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Having written songs and sung together for a decade at
that point and having a band Toget we had.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
We were artists together duo, so we had.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
A chemistry in our heart and get that transferred right
to Corey and Leah and to other duets in the show.
So there's all these little magic things that happened just
because of who the team was behind the scenes, and
it was very special.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Nicki.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I remember she was giving birth to our second child
and she was so pregnant. I propped her up in
a chair, but I need her to keep singing, So
I popped her legs up above her head and hung
a mic over her face so she could keep singing
because her ankles were so swollen. The show must go on. Yeah,
but we loved it. You remember that, which is that childish.
(31:05):
She was so pregnant.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I was like, what are you doing here? She was
always like smiling, so nice.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
And then she did Glee Project Pregnant too.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
We all worked hard, but we loved it.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You know. It was fun and you get so much joy.
You know, that's the view of musicals, right, If you
just do a show with only dialogue day and night,
there's something you long for, that that break you get
in musical. Okay, it's time to do the music and
then everything unfer a minute. You cut loose and you're
dancing and you're singing, and it's such a great release
for everyone. I found that making the movie. It was like, okay,
(31:44):
we got through the dialogue, let's do a song.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It gives you. And it's the same working on music
all the time because it's so fun and it's so
life giving.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, it makes you feel in a completely different way.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
And they were amazing songs, and you guys were amazing
and it was just fun. If everybody sucked and was
difficult and had no talent, I would have quit.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Right, I remember it. There was one time where you
came you're coming in and out. I think it might've
been one of my first sessions with Alex and I
was recording the hair mashup? Is that what it was?
And I wasn't originally supposed to sing it, but like
none of us could do it. We all sounded terrible,
(32:29):
Mark Corey, myself. And then you come in to like
check up and you're like, no, I had to finished
the entire song and you go, do this line like this,
and I do it and you go, that's it. Start over,
and I was like, you've got You've got to be
kidding me. But it was those things that taught me
so much, and then I knew. I'm like, oh god,
(32:51):
now they know I can do it right, and so
now there's like certain things that I we're gonna have
to do. And I absolutely did the rest of the series.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
And if you show me something you're good at, oh
it's god. Like Amber with her ad libs, She's like,
please don't make me do Atlism and you're doing the
ad lit.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Every ad list.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
A lot of times Amber and I would pass each
other in the hallways at Challice and she'll have just
come out looking so deflated, defeated, and she's like, I
can't do this.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
She's like in a closet, I'm out of the closet,
I'm like begging her to come out. I'm bribing her,
please come out.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
The cars outside waiting to take you back to Seth
They're calling, you haven't started singing. You have to come
out of the closet. She's like, go away, Like Amber, please,
what do you want? I'll call him massus food, Like
what do you want? She's like, oh, hey, I'm napping.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
She and I would really connect over the music and
we'd lose our minds because she came out. She's like,
I said, angels, we have heard on high into another
song she did back to back, She's like, I'm never
gonna be able to again. I'm like, you're gonna be
fined in two hours. You're going to be.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Really I spent all you guys. I mean, if you
go down the list, there were so many good singers.
Both of you were awesome. I mean Leah is great,
Nia was amazing. I mean Corey was the one probably
had sung the least coming in.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
But you got that out of him.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, I mean, don't believe it was the first time
he's sung in this dude, like, what are we doing?
And he couldn't breathe. He almost passed out. He didn't
want to breathe and sing at the same time. He
turned blue and he's like getting dizzy, Like what are
you doing? He's like what, I'm like, you have to breathe, man,
pretty amazing scene where he started, where he ended up,
(34:44):
and Matt Morrison was made.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
It was just it was a juggernaut of talent.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It really was.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You also got to work with all of our guest stars.
We had so many insanely like famous and people just
wanted to be on the show. Right, what was your experience,
you know, when you have Gwenn coming in and Chris
and Ricky Martin, all these people.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
It was awesome. It was fun.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
John Stamos, who bought my house.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, when he came to.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Look at my house, I heard he was coming. I
put his songs on in the house. These songs were
playing when he looked at the house. Pretty funny. Gwyneth.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I remember working with Gwyneth.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
We we became pretty good friends and and but I
always reminded her I was just trying to get to Chris,
you know, I'm really.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Just using you to get to your husband.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And sure enough, one day I get a phone call, Hey, Adam,
it's Chris Mot Like what he's like, I got tickets
to you for you Hollywood Bow for a show tonight
in the after par what so Gwyneth had set it up.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Uh So things like that were really special. And Kate
Hudson was awesome. Yeah, they were amazing guest stars. So
those are the things you remember and you kind of
pinch yourself. Oscar winners, you know, and Tony Award winners
and just just phenomenal people. And they were all there
was fun to work with, you know. It's like the
bigger the star, the more fun they work with.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah. Yeah, they always surprised us all too, because you'd
be like, oh my god, and like everybody stand up straight, but.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
They're like, hey, guys, what's going on. It's really nice.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I just want to know if there's any any songs
that you worked at well obviously that didn't get approved
by the artist, like after doing it.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Mm hmm, yeah, well not after doing it. A lot
of songs didn't get approved to begin with. It was
never supposed to be don't stop believing it was supposed
to be Viva LaVita by speaking of Chris Martin, right,
that's right, and we were denied and that's how we
fell into Don't Step Believing, which, by the way, what
a great thing that was, because I don't think the
(36:55):
show it was Don't Stop Believing. Like everybody still thinks
that's a Glee song. You know, I have no idea
Journey existed. That's pretty amazing. You are the original artists,
and I don't know if you knew.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
That's right, Ye, take all the credit.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
There were a lot of I don't remember the Food
Fighters debacle with Ryan. Yeah, in kings Lan, we got
denied by rock bands all the time, and Ryan would
get pissed and didn't come out and say like food
fighters hate children or something.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
It was to kings of Lean or something like that,
and that's right.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And then food Fighters came to their defense, and I
was like, never getting any of our songs. And I
was in I was in Ryan's office when that happened,
and he kind of looks at me, and one of
the funniest Ryan moments, He's like, so maybe I should
have said that I probably went too far. I'm like,
he went too far. Oh my gosh, Like we're never
gonna get a rock music. So yeah, not much rock
(37:56):
music made it onto the show thanks to the Kings
of Leon incident.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We might have a couple songs were not supposed to have,
like the unreleased version of tell Him, Oh Oh.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
We have I Love the Way You Lie.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Yeah, I've got probably one hundred songs in my hard
drive that didn't come out.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So how should you have now? Should we you have that?
There have them?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I don't know. If it's so long now don't have
The hard drive will spin up, but they are somewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
If you have a couple of minutes one day and
are board after promoting your movie, if the hard drive
still works, you drop a pin and we'll be there.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
That is not like gold playing those songs.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
There's this mashup. I got to hear it. I never
got to hear it.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
You know what's crazy.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I couldn't tell you which songs came out and which
ones didn't.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Fair It is all a blur.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I'm sure after I can remember there.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Was did you do a song on Gleam like I'm
sure we did.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
I can't tell you. People go this song you did?
I did that song? I don't remember. I mean when
you're doing eight ten songs a week for seven years happening,
and it's remarkable how many things we did, so I
don't even know. You guys have to tell me. You
have to come over and go. We did not want
came out that one. Didn't that Kevin, I have no clue.
(39:20):
There's an episode of your podcast exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
All the fans are dying.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
They're like, there's a billion lawsuits. Yes everyone, right before
we go? Is there a song that we didn't do
that you wish we could have done?
Speaker 4 (39:36):
He's like, you know, parent aways want to do.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
The show must go on in the last episode.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
I thought that would have been awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
One, we're big queen fans, so yeah, that would have
been fun. And then we should have done more Rabba.
I just got to say, we didn't do enough Abba.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I can never do enough Abba.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Winner Takes It All would have been amazing to do. Yeah,
so I'm a little bitter about that. But okay, none
of Swedish. We did a lot of Swedish music, a
lot of pop songs, right, a lot of them. So
that's but look, we did almost everything. There wasn't much
that was left untouched. We did West Side Story, which
is my favorite. We didn't do any sound of music,
(40:21):
which is you know, a sound of music that would
have been fun. But I'm pretty pretty uh fulfilled with
the catalog we have from Glee.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I think i'd say audio work.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Did I say my career ended there? It would have
been like, Wow, that was cool. Okay, now cleaning pools
for a living or whatever. But yeah, it was pretty remarkable,
that whole that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Okay, Before we let you go, we asked one question
to the people who are involved with Glee. What is
the feeling like Lee left you with?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Gratitude?
Speaker 4 (40:59):
I think a lot gratitude and some sadness.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I think, you know, I miss some people obviously, so
I miss Corey and and Naya of course, but a
lot of gratitude. It's just I think back and it
just I smile, you know, I really do. It was
a special time, what an amazingly rewarding experience with amazing people.
(41:23):
And I'm so fortunate that I knew when I was
doing it. Yeah, that's key, and I feel really grateful
for that.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
As hard as it was, that sustained us. And yeah,
just grateful.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
That's the where that comes to mind, and really fun
to catch up with you guys again. We have to
actually come on, we have to see what are we doing.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's here, let's do that.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Congrats everybody, go see Adam's movie and November tenth, and
thank you for like just coming back. It's just so
nice to see you.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And nice to congrats on Journey about the him, Like
what a crazy you did after seventeen yours like this,
absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
I may never work again, but I did it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
I mean you did it. You've done a lot. You've
done a lot.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Yeah, I may not want to work again.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
You need to just take a nap. Sit down, take
a nap. You've heard it. Thank you for spending so
much time with us today and that. Yeah, let's hang
out and we can talk forever.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
So how about we do it. We'll spend a whole
day together.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Great, say hi to the fan for us.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I will thank you. Okay. I hope you guys really
enjoyed Adam as much as we did, because that was awesome.
Thank you Adam for joining us for so much time.
Congratulations on your movie. Go see it, you guys, Journey
to Bethlehem. It's a musical movie. This is a key audience.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
We learned so much. I'm sorry in shock, I just
didn't Yeah, the music department, that whole world was literally
a different world from our every day of spending like
sixteen hours fifteen hours on set m HM, and the
whole thing. They had to do the entirety for seven years. Also,
(43:07):
you know, producing eight hundred and was seventeen songs, but
only seven hundred and something came out, and so he
still did over eight hundred numbers, damn. And that's just
you also don't even the amount of time and care
it took to do these things. Like when we wish
up to record, they would even come in and figure
out which mike was best for our voice on that
(43:28):
style of song. So all these little things added up
to so much time and care and six seasons, seven
years that never let up. And so it was really
a feat. And I don't think anyone's ever going to
be able to match what they did, just the amount
of work that they did ever. Yep, thank you Adam again.
(43:50):
It's so special to get to catch up and sharing
it with all of you who are listening. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That's why you're really missed.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
that's what you really miss pod make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars. See you
next time.
And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to You, and that's what you're really miss this podcast,
No No No Exclusive Exclusive Part two Part two, Part two.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We had Adamanders, the music producer extraordinary, talking about his
new movie and all things Glee, and I mean, you
couldn't shut us up.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
There's so much to talk about still, so there was
too much to put in one episode. It's really the truth.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We might even have to have him back again, I know.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I know.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well he wants to turn the tables on us, so
maybe he can interview us instead.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, you're right, Okay, get into it. This is part
two with Adamanders.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Talk to me about the mashup?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh the pain of my existence?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Really?
Speaker 3 (00:55):
So I think Bill. I didn't interview with Bill when
they asked me once because that was like a thing
we came up with it. Yeah, yeah, but it was
a lyric thing, right, because they were trying to tell
a story in the scripts, Well what if we take
the verse of this song in the chorus of this song.
So Bill Magazine was like, so what is a mashup?
And I said, well, you take two perfectly good songs
and you put them together to make one bad songs.
(01:17):
How I described the mashup, that's funny, and usually it
was true. There were some good ones, so, like singing
in the rain Umbrella was really cool.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, the coolest.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
My favorite was the Adele mashup.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
I mean that's the best.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
That was the best. That was probably my favorite moment
on the show. Yeah, so the cool thing. So behind
the scenes thing there was Adele did not approve us
smashing those two songs up. And it was someone like
you and rumor has it, and she said no, she
denied us. So then I said, well, crap, let's just
do it and hopefully she'll like it and she'll change
her mind. So we produced it without approval. So we
(01:55):
did this version and I sent her the demo and
or wrote to rock Stream a rough stringer because she
signed it. She was signing from it. Yeah, and she
came back said, I freaking love this. It's approved, and
only that then she started tweeting about it. Remember she's
got it like eighty million views on it before the
show even the episode came out.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Wow, she loved it so much.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So that was really one of those moments you're like Okay,
that's cool, Like what we did enough to change her
mind and improve it.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So I mean that was undeniable. That was taking two
brilliant songs and also making a brilliant matter. So yeah,
it was really really good.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Some of them are awful, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Some of them didn't work as well.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Now you know who I ran into the other day
with croudy Mouth chord or I was golfing and he
was just there. I'm like, what are you doing here?
Sounds right? Yeah, were some of the reason I thought
of that when you said that, because that those songs, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Those of those weird those those okay, those like funny
original songs that you'd be given lyrics to, like Trouty.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
The know, like I'm supposed to make a song?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
What Ian? What we were talking like Ian would normally
sort of write these insane lyrics and then you like,
good luck to you figure out I got some lyrics
that were so awful.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And then and then Ryan with the song was like,
the song's not good. I'm like, yeah, it's terrible, terrible, like,
but the lyrics like what am I supposed to do
with it? I mean, it's mouth?
Speaker 4 (03:21):
And then what was like a my my Cup.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
And then my Cup was a jam?
Speaker 3 (03:27):
You guys, what was the big ass something?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Held to the know?
Speaker 3 (03:35):
There was something.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
My big ass heart, My big ass heart. That's the
one foor song I've ever written. I can't I can't
win them all. Hell to the and My Cup are jams.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
They're jams, They're classics. Now I feel pretty pretty. That
was a great mashup.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Oh that was so good. I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
I think the original mashups were also brilliant. Halo Walking
in Sunshine it's, oh my god, so good.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, you guys liked them more than I did because
Aaron I had to figure those out and vocals together.
It was so much and with the time constraint, right
when they would give us things like warblers, right thing
for this crap right messing with the system man.
Speaker 6 (04:21):
Trouble were two songs together, that's like twice the work
for one song, and then a cappella that takes days
to do.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Turn around one song. I'd be up all night all
the time. I remember Blackbird y Oh yeah, freaking I
had to. I started that at ten at night and
finished at six in the morning, just singing with a
mic and I had a baby in newborns. I'd go
feed him in between takes. Oh my god, I got
I got night shift.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
I guess, just give me.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I had the baby monitor by my pro tools and
I'd just do vocals and then see him wake up
and I go feed, take a break, and then keep working.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
The MASHs were pretty crazy, and they just threw two
songs and like make these work basically.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, yeah, no, no regard for if ones three four
and one's four four and.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Yes, like oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It was just complete chaos.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
You can also tell there were some of those who're like, oh,
they really like they got lucky on these two over
here because you guys were able to make or these
two songs have nothing to do with each other. Yeah
that's right, yeah, music lyrically nothing.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
So then we had to we'd have to pick a horse. Okay,
who's the boss like of these two songs? Yeah, destroyed
right right coin Yeah, it was pretty early, but man,
it was fun too. It was they were good challenges.
I like a challenge, so I would never say no,
(05:41):
like because there was a something I don't know button
for punishment, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yah, I mean you're creative, like Okay, how do we
problem solve?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
This? Actually was fun on the standpoint, like we have,
these are horrible ideas, let's figure it out, let's make
it work. So there was some some something fun about
it too, but it was pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Speaking of challenges, did you when you first started we
met you, like when Jenna Amber, Chris and I or
with Brad Ellis and we were practicing for the pilot
and you came in, introduced yourself to us, and you
hadn't worked with anybody yet because you're also asking Brad
about Leah's voice. You were asking about Corey's voice and
(06:23):
our voice, and Brad had.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Been in the auditions at least and kind of around us,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
How did you go about from then and out?
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Sort of?
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Was that something to consider this? I mean, because you
obviously got the scripts. This person has to sing of
this song, this person has singing that song. Working around
everybody's we all had very different styles of singing, and
some people hadn't sung before coming into it.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
On in addition to figuring out how to turn around
these songs overnight a lot of times, also, how do
you get hurting us cats over here who all sing
differently onto the same record was a challenge.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
I mean, and you're tired and you pull up the
next song and I'm looking at the lyrics and I know,
I got five of you that have to be able
to sing on this thing, and oh my gosh, like
how do I split this up? And then the script
and you're trying to make it work with the story too.
You know, he's singing, yeah, but that doesn't work the
way they have it. Script doesn't work at all musically,
and that person can't sing that part.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And who would end up most of the time singing
which parts?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah? I decided all that. Yeah. Wow, So that was
always the mind meld, Like that was so hard and
knowing you obviously, I got to know your voices really
well over time, and in the beginning, like we did
stuff that was a complete like, well that didn't work
because I didn't you know. I remember we had done
(07:44):
Chord's first song before he even was cast, right, so
he comes in, it's completely the wrong keyboard guy. This
guys killed on the first song he did. But then
you learn, okay, I'm not doing that again. You keep
notes and yeah, but it was hard, man, when you
had to weave five six cast members into one song
and make it work for everyone. How do you even
pick a key? Yeah right, you know it's all you
(08:08):
wanted in a different key. But I have to make
all of you sound good. So it was that was
a huge challenge every song man we got We got
pretty good at it. You know, if you do something
eight hundred times, what's the rule? Seven thousand hours?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah one, so expert expert? What about those original songs,
like original original, like the good ones like Loser like
Me and get It Right? What were those like for you?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
That was fun? I remember Ryan call then you wanted
to do the first original and it was actually Christmas
in Iowa again, and I had this idea first of
all to bring in Max Martin, who's you know, the Swede,
you know, amazing songwriter, probably the greatest pop songwriter of
all time. Well we were kind of a Juggernau at
(08:54):
that point, so I figured he wants he likes being
part of pop culture stuff. So yeah, yeah, I'm man.
Actually pair of called him in Sweden and we got
him in. And so he sent this kind of riff,
this guitar thing and kind of a verse jam that
you know that guitar riff that that's right. I got that.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Track, and then you know, I was charged.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I had to write melody lyrics.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And no pressure. Just that's the biggest Max.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, and this idea of the loser like me hit
me and I wrote this whole lyric for the chorus.
I sent it to Max, whose name is actually Martin
by the way, Martin to the Max crazy, So I, uh,
that's so Swedish. By the way, if you know Swedes,
Max Martin, it's the most Swedish thing ever. But anyway,
(09:43):
I sent him this lyric and he's like, I don't
get it. Why would anyone want to be a loser?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
And I'm like, dude, have you watched the show?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
No? And I'm like, watch the show and call me back.
So he watched the show and he calls me back. Okay,
it's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
This is key here. It's very important for TV.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And uh yeah. So that was the number one. That
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I love that song. And that same episode, the number
two song was get It Right, which was a song
Nikki and Parre and I wrote. It was just really
pretty valid and we'd actually written that for something else
and we thought it fit really well, and it did.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
It's like you wrote it for the show.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah, it's so great. So those were the first two
originals and they did did really well.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, monsters.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I like doing the other Loser like me. The second
one too, that we did Kevin in the World, No,
the Ballad version hundred episode version.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
I loved that.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
That was cool.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, that was really cool.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
I wasn't invited to those parties. I'm still.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know what. I wasn't invited to the hundred two hundred,
three hundred, four hundred, five hundred song parties.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
You guys, the department just got neglected. There were we dude, mind,
it can't have time off. You have to make eighteen
more songs.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
He's busy working.
Speaker 6 (11:08):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
There's like. So then I finally got a spy. It
would like tip me off. They're having a party. I'm like,
I'm coming over, and I show up.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
I'm like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3 (11:18):
We didn't invite you. Funny story, So you remember we
did our rap party for the whole series and they
were handing out sweatshirts. It's great. So I go to
that table and I go to the thing and it's
a music department and I look at the sheet with
the names on there, and there's six names on there
I've never heard of.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
I don't know any of these people are. And I
look and I'm not on there, and neither.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Is anyone from my team, and I go, huh, that's interesting.
So I look at the the guy manning the table
and I go, so we got two options.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
I said, hand me a double X or call security.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I'm walking out of here with a freaking sweatshirt after.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
All this, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That's a struggle, though, would be not being on set
every day. You guys were working so hard, like we
talked to him, Davis, like, you guys were working so hard,
literally sleepless, you know, to produce all the things that
we could do on set, and but you didn't get
you know, you're not like the face. So it's like
people don't know exactly who you are. I remember you
(12:20):
come to set. We'd be like this as a you know,
responsible the guy.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, I mean I hired him to be on set
in the beginning. You know, he contracted the background singers
from the very first from from the rehab, the first thing,
like truck a one hundred singers through and I picked
up the twelve, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
That's how we started such a skill that's so crazy.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
And I sent him on set to do lip sync,
you know, so at first, because I couldn't be ei
there I was supposed to do. There's like, no way,
I don't have time for this. So he was a
little more yeah guys than I was even yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
And then he got even busier too, and so then
he had to hire you know you guys, hired On
Lunn and just right.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And I kept giving him more and more responsibility because
I just needed help. And we run a couple of
studios and do when we have especially if we do
all the choir stuff. He's a brilliant you know, a
choir arrange that stuff. And then I'd be in another
room and it was just it was a factory. It
was just bonkers. But yeah, it was gosh, you are
(13:21):
out of sight, out of mind to some degree. But
you know, the people that need to know no, you know,
so I never really worried about that. I've never actually
liked being in the spotlight. Actually with this movie too,
it's very uncomfortable for me to be doing it. You
have to be and with the strike, I'm the only
one who can do press right as the director, and
I'm like, I hate this so much. I want to
(13:43):
go back behind the camera now. So I was quite
comfortable with my anonymity, but I wanted a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You deserve a sweatshirt.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
I did deserve a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Do you have any memories of like songs where you're
like I, I mean other songs like besides we were
we the Fun Yeah, thank you the fun song like
the Bohemian Rhapsodies of the.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
World, And that was a crazy session dashboards. Oh my gosh,
we sang forty eight hours on Bohemian Rhapsody.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I mean it's so good.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, we like slept at East West Studios and the sunset.
It was balkers. It was the biggest vocal session we
did on the whole series. Wow, Wow ever freaking ended.
And it was fun though. Man, I think everybody who
sang on that we had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
I got it because it's a song, incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, we loved it. I got to be Freddy for
two days, which was fun. But yeah, it was really
fun taking some of those You know what was amazing
is even as a songwriter, I'm a way better songwriter
than I was before Lee. And that's what I did
up Untitally, I was a producer song writer in New
York and in Nelly and fancied myself pretty good. It
had a bunch of hits even at that point when
(15:07):
Ryan hired me. But I got so much better with
Glee because we got to dissect like eight hundred of
the greatest songs in history and then put it back
together again. Right, You can't help but learn something about songwriting, right,
And it got so ingrained in us that now when
I write songs, it's so different than it was pre Glee,
(15:27):
and I feel so much more confident, and I know
if it's good or bad. It's like I have this
like library of knowledge that planted in me from all
that work, and you figure whether you know it or not,
it goes in you're sub conscious. You're dissecting a song
like Rhapsody and putting it back together. You see how
it was made. You're like you're under the hood on
every single song. That was awesome too.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
When we would get to do those types of songs,
or any of the songs, because some of those tracks
you hear sound so good and in like great way
so reminiscent not in like a cheap copyright of the original.
But I would always like, do they have the actual stems?
Do you get the original recordings and can sort of
(16:11):
dissect like what instruments are they using it, what sounds
are they using, so we can try to recreate this,
or you just sort of guessing.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Oh, sometimes the stems are available online. You can find
some nerd who like or some guy that should be
fired that like posted hair is brilliant at like finding
all that stuff. So you wreaming rhapsody, so we could
recreate that like literally to a t and then every
(16:41):
track like it's identical. It's amazing how but then the
other times you just had to do it by your
because nothing else. That was the majority of the time
it was about your but it was Yeah, so that
was a big challenge. But then you do research, like
what keyboard they use for this sound? There's always interviews
and things you could find if you dig. You imagine
(17:01):
how much time that takes.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Yeah, right, and there's twelve hours you have to turn
around a song. You also have to research.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So that's where the Swedish factory came in.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
When we had an army of people doing that too
and working on the programming trying.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
To find that information and pair around that thing.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
He ran himself into the ground too, but it was, Yeah,
that was It's very stupid that you brought that up,
because that was always the challenge is we got to
figure out how they did this.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And for anyone who doesn't know, stems are the breakdown
like each individuals.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Based the drums, keyboard, each part, so you can actually
isolate it and go, what are they doing now to
train here? We can isolate listening to the whole thing.
We can't do that, but when you can turn everything
else off, it's much easier to find the correct DAX
seven patch. You know. That was you know it's hard
and you're like, what is that? You do your best,
but much much easier if you have the stems for sure.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
But which Ryan also lucked out by hiring you guys,
because I remember we had talked about at some point
when there started to be more and more songs and
your workload was becoming at some point before you really
had I would say like going into second season there
was more of an effort. You knew what you were
getting yourself into. We need more budget to sort of
(18:16):
build out the team. Yes, and I remember maybe it
was the beginning of season two and you were telling me,
like what happened over the break and like they were
talking about bringing in some other producers to help, and
you're like, they don't. No one else is going to
agree to this because it does so much work. And
also they lucked out by hiring your team, you and
pair who have the ear to be able to figure
(18:39):
this out because it's one thing too sure, we'll recreate
a one off track and do this thing if Timbaland
comes in to do this track whatever. You guys are
also having to pay attention to every single song, hundreds
of songs a season, and listen for what keyboard they're
using in a different.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Skill to different to make a track is a beats guy.
To do something from scratch and you can do everyone
is a very different skill set, which we do as well.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
It's so different. We need to recreate a track and
you know, Ryan.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
One exactly the original, just look the original. Okay, Well,
you don't know how hard that is when you're talking
about you know, west Side Story for example, good luck,
We turned around all the west Side Story in a week.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
With oh my god, Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Crazy stuff we did.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I always kind of was looking over my shoulder and
this is really good. I don't know, you know, a
lot of stuff I remember. But there was a there
was a contingent at Fox that wanted to replace me,
first of all, and wanted to bring their own people
in and and have a bunch of people doing it.
And they thought they could do it cheaper, of course,
and I'm like, okay, Because I was smart, I negotiated
(19:53):
to make sure that I had a record budget for
each song, like a proper budget, so I could do
this right and hire the team that I needed. Do it.
On a normal TV budget, you can't do this. But
they were determined to figure out how to do it
on a TV budget and save the money, right. And
so they started on this quest of finding other people.
And I'm just like, good luck. And we'd sit back
and we do our thing, and then Ryan would hate
(20:14):
the stuff they would turn in, and the guy might
get one song and then you get fired, and you know,
whoever it was, it just never stuck because, first of all,
the other thing happened. It ended up costing more than
mine because they'd have to redo it so many times
because Ryan was never happy and they had to keep
hiring musicians over and over and over again, and that
gelds expense very fast. But we almost never had to
redo a track for Ryan. We always nailed it, and
(20:37):
so they kind of gave up after I think season
three or three or four seasons.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
They were always gunning for me, but it was that long.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
It was long. Yeah, there was a long period where
I had allies. Don't get me wrong, but there were
people who, you know, they want to save money. They're
always looking at the bottom line. They're like, how do
we get rid of this guy?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, because teams no idea how music works.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
You don't get it. They had no idea what we
were doing. They thought I was pocketing all the money.
I'm like, no, I've got like freaking armies on two
sides of the world.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You running the entirety of Challice Studios, not cheap, cheap.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
It was a huge operation, and so I felt at
the same time I was looking on my shoulder.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
I felt very secure because.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
I knew Ryan would have my back number one. Yeah
and extreme. Yeah. Ryan's extremely loyal, That's the enough thing.
He's so loyal, and he liked what I do, so
he's not going to let them replace me. But they tried,
and so I looked on my shoulder. I was like,
never really that nervous because I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Like, you can't.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, nobody can do this is bonkers.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
So yeah they tried.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But yeah, there were times I did walk away.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
At one point.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I can't remember which season it was, because I think
it was around there when I said when things up
changed and they stopped gunning for me, I just said,
I'm done. I'm just going to walk away. And in
the off season I quit.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
And that lasted a day.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Right right, Yeah, he fixed it.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
You know, so, uh yeah, it was overall them.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know. Dana Walden was such a supporter, Jen Sulky,
huge champions mine, and they were so great and they
still are.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
I mean now they've gone on to run the world.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah literally, Box Disney.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
It's crazy what they're doing. But they were huge supporters
of mine and always took care of me.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
So in the end it worked out.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
But it's weird, man, when you're doing something well and
they're still want to get rid of you. That's a
weird feeling.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, I'm sure it is. And it's like I have
no time to sleep, and you also, this is how
this is what I'm getting so I have to deal
with on top of this cool.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Yeah, it was yeah, that's that's that's life.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I mean, I mean, the phenomenon it is. It was
like and you know, the way everybody was looking at
the baseline. There's so many of us in the Cats
that like, at times like I felt expendable. You know,
it's just like, how do we get rid of characters?
How do we make this cheaper? How do we you know?
And it just felt like I think it was just
the juggernaut of it all, like you know, them trying
(23:05):
to kind of, I don't know, manage the empire.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
So you know what I did though, And I'm I
think it happened late enough in my career, like still
at pretty early. I was young, but I had been
around enough that I recognized what a special moment this
was and how unusual this success was and that this
was like the Beatles, And I did appreciate it while
we were doing it as far as it was you
were you both of you were two of the cast
(23:32):
members that I felt like appreciated what was going on,
and not everybody did. You guys know, that and kind
of want it out right away, And I'm like, why
would you want out something that's lightning in a bottle?
Like this is never going to happen in our lives again,
Like that will literally still be the most successful musical
on TV. Ever.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
It's never going to be topped.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Yeah, no chance. And we're part of that and that's
special and that happens once in a career. Really, Frankly,
I was kept trying to remind people, my son, you
know how special this is, Like I know it's hard,
I know it sucks, but hang in, you know, because
it's Yeah, it's really an amazing ride.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That' wrong.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
That's hard for young really young people starting their career.
Most of you, I don't know most of you had
it was like your first thing.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Almost, yeah, all of us.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, so that's hard to have any perspective. You have
nothing to compare it to totally.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You had a lot of the adult guy you know,
actors come in and they would kind of give their peace,
but they would always say, you know, like this is
really special, you guys, and you know, we're lucky to
have jobs, and you know, as simple as that, like
you're just really lucky to have a really amazing job
with good people, and then you know, take it to
another level. This is a one Ryan said to us
(24:41):
a lot. This will never happen again in your real life,
so really try to you know, take that perspective. And
you know, he's try.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
It's not that easy just to go do something else.
I mean, it's not. It's just easy.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It is because when you're surrounded by success and you're
during that time, everybody's getting asked to do a billion things,
and it feels like that's just how it's always going
to be. It's like, well, no, people want you because
you're a part of this thing that is very successful,
so once you're not.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Not so much. Yeah, it's one hundred percent. But I'm
very proud of what we did and I'm proud of
you know you guys and so many that have gone
on to do things and are still doing things. And
which is it's hard because we all have like this.
When it ended, there's like there's a deflating feeling to it,
(25:30):
like we peaked. It's over now and then yeah, and
it's a weird thing. And I remember telling Perr when
Glee was ending, he was like, oh, you know, we're
going to go do a bunch of things now, I said,
we're not going to get hired for a while. What
what you talked about? We just did the biggest thing ever.
I said, yeah, but everybody wants to do musical, but
(25:53):
nobody wants it to sound like Glee. Yeah, don't want
something different. So we were like a pariah for a while.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
We want to.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
So the reason I got into creating my own content
was because I had to create my own work.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You had some foresight, Yeah, so I.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Started selling shows. I knew it was coming, and I
started selling my shows before so I could give.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Myself work basically, keep my team working.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
We're walking into them like we're here.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
You could have just sent that out to all of it.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
It was just a memo, ya, and you know what,
We're back.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Right, It's been enough time.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
No, it was definitely sad. It's like, you know, even
like doing this movie. You know, you work so closely
together and then just gone everything.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
It's like summer camp.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Yeah, it's a huge hole. But then we get back
together like this is like we never.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Left exactly, did Alex? Your whole everything you do is
I feel like such a wonderful like family, affair. Your wife,
Nikki is an incredible singer and songwriter and like the
loveliest person. Alex is extremely talented. I mean the vocals
he would get out of us. We would go back
to set and say his little mannerisms. He became like
a part of the glee club to us. He probably
(27:04):
didn't even know it because.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
He'd be like scoop to the new would always do
that make.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Us laugh so frustrated at us. Court had a very
good Alex impression.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
He really did.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
How was that, you know, being able to just you know,
you have this base to rely on people you trust
inherently to pull from, to be like, okay, I have
to stay in the studio to arrange all these things.
Let me pull on you know, my brother for example,
to come and sort of run this well.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Season one was the hardest season because I had no team.
It was Parana both.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
You were doing everything literally every session.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
And I got it was so hard that I don't
know how many people know. I got very ill after
season one. I actually got a tumor in my spinal
cord that they said was probably stress replated and I
had like spinal cord surgeony and it was on my
brain stem. I always died between season one and two.
It was so bad, and I'm like, I can't do this.
I need clone myself. And I'm like, wait a minute,
(28:03):
he's on the East coast. Hey, bro, what are you doing.
We grew up together in the studio making records. That's
how we grew up. And you know, we mixed together,
we wrote together, we were in a band together. Like
we literally had the exact same musical upbringing. How much
closer can I get? He's a singer like me. He's
probably even more anal than me, because there's not many
people that have the level of perfectionism a parent I
(28:25):
have worse than me.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Yes, I tried to calm him down.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Leah like we did her Christmas album and she was
so relieved it was me and not him. We didn't
hear this.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Oh, it's so much easier. He's so tough.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
He is really tough, tough. You're tough too, but he's
really tough.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
But what you go do vocals with anybody else after
the two of you, and it's a braz no, but
like no is good. Nobody gets the vocals that it's
so true, it's so true, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
What's funny is the reason he is more difficult to
work with than me is because at the end of
the day, I can say that's good enough, right, and
I can say, yeah, you can change that, or no,
you know, I like that's better. Whatever. Since he wasn't,
the buck didn't stop with him, so he was His
job was to get what I had arranged on tape
(29:20):
with you. Period. He wouldn't stop till he had it.
But he wasn't authorized in a way.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
To go, that'll do.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yeah, I can go, I'm sick of this crap, moving on,
moving on, like my whole doll said. So that's why
it's probably easier with me, but we're both just as anal.
So he moved out to work on Glee season two,
and yeah, it stayed from that point on, and it
was like having a clone and then freed me up
(29:48):
to just doing all of it. Was just impossible do
this and who else. There's nobody else that I know
that can do this like I do. Right, So that
was a huge blessing to have him come out and
everybody took to him and loved him and.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Did an amazing job. He worked his butt off.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
He sure did.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Yeah, So yeah, the team and Alex and Pair and
everybody in Sweden, that whole team. They were amazing Nicki.
You know all the duets for Nicki and I together
ranging those together, Which that's why it has a magic
when you know the Corey and Leah duets.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
That was.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Having written songs and sung together for a decade at
that point and having a band Toget we had.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
We were artists together duo, so we had.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
A chemistry in our heart and get that transferred right
to Corey and Leah and to other duets in the show.
So there's all these little magic things that happened just
because of who the team was behind the scenes, and
it was very special.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Nicki.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I remember she was giving birth to our second child
and she was so pregnant. I propped her up in
a chair, but I need her to keep singing, So
I popped her legs up above her head and hung
a mic over her face so she could keep singing
because her ankles were so swollen. The show must go on. Yeah,
but we loved it. You remember that, which is that childish.
(31:05):
She was so pregnant.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
I was like, what are you doing here? She was
always like smiling, so nice.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
And then she did Glee Project Pregnant too.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
It was crazy.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
We all worked hard, but we loved it.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
You know. It was fun and you get so much joy.
You know, that's the view of musicals, right, If you
just do a show with only dialogue day and night,
there's something you long for, that that break you get
in musical. Okay, it's time to do the music and
then everything unfer a minute. You cut loose and you're
dancing and you're singing, and it's such a great release
for everyone. I found that making the movie. It was like, okay,
(31:44):
we got through the dialogue, let's do a song.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It gives you. And it's the same working on music
all the time because it's so fun and it's so
life giving.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, it makes you feel in a completely different way.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
It really does.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
And they were amazing songs, and you guys were amazing
and it was just fun. If everybody sucked and was
difficult and had no talent, I would have quit.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Right, I remember it. There was one time where you
came you're coming in and out. I think it might've
been one of my first sessions with Alex and I
was recording the hair mashup? Is that what it was?
And I wasn't originally supposed to sing it, but like
none of us could do it. We all sounded terrible,
(32:29):
Mark Corey, myself. And then you come in to like
check up and you're like, no, I had to finished
the entire song and you go, do this line like this,
and I do it and you go, that's it. Start over,
and I was like, you've got You've got to be
kidding me. But it was those things that taught me
so much, and then I knew. I'm like, oh god,
(32:51):
now they know I can do it right, and so
now there's like certain things that I we're gonna have
to do. And I absolutely did the rest of the series.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
And if you show me something you're good at, oh
it's god. Like Amber with her ad libs, She's like,
please don't make me do Atlism and you're doing the
ad lit.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Every ad list.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
A lot of times Amber and I would pass each
other in the hallways at Challice and she'll have just
come out looking so deflated, defeated, and she's like, I
can't do this.
Speaker 3 (33:21):
She's like in a closet, I'm out of the closet,
I'm like begging her to come out. I'm bribing her,
please come out.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
The cars outside waiting to take you back to Seth
They're calling, you haven't started singing. You have to come
out of the closet. She's like, go away, Like Amber, please,
what do you want? I'll call him massus food, Like
what do you want? She's like, oh, hey, I'm napping.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
She and I would really connect over the music and
we'd lose our minds because she came out. She's like,
I said, angels, we have heard on high into another
song she did back to back, She's like, I'm never
gonna be able to again. I'm like, you're gonna be
fined in two hours. You're going to be.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Really I spent all you guys. I mean, if you
go down the list, there were so many good singers.
Both of you were awesome. I mean Leah is great,
Nia was amazing. I mean Corey was the one probably
had sung the least coming in.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
But you got that out of him.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah, I mean, don't believe it was the first time
he's sung in this dude, like, what are we doing?
And he couldn't breathe. He almost passed out. He didn't
want to breathe and sing at the same time. He
turned blue and he's like getting dizzy, Like what are
you doing? He's like what, I'm like, you have to breathe, man,
pretty amazing scene where he started, where he ended up,
(34:44):
and Matt Morrison was made.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
It was just it was a juggernaut of talent.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It really was.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You also got to work with all of our guest stars.
We had so many insanely like famous and people just
wanted to be on the show. Right, what was your experience,
you know, when you have Gwenn coming in and Chris
and Ricky Martin, all these people.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
It was awesome. It was fun.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
John Stamos, who bought my house.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, when he came to.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Look at my house, I heard he was coming. I
put his songs on in the house. These songs were
playing when he looked at the house. Pretty funny. Gwyneth.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I remember working with Gwyneth.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
We we became pretty good friends and and but I
always reminded her I was just trying to get to Chris,
you know, I'm really.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Just using you to get to your husband.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
And sure enough, one day I get a phone call, Hey, Adam,
it's Chris Mot Like what he's like, I got tickets
to you for you Hollywood Bow for a show tonight
in the after par what so Gwyneth had set it up.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Uh So things like that were really special. And Kate
Hudson was awesome. Yeah, they were amazing guest stars. So
those are the things you remember and you kind of
pinch yourself. Oscar winners, you know, and Tony Award winners
and just just phenomenal people. And they were all there
was fun to work with, you know. It's like the
bigger the star, the more fun they work with.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah. Yeah, they always surprised us all too, because you'd
be like, oh my god, and like everybody stand up straight, but.
Speaker 7 (36:10):
They're like, hey, guys, what's going on. It's really nice.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I just want to know if there's any any songs
that you worked at well obviously that didn't get approved
by the artist, like after doing it.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Mm hmm, yeah, well not after doing it. A lot
of songs didn't get approved to begin with. It was
never supposed to be don't stop believing it was supposed
to be Viva LaVita by speaking of Chris Martin, right,
that's right, and we were denied and that's how we
fell into Don't Step Believing, which, by the way, what
a great thing that was, because I don't think the
(36:55):
show it was Don't Stop Believing. Like everybody still thinks
that's a Glee song. You know, I have no idea
Journey existed. That's pretty amazing. You are the original artists,
and I don't know if you knew.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
That's right, Ye, take all the credit.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
There were a lot of I don't remember the Food
Fighters debacle with Ryan. Yeah, in kings Lan, we got
denied by rock bands all the time, and Ryan would
get pissed and didn't come out and say like food
fighters hate children or something.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
It was to kings of Lean or something like that,
and that's right.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And then food Fighters came to their defense, and I
was like, never getting any of our songs. And I
was in I was in Ryan's office when that happened,
and he kind of looks at me, and one of
the funniest Ryan moments, He's like, so maybe I should
have said that I probably went too far. I'm like,
he went too far. Oh my gosh, Like we're never
gonna get a rock music. So yeah, not much rock
(37:56):
music made it onto the show thanks to the Kings
of Leon incident.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
We might have a couple songs were not supposed to have,
like the unreleased version of tell Him, Oh Oh.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
We have I Love the Way You Lie.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Yeah, I've got probably one hundred songs in my hard
drive that didn't come out.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So how should you have now? Should we you have that?
There have them?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I don't know. If it's so long now don't have
The hard drive will spin up, but they are somewhere.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
If you have a couple of minutes one day and
are board after promoting your movie, if the hard drive
still works, you drop a pin and we'll be there.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
That is not like gold playing those songs.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
There's this mashup. I got to hear it. I never
got to hear it.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
You know what's crazy.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I couldn't tell you which songs came out and which
ones didn't.
Speaker 4 (38:50):
Fair It is all a blur.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
I'm sure after I can remember there.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
Was did you do a song on Gleam like I'm
sure we did.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
I can't tell you. People go this song you did?
I did that song? I don't remember. I mean when
you're doing eight ten songs a week for seven years happening,
and it's remarkable how many things we did, so I
don't even know. You guys have to tell me. You
have to come over and go. We did not want
came out that one. Didn't that Kevin, I have no clue.
(39:20):
There's an episode of your podcast exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
All the fans are dying.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
They're like, there's a billion lawsuits. Yes everyone, right before
we go? Is there a song that we didn't do
that you wish we could have done?
Speaker 4 (39:36):
He's like, you know, parent aways want to do.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
The show must go on in the last episode.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
I thought that would have been awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
One, we're big queen fans, so yeah, that would have
been fun. And then we should have done more Rabba.
I just got to say, we didn't do enough Abba.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I can never do enough Abba.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Winner Takes It All would have been amazing to do. Yeah,
so I'm a little bitter about that. But okay, none
of Swedish. We did a lot of Swedish music, a
lot of pop songs, right, a lot of them. So
that's but look, we did almost everything. There wasn't much
that was left untouched. We did West Side Story, which
is my favorite. We didn't do any sound of music,
(40:21):
which is you know, a sound of music that would
have been fun. But I'm pretty pretty uh fulfilled with
the catalog we have from Glee.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I think i'd say audio work.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Did I say my career ended there? It would have
been like, Wow, that was cool. Okay, now cleaning pools
for a living or whatever. But yeah, it was pretty remarkable,
that whole that whole thing.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Okay, Before we let you go, we asked one question
to the people who are involved with Glee. What is
the feeling like Lee left you with?
Speaker 3 (40:57):
Gratitude?
Speaker 4 (40:59):
I think a lot gratitude and some sadness.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I think, you know, I miss some people obviously, so
I miss Corey and and Naya of course, but a
lot of gratitude. It's just I think back and it
just I smile, you know, I really do. It was
a special time, what an amazingly rewarding experience with amazing people.
(41:23):
And I'm so fortunate that I knew when I was
doing it. Yeah, that's key, and I feel really grateful
for that.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
As hard as it was, that sustained us. And yeah,
just grateful.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
That's the where that comes to mind, and really fun
to catch up with you guys again. We have to
actually come on, we have to see what are we doing.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's here, let's do that.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
Congrats everybody, go see Adam's movie and November tenth, and
thank you for like just coming back. It's just so
nice to see you.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
And nice to congrats on Journey about the him, Like
what a crazy you did after seventeen yours like this,
absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3 (42:02):
I may never work again, but I did it.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
I mean you did it. You've done a lot. You've
done a lot.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Yeah, I may not want to work again.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
You need to just take a nap. Sit down, take
a nap. You've heard it. Thank you for spending so
much time with us today and that. Yeah, let's hang
out and we can talk forever.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
So how about we do it. We'll spend a whole
day together.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Great, say hi to the fan for us.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
I will thank you. Okay. I hope you guys really
enjoyed Adam as much as we did, because that was awesome.
Thank you Adam for joining us for so much time.
Congratulations on your movie. Go see it, you guys, Journey
to Bethlehem. It's a musical movie. This is a key audience.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
We learned so much. I'm sorry in shock, I just
didn't Yeah, the music department, that whole world was literally
a different world from our every day of spending like
sixteen hours fifteen hours on set m HM, and the
whole thing. They had to do the entirety for seven years. Also,
(43:07):
you know, producing eight hundred and was seventeen songs, but
only seven hundred and something came out, and so he
still did over eight hundred numbers, damn. And that's just
you also don't even the amount of time and care
it took to do these things. Like when we wish
up to record, they would even come in and figure
out which mike was best for our voice on that
(43:28):
style of song. So all these little things added up
to so much time and care and six seasons, seven
years that never let up. And so it was really
a feat. And I don't think anyone's ever going to
be able to match what they did, just the amount
of work that they did ever. Yep, thank you Adam again.
(43:50):
It's so special to get to catch up and sharing
it with all of you who are listening. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That's why you're really missed.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
that's what you really miss pod make sure to write
us a review and leave us five stars. See you
next time.
Host
Jenna Ushkowitz
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