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[0:01] Joe Iconis: Hey, I'm Joe Iconis. And I'm Jennifer Ashley Tepper.

[0:05] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: And this is our podcast where we talk all about my brand new Iconis and Family album, ALBUM.

[0:11] Joe Iconis: Today we're going to be talking about the song Archie's All-American as performed by Andrew Barth Feldman.

[0:16] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: This song is an unusual one on the album. It's pretty short because most of the songs are quite long.

[0:21] Joe Iconis: And this one is not. I've really sold it well, eh?

[0:26] Joe Iconis: I just turned 17 I'm master of my scene I'm sort of like the neatest guy in the school I've traveled up the ranks Archie's All-American. I love this song.

[0:38] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: Aw, thanks.

[0:39] Joe Iconis: I mean, I love all the songs clearly, but I have so many memories with this song of like when you wrote the demo, I would listen to it all the time on my iPod while I was like walking down the street. It was like 2011.

[0:49] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah, this song is such a strange one for me because the way that it came into being was, it was a song for a demo for an Archie tangential project that I think never actually ended up happening.

[1:06] Joe Iconis: Archie Comics, to be clear. Can I say that? Archie Comics.

[1:08] Andrew Barth Feldman: Archie Comics, yeah. Archie Comics.

[1:10] Joe Iconis: Okay, great. Archie Comics, they were doing some kind of thing and it was a demo for an Archie-related project, which was not Riverdale. It was a stage musical.

[1:22] Andrew Barth Feldman: Very many years later. And so it was one of those things where I was like, at this time in my life, I was having like, I feel like not a great time. I was feeling very frustrated, you know, career-wise and personally.

[1:34] Joe Iconis: And I had this song kind of hanging over my head that I had to write. And I really, I liked the Archie Comics and I liked the optimism of them. And I really liked how they sort of dealt in kind of like very general Americana.

[2:01] Andrew Barth Feldman: You know, like the sort of like, there is this kind of like vacant, like dead-eyed optimism. And the Archie world, you know, even though there's like weirdness. And it feels, it just feels so American to me. Even if it is like aware of itself, it just, it feels, you know, like the Archie Comics are America.

[2:21] Joe Iconis: And so I knew I needed to write this song for Archie. And I just like had nothing, you know, like I had nothing in me that was feeling particularly inspired to do it. And it was one of those things where like the deadline was looming. And I had a couple of friends who were like working for people who were developing this thing. And they were kind of pressuring me.

[2:43] Andrew Barth Feldman: And so it was one of those things where I felt like, oh, if I don't write this song, I'm not only like taking myself out of the running for some potential job, but I'm going to be letting my friends down or they're going to be disappointed in me. And so I ended up, you know, writing the song and I wrote it really, really quickly.

[3:05] Joe Iconis: And I was like, you know, I'm just going to try to write something that's like a pop song. It's like one of these stupid pop songs that everyone apparently loves. And it's like, I'm going to write something like some theater song that is so general, it could be about anything because that's something that like at the time and also at this time, literally, you know, 2022.

[3:24] Andrew Barth Feldman: And I imagine for the rest of my long days, I will struggle with writing songs for theatrical projects that feel general. My songs are really specific. They're really tied to what's going on in the context of, you know, however they appear.

[3:39] Joe Iconis: And so, and, you know, in my time in the theater world, there have been many shows that have sort of been well-loved by audiences and critics and all that sort of thing that have songs that are quite general. And so I always find myself struggling with this thing of like, should I be trying to write more generally? Should I be trying to write more broadly in the hopes that I will become, you know, rich and famous and live forever? Main street, here I come.

[4:15] Andrew Barth Feldman: Main street, here I come.

[4:16] Joe Iconis: Yeah. And so, and so, which is all just to say with the Archie song, I was like, I'm going to write, I'm going to write one of those songs. And so I wrote like, I wrote a chorus and a couple of verses, and I didn't even write a bridge, which for me is like, it's so insane.

[4:30] Andrew Barth Feldman: Rare.

[4:31] Joe Iconis: And like went into the studio and, and, and made this song. And, and, you know, I remember like got to the middle section. It's like, I need something here. And I think, so Brent Stratathan is playing the drums on this track, who I've known since he was seven years old.

[4:48] Andrew Barth Feldman: And who produced this track.

[4:49] Joe Iconis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he was just like, oh, give me an instrumental. And I was like, an instrumental? What? Like, no, where nothing happens? And he was like, yeah, just be an instrumental. And so there's like an instrumental bridge on this song in a way that I think it's the only, it's probably the only moment of like actual instrumental on this entire 44-something hour album.

[5:11] Andrew Barth Feldman: And, and, and I think because of all those things, it's the song, I can almost listen to it as if I had nothing to do with it. You know what I mean? And I, I like it a lot. And, and I think that it, it's, I think it's really specific about being general, you know? And like even when, when there's a line that says, you know, I don't have a clue of even what my story is about. I mean, that was literally me being like, I don't even know what the story of this thing is going to be. And I'm not thinking it out. It's like, I'm not, I'm not going to like pitch a story because I'm not going to get this job.

[5:42] Jennifer Ashley Tepper: A lot of subtext in this Archie song.

[5:44] Andrew Barth Feldman: Truly, yeah.

[5:45] Joe Iconis: In this very great Archie song, that is about nothing. You wrote two songs for this like tryout for this Archie thing.

[5:50] Andrew Barth Feldman: I did, yeah, yeah.

[5:51] Joe Iconis: The other one is not on this album, but how cool that this is one of my favorite things about the album. We get to hear so many songs that were like demo songs for musicals that maybe happened and you didn't write them or maybe never happened or maybe did happen and you wrote them. Like there's a lot of that, which like I loved about musical theater albums when I was growing up of like, Oh, here's a musical theater writer I love. And like, Oh, here's a song of theirs that they, you know, demoed. It's really cool.

[6:13] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to think so. I mean, in any, any of those songs like that on this album, I think standalone, like they, they work as their own thing, you know? And I think that my, my hope is that people will be like, Oh, you know, if people happen to know that this started as like a, you know, a demo song for a, you know, an Archie's Archie, the Archie comics project. Cool. But you could, you know, you could still listen to it and be like, Oh, this is a song inspired by the Archie comics as I have. Cause that's the other thing. I have written so many songs that are inspired by, you know, pieces of art. And it's so funny. Sometimes people like hear songs of mine that are, you know, that's like, you know, I have a song that's on the album called Norman. That's inspired by psycho. And people, you know, will be like, Oh my God, they were going to turn psycho into a musical. And it's like, no, I just was inspired by psycho and I chose a song.

[7:00] Joe Iconis: So I think that, you know, it can, it can, it can hang with those, with those others. But, you know, I also really love the, like, I love that on the album it's position is right after ammonia because I, I just feel like all the things that the woman is going through and all like this, this, you know, this sort of resentment and frustration and disappointment that that woman is, is dealing with over the course of, you know, eight, nine minutes and ammonia. If, if she knew that like the next song was this one, I think she would, she would turn murderous. You know, it's like, it's, it feels like it's just slap in the face that this bit of like, you know, youthful optimism and his whole, like his, and his biggest problem is like, he doesn't know what his problem is.

Like, it's just about nothing and he's just so like happy about being like, what do I want to do with my life? It's so, I think it's a, it, it, it makes me laugh. I think it's, it's, it's darkly funny and, and kind of cruel. The song's position on the album.

[7:55] Andrew Barth Feldman: And this song is performed on the album by Andrew Barth Feldman. This day in the studio was like amazing because correct me if I'm wrong, like Andrew hadn't performed this song live.

[8:06] Joe Iconis: It was like a magical album.

[8:09] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah. Yeah, you know, I, I decided I wanted to put it on the album real late. And, and Andrew is someone who I've known also since he was quite young.

[8:18] Joe Iconis: He is quite young right now. Yeah. But yeah, so long and it's Andrew played Roger in a youth theater production of rent that my brother, Phil Iconis, the great Phil Iconis directed in like 2000 and, you know, maybe 16 or something. And he, he was like, he was like 13 or something. And so I was always aware of Andrew, you know, from the Long Island theater scene.

[8:40] Andrew Barth Feldman: I wish I saw that production. I wish we had a bootleg.

[8:42] Joe Iconis: He was amazing.

[8:43] Andrew Barth Feldman: Are we going to talk about Jonathan Larson and every one of these so far?

[8:46] Joe Iconis: Yeah. On brand. Andrew Barth Feldman.

[8:48] Andrew Barth Feldman: But Andrew Barth Feldman, he was amazing. He was like one of those people who I, when I first saw him, I was like, this kid is so, he is so talented that he actually seems to me, I was like, he seems like older than he is. Like he, I could see this kid not getting work as like a young actor because he's so talented that he, yeah, that he seems like he's like 45 years old.

[9:08] Joe Iconis: But I was incorrect about that, that part of Andrew Barth Feldman's journey. But I, you know, so I've known him for so long and he was like one of, he had a theater company on Long Island himself and he directed and starred in one of the first licensed productions of Be More Chill, which occurred because he planned to do it before we were ever off Broadway.

[9:30] Andrew Barth Feldman: And so it occurred like during our off-Broadway run, he was directing and starring in Be More Chill on Long Island, which is insane.

[9:38] Joe Iconis: And so this felt like a really fitting first collaboration for us and yeah. And his, he's just one of those human beings, right? He's so insanely talented that it just, it explodes. The talent explodes out of him. He's so adept and just so fun and yeah.

[9:56] Andrew Barth Feldman: And he sounds like a, like a total rock star and is the embodiment of youthful enthusiasm, which feels appropriate.

[10:02] Joe Iconis: Perfect. Perfect. And I think he, and it was Ian Keighley recorded the original demo, right? And I think they're the only two people to sing this.

[10:10] Andrew Barth Feldman: No, we might've done it one other time. Eric William Morris sang it there.

[10:16] Joe Iconis: A regular Archie type.

[10:18] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the nose.

[10:21] Joe Iconis: But Ian originating it on the demo is so funny. Cause it's the epitome of the like Joe Iconis School of Performing Arts thing where like on this track, this person's singing on this track. They're the copiest, you know, like whatever the like prevailing sentiment is about like art, Steph and Wolfie and like hopping in of different people in different jobs.

[10:38] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah, truly.

[10:39] Joe Iconis: Ian Keighley can do it all. And Ian's actually singing backups on this track. But he, yeah, but there is a version floating around with Ian singing lead vocal and it's really great.

[10:46] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah. I wish, you know, it's, we could, we can definitely do an EP of songs on the album just recorded by other people. Like there, you know, there are like literal recordings that exist with other humans singing these tunes. So yeah, maybe. And if they ever do, do do an Archie musical or something, I'll be so excited to listen to the album that will be written by a famous pop writer.

[11:12] Joe Iconis: Yeah. Honestly though, I feel like Andrew can play it for years. So if you get another crack at it, just put like a red wig on him and have him sing this. And some famous pop writer will probably still get the job, but it would be great.

[11:23] Andrew Barth Feldman: Yeah. We'll try again.

[11:26] Joe Iconis: Hey, thanks so much for listening or watching to my podcast. Do me a favor and go to wherever you just listen to or watch this thing and subscribe or like, or give us a great rating or review, and then head to bpn.fm slash album to find out even more information about this podcast, more ways to watch more ways to listen and check out my album album. Thanks so much for hanging out.

[11:50] Joe Iconis: Album podcast is executive produced by Liz Armstrong produced by Dori Berenstein, Alan Seals, Kim Garris and the rest of the team at the Broadway podcast network. Be sure to visit bpn.fm slash album for both audio and video versions of this podcast and to listen to album.