This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast.
More of what you hear Weekday after Do is on the Drive. You know Jac chaise As as a singer, songwriter, and producer and artist within Sync. He's also written for Elton, John Area and a Grande Aerosmith and many others. Jimmy Harry is also a Golden Globe winning songwriter for Madonna, Pink, Britney Spears, and many many others. So when you get two great writers like this together and an unusually inspired project, you know a something special is going to come of it.
I welcome Jac chase As in sinc and Jimmy Harry, creators of their new album Playing with Fire. Hello, guys, good more. Let's start with you. Jac. This, I said, head is an unusual inspiration. What is it?
It's well, the source material is Mary Shelley Sprankenstein man. So I know that maybe a lot of people don't say, hey, that sounds like music to me, a story about frank Stein and his creature. But that's exactly what it is. It was inspired by and Jimmy and I just kind of put ourselves out there. We read an adaptation that his mother wrote Barbara Fields wrote an adaptation of Frankenstein and called it Play with Fire, And after Jimmy had shared it with me, we went down the rabbit hole.
And Jimmy, your mother was she normally a playwright of sorts?
She definitely was a playwright. She was a traumat at the Gus three Theater in Minneapolis for a very long time. She founded the Playwrights Center, and she was well loved by the community.
What's the plot, Jimmy, of her adaptation of the Frankenstein story.
I think what sets it apart from other Frankenstein's is that it's essential. It's a conversation with doctor Frankenstein and the creature, his creation well after the events of the story, and basically creature approaches him and says, hey, I need to answer some questions, tell me why, And after I know you hate me, so after you've answered my questions,
you can kill me. I don't care anymore. And it takes you on this journey through the through you know, what is the body of Mary Shelley's books, but you kind of it's also about this relationship how these people sort of you know, come to actually love each other even though they've done horrible things to each other and if they make peace. Because it's a it's a father and son's story.
Spin spine tingling. J Chess says, not unlike maybe a father son relationship.
It is.
Yeah, that's that is that's that's what we focused in on, you know. And and the the interesting thing about what we try to present in the music and in our musical is, you know, it's from the perspective of each a person in the conversation. So really the first.
Half of the story, the half of.
The musical is through one lens, and that would be through Victor of Frankenstein's lens. When we're hearing the songs and where he's taking us into his memories. We're seeing, you know, life play out through the lens of Victor Frankenstein. And in the second half of the musical, you're really getting the story through the perspective and lens of the creature.
So instead of just observing all the events, you know, as a third party viewer, we're really getting to feel what it's like to be each one of these characters and how the events played out through their eyes.
And I think that's the unique perspective Playing with Fire is the album. I still call them albums. Guys. Sorry for release we go ahead.
Said so do we okay?
Good? Because I used to play the vinyl back in the day. Uh we go. Center Stage Records is where you can find a copy of Playing with Fire. Jimmy what, let's go through the song list? So this is it? Can I guess it could be considered a concept album, but it's also a soundtrack.
It's a music. It's a concept record for a musical. I guess that's what it is. It's sort of like, you know, there's been a history of people putting out concept records for musicals before their stage. They think it started with Jesus Christ Superstar, but more recently, Kadies Town and U six have been you know, have had concept records. So it just kind of gives you a picture, you know, a sonic picture into what the musical could be.
I guess and jac chazays along with U with Jimmy Harriet creators of Playing with I gather the title is in reference to fire in Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Fear of Fire.
It's well that there's a piece of that in it, but really it's just about, you know, hey, be if you. If you're going to do something, be careful, be thoughtful, treated with respect.
You know.
It's like fire is a wonderful technology, right, it keeps us warm when it's cold, but it's also something that if it catches the wrong thing, it can just destroy the world around you. So it's something that you don't you shouldn't.
Really play with You should.
Be thoughtful and show it the respect.
That it deserves.
JAYC. Child says in sinc Jimmy Harry a songwriter and the son of the playwright of which this is an inspiration playing with Fire, which is out. Now, let's go through some of the song titles. Jimmy and if you can explain to me what we're seeing or what we're supposed to be seeing. In the story you used to Touch Me, You used to Touch.
Me is actually about really how before that happens. Doctor Frankenstein tells a creature how he was made. You know, he said, I made you from dead body parts. I like, I spent so much time. I know every stitch on your body. You know, I loved making you. And then creature says, well, why won't you look at me because you're hideous? Oh, but you used to love me? What
went wrong? And so it's sort of like this basically as saying, hey, you know you loved me enough to make me, why don't you love me now?
And jac Chad says, when I talk to songwriters, I'm always intrigued because I love music, I read music. I play a little bit on the guitar and the ukulele, But I'm always intrigued about what comes from for you. Is it melody or is it lyric or is it both?
It's it's different every time.
You know.
Look, sometimes you sit down at a piano and you start tinkering and and something memorable pops up. But then sometimes it is the word. Sometimes it's the words that drive everything home. So it really every every beginning is unexpected and uh, and it's it's a it's a process every time.
And Jimmy, is it the same for you?
Yeah, I mean everything's different. You know, it depends on what the situation is, for sure. Sometimes it starts with the concept, Sometimes it starts with a melody. Sometimes you just it all magically pours out your you know, your singers and your singing, and it's all of a sudden you have a song.
And Jimmy your mother was a creative person. You are a creative person? Did she? What were there? Was there anything in particular she did to inspire you or to to spark your creativity?
Everything? It was, you know, we used to like improvise, you know, like lyrics in the backyard. He had me reading you know, all the classics at a very young age and just being you know, being in a room with some really famous directors like in my in you know, my dining room, my living room and watching them run rehearsals. I just was it was. It was like a graduate school education at like you know, age seven or eight or something like that.
The album is Playing with Fire. It's with the instincts Jacy Chazzez and songwriter Jimmy Harry, two great songwriters that have come together to write this soundtrack, this musical. Uh are you working on getting this produced? JC?
Yes, So that that's the main goal. Look, you know, we want to make a musical. We want people to see not just here, but see what Play with Fire is. But we we know that it's a long process to make a musical, and so we decided, you know, to take it upon ourselves to at least bring what we can at the very beginning, you know, and not wait.
We wanted to share the music with everybody, and hopefully so when they see it, there's a bit of familiarity and they can enjoy it a bit more and when they hear the songs they like, they.
Can sing along.
Yeah, that's a good idea. Get the music out there first, get people singing along with it, and then then they can see the visual that goes along with it. Jimmy, is there one particular song that you've written or corroborated on in this album that you now say, I think that's going to be the hit.
I think the whole thing is going to be the It's it's a great record. I think people are listening to the whole album old school. I think if you want to take one song just to be like a mirror into the soul to the record, if you want to just check it out out of us, say listen to how Do You Sleep? That's the that's the template, first one we wrote, and it's kind of shaped everything we came after it.
Look forward to listening to it. My friend, my friends j C. Chazazit and Sink, Jimmy Harry, I love the work that you produced so far, and I know this is going to be another big project. So thanks for joining us and bringing it to us today.
Thank you so much having me.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation