Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical brains behind “Hamilton,” “In the Heights,” and “Encanto,” has unexpectedly found himself as one of the most successful songwriters in recent Broadway history—and, more surprisingly, a hit-songwriter. With “Encanto” — the ubiquitous “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” — landing at No. 4 on Variety’s 2022 Hitmakers year-end list and another (“Surface Press”) outside the top 25, it’s a Grammy, Emmy, and Tony winner. and Pulitzer on how the songs hold together and their unexpected chart success. Head here for more of this interview.
“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is one of the biggest singles of the year. How did the song come together?
The challenge of the piece was always – and still is – that there are many characters. How do we give them all the complexity and real estate? So I made a number to gossip, “We can learn a little bit about each person by what they choose to whisper,” you know? I think that’s a very universal thing, than you can talk about in front of this family member versus that family member. Additionally, it was amplified by the fact that I was on lock-down with my in-laws at the time I was writing it. So my brother-in-law was like, “Is this song for me?” Because he used to live with us. (Laughter)
So the rumor number was the pitch, and then the other idea became that they were all going to tell some kind of ghost story about him – but when you actually meet Bruno, you’ll realize there’s nothing spooky about him. So he’s forecasting it will rain on her wedding day – well, she’s the most exhausted person in the world, of course it’s going to rain on her wedding day! – And other predictions that are incredibly predictable, right? “I will lose my hair!” “My goldfish will die!” Goldfish don’t live that long! But everyone tells these stories with that air of promise, so when they’re seen in a refracted light, it’s going to be different. and the [song’s] The name got me halfway there, then I stayed up all night, and figured it all out. Figuring out his mathematics was really fun.
Did you know when you were writing it where it would be in the musical? Like, I need this kind of song and it has to have this kind of beat?
Yeah, I knew it was kind of the end of Chapter 1, and I knew it was coming after… Actually, I don’t know if you’ve written Surface Pressure yet. But I knew it was a great opportunity to connect with the cast members who didn’t get their own song: Dolores, Camilo, Pepa, Felix, and just a chance to get to know them. And the fun thing is, I wrote it early enough in my songwriting process [screenwriters] Jared Bush and Charisse [Castro Smith] I kind of ran with the characters — like, I wrote this very quiet rap for Dolores because she has super hearing, so she wouldn’t scream into the mic, and then they ran with that. That’s what’s really fun about the whole process: When you get there early enough, your songs can be part of the give-and-take.
When did it become clear that “Bruno” had potential as a hit single – who was the first person to report it?
Honestly, before he left my house, it was my father-in-law, Frank. He said, “Lynne, I know I’m not supposed to listen when you write. But I’ve been singing “We Ain’t Talking About Bruno” in my head for three days!” And that was before I thought I’d sent it to [the film’s] creative [team] – He just heard me eating in my office. Then my wife and I went on a two-week vacation and started getting letters: first from friends, “My kids can’t stop singing it!” Because it really blew up when Disney+ hit. Then I got a Twitter DM from [actor-filmmaker] Taika Waititi, who I’m friendly with but I don’t know very well, who was like, “I’ll kill you — it’s great, but my kids won’t stop singing it!” And then when we got back, it was like he took over the world.
So there was really no promotional push behind the song?
No, and you have to give a lot of credit to TikTok and social media. Again, it was never meant that way, but since it has a few different odd sections, the kids owned that part. The song is a collection of a lot of different moments – it’s not a beginning and an end – and that’s why I never dreamed it would be a hit.
The melody is the same in every verse, but everyone conveys it differently, and then they all unite at the end – was it difficult to get them all to fit together?
I’ve been thinking of it as the end-of-the-season song, and we have a great tradition in musical theater – like “One Day More” [from “Les Miserables”] Nice example: [He sings several individual verses from the song]And the Then at the end you can smash them all together and sing them all at once. It’s actually a very simple equation. “Non-Stop” in “Hamilton” is another example of this, where you get all these little solos and glimpses of people and then they overlap.
The trick is to make each section different enough that they don’t step on each other’s toes: so Dolores is staccato No. 16, and Camilo is “Da-na-na”. They never hit each other – they cross paths.
The “Surface Pressure” single seems less likely than Bruno’s. First of all, being the eldest child, I appreciate it, so thank you.
Yes, I was thinking of my older sister when I wrote it.
Did you ever dream that this song would get the kind of airplay attention it does, because it’s less radio friendly.
number! It’s wild. I was writing a little love letter to my sister. In my head, it was like, “I know you had a harder time than I did.” In our house, “Give it to your sister” was very common: “Dad, I can’t -” “Give it to your sister! She will fix it.” right? I didn’t factor in how many older siblings would be excited seeing the song. Then I think the other thing at the root of it is the context in which it was written. So like I told you in We Don’t Talk About Bruno, I’ve been living in a house that’s more crowded than usual – we have a place in the suburbs, and [during lockdown] We’ve had a lot of people in our family come and live with us.
And with “Superficial Pressure,” I think the song within the song is how I felt when I wrote it in April 2020: “How am I going to keep my family safe, and who am I if I can’t keep my family safe?” I think we’ve all been going through some version of that. “Who am I if I can’t be this role that everyone sees?” This is not the song Around about, but that’s in it, because it was kind of my way to it.
[ad_2]
