Ears are tuned to ‘Kimmy Schmidt’
The Netflix comedy from co-creator Tina Fey has her spouse, Jeff Richmond, to thank for viral tunes.
“Empire” isn’t the only show that has its fans singing.
Since arriving March 6, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” the sprightly Netflix comedy co-created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, has lodged itself in the cultural lexicon with songs that rival even “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” from “30 Rock” in their catchiness.
The culprit: Fey’s husband, Jeff Richmond, who in addition to executive producing the series also wrote the show’s most addictive tunes, starting with its inescapable theme song.
The catchy title track is in the vein of such AutoTuned viral parody hits as “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That” and “Bed Intruder.” Penned by Richmond, the song was produced by “Bed Intruder” creators the Gregory Brothers for added authenticity. The result: a theme song that has, like its real-life Internet forebears, become a hit both on social media and in real life.
Then, just when viewers thought their brains were free, Richmond lobbed a second bomb: “Peeno Noir,” another viral hit created by Kimmy’s roommate, the wannabe singer Titus Andromedon (played by Tituss Burgess).
The Times caught up with Richmond by phone to
talk about how the show’s unconventional music came together.
First, what have you done to my brain?
I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
How was the theme song crafted?
We knew from the very beginning, when Tina and Robert pitched the pilot, that their story was going to be told very quickly by a local guy who witnessed the whole thing. We were going to see it through a viral video, much like the Charles Ramsey stuff. I think they wanted it to be [upbeat] ... because we were going to witness a really terrible, grim back story for our lead character. We needed something to be like, “OK, but it’s still going to be fun and bright and sunny, and funny.”
Tina and Robert kind of crafted what the monologue was going to be, and we just pulled out these expressive, declarative statements to train the song around. We kind of reverse-engineered what the Gregory Brothers did as best we could. And we came up with this expressive thing that they were the “unbreakable” and “damn it, they were alive.” They were these simple words, but we put them together and they were euphoric and so fun, and it just felt right. Did you find that it was a challenge to achieve? We see these news segment remixes and it seems like it takes no time at all.
It’s interesting because it was a bit of a challenge. There were earlier versions where the title of the show was not “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” it was other things, and we were pulling out different phrases that were all fun. But in the end, this version felt like the most fun and simple.
And it’s not something you want to skip. Sometimes when bingeing on a show, there’s a tendency to fastforward through the theme.
We did have a debate when we were launching the episodes near the end. When it was going to be on NBC, there was a 14- or 15-second version of the song, which was fun and gave it kind of this bumper feel. But you couldn’t stretch your legs and feel it as much. That’s the restriction of network television and 22 minutes of airtime. So when we knew we were going to Netflix, we knew we could spend some more time and go further.
OK, about “Peeno Noir.” I just don’t know what you’ve done here. Explain how this happened.
I think the writers kind of started the song with this same amateuristic approach as the character did, because they filled the script with just rhymes. And that’s exactly what Titus would do: he’d think the only thing you need to write a song is a rhyming dictionary. So we know it’s going to be called “Peeno Noir,” and we’re just going to rhyme as many things as we possibly can and that will end up being a song.
When it got time to actually do the song, we were not quite ready. Normally, you have the song, you write it, you pre-record it, and the actors lip sync it on the set. In this case, we weren’t ready. And we knew we didn’t even want to restrict Tituss too much yet.
The real song-structuring came when we had the whole thing together. I remember we had to pound it together to be something, which was enjoyable and frustrating. We just added bells and whistles, and we added him singing backup parts to himself.
I asked Tituss what went through his mind when he read the lyrics. He was like, “I thought they were joking, and when they said ‘Action,’ I still thought they were joking.”
Ha! I remember saying, “OK, Tituss, just sing: ‘Peeeeenoooo Noirrrrr,’ ” and he would just look at me.
What about the “Mean Girls” musical?
We’re coming along. I can’t tell you too much. I can say we are in the process of writing. I always say we are 50%-60% done, but I also say that knowing 90% of that will be rewritten when we do some readings — which we are planning to do this summer with cast around New York City.
Are there a lot of ballads, or more poppy kind of Broadway songs?
I can say it musically runs the gamut of a fun Broadway show so far. The main musical aesthetic was not like Britney Spears or teenage girl pop music. That’s not the power the show works on right now. We’ve been enjoying stepping into a lot of different styles.