ALBUM PODCAST with Joe Iconis and Jennifer Ashley Tepper

Based on Stephen King's Misery this is a song that truly gets under your skin and brings the subtext of King's novel to the forefront. A rumination on the cyclical nature of addiction and how it relates to the life of an artist. Be prepared and scared for a brutal performance by Taylor Trensch.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a song in which Joe channels the jealousy and envy he feels toward other musical theater writers and filters it through the lens of Robert Zemeckis's 1992 film Death Becomes Her. A personal song that also doubles as a character piece written from the point of view of Goldie Hawn's character in the film, Lorinda Lisitza performs with a level of ferocity that can barely be contained. And loo...

"Sympathy for the Killer" is a peculiar little 1920's-style number which repurposes the classic horror film killer-victim scenario as a metaphor for a modern relationship. Sung by the fearless Liz Lark Brown, the song aks the question: who is really pursuing who? http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered what a song inspired by the plight of HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers might be like? Well, Joe Iconis sure did. A nod to his love of Halloween (the day and the movie), "Haddonfield, 15 Years Later (For Judith)" tells a simple story of Mike Myers getting out of the hospital, putting his mask back on, and heading back to his hometown. It also tells the story of a person returning to...

As a kid, the disappointment of dropping an ice cream on the ground feels like the end of the world. As an adult, the circumstances of our disappointments change, but the feeling is the same. "Building a Fort" is sung by Harrison Chad, who is always able to embody youth and adulthood. It was originally written for a musical that Joe got fired from. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more...

Originally written for a proposed T.V. project, this ode to the complexity of nostalgia is performed by The Jasons: Tam and Veasey. Hear about the origins of the song and the implications of being nostalgic for a time you weren't around for in the first place. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A companion piece to the previous episode "The Song", this one is brings the underlying to the surface. It's about a writer, still definitely not Joe Iconis, who is coming to terms with only being able to write his life versus living it. Joe and Jennifer go deep into the lyrics, music, and arrangement of this deeply-personal-not-at-all-autobiographical rocker. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music....

Upon hearing that multiple people in his life were worried that Joe would write a song about them, he did what any jerk songwriter would do: he wrote a song about it. Is this song about Joe himself? Nope. Definitely not. Is it about Emily? Who can say... all we know is that Emily is a name that doesn't rhyme with anything.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. V...

A tragic and hideous tale of an actress navigating a path through a dangerous obstacle course of high-belting and tasteless riffing. Joe's lifelong collaborator Katrina Rose Diderikson expertly acts her way in and out of this epic story-song which is both critical of and complicit in our current musical theater vocal landscape. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices...

A cut song from the Joe Iconis musical "Bloodsong of Love," which itself is a wild musical theater interpretation of the Spaghetti Western film genre, "Play the Princess" is another song about art and theater, this time examining the boxes society places us in and the roles we are assigned. It is performed by Destinee Rea and L Morgan Lee, two beautiful humans who defy categorization. http://BPN.f...

A song about the history of an actual New York City street, "64' takes us back to the past, before Lincoln Center existed, to explore the less glamorous side of tearing down the past to build the future. Performed by Alan H. Green, George Salazar, Jose Restrepo, if you're anything like the rest of us, you'll be rushing to play this one on repeat as soon as it's done. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the...

Depicting a real-life situation almost every New Yorker can relate to, "Jeff," sung by Jeremy Morse, tells the story of a man seeing a neighbor in the buff in a nearby building and the existential crisis that follows. What happens to him in the end? The world may never know. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An intentionally mysterious song involving impossibly complicated states, both mental and geographical. A character piece written for Jason SweetTooth Williams, who navigates the strangeness like no one else could. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sung by Lauren Marcus, this haunting song was inspired by a certain character in a certain movie featuring a ghost-with-the-most. It wasn't part of the subsequent musical based on the movie, but we're sharing it with you nonetheless nonetheless nonetheless. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the oldest songs on ALBUM, "The Answer" is from Joe's first full-length musical, The Black Suits, written as his NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program Senior thesis. Performed by Aaron Tveit, who starred in an early workshop of the show, the song holds a special place in Joe's heart, as it was part of the genesis of Iconis and Family.  http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Lear...

A straightforward explosion of maximalist pop that conveys the youthful optimism and dilated-pupil enthusiasm of Riverdale’s favorite son; “Archie” is performed by Andrew Barth Feldman, who Joe first saw as a 14-year-old Roger in RENT. It holds the distinction of being the only song on ALBUM with an instrumental break and the only song on the entire record that is purposefully about absolutely not...

Sung by Andrew Rannells and written to meet a deadline for a concert of songs about Brooklyn (the place, not the show), KEVIN takes us to an urban headspace full of apathy and incident... nothing like the real borough. Or maybe exactly like the real borough. It doesn't matter anyway, since Joe doesn't think the song is actually about Brooklyn. So what is it really about? Listen and find out. Note:...

What happens when Heidi Blickenstaff records her viral YouTube hit in a studio for the first time? Did you know Joe wrote "Ammonia" specifically for Heidi 10 years ago and this is the first time they've returned to the material? Listen in as Joe and Jen relive the madness of how this song came into existence, and why writing long anthems is so important to Joe. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music...

The title track of ALBUM, this discussion of the song “Album” dives into why the hell Joe decided to create this 44-song opus in the first place. Join legendary composer Joe Iconis and longtime friend and collaborator Jennifer Ashley Tepper as they dive into the past, present, and future to figure out just what makes this ALBUM tick. http://BPN.fm/Album to get the music. Learn more about your ad c...

ALBUM PODCAST is a behind-the-songs deep dive into the creative process of writer and performer Joe Iconis. Through a series of conversations with his friend/collaborator Jennifer Ashley Tepper, Joe will offer a behind the scenes glimpse of the writing and producing of his 44-song epic Album. The longtime friends weave through their common history, share war stories of their time spent in the batt...