When Frost School of Music alumnus Jack Siegel got the call that would put him on one of the biggest albums in the world, he was stuck in Los Angeles’ infamous traffic on his way to a recording session that had just been canceled. The despondent Siegel was heading home when a producer he’d befriended online called, asking “do you have any country ideas?””
And that’s how Siegel, a guitarist, songwriter and producer who’s a 2020 graduate in media scoring and production at the Frost School, came to work on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter,” the hit album shaking up country music and the cultural conversation. That’s Siegel playing guitar on Queen Bey’s remake of Dolly Parton’s iconic hands-off-my-man anthem “Jolene.” He’s a co-writer/co-producer on “Alligator Tears” and has a writing credit on “Spaghetii.”
“I was in shock that I had the chance to get music to Beyonce,” says Siegel, who’s still stunned to hear himself on the album dominating pop culture. But he didn’t hesitate. “A lot of this industry is last minute. You gotta be ready to execute in really little time. That’s where all your prior preparation and skills come in.”
Siegel, who grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and began playing guitar at age seven, has wanted to make music since Carlos Santana brought him onstage after seeing the eight-year-old Siegel jamming out in a front-row seat. “Even that young I recognized the power music could have,” he says.
He began writing songs very young, and was drawn to the Frost School by the possibility of learning production and contemporary music making. “I was always coming up with my own ideas, trying to write songs,” he says. “I was always interested in the creation process.”
One of his mentors at the Frost School was associate professor Carlos Rivera, who was hitting his stride composing scores for hit TV shows like “The Queen’s Gambit.” “He was really inspiring,” says Siegel. “Even if you only had ten minutes to talk to him, he gave you his full attention. He made me think about how when you make a decision, make sure it has meaning behind it. If you’re going to play something, make sure it has a purpose, and you’re not doing it just to show off.”
The pandemic sent Siegel home to Phoenix, where he spent a frustrated year before moving to L.A. in 2021. But during lockdown he connected online with artist and producer Khirye Tyler, who was music director on Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour. When Tyler joined the “Cowboy Carter” production, he made that call to a traffic bound Siegel.
He has no stories of jamming on guitar with Beyonce. Instead, for the next month Siegel became a piece in the intricate architecture of modern recording, composing songs and musical ideas in his Van Nuys apartment for Tyler. He got few clues as to what they were looking for.
Siegel applied the skills he learned at Frost - to mold his musical ideas around an artist, to apply his craft and knowledge to someone else’s needs. He immersed himself in Beyonce’s music and in country music. He’d always been a fan of R&B and soul, which helped give him a feel for what her production team was looking for. “I had to go on intuition,” he says. “I just kept making ideas. If you overthink things you can get stuck.”
When Tyler sent him an early version of “Jolene” he told Siegel they needed “something to take it to another level on the bridge, to take it to a new place. I wasn’t sure where they were going with it. So I thought ‘what would Beyonce want to do with Jolene?’ I just played what I thought would be cool, made it more R&B, added a little soul.” (You can hear Siegel’s section about two minutes into the song.)
For “Alligator Tears” he wrote and produced an entire song (sans lyrics), with multiple guitars and bass – to which the “Cowboy Carter” team added percussion and Beyonce’s vocals. “You want them to do the least work possible,” Siegel says. “To say ‘this is pretty much done’.”
His former teacher is proud but unsurprised. "Jack Siegel stood out at Frost for his exceptional ability to truly listen and blend his writing, production, and guitar work seamlessly with other musicians,” says Rivera. “His contribution to "Cowboy Carter" exemplifies the high caliber of talent and dedication we foster in our program, reflecting both Jack’s growth and our educational commitment."
Siegel’s circumstances haven’t changed much – yet. More producers and industry players are interested in him. He already knows how luck and seemingly random connections can lead to opportunity: a one-time gig at a taco stand led to him performing with rapper Denzel Curry on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and the Jimmy Fallon Show.
But he’s thrilled that he’s closer to where he wants to be. “I always wanted to write and produce songs that are important to the culture and make an impact on people,” Siegel says. “I’ll always love playing and performing. But being able to start a song from scratch, go through the whole creative process to the finished product? There’s nothing like it.”
