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[0:09] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the round table with me, Robert Bannon. Welcome to the round table, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon. You're listening to us on Broadway World, the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeart, Spotify, everywhere. Total world domination is what we're going for. You know who else is dominating? See that transition. Do you know who else is dominating music right now? I'm literally this album. I don't think we're all ready for this album. If you love the standards, the classics, the music that you know and that you love, there is an album that is coming out, and there are tour dates that you need to get your tickets for all the way through the end of this year and into next year, all around this country.

This next artist is stunning, stunning, stunning. And the fit like the people you love, like the people that you love, like Michael Buble and John Mayer, and they love her. So you need to love her too because they know what they're talking about. The one and only Stella Cole is here. Welcome to the round table.

[1:10] Stella Cole: Oh my gosh, what an introduction. I'm blushing. Stop.

[1:14] Robert Bannon: This is all true. It's all true things. That I first heard you singing "Uptown Girl."

[1:23] Stella Cole: Okay. I love that. Yes, PMJ.

[1:26] Robert Bannon: At the postmodern jukebox with Scott and the whole team, and your voice, you say, Who is this person? And where is it coming from?

[1:34] Stella Cole: I'm so glad you liked our Judy Garland rendition of "Uptown Girl."

[1:41] Robert Bannon: I am obsessed with your rendition of every song that you sing.

[1:46] Stella Cole: Thank you so much. That's so sweet.

[1:48] Robert Bannon: Where are you from? Where were you born?

[1:51] Stella Cole: I was born in Champaign, Illinois. Not spelled like the drink. That would be so much fun. But Champaign, Illinois, and I grew up in Springfield, Illinois, a really relatively small city in Illinois.

[2:04] Robert Bannon: Like the Abraham Lincoln place.

[2:06] Stella Cole: The Abraham Lincoln place. Yes, well done. Yeah. And I live in New York now, but the Abraham Lincoln facts are all, you know, in my roots.

[2:14] Robert Bannon: I actually don't know that many facts about Abraham Lincoln. I totally shouldn't have said that. I'm like, name one. I'm like, oh my god, I don't, I actually can't.

[2:22] Robert Bannon: Well, I'm in Detroit, so I'm a mid in the Midwest right now. I could throw a pebble and maybe hit Illinois.

[2:28] Stella Cole: Yeah. And what I love about it is that you don't have to be from New York or LA to sing great American songbook jazz and you could it's everywhere. So where did you fall in love with this music? Like what what did you hear? What did you where did you find it?

[2:42] Stella Cole: Yeah, it's a good question. I confuse people, I think, because I'm, you know, in my mid-20s, and people are expecting me to be much older than that, given that I sing all these songs that were, you know, written 70 years before I was born, or something like that. And yeah, my first introduction to this music was when I was really, really young. It was through first when I was two years old, I saw "The Wizard of Oz" for the first time, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I don't remember, I was two. My parents say that I watched, I asked to watch it every single day for over a year, like obsessed. I had a little Dorothy costume, I had little ruby slippers that I wore around the house all the time. My third birthday was Dorothy themed, not Dorothy themed, it was a "Wizard of Oz" themed, and I was apparently upset because they put Dorothy on the birthday cake and I wanted it to be the wicked witch, which don't you love that for me?

[3:33] Robert Bannon: So Diva at three years old.

[3:36] Stella Cole: As you should. Exactly. So yeah, that was pretty important to me. Judy Garland and her voice and that music. And they started showing me other movies like "Singing in the Rain" and "The Sound of Music" and "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "Mary Poppins," and these are all still my favorite movies to this day. Nothing, nothing about my taste in that way has changed. I just was obsessed. I was memorizing scenes from these movies at such a young age and singing the songs, like when I could barely even talk. So it was just something in my soul. Loved loved these movies.

[4:12] Robert Bannon: What do you remember as the same?

[4:15] Stella Cole: I mean, I was from Jersey, and my grandmother was like obsessed with Sinatra and Dean Martin and Sammy. And you just grow up falling in love and the Broadway canon, which is why we're talking about we're here to talk about an album, everybody, while we're while we're talking and it's called "It's Magic." And when this is out, it's got such an incredible lineup of songs on it that range from Broadway to pop to things that you would be surprised would be on an album of this genre and style. So when did you decide like I'm not just gonna like Judy Garland? I'm not just gonna sing in my house to a hairbrush. Like this is your career, like this is it, baby. You are you're you're out here singing now.

[4:50] Stella Cole: I know. I kind of still can't believe it's my job to like go to all these amazing cities around the country and around the world and just like sing these songs for people. I can't believe it's real, it's beyond my wildest dreams, but actually it's I have a very deep connection to Broadway into musical theater because that was what I was obsessed with in middle school and in high school, and I was, you know, watched all the like behind the scenes vlogs on like Broadway.com with "Phantom of the Opera," and like was obsessed with Sutton Foster and Jonathan Groff, and like I was obsessed with everything Broadway. I lived in Illinois, had never been to New York. I don't think I had a concept that Broadway was actually a real thing but it was always my dream to like go there and be on Broadway because I never dreamed actually I'd be a recording artist. I didn't think I was like I just didn't think that was gonna be a real thing and I can't believe it is. Any I love musical theater more than anything.

[5:49] Robert Bannon: And now you turned it into your job to be a singer was there a moment that you realized something hit was there a break was there a viral moment was there something that you say like okay we built some traction here?

[6:02] Stella Cole: Yeah absolutely well I went to college at Northwestern outside of Chicago for musical theater had another major and minor and studied a bunch of random stuff but actually I got really discouraged in the musical theater program. I was a bit different and sounded different than other people and couldn't belt super high and didn't like pop music and I was just a little bit different. So I had actually quit singing or quit taking it seriously at all by my junior year of college. Singing made me really insecure and my voice lessons made me cry and I just hated it because I was trying to be a pop singer and trying to sound like somebody I didn't sound like trying to imitate other voices. And so COVID hit when I was a junior in college and I took a semester off of school and moved back out of my college dorm and back home with my parents and my little brother and my dog and I started rediscovering these old movies and rediscovering how much I love these artists.

You know I was listening to this Doris Day interview one day with Terry Gross, and I just like I was in my car listening to this interview, and I had to pull over because I was just like crying, being like, oh my gosh, I love this music. And I was just, I was just remembering and just thinking to myself, why did I stop? Why have I stopped doing the thing that I love the most? So it was actually my dad that encouraged me to post singing videos online and get back into it. And at first I was so embarrassed and so worried my friends are gonna see the videos, but I started posting them. And a couple weeks into posting videos every day, I had this video of a Steven Sondheim song. I was singing "Everybody Says Don't" to this karaoke track, and it got like 200,000 views or something, and I was like, what is going on? What in the world? So I think that was like the first moment of like, oh, this is what's happening.

[8:05] Robert Bannon: All the singers out here like myself who post music to social media, don't you just want to push her off the screen, right? How dare you get 200,000 views to the karaoke track? That's my money.

[8:18] Stella Cole: The rest is history while we're talking, everyone, StellaCole.net is where you can go to the website and you can find out more information in all the tour dates. We're gonna hand about the tour and the album in a minute. And then you could also be following on Instagram at Stella K Cole, where you can find all the information about what you're up to and we'll be following as well. So you had an album out, you put out an album, and now you have the new album, and this new album that's coming out. So there's music you could stream right now, and there's music that you're about to be able to stream, the new album, "It's Magic" coming out. How did you pick these songs?

[8:51] Stella Cole: It's a great question. I love this album so much, and I've never been more proud of anything I've made. I've every video I make, I'm so critical of myself and such a perfectionist. And this like lives up to my own standards for myself, actually, which is revolution. That's never happened. So I'm very proud. I'm very excited for people to hear it. And the repertoire of this album, actually, I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in. I just put out my first album last August. So it had only been like six months or something when we recorded it, six months since I had released the last one. And I was thinking about putting all these different songs like "Cry Me a River" and these very moody, like Julie London type things.

And it just wasn't feeling right for some reason. I was gravitating toward all of these beautiful love songs and all these sort of happier, more dreamy songs. And I decided, you know, to lean into that instinct, and I think it makes sense for this moment because you know, there's so much chaos going on in the nation and the world right now. And I think what I look for from this music is comfort and joy and a sense of escapism into this sort of dreamy old Hollywood magical world. And I always use the word magical, and then I'm like, shut up, that's so cheesy. But it is magical, you know. So I think I chose this repertoire based on the feeling I wanted people to have when they were listening to it.

There's this album with Frank Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey that I'm obsessed with, and actually three of the songs from that record are on this record, "Fool's Russian," "Imagination," and I can't actually think of what the third one is, but it exists. And so I took a lot of inspiration from that record, and then the rest of them are just love songs that I have always loved and have at some point in my life been obsessed with. Was actually the suggestion of my producer and manager. His name's Matt Pearson. And he suggested that song. I was like, oh, why didn't I think of that? Like, yes, Doris Day is the best ever. She's been an inspiration of mine for years and was one of the reasons I remembered I love this music. So yeah, I just wanted to create an album that would make people feel maybe a little just a little bit better.

[11:10] Robert Bannon: See, it's got the word magic even on the in the track listing. See, that's you I own it. I would own it. It's magic. The album is magic. It's magic. It's magical. It's magic.

[11:17] Stella Cole: And shout out to Matt and his fancy Grammys and all his fancy acclaim.

[11:25] Robert Bannon: So you sing songs on this album, like "You Sing Till There Was You," which the Beatles did. I mean, it's a music man, it's an homage to the Broadway.

[11:36] Stella Cole: Yes. I have such interesting memories of doing "Music Man" Summerstock and a modernized version of "Music Man" in Connecticut that got shut down after they modernized it without permission, where they took like they gave everyone cell phones and they made "Shapoopy" a disco number.

[11:53] Robert Bannon: I love it. That's amazing.

[11:54] Stella Cole: That is it got shut down. Crazy.

[11:59] Robert Bannon: They came in real that state said, oh no, no, take the disco ball off the stage. They said there are no cell phones and no disco balls in Meredith Wilson, the music.

[12:08] Stella Cole: No, Meredith, there's no electric fans in Meredith Wilson's show. When you take a song like that and it have stood the test of time.

[12:28] Stella Cole: Yeah, well, that's a great question. It definitely is an homage to the music man. Um, I again, musical theater is everything to me. And I think people ask me, you know, there have been so many different versions. What's different about yours? And I think that every version is going to be different because it's a different person singing it, therefore they're telling a different story, if that makes sense. I feel like the thing that I love about this music is that the lyrics are you can put like 50 different stories on top of every song. Um, I think the way that I connect to this music is always through story and through lyrics. Uh, I think it's because I went to acting school, and I really still think of myself as an actor more than a singer or a recording artist.

Um, the story is the first thing to me. And when I give my best performances, I feel like the same way I would if I was in a play or in a musical, like you're just so wrapped up in the telling that story that like you sort of black out and then the song is over. That's when I feel like I've given my best work. The only difference is that in acting, you'd usually be playing someone else, and it's like telling these sort of personal stories of my own life and emotions I've felt through someone else's words. So yeah, still thinking of myself as an actor. I think that we're talking about the album everybody, August 22nd. Make sure you are ready for it to come out and be ready to stream it, get prepared to listen to it and make it a part of your end of summer playlist into the fall for sure.

Um, I think that a lot of times as a singer, I would get the note that you have to connect to the music, being an actor and finding your way in, like Liza Minnelli says every song is a monologue and there's a story. I think that that's such a great hint to find your own truth in the stories that you tell on this album.

[14:16] Stella Cole: So the album comes out, you have this incredible track list. You have this shout out to Decca Records, talk about a legendary record company. Oh my gosh, yeah. What's it been like to work with them and the litany of they know what they're doing? Oh, it's been unreal. I mean, that's been like my dream company to sign to. They're sort of the only label, the Decca Verve label group is the only company still around and has been around since the greats and all of my inspirations were making this music. So, you know, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday and Judy Garland made a record for DECA. So it's been unreal. I definitely cried some tears of joy signing the contract, and a lot of people say a lot of things about major labels these days and how important are they, etc., which I totally understand.

But my experience with DECA is that the people there have just been so music forward and music first, and not about like, oh, we have to make everything viral. They really care about it being good music, and the support they've given me. You know, you've shown those photos from the album cover shoot, and that's something I would have never been able to pull off without them. They've made all these beautiful lyric videos for me and created all this social media content, and it's just been so amazing to have a bigger team on my side while we go into trying to get people to know that this record is out there.

[15:41] Stella Cole: Yeah. Well, speaking of your team, Alan Broadbent, who is, if you know, speaking of Grammy-winning superstars, if you like Natalie Cole, if you like Diana Krall, if you like that music, some of the greatest music ever, then you know his music. What is his contribution to your project and what's it been like to work with him? Alan is everything to me. He's just the sweetest and nicest man ever, even though he's like a genius and just feels like he's living in a different world than me musically. But it's been funny, I was very intimidated at first by Alan's musical knowledge and genius, and he's so freaking good at the piano. Um, and I actually, in talking to him, he orchestrated my last record of my Christmas album as well, and working with him for the third time now, I realized he actually communicates in the exact same way I do about music, which is like through emotions and through, oh, you know, talking about where the string arrangement should go until there is you.

I'm like, oh, well, the first moment feels like you're like standing really close to someone like talking to them, and then in the bridge you're like looking all around and it's the field. And like he thinks about music in actually the exact same way. He just maybe knows a lot more than me about some stuff. But yeah, we're just on the same page. He sent me the demos for these string recordings, you know, it's like these electronic strings that he plays on the piano and they sound sort of awful because they're electronic strings. But I remember I was listening, the first one I heard of the demos was "Till There Was You," and I was sitting waiting in the doctor's office, one of my least favorite places to be, and even though they were electronic strings and I was in the doctor's office, I was so moved by the string arrangement for "Till There Was You" without vocals, without lyrics. I started crying in the doctor's office. He just, like, his music touches me in a way that is sort of, yeah, just so deep and so emotional. I'm so lucky to work with him.

[17:35] Robert Bannon: Well, spoiler alert, it's his music, but it's your music too. I mean, you guys together, your voice and what you bring to it and your musicality with his is going to make this a really special project for everyone to listen to. Now that this baby's gonna be out on the 22nd of August, now you get to hit the road. So, what is a Stella Cole show like? What are we gonna see?

[17:54] Stella Cole: Oh, I love a Stella Cole show, obviously, um, because I do a lot of them every year, and I love what our show has become. You know, on the record, it's all these big string arrangements that are gorgeous. But I tour with my band, which is a trio, piano, upright bass, and drums, and it's a much more intimate feeling and an intimate version of the song, which I think is really nice for people to hear something a little bit, it's the same song, but it's different from the record. Um, and I think people get to know a lot more of my personality on stage. I'm quite a ridiculous person. I tell a lot of really stupid jokes. I'm just an idiot on stage, and I think it's fun because, you know, the image in the music is also glamorous and classy, and I just think it's fun to really be my like 26-year-old self on stage as well.

Um, so yeah, I think people can get to know me better, and people say they feel like they're calmed down or in like this sort of dream world or in a different time, and that's absolutely a goal. And I think people seem to like the shows so far.

[19:00] Robert Bannon: Well, she said it. She said she's 26. I saw in your bio that you were born in 1999. And if I wasn't mad about how many people watch you on YouTube, that was gonna really do it for me.

[19:11] Stella Cole: Well, I get why people try to hide their age, but when you Google like how old is Stella Cole? There's this website called Famous Birthdays, and it says I'm 26, and I don't know how I got on there. I would be mad, but it's like kind of a compliment. It's like, oh, famous birthdays, like my that is a big deal.

[19:27] Robert Bannon: Yeah, she'll just tell you she's 26. You have you're working, they have you out here on the road. You there, I love city wineries. You're doing a lot of the city wineries that are around this country. You're coming to my neck of the woods at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, which is such a gorgeous performing arts center. And then what I've noticed is you in Sony Hall for two nights, and then you go and you head over, um, and we go into all throughout this whole entire year, and then next year the dates are already out on the west coast and then back on the east coast and everywhere, multiple nights like at Sagerstrom Center for the Arts, etc.

[20:01] Stella Cole: Yeah. What's crazy to me is you starting out in clubs and starting out at little venues, your venues, these performing arts centers are getting bigger. There's extended nights, there's runs. What's it like to see the venues change and the tour? It's gotta be amazing.

[20:16] Stella Cole: It's unreal, especially when we're touring in Europe. It's unreal because, you know, I all the theaters in Europe are so beautiful, and just playing these huge halls in London and then Paris, and like all these French people coming up to me, being like, oh yeah, huge fan of your music. I'm like, what are you talking about? You're all the way over there. What do you mean? It just like makes it real in a way that's so unbelievable, and so much fun. The energy of having like a thousand people in a room or whatever it is, um, is so different than having 150 people in the room. And I love doing both. Uh, but yeah, it's been wonderful, and yeah, I'm on my tour grind. This is the time to do it. I'll be on the road as much as I can be for the next couple of years, I think.

[20:58] Stella Cole: StellaCole.net, get your tickets before they're all sold out because they're gonna be gone, like there won't be seats left, and you'll be left out listening in the parking lot with like a little so kind of cool in this cup, yeah.

[21:10] Robert Bannon: What's it like when people that you look up to are big, you know, multi-platinum superstar people? If you David Foster, if you have Michael Bublé, or when the Today Show calls, or when Kelly and Mark call and different places called, they wanted to know about you and your music. What is that like for Stella the Human, like the girl who was singing Judy Garland that's now like, okay, this is happening?

[21:31] Stella Cole: It's a great question. For Stella the Human, it's crazy and overwhelming. And I've definitely had a lot of funny moments. The first one was James Taylor, and I was living at my parents' place during COVID, and I screamed so loud they came upstairs, worried there was a fire or something. And the next one, I think was Michael Bublé. I was on a bus in New York, and again just was like, oh my god, like screamed a little bit, and nobody cared because it's New York. But um, yeah, I've definitely, it's just unreal every time it happens, and I think I cry every time it happens. Um, David Foster seeing like reposting one of my videos was huge because he like doesn't do that for people, so that was insane. I looked up to him and wanted to work with him forever. It's been um, yeah, unreal, I think is the word I would use to describe it. Unreal.

[22:21] Stella Cole: So for us, for everyone that's watching right now, what can we do? We can stream the album. You can stream the album on any streaming platform. If you want to listen to it sort of the old-fashioned way on vinyl or on CD, you can do all of that. You can pre-order it or order it on StellaCole.net. Um, and you can look at my tour dates and if there's anywhere near you or a little car ride from you, then come out to a show. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun. And if you're listening, you can hear the single, the lead single, "Say It," is out now. So if you want a little, a little sprinkle, a little taste, a little magic, a little magic.

[23:00] Stella Cole: A little magic. I think we gotta make merch that say magic. I think we're going to. I think it has to happen. Yeah. Magic. Done. Done. Scene. I'm in. I only want 10%, Stella.

[23:14] Stella Cole: 10%. 10%. That's all. Okay. We can make it. We'll talk.

[23:18] Robert Bannon: Deal. Do you have a plan for when the album comes out? Do you have a lit? Like, are you gonna be waiting up till midnight to press play on Spotify or something?

[23:27] Stella Cole: I should have a plan. I should totally get a plan. I think I'm seeing a show with Shakespeare in the Park that night and opening or something. So that'll be a good distraction, so I'm not too nervous. And then I'm sure at midnight I'll get some friends together and we'll celebrate together.

[23:43] Robert Bannon: Well, we're here for it. We're all gonna be following. If you're not following, make sure you follow on Instagram and make sure you go online, go to the website, pre-save the album, get it set so that the second it comes out, you know are notified. And then across this country, she's on the road. She's sitting performing arts center near you, so make sure you get your tickets. My show is yours. It's an honor to talk to you. I'm so excited for people to listen to this album. Congratulations on everything.

[24:05] Stella Cole: Thank you so much. It was so much fun to talk to you. This was amazing. I appreciate you having me.

[24:09] Robert Bannon: Thank you. Anytime.