‘Hazbin Hotel’ Creator Vivienne Medrano, Songwriters Sam Haft & Andrew Underberg On Creating The Musical Series & Excitement For Season 2: “There’s Plenty More Bangers To Come”
After the success of the pilot episode of Hazbin Hotel in 2019, Vivienne Medrano showed the potential that an adult animated musical series could offer. A potential that saw A24 joining into the animation space, with Fox’s Bento Box Entertainment as producer, leading to an eight episode season on Prime Video and a renewal for season 2. Joining Medrano on the project are songwriters Sam Haft and Andrew Underberg, who used multiple styles of music to give the series a more musical feeling than the pilot episode.
Hazbin Hotel follows Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), daughter of Lucifer and princess of Hell, who dreams of opening a hotel with the (likely impossible) goal of rehabilitating demons to stop Heaven from coming down and culling their population once a year. The Prime series takes place one week after the last extermination, when Charlie learns she has less time to prove her plan can work than she thought as Heaven is planning to return sooner. With the story and music so intrinsically tied together, Medrano, Haft and Underberg collaborated closely on every song to make sure each character’s voice was heard in the lyrics.
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DEADLINE: Vivienne, you made the pilot for this in 2019, what was the process of turning that into a full series for Prime video?
VIVIENNE MEDRANO: Making the pilot took about two to three years, and that was a lot of learning. When it was out, it exploded in this huge way that I was not expecting and A24 came into the picture and they really, really liked it and had a lot of faith in it. They were a little new to the world of animation, so we were kind of in it together and it wasn’t until a little bit later that Amazon came in, kind of in a similar way where they were very passionate about it. They saw the potential in it and they took the chance and now it’s out and it’s really exciting. I feel like it had a similar reaction that the pilot did, which was very cool.
DEADLINE: How closely do the three of you work together on writing the songs?
SAM HAFT: Very, very closely. I would say we spend a lot of time on Zoom and in person working through every song assignment. That is one of the things that does separate this process from a lot of other assigned professional songwriting, is that Viv has such a clear vision of what these musical sequences are. And, not to butter you up, but I think that comes in a big way from Viv’s really encyclopedic knowledge of theater and musicals and it comes with a really clear sense of the purpose that songs should serve, plot-wise, character-wise, and what moments each musical sequence needs to deliver. As we work through these songs, we have a lot of check-in points where it’s, ‘Does this moment hit the way we want this moment to hit? Does this phrasing make this aspect of the character clear?’ We’re really very closely in touch all throughout this process.
ANDREW UNDERBERG: The other excellent part of the collaboration is Viv obviously knows the characters better than anyone. So, in terms of the lyrics, there are specific words or phrases that may or may not be of a character that really only Viv could know.
HAFT: And to add to that, something that is so different compared to basically any other musical, is that the style of the music is not one style throughout the show. You typically say, “Here’s this musical, it is this style of music.” Whereas the styles of music are governed by the characters, and we have the freedom to do that because with television, we don’t have to have one orchestra in front of a stage the entire time. Each character can really have their own orchestra, and those orchestras can combine when those characters have duets. And it’s a really fascinating way to do genre in a musical.
MEDRANO: And just to cap it off, I work really closely because, creatively, the show is very reliant on the music serving a very specific purpose in the episode. So, me being the head writer as well, I have a lot of oversight over the whole season and over the whole script. And usually my biggest contribution to the music is just lyrical tweaks. Even though I love music and I’m very versed in it, like Sam said, I’m not an actual songwriter. I can’t read music, I can’t write music. So, it’s a very magical skill to me, but I really like being involved in the process.
DEADLINE: The lyrics were perfect for each character. I mean, Alex Brightman as Adam just saying “guitar solo, fuck yeah” in the middle of making guitar sounds for “Hell Is Forever”… if that doesn’t just tell you everything about a character in a few words, I don’t know what does.
HAFT: I will say, credit to Alex Brightman. “Guitar solo, fuck yeah” was an in-booth ad-lib. He was initially supposed to have just a ‘mouth guitar solo’ where he’s just making guitar sounds, and the more we played with the song, the more in character Alex Brightman got. And then he had this take where he did his “guitar solo, fuck yeah.” And instantly we were like, “That is so Adam, there’s no way we can’t use that take.”
MEDRANO: That was the best take, but there was a couple where it was like he transcended into becoming Jack Black for a second. That was a fun song. I always remember that because he got really into it and sounded full on like a different person. I loved it.
DEADLINE: Speaking of Alex, what was it like casting the series?
MEDRANO: I really liked the casting process, because once I find the voice of my characters, I get very, very attached and I am relatively picky. With this one, there was a little bit of complication in the sense that there were pre-established voices from the pilot, and they were very, very good and very, very iconic. But the biggest factor for the show was the music. It was always meant to be a musical. In the pilot, the singing and the voice acting were separate and that was not feasible for the series. So, we went to the Broadway world for a lot of the auditions, and the people that we found not only embody the characters so well, but are also some of the most talented actors that I’ve worked with.
Casting was fun, but also a challenge because there were voices that I was kind of attached to and that the audience was attached to [from the pilot], and I wanted to honor that so it was very important to me to recreate that for the series. But overall casting, especially for new characters, has been a really fun experience because auditions bring so much and sometimes there’s something that I don’t really expect. For example, Joel Perez, I didn’t know what I wanted for Valentino, but his audition was so in character and so funny, and just so great that it really became the character. And he has a lot of ability to be flexible in his voice acting.
DEADLINE: And then when you get them in the booth, what is it like working with them to get the songs right?
HAFT: Well, we are also fortunate that we get to witness a lot of the voice direction from the dialogue voice director Richard Horvitz, who is really a true legend in the field. It does feel like part of it is we are getting a masterclass in direction from one of the best every time we do this, because we’re usually coming in at the tail end of a dialogue session. We’re getting to see Richard do his thing. Sometimes one or both of us are in person in the studio with Richard while it’s happening, and that really has made a tremendous difference in how we direct. But beyond that, I think to continue the thought of Alex Brightman and his ad-Libs, a big part of it is letting the actors have fun with it, because it is really, really apparent when someone is giving a performance while they’re having a good time. It becomes very infectious, particularly with music, so a big part of it is letting people have the best time they can have while also delivering the takes that we need.
MEDRANO: It’s really fun to me because I’m involved in the VO side of the direction, but I take a major backseat in the music usually, unless there’s something I’m very specific about. But the music sessions are always fun because it’s so cool to hear them manifest the songs with the real voices.
DEADLINE: What are some of your biggest highlights working on season one of Hazbin Hotel?
UNDERBERG: Two highlights really stick out from our recording sessions. Our very first record, which was with Erika [Henningsen] for “Happy Day In Hell”. No one really knew what we were getting into.
MEDRANO: That one was special. I want to see if at some point we can release the first take she did because it was so solid. I remember me and Richard were just like stunned, because it was our first time hearing any of the music live and that was a cool feeling. She almost sang the whole thing, all the way through, but then the last note was so big and so hot that she ran out of air for it. It was a brilliant first take.
UNDERBERG: And then the other, Sam and I often talk about this, was Blake [Roman]’s last line of “Poison”, where he just brought something to it in terms of being able to infuse that raw emotion in a way that his voice breaks in a very realistic way. I remember getting goosebumps when it happened.
HAFT: It was such a treat to begin a working relationship with Keith David as well, because I think he was the one cast member that Andrew and I were kind of a little nervous to work with, and we just didn’t know what to expect. We were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Keith David.’ And he came in for a first session and we really wanted to make a good impression, and then we got an email that week that Keith wanted to rehearse with us. And after that it was like, ‘Okay, he’s all there.’ There was no separation between we’re crew and he’s cast, we all just want to really kick ass and show the best side of ourselves in this show. He was so committed to his performance and his role and I think it shows. “Loser, Baby” is such a highlight on the soundtrack, and he’s so amazing in it.
DEADLINE: How is season two coming along?
MEDRANO: I’m really excited, it’s coming along good. Obviously, we can’t speak too much to where it’s at or when it’s at, but I’m incredibly proud of it visually. For songwriting, I think it’s safe to say that there’s plenty more bangers to come.
HAFT: I don’t want to call our shot here, but I do honestly think we outdid ourselves. I think season one, there was still so much I’m very proud of, but there was also so much that we were learning, and I feel like we’ve taken all of that experience and we know how to do this now in a way that we don’t need to figure it out on the fly. Season two is just so polished and I’m so proud of the team.
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