Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond on 'Combining' Their Voices for 'Only an Octave Apart'

The two artists talk to PEOPLE about collaborating on the album Only an Octave Apart

Only an Octave Apart
Photo: Ruvén Afanador

Opposites attract!

Countertenor and Met Opera superstar Anthony Roth Costanzoand New York City cabaret legend Justin Vivian Bond's voices couldn't be any more wildly opposing — not to mention their difference in height! But, as anyone who saw their sold-out performances at Brooklyn's St. Anne's Warehouse in September can attest, the pair are pure magic together.

In their new album Only an Octave Apart, the two artists push each other to new creative heights on an eclectic mix of covers that range in tone from Purcell's 17th century aria "Dido's Lament" to Dido's early 2000s radio hit "White Flag."

With the collection of songs now available on Decca Gold, PEOPLE caught up with Costanzo and Bond to discuss their collaboration.

PEOPLE: What was it like to return to the stage last fall?

Anthony Roth Costanzo: It was amazing, because we, over the pandemic, were putting together this whole project, combining our two voices, personality styles, and we sort of flipped it, in that we had intended to do a show at Joe's Pub, then make an album, and then go to St. Ann's Warehouse. But, we actually, because of the pandemic, made the album and then made a show out of it at St. Ann's Warehouse.

It was incredibly life-affirming, not only to bring live performance back to New York in that way, but also just having a true friend, and having such a connection on stage with someone. And it became a very meaningful experience to express our individuality and our friendship in that artistic context.

Justin Vivian Bond: Also, it was fabulous because it was September. So, our audience, and our friends, and our families were able to gather outside of the venue. And so, it was really a reunion of a whole community, not just us, but our artistic community. It seemed like everybody showed up. My mom came up from Maryland, Patti LuPone was there. I mean, who else do I want to see?

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Only an Octave Apart
Ruvén Afanador

PEOPLE: Do you plan on bringing the show back?

Bond: Well, that's all we want, is to bring it back. We're working on it. We have lots of little irons in the fire to make our way back to the stage, because it's… I can only speak for myself when I say it's my favorite thing to do at the moment, is perform on stage with Anthony. We just did a couple of shows a few weeks ago with the New York Philharmonic, and it was a lot of fun.

Costanzo: It was. It's the most fun thing, and it's also so meaningful. I mean, without making an effort to be that way, it just is. And every time we do something together, like we released the album at the end of January, and then we did a Tiny Desk Concert together. And it seems like the fun that we have communicates well to other people, and they respond to it. So it feels like we have to keep going. We can't let it go.

PEOPLE: How did you two meet?

Bond: My friend Matthew Placek, who's a photographer who we have both worked with. He's done beautiful portraits of Anthony, and he did a photograph of me that was on the cover of my perfume box. He brought Anthony to one of my shows. It was at Joe's Pub. And I was doing a series of shows with guest stars, and Anthony came backstage afterward, because I had announced on stage that one of my guest stars had canceled and I wasn't sure who my guest was going to be next night.

So, Anthony showed up and volunteered to be my guest star. And I said, "Yes", because he's adorable. And I was like, "Well, I like to be surrounded by attractive people." It's that shallow. But, then I found out he was so talented that I let him sing with me.

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Costanzo: And it was like magic. The first duet that we sang, we barely even rehearsed it, even backstage before.

Bond: Anthony prepares, I show up and sing. So, that's been part of the fun too, because Anthony, being from the classical world, from the opera world, and me being from a more jazz infused cabaret world, if you will. I like spontaneity, and I'm sort of like, "Perfection doesn't interest me, although I appreciate it."

That's the great thing about working with Anthony, because he works and works at things, because he's capable of achieving perfection. And I really don't bother, because it's never going to happen.

Costanzo: But at the same time, I've discovered that the pursuit of perfection is terribly boring, and Viv has taught me that there's a lot more interest value in freedom and spontaneity. So, I think we help infuse each other's art with a sort of different quality. And that definitely came through in our first performance together at Joe's Pub, which was electric. We knew we had to do something, eventually, bigger together.

Only an Octave Apart

PEOPLE: Given your different approaches to performance, what was it like to collaborate on the album?

Costanzo: Well, I feel like Zack Winokur, who's the director of the St. Ann's show, and was our creative partner in the album, who helped us create this whole project, was an essential ingredient. As was Thomas Bartlett, the musical producer, in bridging the gaps between us. Because, I remember early rehearsals at St. Ann's, where I was like, "Are we going to do that again so that I can nail it down?" And Viv was like, "Why do we need to do that again? Why would you nail anything down?" And so, Zack was really helpful in giving me what I needed to feel comfortable, but not letting that impede Viv's genius in any way.

And Thomas Bartlett, by the same token, was able to let me get the musical landscape really clear, but not lock Viv into something that was going to ground their flight of brilliance.

Bond: Right. There might have been moments when we were both unsure of, either the process, or even, at the beginning, some of the material we had chosen. But, I don't think we butted heads. Those were points where we had to relax into trust, and just sort of see, if we kept working with it. If one believed it would be possible, and the other one didn't, we all just waited until we both came to the realization that it was possible.

I don't think there was anything either of us disagreed on, either with repertoire, or with the creative process, that made us not do something.

Costanzo: Remarkably. I mean, we're both Tauruses, born one day apart. And so, the best example is when we took the photos for the cover of the album. There were like 1800 choices. And, given I separately went through all of these photos, and with maybe five exceptions, we picked basically all the same photos, and that's an allegory for our collaboration. We are pretty much on the same page with our taste and vision.

Bond: I mean, we're both interested in each other in a flattering light. So, neither of us picked a picture, or something, or wants to do something to make the other one look bad.

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