Me: Your band, GrooveLily, made a name for itself in the musical theatre world, first with Striking 12 and now with various other projects. Was musical theatre always a natural progression for GrooveLily?
Brendan Milburn: I actually wrote musicals in high school and college, and came to NYC to attend the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Program. But after my first year at NYU, I met Valerie and fell hard for her--and fell hard for the deceptive simplicity of what she was doing: getting friends together to sing and play her songs, writing a song in the afternoon, and then premiering it in front of a pass-the-hat audience at the Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village that night. It seemed so immediate, and so fun, and so carefree.
In addition, I was 22 when I met Val. I didn't know my ass from my elbow, professionally speaking. The idea that it might take FIVE YEARS to get a musical from conception to its first production seemed like an AEON to me. And that it would have to involve PRODUCERS and DIRECTOR and CHOREOGRAPHER and ALL THESE INVESTORS and man, it just seemed the opposite of the "hey, kids, let's put on a show" vibe that I had been a part of in high school and college. And Valerie's band seemed to be a way forward that was easier. So after I graduated from NYU, I turned my back on writing musicals for seven or eight years.
Let me state for the record: trying to make it in a rock band is *not* easier than trying to make it as a musical theatre composer.
Valerie Vigoda: I think that, in retrospect, it looks like a natural progression from rock band, to rock band that does concert-musicals, to writers of musical theatre where we're not performing at all. (As if we knew what we were doing! As if we had a plan! :)
But it has felt, at times, like we were groping around in the dark, veering wildly from one extreme to another, until we finally hit upon something that really resonated with a lot of people: Striking 12.
Really, in hindsight, we should have figured it out a little sooner - I mean, we would do showcases for record industry people, and over and over they would tell us, “I really like your music - it’s refreshing, original, inventive, hooky - but it’s a little too theatrical. Too Broadway. I can’t help you.” And we would try to change our sound, to fit into more of a radio-friendly, poppier sound format - but it never quite worked out that way. It wasn’t until we basically gave up and said, “okay, we’re too Broadway for the music industry - so let’s just BE what we naturally are and start doing some theatre already” - and then doors started to open, and it started to feel like we were finding our niche - figuring out where we belong in the world.
Brendan Milburn: I actually wrote musicals in high school and college, and came to NYC to attend the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Program. But after my first year at NYU, I met Valerie and fell hard for her--and fell hard for the deceptive simplicity of what she was doing: getting friends together to sing and play her songs, writing a song in the afternoon, and then premiering it in front of a pass-the-hat audience at the Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village that night. It seemed so immediate, and so fun, and so carefree.
In addition, I was 22 when I met Val. I didn't know my ass from my elbow, professionally speaking. The idea that it might take FIVE YEARS to get a musical from conception to its first production seemed like an AEON to me. And that it would have to involve PRODUCERS and DIRECTOR and CHOREOGRAPHER and ALL THESE INVESTORS and man, it just seemed the opposite of the "hey, kids, let's put on a show" vibe that I had been a part of in high school and college. And Valerie's band seemed to be a way forward that was easier. So after I graduated from NYU, I turned my back on writing musicals for seven or eight years.
Let me state for the record: trying to make it in a rock band is *not* easier than trying to make it as a musical theatre composer.
Valerie Vigoda: I think that, in retrospect, it looks like a natural progression from rock band, to rock band that does concert-musicals, to writers of musical theatre where we're not performing at all. (As if we knew what we were doing! As if we had a plan! :)
But it has felt, at times, like we were groping around in the dark, veering wildly from one extreme to another, until we finally hit upon something that really resonated with a lot of people: Striking 12.
Really, in hindsight, we should have figured it out a little sooner - I mean, we would do showcases for record industry people, and over and over they would tell us, “I really like your music - it’s refreshing, original, inventive, hooky - but it’s a little too theatrical. Too Broadway. I can’t help you.” And we would try to change our sound, to fit into more of a radio-friendly, poppier sound format - but it never quite worked out that way. It wasn’t until we basically gave up and said, “okay, we’re too Broadway for the music industry - so let’s just BE what we naturally are and start doing some theatre already” - and then doors started to open, and it started to feel like we were finding our niche - figuring out where we belong in the world.
It’s unfortunate that wisdom doesn’t come more easily. Doh!
