When NBC dropped Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt from its programming schedule, co-creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock inked a deal with Netflix to release the show and develop new seasons. And for the Kimmy Schmidt theme song, the show’s development team tapped a high-profile name in the world of digital entertainment to pair with the streaming series: The Gregory Brothers.
The Brooklyn-based Gregory Brothers rose to fame because of their viral Auto-Tune/Songify the News web series, starting with the hit video “Bed Intruder Song.” Since then, the group of four musicians (three brothers and one brother’s wife) have worked on a pilot for Comedy Central, performed at the 83rd annual Oscars, and collaborated with Jimmy Fallon on a Super Bowl supercut video.
According to Indiewire, Fey told reporters at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in January 2015 she and her team knew for a while they wanted Kimmy Schmidt to have an opening theme similar to the “Songify” format. Carlock said, “We just thought it would be a fun open title.” So the Kimmy Schmidt team contacted the Gregory Brothers.
“They asked us to work on that video so that it had the look and feel and sound of something we might do on YouTube,” Evan Gregory told Indiewire. “The music and melody for the show theme was already composed by [Fey’s husband] Jeff Richmond, so we were able to come in and augment it, and add key elements of songification to achieve maximum catchiness.”
Gregory noted how the auto-tuning quartet mainly edited the theme song video for Kimmy Schmidt episode one and added the “vocal songification elements.” “Compositionally, we added a few melodic details and instrumental flourishes,” he explained. “Then we edited the opening title sequence video in collaboration with design firm Pentagram.”
You can check out the Netflix show’s anthem in the below video where Mike Britt plays Walter Bankston, the man interviewed in the first episode of Kimmy Schmidt who “performs” the Gregory Brothers’ auto-tuned theme song.
If you need more proof of the The Gregory Brothers’ involvement, the group is credited along with Fey, Carlock, and Richmond in episode one of Kimmy Schmidt, where the full theme song video appears. In other episodes which only use clips of the song, the YouTube musical group doesn’t have its name among the cast nor crew.
Going by the username schmoyoho, the Gregory Brothers boast over 2.3 million subscribers on their YouTube channel (with another 170,000 subscribers on their titular channel).
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