Cinco Paul

Donald O'Connor doing Make Him Laugh, and I thought that was the greatest thing I'd ever seen in my life.

It was so funny, and I just loved it.

So that's really where it began when I was a kid, and then...

But I think a real key moment was, I think I was 14 and was asked to play piano for my high school's musical.

And it was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

And that really changed everything because then suddenly that became my tribe, you know, the theater kids.

And they embraced me and, you know, I desperately wanted to be on stage, but...

Probably because I didn't really belong there.

They kept saying, no, but Cinco, we need you on the piano.

Please continue playing piano for us.

But that's really where it deepened into something different.

It became my community, you know.

You know, in college, I always sort of, you know, I wanted to be on stage.

And so in college, I tried out for several musicals and didn't get in.

And I did end up playing piano for a bunch of them.

And so at some point, I realized, well, maybe that's not my thing.

And then I was really interested in being a pop musician.

You know, I'd always written songs from a pretty early age.

And so I think...

There was maybe a sense that, well, musical theater isn't cool and I want to be Elvis Costello, you know.