01x12 - How We Pulled a Song Out of Our Pocket

[bunniefuu]

We'll forever be

wolf pack energy ♪

Hey, Bloomies.

We're still celebrating

after our

Music Icon Awards sweep,

so we're keeping

the Ask Us Anything party going.

-Tulip, hit it.

-Okay.

ChaCha40 writes,

"Hi. I've been trying

to write my first song,

"and it's harder

than I thought.

"Is writing ever

difficult for you guys?"

-Nope.

-Super easy.

I write songs in my sleep.

[all laugh] Not!

I scream in my sleep.

It's a process.

The first time I wrote a song

was when I got my heart broken.

I wrote poetry for years

before I ever put my words to music.

And the first song I wrote

almost ruined us as a band.

Guys, remember

when I told you about WNJC,

the college radio station

that's having the songwriting contest,

where the finalists

get to play their song live on air?

No, but I feel like you just gave us

all the relevant information.

Well, they're

about to announce the submission info.

The winning song gets blasted on

their socials and played on air all month.

Us? Live? On air?

With song?

I How? Tulip, help.

What she means is

Us? Live? On air?

With song? I How?

Thanks for clearing that up.

Oh! DJ Kim's back on.

[DJ Kim] Hey,

cool cats and kittens,

-it's

-[DJ Kim on recording] D-D-D-DJ Kim!

coming at you live

from WNJC,

with the rules for

our Songwriters On the Rise contest.

You must submit

an original song by this Friday.

I'm talking lyrics.

I'm talking melody.

It has to be all you.

Send us a recording

on a jump drive in the mail.

The mail?

Yes, I said

"the mail," people.

Can she hear me?

And why the mail?

I know what you're thinking.

"Why the mail?"

She can hear me!

Am I the radio?

We've had hackers

steal songs in the past,

so we're not

taking any chances.

Plus, there's a cute postal worker

I'm hoping to see a lot of.

Shout-out to Bruce.

I'm in love with you.

Good luck,

all you songwriters.

We have to win that contest.

But which song

should we submit?

We have so many good ones.

Or we could write a new song.

You know, I did have

a dream last night

where I wrote

lyrics for a song.

Maybe I should write lyrics

for this song.

That that happened

in your dream?

[speaking Spanish]

Cuando sonamos, vivimos.

You said that

in my dream, too.

I have no idea what it means.

"When we dream, we live."

You're writing our song

for the contest.

Tules, if your lyrics are

anything like your beats, it's gonna k*ll.

I already know

what I'm gonna write about.

Our friendship.

Or maybe the story of a family

who body swaps with their dog.

Nah, I'll do our friendship.

I'm so excited to hear it.

But you have to turn it around quick,

'cause the deadline is coming.

Yeah, we'll get out of your space

so you can get into your creative zone.

Okay. Song. [chuckles softly]

Song.

[in sing-song] Song, song, song, song,

song, song, song,

song, song, song, song, song.

Is that anything?

[Electric Bloom]

You and me ♪

You and I ♪

I got your back ♪

And you got mine ♪

We're in this forever ♪

Wherever we go

we go together ♪

It's all for one ♪

It's you and me ♪

'Cause all we are

is all we need ♪

We're in this forever ♪

Wherever we go

we go together ♪

So I started writing a song,

but it was really hard,

so I decided to do

literally anything else

besides write a song.

I made egg salad.

A lot of egg salad.

I created a collage

of fake mustaches.

And glued together

a bunch of apples.

But then,

I totally started writing.

And by writing,

I mean judging everything I wrote

and hating it all.

I don't like you, paper!

Things weren't going great,

but I told Jade and Posey

that I'd write a song,

so I enthusiastically

and confidently

shared my amazing lyrics

with them.

[Tulip clears throat]

"Moonlight shines"

I agree. I hate it.

We didn't say anything.

Yeah, Tules,

you're being way too hard on yourself.

Yeah, just try another one.

Okay.

"The"

"The"? Who starts

a sentence with "the"?

You know what? I'm not ready to share,

but I'll keep working.

Cut yourself

some slack, Tules.

I'm sure you'll come up

with a k*ller song in no time.

Preferably within

no time to 48 hours.

Also, I've been wanting to say this

for the last half hour.

Why does it smell like

egg salad in here?

Long story.

I made egg salad.

That's actually the story.

Go, go, go. I'm writing now.

Okay. I can totally

write a song

that does

our friendship justice.

I got this.

Or I could clean out my closet

and play hide and seek

in my clothes.

Wait. Who's gonna seek me?

Eh. Who cares? Beats writing.

Hey, Trevor.

Just donating some clothes.

Not trying to avoid writing

or anything. [giggles]

-Hey, Tulip.

-Back off, creep!

Tulip, it's me, Lucas.

Oh. Hi.

You're lucky I didn't

have to use these. [blows]

No pockets.

What's with the new look?

I was actually looking

for a gift for Shelly.

It's our three-week-iversary.

-Is that a thing--

-She says it's a thing.

Okay. Uh

What about this?

Ugh! I'm over red.

It's like,

if pink had a bad day, it would be red.

Nah.

Uh Okay.

What about this?

Messenger bag?

Here's a message. No.

Nah.

This is cute.

Cats with bowties

are so thirsty.

It's just like be a cat.

Nah. Sorry.

I just have Shelly's voice in my head.

Maybe I'm overthinking it.

I get that.

I'm overthinking everything.

Like this coat.

Will it fit? Will it not?

I don't know. Maybe try it on?

Man! The way your brain works.

It fits, and I love it.

It looks great on you, Tulip.

Thanks.

Oh. Somebody left

something in here.

It's a poem.

"As the morning mist rises,

I clearly see you're the star in my sky,

"my very destiny."

Wow. That's great.

I wonder what else

we can find in pockets around here.

These are exactly

the kind of words I want to write.

So much imagery and emotion.

Maybe I can tap into this.

I gotta go. Put this on

my coat tab, Trevor.

See you, Tulip.

Hello! Back to me.

Ooh! That sparkly top

looks cute.

Ew. I hate that top.

Ew. I hate that top now, too.

The poem gave me

inspiration for a melody.

So I sang the poem

to a track I made

and hoped it would inspire me

to write my own

original words.

But that's not quite

how things went.

As the morning mist rises ♪

I clearly see ♪

You're the star in my sky

My very destiny ♪

Never knew I could shine

till you believed in me ♪

Close my eyes ♪

I see you in my dreams ♪

Tules, that was amazing!

That's totally the song

we should submit for the contest.

Oh. No, that was No.

Come on.

That beat and those lyrics.

It was crazy good.

You don't understand.

I found the lyrics.

Yeah, you did.

I knew you'd come up

with something special.

No, I actually

found them in here.

Oh!

You found them in your heart.

Of course you did.

Get in here.

We gotta lay down

your track right now,

before we lose

the magic of the moment.

Let's talk about that magic.

No more talk.

Hit us with that beat.

Close my eyes ♪

I see you in my dreams ♪

-So good.

-Epic.

I agree. It's not ready.

What? No, Tules.

That song is so fun.

-Let's just send it in.

-I agree.

Let's just submit

one of our other songs instead.

Where's my egg salad?

Okay. We won't

submit your song.

We're submitting her song, right?

Uh, definitely.

She's just being way too hard on herself.

But that'll change

if the first song she ever wrote

wins a songwriting contest.

She's gonna be so happy.

We're such good friends.

So Tulip had no idea

we mailed in her song for the contest,

but we assumed

she'd be super excited.

You did what?

Or not.

We know you weren't sold on it,

but you're being too critical.

The melody rocks

and your lyrics are inspired.

The lyrics are inspired,

but I didn't write them.

Exactly. Wait, what?

Do you remember

that coat that I bought here

that looks, like,

crazy good on me?

I'm not jealous, but yes.

Well, I found a poem

in the pocket

and those were the lyrics.

I was just using it as inspo,

but then we recorded it.

And now here we are.

Hold up. You're telling me

that we stole someone else's work

and passed it off as our own?

We We

What's the word

I'm looking for?

Plagiarized? Copied?

Cheated? Lied?

Okay, I was just looking

for one word.

I plagiarized?

Oh, man, if my study circles find out

about this, I'm toast.

How many study circles

are you in?

Probably zero now, Jade.

Probably zero.

Obviously, if we knew

those lyrics weren't yours,

-we wouldn't have

submitted that song. -Of course not.

[gasps] Are we gonna

get in trouble?

And the winner of

the songwriting contest is

not Electric Bloom.

Because they're frauds

who didn't write their own lyrics.

Wait, we didn't mean to cheat.

DJ Kim, you have

to believe us.

Save it. I'm no deejay.

[gasping]

I'm an undercover music cop.

Stolen Song division.

And I've been onto

your band's little scheme for years.

We submitted the song

three days ago--

I don't want to hear it.

Now hand over

your instruments,

because you're not

a band anymore.

No, please.

You can't take our music away from us.

I can, and I will.

Hope you enjoy

plagiarism prison.

[sobbing]

I can't go

to plagiarism prison.

To break out,

I'd need to make a copy of the key,

and then I'd be

right back inside.

Obviously, you don't go to jail

for accidentally stealing lyrics.

But this could ruin us

as a band.

No one in the music biz

will ever take us seriously.

Goodbye dreams of

opening for Beyonce one day.

Jade, you take that back

right now.

We are gonna open for Beyonce one day

and she's gonna open for us.

-I don't think--

-She would.

Because we're gonna

march down to WNJC

and ask if we can

switch out our song

and submit

an original one instead.

You're right.

We can still fix this.

Then we'd better move.

DJ Kim's announcing

the finalists today,

and we're gonna be

one of them.

And we're gonna blow up, go on tour,

and Beyonce's gonna open for us.

-I thought you said--

-I'm on board now.

Hey, happy

three-week-iversary to my favorite Shelly.

Excuse me, bro?

He's joking, Shel.

Say you're joking.

You're joking?

-Is that for me?

-Yep.

It's vintage.

I hope you like it.

You got her an old shirt?

I feel like I don't

say this enough.

I hate it.

It's not old. It's vintage.

Oh. I love it.

Don't listen to me. I hate it.

It's cute.

It's not cute.

You know what?

I can just take it back.

[both Shellys] Okay.

So we ran to the radio station

to swap out our song,

and we got there

just in time

to realize we were too late.

And we are back,

ready to announce

our finalists for our songwriting contest.

[faintly]

Wait, stop! No, no, no!

What's all this

supposed to mean?

Reverse? Girls?

Dance? Reverse?

Group? Music!

Oh, she's saying,

"Swap our song!"

Swap our song for the contest!

-Yes!

-Wow!

The first finalist

is Lil' Howdy from Newark, New Jersey.

Let's listen to a lil'

snippet of his song.

[upbeat music playing]

Aiyo, lately ♪

You're always on my mind ♪

Thinking about you

all the time ♪

Come back to me, baby ♪

Where did you go? ♪

[music stops]

Okay. Maybe we

won't even be finalists

and our problem

will just go away.

On to the next finalist

The Two Shellys.

B'scuse me?

The Shellys

entered the contest and they're finalists?

There's no way

their song is good.

[upbeat music playing]

Ain't no rainbow

without rain ♪

Ain't no game

without the pain ♪

This can't be my destiny ♪

This life is gonna get

the best of me ♪

Whoa.

Their song is actually

[gags]

It's actually [gags]

It's actually good.

And our final finalist

You'll know their name one day,

but you heard it here first.

Electric Bloom.

[upbeat music plays]

Never knew I could shine ♪

Till you believed in me ♪

Close my eyes ♪

I'll see you in my dreams ♪

[all] Yay!

Oh, no.

[DJ Kim] Ladies

What's with all the banging?

We're so sorry, DJ Kim.

We're Electric Bloom.

We want to switch out

our song for a new one.

No can do. Rules are rules.

You're either in with the song

you submitted already, or you're out.

Well, then, I guess--

Besides, the song

you entered is sick.

Between you and me, you guys got

a real shot at winning this thing.

B'scuse me?

I like that.

I say it now, too.

As far as I'm concerned,

it's between you and The Two Shellys,

'cause Lil' Howdy,

lil' related to the guy

who owns the station.

So, are you keeping your song

in the contest or not?

We

Um

Can you b'scuse us

for a moment?

If you're using it,

I'm using it. Come.

I know pulling the song

is the right thing to do,

but I can't get over

the thought of The Shellys winning.

Wait, are you saying

we should stay in the contest?

I'm not "not" saying it.

Imagine if we don't.

The Shellys will never

let us live it down.

Remember how awful they were

when they won Battle of the Bands?

We won ♪

And you lost ♪

DJ Kim, we will see you

in two days for the live finals.

-[high-pitched] I feel

good about this. -Me too.

Me three.

You don't think we're

talking in high voices

'cause we're

feeling guilty, do you?

[both, high-pitched]

Absolutely not!

Clearly, we weren't

feeling good about what we did.

We made a bad choice.

But we weren't

the only ones making bad choices.

[both laughing]

Okay. Now write us

a love song.

Make it sound like

we have a lot of struggles, or whatever.

Then sing it back to us

in our own voices.

I keep going when

the going gets tough ♪

Feeling feelings

but it's never enough ♪

Waiting for life

to give me a shove ♪

Then I met you

Now I'm falling in love ♪

Writing that song

was just as easy as "writing"

the one we submitted

to the contest.

[both] Thanks, AI.

The Two Shellys cheated.

-They used AI.

-I knew one of them was a hologram.

Of course

The Two Shellys used AI to write a song.

Know what?

They should be called The Two Posers.

But hearing that out loud, that's actually

like a perfect insult for my name.

Don't tell them I said that.

Yeah, they'll probably

steal that, too.

And to think we've been feeling bad

about our accidentally stolen song.

What they did was way worse.

Right? At least Tulip

composed the music to ours.

Also, that poem could've just

sat in that coat forever.

Maybe if the owner knew that we were

breathing life into their beautiful words,

-they would thank us.

-Totally.

We're making great points.

Also, the coat owner could be

no longer with us, if you get my meaning.

On vacation in Tahiti.

Keep going.

If this person has passed,

we would be honoring their legacy.

Oh, my gosh.

We're such good people.

[both] Such good people.

You know what?

It's time for us to stop feeling guilty

and for them to start.

Hey, we know what you did.

-Ew.

-What are you talking about?

Sorry. Maybe this will

be clearer for you.

Hey, phone, tell The Shellys we know

that they used AI to write their song.

[Posey on phone] Reminder.

Don't forget to clean your pillow.

-You know why. Drool.

-Shut up.

Nothing happened. Okay.

The point is,

we know you cheated.

Yeah. Your song

wasn't original.

Neither was ours.

You used lyrics

that weren't your own.

We also did that.

Your words didn't

come from the inside.

They came from

an outside source.

Yep, we're the worst.

Okay. You guys keep

pausing weirdly after you say things,

and it's,

like, super annoying.

So hear us when we say this.

AI is the future.

You are the past.

And us leaving

is the present. Ciao.

[both snap fingers]

We're as bad as The Shellys.

Also, are we gonna talk

about that drool thing?

Not now, Tulip.

I've always judged The Shellys

for being unoriginal and uninspired,

but now we're

no better than them.

In fact, we are them.

They are us. Ergo

we are us.

Ergo what?

We should have just

submitted one of our other original songs

instead of me

insisting on writing a new one myself.

What was I thinking?

I'll never write

a perfect song.

Who said anything

about a song needing to be perfect?

You're being

way too hard on yourself.

So you wrote a few lyrics

you're not happy with.

A few?

Dude

These are all lyrics

you wrote?

Attempts at lyrics.

Listen to this.

"Here's to my girls.

We run the world."

"Here's to the friends

that never end."

Hello, those two lines

totally go together.

What about this?

"When we're together,

nothing's better.

"An unbreakable team.

"A Triple Crown.

No backing down."

I mean, that's us.

Tulip, you nailed it.

Yeah. Those are lyrics.

-They are?

-Yes.

Look, songs don't just come out fully

formed the first time you write them.

They do when you guys do it.

No, they don't. Trust me.

This happens to me

all the time.

I'll be creating,

but then I start

judging everything when I'm still in it.

-It never works.

-Yeah.

You just need to have fun

while you're writing,

see what happens

and then zhuzh it up later.

I can zhuzh. I'm a zhuzher.

Yeah, you are.

Look, you dreamt of

writing those lyrics.

-And you did.

-I did.

Thanks, guys.

You always have my back.

Oh, I also had

a dream last night

where we were a pack of wolves

and we were

howling really loud.

Oh! Oh, oh!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

What's happening?

She's zhuzhing.

[Jade] So Tulip got to work

piecing together

all the lyrics she already had

and making them

into a great song.

The first song I ever wrote,

"Wolf Pack Energy."

I framed it.

Yeah, you did.

Anyway, we set the words Tulip wrote

to the music Tulip wrote,

then ran down to the station

to win that contest.

Where did you go? ♪

[song ends]

All right, our second finalist

in the WNJC songwriting contest.

That was "I'm Your Baby"

by Lil' Howdy.

Great performance, Lil'.

Anything else you want to add?

Uh, yeah.

I was told there would be charcuterie.

Okay. Moving on to our third

and final finalist, Electric Bloom.

You are live on the air.

Uh [chuckles]

Before we start,

we have to stop.

-B'scuse you?

-Wow, that's really catching on.

Anyways, we're withdrawing

the song we submitted.

Because we may have

thrifted some lyrics, but that was wrong,

and now we're gonna

do the right thing.

So we're replacing that song with

something new and completely original.

This is "Wolf Pack Energy."

[upbeat music playing]

-No!

-[music stops]

Rules are rules.

That is not the song

you submitted.

Electric Bloom

is disqualified.

[DJ Kim on recording]

D-d-d-disqualified.

Meow, meow.

Cat's out of the--

Sorry, I pressed two buttons.

They stick together sometimes.

But to be clear, you're out.

Fine. We had to

sh**t our shot, but fair.

Now would anyone else

like to say anything about their song

before the winner's announced?

Shellys?

Anything at all

you want to say

about how your song

was created or generated

while we're live on the air?

No, we're good.

But thank you so much

for asking.

Okay. Time to announce

our winner.

OMG, are you so excited

to hear who won?

-Yes.

-You think it's gonna be you?

-Duh.

-And which AI app

did you use to write your song?

Harmony Auto Gen [gasps]

Wait, that's AI?

That's cheating.

The Two Shellys are

[DJ Kim on recording]

D-d-d-disqualified.

Lil' Howdy,

you are our winner.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

[sighs] Wait.

I can't win.

My dad owns the station.

It's It's not fair.

Dad, I did the right thing.

Can I have a car?

I'll take one too, sir.

We also did the right thing.

Hey. What you guys did

was super cool.

You saw that?

I'm so embarrassed.

I only asked Lil' Howdy

for an autograph

because I love seeing

how people hold pens differently.

I was talking about

coming clean and withdrawing your song.

Oh. Yeah, me too.

That was brave.

-Respect.

-Thanks, Lucas. That means a lot.

I know The Shellys

didn't write their lyrics.

I'm pretty bummed they

didn't tell the truth like you guys did.

Yeah. Well, we're not them.

No, you're not.

By the way,

I love that shirt. Is that vintage?

Yeah, it is.

Thanks for noticing, Pose.

I notice a lot of things.

Okay, noticer.

Hey, Curls. Ready to go?

Actually, we need to talk.

So nobody won the contest.

But we felt good

about being honest.

And I felt good

that I moved past my writer's block

and wrote a great song.

For the record,

we all still struggle with writer's block.

Everybody does. But eventually,

inspiration finds its way back to us.

We usually just need to get out of our

heads and live life with our wolf pack.

Right, guys?

[all howling]

Here's to my girls ♪

We run the world ♪

Life's just better

since the day you walked in ♪

Here's to the friends ♪

That never end ♪

My winter sweater

when the cold comes knockin' ♪

Here's to my girls

We run the world ♪

Life's just better

since the day you walked in ♪

Here's to the friends

that never end ♪

My winter sweater

when the cold comes knockin' ♪

Gonna take on the world

together, guaranteed ♪

Through all the ups

and the downs I got my pack with me ♪

No matter what happens now

it's our legacy ♪

We'll forever be

wolf pack energy ♪

Got our hearts

on the prowl ♪

We're living wild and free ♪

Because the harder we howl

the more I feel like me ♪

Ain't no stoppin' us now

It's our destiny ♪

We'll forever be

wolf pack energy ♪

I got my pack ♪

-[song ends]

-[audience cheering]