#324 The Hidden Rose of Napoleon Dynamite: Darci Monet

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:28

All right, Bette, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every weekend. This week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to Episode 324 of classic conversations. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Get ready for what's sure to be the rosiest? Well, maybe not the rosiest there's a thorn in the rows of the story we're about to tell as we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Napoleon Dynamite. You may remember the scene in Napoleon Dynamite with the Happy Hands club to the song The Rose. Well, there's a whole story behind that. That whole story involves my guest today, Darci Monet. We're gonna go into that in depth coming up in just a few seconds. And in these few seconds last week, also celebrating the 20th anniversary of Napoleon Dynamite and the documentary disturbance in the Force. Jeremy Kuhn was here to talk all things Napoleon Dynamite and the Star Wars Holiday Special. But right now we're gonna dive into the dark side of Napoleon Dynamite with Darci Monet. We're gonna talk about her brand new recording of the rose. We're going to talk about all the behind the scenes reality of her experience with Napoleon Dynamite. And that's coming up right now. All right, everyone, I am excited to introduce to you my next guest vocalist, recording artists award winning songwriter, Vocal Coach, welcome to the show. Darci Monet. Hello, thank

Darci Monet 1:57

you. So excited to be here. Thanks.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:00

So excited to have you here. Got a great story with the rose of being part of Napoleon Dynamite. And it's been 20 years I still can't I know get over how long it's been. Before we get into the story about the rose, tell me a little bit about yourself. I know when did you know that music was your thing that you had this voice of an angel.

Darci Monet 2:25

I have checks in the mail just Well, I came out singing basically, my mom says when I was a baby, you know, babies when they wake up in the morning they cry because that's all they have to let you know feed me change my diaper. But apparently I would just be singing. I just be like La la la la la. So it's always been a thing. I've always known a big old ham. I used to like go to the garage, mom and Jamie the grocery store and I was little and I would stand in the produce aisle. You don't have the mirrors up above the produce. And I would recite commercials and act like I was in the commercial and embarrassed my poor mother so badly because I wouldn't stop one day that she just picked me up left her cart mom did not like attention and then you know, cruel trick of the universe to have her firstborn come out jazz hands basically.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:24

That's really funny. Always a performer. What were some of your first performances? I think I read and he was an early one.

Darci Monet 3:32

Oh, gosh. Yeah. Well, the Well, I'll tell you where I got the bug, elementary school Christmas show, you know, holiday show. They stuck me in a cardboard chimney that they painted look like a chimney a big box and I had to sing. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. And I remember there was a big spotlight on me on the stage. And I couldn't see anybody and I'm singing along the song or whatever. And then the applause just I will never forget that moment. I was like, this is cool. Like, you know, so that was like the moment where I was like, yeah, yeah, this is what I do for my life now and I did any several times, once as a kid twice in high school, I think never played Annie herself.

Jeff Dwoskin 4:14

Did you play well, the first time

Darci Monet 4:16

I was just one of the orphans. And then one time I was grace the Secretary to Mr. Warbucks one time I was like I had a solo in the NYC song. I was the starlet and always wanted to play hand again but didn't get you know the chance to do that. But it's never too late. It's never too late. I'm the perfect age now. That's like that's a role for me right now. Yeah, and then just you know, theater all through, you know, school. Definitely drama nerd. Isn't

Jeff Dwoskin 4:46

it fascinating. The reaction you had where you're like, Oh, I got the bug is the same thing would happen. 74 I think it is percent of the United States would rather They're die than have that feeling in front. Right. So they'd rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. You know, it'd be in front of people, right? Like the fear of public speaking or being in front of someone, but you had the opposite. Never

Darci Monet 5:16

had it. I mean, seriously, there's never been a crowd that scared me ever.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:22

It's interesting. Like the thing it's with my

Darci Monet 5:24

students as a coach. I'm like, what my students who come into our shy and I just, I don't get you. I don't know how to help you. It's just a thing. But yeah, bless their hearts.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:36

It's like cilantro. Some people get right

Darci Monet 5:38

on tro, by the way. I love my

Jeff Dwoskin 5:42

wife hates it. Makes it makes it rough. And we want to order an appetizer. I was like, can you take the cilantro? Please? I know. I know. It's tough. Alright, so when did you start doing it professionally? Like, when did you realize, okay, like, I'm in the plays, and I'm an orphan, anti orphan? Not at the time,

Darci Monet 6:05

right? Well, when I was 15 years old, the first time I got paid to sing ever was singing at a church service. And it was one of those, it was one of those rowdy churches, you know, with the everybody's singing, everybody's raising hands. And whoa, I grew up in a very religious environment. So I was sitting at this church, and they passed a plate for me, at 15 years old, I think I got like, 500 bucks from them pass on the plate. And I was like, This isn't bad, you know. So that was like the first time but I had already known at that point that my dream was really, I mean, I was already writing songs by then begging my parents for voice lessons, or I had already had piano and violin. And every time I'd buy a record, I would bring dating myself here, bring the whole the LP home, and I would immediately pull up the liner notes, and read every single thing, and had started to learn the names of the people who were singing in the studio singing backup, they were my first rock stars, really, I was like, so this can be a job. People can do this and get paid. That's what I want to do. And maybe I'll do a record deal to maybe because you know, you're a teenager, you just think you can get one right. I thought I'd try to get a record deal. And then you know, pay the bills by being a studio singer. And that was the original goal. And still my favorite place in the world. My Happy Places being in the studio, for

Jeff Dwoskin 7:25

sure. Excellent. Yeah. How long into your career? Was it that your song ended up on napoleon dynamite in the movie? Okay. Well,

Darci Monet 7:35

I Okay. So I went to college, born and raised in upstate New York, started college there, started studying music, private lessons up until then, and then went to music school to the community or community college, then transferred to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, which is where I would say my real career started was around 8990. I started just through connections with the school because the school was very, it was a music business school. It's a music school, people graduate and go out into the industry and work. So there was a lot of different connections. They're just your teachers. And then I was also going to a huge church at the time, and was in their choir of 250 300 people. And this was the choir that always got called in to sing on records for people. Very famous time the Christ church choir, and I managed to get myself to a point where they would only call in like 12 people they'd have like your four Barrett bass is your four tenors, your four altos your four Sopranos. And I was always like the super high soprano at the time. So they would always call me in because somebody had they needed those high notes. And only one person needed to do it, because it just cuts through everything. So I managed while I was in college to be that girl out of the entire choir. And that's probably one thing started through my connections with school in the church. I started singing some song demos and singing back up on records as part of the choir. Did that answer the question? Oh, yeah, holy anyway. Okay. Yeah, that's what we're here for. Right. So that was very early spent, like 13 years in Nashville. And then I thought, you know, I'm not a country singer. And I'm not in the Christian music industry anymore. Because it was just had too big a mouth and too many opinions. Like it would not go over well. And I'd seen my friends go out on the road, who had gotten record deals, and then they come off the road after a year and have to deliver pizzas to make ends meet. So I very early on was like, well, maybe a record deal is not the way to go looks like a slog. I'll just stick to the studio work. And I'll put out CDs when I want to for fun, but I wasn't getting enough studio work to be able to do it for a full time living and still had a day job and all that. So I thought I'm gonna move to LA, where there'll probably be a broader, more room for opportunity with my voice, because I don't sing country and I just didn't want to sing the Christian stuff anymore. And I wanted to say In jingles, I remember as a little kid listening to like the big red ad and you know, stuff like that and singing all the jingles. And that's what I wanted to do. And so I thought, well, I'll go to LA where they do that stuff. So it's about, you know, right around to 2022, or 20, like your way in 2000 to 2003 that I met through a friend of mine, his boyfriend was putting a documentary together. And it was a bunch of people who are just just starting up just trying to make it. So the musical director that we worked with, who was recording the soundtrack, that's how I met him. And then he later and his name was John Swinehart. He later called me when he had been hired to work on Napoleon Dynamite fairly long into my career, but at my just starting over phase in Los Angeles, where you have to grovel and do stuff that doesn't pay very well and or at all, so whatever those numbers are, I don't math in my head.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:54

No math, no math, please. So what was the what were the dots? Connect the dots to getting your version of the rose? Just rewatch the movie, by the way? So? Yeah, very fresh in my head.

Darci Monet 11:08

I love it. It's good. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 11:11

I met from Ramirez recently at a comic con. And so I was like I was, I was awful. And dynamite. So I was preparing for that. And you at same time, so it's always nice. When Napoleon Dynamite crossover, so I got to watch the movie and enjoy your vocals. So all right, so All right, unedited. We got a huge controversy coming up. But how do we get to the controversy? Like what what happened to? You know, you recorded the song for them?

Darci Monet 11:42

Right. So what happens when you have a low budget film is music licensing is very expensive. So for whatever reason, the production wanted to use that nibblers, the rose for whatever reason, the record company said no, it's really important. Understand that bet has nothing to do with this. She does not own her own recording of that song. The label does. So either the label says no, we don't, we don't want this in a comedy or whatever. Or they just quote an exorbitant amount of money that the small production can't possibly do. When that happens. And they're like, We have to have this song, though. Then they'll get somebody like me, nameless, faceless studio singer to come in and record a version of it to use. So John, sweetheart, like I said, Who was the guy who was the music director and composer on the plane dynamite, just starting out his career, you know, just wrapping it up, Cosmo says, Hey, we need to do a minute long clip of the rows for this goofy little comedy movie, that's gonna Sundance, it only pays 100 bucks. But you know, it was one of those things where I've done some stuff for independent film scoring that go to the festival circuit, and nothing ever happens. You know, you're just like, you go in expecting that you paid 100 bucks for that day. That's 100 bucks more than you had yesterday. Nice. And you're working with this guy who you like, and hopefully all boats rise together. Right? Right. So I get there, I do my thing, we record it, we leave, then it does its thing and goes to Sundance and of course blows the roof off the joint and gets picked up for distribution. And it just explodes. And I remember thinking to myself, oh my god, this is amazing. Because when I did it, there's this, this paperwork called the Taft Hartley, when you do your first union job, you're gonna get Taft Hartley done that allows you 30 days to do as much union work as you want to before they make you join. So I was very excited, because this would have been the paperwork to get my foot in the door in the union. And keep in mind, I had done union work in Nashville, Tennessee, but it's a right to work state, so they don't require you to join. And I wasn't doing enough of it to make it worse the joining fee, which is only $400 They're so stupid me should have joined after, and I would have been grandfathered in when I got here. But you know, sort of what a cut up so I was very excited that this was going to be my foot in the door into the Union and the residuals that I would be making from the success of Napoleon Dynamite would help me pay for the 33 or so $100 joining fee that obviously I didn't have Well, friends and I went to see the movie in the theater because I was like let's go see it. Let's go to see my Dane coming in the credit to do that. And we're sitting there and every single song said such and such song written by so and so published by so and so performed by so and so except for the rows written by Amanda McBroom, Warner Tamerlane publishing. That's it. I am not even there. And we're all sitting there like, what what happened, you know, and so then, long story short, yeah, they didn't credit me. And I didn't even know that they hadn't filed my Taft Hartley until a couple of years later, when John reached out to me again, his career blew up. He got hired to be the musical director and composer on how I met you A mother so that Springboard had him. Now we know that many people in that film saw you know, had great success after that seven little old me who's watching this movie blow up and blow up and blow up and watching Comedy Central do 72 hour marathons over the weekend, and I'm sitting there going, I'm not getting paid for any of these broadcast eggs. You know, he John finally called me from when he was doing high metal on there, he said, Hey, I need you to come do some vocals. You've got your sag card from Napoleon, right? And I was like, No, I don't. He's like, wait a minute, what? Because he called me no less than three times throughout this whole situation to make sure he had my crediting and information correct, no less than three times they were given my information, he filled out the Taft Hartley paperwork and gave it to the production who was then supposed to file it, they just they didn't. So he said, Well, let me call sag. And see, if you don't have your sag card. He can't use you on this, but let me see. So when he called sag and found out that there was no inclination that I had anything to do with Napoleon Dynamite paperwork hadn't been filed to Taft Hartley, me, that turned out to be lucky, because then he could use me on How I Met Your Mother. But that was my Taft Hartley. So since then, you know, it's an it's an exorbitant amount of money to join. And I would basically have to get a national commercial with constant residuals coming in to be able to afford that, you know, Los Angeles is expensive. So that's pretty much what happened, like going in, I hired a lawyer, and we filed a complaint and just nothing ever moved with it. And years, and years later, I just stopped talking about it. Like if that movie came up, I would pivot that conversation so fast, because it should have been my quote, big break, you know, and it wasn't. And that stuff happens all the time in this town, but I'm pretty knowledgeable about reading fine print and things. And I know I didn't sign away my rights to anything putting getting paid, certainly not not to the credit. So it just was it was a humiliating for me experience. I just started to like to say wither on the vine, I can look back now and go, that's when I stopped. I quit. Like I kept singing. But I stopped putting any effort into getting anywhere with it, because I was broken. At that point. There's, there's so much rejection in the business. And I have a long line of misstep by much situations. And I think that was just that was just too much for me at the time.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:25

I'm sorry, that happened. It's horrible. It's, it's, I mean, the intention seemed to be there. And then something like it seemed like if you point at it sounds like they left the rose off the credits. And then right, you're just we do so someone asked me seems it would have been an obvious thing for someone to say you forgot something. What do you mean? Well, look, look at the pattern here. Yeah, see the pattern and then see where the pattern broke? Which you know, exactly, yeah. Well,

Darci Monet 17:56

also, you know, the movie takes place at a high school, basically, every teenager that walked across the camera, their names in the credits. So I'm like, this was purposeful, as far as I'm concerned that I think they did it on purpose because I tried to update my IMDb listing and add that to my IMDB page. And they kept rejecting it. They kept pulling it away, finally got in touch with somebody and actual person there as like, Why do you keep doing this? So I realized I'm uncredited, but there's plenty of people that says uncredited on their IMDB page, he goes, Well, you need to link it to a press release or something that proves it to you. So I go looking for press releases. And that's when I really it really dawned on me that this was purposeful because every press release or piece of press or media that I found would list and oh, and they do this seem to bowl up to bet MEDLARS arose. Everything was credited like that in the press. So I was like I have a hard time believing that it was an innocent mistake this way. Okay,

Jeff Dwoskin 18:54

so you think because it kind of sounded because you're not there singing it. It's just the audio and the little hands right? With the Happy Hands the oh, they wanted to kind of fake it and go oh, that was that's name right.

Darci Monet 19:09

I don't sound anything like her. So it's just fooling anybody. But or they're not. And then the song The Rose isn't even on the official soundtrack, the seat the CD soundtrack they put out which I think it was like that was a missed opportunity. Dudes, you know, you could have said, Hey, come do a cover of this. Let's put a cover out. Let's release it as a single and that just feel like they missed an opportunity there. So it's just very strange. situation.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:35

I mean, they had a lot of other songs. I mean, the Jamiroquai song alone, like I mean, it's like you didn't really need another song. It's like yeah,

Darci Monet 19:43

I feel like Dadri bullies. Yeah, driving around. Yeah, but

Jeff Dwoskin 19:47

I feel like the Jamiroquai song. Am I saying that right? Yeah, that's the one everyone remembers, right. I mean, I love the rose. You're amazing. But you don't I mean, that dance sear

Darci Monet 19:56

that see you have to remind them yeah, for Sure, yeah

Jeff Dwoskin 20:00

the scene where Napoleon Dynamite dancing when Pedro is running for president he's doing that whole dance scene. It's a very dramatic moment in the in the in the movie,

Darci Monet 20:10

but if you talk to somebody about the roles ago I don't remember and then the minute you do this with your hands the hand thing they go, oh yeah, like they have to be nudged a little, but they remember that. Yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:20

the second I was rewatching I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah. Okay. Totally, which is a hilarious scene as well. I just it's weird that the right did they didn't put it on the soundtrack because it's that's a great song.

Darci Monet 20:34

It is. You know, I'm like, wow, this is a slam and lyric. Amanda McBroom. Good on, you know,

Jeff Dwoskin 20:42

sorry to interrupt my conversation with Darci Monet. But we have to take a quick break. I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors. You're supporting us here at glance at conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on. And now back to my conversation with Darci Monet. We're gonna flash forward a little bit and see how she turned lemons into lemonade. So I know you said it broke. You broke in there. I know there's more of the story. But I just let's flash forward to now where you're hopefully unbroken. And you did release your own version, which I I did listen to earlier, which is beautiful. You have a beautiful voice you find the problem with when I say problem with the song, the rose, it's in quotes. It's in. It's one of those songs you hear? And you can't get it out of your head. Yeah. Sorry.

Darci Monet 21:34

Me too. I was like, really? This is like the one song I would never have thought to cover in my life. You know, and but I'm very proud of it. I think it's a beautiful job. The guys who played on it and arranged it. It's turned out well, I'm very happy.

Jeff Dwoskin 21:47

I like the choir part of it or kind of like everything kicks in. That was pretty.

Darci Monet 21:53

That's my church roots coming out. I I'm a sucker for a wire on anything. Any excuse, I have to put a choir on something like Well, that's what

Jeff Dwoskin 22:02

you said earlier, the Christ church choir my guy. There we go.

Darci Monet 22:06

There's that? Absolutely. Yes. For sure.

Jeff Dwoskin 22:10

So what was it? Like? How did you feel? Do you feel proud? fantage because

Darci Monet 22:14

I've done it pretty part time over the years. And I was like, Okay, this is gonna be the thing. I'm Darci, the performer is not happening anymore. I'm done. Whatever. I had some vocal issues that still plagued me. But I was like, Well, I can't do it. I used to. So I'm just going to do this on the thing and mentor people, and it's fine. In a coaching session. It was a zooms call with 30 to 60 other people in it. The coach who runs it was the founder, co founder of the program. The program is called Thrive Academy. And his name is Jesse Coren. And he would do you know, run the coaching session, and he'd say, Who wants to be in the hot seat? I ended up in the hot seat that day on the working your emotional baggage day, right. And so the amazing thing about him is that he really, there's probably two or 300 people in this program at once. And he knows everything he takes time to know what all of their clients are doing there. And they help you build your cred so you can charge what you're worth, and you know, that kind of stuff. And he was taught we were talking about music, I don't even know how this came up that Napoleon somehow I slipped Napoleon in there. And like I said, I don't talk about it. And he goes, Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. He goes, I know that you have some backup for this person, you've done this. You've done that six bullet pointing my resume. And I was like, Holy crap. This guy actually knows what I'm doing here. So that was amazing. And he said, was this the first time we're hearing about Napoleon Dynamite? So I explained to him and of course, he's the Barbara Walters of business coaches, so I'm crying on the Zoom call. And he's like, okay, how can you take your power back on that? How can you change that narrative for yourself? And I said, Well, you know, back in the day, we hired a lawyer, we filed a complaint, nothing, but he's like, no, no, no, he's like, those are unwinnable games. He's like, you can't control it. Anybody else does? What can you do? And so then I percolated on that for a few days, and remember that every once in a blue moon, somebody would come out of the ether of the interwebs. And be like, Hey, I figured out this was you singing the rose? And not that Midler? Did you guys record a full version because I'd love to have it and I'd have to sing it with things. You want to be on my mailing list, you know, on a thing, and they disappear again. So I thought, You know what, I'm going to record this song. I'm going to do a full cover of it. And I need to release this goal. This spiritual, emotional, mental gunk. And then I'm sitting there when, what year is this? When did that movie come out? So I'm googling and then it's like, oh my god, next year, because this was last year. Next year will be the 20th anniversary. That just sounded like a huge sign from the universe going, here you go. You're supposed to do this, jump on it and get going and when I decided to do that, everything just kind of It fell into place. My dear friend Levi Christ, who has been a frequent collaborator in my career as a songwriter and stuff, Tony Award winner, we like ice helped me arrange the song, you play the piano on it. And then one of my students who's in a band, a wonderful band, he said, Hey, why don't you let us play on that? Because we grew up on that movie. We love that movie, we think you're the shizzle because that's, you say, good. We're so excited. We would love to do this for you. So it just all fell into place. So as things moved along, I started to feel lighter and lighter about it started to release it, that the negativity and the brokenness and and now I say, people go oh, what have you done in your career? And it's like the first thing I say now it's like well, I'm the girl singing the rosin Polian dynamite. Remember this, you know, because I used to not even say that. And I just bought one other things. So it feels good to be able to celebrate my part, in this huge was a huge cultural phenomenon. You know, people were like, people still dress up like them for Halloween and were Vote for Pedro shirts and stuff. Like it's time for me to be proud of my part. And that and time to let the world know that it was me.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:14

Absolutely. I it's I think it's a great. I don't wanna say comeback story. But it's like, it's a great book. And it's a great book. And so that so that's right. i Yeah, the point I might isn't, as I was looking at your website, and some of the folks who you've worked with me worked with, we could just focus on Dolly Parton alone. I mean, what do you what did you do with Dolly? She's like the greatest she talked about a country person that like just but everyone loves her. I mean, she crosses every everything.

Darci Monet 26:42

And I'll tell you this, she is exactly she is exactly who she is in private or unscreened she is Dolly is always Dolly. I've done a few things sung on a couple of her records, one with the Christ church choir. When she did, she covered a gospel song called he's alive and sang it on the CMAS. Got to sing that with her. And that was an amazing moment. And then she did an album of covers called treasures and singing out a couple of those. Now we have to understand is that there, the artist is rarely in the studio with you when you come in to sing these parts. So I didn't actually get a chance to meet her until we did a live performance for I think it was the Dove Awards, which are the Christian Grammys. She came in saying he's alive on that. And so it was just fleeting, because I was part of the choir, but I was just so impressed with just a how tiny she is. She's the tiniest, tiniest what her hair is bigger than the rest of her, including her boobs. She's anybody. And just so sweet. And just exactly the way we always see her is how she is Liz can go with it. That sure sounds good. Thank you. Thank you, and then she's just the sweetest. And that was awesome.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:55

Who of all the people you perform with? Were you the most giddy to perform with?

Darci Monet 28:00

Well, Dali was up there. But I have to say that my moment with Steve Winwood is I like to call that seven of my 15 and a half 15 minutes of fame. Seven minutes on my 15 minutes of fame. We were singing for Nashville has a charity golf tournament every year called Tin Pan south. And I was working with the son of the man who wrote Delta Dawn, Alex Harvey, the recipes. He was like a mentor to me in those days. And he called me to be part of the house band for one of the concerts all every every night would end every day would end in a concert. So this was just like a whole bunch of different people, huge songwriters that whose names you might not know, but you know their songs because they're very famous songs. And Steve Winwood was the headliner for that night. And so he sings higher love, which was a big hit for him in the 80s. And Chaka Khan is singing on the record. Now, in the rehearsal, we're just doing our thing and and nobody does the Chaka Khan parts because we're just trying to get the boat we have one rehearsal to get everything right, all the songs. And so I didn't do anything those parts at the time. So he didn't even know they were going to be there. I guess probably this is probably not very professional. I think about it. But when he's singing and the Chaka Khan parts come in, and I start doing all the wailing stuff at the end, like he's standing there. He's like, 100 feet from me on the microphone, and he just turns eyes wide. And he's just like, holy crap, you know, like the look on his face. And then he starts singing, we start doing a call and response thing. He's looking right. I mean, like Steve Woodward is staring me in the eyes. And I've seen riffs with him back and forth. And it was freakin amazing. And the place went crazy. And I don't use bumps just thinking about it. So it was such an amazing night and I was young, and starting my career and hopeful and not jaded yet. A really, really beautiful thing and he found me at the after party, and I'd say Steve Winwood is one of the shyest people I've ever met in my life like he will kick rocks while you're Talking to him. He doesn't part of me thinks he might actually be a little neuro divergence. Now that I think that but he found me at the after party and he was just like just gushing. And he was like, why didn't you do that? And Rasul Lee didn't want to disrupt anything. And he was like, he's like, never hide your gift. And I was just like, oh, yeah, that was great night.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:24

That is amazing. That's one that's yeah, that's

Darci Monet 30:27

something that probably toxic him and Dali

Jeff Dwoskin 30:31

do I mean, I can see real quick that maybe tops it is the time you tell me about Phineas and Ferb?

Darci Monet 30:39

Oh, that was actually for me to come in and replace vocals. It was for a the UK version. Sometimes they can't get the same licensing with the same music. So they have to redo some of the music for it to air in other countries. Interesting. I've never even seen the episode I'm on. I don't I don't know if I'm listed in the credits or anything, but I actually got paid properly. And it's in the UK. That was the UK version of it. I don't even know that happened until they called me to do it.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:12

Does that happen a lot then like is that what like? I went out How I Met Your Mother like stuff like that are different. Yeah.

Darci Monet 31:19

Well, how about your mother was the character Cobie Smulders character is a news person, but they find out that when she was a teenager, she was like a pop star in Canada, where she's from. And so they on earth the videos of her when she was a teenager, Robin sparkles really goofy. Yes, Robin sparkles. And so he just needed somebody to come and sing back up. He was like, you know, Kobe is doing her best, but we could really use some current, you know, underlying beefing up that to help her out. And so I came in and our she wasn't there. That was me and John in the studio and his cats. So that's a different situation where I just came in and sang backup vocals. I do still get a few bucks every once in a while from that. So that's nice. So Darci

Jeff Dwoskin 32:02

funny story.

Darci Monet 32:04

I love a funny story.

Jeff Dwoskin 32:05

I mentioned I was at a comic con, go to the Comic Con. And my daughter, my oldest daughter, like going with me. And the interesting thing is like when we see a star, it's always like, I think of them as one thing and they think of them as another. Yeah. And so my the person in question now, or the person I'm talking about right now is called me smothers. And so my daughter's like Robin sparkles. I've never seen the show no idea what she's talking about. Okay, but she gets in line and gets an eight by 10 signed picture of the robin sparkles character teasing from COVID herself. That's fabulous. It's just so funny. You know, literally never heard the name Robin sorry. I think I maybe I saw the clip once on Tik Tok by accident. But then she brings it up and then my daughter, my youngest daughter is like, oh my god, Robin sparkles. And then you're just to kind of tell the ads really, really, really fun. Now, I can't wait to tell I would love

Darci Monet 32:57

to be able to have a moment to meet her. I haven't had the luck yet. But I think it'd be really cool to be like, Girl, I'm singing on sand castles in the sand with you. And I think it'd be fun. So we'll manifest that. Look

Jeff Dwoskin 33:11

at look at your look at the Comic Cons coming in your area. Because she's definitely she's doing the Comic Con. So yeah, so

Darci Monet 33:19

for the Marvel Universe stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:22

I think she was doing it for I think it was because yeah, I mean, she's like, kind of removed your universe.

Darci Monet 33:29

So did they I haven't kept up so I'm not sure it's

Jeff Dwoskin 33:32

high. It's boiler coming up. Oh, it did her dirty. They killed her. They killed her. And it but the worst part about it was it was in a crappy TV series. And it was like, it seemed like it was only for the shock value. And it was like you had like, she ate agent hell, I think it was her name and like, Agent hell, she was like when she was a she was such a great character, you know, just that showed up? You know every now and then or was she was such a great side character. It was like big mistake. That's

Darci Monet 34:04

a bummer big.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:05

Yeah, so Alright, so that that is an awesome story. Now I can't wait to tell my kids that I met the person actually what was the name of the song in sand castles and was sand

Darci Monet 34:15

castles in the sand and the sand okay. And my friend John John what Swinehart called me he wrote that song. And so it's totally, you know, we're both Gen X and so he could really just dive right in there into that whole lane and just wrote a goofy little teeny bopper song. It's very funny thing it

Jeff Dwoskin 34:34

sing it singer sing it. Oh my god. Okay, I have

Darci Monet 34:38

Monday voice you know?

Jeff Dwoskin 34:42

I did want to do at the Rose with you. I've been practicing. I'm kidding. I'm joking. I can't try. I can't say I can't say the day of my life.

Darci Monet 34:52

Favorite most people say that and I'm like that is probably not as true as you think it is. Darci

Jeff Dwoskin 34:57

my friends once told me Not to come back to the lease. They used to play rock band. You know, like, you know, the I'm talking about like, Guitar Hero, but it was rock band. Yeah, the whole set. And they're like, you can't come anymore. I'm like, why? Like, because you're making fun of us. I'm like, What do you mean I'm talking about? They're like, the way you're singing. You're just you're clearly I'm like, I just don't know how to sing, guys. This is always saying, I really wish I was making fun of you. Because then at least I wouldn't think it was funny. I this is how I really think I sound good. Yeah. I know, I know. It's horrible.

Darci Monet 35:31

But I'd be happy to give you a free voice lesson just to prove them wrong. Yeah, that'd

Jeff Dwoskin 35:36

be great. If my lyrics for the rows were in Napoleon Dynamite, they wouldn't be paying me and nobody would question it. Let's just put it that way. Okay, so are you like sag AFTRA now? Or like that's just no,

Darci Monet 35:52

I'm what they call a must join. I can't do any work until I join. And like I said, it would have to be like a national commercial where I'm getting lots of residuals for a long period

Jeff Dwoskin 36:03

of time with so the subway thing didn't work for you that didn't do it, or that

Darci Monet 36:07

was a one off. See, there's stuff. That's because the subway thing was in stores in over their loudspeaker, it was an ad that played in the stores. So it doesn't have the same rules and regulation. So that was a non union job, actually. So it was just a one off, I got paid a certain amount of money to record it. And then because of the law, it wasn't like I could say, Hey, that's not fair. The law says they don't have to do it any other way. So I have no standing to complain

Jeff Dwoskin 36:37

about the stupid law. What's up with this? Ah, so Alright, so you teach other people your voice? Lessons. Let me follow up after you give me my free lesson. And we'll see. Okay, well, I'll sing right now we just say love. You're like, Oh, I forgot to Jeff, I can't help you. Well, I'll sing the same letter. And I'm just getting so alright. So how did you get into the voice lessons and teaching other folks?

Darci Monet 37:08

Well, I kind of off and on here and there coach like friends who needed some help, but I didn't do it as a job job until the housing crash. In 2008 or so I was working in the housing industry, I was at a day job and a title insurance company. And whenever the market dips, they lay off a bunch of people. And then when it picks back up, they rehire them again, like that's the nature of the business, somehow, or they kept me through the whole time, all those dips until that housing crash, and then I figured out on me, training a guy in the Philippines over I am, because he was going to be my helper. And I knew I saw the writing on the wall, I just started taking, I just started sucking my money away. It's like they're gonna can me, I'm training my replacement. And that's sure enough, what happened about six months later? And I was like, Okay, well, I guess, and at the time, there weren't any jobs to be had, like right now, you know, with inflation, everything, the job rate, like if there if you want a second job, they're out there to be had. But at the time, that wasn't the case. So I thought, well, I guess I'm gonna go for this music thing. Even though this was after Napoleon Dynamite, I still had ideas that I could still find a way to make a living as a musician. And I was like, let's get started by officially starting to coach people. And so that's when I started. And I didn't know I did not know what the hell I was doing at all. But

Jeff Dwoskin 38:37

people trusted me most famous pupil or can you say I don't know that I

Darci Monet 38:42

have any super famous people. Like my friend Levi Christ, who I wrote with and who already has a Tony I helped him prepare for auditioning for the Broadway tour of Hades town, and he got that job. I've coached some people. I've coached a lot of people who are more behind the scenes, people. I've got some kids in some bands that are starting to get attention. Keep your eye out for the talks hards. They're a great rock band and silent rival is kind of electro pop rock. But then like I have a person who a girl who originated a role in rent came to me for some lessons. I have people who were majorly like dancers like Dancing with the Stars, dancers and then would come and try to work up because they also say, you know, we have a lot of behind the scenes people you wouldn't know they're working in the industry, but you might not know their names.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:37

So far, your podcasts only you plug your podcast. Oh. Before we get to that I in the song placements where it says kiss the bride. The movie

Darci Monet 39:47

is a tiny little indie, tiny little indie movie with Tori Spelling, and she didn't even show up for the premiere.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:55

Sorry, spelling, okay. Yeah. Okay, tell me about your podcasts. I'm gonna buy your podcast.

Darci Monet 39:59

Oh, currently, I have a podcast with my bestie Kelly Goodman, and it's called and another thing, and it's literally us drinking and talking about whatever happened in the news that week or you know, it's pop culture, politics, sometimes sometimes it's just fluff. When we get too overwhelmed with what's going on in the world, we're like, let's do a stupid show. And we'll do that. And we just came up with it by just like we sit around and drink wine at a, you know, a fire pit. And we're just having conversations. And we're both, we can send each other funny people and we're very funny together. And so it's just very fly by the seat of your pants. We've been doing it off and on for probably eight or nine years. We love it. We love doing it. We have maybe five listeners. So please come check our podcast out. And then soon I'm going to start a second podcast for myself. It's going to be called the grumpy vocal coach podcast. And I'm going to have singer songwriters, entertainers and interview them like you do here. And because I don't think there's anything out there where people just geek out about singing. And that's pretty much what I want it to be. It's just that I have some some good guests lined up for that. I'm excited about that.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:13

Awesome. Some good stuff. And then we can hear all your albums and the new full cover of the rows on Spotify. Yeah, everyone can check that out. Where did you hang out on the social medias?

Darci Monet 41:26

I do. I am probably heaviest on Facebook. At Darci Monet music or the real Darci Monet. I'm also on Tik Tok at Darci Monet. That's where the whole grumpy vocal coach thing came to fruition. So I'm jumping the podcast off of that. I am on Instagram, but I barely touch it. That's AT Pro vocalist. But you can catch me there as well start jacking that up. Cool. And that's about it. Well,

Jeff Dwoskin 41:53

Darci Monet, thank you for hanging out with me. Thanks for sharing your story with me and your story. Others I was excited to hear the Napoleon Dynamite but then accidentally finding out your Robin sparkles blog. I'm pretty proud of that. That's a good one. So thank you so much. It was great hanging out with you.

Darci Monet 42:17

Thank you really appreciate it.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:19

All right, how amazing with Darci Monet. Alright, let's all support Darci, go to the show notes. Click on the link. Listen to her full version of the rose. It's beautiful. It's a great version of the song. Check that out so many great stories. Thank you. Darci Well, with the interview over calling me one thing I know we're at the end of yet another episode 324 episodes in the books. Can't believe it. Huge. Thank you once again to my guest, Darci Monet. And of course, a huge thank you to all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai