Episode 12 – Maria DiFabbio

Maria DiFabbio is a musical theater writer and singer/songwriter. She has developed work at the Weston Playhouse Artists Retreat, Legacy Theater, Redhouse Arts Center New Works Festival, NYMF, SheNYC Theater Festival, The Brick, Coho Theatre (Portland, OR), the Guilford Performing Arts Festival (Drama Award commission with Emily Breeze), the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, the Springworks Festival in Stratford, ON, etc. 

She produces a seasonal musical theater salon at Threes Brewing in Brooklyn, where musical writers share work with friends and community. 

She sings with the band Bears of Alaska, and is a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, and BMI Bookwriting Workshop.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_04 0:10

Hello, everybody, and welcome again to another edition of Acoustic Northeast, where we talk about the singers and songwriters and the acoustic music scene in the Northeast.

SPEAKER_03 0:21

US.

SPEAKER_04 0:22

And we interview musicians who play live for us in studio. I am co-host George Malice. I am co-host Dave Goldenberg.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

We're sponsored today by HearitThere.com, which is a great place to go in the tri-state area for information about who's playing where and when and to learn more about them. By uh Hudson Harding, the folk rock radio promoters. If you're uh I'm sorry, the folk radio promoters. The rock is up to you. They do folk rock. They do folk rock. And WBXO Internet Radio streaming live from beautiful Hopewell Junction, New York, um, where you can actually hear Acoustic Northeast on the radio. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Yeah. Across the airwaves. Well, not across the airwaves, on the internet, like you just said, right? Exactly. And you can listen to our podcast, obviously, wherever you're listening to it now. Also on acousticnortheast.com and also on YouTube. So um that's what we got going on. But we have a fantastic guest in studio today, and that happens to be Maria DeFabio. Maria, welcome to the show. We're very happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Maria does both singer-songwriter stuff, and you also write for theater. Am I correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

So why don't you kick us off with a tune and then we'll talk about more about your songwriting and um, you know, we'll get into it all.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Sounds great.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

Here she is.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Gonna find a place where I belong. And I think the change is finally flowing my way. After feeling lonesome for so long. My mother says goodbye out on the driveway. My father wishes he could tag along. They asked me had I hear of this old highway. Well, I told 'em that I heard it in a song. My home is in the bridge mountains. That's what all those records say. And damn, if I don't try to make some music of my life today, I'm gonna get up early just to catch the sunrise. I'm gonna go to bed with someone with no name. Gonna wake up to the sound of someone singin'. Woo-hoo, and come up with a part for their refrain. Please, someone tell me where the music's playing. Please anchor me in some old jukebox dive. I guess the thing I think I'm really saying is please someone come and make me feel alive. My heart is in the blue mountains. That's what others others say And damn if I don't try to make some meaning of my life today Well who am I deceiving? Always been good at leaving, never wanna settle down. Maybe I'm just make believing, but there's an art to skip and tell who I am going to the bridge mountains. Come what will and come what makes Damn if I don't try to make some meaning and damn if I don't try to make some magic and damn if I don't try to make some music of my life today.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Beautiful. That's Maria De Fabio. Maria, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you're a Joni Mitchell fan.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yes. Big Joni Mitchell.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Um and it's not just the those notes, those stratospheric notes that you can hear, but kind of the sensibility to that song. Was that somebody who played a role in your musical upbringing?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, she um I didn't start writing songs until I was like about 21, and she was definitely listening to her music for the first time really kicked that off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

And you grew up you grew up in Connecticut, is it? Yep. And and how did music first find you?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Um Well, my uh my father is a musician and my mother was an actor, so I definitely grew up in a musical household. And uh they loved to play show tunes in the house mostly. It was like show tunes and the beatles were like the two main um the that's the music that I listened to growing up. So uh it's I guess if like I've always been listening to music and singing, but I didn't start writing until I was a little bit older.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Aaron Powell Is there a better way to be melodic than to listen to show tunes and the Beatles?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah. I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Because it's definitely rubbed off on your on your playing. I mean, in just the one song that we've heard so far, but I would venture a guest to say that you're usually very melodic.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

I do love a beautiful melody.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Yeah, and you know, before we started um recording the show today, we we did kind of talk upstairs in the kitchen while we were having a bite to eat, and we talked about how you kind of write your songs that you go more for a melody first before you write your lyrics. You want to talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, I usually I I play guitar, a little bit of banjo, and then ukulele, and I usually just start with messing around with a guitar, like a chord progression or something, and then put a m melody on top of that. But then um I do usually start with music, um, but then like music and lyrics sort of forge together in the writing process. Um, but I love starting with melody for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

Do you do you when you do sit down and do that and and something pops into your head, is there do you try to go a certain way, a certain subject matter, or is it just, you know, what pops in there?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Um I usually feel like I've had an idea for a subject matter for a song for a long time, and then suddenly a melody like that's been in my phone notes for a long time or something, and then finally I find a melody for it, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

So the idea inspires the melody, and then the melody inspires the lyrics. Usually for me. Yeah, I haven't heard that George. Yeah, that one's that one's great.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

Yeah. So where do you when you um you know we've we've interviewed people and and one of the questions that I always like to ask is, where do you when do your ideas pop up? Do you do they pop up while you're out for a walk, when you're uh, you know, um going for a ride in the car? I mean, is there is there a time or are you just randomly you know, because you said you got voice notes in your phone. So when do those when do you record those? When do those hit?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Truly at any time of day. I've like, I feel like maybe you've done this too. I've woken up in the middle of the night and had to voice note a melody idea.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

So you wake up with something.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Sometimes, yeah. And but the thing is trying to get it down because sometimes though they they leave as quickly as they came, you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

So it it wakes you up, is probably what happens. I was driving over here today to the studio uh in my car. I I had an idea for a song and I almost had to pull over and like record it, but then I would have been late. So I I hope I don't forget it.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

That song uh um talks about a woman and her relationship with the spirit of of the mountains. Do you have a relationship with those mountains or is it something that you just imagined and brought to life?

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Um over the past couple of years, I became really I fell in love with bluegrass music. Um, and a lot of the bluegrass songs talk about the Blue Ridge Mountains, and my home is in the Blue Ridge Mountains or Blue Ridge Cabin home, and so I was inspired by those songs to write this. And it's also kind of it's the opening number of my sh musical that I'm writing called Trunk Songs, which is about a woman who takes a solo road trip down to the Blue Ridge Mountains. So um definitely that that place has been in my mind while writing this whole show.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

And and and show music is a is a big part of of your of your musical world. And um one of the things that I've always wondered about was that if I'm writing a song, it's usually uh from my point of view, unless I'm creating a specific character specifically for this song. But how do you sort of hide yourself and put the character into this song when you're writing?

SPEAKER_00 10:49

That I would mo for the most part actually prefer to do that. Like I love to put myself in a character's shoes, and it doesn't matter, like I guess, who the character is, um, and try to think about what they would be thinking about in a certain moment and then write from that place. So I really enjoy that um sort of acting exercise. I think Sondheim used to say that he felt like the best songwriters were also actors because they could really get into the shoes of characters. Um but for this show that I'm working on, so that's like my more I feel more comfortable there writing for other characters. But for this show, um, while this care the main character is based on me, it's like it's not it's not directly me. Um but for this show, I kept on writing songs kind of about my own life. So I was like, how do I the only songs I could write were about coming from a very personal place, so I just had to like follow that impulse. Um but yeah, when you're writing a play, so you're writing um the dialogue, so on and so forth.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Are you thinking about the music that goes along with that? Or does you do you do the actors play it out and as they're playing it out, you come up with an idea or something?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Usually because I write musicals, I'm writing a scene. I'll be writing a scene and thinking about if there's a s if a song belongs in the scene. Like how can we write a scene that leads up to a song sometimes? Um so it's really hard for me to not think about maybe a song belongs here. Yeah. Um but usually just starts on the page, and then it's really, really helpful to have actors read it out loud at a certain point.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Yeah, that's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Well what's your relationship and what's your collaboration like with the person who's actually writing the book for the play?

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Um the for this one, I'm writing the book as well for the first time. Yeah. So I'm writing- Tell us about it then. Yeah, I'm writing book, music, and lyrics for the first time, and I usually prefer to collaborate with someone on books specifically, and I just like to do the songs, but uh this has been a really amazing experience writing a book for a musical. Um and I'm I'm actually like I this year I was part of the I'm part of the BMI musical theater writing workshop, and they have a book writing workshop class, and I've been in that class all year, which has been so helpful to learn about like how do you um craft a script and a narrative. Um so it's been hard, but also very rewarding.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

How did you how did you find this? I mean, how did you know that this was something that you wanted to do to do the the theater, to do the songwriting for the theater and to and to write plays? Well maybe from growing up or whatever through your Definitely from growing up.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

I've always just show tunes are probably my favorite kind of music. Uh and then I started working on a show with a friend, just like a play idea with for a friend ten years ago, and I just had so much fun talking with her about the characters and thinking about what they would sing about. And I was like, Where is this a job? Can someone do this? Um so I just like really, really enjoyed it from those like little first experiences, and I wanted to keep doing it.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

So that's that's amazing. Go ahead. Yeah. What do you think is the difference between a song you write to be a show song and a song that you write to, if not be a hit, be popular? And the reason I ask is I I did a little research in advance of this, and I and I asked our good friend ChatGPT, what are some of the the songs from musicals that have become really big hits? Songs like Summertime, Over the Rainbow, Some Enchanted Evening, Aquarius, Hello Dolly, My Favorite Things, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Um, People from Funny Girl, What Kind of Fool Am I? Notice a lot of those are kind of in the past too. What is the difference between between writing for for the stage and writing for your own repertoire?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Well I guess for this show, I'll speak to this show, which is that I think with this show that I'm writing, I'm kind of trying to blend the two. Um, a lot of the songs that I've written for this show are more s in the singer-songwriter vein, but within a narrative context, I think they also can be theater songs. Like I also think that like a lot of Joni Mitchell's songs feel very theatrical to me. Um so I am personally interested in always blurring those lines. Um yes. Does that answer the question? You know what?

SPEAKER_04 15:27

You know what I think we need?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:28

I think we need another song.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Well, let's actually let's let's do something interesting. Well, I think it's interesting. Let's jump to a track from um one of your musicals, and we'll we'll uh play that now, and then we'll come back and we'll talk about it. What would you like to uh play?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Uh this is your girl from Trunk Songs, my new musical.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

Something about the way you sing my name. I've been waiting for so long to hear that sound and be ready with an answer. And something about the way I say your name feels like coming home somehow. You're new to me, but hear me how I know you. I can't explain, but maybe I can show you. Just something by the hair, don't you want to stay? Can't seem to settle down, but maybe we could wake you up on a sunny Sunday. Can we go for a walk on the back? Roads, nothing much to say, just a perfect day. I wanna play your cool. Wish I was your good uk.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

Well, that was beautiful, and you played ukulele on that one, obviously. Do you find yourself writing on the you much?

SPEAKER_00 19:22

I actually a lot of the times we'll start songs on the ukulele only because it's I know it the best in terms of just like I know the the chords and how to like my way around the ukulele probably the best. So it's easier for me to start on the ukulele and then bring it to the guitar. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:37

I would think that the you could bring you in different places because of the sound. Do you f do you find that also? Or because I think that could help where the guitar might take you one place, but the you can take you another place in a different type of maybe not genre but different whatever. You're nodding your head. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yeah. There's like there's a lot of wonderful um ukulele uh arrangements of show tunes on a specific website, and I'm forgetting the name of the website, but I love playing around with those, and so I feel like I've gotten used to those sounds from the ukulele, and so it's fun to start on a ukulele when writing a show tune specifically. It feels a little bit easier than guitar. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

And also the ukulele does have a little bit of a dulcimer sound. I'm just just saying. Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

You know what?

SPEAKER_03 20:22

I never I never realized.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, I like the high sound.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

But I'm I'm really you said this is uh from a show that you're currently developing. Um what what's the name of it? Trunk Songs. Trunk Trunk Songs.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

And can you tell us a little bit about what the what the show's about?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Yeah. Um it's about a woman in her mid-30s or a musician in her mid-30s who's feeling sort of stuck in both like life and um like personally and professionally. Um, but she's really gotten into bluegrass music recently, and she decides to um around her 35th birthday, take a solo road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains, um, specifically to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs from Virginia to North Carolina. Um, but on her road trip, it ends up being more of an inward journey of uh kind of revisiting some memories of both like personal memories and musical memories and trying to figure out what where she wants to go next.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Did you base it on anyone you know? That's what I was just gonna ask you.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Just beat me to the punch.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

What really interests me here, though, is you know, in in songwriting, you're telling a story very often in the space of three to five minutes. Yes. But this is a whole different way of storytelling. Tell us a little bit about how that works and how how you engage yourself with that.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah, I love telling a story in three to five minutes, like within a song. So the task of telling a story over like an hour and 15, 20 minutes is hard. Um, but I it's you know, I wrote the entire script in 2025 and I started with like looking at a blank Google Doc and wondering how am I going to do this? But now as I just kept on like coming up with new ideas for scenes and like relationships that could grow or fall apart, things like that, it just it it just like wrote itself somehow.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Um so did you have any help with it? Any any co-writing or anything? Or did you do it?

SPEAKER_00 22:27

For this one? No, I I've written it all myself, but definitely I've had people help like friends have read it with me, and um I've had a guitar teacher with for some of the more like complicated guitar playing for this one, and um so so many people have helped me.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Yeah, but the insta the the story is is yours. Yeah, yeah, and the dialogue and everything and the songs. Yeah. I'm I'm dumbfounded. I'm I'm so impressed. Could you do that, Dave?

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Could I ever shut up, George? No.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

So you know the answer. Um I wanted to touch base, I just wanted to change subjects a little bit because you are part of a band and the Bears of Alaska. Can you tell us a little bit about the Bears of Alaska? It's sure it's a grizzly story, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:11

Um yeah, I've sung with them for about nine years, ten years, nine years now. Um and that's my first experience being in a band. And they're wonderful. It's my friend Lauren and Sean, who are married actually. Um, and I started they do all the songwriting and I I do high harmonies on their songs, but I really learned with them to like harmonize with people um and make music with other people, which and I I love them dearly.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

So that's a different, you know, that's that's totally different for you because normally you're writing and performing your own stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

And so now you're just kind of you know, harmonizing. I could people where can they find that music?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Uh that is on Spotify, Apple Music, and uh Bears of Alaska, Bearsofalaska.com, I believe, too.

SPEAKER_04 24:01

And your music is also on Spotify.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

My music on Spotify under Maria DeFabio.

SPEAKER_04 24:06

And you have a website?

SPEAKER_00 24:07

Yep, it's my full name Maria Lena Defabio.com.

SPEAKER_04 24:11

Spell that please, just first name.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

M-A-R-I-A-L-E-N-A de Fabio.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

And DeFabio is with two B's.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Yes. And with an I. D. I f A. Soon there'll be math involved. It's very long.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

What what's ahead for you?

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Um I'm actually bringing trunk songs, this musical, to Edinburgh Fringe this summer. Whoa. Yeah, for nine performances. So that's really exciting. Um, so I'm preparing for that now. And I'm trying to cast for it. And I have a few other friends bringing musicals to Edinburgh this summer too. So uh it feels like I I don't feel alone in it, which is awesome. Um, but it's a big undertaking and I'm kind of doing it all myself. So but I'm really excited to that's very exciting.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Are you gonna perform in it as well?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

As the lead, are you the lead? Yeah. How about that?

SPEAKER_04 25:06

If you're gonna write the play, you've got to look yourself in the lead.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

I'm not gonna write a show unless I'm sure.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Actually, I wouldn't either. So let's write one together and then I think you should. We could both be the leads.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

I really I think you should.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

In my humble opinion, I think it's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

It's honestly no different than you know, putting on a 60-minute set, I feel like, you know?

SPEAKER_03 25:25

Well, it is yeah. I mean, putting on a show is a performance, whether it's a play or you're doing a live set. Yeah. I can never understand people who just disappear into themselves like Bob Dylan between songs.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:37

Yeah, he doesn't really He doesn't interact with the audience at all, does he?

SPEAKER_00 25:43

I've never seen him live. Have you seen him live?

SPEAKER_03 25:45

I've seen him live. I saw him one show. It was pouring. This is somewhere in Connecticut, I don't remember where. And he came out with a hoodie on that was covering his eyes, dark sunglasses over it, and a harmonica brace. You couldn't all you could tell it was him was his nose.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

And so that kind of gives it away.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Anyway, um He's just being himself, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Before we kind of wind down, you gotta tell us what what are some of your favorite shows and show tunes.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Oh man. Um probably my favorite musical is called Light in the Piazza. Um, written by the composer is Adam Gettle, who is Richard Rogers' grandson. And his music is, I mean, Richard Rogers is probably my favorite composer, musical theater composer, but Adam Gettle, well, they're they're equal, I guess, in my brain. They just write such melodic, uh sophisticated, rich, beautiful music that like gets straight into my heart. Um, and I love them. So Light in a Piazza, Adam Gettle was a composer on that, uh composer and lyricist on that one. Um, I also really love Le Miz. I love Pippin, Stephen Schwartz's Pippin. Kind of an existential crisis show, similar to similar to mine, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Um Did you say your mom was an actress? Yeah. So what what kind of theater did she do?

SPEAKER_00 27:09

She did musical theater.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Okay. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So the apple didn't fall very far from the tree. Yeah. Theater buzz. That's one of the songs actually in her show.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

That's right. Yeah. I want to know uh what are your favorite musicals?

SPEAKER_04 27:25

I I'm a fan of the old musical comedy. Oh, you can only say one.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Yeah. I can only say one.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Yeah, because then I get it. My fair lady. That's really good. Okay. I love West Side Story.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, it's also amazing.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

I can I know almost every song from West Side Story. My sister used to play it on her Victrola. Maybe we can add a duet from that to our set, George. That'd be wonderful. Yeah. Great stuff. Okay, so we're gonna we're gonna wrap up now. Thank you very much for coming on. And again, um try to go out, check out Maria's website to find out what's going on. And Maria, you're gonna take us out with the tune. Can you intro it for us, please, and let us know what you're gonna play?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Thank you so much. Uh, this is another song from Trunk Songs. And um it's a character sort of thinking about uh being on the road. Does that o sound okay? Oh, no, wait, sorry. This is um gold Sierra.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

In the morning last night's TV rambles on something's buzzing in the kitchen, and the coffee's barely warm another scorcher, so they're saying, and I feel like it's a sin when I see the clouds are parting, but the walls are closing in Oh my Gold Sierra Let's go for a right, let me rest my eyes on something real. Oh you lonely highway. Put my soul to sleep nice and slow, just keep it going till there's nothing left to feel. And the weeds won't let me rest, and the pain it piles in corners from the girl who loved me best if I call will she be crying? If she calls will I be there will I offer any kindness or will I even care? Oh my gold Sierra. Let's forget this town when I push your pedal down. I start to breathe something I never told her, something I couldn't see 'cause never did I feel so happiest when I grabbed my key.