Jorge Rivera-Herrans

February Choice Video (1 of 2) - Pick Me (2019 Cut Song)

Added 2024-02-23 16:15:37 +0000 UTC

Hello my friends! This is the first of two February choice videos! This is the cut song titled "Pick Me" from when I first started writing EPIC in 2019. In fact, I think I wrote this song before I even thought of the title of EPIC.

My thought process when I was writing this song was I was a donkey on a lillypad. I decided to soar through the atmosphere and channel the energy of The Wiggles and Lin Manuel Miranda, and when I returned to my abode I was greeted by Bilbo Baggins, who joined me for tea at the bar Billy Joel references in Piano Man.

Okay, jokes aside, this was right off the heels of my first musical, which at the time was still titled "Stupid Humans." When I started writing this, I figured I would try to fit The Iliad in Act 1, and The Odyssey in Act 2, but I eventually decided not to do this so that I could focus on The Odyssey. I was still super inspired by Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, and so I jokingly say that most songs I wrote before 2020 could be categorized as either Hamiltonian or Evan Hansien. That is, I still hadn't quite found my own writer voice yet. However, as with all the other cut songs, this was an important stepping stone towards the EPIC we have today!