A Conversation with Mervyn Warren – HuffPost 1.13.12
Mike Ragogna: Mervyn, how are you today?
Mervyn Warren: Very well, thank you.
MR: Let’s talk about your involvement with the movie Joyful Noise starring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah. How did you become connected with this project?
MW: Well, I met the director Todd Graff about 16 years ago, he was one of the writers on the film The Preacher’s Wife, which is another film for which I wrote, arranged, and produced many songs. Even then, before he started directing films, he told me that one day, he wanted to do a movie and that he wanted me to do it and I agreed. Here we are 15, 16 years later.
MR: How did the creative process work?
MW: In this type of film where there are on camera performances, the music has to be recorded prior to shooting. So, rather than showing me a film that didn’t exist yet, he gave me an early script. That was in the summer of 2009, about 3 years ago. His script actually called for songs. He had already chosen some songs that he wanted, but he was still trying to sell the film. One day, he called me and said that he had this crazy idea to stage a reading of the film for potential investors. However, when the script called for someone in the script to sing, he wanted the actors that are a part of this to stand up and sing the song rather than having someone read it. So, we actually crammed some of these songs into the minds of six singers that summer for the reading.
MR: How did he go about choosing the songs for the movie? Were they just some pop and gospel songs that fit the story?
MW: Actually, no. Most of the songs in the movie are pop songs to which I’ve given a gospel-esque treatment. Todd is a huge fan of music, he’s the son of two musicians. He knows what he likes musically, and I suppose as he was writing the story, a couple of his favorite songs came to mind. There were only one or two moments where we actually searched for a song, but generally, he knew what he wanted and asked for those songs pretty clearly–that is, until Dolly Parton joined the project until about a year and a half later. He thought that since we had Dolly doing the project that it would be great to have her write a few original songs. So, there are a few originals in there as well by both Dolly and myself.
MR: And she wrote three songs for this film.
MW: Yes, she did.
MR: Having both Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah on board must have been awesome for you. Can you tell us how those two singers became a part of the project?
MW: I don’t want to misspeak, but I believe Queen Latifah joined the project first. I do know that he wrote Dolly’s character with her in mind, though he’d never met her. He wrote Queen Latifah’s character with his mother in mind because his mother was, in fact, a choir director. I’m not quite sure who joined first though.
MR: I see. Kris Kristofferson is another of the great artists in this film.
MW: That’s right, he plays Dolly’s character’s husband. In the beginning of the film, his character passes away, and they have to find a new choir director. Dolly’s character assumes that she will inherit the choir because her husband was the director. Instead, the preacher gives the directorship to Queen Latifah. That sets up the rivalry between the two of them. And, as they say, hijinks ensue.
MR: (laughs) You also did some acting in this project, didn’t you?
MW: Yes, I did. (laughs) I was cast as the pianist for the choir that Queen Latifah directs. Since I was the arranger and producer for all of the songs in the movie anyway, they thought it would be foolish to hire an actor to pretend to do what I already did. (laughs) The funny thing is this is my third time appearing as a pianist in a Queen Latifah movie. So, I have been rather type cast in that role. (laughs)
MR: Mervyn, let’s talk a bit about your own music career, like your thoughts on your group Take 6.
MW: Well, I probably wouldn’t be standing here right now if it weren’t for Take 6. I was 16 when the group was formed, and we weren’t singed until about 8 years later when we were discovered by a man named Jim Ed Norman at Warner Bros. I had just finished my masters degree and rather than getting a job, I got a record deal. It was a whirlwind of touring all over the world and singing with all different kinds of people. A few years later, I left the group to pursue producing other artists and writing for film.
MR: In the midst of all of that, you got to work with some incredible people like Quincy Jones.
MW: That’s right. Quincy has been an incredible friend and supporter over all of these many years. I remember him telling us back then that his office would receive 200+ cassettes and CDs a day. After he got 20 or 30 copies of the Take 6 demo, he thought that he’d better listen to it. He did, and it’s been a friendship that has lasted ever since. I’ve done many, many projects with and for him over the years.
MR: You also worked with David Foster.
MW: I did. In fact, we were recording Joyful Noise just over a year ago here in Hollywood and David was there recording with Michael Bublé, so I’d see him in the hall all of the time when we were working on this project. He’s been a huge supporter. I’ve done a number of arrangements for him as well.
MR: And you also did some work with the great Arif Mardin, right?
MW: Right. There’s a Queen Latifah connection there. We did work with Arif and he was an absolutely wonderful and legendary producer. He actually produced Queen Latifah’s first project called The Dana Owens Album and I did some work on that for him as well. So, I have been blessed to be able to work with some wonderful producers and artists.
MR: That’s so true, and you’ve worked on other major films and recordings associated withSister Act 2, Dreamgirls. Which of your projects would you say had the biggest impact on your life?
MW: Probably my work on the Handel’s Messiah Soulful Celebration album, which was an all-star collection of reinterpretations of the songs from the Messiah that I largely reduced. There were 14 or 15 cuts and I produced about half of them, one of the most popular being my arrangement of the, “Hallelujah Chorus.” Everybody from Chaka Khan to Phylicia Rashād was singing on that track. We won a Grammy for it, and the performance of that song at the Grammy’s that year was spotted by some people at Disney. I got a call literally a day or two later from them asking if I would be willing to come and work on a project for them and I said that I’d love to. That project turned out to be Sister Act 2, so a month later, they flew me out of Nashville were I was living and Sister Act 2 became my first big movie project. I’ve been in LA ever since. I never even went back to Nashville to get my belongings. (laughs)
MR: You also won a Grammy for that film, bringing your grand total to five Grammys, right?
MW: That’s right. The first four were won as a part of Take 6, and the last one was for the Soulful Celebration album. I’ve received a total of 10 nominations.
MR: I have to say that I think you were robbed on a couple of those.
MW: I do too. (laughs) Especially for,”Why Do The Nations…” from Soulful Celebration. That arranging category is so loaded. It was very difficult when I was in my thirties to compete with the likes of Nelson Riddle, Johnny Mandel, and Henry Mancini, some of the very same people that influenced me. That particular category is just loaded with so many talented people that, I have to say, it really was an honor just to be nominated with those guys. That’s a tough category to win.
MR: I can imagine. I must note, though, that you have become one of those arrangers one must compete with.
MW: Well, thank you very much.
MR: Getting back to Joyful Noise, can you tell us about some of the greatest moments you had making this film?
MW: We had so much fun making and recording the music for this film. Not to say that it wasn’t a lot of hard work, because it was. I think I arranged and produced 13 songs for this film in various styles. We just had such a great time. It’s also great to have a director that appreciates music so much. Of course, when you’re producing music for a film, the songs have to fit the story. Had I just been doing a record, I might have done something different with “Man In The Mirror,” but it has to serve the arch of the choir and the story. Part of the story is that the choir starts off a bit more conservative and throughout the film, they become a bit more contemporary. So, that’s a subtlety that had to happen in terms of instrumentation. I had so much fun. I got to stay in LA this time and record it with professional singers, which was really my dream. This was one of the best vocal groups I’ve ever had in the studio, and I was really pleased to get to work with them.
MR: Great. Speaking of great singers, you’ve also worked with The Manhattan Transfer.
MW: Yes, I have. I grew up listening to them, and I was so flattered and honored when they called me to write some charts for them. I’ve always been a fan and I wish I heard them more. Love them to death.
MR: Yeah, me too. No, you mentioned Michael Jackson’s song “Man In The Mirror” that appears in the movie. Was that a particularly touching song for you to work on?
MW: Absolutely. I only worked with Michael posthumously, I always wanted to work with him, and we had so many mutual friends like Quincy and Siedah Garrett who wrote the song, “Man In The Mirror,” with Glenn Ballard. I never actually got to work with Michael, though I met him backstage at Radio City a few years ago during the Grammys. It wasn’t until after he passed that I was called in to work on the single “This Is It” that went along with the film by the same name. But it was truly an honor to be able to work on “Man In The Mirror,” especially since my friend Siedah wrote the song. It wasn’t until after Michael’s death that anyone produced “This Is It” because they literally just found these demos in a vault and gave it to me and asked me to turn it into a record.
MR: That’s so great. And Randy Newman is in the Mervyn Warren story.
MW: It was through Randy that I met my recording engineer for Joyful Noise. I met Randy working on James And The Giant Peach, which was right after Sister Act 2. AfterSister Act 2, I started getting invitations to work on tons of projects. Randy had written a song for that movie, but didn’t have time to arrange and produce the song. So, the team at Disney asked me to do it and I stepped in and arranged and produced a song that Randy sang called “Good News.” We had a blast. That was also a highlight of my newly budding LA career.
MR: Very nice. What are some of your favorite projects that you’ve worked on?
MW: One of the ones that sticks out is Whitney Houston’s Christmas album. I love Whitney more than anybody, and we did a Christmas album back in 2003. For whatever reason, it was released but not heavily promoted, but I had a lot of fun working on that and I’m really proud of the album. Another project would be my work on the film The Wedding Planner. That, I believe, was the first time that I got to work on a big Hollywood comedy and do a broad, comedic, orchestral score. I had a lot of fun with that one, and it’s one of my favorites. And, of course, anything I did with Quincy Jones. He was so great to work with and learn from and I’m honored to get a call from him every once in a while to work with him. I recently did a couple of cuts on his newest project that was produced by other people, instead of producing them himself, which is usually the case. I could go on, but those are a few of my favorites. Do The Right Thing and the A Raisin In The Sun remake for ABC were also great projects to be able to work on.
MR: Do you have any advice for new artists?
MW: You know, the business has changed so much since I started that the first thing I would say is that if you believe you have the talent, persistence and tenacity, they are probably some of the most important qualities to have apart from talent, of course. I think it may take even more effort and “stick-to-it-iveness” to make it in today’s industry. Of course, I grew up in Alabama where no one made money doing music unless they were a teacher, but I knew what I wanted to do. Despite people telling me that I was talented but needed to get a job, I refused and said that this was what I wanted to do and said I’d be fine. Fortunately, it worked out. So, what I would say to people is stick to it and don’t let anyone dissuade you.
MR: Todd, the director of the film, also shared this about the film: “The movie is about the sheer joy of choral singing, being a part of something greater than yourself in order to create something beautiful. But it’s also about dedication to a craft, working ethic, and professionalism.”
MW: Yes, that is exactly what the story is about. One of the things that I love about this film is that it’s not another story where we just stuck a couple of songs here and there – Todd carefully selected each of these songs and made sure that they were each telling a part of the story in one way or another. Kudos to Todd for choosing them rather than just saying, “Now there’ll be a song,” because that is so important. I am just really proud to be a part of this project.
MR: What does the immediate future hold for you?
MW: The immediate future for me is the premier of the movie followed by performances onDavid Letterman and The Today Show with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. Then we’re excited for the film to open Friday, January 13th.
MR: Well, all the best to you on Friday the 13th. I’m sure you’ll have great luck, despite the spooky date. (laughs)
MW: Thanks, Mike. I’m not superstitious, so I’m sure it’ll be great. (laughs)
MR: Wonderful. Meryvn, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us.
MW: Thanks so much for having me, Mike.
Transcribed by Evan Martin