Music Magic Series: Mr. Joe Iconis

Hello Beautiful People, 

As fate would have it, I happened to interview Mr. Joe Iconis the week after Jeremy Jordan sang “Broadway, Here I Come!” on the season two premier of Smash.  I tell you this, because Joe wrote the song – and it’s outstanding. But Joe is no stranger to the musical theater writing scene, as he has authored the musicals Bloodsong of Love, The Black Suits (with Robert Maddock), ReWrite, The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and We The People. What’s the best thing I can tell you about Mr. Joe Iconis? Other than the fact that he’s a brilliant composer? Well, it’s that he may be one of the kindest and most humble human beings I have ever met.  There is no pomp or circumstance; he is the essence of a true musician is – quiet, wise, and forever a student. And so we sat, in Amy’s Bread, for quite a bit of time discussing music, Broadway, his various projects, education, and the first song he ever wrote.  I’m elated to introduce you all to the next feature in our Music Magic Series, my dear friend, Mr. Joe Iconis.

TWT: First things first, did you always want to be in show business?

JI: I kind of did.  I’m from long island, but my family is not in the theater or arts at all.  My mom was a schoolteacher for many years, and now is a superintendent, and my dad is a systems analyst.  They’re not theater people at all. When I was six, I got tickets for Little Shop of Horrors; the original Off-Broadway production was still running at the time.  I saw a commercial, asked to see the show, and from then on, I was hooked. I loved it, and I immediately wanted to see as many musicals as I could.  So that became the gift for birthdays and holidays, to give me tickets to see shows.  My family was originally from Brooklyn; so coming into the city was not a big mystery.  My mom really then pushed me to play piano, and I took it for years before I was into it, the more I saw shows, the more I started to play things by ear.  My love of shows and my skills as a piano player started growing, and I knew that I wanted to be the person that wrote the shows. I always knew that I wanted to do it, and so I went to musical theater camps and got involved in high school, and even though I wasn’t too keen on performing, I just wanted to be around it.  I then went to NYU for my undergraduate and graduate degree…and then here we are!

TWT: Lets talk about “Broadway, Here I Come!,” which is a hit on the charts, and a favorite amongst SMASH fans. What has this new success been like for you?  

JI: It’s definitely a different thing.  I’ve had different levels of success in theatre, but when you have a song on a television show, it immediately feels different.  It’s weird for me, because I like to create theater with a group of people, I’m very much into the team and group process; it’s different to have it be this thing that has all the focus on me. But its great, because all the people that I’ve been working with are almost more excited than I am, and the success is shared because so much of this has been done together.

TWT: When you wrote “Broadway, Here I Come!”, the glitz and glamour were not in the forefront of your mind when you first wrote it.  Can you explain to our readers what the song writing process was like?

JI: I do these shows, (Joe Iconis and Family), pretty frequently, and it was started as a way to get my work out there, and now it’s taken on a life of it’s own.  I write songs a lot, whether they are attached to a project or not. I write a lot. It’s a cool position that I’m in, because if I write a song and have a performance with Joe Iconis and Family there’s a way to showcase the song.  “Broadway, Here I Come!” is one of those songs.  Whenever I write, I try to write about two specific things at once, so that the audience member could receive the song one way and be satisfied, but then on the way home be thinking about what they’ve heard and have that “ah-ha” moment and realize that there is a deeper meaning.  “Broadway, Here I Come!” is one of those songs.  I wrote it when I was very frustrated about theater and projects I was doing, a show of mine had received a less than desirable review from the NYT and I just felt all the energy go out of me.  It was that moment of what do I do now? How do I get to the next level? So much of it was about not wanting to sell out and sacrifice the shows that I wanted to make, but still exist on Broadway and that level.  The song came out of that.  I wanted to write a song that you could listen to it and think of a kid coming off the bus at Port Authority and being hopeful, and then on a different turn, listening to it and hearing that this person wants to jump off a ledge. “Broadway, Here I Come!”, depending on how you listen to it, tells two different stories.

TWT: Just for fun, what sound do you hate?

JI: I hate the sound of parents yelling at kids.

TWT: Just for fun, what sound do you love?

JI: I love the sound of a not so crowded bar, like the general hum of a bar that’s not too loud.

TWT: Just for fun, do you remember the first song you ever wrote?

JI: Oh yeah. I was six, maybe seven, and the title of the song was “Mothers Are Special (When You’re Sad)”.  I didn’t remember that for a long time, but then I found a video of me singing it at a summer program in elementary school.  I had made this puppet, and I hid under a table and made the puppet sing it.  It was “mother’s are special, mother’s are special, when you’re sad”, four times, and then at the end the puppet said goodbye to everyone. 

TWT: If you were stranded on a desert island, what movies would you want to have with you?

JI: My favorite movie in the whole world is this movie called Nashville, which is a Robert Altman movie.  Robert Altman is my favorite director, and a huge inspiration to me, even though he’s a movie director. I also love ET, and Magnolia, which was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

TWT: What’s one of the best pieces of advice that you have received, that you would give high school seniors who have dreams of Broadway and show business?

JI: My biggest piece of advice would be to see a lot.  No matter what art form you practice, try to experience as much art as humanly possible. I think it’s so important to understand what’s out there, because it can only inform and inspire you, and make you even more certain of your path.

TWT: Joe Iconis and Family is performing several evenings at 54 Below.  Can you explain to us how this troupe of outstanding artists came to be a family?

JI: It really started out as a collection of actors that I love, who have common interests with myself.  It started to become and ensemble of friends and artists who have similar musical tastes and a style of working that I enjoy.  I never write out music, I give them the lyric sheet, and we just go from there. My style of writing can be very complicated, but I enjoy the collaborative process of this repertory that we’ve established. The idea of the family started from a core group of actors, and it’s grown over the years. 

TWT: In today’s economy, arts programs are being cut.  What reasons would you give a politician for preserving the arts?

JI: It does more than enrich young peoples lives, it gives them an outlet to understand and communicate things.  It goes so beyond “expressing yourself”; it literally does change people’s lives.  Me personally, I am very different now than I was in high school, but if I didn’t have the high school musical as an outlet and a way to help me understand myself, life, and just…everything, who knows where I would be?

TWT: Who is/was your greatest teacher?

JI: I love teachers, it’s so hard to pick just one. Mrs. Ivy Harrington, my 5th grade elementary school teacher.  She  was tough and had beautiful handwriting. I would also say that my greatest teachers are any artists with whom I have collaborated.

Thank you, Joe!

Friends, if you’re in NYC on April 15, April 20, April 26, and/or May 5th, be sure to stop by 54 Below, as Joe Iconis & Family will be perofrming – something you never want to miss. AND, Joe’s newest album, The Joe Iconis Rock and Roll Jamboree is soon to be released! If you loved Things To Ruin, I do believe you’ll adore this too. And if you haven’t listened to either, well, you best rectify that right now.

Live, Love, Learn,

 

Megan &