>> So I found out about the La La
Land audition from my drummer,
he had a contact at Lion's Gate who's just a friend,
trumpet player, a musician,
who was looking for more people to listen to,
so he referred me to our vocal contractor,
Jasper Randall, and then Jasper had me audition.
So it was just a chain through knowing people,
and it was very coincidental,
like most things are in the music industry.
The addition was terrifying, well,
because I was terrified, not because
it was terrifying, I suppose.
I had just had sinus surgery two weeks prior,
so I even thought like should I say no
because I am sort of vocally compromised,
but I'm glad I didn't because I was fine.
It wasn't surgery on my vocal cords,
but I'd had a septoplasty and
a turbinate reduction because I'd had such little air,
so it was really like they fix the inner the pathway,
so it was all messy in there.
It was a mess. So I just took
some ibuprofen and didn't tell them I'd had surgery,
and went in,
I was very nervous, but I was also not as nervous and
terrified as I would have been
had I known the weight of what it was,
because I had done everything I could do.
They gave me the track
ahead of time and I memorized everything I could.
It was actually an audition for
three different spots in the film,
three different characters or songs.
And so I didn't get any sheet music,
so I just learned it by ear.
And they had said, "yeah, learn every part."
So I even went through and I
transcribed all the chorus parts,
because I didn't know what
they wanted me to sing,
so learned the whole thing.
It was at the producer's house,
in his home studio, which is really nice.
And the composer,
Justin Hurwitz was there.
But I didn't know what anybody looked like,
and so they said to the composer,
they were like, "This is our accompanist for the day."
And they said accompanist,
and I know between them they were like, "Haha,
we just called me accompanist," but I was like
"Cool, you're an accompanist?
Wow, that's a tough job,
when people come in and prepared.
"And he was like, "Oh, I'm actually the composer."
And then I was like, "Well, I didn't get that
job," but he
didn't care, he thought it was funny.
And I did get the job, so
it wasn't like everything went perfectly.
Even if there were things that weren't ideal
about me putting my foot in my mouth,
I still performed well,
so wound up getting it. It was all recorded.
And really when you go in I would say most of them are,
because then they're going and playing it
for producers as well.
So the audition was recorded,
and it was also to-picture,
because the film had already been completed.
So I was for the first time I'd ever,
following the actress, Reshma Gajjar,
who plays the dancer that I sang for in the opening.
I was trying to follow her mouth while I sang,
which was very tricky to do for the first time.
But they wound up using
parts of it I think in the final film.
I don't know exactly which parts,
but they had said that
some of the audition was kept.
So kind of cool.
When I did the actual job it was
at a recording studio in Burbank,
Igloo Music. So it was at more of a formal studio,
but it was a really similar process.
When I received the call saying I got it,
I was like, "Oh,
wow, that's not what I expected, but great."
It wasn't like I thought, "Oh, I did a terrible job,
I didn't get it," but it was more
like just statistically I'm like,
well I'm never that person that's like,
"I nailed it, I'm perfect for the job."
But now I'm at the point where I'm like,
"I know I'd be great for this job.
If it's meant to be mine, I'll get it."
But at the time I was like all in my head about it.
And I was super excited that I got it, got there,
didn't know which of the three parts
that I got,
until I got there, so I memorized them all again.
But then it was the first one.
So also to-picture,
and I think I probably did it probably about 100 times,
because they wanted to not comp it. The goal was
everything was supposed to be very off the cuff,
and even though they obviously have
a choreographed dance scene on a highway,
they wanted to have a complete take like someone
had just spontaneously been singing this.
And they would actually say, "Now do it this time."
It was probably a good minute of material,
but they would say, "Change this, and this,
and this and then go."
And then I'd have to remember every change.
It was actually probably
the hardest session still that I've ever done,
but it was really a good kind of challenge.
They still were deciding whether they
wanted to keep the demo singer or me,
and then I went back and did it again with some changes.
And so I did the final in two different sessions,
but not knowing if they'd keep me or
if they'd toss it out at some point.
And then I didn't know until the trailer came out.
So I spent the whole summer going.
Now when that happens I just go,
"Okay, I'll find out later, whatever."
But the first one is always rough.