We hoped you enjoyed the @CW_Riverdale #Hedwig musical episode!! Here’s a not so little thread with some BTS fun facts from our music production.

ok so there was this 2 week period where we kinda knew it was going to be Hedwig, but we didn’t have approval to start yet. Ryan and I spent this time listening/obsessing/falling in love with the music and having all-night panic attacks. This is the normal process.

When we did finally have approval, we needed to create all nine tracks in about four days which… frankly is not that bad for us on a musical episode.

That blur of a week was like a heist movie montage with Ry playing monster all-day drum/key sessions in Nashville then flying songs to me in LA to get enough guitars on them to send to our sessions in Vancouver, where I skype in and produce the cast vocals Charlie's-Angels-style

The big take away from that period is that @stephentrask is a bloody genius and we reaaally didn’t want to screw this up.

Our goal in any musical episode — which comes from @WriterRAS on down — is to honor this incredible source material while finding the best way to serve our story.

Wicked Little Town was a place where we needed to deviate a bit. The original is a hypnotic ballad sung by Hedwig, in our version we’re bouncing between 17(!) different cast members, the most singers in any song of ours to date (tied with Midnight Radio.)

I had the idea that we should have a town choir throughout WLT, a “greek chorus” carrying the song along between singers. Roberto gave us the green light to try it!

That WLT choir is Lili / Cami / Madelaine / Vanessa (with a little Laura and Sasha thrown in for good measure.) I love the way it ebbs and flows along and I’ve listened to this one maybe 1,500 times more than necessary.

And this is where we celebrate @CaseyCott. A wonderful human being and mega-talent who has been criminally underused in these musical episodes. Tracking his vocal performance on “Tear Me Down” was a top 5 moment for me on the show.

Needles to say, Tear Me Down is one I’ve been listening to on repeat. There’s so much heart and fun and Vanessa does this killer back-phrased thing on the “enemies and adversaries” part — almost an echo on the lead — that slays me every time.

Don’t miss the TMD full album version with Fangs’s take on Yitzhak’s Berlin Wall monologue. @DrewRayTanner spitting fire!

We actually goofed a lyric in that monologue section — Hedwig fans of all three prior album versions will know EXACTLY what we did — and we needed Drew to re-record the line, which he did, at home on his iPhone two weeks ago. Get that man an engineering credit!

One of overarching challenges throughout this musical was taking songs meant for two singers, and re-orchestrating them for a much larger cast. That entailed changing some keys, creating new harmonies and keeping mental tabs on numerous vocal ranges.

For each of these songs with new parts we needed to create guide vocals for the cast to reference. There’s a demo version of Midnight Radio with Laura and I — a bit tipsy after a few date-night cocktails— singing all 17 parts. Thankfully, I married a absolute harmony machine!

Sugar Daddy ended up being tricky to dial in key-wise. Written for Hedwig’s vocal range, we need to move it up to fit Cheryl and Toni — which then changed what we could do harmony-wise on the chorus. We worked those out on the day, bouncing ideas back and forth between takes.

Our “Sugar Daddy” is quite a few degrees of telephone away from the iconic country-rock original. We started with the 2014 Broadway version as a template and wanted to go even bigger for our Choni duet with a marching band snare and big horns.

The real killer for us on Sugar Daddy is the vocal performances. Both @madelainepetsch and @VanessaMorgan brought so much energy and fun. Tracking Madelaine as she “Cheryls” up some lines with extra ridiculousness is always a transcendent joy. Total comedic genius!

Exquisite Corpse caused the most initial apprehension I’d say. It SO different than anything we’ve ever done. It ended up being the most fun everyone had singing. A real blood-pumper to perform.

Funnily enough, Exquisite Corpse is the Riverdale song that’s the most similar to the music @ryguydrum and I grew up playing. Incredibly satisfying to beat up our instruments to a trash-can ending once more.

Since Ex Corpse plays as a big fight in the show we wanted create a little sonic difference between the girls and guys for a little extra discord. The girls vocals are doubled and we kept the guys solo.

You might have noticed there’s a lot more “music” in this musical episode than we’ve ever been able to manage to squeeze in before. Huge credit goes to writer @TessaLWilliams for making it all work together so seamlessly.

For the incomparable ballad Origin of Love - we needed to move some parts around to fit the story on screen. Our full album version is in the correct order, we promise!

The rhythm guitar on Midnight Radio was the last thing I played on the last day before cast vocals — at 3am — I gave myself two takes and luckily it sort of sounds perfect for The Archies in a woozy end-of-a-concert way.

We wanted to create this epic, swirling “All Along The Watchtower” solo at the end of Midnight Radio, so I asked KJ — a much better guitarist than I — to rock it out. Thankfully, he’s always up for doing my guitar stunt work.

There’s A LOT happening at the end of MR, so here’s the @kj_apa ripping guitar solo in all it’s glory — without any vocals: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_BavsSHh4v/ 

While we sadly didn’t get a Veronica solo song we always lean on @CamilaMendes in these musicals — she’s the one doing all those Yitzhak high runs at the end of Midnight Radio.

So many of our amazing cast and characters sang for the first time on this episode: FP, Tom, Hiram, Hermione, Jellybean. I’ve almost collected all of the Riverdale-vocal-session-Pokemon. We're coming for you, Dr. Curdle Jr!

One first timer was Pop Tate himself, @AlvinLeeSanders who lends his wonderful baritone to the album. Listen for it on the line “When she turns around” in WLT.

As always, we couldn’t do this alone. We had a stable of musical powerhouses helping us out — @LauraJaneScott, @TylerHilton, @sashaspielberg, @juleslarson, Enrique Sanchez, Paul Cartwright, Cameron Stone & Andy Barr. Champions all!

One person who deserves an extra special shout-out is producer Amy Myrold. She’s been down in trenches with us on every Riverdale song since the beginning — keeping us motivated and making sure the machine doesn’t spontaneously combust. An unsung hero of this and every episode.

We could talk all day about our favorite moments — Lili’s delicately lovely intro to “Wig in a Box”, the crazy-angsty end of Exquisite Corpse, each cast member singing through huge “lift up your hands” chorus — This musical was such a pleasure to make.

Last thought! Of all the moments, it’s ironically one that didn’t make the ep that I find myself returning to again & again — the end of “Origin of Love” with A/B/V/J all singing as one. It’s a little sad and a little hopeful, and I think that’s perfect.

I’ll be back in two weeks with one more cool thing to share, then it’s off to social media hibernation until next time! Feel free to hit @ryguydrum and I with any of your burning Riverdale music questions.