I always wanted to be a composer, and I sort of went in to NYU as pre-med because I just thought, 'Well... who actually becomes a composer?'
I've always juggled a lot of projects because at least half the projects you do get shelved. So you have to do a lot of things in order for things to move forward.
I'm not intimidated by embracing a familiar form and what's familiar about it and making it my own. It is, I think, one of my gifts.
I've said, for a long time, my favorite part of my career is when I'm creating a new thing where I'm pulling from a new place.
The things I tend to do best are the things that are the most overtly emotional, whether it's sentimental or whether it's celebratory or whether it's conflicted.
Any musical form that has been around long enough to have cultural resonance beyond just being a cutting edge kind of communication - but, especially, when it begins to reflect on a time and reflect on a culture - is effective in a musical.
Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way.
You're creating a score that has to have an emotional and story logic to it. You want a dramatic arc. You want all the songs to push story forward. That's the same whether it's for stage or film or television or whatever.
I work in a dramatic context, meaning we write with a lot of character specifics, a lot of story specifics. There's a lot of architecture in our songs.
A lot of what I've done has a rock edge, even going back to 'Little Shop of Horrors.'
Of my Disney material, 'Tangled' is my most pop-oriented.
The reality is that people need to be coaxed toward a musical. They need to understand why it's a musical.
Most successful musicals need to attach themselves to something bigger than themselves, a concept that will make people feel immediately connected to it.
Every time I play 'Part of Your World,' a whole part of my life comes back to me. It's just inescapable - it was an innocent time, and a sense of discovery that we were all involved with.
I think the thing that strikes you when you come back to 'The Little Mermaid' after all of these years is the simplicity and innocence. That's in the look of it, and that's in the sound of it.
A lot of the projects I've been involved with have been my babies, and I'm not going to give my baby to anyone else.
I have the ability to clear the decks and focus on what's happening in the moment. And I get to spend my life doing what I love to do.
I'm not interested in being the producer of somebody else's song.
There's such a rich trove of unheard Howard Ashman lyrics that we're so blessed to draw from.
For a while now, I try to ignore the hoopla, because if you buy into that, you have to buy into the criticism. All you can do is put your work out there and move on; you just never know what will come.
