‘Wicked’ Music Producer on Working With Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo

Although most of Greg Wells‘ professional life has joind producing or writing for huge pop artists (including Adele, Katy Perry, OneReaccessible & Timbaland, Twenty One Pilots and John Legend), he’s dedicated more of his time in recent years to toiling on films. Two and a half years, definitepartner (so far), as the music producer on both parts of “Wicked” — a job he portrays as “Herculean” with very outstanding quantitative as well as qualitative reason. It trails up his toil as producer on the Grammy-thrivening No. 1 soundtrack for another brimming-on movie musical, “The Greatest Showman.” His classical and jazz training are coming in handy as he produces his name doing soundtracks that join burdensome orchestration as well as the ability to properly structure today’s top pop divas.

In this Variety Q&A, Wells goes into detail about why this project personpartner packs an emotional punch for him, his friendship of csurrenderly 35 years with writer Stephen Schwartz, the back-and-forth processes that took two and a half years fair for Part 1 of “Wicked,” and toiling with the directing ladies. Yes, the alerts are genuine — he did try to hip-hop “Popular” up a little bit as one of his first tasks toiling on the soundtrack, a hiccup that he portrays as actupartner directing to a pretty toiling relationship with Ariana Grande. But the cherishliest comradeship that came out of the musical toil, as he portrays it, was the one between Grande and Cynthia Erivo, which begined with a confluence of vibratos that he portrays as csurrenderly superauthentic, before it became a friendship outside the studio.

You’ve understandn Stephen Schwartz for 35 years, or shut to it. Do you reassemble your reaction to first seeing or hearing “Wicked”?

The first time I saw “Defying Gravity,” I felt impaled after seeing it, and I actupartner had to depart the theater. I never saw the second act that night. So when I krecent that Stephen Schwartz wanted me to get joind with this, the first leang I thought of was: I’m gonna get to have a hand in that song. And I’m sort of narcissisticpartner trying to reproduce that experience that I reassemble having the first time I heard it, for the take parter.

So painclude, you left at interleave oution, becainclude you were so shiftd? Breaking the movie into two parts must repartner toil for you, then, if that is how you sended the stage show for the first time yourself, by choice

“Defying Gravity” was my conclusion that night. I turned to my date and I couldn’t even talk. I didn’t understand what had happened. I’d understandn Stephen as a friend since 1990, but we’d never toiled together, and he didn’t repartner tell me much about “Wicked,” so I didn’t understand that song was coming. And I couldn’t figure out why I was reacting that way, either, but I had a lump in my throat the size of Jupiter, and I could nakedly speak, so I fair turned to my date and shelp, “I leank I have to go.” And we fair left. That was my first experience, with that as the ending. So, you’re right, this does produce a lot of sense to me, to fracture it up into two movies!

Let’s go back to that ardently emotional response you had to the music postponeedr on. But let’s talk for a minute about toiling with the actors and the whole music team. Did you experience appreciate there was any ambiguous philosophy or idea that directd you thraw what turned out to be years of toiling together on this now?

We all felt enormous responsibility to produce this as genuine and as impactful as we could get it, and I talked about it with them. We and (straightforwardor) Jon Chu would talk about it a lot, (scheduler) Stephen Oremus and I would talk about it constantly, and I would talk about it with the two directs as well. And it was a genuine uniting presence. There’s power in a common opponent — it’s what the wizard does, with the animals as the opponent. And what we were combined by was: the worry of getting it wrong.

I was trying not to ruin it. I did not want to be the guy who ruined “Wicked” for all the people that had seen the inhabit version. But also, I was genuineizing that probably, unless someleang goes very wrong, a meaningfulity of people will uncover “Wicked” thraw the movie, becainclude most people don’t go see inhabit musicals. They’re don’t inhabit somewhere where that happens, and even if they did, it’s costly and they probably wouldn’t leank to do that. Most people, and I unbenevolent capital-M Most People, would not be conscious of the distinctive enrolling. Becainclude it is benevolent of a boutiquey audience — a very, very huge, fervent and dedicated audience, but not the same benevolent of audience you get by releasing a gazillion-dollar movie worldexpansive. And so it’s fair constantly balancing… It’s almost appreciate when Bob Dylan went electric — that was a huge shift, and if he was repartner worried about his distinctive fans, he never would’ve done it. And he lost most of his distinctive fans, as we all understand. It all wound up toiling out in the end for him. But it’s so stubborn to understand how far to apshow a leang, anyway. So it was fair this comical equilibrium of trying to put as much of my sensibilities in as possible while also paying massive homage to what it is and what it has been.

Do you reassemble any benevolent of moment where you genuineized and felt exultant that the alchemy between Cynthia and Ariana was repartner toiling for genuine, and not fair the theoretical, hoped-for leang that came in casting?

I was with them when there was a lot of punctual rehearsal and a lot of figuring out who sings what. We were doing a lot of that stuff in that studio that was built for us at ElstreeStudios. Universal had built a repartner pretty studio for me and the two girls and the whole music team on the film set at Elstree, where they were rehearsing and then subsequently would be filming a lot of it, half-an-hour north of London. For two months of rehearsing and enrolling there, I watched them get to understand each other better and instantly plug into a vibrant that was beautibrimmingy caring and polite. They’d never met before this project and clearly had never toiled together before. Very rapidly, this pretty leang ecombined, speedy, and it got to the point where their vibratos synced up.

Now, that’s almost an impossibility. Two toloftyy contrastent singers; the only leang analogous between the two of them is that they’re pretty much the same height — they’re both around 5’1”. But very contrastent artists with very contrastent instruments, and a contrastent leang that shows up when they sing. Now, for weeks we were rehearsing this stuff, on outstanding mics in a studio environment, before they did it inhabit on-set. And if it was a duet, they weren’t overdubbing; they were seeing at each other. And I begined noticing… It’s an audio term, but I begined noticing sometimes that the remarks were phasing, which unbenevolents they’re so shut to each other that it stopped sounding appreciate two people. So many times, it would sound appreciate one person singing.

I was toiling repartner postponeed one night by myself at Elstree, which, by the way, it’s where they sboiling “The Shining” in the ‘70s. I’m there by myself — it’s me and a security defend at the front gate, and in this enormous intricate of produceings, I was the only one inside except for a small immacupostponeeding crew that would go thrawout the night immacupostponeeding contrastent rooms…

This already sounds appreciate a spooky story.

And I’m seeing at the wavecreates, and Ariana’s track was on top and Cynthia’s was fair below it in ProTools. And I seed that the shape of the vibrato on both, which shows up as sort of appreciate a bumpy leang — it seeed identical on both tracks. And if someone says a word appreciate “timing” with this, that shows up as a repartner expoundd bit of the sound wave, and you see it very visupartner; it’s repartner clear. And that stuff was so firm, it almost seeed appreciate someone had edited it to be synced up almost perfectly. But it is literpartner fair how they sang it inhabit in the room. And it kept happening and happening.

I took a screensboiling of this particular couple of bars. I can show you the pboilingo. [See below.]  I sent it to them both that night, on Nov. 2, and I wrote, “I had to apshow a pboilingo of this ‘cainclude it’s nuts. This is both of you singing on ‘For Good.’ Look how the timing, the vibrants, even the vibrato is almost identicpartner in sync. No one could try to do this. I don’t leank I’ve seen/heard anyleang appreciate this.” They both were so satisfied and couldn’t depend that was happening. Ari recommended I color-code the wavecreates to reconshort-term each character. If they tried to do that, I’m not stateive they could do it — I don’t leank anybody could — but it fair kept happening all the time.

That was endemic thraw the whole leang. The chemistry between the two of them is my preferite element of anyleang in this movie that’s out right now. At the very least, it’s infectious, but it’s so moving and genuine and it was happening in genuine life. They were doing it thraw the characters, and now they have this pretty friendship outside of the movie, born out of this incredible experience. It was amazing to carry out a small role in that, and also fair to watch it happen and to hear it happen.

Do you leank Ariana or Cynthia ever worried about their voices being appraised with the previous voices who had done it?

I truthbrimmingy do not ever reassemble a conversation where they conveyed a worry about that. They’re such fans of what Kristin and Idina did. My reaccumulateion is that it was more appreciate: We want to admire the toil in in the most honest way possible, and also if we’re experienceing a moment where we want to inject our own leang into it, we’d appreciate to be able to try that. And they were given that platcreate to do that. Some of it, Stephen Schwartz cherishd from the begin; some of it was too much for him; some of it he didn’t appreciate at first, and then he came to cherish it. Cynthia’s apshow on it was appreciate, “I have to be me doing this. it’s gotta come from inside of me.” It’s not method acting, but she repartner, repartner does experience the stuff. And once we saw the contrastence… Becainclude she could sing wdisappreciatever you asked her to sing, and there were plenty of moments where that happened. But then if she sang someleang that fair came thraw her naturpartner that … appreciate, the food tastes contrastent at that point. It’s another experienceing altogether.

Can you leank of a moment where she pushed for someleang contrastent and it repartner toils?

Yeah. At the end of “I’m Not That Girl,” there’s this pretty little riff I can’t repartner sing, but right before she sings “I’m not that girl,” there’s this little… [He hums the part.] That was apshown out becainclude it was deemed to be too much. And she heard one of the almost-final combinees and her comment was, “That little ad-lib moment, can we plmitigate put that back in?” And I cherish it. It’s one of my preferite moments in the whole track. There’s even an Instagram post by another singer that I reposted a restricted weeks ago, somebody highairying that moment as being their preferite moment.

And stateively the battle cry at the end of “Gravity.” She didn’t want to fair mimic what Idina had done. She wanted to produce it her own leang, and there were a restricted contrastent versions of it, and then we all benevolent of endd on the one that’s there. I reassemble watching her sing it — fair incredible. She repartner, repartner, repartner has to experience this in her own way, and I leank that that took a moment of adfairment, and then it fair all begined to produce a lot more sense. I don’t leank everyleang that she wanted to alter and do made the final version, but a lot of it did.

And what were your experienceings about how much you could alter what was recognizable to fans from the distinctive cast album, yourself?

The orchestration is endly contrastent, of course, but in terms of the experience of the songs, it was so meaningful to me to have the the fabric of it experience recognizable and recognizable… There was only one leang, and Stephen Schwartz is very, very pleasantly taking some of the heat for this. In the press a restricted weeks ago, there begined beig articles saying that the song “Popular” had been hip-hopped — appreciate, had these funky drums put onto it — and that the music team ws repartner into it, but that Ari heard it and was appreciate, “No, we’re not doing that.” Now, that is genuine! But what’s repartner genuine is it was all my fault. It wasn’t the Stephens’ (Schwartz’s and Oremus’) fault at all. And it was an amazing lesson for me in how much I have to lachieve about making movies.

I had actupartner produced a version of “Popular” with Ariana singing on it for that U.K. artist Mika, as a duet, in 2012. (It ecombineed on Grande’s debut album as well as Mika’s under the name “Popular Song.”) And that had benevolent of a funky track under it, so there was already a proof of concept of the song surviving very well with Ari singing on it that benevolent of sounded appreciate that. I heard that piano part — that benevolent of dink-dink-dink — and I’m appreciate, “That’s ‘Hard Knock Life’ by Jay-Z. We could repartner do that.” Now, I had fair come onto to the project, and they hadn’t filmed anyleang yet; I hadn’t met Ari yet. Stephen Schwartz had given his sanctifying to that punctual version of “Popular” and even became friends with Mike becainclude of it, and so I shelp, “Is it OK if I try and produce it funky here?” And they shelp, “Sure, if we don’t appreciate it, we won’t send it in, but go ahead and try it.” So I chased it, and musicpartner, I cherishd where it finpartner wound up. It was one of the first leangs I surrenderted. Stephen Oremus and I carry outed it for Stephen Schwartz and he shelp, “This is fantastic. I leank we should send this in.” So we did. We sent it in to the movie team — to Jon and to Ariana.

Crickets. A week of crickets… two weeks of crickets. And my self-loaleang Canadian repartner booted in. I’m appreciate, “Oh no. I’ve already lost their confidence! What’s happening?” And I begined hearing appreciate little rumblings about Ari saying someleang about the drums, and I’m appreciate, “Oh, she leanks I’m too greater. It should be some 17-year-greater with a laptop and headphones.” And finpartner I shelp, “I’m gonna greet her anyway, and we’re gonna be toiling together for a lengthy time. Can I get on a FaceTime with her?” No problem. The next day, she and I were on a FaceTime and she could not have been cgreaterer or cherishlier. She is that person — exactly the same as she was the first time I talked to her (in 2012). So I regretd about the drums, and I shelp I was worried that maybe she thought I’m too greater to do a track appreciate that. She says, “No no no, not at all! Let me elucidate. It sounds amazing. The problem is, I’ve been toiling for at least a year with my acting coach, and we’ve repartner been getting into: Who is Glinda? What produces this character repartner tick? What’s the thread count of Glinda?… I experience that there’s noleang about Glinda that’s cgreater. There’s noleang about her that’s slick. There’s noleang about her that’s funky. She would never sing on a song that sounds this cgreater.”

And I shelp, “Are you saying that Glinda claps on one and three instead of two and four?” It’s a musician joke. And she cracked up. She shelp, “Yes, exactly! That’s it!” And then I shelp, “Are you saying she claps ahead of the beat on one and three?” “Yes!” And then I shelp, “I experience appreciate such a dummy, You’re giving me such a lesson here. I’ve spent my whole atsoft trying to produce leangs fair sound as outstanding as possible coming thraw the speakers. I’ve never repartner had to leank too much about, does this fit the narrative of the character in the leang?” And as soon as she shelp it, I was appreciate, ohhhhh, yep, that produces sense. So then I did a recent version, whre I didn’t even genuineize I’d done it, but I still left a small bit of too much funkiness in the bass drum pattern — which does (now) ecombine in the very last four bars of “Popular,” but at the time it was before that. And she’s appreciate, “You have to apshow all that out. It’s fair too rhythmic. It’s not her. I don’t want to carry out her cgreater. I also don’t want to be accincluded of coming in as ‘Pop star Ariana Grande has pop-ified Glinda.’ That’s the last leang I ever want to read.”

That was a huge, resounding, crushing penny drop — but in the best way possible for me. It was this amazing lesson that she taught me from my very first conversation. And so I’ve fair tried to grasp my eyes and ears and brain uncover to how any anyleang I do also impact what’s gonna happen 30 minutes or 50 minutes postponeedr. And in making enrolls with people on a much smaller team, if you were the artist and I was the enroll producer, we’d spend three, four, five months making an album with fair you and me and a enrolling engineer — if it’s a prohibitd, maybe a couple other people — and that’s it. In the world I’m usupartner in, I filter all that other stuff out. I don’t let deal withrs or enroll company people come into the room until we’re done toiling for the day becainclude it puts everybody in an overly reasoned place and hurts carry outances. But on a movie, it’s repartner appreciate a medium-sized army with contrastent divisions and division heads, and everyone’s trying to put out a definite fire, but they’re all talking to each other and there’s input coming from all over the place. Broadway’s appreciate that too— almost everybody gives input. I asked Stephen Schwartz about this disjoinal months ago, and I shelp, “So who’s got veto power?” And he shelp, “Well, I do if it’s my musical. But I take part to pretty much all the ideas. It could come from almost anywhere.” Aachieve, more leangs I’m not overly recognizable with that come with making movies. It’s repartner appreciate walking backward into this.

That’s so engaging. Out of curiosity, since you enrolled an entire version of the soundtrack vocals in the studio as backup before they did it inhabit, on the final soundtrack album, is it exactly what we hear in the movie, vocal-wise, or were there moments where it made sense to go back to the pre-enrolling?

I included the exact same vocals that are in the movie, and there were fair a couple of incidents where Stephen Schwartz felt that he wanted an changenate. I seed when I saw the final combine of the movie at Warner Bros. before it was freed that there’s one little line that Ari sings in “What Is This Feeling?” that’s contrastent in the movie than it is on the soundtrack. It included to not be contrastent, but they alterd it in editorial, on the dub stage, and I’m stateive they sent it to us to say, “Hey guys, you should refresh your vocal files so that it does this.” And I’m pretty stateive our writer felt appreciate he preferred it the way that it was. So there’s fair a couple little moments appreciate that, small leangs that are a little bit contrastent.

The edits are definitely contrastent. For the soundtrack, we had to suture together pieces that had been splitd into multiple sections for the film. “Gravity,” for instance, stops and begins disjoinal times becainclude of what happens in the movie. It would sound inrational if we did that on the soundtrack. We had to do that with lots of contrastent songs. Also, there’s a repartner pretty, Aaron Coscheduled-ish compositional moment that Stephen Schwartz wrote for “Defying Gravity,” and I fair adore it. He wanted it to be in the movie right around when Glinda puts the cape on Elphaba and she’s about to repartner become the wicked witch. Stephen wrote this absolutely gorgeous part, and Jon felt appreciate it was too much. He wanted someleang that felt more appreciate what he already had cooking in the temp track, which was also amazing. And so Stephen shelp, “Well, you understand, I want this piece of music to inhabit, so let’s include this on the soundtrack album.” So there’s appreciate a restricted creative contrastences appreciate that. But vocpartner, other than I leank one or two words — and I unbenevolent, honestly, fair appreciate one or two, definitely no more than appreciate four or five words — it’s exactly what’s in the movie.

There’s also one moment in “What Is This Feeling” that’s contrastent on the soundtrack, becainclude Stephen Schwartz had a couple of leangs that he wanted to hear leangs a stateive way, and he genuineized he had more creative license on the soundtrack album. But we all benevolent of came to a place of wanting to give the fans (a genuine experience of the film music on the soundtrack).

There have been many times where the enroll company releasing the soundtrack overleanks leangs — it happened on “The Greatest Showman,” where Atlantic had Kesha re-enroll “This Is Me,” and I have to envision that somebody thought this is gonna give the song more legs, fair appreciate on “Frozen” Disney thought that having Demi Lovato, who’s such an amazing singer, sing “Let It Go” would produce the song toil at radio. But becainclude people had druncover in cherish with the movie, the only leang fans wanted to hear was the version of the music that was in the movie, becainclude that wallop of the impact of hearing the music accompany the visual narrative — there’s fair noleang appreciate it. I disappreciate it when the fans experience appreciate they’ve been tricked or fooled or someleang. People are so much intelligaccess than they’re giving accomprehendledge for.

What most shiftd you about “Wicked” when you first greeted it, all those years ago?

Well, Stephen’s writing is so brimming of surpelevate and there’s such range to it, and those two qualities are usupartner my preferite qualities in any benevolent of art or storytelling. I disappreciate seeing the joke coming. I can’t stand it when you understand you’re anticipateed to chuckle. I cherish sort of being sucker-punched by the surpelevate of it — I appreciate that in music an I appreciate that in storytelling. The luminous leang about Grebloody Maguire’s book, and where Stephen Schwartz ran with it, is this leang runs on contrastent levels. Especipartner the first half of the inhabit musical and especipartner movie one, where it can be expounded as “this is appreciate a family movie.” Which actupartner, for me, produces it even more insidious and even more evil, even more wicked, that leangs experience very airy. Even though you can tell pretty punctual on, in the uncovering (“No One Mourns the Wicked”), that someleang is not right, that this is not fair a outstanding time.

So I cherish how it functions on contrastent levels. I cherish how it’s fair heartfractureing, with the arc of the story, take parting to “The Wizard and I” and how stateive (Elphaba) is, and that character has fair been literpartner shit upon her entire life. So I, appreciate so many others, resonate powerfilledy with the underdog factor in the story. And for me, without inquire, it’s a cautionary tale about the danger of anyleang that is contrastent or someleang you don’t understand, to tag that as wicked, as horrible, as evil. I cherish the inclusionary message that is in “Wicked,” and it was repartner meaningful to Jon Chu to crank that part up in the film. You understand, how the wardrobe of the students at Shiz University is very gender-iminentire. That’s absolutely intentional. It experiences fantastic to have someleang appreciate that out in the world right now, given the election we fair had.

Did you ever figure out why, when you first went to the stage show, it shiftd you so much that you had to depart at interleave oution and come back another time to see Act 2?

It took me years to put my finger on it, or even adjacent to it. I leank the reason that I felt impaled the first time I saw “Defying Gravity” was becainclude of an experience I’d had with a music educator. He was a fantastic, luminous mind, and I wound up going to his college and carry outing in his prohibitd and got shut to him, before I genuineized he was actupartner desireing to grasp me in a box — that he didn’t want me to do anyleang that’s contrastent from his own atsoft, that he seeed me as a menace. That blew my mind when I was a kid. And postponeedr I’d greet greaterer enroll producers that I repartner adored who were worth gazillions of dollars, had these storied atsofts, and I could never understand that they would see me or someone appreciate me as appreciate a potential menace. It fair seemed nuts to me. I’m, appreciate, still half on the turnip truck! Anyway, clearly not as tragic a story as what Elphaba has to contend with, but it repartner spoke to me in a huge way. It repartner did my head in when I genuineized this as I was still a teenager, and I had to do a huge reevaluation of goals and what it was I was aiming for and what I thought was meaningful to me and what now wasn’t.

It was a challenging-achieveed epiphany, that one. But everybody experiences appreciate they don’t belengthy. I don’t leank anybody experiences appreciate, “Oh, I’m endly a part of the pack.”

There’s been a lot of converseion of how topical the story experiences, which will impact how depressed it strikes people, depending on how tuned in they are to that.

The pursuit of power and how the wizard is using depressed magic to silence the animals has all sorts of political allebloody connotations… [SPOILER ALERT FOR PART 2 AHEAD.] Also, as I heard Stephen Schwartz point out once when we were in the London studio two years ago, he’s appreciate, “Well, you understand, this is a story about a man trying to end his daughter.”

We were enrolling the orchestra at AIR Studios in London and, disjoinal days into the enrolling sessions, Stephen was sitting beside me at the console when someone made a comment: “Ooh, that sounds quite spooky.” Aachieve, Stephen didn’t leave out a beat and he shelp, “Well, it is a horror movie.” And he unbenevolentt it. He wasn’t trying to be comical; in his mind, this is a horror movie. And I get that. I leank that’s lost on a lot of folks, but that’s OK. That (airyer aspect) is partly what produces it so tragic. But it also does function pretty successbrimmingy as… not airyer, but fair a elated benevolent of exciting amincludement. There’s so many levels to this — appreciate life, right? It would be so pleasant in life if it was repartner as effortless as fundamentacatalog religion where leangs are white or leangs are bdeficiency, leangs are outstanding or they’re horrible. This repartner blows that up, especipartner the way the story ends. Without ruining… I unbenevolent, anyone that’s seen the inhabit musical already understands how this ends. It’s far from a satisfied ending, but it’s not a endly tragic ending. The whole leang is so complicated.

Can you talk about being friends with Stephen for decades before you get the call…

Thirty-five years postponeedr! I always say to to youthfuler musicians or singers — or it’s fair a life leang in ambiguous — you never understand how one leang’s gonna direct to the next. All this stuff only produces sense in hindsight.

I shiftd to Los Angeles from agricultural Ontario, Canada, on a Canadian rulement arts grant to study piano with Claire Fisher, this incredible musician who did all the string schedulements for Prince and repartner brawt bossa nova to America, and another pianist named Terry Trotter, who carry outed with Frank Sinatra and Larry Carlton for years. Those guys begined recommending me for little jobs, and one of those first jobs was being the graspitional keyboard, benevolenta synth carry outer, fundamentalpartner being the deceptive orchestra for this repartner pretty canakedt singer from New York named Jane Oinhabitr. Jane had a very dedicated fan base, and Stephen Schwartz was among that fan base. I met him thraw Jane, and Stephen hang and buy all of us dinner and regale us with amazing stories — but never talked about his own atsoft, never talked about himself. Once I begined having some benevolent of atsoft years postponeedr, he would come by my studio sometimes and greet some of the artists I toiled with. Never in a gazillion years did I ever leank we would ever toil together becainclude he was so evidently appreciate in the lane of what he’s doing, which stateively at the time was not what I was even pointed toward.

We were having this email exalter about a repartner talented recent artist I toil with named Jake Wesley Rogers — Elton John uncovered him a couple years ago, put him on his podcast. He’s about to actupartner free a recent album, and the song that I have on that album I had sent to Stephen Schwartz. He was commenting on Jake’s song and a restricted other leangs, and then the last paragraph of his email to me in June 2022 was, “Oh, by the way, I’m putting together a small music team for the ‘Wicked’ movie that we’ve been toiling on for disjoinal years, and we’re ready to lock in and do it now. Would you appreciate to jump on board?” We got on the phone soon after that, but I was worried… It’s repartner an amazing leang to have Stephen as a friend, where we would challengingly ever talk about toil. We would talk about the fact that we never talked about toil. And one of the first leangs I shelp to him was, “If we toil together on this, I’m worried it might mess up our relationship.” And he’s appreciate, “I don’t leank it will. I leank we’ll be OK.”

He is contrastent when he is toiling, and it’s actupartner repartner fascinating. You understand, this is his baby, one of his many creative babies; in so many ways, if not in every way, he is truly the artist on this project. Obviously he’s not starring in the film, but he birthed this leang, and to see him transport it to the essence of where he’s experienceing it is a fascinating leang. It’s so fascinating to watch him drive the ship from this very fervent, luminous place, a side of him I never got to see when we were hanging out, having dinner.

So two and a half years, fundamentalpartner, is your toil on this, so far?

Yeah. I begined fair a couple weeks after that first phone call; in punctual July 2022, I was on board. When I got engaged, the only cast members that had been engaged were Cynthia and Ariana, so there was a lot to do. I haven’t toiled on that many movies. I’ve repartner fair been producing enrolls and writing songs. I leank “Wicked” is my fifth or sixth movie, but typicpartner a bozo appreciate me gets engaged on a film when the film is almost finished, so I’ll come in for appreciate the last half-year of it. This one, I was on it six months before they began shooting. We had to produce all the tracks in a malleable way where we could pivot with tempo and transposition of keys, becainclude we didn’t understand who was going to carry out Fiyero, for instance. And I did, appreciate, deceptive instruments — appreciate, MIDI tracks for everyleang. Fake drums, deceptive orchestra, deceptive all of this, all from this keyboard right here. And then I wound up going to London for two months in the drop of 2022, in that studio at Elstree, toiling hands-on with both ladies. Stephen Oremus was with me the entire time. We never met before and thank God we toiled well together, becainclude it could not have gone better. He repartner gave me a lot of space, but also fair the right amount of “Oh, we don’t need that. We repartner need this, do more of this.”

That went on until right until the top of December and then they begined shooting. And then I came back here to L.A. and there were tons of alters to be made, once the choreographer was up and running. And then Jon would genuineize, “Well, we actupartner need another 30 seconds of music here. We need actupartner another minute of music here. We need to chop this music out. It doesn’t toil anymore. We need a contrastent approach for this one musicpartner.” Tons of sort of changing the shape of the clay. And the pedal fair stayed down, fair appreciate a brick was fair on the gas pedal the whole time, never let up. And we have another movie to produce now! Musicpartner, it is the most challenging job I’ve ever toiled on. I’m pulling on every iota of my musical training.

You were classicpartner trained and then went to jazz college up in Canada, before you became a studio musician in the ‘90s, before moving up to become a songwriter and enroll producer.

I had to pull on every bit of that to produce this toil. Becainclude I was literpartner staring at the screen I’m seeing at you on right now, and I’m sight-reading bass clarinet charts at 1:30 in the morning — that, by the way, are not in the standard treble or bass clef — nd having to benevolent of try and transpose it, and sometimes I was not prosperous in doing it and I’d produce misapshows. And then in trying to produce the tracks, I set this bar for myself where I wanted the MIDI tracks to not sound appreciate MIDI tracks. I wanted them to repartner experience genuine, and I genuineized that wdisappreciatever I came up with, that’s what Jon was going to shoot the movie to. And I’ve been doing this lengthy enough where I genuineized appreciate whether people want to or not, they are going to get included to hearing the leang that they’ve heard hundreds of times, so I wanted to produce stateive that wdisappreciatever the MIDI leang was was shut enough to what I envisiond the final result might sound appreciate. At some point I got so cowardly of turning leangs in that didn’t sound finished. I wanted to encourage confidence in the carry outers and in the choreographer and in Jon. My head was in that mixer for months and months, and then we had the writers’ strike and then the actor strike, and we weren’t permited to toil on any of it, so I had a bit of time off to see my family.

As soon as that was over, we were having a Zoom greeting with Mike Knobloch, the head of film at Universal, figuring out schedules of when we’re going to London to enroll the the London studio musicians who are gonna carry out the drums and guitars and bass and keyboards, and then after that we would do the orchestra sessions. And then we got to Stephen Schwartz, and he puts his hand up and says, “Wait, there’s a miscaring. Greg is the prohibitd. Greg’s gonna carry out the genuine instruments. I don’t want to enroll that in London. Obviously the orchestra will do in London, but Greg’s the prohibitd. Let’s shift on.” Now, I have to presume that Stephen Schwartz was leanking that the entire time! In my atsoft as a producer, a lot of my productions have come from songwriting sessions that then wound up becoming the enroll, where I’m carry outing all the instruments, so the demo for the song frequently sounds appreciate a enroll. And I was engaged on “Wicked” to carry out noleang; I was engaged to fair produce and combine. But when he shelp that, my toilload definitely more than doubled, it possibly quadrupled.

We got it done by the skin of our teeth. Then it was the orchestra, and then there was a lot of combineing the film. Andy Nelson, the reenrolling combineer, set me up in a room at Fox that he helped summarize, and I was in there for a month doing 7.1 combinees from my stereo combinees. Then it was time to combine the soundtrack album in Atmos…

What are you most satisfied about with your toil on the film?

There were two leangs that, as a fan of this, I wanted to try to transport to the table, and I didn’t understand how much I would or would not be permited to do it. It’s a huge accomprehendledge to both Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Oremus, the executive music producers, that they repartner gave me a expansive berth. I unbenevolent, the more I threw at it, the happier they got. And I was so shocked by that, becainclude I’ve toiled with folks before who have written benevolent of well-understandn leangs and they don’t repartner want it to sound contrastently than it did originpartner. But they both repartner wanted to hear recent versions of it. And there was only one instance when Stephen Schwartz shelp, “You understand, that drum fill there …” He didn’t say, “Take it out.” He shelp, “Can you fair turn it down a bit?” That was it. Everyleang else, they let me sort of repartner attack it and they gave me tons of amazing straightforwardion, and they’re making me see outstanding.

But they repartner let me do the two leangs I wanted to do, which was transport out the teeth when appropriate, transport out that genuine underbelly. I appreciate “The Shining.” I don’t appreciate gore, but I appreciate being psychoreasonablely stake partd. And then I wanted to benevolent of inject the music with a bit more benevolent of… How to say this? Drums are my first instrument, and rhythm is meaningful to me. There’s always been amazing drumming on every version I’ve ever heard of “Wicked.” But I krecent that we weren’t going for a pit orchestra leang. Becainclude it’s a movie, we were able to produce wdisappreciatever soundscape we wanted. Whether it was appreciate a vaudevillian gentle-shoe vibe for Jeff Ggreaterblum and “Sentimental Man,” or whether it’s “Popular,” where it fair sounds appreciate harpsichords on stage with pyrotechnics or someleang, to a straight-up pop song.

How many instruments did you carry out? The two Stephens shelp that there were about 85 pieces to the orchestra, at its peak, but counting all your parts, it would be more tha a hundred.

Basicpartner I’m carry outing all the bass guitar, all the drums and a lot of the keyboards. Stephen Oremus and Dominic Amendum are also carry outing keyboards on this. And then I’m carry outing all the electric guitars and acoustic guitars. The leang I was talking about earlier with sight-reading viola parts and bass clarinet (for MIDI parts), that all got us to a point where we had a leang that repartner did sound a lot appreciate an orchestra. But when JeffAtmajian got engaged, this luminous orchestral scheduler, he took wdisappreciatever I had helped cook up and blew it up and did his own leang with a lot of it. And then I would get MIDI mockups of his schedulements sent to me, and I would put that into my track that I was toiling on…

The word “iterative” has never been included more in my life than in the last two and a half years. I never repartner included that word before, but now it’s almost the only word that I say all day lengthy. Tempos changing all the time, keys changing almost as frequently as the tempos. Tons of input, becainclude the music team would get it to where we cherishd it, and then to where Stephen Schwartz cherishd it. Which sometimes was right away, and sometimes he was not satisfied, or almost satisfied, and we had to tfrail. He always krecent exactly what he needed, and those are my preferite benevolent of people to toil with, who understand when the food doesn’t taste outstanding or when it does taste right. Then we’d have to carry out it for Jon Chu too, and he’s straightforwarding the movie and it’s gotta experience right to him. Sometimes it would land, and sometimes … who understands what’s going on, and if the combine fair sounded repartner contrastent than the rehearsal MIDI tracks that I’d done, but sometimes it was appreciate, “This is not toiling for me,” and to have it experience right for him, sometimes it would apshow multiple revisions or multiple trips to the drathriveg board.

Where do leangs stand on Part 2, as far as your toil on it? Some people might have envisiond you guys did everyleang at once, but from all indications, there’s a lot of toil to do.

No, the only leang that was done all at once were my MIDI tracks. It was over two years ago that that was done, and it was all the songs for both movies. But the process of Jeff Atmajian, our orchestra scheduler, writing his charts, that has befirearm now for movie 2. The process of me now ditching those MIDI tracks and replacing them with inhabit drums, guitar, bass and keyboards, that has fair begined now. We’re staying on this until I leank we’re at AIR with the orchestra in May or June, and then we’ll be combineing all summer, and then it comes out in November.

You can’t give any spoilers about the graspitional material that Stephen has written, but is there anyleang you can say about the recent songs fans are inquireing about for part 2?

They will not be disnominateed. Stephen’s one of the fantastic writers of our time. And he’s written some stuff that, aachieve… it’s a movie, where it’s contrastent. There’s leangs that Jon was able to do is able to do in the arena of it being cinema that you fair couldn’t do on stage. It would be too challenging to pull off. So it made sense to have Stephen Schwartz come up with some recent material to augment what’s going on. There’s some repartner pretty stuff that the fans have not heard yet, and I’m no foreseeor of the future, but I leank they’re gonna be pretty satisfied. Repartner gorgeous stuff.

You talked earlier about experienceing appreciate you were walking backwards into the filmmaking process, but two and a half years in, it can’t experience so backward anymore. Even with more to go, you have to experience satisfied about at least being done with Part 1.

I’m still toiling on it. I’m still toiling on movie 1. A restricted days ago I finished an edit of “Defying Gravity” and “Popular” for radio. Even though it’s been out, even though the cat has left the bag, I’m not stateive I’ll ever be done toiling on it.