Composer Jeremy Schonfeld Uses “Drift” as a Way to Explain the Pain of Divorce
Broadway isn’t normally the type of place you’d expect to hear about divorce but Jeremy Schonfeld is changing that. Schonfeld’s album “Drift” recounts through music, his own divorce and battles with child custody.
Schonfeld, 38, a singer and songwriter who has opened for artists such as James Taylor, had grown apart from his wife of 6 years and from their divorce “Drift” was born.
Schonfeld’s unique ability to transcend genres and use his music to reach out to singles, married couples and divorcees alike has brought “Drift” beyond the album and into a theatrical musical. Schonfeld will be playing a one-night benefit concert of “Drift” on November 3rd at B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in New York. Schonfeld spoke with Wevorce recently about “Drift”, his music and his divorce.
Wevorce: What inspired you to write “Drift”?
Schonfeld: Interestingly, some of those songs from the original album were not written, post-divorce, but were written during the marriage. Many of the songs I was inspired to record, were very similar in theme and almost autobiographical, so I went forward, knowing that there was a concept there and that it was very deep and personal.
Wevorce: Were there any unique challenges to writing a musical about divorce?
Schonfeld: I didn’t set out to write a musical about divorce and child custody. As the project grew and the album touched more people, we tried to figure out the best way to tell that story. So the challenge is how someone writes a show around a pre-existing set of songs. So sometimes you have to shoe-horn things to make them fit.
So it’s much more challenging for the writer of the book. My collaborator had a real challenge that way, together we had to get out of the original idea and break your own mold in a way. Which was originally, my story, told by me, and I sort of took myself out of it.
In a way you have to sort of take away the personal and try to look at the story as a whole and that can be much trickier when it’s based on your own experiences. The subject matter itself, a lot of people are still afraid to touch it because it does affect so many people, whether it’s a commercially viable thing. I think you come up against a couple things when you try to adapt really personal material like this.
Wevorce: Was it difficult for you to write your own experiences with divorce and custody battles into a musical?
Schonfeld: I guess it’s always difficult to write things that are personal and make them clear. I think it’s important because it’s very therapeutic and I think it’s important to get those thoughts out and get them on paper. There are songs that I have written that took several months to write because I wasn’t ready to finish them. One song called Tuesday and Thursday” is a good example. It was difficult to have a child only on Tuesday and Thursday and I didn’t know how to finish it. Only 6 months later was I able to finish it and understand the lyrics and verse. In that sense as a writer, you have to be patient and be able to put things aside and say okay, when I’m ready, I’ll finish this.”
Wevorce: Divorce is an uncommon topic for a musical. What kind of reception did “Drift” receive?
Schonfeld: “Drift”, I think, touched a lot of people. I think the music, has always been very well received. A lot of people come out of the woodwork when they can relate and I think that’s been the case. The show, from the album, has also been well received, but that’s a bit harder to sell. When you think of Broadway, you don’t think of divorce and child custody.
Wevorce: There will be a benefit performance of “Drift” on November 3rd. Can you tell us what the proceeds will be going toward?
Schonfeld: There are a couple of different organizations. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids is a wonderful organization, in and out of the community. There is another organization that I am personally affiliated with called Broadway Dreams Foundation. It goes into the community and we do a boot-camp to help them with shows and auditions and let them audition for us. It’s to give them feedback and help them. Both are wonderful organizations. Those are the two main beneficiaries.
Wevorce: “Drift” features a wealth of music and crosses into many genres. Was it difficult to capture the emotions and story of your divorce with your music?
Schonfeld: I write in a variety of genres. For me, it’s always about the story. The story being told will dictate the music the lyrics. I want to be as authentic as I can with the music. I don’t want to water it down and think about the market. I try to be appropriate for each song. When I approached “Drift” and when I write in general, I kind of know the mood for the song. I just kind of sense it. It’s not very difficult for me to assess.
If I’m doing Tuesday and Thursday, there is a playful quality. With a song like Spite, the title alone is an angry song. It’s aggressive. That’s one of the songs I had written the chorus, literally, four years before I finished the song, when I was still in the marriage. Then I came back and realized what I needed to do there. When you’re putting together an album like “Drift”, you get a certain flow and see what works. I spent hours trying to see that one song leads to the next one and there is a consistency with it. When one song ends and one song starts.
Wevorce: What are the three things you learned about divorce?
Schonfeld: There is a difference between those who have been going through divorce and those going through divorce with kids. Without the kids, you can walk away and not go into vulgar words or whatever. But when you have a kid, you can say ‘screw you’, but then there is still ‘are you getting her on Tuesday or am I?’ you have to find a way to deal with each other and get along if you have their best interest in mind.
When I was going through my difficulties with the heartbreak and anger, we never took our eye off the prize. We maintained a good solid, consistent relationship with our child. In the end, we all now have a decent relationship. I’m remarried and my ex-wife is remarried and she has kids with her husband. We were able to get through all of that stuff.
Another thing is that you can’t rush the process. You just can’t rush it. You’re going to be in the middle of the divorce for a while. So understand that, deal with that and learn from that. It’s a very difficult thing. You can’t just step out of something like that. It’s different. It’s changed.
I accepted that certain things were just going to happen. I wasn’t always going to feel like a good person, sometimes I was going to go crazy and maybe drink a little too much, but having my child to take care of was a saving grace. I knew that no matter how far I went, in a day or two, I was going to have my child and have to be a good consistent father to my child.
Wevorce: How do you think people relate to a musical about divorce?
Schonfeld: One of the statistics thrown around is that divorce occurs in over 50 percent of all marriages and there is another statistics, you can’t even say it, how the families are affected. Whether it’s your own brother or sister or you and how divorce touches everybody.
Personally, when I went through divorce I didn’t know other people who had gone through it. Once I went through it “ I realized just how many people came out of the woodwork with that. They wanted to talk about it or tell their story. I think that itself, whether it was the album or a concert like this, whether it’s a musical or movie was them relating. For that reason alone, I’m proud of the work. We’ll see what happens from there but I’m proud I did it.
Wevorce: With Hollywood’s emphasis on divorce, “The Women” and “Starter Wife,” do you think divorce has become just another life event in America?
Schonfeld: I think so. I think that people kind of latch onto the idea that this is commonplace if not more than simply families or marriages to stick together.
I think people are always looking for something to add a little gravitas or oomph” to television. I think that it’s good that people are facing a certain reality about what unfortunately occurs in many relationships in America.
If we deal with all of these things and if people can relate to the characters, like my music, you start to feel like you have a kindred spirit somewhere. As long as people feel like it’s not just You” the better people are at coping.
Wevorce: Why do so many people compare divorce to death?
Schonfeld: That’s interesting because, well, it is like death. I don’t think anyone sets out in a marriage to get married for a few years”. You get married thinking you have a life and it’s going to be a continuous one and you’ll grow and spend years growing old and raising families. It’s difficult when that life is shattered and you realize that now you have to do something completely different. Now that life I thought I had is no longer going to be there.
It is basically the same as a death. It’s the death of an ideal. Of what you thought was going to take place in your life. The same kind of haunting, the same thing I faced in “Drift”.
I went to an apartment and we had just moved in. I walked in and there was my piano and some boxes as I was walking through there I was visited by all of the ghosts of the life we had led. It was a reminder that there was a different life, and now I’m in a different place. I think the comparisons to death are very, very true. That’s why I said earlier that it takes time and about taking time. There’s a mourning period, several stages of mourning, anger, depression, self-loathing, whatever you want to call it. Hopefully everyone gets through it.
For more information Jeremy Schonfeld and “Drift” visit, http://www.myspace.com/jeremyschonfeld
