Hey, Oh My Disney fans.
I'm hanging out at Pixar Animation Studios with Adrian Molina,
the co-director and writer of the upcoming film, Coco.
And I'm so excited to be hanging out with you.
Oh, I'm excited too.
You wrote five songs on top of everything else that you did for the film,
which is so incredible.
We were impressed enough,
but tell me why was that important for you to be a songwriter as well?
You know, when you're writing a film,
when you're co-directing a film, you're always thinking about the story
and what is the moment in this character's life
and what are they trying to express?
And we thought that the lyrics of a lot of the songs that Miguel sing
can express that story.
So every time we got to a new song it was,
what are these lyrics saying and how does that play into what he's feeling?
Did anything about your own upbringing or your background inspire the music?
I didn't grow up playing music, but I grew up in a musical household.
So my dad was always playing guitar,
my brothers learned guitar when they were very young.
I just started learning recently.
But getting that feeling of singing together,
music being this kind of activity that connects you to people,
was something that we really wanted to have Miguel experience
over the course of this journey.
And how did that kind of combine with all of your research for the film?
So much of the music is inspired by the kind of wide tapestry of music of Mexico.
So you'll hear a lot of different styles.
You'll hear Mariachi and Son jarocho and Banda music
and we just really wanted to lean into the beautiful sounds
that you would hear in Mexico
because that's where this film takes place.
You guys focused on the 1920s and '30s, is that correct?
Yeah.
Miguel is actually super inspired by this character named Ernesto de la Cruz.
And Ernesto de la Cruz, we imagined, was a big star back in the '30s and '40s
and so, the style of music that he plays, we wanted it to be of that era.
Still really catchy.
Still really relevant, but with that classic feel.
So why did you guys decide to focus on the music from the 1930s and the 1940s?
Well, one of the really fun things about the story of Coco
is the story of getting the opportunity to meet your ancestors.
And Miguel, kind of when he goes to the Land of the Dead,
he's meeting, you know, great grandparents, great uncles,
great-great grandparents,
and we wanted these characters to kind of be living in the music
of the time that they were alive.
So in that case,
if it's your great-great grandparents that's probably the 1920s, 1930s.
That's really cool because it kind of shows
like past, present, and future in the Land of the Dead.
Exactly. And doing that with music,
creating a landscape where, you know, Miguel is inspired by,
you know, all these old songs,
but he's coming up with songs of his own
and he's performing for the first time.
It's just a really beautiful way to express that connection that music can bring.
So with this songwriting specifically,
how do you know that you've created like a good song for this film
that's going to be a Disney•Pixar film?
Like, is that a lot of pressure?
What's it like to come to that moment and being like,
okay, this is a good song?
It's a lot of pressure
because there's so many Disney songs from when I was growing up
where like to this day, you know, you get in a room with a bunch of friends
and you put on a Disney song for like karaoke and everyone knows the words.
So knowing that that's the legacy of Disney music was a little daunting,
but, you know, so much of it comes from storytelling.
And you know if I've written some lyrics,
and if they catch in my head, and they come to me quickly,
and there's a rhythm to them, and I start to feel in the groove of it,
I'm like okay, this feels like something that if I like it, I think other people will too.
And hopefully, that's the case with these tunes.
I think so.
[laughing]
So I know you collaborated with Germaine Franco.
What was that collaboration like for you?
It was great.
So in working on these songs,
I would write the lyrics and Germaine Franco, who arranges our music,
and she wrote the music for all of these songs like Poco Loco and World es mi Familia,
and it's this collaboration.
I'll send her lyrics and she'll start putting together rhythms
and, you know, it's just a back and forth of,
"Oh, that rhythm sounds really good.
Let's add a new lyric there."
And, "Oh, that lyric sounds really good.
Let's add a little harmony line here."
And it just kind of became this organic collaborative process
to get to these final songs.
Okay, so Coco is coming out very soon.
I'm sure that you're extremely excited,
but what are you feeling with the release of this film
that you've put so much into?
You know, it's something where we've been working on it everyday
for the last five or six years,
and we know it so well, but you just have this excitement
for people who are going to be able to experience it for the first time.
I'm never going to have the experience of watching it
in the theater for the first time, knowing nothing about it,
and I completely envy every person who's going to go into the theater
and be surprised, and be moved,
and laugh at all the stuff that we've put our hearts into.
Well, I'm sure people are going to love it
and I think a lot of people envy you
for getting to work on such an incredible project.
Fair enough.
Thank you so much, Adrian.
It's been incredible to talk to you about Coco.
I am so excited for the world to see it.
You guys, make sure to check it out.
It's coming out on November 22
and you are not going to want to miss it.
Bye.