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[0:00] NIck Cartell: Whenever you come into town. And you know, book tickets are not cheap out here for a family or a couple. But you could hear "Bring Him Home" for free ninety-nine. You can stream it right now. That is right. So tell me, when did the idea come for "A Thousand Spotlights"?

[0:20] NIck Cartell: So, you know, it's funny. We, um, Brian Eads, who was my music director for a very long time on "Les Mis," uh, he introduced me to the folks at Club 44 Records, and we all started brainstorming. Originally, we were just gonna put out an EP of like six, seven songs that was all gonna be Disney. Um, because Disney is such a huge part of my life, and it's, you know, I grew up going to the parks and I worked for Tokyo Disney. Um, I met my wife while working for Disney. Um, we just got off a Disney cruise like two weeks ago. Yeah. So, um, but then as we started talking, I do this travel day Q&A on my social media just to keep in touch with my fans, and they can ask questions and all sorts of things, and everybody kept asking me, when are we gonna hear your version of "Bring Him Home"?

When is there gonna be a recording? We can't buy anything of you singing at the merch stand. Like, when is that gonna happen? I was like, you know what? And so I started talking with them. Um, I reached out to Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, who wrote "Les Mis," and I said, I would love to record this with your permission. And I got the green light across the board. And so we, uh, we put it on the album, and it kind of changed the course of the album, where we added not only some Disney, but also some Broadway and some kind of like we took "On the Street Where You Live" and we made it a bit more jazzy, and, um, you know, so it really is kind of like a love letter to, you know, where I've been in my career, where I am now, and where I want to go in the future.

[1:50] NIck Cartell: Uh, firstly, uh, shout out to Club 44 Records because they put out great recordings. They're amazing. Amazing. I'm so honored to be included in the catalog. Um, and you, as you, I mean, Brian Eads is, uh, one of the most insane piano players, uh, conductors, arrangers in history. I don't know how to explain him. I am so lucky that the universe connected us on "Les Mis" because that is now he's a lifelong friend. He's like a brother to me. And to have his genius on this album, his orchestrations and his arrangements of "Bring Him Home" and "Blue Skies" and "Music of the Night," that was all his envisioning of it. And I was just like, just run, just run and have fun, and that's what he did. He music directed a show for me in a week at 54 Below with no charts. He just sits this key, that key, play this. This makes sense. He just is a mad scientist about it.

[2:53] NIck Cartell: Yeah. It makes no sense whatsoever that he's able to do what he does. Alright, so Brian and I went through the tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico with Brian, but that is a story for after this interview. The track listing, there's songs that you know. So we can, so how did you come up with these, you know, "Blue Skies," "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes," Disney. Yeah. But then "It All Fades Away," Jason Robert Brown. So how did you come up with that?

[3:27] NIck Cartell: You know, we started looking at songs that I love to sing, but also songs that like weave a story for me. And I, in my solo shows and when I perform, it's not, you're not just, I feel like people just don't want to hear you just sing, right? I want to be able to tell a story. And so that is what I feel like I'm doing in this album, right? So we opened the album with "Blue Skies," which was the last, I did an Irving Berlin review called "I Love a Piano" in Arizona, right before I moved to New York City. And for me, I got to sing that song, "Blue Skies," in that show. It was the first time that I really heard that song, and I fell in love with it. And then it just became this song for any time that there was a big move in my life or a big step forward.

It was a song that was associated with that, right? It was right before I moved to New York. It was in my first solo show at 54 Below, and now it's on my first album. And again, when we did my first solo show, Brian Eads was my music director, and he did that arrangement, and then he took it and he just enhanced it and made it that much better.

[4:30] NIck Cartell: So that's why that's on there. Um, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" is just, it's my like Disney dream, you know what I mean? It's just, it's slow, it's jazzy, and, uh, it's what I would want people to put on on like a rainy day, and just so they could hear just something just in the background, or they can just sit and listen to it and enjoy it. Um, "It All Fades Away," I love Jason Robert Brown. Who doesn't love Jason Robert Brown? And to get to hear, you know, that song. When I remember the first time that I heard that song, I got goosebumps up and down. And I was like, someday I'm gonna sing that song. And so when this album, when we started looking at it, we needed another song, and I was like, that's what I want to put on there.

That is it right there, because it also reminds me of my wife and how, um, you know, she has done so much for me and my career, and you know, to lift me up and to, um, push me forward. And so, and if it all, like it's crazy, but if it all fades away, it will just be her, and that is what is so important to me.

[5:31] NIck Cartell: Um, you know, so I mean, I hope that folks walk away going, not only did we hear "Bring Him Home," and you know, "Music of the Night" and some big Broadway stuff, but we heard some kind of like pared-down intimate material and stuff that is just fun to sing. Um, and that's why like "Why Should I Worry" is on there. You know, it's that nostalgic hit to the senses, uh, that I absolutely love, right? I'm going through the list and I'm like, oh, "Blue Skies," "Dream," "Fades Away," "Street." What, "Why Should I Worry?" And it hit me like, oh, Nick's gotta be my age. Because once I saw it was from "Oliver," I thought like, Billy Joel, "Why Should I Worry?" Yes.

[6:19] NIck Cartell: And see, and here's the other thing, right? Is that, and I posted this on my social media. I have, it's weird. I have all these like "Les Mis" connections in my life, right? But there's a "Les Mis" connection to that song, which let me take you back. I'm gonna do like the quick CliffsNotes version, right? Um, Alain Boublil wrote "Les Mis," lyrics to "Les Mis." He went and saw a revival of the production of "Oliver" on the West End. And as soon as he saw the character Artful Dodger, it reminded him of Gavroche from "Les Misérables." And then he went and called Claude-Michel, and they wrote "Les Misérables," right? So that's how like the musical was born is him watching a stage version that was produced by Cameron Mackintosh. Cut to, "Oliver and Company" is the Disney version of "Oliver Twist," right? Sung by, and that song, "Why Should I Worry," is sung by the character Dodger, who is the Artful Dodger from the book. So again, it all connects.

[7:23] NIck Cartell: It all connects, and it is also a catchy bop. It's so fun. And so it was just like, it was one of those things that as soon as we were listening, we were trying to figure out, you know, something fun to put on the album. That was it. And I was like, that's the song. I remember going to see this in the theaters, and I remember, you know, watching this movie.

[7:44] NIck Cartell: So what I love about the album is that when you have a song, you have the songs, like you said, you think "Music of the Night" and "Bring Him Home," and even "You'll Be in My Heart," like which has become a, it's a Phil Collins and then Broadway and then big beautiful song, but you gender bend a song like "Never Enough." I mean, Lauren Allred, I mean, there's sound to her a vocal monster. So, uh, and people, "The Greatest Showman." I mean, I'm here standing in Newark, New Jersey, teaching musical theater at NJPAC, and these kids go bananas for "The Greatest Showman." Like it is a peanut. What was it like to get that arranged? Because that's a big old beast.

[8:26] NIck Cartell: That's a big old piece. And again, that is all Brian Eads. I said, I feel like I want to do a gender-bent song, and I feel like this is the one to do, right? It is big, it's catchy. And, uh, Brian's like, okay. With his Nashville time, I got you. And, uh, he, uh, he walked away and he came back with that arrangement that not only do we have all the bells and whistles because it's with a full orchestra, but then he put a key change in that, and I was like, hold on, wait a minute. You all right, great, wonderful. So not only did it, I feel like it pays homage to what was and what is on that film and what she recorded, but I think that then we've changed it just enough to make it kind of my own, uh, which is what I love.

[9:21] Robert Bannon: I'm here, I'm here for it.

[9:24] NIck Cartell: I can't wait. The album is streaming wherever music is heard. It is, it's out. Well, this is, we're taping this the week before we're airing this, so it's out this week, everybody. If we're listening to this, look, all you need to know is July 26th. The album is going to be, that is, we can stream it wherever music is heard.

[9:46] Robert Bannon: That is correct. Available on all digital streaming platforms.

[9:50] NIck Cartell: We're out there, and we've got two concerts coming up this weekend in Arizona to officially release the album, so that's really exciting. Um, but yeah, I just hope that people enjoy it as much as I had so much fun making it.

[10:05] Robert Bannon: So here's my question for you, Nick. You're on the road, you're gonna be with Les Mis for this tour.

[10:11] NIck Cartell: Yep.

[10:12] Robert Bannon: How do you find, and I know you have to take care of, I mean, you are singing your face off for three hours every night. And I'm gonna have to remind my husband when I come see you in the, I think it's the winter.

[10:23] NIck Cartell: I think it's later.

[10:25] Robert Bannon: It's December, it's December.

[10:26] NIck Cartell: I think you're coming.

[10:27] Robert Bannon: Yeah. We are not gonna sing your track the whole time. Because he's off book. So I'm not being shady, but like what other shows come to town, he's like, you can go. But Les Mis, I got told that's date night booked. So when you're up there singing like that, your spare time, yeah, I know you want your own NIck Cartell moment, music and shows and whatever, but you have such a responsibility to do this show. So how do you marry the two together?

[10:39] NIck Cartell: Um, well, it takes a lot of planning. It takes a lot of planning. So even just to record this album, I actually took a vacation week from the show, um, and I didn't tell anybody what I was doing, and I went to Nashville and recorded an album and then went right back to the show the following week. Um, and so, and right now we're on a short little layoff from the tour. We've had this month off where it is lined up with a concert at 54 Below and the album release and two concerts at the end of the month before flying right back to tour at the end of July.

[11:33] NIck Cartell: And so it's a lot of planning and it's a lot of logistical like working here and there. But I'm so happy to do it and I'm just so thankful that I get to continue to portray Jean Valjean across the country, um, with, you know, at this point over 1200 shows under my belt.

[11:38] Robert Bannon: Wow, that's insane. That's insane.

[11:38] NIck Cartell: So when people, it's one of the greatest things when you walk out of the stage door. I know we, when we talked about tour life, uh, and when you guys were all here, it's really moving to me. Growing up in this area, we've taken theater, I take musical theater. I grew up in Jersey, so like it's just, well, everyone has access to this and they don't. So when your trucks and buses roll into town, they're craving this material. So when people meet you at the stage door and they ask for your work, yourself, can I stream your songs? Can I listen to your music? How that there are people out there who are craving your work because your work stays with them. It may be the only show they see all year.

[12:37] NIck Cartell: And I think that that is what is so important to me, also, right? Like, and I think that is the thing that keeps me grounded in this show and keeps it fresh for me. Everybody asks me all the time, like, how do you do it over 1200? I'm like, well, I'm like, not only do I get to sing a beautiful show every night, the material is so rich and this character is so deep, and but it's the audiences. They change every night and how they react to something. Or, you know, I love when audience members go, I caught this one little look that you gave to Cosette, and I just loved it. And that makes me go, Great, then I've done my job because then you are actually invested in every little single part of the story.

[13:18] NIck Cartell: Um, you know, and like you said, to have, you know, The Greatest Showman, which was a musical movie that brought theater to communities that normally don't get that. There's a responsibility that we as artists that are out there that are touring with shows like Les Mis or any show, we have a responsibility to make sure that we're bringing the best product that we can because you don't know who the next Tony Award winning artist is that is sitting out there in that audience.

[13:50] Robert Bannon: What literally from around the world.

[13:54] NIck Cartell: Yeah. Well, I know that there are producers out there and directors and playwrights and that are saying, We have a big giant monster show like Phantom, like Jesus Christ Superstar, like Les Mis, and we need to call Nick because Nick, you are literally, when you think of the shows that have these male sounding voices giant, you've done them all. So do you have a routine? Do you have a, like, do you just have you sold your soul? Like what is, what's the trick?

[14:28] NIck Cartell: I have not sold my soul. Uh, but it is a routine. Like I honestly, being in a show like Les Mis and singing a role like Jean Valjean, I live like a monk. I really do. Like, it is like down to like get up, glass of water, steam, cup of coffee, eat a little breakfast, go to the gym, come back, you know, and so that's like warming up over the course of the day. A lot of people ask me, they're like, but you just work three hours a night. And I'm like, no, no, it's not just three hours a night. I'm like, for me, it is I am up and moving and getting my body warmed up, and I'm warming up for six hours before that three hour show at night, just to be sure that my voice is ready to go to do the vocal gymnastics that I have to do at night.

[15:15] NIck Cartell: Um, but then on top of that, I also have a four-year-old daughter, and she's on the road with me with my wife, and so it's playing with her, and it's, you know, that I think is also important because it keeps me grounded. So I'm not like, I'm Jean Valjean. No, I'm dad in the morning, you know, and I get up and she's like, Daddy, get up and make me breakfast. I want some, please. I want some pancakes and some apples. And I'm like, all right, well, great. I stole a loaf of bread last night, but this morning I gotta get up and I gotta make pancakes, you know.

[15:43] Robert Bannon: About you being Jean Valjean for 3,000 people a night.

[15:46] NIck Cartell: She does, she wants her breakfast.

[15:48] Robert Bannon: Does not care.

[15:49] NIck Cartell: And honestly, I'm better for it. I'm better for it.

[15:52] Robert Bannon: Your album, a lot of the through line, I'm just assuming, is a lot of love. There's a lot of songs about love. There's a lot of songs about community, family. Um, even songs like Why Should I Worry. I mean, like that, like there, there's lines through it that, uh, that talk about, about yeah, and you take Never Enough, which may be one of the most beautiful love songs, or you take It All Fades Away, one of the most beautiful love songs. For you to do what you do, you need, you have a support system. You have your wife and your support system around you.

[16:18] NIck Cartell: A hundred percent. And I could not do this life, this career, this job, this album without them and their support. Um, and so it is fun that my wife and daughter are on Why Should I Worry. They actually have a little line in Why Should I Worry. And um, y'all should listen just right at the end of You'll Be in My Heart because my daughter comes in and makes a little cameo at the end of that too.

[16:45] Robert Bannon: Um, and so that's really special.

[16:48] NIck Cartell: Well, we're gonna follow you on all the social media. We're gonna stream the album. The album, come on, you better get stream the album wherever the album is out, out the 26th.

[17:02] Robert Bannon: 26th, and we're gonna see you on the road. I hope people, you know, talk about the album. Go follow, find him, find him at the stage or tell him your favorite track.

[17:12] NIck Cartell: Please. And if you get a physical copy, I will sign it for you. Or I'll sign your phone if it's a digital copy. I'm kidding.

[17:22] Robert Bannon: We are, there are physical copies available, they'll be available to buy.

[17:30] NIck Cartell: Yeah, there are physical copies available to buy. We are, I don't know exactly where they're gonna be, so we will make sure we get that information to you, put it in the comments or something like that. But there are physical copies that you will be able to purchase if you still own a CD player. You can actually have a physical copy of the CD. And it's also great, like he said, like you get a signed copy, it's just a great, it's a great memento, it's a great souvenir of your experience.

[17:45] Robert Bannon: Nick, be on the road, have amazing shows. I can't wait to see you this winter. We'll be streaming the album. We'll be listening and we'll be looking for in your breaks when you pop back to New York or pop back to West Coast or wherever you got a little concert moment.

[18:00] NIck Cartell: I always post everything on my social media. So follow me there. You'll be up to date on everything that's going on.

[18:06] Robert Bannon: You're such a pleasure, you're so damn good and you're a sweetheart and we love, we root, root, root and love you here. Thank you for spending time with us. Congratulations again for having me today. This has been a blast.