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The One About Marching Arts Theatre People
0 Playsin 5 hours
Join Jackie, Ricardo, and Peyton as they dive deep into being a theatre nerd with Alec Lubin. Alec is a former Blue Star who worked on the epic new musical movie Wicked.
Hear about his journey from drummer to audio engineer working on one of the biggest movie of all times
Don't miss a beat! Follow "On A Water Break" on social media to stay connected with the latest news, insights, and discussions from the marching arts community. Subscribe now and join us on this captivating journey!
Meet our Hosts
Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard
Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick
Cindy Barry - @leandermomma
Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg
Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151
Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002
Alicia Sharp -@aliciasharp215
Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1
Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern
Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_
Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07
Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick
Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit
Justin Surface - @J_dex07
Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran
Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_
Bill Woodward - @remoking100
Emily Nee - @tch.makes.art
Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson
Austin Hall - @Austin_hall10
Jose Montes - @joeymontes57
Bobbey Biddle - @bobbeyboy107
Peyton Billhart - @peytonbrillhart
Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda
Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art
Keywords: Marching arts podcast, Marching band podcast, Color guard podcast, Percussion podcast, Marching arts education, Marching arts community, drum major, flourish, tatu
Thank you also to @guardcloset
#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak #wgi #drumline
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Drum Corps International, DCI, Marching Music, Marching Arts, Drum Corps, Marching Band, Marching Percussion, Marching Guard, Marching Arts Podcast, Drum Corps Podcast, Marching Music Podcast, Marching Arts Community, Drum Corps Community, Marching Band Community, colorguard, dci, WGI
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Transcript
Introduction to Rehearsal Breaks
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to On A Water Break, the podcast where we talk about everything you and your friends are talking about at rehearsal on a
Alec Lupin and the Wicked Soundtrack
00:00:08
Speaker
water break. This week we are getting into the wicked soundtrack with Alec Lupin.
Humorous Experiences and Personal Stories
00:00:15
Speaker
We'll also find out what made Ricardo say. Listen, I am here for taking it back to like the eighties and early nineties when people would literally just do their show would be like,
00:00:27
Speaker
And why Peyton said. Just bawling. There's like literal pictures of me that I could find in my phone right now of like my 15 year old self with my blocky eyebrows that I didn't know how to do yet. Like with tears streaming down my face. All this and more in this week's episode of On A Water Break.
00:00:46
Speaker
Eight off the Met and go.
Spotlight on Alec Lupin
00:00:49
Speaker
Welcome to On A Water
00:01:04
Speaker
are back for another exciting episode this week and we are so excited for our guest clinician who was part of the new Wicked Movie soundtrack and also just happens to be an alum of the illustrious Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps. So, he is the perfect clinician for us to have on the sidelines this week. Ricardo I know you're excited about this.
Excitement for the Wicked Movie
00:01:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, you have no idea. My little musical theater nerd heart is like just a Twitter right now. I am so excited to get to talk to Al, like about all things Wicked and how all of this came together because, spoiler alert, if you have not seen the movie, um you are wrong and do better.
00:01:50
Speaker
Because I've seen it twice and I might go back again tonight. Who knows? um Does having a newborn like exempt me from that that? That you get a pass but because you have a newborn. It's on my list. It's going to happen. Maybe it'll be her first movie in the theater. You know what? I will fly up there and babysit the kids for you so you can go and see the mut the movie.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yes, I just want you babysitting my kids. I am excited to know what Victor is going to tell me afterwards. We can have a babysitting party so that Jackie can go see Wicked. Listen, anytime I get to spin around Little Victor, I'm so happy about that. And new little baby, I can't wait to meet her. Oh my gosh, she is. She's a lot in a good way. Peyton, girl, I know you are a Wicked fan, and if there was a shiz marching band, you would be the drum major. I am a theater kid, too. I got the best of both worlds going on. Yeah. I wish I could show the picture of myself seeing Wicked with my grandmother at 15 to my 21-year-old self, because it'd just be the perfect conglomeration of my drum corps career and of my theater kid career. Fun fact, I was Peter Pan in Peter Pan when I was 14.
00:03:08
Speaker
at me way up high. ah That is perfect. Did you guys peep in the movie ah that Ariana Grande did a little bit of twirling action? I haven't seen it, but I've heard about this. Is this true? Oh, girl, she gives you a full-on phrase, honey. It is cute. Yeah, it's real cute.
00:03:29
Speaker
I love it. Color guard in popular media. So we have kept him in his pink bubble long enough. Please welcome Blue Stars alumnus Alec Lupin. Thanks for having me. I'm so, I'm so stoked that you were able to do this. I was like, I'm going to message him and we're just going to see where it goes from here. And, uh, and now we've got you in the hot seat. So hopefully you're ready.
Alec Lupin's Music Industry Journey
00:03:53
Speaker
Have you heard about our 32 count life story? I have. It's all about it.
00:03:59
Speaker
Okay. Well, I'll give you the met. You're going to get eight for free and then just jump right in. We want to know everything that happened in your life from the moment you were born to today. Okay. No pressure.
00:04:15
Speaker
I grew up in South Florida. um Middle school, high school was always in the band. Did high school marching band. Decided I really liked bands. So then I did WGI, DCI. I moved from Drumline into the synth world and synth and electronics. Really liked it. Decided to go to school for audio engineering at the Jacobs School of Music. I really liked the film media. So I decided to pursue that and decided Los Angeles was the perfect way to do that. So after I graduated, I moved out here, reached out to everybody that I could.
00:04:45
Speaker
um made some connections and then landed a job. So this is like your first first job doing doing what you do? I work for the composer of the film John Powell, brilliant composer at his studio doing like engineering and technical work. um So I've worked on a few films with him in the past but this is like working for him has been my first job really outside of college.
First Job with John Powell
00:05:11
Speaker
That is crazy. Your first like big big boy job is like such a powerful movie that is going to literally be like one of the pinnacles of how we view movie musicals in the future. I mean, it is. It's spectacular. Congratulations.
00:05:31
Speaker
Thank you, thank you. Yeah, it was a great experience to be a part of. So many people were involved. I mean, if you finish the movie, you have to wait another 15 minutes to get through the credits, which is just a testament to the amount of people involved and what it takes to bring a movie of this scale to the big screen. Which I did both times. I will say that I literally sit back to watch the credits just to see like how many people were involved in making this happen. like And it it is unreal. It's unreal.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
Marching History and Blue Stars
00:06:02
Speaker
Um, I want to dive into a little bit before we get super deep into into wicked, let's go back to your DCI and your marching history a little bit. And especially because like we talk about, you know, I talk about you being a blue stars alum. I'm a blue stars alum. I actually don't know if I told you that or not, but that's how I ended up finding you. But the, uh, uh, you know,
00:06:26
Speaker
and Was there anywhere else you marched? What did you do in in high school? Where did you march? How did you get involved in all this? so Let's talk about your marching history. so In high school, I marched um i just like you know was the band kid in middle school, so I obviously continued that in high school. and Then in high school, I went to the drum line and I marched snare.
00:06:46
Speaker
um four years of snare and high school is the only place i did drumline actually so i did after my third year i think it was i had some friends that were marching in strike percussion the wgi indoor group and i was like that's cool you know band outside of school so i was like let me get it let me join that um So I auditioned and made it on synth and electronics because I actually like have been playing piano for my whole life pretty much ever since I can remember at least um just learning as a young kid mostly by ear. And I was like, this is great. I was definitely not good enough to make snare or anything close to that. I was okay at mallets but couldn't really do that either. So I was like, synth is the perfect opportunity. I like the electronics thing. I like audio engineering.
00:07:32
Speaker
And I can play piano. So I auditioned on synth, made it, did a year of that. And then actually at the same time that I did that, that there was a new percussion arranger who was the caption head for the front ensemble at the Blue Stars. So we ended up hitting it off. He was like, oh, you should audition for the Blue Stars. I went, I played him ah some solo pieces. He's like, this is great. Fly out, did the audition thing.
00:07:58
Speaker
um And then I got a contract through the blue stars ended up marching two years of strike and two years of blue stars and it was just Some of the most amazing years of my life
Challenges of Marching Band
00:08:08
Speaker
just getting to experience that with so many people and just be involved like 24-7 in band especially with going on the road with indoor percussion being literally surrounded by it over the summer every single day which sounds a little crazy now, but looking back it's The memories are only good. you know When you're in it, it's like some days are good, some days are bad, but yeah only positive things to say now, really looking back. Don't project and ask what years you marched so that I can link the shows to my yeah my brain. Yes. In Blue Stars, it was 2018 and 2019, The Once and Future Carpenter and Blanking, on ah The Call of the Wild. Did I say was it Call of the Wild? Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
uh... words and so it's very gracious i actually didn't really know much about the ci until like the year prior to that which was twenty seventeen blue stars on because i had some friends that were marching that and i was like there's just ah such a beautiful show uh... especially just the use of music and rachman often it was great uh... classic music's amazing uh... and then for strike i march twenty eighteen and twenty nineteen two which was the plane show, which I forget what the name is at the moment, but we brought a plane onto the floor in Dayton, which was just insane. I remember when we first were learning about it, we were like, how's this going to get done? It was like an actual plane that we hollowed out. It was crazy, like all the people working on it.
00:09:39
Speaker
like Did you have to take it down the ramp? It was cut into sections. and Luckily, I was you know moving the synth cart, which was also, you know in my eyes, way too heavy for myself. But the fact that they brought a plane down there was just insane. you know Everybody should go YouTube that show because we had a plane. It spun. People jumped on it. It was just a crazy experience to be a part of. it was The most, I don't know, just like such a hassle you know to have another truck for the prop. and But it was cool. We had a giant lot in Dayton. Everyone was fanboying, fangirling us, which was a cool thing to be a part of. um And then the year after that, we did an addiction show, 2019, which we also had these massive props at the time that spun on their side and flattened up. And the snares were on top of it. it was I guess I've been a part of some big prop shows for indoor.
00:10:35
Speaker
I know what what big what big prop shows are like. I can sympathize with that. I remember that airplane prop being brought into the Ocean Center in Daytona for FFCC championships. And it was like it was rolling through as we were doing the solo competition for Color Guard. And I was like, what in the world is happening? And literally, all of my kids ran to the to the arena. They were like, oh, it's strike. We have to go and see the show. So I went with the kids to watch it. And I was like, OK, this is next level.
00:11:05
Speaker
yeah That was the goal of of getting that prop. um Yeah, I remember it was just madness making sure it would actually fit down the tunnel at Dayton. I think most of the way it was configured was just so at finals we could actually make it down the ramp. Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna I'm sorry that I'm gonna interject again and like bring it back to everything at Drum Corps related, but I just feel the need to explain that I vividly remember seeing that show back when like Loud and Live in theaters still existed, the Blue Star show in 2019. And I can remember sitting in the theaters with my friends. I was like 15 at the time. I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. Nightmare at 30,000 feet. That was the name of the show. Just kidding. I love it. Well, I do want to get into all things wicked because of course that's why we're here ah in just a
Drum Corps Camp Weekend Overview
00:12:02
Speaker
second. But first, I know all of us have our opinions about the Macy's Day Parade this year. I am certainly one of them. So let's get into some news. Peyton, can we start off with you?
00:12:21
Speaker
Alright, so in terms of things happening GRUM Corps related, we have a very big camp weekend right before the holiday season. We have troopers going on. We had BD two weeks ago right back before, right back right after Thanksgiving. I know SUV has a camp this weekend and so far we are just seeing all of these corps receive great turnouts in terms of recruitment and all of the staffing chains that changes that we are now hearing about, which is just a super exciting time. It's a super exciting time for any member that is marching or even any kind of alum that is itching to see what might be happening within the scene.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah, I will jump in and say, you know, we have had, we've started our remote camps at the Academy. I got to fly out to Vegas um last weekend, weekend before last, um the the day after Thanksgiving. And it was so cool just to, one, be back in the room with the vets and see so many new faces and then Last weekend, they had the first actual Phoenix camp and there were a lot of faces there. So, Drum Corps is alive and well and it's great and I'm excited about this summer. I can't wait to be on the road again.
00:13:35
Speaker
I was gonna say, I've just booked all of my flights, which well my bank account's hurting just a little bit. And it is, it's encouraging to think about just the upcoming season, not only in terms of how excited I am for my age out, but just how excited I am to be somewhere that's not super cold. It was 20 degrees in Pennsylvania right now, or within the past week.
00:14:01
Speaker
And all I keep thinking about is Alabama spring training, which is something I never thought I would say. Be careful what you wish for. What? Be careful what you wish for. Oh my god, no. um It's going to be like infinite and swamp tour glitch and I'm going to be like, I regret saying all of that in December.
00:14:22
Speaker
And for those of you who are curious, we are putting our round table together within the coming weeks where it will be me and a few other age outs and just a few other drum corps vets as well as some rookies. And it's going to be an entirely drum corps based episode where I'm going to be running it and I'm going to have a few of my friends on it and it's going to be super cool. And I'm going to yap about drum corps, which is what I do best. So super excited about that one.
00:14:50
Speaker
um Can I just throw out there, too, that Blue Stars had their audition camp and I was really sad because I did not see my adopted Blue Star son, Jack, on any of the photos. And I was so sad, but it turns out Jack got contracted with the Boston Crusaders for next year.
00:15:13
Speaker
Love it. shout out, shout out. I, yeah, I'm so excited to see how he grows up from all of that. I, I could do a whole episode about the culture of drum chords and how much it's changed over the years from like, there was a time that you could not.
00:15:31
Speaker
um more um There was a time though, like if you switched course, it was like a huge taboo thing. And and now it's like, that's what you do to learn and grow is you go around and you find your fit and traveling is so much easier. ah It's cool. It's cool. I'm excited. Someone make note of that. We'll we'll we'll talk about it. I'd love to talk about that. So normally,
00:15:57
Speaker
I, you would be hearing from me on the streets of Manhattan as a volunteer with the Macy's Great American Marching Band at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, but this year I was cheering from the couch with a newborn in my lap. um What a parade it was. It was really cold and rainy, but it was the 95th parade and it did not miss beat.
00:16:20
Speaker
from iconic balloons like Spider-Man and Marshall from Paw Patrol, ask me how I know that name, ah to the incredible floats featuring stars like T-Pain, Kelly Clarkson, all of the Broadway shows and definitely all the amazing marching groups. The energy was unforgettable and of course the marching bands made it through a very challenging parade with that weather There were 11 groups that brought their a game A game, including the Great American Marching Band. They hold such a special place in my heart. I'm so sad I wasn't there beside them, but I was so glad to be able to see them on TV this year. So I am thrilled to relive all of these highlights with you guys.
00:17:00
Speaker
um So let's just kind of run down and talk about like who all was in the parade starting with Avon.
Avon Marching Band at Macy's Parade
00:17:09
Speaker
ah The Avon Marching Black and Gold from Avon, Indiana. They were i they were the 2024 BOA Grand National Champions. And so they were invited to the Macy's Parade.
00:17:23
Speaker
Well, I don't know if they were actually invited or if they had to apply. I don't remember how that works. I think they applied, but I i mean, can we just talk about the fact that you come from winning, you know, indoor color guard, enddoor they won indoor wins, right? This year. Didn't they like pull all of it off this year? Yeah, they they did. a found Yeah, and then state championships in Indiana, BOA grand national champions, and then all of a sudden you have this, a whole nother full production for the Macy's parade to be on TV. Like it was just stunning. Like the whole color scheme, you know, they're using their fall costumes and the entire band is in those, I believe is the artist's name. I'm supposed to do that because I am like the district supervisor for art.
00:18:11
Speaker
ah but just like how the entire production comes together and you get these like 30 seconds of TV air time in front of the cameras and those kids are just the definition of professional. Like if there is a level of profession that like you should ever aspire to, it is to be like the Avon High School marching band kids, all of them. ah The East Tennessee State University marching buccaneers were another one. I have one of the ah staff members at Spintronics was telling me they have a niceece niece or cousin who was in this and this one. I can't remember now. Oh my gosh, I'm blinking. But I was in it and was so excited because we were going to like meet up in New York and hang out. And that that clearly or that didn't happen. I didn't go to New York. So I had a few friends who marched in it, who I've marched with as well, who were there on Thanksgiving.
00:19:10
Speaker
in the East Tennessee band or? Yeah, but people that I worked with in 23 and 24. Some of my closest friends, actually. Nice, nice. um Flower Mound High School in from Flower Mound, Texas. Ah, that color palette. Take me. The dots. Ah, everything. Loved it. Can I throw in a little funny anecdote is the first color guard advertisement I had ever seen on YouTube was from Flower Mound's Winter Guard back in, but I don't even know what your year it was, maybe 2012. It was a long time ago, 2011, 2012. It's awesome. Awesome, awesome. ah The Jonesboro High School Majestic Marching Cardinals, they were sitting on the ground and playing in the rain.
00:20:01
Speaker
Can we just talk about though the whole aspect of like, I know it was raining, I saw it, but like those kids, they spent so much time and money to be able to get to experience that, that it was like, you could not, you couldn't kill their shine on that day with a little bit of rain. They were just like, it's just water. We're just gonna keep doing our thing. it's And that's the thing is like, these kids are gonna push through anything to get this done because they love it so much.
00:20:34
Speaker
Lake Hamilton High School marching band from Hot Springs, Arkansas. They, they were one of the smaller ones I've seen, i I think. I'm trying to remember these. I don't have pictures in front of me. I'm sorry. And then there was the Lincoln High School Patriot marching band from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This was actually their fourth Macy's parade appearance. And then of course the Macy's Great American marching band. They,
00:21:01
Speaker
They had a really cool um introduction. They like helped introduce the whole parade and then got to go and march and bring the the rest of the parade in. i Yeah, can we talk about that whole intro, Billy Porter? They were on the sides as Billy Porter was stepping down the street doing ease on down the road. And oh my God, I lived my best life watching Billy Porter and those sickening boots stomped down the street in the rain, honey, not missing a beat. And the Macy's flags were giving us these presents, honey. I was like, okay, get it timing, yes.
00:21:40
Speaker
I love that about the Macy's Color Guard too. They're always like musical and like, they're, you know, they're not like out there just trying to throw the most difficult things in the world. They're, they're actually making like a really nice production number with with their choreography and yeah, i they just, it's absolutely fierce that they got to do that opening. And then the and NYPD marching band was there. they they have ah They come and perform every so often with the parade. University of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen marching band. I think I missed that one. The head drum major for the Spartans is a member of that band. And she was posting about it
00:22:25
Speaker
um You're going to have to send me her social media handles because I need to see this. It was awesome. I love i love following all of the all of the drum majors, seeing what they post about. ah The University of South Carolina, Mighty Sound of the Southeast from Columbia, South Carolina, i and then West Virginia University Mountaineer Marching Band from Morgantown, West Virginia. Having been to West Virginia to do a color guard clinic out there now. It's a different world out there, y'all. The fact that they're pulling all these kids together, ah kids, college students together in this band and like putting putting out such an awesome product is amazing.
00:23:14
Speaker
And that was their second performance too. So each band brought something unique to the parade, making the event a celebration of diversity in music and performance styles. You can catch more highlights and detailed coverages of the performances on the Macy's parade website. Personally, I like to go to YouTube and check it out myself, but.
00:23:33
Speaker
I know you guys have been waiting to talk to Alec about Wicked. I know I can see Ricardo's just like ready to pounce. but yes yeah We need to do a few more reps to get ready for the holiday parade. So get out, line up on the street and we will talk all things Wicked after the break.
00:24:02
Speaker
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00:24:17
Speaker
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00:24:47
Speaker
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00:25:17
Speaker
Let's stack our candy canes over here. It is time to jump into all things wicked. And I know as soon as I said we had this interview coming up, so many people from our staff jumped on this and they wanted to be a part of it. But, Peyton and certainly Ricardo, you guys were so eager. Oh my gosh, why don't you guys take us back to your first wicked moments?
00:25:42
Speaker
Okay, so I am going to jump in. So, as soon as you all know, I teach musical theater. um This is kind of my world. Wicked is probably, i I hate to say I have a favorite musical because there's like a top five that like fluctuates, but I have seen Wicked five times on stage. I got to see the but ana menzzele kson chiowwi I have seen it on tour in multiple cities. um I took my students to London last year, and we got to see Wicked and on the West End. So I am a Wicked fan through and through. like i The soundtrack plays in my head all day long.
00:26:27
Speaker
rip free uh but i've seen the movie twice now probably going to go back again later today and see it a prop at some point this week i will go and watch it for the third time this new soundtrack with um Cynthia Rivo and Ariana Grande i mean it is it is some spectacular stuff being a fan of Steven Schwartz for all of these years through all of my musical theater upbringing and like seeing it presented in such a way that like keeps it fresh I oh my god ah I just I can't I can't I'm i I'm guessing and going about this right now there's nothing wrong with that honestly
00:27:11
Speaker
For me, I really love it because besides drum corps being so such a very important part of my life, theater is as well as i was as I was talking about in the first segment. I'm a huge theater kid whether I want to admit it or not. It was something that I did throughout middle school and high school before I chose to go all in with indoor within high school.
00:27:32
Speaker
but I remember seeing Wicked when I was 15 with my grandmother in New York, which is a very like tried and true experience that I hold very near and dear to my heart. And I remember seeing Wicked and just bawling. There's like literal pictures of me that I could find in my phone right now of like my 15-year-old self with my blocky eyebrows that I didn't know how to do yet, like with tears streaming down my face.
00:27:58
Speaker
I have no shame. But now as I enter my 20s, having this as like almost a new era of a musical that I love so much is such a cool and important thing. Like I ran a half marathon like two weeks ago and I will typically need to like listen to musicals when I'm running because my brain will get so bored. And so I ended up listening to the soundtrack within my 13 miles and I ah highly recommend.
00:28:27
Speaker
nonstop repeat right now in my car, in my house, everywhere I go. it's It's on repeat and in my head, like constantly. It's just so catchy. How can you not? It's true. It is. So Alec, tell us about this journey. How did you end up getting to work on the Wicked soundtrack?
00:28:49
Speaker
So, and actually, I guess, begins for me in college. After my third year studying audio engineering at Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music, I decided to that I kind of wanted to move out to Los Angeles after I graduated and work in film, music-ish. I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do, but I'm fortunate enough to have family out
Path to the Wicked Movie Soundtrack
00:29:12
Speaker
here. So after I graduated, I reached out to some of them and they, or well, I guess after my third year, after junior year,
00:29:19
Speaker
i reached out to some of them and asked if I could just come for the summer see if I can make any connections reach out to people and just See what happens pretty much To kind of prepare for what I want to do after graduation see if it was feasible see if I could kind of make it work um Since at least that a lot of what I heard out here is it's just all about who you know and what you can do um but you know you don't have a job application really for for the kind of work out here so i came out here over the summer i reached out to a ton of people pretty much anybody that had an email address or their instagram was open i send a direct message.
00:29:57
Speaker
And I ended up connecting with a lot of different like audio engineers and mixers. And one of them worked at the studio that I'm at now. um Still works there. And I was just like, let's grab a coffee. If you're free, we ended up grabbing a coffee. um And that was pretty much it. Then we just talked about kind of what I wanted to do, what he currently did at the studio. And that was pretty much it. We didn't really talk about job prospects or much much else other than that. And then in my fourth year, back at school, kind of went back.
00:30:26
Speaker
um And then one of the requirements for the degree i was in is that we need to get an internship in a related field related to audio engineering sound production something along those lines. Some people go to studio work some people go into like plug-in designer theater there's you know a ton of options.
00:30:42
Speaker
um So I reached back out to this engineer that I had connected with the summer prior. I said, would there be any way you're open to having an intern? I'll send you my resume. I put the best of what I had on my resume and portfolio, sent it over. And luckily enough, they took me for a one-month internship. And I guess I made an impression. So they decided to keep me around after that.
00:31:05
Speaker
um And because we work directly for a composer and it's a small team, um kind of when the composer gets a movie, we're all on board and we're all working to just get the job done. um And then one of those projects luckily happened to be Wicked.
00:31:21
Speaker
And it's it's a cool full circle moment for me a little bit too even though you know I'm very small role in all of this um because in middle school one of my first um kind of audio jobs or experiences was doing sound for theater.
00:31:37
Speaker
um So I kind of got my start doing musical theater mixing and then in college I got to pursue that as well and mixed a few shows um in the musical theater department. So it's kind of cool seeing the best of both worlds and getting to see what what goes on and how many people it takes to get a huge production like this rolling.
00:31:57
Speaker
Alex I love that you said that your first like set in this was doing sound design for theater shows because you know people often think that like if you're in the theater that you're just one of the people on stage there are hundreds of people that make shows happen behind the scenes like The costume designers, the set designers, the dressers, all that stuff. And the most important people in the show every night are not the people on stage. It is the people who are in the sound booth making sure that they sound amazing. Because if that sound goes out on a Broadway stage or anywhere else,
00:32:32
Speaker
in a high school season stage, the night is ruined. That's a great point. The MVPs of the night, most certainly, I will say sound engineers and the sound people are first and then second are stage managers and the people who are making sure that everybody's where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there. So that's fantastic.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah, there there are really a lot of people involved, which I didn't even realize, you know, going in middle school, me was like, oh, I'll go turn on the soundboard and everyone has a wireless mic and I'll just mix the levels. And, you know, all of a sudden there's like 10 people on the sound team and 10 people on the lighting team and everyone has to get their hours before the cash shows up and stay hours later. And then it's just, it's quite a lot of people involved to make sure that all everything runs smoothly every night, hours of preparation.
00:33:20
Speaker
I'm itching to know what your favorite show has been, obviously, besides Wicked. I don't know. One of the first shows I mixed in middle school was In the Heights, which was cool just because it was like a first introduction to a musical. and I just listened to the soundtrack like every day, you know just knew the back of my hand. and It was my first Lin-Manuel Miranda show I listened to, too, but it it definitely was piqued my interest for wanting to continue in theater and college, for sure. So fun segue. I have gotten into learning about the whole like movie soundtrack production team and all that stuff in the last two years because our arranger for the Academy is actually a film composer.
00:34:08
Speaker
um And so his big thing, he doesn't like to talk about it, and he's probably going to be mad at me for saying this on here, but his big show when we were meeting and getting introductions and we talked about me being a theater person and all this stuff, he actually did the film soundtrack for In the Heights. So he wrote all of the extra stuff that Alex Lacamoore did not write for the movie because you know there's so much soundtrack that's based when you do a theater show but when you do a movie there's more scene transitions and all that stuff so they have to hire out another composer to do all of that stuff and so I'm pretty sure that's how you got this gig right is because you were associated with a composer that got to do all the extra stuff that Stephen Schwartz didn't do. Exactly.
00:34:58
Speaker
so yeah they they kind of did Did you absolutely like get excited about when the Blue Stars did in the Heights for their show? Oh yeah, it was just it was great. I loved the music. I was sad that I was too old at that point and I was in college and dealing with everything else. but It was a great show to get to listen to. I'm pretty sure it was all new arranging staff that year too, so it was like a fresh take. um I thought the use of electronics and sound design was integrated perfectly as well. Yeah, it was a treat to listen to when i when I heard that was the show. So what was it like when you found out you were going to be working on Wicked and like specifically?
00:35:38
Speaker
It was very cool um you know because i kind of knew I think everybody kind of knew it was going to be this giant thing um eventually and I think the music and the tunes and the melodies from that show are great. So just like knowing that I was going to get to hear them in this huge orchestral blown up Expanded you know such expansive way where everything's just huge you know melodic strings and this classic Hollywood Sound I you know I was just very eager to get to the end product
00:36:09
Speaker
So the process for like doing soundtracks for movies like people think that like oh you would go and record a movie and then it's just released instantly. Like this is gears in the making. How long have you been like involved in the project for bringing in this movie to the
Role in Wicked Movie Production
00:36:25
Speaker
table? Also we do know that part two has already been recorded. I'm going to ask another question after this one later.
00:36:32
Speaker
But like that's all it's already been done. It's just waiting to release to get like a little bit more hype. But how long were you involved in it before it came out? My role, not too long. um Just the last few months at the end, I really come on once ever the music's written, um and it's about to get recorded. And then what I do specifically is I communicate with the studios in London where they're recording the music and then I work right with the mixer for the the the orchestral score and I kind of take the files as they're recorded prep them to be mixed and balanced here back in Los Angeles and if there's recording in LA I'll take those files to get them all in one massive file where everything can be kind of consumed more easily by who's going to be end up who's going to end up mixing everything because you know there's a lot of parts and
00:37:24
Speaker
different instruments that go into the score. So everything kind of has to be in a palatable way to where it can be easily exported. um And then once it's all mixed, I'll take those files, export them out, and then communicate with the music editors who are going to edit the orchestral score and the songs together. um So I'll send that to them while they're editing everything here. And then it all gets put together with the picture and then finished up. So pretty late in the process, I get involved So in my deep diving of Wicket for the last month, um they said that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Oribo and Cutie Patootie, Jonathan Bailey, all sang live.
00:38:09
Speaker
as they were filming did you guys have to mix it live or did they go back into the studio record afterwards that's what i heard as well we you know we're really hands-off with the lyrics and and the the vocal tracks that's all handled by completely separate teams just because there's so many people involved they can all be kind of delegated out who deals with what um So our team really focused on just the orchestral stuff. um Mainly that happened, like you were saying, between the songs and what smooths the transitions between scenes and kind of, you know, just follows the emotional track of the story. That was going to be my next question was like, you have all these different teams that are doing stuff.
Music Recording Process for Movies
00:38:49
Speaker
When the music is being recorded, though,
00:38:53
Speaker
It's not like you have just one giant orchestra in the room like, okay, we're gonna be here for a few days and we're just all gonna get this all recorded. it's like It's like done in smaller chunks, right? with With like a group of people here and a group of people here. A lot of the times the orchestra is recorded as, well, it kind of depends what they're going for. So sometimes the orchestra is recorded as a giant group. Sometimes if there's just strings playing a melody, they'll record just the strings. Or if the brass is just playing a section, they'll record just the brass.
00:39:23
Speaker
um Sometimes it's easier to mix things if they're separated out or in the final delivery they'll want things separated out a certain way, but it really depends and it's it's definitely a case-by-case basis for what happens, which can you know lead to more work down the line just to get everything organized. but yeah so What was your favorite thing to work on?
00:39:47
Speaker
um I think my favorite thing overall was just getting to hear this music every day and listen to the great orchestrations and everything that's going on. you know It's all great music. I think the the songs were amazing. The score was amazing. So just getting to hear it all every day and just you know i can sing the oboe part by heart and have the violence play a certain melody. and Just, it's really magical getting to hear everything come together also at the end. All the individual things, you know, hearing mock-ups of it and then getting to hear the final orchestral score mixed, mastered, put to the picture and you can finally understand the arc of the story. um Because when you hear and see everything every day and then you finally go to a theater and sit back and watch the whole thing, it's like, wow, you know, taking a step back from all the little details on the inside and just getting to see the story for what it is.
00:40:41
Speaker
It's very enjoyable. yeah because you guys don't like It's never done linearly. like It doesn't go like timeline-wise for recording. like You guys just record different segments at different times or whatever. um yeah I don't even make the schedules for that, but whoever makes the schedules picks and chooses what would go in what order best depending on what players, what orchestra, what um what the instrumentation is for the recording session that day. But yeah, definitely not in score order, I would say. Which song do you think you would say you were most proud of at the end of it all?
00:41:17
Speaker
I don't know that's a great question. There's bits and pieces from each part of the score that are excellent all around. I don't i don't really know to be honest. There's just different little things in each queue that I'm like this is great and this is great and it's hard to really pick one.
00:41:38
Speaker
Okay, Alex, I need you to dispel a rumor for me. ah Rumor has it that Marissa Bodhi, Marissa Bodhi, who played Nessa Rose in the show, ah because of the traction on social media for the, me and Bach, is going back into the studio to re-record that portion of the song. Can you ever earn or deny that? you I have not heard or seen, I'm really not involved with that part at all, but You didn't even know about that. all I didn't either. All I've just seen is all the TikToks. Yeah, I have no idea. I do think that the social media storm kind of of all just the content coming out is very cool and seeing all these new people that are interested in the musical that I've never even heard or seen about it before. you know I open up Instagram Reels and 7 out of 10 are wicked related, which is you know after a few hours gets annoying. but
00:42:38
Speaker
It does not, because I've switched my social media from being political to now it is just wicked and church stuff. I don't know why church stuff, but I'm going for it. And I will tell you- Are you okay? Yeah, I know, I know, I'm not okay. Don't ask what you're okay. I'm not okay. We'll talk about that in a side conversation. But I will tell you that anytime that I am walking down the hallway, be it in my office or just in my house, I'm literally doing the choreography for what is this feeling with the book. choreography and the lean stuff. Love it. I'm doing it all the time. It's in my head 24 seven rip freak. The cadence is so fun. How could you not? Exactly.
00:43:21
Speaker
That being said, Alec, is there a visual moment in the movie that you feel like matched really well with the soundtrack is that you were like working on as you were like thinking
Favorite Moments from Wicked Movie
00:43:34
Speaker
about it? i really like the I think one of my favorite bits is the train driving or when it's going to the Emerald City. just the kind of over like the the giant shot on the Emerald City with the music. You just have this giant orchestra playing the melody as the train is driving and it's just this big grand thing that you really know you're going somewhere big and that's where you know where the story is about to pick up and you meet the wizard and it all goes really fast. um And I think that moment is just spectacularly done. You love the and anticipation of it.
00:44:12
Speaker
What was the most surprising thing about working on this? ah Not necessarily even just on Wicked, but about your career in general. like What would 15-year-old Alec be like, oh my gosh, really? That's what happens? What would a be the most surprising thing you found? The most surprising thing is just that I got the job through Connections and um I got this job that I never thought I would have really. i mean you know when you When you're at school, um a lot of what you learn is that you just have to be really good at what you do. and um kind of they They don't really talk about the Connections aspect and how you have to meet people and how everyone you know is going to be the people to offer you future jobs and it's all about Connections.
00:45:04
Speaker
um and Yeah. It's true. It's true. Have you found any other fun like connections with people who have like marching arts backgrounds? Have you connected with anybody over that? um A little bit some people that I had like very similar upbringings from South Florida like we have similar you know, percussion teachers and now we're working on giant films together like just small little band connections that really make the world seem smaller than it is.
00:45:37
Speaker
Well, the marching band world is so small. I love it. We were just discussing this the other day in ah one of the drum corps groups on Facebook about how how small. We don't even need Kevin Bacon. We're all like one degree from each other. Well, Peyton is going to take everybody and prepare them for the shiz marching band performance. So we'll be right back with more.
00:46:12
Speaker
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00:46:33
Speaker
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00:46:51
Speaker
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00:47:20
Speaker
We are back. It is time to dive right into what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing? All right, what are we doing? This is our sort of tongue in cheek way to go off on something going on in the marching arts. Ricardo, you know how this works. Take it
Encouragement to Watch Wicked Movie
00:47:46
Speaker
away.
00:47:46
Speaker
Listen, what are we doing about not having seen Wicked at least twice at this point? Jackie gets a pass because, you know, she's got a newborn, but the rest of you people out there in the marching world, listen to me. I don't want the excuse that, well, musical theater is not really my thing. It doesn't have to be your thing. This is going to be the thing that is going to transform you into a theater nerd like the rest of us.
00:48:13
Speaker
It is visually stunning. It is musically her perfect. It's perfection through and through. It is, if we were able to like mold drum core and everything else in the theater world and put it all together and like make one of the greatest films of all time, this film is it. I'm telling you, if you are not seeing this movie, at least once, at least once,
00:48:41
Speaker
You need to do better. Do better. I definitely want to experience it in theaters. Oh man. You have to, I'll come babysit your kids. I told you, I'll do that. I'll make it happen. Peyton, what are we doing?
00:48:54
Speaker
Okay. Can we please, please, please, please, I'm begging, get some more drum corps shows that utilize theater or at least snippets of musicals within their shows. bring The last one that I can remember. Okay. And I love this show so much, so, so much that it made me want to do drum corps because I saw it in 22 when I was at Lucas oil.
00:49:20
Speaker
Blue Stars used Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 as their ballad and I lost my mind and it was so, so great. Things that I can also remember, I can remember Boston using snippets of Hamilton in their 2019 show.
00:49:38
Speaker
However, as a theater kid and as someone one who also does drum port, that is my favorite thing ever when those two arts just come together to make the most beautiful baby of a show. I think it's the truly like the epitome of two of the greatest formats of music. And I would love in this upcoming 2025 season, my age out, I would love to see some shows utilize some more musicals within the shows.
00:50:08
Speaker
Listen, I am here for taking it back to like the 80s and early 90s when people would literally just do their show would be like their marching band version of a theater show. Like when Santa Clara Vanguard did Phantom of the Opera and Cadets did West Side Story. Magic. Magic.
00:50:30
Speaker
I love that song. But that was SCV. But yeah, SCV did in Scheherazade too. And I feel like it's, it's really, it's not just about that. It's about like the storytelling, you know, utilizing the music and utilizing the video, the the visuals to do this amazing storytelling. And it just sucks you in. That's why you can get each other so well. Yes.
00:50:54
Speaker
It doesn't build off of each other. I will say this, my original concept idea for what the Academy is doing this summer was based off of some musical theater stuff. It has since evolved in the design process and all the musical theater music has been taken out of it right now at this point, but it was definitely it was It was inspired by some musical theater, like one particular musical, two particular musicals, um and it is gonna be a great concept. But i did I did transfer my little theater world into the drum corps world as best I could this year. You can't just say that and not expect me to get so excited about it. It's gonna be good. You're gonna like it a lot. I was just gonna say, is one of those musicals wicked?
00:51:43
Speaker
No, no, it's not. Wickedus inspires everything, though. It does inspire. It inspires my day to day living. So yeah, I'm always defying gravity. Nice.
00:52:00
Speaker
That's beautiful. I like waving my arms. yeah Alec, you see how this goes and how ridiculous you are. We we are together here. What are we doing?
00:52:15
Speaker
You know, I just actually realized mine is directed at my past self, but it's what are we doing waiting for movies to come out on streaming before we see them? And that's like something that I kind of have always done, you know, only it'll be on my TV and I can watch it in two weeks at home. But working in the movie industry, I've realized that all these teams of people are Working to put on this amazing product and why not go see it on a giant screen with giant speakers with an audience where you can all Enjoy it go with some friends and you can all just be there immersive um In what and where it's designed to be
00:52:55
Speaker
I agree Alec like there is nothing like listen I know that especially post COVID all of us are lazy and nobody wants to leave their house or anything. I am 1000% guilty of it but after going this this is a movie you definitely have to see in theaters to truly get the full immersion of the sound and the camaraderie of everyone else in the theater going through the same exact um moment as you in history. like it you Get out and go to the theaters, folks. Just go and do it. So what I'm hearing is popcorn, M&Ms, crispy diet, Coke, and the Wicked movie. Definitely popcorn. My movie theater has wine, so I'm very happy about that. Ooh.
00:53:45
Speaker
but wo you feet up here did with and bogie movie theaters Oh yeah. Oh yeah. The reclining seats and everything. I'm here for it. Let's go to our gush and goes. Great job, everyone. Set your equipment down. I kind of feel like this whole episode has been a gush about Wicked in particular, but musical theater.
00:54:12
Speaker
Ricardo, what do you want to gush and go on about today? I'm gonna guess and go about two things. One is musical theater, and then one is gonna be marching arts.
Excitement for Hadestown and Winter Guard
00:54:21
Speaker
So I just did my first round of auditions for my Swansong musical theater show, which is gonna be Hadestown this year. So we had some awesome talented kids come out and audition for that, and so that's going well. And then I have spent the last two days staging the first half of my Swansong Winter Guard show.
00:54:44
Speaker
And that's going to be really pretty. So I am. I'm in my creative era right now. And it's like it's it's I'm vibing on such a high frequency right now. It's like a million aura points for me. Hey, what do you want to gus and go on about? I just finished my first semester of my junior year of college, and I am knee deep in creating lesson plans because I have two more semesters until I student teach. But I'm so, so, so, so excited to just have this break and focus entirely on the amount of travel that I'm going to have to be doing for Drum Corps. So I have to go to the Drum Major Summit in January.
00:55:28
Speaker
January camp for spirit, MLK weekend, and then I have a retreat for silent command, which I'm super stoked about. So I'm just super excited to like have this break adequately for the first time since God only knows probably the season and not only just like recover as a college student, but start to mentally prepare myself for a semester where I am leading into this last season for me. I remember those days, oh man. and Yeah, you're doing big girl things, Peyton, I love it.
00:56:09
Speaker
It's great! I'm gonna think about it! Don't think, just do. Just run straight at it. What do you mean I have to teach high schoolers in two years? That sounds fake. It's fine. You'll be fine. High schoolers have gotten a lot younger since you were in high school, I'm just saying. and
00:56:29
Speaker
Alec, what would you like to gush and go on about?
High School Band Success
00:56:32
Speaker
My gush and go is that I got to write the front ensemble music for the high school I attended seven years ago, and they got First in Percussion at States this year. And I'm just glad I still get to be involved in the marching arts as an arranger, which I did not think would be possible seven, eight years ago. Alex, whatla because they're in Florida, what class were they in?
00:56:59
Speaker
Okay, ah call small bad okay I saw them, they were great. Thank you, thank you. I want to gush and go about getting my son started with musical theater because his first musical he ever saw was Wonka.
00:57:19
Speaker
um Yeah, it was perfect. He fell in love with Willy Wonka. And we ended up going and getting like the other previous two movies on DVD and then immediately bought the new one on DVD when it came out. He watches it 24 seven. If you guys saw his Halloween pictures, he was Wonka for Halloween. i And then of course, his baby sister had to be in Oompa Loompa because freaking adorable. Yeah, that's so perfect. It's great. And there's a huge tap dancing scene in in the Wonka movie. And
00:57:51
Speaker
He loves tap dancing, and I only recently put it together that that's why he loved tap loves tap dancing so much is because of that movie. Like, oh, that makes sense. He taps all over the house. He'll run up to you and say, do you want to see my shuffle step? Do you want to see my shuffle off to Buffalo? And then he'll do a little like tap dance for you. It's so sticky cute. so I am creating another musical theater slash dance slash band nerd. We'll see what direction he goes. He also loves to play the piano. So Alec, I'm very excited that you say you started playing the piano so young. my He's been playing the piano since he could hold his head up. So I'm excited to see where that goes. Hey, it's called gush and go, not gush and stay. Let's go.
00:58:38
Speaker
Thank you guys for a great rehearsal this week. What a way to kick off season three of On a Water Break.
Listener Participation Invitation
00:58:45
Speaker
There are so many things that we have planned this season. We can't wait to share everything with you. I have been told that we've been getting some email and message requests like DMs from our listeners wanting to add their own what are we doing or their own gush and goes.
00:59:03
Speaker
Y'all send those to us. Make an MP3. Just record yourself real quick saying, your what are we doing? Say your gush and go. And we will throw it into an episode because I think it's so great. I love listener ah fueled episodes and you know, giving us some more stuff to talk about. So I'm sure you guys are thinking about things that we haven't necessarily thought about yet, or maybe it is something we have thought about extensively and haven't brought up yet. So Send those our way. You can email us on a water break. I think it's on a water break at gmail dot.com. Uh, and DM us at on a water break, all of our social media. Thank you so much for hosting with me, Ricardo and Peyton. You guys are awesome. Thank you, Alec. Uh, where can people find you on social media if they want to follow your incredible career?
00:59:54
Speaker
um My Instagram, I guess, which I'm not active on, but should be and maybe soon, is at little underscore Lubin, L-U-B-I-N, um or my website, which I should update soon as well, which is just my first and last name, aleclubin dot.com. That's be brilliant. The fact that you could get your whole name as a website is... Disney owns my name, so can't do anything about that.
01:00:23
Speaker
One more thing, don't forget we have our YouTube channel that has many of our interviews as full video editions. Go and subscribe so you don't miss those. And then, of course, before you close out of our podcast listening app, go subscribe, write us a review, share this with a friend, make sure you follow us on all of our social media at On A Water Break. We'll see you at the next rehearsal on A Water Break. Go see Wicked.
01:00:51
Speaker
The On A Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more, visit ridamusic.com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.