Noah Reid Talks New Album ("Gemini"), "Schitt's Creek", Emmys Celebrations & More

anyone who knows me knows that i'm obsessed with shit's creek and one of the standout moments for me was when patrick uh sang simply the best to david like i still get chills thinking about it um so i'm thrilled to say that even though shit's creek has ended the singing hasn't stopped for noah reed he is back with a second album gemini and he's here chatting to us how are you noah i'm great it's great to be here oh my god um how are you feeling about your second album you know um really good i i it was a sort of a strange time to be releasing uh new music in the midst of a pandemic but uh felt like it was at very least it allowed me to sort of continue living my life and and pretending like things were normal and um yeah i don't know it's nice to have some some food to contribute you know in the midst of all this yeah because i think the arts is what has gotten us through this pandemic i mean um i've been introduced to music i probably wouldn't have listened to before shit's creek was there for all of us like i felt like it was that big hug that we all needed um i'll talk about shit's creek in a sec i just want to talk about your music because i loved your post that you put up when you released gemiini you released it on your birthday and you said today gemini finds its way fully into the world i think i thought i would give it to myself as a birthday present but now it feels like the birthday belongs to the record itself music is meant to give that music is meant to be given away passed around repurposed and recycled it never belonged to me anyway never thought of music in that way yeah well i've always sort of i mean it's it's strange because i i feel like these songs i mean i'm not a parent but i feel like they're in a way they're like my kids you know and uh and i don't have a i have a new favorite every day and um and they don't belong to you necessarily in the way that your kids kind of don't it's like if they're doing their job you're putting them out into the world for other people to experience them and to to find what they can in them and you know i i think there's something funny in that the more specific the song is to your own experience the more specific it is to somebody else's experience too so it's uh yeah it's funny that way people you know i've had a number of friends be like oh i i heard this lyric in this song and it meant this to me and i'm like cool it meant something totally different to me but it doesn't matter whatever you get from it is what you get from it what does it feel like to you though because you know when you're acting there needs to be vulnerability to act but with music like when you're acting it's a character but with music when you're being vulnerable you're actually showing a side of you that you don't necessarily show to anybody else so how does it feel to you when you release these tracks that are so honest and so personal to you yeah i mean i think that probably the most vulnerable you ever are as a as a singer-songwriter is when you play those songs for the first time for somebody um that's that feels like you're really sharing you're sort of pulling back the curtain on on something and sharing a part of yourself that you might not necessarily in conversation um but after a while when you start working on them a little bit you start trying to sculpt them they become something else they sort of they they come out of your head and out of your heart and into the real world and and then they become these sort of real things that you can sort of sculpt and sand down and work on and and it becomes l over time you get a bit of a callus going and uh you don't feel so exposed anymore but certainly uh playing some of the some of these songs live i'm reminded all the time of when the circumstances in which i wrote the song or where i was when i wrote the song and um you know when you play them over and over again your mind kind of wanders into into different spaces and it's really interesting it you know the the different shapes that they can take on and and uh yeah sort of bring up different things for you i suppose the reaction of the crowd will also change the interaction you have with that song as well because what is it like i can't sing but i've always dreamt of being on stage and having people sing back my lyrics that i don't write either but you know i have this fantasy but what is it like being on stage singing those lyrics and having people sing them back at you yeah it's very crazy i uh you know i hadn't done a lot of playing live i had never done a tour before i guess in january i i went out on my on my what i called my first time out tour um we did a couple of canadian dates and and a bunch of uh west coast american dates we were heading out for more i think i got eight shows into a 25 show tour and uh before we had to turn it around and lock it down and um it was very strange to uh to be playing songs and have people know them you know it felt really really sort of surreal to see people mouthing words along and um you know that's not something i ever really thought would come of my music i always kind of thought of it as a as a as a bit of a hobby something that i was kind of doing for my own mental health purposes and then um you know one song on a tv show and and a few people started paying a little bit of attention so it's uh it's been a strange progression but a really nice one and i can't wait to get back out and play in some rooms i think it's it's special when you can create space with an audience like that and just share share that moment and everybody knows that anything can happen and and that there's something happening right in front of them right then and there and it's the same for me it's sort of like the audience is performing for me as much as i'm performing for them is that what did it for you that performance of simply the best because as i said in the intro that was for me like i was watching it i probably watched about four times just today and every time i still get the chills i still do the crying was that the moment that people went whoa he can he can't only just sing but he does it with such emotion and i'm drawn and nowhere if you've got anything else i'm coming over to you yeah i mean i i think probably that was the introduction for a lot of people to my music i had put out a record called songs from a broken chair in 2016 and dan levy came to uh to my release show we had just started shooting um season three i think and uh so i had just joined the cast of shit's creek and he was at my release show and uh i think probably some wheels got turning in his head about how he could um use my my musical uh world to enhance the the world of shit's creek and um so you know we he he sort of selected that song and put it into the uh into the story of season four and yeah when it came out i think definitely a lot of people started to find songs from a broken chair and so i started to think about you know it was probably time to start thinking about a new record and and uh putting something out and and trying to make a go of the music thing as well um you know something to complement the acting side because i feel like acting is a world that uh you can't always control when it happens or what kind of project you're on and um you're you're interpreting somebody else's creation so it's nice for me to have something that is purely my creation that i can sort of tinker on and and and work on while i'm not acting you know so i can have these sort of the this balanced uh two-rail approach well that scene where you did sing you're simply the best of course moira tried to steal the scene she says a line in there to david i can't even i was going to do her voice but who am i kidding i'll just stick to my own she says to david you're awfully uh you're awfully brave letting your bow indulge in something like this did you feel brave when you got up to sing in front of your cast and the extras and because it was such a tender moment how did you feel yeah i mean i've i sort of drew on experiences that i've had at uh open mics or little shows that i've played before and and uh you know i'm a theater actor as well and so being in front of people is is you know it's it's it's nerve-wracking beforehand but once i'm there i feel quite comfortable um so that was useful but definitely anytime you're performing in front of catherine o'hara you want to make sure that it's uh that it's on point um i uh i actually took a bit of advice for her because from her because when she and dan did um there's an episode in season four where they perform something called the number which is the their what they used to do at christmas parties and i remember when she was shooting that uh she told me that anytime you're doing a live performance it's best to have the director shoot the audience first if they can because you'll get a much more authentic reaction from the audience if they're just seeing it for the first time and it gives you as the live performer a chance to sort of you know get the first one out get a bit of a rehearsal in and then by the time they come around on you you'll be ready to go and so i i sort of convinced our director bruce mccullough to uh to do that on the fly he was very gracious and made it happen for me so uh by the time that we were filming my side of it i was a little less nervous but the first pass round i'm not sure i had all my notes in line my breathing probably wasn't very good i was probably really nervous did you come up with that version of simply the best yeah yeah dan uh dan had written it into the show and and at the read-through i remember um talking to him about it and being like okay so you're gonna make me sick huh and he was like yes this is and this is a song that's pretty important to me so so don't it up but um but if you do uh want any help coming up with it and i was like no no i'm good i'm i want to take a shot at it let me see what i can come up with and uh it was fun that was a fun thing to try to approach from a character perspective too it wasn't like necessarily how i would play the song i mean certainly like there's an element of of me in in the arrangement and in my character in general but um but just trying to approach it from how patrick would play how patrick would sing uh you know how he would want to communicate that in that moment um was a fun sort of character exercise and something that i welcomed a lot did you ever think that it would like go to the top of the itunes charts and become almost like a number one wet first wedding dance song yeah i know i definitely didn't anticipate the the wedding thing i've had a lot of requests to come and play it at people's weddings and i'm like oh man i don't want to i don't want to ruin your wedding with that why don't you just you can you play it or you can play the recording record version of it that's fine i'm i'm good i don't think i anticipated that at all there were so many musical moments in shit's creek besides your one there were so many standouts um i was talking to catherine o'hara and i made her sing oh danny boy for me because that was hilarious um and then i'm raging when i was talking to annie murphy i didn't get her to sing um so alexis oh alexis what was that a little bit of lexus a little bit alexis so for you besides yourself what were your favorite musical moments in ship's creek oh god you know you're right there are so many um i love when katherine did um baby i'm yours with the jazza gals at uh alexis's high school graduation i thought that was really sweet um stevie singing uh maybe this time in cabaret oh my god i completely forgot about that one really a really good one in the season five finale also just selfishly doing performing um uh real common and the the sort of the opening number of cabaret uh in the in the season five finale was a lot of fun because we were actually in a theater and had learned the choreography and you know it felt like we were putting on a community musical so that was uh that was pretty fun and i don't know any time that eugene sings there's an episode called the jazza guy in which eugene tries to join the jazz and gals or johnny rose tries to join the jazz and girls i thought that was pretty fun too a lot of great ones but obviously a little bit of lexus is an incredible musical composition by miss murphy and it deserves the tip of the cap it really does and a bit of a tip of the cap as well to you when you were singing mariah carey to david as your your vows and then you have mariah carey tweeting about you as well what do those moments feel like i mean they feel a little uh absurd and and surreal you kind of don't um it's hard to process i know like i dan sometimes will just text me i'm not the most up on social media and so damn will just text me a thing from time to time and i i never i know that i'm not giving him a satisfactory response because i'm just like well i don't know what to do with that i have no i have no concept of of of how that happens i don't i don't know but it's pretty wild and and certainly i can just picture dan screaming in his room when mariah carey tweets about him you know now they're probably best friends i don't know but um you don't know about a lot uh and i i don't say this in an offensive way because when you started out on shit's creek you hadn't even seen the first two seasons so how do you land the part like hello well i that was a conscious choice on my part i i uh yeah i i'm not i'm not a huge television watcher um i had seen the first episode and been like oh this is great and then you know didn't have tv at the time so i didn't follow up and watch it and then when i got the audition to do it i was like i don't think i can watch all of this now and just psych myself out i need to come at this sort of clean and i felt like i could justify that because patrick didn't know anybody you know he he was new to the whole situation so i well played well played noah yeah thank you very much and uh yeah just sort of tried to try to arm myself with ignorance you know and and come in and get my own take on it so what is it like going in to such a well-established show and i know um it wasn't as as popular as it has become but the start the cast was still really tight-knit and the crew so when you go in as the newbie and at the moment still not a permanent fixture what's that first day like well it was pretty uh i don't know i was pretty nervous i was very daunted by the prospect of of joining this show and certainly with people like eugene levy and catherine o'hara who i've seen all my life and all my favorite things uh and they're you know they're such incredible comedy icons in in canada but everywhere um you know that was that was pretty uh freaky but they're they're just such lovely genuine generous people they immediately made me feel very at home and i already knew dan and annie sort of socially just from around toronto and uh yeah it was um it was very easy everybody made it very easy on me and uh i'm very grateful for that i felt like i was uh in good hands and and by the time that we finished shooting season three i felt right at home which was really nice and then how hard was it to say goodbye because i mean by season five i think as soon as it landed on netflix i mean i only just discovered shit's creek the start of 2019 and then i binged the whole thing so like as soon as it started on netflix there was an appetite there but dan stuck to his guns and went nah sorry don't care how much you love us and how much she wants to come back we're going did you try and convince him and go come on dan let's let's just do one more season i think we all had our our moments of just trying to subtly be like boy wouldn't this be fun if we could do this for a couple more years but um i don't know i think that he he he had a vision and he and eugene and the writers had put a lot of thought and conversation into um what was right for the story and how was it gonna be best served and how was the audience going to be best served by keeping the story to what it wanted to be and i think we've seen a lot of examples of tv shows that stuck around for too long whether it was for the money or for uh just a sort of a wanting to keep going um and i i honestly i think they did the right thing in this and and you know hopefully maybe one one of these days we can get back together and do something i think we're all pitching dan routinely on uh on on how we can do like a reunion special or something and you know he's like i don't know be hard to beat nine emmys as a way to go out so i don't know we'll see how special was that evening like it was it was sad that you couldn't all be at the emmys together but there's a part of me watching your reactions going i actually think you had a better time in toronto in canada just yourselves celebrating yourselves not having to mind your p's and q's around anybody and just get excited about the win was that what it was like yeah it was very fun i i agree with you that we would not have been able to be so uh so exuberant in in the company of anyone else but uh you know it would have been fun to stand up in front of all the all the ridiculously famous people at the emmys and be like we want a bunch of statues but i'm just so proud of of everyone on the show and and certainly of the the four roses for coming away with those statues and i i i think it's so well deserved and and such a perfect way to say goodbye to this show that has meant so much to not just us but uh so many people who are you know whenever you found the show it's it's um yeah it's it's become an important thing for people especially in in the darkest times you know to have something that just sort of uplifts and and uh is caustically funny and heartwarming at the same time i don't think there's a lot of shows on television that walk that line the way that this one does and uh so yeah it's been hard to say goodbye but that was a pretty nice way to uh to send it off no i just hear the theme song so like those two or three opening bars and all of a sudden i have this massive smile on my face and it really is like that big warm hug that you need right at these times um so for us you've given us something but what has that show given you outside of the show because like i i was looking back at some of the amazing things you got to do and especially in that final season where you and um dan got to do the ew entertainment weekly digital covers and you got to take on iconic couples like casablanca 16 candles notting hill you got to walk in the new york city 50th anniversary pride march like are they moments that for you really stand out oh absolutely there's so many of them that you know i mean i don't i i can't even count the the incredible times that we've had as a as a cast you know we were doing live shows and sort of all over america i think we were coming to the uk and to ireland and and maybe to australia too and and so you know we there were so many brilliant moments where all of us just got to be together i would say that the main takeaway for me is just the the friendships that you know evolved over the course of that time and and certainly the you know all of the professional stuff and the music stuff is a major bonus but the the relationships are um are what i take with me most from that show what was the last day like for you when i spoke to annie about it she said she was just a bubbling mess like ugly teenagers and snakes total disaster annie had kept it together the entire final season when everyone was crying at table reads and stuff annie was like keeping it real together and then on the last day dan had called it he was like you watch she is gonna fall apart and indeed indeed she did oh granted dan was no exception he was he was falling apart too i felt like my job that day was to be um uh you know not stoic but i just sort of i watched what eugene was doing and eugene was emotional but he was he was not falling apart he felt like it was his job to kind of keep the train running and uh so i i tried to jump on the eugene train i'm not sure how successful i was but it was it was a crazy emotional day so bittersweet um a real celebration uh and also a a farewell and you know i think we all forgot at some stage of the game that we still had us we still had scenes to shoot we were all still like playing characters but we were all also saying goodbye to the show and i think our characters and our our actual personalities kind of overlapped in that scene where we're saying goodbye to johnny and moira for the final time in the show and uh yeah it was just it got a little messy but it was it was it was a great day do you know what though does it sometimes hit you after the fact because you know when you're in the fact and you think yeah i've got this i've handled it i've had my cry it's all okay and then six months later or you know the date that you usually go back for the next season you don't go back is that when it hits you and you just go oh my god i think i'm gonna have my breakdown right now i need to text them and see what they're doing i think it would have if there wasn't a pandemic happening right when we we would have been going back in april so it was right in the midst of you know the deepest lockdown and i think it was a it was pretty strange and on some level i think we probably thought well good thing we didn't do another season because we wouldn't have been able to go back to work um but you know yeah i mean i i'm still kind of dealing with it i haven't been back on a set since that day and so i you know i every so often i'm like oh yeah i should probably get back to work just like i mean i'm still in my period of mourning i guess and you're allowed to be but look 2020 has been tough for all of us but i'm really happy when i see great things happen because you need to look at the positivity and for you when you look back at 2020 i'm sure you'll look back at the bad stuff but wow what a year for you shit's creek um beginnings endings you've got your album a double wedding like what some of us are lucky to get married once you go and get married twice on screen and in real life um when you look back at 2020 how are you going to look back at it well i think it's been a uh you know as a gemini it's uh it's been a bit of a gemini of a year it's got a lot of things and um you know two holding two truths at the same time it's been you know at the same time it's been very dark and uh anxiety provoking and and strange and you know nobody knows really what's going to happen or how things are going to work out and on the other hand it's forced us all to sort of spend some time with ourselves reflect on the things that are important to us spend some quality time with with the people that are closest to us and uh certainly for me you know uh getting married in the middle of it was uh it's not the way we we drew it up exactly but uh it turned out to be a pretty special night and uh i don't know to be able to do that in the middle of all this was was really um pretty amazing and and i feel that way about all the little moments of celebration throughout this that the the sweet moments are a little sweeter it feels like this year so that's kind of what i'm holding on to and i'll definitely remember it as a complex year but but a pretty fruitful one i think yeah now before i let you go um anytime i talk to a cast member if shit's creek i make them promise me that when all of this is over catherine's already said yes so when all of this is over and you take the tour back on the road dublin can we be on that list because we never got the shit's crate to her and i can tell ya we will fill stadiums once we're allowed to over and over again well i would be more than excited to come to dublin and do that show and also you know play a show uh of my own while i'm over there too yes please i can organize that for you too we'll see what we can do absolutely i can't wait i can't wait well noah it has been such a joy to chat to you thank you so much for taking the time out and for entertaining us with music and comedy throughout this whole year it's exactly what we needed right on well it's my pleasure thanks for chatting

Channel: The Bellissimo Files

Views: 4,754

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Noah Reid, Noah Reid Schitt's Creek, Gemini, Noah Reid Gemini, Noah Reid Gemini interviews, Noah Reid Schitt's Creek interviews, Netflix, Patrick Schitt's Creek, Schitt's Creek, The Bellissimo Files, Sarina Bellissimo

Id: tvBP_P_1vb8

Length: 24min 45sec (1485 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020

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FYI Sarina Bellissimo and fellow radio presenter Alison Curtis are uber SC fans and have a three episode podcast called ‘Lose Your Schitt’s Creek’ - highly recommend if you haven’t heard it already!!