'Song Exploder' Episode 2: Lin-Manuel Miranda penned 'Hamilton' track 'Wait For It' on a subway train
Lin-Manuel Miranda may appear very grim when he is portraying Alexander Hamilton — one of America’s founding fathers on his very popular Broadway show ‘Hamilton'. However, his fans will get to see a very quirky side of the 40-year-old actor in a new documentary series on Netflix called ‘Song Exploder'.
The new show on the leading streaming platform will allow fans to peep into his unique thought process. Host Hrishikesh Hirway, who originally started the independent podcast way back in 2014, returns to the show seeking ideas, emotions and the stories behind songs. The second episode opens with Lin-Manuel standing in a hall at the Morris–Jumel Mansion in Manhattan, which served as a headquarter in the American Revolution.
In the episode, we see Lin-Manuel breaking down the entire process of his popular Broadway song ‘Wait For It' featured in 'Hamilton'. The host sits down with Lin-Manuel, who has written and composed the song, along with Alex Lacamoire, the music director and orchestrator of ‘Hamilton'.
Lin-Manuel shares a very interesting story of how he came up with the idea of ‘Wait For It’. He says he was riding the subway train to a house party when he first thought of the song. He then excused himself from the party after just half a beer so that he could compose the entire song. The singer-songwriter then revealed that he completed the rest of the song on his way back, on the subway again, and he then sent the demo to only two people — the music director and the show director.
As the episode progresses, we also get to dive deep into the breakdown of the song. Lin-Manuel shares how a lot of attention was paid to vocals and chords as they had the challenge to perform it live. Lin also delves into how he also faced the challenge to pen the song ‘Wait For It’ from Aaron Burr’s perspective. Burr was one of the other founding fathers of America who killed Hamilton in a duel.
‘Song Exploder’ breaks down the songs we have all loved. The new series has also roped in artistes such as rapper Ty Dolla $ign, Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys and the rock band R.E.M.
You can also check the trailer of ‘Song Exploder’ here.