Austinist Interviews Teen Witch Songwriter Larry Weir

Okay, let me tell you how everything happened. My brother was on a soap opera and so every Monday I would go to his agent’s office.

Right, Michael Damian. He was on The Young and the Restless.

Exactly and since he was on the soap he didn’t really have time for anything else, so anything to do with music they tossed to me. One of the projects was a movie that Trans World Entertainment was producing about a girl who finds out that she is a witch, but they didn’t have anyone to compose the “score” for it. We (my brother Tom and I) really wanted to do a musical but we had no money, so we went and delivered a bunch of stuff that I thought was applicable and they somehow worked everything into the script.

However, the people who were financing the film were from the Middle East and saw the first cut of the movie and thought we needed more rap music and wanted to sex it up a bit.

I guess that explains the creepy “love scene.”

Yeah, it’s totally out of place and out of character. I guess they thought that sex and rap music were the hip American thing to do and would make the movie appeal to a wider audience. Our producer Alana Lambros hated the idea and actually left the production. It was wacky, but we had to go on.

Anyway, the writers added those “steamier” scenes and I wrote "Top That" and some of the other rap that is in the movie and had to get it approved by the “money.” So, here I am, this white dude with a ghetto blaster and I have to impress a conference room full of Middle Eastern men with my rapping skills. When I was finished there was dead silence and all of the guys in the room looked at the main financier and he says “I like it,” and everyone else begins to gush over how great it is.

[Gasp] Wait, you’re telling me that "Top That" was not part of the original movie?

No, "Top That" was not going to be in the film. We had to do re-shoots. This is the kind of stuff I have to put up with! And these guys didn’t even know what a soundtrack was, and they were all proud of themselves because they discovered Jean-Claude Van Damme and decided to put all of their money behind his movies and the soundtrack was never released.

Well, I kinda noticed that most of the credits for singing in the movie were for yourself or members of your family.

It’s true. My family actually had a band at one time called The Weirz. In fact, we had a two week run in Houston when we were touring, so maybe some people in Austin will remember us from that. Anyway, the Jean-Claude Van Damme fans wouldn’t give us any money, so we had to recruit anyone and everyone. Since I knew my family could sing we just used them. I mean, my niece Elizabeth, who was 11 at the time, sang “I Like Boys,” and she couldn’t even reach the microphone. Now she is in a punk rock band.

Yeah, but what is so funny is that the movie went into the theaters and died in a week. We just moved on to other projects and then had the hit with "Rock On" in Dream a Little Dream that same year and Teen Witch just kind of disappeared.

Oh, I loved "Rock On!" I was a big fan of Dream a Little Dream, but enough about Corey Feldman’s effect on my pre-pubescent life. When did you know that Teen Witch actually had a following?

One Halloween it just took off, I guess because of the whole spells and witch aspect. [chuckles] I would pick up the TV Guide and the movie was showing on Cinemax and Showtime and then the Disney Channel picked it up. It had its own little secret following and suddenly people were like, “Oh my god I love that movie!” And then the royalty checks started rolling in and we realized that people were actually playing this on cable and paying us for it. Robyn Lively (who plays the lead, Louise) says that the only time people recognize her, it’s for Teen Witch.

Oh, I am at this very minute finally getting the first radio remix of Finest Hour.

Awesome! I know that there are plans for a stage musical production and that you have already produced the studio recording, but I didn’t realize that you were going to have radio distribution as well. Why did you all decide to revisit this project and when is everything planned to debut?

Alana had the idea to turn it into a Broadway musical from the beginning. There will actually be three versions of the show: a Teen Witch the Musical concert with just the music, a Universal Studios Theme Park show, and then it will be developed as a two act musical, debuting in L.A. in October (how fitting) with a future Broadway run in the works.

So Alana came back even after the sex and the rapping.

Yeah. I took her to lunch and said “Look I love the idea, lets start working on this thing,” and it all starting coming together.

Well, I can’t wait to see it and I can’t wait for Sunday night!

It’s gonna be fun. Austin is a music town and now it’s a Teen Witch town.

Totally. I know that I am telling as many people as possible about the screening. Alright, I have taken up enough of your time, so just one more question and I’ll let you go. In your opinion, what is it about Teen Witch that has captivated so many people and won their undying affection?

It’s a movie that really appeals to the disenfranchised. They look at themselves and say “I’m such a loser,” and they don’t believe in their own self worth. And then they see this girl in a movie, who they think is pretty cool, and she says that she is a loser.

Right, but suddenly she is popular and a cheerleader and has the “hot” boyfriend and people follow her around and emulate her, but she doesn’t really know who her real friends are or who she is anymore.

Exactly, but in the end she finds out that you don’t have to have any of those things to like yourself or to be cool. You see, the real magic is believing in yourself.


Teen Witch with songwriters Tom and Larry Weir
Sunday, June 17th
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown
9:45pm
[Tickets].