Call Redialed: NEW Michele Brourman Interview: Curious George: Go West Go Wild
Sep 17, 2020
I just love interviewing Award Winning Singer Songwriter Michele Brourman.
Michele brings such depth to every interview we do! We last spoke in February 2020, just before the global pandemic hit us. It feels much longer than seven months, but that is all it has been.
At that time, Michele was being awarded a 2020 Bistro Award & about to get honored by her hometown high school.
I finally get to check in with Michele about these two honors, plus we get to talk about her latest project, writing songs (with the esteemed Amanda McBroom) for the newest Curious George movie, Curious George: Go West Go Wild, which is streaming exclusively on Peacock.
In this interview, Michele once again answered my call, but this time around she shares:
- Reflecting on how her life, outlook & creative work have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Sharing personal growth, new skills, and lessons learned from extended time at home
- Writing songs for the Curious George: Go West, Go Wild film with Amanda McBroom
- Fun, personal insights, from California favorites to ongoing curiosities from childhood
- So much more
Connect with Michele: Website, Facebook, YouTube
Michele Brourman
Photo Credit: Mary Ann Halpin
1. I'm so excited to be getting to talk to you again. Last time we talked, you had just won the 2020 Bistro Award for Singer/Songwriter & you were going to be honored by your hometown high school. Then COVID hit. Were you still able to be honored by your high school? If so, what was that experience like? I flew to NY for the Bistro Awards on March 9th. I’d read about “COVID,” and knew that it was serious, but I was so excited about the Bistros that I simply packed and boarded the plane. Everything seemed kinda normal traveling east.
The Bistro event was sold out – I think only 11 people canceled due to their virus concerns. I sat with a table full of cherished friends, sharing food and chatting and laughing. And it felt so gratifying, singing my song and feeling the embracing warmth from the audience.
But when I flew home on March 11th. JFK was a ghost town. The plane was less than 1/3 full – and suddenly the gravity of the situation hit me. I got home shaken – and went into semi-quarantine for weeks, as we all did.
One of the friends from my table became seriously ill with COVID; I was praying for her every day! I canceled the trip to Pittsburgh for my high school ceremony, even before the event itself was canceled.
All of the honorees were invited to send a video message to the graduating seniors; my message was about seeing the gifts in what appear to be obstacles or detours.
2. How do you think you have changed during this time at home? One thing I realized very quickly – which is why I was talking about the “detours” – was how good it felt simply to be at home, have the luxury of time with my husband, time to tend to my veggie garden, time to rest. For years, I’ve joked that I run on my reserve tank; I realized that I was tired.
I got into baking sourdough bread (Turns out a LOT of people got into bread baking! Ultimate comfort food, right?!). Then I dove into production work on Curious George 5. We had to do all our orchestrating and vocal production remotely, me and my genius engineer, co-arranger and longtime friend Stephan Oberhoff.
So all of that “downtime” that I’d anticipated – that didn’t happen. And even though we finished George a couple of weeks ago, I still don’t have much downtime. Somehow, there’s a lot to do.
3. Going off of this time at home:
- Do you have a different outlook on life/work? I think I DO have a different outlook on life and work. I can feel things shifting, questions tumbling around in my head. I don’t have answers yet, but I have the feeling that even if the world returns to “normal,” I may want to shift the balance in my life. I always thought of myself as a musician first – that if I had any value in the world, it had to be through my art. But right now, what feels most important is simply being present for the people I love – and for myself.
- Have you developed any new skills? Regarding new skills – I’m looking into some software that will allow me to make music with fellow players or singers online. Apps like Skype or Zoom don’t allow us to play and sing together because of the time delay or latency. So I attended a webinar to learn about some new apps. Given that I’m seriously technophobic, this could be a breakthrough!
- Have you finally done something you had been putting off because you didn't have time? As for whatever I’ve been putting off – if I do get some extra time, I’ll let you know!!
I live on the West coast where millions of acres are on fire right now. I’m writing letters and postcards every day for several progressive organizations. We have to participate, do all that we can to make things better. We have to VOTE!!
Left to Right: Amanda McBroomMichele Brourman, Ann Hampton Callaway
Photo Courtesy of Michele Brourman
6. Can you talk a little bit about the writing process you and Amanda went through for the film? All of the movies we did prior to Curious George are mini-musicals, usually with three or four songs, all sung by the characters in the stories.
Amanda has a gift for putting herself into the mind and heart of a character, writing words that somehow come from inside that person (or dinosaur, mouse, huskie, goddess). She comes up with gorgeous lyrics – words that a child can understand, yet she never writes down to our audience.
Musically it has a kind of Kurt Weill tango feel – while lyrically they’re wondering whether they’re about to be fed – or eaten. Writing these things is pure fun!
7. What did you like most about writing for Curious George as opposed to another animated series? Curious George is a different animal (oops! no pun intended – sorry!). The first Curious George movie had songs by Jack Johnson, so there was a musical “brand” already in place. Plus the songs are used in a very different way, playing over montage or action sequences. They need to underscore the emotion of the scene, but they can’t be “on the nose.“ The characters themselves never sing – or at least, they didn’t until Curious George 5.
In this new one, a gawky teenage cowboy wannabee, voiced by a lovely actor named Max Mittelman, plays a guitar and sings. We also wrote a song called “The Other Side” which is being sung by a marvelous Malasian pop-star named Yuna. That’s another breakthrough, actually – the first time there’s been a female singer in any of the Curious George features. And we are thrilled with her performance!
8. In Curious George: Go West Go Wild, George and The Man With the Yellow Hat set out for a relaxing weekend at cousin Ginny's farm, but when all the animals escape, the weekend is anything but relaxing. When have you had a relaxing weekend planned, but then something went wrong and it ended up being a chaotic weekend? How about the last six months?! I thought I’d be pulling out my knitting needles and alphabetizing my spice rack! Or de-cluttering my desk. Hah!!
9. Since the film is about going west and you live out west, what are some of your favorite things to do in California? Right now, honestly, I’m just praying that the fires can be put out! And that by some miracle, we don’t have any more of them this season. That’s unrealistic, I know, but we can hope!
Most of what I love about living here is simply day-to-day stuff. Having a small garden and growing some of what I eat, practicing Tai Chi in a sweet outdoor park (while wearing a mask, of course), just BEING here in the beauty of mountains, ocean, sky. At the moment the beaches are closed and the sky is a murky grey. But it’s always heavenly here from November through June or July.
10. With Curious George being a children's series/film, what are some things from your childhood that you are still curious about today? When I was a little girl, I loved playing “dress-up” with my sisters and my cousins. Making up stories, playing “What if...?”
I realized the other day, while working on some songs for a new musical with Amanda and our friend and bookwriter Duane Poole, that I still love doing that. Asking “what if?” Why does a character make the choices she makes, what would make her feel so much emotion that she has to sing?
I love the rich world of make-believe we get to live in, whether it’s animation or live onstage (which we will hopefully return to soon!). It feels like a continuation of my childhood – just making things up!!
11. What is something that you'd like my readers to know about you that we didn't get to cover in this interview or any of our previous interviews? I started a new project a couple of months ago. I was thinking about all the songs that I’ve written over the last (gulp) half century. I have songs that almost no one has ever heard.
In some cases, that’s okay – not every song is a gem. We have to throw away some of the pancakes, right? But there’s that saying – you don’t want to die with your music still inside you.
So I started releasing an “orphan” song every two weeks. I’m calling the project Eine Kleine Trunk Musik ( Disclosure: I stole that phrase from the musical Curtains). I post a song with an accompanying blog about when, how, with whom, I wrote the song, and I make the sheet music available on my website.
I’ve received some beautiful messages, sometimes from people I don’t even know, telling me how much the song has touched them. That’s why we write, to touch hearts, to let people know they’re not alone. And to confirm that WE are not alone!
So I’m very glad to be doing this. You can find the songs on my YouTube channel or on my website – michelebrourman.com.
More Michele Brourman Interviews:
February 2020 (Read Here): Honoring Greatness at 2020 Bistro Awards
October 2019 (Read Here): Love Notes at Birdland Jazz in NYC
February 2019 (Read Here): Making Music with The Belle of Tombstone and The Land Before Time
Michele Brourman
Photo Credit: Kevin Alvey
More on Michele Brourman:
Songwriter/singer Michele Brourman has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in music. Her most beloved song “My Favorite Year,” co-written with Karen Gottlieb, has become a cabaret standard, recorded by luminaries Margaret Whiting, Dame Cleo Laine, and the Ambassador of the American Songbook, Michael Feistein.
Her music for the theatre includes Dangerous Beauty with longtime collaborator Amanda McBroom, The Belle of Tombstone with Sheilah Rae, and the 2019 Ovation Award-winning Bronco Billy with Chip Rosenbloom and John Torres.
She co-wrote (with McBroom) and produced the songs for 20 animated features for Universal Studios including the beloved Land Before Time series, and most recently, two new Curious George features.
The winner of 2019’s Bistro Award for Outstanding Songwriter and Musical Director, she’s worked with artists Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway, Dixie Carter, Heather MacRae, Donna McKechnie, and more.
Michele has been called “a consummate artist/composer.... whose songs target the human condition with a simplicity, honesty and directness which make them into contemporary classics.”
