Dance
Page: 70
This week in dance music: we dug deep on the new app helping choreographers get paid, Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter announced a forthcoming orchestral album, Detroit’s Movement festival announced the phase one lineup for its 2023 show, we spoke with SG Lewis on the occasion of his new album, out today (Jan. 27), and we surveyed a bunch of DJ on how they manage their hard earned cash.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And, as you’ve likely already guessed, there is indeed more. Let’s dig in.
Gorgon City, “Rumblah”
Are you ready for a b-side rumbler? Gorgon City’s latest release “Rumblah” is exactly that to the U.K. duo’s 2022 vocal-chop head knocker “Sidewindah” — but that doesn’t mean it’s any less strong. Rather, it’s deeper, darker; the kind of thing you’d play to a warehouse of heads in the wee hours of the night when the rave is at its most depraved.
“Like ‘Sidewindah,’ ‘Rumblah’ is an ode to the music that we grew up listening to; d&b, jungle, garage and grime,” Gorgon City tells Billboard. “We’ve really been enjoying going back to our roots with our recent club releases, and it’s been heavily influencing the production of our next album. We hope everyone enjoys the track. We’ve loved rumbling bass-bins with it over the last few months!” – KAT BEIN
Melle Brown feat. Loie, “Night Drift”
Since its launch in 2018, Monki’s &Friends record label has become a solid platform for highlighting emerging dance talent in the U.K. space, counting among its catalog up-and-comers such as Meg Ward, t e s t p r e s s, and Flaurese. Its next release comes from London’s Melle Brown, who debuted on &Friends last spring with “One More Chance” and followed that up with the Annie Mac-featuring “Feel About You,” one of Billboard’s top dance songs of 2022.
Brown’s new single, “Night Drift,” continues her string of warm house gems. Its stomping percussion, buzzing bassline and strobing synths set the nocturnal scene before blooming into swirling, smoky dreaminess filled with Loie’s sensual vocals and twinkling piano riffs. “Night Drift” is both cozy and freeing in its search for bright lights and feeling the wind in your hair, with a vibe shift that feels like finally breaking free of traffic on your own night drive and seeing only open road ahead. As Loie sings, “Keep drivin’.” — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Bonobo & Jacques Green, “Fold”
The eternally consistent Bonobo returns today with a track that falls neatly into the Bonobo oeuvre. Twinkly, sophisticated and built around a breathy pitched up vocal sample and a heavy kickdrum that land at opposing ends of the soft/hard spectrum, “Fold” is a collaboration from Bonobo (real name: Simon Green) and Canadian producer Jacques Greene, (whose real name, in a shocking twist, is actually Phil.)
“Phil was in L.A. and stopped by for a coffee and studio hang,” Bonobo says. “We made the bulk of the track that day. We each played a few various versions in our DJ sets over the summer (I even dropped it in a live show once) and made some decisions on how to finish it. It’s been going down really well in my DJ sets. Excited to get it out there finally.”
“Fold” drops at an auspicious moment for Bonobo — who next weekend is up for a pair of Grammys, for best dance/electronic recording and best dance album. With seven nominations to his name, but nary a win, we’ve got to say we’re rooting for him. — KATIE BAIN
Junior Sanchez feat. Nez, “Hit It”
House veteran Junior Sanchez returns to Defected Records with a sure dancefloor hit to start the new year, “Hit It” featuring Nez, made to jack up your heart rate and break a sweat. Sanchez builds a tightly knit rhythm teeming with perky synth stabs, fast-shuffling percussion and vocal whoops, which all unravel into a blurry peaktime frenzy. Meanwhile, Nez raps with a fun, dynamic flow that matches the production’s party-starting energy beat for beat. Sanchez says “Hit It” pulls from classic New York and Chicago house as well as Detroit techno— “as if Masters at Work had a jam session with Carl Craig,” he says, “and add Chicago’s young hero Nez’s unique style of rapping … The record is a snapshot of what was, what’s now & what’s tomorrow!”
The music video for “Hit It” was directed by Jamel Rankins (a.k.a. producer Blaqwell), who combined traditional design, illustration and editing techniques with AI systems to create a visual inspired by artist Ernie Barnes’ 1976 painting The Sugar Shack, which appeared in the end credits of American television sitcom Good Times. “This imagery had a big impact on both myself and Junior growing up on the East Coast of the U.S.,” says Rankins. “With this spirit in mind, I aimed to create something visually unique, rooted in the culture, and in line with the vibe of the track — the vibe of house music.” — K.R.
Juuku feat. Gianni Taylor, “Moonlight”
The thought of moonlight streaming through a window or lighting your lovers face can conjure feelings of quiet tenderness, and Juuku’s latest single does start with a bit of sensitivity. In the end, though, it harnesses more of a “the full moon makes people go all out” kind of vibe.
“This song to me represents capturing a beautiful moment of energy at night — one of the very first moments I was introduced to electronic music live,” the mysterious Juuku, who’s shrouded in shadow in most of his PR photos, says. “The energy, the people around me, and the type of world that I was brought into, and how magical it felt during that very first time.”
Its vibrant and colorful synths sing ecstatic over a quicktime beat. “Moonlight” serves as the first single from Juuku’s forthcoming EP Lavender Dreams and Scarlett Nightmares, set to be released on Dim Mak.“This EP … represents the two sides of the spectrum that encompass the universe I’m building,” he says. “I have synesthesia, which in my case [means] I can see colors when I listen to music, especially when I create it. It’s either in the tone of purple (lavender), or in the tone of red (scarlet). These two colors represent the two different colors that my music encompasses, and this EP is the gateway to this universe I call my own.”
What color is “Moonlight?” Listen and decide for yourself. – K. Bein
Mau P, “Gimme That Bounce”
Tech house’s young prince Mau P today drops the followup to his 2022 monster hit “Drugs From Amsterdam.” Such followups are never easy, but with this new one the Dutch producer extends both his sound and credibility, with the production indeed bouncing along at a peaktime clip, until Mau P slows down the entire operations to nearly a full halt before once again pressing go. Out via Insomniac Records and made of the same DNA as “Drugs From Amsterdam” — one of our 50 best dance tracks of 2022 — “Gimme Dat Bounce” is dark but not heavy, tech-house-ey but not paint by numbers, and generally just stylish, solid and a sign of Mau P’s likely staying power.
“When working on “Gimme That Bounce” my goal was to catch people off guard and get them locked into an instant groove,” the producer says. “With it being the follow-up to ‘Drugs From Amsterdam,’ I wanted to dive deeper into that big sound but still bring something new to the table. When I stumbled upon an old recording of myself, where I was talking about ‘that bounce,’ every piece of the puzzle fell into place.” — K. Bain
Lil Wayne, teaming with SIDEPIECE, bows on Billboard‘s multi-metric Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart (dated Jan. 28) with “A Milli (Remix)” (No. 16). The collab, a remix of Lil Wayne’s 2008 Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs No. 1, earned 869,000 U.S. streams from its Jan. 13 release through Jan. 19, according to Luminate.
Lil Wayne’s fifth Hot Dance/Electronic Songs entry, and first as a lead act, marks his highest debut and second-highest rank, after only his featured turn on David Guetta’s “Light My Body Up,” also featuring Nicki Minaj (No. 13, 2017).
“A Milli (Remix)” brings the third appearance — and top-charting — for SIDEPIECE, the duo of Nitti Gritti/Ricky Mears and Party Favor/Dylan Ragland. Previously, the act reached No. 25 with its Diplo collab “On My Mind” in January 2020.
Concurrently, “A Milli (Remix)” debuts on Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (No. 21).
’53’ = 1
Bizarrap and Shakira each reign for the first time on Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs (6-1) and Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales (2-1), with “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53.” Meanwhile, the team-up jumps 7-2 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, with 20.2 million streams, 7.9 million in airplay audience and 9,000 sold Jan. 13-19 (its first full tracking week, following its Jan. 11 release at 7 p.m. EST). It also crowns the Hot Latin Songs chart (16-1) and enters the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 at No. 9.
‘Clouds’ Breaking
German DJ/producer BUNT. (aka Levi Wijk) and singer Nate Traveller debut at No. 15 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart with “Clouds.” It’s BUNT.’s second and top showing, after “Old Guitar” (No. 45, 2016), and the initial chart appearance for Traveller. “Clouds” starts with 920,000 stateside streams.
Chainsmokers, Giles Debut
Further on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, The Chainsmokers and Cheyenne Giles arrive at No. 17 with “Make Me Feel.” The track, which begins with 899,000 streams, is The Chainsmokers’ 52nd charted title, the fourth-most among all acts dating to the chart’s inception 10 years ago this week. Only David Guetta (73), Kygo (61) and Marshmello (53) have more. “Feel” is the first Billboard chart entry for singer Giles.
Is there anything more delicious and envy-inducing than poring over a “highest-paid DJs” list? The thought of earning millions by providing people with music to dance to — off a USB stick, no less — comes with its own special degree of fascination.
The truth is, the percentage of upper-echelon DJs annually earning seven-plus figures is tiny, about 1%. The next tier of DJs comes in at about 100 times less than that amount at minimum, according to an established promoter. Indeed, most DJs whose names grace the top half of festival flyers are earning a living wage — but only if they’re sensible.
Most DJs are generally stratified into earning $500/$2,000/$5,000/$10,000 per club gig and between $2,000/$5,000/$10,000/$25,000 per festival gig. Meanwhile, festival headliners can command over $100,000, with multiple factors contributing to this jump.
“At this level, performance fees aren’t always determined as a simple dollar value per show,” says Saleem Amode of Amode Agency regarding festival headliners. “Agents, promoters and artist teams evaluate metrics like touring history, ticket history [and] region exclusivity. Of course, the music and recent content comes into play to determine the estimated value and risk of a fee offer. The costs of putting on the event itself are the large[st] factor in determining the risk for the promoter.”
Such dollar amounts are also just gross earnings, before the DJ has paid their agent, manager, business manager, lawyer and flight and hotel costs — which are increasingly being covered by artists’ fees rather than the promoter. After taxes, a DJ’s net pay is often less than 40% of their fee.
“There is a public misunderstanding of how much money DJs are making,” says Orlando Higginbottom, professionally known as producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. “You can do the math on the back of a postcard. If you’re a DJ who is grossing $20,000 a month, what you’re ending up with is $10,000. No one’s going to turn up their nose at that, but a $120,000 annual salary is not the celebrity lifestyle people think DJs are having. It’s not rich money. It’s not house (in L.A.) money. It’s rent money.”
These earnings also don’t come with health insurance, unemployment insurance, retirement plans, human resources support or even job security. “DJs are CEOs of their own company — even if no one views them that way,” says Higginbottom. As such, the unsexy parts of the business are often left to DJs to set up for themselves — or not.
This situation is not exclusive to DJs, but artists across the board. Steve Braines, who manages producer Maya Jane Coles, shares, “I took over a touring rock artist’s career and he filed for bankruptcy. During that time, he was still trying to buy jewelry and had never bought a house despite the huge amounts previously earned.
“There is a sense sometimes that the money will last forever,” Braines continues, “but it’s such a tiny percentage of touring artists that’s true of. DJs also have that same time period of being hot, and then it decays for many. If you can afford to buy a house, buy one, and also get a pension, just as a teacher, doctor or anyone else would. Ultimately, objectively, it’s a job, and the bank doesn’t care how you make your money.”
Though widespread touring has since resumed, the pandemic brought the instability of the profession into even sharper focus for a lot of DJs, particularly because many weren’t eligible for unemployment. Billboard spoke with several about how they’re working to establish a secure future for themselves — even if/when the money in their chosen field dries up.
Put your money in higher-yield accounts
As a headlining artist who says he’s very prudent with his money, 12th Planet (born John Dadzie) exercises the tried-and-true practice of putting aside 25% of his earnings. This percentage is put into certificates of deposit (CDs), which have a fixed term length that typically falls between three months and five years. Though most of these accounts assess penalties for withdrawing your money before the end of the term, they earn a higher interest rate than a conventional savings account. Other options are money market accounts that pay interest based on the market rate, or bonds, for which the issuer pays back the principal plus interest after a set time period.
“It took me a long time to learn that when your money just sits in the bank, you’re actually losing on it,” says Dadzie. “Once I learned that, I moved everything over to other types of accounts. I’m not doing anything aggressive. … I’d rather post a positive 1% or 2% than a negative risky 10%.”
After taking on a business manager early in his career and a wealth manager soon after, Dadzie began putting his money into individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401Ks, which are personal pension accounts. The funds in these types of accounts cannot be touched until maturity, which is usually what would be considered “retirement age.” He also recommends starting a retirement plan early, saying “Not only does that money go to you, but it also goes against taxes paid to the government and can move you from being in the highest tax bracket.”
Keep your overhead low
Jennifer Lee, professionally known as TOKiMONSTA, experienced not just the slowdown of the pandemic, but the slowdown of her entire life after brain surgeries to treat Moyamoya disease in 2016. Lee says keeping her spending in proportion to her earnings was a key factor in weathering these unforeseen occurrences.
“It’s being cognizant of how much money you’re making, and how much money you’re spending on a monthly basis,” she says. “A lot of very successful people spend a lot of money and have massive teams and multiple employees. People who have a high overhead are spending that money even when they’re not touring. My operation is fairly simple with two full-time employees. When I’m 60, I don’t know if I [will] want to, or will be able to, DJ every single weekend. I have to set up my whole lifestyle so I’m comfortable at that age.” (She adds that she’s also put her money in investment portfolios.)
Diversify your financial interests
Brothers Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, who have topped DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list multiple times — have diversified their finances into multiple arenas. Together, they have a company encompassing artist services, booking and management in a joint venture with their own manager, Nick Royaards, and Michiel Beers, the co-founder of Belgium mega-fest Tomorrowland. They also have their Smash the House record label and its various sub-labels, and each have their own clothing line and were early investors in esports and entertainment company FaZe Clan. Vegas’ particular funding focus is on content creation via his production company, which is focused on the development of films, television series, graphic novels and books.
“Most of my investments go to something I have control over,” says Vegas. “When the pandemic started, I was trying so many different things, because I was a bit scared shows weren’t coming back. There are a lot of people with beautiful decks and crazy ideas and promises. You need to be able to filter out what is going to work, and even then, it’s always risky. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who know what they’re doing or making sure you yourself know what you’re doing.”
Pioneering DJ Richie Hawtin famously invested in the electronic digital download store Beatport early on, a move he considers one of his best. Currently, his Plus8 Equity Partners venture capital firm, which he started with partners John Acquaviva and Rishi Patel, has an investment portfolio that includes Splice, Subpac, Landr, Lynq, Rap Tech Studios and other creative entertainment technology disruptors. As he puts it, the venture allows him to “re-invest back into our own culture.”
Barry Ashworth of Dub Pistols has had his share of financial knockbacks over his more than three-decade career. He went from a $1.5 million record deal for the second Dub Pistols album, Six Million Ways To Live and making $25,000 per remix — which he was doing at a clip of three a day — to his accounts being overdrawn.
After a five-year stretch of living gig-to-gig, Ashworth began making wiser moves, including starting up a healthy Dub Pistols merchandise business. This extends beyond conventional clothing and paraphernalia into a range of branded CBD oil, Minirig portable speakers and pale ale. The latter three items have a high sell-through rate and are manufactured, produced and distributed by companies Ashworth has partnered with. They provide him with wholly passive income.
Ashworth also purchased the U.K.’s Mucky Weekender Festival, which is growing under his leadership and is looking to expand into additional events. When he was unable to source a tour bus amidst the pandemic shortages, he purchased a couple to rent out and launched a touring logistics company. Says Ashworth of his various ventures, “It’s taking every little opportunity you see and feeling confident enough to do it.”
Invest in real estate (if you can afford it)
Property is one of the mainstay investments for DJs, as globally, real estate rarely drops in value. Most DJs purchase their own home(s) as soon as they can afford to. Rental property is the next step for those who can extend to that option. Producer Nicole Moudaber stepped into the rental arena back in 2003 when she bought an estate in Ibiza, upgrading it to a villa aimed at weekly rentals.
“It was like a hotel operation,” says Moudaber. “I did that for 10 years in Ibiza and gained an understanding of architecture and property management. I bought a place in Miami, but I panicked and sold it during COVID. I lost my nerve. I’m mourning it. But lesson learned: Never panic when there’s a crash in the market, and that goes for people who invest in stocks as well.”
Hawtin has also invested in a few real estate properties with significant financial rewards, a move he says is “definitely not as sexy or exciting as sitting with engineers dreaming up new creative tech, but definitely safe and secure.”
If DJs have the disposable income, investing in building development projects can have a significant return, particularly if you invest a large sum. This is what Ashworth has done in the UK. “Property developers are building flats, renovating flats. They need money to do it,” he says. “The return has been quite ludicrous.”
Consider self-releasing your music
Like most DJs, Moudaber owns her own record label, In the Mood, as does Ashworth with Cyclone Records, Lee with Young Art Records and Higginbottom with Nice Age. While DJs owning their own record label is a default of the dance music community, the real value is in owning your music.
While many artists find it tempting to sign a big figure recording or publishing deal at the start of their career, for the long game this choice is not always optimal. Higginbottom found this out the hard way when he signed to Universal Music in the early part of his career. His takeaway from his experience is, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to release through a label, unless you do a very, very good deal and you are getting your masters back in five years or something.”
Higginbottom considers his music an investment, and the only way to retain that investment for the long-term is to self-release it. “That,” he says, “is your pension, your money flow and your passive income.”
“There’s loads of money to be made through streaming, but you have to own the masters,” he continues, “Look how rich the record labels are. Look how much money there is out there. Artists just don’t know how to access it. From streaming, you could make a few hundred, a few thousand or $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 a month. If you sign with a major label, you’re never going to see it. If you sign with an indie on a 50/50 deal, you’ll see it eventually. Eighty-five percent of my income was through touring. When we lost touring for two years during COVID, that royalty income saved my business.”
Set up different LLCs for each aspect of your business
In a further safety move, Higginbottom recommends setting up different LLCs for each section of an artist’s professional activities. For example, one for touring, one for royalties from your own releases, one for income from songwriting for others. This way, if an artist ends up being liable for something that happens during one of their shows, they won’t get cleared out of their entire income — just the touring LLC. Additionally, when one of the LLCs is having a lull, it can be propped up by the others.
“It’s really hard to make enough as a musician to save or invest,” says Lee. I’m always grateful to be in [the music business] for as long as I have, but I’m very aware of the lack of stability that comes with entertainment, and I’ve steered my career in the direction of stability. You never know when the rug can get pulled out from under you.”
At the height of lockdown, SG Lewis did something unusual for an artist, even by pandemic standards: He finished his first full-length studio album, then immediately began making his second.
On a Zoom call two days before the 2022 Christmas holiday, Lewis admits with a laugh that he always intended to take a break from producing after wrapping that debut, 2021’s times, acknowledging that traditional touring cycles would “almost dictate a break from the studio anyway.”
But neither touring nor anything else in that period were traditional. If they had been, Lewis’ latest, AudioLust & HigherLove, simply “never would’ve been made.” Out Friday (Jan. 27) via Astralwerks after a six-month rollout, the sophomore album is one Lewis says he “just had to make — not just conceptually or lyrically, but as a singer-songwriter, because there was always that kind of question mark over that side of what I do.”
The process was fruitful, with Lewis (managed by Grant Motion of Motion Management) recently appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and on the announced lineup for this April’s Coachella festival, in addition to headlining shows at the Brooklyn Mirage and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
“There was a lot of ground to cover and we needed the timeline to allow us to hit all these touchpoints,” Astralwerks President Toby Andrews tells Billboard. “In addition to that, we felt the album had a lot to offer fans with different features and themes, so we wanted a chance to showcase as much of the great music on the album as possible in the run-up.”
That Lewis, 28, questioned how he could unite what prior to the making of AudioLust &HigherLove existed as two relatively discrete parts of himself — one part producer (he calls production his “comfort zone”) and one part singer-songwriter — reflects the sense of introspection that not only informs this album, but distinguishes it from his debut.
Released in February of 2021, times, was a concept album born from Lewis’ study of the late ‘70s in New York and the rise of disco — inspired in part by Tim Lawrence’s text, Love Saves the Day: A History of American Music Culture, 1970-1979. Despite being released during clubland’s pandemic-era dark night of the soul, times won him high praise, hitting No. 11 on Billboard‘s Dance/Electronic Albums chart and raising his profile, even as he was stuck promoting it from his living room.
“My life was very uneventful,” he recalls. “I would close the laptop and go and sit in the TV room.”
It’s reasonable then that while times looked back at a past decade, AudioLust & HigherLove gazes inward, operating from a decidedly “internal, personal” place — “a more complicated vantage point from which to work” he says.
“Something I learned in the creation of this album is that it’s a lot easier to point to other people and eras and styles and be like, ‘Look at this, isn’t this great?’ and to present it to people through your lens. But to turn the lens on yourself and be like, ‘This is what’s going on’ is actually a more difficult thing to do, for me personally. I’ve never been an oversharer.”
SG Lewis
Lauretta Suter
As a dichotomous study of love, AudioLust & HigherLove certainly calls for a new level of confession. AudioLust, “is the darker, lusty, infatuated, short-lived and ego-driven version of love,” Lewis says. The album’s second half is “a much deeper, actualized and fulfilled version of love,” which begins with track nine, “Epiphany.”
The LP’s theme materialized arrived subconsciously and somewhat slowly as Lewis did something many others were also doing during the pandemic: taking stock of their interpersonal relationships, both platonic and romantic.
“With the nature of my work and travel and how crazy the last few years had been, I hadn’t had any time to reflect on personal relationships, and I just started to think about patterns and the way that not only myself — but how we all interact in love and relationships,” he says. “I just started to divide [them] into these two worlds.”
It feels like there’s more to the story to which he alludes, but Lewis, at once candid and coy, does not volunteer specifics, instead redirecting towards the general. “I noticed that even in pop culture and music and movies, there were two versions of love and romance: one of them being sort of rushed and toxic and lust-orientated, and the other being a very actualized, fulfilled romantic version of it.”
Lewis acknowledges that the question of “Why concept records?” seems to follow him. AudioLust & HigherLove is his third conceptually driven project. Long before times was even an idea, he experimented with concept via his Dusk, Dark, Dawn series, on which he captured the sound and feel of an evening out via phases chronicled across three EPs. Released between 2018 and 2019, this triptych yielded early fan favorites like “Hurting” (featuring AlunaGeorge) and “Throwaway” with Clairo. (The former hit its apex on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart at No. 9, where it stayed for a total of 20 weeks.)
Lewis says he “finds it very difficult to finish a project without a set concept,” adding that grouping 12 or so songs with no common thread is “more of a crazy concept” to him by comparison.
To suss out AudioLust & HigherLove’s conceptual bent, he played the role of spectator to his own work. “It was really just sitting there and waiting for that thing to appear,” he recalls. “I would say I was maybe halfway through before I really had the concept dialed and was like, ‘Okay, here’s what is happening in front of me.’”
This clarity cracked open the previously “purely internalized” writing process, paving the way for Lewis to begin categorizing music based on feeling — and later, to open the door to an intimate number of artist features, with the album’s five guests including Tove Lo (their collab “Call on Me” also surfaces on the Swedish songstress’ 2022 studio album, Dirt Femme), Charlotte Day Wilson and Channel Tres (memorable for his appearance on “Impact,” from times), with Ty Dolla $ign and Lucky Daye (who previously lent his vocals to times’ “Feed The Fire”) rounding out the short-for-a-dance-album guest list.
For context, Lewis sang on only four of times’ 10 songs, at the time of the album’s release saying this work helped him understand how to use his voice as an instrument. The experience was not for naught — of AudioLust & HigherLove’s 15 tracks, Lewis sings on the 10 that do not feature another vocalist or are not purely instrumental.
Writing the new record has inspired reflection of binaries beyond love and lust: SG Lewis, the artist, and Sam Lewis, as he’s known when the lights go up. Via Zoom, both are unassuming and approachable, warm and receptive without being glib.
When the conversation turns to more personal matters (the stuff of Sam’s world), SG is open but reticent: He gets to take some time off for the holidays, mentioning only that he and his girlfriend will fly to London to see his family. If Sam wears his heart on his sleeve, as he seems to, SG is its arbiter. This is where the boundary between performer and person is clearest.
Yet, despite SG’s efforts to draw a line between these two parts of himself, it invariably still blurs, making Sam’s acute self-awareness, deeply feeling nature, high emotional intelligence, sharp wit and wry sense of humor apparent. (“The best part about DJing a party is that my socially anxious ass doesn’t have to talk to anyone,” he tweeted at the start of January).
The dynamic between SG and Sam also called for a system of lyrical checks and balances during the writer process of AudioLust &Higherlove. The process instilled him with a “fascination” and a “newfound sort of respect for singer-songwriters whose craft is to bear their soul lyrically.” “It’s a huge thing to share with people,” he adds, gesturing (naturally, some might say) to Taylor Swift.
Considering this aim, it doesn’t hurt that AudioLust & HigherLove is heavily influenced by yacht rock, that famously breezy and often confessional brand of soft rock popularized by artists like The Doobie Brothers, Toto and Steely Dan. Songs with the classification tend to be light and laid-back, polished and generally upbeat, without putting on airs or taking things too seriously.
The genre’s “commitment to delivering the sentiment of a song” and “full commitment to grand statements” appealed to Lewis, who sought to lyrically emulate this say-it-with-your-chest ethos. This strategy yields intensely vulnerable songs professing feelings that can be difficult to verbalize: I can’t stop thinking about you, I’m falling in love with you, our flame is dying, it’s over.
“You take a chorus from something like Toto’s ‘Africa’ and it’s just soaring and arms out, it’s very proclamative,” he says. “‘Lifetime’ is kind of like that, it’s a very heart-on-sleeve love song. I think I would’ve been scared of something that outwardly expressive in the past, out of the fear of someone being like, ‘Ooh, that’s a lot,’ or ‘Wow, that’s a corny thing to say.’”
AudioLust & HigherLove writing sessions were hosted at two residential recording studios in the U.K.: Decoy Residential, set in the verdure of the Suffolk countryside, and Angelic Recording Studio, perched on a rural hill 90 minutes outside of London. Lewis likens these residential experiences to academies for professional soccer players, where “everything that isn’t swinging their leg at the ball and getting better at that is taken care of” — food, laundry and everything in between.
AudioLust & HigherLove was crafted over six one-month stints at these studios, which he shared with keyboardist Ruben James, guitarist Jay Mooncie and co-writer Ed Drewett. (Andrews of Astralwerks notes the “demand for the world that [Lewis] inhabits — that bridges the alternative, electronic and pop space, along with acts like Bob Moses, ZHU and even RÜFÜS DU SOL – puts electronic music and the areas that surround it in the U.S. at a really exciting stage.”)
In sessions, Lewis refrained from touching his laptop until they’d made something potent, but not production-heavy. This approach would absorb most of the day and is the reason why AudioLust & HigherLove comprises mostly audio and analogue sounds, with very few software instruments.
“We would make music for 14 hours, minus eating and just conversation and other things,” he says. “Sometimes we’d finish at 10:00 p.m. and other times, we’d finish at 5:00 a.m., depending on whether the magic had kind of appeared. There really wasn’t much else going on.”
Between sessions, Lewis found release in two complementary pastimes: fishing and drinking whiskey. With the rod he’d purchased upon arriving at the studio in one hand and a bottle in the other, he’d head out to the lake next to the studio and catch fish. (He always threw them back.)
“I think at first the engineers thought I was mental,” he recalls, “and then after a while, they got into it and started joining me.”
It’s not been lost on Lewis that the experience of crafting AudioLust & HigherLove in these rural-but-intense settings was also rare and special. He can’t imagine it happening again anytime soon, for understandably, it would require him to hit the pause button on just about everything now happening in his life.
Suffice to say, he caught something good.
Amid this most hallowed season of festival lineup releases, Detroit’s equally venerable Movement on Thursday (Jan. 26) announced the phase one lineup for its 2023 show.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Belgian techno phenom Charlotte De Witte will headline the three-day fest along with U.K. legends Underworld. The show will also feature Caribou, Detroit’s own Moodymann and DJ Minx, Louie Vega, Green Velvet, Derrick Carter b2b Mark Farina, Masters At Work, a live performance from Robert Hood, Berlin duo Fjaak, Movement debuts from DJ Seinfeld and TSHA, an extremely fun-sounding b2b by from Dom Dolla and John Summit and much more.
With Detroit of course the hometown of techno itself, Movement 2023 will return to its longstanding base in the city’s Hart Plaza from May 27 to 29. Tickets are currently on sale.
Movement is produced by Detroit-based Paxahau, which launched in 1998 as an underground party promoter. The dance-focused company has produced Movement for the past 17 years, helping it gain global renown as one of the world’s premiere techno festivals.
“It was truly joyful to be back in the city for the many of us who fell in love with Detroit through Movement and its music,” Billboard contributor Ana Monroy Yglesias said of the festival last year. “The event also marked a triumphant family reunion for the techno all-stars and superfans who call Detroit home. Altogether, it was a stellar three days of techno, house, hip-hop, love, connection, positive vibes and dancing, and a much-needed respite from the pain of current events.”
See the phase one lineup below:
The Daft Punk camp has been as quiet as an empty nightclub since the French icons officially announced their breakup in February 2021. But Tuesday (Jan. 24) offers tangentially related Daft Punk news by way of the group’s Thomas Bangalter.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This April, the producer will release his first solo album, an orchestral project called Mythologies. The work comes with a predictably high-pedigree backstory, having been commissioned by French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj for the ballet of the same name. The show premiered in Bordeaux at the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.
A press release on this project states that the 90-minute score “reveals a love of Baroque music and hints to traces of American minimalism, its brief phrases subjected to a process of progressive variation.” The orchestral work does not incorporate any electronic elements. See its cover art below.
The project, out April 7 via Erato/Warner Classics, began in fall 2019 when Preljocaj invited Bangalter to write the music for a new work. Preljocaj advised that this piece was intended for 10 dancers from the Opéra National de Bordeaux’s ballet company, 10 others from Preljocaj’s own company and the house’s resident orchestra.
“This invitation,” the press release continues with a wink to kismet, “arrived at the very moment that Bangalter was itching to write for a full orchestra.”
The resulting 23-scene production and its corresponding music do nothing less than “delve into the legacy shared by all of humankind by embracing the ancient and modern myths that reflect and shape us.”
“I think all artists should have freedom,” Bangalter’s father Daniel Vangarde told Billboard last November. “I helped Thomas, Guy-Man and their friends as much as I could to allow them to release without barriers. They were only 20 years old and the industry could have squeezed them — a normal contract generates interference between your work and the time it’s released… My input was to help create a good environment that allowed them to produce freely.”
Thomas Bangalter, “Mythologies”
Stephane Manel
At a time when TikTok challenges have been helping drive songs up the charts, one app is angling for another way to capitalize on the viral dance trend. And unlike that other social media service, this one’s focused on paying choreographers, whose role in spawning those dance crazes tends to go unacknowledged. Steezy, an instructional dance app that offers virtual classes in 13 different disciplines, hires professional choreographers to instruct users in hip-hop, jazz, ballet and more, set to the music of some of today’s biggest artists.
To date, the app has been downloaded over 1 million times by users in more than 100 countries and built up a library of 1,800 classes — all filmed at Steezy studios located at the company’s Downtown Los Angeles headquarters — for which subscribers pay a flat rate of $20 monthly or $100 yearly (roughly three new classes are added each week). The app has licensing deals with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group and last May began partnering with Def Jam, Warner Records and others on integrations around their latest releases. Several artists have since appeared in-studio for the popular Steezy YouTube series 3 Choreographers, 1 Song — in which a trio of dancers improvise routines to artists’ latest tracks — including J.I.D., Babyface, Chinese superstar Jackson Wang and Roc Nation signee Kalan.FrFr.
The platform also partnered with Prime Video last year on a series of videos around the release of Lizzo’s reality competition series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, including a dance class with choreographer/influencer Aliya Janell — who taught a routine to Lizzo and Cardi B’s 2021 collaboration “Rumors” — and hosted a dance challenge tied to the series. Steezy additionally helped facilitate a dance challenge tied to the release of Michael Bublé’s latest single “Higher” by creating a free class featuring choreographer Brian Puspos (BTS, Justin Bieber) and his wife Aja Dang, who taught their own choreographed routine to the song to inspire more people to enter. Lim notes it was the most-taken class on the platform for three weeks.
Steezy launched in 2014, initially as a blog offering advice and resources to aspiring professional dancers. But a comment from a friend and future colleague soon started founders Connor Lim and Evan Zhou, who met when both were members of the competitive dance team GRZ, down a more ambitious path. Clay Boonthanakit, who now works as Steezy’s main on-camera personality, came to Lim and Zhou with a simple pitch: “’It’d be really cool if there were videos, because I don’t really like reading,’” Lim recalls with a laugh.
With Boonthanakit coming aboard, Lim and Zhou soon introduced vlogs and — noting a dearth of quality instructional dance videos online — eventually began prototyping video classes, the first of which launched online in 2015, followed by the launch of the Steezy iOS and Android apps in 2018. Since introducing classes, the company has raised $20 million from investors including Elysian Park Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Aglaé Ventures and angel investor Jason Calicanas.
Similar to other subscription-based online platforms like Peloton, Steezy saw a steep rise in subscriptions once the pandemic shuttered dance studios in early 2020. With the professional dance community out of work due to the touring shutdown, it also helped keep some in that community afloat during a desperate time. “All their tours got canceled. All their in-person classes got canceled,” says Zhou. “It felt really good that we could pay our dancers, they could come in and teach and actually keep doing what they do.”
In addition to a standard teaching fee, each dancer is paid from a “bonus pool,” which is doled out on a pro-rata basis (based on the percentage of revenue that can be attributed to classes they taught). “[It’s] a model that’s never existed for dancers before,” says Zhou. “It existed for musicians, where they create a piece of music and it gets monetized on all these different platforms and they get a cut — but dancers have never really had this.”
Like TikTok, which facilitates deeper engagement with music through dance challenges and repetition, Lim and Zhou say Steezy inspires a heightened level of engagement that can make tracks stickier for users. “As you learn [a dance] on our platform, you have to listen to the song like 10, 20 times in order to get it into your muscle memory, so you just have this deeper relationship with the song,” says Zhou. To make routines easier to learn, Steezy allows users to toggle between both front and back views of the instructors as they teach, “mirror” themselves with their webcams to see themselves dance in real time, slow down the tempo and loop sections of videos to nail a specific movement.
In addition to offering an additional revenue stream for dancers, Zhou and Lim feel a broader responsibility to highlight the way choreographers — who often aren’t properly credited for their work — contribute to the success of music at a time when some dancers are pushing for better compensation and even copyrighting their dances (U.S. copyright law allows choreography to be protected, so long as works are fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which the work can be performed). In 2018, rapper 2 Milly sued Epic Games for copyright infringement for using his “Milly Rock” routine in Fortnite, though the suit was dismissed with prejudice (meaning it can be refiled) the following year after the Supreme Court that individuals cannot sue for copyright infringement until the U.S. Copyright Office has either granted or refused their application. In 2020, longtime Beyoncé choreographer JaQuel Knight successfully registered his choreography from the superstar’s iconic “Single Ladies” video, making him the first commercial choreographer in pop music to successfully do so.
For its part, Steezy has been providing a historical timeline of some iconic routines with the original series Viral Dance Moves, in which the company spotlights choreographers who originated dance crazes like the Kangsta Wok (Zaya Sosho), The Dougie (Lil’ Wil) and The Smeeze (Chonkie).
“In the music industry, dancers are…always kind of behind the scenes,” says Lim. It’s really important for us to showcase dancers at the forefront, especially because they drive huge streams for songs, and we know that.”
Since Iranian uprisings against the country’s oppressive regime began last fall, one silver living is that the music of Iranian artists is being noticed and listened to by a global audience.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Two of these artists, producers AIDA and Nesa Azadikhah, have curated Woman, Life, Freedom, a 12-song compilation of original electronic music from female Iranian artists released on Friday (Jan. 20) via Apranik Records, founded in 2022 as a response to the protests.
“Woman, Life, Freedom” is the slogan for this movement, which began upon the murder of 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, by the country’s morality police on Sep. 16, 2022. The global outpouring from around the globe in the wake of these protests have has found its way into all art forms, with music arguably at the forefront.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s punishment of its people through imprisonment, sentences and executions — including that of high-profile individuals such as rapper Toomaj Salehi — is motivating artists to create. Featuring female Iranian producers TK SarrSew, MENTRIX and Sharona Lico as well as AIDA and Azadikhah, Woman, Life, Freedom ranges in style from electro to breaks to techno, ambient and experimental. The tracks are bold and unapologetic, with topics and inspiration wholly tied to the current situation in Iran.
AIDA and Azadikhah represent the far ends of the Iranian population spectrum. AIDA is an Iranian producer living abroad, with her international perspective and strong roots to her ancestral country both reflected in her music. A DJ/producer who’s equally skilled in playing traditional Iranian instruments, Azadikhah lives in the capital city of Tehran, creating within the confines of a regime which believes in the silencing of women, particularly in song.
“The theme of this collection is power, defiance, and ferocity and can be heard across all of the tracks,” AIDA and Azadikhah share in a statement. “This is the energy with which Iranian women continue to push for freedom. We dream of a future where women and girls can openly and safely practice, grow, and shine within arts, especially electronic music.”
Proceeds from the not-for-profit compilation will benefit charities aimed at helping women who are struggling in Iran. The first of these Iran-based organizations specifically aids women and children recovering from domestic violence, addiction, homelessness and societal distress.
Listen to and purchase Woman, Life, Freedom via Bandcamp.
This week in dance music: Leading New York dance promoter Teksupport partnered with ArtsDistrict Brooklyn for a 20-show series launching this weekend with sets from Nina Kraviz and Magdalena, Lightning In a Bottle dropped the lineup for its 20th anniversary festival this May in SoCal, Skrillex shared a message on his 35th birthday reflecting on the “toughest year of his life,” movement in the Bassnectar camp seemed to suggest an impending direct-to-fans comeback, Skrillex, Flowdan and Fred again.. unleashed the “Rumble” in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Dance/Electronic Songs chart (the chart on which Elvis and Britney Spears’ “Toxic Las Vegas” also debuted this week), and we got the inside scoop oh how ODESZA scored two of the summer’s biggest headlining slots.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
And guess what. We’ve got more. Let’s dig in.
Yaeji, “For Granted”
To overthink is to get on a mental hamster wheel, simultaneously sprinting and stuck in place. Yaeji shares such a state of mind on her new single, “For Granted.” On the track, she seems to ruminate on her success: “I don’t even know/ Am I saying thank you?/ Am I enjoying it too?/ Am I taking it for granted?” she asks. Her coo-like vocals are hushed and strangely comforting, while the production, initially sparse, slowly builds into an elastic (yet still mellow) beat. After looping the same verse and chorus a few times, she finally reaches a breakthrough — “I stopped the thinking/ Let it rest and I’ll flow” — unleashing a furious wave of drum & bass in a moment of ultimate catharsis. “For Granted” is the lead single from Yaeji’s upcoming album With A Hammer, out April 7 via XL Recordings. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Illenium feat. Nina Nesbitt “Luv Me a Little”
Perpetual favorite Illenium continues his reign over the biggest, most epic (and most epically emotional) realm of the dance kingdom, elevating that status today (Jan. 20) with a new power anthem, “Love Me a Little.” Featuring the rich, exquisitely pretty voice of Scottish singer Nina Nesbitt, the song takes it time warming up, starting with a music box feel and then launching off for the heavens with a big drop more than a minute in and lyrics to belt along with throughout. The track is the latest from Illenium’s self-titled album, coming in April, and comes with the announcement of a 33-date North American and European tour — which will see Illenium on the road from late May through the end of the year. — KATIE BAIN
Kaleena Zanders feat. Shift K3y, “Vibration”
Lots of folks have sought inspiration from the buzzsaw synth sound of ‘90s Euro-House anthems, but where so many sound like copies, Kaleena Zanders’ latest single with production from Shift K3y feels like the honest continuation of that powerful vibe. “Vibration” is electrifying and uplifting, the kind of jam you can ugly dance to while cleansing your soul.
“This might be one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever put out,” Zanders says. “The message of the song is exactly the kind of music I want to put out into the world. I always write from a space of healing. This is love and vibration, but soul and rave AF!”
It’s a big moment for Zanders, whose booming vocals fit perfectly over Shift K3y’s pumping beat. His songs were some of the singer-songwriter’s favorites when she first got into the electronic scene.
“Through the years by way of my good friend AC Slater, I got to know Shift K3y, and he’s one of the most smoothest, tender and talented dudes in the game,” Zanders says. “Making this track in London came effortlessly and natural. The energy in the room was super high with the help of, my now friend, writer/singer/DJ Alex Mills. We had loads of laughs and fun little kid-like moments that made everyone comfortable to create. I’m so freaking happy this song is out! I hope the world loves it too!” – KAT BEIN
Walker & Royce, Just What the World Needs EP
Brooklyn-L.A. duo Walker & Royce are back on their Rules Don’t Apply label with a new EP, and they didn’t come alone. The EP, a two-tracker called Just What the World Needs, features collaborations with Mindchatter and VNSSA (with whom they previously teamed on “Rave Grave” and “Word”). Mindchatter collab “Same Way Down” goes introspective, with Mindchatter’s airy vocals rising from an abyss of swelling, trance-y synths and a rumbling bassline, while the VNSSA-featuring “Outer Space” aims for 3:00 a.m. afters delirium with driving percussion, trippy lazer-like synths dipped in acid and altered, otherworldly vocals. Just What the World Needs arrives a week before Walker & Royce head out on their U.S. tour, hitting Detroit, Queens, San Francisco and more. — K.R.
Jerry Garcia, “The Wheel” (LP Giobbi Remix)
They say that success is a function of opportunity meeting preparation, and we can’t think of a more apt descriptor for Garcia (Remixed), an official edit of Jerry Garcia‘s 1972 debut solo album from lifelong Deadhead LP Giobbi. Taking on classics like “Deal” and “The Wheel,” the producer — along with fellow psychedelic enthusiasts including DJ Tennis and Le Chev — bring Garcia’s already sublime work to a place of true sunshine daydreams, translating Garcia and The Gratefel Dead for house heads and surely bringing some new fans to the family in the process.
“Getting to remix Jerry Garcia’s entire first album is one of the coolest things I will ever be a part of,” LP says. “Being raised by Deadheads, Jerry felt like a part of my family growing up. I’ve known his voice intimately since the womb and to this day his voice is synonymous with home. Getting to sit in the studio and listen to his creations and pull them apart and appreciate every part of them in a new way was beyond a dream come true. I felt so connected to my family, where I came from and where I’m going through this process.” – K. Bain
Sohmi, “Only One”
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and let the absolutely perfect groove of Sohmi’s “Only One” wash over you like a melodic baptism. The L.A.-based producer/DJ had a massive 2022, and this silky-smooth single released on the artist’s own label, Permission (via Thrive), is a flag in the sand that says Sohmi shall conquer 2023 as well. She also started the year by playing six shows in four cities in one 72-hour period, so perhaps she too needs to sit back, listen to “Only One” and catch some relaxation. This absolutely delicious tune is the second single from Sohmi’s forthcoming EP Recital. Let it soothe your soul with every listen. – K. Bein
Skrillex feat. Bobby Raps, “Leave Me Like This”
Fred again.. may not have a credit on the new Skrillex track, but the fact that he and Skrillex have been spending loads of time together is easily apparent on this one, via the incorporation of Fred’s style of melodic earworm vocals and a general atmosphere of emotional house frenzy. That vibe shifts into full Skrillex gear around the one-minute mark, with a buzzy bass layered over vocals from Minnesota singer Bobby Raps. In a moment of delicious homage, Skrill even samples his own all-time classic “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” with its iconic “OH MY GOD” drop placed into the new song as it moves into its third and most overtly D&B-oriented movement. “Leave Me Like This” is of course the latest in January’s blitz of new Skrillex material, all of which is leading to his first new album in nine years, the release date for which has not yet been announced. — K. Bain
As the 2023 festival season becomes more fully realized with the unfurling of major lineups over the last two weeks, ODESZA has emerged as the summer’s new powerhouse headliner, with top billing at both Bonnaroo and Governor’s Ball.
The Seattle-based live electronic duo will play the ‘Roo alongside fellow headliners Foo Fighters and Kendrick Lamar and at Governors Ball alongside Lizzo and another Lamar performance. These two shows, both in June, will mark the biggest performances of ODESZA’s career — an achievement that’s been in the works since the duo launched back in 2013.
It was then that the pair — Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, along with their manager Adam Foley of Redlight and agent Jay Moss at Wasserman — decided that while the guys made music that fell within the electronic realm, they’d be positioned as a live band rather than DJs. (The guys both play live instruments during their performances, with their huge and often ethereal music blending electronic and analog sounds.)
This strategy set them on a trajectory that eschewed the club sets, Vegas residencies and major dance festivals (like EDC Las Vegas and Tomorrowland) frequented by most electronic producers, and instead put them in hard ticket venues. Over time these spaces grew from 300 to 500 to 2,000 to much bigger capacity rooms.
“We had developed a show more akin to a rock band’s in the sense that we’re rolling in with a bunch of trailers and need space to set it up,” says Foley. “It was, ‘Here’s our world,’ versus us stepping into your world.”
The trick worked, with ODESZA becoming a progressively more beloved act in and beyond the electronic scene — and all without radio hits. Instead, the guys fostered an extremely dedicated fanbase by grinding it out on the road with their dazzling, emotionally resonant live shows played at progressively larger venues and electronic-oriented fests like Electric Forest and Lightning In a Bottle, which both include live acts alongside electronic artists. (ODESZA will again headline Electric Forest this June, along with Florida’s Okeechobee in March.)
As their community expanded, so too did the reach of ODESZA’S output, with their 2014 sophomore album In Return hitting No. 42 on the Billboard 200 and 2017’s A Moment Apart reaching No. 3. (Neither delivered a Hot 100 single.) The two-year A Moment Apart Tour grossed $9.1 million and sold 198,000 tickets across 35 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, ending with a pair of sold out shows at the L.A. State Historic Park, which together sold 40,000 tickets.
“After we did those show,” says Moss, “I was like, ‘We can do [do headlining sets],’ and started having those conversations.”
Moss reached out to major talent buyers including Bonnaroo producer C3 and Governor’s Ball producer Founders Entertainment to “tee up” the idea of ODESZA as major multi-genre music festival headliner, with the idea to “make promoters believe it early on.”
Then COVID hit, and while the live events industry was on hiatus, Mills and Knight were in the studio making their first new album in five years. That LP, The Last Goodbye, was released in July of 2022, with a tour presale three months prior selling 80% of all tickets on the first day — a partial result, Moss says, of pent-up demand for the band given their long absence.
“When that tour went on I was convinced we were a festival headliner,” Moss says.
The Last Goodbye run launched in late July, selling out three nights at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena before hitting amphitheaters across the U.S. This venue format was selected for its ability to offer the level of production required by the technically ambitious show and to offer tickets at a wider price range than typically available at arenas. Catering to the widest possible audience, Foley says, “allowed for us to get everyone in the room, even if they could only pay $25 for a lawn ticket” — a move that ultimately expanded the band’s fanbase even wider.
But in terms of continuing the conversations with Bonnaroo and Governors Ball, Moss knew he had to prove the band’s hard ticket worth, “as we’re not the kind of act that’s on the radio or a huge pop band with all these number one singles,” he explains. “Our strongest asset was that we’re worth a ton of tickets and that the guys’ show is incredible.”
With The Last Goodbye tour selling 395,000 tickets and grossing $25.6 million over 32 shows between July 29-Sept. 27, 2022, according to Boxscore, Moss knew “the business that we did cemented that we were that headliner level of artist.” Thus, when Foley and Moss locked in the Bonnaroo and Governor’s Ball deals, Mills and Knight were impressed, if not surprised.
“I think they’re still still kind of pinching themselves seeing it,” Moss says, “but at the same time, they’ve earned it. They’ve done the work over the last decade to get here.”