Joseph Trapanese
Joseph Trapanese is the exuberant and multi-talented composer widely praised for his contributions to tentpole films and passion projects, including Tron: Legacy, The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, Arctic, The Greatest Showman, Insurgent and Allegiant from The Divergent Series, Only the Brave, Robin Hood, Stuber, Earth to Echo, and Oblivion. His zestful aura and extravagant interdisciplinary approach to scoring have enticed high-profile collaborations with Daft Punk, Dr. Dre, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, M83, Kelly Clarkson, Ellie Goulding, Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, and Moby. He is a founding member of Los Angeles based collective, The Echo Society. In our discussion, Joseph explains how Lady and the Tramp allowed him take a journey through early American musical traditions and details his latest creations with BenDavid Grabinski on Happily and Nickelodeon’s revival series, Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
Source: Tim Navis
Can you tell us about how your entrance to the business of film scoring eventuated?
Oh yeah, absolutely. It depends on how far back you want to go. I grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, and when I was a kid, I just fell in love with hip-hop music of the late ’80s and early ’90s, which kind of came full-circle later when I did Straight Outta Compton. [Hip-hop] was my first love in terms of music, but what’s interesting is the first music that I really fell in love with that made me want to be a musician was film music. An uncle lent me Star Wars, and I watched it. I was like, “Oh, what is this sound? What is that sound?” After that, I learned everything I could about orchestra. I also fell in love with electronic music in middle school, so I was always that weird kid in youth orchestra, who was also making beats and playing with computers.
It was interesting because for a while I didn’t really feel like I had a home. I was too eclectic and too adventurous for any one genre. It was only when I moved to L.A. to pursue film music that I realized, “Oh, my background is actually perfect for this because what we do is so technologically driven.” Being able to deliver a film score is highly dependent on skills of music production, music technology, but also conveying the powerful emotion that you need in a film. My orchestral training has been so useful to me. I’ve also been very fortunate to meet some great people, and I’ve had some amazing mentors who’ve fostered me. But ultimately, those weird skills are what helped me navigate forward through it all.
In terms of role models, collaborators, and executives, who have championed your artistry along the way?
I met Christophe Beck many years ago through John Swihart. I actually worked with John for a while. He’s an incredible composer, best known for things like Napoleon Dynamite and How I Met Your Mother and so many great movies since then. John had introduced me to Chris, who was looking for an assistant. Chris is obviously known for Frozen and some amazing movies like The Hangover series. I spent some time working with him, and Chris is the one who knew Daft Punk. When he heard Daft Punk wanted to score a film, he said, “Oh, just hire Joe. He could help you out.” I had that weird background where I grew up loving electronic music, and loved what Daft Punk was doing, but also had the skillset to help translate that to an orchestra. Tron was obviously a big moment for me.
Then in terms of executives, because of Tron, I got to meet everyone at Disney, and that’s come full-circle now with Lady and the Tramp. When my director [Charlie Bean] was doing Lady and the Tramp, and said, “Hey, I want to hire Joe.”, Disney was so supportive. They couldn’t have been more helpful and encouraging for us to go on this crazy adventure on Lady and the Tramp, where we recorded musicians in New Orleans. We also recorded music on set in Savannah, Georgia. We did all these amazing sessions with an orchestra here in L.A. It was a real adventure, and you can’t really do stuff like that without the support of an incredible team of creative executives and music executives. You know?
The live-action rendering of Lady and the Tramp revives the time-honored tale of an unlikely romance that blooms between a pampered Cocker Spaniel and a street-savvy stray Schnauzer. In the rapidly changing landscape of streaming platforms, Disney+ is an emerging power player. Can you tell us about what initially led you to your chosen instrumentation?
From the very beginning, Disney saw how music was designed as a character in this film. One of the earliest meetings I had on this film was before the script was even finalized. The director, Charlie Bean — we did Tron: Uprising together, and that’s how we know each other. We just hung out and thought, “What is the music of this film? What is the character of this music?” He even wrote music ideas into the script and would change things in the script based on our conversations about the character of the music.
It was very clear from the outset, especially because it’s a period piece, that music was such a character of its own in that time. It takes place around the 1910s, so one of the first things we spoke about is how, at that point in time, records were still really young. There were obviously some records and phonographs, but music was really alive. Every house had a piano. If you wanted to have music in your life, you needed to learn how to play an instrument, so we wanted to make sure that the music of the time felt like a part of the movie. We wanted the music to be a true character in the film, not just what it normally does in terms of enhancing emotions and helping the audience delineate the hero’s journey. More importantly, for us, it was about giving the film a time and place, as well as a signature and feel.
Right! Back then, people were selling sheet music to households, so like you were saying, you’d have to learn it to experience it.
Absolutely. I did a lot of research, and it depends on exactly what year you’re looking at, but at the time, a record player could cost just about as much as a car. A record player was really only something to be enjoyed by the upper class. If you were just a regular person who wanted to learn music, you could get a piano for a lot cheaper than a record player, or you could buy a little instrument.
Like I said, we went to Louisiana to record with the local musicians there, who have such a long history and understanding of New Orleans musical traditions. The music felt so alive to me there, and I felt that feeling where the music is truly a living, breathing part of the culture. Just walking down Frenchman Street and things like that really verified and confirmed what we wanted to do. We wanted to create that same energy of music being alive in the film.
You must have been picking up on the soul of Louis Armstrong in New Orleans!
That’s exactly right. Around that time period, that’s when Louis Armstrong had his Hot Five & Hot Seven Band. That’s the style we were going for. We worked with an incredible trumpet player named Nicholas Payton. He is an incredible artist and composer in his own right, but he is also such a master of the trumpet that he’s able to bring forth the spirit of Louis Armstrong.
One of the first things we did was take the song “He’s a Tramp” and bring it to the band. We said, “Hey, what if this was a traditional New Orleans tune? What if you grew up, and this is something you learned how to play right away on the instrument? What would that sound like?” We immediately were able to tap into that amazing depth of musical heritage and come back to the studio with something alive and super authentic.
Janelle Monaé sings “He’s a Tramp", and it was recorded with those musicians playing in a traditional New Orleans style. It was really fantastic because we didn’t hesitate to produce it in a modern way once we captured that magic. I feel like it’s a song that has one foot in the time period of the movie, but has the other foot in right now, which is so exciting. I actually feel that way about all the songs in the film.
With this sound in mind, how did you illustrate the contrast between Lady’s charmed, upper-crust lifestyle, and the scrappier experience of Tramp in your thematic material?
Just like they have a counterpoint and banter in the film, we wanted to make sure that Lady and Tramp had a similar counterpoint musically. In those early conversations between Charlie and me, we decided that Tramp’s music should feel improvised and free. He lives on the street, and he does whatever he wants. That’s why his theme has a relationship with that traditional New Orleans music. It has the same excitement and energy. You hear these bluesy guitars, harmonica, trumpet… It has a real feeling of being made up as you go along and feels true to the time — the sound of the street, the sound of the common man.
Charlie and I came up with a great idea for Lady’s music to be more refined and more classical, like what American symphonic music was like at the time. As the film goes on and as they get to know each other, you hear their music interweaving a bit and co-mingling. There’s one instance in “Getting on the Boat” where you hear Lady’s theme, but it’s played by the jazz band. There are other instances where you hear Tramp’s theme, but it’s played with the orchestra. So, you have this interesting melding of the two. That mixture is much like American culture and how it was growing back then. I lovingly refer to parts of this film as a trip through early American music.
It’s interesting to hear you say that. The cue, “The Tramp,” has an old Western feel to it, taking back to the time of cowboys.
Absolutely. You hear all these early American musical traditions coming forward, and that was something super deliberate. It was so exciting for me to explore this because I’ve had so many incredible opportunities to do sci-fi projects and films like The Raid, where I was really challenged to create electronic textures, or things like the Divergent series or Robin Hood, where I was challenged to create these hybrid scores. This film was a new challenge for me. This is all acoustic American music. I think that was something really important to us that it feels of the time and place. It feels like it grew right out of these characters.
Considering that the original film debuted in 1955, what were your methods to reference Lady and the Tramp’s legacy while adopting a compositional approach that possessed its own agency? To what extent did you consider what super fans have come to expect from a beloved film in Disney’s canon?
In terms of referencing the original film, there are obviously great songs in there, so the ones that still work for today, we kept and re-imagined them but without re-constructing to the point that they’re unrecognizable. I think, for fans of the original, they’ll be very pleased and excited by the updates.
One of the most important decisions that Charlie and I made early on had to do with the styles of music. If you re-watch the original film, like you said, it was made in 1955, but it takes place in the same time period as our film around 1910 and 1915, that era. Interestingly, the music in the original film all feels very ’50s, so you have this counterpoint between the time period of the film, and the score and the music that we didn’t really feel would work right now, which was very anachronistic to the time period of the actual film.
Because of this, we made a very strong decision to be sure to reference the music of the ‘10s. However, we also knew it was important, being that this is a film being made in 2019, to welcome modern elements. For instance, there are scenes where the music of the time very heavily influences the Tramp. However, because Tramp is such a clever improviser and can turn on a dime, the music could instantly become more modern and contemporary. We felt that it was essential for the score to be able to cross that boundary, living between 1910 and now.
The main title is a new arrangement of Bella Notte that I made. It was recorded with a full orchestra and choir. What’s interesting is that when you listen to it, there’s obviously some influence from that time period in the harmonic language in the way that the notes move around. Still, it’s a brand new arrangement that sounds super Hi-Fi and definitely has a modern touch. This is something I was very passionate about bringing to the table. It was such an honor to work with that incredible music, and I think that’s what’s so exciting for me as an artist. Not only do I write music, but I’m so passionate about being an arranger, an orchestrator, and a music producer, as well as taking other music and re-imagining it.
[Lady and the Tramp] was such an incredible experience for me because not only did I contribute original music and have the opportunity to write new themes for Lady and for Tramp, but I also got to work with some of the most incredible music ever written for the Disney library. I remember Charlie coming into my office one day and said, “Joe, I want you to write the opening of the movie using Bella Notte as a waltz.” How awesome is that? I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.
It’s amazing how much you can learn from studying other musicians’ work. Of course, you had to explore the chords, the melody, and the structure of the original Bella Notte before you could re-create that music in your own artistic voice.
Honestly, some of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had were on this film because you’re exactly right, I had to dig deep into Disney history. Booker White has become a close friend of mine. He is only the fifth music librarian in the history of the Walt Disney company, and we’ve worked together closely on a number of films. Literally the first thing I did when I found out I was going to be doing Lady and the Tramp was give him a call and go down to see him. I went down to the library and down to the archives. Booker was able to give me access to the old scores and lead sheets of Bella Notte, He’s A Tramp, La La Lu, the lullaby — just anything you can imagine. I was able to work with those original charts and immerse myself in that. It was so cool.
As musicians, we love to explore things we don’t know. I think that’s one of the key things about being an artist. You’re an ambassador for so much cultural history that no one person could encapsulate. When we’re given these new tasks, like to write or perform in a style we’re not familiar with, great musicians chew that up, so I came to the table very excited to learn and do just that.
What are your core motivations for music-making, and have they changed over the years as you’ve become more successful?
I wouldn’t say they’ve changed, but I would say they’ve evolved and gotten simpler. I think I’ve been so lucky to have had the opportunity to work on some fantastic projects with great collaborators, filmmakers, and musicians. It’s such a blessing to be able to do this, but I would say the motivation is the same, and I’ve kind of distilled it. I think that’s what happens as you get older and more experienced. I was really forced to distill it down to something really concise and simple, which for me, is that I just love making great art, making cool stuff, and making bold creative choices. That is still what influences me day to day. I’ve been so fortunate to have such an eclectic background, and palette of sounds, and different projects, and ways of writing, that I don’t really take my inspiration from any particular style. I take my inspiration from working with incredible creatives — that is why I do this.
It is so cool for a director who has a specific vision to invite you to not only be a part of their vision but invite you to the table to figure out a way for music to enhance their vision and to give a counterpoint to that. That’s the type of thing that keeps me going. It really isn’t anything other than that. You know, when it’s late at night, and I don’t know what I’m doing, and I start to lose sight of why I’m doing it… When I have a million notes to get through, and nobody’s happy, that’s what keeps me going.
And they’re trusting you, right? In a way, it’s a huge leap of faith because they have to translate the ideas in their minds, and then they have to believe you’ll understand what they want and bring it to life.
There’s nothing more trusting than a filmmaker asking a composer to write music for them because you’re exactly right, score and music, in general, is one of the most transformative elements in a film. By that point, a filmmaker has spent years thinking about this film, developing and designing it. To let go of that much control is no small feat. I do not take it lightly at all when a filmmaker asks me to be a part of their film. They’re really entrusting a lot to me. On the flip side, that is part of what excites me. It inspires me to go, “This person is trusting me so much. I need to come up with a beautiful sound for them, or a horrible sound for them if that’s what they want.”
Relating this to Lady and the Tramp, when we decided, “Hey, we’re going to write a score that draws a lot of influence from traditional New Orleans music.”, I had never done that. So, how awesome of a filmmaker to grab me by the hand and entrust me with that? We took this leap together and figured it out as we went along. It was an amazing, amazing process, and these types of projects are always so rewarding.
Arctic is an intense Icelandic drama that examines one man’s quest for survival as he awaits rescue after his plane crashes somewhere in the Arctic circle. What were your strategies for translating the visual cavalcade of this film into an aural medium?
Of course. I love that you’re asking this question because that’s a film I’m really proud of, and that’s something that I put a lot of thought into. I put a lot of thought into exactly that, like “How do you come up with a musical soundscape for such a foreign landscape?”. Joe Penna, the director, and I, as well as his co-screenwriter and editor, Ryan Morrison, spent a lot of time talking about this. When they brought me the film, it was almost done. They had done an incredible job cutting it because they worked so closely together. It’s a small team — just the two of them working together, and they’re so efficient.
They had a temp score in there that was drawing on a lot of classical film music. A lot of beautiful string melodies, string quartets, very intimate things, but my critique and what started our conversation was that we were in such a foreign landscape, drawn away from comfort. You watch this movie, and it could be 80 degrees outside, but you’re freezing. So, I said, “Where’s the orchestra?”. I said, “I know what you’re going for.” I said, “We need that acoustic organic sound to understand this deep internal emotion that Mads Mikkelsen’s character is feeling.” Then it was the question of, “How do we do it in a way that is faithful to the setting of the film?”.
So, what I immediately did was try to write the most beautiful but simple melodies I could for low strings, basses, cellos, violas. I had some friends come over to the studio, and we just kind of ran through some ideas. Then I started taking those ideas and re-amplifying them through resonator speakers. They are designed to be attached to things like a piece of wood, a wall, or a glass table, for instance. They’re very small speakers, but because you connect it to a big piece of wood, the sound is like tenfold. It resonates on the surface it’s connected to, creating a really unique sound. What I then did was put contact microphones on the other side of that surface. Instead of putting sound into the piece of wood, the contact microphone was using the vibrations in the wood to record the audio. In essence, I was using wood, and I used some stone and glass. I even attached one of those resonator speakers to one of those big water jugs and put the contact microphone inside.
Basically, I was using all these materials as filters, so it was the sound of an acoustic instrument, or the sound of a beautiful bass choir because I felt this character had such deep emotion. I recorded twelve upright basses playing these beautiful, low dark chords, but then I would re-amplify them either that way or use another method called convolution, which is used in a lot of reverberation plug-ins. What you can do with convolution is take the sound characteristic of one thing and apply it to another. The traditional way would be to sample a concert hall or a recording studio and then apply those acoustics to a drive signal, and then it would make that instrument sound like it’s in that space. So, what I did was instead of applying a concert hall, I would take things like the sound of ice breaking and combine that with a bass. I had samples that someone had made from recordings of glaciers cracking. What’s interesting is that then the music came alive in a different way.
I used this technique on a lot of piano sounds, playing one note, but it would follow the sound character of a glacier cracking. It creates these insane textures, but they still felt organic and emotional. I know this is a very long answer to your question, but I’m really proud of this one. It was like, “How do find this beautiful, natural quality while still also being aware of the unique setting and feeling of this film?” When you listen to the score while you’re watching the film, you’ll hear moments where the orchestra is playing, and because we’ve had so much time with the re-amped orchestra, those special moments, that we’re able to open up, feel all the more satisfying.
Now, technically speaking, you were describing convolution reverb. Are you saying you can record the space of any room, and it basically becomes an IR?
What I’m doing is kind of hacking it because when you create an impulse response, you either pop a balloon or set up a flare gun, or something that makes a big loud sound to activate every frequency in the harmonic spectrum. Then the software analyzes how each frequency behaves in the room so it can take that model of the frequency spectrum and apply it to any sound. Let’s say I’m going to play a trumpet and that trumpet is active at these frequencies, so it takes how the room behaves at those frequencies and applies it to the trumpet.
So, what I’m doing is taking the frequency spectrum and enveloping it. There’s a time dimension to it too — how long the delay is. So, it’s taking the length of that ice cracking sound as well as the harmonics, as well as how the frequencies behave and applying that to the sound I put into it, which is maybe a string quartet or a piano. It’s wild and super fun. What’s also cool about it is that it becomes a sounding board for ideas. I just love sitting at the piano and playing notes because the piano kind of speaks to you. It feels like a dialogue where every time I hit a note, it’s different, so that informs my musical decisions. These types of processes, and this weird hacking of the convolution reverb — it’s very unpredictable. There’s a lot of trial and error, but in that trial and error, there’s a dialogue happening, so it’s really a thrilling way to work.
It makes me think of people like John Cage and other early pioneers. I’m sure they’d be excited to hear about these kinds of experiments you’re doing in 2019.
I like to joke that people like Stravinsky, Bach, and John Cage if they were still alive right now, they’d be making film music. I think film music is such an exciting medium because language is so eclectic and so welcoming to experimentation. For instance, I know everyone’s talking about the Joker score right now. If you play the score by itself, it feels like a modern piece of contemporary classical music. Then you play it in the film, and it is an amazing, glorious piece of art that is deeply emotional. Those people watching might not be open to that in a concert setting, but because it’s part of a film, it takes on a whole new level of meeting. It’s so exciting that we can sneak these high art ideas into a medium that is so easily digestible.
I really feel passionately that a lot of composers of the past that we might label as ‘pure art classical’ would be so thrilled by what’s happening in film music right now because of the ability to work with any materials and be able to justify it. Like I’m talking to a friend right now about writing a completely atonal film score that has no key signatures and no chords — just sounds. How exciting is that? We live in a time where that’s completely relevant, and I think that’s something that composers of previous generations only dreamed of. The only thing you’re limited by is the creative vision of the film and the people you’re working with, but sometimes, that creative vision is like the sky — it’s wide open.
In light of Arctic’s minimal dialogue, what unique privileges did this present to you musically?
Oh, that’s a great question. I think part of it was finding ways to be relevant to the film. There really wasn’t a lot of dialogue; I think it was like 20 lines or something. Someone added it up, and there were like a hundred words total. Just because there was so much silence, I became even more tuned into when I didn’t want to use music, and that was definitely a part of the very early conversations I had with the filmmaker, John Penna. Before we even decided where the music was going to go, I wanted to decide on where the music wasn’t going to go and where we were going to let the sound of the landscape carry the emotion. Because we made those deliberate choices, I think it made the music that is in the film even more effective, and it allowed me to write all the more impactful score. It’s obviously such a unique opportunity to be able to do a film like this, where I’m able to chew up so much picture. There are so many times the score is just in the background like a lowly element, so it was an opportunity to really be a strong character in the film.
In scenarios like these, I think everything is a little bit more amplified because all the decisions have to be intentional and strategically designed. Though, I’m not saying I didn’t improvise or make things up along the way. Still, because the broad ideas have so much intention to them, it gives a real character to the music and then allows you to break the rules as you go along and find interesting power points between the rules and not following them.
Absolutely. It must have been a departure to work within a film where you rarely have to worry about stepping on dialogue.
It was amazing because I think I am passionate about writing around dialogue. I often keep the dialogue on as I compose because the dialogue is essentially the lead vocal, as well as the lyrics. As a film composer, if you just wipe it out or write all over it, then you’ve done your job wrong. I think a lot about our jobs, and I compare it to writing opera without the vocal. You have to give room to the dialogue. So, yes, it was an experience to work on a film with hardly any dialogue because you could take up different parts of the frequency spectrum that you normally can’t.
It’s hard to imagine anyone living on planet earth who was not privy to the tremendous popularity of The Greatest Showman. Behind the scenes, an impressive cast of musical talent was assembled to bring this extravagant film to life — John Debney also served as a composer, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul penned original material, Alex Lacamoire, Greg Wells, and many other luminaries were involved. Looking back on this phenomenon, what would you consider to be your greatest contribution to this project?
Oh, that’s a great question. To be honest with you, I started on that film in 2014, and I was one of the first music producers to be involved. I don’t think it’s a stretch for me to say that because early on, I spent a lot of time with Justin and Benj, the amazing songwriters behind the film, and also with Michael Gracey, the director, just looking at his vision for the film. He had this beautiful artwork made of how he wanted the film to look and feel.
I spent the early parts of 2015, as well as the summer working with them to develop the sound of the film, deciding how the synthesized textures would work with the instruments of the time period. It was about finding certain colors and unique ways of using the orchestra. For instance, one of the instruments I used was the Marxophone, which was actually made in my hometown of Jersey City in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Those early demos are what got the movie greenlit by Fox. Obviously, it was right in tandem with Justin and Benj, Michael, as well as Anton Monsted, who was an executive at Fox at the time. I feel like the five of us were this little team of rebels trying to come up with the vision for this, because Hugh [Jackman] had kind of asked Michael to do this crazy thing and then fell in love with what Justin and Benj were trying to do.
This was not a big movie for Fox until it was suddenly a big movie for Fox. We all made it into a big one for them, and it was so exciting to have seen that happen and be a part of it. It’s almost like raising a child. You’re there at the very beginning when there’s just a blank canvas. I feel like Justin and Benj gave birth to these beautiful songs, and asked me to be a part of it. It’s like what we were talking about earlier with Lady and the Tramp, where I studied the original score. In this process, I took it upon myself to learn [Benj and Justin’s] songs, sitting at the piano and played them before coming up with a sound that would define where the film really went. I’m really proud of that work we did together.
Now, the question we’ve been dying to ask. Will there be a Raid 3?
Oh, I honestly don’t know! I haven’t spoken to Gareth in a little bit. Look, if you were to ask me personally, I think maybe one day there will be a Raid 3, but I know that right now Gareth is really excited to explore other ideas and he’s made some amazing things recently. Right now, he’s making a TV show called Gangs of London that I can’t wait to see. I’m a big fan of his work. Anything that allows him to explore his artistic voice is fantastic, but I think that maybe one day, he’ll come back to do The Raid 3.
It was a real pleasure for me to see Iko Uwais recently. Iko was obviously the star of the first two Raid movies, but he was also in a movie I did this year called Stuber, and I got to see him at that premiere. We had a big hug, and it was really wonderful to reconnect with him. He’s fantastic, and I feel like it was just incredible to see him go from just a delivery boy in Jakarta to a movie star. It’s been amazing to watch him grow, see where he is going, and how hard he works. I think that’s the thing that people don’t talk about a lot. Iko works so hard — he’s serious. He wakes up every day at like four or five in the morning to train. Anyways, I would love nothing more than to reunite with Gareth and Iko, and everyone at XYZ Films who produced it. They’re such an incredible team, so we’ll see what happens.
Is there anything you can share with us about your score for BenDavid Grabinski’s forthcoming thriller comedy, Happily? What additional projects can we anticipate from you in the coming year?
Absolutely. I’m really excited about Happily. BenDavid is such a singular voice — such a unique mind. I think I read the Happily script a couple of years ago in one sitting. It was just such a thrilling piece of work — so unique, so memorable that I just knew I had to do it. Everyone on the film is doing it for scale, just so that we could make sure that it stays on budget and on point because we’re all just so passionate about it. BenDavid had me read the script and said, “Joe, I want you to do the stuff that no one else will let you do. I want you to try things you’ve always been curious about, but no one’s ever allowed you to do.” I spent weeks in the studio, just having fun and exploring all sorts of crazy ideas that I didn’t think anyone would ever want to hear. Then I gradually started playing them for BenDavid and sending them to him while he’s on set.
I visited the set a few times, and we just had a blast. Because I had read the script so early, and got to know him and the film he wanted to make, that once he gave me the direction to do things no one else would let me do, I was obviously doing that while thinking about the story. We have a score and a film that is unlike any other, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it. That’s all I can say.
Again, I’ve been the luckiest guy in the world so far, and that only continues with these amazing collaborators. BenDavid and I finished Happily and then moved straight into Are You Afraid of the Dark for Nickelodeon, which is airing right now. We had such an incredible time because he’s so creative. He also brought in a director who I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time, Dean Israelite — I’ve always wanted to work with him. So, to get to collaborate with both of them on this re-imagining of a legendary Nickelodeon show from the ’90s, I mean, come on! To call my job fun, eclectic, crazy, and so rewarding would be an understatement. It’s fascinating, and I have a blast every time I go into the studio.
Interviewer | Paul Goldowitz
Research, Copy, Layout | Ruby Gartenberg
Editing | Alex Sicular, Ruby Gartenberg
Extending gratitude to Joseph Trapanese and White Bear PR.