ALBUM PODCAST with Joe Iconis and Jennifer Ashley Tepper

Try Again was written in July 2015, after Joe's musical Be More Chill opened amid a wave and hype and received a show-killing review from the Grey Lady. The song deals in the specifics of an artist's life, but the hope is that it is relatable to everyone. It acts as the final song on Album because, like the album itself, it is heartfelt, a bit profane, fuzzy, ragtag, unexpected, and pure. Here's to... survival. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This group 11 O'Clock number is the centerpiece song from Joe's Bloodsong of Love. The entire original cast of that musical are featured on the track, along with a resplendent choir arranged by the oft-mentioned Joel Waggoner. Listen to find out if the written lyric is “lore” or “lure” and if “soul” is about a fish. This might be the song that best encapsulates the Iconis & Family ethos. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Find The Bastard is about being on a mission and is the "theme song" of Iconis' Bloodsong of Love, his spaghetti western musical. Joe and Jenn discuss the style of theatre songs as stand alone songs and how the end of Album's track list becomes more and more like a live album as it wraps up. Performed by Eric William Morris and the original cast of Bloodsong of Love. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Iconis boldly asked the internet, "What does music mean to you?" and got a beautifully sentimental response from a Long Island high school student that inspired the vulnerability expressed in It's All Good. Another track from the musical, The Black Suits, on Album it is performed by the original cast of the SPF workshop: Jason Tam, Nick Blaemire, Lance Rubin, and Jason SweetTooth Williams. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Joe Iconis' musical, The Black Suits, Amphibian is a song about songwriting. It was a surprise hit in the show that audiences responded to with enthusiasm. William Finn advised Joe about not dwelling on the imperfect rhyme between the words amphibian and oblivion. Written in the voice of high school band members, the words fit the vocabulary of the characters singing them. Killer orchestrations by Charlie Rosen and vocal performance by Will Roland. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"I'm gonna put a party hat on my cat", was an earworm that was stuck in Joe Iconis' mind for a long time until he brought it to fruition in the summer of 2012 for a concert at The Beechman. A woman sings about how she can solve all her problems by putting a party hat on her cat, dressing up, and putting on perfume. After trying a few different ideas, Joe finally landed on the concept of having the cat chime in and share their perspective. On Album, Lauren Marcus is the woman singing about her cat and Eric William Morris is said cat. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This song uses technology as a metaphor. A robot's battery dies throughout the song while he dreams of being happy, human, and real. The production on this track is more electronic focused, incorporating synths and computer sounds. Performed on Album by the very human, Jason SweetTooth Williams. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tightrope Walker / Mountain Climber / Me is one of two songs that were written specifically for Album. Joe wanted to write a piece specifically for Molly Hager and remembered a half-finished song from 2012 that he thought might be worth a second look. The resulting song is a three-part story that explores a person's relationship to their drive. Molly Hager recorded this song for Album. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The oldest song on the record, "Starting to Forget" was written when Joe was an undergrad at NYU. It's based on source material from Brighton Beach Memoirs and inspired by Joe's own grandfather who passed away a few years before he wrote this song. Joe's longtime, cherished collaborator Badia Farha sings this song on Album and was present the first time Starting to Forget was performed 20 years ago.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Him Today, Gone Tomorrow is a rock and roll banger created with Shakina Nayfack for her musical, Manifest Pussy, an autobiographical story of Shakina's journey to gender affirming surgery. This song's sentiment speaks to how the middle of a transition is just as valid as the beginning or the end. Performed by the goddess herself. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Written for the incomparable and ludicrously talented Liz Lark Brown, Velociraptor is a song about a creature who doesn't fit in. While the specifics involve a dino on the dating scene in modern-day New York City, the tune has become something of a theme song for a wider range of humans. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An ode to an unconventional friendship in a whimsical yet ghoulish context. Joe wrote this song using the "my (blank) is a (blank)" format he'd been trying to crack for a while! Originally performed during the annual Beechman Halloween show, this bizarre and hilarious two-hander is performed on Album by genius character men George Salazar and Jeremy Morse.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Muthers R Speshel (Wen Yer Sad) is a unique collaboration between Joe Iconis at age 6 and Joe Iconis at age 30. The track is an updated version of the first song Joe ever wrote, interpreted here by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ad-Libs by Lin. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This song was born... out of a joke. One of Joe's trashiest songs, this is ironically one of the most suitable for children. Sort of! There was this one time that Lance Rubin made up a fake dance craze called The Slide Whistle. And then Joe was hanging with Jordan Stanley and the rest of the crew. And then there was whiskey. And then there was slide whistle. Come on snakes, let's rattle! http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The song that inspired the musical LOVE IN HATE NATION. Originally written as a one-off love song paying homage to 50s/60s Girl Gang films, Joe ended up adapting his own standalone into a full-length musical romance. Sung by real-life besties Lauren Marcus and Molly Hager and given a proper wall-of-sound production design that would make Ronnie Spector proud. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another song from THE BLACK SUITS, "Social Worker" made the final cut of the musical. Joe regards this as a song that begins to bridge the gap between his early work and later work. There is no "Michael in the Bathroom" without "Social Worker." Sung by Nick Blaemire, this song is also responsible for Sept 18th becoming "Black Suits Day." Next time you win Joe Iconis songwriting trivia, you're welcome.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The character of Megan got cut from The Black Suits and along with her went her big number: "Joey is a Punk Rocker." Here, it makes a dramatic return nw, as sung by the incomparable Annie Golden, a woman who truly embodies the ragtagness and youthful energy of rock and roll music. Joe wrote this song during his Senior year of NYU Undergrad, a time when he was less hard on himself in regards to perfect rhyme.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the few songs on this album that can also be heard on an OCR, "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" is from Be More Chill, but this is an extra special version meant to live on its own outside of the show. The multi-talented Seth Eliser is the performer and arranger of this rendition. Seth can do literally everything a human being has the ability to do. If the zombie apocalypse happens, Seth is the one you want to in the bunker with you.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The writing of this song led to one of the last fights that Joe and Jen ever had. Joe waited until the last minute to write this song for a concert Jen was producing, Jen needed the song a week in advance, Joe didn't deliver until hours before the show, and Jen was (rightfully) PTFO. But now it's one of her favorite songs! (If the song sucked, would Joe and Jen still be in a fight?!) Please listen to it while standing on 52nd St in NYC for a truly immersive experience. Sung by Danny Burstein, who embodies the connection between generations that this song describes. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the first full Christmas song that Joe has ever written. He loves New York City, he loves a cocktail, but he REALLY loves Christmas (the holiday garbage, not the religious stuff). Much to Jen's dismay, this song is not secretly about Bernie Madoff. The tune is sung by Grace McLean, who elevates it in an "unreal way" that straddles the line between humility and insanity. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This song is one of Joe's absolute favorites he's ever written. It's about feeling stuck, like your ship is waiting to come in and may never arrive. Very autobiographical, the feeling of this song is what Joe was feeling in the exact moment it was written (and even more recently when Joe and Jen recorded this episode). Eric William Morris and Joe Iconis became insta-besties almost immediately when they met during an audition. Katrina Rose Dideriksen and Joe met as NYU Undergrads, both making music that didn't quite fit the mold (then and now.) http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a song title in parenthesis so it won't spoil the joke. Once you listen, you'll get it. Sung by Jason SweetTooth Williams, who Joe Iconis is simply in love with, was basically born to sing this song. The episode devolved into a SweetTooth lovefest... but the song at the heart of it all is very much about someone with a secret. Can you figure it out? http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inspired by the movie Psycho, this song "Normal" was penned in 2010 and first performed a Halloween gig at The Beechman. The idea was writing a cheesy love song from the point of view of Norman Bates. Sung by Lance Rubin, this song only gets better every time he performs it. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn how to "pull an Iconis" by listening to this episode. In addition, this song "The Saddest Girl in the World" was written specifically for Kerry Butler, who played a one-legged dancer in a 24-Hour musical Joe wrote with the great Jonathan Marc Sherman. With a lot of fancy people involved, 24 year old Joe felt like the not-so-fancy guy who now wouldn't even think twice about shouting out a lyric if Kerry were to forget the lyrics again. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Initially called "The Buddy Song", this is another tune that Joe renamed to include a slash in the title. As interpreted by Krysta Rodriguez, the song turned into something different from its original intent and Charlie Rosen's period orchestrations provide a reframing that serves the message of the song well. A hidden gem in Joe's massive body of work.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Based on Stephen King's Misery this is a song that truly gets under your skin and brings the subtext of King's novel to the forefront. A rumination on the cyclical nature of addiction and how it relates to the life of an artist. Be prepared and scared for a brutal performance by Taylor Trensch.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a song in which Joe channels the jealousy and envy he feels toward other musical theater writers and filters it through the lens of Robert Zemeckis's 1992 film Death Becomes Her. A personal song that also doubles as a character piece written from the point of view of Goldie Hawn's character in the film, Lorinda Lisitza performs with a level of ferocity that can barely be contained. And look out for her vocal nod to Goldie. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Sympathy for the Killer" is a peculiar little 1920's-style number which repurposes the classic horror film killer-victim scenario as a metaphor for a modern relationship. Sung by the fearless Liz Lark Brown, the song aks the question: who is really pursuing who? http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered what a song inspired by the plight of HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers might be like? Well, Joe Iconis sure did. A nod to his love of Halloween (the day and the movie), "Haddonfield, 15 Years Later (For Judith)" tells a simple story of Mike Myers getting out of the hospital, putting his mask back on, and heading back to his hometown. It also tells the story of a person returning to his suburban hometown and feeling like he no longer belongs. This song is sung by madman Jared Weiss and features a choir arrangement by lunatic Joel Waggoner.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a kid, the disappointment of dropping an ice cream on the ground feels like the end of the world. As an adult, the circumstances of our disappointments change, but the feeling is the same. "Building a Fort" is sung by Harrison Chad, who is always able to embody youth and adulthood. It was originally written for a musical that Joe got fired from. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally written for a proposed T.V. project, this ode to the complexity of nostalgia is performed by The Jasons: Tam and Veasey. Hear about the origins of the song and the implications of being nostalgic for a time you weren't around for in the first place. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A companion piece to the previous episode "The Song", this one is brings the underlying to the surface. It's about a writer, still definitely not Joe Iconis, who is coming to terms with only being able to write his life versus living it. Joe and Jennifer go deep into the lyrics, music, and arrangement of this deeply-personal-not-at-all-autobiographical rocker. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Upon hearing that multiple people in his life were worried that Joe would write a song about them, he did what any jerk songwriter would do: he wrote a song about it. Is this song about Joe himself? Nope. Definitely not. Is it about Emily? Who can say... all we know is that Emily is a name that doesn't rhyme with anything.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A tragic and hideous tale of an actress navigating a path through a dangerous obstacle course of high-belting and tasteless riffing. Joe's lifelong collaborator Katrina Rose Diderikson expertly acts her way in and out of this epic story-song which is both critical of and complicit in our current musical theater vocal landscape. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cut song from the Joe Iconis musical "Bloodsong of Love," which itself is a wild musical theater interpretation of the Spaghetti Western film genre, "Play the Princess" is another song about art and theater, this time examining the boxes society places us in and the roles we are assigned. It is performed by Destinee Rea and L Morgan Lee, two beautiful humans who defy categorization. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A song about the history of an actual New York City street, "64' takes us back to the past, before Lincoln Center existed, to explore the less glamorous side of tearing down the past to build the future. Performed by Alan H. Green, George Salazar, Jose Restrepo, if you're anything like the rest of us, you'll be rushing to play this one on repeat as soon as it's done. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Depicting a real-life situation almost every New Yorker can relate to, "Jeff," sung by Jeremy Morse, tells the story of a man seeing a neighbor in the buff in a nearby building and the existential crisis that follows. What happens to him in the end? The world may never know. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An intentionally mysterious song involving impossibly complicated states, both mental and geographical. A character piece written for Jason SweetTooth Williams, who navigates the strangeness like no one else could. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sung by Lauren Marcus, this haunting song was inspired by a certain character in a certain movie featuring a ghost-with-the-most. It wasn't part of the subsequent musical based on the movie, but we're sharing it with you nonetheless nonetheless nonetheless. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the oldest songs on ALBUM, "The Answer" is from Joe's first full-length musical, The Black Suits, written as his NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program Senior thesis. Performed by Aaron Tveit, who starred in an early workshop of the show, the song holds a special place in Joe's heart, as it was part of the genesis of Iconis and Family.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A straightforward explosion of maximalist pop that conveys the youthful optimism and dilated-pupil enthusiasm of Riverdale's favorite son; “Archie” is performed by Andrew Barth Feldman, who Joe first saw as a 14-year-old Roger in RENT. It holds the distinction of being the only song on ALBUM with an instrumental break and the only song on the entire record that is purposefully about absolutely nothing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sung by Andrew Rannells and written to meet a deadline for a concert of songs about Brooklyn (the place, not the show), KEVIN takes us to an urban headspace full of apathy and incident... nothing like the real borough. Or maybe exactly like the real borough. It doesn't matter anyway, since Joe doesn't think the song is actually about Brooklyn. So what is it really about? Listen and find out. Note: This song is dedicated to KWM. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices