LA LA LAND lyrists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul talk to Entertainment Weekly about how they landed that gig via flying to LA on their own dime, pretending to already be in town and writing the lyrics for “City of Stars” as a free demo all by following the loving, but pushy, advice of their manager (me).
A few additional details:
1. OVERCOMING INITIAL REJECTION
I had set up a phone call between Pasek and Paul and the director and composer that did not land them the job. The feedback from the head of music, Carter Armstrong was they liked them but not enough to hire them (not getting a “Hell, Yeah!” was the same as a “No.”)
Sometimes a “No” is actually a, “let’s use that ‘No’ as a roadmap to get to a “Yes.”‘
So I suggested a new game plan.
2. TRUST
I had only been working with Pasek and Paul for a short time when I started pushing them to take the risk of coming to L.A. by covering their own flights and pretending to be in town on the chance the filmmakers might ask to get together.
They had no tangible history with me to earn that trust. It was them electing to take a leap of faith.
3. NO GUARANTEES
They asked, “Are you sure it is going to work?
I said, “There is no guarantee it will, but I can give you a 100% guarantee you WON’T get the job if you DON’T do it.”
4. ADAPTABILITY
They are not normally lyricists. They are songwriters who normally do both words and music. But that is not what was needed on this particular project since composer Justin Hurwitz was already on board. So, they charged things for themselves and elected to just focus on being the answer to the filmmakers problem.
5. BELIEVING IN YOUR OWN TALENT
The guys demoed that first song because they had a belief that it could be good enough to win the decision makers over.
