WATCH: Bear & Barlow Debut New Song “Beyond” From Moana 2 Soundtrack
Moana 2’s premiere is right around the corner, Bear & Barlow sit with Preston & Steve to discuss their creative processes, composing the film’s soundtrack.
Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear make history as the youngest and first female composing team to write original songs for Walt Disney. The pair has an astonishing footprint; Bear signed with Quincy Jones at the age of nine, and the two won Grammys for their concept album, “The Unofficial Bridgerton Soundtrack Album.” Barlow explains how a lot of musicals start off as concept albums. TikTok and social media are huge factors to credit for the album’s popularity. It was the height of the pandemic when they began to write songs, just for fun. Rapidly, their work went on to draw fans, would join in on making their own content with their work. They describe the trend as a phenomenon.
While working on the Moana project, they were ecstatic to be working on a soundtrack for a film adjacent to ones they had grown up with. They describe how cool it is that children will be sitting in the backseat of the car, listening to their work! The girls even shared with us that they wrote songs for all characters, including Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson). “I fully became Maui when we started writing” Abigail explains.
In The Preston & Steve studio, they perform “Beyond,” a song that Barlow describes as the predecessor of “How Far I’ll Go” from the first Moana film. Their performance ended with a huge “Wow!” from Preston and goosebumps from everybody in the room. Preston even says that he got whiplash flipping his focus from Emily to Abigail. Abigail also mentions a song she had just released last week! We listened along to a clip of “Modern Day Madonna.”
Moana 2 hits theaters near you on Wednesday, November 27th. Right around Thanksgiving, the release is the perfect time for you to gather your family to watch! Can’t wait until then? Check out our conversation with Emily Bear and Abigail Barlow to get a sneak peak of the musical magic from the film!
– Lily Burke, The Preston & Steve Show Staff
