This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Stella Cole: Hi, I'm Stella Cole, and welcome to The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:31] Alan Seales: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to an all-new episode of The Theatre Podcast with Alan Seales.

[0:36] Alan Seales: That is me. I'm your host, Alan Seales, and today we are sitting down with someone who's truly a breath of fresh air.

[0:43] Alan Seales: Although she might tell you she belongs in a completely different decade, Stella Cole.

[0:48] Alan Seales: She is a viral sensation, but not in the way you might expect.

[0:51] Alan Seales: While most of her peers were trying to sound like the latest pop star,

[0:55] Alan Seales: Stella was busy memorizing Mary Poppins and channel surfing looking for Judy Garland.

[1:00] Alan Seales: And we have a fantastic conversation today that covers everything from her old soul status,

[1:06] Alan Seales: which apparently dates back to when she was, like, only a week old,

[1:09] Alan Seales: to the scrappy days of singing for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.

[1:14] Alan Seales: We talk about the transition from being a top-tier student at Northwestern to realizing that her heart didn't belong to high-belting contemporary musicals,

[1:22] Alan Seales: but to the lush orchestral sounds of the great American songbook.

[1:27] Alan Seales: One of my favorite parts of this chat is hearing her talk about the physical sensation of singing with a live string section

[1:33] Alan Seales: and why she thinks this, I'll put in air quotes, old music is actually just the perfect medicine for our overstimulated digital world.

[1:41] Alan Seales: I tend to agree with her.

[1:43] Alan Seales: She is smart, she is incredibly self-aware,

[1:45] Alan Seales: and she has some of the best advice on moving the goalposts that I've heard in a very long time.

[1:51] Alan Seales: So, make sure to follow me online,

[1:54] Alan Seales: listen to her new single, My Funny Valentine,

[1:57] Alan Seales: that is dropping right as this episode drops in time for Valentine's Day,

[2:01] Alan Seales: and find the video version of this on Patreon and Spotify.

[2:05] Alan Seales: Follow me and Stella on all the socials, you know what to do.

[2:09] Alan Seales: Leave a rating, leave a review, share with your friends,

[2:11] Alan Seales: and now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Stella Cole.

[2:15] Stella Cole: But don't change a hair for me

[2:22] Stella Cole: Not if you care for me

[2:28] Stella Cole: Stay, little valentine

[2:34] Stella Cole: Stay

[2:42] Stella Cole: Each day is Valentine's Day

[2:52] Alan Seales: Oh, my guest today has bridged the gap between Gen Z and the golden age of Broadway like nobody else that I have seen.

[2:56] Alan Seales: After graduating from Northwestern and exploding onto the scene via TikTok,

[3:02] Alan Seales: she quickly proved her staying power,

[3:04] Alan Seales: touring the world with Postmodern Jukebox and selling out rooms from New York to London,

[3:10] Alan Seales: and she is now celebrating the release of her debut solo studio album featuring stunning arrangements of the standards we all know and love.

[3:18] Alan Seales: She is a vocalist with a timeless sound and massive future ahead of her.

[3:23] Alan Seales: Stella Cole, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[3:26] Stella Cole: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Very nice to meet you.

[3:29] Alan Seales: And you, I'm sure you've heard this before, you're an old soul.

[3:32] Stella Cole: Yes, you get that all the time.

[3:35] Stella Cole: Yeah, I've been getting that since I was two years old, actually.

[3:38] Alan Seales: Really?

[3:39] Stella Cole: A newborn, actually. My granny, my great grandmother, who I only knew for a couple of years,

[3:44] Stella Cole: I don't remember her, but apparently when I was like a week old, she looked at me and she was like, this is an old soul.

[3:49] Stella Cole: So, yeah, I've been getting it for a long time now.

[3:52] Alan Seales: As an infant, how does she know? Is it like, are you just judging her with your eyes?

[3:57] Stella Cole: I guess so. I guess there's like a lot of mystery shrouded behind my eyes. I have no idea.

[4:03] Alan Seales: That's interesting.

[4:05] Alan Seales: No, I know. I mean, because the stuff that you perform, the type of songs that you gravitate towards are these timeless classics.

[4:15] Alan Seales: And I guess, like, talk us through, you know, when you were two years old or whatever, when did you start singing?

[4:21] Alan Seales: And, like, did you have to start at one point, like, discerning, or not discerning, but deciding between, like, I'm going to sing pop music and I'm going to sing classics?

[4:32] Stella Cole: Like, it's a different path.

[4:34] Stella Cole: It is a very different path. Yeah, I think it all definitely started in childhood.

[4:38] Stella Cole: I was a very weird kid.

[4:41] Alan Seales: You're in good company then.

[4:43] Stella Cole: Yeah, I love that. Many of us in the theater realm were weird kids, and I love that for all of us.

[4:49] Stella Cole: Yeah, I think, you know, an old soul from week one of my life, apparently.

[4:54] Stella Cole: I, you know, when I was two years old, I was already, like, memorizing songs from Mary Poppins.

[5:01] Stella Cole: I would, like, perform songs that my parents showed me, like, sitting on top of their desk and, like, singing into a little plastic microphone.

[5:09] Stella Cole: Like, I've always just been, and it was always standard. It was always singing, like, Judy Garland.

[5:14] Stella Cole: Like, all I wanted to do when I was a kid was watch The Wizard of Oz, watch The Sound of Music, watch Mary Poppins, play with my, like, Wizard of Oz Tin Man Barbies and, like, make everybody play, like, do the movie, wear my little Dorothy costume.

[5:30] Stella Cole: I was just very obsessed from a young age with these movies, and that was my first introduction to this music,

[5:36] Stella Cole: and it was also my first introduction to the concept of performance and theater and acting, and I think I always took all of those things together,

[5:43] Stella Cole: and my vision, as I grew up and wasn't two years old anymore, I was always like, oh, I want to be an actor, I want to be on Broadway, I want to be in movies like that.

[5:51] Stella Cole: But they're not making a lot of movies like The Wizard of Oz anymore.

[5:56] Stella Cole: That's not totally what movies are anymore, and so I guess I have this career now where I just go around singing the standards in different cities all around the world,

[6:05] Stella Cole: and I feel in a way like I'm putting on my own little one-woman Broadway show.

[6:11] Stella Cole: Like, it does feel like a combination of all the things I love, of, like, singing and acting, and I think I would have dreamed this,

[6:17] Stella Cole: I would have dreamt of this if I would have known that this was a job a person could have, if that makes sense.

[6:23] Alan Seales: Well, it does, it does, and you're right. They don't make movies like that, because when I was younger, too, it wasn't Wizard of Oz.

[6:28] Alan Seales: For me, it was West Side Story, Singing in the Rain, and, yeah, Mary Poppins.

[6:36] Alan Seales: It was, like, those three. Like, they made movies for adults that were musicals.

[6:42] Stella Cole: Unreal. Singing in the Rain is a huge one for me, and I wasn't a fan of West Side Story until I was a bit older, in, like, grade school.

[6:50] Stella Cole: But, yeah, those are all, we have similar tastes. I love that for us.

[6:53] Stella Cole: Yeah, I think I realized, you know, a little later on, that, like, the music they were writing for Broadway, even, didn't sound like the music that I associated with Broadway.

[7:05] Stella Cole: I listened to a lot of Golden Age stuff always and was raised on that, and so when I got to, skipping ahead a lot, when I got to musical theater college at Northwestern University outside of Chicago,

[7:16] Stella Cole: I was like, oh, everyone's, like, trying to sound like Adele and, like, belting high E flats, and, like, what is going on?

[7:24] Stella Cole: This is not what I do or what I like to do.

[7:28] Stella Cole: Like, I never dreamt of being in Wicked. I don't want to do that.

[7:31] Stella Cole: I don't want to sing like Adele. That's not, I love Wicked, love it all.

[7:36] Stella Cole: But, like, I was like, no, I like the Judy Garland version. You know what I mean?

[7:40] Stella Cole: So, yeah, I think I've found this niche that people remarkably like to, more people are passionate about this stuff than I thought.

[7:48] Stella Cole: There are a lot more people who love this music than I ever realized, and it's been a wonderful discovery for sure.

[8:00] Alan Seales: Well, okay, I think you said you're finding people who love it, or more people than you thought love it,

[8:01] Alan Seales: but I think, like, given your age and your presence on TikTok, you know, the Gen Z of it all, I think, plays a big part of it because, like,

[8:09] Alan Seales: because the musical of the, you know, in the last several decades has been geared more towards,

[8:15] Alan Seales: it's either big Broadway, Broadway, Broadway for adults, super expensive, or it's an animated movie.

[8:24] Alan Seales: So there's been, like, nothing in between, like, the West Side Stories and the Singing in the Rains and The Wizard of Oz and even The Wiz, right?

[8:32] Alan Seales: We have all these movies geared toward adults with dark themes where they just happen to sing and dance.

[8:38] Stella Cole: That used to be cool.

[8:40] Alan Seales: Yeah, it did used to be cool. It happened.

[8:44] Stella Cole: Yeah.

[8:45] Stella Cole: No, I think you're right. I don't know. It's an interesting, like, gap in the market, I guess.

[8:51] Stella Cole: No, the Gen Z thing does have a lot to do with it, I think.

[8:55] Stella Cole: I started my career on TikTok. Like many, it seems like many musicians and many people of all careers, it starts on social media for them.

[9:02] Stella Cole: When COVID started happening and shut down, started shutting down the U.S., I guess, I was a junior in college.

[9:14] Stella Cole: And I moved home and left my college dorm, went to live with my parents again, and I took some time off of theater school

[9:20] Stella Cole: because Zoom acting classes seemed like just a crazy thing to invest my money in.

[9:29] Stella Cole: My parents' money, our money. So, yeah, I took some time off, and I sort of started posting myself singing these little videos on TikTok,

[9:41] Stella Cole: never thinking anything would come of it. And now here we are.

[9:45] Stella Cole: But, yeah, I think I realized through TikTok how many people of all ages on TikTok,

[9:50] Stella Cole: and specifically young people who had never really heard this music before, like, there is an audience for it,

[9:55] Stella Cole: which is something I never thought was true.

[9:58] Stella Cole: I thought this music was just like my weird little obsession and that there wasn't a place for it in the Broadway world or the world of movies or the world of music.

[10:07] Stella Cole: I knew there was Michael Bublé, and I knew that they revived Anything Goes with Sutton Foster.

[10:12] Stella Cole: Josh Groban.

[10:14] Stella Cole: Yeah, Josh Groban, exactly.

[10:17] Stella Cole: There are lots of people doing that kind of thing, but just in terms of being a young woman,

[10:23] Stella Cole: sort of 10 years after Bublé had done the Heidi the Bublé thing, you know what I mean?

[10:29] Stella Cole: I just never imagined there was this kind of place.

[10:33] Alan Seales: Okay, so you skipped ahead from, like, two years old to Northwestern.

[10:36] Alan Seales: But at what point, you know, when you're a kid, you're performing, you're doing your thing, standing up on boxes and singing for your family.

[10:43] Alan Seales: Like, did you know—like, how young of an age did you really know that this is what you wanted to do?

[10:49] Alan Seales: And then there had to have been some turning point, or maybe not, that you said to yourself,

[10:55] Alan Seales: all right, this is what I want to go to school for, because that's a whole different decision, too.

[10:59] Stella Cole: It is. That's a great point.

[11:02] Stella Cole: Yeah, the two-year-old thing definitely led to—I grew up in a town called Springfield, Illinois, a pretty small city, lots of cornfields,

[11:12] Stella Cole: also lots of great community theater, funnily enough.

[11:15] Alan Seales: Where The Simpsons happens, right?

[11:17] Stella Cole: Yeah, well, there are, like, a hundred Springfields. I've never seen The Simpsons, but apparently it's a big debate.

[11:22] Alan Seales: Oh my God, you are—

[11:23] Stella Cole: I can't speak to it.

[11:25] Alan Seales: You've never seen The Simpsons?

[11:27] Stella Cole: No.

[11:28] Alan Seales: Oh, insert meme of me going to the—Matt Damon turning into the old man right now.

[11:31] Stella Cole: Yeah, you're like, no, no.

[11:35] Alan Seales: Oh, shit.

[11:36] Stella Cole: No, it's not an age thing. It's like a me only watching media that's very specific.

[11:41] Alan Seales: Oh, okay. Go on, and now I will massage my aches and pains.

[11:45] Stella Cole: Okay.

[11:48] Stella Cole: That's funny.

[11:49] Stella Cole: Yeah, I grew up in Springfield, and my parents, you know, I wouldn't shut up about these movies and wouldn't stop singing and performing for everyone.

[11:58] Stella Cole: So they were like, all right, we'll put her in dance classes. We'll have her audition for community theater.

[12:04] Stella Cole: So I did just tons of plays and musicals and summer theater.

[12:08] Stella Cole: Like, growing up, I was just constantly at a rehearsal after school and was always just, like, being an Oompa Loompa in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

[12:15] Stella Cole: or, like, a broom in Beauty and the Beast as a kid.

[12:19] Stella Cole: Like, that was my whole life.

[12:21] Stella Cole: So I became really obsessed with musical theater, and as I got into high school, I loved it.

[12:27] Stella Cole: I wanted to do it so badly.

[12:29] Stella Cole: I remember these times where I would just be, like, driving around and listening to, like, the soundtrack of Meet Me in St. Louis

[12:37] Stella Cole: or, like, listening to a Jason Robert Brown thing or listening to Barbra Streisand,

[12:41] Stella Cole: and I would just, like, be moved to tears because I'm a very sensitive and emotional girly.

[12:45] Stella Cole: But I'd be moved to tears just being like, oh, my God, I love this so much.

[12:49] Stella Cole: Like, I want to do this so bad.

[12:50] Stella Cole: But I was super nervous and very insecure.

[12:54] Stella Cole: I never believed that this was something I could do.

[12:57] Stella Cole: Growing up in, like, a small town in the Midwest, I didn't know anybody who had ever been, like, a professional actor.

[13:03] Stella Cole: Like, I knew that it could happen, but that wasn't, like, a real thing.

[13:06] Stella Cole: Even Broadway wasn't, like, a real thing.

[13:09] Stella Cole: I was like, I've watched so many YouTube videos of these people backstage, like, but they weren't people to me.

[13:14] Stella Cole: You know, I think, like, friends who grew up in New York or grew up in L.A. that I later went to college with,

[13:19] Stella Cole: this world was around them, but I just, it felt like it was, it was hundreds of, it was thousands of miles away.

[13:25] Stella Cole: So I always wanted to go to school for it, but I was scared to,

[13:30] Stella Cole: and I think I had the opposite experience of almost everyone where I was, I had really done well in school and I was the top of my class,

[13:36] Stella Cole: so I was like, okay, I want to do theater, but, like, what I should do is go be a doctor or go be a lawyer or something

[13:43] Stella Cole: and, like, do something that's, like, a sure thing.

[13:45] Stella Cole: And my parents were like, no, you love this. You need to go to theater school.

[13:50] Alan Seales: Your parents encouraged you. Isn't that crazy?

[13:52] Stella Cole: That, yeah, it's unusual, yes.

[13:56] Stella Cole: Yeah, just the opposite story than you always hear, and so I was like, okay, we'll make a compromise.

[14:02] Stella Cole: I looked at schools, you know, all over the United States and I found Northwestern, which had this, like, top theater program in the country,

[14:10] Stella Cole: but also, like, top academics in the country.

[14:12] Stella Cole: So I was like, okay, here I can do both.

[14:14] Stella Cole: Like, I'm still putting off this decision.

[14:16] Stella Cole: I ended up double majoring in theater and international relations, minored in German.

[14:20] Alan Seales: Of course you did. Of course you did.

[14:22] Stella Cole: Yeah, random.

[14:24] Stella Cole: I just was, like, doing everything. Almost got an English minor.

[14:28] Stella Cole: I don't even know what I was doing. I was just, I was very interested.

[14:32] Stella Cole: I still am. Like, I loved reading and I loved learning about things.

[14:36] Stella Cole: I didn't just want to be, like, in tap classes and voice lessons all day long.

[14:40] Stella Cole: Like, that was never what I wanted.

[14:42] Stella Cole: But being in Northwestern taught me, like, oh, these are professional people.

[14:47] Stella Cole: Like, understanding the Chicago theater scene, I was like, oh, this is a possible thing that could happen.

[14:51] Stella Cole: But I never totally felt like I fit in at Northwestern.

[14:55] Stella Cole: I think I lost touch during that time of my, like, love for standards.

[15:00] Stella Cole: I was trying to really fit in with, like, the musical theater thing that everybody else was doing.

[15:05] Stella Cole: Like I said, like, the high belting and the pop styling.

[15:09] Stella Cole: And I was really trying to be someone different when I was at Northwestern.

[15:13] Alan Seales: I feel like I've been rambling for 10 minutes.

[15:15] Stella Cole: No, I'm fascinated.

[15:17] Stella Cole: I'm fascinated with this stuff.

[15:19] Stella Cole: Because, again, going back to, like, the old soul of all of it,

[15:23] Stella Cole: you have an awareness about you that even most adults, like, 40s, 50s, 60s adults, you're an adult now,

[15:30] Stella Cole: but, like, older adults don't have.

[15:34] Stella Cole: And it's like, you knew what you were good at. You knew what you loved.

[15:40] Stella Cole: And your parents had to talk you into a stable career, right?

[15:44] Stella Cole: Like, it's that sort of thing, right? You're like, I need to do something stable.

[15:47] Stella Cole: And then you were top of your class. And you're like, oh, baby, I'll do it.

[15:51] Stella Cole: Like, obviously, you think about the big picture all the time.

[15:53] Stella Cole: You wouldn't have said what you said without that.

[15:57] Stella Cole: Without that need.

[15:59] Alan Seales: And then going, like, again, I think we're cut from the same cloth.

[16:01] Alan Seales: I cannot stop learning. I love to learn and learn new things.

[16:05] Alan Seales: So I, like, got a major in computer science, minor in psychology, with that degree and that minor.

[16:13] Stella Cole: My people. I love that.

[16:15] Stella Cole: So it's one of those things where, oh, gosh, like, you said you lost yourself.

[16:19] Stella Cole: That's what touched me a second ago when you said that, because that's what a lot of people, again, don't have, even older in life.

[16:27] Stella Cole: You had, like, where did you know to step back and say, like, what is this that I'm doing differently?

[16:35] Alan Seales: I won't say wrong, because there's no wrong at this point. What am I doing differently that's not bringing me that joy I used to have?

[16:43] Stella Cole: That's a great question.

[16:45] Stella Cole: Yeah, I think the stepping back point, weirdly enough, happened because of the global shutdown that happened.

[16:49] Stella Cole: I think it took going home and, like, being out of the college environment.

[16:53] Stella Cole: And I was still, like, calling and FaceTiming my friends from college, but at a certain point, a lot of them, like, went back to campus, and I stayed living with my parents for a while.

[17:01] Stella Cole: And I think I had to be away from the tastes of everyone else and away from that very, like, college, oh, I'm discovering myself, so let me try to be like everyone else and just do what everyone else is doing.

[17:25] Stella Cole: So it was that. It was, like, this separation and, like, the isolation of it that, like, since we were lucky enough to be healthy during COVID and have, you know, a place to stay and be safe,

[17:35] Stella Cole: I was able to have the isolation.

[17:37] Stella Cole: And then the second half of it is that these movies, which had been such a big part of my identity growing up, I had the same friends my whole life from, like, the first grade until I graduated high school.

[17:47] Stella Cole: They're still some of my best friends today.

[17:49] Stella Cole: And they knew me. Like, they knew, like, Stella has weird taste in music.

[17:55] Stella Cole: When you get in the car with Stella, she's going to want to play Matt King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald in, like, some weird niche musical from 1940.

[18:01] Stella Cole: Like, she doesn't want to listen to Justin Bieber or Katy Perry or whatever everybody else is listening to.

[18:07] Stella Cole: And I think I lost the confidence to, like, truly be that person in college.

[18:11] Stella Cole: And what brought me back to it was that, you know, that was such a scary time in 2020 and 2021.

[18:17] Stella Cole: And I was, like everyone else, looking for comfort.

[18:19] Stella Cole: And I was going back to all these old comfort movies and watching Meet Me in St. Louis and crying and just, like, remembering, like, oh, my God, nothing, like, makes my whole soul feel like it's lighting up like this stuff does.

[18:35] Stella Cole: And there were a couple, like, key moments during that time.

[18:37] Stella Cole: I remember listening, I was driving around one day listening to this Terry Gross interview with Doris Day that she did toward the end of her life.

[18:45] Stella Cole: Which is funny because Doris Day has now, like, in the last year or so, become a huge inspiration of mine.

[18:51] Stella Cole: She wasn't at the time but she was there playing some Doris Day song.

[18:57] Stella Cole: And I just, like, had to pull over because I started crying and I was like, oh, my gosh, I miss this stuff so much.

[19:01] Stella Cole: Like, again, I'm the most sensitive little being.

[19:07] Stella Cole: But I just, I had totally abandoned that part of myself and, like, been convinced at this program I was at and, like, kind of convinced myself, I'm sure, like, this is weird, this is not relevant, this is not marketable, this will not get me anywhere.

[19:21] Stella Cole: I have to be a pop singer if I want to be successful.

[19:25] Stella Cole: Like, all of these things that I had been told or gathered from the environment around me at school and I was just like, I don't care.

[19:33] Stella Cole: I miss actually singing like this and actually singing the stuff I wanted to sing.

[19:37] Stella Cole: I had sort of quit. I was very nearly completely quit singing before COVID at school.

[19:41] Stella Cole: I had become so discouraged, actually.

[19:45] Stella Cole: Yeah, that's important to mention, I guess.

[19:47] Stella Cole: I had become so discouraged by trying to, like, sound like Adele or something.

[19:51] Stella Cole: I was good at it. I could do a great Adele impression and I was like, this sucks.

[19:57] Stella Cole: I don't sound like Adele. This is me pretending to have somebody else's voice.

[20:01] Stella Cole: So, I think those moments of, like, going back to that stuff for comfort made me remember, like, oh, this is what I love.

[20:07] Stella Cole: Like, this is who I am.

[20:09] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[20:11] Alan Seales: That's beautiful.

[20:13] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere. We're going to take a quick commercial break.

[20:15] Alan Seales: All right, everyone. Now we're back.

[20:19] Alan Seales: Some of the advice I hear on this podcast over and over again is, like, embrace what makes you and embrace what makes you uniquely you.

[20:25] Alan Seales: And, yeah, if you're trying to be the next Adele, you're not being the best Stella.

[20:29] Alan Seales: You've got to be Stella. That's the whole point.

[20:33] Alan Seales: Okay, so you're, like, in 2020, back hanging out with The Simpsons, start recording yourself on TikTok.

[20:39] Alan Seales: Like, that was just like this meteoric rise.

[20:43] Stella Cole: Like, explosion of popularity there, right?

[20:47] Stella Cole: Yes. Yes, I guess so. Everyone always talks about it like that.

[20:51] Stella Cole: Because it's true, it did happen very quickly.

[20:55] Stella Cole: I basically was on a walk with my dad one day, and I was like, oh, I really miss singing.

[20:57] Stella Cole: Like, I shouldn't have stopped doing that.

[21:01] Stella Cole: And he was like, yeah, you're so good at it, and you're so funny.

[21:03] Stella Cole: You're so good at impressions and all this stuff.

[21:05] Stella Cole: Like, you should post videos on Instagram.

[21:07] Stella Cole: And I was like, no way. That would be humiliating.

[21:09] Stella Cole: Like, what if my friends saw?

[21:11] Stella Cole: So I started posting on TikTok, which was, at the time, like, this pretty new app.

[21:15] Stella Cole: None of my friends had it. I was like, perfect. No one will ever see this.

[21:19] Stella Cole: Like, it will just be this little thing that I'm doing.

[21:21] Stella Cole: And then, yeah, a lot of people did end up seeing it.

[21:25] Stella Cole: I think the caption of my first video I posted was like, lol, I hope none of my friends ever see this.

[21:31] Stella Cole: This is humiliating.

[21:33] Stella Cole: Like, I was really just coming out and saying, like, this is embarrassing and hard for me.

[21:37] Stella Cole: But I, it started being fun just posting, like, every day.

[21:39] Stella Cole: Just, you know, there was nothing to do during that time for me.

[21:41] Stella Cole: So I was just, like, singing a little song and recording from my parents' kitchen in my parents' bathroom.

[21:47] Stella Cole: And, yeah, at first it seemed very exciting when something would get, like, 600 views.

[21:51] Stella Cole: I was like, that's crazy. 600 strangers just saw this video of me singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

[21:59] Stella Cole: Like, what? And then pretty soon, after a month or so, it was like I had my first video that, like, 200,000 people saw.

[22:05] Stella Cole: It was this video of me singing Everybody Says Don't, the Sondheim song, and I, from Anyone Can Whistle, and I was like, this is, wait, what is happening?

[22:13] Stella Cole: And as I kept growing, and you know, these, like, celebrities were seeing my videos, like, James Taylor was reposting me, and I don't even remember who, Megan Trainor,

[22:25] Stella Cole: like, all these crazy celebrities.

[22:27] Stella Cole: But it was like, it was a meteoric rise on the internet, but in my life, like, I was just living pretty much like in the middle of the woods with my parents and my brother and my dog,

[22:37] Stella Cole: and like, my life wasn't changing at all.

[22:39] Stella Cole: It just felt like this fake little thing on my phone that I was like, oh, isn't that funny?

[22:43] Stella Cole: I got a million views today, like, okay, like, I guess I'll go make breakfast and then take a walk with my brother.

[22:49] Stella Cole: Like, I wasn't seeing anyone. Does that make sense?

[22:51] Stella Cole: Like, it felt fake. It felt completely fake. Still does a little bit.

[22:55] Alan Seales: Well, imposter syndrome.

[22:57] Alan Seales: I mean, the internet kind of allows you to affect people like that in a way that previously we couldn't, you know, before the advent of all that.

[23:03] Alan Seales: But, so then, at what point, like, did it feel real?

[23:09] Alan Seales: When did Postmodern Jukebox come into the picture?

[23:11] Alan Seales: Like, when did you get a call of, like, hey, I saw you on this app that you didn't know that people are looking at?

[23:17] Stella Cole: Yeah, it's a good question.

[23:21] Stella Cole: I think through most of my career, you know, at some point the world opened back up and the vaccine and I moved to New York after I graduated college,

[23:29] Stella Cole: and it's funny because I did have the success on the internet, but it didn't feel like that was translating to real life automatically.

[23:35] Stella Cole: Like, for whatever reason, I think a lot of people had a song go super viral and get millions of views and then they, like, were signed by a major label, like, right then.

[23:43] Stella Cole: But I think because it was standards and something, like, I do assume record labels were seeing it, but they were like, eh, I don't know.

[23:51] Stella Cole: What can we do with someone who's singing, like, you know, swonderful?

[23:55] Stella Cole: Like, I think people still don't know as much what to do with that.

[24:01] Stella Cole: And back then, before artists like Leve or Samara Joy or, like, Ray, who's so jazz-influenced, like, none of that was happening yet, like, three or four years ago,

[24:11] Stella Cole: so it felt very, um, it felt still very, like, Postmodern Jukebox.

[24:15] Stella Cole: I reached out to Scott Bradley and I was like, hey, I have this TikTok, I like your stuff, what's up?

[24:23] Stella Cole: How about it? And then he invited me to go on the tour and suddenly I was sleeping on a tour bus with them and on this, like, seven-week tour and

[24:31] Stella Cole: it still felt fake. Even when I was sleeping on the tour bus and doing these shows, I was like, what is ha- this is fake.

[24:35] Stella Cole: And I think every step of the way, though, seemed like I was, like, sending a lot of cold emails and doing a lot of outreach.

[24:41] Stella Cole: It never felt like, oh, this social media thing has happened, so, like, here you go, here's your music career on a beautiful tray.

[24:49] Alan Seales: You know what I mean?

[24:51] Alan Seales: So, like, did you have an agent?

[24:53] Alan Seales: When did you get the agent?

[24:55] Alan Seales: When did the corporate stuff kick in?

[24:59] Alan Seales: And when did—because you've called it several times, my career, so at some point you flipped a switch, you're like, alright, this is real now.

[25:05] Stella Cole: At some point I had a career and this whole team of people, that's true.

[25:09] Stella Cole: Um, well, the Postmodern Jukebox thing happened and around the same time as all that stuff was going on,

[25:13] Stella Cole: I was living in New York, I was trying to get, like, get a gig in any way I could and the social media following was helping with that,

[25:25] Stella Cole: but basically I would, like, walk past a brunch restaurant and see, oh, they have a Sunday jazz brunch,

[25:29] Stella Cole: like, let me go in and ask them, like, I would walk past the hotel with a piano, like, let me go ask them, hey, do you ever need a singer?

[25:35] Stella Cole: Like, it was very, this very, like, scrappy thing of just trying to, anyone who would let me sing, I was like, please just, can I sing?

[25:41] Stella Cole: Like, you don't even have to pay me, just give me dinner.

[25:45] Stella Cole: Um, so that, I was doing that, like, five or six nights a week in New York, like, making 60 bucks a night or something,

[25:51] Stella Cole: um, but I was like, I've made it, like, this is awesome.

[25:55] Stella Cole: I got paid gigs in New York.

[25:57] Stella Cole: Yeah, like, I got paid gigs in New York, dressing for Carnegie Hall, even though I was singing at, like, some Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.

[26:03] Stella Cole: Um, I was like, this is awesome.

[26:05] Stella Cole: And so, uh, during that time I think I just had this, like, delusional, I guess maybe not totally delusional,

[26:11] Stella Cole: it was just this self-belief that was, like, at this point driving me, because I was like, this has worked on the internet, I know I can make it work in real life.

[26:19] Stella Cole: So, at some point, you know, I was, at this point I was staying out until, like, three or four in the morning all the time at all these jazz clubs,

[26:25] Stella Cole: meeting all these musicians in New York, and, um, I'd heard this guy, Matt Pearson, who's now my manager and has produced my,

[26:31] Stella Cole: the two albums I've made, and I, he had been working at the time with Samara Joy, who, um, was, like, just starting,

[26:39] Stella Cole: her career was growing, and she's now won, like, five Grammys or something crazy, but she was just starting out and playing in little jazz clubs in New York,

[26:45] Stella Cole: and, um, so I emailed him one day, I thought he would never answer me, because he was this big, you know, Grammy-winning producer guy,

[26:51] Stella Cole: uh, but I was like, hey, I want to make an album, like, how about it?

[26:55] Stella Cole: And he was like, yeah, sure, let's have a Zoom.

[26:59] Stella Cole: So, it was all these, like, cold emails that felt like they were, um, starting,

[27:03] Stella Cole: but, yeah, I mean, for the first couple years of it, it was really not until 2023, mid-2023, maybe, that I actually had an agent.

[27:11] Stella Cole: Um, a lot of it was just me, I mean, sending hundreds of emails, being like, please somebody let me sing, and, uh, yeah, now it's, now it definitely feels real.

[27:21] Stella Cole: I have, you know, this team of, like, the publicist, and the lawyer, and the business manager, and the whole thing, and it feels very much like this, like, machine,

[27:29] Stella Cole: and I'm touring, like, seven months of the year, and, um, it definitely feels real now.

[27:33] Alan Seales: I don't know at what point the switch was flipped, but, yeah.

[27:37] Alan Seales: Well, at what point did you give up and, not, I don't, like, give up, not in a bad way, but at what point did you let go of the, the need to be best in class,

[27:43] Alan Seales: and the, the maybe fall back on the lawyer-doctor thing?

[27:47] Alan Seales: Like, because if you're 60 bucks in New York, great, not a lot, but it's still fulfilling, and happy, right?

[27:51] Stella Cole: But at what point did, did you let go of that, like, hey, me, you know, that, that fear, and be like, I'm gonna try this, I'm really gonna go for it.

[28:07] Stella Cole: I think, I think as soon as I got to New York, I was like, I can do this.

[28:11] Stella Cole: Like, as soon as I had 100,000 followers on TikTok, or whatever it was, I was like, okay, I can do this.

[28:17] Stella Cole: Like, that was enough proof for me that I thought I could make it happen, and yeah, it's so funny, I was making no money at the time,

[28:23] Stella Cole: I remember my friends always being like, God, you are so good at, like, managing your money, like, you never go out to eat.

[28:27] Stella Cole: I was like, I don't have any money, but thank you.

[28:31] Stella Cole: Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm actually making 50 bucks a night, but yes, thank you, I guess I am, in a way, good at managing my money.

[28:39] Stella Cole: No, but I mean, I was not doing well, I was not particularly successful, but, like, to me, that, I was, I was successful then,

[28:45] Stella Cole: and I still had this vision in my head of, like, I know, I know I can do this.

[28:49] Alan Seales: At the same time, though, I do think I have this, I don't know if it's me just being Midwestern, or me being, like, imposter syndrome,

[28:55] Stella Cole: but I do sort of always feel like, oh yeah, this is going really well, but, like, at any time, I might still have to become a lawyer,

[29:03] Stella Cole: which I've never told anyone on a podcast or anything, but I, I think that is at the back of my head, like, well, I could still go to law school if I really needed to.

[29:11] Alan Seales: That's true! Oh, yeah.

[29:13] Stella Cole: Yeah, so I think, I've never totally let go of that, but I think, I think I got really into, like, at some point, into, like, manifesting,

[29:19] Stella Cole: and this idea of, like, neuroscience, and you have to, you have to believe that things can happen, like, our thoughts are creating the world around us,

[29:27] Stella Cole: and it's, it's true, you have to stop saying all these, like, things about how you're going to fail, and you're not a good singer, and you'll never make it, like, because then, yeah, you won't.

[29:39] Alan Seales: Oh my gosh, we are so at the same person.

[29:41] Stella Cole: It's, it's great.

[29:43] Alan Seales: I love that.

[29:45] Alan Seales: I'm also mid-twenties, early twenties, I don't know.

[29:47] Stella Cole: The, okay, the Broadway side of things, right, like, you, you listen to the, to these standards, or you love these standards,

[29:51] Alan Seales: it's who, it's your identity that is defining your sound, but there's not a lot of that on Broadway right now,

[30:01] Alan Seales: so, like, do you have plans later for, for that kind of thing?

[30:05] Alan Seales: Have you talked about that with producers or casting agents and whatnot?

[30:11] Stella Cole: Because, you know, touring, touring will stop, and then you have a break, and you could, like, do some shows.

[30:17] Stella Cole: Yeah, I, it's interesting you say that, because for the very, for the first time in all of this,

[30:21] Stella Cole: it's been really madness for the last, like, three years, I mean, I have been telling my team for years, like, get me every gig, I want to be working all the time,

[30:31] Stella Cole: I don't care if it's not paying me well, like, I want to work, I want to, this is the time, I don't have, like, a family I'm tied down to in New York,

[30:39] Stella Cole: like, I'm 25, I'm 26 now, actually, like, let's do this, and I think right now, the last, like, six months or something,

[30:47] Stella Cole: I've been like, okay, this is going at a rate, it's going well, I need to,

[30:51] Stella Cole: I feel like I've, like, I'm a touring artist, I'm a working touring artist, like, I'm building audiences everywhere, it's great, like, now I want to be able to pivot a little bit,

[31:03] Stella Cole: and not completely stop all this, obviously, I just, like, signed my first record deal with a major label,

[31:09] Stella Cole: I'm not like, well, time to only do Broadway, but Broadway, and acting, and all of that, like, that's still a dream for me,

[31:15] Stella Cole: so I think my plan right now, my tentative plan for the second half of this year is to slow things down with the touring a bit,

[31:25] Stella Cole: and to, I've already started those conversations with some different directors, and casting, and agents, and all of that thing,

[31:31] Stella Cole: and trying to get back into it, and it's something I've been talking to people about for the last two years,

[31:37] Stella Cole: but basically everyone's like, well, you're in town about ten days every two months, so, like, if you auditioned for something and you got it, like, you wouldn't be able to take it,

[31:45] Stella Cole: so I think, yeah, it's that balance, but, Broadway's still the dream, I mean, I think jazz is in Broadway in some way,

[31:53] Stella Cole: maybe not jazz, but, like, the standards, like, you know, maybe Happy Ending, Des Derans is killing it with, like, the Frank Sinatra thing,

[31:59] Stella Cole: and the jazz that's integrated into that show,

[32:03] Alan Seales: Just In Time would be perfect for you.

[32:05] Stella Cole: Yeah, exactly, the Bobby Darin thing, I'm like, I've seen that a couple times, he's so great in that, and, um, yeah, I think, I think I'm like,

[32:11] Stella Cole: I think there's a place for me here, I just need to prioritize it, so, yeah, I'm just starting to do that now,

[32:19] Stella Cole: and it's been very exciting to be, like, back in acting, coaching, and doing my singing lessons, my voice teacher is a Broadway girl, so, yeah, Broadway girl, yeah.

[32:31] Alan Seales: It will happen.

[32:33] Alan Seales: So, your debut self-titled album, it features, like, a mix of all these beloved standards, and, uh, tell us a little bit about that,

[32:39] Alan Seales: and basically, like, kind of how you picked what you put on it, because I figure you have this infinite, kind of, reservoir of knowledge of all of these songs that you love that make you happy.

[32:51] Stella Cole: Yeah, I absolutely do, I mean, so, from the debut self-titled album, we made that in, I think it was 2023, is that true?

[32:59] Stella Cole: I, the years don't make sense, I don't know, the time doesn't make sense, especially.

[33:05] Stella Cole: Time is a construct. Time is not so real in these days, yeah.

[33:09] Stella Cole: I, um, I don't know, but we made that a couple of years ago, it was my first project, and choosing the songs was surprisingly easy,

[33:15] Stella Cole: it was, like, all of these songs that I had either grown up on, songs like The Boy Next Door and Over the Rainbow,

[33:23] Stella Cole: um, or songs that in the last, like, year of my life had meant so much to me, like Blame It on My Youth, or like Detour Ahead,

[33:31] Stella Cole: those were standards that I had listened to, like, over and over again.

[33:37] Stella Cole: I was, like, obsessed with them at some point, couldn't stop listening to them, so that album we did with, um, Alan Broadbent made these beautiful charts,

[33:45] Stella Cole: um, for a like, little mini orchestra, some woodwind section and string section, and that was amazing,

[33:51] Stella Cole: and it had a lot of similarities, honestly, to this project I just put out on Decca Records, um, last August,

[33:57] Stella Cole: which is my most recent project, It's Magic, which is where the Doris Day connection all comes in.

[34:03] Stella Cole: It was, uh, we ran it back with Alan Broadbent, but he did string charts this time for a slightly bigger string section,

[34:09] Stella Cole: and I got to sing all these standards live with an orchestra in this beautiful studio power station in New York,

[34:17] Stella Cole: and yeah, I mean, just a total dream come true, I think.

[34:21] Stella Cole: I think, uh, we chose these weren't as much songs that I grew up on as the first album was,

[34:27] Stella Cole: these were songs that, like, in the last few years when I've been in New York and when I've been touring, like, have meant a lot to me.

[34:35] Stella Cole: I'm very obsessive about music, I I'm constantly, like, listening to the same song or the same album over and over again, for, like, weeks at a time,

[34:41] Stella Cole: and when I'm doing that I'm like, okay, I'm probably gonna record this one, if that makes sense.

[34:47] Alan Seales: What is the soundtrack that plays in your head when you walk into a room?

[34:51] Stella Cole: They've got their own entrance music.

[34:53] Stella Cole: I like that, I like that. I think mine changes a lot, I think mine changes a lot.

[34:57] Stella Cole: I'm very into classical music right now, so maybe something like that, like, I think the drama of that could be fun.

[35:01] Stella Cole: But I think, entrance music, I think maybe it's, like, a Broadway overture, honestly.

[35:05] Alan Seales: Downbeat of Phantom.

[35:07] Stella Cole: Exactly.

[35:09] Stella Cole: Very mysterious.

[35:11] Stella Cole: I love a Broadway overture, I have a whole playlist of Broadway overtures that I run to.

[35:21] Alan Seales: Don't go anywhere, we're gonna take a quick commercial break.

[35:25] Alan Seales: Alright everyone, now we're back.

[35:29] Alan Seales: Is there a moment, like, you were saying, when you sung with the orchestra, I figured there's gotta be the point, like, when I'm looking back to performing the Zitzprobe, for me, is one of the absolute best times when you, you know,

[35:41] Alan Seales: because you're going weeks and weeks sometimes, or months, depending on where you're rehearsing, just with a piano, plunking things out,

[35:45] Alan Seales: and then you get the full band in there, and it's like, it's a completely different world.

[35:53] Stella Cole: So you're rehearsing these songs, you're planning these songs, you get into this studio with this gigantic orchestra,

[35:57] Stella Cole: and being the super sensitive girly that you are, like, what happened?

[36:03] Stella Cole: Well, you'll never guess. I was crying.

[36:07] Stella Cole: You'll never guess. A theme for me.

[36:11] Stella Cole: No, I think we used, we ended up using for the most recent record, we ended up using almost all takes from the live,

[36:15] Stella Cole: like, when I was singing it with the orchestra, because, you know, the orchestra does, like, one take and it's perfect, because they're insane.

[36:27] Stella Cole: So we did, like, two live takes with the orchestra, and then I stayed back in the studio, did some vocal comps,

[36:31] Stella Cole: but, like, nothing that I did, even if it was, like, more pitch perfect, or more, like, technically better,

[36:37] Stella Cole: like, it can't match that energy that I had, like, having the, the, I'm calling it an orchestra, that might not even be the right word,

[36:45] Stella Cole: it's this big string section, and having them there, and, like, playing these charts that just sound, like, to me they sound like singing in the rain,

[36:51] Stella Cole: or they feel like I'm, like, recording some kind of MGM movie, like, there's, I think if you've never done that before,

[36:59] Stella Cole: like, this is probably what you're describing, I don't think you can explain that feeling totally, like, to just be singing in the middle of that kind of, yeah, accompaniment.

[37:09] Alan Seales: Accompaniment.

[37:11] Stella Cole: It's energy, it's energy, it's vibration, it's, I mean, the woo-woo of all of it,

[37:19] Stella Cole: and this is as woo-woo as I get it, is, like, I feel like in some way we are connected,

[37:23] Stella Cole: and that's my form of spirituality, and, like, but music vibration especially brings people together, like, storytelling,

[37:31] Stella Cole: and that's why I think just in general, the Broadway musical, the performance musical has survived thousands of years in one form or another,

[37:39] Stella Cole: because it's the ultimate form of, like, full body, you're singing, you're dancing, you're acting, and then even when you're watching,

[37:45] Stella Cole: it's just, like, it brings you together in a way that you cannot get any other way.

[37:51] Stella Cole: Completely agree. I hear that so much from my audiences after a show.

[37:55] Stella Cole: You know, people have shed tears, and they've laughed, they've cried, that sounds ridiculous, but they have, like, they go through this whole stream of emotions,

[38:01] Stella Cole: and I think in this, in our world today, you know, people are just so used to, like, stimuli here, this, this, this, and the news, and the Instagram, and the TikTok,

[38:13] Stella Cole: and it's, like, that's obviously not what our brains have been evolved to do,

[38:17] Stella Cole: and I think it feels so good for our, like, nervous systems, or, like, our souls, if you want to be woo-woo about it,

[38:25] Stella Cole: like, it's so good for us to, like, sit in a room all together, no matter what everybody's, like, opinions and differences and all of these things that divide us now,

[38:35] Stella Cole: like, for everybody to be locked into one performance, and one, like, musician and the dancers,

[38:41] Stella Cole: and I think, yeah, I think I feel very lucky in these last couple of years to have this job,

[38:49] Stella Cole: which feels like it is helping people in some way in a time such as these, so yeah, I couldn't agree with you more.

[38:57] Alan Seales: And then, as we are recording this, let's see, this is gonna release before Valentine's Day, and you got a little surprise for Valentine's Day, yeah?

[39:09] Stella Cole: I do, yeah, we're putting out a single, My Funny Valentine, which we recorded with that same beautiful string orchestra I was just talking about.

[39:17] Stella Cole: I mean, there's not much to say about it, because I mean, it's pretty obvious, My Funny Valentine, it's for Valentine's Day.

[39:25] Stella Cole: It's an iconic song, and it's one that people ask me to sing every year, like clockwork around Valentine's Day,

[39:33] Stella Cole: so I was like, you know what? It's time we put this out.

[39:37] Stella Cole: People want it, and it's a wonderful song.

[39:39] Stella Cole: It's a beautiful and very dramatic and dark string chart.

[39:43] Stella Cole: It's like, it doesn't sound like anything I've ever sung before on the internet of My Funny Valentine.

[39:51] Stella Cole: It's more sophisticated, I would say.

[39:53] Stella Cole: But yeah, I'm excited for people to hear it.

[39:55] Alan Seales: That's good. That's cool. That's very cool.

[39:57] Alan Seales: So I'll put the link to it in the show notes, and everyone can grab it.

[40:01] Alan Seales: Before we start to wind down, though, I want to say, now that you have found your success,

[40:05] Alan Seales: feel like it is real, you're not sitting at home being like, oh, it's just a thing on my phone.

[40:11] Alan Seales: What are you doing as Stella to keep yourself focused and grounded?

[40:21] Alan Seales: What made me ask about that was, you were talking about My Funny Valentine, and you're like, this is what I love, and I always like to sing it, and blah, blah, blah.

[40:27] Alan Seales: You're still doing what you want to do.

[40:29] Alan Seales: While everybody around you now, the team, I'm sure, has tons of opinions.

[40:33] Alan Seales: So what are you doing to stay grounded and focused?

[40:37] Stella Cole: That's a great question, and something I'm still very much figuring out, I think.

[40:45] Stella Cole: There are two sides of it. One is the things I'm doing as Stella while I'm doing this crazy life of being on tour, which we can get to in a second,

[40:53] Stella Cole: but I think first I'll speak to musically and career-wise the direction I'm going in.

[40:57] Stella Cole: I think I've been very lucky. I just signed to Decca Records, which is Universal Music Group, this big record company.

[41:05] Stella Cole: I was talking to one of the other musicians on DeccaVerve just a couple days ago, actually, about how it doesn't feel like a major label.

[41:11] Stella Cole: It does in all the good ways, but you hear of so many artists being like, I got locked into this contract, and suddenly they're asking me to do this EDM song, and I hate EDM.

[41:19] Stella Cole: I think I've been so lucky to not have that experience at all.

[41:27] Stella Cole: I came to Decca with It's Magic, and they were like, love it, let's do it.

[41:33] Stella Cole: I had dinner with a lot of the team members of the record label a couple months ago, and I was like, I want to start writing some original songs.

[41:41] Stella Cole: How do we feel about that? They're like, hell yeah, let's do it.

[41:45] Stella Cole: My team really is amazing in terms of listening to what feels authentic to me,

[41:49] Stella Cole: and that is a rare thing in the music industry.

[41:53] Stella Cole: I'm very lucky with that, first of all.

[41:57] Stella Cole: Staying authentic for me, it has a lot to do with if my mental health is even good enough to be able to sit still for a second and look inside and be like,

[42:05] Stella Cole: what do I want? What other goals do I have? What does feel right musically right now?

[42:11] Stella Cole: Which is not the easiest thing when I'm on four planes every week and playing six shows in three days in Japan and all these amazing and exhausting things that I'm doing all the time.

[42:27] Stella Cole: I think I've become more skilled and still trying to instead of sitting around all day and refreshing my Instagram and being like, how many likes do I have?

[42:37] Stella Cole: Does everyone hate me? Instead, not having those apps on my phone, which I don't anymore,

[42:47] Stella Cole: letting my team do my best, letting my team take over and creating systems there so that my job can actually be to be a musician and also a person who does yoga and meditates and reads books

[43:01] Stella Cole: and does these things that make me feel like a human person instead of a cog in the social media machine, if that makes sense.

[43:11] Stella Cole: Which is a very lucky position.

[43:13] Stella Cole: Because I'm able to have a social media team at this point.

[43:15] Stella Cole: I know that's not... That hasn't been a possibility for me at every stage of this so far and I feel very lucky to be there right now.

[43:25] Alan Seales: The social media thing kind of sucks for everyone even though it also gives us so much.

[43:29] Stella Cole: Yeah.

[43:31] Alan Seales: The age you are now, I think, I forget what it is. What is it? The forgotten generation or whatever?

[43:35] Alan Seales: There's something that was like the high schooler or college kids who went through COVID lost that ability to really meet and form bonds in person because of that.

[43:43] Alan Seales: Went and turned to social media for a lot of this and it's not healthy because that's not real.

[43:47] Stella Cole: It's just not real.

[43:49] Alan Seales: And then the era you're drawn to anyway is pre-internet, pre-everything technological like that.

[43:55] Stella Cole: It makes total sense.

[43:57] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[43:59] Alan Seales: I'm an old soul in that way too. TikTok has given me my career but I'm also like, kids these days want to get off their phones.

[44:05] Stella Cole: Kids these days being me.

[44:07] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[44:09] Alan Seales: There was a group of friends once that we went out to dinner and everyone except me was on their phone checking messages and shit

[44:13] Alan Seales: and I was like, listen, everybody put your phone in the middle of the table, face down.

[44:17] Alan Seales: First one to reach for your phone pays for everyone's dinner.

[44:19] Stella Cole: Yes, that is the version of the phone pile I haven't heard yet.

[44:23] Stella Cole: I'm always the phone pile person at dinner.

[44:25] Stella Cole: I'm like, guys, middle of the table but the money threat is good.

[44:29] Alan Seales: I like this. Use that.

[44:31] Alan Seales: As we wind down now, I am going to put 60 seconds up on the screen and we're going to play a little game.

[45:01] Alan Seales: I have 17 popular musicals in front of me, 1 through 17.

[45:03] Alan Seales: You will pick 1 through 17. I will tell you what you picked and then you give me the plot to that in 60 seconds or less.

[45:11] Stella Cole: Oh my goodness. Okay, I'm ready. I'm scared that you're going to pick what I don't know.

[45:15] Alan Seales: Alright, give me 1 through 17. If you don't know it, make it up. Perfect.

[45:23] Stella Cole: Six.

[45:25] Alan Seales: Six is, oh, this is kind of on brand. Les Mis, go.

[45:27] Stella Cole: 60 seconds remaining. Oh my gosh. This is so hard.

[45:29] Stella Cole: Okay, they're in France. The guy has stolen bread and now he's in jail but he escapes jail and then there's Cosette.

[45:41] Stella Cole: She sings really high and he's like, I'm in love with this guy and then Eponine's like, no, I too am in love but I'm brunette and I sing a little bit lower and I'm all alone.

[45:51] Stella Cole: And then, oh my god, then the guy goes to war and everybody's fighting in the revolution and the pile is so high and then there's the kid.

[46:01] Alan Seales: What's the kid's name?

[46:03] Stella Cole: Oh my god. Javert.

[46:05] Alan Seales: Yeah, Javert.

[46:07] Stella Cole: There's the policeman. He's so angry and he's—

[46:09] Alan Seales: No, not Javert. Marius.

[46:11] Stella Cole: Marius, yeah. Marius, they're fighting for their freedom and everybody's in love with each other but nobody's in love with any of the right people and I can't believe I only have 12 seconds left.

[46:19] Stella Cole: France. Politics in France.

[46:23] Alan Seales: And one day more.

[46:25] Stella Cole: That was my—

[46:27] Alan Seales: Wow. Do they all go that badly?

[46:31] Stella Cole: That was one of the better ones.

[46:33] Stella Cole: I mean literally like panic.

[46:35] Alan Seales: That was panic.

[46:37] Alan Seales: I was like the Sound of Music ones are like curtains and Nazis the end.

[46:43] Stella Cole: Yeah, exactly. Sound of Music would have been better.

[46:45] Alan Seales: Three standard closing questions. These are hopefully a little bit easier.

[46:51] Alan Seales: First one simply is just what motivates you.

[46:55] Stella Cole: What did you say? What motivates you?

[46:57] Stella Cole: Do you need to take a moment?

[46:59] Stella Cole: That's what motivates me the most.

[47:01] Stella Cole: To just go into complete psychosis.

[47:05] Stella Cole: What motivates me? I think right now I'm trying to do something nice for this very dark world it seems we're living in at the moment like trying to add some light and add a deep breath to people's day in this age of like extreme stress and overstimulation.

[47:27] Alan Seales: Next question then. What advice would you give to yourself and younger people listening now starting out down a similar path?

[47:31] Stella Cole: Calm down.

[47:37] Stella Cole: I think like I I'm a very anxious person.

[47:41] Stella Cole: I think I love to move the goalpost on myself and just like enjoy the moment.

[47:47] Stella Cole: I would say don't move the goalpost. If you're always looking ahead then you're going to find yourself someday being like having an ego and being still like wait but what's the next thing?

[48:01] Stella Cole: You have to enjoy the success that's happening then or if there's no success like just enjoy your morning coffee.

[48:05] Stella Cole: Enjoy taking your walk.

[48:07] Stella Cole: It really is the little things that matter unfortunately no matter what happens like it's still those little things that are really important.

[48:15] Alan Seales: Beautiful. Alright, last question. Hardest one. If you can only see one show for the rest of your life but you can see it as many times as you want, what would you say?

[48:23] Stella Cole: Oh no. It's like live show? I'm thinking Sound of Music would be my like Sound of Music, the movie that is my ultimate comfort movie.

[48:35] Stella Cole: Scene in the Rain too though. I think Sound of Music.

[48:39] Stella Cole: Like when I'm at the dentist I have to listen to the Sound of Music.

[48:41] Stella Cole: When I'm getting a shot I'm scared of needles so when I'm getting a vaccine I have to be like hey sorry to the nurse like let me pull something up real quick

[48:49] Stella Cole: and I like pull up Maria singing I have confidence like I think I really need that movie emotionally so yeah I would say the Sound of Music or currently on Broadway now

[49:01] Stella Cole: I think I could watch maybe Happy Ending a lot of times it never gets harder.

[49:05] Alan Seales: Oh I'm with you with you on all of that.

[49:07] Alan Seales: Alright. Very cool.

[49:09] Alan Seales: Alright so where can we connect with you, listen to your music, listen to the single, everything that everyone needs to know?

[49:13] Stella Cole: Yes. I mean you can connect with me in person I'm probably going to be in a city near you at some point if you're listening to this I'm on tour all the time

[49:25] Stella Cole: my website for all that is StellaCole.net that's also where