--- title: Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear on Composing Moana 2 description: The duo of composers on forming their musical partnership and bringing their flair to the songs of Moana 2. canonical: https://time.com/7178705/moana-2-music-barlow-and-bear-interview/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-25T19:39:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:48:47.765Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The TikTok Duo Behind the Music in 'Moana 2' on Winning a Grammy and Working With Beyoncé og:description: Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are the composers behind the soundtrack for Disney's "Moana 2." og:url: https://time.com/7178705/moana-2-music-barlow-and-bear-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca6a2f987e1bd229/698b245d9862f5732b89d290/huFNi4ul-720.jpg?branch=production&width=720&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 720 og:image:height: 405 og:image:alt: huFNi4ul-720 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The TikTok Duo Behind the Music in 'Moana 2' on Winning a Grammy and Working With Beyoncé twitter:description: Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are the composers behind the soundtrack for Disney's "Moana 2." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca6a2f987e1bd229/698b245d9862f5732b89d290/huFNi4ul-720.jpg?branch=production&width=720&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The TikTok Duo Behind the Music in _Moana 2_ on Winning a Grammy and Working With Beyoncé > Sponsored content. 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Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear are the composers behind the soundtrack for Disney's "Moana 2."_ by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/) and [Joey Lautrup](https://time.com/author/joey-lautrup/) Nov 25, 2024 7:39 PM UTC by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/) and [Joey Lautrup](https://time.com/author/joey-lautrup/) Nov 25, 2024 7:39 PM UTC Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, who compose music under the name Barlow and Bear, speak to TIME about forming their musical partnership, bringing their flair to the songs of _Moana 2_, and their experiences at the Grammys and on stage withBeyoncé. ## Transcript Hey, I'm Abigail Barlow. And I'm Emily Bear. And together Barlow and Bar. Guys I've met overseas. Willow? We met from a mutual friend. It was, like, a very, you know, casual. Oh, you should meet this girl. You might write good together. I invited her over to my house, and I made macarons, and we watched the Bachelorette and sort of just, like, bonded over being young women in LA. We really hit it off, and then we tried to write together, and we were like, Ooh. What I don't know why. Neither of us had written musical theater before we met. So it was just like, What did we just stumble upon? And the more we wrote together, the more we, like, fell in love musically and realized that we also loved writing musical theater. And it doesn't need to be jazz hands. Musical Theater can be whatever you want it to be. Love music and Mexican pizza. Anything is possible. I definitely was, like, musical theater kid to the Max and did a bunch of shows in high school and thought I was gonna go to school for musical theater. But then I fell in love with songwriting. I think if I wasn't doing my career at such a young age, I probably would have been a theater kid. So how long did it take to write that song? 10 minutes. I didn't want to read the prodigy that fizzled out once they hit an adult age, and the shock factor was no longer there, and then all of a sudden you're just an average adult. Ooh. Everything now is, like, means a lot because people are not hiring us for shock factor. They're hiring us because our music is good. Walt Disney said that she was his favorite princess. Oh. Oh. Can I give her a hint? Ding Ding. Bell? No. The clock strikes midnight. Oh, Cinderella. Oh sorry I was a horrible hint. Sorry. Sorry. A bell goes I didn't know what I mean? What Bong? What does a clock make? Bong? I don't want to give it too good of a hand, but you. No, no, no, you did a good job. You did a good job. She is the only princess who doesn't sing. Oh, this is a hard one. Merida? Yeah. Queen and Queen, God queen. She is the youngest princess. Oh. She's really young, but really old. Oh, really young but really old. Snow white? Yeah. Okay. Oh, fascinating. Yeah. She was like, 15, I guess. She's the oldest princess. Mm. Oh, Alsa. What be skies I've never seen. We definitely did a lot of research when we first dove in and the creative team gave us a lot of wonderful resources for that, and we listened to, like, hours of Pacific Island music. We also listened to the first movie and know how wonderful and beloved that soundtrack is, and we wanted to stay true to that while also bringing, you know, A Barlow and Bear flare as it were. Disney takes such care. With researching every little detail, so we got to talk to, like, real life Wayfinders. One of their big mantras was Getting lost is the pathway to finding magic. We loved that quote so much that it actually inspired. I lost. Got loose. I lose. Yo Hey. Alright. No fun and hold it back, babe. You got to enjoy. It's a new character. And so we kind of got to craft a new sound, which was really fun. And she's she's the moment. She's a firs. A Diva. Complete Diva. I'm gonna state to the camera that my brain is incapable of memorizing lyrics. I can memorize a 75 page concerto, but I cannot memorize lyrics, so. This will be really fun. Every turn I take, every trail I track. Every path I run. When I Nope. Close. Every path I make, every road leads back. I've got Well, I know this one. I've got Gizmos and gadgets of plenty. I've got s it's in what? It's Core. What lies beyond on the vast uncharted sea? Why I lose myself between. All that we know right here. And what's out there? Beyond. A season season against babies. She's the one who inspired me to start using social media more, because when we met, like, that was her thing. And she was so good at it. And I started using it, but, like, from a female composer lens, and immediately saw the power. Finally, the unofficial Bridgerton. The unofficial Bridgerton musical album experience taught me that there can be good and bads to social media and being chronically online can be really bad for your mental health. Love hate. Love hate. Hate more sometimes, but love also because we got a Grammy. This is one of my idols. His name is Leonard Bernstein, and he wrote my favorite musical Less Ed Story. Love. Okay. Oh. Share is an absolute icon. And I got to see the Share show on Broadway. In my spare time, I just watch the montage of all of her outfits from the Share show and the reveals. Oh, they're they're so incredible. Buddy. Buddy. Buddy for days. Body is D. A. Our boy. A. The Man the myth the Legend. Oh, yes. Wow. I'm so excited to get to the We're Warriors. Oh, me too. It's gonna be great. Oh. Our girlfriend Alepe Fetherington. Done. This should be Abiel's. Madonna. I love her. She's just released a song called Modern Day Madonna. It's very good. Oh, thanks. Th should be Emily's. What kind of boss is Beyonce? The ultimate boss. Like, watching her come in and command a room is very inspiring as a woman and a musician. I love that. And, like, having a family. Like, she's a parent and, like, a very attentive parent. I'm like, I don't And she sayed later than us. She came in earlier I'm like, How How do you do it all? When you pass out. Oh, this should be yours, too. To say. It's a love story say I love that cover. Oh, New pop Princess. We love everything about Sabrina Carpen. This cover also. She's so good. I'm so excited to watch her career from top to bottom. She's just gonna do so many goods. Disney Girl. And to Disney Girl. The Disney Girl to popstar Pipeline. It should be studied. It should be studied. From New shores, we've been exploring, returning to tell our story connected with hot energy. Finally, we're back. A good explorer is someone who can accept themselves when they mess up, you know? Because that's something that we're learning. And Manas learning. Everyone messes up, and we have to give ourselves grace. I think a good explorer is someone who is open to all the different routes to get where you need to go. The Universe surprises you, and, you know, for the better. Yeah. I don't think either of us could have predicted that this would be where we are. Nah now. 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