WGalina Jorge Rivera-Herrans released the party Epic: the Musical Last Christmas, Taylor Swift managed to push the top of the US iTunes charts. So much is in doubt since the last installment of the musical Odyssey was released on his birthday.
The River-Wandering project is already an unusual success, with more monthly listeners on Spotify (1.6m) than veterans such as Morrissey, Liam Gallagher or the Sex Pistols, and 119m plays on the platform in the past 28 days alone.
“I wanted to have sword fights and the ocean and gods and monsters and spells and love and lust and revenge,” he said. Notice. “I want people to have this sense of wonder, that people can look and feel like a child again.”
Epic it is musical, but not theatrical. At least, not yet. It’s a 40-track concept album with Rivera-Herrans singing part of Odysseus’ 10-year voyage home to Ithaca after the siege of Troy, shot every step of the way. TikTok.
Epic two obsessions of teenage fans at the first signs of the Alpha generation: Greek mythology and fan participation.
Rivera-Herrans began writing and recording studiously in his bedroom, later building a vocal sound booth with his father. While most artists choose not to risk spoiling their magic by revealing their creative secrets, Rivera-Herrans is the opposite. He shared everything from song motivations to orchestration and audition process choices.
At first, he said, I was terrified. “The first time I put a video on TikTok I was so nervous I didn’t sleep that night. But this is one of the best things I’ve ever done, because what’s so cool about getting to show the online process is that we’re all in this odyssey together. You have to see in real time that it works and what doesn’t he do.”
The songs were first solo deals, but Rivera-Herrans then had auditions on TikTok, with candidates posting videos of themselves singing to their music. “I thought we would get maybe 30 auditions, but we had 1,000 video submissions by the end of the month,” he said.
Fans also created their own animations to bring it epicthe songs come to life and Rivera-Herrans relishes their interactions. “If I tried to leave something out in the previous song – I use a lot of clues through musical motifs – do people pick up on it? When they do, it’s rewarding.
Perhaps the darkest leitmotif spotted by fans is the trumpet melody that alludes to Neptune responsible for the storm that keeps Ulysses and his crew at sea for years without the god appearing. After this theme returns, it was sung by God.
“It’s so scary that people could” [work it out]Rivera-Herrans said. “We’re just staying cool to make the sauce as we do this, and it’s so exciting.”
Fan participation in musical theater grew when composers began sharing their work on YouTube around 2015, according to Clare Chandler, senior lecturer in musical theater in the school of creative arts at the University of Lincoln.
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More Chill, a show about an inexperienced high school student trying to cool down; originally produced at a theater in New Jersey; The hit was made smaller when the album was removed by Spotify’s algorithm. After gaining momentum online, it sold off-Broadway, where people “came from all over the world to see it,” Chandler said, and then to Broadway. “[It] By being overlooked by someone, through this virtual Broadway environment, something that is being made fun of on Broadway because of its popularity.
The pandemic fueled the rise of two TikTok musicians. He came first Ratatouillewhich arose from the online culture that had grown around the Pixar film. A variety of TikTok users composed songs and Ratatousica ended up on Broadway for a one-off charity show.
Then he created Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear Private Bridgerton Musical after Barlow’s video of his song verse. The album won a Grammy for best musical theater, but the show’s actual scenes inspired Netflix.
a question Epic fans of the arts have all asked whether they should see him on stage.
After the final saga drops on Christmas Day, when Ulysses finally arrives in Ithaca, they receive an answer. Rivera-Herrans and his team are in talks with what they describe as “the largest level of society” to make an animated film, and to create a live-action scene with someone else. Three video games ready with two already on the way. And the company itself is aware that the fans want to be involved in the process.
“What is the other version” Epic what shall we throw into this world? I am so open to all options, because in each version we can represent different aspects of the story,” Rivera-Herrans said.