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Chart-topping DJ, producer and songwriter Marshmello talks about diving into Latin music; the process of creating his first Latin album, Sugar Papi; working with Young Miko; the success of his track “El Merengue” with Manuel Turizo and more!
Marshmello:It was interesting. I kind of showed up to Miami to write this album and I was like, “I don’t really have anything prepared.” Part of my job, my main job, is on-the-spot creation.
Lyndsey Havens:Yeah.
Marshmello:Just making it, you know what I mean? Making it work. Yo, what’s up? It’s Marshmello and this is Billboard News.
Lyndsey Havens:Hey, I’m Lyndsey Havens for Billboard News, and I’m here with the chart-topping, DJ, producer and songwriter Marshmello!
Marshmello:What’s going on?
Lyndsey Havens:What’s up, man?
Marshmello:Chilling.
Lyndsey Havens:You’re no stranger to our charts. We have a lot of firsts to talk about with you right now. You have a major label debut album coming out: Sugar Papi, first Latin album, first proper album, new artists on every song.
Marshmello:First album, yeah, a major label album.
Lyndsey Havens:Tell us a bit about how and when the idea for this album even came about.
Marshmello:I’ve always been eager to kind of make a body of work. I wasn’t sure when the right time was. Sony Latin reached out to me and was like, “Hey, would you like to do a Latin album?” And I’d always wanted to tap into Latin music and it just seemed like a perfect time to first knock out the album that I’ve always wanted to do and Latin and everybody was so cool and so nice. It was a no-brainer.
Lyndsey Havens:Did you ever think that Latin would be your first album?
Marshmello:Even though I wasn’t putting out Latin songs, over the years, I just befriended so many people, so many Latin artists. I knew it would happen, I just wasn’t sure when and it was just kind of sent by the universe.
Lyndsey Havens:Yeah. I mean, what conversations did you have with Sony Latin about the appetite for this right now?
Marshmello:I wasn’t just gonna go and make this like, huge, every biggest artist in the world on a Latin album, like, I’m just gonna work with artists that I vibe with, and that I just like, genuinely like their music, you know? And so I think, like, you’ll see, like, on the tracklist and who I worked with, you’d be like, OK, like, just, like, a good vibe.Watch the full video above!
This week in dance music: Texas Eclipse Festival 2024 announced a heady, heavy lineup, Dutch festival DGTL announced that it’s making it’s U.S. debut this December, BMG acquired Martin Solveig’s catalog, Kenya Grace made history as the first artist to hit No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs with a track produced, written and sung exclusively by a woman, and we talked to her about the track, the Mayan Warrior team announced that it will bring a new car to Burning Man in 2024 after its original rig burned down this past April, we got exclusive CRSSD Fall 2024 sets from Basement Jaxx, Nikki Nair and Interplanetary Criminal and we spoke with III Points co-founder David Sinopoli ahead of the festival, which launches today (Oct. 20) in Miami with headliners including Black Coffee, Caroline Polacheck, Skrillex and Fred again..
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That’s a lot, and there’s more. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Barry Can’t Swim, When Will We Land
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The Label: Ninja Tune
The Spiel: Barry Can’t Swim has released more than half his debut album, When Will We Land?, in singles over the last few months, but damn if it doesn’t all sound so good all together. The Scottish producer has a talent for lushness and groove, building the standout “Always Get Through To You” to an exultant place while bringing in Afrobeats, house, jazz and ambient influences throughout. Vocal snippets give the project a human, sometimes slightly melancholic, mood and depth. The Edinburgh native is on tour in the U.K. and Europe for the remainder of 2023.
The Artist Says: “I’m not really one for putting soppy s–t on socials,” the artist, born Joshua Mainnie, wrote on Instagram, “but it’s an incredibly moving thing to know there are people out there that actually want to listen to my music and hear this album. It’s been almost 2 years in the making and some of it was written when I was still working a full time job. Can’t believe it really.”
ISOxo, kidsgonemad!
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The Label: 88Rising Records
The Spiel: San Diego’s ISOxo released his very-much-anticipated debut album today, and with it demonstrates why he’s simultaneously the future of bass-forward electronic music and one of the most exciting things currently happening within it. Pummeling with the same velocity of early Skrillex and containing the same kind of sleek, sharp edges of Justice, the album is raw, powerful, aggressive and inventive, with the artist balancing out walloping maximalism with more delicate moments like on the Spanish-guitar tinged “Moonspell.” The producer, born Julian Isorena, has four sold out shows at The Shrine in Los Angeles next month.
The Artist Says: “This album can be split into three parts. The first few tracks have a cocky, rebellious energy that builds to a breaking point with ‘pressure’. The second part is about trying to reconnect with the passion and feeling of making music with no restrictions or expectations (how2fly). And part three builds again into the high energy from part one and brings back those themes but from a more hopeful perspective. kidsgonemad! is the whole journey of growth and self-discovery from brash rebellion and angst to hopelessness, and finally acceptance and self-worth.”
Rêve, Saturn Return
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The Label: Astrwalwerks
The Spiel: Montreal dance pop artist Rêve — a Billboard emerging dance artist to watch — is proving why with her debut album Saturn Return. Giving Future Nostalgia vibes, the album is sleek, fun, sophisticated, singable and extremely danceable, containing earlier hits including “Whitney” and “Breaking Up With Jesus” and new gems like the shimmering “Contemporary Love” and the power-lunged power anthem “Disco At The Strip Club.” The project was produced by Banx & Ranx, known for their work with Dua Lipa and Little Mix, and Grammy-nominated producer Carl Ryden, who is well-versed in the dance pop world through his work with Kylie Minogue.
The Artist Says: “The album was carefully crafted to make listeners feel sexy, vulnerable, empowered, euphoric, and free,” says the artist born Briannah Donolo. “My goal was to create a sonic dimension where everyone has a space to feel safe to experience and celebrate the full range of human emotion. I’m known for my dance vibes, which you’re getting plenty of with Saturn Return, but I also wanted people to see a more emotional and vulnerable side from me – because spilling my guts is my favorite thing to do.”
Poolside, Blame It All On Love
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The Label: Counter Records
The Spiel: A longtime arbiter, of funky, groovy, smooth as hell music you can dance to (or just clean the house to), Poolside is back with his fourth full length, Blame It All on Love. It is, as they say, a vibe. Swimming largely instrumental end of the pool, the album is a lush, slinky, sorta sexy affair that features work from Cut Copy’s Ben Browning (“Ride With You”), Panama (“Back To Life”), Ora The Molecule, Life on Planets, Slenderbodies, Munya and Mazy (“Each Night.”)
The Artist Says: “I’ve spent 15 years being like, ‘F–k your rules,’ and I finally feel like I’m not trying to prove anything or anyone wrong,” the artist born Jeffrey Paradise says. “It’s just pure, unfiltered expression, and that’s why I’m really excited about this record.”
Claude VonStroke, “The Creeps”
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The Label: Dirtybird
The Spiel: The one and only Claude VonStroke is very aware of what season it is, giving spooky vibes on his latest, “The Creeps.” A simmering, ominous house beat is the foundation for vocalist Barry Drift to expound on the real terror of a bad trip, stating in a low growl, “Blood is everywhere, the drugs are so dramatic!”
The Artist Says: “A good horror film is very difficult to make because it has to be scary enough to make your skin crawl, but fun enough so you can enjoy grabbing your partner’s arm during a jump scare,” says CBS. “I decided to go for it and make a track just for Halloween based on the concept that a guy takes drugs and cannot figure out if he is in reality or a horror film. It’s a precarious balance between cheesy and creepy, but that’s the entire fun of Halloween, isn’t it?”
When David Sinopoli answers the phone, he’s at his Miami nightclub Jolene, rolling joints.
Sinopoli, along with member of his staff, are prepping roughly 1,000 joints as part of the gift bags artists will be getting at III Points, the festival Sinopoli co-founded in 2013, which launches its 2023 edition on Friday (Oct. 20) at Miami’s Mana Wynwood center and its adjacent blocks. Other goodie bag items include crystals and magic mushrooms. (But not too many, as in past years, a few artists got so high that they had trouble getting onstage.)
“It’s become [a tradition] where we can all get together, eat some food, everyone plays music,” Sinopoli says of this annual rolling session. “It’s really nice, fun and quite wholesome.”
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It’s also one of the personal touches that have made III Points a standout on the U.S. electronic festival circuit over the last decade, while also elevating Miami one of the crown jewels cities in the country’s electronic scene. It’s founders grew up in Miami, and the lineup is 60% local acts — Coffintexts, Jonny From Space, Nick León — along with 2023 headliners including Skrillex, Fred again.., Iggy Pop, Caroline Polacheck, Grimes and Black Coffee. The food vendors and visual artists are also all from the city, as are many of the 50,000 people who attend over its two days.
“I think it’s just very authentically Miami, and a real time capsule of Miami sonically and visually right now,” Sinopoli says of putting on a festival with an identify and real personality. “I think people feel that when they come.”
III Points is able to rep the city so well because Sinopoli and his team — “they’re connected here 365” — know it so intimately. Sinopoli is also the co-owner of Space, the city’s 24-hour bacchanal of a nightclub that he, along with Davide Danese and Coloma Kaboomsky, took over in 2016. He’s also the owner and operator of Factory Town, a 190,000-square foot arts and nightlife complex built in a World War II-era mattress factory, as well as the cocktail bar Floyd and Jolene, the intimate “sound room” where Sinopoli and his some staff are rolling Js.
David Sinopoli
Giano Currie
Born in New Jersey, Sinopoli relocated to Fort Myers with his family when he was 15. He was diagnosed with cancer while in high school, once spending five months in isolation at a Durham Children’s Hospital. A bone marrow transplant from his brother eventually brought him back to good health, and after he finished high school, Sinopoli went to college in Gainesville. He rose through that city’s nightlife scene then making a name for himself in South Florida, where he founded III Points in 2013 with his business partner Erica Freshman. Their statement-making debut lineup featured James Murphy, Jamie xx and DJ Shadow, a crew that was 180 degrees away from the big-name EDM DJs dominating the city’s club scene in that era.
Carving out a place for underground and indie-leaning electronic music, and getting acts to town that might otherwise never play there, “is part of the reason I started III Points,” Sinopoli says.
Routing a tour to Miami has long been financially challenging for artists, with many acts just skipping the city altogether. “To play Miami and be supported by Orlando and Tampa on the way down almost doesn’t make sense [for artists],” Sinopoli says. “A lot of time Orlando and Tampa don’t support the same things Miami does. Miami is in Florida, but it’s not f–king Florida.”
III Points has also been embraced within the industry for booking new acts agents are excited about, but who don’t often yet have major name recognition. Sinopoli says while such signings “maybe are not making the most sense financially,” they payoff is in fresh lineups, industry goodwill and the opportunity to break artists and grow along with them.
As the festival has expanded Sinopoli says many agents now just block off the weekend in advance then look for an offer from III Points. This is easier given the fest happens in the fall, the opposite side of the year from Miami’s other major electronic music festival, Ultra. While there’s some lineup overlap, each largely does its own thing, with Ultra driving loads of business at Space, Factory Town and Floyd each March.
Business was also shored up when III Points partnered with electronic festival behemoth Insomniac Events in 2019. The company took an ownership stake in Space and became partners in all of Sinopoli’s business ventures. “They sat with us for a long time before they stepped in in some of the areas we really needed them,” he says. “They let us make mistakes first, before they were like, ‘We can help you with that.’”
“I’m not even 40 yet,” he continues, “so I’m learning so much by mistake, and sometimes you can’t afford to keep making mistakes, because it will put you out of business.”
Insomniac has been especially helpful in training him and his team in marketing and budget management. “We would think we made money or only lost that much money,” he says, “then the real report would come out and it’d be like, a swift kick in the stomach. They helped us understand that you start with this budget, then every 30 days you cut it down, then cut it down again.”
The partnership was especially stabilizing in the pandemic and its aftermath. In 2020, III Points moved its dates four times: “It was [Insomniac’s] backing that allowed us to do it,” Sinopoli says. “If it was up to us, we would have cashed in and walked away.”
Adina Yev
The peace of mind of solvency allows for a focus on music and experiences. When assembling lineups, the team first considers who hasn’t been to Miami in awhile, and who’s never been at all. Sinopoli also dreams up the moments and vibes he’d like to create, then plugs in the artists mostly likely to conjure them. This worked especially well in 2017, when The xx played the mainstage with a glowing light on the festival’s giant disco ball (“the largest disco ball on the southeast!”) that gently twinkled on the side of the warehouse wall.
“It almost looked like raindrops, then all sudden this cold drizzle of rain started coming down on the crowd.” Sinopoli looked next to him and saw his production manager was crying. “Because it wasn’t something we could have planned,” he says. “It was like this f–king God moment.”
This weekend will, fingers crossed, deliver other such magic. III Points’ six stages will host the aforementioned headliners, along with Explosions In The Sky, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Alice Glass, SBTRKT, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Moscoman & Whitesquare and many other stars and up and comers culled from both around the world and around the block.
Sinopoli laughs when asked if he feels like he runs the city’s electronic scene. “No! No, no,” he insists, listing a dozen names of people on his staff that help make it all possible. He’s been having a lot of big-picture conversations about the festival’s ten-year anniversary, but his days are more about details, like lights on the disco ball and joints rolled with love.
“We’re so deep in the bubble that I don’t really even grab on to any outside significance of it,” he says. “It’s really just about the next show.”
CRSDD Music Festival has been a fixture of the Southern California electronic circuit for more than a decade, having become so, and stayed so, on the power of lineups featuring a smart blend of legends, rising stars, reliable genres and experimental sounds.
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The fall 2023 edition of the festival, which happened this past September 23-24, demonstrated this same balance. Headliners included Flume, Underworld, Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte, with a loaded undercard including Salute, DJ Minx, Weval, TSHA, HAAI, SG Lewis and many others.
This electronic melange was set against the extremely picturesque San Diego waterfront, with the festival again drawing thousands of fans to its longtime base at the city’s Bayfront Park.
Were you there? Did you miss it? Either way, take some time to transport yourself back to the event with these three exclusive CRSSD Fall 2023 sets from Basement Jaxx, Interplanetary Criminal and Nikki Nair.
Basement Jaxx
The English legends brought the heat during their headlining set, loading up their 90 minute performance with loads of funk, disco strings, Latin rhythms, edits of their own hits, classic Donna Summer and lots of other mega high-energy house music.
Interplanetary Criminal
The rising Manchester native played a 75-minutes set made of ultra fast-paced house music, spatial experimental sounds, drum ‘n’ bass and loads of hard house by U.K. and Irish artists including Knuckleheadz, Camrisa and Ryan Donaghy.
Nikki Nair
The Atlanta-born producer loaded his set with experimental sounds, with the vibe ranging from spare to elastic to crunchy to spacey to pummeling. Listen for his 2023 Hudson Mohwake collab “Demuro.”
The Mayan Warrior team is rising from the ashes of its destroyed art car, announcing Thursday (Oct. 19), that they’re building a new car to debut at Burning Man 2024.
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This vehicle will have a new design and theme from the original Mayan Warrior (pictured above), and be roughly the same size as this previous model, but reconfigured to function more as a mobile stage for live, multi-disciplinary musical and cultural performances.
“We will slowly transition into a more diverse spectrum of musical and cultural performances,” Mayan Warrior founder Pablo González Vargas tells Billboard. “The goal over time is to have more live acts with real instruments that can provide new experiences.” The new car will host gradually fewer DJs and feature a stage large enough to accommodate bands or a small orchestra.
“This will be an ongoing process of learning and iterating what is best for the community and the culture of Burning Man,” says González Vargas. “We will always be open to suggestions and feedback to make something beautiful that we can all enjoy.”
The original Mayan Warrior art car, one of Burning Man’s biggest and flashiest art cars which hosted sets from artists including DJ Tennis, Damian Lazarus and more, was destroyed in a fire last April while en route to a fundraiser in Punta de Mita, Mexico. This fire resulted in millions of dollars worth of losses.
It also provided the Mexico City-based team the opportunity to reimagine their project, with González Vargas telling Billboard in August that the car’s destruction made him feel “liberated” from a physically and financially-intensive endeavor that over time had grown to be a magnet for melodic techno and massive crowds.
Beyond the evolution in programming, the new project will also mark a shift in how the Mayan Warrior crew raises the money necessary to bring the car to Burning Man, located in northern Nevada’s remote Black Rock Desert.
The number of annual fundraising events the team produces across the U.S. with this new car will shrink from 12 to four, ” to ensure we can put our soul in to it and focus on the health and sleep of our crew,” says González Vargas. (Many Burning Man art cars and camps hold annual fundraisers to raise the money necessary to do a project at the event, with Mayan Warrior’s among the last few years arguably among the largest and most highly produced.)
The group is also considering making information regarding events, camp and foundation finances public, “so everyone can see what’s going on and what it takes to pull this off,” says González Vargas.
Tal Ohana and his Los Angeles-based events company Stranger Than, which has co-produced Mayan Warrior’s North American fundraising events for the last six years, are also now official Mayan Warrior collaborators.
“We’re glad to be a part of the next art car and assist with our resources throughout the rebuilding process,” Ohana tells Billboard. “Stranger Than and I will also continue to implement the values of Burning Man to our ‘outside fundraiser events’ as an eight-year burner, while curating unique experiences for our community in a safe environment.”
The first fundraising events officially for this new car are happening Oct. 28 at Grand Park in Los Angeles and at on Oct. 27-28 at Industry City in Brooklyn.
In August, González Vargas told Billboard that before he and the team could decide on a new design, he first needed to go to Burning Man 2023 to see what inspired him. That inspiration came, he says, when watching a drone show that was designed around a Burning Man art car with a dancer suspended from a crane, all synchronized with light and music.
“It struck me that there is nothing more beautiful than having projects collaborate in the moment to create something that will never exist again,” he says. now. “And at that moment, I decided to continue the project and be part of those special moments. We want to do as many collaborations in the future with this new vehicle.”
This week, Kenya Grace’s global smash “Strangers” ascended to No. 1 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, marking the first time in the chart’s 10-year history that it’s been led by a track solely written, produced and sung by a woman.
Not bad for a song the 25-year-old artist wrote three months ago in her bedroom in Chandler’s Ford, England. A dreamy, sort of ominous ode to meeting people on dating apps who then ghost, “Strangers” marks a sort of belated pop breakthrough moment for drum’n’bass, the longstanding electronic genre that’s currently one of dance music’s backbone sounds, particularly in Grace’s native U.K.
“It’s really a huge part of young people’s lives here,” Grace tells Billboard over Zoom.
The song is also a milestone moment for Major Recordings, the flagship dance label from Warner Records that launched earlier this year. “I wrote ‘Strangers’ a week after I signed with them,” Grace says with a laugh.
“Strangers” is currently sitting at No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Oct. 21) and is also in the top position on the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts for a fifth and third week, respectively.
Below, Grace tells Billboard how she created her breakthrough hit.
How did “Strangers” come together?
I wrote it about two months ago in my room. I didn’t think too much into the full song, but I made a video of just the chorus. Nothing else existed at that point. I posted it on Instagram and TikTok and people seemed to really like it. I always find that I can write the chorus quickly, and then, like a week after, I get back into the head space and write the rest of the song. I finished writing, and then we worked on the production for a bit and got it mixed and mastered. We released it soon after that. It has been really fast.
How long did it take you to finish it?
It was pretty fast. I always find I can write the chorus really quickly. Then, like a week after, I get back into the headspace and write the rest of the song. Probably a week later, I finished writing [“Strangers”], and then we worked on the production for a bit and then got it mixed and mastered.
And it’s all happening in your bedroom. Paint a picture of that space.
It’s just a tiny room; I live in the countryside, in a tiny town an hour outside of London. My room is a really average room. The amazing thing about my house, though, is my window overlooks the woods. So I think that’s helpful with the deep thoughts or whatever.
The track has been hugely successful on TikTok. What’s your relationship with social media?
My favorite thing to do is make beat videos. I love writing a mini song and then making all the drum loops and everything, so TikTok and Instagram are like my perfect places. It has been a crazy year because last year, I seriously considered giving up music. Then, I posted a video on TikTok, and it changed my whole life. My socials are really different now — I think that’s the biggest thing, just the amount of people, the amount of love. It has blown my mind.
How do you feel about bringing drum’n’bass further into the mainstream?
It wasn’t a goal, [but] I really love dance music in general. Drum’n’bass is the first thing I went out to; it’s what all my friends go out to. It’s really a huge part of young people’s lives in the U.K. Liquid drum’n’bass I especially love — it’s basically a more emotional version of drum’n’bass. Like dance music, but a very soft version. I love that so much. I feel like it goes well with my voice.
Are the lyrics based on actual events?
It’s a mixture of stuff that’s happened to me, stuff that’s happened to my friends and things I’ve noticed around me. It’s so common, in this day and age, that you’ll see someone for a bit, and you’ll speak all the time and then randomly one day, you just never speak again. It happens so much with Tinder and Hinge and things like that. It’s so easy to just give up and swipe on to the next person. It’s basically about that. It’s happened to me. It’s happened to all my friends.
What do your friends and family think about everything that’s going on for you?
My family is still in shock, to be honest. It’s just crazy. None of us have ever experienced anything like this, on this level. One of my friends said there was an article in the U.K. [Official Charts] — it was like, me versus Doja Cat. My friends were like, “Kenya Grace challenging Doja Cat? This sentence should not exist!” I was just like, “Yeah, I don’t know how it exists.” It’s so crazy.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Newcomer Kenya Grace rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, dated Oct. 21, with her breakthrough hit, “Strangers.”
Concurrently, “Strangers” tops the Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales charts for a fifth and third week, respectively. It rose 4% to 8.2 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Oct. 12, according to Luminate.
The track, on Major/Warner Records, debuted on the Sept. 16-dated survey at No. 5 and then ranked at No. 2 the last four weeks. It displaces David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” after 55 total and consecutive weeks at No. 1. That’s the second-longest reign in the list’s decade-long history, trailing only Marshmello and Bastille’s “Happier” (69 weeks, 2018-20).
Notably, “Strangers” is the first Hot Dance/Electronic Songs No. 1 solely written, produced and sung by a woman. Among all acts, and 50 leaders so far, it joins Calvin Harris’ “Summer,” in 2014, as the only songs written, produced and sung by a single talent.
Not only does “Strangers” crown Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, but Grace builds upon her momentum with a debut, as her “Only in My Mind” enters at No. 35.
“Strangers” also bounds to the Dance/Mix Show Airplay top 10 (15-6), up 48% in plays as the chart’s Greatest Gainer. The song, which has achieved prominence on TikTok, has also become her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100.
Beyond U.S.-only-based charts, “Strangers” has become a worldwide hit for Grace, who was born in South Africa and raised in the U.K. It has reached No. 3 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. tally and No. 5 on the Billboard Global 200. It has also hit the top 10 on 19 of Billboard’s Hits of the World charts, topping lists in the U.K. and Austria. It also rises to the top of the latest Official UK Singles Chart.
BMG has acquired the recorded music catalog of French DJ and artist Martin Solveig in what the company calls its biggest such deal in France to date. The sale includes the rights to around 130 tracks, including hits like “Intoxicated” and “+1,” and Solveig’s studio albums from 2002’s Sur la Terre to 2011’s Smash.
Solveig’s work joins a BMG France roster that includes Jean-Michel Jarre (recordings and publishing), Yuksek (recordings and publishing) and Thylacine (publishing). The previous largest recorded music acquisition by BMG in France was more than a decade ago when it purchased Francis Dreyfus Music (Dreyfus), the label which owned Jarre’s first albums.
BMG declined to offer financial details of the Solveig sale, which was brokered by Maximilien Jazani of Catalogue Associates.
Solveig has topped the Dance Club Songs chart twice in his career, first with 2011’s Dragonette-assisted “Hello” and then a year later with “The Night Out.” He’s also placed five tracks on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, including “All Day and Night,” “Hey Now” and “Juliet & Romeo.” His biggest mainstream hit, “Hello,” topped out at No. 46 on the Hot 100.
The success of “Hello” led to Solveig’s work on Madonna’s MDNA album — he co-wrote and co-produced three songs, including “Give Me All Your Luvin’” and “Turn Up the Radio.”
“Martin Solveig has created some of the most potent and successful electronic music of the past decade with a career which straddles the end of the download era and the emergence of streaming,” said Maximilian Kolb, BMG’s evp of repertoire & marketing across continental Europe. “We see significant potential to bring his music to a wider streaming audience.”
Solveig added, “In the process of selecting a partner to host and preserve my recordings, it was imperative for me to associate myself with a company that understands the intrinsic value of this music and is just as passionate about its future potential as I was in creating it. BMG has demonstrated exceptional motivation, and a genuine desire to perpetuate the exploitation of the tracks that are dear to me.”
News of the deal arrives amid a busy 2023 for BMG. So far this year, the company has struck catalog and/or rights deals with Jet, Paul Simon, The Pointer Sisters and George Harrison. In 2022, BMG acquired rights and royalties for Tina Turner, John Legend, Mötley Crüe, ZZ Top, Peter Frampton, Harry Nilsson, John Lee Hooker, Simple Minds, Primal Scream, and The Hollies, among others.
Dutch dance festival DGTL will produce its first U.S. editions this December.
DGTL launches in the States with back-to-back days happening on opposite ends of the country. On Friday, Dec. 1, the festival will go down in New York City with a lineup that includes a live set from Danish trio WhoMadeWho, techno titan Ida Engberg, amapiano artist AMÉMÉ, German deep house producer Henrik Schwarz, Irish mainstay Mano Le Tough and South Korean producer Shubostar.
The next day, a similar version of this show will happen 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, with DGTL’s Dec. 2 lineup also featuring WhoMadeWho, Mano Le Tough, Henrik Schwarz and Shubostar, along with French duo Parallelle.
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Venues for these events have not yet been announced.
Both shows will be put on in partnership with the longstanding New York City-based electronic producer Teksupport, with the Los Angeles show also produced in partnership with Stranger Than. Both companies have established themselves by producing dance events in non-traditional locations in their respective regions.
Originating in Amsterdam, DGTL has also done festivals in Barcelona, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Santiago, São Paulo and Guadalajara.
Since its launch in The Netherlands in 2013, the festival has become known for its immersive, cutting-edge stage designs. It’s also a leader in sustainable live events, with initiatives including plant-based food options on site, extensive recycling programs and elimination of single-use plastics and residual waste.
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While the moon eclipsing the sun up in the heavens will serve a the event’s primary headliner, Texas Eclipse 2024 has today (Oct. 17) dropped the lineup for all the artists that will play in honor of this celestial event.
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The lineup features Bob Moses, LP Giobbi, STS9, CloZee, Big Gigantic, Dirtwire, LSDream, Claude VonStroke playing under his bass-forward Barclay Crenshaw project, Lee Burridge, the Desert Hearts crew, Tycho, Zeds Dead, The Disco Biscuits and other heady heavy hitters.
Produced by Disco Donnie Presents and experiential event company Probably Nothing, Texas Eclipse will happen at the Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnett, Texas (located about an hour’s drive from Austin) on April 5-9, 2024. Tickets go sale this Thursday (Oct. 19) with two, three and four day ticket options available. (Ticket prices are not yet available.) Texas Eclipse is an all ages event, with children 12 and under getting in for free and discounted tickets available for 13–17 year olds.
Four festival stage areas — appropriately titled the Earth, Sky, Moon and Sun areas — will be curated by a crew of event producers from around the world, including Canada’s Bass Coast, California’s Symbiosis (a crew that did its own eclipse festival in Oregon in 2017), Germany’s Bachstelzen and 10 others.
In addition to music, Texas Eclipse will offer art installations, wellness areas, science workshops, kids and family education areas, yoga and more. The total solar eclipse will take place on Monday, April 9, 2024.
“We’ve curated an incredible mix of artists from around the world, representing diverse genres and styles, all coming together under the captivating backdrop of the 2024 total solar eclipse,” Disco Donnie says in a statement. “This promises to be an extraordinary experience where music, art, and technology and space converge in a truly unique way.”
See the complete lineup for Texas Eclipse 2024 below.
Courtesy Photo