ITS Home Edition: Anthony Ramos

new single Stop is partly about this. It's about learning how to be still, how to enjoy some silence, And this was all on our mind when we started the home edition of the show. The idea was to let you know how artists are coping with Lockdown, how it's affecting their lives, how it's affecting the way they make music,

how it's stopping or starting their creativity. And when Anthony talked about giving himself permission to sit on the couch and watch old Harry Potter movies in this episode, I really felt that, although in my case it was old episodes of thirty Rock. Anyway, if you enjoy this episode, be sure to listen to the I heart radio podcast hosted by our Quarantine correspondent Jordan runt Talk. It's called Rivals, Music's Greatest Feuds, and it is available wherever you get

your podcast. Hello everybody, my name is Jordan runt Talk. But enough about me. My guest today is a star of stage, screen and song. It sounds like a cliche, but in this case, there's no other way to put it. He truly has done it all. You probably know him from the original cast of Hamilton's or the hit Netflix series She's Got to Have It, or for appearing alongside

Lady Uga and a star was born. Last fall, he dropped his debut solo album, The Good and the Bad, a series of soulful tracks to tell the story of his remarkable life so far. You think a global pandemic might slow him down, but you'd be wrong. He has a new single, Stop, which explores the beauty of staying still just a little bit, maybe one of the only good things to come from the COVID pandemic. I'm so happy to welcome Anthony Ramos. Thank you so much for

being here. It's such an honest I'm doing it. Thanks for having me so You've been so busy these last few years. You've gone from filming in the Heights to recording your debut solo album filming She's Gotta Have It, And now you're sitting still, Like how you adjusting to all this downtime? Oh? Man, dude, I think, uh, I

think it's been nice. It's been nice. Actually I've had that much downtime, but uh, but but I've had more than than than usual, and it's been really nice to be able to just like one, be in the apartment that I like pay rant for what I'm saying, like not on a plane somewhere like you know. And I love traveling, and I love working, and I love doing things and seeing things and experiencing new new things. But I really am hyped and uh and just like grateful

for this time I've had at home. Man, Like it just it just really made me appreciate it more and more. And like after this, um, I think being home will will as much as I can, will be at the top of my mind way more than it was before. You know, I was like where we go? Before I was like, Yo, where we're gonna we out, let's go, We're go. And now I'm working on my second album. Man, I'm almost done, you know, so so we're uh, you know,

we're in the thick of it. It was I had to get on this equipment because you know, A and R. I was like, Yo, come on, so we start at work sun. Yeah, let's great. You're feeling productive because I feel like I hear both sides. I hear people that are like, all right, I'm here, I'm gonna work so hard, or those people that are just like I just am not feeling it right now, but you're feeling inspired right now. No,

I'm feel really inspired for sure. Yeah. Man, it's uh because you know, I think there was this pressure that I put on myself at the start of this, and well, first of all, I was like, how am I gonna deal with this? This is a whole new way of life that I've not experienced I don't know ever. And uh as far as like learning how to be still and actually like finding comfort and and and being still. So there was two weeks where I was just trying

to get over that. And then after that it was like ship do I make Like how do I I wanna do I make? Like A like, do I write songs right now? Do I I don't know what do I what I do? Do I write script do? I don't know what. I don't know what to do right now with myself. And and then there were you know, there's all the people posting about if you're an artist, this is the time to make art, right like, and I'm like, you know, but I don't feel inspired. I

don't feel inspired to make art. And and then so I think it wasn't even It wasn't until maybe a month maybe till April, which oddly enough was like the armor getting period. I would call in New York City anyway, who's who lives in New York or was in New York and April knows that that it was like crazy here, uh, I mean the hospitals were full, Like I mean, I've never heard sirens like the way I heard them, uh,

you know, and so so so that was wild. But I think in that time I had started to accept like what like life is gonna be and what it

is at the moment. And then I think, then the creativity and then the then then the spark to write songs and too to do stuff kind of naturally happened and I stopped kind of it kind of happened when I stopped forcing myself to to work, or I was, you know, forcing myself to work for the sake of doing it, right, Like, I was just kind of just doing it just because I was like, well, what else

am I gonna do? But then then I was kind of like, no, you know, I actually like it's okay if I just want to set on the couch and watch Harry Potter, Like that's fine, Like I can do that as much as I want to do that. I should actually do that as much as I want to do that, right, like um and uh. And then when I feel compelled to write a song or I feel to move and put the pens in the paper, you know, on the fingers of the phone, you know, and and you know, and then we'll do that. So I think

that that's that was kind of the natural progression. Tell me about your new single Stop. I mean to me, it sounds like sort of like zen lessons learned from from lockdown, being present, being in the moment, just slowing down. What is the genesis of that song is? That's sort of everything you just mentioned, like learning how to just

sort of be still. The genesis of that song was, what's what's interesting about that song is that song what was written I would say days before I came back to New York and probably a week and a half before I found out that we were going to go on the lockdown. Well, so it wasn't even about what I'm going through now, but it sounds so perfect. It's crazy, like that song was about what I was going through

before this. So that's probably I mean to go back to what I was saying about those first two weeks when when when you know, and dealing with the reality of of now being in lockdown and how how was I gonna how was I gonna like that to that because I had I hadn't lived that way. Like some people are good in silence. Some people know how to just like read a book and chill for a whole day,

you know, and they find peace in that. Like I'm just like on the goal and if I'm not going, like what am I doing with my life right now? I should be seeing friends or I should be you know, working on something, and that mentality like I've had for years, you know, And I think, I mean to be honest, like, uh, some of it comes from growing up in a way where you feel like I have nothing and I have

to do everything to just get something. It was funny like I had a baseball coach who used to my brother actually used to say this too, used to say, Yo, you know, when you sleep with somebody else, someone else's is trying to take a spot or something like, when you sleep with someone else is working hard and uh, and it's almost like, so you grow up now and now I at twenty years old, it is almost like I feel guilty when out like to sleep, for sleeping,

for resting, first being still because it's like if I'm still, someone is out there working harder than me. And then uh, and this is what this time is talking like. And so I wrote a song about that. This song is me saying I want to learn how to do that. I want to learn how to stop. And then the world stopped and we were like, you you know, a song that was about one moment becomes about more than one moment, you know, And I think that's that's the beauty and and and uh and the music and and

and this song stopped for me. You know, it's like the first verses. Sometimes I wish my life was like a photograph double tap, the good ones and just photoshop the bad I put them in my wilet, in my pocket. If I need them, then I got him. A life don't work like that. Sometimes I feel like I'm in Nike's on the track, even if my feet are up. Even when my feet are up, my mind is running fast. When I'm home, I getting patient when I'm going. I kind of hate it. But my life works like that.

And then right and then we go into like but like it's like sunsets and open water. The sky is full of technic color. There's beauty right in front of you. There's so much to discover if you stop and breathe it for the moment, stop and give it a minute in your own it. Stop it. It's only just begun, right like every moment right, like when we step into it's only just begun. As sooner they'll be almost over. So stop, see what comes in the focus. Stop. It's

kind of crazy what you notice. Stop. It's like a setting sun. Sooner will be almost over. Stop right like I think you know, we always equate some of the most beautiful uh we say, Man, it's like, what a beautiful sunset? What if you ever heard like what an ugly sunset? Right, but right never, but you have to stop to see that taking how beautiful that sunset is, and the sunset only happens for this much time and then it's gone. A beautiful message that we all need

right now. I can't believe that was written before all of this. That's so perfect. It's just really your right capt for the moment. Yeah, how has all this impacted your writing process? I know you work with your collaborator, Will Wells very often. I mean do you You've been zooming a lot? Like how's that been working? Yeah? I mean, you know, well Will and I you know, technology is amazing.

I was just on. I was just on the phone right before uh you and I got on and and uh talking to someone about how how amazing technology is, Like how you could you know, well, Will, Will's technological wizards. So Will, uh you know, was on. He was giving me lessons on how to get started, how to use Logic, which is the program that many people used to to you know, cut records and too you know, cut their vocals or lay down the guitar or whatever right and

make their beats and logic or able to out. In my case, I'm using logic and Will goes, um, you know, so Will, it's like teaching me how to kind of get started, how to use it, how to cut my home vocal if I need to. And but also then it's like their their applications on the computer, my team viewer, like, uh, even on Zoom right now, we're on Zoom, like where you can share your screen with someone and Will can just be engineering. But it's amazing that you can still

work that. You know, we even still you know, I've I've done sessions with folks to uh, you know, Europe, and it's like, Yo, if you didn't want to read your house, I have a session, you don't, right, I mean it's not like being in the room with people. But um, but this is a nice alternative. I was so glad we get to hear your music now because I know some of your projects have been put on hold. I'm so sad about In the Heights being pushed back.

But the movie set and done, right, you've you've watched it. How was that experience for you? Yeah? And the Heights was I mean that that that that experience was amazing. Man,

We're done. We shot it. We shot it last summer, and uh, there there are very few things that can top um the moment I was in the middle of the street and Washington Heights with seventy four other you know, uh Latin X artists dancing in the middle of the street, singing about pride and singing about what with um and singing about like um and you know, going hard in the hot summer, uh, in this choreography that was so that is so authentic to New York and too to

the vibe here into the Latin, the Latino New York Latino experience here like that sound, black ums, the cloud and the going guys and all of that blast blasting the years and then people spitting bars and with you know, I can't wait, bro, I can't wait. And I know that show was just so special to you, just when you saw it on Broadway the first time. Tell me

about what that show means to you. Yeah, I mean that show means a lot to me because you know so uh, you know, I'm like barely five nine, freckle like, fair skin like dude. Like nobody's in the rush to write a lead role for me at any you know, ain't nobody trying to recasting My Fair Lady with Anthony Alamos the nickname for Broad is the Great White Way.

So how do you it? So how do you think some care from the projects from you know, Puerto Rican and predominant Puerto Rican in black neighborhood, right in African American neighbor but like Fields, when they're trying to find their way in the realm of entertainment, where the nickname is the Great White Way, I was like already like

and they just weren't role for me. Man Like, finally I saw in The Heisman and it was just like one of those things where it was like the characters didn't only look like me, but they sound like me. They were talking about food that I, you know, grew up eating, and it was able the mute the music sound like music I listened to growing up, and like, you know, and the characters not only did I feel like I related to them, but I was like, yo, I know these people, Like I know the beat guy.

I know that guy that's you know, his forearm is solid because he was scrape and shape. He's shaping and ice all day, puts it in the cup and got his syrup. You know, the little old man that got the bank and the best tan you've ever seen, you know, knowing characters like Snob, you know, the main character, and in that story, uh, you know, he reminded me of this guy named Leo who used to you know, who

used to have a ball. They got on the corner where I used to live, and Leo used to hook my family up like we were you know, we were broke, uh you know, but uh, you know, like Leo will hook us up sometimes. You know, we didn't have enough for the milk, but we didn't have enough for the bread. You know, we only had enough for the eggs. They would be like, you don't worry about it, like give us some candy, you know, to like you know, walk out with like and um. And it was like those

dudes that that they just see everything. So it's only right that the story is told from from the eyes of this guy who owns this boy they got this corner store, because those guys see everything. They see all types of people walking in out of their store. Like. It was kind of the musical that made me rethink a little bit like, oh maybe there is a space for me here. You know, people spending bars on stage and some one minute, somebody sounding like, you know, the

most beautiful army. So that if you got Jordan's Fox singing these beautiful notes and you've got lint man Well spitting these bars, you know, like it's crazy like you know, so it was. It was a nation up of all all the things that I kind of grew up with, music, food, the vernacular, all on one stage. It was almost overwhelming. I was like, wow, I never see anything like this. Was it intimidating at all? Stepping into that role that that lemon Well created that was so personal to him.

I think he started writing when he was nineteen or something. Was that intimidating at all? Yeah? I mean I don't It wasn't intimidating because Lyn didn't really put that pressure on you know. I never really felt that pressure from him, you know, rather that like he was always really like, y'all just do your thing, bro, Like do you think

you know? It's it's a funny story too, Like I got an interesting history with those guys, with Lynn and his team, right, Like I I auditioned when I was nineteen for In the Heights back um Man ten years yars ago. I guess that it's gonna be two years now. But I auditioned for a non Union National tour of in the Heights, and I don't think it was. I don't think I was going for like I think I was to be a part of the ensemble ca asked as a dancer. You know, I didn't get it, bro

I was crushed. I did four auditions and I didn't get it. Three years later, I do an open call for another musical that I was like totally not right for, and then I like and then a few minutes later I getn't email hey, like, we'd let you to audition for the Sting Car Hamiltons mix tape. And I saw that landing and all the same team working on it. So at first I was really nervous and and at first I was like damgn, like, uh, the way this ended for me last time wasn't good. I didn't get

the job. Like so I was pretty already kind of psyching myself out. One of my friends was like, you really did go to this and it wasn't even gonna work out with the schedule that I had with this other show, but I was doing it anyway. I was like, you know, the castinger was like, you're really right for this, and she's like, you just gotta just we're just gonna keep calling back. I don't know how we're gonna work it out, may not, but now we're just gonna keep

calling you back. And I do my final audition, I get to work and uh and at Radio City and they call us all up to the large rehearsal hall where wherever heears up stairs and they're like, yo, we're gonna we're gonna cancel the show and I lose my jo, but I get laid off. All of our seventy seven castles laid off. Three hours later, they're like, hey, we don't we heard about heart Lights. We want to hire you for handles his mistake, And that's how I jumped on.

That was my start of the journey, right, And that was and then I think for that moment on right, Lyn and I did that. It was like a four week workshop and asked me to do this other thing he had written. So we just started cultivating this relationship. And by the time we got to in the Heights of Movie, I was already like shocked and grateful, but I had stopped doing Hamilton's in Seen. Finally in this role comes up with Snobby. They're doing a seven performance.

Um uh, seven performance. Uh, it's the show of in the Heights at Kennedy Center. Something beside me just said I think it was good, and it was like, just just go do this job. You don't know why. Yeah, it's gonna be mad hard, you're gonna want to quit theater after, but just go. And I didn't want I didn't want to quit theater after. But I was very tired, and it was it was like, just go, and I just jumped right in. Then I jumped right in and

and and I went. I did that show at the Kennedy Center and Lynn Lynn came to a few rehearsals, and Lynn also came to the show a couple of times. And then all of a sudden, he writes this tweet, and it was basically something to the effect of like, Asine, you grew up tap this, and you buy these tap shoes, and you've been tapping all your life. You know that's what you've been doing. And then you hang it up, you put the tap shoes in the box, you put

it up in the closet. You have a kid. All of a sudden, all of a sudden, you're you're you're hanging out downstairs. Years go by and there you're just hanging out downstairs. All of a sudden you here tapping from from the top floor and you're wondering what that was, and you're like, man, well there's a no is that

you go up to the top floor. All of a sudden you see that your kids took the tap shoes that you used to have took him out, and it's your kids tapping in the room that you realize that those those shoes fit him better than they ever fit you, and those shoes were always made for him and not for you. That's how That's what it feels like watching Anthony Rolmo's played with Snobby. You know he wrote that sweet Bro, I was done. I was in my bag crying out, like, oh this is crazy, this bananas. I

got the movie soon after that. All of that long story is to say is that no, I didn't feel pressure because everything I had been through to get to that moment and to get to that point to be on that set that wasn't got on that set. It was like it was almost like, yo, bro, he was born for this. It was it was a blessing. What is your relationship like with Lena? Mean? This does he has he given you sort of compositional tips for songwriting. And see a mentor is see a big brother? Is

he like a colleague? Is he all the above? Like how would you define what your relationship is? Or is it the fire explanation? He's He's definitely a mentor for sure. Like I've learned so much from him, um directly and indirectly, you know, you know. I remember one time he said something to me and he was like, yo, like I cracked the joke. And I said something like, um man, since as I talked to her, and I should change

the way I speak. And he was like, he says something something something to the effective, like you never have to change the way you speak, pop, I usually make

sure people understand. And I was like, wow, that's incredible, like and uh and you know and like he said that and uh and like I I never forget that that quote and like and then all of a sudden, I'm like, you know, like and then like we'll be on set or whatever and you will say something or he will change something in a song, and you just like notice the tendencies and you noticed like the you begin to notice the patterns of like and the motivations

as to why he changes things, and it's and it's like, how do we get to the heart of the truth of this? And uh And I think I take that in my writing, like everything is so thought through because and I try not to overthink, you know, because because um, because that can be a trap too. But I do I do like to to think a lot about what I'm saying and how I'm saying it, because there's nothing more dope than when somebody listened to a song didn't

understand the lyric. They go back and they're like, this song was about this the whole time. It's it's just it's just fire man. It's like, so I've I've learned so much from him and like, yeah, now you know we like you know, we would you know, we we hang out and and shipped like you know, like we spent we spent New Year's Eve together and uh uh in Puerto Rico that it was dope. You know, we

we each hell and whatnot. But but it's I think the thing that's double about our relationship is like there's this like trust there that is uh, it's almost like motivating, like it's just like you want to be your best because this person was so elite at what they do.

It's trusted you with this, you know, with this work and with this you know what I'm saying, believes in you and this and and with with with with their work that they've worked so hard on, you know, like and I worked over eight years and then WoT be worked over the six you know. So it's like, you know, that's kind of our relationship. There's like this trust there that that is, uh, you know that I don't that

I don't take your friend. And there's a love there too, you know, like and you know he has kind of you know, he has treated me like you know, big brow. He's definitely been a big brow to me and like kind of like you know, put me on. You mentioned music having so many different meanings and just applicable so many situations. I mean, Stop is a great example. Is born from a completely different circumstance, but it's so it

resonates so much. Now I've been seeing a lot of Hamilton's lyrics on signs at George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter protests, especially from my shot. I feel like it's the one I seem to see a lot. Uh. That's to feel pretty good. How does that feel for you to just see those words out there and that give people, you know, hope. I think it's important. I mean, I mean when you hope, you you hope to do

pieces of art that impact people, you know. I think when when you're right at something and and or you you know, you you're shooting a film or your music video or whatever, like you know, you know, even even

to stop music video. We're shooting this Friday, and I can't I can't wait to to put it out because of what it's about, right, Like, um, you know, and uh, you know, we we found this awesome guy who who gives these haircuts you want to talk about really like stopping and breathing it in, like this guy gives haircuts and and and all all proceeds go to this donation based on all proceeds go to the Black Lives Matter movement.

And uh and uh Anthony Payne is his name, and um, uh you're not to give away what the video is about, but that's a part of the video. And like, you know, I think in art you want to do your best to highlight the stories that matter. And I think, you know, and hope that in the process they correlated to something else going on that also matters, right. You know, It's funny how you know these words in the context of our story, right, Like it's all these actors of color

and playing these like white presidents and founding fathers. But like told through the lens that it's like Puerto Rican do who wrote all of these words? Like all these words? Who was inspired and most of it inspired by the hip hop culture which was born in the Bronx, you know, in the African American and Puerto Rican communities, you know, And and it's like how all all these things correlate.

And then to now write the story that has been so old that we've kind of taken ownership of, uh, I think America now right, the America that we want to see in America that we are seeing, the colorful America week. It's almost like we're taking ownership of the story of these stories, and we're like, we're gonna make this country how we see it and how we want

to see it. We're gonna help the world understand what America actually is and what America is going to look like, and what we are fighting for, what we're working towards, and like to have you know, people singing the right having the lyrics written on their signs, and the protester or you know, people chanting I'm not throwing away my shot, right like or like it's like that's what you want, that's what you hope for, that's what you hope, uh, you know, that's what you hope happens when you make

you know, I think some of us we make songs and they come out, yeah, maybe their hits and then they go away or whatever. But like it's just so you know, you think about the songs that have lasted forever, like the you know, like the What's going on right, like the Lean on Me and the like these songs that have out lived I mean, they have lasted forever. You know, I have moved people and touched people for so many years, right, and they I think they still will, right,

they don't really care about us. Like these songs that have just man in the mirror, like these joints that are just like every now and then you get a splash in the water and I think, you know, we gotta splash in the water with this one, and hopefully it just keeps, you know, rippling out. And I'm just grateful that it's um that people feel inspired by this work that we all did, and you know, and and Krudle sing them for the words that he wrote and that their h you know, people feel fired up for

for you know, for justice. You know, this makes people gets people fired up for to fight for for us right in the world. It's been such a pleasure and honor speaking you. I don't wanna take up too much more your time. My my last question, and I love asking this. It's might always been my final question for these this series. What's the first thing you want to

do when this pandemic is over? If you could snap your fingers and have everything go back to the way it was trip, you want to take person, You want to hug meal, you want to go out and have what's the first thing you would do? You know, it was wild. I put up a post yesterday about about

missing toward about missing just playing live. I think the first thing I want to do is because because I have been fortunate enough to see my mom this time, and you know, I've I've been fortunately you know, like you know, thank God right like the you know, the in New York City again, Like you know, I'm really grateful that that our case. I think yesterday we recorded

the first day we have no deaths. That was huge, you know what I'm saying for our city and um, and it's almost a sense of like, let's just we can take a deep breath for us, you know, for a second. It's not over. But guys, it's just like let's celebrate this and let's just take a deep breath from we've all worked to get to to this point. Right. But I think the first thing and I just I can't. I don't know what the first thing is gonna be, but I know what. I am so excited for us

to play a live man. I just want to feel that vibe. Bro. I want to I just wanna, I wanna. I want to be on stage. Um, I want you know, get you know, having that having just having that time with with an audience and and you know, and just have that time of communion. You know. I think that's the time of community sometimes, I don't, you know, I think the most beautiful thing about live shows is that

I think people feel a sense of community. That's why people go to see theater, right, Like there's there's there's some special about laughing with a group of people, right, There's something special about crying with a group of people. Sometimes people don't even feel comfortable crying on their own,

but they see the person next to them crying. That gives them this thing where they can feel, uh like they can release right, like they're not alone and they can let it out right like somebody see somebody else laughing, and maybe that sparks them, like isn't it so funny? But sometimes you hear someone laughing so hard in the audience that it makes you laugh and what you don't even remember what the joke was, but it's the person

cracking up that makes you laugh. And I just I'm so excited to get back to that that form of community and that having the opportunity to to share in that way, you know, that's I think that's like the first thing that I'm going to I'm gonna run to a show or I'm gonna have a show. Yeah, thank you so much for your time and it has been such an honor. Thank you Georgian, thanks for having man. This is awesome. M We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio Home Edition, a production of I

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