William Shishmanian & Brooke Trumm
"Fade Away"
- When did you first discover theater/what was your first experience?
WS: My first experience with theater was auditioning for my hometown community theater's production of "The Sound of Music." While my dazzling rendition of "Ode to Joy" did not land me a role, my mom was cast as Sister Berthe, and I've cheered her on in many theatrical productions, ever since!
BT: I grew up going to local shows and watching musicals on PBS with my family. I've always loved watching musicals and was a big 'music enthusiast' like my parents. It was only after being a drummer for 7 years that I became interested in writing.
- When/how did you become a writer? Is there a writer, show, or text that particularly inspired you?
WS: I've been writing music since I was about 10 years old, with my first songs ambitiously tackling topics such as world peace, and conserving the environment (with hard hitting lyrics such as, "This world, this world... We all live in this world.") As a guitarist, "Spring Awakening" was the first musical I saw that really made me believe I could work in this field, and not only as a singer/songwriter, or supporting musician.
BT: I worked on my first musical when I was 16 with my best friend Leslie. She was the writer and I was the orchestrator. I later wrote a show of my own in undergrad where I took influence from Sound of Music and Andrew Lloyd Webber's shows. My writing is very different now than it was then, but I've always loved ALW's soaring melodies.
- How do you describe your style/work?
WS: My writing is often guitar-driven, and pulls from an array of genres, including folk, rock, and contemporary musical theater. As a trans man, a lot of my work includes LGBTQ characters and stories, though the heart of just about every piece is human emotion.
BT: While I have styles I come back to sonically like folk, rock, and classical, I like to think my sound is always changing and growing. It may sound different from song to song but still sounds like me. I think about music in terms of groove and what feels natural, and build off of that with structure and deliberate choices. I also write about subjects that are true to my experience in the hope that through giving a piece of myself, I can reach other people.
- What is most rewarding to you about writing music?
WS: To me, writing music is a language, a puzzle, a spiritual practice, and a little bit magic. It's so rewarding to work on a craft that can help people learn, heal, and process life, while using the tools I love the most: instruments and words.
BT: Every step of the process. From the inkling of an idea, to sitting down to write, to seeing an audience respond to it. It's all a blast, especially when you're lucky enough to write with people who make collaborating such a joy.