February 2, 2021 • 43 mins
In this very special episode, Sammy Jaye chats with creators of Bridgerton the Musical Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear! They talk about what it is like creating a musical while sharing it with their audiences in real time via live stream; the power of GenZ; how to be taken seriously at a young age; and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey guys, It's Sammy Jay and welcome back to the
Let's Be Real Podcast. You guys, this episode, oh my goodness,
I am so excited for you to hear it. I
think this may be one of my favorite episodes of
all time. This week we have two guests, Abigail Barlow
and Emily Bear. They are partners in crime. They are
Ying and Yang. They are brilliant. Now you've probably have
(00:25):
heard of what they're working on Britain the Musical. They
are creating a musical in real time on TikTok and
I do live and you can see the process before
your very eyes. And I'm telling you what these girls
are doing and the songs they're creating are just different.
They're innovating the space. We talk about what it's like
to be gen z since they are twenty two and nineteen,
(00:45):
and how to be taken seriously in the business. We
also talk about friendships, girls, supporting girls, and so much more.
As always, I look forward to your feedback and enjoy.
I'm so glad you guys are all my pod has
because I have been on TikTok not as much more viewer.
I'm trying to get into the creating. But I've been
(01:08):
following you, Abigail for ever since you created uh Sober.
I remember when I saw, I was I just love
the creativity because I feel like there's it's awesome when
you find that on this kind of platform. And when
I saw you guys were creating bridgrotin the musical, it
(01:29):
made me watch the show first. I love that. First
of all, can you talk about how attractive Simon is? Oh?
That's literally happy for conversation. We both have boyfriends, but
we're like, oh my god, like it pains my soul
how attractive that man is. It's amazing. I can't He's
(01:49):
just perfect. His face, the structure, it's justine muscles with
the British. I have a theory that if you are
British you automatically get ten more points. It's just and
if you're British and like studyingly handsome, it's over and
you have abs like we're done, it's good. It's doing here, sir,
(02:11):
where you're handing marriage. His arms are like perfectly chiseled.
I was like, that was my first thing. I was like.
After I saw, I was like, okay, I'll watched the show,
like I know me oh my god, me. So how
far into watching the show having Guild, We're like, okay,
this should be a musical. I actually finished binging it,
(02:32):
and there was like one piece of dialogue that stuck
out to me, like beyond the rest. It was what
Henry Grandville says about you have no idea what it's
like to be in a room with someone you can't
live without and yet still feel like their oceans away
from you. And I was like, dude, that is a song.
And it's basically all of the dialogue is so poetic.
The music almost writes itself. It's kind of crazy. It's
(02:54):
like so I yeah, So I just like I went
to my piano and kind of started messing round because
I was just tired of like the structure of pop
music I was writing, and I wanted to like kind
of just expand my horizons and write something that I
never would have written otherwise. And I think Britain gave
me that vehicle to do that. And so after I
finished like binging it, I was like, what if this
(03:16):
move a musical? You know, like it probably could be,
And then I wrote that song. So, what's your favorite musical,
like of all time? Your top three Pip in the
revival Purple. Um. Um, is it so cliche to say
(03:37):
is so good? I mean like there's a there's a
reason it's so popular, you know whatever. I think, Yeah,
it's amazing. My favorites are. I've did a lot of
musical theater as a kid, Like, did so many shows
and next to normal I got to see on Broadway
it was incredible at won the Pulitzer Prize and like
two thousand twelve or something like that. Um, such good music.
(03:58):
Uh shoot, I love Into the Woods. I think a
lot of the stuff, especially for writing this show, it's
very much operatic and feel it's I was I was
thinking about that, like I got into the wood vibes,
like listening to the music. I think the duel song
is definitely some time vibes on it. We tried to
really lean into like the operatic style because I think
(04:22):
it really like it benefited the show to have sort
of that string feel underneath all of the dialogue and
stuff like that, so we wanted to keep that for
what we're creating. But yeah, I think that Into the
Woods I love sometime, I love I love Sweeney Todd
and a lot of people have been saying Sweeney time
because it kind of been influenced for me. Yeah, I mean,
I just love musical theater so much, and I think
(04:44):
that classic sound with like a pop influence on it
is something that not many people have kind of explored yet.
And and we have such different backgrounds that complement each other,
so it kind of just fell into place when we
started writing. Our our skill sets are so complimentary and
you know, it's funny. So we met actually working on
a different musical project that's more of a passion project,
(05:07):
and we were keeping a lot less in the spotlight.
But um, that one, we had a vision of it
being like very pop because there was like a golden
era where musical theater songs crossed over to the pop
charts wars and wanted to do that again exactly. We
wanted to do that again, and so um we figured
(05:30):
out after we're writing together for the first time that
like it just worked, Like we come from like a
pop background, and she has such incredible instincts, it's like scary.
And then I come from like a very different background,
like I was possibly trained, I like toured with like
a jazz trio, So very smart and incredibly gigantic brain inside.
(05:51):
But I also loved writing songs and I've been doing
that for a while and so like us together, it's
just works. It's really great it seeing and Yang. Yeah,
literally it is. It's so you and Yang. So what
is the process of creating a musical? Because just like
the beginning of any project, the hardest part is starting,
That's what I always tell and a musical is very daunting.
(06:13):
So how do you go about structuring this show when
they're you know, eight episodes, eight hours total content, and
you're condensing it into songs? How do you go about
doing that? Yeah, We've been saying, like we need to
take these eight hours of storytelling and you can put
it into Yeah. And it's crazy because this kind of
just started as a passion project. Like when I did
(06:33):
the Hypothetical What It Britain, wasn't musical, Like I really
wasn't expecting it to blow up the way it did
and expect people to want more. You didn't know, like
I've post my original pop music like you said all
the time, so like this was no different. I was
just inspired on a different level by something happening in
pop culture and like the world just kind of nodded
in agreement, So I mean, I can tell you she
(06:54):
texted me that night and it was like, what if
British and wasn't musical? And my initial thought was like,
oh my god, that's a good idea. Let's do this. Yeah,
the rest of the world is like, oh my god,
that's a good idea. So we're having fun right now
writing it. And I think that's why it's not so daunting,
is because we're kind of taking it, like segments of
the storyline as we feel inspired to write them. I mean,
(07:16):
if you want to get more into the details, like
we think that you know, what captured us in the
show is their love story and how beautiful it was,
and you know how they showed the struggling parts too,
But we wanted the show to sort of focus on
Simon and Daphne's relationship, right all the chaos that erupt
from that, So we're trying to like structure it to
(07:37):
be that, you know. I think that's also so interesting
because there are many different plots within the shows, and
I find it it's it's good that you're like choosing
one narrative to go down and kind of touching us
like someone otherwise we'd have like a cast album with
seven exactly. But I feel like that's one of the
really fascinating things. Like the music. It's not just like Broadway.
(08:03):
It feels like music that's on the radio, which I
think what you guys are doing, it's coming across really well.
What is your songwriting process? Because you guys are doing
it differently, like it hasn't been done before. I find
it so refreshing. You guys are live streaming while you're
creating the songs. Is that ever intimidating to know like
people are watching you or do you just kind of
(08:23):
zone them out? I mean a little bit, But also
at the same time, everyone's been so incredible and supportive
and it helps it there, you know. It's what you
were saying before, is like I think TikTok is a
platform that loves authenticity and like we're not hiding the
parts that we're struggling, Like people see when we don't
know what to say next. People are seeing when we
(08:43):
are hitting writer's block, we can't find a rhyme from
like Penny, and like, why can't we find a rhyme
for Penny? But then they also see it when it
just comes out like that, and when we hit a
stride and like how excited we get when we find
something that we love, and it's like it makes it
a lot less daunting, It can't. I mean, it just
(09:04):
depends really on whether we're struggling or whether it's coming
out like that, because you can you can tune them
out sometimes and then sometimes they're actually really helpful and
give us suggestions on what to say. So that's awesome.
That's advice in real time. Yeah, exactly, and exactly with
the people who are going to be ultimately consuming. Yeah,
(09:25):
I mean it's really brilliant because you're having the audience
go through the process with you, so then when they
see the show, it's like, hey, they're parting. Yeah, Honestly,
like I was saying, you know, musicals are usually very
hidden in development, like kind of in secrecy for years,
and these things take years to develop, and so I
(09:46):
don't think anyone's been ever able to see the process
of that. And we didn't really have like an epiphanymore
it was like, oh my god, this is a brilliant
master plan and just I don't know as actually it
just happened and then you're here. That's probably how it happened.
It just were like, yeah, if we knew, what would
have happened, Like, I don't think it would have happened
(10:07):
the same way. No, I I think it really just
hit the zeitgeist in the coolest way and and had
so many people feel like they were along for the
ride for this because who knows where it could go.
There are some really cool opportunities for us now that
you know, we've kind of developed a following around it,
and it's really exciting to have people like on our
team and so supportive of the idea. Lin Man Well,
(10:29):
who's like my dream? Oh my god. We had a
ramos on the podcast because even too uh he started
and I was like, oh my god, just tell me
some wind stories like I need he do wedded one
of the songs and died and sign and say that's amazing.
(10:51):
How did you get into the whole podcast? So I
was in my sophomore year of high school and my
anxiety got really bad because mean girls, and I started
listening to podcasts as like a way to distract, because
if you have anxiety, probably no distraction is your best friend.
And so I was listening to podcast and I couldn't
(11:13):
relate to anything that was coming out, and as distraction
is like, I'm going to create my dream podcast. So
I did like research on the marketplace and I eventually
pitched it just for fun, and they gave me a
pilot and I got Julia Michaels on it, and then
we went to series and now around season two that
girl boss yees. So I had originally met Julia when
(11:35):
I interviewed her on the set of American Idol when
I was on assignment for Radio Disney. That's so exciting. Anyway,
Julia would be amazing in this musical, don't you think. Honestly,
I really cool so our girl Sienna. I know she's
an opera singer and she'll definitely have some influence. But
for some reason, her and Anthony's relationship always feels like sexy,
(12:00):
sultry pop to us. It gives me pop vibes, and
so everything we write for them is very so Julia,
Julia Relia. It's like, you know, the musical theater voice
is definitely a thing, and I think we should get
a pop girl to sing. I completely agree. I agree.
Or do you know who would be really good? Jazzy Jones,
who from Hamilton's Anthony's wife, and she played Peggy. She
(12:25):
played Reynolds that she'd be good for, you know, your
musical theater, Yes, queen. My family is a music I
live in New York, so I've kind of grown up
with it. Got it right, Broadways, Yeah, Broadways close. I
hope it that opens back soon from the pandemic. Trust me.
I like it's it's like the worst thing to feel
(12:47):
like you're so closed off, but like that's why this
is such a cool thing, because we feel like it's
something that could possibly at the theaters maybe, you know.
I also think that, like you know, COVID is a
dark time for a lot of musicians and a lot
of people who work in the arts. And the fact
that so many people who are in the industry are
(13:09):
like grabbing onto this is one completely surreal Yeah, it's
a very weird. Like we feel like in awe and
grateful that something that we wrote could ever reached so
many people. I know, Yeah, we've idolized for a year.
I know what is bizarre and so magical of a
(13:30):
of a experience and journey. It's really cool. So who's
the most unexpected person that's reached out to you or
that you know about Bridget that knows about Bridget in
the musical that you were like, holy shit. I mean
there's some people behind the scenes that were sort of
like freaking out internally over um that we I don't
want to say too much, but like really exciting things. Um.
(13:53):
Petina Miller, which was she was in She Needs to
Be Lady Danny. Yeah, she she just DMed me and
was like, finished this musical and I was like, okay, clean,
you got it. Cast members like Luke, the guy who
plays Colin, is like on Our Lives all the time
that comes in just just like on an outed and
(14:15):
Philippa of all like reached out to Abigail and like
we saw the guy who plays what's his name Anthony Um,
but the guy who plays Anthony and Jonathan Um he
was on Entertainment Night like raving about the musical and
we're like, is this it doesn't feel question? Has Simon
Flint in the d M. He hasn't slit in the
(14:37):
d MS, but he did post a video today that
like Netflix had like a little promotional thing and talked
about the musical, So he's aware of it. At least
you know you're on his radarland. That's all. That is all.
You will be the first to know. Great, I'll get
the damn ye absolutely, So what is your favorite that
(15:00):
you guys have written so far? You know that's hard
because they're all like your babies, But I know if
you had to pay. So I truly think that our
favorite song is whatever we just wrote. And so our
favorite right now is the opening number because we just
finished it. More obsessed with this ending that we just wrote. Um,
I mean, do you want to get wet? Do you
(15:22):
want to play? Yeah? I keep in mind that when
I bounced it, I accidentally caught off the ending. And
also it's very rough. It's gonna sound better than no,
but I'm excited. Work in progress. Okay, So this is
when the doors open and she walks in and she's
(15:42):
being presented to the queen. This is her inner monopope.
I guess she's walking down and then the ensemble starts
chiming in, the brothers chime in, and the very end
you'll hear it. Okay, I'm ready, don't trip, don't falter,
(16:04):
just make it to the out, don't break, don't crumble,
make certain you're perfectly humble. Show her majesty the queen.
That's your more than work. Don't you let it show
that you're more than most. Finally, Unlaby, the power piece
(16:27):
must be common co connected at the sun. This must
be perfectly perfectly desire, So don't find just make it.
You're the out must be perfectly perfect, perfect pots flawless,
(17:01):
my dear, Okay, just help them. Okay, so many thoughts.
The composition is insane. It feels like I'm in a
princess movie in the best way possible. We know that
she's very you know, big on the tradition, and she's
delicate but strong and inspired and excited, and I don't
(17:24):
know that was one of the times where it just
like flu that's must be the best feeling. Oh my god,
we were we were so we are truly rarely ever
happy with something that we're right right, Okay, Abigail. The harmony,
I mean, she helped me with them. I couldn't come
(17:44):
up with all of them all. I trying to understand
the writing process, but it is truly a collaboration. Were
she leans obviously a little more lyric melody. Eileen Moore, Well,
it's pretty we both have We're both pretty headstrong in
our ideas too, and then that's good because we both
every yeah, we both do everything, and we're both confident
in our choices and our ideas, so we just bounce
(18:05):
off each other really when we right, it's really I
love working with her, and collaboration can be really difficult
to especially if you guys butt heads, because it's such
a passionate thing when you guys. Right, Yeah, we've we've
talked about, like we both know that collaborations are hard,
partnerships are hard, um, But we've talked you know, we
need always to have open, honest communication and we're gonna argue,
(18:29):
we're going to butt heads, but it's how we deal
with those that's going to be really really important. Yeah,
And I think mostly like we never really bud heads
when we're writing together. Like more like it's more all
the things that like surround this, you know, it's finishing touches,
ship and all the ins and outs. I have nothing
to do with the music. It's more like you know,
(18:51):
some of the external you know. Yeah, like just like
but but we rarely ever butt heads anyway. We're just
friends first, you know, which is like the most exciting
thing that like you get to do this with your friend,
and like so that you will each other. We love
each other, you know, I mean, like I said, we
were friends first, so honestly, that introduction, it's so beautiful. Okay,
(19:14):
we have to take a quick break, but when we
come back, let's dive deeper into bridgertain the musical and
how in the world you guys have written about half
the songs for show in a little over two weeks,
and what it's like to live stream the whole process
in front of the world. We'll be right back and
(19:35):
we're back. How long does it take you to write
a song? Like, what's the fastest it's been for to
write one of these songs? Thirty minutes? Thirty minutes we
wrote that Balancing the Scale song, the mother song start
an hour with the recording. That's impressive. It was like,
truly insert we do. We were both pretty prolific and
(19:55):
when we write, like we just write a lot constantly,
so we know how to finish the song pretty quickly.
And because we're both fast, like separate or apart, then
we come together and we're like boom, boom boom. Everything
happened so fast. But then again, we're writing a different
song that we've come back to three times, and I
think we finally just cracked the code, but it takes
(20:16):
a little more pulling and struggling. Yeah, And I also
think it's one of those things where innovating is so important,
especially in this time where you know, Broadway is closed
and we're we have to figure out different ways to
make things work. It's the time for changing things up
and especially writing music. A few years ago, not many
(20:36):
people did it on their computer. They had to go
into a studio. So now that you guys are writing
a full blow musical at home is pretty awesome and insane.
It's it's really fun. It's like it's it's like our
safe space and we just it's where we have the
most fun as together writing. Yeah, is there. I know, Emily,
you have a very classical background. How how has that
(21:00):
come into you know, I know you really see your
own music. How has that come into writing a musical
and you know, still making it modern but also giving
that classical vibe to it. I'm kind of all over
the place when it comes to genre, Like she's cross genres.
I do classical, I do film scoring, I do jazz.
(21:21):
I love that your your genre list. I love that, um,
And I think what I love most about that is
that I can pick and you know, take from all
my different influences and bring it in more it's appropriate.
But also at the end of the day, I'm nineteen
years old. I'm like very well aware of the pop
culture and I love Mac Miller and I listened to
(21:43):
everything now, so like I have that view while still
having like this classical jazz like training blah blah blah. Well,
I mean, I think that's great. I don't know, I'm eighteen,
and it's really interesting that I've at least experience I
don't know if you guys have where it's hard to
be taken seriously at first because it's truly like, so,
(22:07):
I my dream is to become a film composer. That's
why I write music for TV media games. UM, and
I've been really like fortunate to have, you know, I've
been doing that for the past couple of years. But
it is so hard because like my age is like
my big asset but also like one of my biggest downfalls,
(22:30):
because especially in an industry where there's so much responsibility
attached to the writing of the music, like you get
you know, people who look at you only as a risk,
not as you know, a risk. But I'm really important
to really yeah, and no one's really willing to take
risks in the music industry right now because everything's you know,
(22:52):
so fragile right now, like the touring community, like nothing's happening,
so like any risk is just a loss of money,
like that's what labels look at it as. So it
is really hard to be taken seriously, and I think
it will always be as a at a certain degree
because we are very young women trying to make it
(23:12):
in this business that's very very heavily men. But I
think at the same time, we're kind of paving a
road for ourselves right now, and that feels really good,
you know, I mean, I think so. We've gotten obviously
a lot of messages over the past few days, but
the most special ones are from the people who are like,
(23:34):
I lost my passion for theater and music a long
time ago, but I just bought a keyboard because I'm
so inspired, And the ones that are like, I've never
seen two women do this before, How freaking cool is that? Like,
when I like see those, you know, it makes it
all worth it. Sleepless nights all the christ I should
(23:54):
so worth it, absolutely, and also like I feel like
our generation is so awesome and so cool and I've
I've experienced, you know, people it's hard to be taken
as seriously because of my age. Um, but I think
we bring a fresh perspective to things that where we're optimistic.
I've noticed in meetings I'll shoot for the stars. I'm like,
(24:15):
we should do this. Sister like, well, well, I don't know,
and it's like why not. It's you know that that
mindset is all you need. Yeah, exactly. Really, when we're
in New York, we have to meet, Yes, yes, I
feel like, no, I know, And it's hard. It's hard
(24:36):
to find women in this industry where we can like
support each other because there's weirdly a lot of competition.
And yeah, it feels very competitive all the time, you know,
like pushes that it's dumb, Like the media pushes it constantly,
and it's like, why aren't we just raising each other
up as much as possible, because that is the most
(24:58):
important thing. Like I I want to see more women
doing what we're doing, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
I want someone to look at us and see like
two women who are you know, are very different but
are each paving like your way, and you're you know,
you guys are changing in the best way because frankly,
we're at a time and it stands still in the
(25:19):
pandemic where everyone's thinking, Okay, we need to change things,
and it's an opportunity to where we can now change
things because people typically exactly, I think I think the
change is long overdue, especially in sort of like the
gate keeper way of making musicals and making content like
we're making like like we said, it's usually very uh
(25:40):
secretive and in development for years and then you get
producers involved, and then the producers change all the things
and then but we're kind of going directly to the
audience and really the only metric is do they like it?
You know, so they now have like an invested interest
in love for the music that you've never been able
to that before, and like people who are going to
(26:01):
come see the show if it ever makes it a Broadway,
let's manifest. Let's manifest. They'll know all the words, they'll
sing along. Yeah, look, you know I mean that. But like, yeah,
I think years ago, Netflix probably would have sent us
to cease and desist you know, but because there's so
(26:22):
many people that you know, there's so many people that
love the music, and it's probably like in their best
interest now that like support at least support the idea
and you know, be accepting of what's happening. It's really
really fascinating. I mean, you never know what's going to happen,
but we know that we both have so many more
musicals and songs in us, and we just like can't
(26:46):
wait to start writing for everything. I know. Yeah, And
I also think one of the things is like when
you're pitching people, you guys now have the power in
the sense of we have the people who want to
see we have the audience who are still engaged in
the process. It's not like a a is they have
to take because you have everything like already, which is
so it goes to show like just by being authentic
(27:07):
and being creative, you can honestly do what you want,
which I don't think a lot of people will realize.
I don't really know how it happened, but we seem
to sometimes struck a chord and I'm just like, we're
just really excited about what could be, you know, the
possibility even beyond um Britain. We've always talked about since
we first started writing, how we feel like this is
kind of a lifelong partnership and we see each other
(27:29):
working on multiple things together and and I think it
still rings true. This is just kind of like the
first thing that that popped off, and so we're just
excited to make more now. So excited, I know, is
there Okay, I will say oceans away and burn through you.
It is like those just hit a little different just
(27:49):
in the sense of creating the composition for that. How
do you choose what goes well because there's so many
different instruments and sounds and vocals. How do you have
the sense? Is it just like I mean I got
feeling where part some things should go or do? How
do you go about creating something? I did it alive
yesterday where I was just like purely just orchestrating, and
(28:13):
I mean some of it is like instinct um and
other is other parts of it. It's just very much um,
try and fail sort of thing. But I mean I
have never orchestrated something so quickly. Is I did those
two songs. I was like, when we finished those songs together,
it just fell out. When I like finished the arrangement
in orchestration, it just fell out, like it's been like
(28:37):
those songs were really easy to do. I think it's
because they're inspired by the yeah, by the show, and
like the feeling that was emulated through the actor's performances.
I think it just sort of happened. And I always
say I heard on I was watching the Bags documentary
and I heard Chris Martin say this incredible thing that
just completely clicked with me, and he's like, songwriters don't
(28:59):
really write songs, they received songs. And it's so true.
It's like it's just floating around in the ether and
you pick the things out of out of thin air,
and it's like it just happens. Sometimes. That's why I
feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, like always Yeah,
So I think that's kind of how it happens. I
feel like it's it's sort of just I I opened
(29:20):
my mind to allow myself to just write what I'm
what I'm hearing, what I'm feeling. Yeah, And I like
I someone asked me on Instagram, like a question answer
thing that you do in your story is like what
made you fall in love with music? And I thought
about it and then I was like, you know that,
I feel like for me, it's when you're in a song,
or for me an orchestra or the music swells and
(29:42):
your heart just like lurches like that feeling. I can't
like magical, it's magical, and I get those feelings from
those two songs. So are we starting with an album
and then seeing what happens with it? I mean, we
have big dream and uh, we're kind of why not.
(30:03):
We're being approached from a lot of different directions and
we are still figuring them out and trying to make
smart decisions and figure out what direction we want to
go in and all we want to do with it,
And like, I can't believe we have all of these
are at our disposal. It's really crazy. It's like it's great,
but it must be overwhelming too, because it's a little bit.
(30:24):
I think we're mostly just really really yeah. I think
the overwhelming stuff comes when we're overthinking things and when
we just get back to the music and creating, it
just feels like made like natural for both of us.
I mean, so after the first two songs were written
and we got together and we're like, oh my god,
we're gonna like try to write a musicals, like an
(30:46):
entire musical, and like a few weeks and we're like
about how we're going to do this, Like Hamilton took
six years to develop, what are you doing? And then
we just started writing and we got a plan and
we're like and then we got half a musical one week.
It's been to three weeks, two weeks, two weeks since
that first TikTok wild. How much you've, like, what over
(31:08):
half of the musical done? Yeah, like like eleven songs.
We're kind of thinking twenty for the concept album, like
twenty um, and we're kind of half through, halfway through
telling all the big plot points of the story, you know,
like for a concept album, because it is just a
concept album, I think it'll be a little different than
ever it was like a cast recording. It would be
very different once you you know, take that concept album
(31:30):
and then turn it into a Broadway show and it's
going to be obviously many more songs, many more interludes,
many more reprises, um, because you know, you you have
to fill in all the dots. Was more like a
detailed outline, Yeah, exactly. That's a really great way to
describe that. Oh, for sure, Okay, we have to take
(31:52):
one more quick break, but when we come back, I
want to hear how you guys are balancing such a
creative process with the potential toxicity of social media and
maybe just maybe you'll play any more music. We'll be
right back and we're back. Something that I'm curious about
(32:13):
that I've experienced, and I'm wondering if you have, because
you're now getting all this you know, notoriety and people
are reaching out. Have people come back into your life
that you're like, oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah,
I mean it's inevitable. You know. I think I think
people sort of if you've known them from the past,
(32:34):
they feel like they have a stake in your success
or what have you, even if they didn't. Um, And
so it's just kind of like taking each of those
outreaches and just being you know, gracious and and saying, hey,
thank you for reaching out and being supportive. I mean,
that's all you. And I like from everyone that I've
experienced reaching out like, it's been more like not congratulatory,
(32:57):
but more like sharing the law than it can get
something from you. Yeah, there's been not a lot of that,
but also at the same time, Like I know, we've
all been in positions where we ask a favor and
we feel uncomfortable asking for a favor, and so I
want to give everyone who asked me for a favor
in the future or now like that same like benefit
(33:20):
of the doubt, benefit of the doubt, because like, not
everything helicious or or like self centered. Sometimes it's like
truly like some people need a boost. And I truly
think I'm nowhere in a position where I can like
truly do that yet. But like I know Pass and Paul,
like they were mentored by Alan Mencken and they were
(33:41):
given that benefit of the doubt there, and I know
they want to pass that along to the next whatever,
so like I can do that. Yeah, Yeah, I think
mentoring is so underrated and it's so powerful. It's so important.
Oh my god, it's so important. Yeah, is there Because
you're on social media a lot, how are you guys
(34:01):
finding a somewhat healthy balance with that, because I'm still
trying to figure that out because I've noticed when I
spent a lot of time on Instagram that anxiety goes up. Yeah,
I think before we get into that answer, like the
bridge in the musical has been so overwhelmingly positive, Like
I don't think either of us can believe that, how
like little negativity there has been with it, got it
(34:24):
um so like it's been a really healthy social media
experience for both of us. And I know Abigail can
go off because she has a big social media following,
and anyone with a huge social media following like is
going to experience some stupid and dumb hate. But like right,
I think, like for mental health, it's pretty short, sweet
and simple on on how I handle it. But I
(34:46):
think I've always struggled with it. I think it's really
I have a lot of anxiety around it because I've
been growing my social media following since i was sixteen.
Like I was on TikTok before it was TikTok and
it was musically um also with the hands. Yeah, I
got it up to that. I mean I never knew
that I could not. It was a mess. But it's
(35:08):
become such a phenomenon of a platform, and you know,
you just have to take a step back and not
read all the comments. And like when my music wasn't
doing as well, like I I went to the comments
for all of the feedback, and when I for the validation,
and when I didn't receive what I wanted to, it
just absolutely broke my heart, like broke my spirit, and
(35:28):
so I just had to take a step back from
my sanity, you know. And and then that's when the
magic happened, when I was just open to being creative again,
because it got there was a point there before Britain
where I was just like, gosh, and am I going
to be able to make this happen for myself? And
then you know, when I stopped worrying so much about it,
that's all happened place. Yea. I think the industry like
(35:51):
it's filled with extremely high highs and extremely and I
think the sooner we learned to come into any situation
where we're like, you know, if this works out, oh
my god, it's amazing. If it doesn't work out, well
that's okay, will be okay, because it's the experience. And
that's what I always tell people. I didn't when I
pitched this podcast. It wasn't to like have a podcast.
(36:13):
It was just for the experience of it. Yeah, And
now like what you've done it because we need we
need more of this. You guys are so sweet. Thank
you now like me. You guys have worked professionally growing up.
You're both in l A now, But Emily, you've spent
a lot of time in my hometown, New York, right.
(36:33):
I missed New York so much. I studied at Juilliar
NYU for like ten years, so I was in New
York every month for like ever, and I dream love
New York. It's like my life. Okay, can we talk
just for a second about high school and having a
professional career at the same time. I don't know if
you guys feel us, but I feel so much older
(36:53):
than my age, so dude, I truly have I get
only Oh my god, I'm getting so flustered. I never
talked about my career with any of my friends growing up.
I hated it. Yeah, I didn't talk about it because
like my issues where I was like, oh my god,
I'm playing in the Palace and Meena next week, and
I'm freaking out because it's a really hard thing, and
(37:15):
I'm like, if I ruined this, it's gonna like ruin
my career sort of thing. And then they're like, oh
my god, did you hear what? Space My problems are
bigger than this, y'all. Nothing and like I get it,
but it's hard. So I felt like I was just
it was in this weird New York high school thing
where it's just like so petty, like I don't I
(37:38):
was like, I can't know. Yeah, we come. I did school.
I went to a regular like junior high, and then
I graduated high school or because I was so done
with it, so like we get you, girl, I have
one more semester left. I am so close. That's amazing.
You know, we want to go to school yet, right,
So I've gone into five schools so far, which is
(37:59):
really exciting, so exciting. But I'm also considering taking a
gap year and going out to LA for just to
see what I did that. I did that, but then
I also didn't go to college, so you never know
what happens. I would do it. Gap years are fun,
gap bears are fun, and I want to live my
life because I give it up. Dude, you should do
I like, especially with how well you're like doing the
(38:22):
school life right now, I think it would be really beneficial.
I I did that. I graduated high school to two
years early. I took a gap year, I went on
this tour and then I came back in January, and
I was supposed to go to Berkeley School of Music
in the fall, and I was like, I don't want
to spend the next six months in Rockford, Illinois doing nothing.
So I started spending time in l A and then
(38:43):
I moved here, and then by the time September rolled around,
I'm like, I'm not moving so much happening. I'm not
going to school right now, and so that's here we are.
Sometimes a gap year can show you exactly what you
want to do exactly, and that's what I'm thinking of doing.
But you know, when I'm out there, we shall get lunch.
Oh my god. I know. Also, i've seen before we
(39:07):
on this podcast. I feel like we should talk about
just go into a little bit more in the music
to see if you can play me something from Britain.
I know we can, of course, you want the intro.
I don't know if I want the intro or if
I want Oceans Away or Burned. See this is so
cool because usually it's like you can't listen to anything,
(39:28):
But I love that I can listen a while. You
guys are making it right right, Let's do burn for you?
Would that be? Would you want or playing the second
half of burn for you that not a lot of
people have heard. Okay, excited, this is what you want. Okay,
this is obviously still a work in progress, but you
(39:50):
got a good idea. They kiss, they kiss. How do
(40:19):
you feel? I feel wonderful. From the mornings you ease,
to the evenings you quiet. I'm always thinking of you.
I'm always streaming of you, from the mornings too late
to night. It is your like. I'm not sacrifice clean
(40:43):
my eyes side. I really I bla sall name say
(41:14):
this one now, I'm gonna be list It's I'm yours, Stefani.
I've always been yours, and I'm yours. It's so good.
(41:44):
Thank you, I have we haven't listened to that back
and I know it's magical. Bridge see my name. Oh
my goodness. Well I think that was a great way
to end it. Thank you guys so much for coming
on my podcast. Thank you so much for having us
so I know you guys. Please check out the tip
Talk follow like watch live streams. It is truly so
(42:05):
incredible to watch. It was so great to meet you guys.
Thank you for taking the time. I followed you on Instagram.
We must meet. I'm down. I just want to thank
Abigail and Emily for coming on my podcast. I felt
like I'd known them for years and I love this
(42:26):
conversation so much. I hope you liked it. If you
haven't already subscribed to my podcast, leave a comment because
I always love to hear your feedback. And follow me
on Instagram at its Sammy J. That's I T S
S A M M Y J A y E. And
also follow Abigail and Emily on all of their socials.
Follow them on TikTok you can see them create a
musical in real time. Keep up with the content as
(42:47):
it's coming out. Follow them on Instagram as well. It's
Abigail Barlow and Emily's is m L E. Bear. Thank
you for listening. I hope you guys had a great
day and I hope this episode made it a little better. Bye, guys.
That's tw
Hey guys, It's Sammy Jay and welcome back to the
Let's Be Real Podcast. You guys, this episode, oh my goodness,
I am so excited for you to hear it. I
think this may be one of my favorite episodes of
all time. This week we have two guests, Abigail Barlow
and Emily Bear. They are partners in crime. They are
Ying and Yang. They are brilliant. Now you've probably have
(00:25):
heard of what they're working on Britain the Musical. They
are creating a musical in real time on TikTok and
I do live and you can see the process before
your very eyes. And I'm telling you what these girls
are doing and the songs they're creating are just different.
They're innovating the space. We talk about what it's like
to be gen z since they are twenty two and nineteen,
(00:45):
and how to be taken seriously in the business. We
also talk about friendships, girls, supporting girls, and so much more.
As always, I look forward to your feedback and enjoy.
I'm so glad you guys are all my pod has
because I have been on TikTok not as much more viewer.
I'm trying to get into the creating. But I've been
(01:08):
following you, Abigail for ever since you created uh Sober.
I remember when I saw, I was I just love
the creativity because I feel like there's it's awesome when
you find that on this kind of platform. And when
I saw you guys were creating bridgrotin the musical, it
(01:29):
made me watch the show first. I love that. First
of all, can you talk about how attractive Simon is? Oh?
That's literally happy for conversation. We both have boyfriends, but
we're like, oh my god, like it pains my soul
how attractive that man is. It's amazing. I can't He's
(01:49):
just perfect. His face, the structure, it's justine muscles with
the British. I have a theory that if you are
British you automatically get ten more points. It's just and
if you're British and like studyingly handsome, it's over and
you have abs like we're done, it's good. It's doing here, sir,
(02:11):
where you're handing marriage. His arms are like perfectly chiseled.
I was like, that was my first thing. I was like.
After I saw, I was like, okay, I'll watched the show,
like I know me oh my god, me. So how
far into watching the show having Guild, We're like, okay,
this should be a musical. I actually finished binging it,
(02:32):
and there was like one piece of dialogue that stuck
out to me, like beyond the rest. It was what
Henry Grandville says about you have no idea what it's
like to be in a room with someone you can't
live without and yet still feel like their oceans away
from you. And I was like, dude, that is a song.
And it's basically all of the dialogue is so poetic.
The music almost writes itself. It's kind of crazy. It's
(02:54):
like so I yeah, So I just like I went
to my piano and kind of started messing round because
I was just tired of like the structure of pop
music I was writing, and I wanted to like kind
of just expand my horizons and write something that I
never would have written otherwise. And I think Britain gave
me that vehicle to do that. And so after I
finished like binging it, I was like, what if this
(03:16):
move a musical? You know, like it probably could be,
And then I wrote that song. So, what's your favorite musical,
like of all time? Your top three Pip in the
revival Purple. Um. Um, is it so cliche to say
(03:37):
is so good? I mean like there's a there's a
reason it's so popular, you know whatever. I think, Yeah,
it's amazing. My favorites are. I've did a lot of
musical theater as a kid, Like, did so many shows
and next to normal I got to see on Broadway
it was incredible at won the Pulitzer Prize and like
two thousand twelve or something like that. Um, such good music.
(03:58):
Uh shoot, I love Into the Woods. I think a
lot of the stuff, especially for writing this show, it's
very much operatic and feel it's I was I was
thinking about that, like I got into the wood vibes,
like listening to the music. I think the duel song
is definitely some time vibes on it. We tried to
really lean into like the operatic style because I think
(04:22):
it really like it benefited the show to have sort
of that string feel underneath all of the dialogue and
stuff like that, so we wanted to keep that for
what we're creating. But yeah, I think that Into the
Woods I love sometime, I love I love Sweeney Todd
and a lot of people have been saying Sweeney time
because it kind of been influenced for me. Yeah, I mean,
I just love musical theater so much, and I think
(04:44):
that classic sound with like a pop influence on it
is something that not many people have kind of explored yet.
And and we have such different backgrounds that complement each other,
so it kind of just fell into place when we
started writing. Our our skill sets are so complimentary and
you know, it's funny. So we met actually working on
a different musical project that's more of a passion project,
(05:07):
and we were keeping a lot less in the spotlight.
But um, that one, we had a vision of it
being like very pop because there was like a golden
era where musical theater songs crossed over to the pop
charts wars and wanted to do that again exactly. We
wanted to do that again, and so um we figured
(05:30):
out after we're writing together for the first time that
like it just worked, Like we come from like a
pop background, and she has such incredible instincts, it's like scary.
And then I come from like a very different background,
like I was possibly trained, I like toured with like
a jazz trio, So very smart and incredibly gigantic brain inside.
(05:51):
But I also loved writing songs and I've been doing
that for a while and so like us together, it's
just works. It's really great it seeing and Yang. Yeah,
literally it is. It's so you and Yang. So what
is the process of creating a musical? Because just like
the beginning of any project, the hardest part is starting,
That's what I always tell and a musical is very daunting.
(06:13):
So how do you go about structuring this show when
they're you know, eight episodes, eight hours total content, and
you're condensing it into songs? How do you go about
doing that? Yeah, We've been saying, like we need to
take these eight hours of storytelling and you can put
it into Yeah. And it's crazy because this kind of
just started as a passion project. Like when I did
(06:33):
the Hypothetical What It Britain, wasn't musical, Like I really
wasn't expecting it to blow up the way it did
and expect people to want more. You didn't know, like
I've post my original pop music like you said all
the time, so like this was no different. I was
just inspired on a different level by something happening in
pop culture and like the world just kind of nodded
in agreement, So I mean, I can tell you she
(06:54):
texted me that night and it was like, what if
British and wasn't musical? And my initial thought was like,
oh my god, that's a good idea. Let's do this. Yeah,
the rest of the world is like, oh my god,
that's a good idea. So we're having fun right now
writing it. And I think that's why it's not so daunting,
is because we're kind of taking it, like segments of
the storyline as we feel inspired to write them. I mean,
(07:16):
if you want to get more into the details, like
we think that you know, what captured us in the
show is their love story and how beautiful it was,
and you know how they showed the struggling parts too,
But we wanted the show to sort of focus on
Simon and Daphne's relationship, right all the chaos that erupt
from that, So we're trying to like structure it to
(07:37):
be that, you know. I think that's also so interesting
because there are many different plots within the shows, and
I find it it's it's good that you're like choosing
one narrative to go down and kind of touching us
like someone otherwise we'd have like a cast album with
seven exactly. But I feel like that's one of the
really fascinating things. Like the music. It's not just like Broadway.
(08:03):
It feels like music that's on the radio, which I
think what you guys are doing, it's coming across really well.
What is your songwriting process? Because you guys are doing
it differently, like it hasn't been done before. I find
it so refreshing. You guys are live streaming while you're
creating the songs. Is that ever intimidating to know like
people are watching you or do you just kind of
(08:23):
zone them out? I mean a little bit, But also
at the same time, everyone's been so incredible and supportive
and it helps it there, you know. It's what you
were saying before, is like I think TikTok is a
platform that loves authenticity and like we're not hiding the
parts that we're struggling, Like people see when we don't
know what to say next. People are seeing when we
(08:43):
are hitting writer's block, we can't find a rhyme from
like Penny, and like, why can't we find a rhyme
for Penny? But then they also see it when it
just comes out like that, and when we hit a
stride and like how excited we get when we find
something that we love, and it's like it makes it
a lot less daunting, It can't. I mean, it just
(09:04):
depends really on whether we're struggling or whether it's coming
out like that, because you can you can tune them
out sometimes and then sometimes they're actually really helpful and
give us suggestions on what to say. So that's awesome.
That's advice in real time. Yeah, exactly, and exactly with
the people who are going to be ultimately consuming. Yeah,
(09:25):
I mean it's really brilliant because you're having the audience
go through the process with you, so then when they
see the show, it's like, hey, they're parting. Yeah, Honestly,
like I was saying, you know, musicals are usually very
hidden in development, like kind of in secrecy for years,
and these things take years to develop, and so I
(09:46):
don't think anyone's been ever able to see the process
of that. And we didn't really have like an epiphanymore
it was like, oh my god, this is a brilliant
master plan and just I don't know as actually it
just happened and then you're here. That's probably how it happened.
It just were like, yeah, if we knew, what would
have happened, Like, I don't think it would have happened
(10:07):
the same way. No, I I think it really just
hit the zeitgeist in the coolest way and and had
so many people feel like they were along for the
ride for this because who knows where it could go.
There are some really cool opportunities for us now that
you know, we've kind of developed a following around it,
and it's really exciting to have people like on our
team and so supportive of the idea. Lin Man Well,
(10:29):
who's like my dream? Oh my god. We had a
ramos on the podcast because even too uh he started
and I was like, oh my god, just tell me
some wind stories like I need he do wedded one
of the songs and died and sign and say that's amazing.
(10:51):
How did you get into the whole podcast? So I
was in my sophomore year of high school and my
anxiety got really bad because mean girls, and I started
listening to podcasts as like a way to distract, because
if you have anxiety, probably no distraction is your best friend.
And so I was listening to podcast and I couldn't
(11:13):
relate to anything that was coming out, and as distraction
is like, I'm going to create my dream podcast. So
I did like research on the marketplace and I eventually
pitched it just for fun, and they gave me a
pilot and I got Julia Michaels on it, and then
we went to series and now around season two that
girl boss yees. So I had originally met Julia when
(11:35):
I interviewed her on the set of American Idol when
I was on assignment for Radio Disney. That's so exciting. Anyway,
Julia would be amazing in this musical, don't you think. Honestly,
I really cool so our girl Sienna. I know she's
an opera singer and she'll definitely have some influence. But
for some reason, her and Anthony's relationship always feels like sexy,
(12:00):
sultry pop to us. It gives me pop vibes, and
so everything we write for them is very so Julia,
Julia Relia. It's like, you know, the musical theater voice
is definitely a thing, and I think we should get
a pop girl to sing. I completely agree. I agree.
Or do you know who would be really good? Jazzy Jones,
who from Hamilton's Anthony's wife, and she played Peggy. She
(12:25):
played Reynolds that she'd be good for, you know, your
musical theater, Yes, queen. My family is a music I
live in New York, so I've kind of grown up
with it. Got it right, Broadways, Yeah, Broadways close. I
hope it that opens back soon from the pandemic. Trust me.
I like it's it's like the worst thing to feel
(12:47):
like you're so closed off, but like that's why this
is such a cool thing, because we feel like it's
something that could possibly at the theaters maybe, you know.
I also think that, like you know, COVID is a
dark time for a lot of musicians and a lot
of people who work in the arts. And the fact
that so many people who are in the industry are
(13:09):
like grabbing onto this is one completely surreal Yeah, it's
a very weird. Like we feel like in awe and
grateful that something that we wrote could ever reached so
many people. I know, Yeah, we've idolized for a year.
I know what is bizarre and so magical of a
(13:30):
of a experience and journey. It's really cool. So who's
the most unexpected person that's reached out to you or
that you know about Bridget that knows about Bridget in
the musical that you were like, holy shit. I mean
there's some people behind the scenes that were sort of
like freaking out internally over um that we I don't
want to say too much, but like really exciting things. Um.
(13:53):
Petina Miller, which was she was in She Needs to
Be Lady Danny. Yeah, she she just DMed me and
was like, finished this musical and I was like, okay, clean,
you got it. Cast members like Luke, the guy who
plays Colin, is like on Our Lives all the time
that comes in just just like on an outed and
(14:15):
Philippa of all like reached out to Abigail and like
we saw the guy who plays what's his name Anthony Um,
but the guy who plays Anthony and Jonathan Um he
was on Entertainment Night like raving about the musical and
we're like, is this it doesn't feel question? Has Simon
Flint in the d M. He hasn't slit in the
(14:37):
d MS, but he did post a video today that
like Netflix had like a little promotional thing and talked
about the musical, So he's aware of it. At least
you know you're on his radarland. That's all. That is all.
You will be the first to know. Great, I'll get
the damn ye absolutely, So what is your favorite that
(15:00):
you guys have written so far? You know that's hard
because they're all like your babies, But I know if
you had to pay. So I truly think that our
favorite song is whatever we just wrote. And so our
favorite right now is the opening number because we just
finished it. More obsessed with this ending that we just wrote. Um,
I mean, do you want to get wet? Do you
(15:22):
want to play? Yeah? I keep in mind that when
I bounced it, I accidentally caught off the ending. And
also it's very rough. It's gonna sound better than no,
but I'm excited. Work in progress. Okay, So this is
when the doors open and she walks in and she's
(15:42):
being presented to the queen. This is her inner monopope.
I guess she's walking down and then the ensemble starts
chiming in, the brothers chime in, and the very end
you'll hear it. Okay, I'm ready, don't trip, don't falter,
(16:04):
just make it to the out, don't break, don't crumble,
make certain you're perfectly humble. Show her majesty the queen.
That's your more than work. Don't you let it show
that you're more than most. Finally, Unlaby, the power piece
(16:27):
must be common co connected at the sun. This must
be perfectly perfectly desire, So don't find just make it.
You're the out must be perfectly perfect, perfect pots flawless,
(17:01):
my dear, Okay, just help them. Okay, so many thoughts.
The composition is insane. It feels like I'm in a
princess movie in the best way possible. We know that
she's very you know, big on the tradition, and she's
delicate but strong and inspired and excited, and I don't
(17:24):
know that was one of the times where it just
like flu that's must be the best feeling. Oh my god,
we were we were so we are truly rarely ever
happy with something that we're right right, Okay, Abigail. The harmony,
I mean, she helped me with them. I couldn't come
(17:44):
up with all of them all. I trying to understand
the writing process, but it is truly a collaboration. Were
she leans obviously a little more lyric melody. Eileen Moore, Well,
it's pretty we both have We're both pretty headstrong in
our ideas too, and then that's good because we both
every yeah, we both do everything, and we're both confident
in our choices and our ideas, so we just bounce
(18:05):
off each other really when we right, it's really I
love working with her, and collaboration can be really difficult
to especially if you guys butt heads, because it's such
a passionate thing when you guys. Right, Yeah, we've we've
talked about, like we both know that collaborations are hard,
partnerships are hard, um, But we've talked you know, we
need always to have open, honest communication and we're gonna argue,
(18:29):
we're going to butt heads, but it's how we deal
with those that's going to be really really important. Yeah,
And I think mostly like we never really bud heads
when we're writing together. Like more like it's more all
the things that like surround this, you know, it's finishing touches,
ship and all the ins and outs. I have nothing
to do with the music. It's more like you know,
(18:51):
some of the external you know. Yeah, like just like
but but we rarely ever butt heads anyway. We're just
friends first, you know, which is like the most exciting
thing that like you get to do this with your friend,
and like so that you will each other. We love
each other, you know, I mean, like I said, we
were friends first, so honestly, that introduction, it's so beautiful. Okay,
(19:14):
we have to take a quick break, but when we
come back, let's dive deeper into bridgertain the musical and
how in the world you guys have written about half
the songs for show in a little over two weeks,
and what it's like to live stream the whole process
in front of the world. We'll be right back and
(19:35):
we're back. How long does it take you to write
a song? Like, what's the fastest it's been for to
write one of these songs? Thirty minutes? Thirty minutes we
wrote that Balancing the Scale song, the mother song start
an hour with the recording. That's impressive. It was like,
truly insert we do. We were both pretty prolific and
(19:55):
when we write, like we just write a lot constantly,
so we know how to finish the song pretty quickly.
And because we're both fast, like separate or apart, then
we come together and we're like boom, boom boom. Everything
happened so fast. But then again, we're writing a different
song that we've come back to three times, and I
think we finally just cracked the code, but it takes
(20:16):
a little more pulling and struggling. Yeah, And I also
think it's one of those things where innovating is so important,
especially in this time where you know, Broadway is closed
and we're we have to figure out different ways to
make things work. It's the time for changing things up
and especially writing music. A few years ago, not many
(20:36):
people did it on their computer. They had to go
into a studio. So now that you guys are writing
a full blow musical at home is pretty awesome and insane.
It's it's really fun. It's like it's it's like our
safe space and we just it's where we have the
most fun as together writing. Yeah, is there. I know, Emily,
you have a very classical background. How how has that
(21:00):
come into you know, I know you really see your
own music. How has that come into writing a musical
and you know, still making it modern but also giving
that classical vibe to it. I'm kind of all over
the place when it comes to genre, Like she's cross genres.
I do classical, I do film scoring, I do jazz.
(21:21):
I love that your your genre list. I love that, um,
And I think what I love most about that is
that I can pick and you know, take from all
my different influences and bring it in more it's appropriate.
But also at the end of the day, I'm nineteen
years old. I'm like very well aware of the pop
culture and I love Mac Miller and I listened to
(21:43):
everything now, so like I have that view while still
having like this classical jazz like training blah blah blah. Well,
I mean, I think that's great. I don't know, I'm eighteen,
and it's really interesting that I've at least experience I
don't know if you guys have where it's hard to
be taken seriously at first because it's truly like, so,
(22:07):
I my dream is to become a film composer. That's
why I write music for TV media games. UM, and
I've been really like fortunate to have, you know, I've
been doing that for the past couple of years. But
it is so hard because like my age is like
my big asset but also like one of my biggest downfalls,
(22:30):
because especially in an industry where there's so much responsibility
attached to the writing of the music, like you get
you know, people who look at you only as a risk,
not as you know, a risk. But I'm really important
to really yeah, and no one's really willing to take
risks in the music industry right now because everything's you know,
(22:52):
so fragile right now, like the touring community, like nothing's happening,
so like any risk is just a loss of money,
like that's what labels look at it as. So it
is really hard to be taken seriously, and I think
it will always be as a at a certain degree
because we are very young women trying to make it
(23:12):
in this business that's very very heavily men. But I
think at the same time, we're kind of paving a
road for ourselves right now, and that feels really good,
you know, I mean, I think so. We've gotten obviously
a lot of messages over the past few days, but
the most special ones are from the people who are like,
(23:34):
I lost my passion for theater and music a long
time ago, but I just bought a keyboard because I'm
so inspired, And the ones that are like, I've never
seen two women do this before, How freaking cool is that? Like,
when I like see those, you know, it makes it
all worth it. Sleepless nights all the christ I should
(23:54):
so worth it, absolutely, and also like I feel like
our generation is so awesome and so cool and I've
I've experienced, you know, people it's hard to be taken
as seriously because of my age. Um, but I think
we bring a fresh perspective to things that where we're optimistic.
I've noticed in meetings I'll shoot for the stars. I'm like,
(24:15):
we should do this. Sister like, well, well, I don't know,
and it's like why not. It's you know that that
mindset is all you need. Yeah, exactly. Really, when we're
in New York, we have to meet, Yes, yes, I
feel like, no, I know, And it's hard. It's hard
(24:36):
to find women in this industry where we can like
support each other because there's weirdly a lot of competition.
And yeah, it feels very competitive all the time, you know,
like pushes that it's dumb, Like the media pushes it constantly,
and it's like, why aren't we just raising each other
up as much as possible, because that is the most
(24:58):
important thing. Like I I want to see more women
doing what we're doing, you know what I mean? Like, yeah,
I want someone to look at us and see like
two women who are you know, are very different but
are each paving like your way, and you're you know,
you guys are changing in the best way because frankly,
we're at a time and it stands still in the
(25:19):
pandemic where everyone's thinking, Okay, we need to change things,
and it's an opportunity to where we can now change
things because people typically exactly, I think I think the
change is long overdue, especially in sort of like the
gate keeper way of making musicals and making content like
we're making like like we said, it's usually very uh
(25:40):
secretive and in development for years and then you get
producers involved, and then the producers change all the things
and then but we're kind of going directly to the
audience and really the only metric is do they like it?
You know, so they now have like an invested interest
in love for the music that you've never been able
to that before, and like people who are going to
(26:01):
come see the show if it ever makes it a Broadway,
let's manifest. Let's manifest. They'll know all the words, they'll
sing along. Yeah, look, you know I mean that. But like, yeah,
I think years ago, Netflix probably would have sent us
to cease and desist you know, but because there's so
(26:22):
many people that you know, there's so many people that
love the music, and it's probably like in their best
interest now that like support at least support the idea
and you know, be accepting of what's happening. It's really
really fascinating. I mean, you never know what's going to happen,
but we know that we both have so many more
musicals and songs in us, and we just like can't
(26:46):
wait to start writing for everything. I know. Yeah, And
I also think one of the things is like when
you're pitching people, you guys now have the power in
the sense of we have the people who want to
see we have the audience who are still engaged in
the process. It's not like a a is they have
to take because you have everything like already, which is
so it goes to show like just by being authentic
(27:07):
and being creative, you can honestly do what you want,
which I don't think a lot of people will realize.
I don't really know how it happened, but we seem
to sometimes struck a chord and I'm just like, we're
just really excited about what could be, you know, the
possibility even beyond um Britain. We've always talked about since
we first started writing, how we feel like this is
kind of a lifelong partnership and we see each other
(27:29):
working on multiple things together and and I think it
still rings true. This is just kind of like the
first thing that that popped off, and so we're just
excited to make more now. So excited, I know, is
there Okay, I will say oceans away and burn through you.
It is like those just hit a little different just
(27:49):
in the sense of creating the composition for that. How
do you choose what goes well because there's so many
different instruments and sounds and vocals. How do you have
the sense? Is it just like I mean I got
feeling where part some things should go or do? How
do you go about creating something? I did it alive
yesterday where I was just like purely just orchestrating, and
(28:13):
I mean some of it is like instinct um and
other is other parts of it. It's just very much um,
try and fail sort of thing. But I mean I
have never orchestrated something so quickly. Is I did those
two songs. I was like, when we finished those songs together,
it just fell out. When I like finished the arrangement
in orchestration, it just fell out, like it's been like
(28:37):
those songs were really easy to do. I think it's
because they're inspired by the yeah, by the show, and
like the feeling that was emulated through the actor's performances.
I think it just sort of happened. And I always
say I heard on I was watching the Bags documentary
and I heard Chris Martin say this incredible thing that
just completely clicked with me, and he's like, songwriters don't
(28:59):
really write songs, they received songs. And it's so true.
It's like it's just floating around in the ether and
you pick the things out of out of thin air,
and it's like it just happens. Sometimes. That's why I
feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, like always Yeah,
So I think that's kind of how it happens. I
feel like it's it's sort of just I I opened
(29:20):
my mind to allow myself to just write what I'm
what I'm hearing, what I'm feeling. Yeah, And I like
I someone asked me on Instagram, like a question answer
thing that you do in your story is like what
made you fall in love with music? And I thought
about it and then I was like, you know that,
I feel like for me, it's when you're in a song,
or for me an orchestra or the music swells and
(29:42):
your heart just like lurches like that feeling. I can't
like magical, it's magical, and I get those feelings from
those two songs. So are we starting with an album
and then seeing what happens with it? I mean, we
have big dream and uh, we're kind of why not.
(30:03):
We're being approached from a lot of different directions and
we are still figuring them out and trying to make
smart decisions and figure out what direction we want to
go in and all we want to do with it,
And like, I can't believe we have all of these
are at our disposal. It's really crazy. It's like it's great,
but it must be overwhelming too, because it's a little bit.
(30:24):
I think we're mostly just really really yeah. I think
the overwhelming stuff comes when we're overthinking things and when
we just get back to the music and creating, it
just feels like made like natural for both of us.
I mean, so after the first two songs were written
and we got together and we're like, oh my god,
we're gonna like try to write a musicals, like an
(30:46):
entire musical, and like a few weeks and we're like
about how we're going to do this, Like Hamilton took
six years to develop, what are you doing? And then
we just started writing and we got a plan and
we're like and then we got half a musical one week.
It's been to three weeks, two weeks, two weeks since
that first TikTok wild. How much you've, like, what over
(31:08):
half of the musical done? Yeah, like like eleven songs.
We're kind of thinking twenty for the concept album, like
twenty um, and we're kind of half through, halfway through
telling all the big plot points of the story, you know,
like for a concept album, because it is just a
concept album, I think it'll be a little different than
ever it was like a cast recording. It would be
very different once you you know, take that concept album
(31:30):
and then turn it into a Broadway show and it's
going to be obviously many more songs, many more interludes,
many more reprises, um, because you know, you you have
to fill in all the dots. Was more like a
detailed outline, Yeah, exactly. That's a really great way to
describe that. Oh, for sure, Okay, we have to take
(31:52):
one more quick break, but when we come back, I
want to hear how you guys are balancing such a
creative process with the potential toxicity of social media and
maybe just maybe you'll play any more music. We'll be
right back and we're back. Something that I'm curious about
(32:13):
that I've experienced, and I'm wondering if you have, because
you're now getting all this you know, notoriety and people
are reaching out. Have people come back into your life
that you're like, oh, I see what you're doing. Yeah, yeah,
I mean it's inevitable. You know. I think I think
people sort of if you've known them from the past,
(32:34):
they feel like they have a stake in your success
or what have you, even if they didn't. Um, And
so it's just kind of like taking each of those
outreaches and just being you know, gracious and and saying, hey,
thank you for reaching out and being supportive. I mean,
that's all you. And I like from everyone that I've
experienced reaching out like, it's been more like not congratulatory,
(32:57):
but more like sharing the law than it can get
something from you. Yeah, there's been not a lot of that,
but also at the same time, Like I know, we've
all been in positions where we ask a favor and
we feel uncomfortable asking for a favor, and so I
want to give everyone who asked me for a favor
in the future or now like that same like benefit
(33:20):
of the doubt, benefit of the doubt, because like, not
everything helicious or or like self centered. Sometimes it's like
truly like some people need a boost. And I truly
think I'm nowhere in a position where I can like
truly do that yet. But like I know Pass and Paul,
like they were mentored by Alan Mencken and they were
(33:41):
given that benefit of the doubt there, and I know
they want to pass that along to the next whatever,
so like I can do that. Yeah, Yeah, I think
mentoring is so underrated and it's so powerful. It's so important.
Oh my god, it's so important. Yeah, is there Because
you're on social media a lot, how are you guys
(34:01):
finding a somewhat healthy balance with that, because I'm still
trying to figure that out because I've noticed when I
spent a lot of time on Instagram that anxiety goes up. Yeah,
I think before we get into that answer, like the
bridge in the musical has been so overwhelmingly positive, Like
I don't think either of us can believe that, how
like little negativity there has been with it, got it
(34:24):
um so like it's been a really healthy social media
experience for both of us. And I know Abigail can
go off because she has a big social media following,
and anyone with a huge social media following like is
going to experience some stupid and dumb hate. But like right,
I think, like for mental health, it's pretty short, sweet
and simple on on how I handle it. But I
(34:46):
think I've always struggled with it. I think it's really
I have a lot of anxiety around it because I've
been growing my social media following since i was sixteen.
Like I was on TikTok before it was TikTok and
it was musically um also with the hands. Yeah, I
got it up to that. I mean I never knew
that I could not. It was a mess. But it's
(35:08):
become such a phenomenon of a platform, and you know,
you just have to take a step back and not
read all the comments. And like when my music wasn't
doing as well, like I I went to the comments
for all of the feedback, and when I for the validation,
and when I didn't receive what I wanted to, it
just absolutely broke my heart, like broke my spirit, and
(35:28):
so I just had to take a step back from
my sanity, you know. And and then that's when the
magic happened, when I was just open to being creative again,
because it got there was a point there before Britain
where I was just like, gosh, and am I going
to be able to make this happen for myself? And
then you know, when I stopped worrying so much about it,
that's all happened place. Yea. I think the industry like
(35:51):
it's filled with extremely high highs and extremely and I
think the sooner we learned to come into any situation
where we're like, you know, if this works out, oh
my god, it's amazing. If it doesn't work out, well
that's okay, will be okay, because it's the experience. And
that's what I always tell people. I didn't when I
pitched this podcast. It wasn't to like have a podcast.
(36:13):
It was just for the experience of it. Yeah, And
now like what you've done it because we need we
need more of this. You guys are so sweet. Thank
you now like me. You guys have worked professionally growing up.
You're both in l A now, But Emily, you've spent
a lot of time in my hometown, New York, right.
(36:33):
I missed New York so much. I studied at Juilliar
NYU for like ten years, so I was in New
York every month for like ever, and I dream love
New York. It's like my life. Okay, can we talk
just for a second about high school and having a
professional career at the same time. I don't know if
you guys feel us, but I feel so much older
(36:53):
than my age, so dude, I truly have I get
only Oh my god, I'm getting so flustered. I never
talked about my career with any of my friends growing up.
I hated it. Yeah, I didn't talk about it because
like my issues where I was like, oh my god,
I'm playing in the Palace and Meena next week, and
I'm freaking out because it's a really hard thing, and
(37:15):
I'm like, if I ruined this, it's gonna like ruin
my career sort of thing. And then they're like, oh
my god, did you hear what? Space My problems are
bigger than this, y'all. Nothing and like I get it,
but it's hard. So I felt like I was just
it was in this weird New York high school thing
where it's just like so petty, like I don't I
(37:38):
was like, I can't know. Yeah, we come. I did school.
I went to a regular like junior high, and then
I graduated high school or because I was so done
with it, so like we get you, girl, I have
one more semester left. I am so close. That's amazing.
You know, we want to go to school yet, right,
So I've gone into five schools so far, which is
(37:59):
really exciting, so exciting. But I'm also considering taking a
gap year and going out to LA for just to
see what I did that. I did that, but then
I also didn't go to college, so you never know
what happens. I would do it. Gap years are fun,
gap bears are fun, and I want to live my
life because I give it up. Dude, you should do
I like, especially with how well you're like doing the
(38:22):
school life right now, I think it would be really beneficial.
I I did that. I graduated high school to two
years early. I took a gap year, I went on
this tour and then I came back in January, and
I was supposed to go to Berkeley School of Music
in the fall, and I was like, I don't want
to spend the next six months in Rockford, Illinois doing nothing.
So I started spending time in l A and then
(38:43):
I moved here, and then by the time September rolled around,
I'm like, I'm not moving so much happening. I'm not
going to school right now, and so that's here we are.
Sometimes a gap year can show you exactly what you
want to do exactly, and that's what I'm thinking of doing.
But you know, when I'm out there, we shall get lunch.
Oh my god. I know. Also, i've seen before we
(39:07):
on this podcast. I feel like we should talk about
just go into a little bit more in the music
to see if you can play me something from Britain.
I know we can, of course, you want the intro.
I don't know if I want the intro or if
I want Oceans Away or Burned. See this is so
cool because usually it's like you can't listen to anything,
(39:28):
But I love that I can listen a while. You
guys are making it right right, Let's do burn for you?
Would that be? Would you want or playing the second
half of burn for you that not a lot of
people have heard. Okay, excited, this is what you want. Okay,
this is obviously still a work in progress, but you
(39:50):
got a good idea. They kiss, they kiss. How do
(40:19):
you feel? I feel wonderful. From the mornings you ease,
to the evenings you quiet. I'm always thinking of you.
I'm always streaming of you, from the mornings too late
to night. It is your like. I'm not sacrifice clean
(40:43):
my eyes side. I really I bla sall name say
(41:14):
this one now, I'm gonna be list It's I'm yours, Stefani.
I've always been yours, and I'm yours. It's so good.
(41:44):
Thank you, I have we haven't listened to that back
and I know it's magical. Bridge see my name. Oh
my goodness. Well I think that was a great way
to end it. Thank you guys so much for coming
on my podcast. Thank you so much for having us
so I know you guys. Please check out the tip
Talk follow like watch live streams. It is truly so
(42:05):
incredible to watch. It was so great to meet you guys.
Thank you for taking the time. I followed you on Instagram.
We must meet. I'm down. I just want to thank
Abigail and Emily for coming on my podcast. I felt
like I'd known them for years and I love this
(42:26):
conversation so much. I hope you liked it. If you
haven't already subscribed to my podcast, leave a comment because
I always love to hear your feedback. And follow me
on Instagram at its Sammy J. That's I T S
S A M M Y J A y E. And
also follow Abigail and Emily on all of their socials.
Follow them on TikTok you can see them create a
musical in real time. Keep up with the content as
(42:47):
it's coming out. Follow them on Instagram as well. It's
Abigail Barlow and Emily's is m L E. Bear. Thank
you for listening. I hope you guys had a great
day and I hope this episode made it a little better. Bye, guys.
That's tw
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