BitRake speaks with Brad Kemp. Interview by Ally Montgomery, Justin Jacobs, Melina Arevalo, and Isha Pati.

Chicago musician, composer, music director, producer, and general slayer Brad Kemp sat down with BitRake this past week to talk music, comedy, and all things epic and Bradical.

Ally, Justin, Luke, Melina and I met Brad in fall 2022, during the rehearsal process for Everything You’re About To See Is Normal And Okay, a musical sketch show which Brad music directed, Melina stage managed, and the rest of us wrote and performed, along with four other cast members.

Kemp has been a prolific contributor to the Chicago music and comedy scenes for years and has worked with artists such as RuPaul’s Drag Race winners Yvie Oddly and Shea Coulée, and comedian Chris Redd. Brad started his own studio, Second Bedroom Studio, to make music full time after earning his degree in Music Composition from Columbia College, where he also studied jazz vocals and music theory. His being a “pretend” jazz major, he said, as well as learning music theory, aided his composition skills. “It taught me the language, and I’m very grateful to have that,” said Kemp. “Learning music theory makes you a stronger musician, just like learning the English language makes you a better writer.”

“My strongest instruments are probably my voice and ear,” Kemp told BitRake. That said, he can bring a room down when he’s on the keys. Having played piano in his church’s youth band growing up, Brad is proficient at sight reading and keenly aware of the moods chords can evoke, saying he “thinks in Roman numerals, in a way,” referencing the way chord progressions are notated. And he can whip this talent out quickly, on his feet. I remember towards the end of one particularly long and grueling EYATSINAO rehearsal Brad punctuated a sentimental moment in a sketch with the most perfectly-timed playing of the Cheers theme song you could possibly imagine and I nearly fell to the floor laughing. Even though Brad is quite naturally funny, his ending up involved in the comedy scene was something of a coincidence.

He stumbled into it on a friend’s suggestion in 2009 and has been MD-ing comedy ever since, in addition to composing original songs, producing music, and working in more traditional musical theatre spaces. “Early on it paid the bills,” Kemp said of his jobs music directing improv shows.

“Music directing has always been like a second day job. And it’s conveniently so fun,” Brad said, adding, “My true passion is composing.”

Q: Does idea generation for musical comedy help with composition?

A: “Yes,” Kemp replied, “It helps me judge people’s reactions. I can take what felt right and overthink later.” He spoke about scoring improv shows live, saying that it allows him to stumble across chords and progressions he wouldn’t ordinarily think of, and to place melodies in new genres or contexts. 

“A lot of times [when composing] I think, ‘If I was watching this scene happen in an improv show, what kind of music would go over it?’”

Q: How is music directing comedy different from music directing traditional theatre?

Brad’s job ranges from composition and lyric writing for musicals to live underscoring improv shows. Those tasks require a vast range of different skills.

“The term music director is used so loosely,” he replied, “Broadway in Chicago MDs could not MD an improv show. Most people don’t really understand how to underscore things.”

MDing a musical sketch show, in a sense, combines both of these skills. In a rehearsal process like ours for EYATSINAO, performers write lyrics and loose melodies before bringing songs to the MD to fully flesh them out. When running songs, he added, verse 1 is a first try that he can try again better the second time the verse comes around.

“Over a decade of actors singing stuff at me, you get really good at what chord progressions should be, where the melody is going,” Brad said, “You also change stuff throughout and make stuff better, because the melody usually doesn’t change.”

Q: You have a jazz background, which revolves around improvisation. Does improv ever help you with making music?

A: “There’s something fundamental about improv that translates to other areas,” Brad said. He spoke on teaching improv to “muggles” (his words): “Most people who do improv do it to benefit themselves in other areas of life.” The fundamental tenets of improv— removing filters and the inner editor, not second guessing yourself, saying yes, collaboration and adaptivity— can benefit artists across mediums. Brad used the example of producing music. “Like, all house music sounds like *ntz ntz ntz.* So what else do you do on top of that? How do you make it interesting?”

“It’s about the bigger, broader breaking down of filters,” he said, “I learned such a valuable lesson in improv. Just don’t stop. Keep going.”

Q: What makes the Chicago style of improv unique?

“Maybe you shouldn’t write this,” Brad said and then I wrote it, “when people say that they mean good improv. Not to say there’s not good improv everywhere else, but you see improv in [other cities] and it’s like, this would be the worst show on any weekend in Chicago.”

What Brad said he appreciates about improv, especially music improv, which he taught at Second City until 2019, is the commitment to insanity and the way that it’s impossible to explain the next day. “Improv can’t be captured for later,” he said, “There’s this sense of ‘we’re forgiving you because you’re making it up,’ and it only exists for that group of people in that exact moment.”

Q: Could you talk about your experience writing for RuPaul’s Drag Race?

A: “I made like, no money from it,” Kemp chuckled. Brad produced a track for season 11 winner Yvie Oddly to perform on All-Winners. “It was kind of weird going through the whole process and then being told ‘okay, so it’s next year,’ then 13 months of silence before it happened […] and it’s like, I guess nobody knows.”

Kemp spoke of his experience producing a song that was featured on an episode of the CW show Homecoming. “I missed it,” he said, “It’s playing on the radio, like, so inaudible. And I made more money off that than Drag Race!”

Q: What is your ultimate goal?

A (after a brief of moment of all of us laughing at Ally for asking such a crazy question): “My goal for a long time was to have a musical on Broadway,” Kemp said, adding that this goal has shifted for him, citing the many financial constraints that accompany producing an original musical, speaking from his experience having the option to produce a show off-Broadway. “The world you think we have [of] original musicals does not exist.” Mostly it comes down to production costs— theater rentals, crew, cast, and front of house staff are all necessary and expensive. He spoke of the various workarounds shows will employ to cut costs, from artificially extending the run by playing fewer nights per week to closing off parts of the house to “sell out” every night.

“I think my goal is to keep existing as a person who makes art.” Brad said. Having attained what so many artists covet—career success— he noted, “After those things have happened you’re no more happy or less happy than you were the day before. Really my goal is to be happy somehow.”

On writing, Brad said, “A lot of people approach things thinking, ‘well this one’s my opus,’ 1) You don’t know until you put it out. 2) Nothing is. Stop striving for perfection. Be okay with making a bunch of trash.”

“I like listening to my old stuff,” he added, “It’s not good but art’s not good or bad. [It’s] a good snapshot of me as a producer at the time.”

Ultimately live music, jazz, musical theatre, and stage comedy all rely on feeding off and responding to the energy of the room— both audience & players. Part of what makes live performance special is the fact that it is by nature ephemeral.

“Don’t take art too seriously,” Kemp said, “Let it be a snapshot of how you exist right now and maybe next year you’ll make something better.”

Working with Brad, his “don’t take art too seriously” philosophy clearly comes through, not in the actual technical parts, but in the joy he brings to the process. “I’ve always been the class clown,” he said, “I’ve always been the one being stupid and telling jokes.” As we ended the call, I said, “I’ve got to call my mom.”

And without missing a beat, Brad said, “I’ve got to call Isha’s mom as well.”

Answer: Collins. Brad’s dog is named after Bootsy Collins.