Back in 1994, Ethan Hawke directed a music video for his neighbor who was an unknown, unsigned artist. That artist was Lisa Loeb and her band Nine Stories. The music video was for her song “Stay (I Missed You),” which ended up becoming No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first unsigned artist to top the chart.⁠ ⁠ So how did this interesting collaboration come together? At the time, Loeb and Hawke were part of the same circle of NY-based creatives that included musicians, songwriters, actors, and playwrights who regularly showed up for one another’s work. “We'd just all run around New York together and support each other as well,” Loeb tells Music Times. “I would write music for Ethan's theater company, or Ethan would come see me play.”⁠ ⁠ As neighbors and friends, it wasn’t long before Hawke invited Loeb to send over a song for a film he was working on. Hawke ended up playing her demo of “Stay (I Missed You)” for Ben Stiller, who was directing the film 'Reality Bites' that s...