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- [00:00]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [00:28]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in soho. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm really grateful you're here. On today's show, we'll speak to the stars and the director of the new film Our Hero Balthazar. We'll kick off this month's full bio conversation with a look at the life of author Judy Blume. And we'll hear about music made by incarcerated people with the Marshall Project, staff writer Maurice Shima and B.L. cherelle, who is with the Freer Records label. That's the plan. So let's get this started with music by Ingrid Michelson. Singer, songwriter, Staten island native Ingrid Michaelson is headlining a concert at Lincoln center for their American Songbook series. The show is titled Ingrid Michaelson and the Time and Space Between Us. The concert will look back on songs from Ingrid's catalog, including the music she wrote for the Broadway musical the Notebook. She'll also be joined by a very special roster of Broadway stars. We'll hear more about that in a moment. Ingrid Michelson and friends taught the Time and Space Between Us will will be held at David Geffen hall on Friday evening at 7:30pm but first, Ingrid joins me in studio for an interview and a very special live performance. It is so nice to meet you.
- [01:43]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Nice to meet you, too.
- [01:44]
Alison Stewart
We were having quite a conversation before the mics went on.
- [01:47]
Ingrid Michaelson
We were talking about anxiety and healing the world.
- [01:51]
Alison Stewart
It was interesting, you know, that idea of like being nervous and whether your brain can kind of calm down and calm you so that you can have a conversation with somebody so you can do whatever it is you need to do in the moment.
- [02:03]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yeah, we were talking about Ilya Malinin, the ice skater and how he, his anxiety got the better of him at the Olympics. But then at the world tournament, he got first place. And I was saying, you know, I was pretty nervous because I don't play live radio alone. And here I am with you about to play some live radio alone. But what our nerves could do if we could flip them inside out.
- [02:27]
Alison Stewart
So we'll just, we'll just be calm.
- [02:28]
Ingrid Michaelson
I'm just gonna, I mean, I'm definitely nervous.
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Interviewer/Host Assistant
Okay.
- [02:31]
Ingrid Michaelson
It's definitely there. But let's see. Should I try? Should I play something and see what happens?
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Alison Stewart
Do you want to do that instead of interview? You just want to do the song and get out of the way?
- [02:38]
Ingrid Michaelson
I kind of feel like I should get it out of the way.
- [02:39]
Alison Stewart
Let's do it.
- [02:40]
Ingrid Michaelson
I feel like I'm going to try. Okay, here we go. This song is older than Ilia Malinin. It's called the Way I Am.
- [02:58]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
If you were falling then I would catch you? If you need a light,
- [03:10]
Ingrid Michaelson
I'd find a match?
- [03:13]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Cause I love the way you say good morning? And you take me the way I am? If you are chilly here take my sweat? If your head is aching, I'll make it better? Cause I love the way you call me baby? And you take me the way I am? I'll buy your rogue when you start losing all your hair?
- [04:15]
Ingrid Michaelson
So unpatch it
- [04:19]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
to all you tear? Cause I love you more than I could ever promise? And you take me the way I am? Oh, you take me the way I am? Oh, oh, you. You take me the way I am.
- [04:59]
Alison Stewart
That was singer songwriter Ingrid Michaelson with a live performance of her hit song the Way I Am. She is headlining an American Songbook concert at Lincoln center on Friday, April 3rd. The show is titled Ingrid Michaelson and Friends. The Time and Space Between Us. How did that feel?
- [05:16]
Ingrid Michaelson
It felt good. I was so nervous at first.
- [05:18]
Alison Stewart
Okay.
- [05:19]
Ingrid Michaelson
And then I really was thinking about what we were talking about, and I smiled and it calmed me down. I don't know if you saw me smiling. I just closed my eyes and I smiled and I thought, who gets to do what I'm doing right now? And it kind of calmed me down. I'm a little. I'm still a little jittery just because it's excite, but it definitely. That was a really interesting scientific experiment, and it kind of worked well.
- [05:45]
Alison Stewart
I'm kind of glad that we got it out of the way. We're gonna do it sort of in the middle of the interview. And I thought, like, let her sing. She just wants to get this idea done, and you want to get it
- [05:54]
Ingrid Michaelson
out of your system.
- [05:55]
Alison Stewart
And it was successful.
- [05:56]
Ingrid Michaelson
Thank you. I appreciate it. And now we can talk.
- [05:58]
Alison Stewart
Okay, we'll talk. You know what's interesting? When a song like that is that big and that big for someone, it can send them down one road. But you have done such an amazing job of having an expansive career. Do you remember what decision you made along the way that let you have
- [06:17]
Ingrid Michaelson
the career that you've had, well, I've never wanted to stay in one lane. So I write a song like that and you know, some people put me in the category of writing cute ukulele songs. And so my next record is this string heavy, piano driven, you know, very emotional record. I just, I've always, I've always been the person, you know. When I was about three or four, my parents told me they were going to put me in piano lessons. And I said, well, you can put me in front of the piano, but I won't play. So I've always been very willful and I don't like being told what to do and I don't like being told who I am. And for better or for worse, it does push me to diversify my artistic portfolio, so to speak. I also just enjoy a multitude of expression. So, you know, when it came to writing music for Broadway, for theater, I should say, I have always loved the theater. I went to school for musical theater in upstate in SUNY Binghamton, and I wanted to be on stage. That was my true dream. But I always loved singing. I always loved musical theater. And so when that opportunity came, came to me, I was, I mean, I think you all know that I'm an anxious, worried person. And I was anxious and worried, how can I do this? How can I do this? But I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna say no. So I seized the opportunity and I just sort of jumped in and luckily there were amazing people around me to help me and guide me and mentor me and yeah, I've just. I think my diversification comes from a stubborn, willful place. But I actually think it served me well, you know what I mean?
- [08:21]
Alison Stewart
Which brings me to my next question. You're from Staten island originally?
- [08:24]
Ingrid Michaelson
I am very much from Staten island, yes.
- [08:27]
Alison Stewart
How well I know that you are from Staten Island?
- [08:29]
Ingrid Michaelson
Aside from what you described, I mean, I can do the accent.
- [08:33]
Alison Stewart
You can.
- [08:34]
Ingrid Michaelson
What do you want? You want like so if you go to the deli and you get a bagel, they're always like, you want salt, pepper, ketchup. But they say it so fast that all my friends, whenever I would take them, my out of town friends, Salt, pepper, ketchup, you know, you want coffee with that. Cream, sugar. What do you want? Did you walk the dog? Like D's become Z's. I don't drink often, but when I do the Staten island, it comes out. It does come. It comes out what? Instead of what? There's an extra syllable. My family is still there, so I, I visit often. I, I have a deep fondness for Staten Island. There's my mother, my late mother, she ran the Staten Island Museum. And there's actually a lot of amazing cultural places on the island that people don't know about because they think, they think what they think about Staten Island. But we've got really incredible resources and incredible cultural places and Snug harbor being one of them. It's just, it was a really lovely place to grow up. The Staten island that my parents offered me, you know.
- [09:41]
Alison Stewart
So when they put you in front of the piano and you said, I'm not going to play.
- [09:44]
Ingrid Michaelson
Turns out I did.
- [09:47]
Alison Stewart
When did you start for? At that time.
- [09:50]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yeah, they took me. Yes. Apparently they took my father, would take my brother and I into Third Street Music. Music school, which I don't believe was on Third Street.
- [09:59]
Alison Stewart
It's not, but it's still a great school.
- [10:00]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yes. And that's where we started. My brother and I both took lessons there for about two years. And I remember taking the ferry in and the subway with my father and my brother and it was very formative moments as a very young person and then switching over to the JCC on Forest Avenue. But I took lessons for about 10 years and then they said I could stop once I was 14 and I stopped. But I'm very happy that I have those years within me.
- [10:35]
Alison Stewart
But you still play?
- [10:36]
Ingrid Michaelson
I still play. Oh, yes.
- [10:37]
Alison Stewart
Okay.
- [10:37]
Ingrid Michaelson
Oh, no. You know, I think for me, I liked playing and I liked writing. I didn't like practicing. I didn't like having to learn. I didn't like having to learn things. But I'm very grateful that I think every kid should take a few years of piano.
- [10:59]
Alison Stewart
Why?
- [10:59]
Ingrid Michaelson
It's just because it's so. It opens up a whole avenue of life that you would never have before. Or guitar. You know, guitar and piano, I think are two of the more easy instruments to pick up and, and create on, you know, because you can form these full bodied cords and so I think they're just. It just gives you. It gives you this hallway that you wouldn't have to walk down. Whenever I want to walk down this hallway and go create or play something or sing, I can. I have this door that my parents gave me that wouldn't have existed had they not. I mean, I could have in my later years, you know, taught myself or taken lessons, but there's something about, about just having it in your. Your. Your growing up DNA, you know, it was just part of my life and my father was a composer and was always playing music. So music was just, it was just there, always there. And I'm very, very happy that, that they forced that little 4 year old.
- [12:12]
Alison Stewart
My guest is singer songwriter Ingrid Michelson. She's performing live in WNYC's Music Stud Lincoln concert American Songbook series. It's happening on Friday night. The show is titled Ingrid Michaelson and the Time and Space Between Us. Before we get to that, I did want to ask you about the Notebook. How is your songwriting process different when writing for theater?
- [12:38]
Ingrid Michaelson
I feel like I tend to write from a storytelling perspective anyway, so it wasn't a huge leap for me. But I mean, for instance, the very first song I wrote for the show, I wrote so let me rewind. I met with one of the producers, Kevin McCollum, who said, oh, the Notebook might be a good idea for you. That was literally the words, something like that. I took that as you're hired. I went home and he says it was that night. It might have been that night or the next night. I wrote a song and sent it to him. And then another one and another one and another one. And finally he, we had him. We had a dinner or something. And he said, well, you know, so far you, you keep sending me these amazing songs and you're the only one on the list so far. And I'm like, there's a, there's, there's a list. You mean I didn't get the job? And then he hired me and there was never a list. There was a list. A list of one. And so that very first song. I just know the film the Notebook so well. And I wrote about this moment where one character recognizes another character for the first time in the whole movie. And it's all we've been wanting. And I just wrote very much from my Ingrid Michelson. Well, of just. I just. And this ties into the Evening at Lincoln Center. I just. I tend to write about love and time and loss and longing and the characters in this piece in the Notebook, it just fits into the jigsaw puzzle of my creative brain. So I feel like the initial songs that I wrote that are actually still in the show, a few of them didn't make it. But the very first one is the penultimate song in the show. And then the second one I wrote is the second song in the show. Then there were a bunch that didn't make it. But yeah, those initial songs really came from a place of knowing for me. It didn't feel like a stretch. Later on in the process when I would get an assignment from the directors, you know, we need her to feel xyz and she's in the bathroom and she's flipping out. Then it became a little different for me then. I was really, like, pulling on story and being very specific because a lot of my songs, my Ingrid Michelson songs, are very. They can kind of work for everybody, you know, I'm not speaking about very specific things, but what. But, you know, with musicals, you gotta start getting specific. You're telling story, you're pushing story forward. You're taking a character from A to B to B to C. So those. Those were a little trickier for me, but incredibly fascinating to learn how to do that on the fly and amazing. I mean, my directors would say, you know, we need more here. This. This verse needs more. Da da da da da da. We need to hear more about this. And so I was learning in real time and getting real time feedback. So it was in some ways very similar to my writing process, and then in other ways quite different. But now I kind of don't know the difference anymore. You know what I mean? It's like once you step over that threshold into writing for musical theater, I feel like that's now bleeding into the way I write for myself in terms of specificity and is that the right way? I always mess up specificity. Specificity sounds good to me. Yeah. I kind of feel like I've unlocked a new part of my brain and part of my writing brain.
- [16:40]
Alison Stewart
Are you happy about that?
- [16:41]
Ingrid Michaelson
I am, yeah. It's like quarterly and thematically and just words I would not normally choose. You know, I just. It's wild at a certain age where you think you're like, well, this is the way that I write, but it's not. We're elastic. If you stretch, you will stretch, you know?
- [17:05]
Alison Stewart
Do you have any plans to write any more for musicals?
- [17:09]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yes, if the heavens grant me my wishes. Yes. I have a couple things that are swirling about, but I can't speak about any of them because nothing is guaranteed at this moment. But, yes, the answer is yes.
- [17:25]
Alison Stewart
What would you do differently this time around?
- [17:27]
Ingrid Michaelson
Not right alone.
- [17:28]
Alison Stewart
Not right alone.
- [17:29]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
Interesting.
- [17:30]
Alison Stewart
Why not?
- [17:32]
Ingrid Michaelson
I enjoy writing alone. I do. And I enjoyed writing. I'm very proud that I wrote the lyrics and the music by myself for the Notebook. I'm very proud of myself. But I know from my songwriting career, I really love co writing because there's just. You bounce ideas off someone else. You have a teammate. It's not just you alone in a corner coming back to the directors being like, what about this? What about this? What about you know, you have another person. Not to say I didn't have an amazing team around me, music director and orchestrators, but when it came to the actual creation of things, it was just me writing the words and the music. And at times, it was just a little lonesome. And I did it. So I did it. I know I can do it. And now I want to team up with somebody and do it again, but I want to have a teammate. Life's better with someone else.
- [18:35]
Alison Stewart
My guest is singer songwriter Ingrid Michelson. She's performing live in WNYC's music studio ahead of her Lincoln Center American Songbook concert on Friday. The show is titled Ingrid Michaelson and the Time and Space Between Us. Who are your friends who are gonna join you on Friday?
- [18:52]
Ingrid Michaelson
Oh, my goodness. So two of my friends were in the Notebook. Kim Ona, she was our Middle Alley cover and went on quite a bit, and she's incredible. John Cardoza, who was our young Noah, who just finished a very long run in Moulin Rouge. Helen Shen, who we know from maybe Happy Ending, and Michaela diamond from I mean Parade and the Sondheim show and lots of things. I mean, they're all from lots of things, but I'm lucky enough to call all of them friends, and they all said yes when I asked them, and no questions asked. It was really quite lovely because I know how busy people are, and I know how valuable time is these days, and. And the fact that they all said yes, no questions asked was really, really, really heartwarming. So I'm so grateful and excited when Clint Ramos from Lincoln center asked me to be a part of this. This kind of rubber bands. Back to what I was just saying about writing for the Notebook is that I didn't want to do it alone. I wanted to bring people up. I want someone to sing one of my pieces, and I'm not singing it because that's really my favorite thing, honestly.
- [20:22]
Alison Stewart
Oh, interesting.
- [20:23]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yes, I enjoy with the Notebook. I enjoy watching and hearing other people metabolize my words and my music and make it their own. I enjoy it, dare I say, more than performing myself. And I think it's because I'm limited by my voice. I have a beautiful voice. I'm an alto. I'm very whispery. I can get loud if I want to, but not at 12:26. I'm a late sleeper, you guys. But there's something incredible about writing songs out of your range, out of your limitations, and watching somebody else execute it perfectly because I'm getting my music across. I'm getting my ideas across, but it just sounds better.
- [21:13]
Alison Stewart
Who have you heard?
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Ingrid Michaelson
It sounds. It's something I. It's like. It's like a superhero version of me. You know what I mean? But it's a total other human who is incredible and talented, and they bring their own heart and mind and experiences to this. And it's, again, I'm realizing in the moment it's collaboration. I think that's my favorite thing is collaboration, and it's watching somebody else, you know, add on to what you've already done.
- [21:41]
Alison Stewart
Who have you heard sing a piece of yours? That was Chef's Kiss in that moment.
- [21:46]
Ingrid Michaelson
Like, oh, I mean, everybody in the Notebook. The first time I heard Joy Wood sing My Days, which is, you know, the big song in the show, and her big song, it was unbelievable. And then when I heard what she could do, I was like, well, we're gonna raise it up half a stone. I know. I'm just. I see all these tiktoks of like, why does everybody have to sing so high on Broadway shows? I'm like, because they can. And that's why we go to. We want to be amazed. And listen, this is coming from an alto. I can't sing those notes either, but I want to see people who can, because it's amazing. It's like superheroes on stage.
- [22:28]
Alison Stewart
Can you give us a bit of a preview of what might be happening on Friday night at your concert?
- [22:32]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yeah. We're gonna be doing. I'm being very brave in that I'm not picking the songs that everyone's gonna know. I'm going with more of the theme. So the theme of the whole American Songbook this year is it's about echoes of an inheritance. And Clint is really pushing us to not just get up on stage and be American singers, songwriters, and that's, you know, the American Songbook and all that stuff. So I thought, well, I'm gonna. I'm gonna sing songs about my parents and about time and loss and love and, I mean, all the things that I write about anyway. But I'm sort of. I've cherry picked very specific songs. For instance, somebody. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm gonna sing a song from the Notebook, and then someone's gonna come on stage and sing. But the way that I sing it is very different. Different key, different tempo, different style than the way it was done on stage. And the idea of, how do two people in different stages of life sing the same words and the same song? And what does that Mean, for these two people with this space and this time between, like, how does that change? And so the show, it's much more curated than my other shows, and I'm a little nervous about that because I've never done this before. I'm gonna speak in between each song and sort of explain why I chose the song. And my shows are usually very off the cuff, and this one will be a little more scripted in that way. But I was talking to my hairdresser who said, you know, but isn't it great at this stage in your career that you can do something that's still feels new and exciting and different? And I was like, yeah, you're right, because I was complaining about how nervous I was. Two things we've learned about me.
- [24:37]
Alison Stewart
Okay.
- [24:37]
Ingrid Michaelson
I like collaboration, and I'm nervous. Yeah. So. And then. And then, obviously, I'm having.
- [24:43]
Alison Stewart
You're nervous because you care.
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Interviewer/Host Assistant
Yeah.
- [24:46]
Alison Stewart
You care how it comes out.
- [24:47]
Ingrid Michaelson
Yes, that's true. That's true. I do feel like I have a string quartet on stage and a pianist, and I'm having, you know, these four amazing friends come out and sing with me. So I'm not alone. I have this bed of support and talent around me. So I'm also excited to play a lot of these songs with a string quartet because it's going to be very different from how they were originally recorded. And my two bandmates who I've been with forever, Allie Moss and Hannah Winkler, are also coming, and they're going to be on stage with me the whole time singing all the harmonies. And so it's going to be. It's gonna be a really. I think it's gonna be a really beautiful introspective night of my music. And it's at David Geffen, which is crazy beautiful. When I talked to Clint the first time, I thought he was gonna put me in the appel room, which is where I did this 15 years ago. You know, it's like 400 people. It's beautiful. Overlooks the Columbus Circle. And he's like, well, we're thinking David Geffen. I'm like, that place is huge. But I remember going there with my parents, and this is actually part of the show. And I'm gon about it. Years ago, when I was in high school, my father loved Handel's Messiah, and we would go to the Messiah. Sing along. And I mean, he bought tapes. The alto part, the soprano part, the tenor, the bass. I was soprano, mom was alto, my brother was tenor, my dad was bass, and he would make us listen to the. These tapes with our part highlighted so that we. We would know what we were doing when we, you know, because I can barely s. I could sight read, but it wasn't great. And, you know, I remember at the time we went a few years in a row, and it was so fun. But I remember I was, you know, 14 or 15, so I couldn't admit that it was fun.
- [26:35]
Alison Stewart
Of course not.
- [26:36]
Ingrid Michaelson
But. Oh, it was fun. Oh, it was so fun. And I was way up in the nosebleeds. And now I'm gonna be on stage performing in that very same hall. It's pretty wild. It's. Yeah, it's pretty wild. When I think about it, it makes me. I'm going to be implementing what I call cement heart. Cement heart. Okay. It's when I know if I allow too much of my emotions through, I will cry and not get through a song. So I have to compartmentalize a little bit. And the way you do that is you think about the actual words and sounds that the words are making and the sounds your voice are making and the vibrations in your body and how to make those as beautiful and ornate or simple as possible. But it sort of clips the meaning out of your mind just enough that. And then the trick is, at the very end of the song, you allow it, you drop the wall, you let it back in, and you might get a little. Then you cry after the song ends. That's my trick. But I think I'm going to have to do it a bunch of. Because I've picked some songs. There's one song that I've only sung once in my life before, and it's completely about my mother, who I lost. And I don't quite know how I'm going to get through it, but I thought, if I'm ever going to perform this song, I got to do it at Lincoln Center. I got to do it at this beautiful curated concert about time and space and the echoes of an inheritance and my mother, you know? So I am proud of myself, of my song choices because some of them are digging quite deep emotionally. Yeah. So here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
- [28:31]
Alison Stewart
That will be happening on Friday night at Lincoln Center. It's Ingrid Michaelson and friends, the Time and Space Between Us. It is part of the American Songbook series. We're gonna have you sing one more song before you go. What are you gonna sing?
- [28:45]
Ingrid Michaelson
I'm switching over here to the piano. I sang this song when I was working as a waitress many, many years ago, and somebody was getting married and they had their reception in the restaurant, and it's a little tiny restaurant in Staten island, and they asked if I would sing a song for them. And there was a keyboard in the corner, so I literally was like the cater waiter. And then I sat down with my apron on and sang the song and I loved it so much that it became part of my show. This song. I've sang this song more probably as many times as I've sung the song I sang before the Way I Am. I did not write it, obviously, but I've played it so many times I feel like it's mine. So here it is for you. And the odd thing is, I never know if it's called Fools Rush in or I Can't Help Falling In Love, but it's one of those.
- [29:55]
Interviewer/Host Assistant
Wise men say only fools rush in, but I, I can tell Falling in love with you Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? Oh if I I can't help Falling in love with you Like a river flows surely to the sea darling so echoes Some things are meant to be so Take my hand and take my whole life too? Cause I can't help Falling in love with you. I could A river flows surely to the sea darling so echoes Some things are meant to be so Won't you please just take my hand and take my whole life too? Cause I can help Falling in love, in love with you? Cause I can't help Falling in love Falling in love I keep falling in love with you.
- [32:47]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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