Video: Inside the WARRIORS Album Release

Hi, I'm Emily Grace Tucker with Broadway World

and we are here on the red carpet of the Warriors album launch

with Atlantic Records and Time Out here at Time Out Market, New York

That's really easy's fault. No, I mean, we've been friends since the great passing the strange

in the Heights years of 2007, 2008, so we've known each other a long time

And I've been thinking about this movie my whole life because I saw this movie when I was way too young to see it

So yeah, it actually wrote pretty quickly. We also, like, we cleared our desks

We really made space for this. We were meeting every week in the basement in the drama bookshop. Yeah. And we did retreats

And, you know, we just made sure that this was a priority for us

And it was so easy because the energy is there. There's an aesthetic kinship

And, you know, we just admire all of the great ideas and the weird ideas that we brought in

You know, it's just an openness and a generosity. When I was in the middle of Hamilton, I was an extremely

online person. I was very much Twitter was like the person I

woke up with and went to bed with. And I remember when GamerGate was going on

I don't know if you remember that phenomenon, but it was sort of these toxicly online bros who were just

doxing women who dared to like video games and just letting them

deal with the consequences. And I remember making a connection of like, that's such a Luther

thing to do of like just, you know, Luther shoot Cyrus, points at another gang and says they

did it and leaves them to deal with the consequences of it. And so that was the

beginning of my thinking of like, well, if the Warriors is a female gang, that kind of complicates

every plot point and makes it different and interesting, and also carves out our own lane

different from the movie, distinctly from the movie. And that definitely was a move that helped me into the process where I just felt like

I can really bring my perspective as a woman to all of these characters and what it is that they go through you know what it is that their goals are and what their challenges are That amazing Now you are known for in past shows paying homage to other composers other hip artists all that good stuff

What kind of Easter eggs can we look forward to in this concept album

You know, we made a decision really like, no samples on this one

We want to be the album, people's sample. I was like, this should be something that..

Other people said. That being said, we do have one hair reference

where we've got Josh Henry singing, well, it's easy to be hard

And it's like blinking, you miss it. Right. Just because I was listening to hair a lot

Life is in there, too. There's like one little lyric there. Yeah, hair and all these 60s, 70s rock musicals

were such touchstones for us that hair snuck in a little bit. Totally appropriate

Last question. What are your hopes and dreams for this moving beyond this concept album

Do you have hopes for the future of what it could be? Are you totally satisfied with what you have right now

What are you thinking about? It's a combo, totally satisfied. Pun intended

Hopes and dreams. Yeah, no, I think that, I mean, what's exciting is, you know, after living inside of Hamilton

where, like, the album was everywhere, but people were really trying to get inside to see

the thing. Like, this is actually the thing we made. It's not a recording of the sound of the thing we made

It's the thing we've been working on, and everyone gets it at the same time. and I love the accessibility of that, and I'm thrilled to share it

I got a text in January being like, it's just demos. It's just demos

I was like, cool, cool. And I was happy to get that call. So I did the demos. We listened to all of the demos in March

And then maybe a couple of weeks later, Issa and Lynn facetimed and said

we keeping you Can you come re everything And I cried and cried because I was so happy At like 10 at night like the night before he was like hey full disclosure we don just want you to listen to the album

We have a part for you. Okay, see you tomorrow. Bye. Like a heart emoji

And literally, I think I posted it. And I, you know, when I was talking about the Warriors, but I just responded, wait, what

Like, it was just such this, I was, I had no idea, I honestly had no idea

And then the next day, I listened to some of the demos and the ideas

And I, I was just, like, in complete shock. And I did not expect it

It was just this very last minute thing. And, of course, I said yes

Because, like, how could you not? And also, you know, I'm a girl from Brooklyn

so it just, you know, got to represent. It was a DM on Facebook, and he was like, Lynn goes

what's your number I need to call you? And I was like, okay. And I sent him my number, and then he just sent me a text message

hey, it's Lynn with a picture of himself. To verify it was actually him

To verify. And then we got on the phone and started talking. He was like, I have this thing

I wrote it. I had you in mind. Would you come and take a listen

I said, of course. So I went to go listen and I was like, oh, so you want me to do the demo? He was like, no, this is the demo

I wrote it for you. And that kind of just blew my mind

So that was very, very crazy to have like the most famous musical theater writer living on earth

Think of me as he's writing. It just, I'm honored. He's like, I'm working on this thing

I want you to record the demos. Absolutely. Whatever you need. Anything you ask

Learned that Issa Davis was attached Queen of all queens I obsessed And then after the demos I mean well it was incredible first of all hearing the musicals like we got something on our hands

kids. And then they called me at a separate time and asked me to be a part of the project as

Cleon, the leader of the Warriors. And yeah, there were no words. I was like, what guys

Yeah, it's just, it's been incredible. I'm so happy. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. This is such a special piece of work, and I'm so excited that people are about to hear it

Did you record with other people? Were you satellite? Some people were by themselves. Some people were just with Lynn. What was your experience

We were in the room together. The Warriors, like all of us together. I think all of us are like stage girls, like theater girls. So you want to be in the room together. We had each other's energy. We were in our own booths, but I was saying it was really cool to like have the experience

of people you've worked with on stage to just have them in your ear and really create a vibe

like having people pretty intimately in your space, instead of like sharing a stage, just like truly sharing sound space

So that was really cool. But I'm really glad also that we were in the room together and getting to like vibe and learn each other and like eat snacks on breaks together

Yeah. Well, I got a call from Issa Davis one day who said, oh, we're putting this demo together and getting some of the girls together and wondering if you would like to come and

singing a little cochees for us. And I'm a big 80s, everything, especially cult

The cults, you know, the cult classics. And so I was like, yes. And then one day, after the demo was done, I got a FaceTime from both Lynn and Issa

And they said, well, it looks like, you know, they love the work that you all did in the demo

Would you like to join us? And I kind of jumped out of my skin, kind of like how I'm doing tonight

Yeah, so, yeah, it's kind of surreal, still pinching myself