I'm the music guy, I get to wear the music hat, but being able to be that guy in the room is a thrill at this level and caliber.

I had the good fortune of being 9 years old when The Little Mermaid came out, that whole run of really beautiful Disney musicals, and so, the fact that I got to interview with Ron [Clements] and John [Musker], who directed The Little Mermaid, I was, like, I just walked in and said, "You're the reason I'm even here."

I think I learned more about writing scores for Broadway by making mix tapes in the '90s than I did in college. You're learning about rise and fall and energy and tempo shifts. You're showing off your taste and your references. You're trying to be witty by - through placement of music you didn't write.

The people you're turning to for advice are all people making Disney movies, so we had these amazing meetings where you'd see John Lasseter, and then next to him is Jen Lee, the director of Frozen. Next to her is Pete Docter, who's working on Inside Out.

I try to let my decisions be guided not by what I think will succeed or fail, but what I'm going to learn from that process.

I am not throwing away my shot.

It's got to feel, the pulse has to feel like this part of the world, the instrumentation has to be true to that, and so, between him, [composer] Mark Mancina and myself, we really chased that, while serving our story Moana].