Lin-Manuel Miranda put his 6-year-old’s ’20-second scream’ on his new album, ‘Warriors’
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis released their new concept album “Warriors” on Oct. 18. In addition to a flurry of music legends, the album features Miranda’s two sons.
The cameo came out of necessity, he said during an appearance on TODAY Oct. 23.
“My wife (Vanessa Nadal) went back to work a couple years ago, so I’ve been a stay-at-home dad writing this. There was just one day where they were just not leaving,” Miranda said on TODAY. “And I was like, ‘All right, scream into the microphone. We’ll use it.’”
“And my 6-year-old let out the most incredible 20-second scream,” he continued about his son Francisco.
Francisco’s scream, looped and reverbed, appears on “Derailed,” track six on the album.
Miranda, in a separate interview with TODAY.com, says the scream “forms the harmonic backbone of the track.”
Sebastian, Miranda’s 9-year-old son, also joins the cast of artists featured on the album, which includes Lauryn Hill, Ghostface Killah, Busta Rhymes, Stephen Sanchez and Miranda’s “Hamilton” co-star Phillipa Soo.
“My 9-year-old whispers, ‘Run’ in ‘Derailed,’” he says. “Blink and you miss it, it’s this little inner voice thing.”
Sebastian’s voice appears at the very end of the track.
The concept album re-imagines the cult classic 1979 film “The Warriors,” which follows a New York City gang trying to go from the Bronx to Coney Island after they’re framed for the murder of another gang’s leader.
Speaking to TODAY.com, Davis says Miranda’s kids couldn’t get enough of their version of “Warriors.”
“They’re always singing,” she says. “Frankie was super into singing like, ‘Ah-she-ca, ah-ah-she-ca’ for the Cypher.”
Those lyrics are the opening lines to track three on the album, entitled “Warriors’ Cypher.”
Miranda says that when the album released on Oct. 18, he was “so touched” by his younger son’s reaction.
“Frankie said to me, ‘Daddy, can we hum it at school now?’ Because he knew he wasn’t allowed to sing it until the album came out. He was so excited to finally get to sing it to the world,” Miranda says.
“He was on an NDA,” Davis jokes.
Miranda says that he saw “The Warriors” for the first time when he was 4 years old, and that his mom “hates” this story because it makes him sound “unsupervised.”
“It’s that classic thing of you’re on a play date, but then your friend’s older brother has a VHS, and you’re going to go watch that,” he explains.
Miranda loved it so much he kept rewatching the movie, especially while visiting his grandfather’s VHS store in Puerto Rico every summer.
“I think I kept coming back to it because it’s such a picture of this place — both where I lived and also beyond my wildest imaginings,” he says. “It’s this New York that is gorgeous and never existed. It’s all these fears given visual representation in one movie, and the action’s great.”
As far as his own sons’ media consumption? Miranda says that at his house, “Bluey” or “Paw Patrol” are on repeat — not “The Warriors.” But when his sons sleep over at his parents’ house, they watch the news or “Law and Order.”
Miranda says that his kids always “come home with questions” after a sleepover at grandma’s.
“My mom’s the culprit again,” he jokes. “I’m happy to re-blame her.”
Davis tells TODAY.com that working with Miranda on the album was “wonderful,” praising him and his family.
“When you know you’re working with Lin, you’re working with his whole family, which was just such a pleasure for me,” she says. “Not only being able to hang with the kids, but also with his wife, Vanessa. She gave us really great notes that helped us clarify things.”
“Yeah, she’s the secret sauce,” Miranda says of his wife, whom he has known since high school.