Demo Demo Demo
When writing a musical there comes a time when one must turn one’s focus towards… you know. The Music. 
That’s where we’re at with our current project, the all-original untitled Holiday musical we’ve been working on. Our storyline is set and we know when and where we want songs in the show. And this is where things are getting fun due to the nature of the show being written.
As you may have read elsewhere on the site (and if you haven’t, follow that link above) our story revolves around a traveling radio show, with a full hour of the production being an actual radio broadcast the cast performs live, just like Garrison Keillor and his long-running A Prairie Home Companion. What this means for our show is that our musical isn’t the classic “I’m a character breaking into song to sing about my feelings” experience; rather, the songs our characters will be singing are “standards” they’ve performed throughout the years (I say “standards” because we’re writing every song from scratch).
Except that last statement isn’t entirely true. At times, our characters will be singing songs that hit on their feelings. It’s just those feelings happen to be hidden within the “standards” they perform. Basically we get to have our cake and eat it, too: our characters are everyday folk doing a job that happens to be showbiz related, which allows us to have them break into song at any given moment under the guise of “Hey! Lets sing a song!”
An example: Many of our songs do exist solely as performance pieces. Take the DaVine Sisters track “So Good.” It’s purely a fun song they perform because it was “one of their big hits.” But when The Kid and Hal duet on “A Friend Like Me” it actually reflects what they’re going through as characters. And they are aware of this fact as they sing the song; both feel much better about their situation after the lyrics they sing convey exactly what needs saying.
I can tell you it’s been a lot of fun writing these songs and finding that balance between “just a song” and “song about something.” The demo process has been fun, too. The photo you see above is my keyboard. I am not a pianist (faaaar from it) so when it comes to music for a demo I often find my notes and mark them ahead of a take. It’s a splash of color that adds a dash of whimsey to the process. I’m a fan. (Wanna see a pic of Rachel and I recording a demo? Check out our Instagram)
The demos I’ve produced are all very sparse, with most featuring basic drum and bass lines with the addition of some piano in parts (the show is likely to feature that trio of instruments as our “house band”). All have so far featured myself and Rachel on vocals. I kept things basic so that when handing the demos over to our music director, Doug Nicholson, he had some leeway in where to go. He is currently fleshing the songs out musically and I cannot describe how eager I am to hear what he has come with!
Even in the demo stage I’m thrilled with the songs we’ve collected so far. We’ve got some killer hooks, and lyrically the tunes are all really playful and fun. That said, not all of these songs are guaranteed a spot in the final show: any or all of them could get tweaked, altered, or benched altogether. It’s all in the name of serving the show and our characters.
It’s tough, because I would love nothing more than to share some of these demos with you now. But I’m going to be a good boy and not spoil anything. Yet.
Though I did totally sprinkle some previously unshared show info into the text above…
