This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:01] Joe Iconis: Hey, I'm Joe Iconis. And I'm Jennifer Ashley Tepper.

[0:06] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: And this is the podcast that's all about my album, ALBUM.

[0:10] Joe Iconis: Today we're going to be talking about the very first song on the album called ALBUM.

[0:15] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Great job.

[0:18] Joe Iconis: Let's talk about the song that will start it all off.

[0:30] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: What is the title song of the album called? Why it's called ALBUM, of course.

[0:35] Joe Iconis: You were referring to ALBUM.

[0:38] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Now, this is the first song on the album. It's the last song you wrote for the project, right?

[0:44] Joe Iconis: Yes, correct.

[0:45] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Jerome Robbins-style came in and told us what it was all about.

[0:49] Joe Iconis: It's my comedy tonight.

[0:51] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yes, exactly. It's just like that.

[0:53] Joe Iconis: How did this song come about?

[0:56] Joe Iconis: This song came about because I was trying to think, as I was putting all the songs together, I was trying to think of what I wanted the whole thing to start off with. I had a few tunes that felt like they were potential candidates for the first song on the album. But nothing was really taking the lead.

[1:21] Joe Iconis: Initially, when I was first hatching this project, I said, I want to relieve myself of the pressure of writing absolutely anything new for this record. There's so much to record already. So much of it would be new to anyone, but why write something new? Some of the songs were basically never before heard or once before heard. It felt like, don't write anything new, just record what you have. But of course, I ended up writing a couple of new things because I couldn't help myself. The last of which was this album.

[2:01] Joe Iconis: Really, the thing that was the kicker was once I decided, I want to call this album, album. Once I was like, that's the title of this thing.

[2:15] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Was there ever anything else you considered calling it?

[2:17] Joe Iconis: Honestly, no. Because there was never another potential title. For a while, it was just untitled, Iconosyn Family album project. Every time I had a mental session with myself, where I was like, what am I going to call this thing? I never hooked on to anything that I responded to.

[2:47] Joe Iconis: I feel like if it hadn't been called album, it would have been called something that had 30 words. Yeah, it would have been like feeling Apple style, like a poem or something. But then I had, it was truly like this flash of like, oh, if I call it album, is that annoying? To me, it's like calling the whole thing album. It almost feels like the equivalent of calling my concert act, Iconosyn Family. In the same way that it's like the family feels like it feels so sort of huge and kind of brazen to call a group that. It feels kind of huge and brazen to call an album just album.

[3:36] Joe Iconis: And then the more I thought about it, the more I thought of the different sort of meanings of that word. How while it is a very sort of short, blunt, obvious descriptor of a massive project, it also conjures up images of picture albums to me and family albums. And this idea of like snapshots that occur through a life. And then it started to take on more and more resonance to me, just the word. And then once I got on board with that, where it's like I'm going to call it album, then I was like, there literally has to be a song called album on album. And it has to be the first time. It was just one of those things where it's like I could not live with myself if I released an album called album and did not have a song called album on it. And so that was really the thing that got me to write it.

[4:35] Joe Iconis: And we started recording. We started recording the band track. So we made the band tracks first for the whole thing pretty much. And then like a month later, we record all the vocals. And so we did this at the top of March 2021. And so in February, it's like right at that vaccine, early vaccine. Yeah, it was like right. It's like some people were getting the vaccine and people. I just say that to like people weren't doing much yet. It was like, oh, my God, we can finally like see our friend outside kind of time, especially in New York City. And so just like being in an album, actually recording music, even though it was like, of course, with everyone in masks and very safely done as safely as possible and like band, not singers yet. It was so like, oh, my God, we're doing a thing.

[5:19] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah. I mean, it felt like heartwarming and dangerous and confusing. Almost everyone who walked in was like, oh, my God, like I practice. But like I haven't played my guitar for months or like other people or whatever it was.

[5:31] Joe Iconis: Yeah. I mean, I'm looking back on that time, too. You know, we were recording in power station studios where we've done, you know, many albums. And Ian Keggy, who's our producer and engineer and mixer and plays bass and sings and does a million things. You know, he sort of runs that joint these days. And we were like really the first thing back in there after a very long time. And it was so strange kind of being in there. And it felt a little bit like, you know, a ghost town, like massive studios. And it was really just sort of like us.

[6:30] ♪ Musical number: "Feelings Are Forever" — performed by Joe Iconis ♪

[6:46] Joe Iconis: Power station did such a great job of keeping everyone safe. But it's very different from how it is now, where like every time you walked in the building, not only would you have to be like, no, I have not tested positive for COVID. Like, no, I don't have any syndromes. I felt like every time I walked in the building, I was like, I have not touched a pen that someone who had COVID might have touched in the past 24 days. Like, it was just like, it was so extensive. It felt like very safe.

[7:07] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah, definitely.

[7:08] Joe Iconis: Yes, a fortress. But, yeah, so, you know, we were recording it. We had these dates booked for the band to start recording. And, you know, because everything is very expensive in this life, we had basically five days to get all the band material that we were going to have on the album. And it was kind of like, if you don't get that material, then you're not going to get it. And so I felt like I have to write the song album before we go into the studio to record these band tracks.

[7:43] Joe Iconis: And I tried. And because of that, I said to myself, this song has to be a short and sweet, like, little song. Do not feel.

[7:57] Joe Iconis: That always works.

[7:58] Joe Iconis: Always, yeah, clearly. Like, do not feel like you have to write something. This is me talking to myself. Joe, I would say to myself. Self, do not feel like you have to write a big, huge, epic song just because it's the title track of this thing. This one, you should go out of your way to try to write something that is like the shortest song in the album. Really quick, in and out, like three verses. That's it. And so I started writing it. And, of course, I naturally and organically catch this idea for a song that was like, this is clearly going to be a very long song. It's clearly going to be so involved. And, you know, I got into it. I got into the first verse. And then I just couldn't write anymore.

[8:44] Joe Iconis: So I didn't finish it for that first initial chunk of band sessions. And I thought I will get to it at some point. I'm just going to figure out a way how to record this. And it became this thing where all throughout this whole process of making this album, which took months and months and months and months, I would say to Ian and Charlie, you know, my collaborators, I would say, like, and there's that one. There's this other song coming. But it's real. It's like real short. It's just a little song.

[9:11] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: I'm sure they believed you.

[9:12] Joe Iconis: They know you very well.

[9:13] Joe Iconis: They know. Yeah. And they'd be like, okay. It's only going to involve me. It's going to be really short and simple. And don't worry about it. But it's going to come eventually. And so because of that and because of how it all kind of worked out, I ended up not finishing writing the song until the summer. Until the summer when we were sort of doing our last little bits of recording. And so while a lot of the songs on the album, a lot of the 44 are songs that I wrote in a relatively short amount of time, I tend to think a lot about what I'm going to write before I ever put pen to paper. And then when I do, I tend to write fairly quickly or at least fairly concentrated. The album was so the opposite.

It was the actual writing of the song was so sort of sprawling and occurred over such a long period of time in so many different places. I started the song in the basement of my family's house on Long Island. That's where I started writing it around Christmas time, probably 2020.

[10:24] Joe Iconis: In the city and continued writing it, you know, going on retreats upstate and it just was this thing that was like in my life for so many months. And I ended up finishing it in June of 2021 while I was out on the North Fork of Long Island at this hotel called the Soundview Hotel. And I was like kind of on the beach and it was like, I remember like finally getting to the end and being like, I think I finished album and realizing this song is like seven and a half minutes long. It is the exact opposite of what I set out to write. But I finished it in, you know, in this like little hotel at the seaside with, you know, like the beautiful sunrises and like, seagulls and shit. And I remember thinking like, oh, this is like a movie.

Like in a movie, this is the sort of place where a writer would like finish a song, you know, and it's like, and it's never the sort of place where I ever finished a song or I'm ever work. I guess I'm always like, you know, in a rehearsal, I'm always, you know, like here in a rehearsal room with a shitty piano. And it's like, it was the most sort of like hilariously idyllic place to be like, okay, this is the song I finished it.

[11:44] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Well, the whole thing feels very cinematic. It feels like if there was a movie that was fictionalizing like your journey as an artist and partially about this album, you would write the song album over many months. And like, you would encapsulate all the things that were the experience of making the album. And like, that is clearly what needed to happen for the song. And like, no one should have told you that at the time, because it would have just made you write slower and think you didn't have a deadline. But like in all in all like that added to the song. And like, it's so much about all the times we had in the studio.

[12:10] Joe Iconis: Yeah, yeah, truly. And I think that without it, yeah, without it literally being about that, you know, I think all of those experiences, you can, I think you can hear them in the song itself. And you know, and something else that I did in the song that hopefully people will pick up on is, you know, I tried to really lightly reference other songs and other things on the album. And you know, the, the obviously in the last verse, like I'm talking about, you know, I'm my imagined, you know, great granddaughter having blue hair. And, and I talked about music you can hold, which is something that's talked about in the song yesterdays. And there's the references to climbing up, you know, hills and mountains, which a few of the songs talk about.

And so I just like this idea of like, kind of planting little seeds in that first song. Before you launched into this whole, you know, three and a half hour mess, like you, you were, there were these ideas and these, these thoughts that were kind of like, secretly, you know, working their way into your consciousness.

[13:18] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: I can't even imagine, like, coming from the place that I do, like someone who isn't familiar with your work, who hears this album, and that's their introduction, and hearing that song first and not knowing those songs yet, like it's going to be such a cool listening journey for them to get those seeds first.

[13:32] Joe Iconis: I think so. And, you know, and the construction of the song, too, it's something that both like, is I'm excited by it, and, and scares me, you know, thinking about people sort of being exposed to my work, or this album, for the first time through this song, because it is, it is so long. And for, you know, for five and a half minutes of its running time, it's just voice and piano, it's not till the end, where people sort of gradually come in. But, you know, I kind of, I think that, you know, artistically, it feels correct. It feels correct that this whole big thing is starting with just me and a piano, and then we literally hear other human beings kind of enter the room and, and, and, and join in and contribute, you know?

[14:17] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Do you think you'll ever perform this song live? Like, obviously, there'll be album release concerts, and there'll be, you know, concerts where people are excited about this album. Like, I, it's, do you think it'll be like a song that's like special to the album? Or?

[14:26] Joe Iconis: No, I think I'll do it live. I do. I'm excited to do it live. Yeah. It's, it's strange. I guess I've never really had the experience of recording something for public.

[14:37] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah.

[14:38] Joe Iconis: Never. I don't, I don't think that's ever happened. No, I'm just realizing that now. That's wild. Yeah. Whoa. Wow. It's just like, I feel like Lady Gaga. It's a reference I hope people understand.

[14:48] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: I don't understand it.

[14:49] Joe Iconis: No, no. Well, just like any, you know, any artist, like a normal artist, who's like, they make an album, and then they, then they perform it, you know?

[14:56] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Right. That's how it works, I guess. That's how real people music works.

[15:00] Joe Iconis: Yeah. We should talk about, because this is the first song on the album, and we're talking about it, just, you spoke about the band sessions. And obviously, like, a very special thing about this album is the fact that, like, it includes so many people. You get so many of the actors that have participated and, like, been part of Joey Connors' family over the years, so many of the musicians. It feels almost like, at summer camp, when you have, like, cast A and cast one, except in this album, there's, like, 40 casts. And, like, every song has a different set of musicians and backup singers. And it just feels like those band sessions were the beginning of realizing, like, oh, wait, like, you know, all of these musicians who've ever played over the years are each going to get a couple songs. It was very cool.

[15:43] Joe Iconis: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that's what I wanted to do. That was always sort of the dream. And honestly, the only regret that I have about the entire album is that I just wish I could have had more people. Honestly, like, it's like there's 70 artists who are on this album, 70. And I wish that I could have had 170. And even with all of that, there are people who still, when I think about them not being on this album, it, like, breaks my heart.

[16:06] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: I totally understand.

[16:07] Joe Iconis: Yeah. But, you know, there was only so much you could do. And really, you know, honestly, that's where, you know, I think we did okay. But that's where the COVIDness of it was, like, at a certain point, you know, it was hard to have that many people safely come in. And it really required some, you know, some wild, you know, jigsawing of schedules and, you know, and people schedules and safety protocols and all that. And so, you know, I think the fact that we got 70 was great. But yeah, I always wanted it to feel like a, I wanted the album as a whole to feel like a, the artistic, you know, expression or manifestation of the Iconis and Family shows, of this idea of being in a room surrounded by human beings who you, you know, love and connect with and having no line between the stage and the audience, you know, having a truly feeling like one room.

And I just wanted the album populated with people, you know, artists who I have a, who I have an actual relationship with, you know, and I'm so, I'm so proud that we were able to do that, you know. And obviously, there's a lot of people on the album who have, you know, sort of sparkly names. And there are a lot of people on the album who have names that the larger population might not be as familiar with. But I'm really proud that literally every single person who's on the album, I have a connection with. They have done something of mine. We have worked together, right? I've known them through the work. It's not, you know, there's no one is on this album because of their, because of their followers, numbers, you know, it's like, it's, it's for real. And I'd like to think that that comes across in the performances and in the whole thing.

[17:43] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Well, it's also, it's such a special combination of folks that have been part of Iconis and Family for years singing songs that they originated or songs that like they only sang once that were really special, and then they recorded it for the album. And then also like the special bonus thing of songs that were not their song from any Iconis and Family concert that like, you know, Alan H. Green is someone who's worked with you on many things and was one of the leads in Broadway Bounty Hunter. And like his song that he sings lead on on the album is like a brand new Alan H. Green moment. Like there's such a good combination of fitting people to like a perfect song, but maybe it was something they've done a million times. Maybe they've never done that.

[18:20] Joe Iconis: Yeah. And I think that that, that is that whole, you know, it's in the spirit of, of that, of the summer camp thing, you know?

[18:24] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah. It was summer camp with a whole lot more COVID tests.

[18:29] Joe Iconis: Yeah, that's the subtitle. Yeah. But yeah, but the song itself, I'm really, really, I'm, I'm, I'm really proud of, I'm really happy with and, and, you know, and it's, and it's true, you know, it's the way it sort of starts. That's like how I, you know, I Googled the word album, because I was like, what does this actually mean? You know, so I like that it's, you know, it's both a, it's, it's both a song that I think thematically, you know, represents what this piece of work is all about. And also it's just, you know, it's a very blunt sort of like, this is what happened.

[19:08] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah. Um, you can't say this, I can say it, but like, it's just one of the most extraordinary lyrics like that you've ever written. And I feel like it's very tattooable. I feel like all the people that love getting like, you know, and I think it's so amazing when I have friends or like meet people who have a tattoo and it's like a lyric from one of your songs or a lyric from a musical theater song. Otherwise, that's like, very meaningful to them. And I feel like within a year of this album coming out, I will be meeting someone who has a tattoo of something from this song. I'm just saying.

[19:34] Joe Iconis: Oh my God. Okay. Well, thank you for saying that. It's a prediction.

[19:36] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah. And now it's like, that's going to be the thing that I'm, I'm chasing when I write.

[19:40] Joe Iconis: Yeah, I'm not going to be chasing like critical or commercial success. I'm just going to be like, what can I write that people will tattoo on themselves? All of my lyrics are just going to be like, live free and play with ponies. That is the tattoo people want.

[19:56] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Yeah. Live free and play with ponies. Great.

[20:03] Joe Iconis: Hey, thanks so much for listening or watching to my podcast. Do me a favor and go to wherever you just listen to or watch this thing and subscribe or like, or give us a great rating or review and then head to bpn.fm slash album to find out even more information about this podcast, more ways to watch more ways to listen and check out my album album. Thanks so much for hanging out.

[20:32] Joe Iconis: Album podcast is executive produced by Liz Armstrong, produced by Dori Berenstein, Alan Seals, Kim Garris, and the rest of the team at the Broadway Podcast Network. Be sure to visit bpn.fm slash album for both audio and video versions of this podcast and to listen to album. Sometimes critics would murder all the artists throw their...