Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear have been massive followers of “Moana” — and its earworm-y songs — once they noticed the movie as youngsters in 2016.
So when Disney floated the thought, eight years later, of the TikTok duo writing songs for the sequel “Moana 2,” “we have been over the moon,” Barlow stated.
The pair, 20-somethings who grew up removed from the coast — Birmingham, Ala., for Barlow, and Rockford, Unwell., for Bear — have been recognized for his or her TikTok smash “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,” which gained the Grammy Award for greatest musical theater album in 2022.
However when confronted with the prospect of writing a whole animated movie rating from scratch, they “have been mirroring struggles that Moana was going by way of,” stated Barlow, 26, a pop songwriter and singer who had by no means written for the display.
Her accomplice was not as inexperienced. Bear, 23, was a protégée of the producer Quincy Jones, a pianist on Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance tour and composer of the rating for the 2023 Netflix household journey “Canine Gone.” Nonetheless, the “Moana 2” project “was a number of strain,” she stated, earlier than including, “However when you might have strain, it pushes you to put in writing one thing that you just by no means thought you have been even able to writing earlier than.”
Within the sequel, Moana (Auli’i Cravalho) units out to seek out Pacific Islanders past her personal island — and meets the bat-themed underworld goddess Matangi. However there are additionally new pals: Moni (Hualālai Chung), a mega fan of the egotistical demigod Maui; the engineer Loto (Rose Matafeo); and just a little sister, Simea (Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda). All of them ship Barlow and Bear’s pop-inflected Polynesian tunes.
After setting a file for one of the best opening weekend for an animated film on the world field workplace in November, “Moana 2” is nearing $1 billion in ticket gross sales. Even higher for Bear and Barlow, their tune “Past” is on the Oscar shortlist for greatest unique music. The wildfire-delayed Academy Award nominations are set to be introduced on Jan. 23.
In an interview on the Walt Disney Studios workplace in Decrease Manhattan, the duo — who grew to become the primary all-female songwriting workforce to put in writing the songs for a Disney animated movie, in addition to the youngest — mentioned their inspirations, amongst them Beyoncé, “Magnificence and the Beast” and the jazz flute solo in “Anchorman.”
‘Magnificence and the Beast’
Earlier than writing the opening numbers for each “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical” and “Moana 2,” Bear stated, she and Barlow had a ritual: They listened to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s “Belle,” from the 1991 animated film “Magnificence and the Beast.”
The tune checks all of the packing containers for a film musical opening, she stated: It begins with the principle character telling us precisely what she desires, introduces everybody who’s essential to her, and is “catchy as hell.”
“It’s simply masterfully crafted,” Barlow added.
Te Vaka
Barlow and Bear’s data of Polynesian music was initially restricted to the songs they’d heard in “Moana.”
“We began with Te Vaka” — the South Pacific fusion band that collaborated with the “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on the songs for the primary movie — “after which simply began happening a Spotify rabbit gap,” Bear stated.
“We made a operating playlist,” Barlow stated — which included the Village Individuals’s “Macho Man” — once they have been engaged on music for Maui, who’s voiced by Dwayne Johnson. “We’d play it within the automotive.”
Bear particularly was taken with Te Vaka’s attribute log drum grooves, which impressed the harmonic and melodic constructions for “a bunch of songs,” she stated.
Members of Te Vaka later collaborated with Barlow and Bear.
“They vocal prepare on the spot,” Barlow stated. “It’s wild. It’s like this telepathic magic.”
Moana Herself
Bear and Barlow aren’t that a lot older than the 19-year-old Moana, and so they might typically relate to her plight, even when theirs didn’t contain combating lava or sea monsters.
“We have been going by way of an enormous life change once we bought employed on this — we have been combating a number of issues,” Barlow stated. (Netflix sued them in 2022 over “The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical”; the corporate later dropped the lawsuit and the events reached a settlement.) “And Moana was going by way of weirdly related struggles of discovering her manner on this planet as a younger girl.”
Their not-too-distant adolescence additionally proved helpful in one other facet: Teaching Johnson by way of the inspirational “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” they wrote for his character.
“We have been within the sales space, and I stated, ‘Simply consider what you’d inform your personal daughter should you had no thought what to do,’” Bear stated. “And he crushed it.”
‘Anchorman’
Maui’s flaming conch live performance throughout “Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” is partly impressed by the jazz flute solo within the 2004 Will Ferrell comedy “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”
“As a result of who doesn’t wish to play a flaming conch solo to 27,000 mudskippers?” stated Bear, who blended a jazz flute with numerous synths for the quantity.
Beyoncé
It’s not laborious for a worldwide pop celebrity’s fashion to rub off on you whenever you’re composing a soundtrack by day whereas performing in her tour by evening.
“I’m positive that was an affect,” Bear stated, singling out the music “Get Misplaced” for the underworld goddess Matangi (Awhimai Fraser).
“Matangi’s not a traditional Disney villain,” stated Barlow, who additionally talked about pop divas like Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Shania Twain as influences. “Matangi is a diva. She is additional. So we needed to present her a loopy music.”
George Watsky
Miranda had some recommendation for the duo: Don’t be afraid to lean into your favorites.
For Barlow, that was the lightning-fast raps of George Watsky, whom she watched on “The Ellen DeGeneres Present” when she was rising up.
“His raps have been like slam poetry,” she stated. “I’d memorize them and recite them as a celebration trick.”
That proved helpful when she and Bear have been writing the rap for the brand new character of Loto, the engineer who designs and maintains Moana’s ship through the quest.
“The filmmakers and us each agreed that Loto was not likely a singer,” Barlow stated. “So we knew we needed her to interrupt out on this insane rap.”
Alan Menken
Whereas Barlow’s go-to supply of inspiration is Shakira, Bear’s is an Alan Menken energy ballad.
“My favourite second in a Disney movie is once they hit that be aware, the strings swell, the orchestra booms,” she stated. “‘Go the Distance’ from ‘Hercules’ is one in every of my favourite songs ever.”
“That was my one requirement for ‘Past,’” she added, referring to the shortlisted music that’s Moana’s massive quantity. “I used to be like, ‘We’d like that second.’ And I believe that was what we bought on the very finish when Moana hits that final chord, and every thing booms, and it’s like, ‘AH!’”
