{"id":12377,"date":"2014-06-22T13:03:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T20:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=12377"},"modified":"2014-06-22T13:03:14","modified_gmt":"2014-06-22T20:03:14","slug":"a-great-big-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2014\/06\/a-great-big-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A GREAT BIG WORLD"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"M-33-a-great-big-world\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

A GREAT BIG WORLD<\/h1>\n

A great big hit propels the melodic pop duo to the top of the charts<\/b><\/h2>\n

Piano-pop duo A Great Big\u00a0World\u2019s debut album, Is There Anybody Out There?<\/i>, includes two versions of their recent haunting smash, \u201cSay Something.\u201d Christina Aguilera, who fell for the song when she heard it on TV\u2019s So You Think You Can Dance<\/i>, asked the duo\u2014Ian Axel and Chad Vaccarino\u2014if she could record the tune with them for The Voice<\/i>. No surprise, they agreed, and the pair was left with two versions they loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both have their own beat, and I don\u2019t lean to one more than the other,\u201d says Axel. \u201cIt was scary hearing the new version at first, only because I was used to the older one. I do feel there\u2019s something very lonely about the one with just me, solo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida native Axel met Vaccarino, who hails from New Jersey, eight years ago in the music business program at New York University. \u201cI was looking to collaborate with someone. I wanted to write a musical,\u201d remembers Axel. \u201cWhen I met Chad, I felt like I\u2019d known him all my life. I wasn\u2019t singing at the time but I had all this music in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Vaccarino heard that music, he was in. \u201cWriting with Ian came really naturally,\u201d says Vaccarino. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a crazy, amazing chemistry. Every song is a co-write\u2014it just feels easier to write with him than writing alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Says Axel, \u201cI wasn\u2019t singing at all when Chad heard me play. He started really pushing me to sing.\u201d Sing he did, as on the title cut from his 2011 album This Is the New Year<\/i>, which later became the duo\u2019s breakthrough hit when it was performed on an episode of Glee<\/i> in 2013. \u201cSince then we\u2019ve been writing songs for both our voices and harmonies,\u201d Axel says. The frequent collaborators formed A Great Big World in 2012.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-olds also share a love of film scores and Broadway. \u201cI was in musical theater from the time I was 5,\u201d says Vaccarino. \u201cIn high school, I started getting into more soulful music like Boyz II Men, Stevie Wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was also inspired by film scores, including Disney musicals and Danny Elfman,\u201d says Axel. \u201cThe Nightmare Before Christmas<\/i> is one of my favorites. I wasn\u2019t writing lyrics, I was attracted to the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe craft of songwriting is what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Vaccarino agrees. \u201cWhen we\u2019re working, or we\u2019re with other songwriters or performers and I\u2019m shown something I never would have thought of, it\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Linda Laban<\/p>\n

Subscribe to <\/b>M Music and Musicians<\/i><\/b>. $12 for one year >><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A GREAT BIG WORLD A great big hit propels the melodic pop duo to the top of the charts Piano-pop duo A Great Big\u00a0World\u2019s debut album, Is There Anybody Out There?, includes two versions of their recent haunting smash, \u201cSay Something.\u201d Christina Aguilera, who fell for the song when she heard it on TV\u2019s So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[7415,7401],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12379,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12377\/revisions\/12379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}