The Song Lion
HarmonioUS Epcot DEBUT Reaction
Here’s the full reaction vid to me hearing my arrangement and seeing the show for the first time. I still can’t make it through without a tear falling.
I started this demo of “Dig a Little Deeper” trying to stick to New Orleans roots I didn’t have. It seemed like the safe thing to do as my first project for freakin DISNEY lol. Yaron & the team said no no nooooo. We need you to go FULL PENTECOSTAL GOSPEL! Claps! Stomps! Shouts! Everything lol. That’s all it took for me to scratch everything and actually GO for it.
Everybody knows I’m a church boy through & through. COGIC raised me (do I have witness ✋🏾), so I went to work with the thought in mind that I have the opportunity to represent an enormous community of people who look like me and the Gospel sound that so many wish to emulate. They didn’t want an imitation, so I went for the biggest, truest sound I could.
I sang and wrote every note/line/chord you hear (with the exception of a few horn lines lol). It felt like every demo I sent in, the team was like..bigger. Tagged new crazy endings…BIGGER. It got so big it became the Finale BEFORE the Finale lol. No one had Disney going THIS church before. The way so many incredible musicians breathed life into this arrangement and made it gigantic..it’s mind blowing. 7 times out of 10, my arrangements are just used as demos for the real people to perform. This time was different.
I’m one of the real people 🙌🏾.
I’m now featured with Gospel royalty! Full stop!
The icing on top was the honor to sing on “Someday” which closes the show!
I had about 2 years to prepare myself for this revealing moment, but I still wasn’t ready smh. So watch what happens when a guy who loves doing all the work (but staying in the background) gets shoved right to the front of the stage.. it’s a cluster of emotions, but gratefulness rises to the top. For years to come, every night at 9:45pm..crowds will hear something I created at a Walt Disney Park.
Thank you, JESUS!
