Executive Music Producer Ian Eisendrath shares his experiences working with Shawn Mendes and his momentous career from Broadway to Hollywood.
Every so often, a musical film provides the kind of music that transcends the times in which it exists. With Executive Music Producer Ian Eisendrath behind the wheel, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is that musical of 2022. Eisendrath has quietly boomed onto the Hollywood scene in recent years, coming from a background in Broadway with renowned musicals such as Come From Away and Diana. While both mediums present their own sets of technological challenges, Eisendrath's musical expertise is on full display, both on screen and on stage. In film, however, Eisendrath savors the thrill of helping seasoned actors expand their artistic talents into music.
On Lyle, Eisendrath collaborated directly with fellow musical prodigies Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land and The Greatest Showman), as well as working directly with the cast. Ian's first task at hand is to assess where the talent's vocal abilities live. There's a wide spectrum, but this is where Eisendrath often discovers the hidden vocal talents of some of the big screen's most recognizable faces. In Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, he worked directly with Constance Wu, Javier Bardem, and Winslow Fegley in finding the right emotional quality for every musical number. Perhaps most notable, however, was Eisendrath's work with Shawn Mendes, in the pop star's first foray into cinema as the voice of the film's titular musical reptile.
It was at the impressive age of 23 that Eisendrath first connected with Pasek & Paul while working as music supervisor at Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington. This was just the beginning of a years-long professional friendship, which has resulted in multiple collaborations on some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters, including Disney's upcoming Snow White, starring Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler. Eisendrath's next project is the upcoming AppleTV+ original, Spirited. A comedy musical reimagining of A Christmas Carol, film stars yet another powerhouse cast including Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, and Octavia Spencer, providing one of Eisendrath's most exciting experiences to date.
Screen Rant: Nice to meet you, Ian! What can you tell me about your role during the filming of a project and working with the actors?
Ian Eisendrath: Thank you for having me.
Oftentimes actors are cast and they have a singing background or an interest in singing, or they're amazing singers. Step one for me will be just assessing where they live as a singer, and coming up with a plan of how we are going to get them from a successful experience in the recording studio to a successful experience on camera. In the case of Lyle, Shawn Mendes is a singer, so when he came in, we didn't need to do a ton of work getting him coached on anything to do with the mechanics of singing. Obviously, one of the main reasons he was hired is he has, I think, one of the most gorgeous voices out there, so that's the sound we wanted. With someone like Javier Bardem, Winslow Fegley, Constance Wu, it's so evident they have voices, but they've spent less time in the recording studio or singing live. And first step is to have them show me where their voice lives. At that point we’ll take the glorious songs written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and their whole team, and figure out what key might be best for the talent's voices. I think something that is fun about what Benj and Justin write is that it's very demanding. They rarely write something that's just easy for someone to sing. They certainly write with a singer in mind, but because their songs span such breadth of emotion and pitch and range, it asks for the singer to really go on a journey.
With Javier, we brought on a really wonderful vocal coach named Fiona McDougal, whose job was to warm him up, get him in a place where his voice was as healthy and ready to sing as possible. Constance worked with Eric Vetro, who is a vocal coach to so many stars, and Winslow worked with a really talented New Jersey-based vocal coach Mike Ruckles, so getting them set up with some coaches. While they do that, I start working with them on zoom to break down the song. It's going through, teaching the malady, teaching the rhythms, talking about the lyrics, and figuring out, how do you use the lyrics, the notes and the rhythms, in service of story and character. All of that is about getting them ready to come into the recording studio to make choices.
It's not about defining a performance, because there are a lot of cooks in that kitchen. Those are the directors. There are the songwriters, and fellow producers of the music Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. And what I'm focused on with them in the prep phase is to be as flexible and buoyant as possible so that they show up confident, able to make choices with a strong point of view about character, and a strong point of view about what the music and lyric is trying to do moment to moment.
After that, we do what is called pre-records and in the pre-records, I work closely with the directors, the songwriters and the actors to craft these vocal performances. We'll do many versions of things, many takes. We might even, in a session, say, let's shift the key, let's actually, now that we're hearing you today, a month or three months after working together, we can take this up. Or the directors (Josh Gordon, Will Speck) give Benj, Justin and I a note that it's feeling too confident, too robust. So we'll try dropping the key, and go to a slightly more intimate part of your voice. And also just making sure that we're getting performances that are going to stand the test of the shoot and the soundtrack. And so that is a very time-consuming process, if we do it properly. After that is done, we work carefully to craft the performance through the vocal comp and editing process, in which we will take all of our favorite moments from the hundreds of takes we have for each actor to craft the performance that feels most true to what the actor was doing.
Once we finish that, we are prepping for shooting. I’ll work closely with the actors on being able to perform the songs on the day, and we will do a mixture of them, singing the songs live and then singing along to the vocal, in which case we want them to sing perfectly. It's funny, because it's about moving your mouth at the right speed and intensity, but for me it's so much more about tapping into what is going on in terms of the emotional intention of every lyric, capturing that intention of what was behind the pre-record. So it's not only about holding the note for four beats, but what did you do with that note? Oh, as you sing that note, we heard a color shift, because suddenly you had this thought, that probably has to do with fear. I'm really making sure that we are representing the idea and the intention behind how everything was sung. Because of that, [Gordon and Speck], on the day, will see things and say, "You know what, we actually want this to feel more like this." So my job on that day is to turn on a dime and say, "Okay, let's do this," and live and work with them to get that performance.
I also would be remiss in not mentioning our super talented Music Supervisor Jordan Carroll, who will work in tandem with me on that on the day. So, there’s a whole music team there, closely watching to make sure that we're really getting everything we need, because essentially, picture is what you end up with as the Bible. The goal is to have all the options possible as we head into the edit. And then, you know, in something like Lyle, we actually had temp vocals for Lyle until the director's cut, and after that we started recording Shawn, and that was a different process.
Shawn is a singer, a producer and a writer. He has a really clear idea of how he likes to record, choices he wants to make. I take responsibility for making sure that it all goes smoothly and seamlessly, and that everything to do with how the music is being rehearsed, recorded and produced is as great as possible. But Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Jordan Carroll, the directors. There's so many people that are deeply invested in this alongside me.
You've worked with a lot of big names, like Javier [Bardem] and Constance [Wu], who are not traditionally known as singers. Are you surprised by some of the talent that you get to work with on these films?
Ian Eisendrath: Always. In the last year I've had the pleasure of working with Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Constance, Javier, obviously Shawn, and then Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot. I’m always so heartened because, without fail, each one of them just really shows up for the process, and maintained a very playful energy. I believe that most people have voices, and you can get a performance out of most people. I really believe that. And while there are certain people that have unreal vocal talent, I think so much of it is psychological, and whether you are willing to go on the journey. Are you willing to do the work? Each one of these actors has done that.
Rather than be surprised, I was more continually heartened and delighted at seeing their growth, and it just kept growing and growing. The thing that is always true, and a little bit funny, is that you do all this work to get them to the pre-records in which they're in a good vocal spot. But then, once you get on set and they've been really living with it, they get it in their bodies, and it's like they can do the whole thing in one take. So you see this whole thing is one long rehearsal process in which they get better and better and more confident.
On the opposite side of working with actors who have never sung before, you're working with the amazing Shawn Mendes, who has never really acted before, at least in this capacity. What was the process like getting Shawn ready?
Ian Eisendrath: What was really sweet about Shawn is that he really connected with Lyle, and really took that on from day one. He really understood this character, because I think he's shared openly his insecurities and all the work he has had to do to get comfortable as a human. I think that he came in with a clear idea of how he would sing these songs, how he'd interpret these songs. And it was all done together, to set him free to maybe go a little further in the acting in interpreting the text than one would for a pop song, because Lyle is a character who does not speak. He only sings. The only way we really get to hear from him is through lyric. So the lyrics become these precious moments that he can convey his interior life, and what is driving him as a character. I think the process in the studio was about, 'Okay, this all sounds amazing. Now let's really zero in on that lyric. Do you think you could give a little more value to that word, or have a little more fun with this. Or what is your point of view here? Okay, Great, run with that.' It's very analogous to what he does as a pop singer. It's just a little more lyric forward, because the songs are always functioning on both a lyric and music level, and the lyric is so necessary to the storytelling of the film.
I think what we found was this really beautiful marriage of Shawn bringing all of his sensibility and musicianship to the songs, and then us getting some of the energetic intensity and dramatic intensity out of song, words and phrases to serve the more theatrical sides of these songs.
My personal favorite song is "Rip up the Recipe," and that message of going against the grain, and not doing things the way that people expect of you. I’m curious if you have a favorite song and a favorite message that you've taken away from this soundtrack.
Ian Eisendrath: What I love about this soundtrack is that there is just so much variety. 'Take A Look At Us Now' is a big blown up song and dance number. It's sort of piano rock, but done in the old school Broadway Musical theater throwback old showman vibe to it. That was a band made up of piano bass drums, two guitars, and that chart is spectacularly done by Dave Metzger, who you would know from 'Frozen' and many others.
And then you go to the more produced pop songs that we really produce like pop songs. There are three that are close to my heart. There was “Top of the World," just so big-hearted, and I love the track for that. That track was created by John Nathaniel, who is a producer and collaborator with One Republic, among others. I love the expansiveness of that track. I feel like you really get the sense that you are sort of perched atop New York City, and you're seeing the skyline. You are bathing in the glory and the limitless possibility of the world at this moment, and in that place, and Lyle shares that with him. I just love it.
'Rip Up the Recipe' is so much fun, and that track was meant to be an inspiration between Jackson 5 funk and BTS and everything in between. So that track has everything and the kitchen sink, from a completely thrilling modern music production to acoustic. All that was sampled instruments to acoustic guitars, base drums, and then we recorded an incredible strings arrangement by Rob Mathes on top of that, and live horns. I think it requires that many elements to set this character free. The idea of bringing all of these music production elements in are like ingredients that you would find in the kitchen. And it's all about helping the character Constance to set herself free, set her senses free and try going off recipe. Juan Ariza, who created that track is going to be one of the greats of the coming decades. He did such a beautiful job with that track.
Then “Carried Away” is probably the one that has my heart the most. It’s so beautiful, and almost makes me a little teary, just thinking about the way that it was filmed. That idea of getting so caught up in a relationship in a moment, in thinking something is real and safe and forever, and maybe even thinking you found the solution. I think we all go through periods of our life where it's like, 'Oh, I figured it out. This is the place I want to be forever.' And then, for one reason or other, that gets taken away. It's not just grieving. You also hate yourself, 'Oh, I shouldn't have let myself trust. I shouldn't have let myself loose enough in that situation, because I should have been protective, because at the end of the day I'm a caged animal.' I think that's so universal. Obviously the lyric has nothing to do with an animal. It’s just such a beautiful metaphor of this wounded creature who thought he found his home, but everything he was of afraid of came to pass.
I would say in general, what I love about these songs is that, while they serve the story and characters moment to moment, they are universal. They are pop songs, and they can easily live outside of the film which also comes back to why Shawn was the perfect artist to sing these songs. While we want them functioning as character-driven songs at all times, they are also really gorgeous, soaring pop songs, and he does that better than anybody else.
There were some other writers along with Benj and Justin, who were major contributors. Anything I say about Pasek and Paul, I'm always meaning them as well; Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, Ari Afsar and Joriah Kwamé. They each worked on different songs with Benj and Justin. I think that was also the beauty of this project. Emily and Mark worked on 'Rip Up the Recipe,' and that's something that gives that its own unique identity alongside everything that Pasek and Paul always bring to their songs. 'Carried Away' had Joriah, Ari and Mark, and that has its own tone and unique DNA that they were so critical to.
How did you get your start in Broadway, and what led you to working in cinema?
Ian Eisendrath: As a ten-year-old is when I was first exposed to music and theater. I just instantly connected to it, and I saw the music people doing their jobs, and I was like, 'Oh, that's me!' I love how the music director gets to collaborate with almost every department in a really unique way. I think the thing that I was always hooked by was narrative-driven music, and that's a phrase that I use a lot because, if a song is sung by a character who's trying to accomplish something, I'm interested.
I love many, many elements coexisting, and creating a collage with other collaborators, and doing something that is so much bigger than the sum of its parts, always in service of story, character and the vision of the storytellers. And so I did, a bunch of theater growing up. I know that it was the narrative side that always interested me the most, because music was always a part of everything. It was like, as long as it was music, and it was about story and character, I'm in. I was highly passionate about getting started and working with other people to figure out what to do. and I just received a lot of opportunities as a young person.
When I was sixteen, there was this really incredible semiprofessional theater in Olympia, Washington, where I grew up. That was a theater company that did some really progressive and serious musicals, like, you know, things like 'Assassins' and 'Pippin,' and I became their resident music director, which I was far too young to have any business doing. I was just really fortunate, and so at age sixteen I was working with these adult companies and musicians, and able to just play the sandbox and that was amazing.
I started focusing on Broadway and thinking that that's the place where I was going to work. I was about to move to New York, but then was given this amazing job at a theater called the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle. I was 23 and I was their resident music supervisor, and became very involved with not only managing the music departments, and oftentimes being the vocal coach, the conductor and the overall head of music for many of their productions, if not most, but I also became really involved in the development of new musicals. Through that, I met Benj and Justin because we were developing a thing called 'A Christmas Story,' and we were looking for writers. Benj and Justin were one of the five pairs of writers submitted, and I'll never forget hearing the songs they submitted, and thinking they absolutely nailed it. They were just so clearly to me the next great writers. And so we started working on it, and it really was a match made in heaven for many reasons, one of which is, we spoke the same language. We were all equally OCD about everything. It just worked really well.
'A Christmas Story' was all of our Broadway debut. It became a process of five years, because it's a Christmas musical, so you can only do it Christmas, where we kept refining it and making it better, and doing it different places till it got to Broadway and beyond.
After that I went back to the Fifth Avenue and became the director of new work development, basically working with writers to develop and produce their new musicals. And while that happened, 'Come From Away' came my way. I was very lucky to get folded into that as their music supervisor and aranger. And that is sort of when I started thinking about film, because the idea with 'Come From Away' is that it plays like a film score. It's not a traditional musical like that, it's much more that music is a score that's constantly turning on a dime with every shift in character, every shift in location. I loved working on putting that together. It's one of the great joys of my life.
As I worked on comfortably, I moved to New York. I started doing more and more work, producing music in the studio, which is one of my great passions. The pandemic hit and Benj and Justin called and said, 'We think you'd be really good at film.' So I signed on to 'Spirited,' which comes out in a month. That was my first gigantic film musical, and then started I working on 'Lyle,' and then, at the same time, I started working on Disney's 'Snow White,' which wrapped photography a couple of months ago, and I am just loving film. I love everything about it.
You're like a musical freaking prodigy! That's so cool, congrats. Speaking of Spirited, you're no stranger to Christmas-themed musicals.
Ian Eisendrath: I mean, I love 'Spirited.' I think it's such a beautiful story and fun modern take on a story that we've all heard a million times. This really feels like everything you love about those themes, but in a completely different paradigm. So super fun to see Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds and Octavia Spencer take that on, and just live and thrive as singing, dancing actors.
It is very self-referential. They'll often break the fourth wall. But at the same time it really does tell this really emotional story. It's this wild roller coaster of like, 'Look how crazy we are!' And now it's like, 'Oh, my gosh!
This is like a vastly serious moment. My heart, is breaking for this character.' But it's all because of the whole point of view of the piece. It can function on many, many levels.
I’m fascinated to hear about working with Will Farrell and Ryan Reynolds, who are such comedic powerhouses. What it was like working with them to incorporate some of their humor into the music?
Ian Eisendrath: They’re amazing. They're just both amazing. They were both so game to be like, 'Okay, we'll do all the work we need to do to get ready to sing these songs. We're not necessarily looking to be Broadway performers. So we'll do what we need to do.' And they really did. But they're also so aware of their brands that the recording sessions were so much fun. A lot of it was them riffing. And I think what's fun about this film is it really demands them to sing. These are super demanding songs. No one could just sort of sail through it, and yet they are often self-referential, and have the brand of their humor existing at all times.
And Benj and Justin had their team of writers, Mark Sonnenblick, Sukari Jones and Khiyon Hursey. They did riff sessions with Ryan and Will and did a bunch of riffing on stuff, and then they would take some of those ideas and incorporate that into the song lyrics and the song structure. It was fun because the director Sean Anders, and the writers Sean [Anders] and John Morris were really receptive to Will and Ryan, and Octavia's input as well, as Benj and Justin's, and I. So I do feel like these songs became a real hybrid, like they are theatrical narrative-driven songs, but they also have the Will and Ryan comedy in them, and they also function on a storytelling level. It's really so much fun to work on.
And then you have Octavia Spencer.
Ian Eisendrath: Octavia is the dream. She hadn't done a lot of singing before and I feel like, working with her, we discovered one of the great acting singers of all time, just her ability to take a melody and a lyric and break your heart, is unique.
Was there any other upcoming stuff you're working on that you want our readers to know about?
Ian Eisendrath: Two films start shooting at the end of the year. This is a giant musical. So it'll be really exciting to do that. That's filming in London. And I'm working on an animated TV project which I'm really excited about. I'm just excited to do more of this. There are also some theatrical musicals that are in development, and will be hopefully hitting stages sometime soon. It's fun to revisit those.
I'm just so grateful to be working on these films. I'm grateful to Benj and Justin for having brought me into these three, and to all the collaborators that I get to work with. I think that's the best part, just working with such talented people and doing things that ,everyone has their niche, and everyone fires on. And then we bring it all together.
Each Christmas Eve, the Ghost of Christmas Present selects one dark soul to be reformed by a visit from three spirits. But this season, he picked the wrong Scrooge. Clint Briggs turns the tables on his ghostly host until Present finds himself reexamining his own past, present and future. For the first time, "A Christmas Carol" is told from the perspective of the ghosts in this hilarious musical twist on the classic Dickens tale.
Check out our other Lyle, Lyle Crocodile interviews here:
Spirited arrives in theaters on November 11, and will stream on AppleTV+ November 18.
Patrick Lehe is a native Hoosier turned Angeleno turned Hoosier again, and has been a movie/TV news writer at Screen Rant since February 2022. As a born and bred genre nut, Patrick grew up on a healthy diet of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Maximum Ride and The Mortal Instruments. Since middle school, some of Patrick‚Äôs short stories have been recognized in regional competitions. Patrick has worked in development for well-known production companies since 2012 as a script reader and story analyst, most recently contracting for Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios. After earning his Masters degree in screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University, many of Patrick‚Äôs screenplays have been finalists in competitions such as ScreenCraft and the PAGE Awards. One of his scripts was lauded by The Black List as one of their highest rated screenplays of September 2020. As a news writer, Patrick covers the biggest news stories in entertainment, from Marvel to Scream to The Rings of Power. He most recently interviewed well-known TV director Jennifer Phang and has established relationships with some of the biggest PR firms in Los Angeles. Patrick also currently teaches screenwriting at Regent University.
Nov 07, 2022 by The Beat Maker - 0 Comments