Broadway cabaret staple Joe Iconis will be previewing songs from his new 'Album' (to be released June 17th) at the Bourbon Room June 22, 2022, joined by some of the 'Album' artists who are also members of Joe Iconis & Family. Joe took a moment to answer a few of my musical queries.
Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Joe! When did you start compiling the 44 songs for Album?
The project has been in the back of my mind for years and the moment it was clear that the shutdown was going to be longer than the two weeks initially announced in March 2020, I set the idea in motion. I spent months trying to figure out ways to make it happen logistically and financially. Once I got funding in December of 2020, I spent a couple months obsessing over the track list. I have hundreds of songs that have never been recorded so whittling them down was a challenge, but I wanted to be as picky and intentional as possible. My longtime friend and collaborator Jennifer Ashley Tepper was enormously helpful with that process. My initial list hovered around an even 40 and when Tepper got involved, it ballooned to 44. The extra four were songs from musicals I hadn't planned on including. I wanted all the songs to work as standalones, but Tepper argued that when I do these songs in concert, they become their own little three-act plays anyway. I'm glad I opened myself up to including songs from The Black Suits and Bloodsong of Love because the versions on Album are so different from any versions that may eventually end up on a cast album for either of those shows. In a weird way, it feels like I'm doing cover versions of my own songs.
Did you write your songs with specific singers in mind? (i.e., Andrew Rannells singing Kevin and Aaron Tevit The Answer) Or is each song a collaboration between yourself and the artist?
The album is a combo of songs sung by people who originated them (either in concert or in a theater piece), songs that were first performed by people other than the people singing them on the album, and songs I wrote specifically for the album performer. No matter what the scenario, every track was a collaboration between myself and the singer. I like to wrap my material around the human being who is performing it and so there was always conversation about musical shaping and phrasing and keys and rhythms. Everything in my work is coming out of the character or the dramatic situation, so I need the actor's input in order for the music to make sense.