CTXLT Interview with Michael Monét, Composer of Penfold Theatre's Mozart Remix for AMADEUS by Peter Shaffer, March 24 - April 9, 2022
Interview by Brian Paul Scipione
I was very fortunate to conduct an extended interview with Michael Morét, the actor, composer, and hip-hop artist who has created an amazing new score for Peter Shaffer’s classic play Amadeus as directed by Liz Fisher and presented by the Penfold Theater Company. We delved into many topics including this modern take on a classic play, the world of social media, his unconventional music education and training, and comparisons with Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Michael is a charismatic personality and a dynamic artist, and we had a long conversation. This interview has been edited for length.
Brian Paul Scipione - How long have you been in Austin?
Michael Morét - I moved to Texas in 2013 and went to Texas State for four years. Then I went on tour and then COVID happened. So, I guess, like five or six years.
BPS- Where did you go on tour?
Morét - I was part of the American Shakespeare Center for 2019-2020. We did Midsummer's, I was Demetrius in that. We did Cymbeline—I was Belarius and Jupiter in that. Then for Grapes of Wrath I was the lead role Tom Joad and was the first African American Tom Joad in America ever. And still to this day I will never understand how that happened and how I was the guy, but it was an amazing, amazing experience. I was just so unbelievably lucky to be able to do that.
BPS - That’s incredible. I had no idea that was even a reality until now.
Morét - What comes to my mind about this story was that the pandemic happened and it so interesting how many parallels that show had with the real world—because what happened during pandemics and times of crisis, is the essential workers are the ones that suffered the most. In all the Grapes of Wrath all the farmers and all the workers are the ones who are suffering and dying but being called essential, but their labor is being cut, their hours are being cut, and their pay is being cut. I was, like, Holy shit! It is still the same. It is such a harrowing experience to experience the show and watch it happen in real time. It's insane.
BPS - What reason do you think there is for doing Amadeus right now? Who is the audience for this play?
Morét - I’m going to talk about why this piece is important to me. I was always interested in Mozart’s music but what has been hitting me recently is that Mozart is this brilliant composer; undeniably brilliant, undeniably genre bending, and yet he died poor. And the concept—that you can live in brilliance and live in such talent, but the way the economics work doesn’t mean that’s going to yield a profit—has been so gratifying for me to see as an artist that has graduated from college and went on tour and has all these thoughts and all these dreams, and writing all this music and having people tell me ‘yes your music is good,’ and I’m still working a day job where I’m packing ice. So for me watching the show, and Mozart is this huge composer, it assured me that it is ok because seeing that he is dealing with the same things.
In terms of what the audience will get from it, I think it is just a beautiful story. Mozart’s music is so good. He is such an emotional person that I think the audience will really connect with his ability to connect with people who want to create. I’m very interested in seeing their connection with Salieri and what the ego and insecurity can do unchecked. And I know that a lot of us will never admit there is a lot of Salieri in us, but I think everyone has your ending when you see someone else doing something more successful and while you won’t do as much as Salieri did and destroy someone’s life. I think the audience will be able to connect with the darker sides of all of our personalities.
BPS - Do you think that’s why people act the way they do on social media?
Morét - Yes. It is the lack of accountability and anonymity. I can make a fake account and do any sort of thing I want with zero accountability. While I don’t do that, I get the allure. We are all frustrated about stuff. What if there were a place you could vent out all that frustration, and it doesn’t matter who you hurt, and it doesn’t matter, because you are not going to get into trouble. I get why it’s so rampant.
BPS - I’m very sensitive to that as a critic, it kills me to be harsh on a performance, so I have a different way of dealing with that.
Morét - When I was younger, growing up and learning, I valued harsh criticism. I believed that meant you were objective. The harsher you could be and the more aggressive and needle-pricky you were, that’s synonymous with being a good critic. Now that I’m older I’m like, oh, no! You can have your opinions, you can have a critical eye, and you can not like things—but to just be so aggressive and attack-y and dismantle-y! I mean, these are real people. When people do TV shows they are people. They are connected to this. Yeah, I might not like the movie, and I can articulate that without dismantling the person or the art form.
BPS - Can you tell me about your classical music background?
Morét - Not really. That’s what's so interesting about this process. When I was a kid, I played the violin for a year, and then I stopped when I was six. I wanted to play the piano,so my Mom got me a piano teacher but they made us play on paper keyboards instead of playing the piano. I was, like, Mom, I hate that, I’ll teach myself. She was, like, how? I don’t know, but I’m going to teach myself.
So, growing up, I watched a lot of YouTube videos, I played a lot of video games, and listened to a lot of Japanese composers. I would learn from YouTube their songs and that happened for about ten years or so, and then eventually I started playing the piano and rapping, and that became my current musical identity. I rap and tour under the name Khaos Light. That’s my main thing now. I don’t have a lot of classical background, but I have a lot of background in music and unorthodox music is how I came into it. I think part of the reason Liz wanted me for this project is because my musical taste is very eclectic. I compose all of my own music, so I play the piano and I play the drums and the guitar and all of that, and sometimes I hire musicians if I want the parts to be fuller. I love classical music. It is great and I’m going to keep saying this, and it’s like duh, but Mozart’s music is so good. I didn’t think I’d be as impressed as I am. My girlfriend says it’s because he’s mentally ill and I’m mentally ill, so we connect in that deep way. It totally could be, but some of his music, I’ll play it and I’ll just get quiet. My brain just gets quiet, and I just tune it in. I’ve always had a strong connection with music, but it locks me in in a way that I haven’t experienced before. I’m using it to fall asleep. I’m using it to calm panic attacks. His music is just outstanding!
BPS - Who are your favorite composers or bands or musical influences outside of Mozart?
Morét - Paramore is what made me want to be in a band. Hayley Williams is the singer in the band. I didn’t know you could sing about love and be angry and sad. My Mom in her infinite wisdom bought me their CD, the first CD I ever owned. She also bought me their live DVD, so I was able to watch their concerts from start to finish. That kind of kicked me off, and I was, like, I really want to be in a band. Paramore was the rock influence.
Kanye West, before he lost all his shit. When I was a kid, I was fixated on Kanye West. Nowadays, Kendrick Lamar, in terms of rap influence, is my all-time. What can be said about Kendrick that hasn’t been said?
Another big influence is a genre of music called math rock, which is just instrumental. There are a lot of bands I really love. Chon and Polyphia and Intervals. That’s where a lot of my musical taste comes from. Since they are only instrumental, there has to be so much care and attention to the instruments, because the vocals are not there to get bring people in. So that has honed my ability to use instruments.
BPS - Let me ask the number one question. What is a hip hop remix of Mozart?
Morét - I’m going to be honest, it’s just me doing what feels right. What I love about [director] Liz [Fisher] is that she hit me up and said I want hip-hop, but I do a lot more than that, so I said, "Are we stuck with hip hop?" Nope! There is a lot of hip hop. There is a lot of rock. There is a lot of EDM. There is a lot of odd time signatures and stuff like that. What was cool about working that way is that Mozart pushed the genre in his time, so it only makes sense for me and my time to not just be stuck in “Okay, I’m just going to put a beat to every single song and just bring it in modern hip hop songs and throw that on top." I recompose every single song. There is only, I think, two songs that have direct rips of actual music that’s around now. The rest of them, from the bottom up I write, I compose, I bring in the elements from the ground up. Liz Fisher is so wonderful to work with. They gave me free rein.
BPS - Is this like giving Amadeus, the play, the Hamilton treatment?
Morét - Love Lin-Manuel Miranda! Love Hamilton! I feel like this is the next iteration of that. Hamilton already did all hip-hop, and it was dope, it was tight, and I love everything about it. We don’t, in my opinion, need more Hamilton. What’s the next step? For me, I think the next step is that hip-hop is diverse and doesn’t just have beats; so we can do rock mixed with hip-hop, we can do classical music mixed with hip-hop, we can do pop mixed with hip-hop, we can do EDM. So, for me, as a person who has studied Lin since the second I heard In the Heights was a thing, for me it feels like this [current production] is the next chronological thing. He laid the groundwork for me [ . . .] for the next musical step.
BPS- Do you have anything else to say?
Morét- Yes. Khaos Light! I am putting out an EP album relatively soon, and it's very good. We got songs like “Fuck Weinstein,” which is a diss track against Harvey Weinstein. We got orchestral stuff. We got hard rock stuff. It’s very good music. So be on the lookout for that!
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Penfold Theatre's Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, directed by Liz Fisher, runs March 24 - April 9, 2022
at the Ground Floor Theatre, 979 Springdale Rd, Austin, Texas, 78702 (See map),
featuring music by Michael Morét.
The performance on Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 4 p.m. will take place at the Klett Center for the Performing Arts,
2211 N. Austin Avenue, Georgetown, Texas 78626 (See map)
and will be accompanied by forty members of the Central Texas Philharmonic.
Tickets and information available at the Penfold Theatre website (click HERE).
Click HERE for the CTXLT production listing.