Months before the November 2019 premiere of the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, in which emerging actor-musician Joshua Bassett stars as Ricky Bowen, his manager helped him land a meeting with Nate Albert, executive vp A&R at Warner Records.
Bassett arrived with a dozen demos ready to perform on guitar. “I was blown away,” says Albert, who notes CEO Aaron Bay-Schuck and COO Tom Corson were also immediately interested when he played them the tracks later. “He struck me as wildly developed for somebody his age — a triple threat producing, writing and performing.” Bassett, 19, first took an interest in music at 6 years old, when his father asked him to drum for his church; by 15, he wanted to pursue it full time