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23 Oct 2024

Cardi B Blasts ‘Narcissistic Piece of S–t’ Offset: ‘I Wish the Worst on This Man’

Cardi B did not hold back in a series of since-deleted tweets about Offset. 

According to Complex, the “Up” rapper fired off insults about her estranged husband late Tuesday night (Oct. 22) on X, calling him a “dark cloud on anybody life he enters.” “Bro I wish the worst on this man,” Cardi wrote. “I never hated somebody soooo much and these b—-es be so [thirsty] to have him please take this man off my hands this garbage bag is to heavy !!” 

When a fan commented that Cardi should stop tweeting about ‘Set as he’s the father of her children, the Grammy winner clarified, “Yea he is that’s why I don’t wish him death … but I truly hate this dirty a– narcissistic piece of s–t.”  

“And his family and his friends never check him that’s why he always going to be a piece of s–t Person,” Cardi added. 

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Billboard has reached out to Offset for comment. 

The tweets come about two months after the “WAP” artist filed to divorce Offset — for the second time — after seven years of marriage. The next day, Cardi announced that she was expecting the couple’s third baby, who arrived Sept. 7. The rappers are also parents to 6-year-old daughter Kulture and 3-year-old son Wave. 

And though the Whipshots founder’s divorce papers stated that their split was “amicable,” tensions have certainly risen in the months since she filed. In late September, the Migos star accused Cardi of cheating on him during her most recent pregnancy, after which she slammed him on Instagram Live. “I’m too much woman for you,” she said at the time. “I’m too much of a boss b—h for you. And I always been too good for you.” 

Even so, Cardi did say in mid-October that she wants “a healthy co-parenting relationship” with ‘Set. “I feel like two weeks ago, there was a lot of beef,” she told fans on X Spaces Oct. 16. “I feel like things are calming down right now. I don’t want to have beef with anybody that I love … I want to be like my mom and my dad, they don’t f–k with each other, they just there for me and my sister.”

On Oct. 22, Cardi returned to Instagram Live to call out an anonymous prankster who apparently sent Child Protective Services to her home to investigate accusations of child abuse. “I swear to you I’m gonna get to the bottom of it,” the musician angrily told followers, emphatically denying that her children have ever been mistreated. “Are you f–king dumb? This is when the pranks start getting too far — when you a——s think it’s funny.”

Shortly after slamming Offset on X Tuesday, though, Cardi cleared up rumors that her children’s father was the person who called CPS. “That’s not what happened that got nothing do wit him,” she replied to one fan speculating about the “Stir Fry” artist’s involvement, before telling another commenter, “They were called on both of us.” 

23 Oct 2024

A$AP Rocky Trial On Charges He Fired Gun at Former Friend Set for Next Year

A$AP Rocky is set to go to trial in Los Angeles early next year on charges that he fired a gun at a former friend and collaborator on the streets near a Hollywood hotel in 2021.

The trial of the 36-year-old rapper, fashion mogul, Grammy nominee and celebrity co-chair of the next Met Gala is set to begin with jury selection on Jan. 21. He has pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. Trial had been scheduled to start Nov. 12, but his team asked at a hearing Tuesday that it be postponed because he is headlining the Rolling Loud music festival in Thailand next month.

Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold said he will allow video cameras to air the trial that’s expected to last about two weeks.

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“I believe that the public deserves to see what goes on in the courtroom,” the judge said.

He asked defense lawyer Joe Tacopina whether Rihanna, with whom Rocky is in a relationship and has two children, plans to attend the trial so he could make proper security accommodations.

Tacopina said he doesn’t know, but “I almost guarantee not every day.”

Another judge ruled after a preliminary hearing nearly a year ago that Rocky should stand trial for allegedly firing a gun at Terell Ephron, a childhood friend who testified that their relationship had soured and a feud came to a head on the night of Nov. 6, 2021. Ephron testified that bullets grazed his knuckles.

Rocky could get up to 24 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

Tacopina said outside the courtroom Tuesday that he was confident Rocky would clear his name, and that despite the delay, “He’s eager to get to trial. Having this hanging over his head is not something he wants.”

Rocky was recently selected to be a celebrity chair at the Met Gala in May along with Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Colman Domingo and LeBron James, though the result of the trial could complicate his ability to attend.

23 Oct 2024

20 Years Ago, For the First and Only Time in Grammy History, There Was No Overlap in the Nominees for Record and Song of the Year

When the nominations for the 67th annual Grammy Awards are announced on Friday Nov. 8, we’re likely to see considerable overlap in the nods for record of the year (which honors a specific recording of a song) and song of the year (which honors the song itself). Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!,” Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile,” among others, are likely to wind up with nominations in both categories.

There is usually a fairly high degree of overlap in the nominations for these two high-profile awards. Last year, for example, five of the eight nominees for record of the year were also nominated for song of the year.

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But that wasn’t the case when the nominations for the 47th annual Grammy Awards were announced on Dec. 7, 2004. For the first and still the only time in Grammy history, there was no overlap in the nominations in these two marquee categories.

One of the record of the year nominees, Ray Charles’ “Here We Go Again” (with Norah Jones), wasn’t eligible for song of the year. It was a remake of a Charles hit from 1967, which had reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Grammy rules, which have fluctuated on this point over the years, don’t allow songs that were already prominent to be considered for song of the year.

The other four record of the year nominees competed for song of the year nominations and simply didn’t receive enough votes. They were The Black Eyed Peas’ “Let’s Get It Started,” Green Day’s “American Idiot,” Los Lonely Boys’ “Heaven” and Usher’s “Yeah!” (featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris).

Three of these songs were nominated for songwriting awards in genre categories. “American Idiot” was nominated for best rock song; “Yeah!” for best R&B song; and “Let’s Get It Started” for best rap song. “Heaven” was classified as pop in the Grammy process; there was no (and still is no) best pop song category.

The song of the year nominees, all of which also vied for record of the year nods (and likewise simply didn’t receive enough votes to wind up with nominations in that category) were John Mayer’s “Daughters,” Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You,” Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks,” Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying” and Hoobastank’s “The Reason.”

When the Grammy Awards were presented on Feb. 13, 2005, the Charles/Jones collab won record of the year. Mayer’s ballad won song of the year.

23 Oct 2024

Christina Aguilera Is Ready For Her ‘Favorite Time of the Year’ in Pumpkin-Colored Cut-Out Dress

Christina Aguilera is ready for spooky season. The “Genie in a Bottle” singer took to Instagram on Tuesday (Oct. 22) to share a series of sultry pics of her Halloween get-up, eschewing a traditional costume and corpse makeup in favor of a curve-hugging orange and black cut-out dress that left little to the imagination.

“My favorite time of the year,” Aguilera wrote alongside pumpkin, leaf and ghost emoji; click here to see the pics. In the first snap, Aguilera gives the camera a smoky look, followed by another in which she has her arms outstretched as she poses below a neon “XXX” sign and a smattering of Halloween decorations on the floor.

After a few more pics of Aguilera in the floor-length Elvira-like orange Rui slip dress with black netting across the front, the final snap finds her cuddling up black-suited fiancé Matt Rutler in front of a decked-out Halloween tree covered in pumpkins, skeletons, spiders and orange lights.

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The singer recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of her self-titled debut album by reimagining that iconic 1999 album for the Spotify Anniversaries series, welcoming guests including MGK (for “Genie in a Bottle”), songwriter Heather Holly (on “Obvious”) as well as paying it forward to Sabrina Carpenter for a duet on “What a Girl Wants.”

In a follow-up video, Aguilera further bonded with Carpenter, posting a TikTok in which the two are hanging out and Sabrina lip synchs to what sounds like an audio snippet from The Kardashians in which Kylie Jenner says, “I’m obsessed with my mom.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying, I’m her favorite,” Carpenter mouths along, while Xtina nods emphatically in the background. “We actually have a relationship like she has no other kids.” Aguilera captioned the post “obsessed.”

23 Oct 2024

Wyatt Flores Opens Up About Why He Was ‘Scared’ to Make His Debut Album & Finding Balance Amid Career Success

As introspective, detailed singer-songwriters such as Zach Bryan, Noah Kahan and Tyler Childers have topped Billboard charts and sold out amphitheaters and stadiums recently, Stillwater, Oklahoma native Wyatt Flores is primed to ascend to their ranks with his full-fledged debut album Welcome to the Plains, which came out last Friday (Oct. 18) via Island Records.

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The album follows a trio of EPs: 2022’s The Hutson Sessions, 2023’s Life Lessons, and this year’s Half Life that have led to Flores’ rise in the public consciousness thanks to a blend of his unrefined, folksy sound and unflinchingly honest lyricism. It’s made him the latest in a strong lineage of musicians such as Cross Canadian Ragweed, Stoney LaRue, Turnpike Troubadours and other architects of the Red Dirt sound that has risen from Oklahoma since the 1970s.

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Flores, 23, began releasing songs in 2021, but it was “Please Don’t Go,” a raw-throated, emotional plea for a loved one to refrain from taking their own life, gained traction just over a year ago, ultimately earning over 154 million streams on Spotify alone. He’s followed such resonant songs as “Break My Bones” and “Losing Sleep.”

The songs’ success threw Flores into an ascendant surge, along with it a grind of being on the road, playing shows with 49 Winchester and headlining his own rapidly growing shows.

“We just played a 3,300-capacity venue in Oklahoma City,” he notes to Billboard. “The last time we played OKC, it was like a 500-capacity room. It’s crazy.”

He made his Grand Ole Opry debut seven months ago and played Stagecoach and the revered venue Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first time this year. He also earned a nomination for emerging act of the year at this year’s Americana Music Honors & Awards. But when it came time to record Welcome to the Plains, Flores tells Billboard he was “so scared, honestly.”

“I sat there in Asheville and just went over the lyrics,” he recalls of recording at Echo Mountain Studios there, as well as in Los Angeles and Nashville. “I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good enough for an album yet.’ But it came to a point where I was like, ‘Just let the songs be what they are and capture the moments of where I’ve been without overthinking it.’”

Welcome to the Plains was born during what Flores calls “a really dark spot in my life,” as he was meeting the demands of his skyrocketing career while battling anxiety and imposter syndrome, and also struggling to process and grieve the loss of a few people close to him, including Flores’s maternal grandfather, who took his own life in 2023.

In song and in conversation, Flores makes no secret that his utmost motivation lies not in massive sold-out shows, but in helping listeners through hard times. In releasing songs such as “Please Don’t Go,” Flores has also had to navigate the emotional weight of realizing that while his songs can be a balm and healing agent for some, music can’t always be a life-saving force. He delves into that feeling the new album’s “Oh Susannah,” particularly on lyrics such as “Why did I believe that I could save you, darling/ Without killing me?”

He had previously included a version of The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” on his Half Life EP, but in February, Flores had his own emotional moment onstage, breaking down during a performance in Kansas City, Missouri. “This is the only thing I ever cared about and for some reason I can’t figure out, I don’t feel a thing,” he told fans during a vulnerable moment in that show. “I’m struggling with it. I’m sorry, guys. I’ve gotta tell my truth. I don’t know why… I’m sorry that I can’t give y’all what y’all deserve. And I love y’all and I’m very grateful for y’all being here.”

Flores took a four-week break from recording and touring, cancelling a slate of shows and seeking help at mental-health counseling facility Onsite near Nashville.

“I’ve learned so much because, truthfully, people don’t go through this phase in their life until they are maybe 30,” Flores says. “I went to Onsite when I quit the tour, and I looked around the room and there were maybe three other people my age and the rest were mostly in their 60s. I felt like the last thing I want to do in this life is be that age and look back and go, ‘How have I been unhappy this entire time?’ I started doing a lot of personal work and I’m still working on myself.

“I knew I had to be a better leader than what I was,” he continues. “I wasn’t taking the time to process things that I needed to, and I wasn’t putting up boundaries in my own life between me and the fans. It just crippled me to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore. I was like, ‘I don’t even know if I like the music’—and that’s the only thing I ever loved.”

Unlike the primarily acoustic-driven songs on his previous releases, Welcome to the Plains is a harder-edged, full band project. The songs on the new album that flowed from that time away from the spotlight are often anything but somber, such as the driving heartland rock and nod to Red Dirt in the album’s title track, which he wrote with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. Elsewhere, in the pulsing “Don’t Wanna Say Goodnight,” he longs for his last minutes with a lover to linger before they have to part ways.

“You would’ve thought that I would have written some of the most depressing songs, but I had this weird way of daydreaming about a better time, I guess. That’s where it was all coming from, just wanting to get out of that dark place,” he says. However, multiple songs, such as “The Good Ones” and “Angels Over You,” do touch on mortality, as does “When I Die,” a song Flores calls “the weirdest love song I’ve ever written.” The song brings levity on lines such as “When I’m in the ground, if I hear you talking s—t/ I hope I get the chance to be a ghost and scare your kids,” while also weaving in heartfelt sentiments.

“I get that humor from my dad,” he says. “I’ve written so many songs about living and dying because I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, so that’s where my head space was. I’m sure people are going to be listening to it around the time they’re grieving over someone and I hope it gives them a bit of a smile instead of just sobbing.”

Flores’s father is a retired welder and former drummer, while Flores’s family also runs cattle. Growing up in Oklahoma, Flores credits his family’s hard-working lifestyle with instilling the discipline that has benefited him on the road.

“Without that life, I don’t know that I’d be responsible enough to do this,” he says. “You’re up at 5:30 in the morning when you’re 12 years old, going out to the barn, working in the freezing cold, then doing your homework then going to school. Hard work and dedication is where it’s at.”

Flores grew up in a household filled with a mix of country and blues. He briefly attended Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before realizing the time he spent sneaking into local clubs to play music held more value for him. He eventually moved to Nashville, and immersed himself in folk and Americana music, including the works of Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.

“I became obsessed with that music. It’s a huge influence,” he says. His new album offers a sampling of sounds, with deep emotional excavations sitting alongside flashes of sharp wit. (“I’m still figuring out what my [own] sound is,” he explains.)

“I also want to be a motivational speaker,” he adds. “I’ve always wanted to do speeches. I want to be good enough to where I can do that as a part-time thing. I’m also working on a bucket list of starting my own cattle company, branching off from what my parents have. We’re just waiting on buying land right now. We used to have 80 head back in the day. I want to get into the show cattle world again, to give kids a chance to show cattle, for those who don’t really have the money to do it, to let them learn from it.”

Eight months removed from that pivotal onstage moment in Missouri, Flores says he’s learning how to just be himself amid rising acclaim but knows he can always find refuge in Stillwater.

“It’s an odd feeling. I truly feel like I can just come back here and be myself, though I’m taking pictures [with fans] every single time I go to town. It’s an odd feeling because I went from being a nobody to everyone knowing who I am. It’s a feeling of being able to hide in plain sight, and then can’t hide anywhere. I don’t like hiding myself from people. I just keep going out and about and showing people I’m just a normal human.”

23 Oct 2024

Watch Alejandro Sanz & Son Alexander Sánchez Have a Heart-to-Heart Chat at Billboard Latin Music Week

Alexander Sánchez has strong — and emotional — opinions about his famous dad, Alejandro Sanz.

Alex (as his dad calls him) was a surprise guest at his father’s Icon Q&A during Latin Music Week on Oct. 16, when he walked on stage after it became known that he was watching from the wings. Once there, fans got to know quite a bit about Sanz’s son.

“He’s a musician. A very good musician. I mean it,” said Sanz proudly.

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Alex began studying trombone and jazz before picking up guitar and piano and starting to write his own music. He studied at a performance arts high school in Miami, initially playing jazz before veering into “my own vibe. I started to write songs that are more post-hardcore with my guitar, and here I am,” he said.

Alex records under the stage name Quint, and just released his new single, “Something More Like You.”
When asked about five things we didn’t know about Alex, Sanz replied: “I don’t know who your girlfriend, or boyfriend, is. I don’t know if you love me a little big. I don’t know your favorite song. I don’t know when you’ll come live with me. And I don’t know what your plans are tonight.”

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When asked for five things we didn’t know about his father, however, Alex was more specific: “My dad loves the ocean — it’s, like, his favorite thing in the world. He is one of the kindest people on the planet that I’ve met. He loves seafood — it’s his favorite type of food ever. After his shows, he takes kind of a lonely moment to get the adrenaline down — he goes and chills for a minute.”

But, the key thing we didn’t know about him? “He’s the best dad in the world.”

Watch Alex and dad Alejandro Sanz chat during the Icon Q&A panel below.

23 Oct 2024

Diddy Faces New Lawsuit, John Doe Claims Star Athlete Prevented Assault

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Sean “Diddy” Combs and his ongoing legal issues have introduced several layers since his arrest, including a series of new lawsuits alleging a variety of criminal activity. In one of the latest lawsuits, a John Doe claims that a professional star athlete prevented Diddy from sexually assaulting him at an event for the Ciroc brand.

Page Six reports that the lawsuit from John Doe, who is said to be a luxury car salesman and rented jewelry broker, states that Sean “Diddy” Combs hosted a Ciroc launch party in 2022. According to the lawsuit, Diddy allegedly invited the man into a private office suite where he removed his pants and exposed his private parts.

“Combs continued to move closer and then grabbed Plaintiff’s genitals through his pants, squeezing them in a rough and sexual manner,” reads a portion of the lawsuit. The account from John Doe continues with him recalling from his side that as Combs allegedly continued to crowd his personal space, the star athlete came into the room and halted the mogul from assaulting John Doe further.

John Doe wrote in the legal filing that Combs was one of his customers, although it isn’t clear which of his businesses Combs patronized in the past. He added that Diddy left the party after the athlete stepped in.

This latest lawsuit comes after a weekend of new filings, including one woman coming forth to say that Combs, a famous male and famous female celebrity allegedly raped her during a MTV Music Awards afterparty when she was 13 back in 2000.

Via his legal team, Combs is maintaining his innocence via a statement to the outlet reading, “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman.”

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23 Oct 2024

Neon Gold and Avenue A Unite to Form Indie Label Group ‘Futures’

Neon Gold and Avenue A Records have joined together to create Futures Music Group, a tech-forward collective of indie labels with an artist-first mentality.

Distributed through Virgin, Futures was co-founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies (Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Marina & The Diamonds, Passion Pit, Matt Maeson) and Avenue A’s Dave Wallace (Barns Courtney, Blossoms, Palace, Self Esteem) in early 2024. When the label group’s first release as Futures, “Home” by Good Neighbours, quickly went viral in January, the song quickly put the band on the map and served as a proof-of-concept for the Futures model. Perhaps the biggest debut single by any artist this year, “Home” was certified platinum in less than nine months.

The Futures roster also includes Phantogram, The Knocks, Barns Courtney, Palace and Mt. Joy, the latter of which was signed through a joint venture with the band’s own Bloom Field Records. (Good Neighbours first EP, including “Home,” are also through Futures until the band’s deal with Capitol/Polydor kicks in January 2025).

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Over time, Futures Music Group will grow to include more indie labels (and artists) under its umbrella. It also intends to build an internal team for digital marketing, sync licensing, sales, content production and more that can be shared between the individual labels.

At Futures, artists are signed to license-based deals, keeping master ownership in the artists’ hands, and the royalty split is kept equitable between the label and artist. In some instances, the split moves further into the artist’s favor after certain profit thresholds are met. This allows for what Davies calls “maximum incentive alignment” between both parties, and it rewards the artist for success.

The deal terms and options are “shorter and less onerous than most competitors,” Davies adds. “Our thing is if we do a great job, then we hope people will just keep rolling through and working with us,” says Wallace. “Keeping artists happy is the name of the game. We don’t want to work with an artist who is only working with us because of a contract. There are not many successful record campaigns that come out of a relationship where the artist is unhappy,” adds Davies.

The company also wants to do right by songwriters. The label group has pledged from now on to give points on every master to any non-producing and non-performing songwriter from the label’s share. (Exact deal points for this are handled on a case-by-case basis).

Along with their commitment to artists, Davies and Wallace of Futures have also spent the last few years studying and investing in how new technology will disrupt the music business. Davies, for his part, co-founded the start-up Medallion, which helped artists like Santigold, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho and more build and own direct relationships with their most passionate fans using web3 technology. The co-founders have also been strategic investors in Big Effect, a digital marketing platform founded by Spotify and UMG alum Mike Biggane, and Notes.fm, a royalty management platform from Stem co-founder Tim Luckow.

“We believe the future of the music industry has never been brighter for artists and the independent sector,” says Davies. “The industry has reached what we believe to be the largest inflection point in the history of the label system, as we are moving into a new music economy that is rightly trending towards artist ownership. We believe there’s a meaningful opportunity for a well-financed and resourced label group with a proven track record to deliver major results for artists on indie terms, which is what we’ve set out to build with Futures.”

The founding team includes: Davies (co-CEO), Wallace (co-CEO), Sarah Kesselman (CMO, general manager), Nicky Berger (COO) and Jeff Lin (CFO).

23 Oct 2024

Friko’s Niko Kapetan on the Band’s Upcoming Headlining Tour and Expanded Debut Album

Riding a wave of indie success, Chicagoʼs Friko — led by vocalist/guitarist and principal lyric writer Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger — will embark on a 40-date headlining tour beginning Nov. 2 in Amsterdam (with U.S. dates beginning Dec. 27) and on Nov. 22 release an expanded version of their 2024 debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here — with 11 bonus studio and live tracks, and a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep.”

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The first track from the expanded album, “If I Am” — which Kapetan says was among the first songs the band played at its initial club shows in the Windy City — drops on Oct. 23.

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This past summer, Friko brought its fiery full-on sound — powered by Kapetan’s turbo guitar-playing and quavering emo vocals, and Minzenberger’s high-energy drumming — to their first festival performances at Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival and Fuji Rock, and they recently finished a tour opening for Royel Otis. The group’s November European dates will be their first and include an appearance at Pitchfork Festival London. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am local time.

Before one of Friko’s last summer dates, as the band’s van chased Royel Otis’ buses and semi. Kapetan spoke to Billboard about the the evolution of the group, its album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, the rigors of touring and plans for the future.

For a band that released its debut album in February, Friko has really blown up on the indie scene. How did you arrive at this point?

I had a cover band with friends beginning in sixth grade, and we would play local shops or block parties or whatever. Friko started in 2019, and that’s when we just started doing lives. We played a ton of Chicago shows and in Milwaukee, Minneapolis. By the time we got through making this debut record, we had a lot of live time in our back pocket. We were releasing stuff independently and in the Chicago scene but releasing with ATO introduced us to most of the people that know us now. We’re figuring out our live show at an exponential rate, especially now that we’ve been on a tour with big, sold-out rooms with Royel Otis over the past couple of weeks. Even now, this is the first time it feels like we’re a true band, band. We felt that with the record, too, and we just keep pushing that.

You’ve said that Where we’ve been, Where we go from here was completed before you signed with ATO.

Yeah, pretty much, because we recorded it – Scott Tallarida, a friend who has an event space in Chicago with a studio in the back of it, let us record there for free as long as we were out of the way of events. It could get booked at any time ,so that’s why it took a while, but we were able to do it basically free.

Is that what you hear when you play the album now, or did you sweeten it after signing to ATO?

After we recorded at Scott’s place and then also Palisade Studios in Chicago, we basically mixed it ourselves for months as well. We mixed it with our friend Jack Henry, and it was a learning process for us. This whole first record was just us pretty much doing everything ourselves and learning how to do it. It was a good learning experience, but we’re excited to expand from that. We probably had it done at the end of 2023 — maybe November-ish. We signed to ATO before we were done mixing it, but it was all recorded and half mixed.

Did ATO come to you?

We were playing Chicago clubs, and Erik Salz from Arrival Artists — who’s now our booking agent — came to some of them. Then once we got a small team together, they were pitching labels. It got down to a final few labels, and ATO was very passionate about working with us, not just for a record, but to start our career. It seemed like the right choice.

Were you able to keep your masters?

We definitely did.

The album has a kind of do-or-die urgency to it.  It almost demands that you listen to it. Where does that come from?

It’s just a natural thing. Every show feels like that for us, and we play it that way. When you’re opening for another band, and everybody’s there to see them, you need to give them a reason to listen. You need to have the songs, but then you also need to have something for people to look at.  I think Mitski said that people are paying to see people go out there and believe in themselves. There’s a bunch of bands coming up now — bands we grew up loving — that just give everything they can, and when that happens, I feel like I can get lost in the music.

I read that you love Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” What other artists do you like?

I don’t listen to The Beatles as I did growing up, but they definitely informed my melodic and cord progressions and learning the basics. I love The Replacements. I like a lot of the more melodic punk stuff that just has all the attitude but also the melody. There’s a lot of cool, new bands I love. Black Country, New Road definitely blew my mind in 2020. We just hung out with English Teacher in New York. They’re super cool. We want play shows with them. Them and Stellar, East. I like the local scene in Chicago, and I like Horsegirl, Genome. There’s a lot of exciting new bands out there.

You do put on a riveting live show, and I think that’s super-important for a band’s longevity. A number of bedroom acts that were signed around the time of the pandemic have faded because they’re not compelling onstage.

I don’t want to speak to TikTok bands. We just want to do the real thing, and we want to feel like we’re doing that every night. The goal is for the show to feel as cathartic as possible. The other day, at one of our shows, I accidentally broke my guitar from going too hard. My head was bleeding. There’s a beauty to that.  

What was the inspiration for “Get Numb to It”?

During the pandemic, I dropped out after one year of college and started working in a warehouse. I did that for a few years, and after one particularly bad day there, I was in the car listening to a broadcast song. I started singing along to the song with lyrics that ended up in “Get Numb to It.”  The demo came together through that, but then the band started playing it and it took on even more energy.

Is it true you released “Get Numb to It” on your own before it became a Friko tune?

I started off Friko as a solo thing at the start of the pandemic. I was just releasing demos and that was one of them. I remember showing it to everybody in the band one day on my laptop, and then it came together. It was the first song that people started singing along to at the Chicago shows, so it took on a real life with the fans.

How do you and Bailey collaborate. Is it just you two or are more band members involved now?

We probably would be considered a four-piece now. Especially with the live show, we’re writing new stuff, and it has been much more of a band effort from the start of the writing process. Also, Bailey plays guitar too, so there are a bunch of guitar parts. All four of us are the best at guitar in some way, so it has been a realy useful thing.

I love “Crimson to Chrome,” particularly the lyric, “Caught on the wrong side of the shoe” — nice turn of phrase. What are your favorite lyrics on the album?

“Where We’ve Been,” the first song on the record, is definitely one of them. That song came in like an hour or so. All the lyrics just flowed out and felt so natural. It’s what you want to go for with songwriting — where something just spills out and there’s no thought in it. That feels like the magic of it.

Now that you’re about to embark on a headlining tour, will your live show change?

It’s going to be kind of what we’ve been doing on the last tour, although we’ll be playing our new music. We’re playing larger venues — sweet spots that we’re excited to play. On the last tour, we started thinking more about stage design and lighting. For Thalia Hall, which will be a homecoming show at the end of the year, we’re definitely going all out. We’re touring with just five people — the band and our tour manager — so there’s only so much we can do on the road, evening with a headlining tour.  We’re going to give it our all until we can have more people along.

When you say you’re playing new songs at your shows, are these slated for the next album?

Yeah, we’re in the talks about whatever the next thing is, whether it’s an EP or an album. For us, an album needs to be a full statement. We love the classic album format. So, we’ll see, but at this point we’re trying to keep writing and see what comes.

Have you started talking about when this new release will drop?

We want it to be fall 2025.

You’re also releasing a deluxe version of the current album. What’s new on that?

There are five songs that we were working on right before the album songs started coming along, and then we kind of pivoted. We were like, these are what we need to work on right now. We’ve always been fans of B-sides, so we’re excited that they’ll see the light of day. We are also including some demos that we released before Friko was playing shows, and some live mixes from our album release show.

What are the best and worst parts of touring?

The best is definitely when the shows are great and then you can — in New York, we went out with friends both nights. That feels like the adventurous part when you’re younger and you dream of going on tour. But sometimes that results in not getting much sleep and, like today, we’re bus-chasing Royel Otis for the first time. They have like a 20-person team — very nice, good people— two buses and a semi. We’re in a van and a trailer; just the band and two managers. So, we’re all driving, we’re setting up everything and we’re selling merch. So, it’s just a different team, amount of people on the road. It’s a lot of driving, which is not the worst thing, but when it’s two 10-hour days of just driving, you get kind of braindead.

Yeah. Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists? Any survival tips?

Yeah, you have to love the people you’re touring with. Especially when it’s small scale. That’s the biggest thing by far, and just a s–t ton of caffeine. It’s sugar free herbal lattes because it’s the healthiest that you can do. There’s no other way around it.

23 Oct 2024

Iron Maiden Pay Tribute to Original Singer Paul Di’Anno At St. Paul Show: ‘An Amazing Voice’

Iron Maiden paid tribute to one of their own on Tuesday night (Oct. 22) during a show at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN. During the show, singer Bruce Dickinson marked the passing of the band’s original lead singer, Paul Di’Anno, who died on Monday at 66 of undisclosed causes.

“I don’t wanna put a downer on proceedings at all,” Dickinson said in a video posted by a fan, “[but] our friend, our band member, Paul Di’Anno, passed away, as you’re probably aware. If you’re not aware of that fact, you are now.” Dickinson — who took over from Di’Anno after the late singer fronted the band on their self-titled 1980 debut and it’s 1981 follow-up, Killers — praised his predecessor for being “instrumental” on the band’s first two albums, calling his work “groundbreaking” on Killers and the debut LP and possessed of what he dubbed an “amazing voice.”

“Devoted to rock n’ roll right up til the last minute of his life,” Dickinson said of the singer who had taken to performing in a wheelchair during his final years due to a variety of health issues. As fans clapped, cheered and yelled “we love you Paul!,” Dickinson paid tribute to D’Anno and asked the audience to keep him in their thoughts.

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“For those of you who were born and still remember those early albums, and those of you who were fans of [Di’Anno’s post-Maiden band] Battlezone and his own projects he did afterwards, and for anybody else that fancies having a listen to tracks like ‘Remember Tomorrow’ and stuff like that, I’m just gonna ask everybody to take a few seconds,” he said holding up his right hand. “Close your eyes in silence and say — just internally, mentally — if you believe in God, if you don’t believe in God, it doesn’t matter, believe in what you believe in and say, ‘Thanks boss, for doing what you did.’”

He ended with a final goodbye. “So, Paul, if you’re listening, this is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, you’re having fun! Minneapolis, for Paul Di’Anno, scream for me!”

Di’Anno’s label announced on Monday that he’d died from undisclosed causes at his home in Salisbury, U.K. After helping to cement the British metal band’s signature mix of prog, punk and hard rock from 1978-1981, Di’Anno recorded a number of solo albums, as well as LPs with the band Di’Anno’s Battlezone, Gogmagog, Killers, Praying Matins, Rockfellas and more.

Maiden issued a statement honoring Di’Anno on Monday, writing, “We are all deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Paul Di’Anno earlier today. Paul’s contribution to Iron Maiden was immense and helped set us on the path we have been travelling as a band for almost five decades. His pioneering presence as a frontman and vocalist, both on stage and on our first two albums, will be very fondly remembered not just by us, but by fans around the world.”