Texas musicians Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada had the opportunity to collaborate on an original song for the motion picture, Sing Sing. Alexander and Quesada’s resulting song, “Like A Bird,” is now nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It is the first-ever Oscar nomination for either musician.

With the Oscars set to be awarded next Sunday, March 2, Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada had a chance to connect with The Current’s Morning Show to talk about the making of the song and what it has felt like to be nominated for an Oscar. Use the audio player above to listen to the interview, and find a full transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: You're listening to The Current. So the Academy Awards will be handed out Sunday, March 2, and the movie Sing Sing has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Now it's a film based on the real- life rehabilitation through the arts program at Sing Sing maximum security prison. Actor Coleman Domingo has been nominated for Best Actor for his role as John Whitfield, also known as Divine G. Well, this morning, you're going to hear about some of the music of Sing Sing. And I wanted to note that Bryce Dessner of The National composed the film's score. Well, Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas and Abraham Alexander wrote and performed the song "Like A Bird," which appears during the film's credits. "Like A Bird" is up for Best Original Song at this year's Oscars. And it's not every day that we have Oscar nominees on The Current's Morning Show. Adrian Quesada and Abraham Alexander, welcome.

Abraham Alexander: Thank you so much.

Adrian Quesada: Thank you.

Abraham Alexander: Yeah, that was probably one of the best intros I've ever heard.

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Jill Riley: Well, thank you very much! Oscar nominee is joining us from Texas, by way of Fort Worth and by way of Austin. My question is, if you could kind of take us back to how you became involved with writing this song, were you guys commissioned to write it? Was it a song that you were working on, and somehow, you know, the word got around about it? So how does that part work? Abraham, I wonder if you could start.

Abraham Alexander: The way I got involved was Adrian sent me a text, and that text said, and I quote, "I dare you not to cry." And it was a trailer of, like, the first initial trailer for the movie. And sure enough, I watched it, and I started to weep. And, yeah, that's kind of how I got involved. Adrian asked me if I would be willing to write an original song for the film, and this just seemed like something that I had to be part of. You know, I feel like we as artists look for things that can live on forever. And this was definitely it.

Jill Riley: So Adrian, I'm curious, you know, how did you get that initial call?

Adrian Quesada: So yeah, I originally ran into a mutual friend of myself and Greg Kwedar, the director. And he mentioned something in passing as we were, like, walking to our cars in a parking lot about like, connecting me with this director from Austin, and eventually connecting with Greg. I had lunch with Greg. He told me all about the film, showed me a mood board and sent me an early version of the trailer, and told me that they needed one song, the song for the final scene, which is kind of a daunting task, you know? It was like there's going to be no other music other than Bryce's incredible score, but, like, there's gonna be no other songs with lyrics and vocals and a full song. And just asked if, you know, I was interested. And as I kind of watched the trailer, heard about it, you know, read about it, heard more from the director. I just imagined Abe's voice and, you know, songwriting. And immediately I reached out to Abe. You know, the rest is history at this point. We ended up doing it.

Jill Riley: So, how did the song start? When did you really feel like, "Oh! I've got it. This is the little piece that became the inspiration" ?

Abraham Alexander: We just kind of put that scene on a sequence. And, you know, Adrian put a clap and a drum kick to get the snycopation for the rhythm of the movie, and then sent it to me. And I just wanted to personify the image of a bird. I felt like that correlation of, as a human being having the purpose of dreaming and having the purpose of feeling love and loving others. And when you're put in a cage, you're kind of denied that which you were created to do. And the same of a bird; like a bird's meant to fly and not to be caged up for someone else's amusement. For us, we just had to personify those emotions.

Jill Riley: So the song is called "Like A Bird." I'm talking with Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada on The Current's Morning Show, talking about the Oscar nominated song, "Like A Bird." Now I have to ask, what did it feel like when you got the news that you'd been nominated for Best Original Song? I want to hear from both of you on this one. So Adrian, do you want to start?

Adrian Quesada: Yeah, it was — honestly, even you just giving us the intro saying "Oscar-nominated," you know, it's surreal. It really is still completely one of those, like, you have to wake up and pinch yourself some days because it's really kind of surreal that it even happened. Because of them being announced on the West Coast, I thought it would be like later that afternoon. And obviously I was thinking about it the night before, woke up thinking about it, but I didn't actually look at the time they were announcing them. I figured I'd be, by like, 2 or 3 p.m., starting to look into it. I had just dropped off my daughter at school, it was like 7:30 in the morning, my phone was in my car on the other seat, and it just started vibrating nonstop, and my heart just sank. I pulled over really quick and got the text, but I was like, "Wow, that's early!" So that that kind of like — it was 7:30 here, so that's like, 5:30 a.m., you know, West Coast time. And you know, that first, that overwhelming feeling of just like excitement and nervousness and gratitude turned into when I was driving to my studio, which I'm at now, which was like five or 10 minutes from where I was, and I had to, actually, at some point, silence my phone and sit here for a second and just, like, gain my composure and just process it. And it's funny, Abe and I texted, and we didn't get to talk. We didn't talk till later on that day, because I think we both had that feeling of, like, just having a moment to yourself to really like process the gravity of the moment, you know?

Jill Riley: Yeah, so Abraham Alexander is on the line as well. How did you get the news?

Abraham Alexander: I was watching it. You know, first it was the song from Amelia Perez, and then it was the song from Diane Warren, and then our name gets called. And honestly, for some reason I just, I wasn't sure, right? There's all this doubt. And then seeing that, I just bawled. I just started to weep. This is my first nomination for anything, and so like, just to witness myself being seen was pretty — just such a blessing. Like, I still don't genuinely have the words to encapsulate what I was feeling, but I did kind of silence myself and and turn the phone off, and just like sat in a corner and just thought about the whole process, because we, you know, we didn't jump in to do this because of the Oscar buzz or that A24 was behind it. It was just doing something because we aligned with the message. And it was just a reminder of, like, if I continue to do that, then things like this will happen. I'm still trying to find the words, but I'm just ... huge humbling moment, which is kind of weird. Like it was a humbling moment of, "Wow, that really just happened." And I was just crying and grateful. And, yeah, it took Adrian and I, like, 12 hours before we actually spoke to each other. I was afraid, because I was like, "I'm about to be crying, talking to this man!"

Jill Riley: Well, I mean, the moment calls for it, for strong reaction, for strong emotion. And I really think that's embodied within the song as well. I mean, it's such a message of of hope. You know, this song, "Like A Bird," as I'm talking with Oscar-nominated musicians and songwriters Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada. The song that has been nominated is called "Like A Bird," from the movie, Sing Sing. Now you were able to perform the song on late-night television recently. What was that like to perform it together like that for the late-night audience?

Adrian Quesada: It was incredible. We did it for the Jimmy Kimmel show, and Jimmy himself was super gracious and great. And, you know, we got some great feedback from everybody. But it was really fun and exciting, because we'd actually never played it. When we recorded it in the studio, we were so busy at the time, we were never in the same room. We would send files back and forth and just knocked it out like that. So the song actually had never been until that point, performed live, other than Abe and I had done it a couple of times acoustically, but never with a trying to recreate the recording. It was, like, really exciting. It was really fun, actually, to do that. You know, we put a killer band together. It was a blast. It was incredible. The reaction seemed to be really good, too.

Abraham Alexander: Yeah, for me, that was my late-night debut. And to do that, like, scratch that milestone off because of this song and because of this film, was even more so special. And the band, too. Like, the band was sort of this all-star — we called it The Avengers, like putting them together. And, yeah, it was really, really beautiful. And yeah, Jimmy Kimmel was extremely gracious towards us. Ah!

Jill Riley: What can you even say? Yeah! 

Abraham Alexander: Yeah! 

Jill Riley: Abraham Alexander left speechless on The Current this morning. I love that. And plus Adrian Quesada joining me this morning, by way of, well, both Fort Worth and Austin. And so then the next step, you're headed to Los Angeles. How does it feel preparing to go to the actual awards ceremony?

Abraham Alexander: It feels so daunting for me, like because I'm trying to make sure that I look great, you know? And so I'm trying to put myself together, and I can't really figure out what's happening or what the ensemble is going to be. There's all these things in the air. But outside of that, my family's going, and I'm excited because, again, this is my first-ever kind of awards show or nomination, and so to be able to celebrate it with the family, for me, that is chief objective and primary in my mind. Yeah, I'm just kind of keeping that at the forefront. So whatever happens, as long as I get to celebrate with my fam, it's great. But also, I'm also scared that it might get a little too lit. I'm so afraid my family's about to embarrass me!

Jill Riley: Well, that's what families are made for! Come on!

Abraham Alexander: We're watching Lioness right now, which is a Paramount show, and they love Zoe Saldaña, and she's up for Best Actress [in a Supporting Role for Emilia Pérez]. And they're like, "Pops, please don't go and talk to Zoe!" I'm scared for my life right now.

Adrian Quesada: Exactly.

Jill Riley: Well, I just, you take that wardrobe bag with you as a carry-on. Whatever you're going to be wearing, you make sure you take that wardrobe bag as your carry-on. Now, traditionally, Best Original Song has been performed at the Oscars. Is that part of the award show this year?

Adrian Quesada: No, they've done away with that this year.

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Adrian Quesada: Yeah. It's been, you know, a little bit of a controversial decision. And, you know, obviously we wish we could have had the opportunity to play it. But, you know, we're happy to be there regardless, and if they better use, use that time to, you know, highlight, what the L.A. fires and the firefighters and the people, the first responders, and people that maybe lost their homes or just went through a really hard time because of that. We were actually in L.A., Abe and I were actually there, we were supposed to be doing promo for this, so, you know, we witnessed a little bit of it firsthand. So if, you know, if that time is going to something like that, then we're happy for that.

Jill Riley: Yeah, for sure, I would imagine that there's a bit of a disappointment to not be able to play it, but take some of the pressure off of you, and so that you can go to L.A. and and just enjoy the night and enjoy the recognition. And we want to wish from The Current the best of luck to you guys. Adrian Quesada is on the line, Abraham Alexander, and they're off to Los Angeles to attend the Oscars, because they are Oscar-nominated songwriters for the song, "Like A Bird." It is nominated for Best Original Song from the movie, Sing Sing. Well, I just want to say thank you so much to both of you for checking in with The Current and like I said, best of luck. And we look forward to seeing you at the Oscars. We'll be watching for sure, Sunday March 2. Thank you so very much, and we want to take a listen to the song. It's called "Like A Bird." Congratulations on this, and thank you for joining The Current.

Abraham Alexander: Thank you so much for having us.

Adrian Quesada: Thank you.

Credits

Guests – Abraham Alexander, Adrian Quesada
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Links

Abraham Alexander – official site

Adrian Quesada – official site