Interview
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When Luis Jiménez arrives at the 2024 Latin Grammy Awards ceremony on Thursday (Nov. 14), he will have to play a doubleheader: He will walk the red carpet twice, speak to the same media outlets twice, and perhaps have to split up for the celebrations. The reason? The Venezuelan singer and musician’s two bands, LAGOS and Los Mesoneros, are both nominated this year — and in the same category!
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Both are up for best pop/rock song: LAGOS for “Blanco y Negro” with Elena Rose, and Los Mesoneros for “Diciembre.”
LAGOS is also nominated for best pop song for “Dime Quién.” The pop duo, formed in 2019 by Jiménez and Agustín Zubillaga, already won best pop/rock song last year with Lasso’s “Ojos Marrones,” which they co-wrote. But this time they compete as performers for two songs from their sophomore album Alta Fidelidad, released in May under Warner Music México.
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As for Los Mesoneros, the rock band, active since 2006, had already received a handful of nominations in the past, including for best new artist (2012), best rock album (in 2012 for Indeleble, 2020 for Pangea, and 2021 for Los Mesoneros Live Desde Pangea), as well as best pop/rock song (in 2020 for “Últimas Palabras”). Now they compete with a song from their album Nuestro Año, released in April independently.
“It’s the first time that the bands’ times were synchronized,” Jiménez tells Billboard Español. “When Pangea, Mesoneros’ third album, and Clásico, LAGOS’s debut album, came out, it’s not that it wasn’t challenging — but compared to the size of the projects today, it was too easy.”
He adds: “Now, without a doubt, the challenge is to find the time and the mental state to be able to work creatively and also be able to have those editorial lines separated. It is becoming more and more complicated. But I like a challenge.”
In its 25th anniversary, the Latin Grammys will be broadcast live from the Kaseya Center in Miami on Univision, Galavisión and ViX starting at 8 p.m. (Eastern Time). A few days later, on Nov. 21, Jiménez will perform with Los Mesoneros for the first time at the iconic National Auditorium in Mexico City, where he lives.
Luis, how did you feel when you found out that you were nominated with your two bands in the same category?
A very strange, very particular sensation. Obviously, first and foremost it’s double the joy — “Oh, how crazy, they nominated us!” Then, this was a possible scenario and I didn’t really think much about what I would do if it happened; it was simply: “Well, let’s send all these songs, these albums, and whatever has to happen happens.” Receiving that news was really very nice, it is certainly special for me because for the first time they nominated Los Mesoneros and LAGOS simultaneously, and having that honor of being with all of them in that category is something wonderful.
The two albums came out only a month apart. How has this year been for you?
It’s been a titanic challenge. It really is difficult. I understand why no one does it, because it is very complicated to manage the time, and also to do things with excellence like this, in this format. But I think I’m very lucky and fortunate to have colleagues in each of the projects who support me in everything and who are incredible partners and who have also known how to handle this and help me make everything work out and turn out well, and do it with the standard that we have, and help me survive in the attempt.
Did you record with both bands in parallel? What was this process like?
Actually, thank God it wasn’t parallel, because that would have been very rough. Yes, there was a lot at times in the composition process, like sometimes I was writing with LAGOS and suddenly I went into a lock-out with Mesoneros, but it wasn’t so much that I was one day here and one day there, but rather taking a couple of weeks or a month with LAGOS, and then doing the same with Mesoneros. But the recording was appart. LAGOS recorded Alta Fidelidad about seven months before the Mesoneros album, or at least the second half. Although there were singles there that were sneaking in.
Any particular anecdotes trying to balance things with both groups?
Man, all the time, all the multitasking is crazy. I remember, for example, two or three years ago at the Latin Grammys, I also had to be there both with Mesoneros and LAGOS. LAGOS was there because we were going to play at a Warner party, and Mesoneros was nominated, and I had to go around all over Las Vegas even repeating some interviews — “Ah, is you again!?” And I was like, “Yes, but no.” And well, what’s going to happen now in Miami is going to be quite funny too, because even in the dressing room it’s a challenge. It’s a game of trying to be in two places at the same time. It’s challenging, it’s fun, and well, we’re now talking about that — doing the red carpet twice. It is quite particular.
You started doing rock with Los Mesoneros and then pop with LAGOS. Which genre do you identify with most today?
It’s very difficult to answer that — because it’s as if they’d ask you, “Who do you love more, your mom or your dad?” or “Which child do you love more?” Each one has its own thing and they fulfill me in different ways. Obviously I have always had a rock soul, but even since I was little I have also always been a pop lover. People who know me starting with Los Mesoneros never knew that I had that pop side, but it has always been there, actually. And now with LAGOS, I managed to [get to] that output and place where I can also show that side — but both satisfy me and make me happy in different ways.
As a performer, when you started with LAGOS, how difficult was it to find your own pop sound after years doing rock with Los Mesoneros?
It’s always a challenge and I think that’s the challenge, finding yourself within those scenarios. But I think that LAGOS is very interesting because when it came to light, in 2019, Agustín and I had actually been writing songs for other artists for a while, and making more pop music. And I enjoyed it a lot, it’s just that people didn’t picture it. For me, it was also an adventure to get involved in something that had nothing to do with what I had been doing, but also to discover other facets of myself.
Then, when we launched our LAGOS project, it was time to [ask ourselves], “What is our voice, what is our sound, how do we do it?” And that entailed some research, and a bit of trial and error — but luckily Agustín and I already had that very advanced work chemistry. And in some very crazy way — from Agustín with his set of influences, and me with my more alternative, more rock side — on paper it didn’t have to work, but it worked amazingly. I think that’s what gave LAGOS its identity.
What do your colleagues from both bands say? You’ve said they support you, but now with the nominations, is there any rivalry? Pride? Both?
I truly believe it’s been a miracle. I think that many project colleagues perhaps wouldn’t be able to tolerate such a dynamic — because it’s one thing to do it perhaps alternatingly, but doing it in parallel is a level further. That simultaneity has been the interesting thing, and I think I am seriously too lucky — because they have truly been a great source of support for me. I think they also see the level of dedication and effort and sacrifice that I make to give my 100% to both projects, and in reality they have been allies and are a crucial part of making it work. They are even accomplices.
Now that you have experienced this in parallel this year, is it feasible for you to maintain both bands in the future?
I think we have had to change a lot over time. Like, I have also had to learn to give up many things. I am so neurotic producing, writing, arranging, editing… I have also learned to adapt to growth, and increasingly see where I add more value [by giving] up roles. Yes, I want to continue doing this in parallel. Perhaps obviously now, after this year that has been so intense, we must adapt to delegating more… I think that now the challenge is going to be to get a schedule that’s a little less synchronized, but I do see it as a project that can continue and last longer.
If you win, who do you want to go on stage with to receive the award?
Look, I can leave happy with a scenario in which LAGOS wins in the category that is alone, and Mesoneros wins in the one that includes both. I think everyone ends up happy there. But in reality, whatever has to happen happens. I feel that with so many albums and so much music that comes out every week these days, it’s crazy to be on a list so short, that the Academy considers it one of the five best songs of the genre — and that those five include both bands — for me it’s quite an incredible achievement.
Rome Streetz and Daringer have been Griselda Records’ secret weapons.
Rome, who reps Brooklyn signed to Westside Gunn’s imprint back in July of 2021 and released the impressive album Kiss the Ring. On that project, is a song entitled “Tyson Beckford” where he and the label’s in-house producer Daringer first linked up. They then began working closely together because the Buffalo producer’s Queens studio is a hop, skip, and a jump from Rome’s Brooklyn apartment.
“When I ain’t doing s–t, I go to the studio,” Rome told me in a Billboard conference room. “I was literally there everyday for months just cookin’ up, just vibin’, listening to beats.” Daringer would already be working and he would play Rome beats until one of them caught his attention. “By the time he pulled up, I would have either something started or I would have part of a beat and then I would just be throwing records on until something something landed,” the Griselda beatmaker added.
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What resulted from those sessions is their first collab album Hatton Garden Holdup named after London’s diamond district. Rome spent some of his high school years across the pond and would come back to NYC during school breaks. But it wasn’t until they were out in London doing show’s with Griselda mainstay Conway the Machine that they got the idea for the short film which then turned into them naming the album, and interjecting London-based skits and samples into the final product to bring everything full circle. “It was easy to make that the theme once the movie was part of it,” Daringer said. “I felt like we had to even down to the name.”
The duo came by the Billboard office in midtown Manhattan to talk about the making of the album and the film which included some of Rome’s childhood London friends that he has continued to keep in touch with.
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Check out our talk below.
We might as well start with the short film you guys recently released. How did that idea come about? Like, what made you guys want to do a movie?Where in the process of the album. Did the in the did the idea come about to do it, to do a movie?
Rome Streetz: We were pretty much around 80 percent done with the album once we shot the movie. And it just hit me, like, ‘Yo, we should do a movie. Because [Coach] always wants the videos to be like little movies. Most of the videos Coach directs have kind of like a movie-esque vibe to them. We did “Chrome Magnum,” we did “Shake and Bake.” So, we’re like, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it, I’m saying. And because it’s not a Griselda album or something Westside Gunn is spearheading, we just wanted to do more than you would get from a Griselda album.
That’s what it really was: How can we just turn this sh—t up another level? How can we do something that most motherf—kers in this realm are not doing? Everybody drops the album, one or two music videos, do a couple interviews, drop a tape, CD, vinyl, and then it’s on to the next sh—t. Who’s actually doing a movie?
Hatton Garden is essentially London’s diamond district, there’s British samples from movies and interviews. When did the London theme come about?
R.S.: The London theme honestly, came from the movie. You know, I’m saying, like, once we did the movie. Then we started adding the London sh—t.Daringer: It was easy to make that the theme once the movie was part of it. I felt like we had to even down to the name.
Were you guys out there to perform or were you there specific all to shoot the movie?
R.S.: Earlier in the year, I was out there performing with Conway, and then it just kind of came about like that. And also because I used to live in London when I was a teenager for a couple years, so that was like a throwback to that time.
You were born in London, right?
R.S.: I was born in London, but I came to New York when I was like one. Then I went back to London from like 14 to like 17. It wasn’t for the whole year, I would go to school out there, and when school was done, I’d come back to New York.
You still have family and friends out there?
R.S.: Yeah, I got family, I got friends out there. A lot of my friends are into the same sh—t that we into. I communicate with them all the time: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. So, I was like, how canI incorporate that into what I’m doing? How can we mix this London sh—t. A lot of my homeboys were in the movie. The part when we were in the alleyway talking? None of them were actors, they were all my homeboys.
Daringer, your name is synonymous when it comes to Griselda, so it was cool to see you, be more visible now. Is that something that you want to do moving forward?
D.: Absolutely, especially with me, just like, kind of flourishing more as an artist now too. It was always just me producing behind the scenes for all these years. Now is the time where I need to start moving as an artist. I feel like this was the perfect time to really start being outside and actually being seen. I felt like this was a perfect opportunity for that, for sure.
You guys have been working together since Rome has been with Griselda, but what made you want to do a tape together?
R.S.: We did that one song on Kiss the Ring, “Tyson Beckford.”D: Then he pulled up to my apartment.R.S.: The first song we did was the joint with Cormega.D: Right.R.S.: But Mega wasn’t on it at first. We did that joint, like, ‘This sh—t is hard.’ And what we gonna do? We just kept cooking up. His studio is right by my crib. We kept making stuff and was like, “We got a lot of songs we might is well do an album.”
And you live in Queens now. I guess it made it easier for you guys to kind of connect for this album. Or did that matter?
R.S.: His studio is on the border of Queens and Brooklyn and I live like 5-10 minutes away. When I ain’t doing s—t, I go to the studio, I was literally there everyday for months just cookin’ up, just vibin’, listening to beats.
So, you guys worked on most of the album together? Did you already have a pack of beats or were you making them on the spot as you guys were cookin’ up?
D: I made the majority of them on the spot. Maybe I’d have some drums started by the time he got there, or a sample idea, and I was kind of just trying to figure it out. By the time he pulled up, I would have either something started or I would have part of a beat, and then I would just be throwing records on until something something landed.
You living in Queens makes sense now because one of your first tapes outside of Griselda was with Meyhem Lauren.
D: Yeah, I traveled with Action when I first moved there, worked with Meyhem, getting tight with them, and being able to actually stay in New York now because I’m doing enough things, and then that was when the Shady deal happened. So, luckily I was able to stay in New York, but it’s funny because I didn’t have a studio when we “Tyson Beckford,” I was still just making beats out of my apartment. We made the first song in my apartment, and my goal was to always eventually just get a studio in New York, so it just happened to work out that it was close to where he was living. I feel like that definitely helped out with the whole process, it made things a lot easier.
What I found interesting about this tape was that some of it sounds different from the usual Griselda stuff, especially the track with ScHoolboy Q. I wasn’t expecting that beat to sound like that. Was that on purpose?
R.S.: Honestly, it was just energy. Whatever he was throwing at me. I wasn’t being picky. Daringer is Daringer, so it’s all gonna hit. We’re just gonna make sh—t until we feel like we got what we need. You know, we still got a lot more songs left over. And then the ScHoolboy Q record was so different and he wasn’t on it at first. He happened to tap me on Twitter. I was in the studio with Q, and he heard it, and wanted to get on it. The song that Daringer made for Q was the one that Conway was on. He heard that first, like “Yo, this is fire.”
But then he went to the bathroom, and then the engineer was just like, “Yo, play me some s—t.” So, then I just started playing him songs, and when I played him that one, Q just so happened to walk in the room and was like, “What the f—k is that? This is it. This is the one I wanna get on.” I had a second verse on it, so I had to call Daringer, like, “Oh s—t, yo, I need you to f—king send me this s—t right now without the verse on it. Luckily, I had to beat in my phone. That’s what saved it.
So, you and Q just happened to be in the same studio, or you linked up specifically to chill and record?
R.S.: I did an interview in Portugal when I was on tour and the interviewer asked me who is somebody I would like to work with. think I named, like, three other people, but then I named ScHoolboy Q, so then eventually the interview just ended up on Twitter, and then he seen it, and then he quote tweeted it, like, “Yo, send it.” I hit me back and he was like I could either send him the record or just pull up to the lab. So, I pulled up and went to L.A. That’s how it happened.
I’m always fascinated by this, especially since you guys worked on this together. Today, nobody does that anymore. They send a pack and then you send verses back. Can you tell us the difference between collabing over email versus being in the studio with each other?
R.S.: With me? At one point, I used to feel like I work better on my own time. Sometimes when you in the studio, you get boxed into the time constraints. I used to feel like I’d rather not put my creativity in a time constraint box, like I feel like I work better when I just have my own time. So, a lot of my other s—t was more so just like, you could send me a beat, I’ll cook it up. But this one was more of a challenge. How much can I write on the spot? I hear the beat, I’m going in right there.
I used to think that I write better rhymes outside of the studio, but this pretty much proved to me that it don’t matter, you got the glow. I like this process because it’s more of a stream of consciousness. It’s more of just your energy right then and there. When somebody sends you a pack, you probably write half a verse today and then finish it two days later, and you may not have the same energy.
I like working on the spot because it makes me better, it’s like a challenge. You’re capturing the energy right there. Your creativity dies when you’re too comfortable, you start leaning on s—t. I just feel like I need to challenge myself.D: That was the goal of me getting the studio to begin with. I don’t have control over what happens after I send the beat a lot of times. What helped with this album is that we got to revisit and work on the songs more, I guess, post production, or whatever you like to call it. It’s got to spend more time on the songs and structure them and drops, you know, and just the skits and outros, intros. All that extra stuff that maybe a lot of times I don’t add that when I’m just making.
The bells and whistles, just to make it perfect.
D: The email stuff is always like an unfinished idea that ends up becoming a song. That was definitely the goal of me getting the studio and wanting to make a record like that, and being able to spend the extra time for sure. We got to do the s—t the right way. I’m happy with my investment, just because of that.
Yeah, them all habits die hard. Rome, do you punch in?
R.S.: Nope, at least I try not to. I’m not gonna say I don’t, sometimes you have to for continuity. But the reason why I don’t like to punch in is because if I can’t spit the rhyme straight through, I can’t perform it. If I’m punching in every bar, how’s that gonna translate on the stage? I gotta be able to say the rhyme straight through. I gotta be able to record it in one whole take, if I can perform it.
Yeah, because that’s like the norm now, especially with the younger rappers.
R.S: When you see them on stage, they’re not even f—king rapping. They just let the song play, and they just jumping up and down, ad-libing their own vocals, because they can’t even say the sh—t in one breath because of the fact that they had to punch it.
Was this the first project that you recorded in full there?
D: Yup, it’s personal space. I’m not sharing it with anybody and no one is going in and out besides me. We probably wouldn’t even have that ScHoolboy record had we not been in the studio. Because it was a beat that started with just drums, and me listening to records and not overthinking. It was literally just like the first thing that landed that just sounded good with the drums and then we kind of just built on it. We did a bunch of the records like that.R.S.: Sometimes it’d be better that way. If I wasn’t there, that’ll probably be one he made that he didn’t like. But I heard it and was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what the f—k is that? Sometimes you might just overthink it and be like, “Nah, this ain’t it.” The producer might want to do something, but then the rapper might hear something that the producer don’t hear. It’s like, “Nah, the rhyme could go crazy, right here. Don’t even add nothing. Keep it just like…” You know what I mean? That on the spot, energy is good.
Rome Streetz and Daringer
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How much input did you have on the beats?
R.S.: A lot, but I let Daringer do his thing. As far as the samples, it wasn’t like, “Pick this,” because he’s got 1000s of records. I don’t know what the s—t sounds like until he puts it together. Like, I don’t imagine you.
You work with The Alchemist closely too. He be digging obscure s—t. I’d imagine you do the same.
D: I’ve been on the same wave too. way. So, of course, when we got together, we could share ideas. I never felt like he thought I was gonna come in and just take his ideas either. So we always, somehow didn’t really run into the lot of the same things. We like a lot of the same music, a lot of the same records. But luckily, we didn’t run into too many instances where it was, like, we’re using the same sh—t. Yeah, the approach is a little different.
So, how’s that been for you, man? Now that you moved from Buffalo essentially into the industry for lack of a better term.
D: Not too many producers ever came out of Buffalo. I could only think of one off top that really flourished. Emile Haynie. And he took a different approach. He was doing Lana Del Rey and Mark Ronson. He’s worked on pop records, He did stuff with Ghostface and D.I.T.C. early on. He was around, but he definitely chose the pop route. So for me to be able to come up and stick with this style of rap, it feels dope. I always had the vision, but to actually come out of Buffalo and be able to move to New York City and be able to make a living from it? That was a big accomplishment.
How did you get affiliated with Griselda?
D: It’s crazy, we were bringing up Twitter before. There’s a small underground network that was going on in Buffalo at the time, so if you’re into that scene, we’re all going to run into each other at some point. I was a DJ at the time and I was trying to make beats on the side eventually. I was doing the DJ thing, playing showcases and playing rap records at a spot on Thursdays. I was a little bit younger, so I came in a little late, but I ended up meeting Gunn and Benny, and Gunn ended up just disappearing and then hit me on Twitter years later.
It was pretty much like, “Remember me, I’m about to put out an album. You got any beats?” And I was like, what Do you remember what year it was? 2014? HWH1. And that was the only original record on that tape.The rest of it was just like beats that he got, that he picked, that were already produced songs. That was the first one that we did, “Mess Hall Talk.” It was a little bit faster than a lot of the stuff that we would do down the line too.
He had the idea to start slowing the s—t down. Naturally, when we start pitching the music down, everything gets slower. I didn’t have Ableton and certain things at the time to maintain the tempo. That’s kind how the records and beats started getting slower, like 70 bpm, 60 bpm, type stuff. And he was coming from Atlanta at the time too, so you could tell there was some influence there. He kind of wanted to blend in the A with this type of rap, but with these tempos, with the samples pitched down, and it sounds like some chopped and screwed s—t.
Man, that makes sense. I never put those things together.
D: At least, I feel that way. That maybe was part of the reason why we were pitching it down to a certain speed. Also him still living there. Conway spent a bunch of time there. Benny spent a bunch of time there, so really Atlanta had a big influence on the whole s—t, surprisingly. The fact that he would travel all the way from Atlanta to Buffalo, he would drive a lot of times too. That’s not an easy drive. They would come to my apartment at the time, we recorded everything in my living room. Eventually, Conway stayed with and we started working on Reject 2. We ended up making two full records because he was staying with me the whole time. Looking back, making all that in my living room at the time was crazy, and the fact that Gunn was taking all these trips back and forth from the A to lock in made it even more special.
What else you got going on or planned. Anything you could talk about?
R.S.: I got an album with Conductor — probably two albums worth of music. I got sh—t with V Don. I got s—t with Muggs, Futurewave. I did a mixtape with Real Bad Man. I got a lot of sh—t.D: I want to do a compilation featuring a bunch of different artists on it. That’s always been a thing that I wanted to do. I think I’m going to end up doing a couple of them and make a series out of it. I got music with Meyhem still, so we’re probably gonna do a follow up. Maybe one day me and Bronson will do a full length. I did a handful of the records on that last album. So hopefully one day we could tap in and do a full length. Reject 2 is turning 10, so maybe Reject 3 with Conway in the next year or two. I’m really just focusing on me as an artist.
I’m sure you want to show off your versatility, because I think you kind of did that with this tape.
R.S.: One thing I can say, when it comes to picking the beats, I was purposely steering away from certain type of beats only because fans are used to hearing that. it’s like one No, rather than being a whole album, I kind of knew what to expect, but then the project was still about to surprise me.D: We definitely worked on the sequence for a while and put that puzzle together. I feel like, once we got the songs in a specific order, we were able to start adding the skits and gluing it all together.R.S.: That’s the one benefit of working with one producer. You’re able to make all the songs flow into each other. I’m not saying you can’t do it with multiple producers, but it’s a little bit more difficult. You would literally have to get all of them people in the room at the same time to orchestrate that.
Why do you like working with one producer?
R.S.: I like to do one producer because it’s just cohesive. Sometimes when you have a bunch of different producers on one tape, you can’t really get a lot of the post production. I’m a fan of post production. Sometimes when I get beat and rap over it, when I play the song back, it sounds totally different. It’s easier to make intros and outros. If I’m getting packs all day, it’s harder to get 10 different producers to agree on the overall sound. One producer might like the mix on it, but then the other three might not like it, so then you gonna have to re-mix that song to go with that song.It could get crazy. I like working with one producer because you can kind of maximize the sound. You can get the most out of it, the producer can sit with it.
You should’ve did a British accent on one of the songs.
R.S.: [Laughs.] I probably have to go back to London for a couple years to get that sh—t down pat.
Were there any British movies or TV shows that inspired the samples and skits? I know the short was inspired by Snatch.
R.S.: Probably that that interview with the road man, that s—t funny as hell.D: I watched things like Layer Cake to get the gist of it which sent me into a rabbit hole. There was a few joints from the ’70s that I was hoping to sample, but basically just ended up watching them to catch a vibe. We used something on “Starbvxkz” that we added at the last minute, pretty much when we were doing the video. Definitely some influence there.
You guys planning on going on tour? London definitely has to be a stop, right?
R.S.: They’re not going to let me live if I don’t. That’s the main place that I have to do a show.
With its first Latin Grammy nomination, the Mexican rock trio The Warning crowns 2024 as a great year after several proven achievements. The group’s latest album, Keep Me Fed, consolidated the Villarreal Vélez sisters on the international scene; in addition, it managed to debut on multiple Billboard charts, and embarked on an ambitious tour through Europe and the U.S.
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Furthermore, Paulina Villarreal received the Drumeo Award for the best rock drummer, at only 22 years old.
“These achievements are the reaffirmation that as a Mexican I can also make a rock band and I can take it internationally,” Paulina says excitedly to Billboard Español. “It doesn’t have to stay only in my country, only in my community; I can explore new facets, meet new people, and I can have an international career. And for us to have achieved this, sometimes we don’t believe it!
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Their first Latin Grammy nomination, in the category of best rock song for the single “Qué Más Quieres”, represents a significant achievement in the history of the group –- also made up of vocalist and guitarist Daniela Villarreal and bassist Alejandra Villarreal — as it symbolizes the pride of singing in Spanish, their native language.
The Warning’s repertoire is mostly in English, their second language, since the band is originally from Monterrey, a city bordering the U.S.
“Singing in Spanish has always been fundamental to our musical and personal identity, and this nomination celebrates our dedication to keeping that connection with our roots alive,” Daniela says.
“Qué Más Quieres” was co-written by Anton Curtis Delost, Far and Crosses guitarist Shaun López, Kathryn Ostenberg, Mónica Vélez and The Warning. In it, the band captures the strength and energy that characterizes it.
The single is included on Keep Me Fed, The Warning’s fourth full-length album, recorded in Monterrey and released at the end of last June. In the words of the band’s vocalist: “It is the result of our rawest emotions and the most meaningful connections with the people we have met and worked with in recent years.”
With Keep Me Fed, The Warning has established itself on the international rock scene, debuting on a variety of Billboard charts, including No. 1 on Emerging Artists, No. 2 on Top Rock Albums, No. 4 on Top Hard Rock Albums and No. 6 on Top Album Sales. On sharing a rock band as sisters, Daniela says that it has been a pleasant experience, with many funny and enjoyable moments.
“Obviously sometimes we argue, but we work very well together,” she says. “We started music from a very young age, so we grew up with a mentality of taking care of ourselves and knowing how to work together for the goals that we want to achieve for all of us. We are very attentive to taking care of ourselves and our feelings.”
Recently, The Warning performed in October at the 2024 Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, California, where the group shared the bill with icons from the metal scene such as Iron Maiden, Pantera, Slipknot and Mastodon. They also opened shows for Evanescence in Canada.
In Mexico, tickets for their Feb. 6 and 11, 2025 shows at the capital’s Auditorio Nacional sold out in 48 hours. They will also perform on Feb. 13 at the Telmex Auditorium in Guadalajara, and on Feb. 22 in Monterrey, at the Citibanamex Auditorium.
Westside Gunn once considered slowing down.
In recent years, the Buffalo-native has suffered the loss of family and friends, many of whom were his biggest supporters over the course of his life and career. Last October, he told Rolling Stone that he was considering stepping away from music and no longer making traditional albums. He said that he wanted to get back to “dumping.”
In the underground rap scene, “dumping” is the act of continuously releasing projects. It allows artists to get creative with the pricing of their projects or feature exclusive merch and perks. Dumping also allows independent acts to make a living by releasing a torrent of material that they could then perform on tour.
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Gunn doesn’t have to release music to make a living anymore, but the act of dumping helped him be more creative at a time when he was feeling down. Then there were rumors and narratives surrounding his Griselda collective as he, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher were seemingly going their separate ways professionally and creatively. Lately, Gunn has been focusing on his pro wrestling company, Fourth Rope, but still believes his brother (Conway) and his cousin (Benny) have to come back together to remind people what Griselda is really about.
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To begin jogging the rap world’s memory, Gunn decided to drop two projects this week. First, he released the five-song EP entitled 11. Narrated by Buffalo street legend Sly Green, the EP is dedicated to his brother Big Dump, who was killed in April of this year. Then, he dropped Still Praying, a mixtape that he’s been teasing for some months that’s hosted by DJ Drama.
Gunn stopped by the Billboard offices in NYC for a long conversation about legacy, family, wrestling, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You said in an interview that you were going to stop making studio albums. You linked with DJ Drama to make this feel like more of a mixtape. What’s the difference between a mixtape and an album these days?
I feel like it’s different energies. Like, say for instance, people take a year to make an album because they’re developing the sound and getting shit together, and they might be going through 500 songs to pick the best 20 and all of that shit. I feel like the mixtape energy is one or two days just bang them shits out. Whatever you spit is just, that’s what it is. All my shit like that, though, because I don’t take no time to make none of my albums. So it’s kind of different for me. It’s all the same.
Yeah, that’s why I was curious because you already spoke on that and have that reputation.
I did 11 in one day. I did Still Praying in one day.
On And Then You Pray for Me, you had a mix of some trap beats and were trying to go in a different direction, to show some versatility. Still Praying, though, sounds more like traditional Griselda that people are used to.
That’s the thing. It’s not even like I do s–t purposely. It’s just the energy of that moment. When I made And Then You Pray for Me, I was at Paris Fashion Week, having fun every night, not coming in until its broad daylight. We had party after party after party. It was a vibe. That’s just where I was at in life at that moment, so you got that energy. But where I’m at right now artistically, and where I’m at in life, and just how I feel — it’s me, but it’s new energy. I don’t want to kind of sound corny on some reborn s–t, but it’s like Fly God and now it’s Super Fly God, for real [Laughs].
I told motherf–kers, can’t nobody f–k with me on almost every album since day one. But now it’s like, I know it. I went from telling y’all that shit, to now when you fast-forward and I’m more mature and been in the game and know who’s who and know who did what. It’s confirmed. I know it. I’ve been doing fashion, I’ve been doing wrestling, I’ve been doing art, I’ve been doing a lot of other things, but I was like, “Yo, let me just step back and let n—as know what time it is,” and I cooked back-to-back projects. So, that’s just where I’m at right now, like, “Man, put a beat on, and another one, and another one.” Now we’re five songs in type s–t. I can make an album every day right now.
You said that you wanted to get back to dumping. That’s what you guys were doing when you first came out, dropping a mixtape every other month.
Yeah, because people trying to rewrite history and forget who Griselda is. Griselda n—as fathers in the first place. I think with Conway doing what he doing by himself, and Benny doing what he’s doing by himself, and when they look at me — I’m at Fashion Week and I’m front row at wrestling events — n—as forget who Griselda is in the first place. I never said we were the first people to do it, but nobody took the s–t to this level like Westside Gunn and Griselda.
Nobody was on they fly s–t, nobody had big jewelry, nobody was able to f–king take care of their family. We showed you the blueprint of how to take this underground s–t to making money. Because before that n—as were still sleeping at their aunt’s house, and living tape to tape. I’m telling you, I know what time it is. All this vinyl s–t, all this s–t everybody doing, their whole blueprint came from Westside Gunn and Griselda. We showed y’all the way. It ain’t no other underground MC you could think of that paid two million cash for a house and I did that four years ago. I showed n—as the way.
But again, everybody started doing their own separate thing and living their lives that it went away from the music. When you go away from the music, now you got this man coming in and this man coming in, but they taking the formula. It ain’t even they formula, they just taking it, so in they mind now, they thinking they iller than us. I’m telling you, it’s crazy. I see a lot of these dudes, they got the arrogance like they them boys, I literally look at them like they my sons. The album is dope, but you my son.
Right now it’s back to the music. I’m talking to Benny, I’m talking to Conway, we all family. When you with somebody for 30 plus years of your life, sometimes you take a year or two away, but it’s okay because we’re real family. If anything happened to any one of us, I bet you we’re gonna be the first people there, or if anything happened in the family, we all gonna be there. It’s just everybody grown men, and we just had our little time where everybody was doing their own thing. But now it’s back to Griselda time starting now.
So, it was important for you to have them on this tape.
Yeah, because I gotta let people know this sh—t is forever. People always thought we was gonna break up. They always wanted that. People love the division because we really strong as f–k. Who knows what it would’ve been right now? I don’t regret nothing because everybody learned to be better men, too. You gotta learn from your mistakes. We from Buffalo, we never had anything, nobody taught us s–t. When you got dudes coming in the game now and getting the money, the fame, you from a city nobody never came from. Now your friends might be in your ear. We done went through it all, but now we realized, like, “Yo, we family and can’t nobody f–k with us.” We about to start working on What Would Chine Gun Do 2. We back on it. It’s Griselda Time.
Technically, Conway isn’t signed to Griselda anymore, right? But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be making music together.
I’ma tell you like this. When we did the whole situation, it was never about money. Of course, I had Griselda Records the company, but I never looked at it as I’m the big dog when they signed to me. I promise you, man, as much money as I made off Conway in my entire life, I probably couldn’t buy my left or right wrist. I’ve never made no money off Conway. I got a couple dollars off that Shady deal, but I got a leather coat that cost more money than I made off Conway’s Shady deal. I’ve never made no money off Conway. He got 100 percent of his merch, 100 percent of his music, 100 percent of his shows — I’ve never taken a dollar from Conway, except for 20 percent of the Shady deal. There was a narrative out there that looked crazy for a minute, but I’m never gonna speak on nothing because I know it ain’t true, there’s nothing to speak on, and this is my brother, and we really know what’s going on.
If there was tension, he wouldn’t be on this project.
There was never no tension, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. People think that s–t. We can’t have people thinking that we ain’t making music together no more.
Does the creative in you wish they would let you executive produce some of the projects they did elsewhere?
No, they’re men. Where they at and where they energy at might not require Westside Gunn and that’s okay. But guess what? I didn’t look at that as like, “Oh, they saying, ‘F–k me, I’ll never work with them again.’” I’m looking at it as, they’re learning, they’re building and growing. How they going to be the best them trying to just be under me? They not going to know until they be like, “Okay, well, you know what? Damn, maybe it is better that we come back together,” whatever the case may be. We’re always learning and we never had nobody to teach us this s–t. We’re family.
It was never about money. I never said nothing about them. It wasn’t no pillow talk. It was never nothing. Sometimes we gotta go our separate ways and take time off.
It felt like you were focused more on yourself on Still Praying. Usually you’ll have a bunch of features scattered throughout, where as this time around the features started at the end.
Mind you, I made it all in that day, so I was just dumping — it’s not like they in the room with me. So that’s why Drama says, “Can’t forget the family.” The album was done, but I had to call them so I can get a verse real quick, because I’m not about to drop it without them. I sent it to Conway, Benny, and Stove. Then the joint I did with Rome, we did at Statik’s studio.
Would you rather be together in the studio? Does it really matter?
Nah, don’t matter, as long as we paint the picture — but I do prefer us cooking together in person, that’s my favorite thing to do, because that’s a part of my curation. When we did WWCD, we did it together. When we did that album with Shady, we did that in a day and a half. Both my Shady albums combined — Who Made the Sunshine and WWCD — I made both those studio albums, quote, unquote, in four days. I literally rap maybe six, seven days out of the year.
So the beats that you pick are what? Are they being made there, or sitting in a pack?
I got ’em. I got enough beats to last the rest of my career.
This is like Daringer, The Alchemist, Conductor? They send you beats all the time?
Yeah, everybody. Pete Rock, Preemo, Swizz, all the big boys and the illest underground ones too right now, tucked because I’m a curator. I got hundreds of Conductor beats.
So, when you’re ready to work you open up a folder and start going in?
As soon as I get a pack, I narrow them down. I listen to all the packs, but then I sing to a certain folder, so then I’ll go back to that folder. There’s a science with my s–t. So, then I go to the sound. Like, “Okay, who got this sound? Matter of fact, yeah, this s–t would be crazy if I get a Swizz beat. Let me see what’s the hardest Swizz I got. Aight, boom. Well, you know what I don’t got? Uncle Al, let me check on my Uncle Al batch. This project needs Al.” I just bounce around like that as part of the curation process. When I did Nacksaw with Estee Nack, we did it in person. Pray for Haiti with Mach, we did it in person. Armani Caesar Liz 1 & 2, we did it in person. I work quick, so if you’re ready to work, we going to work. When you cooking with Westside Gunn, be ready, because we’re making your album in two days.
Do you have a pack of RZA beats? I was telling my boss that I was interviewing you and he wanted me to ask if you were planning on working with the RZA more. He listens to “House of Glory” from the last tape all the time.
Yeah, that’s my s–t. I would love to. I wanna put RZA on WWCD2 because Griselda on a RZA beat is history, and that’s what I’m saying. Me, personally, I don’t know how long I’m gonna do this for. I went from saying, “F–k this sh—t” to “I got another three in me.” But I also got kids, and I also want to raise my babies. I also do my wrestling s—t, my fashion s—t, so I got other things to keep me occupied.
Yeah, but you’re an artist, too — so sometimes you gotta make some music.
Yeah that’s why it’s never planned with me. Once I get the urge, I make the project right on the spot.
That’s why with the album thing, you don’t want to be beholden to a release schedule.
I might be saying something that just literally happened right now, where it’s like, if it dropped three months from now, it doesn’t even make sense. When I’m ready to drop everybody scrambles for a week or two. Even with this project, there’s only been social media posts as of right now. Hasn’t been no street presence, no Internet presence, no singles, no videos, no nothing.
I don’t think it’s on here, but you did a theme song for TNA? “Chocolate Face” with DJ Khaled.
That’s gonna be on Flygod Is an Awesome God 3. That album is a whole ‘nother juggernaut. This how everything came together: Awesome God 3 was done and I thought it was a masterpiece. And this was the best way for Westside Gunn to come back on the scene and basically have the Album of the Year. When I was finishing Awesome God 3, I went to Paris to go mix and master it, but I couldn’t get my sessions because my engineer was in Africa, and our communication was off, so now I got studio time. I left my family, flew out to Paris to do this work, what I’m gonna do? So, I made Still Praying while I was out there. Now I went from about to mix and master one album to making a new one.
So I was like, let me have Drama hop on this to give it that mixtape feel; just me dumpin’. You could hear the hunger, and it just reminded me of Ski Mask Westside Gunn. My whole career, I drop something around Halloween. I wanted to keep the tradition, but I wanted to cook something totally different. I wanted 11 to be totally different from Still Praying. I wanted the EP to be more slow and soulful, more personal. And not to get too deep, because I really don’t even want to talk about 11 because 11 is very personal to me; people might listen to it like it’s just music, but it’s not just music to me.
My brother got killed in April, and you got him on the cover, and it says “Free Sly… for Big Dump.” When you dig deeper into that project, Sly got life, and my brother got killed, and these are two people that’s key in my life that I probably will never get to see again. Sly is optimistic, but he may never come home. I had Sly narrate 11, so people actually get to hear a different side to him. In Buffalo, Sly Green is like John Gotti to us.
Sly is the OG in Buffalo like a Bumpy Johnson?
The biggest of the biggest. American Gangster, A&E, History Channel documentary, Don Diva covers, like the real deal. It don’t get no more gangster than Sly Green. Everyday you see him, he’s in a suit and tie. If his movie came out, it’d be one of the illest of all time. He got his law degree and has been spending his whole time in prison trying to get other kingpins home. He’s was able to get the four life sentences off him, so now he has the 110 years, and he already served 33. You can hear the optimism in his voice on the project. I hope he do come home. You hear him on there talking for the first time, for real, for real, saying what he’s saying. You hear my brother, I got a voicemail with him. Keisha Plum couldn’t even finish her poem. She cried the whole time writing it. It took her forever to lay the poem down.
It’s a project I never did before. It’s a quick five-piece, but the five pieces are very special. This is so over heads that they don’t even understand what they even listening to. Not knowing my brother just got killed in April, not knowing Sly is one of the biggest gangsters of all time. I used that picture of my brother showing me something. We were always ahead of the game, that’s all we did was study, just wanting to be one up on everybody. I made it for everybody to enjoy, but it’s something that’s harder for me to listen to.
Recording that was like a cathartic thing. You had to get your emotions out.
It’s hard for me to even post the cover. This is something I still deal with every day. I done lost our DJ, Shay. I lost my aunt Michelle who raised me my whole life. I lost my granddad six months before her in the same year. I bought ‘Chelle a house and gave her the money for the furniture, and she never even got a chance to get the furniture. People don’t understand the pain I’ve been going through the last three, four years.
With all the stuff that you’ve been through with your family and even with Virgil passing, did you have to find a new energy to help get you out of depression.
That’s why music really wasn’t a big factor. I focused so much on wrestling because wrestling is my safe zone. Me sitting front row is my therapy. If it wasn’t for wrestling, I’d probably be dead or in jail. I’d be losing my mind feeling lost. My influences and all the people that’s key and instrumental in my life and who I feel were my biggest fans and my biggest supporters, I’ve lost. It’s f–ked up, because when you lose so many people, you start getting a paranoia.
That sh—t is scary, bro. You start to think about your mortality.
That’s where I’ve been at, you know? That’s why I say, before it’s all said and done, we can’t let motherf–kers rewrite our history. We can’t let Griselda go out shaky. We gotta let n—as know, this s–t was the illest.
You plan on putting out a tape called Michelle? You’ve shouted that name out and refer to Michelle Records a lot.
Michelle Records is me and Stove together.
So is it a group or a tape? Stove God is affiliated with Griselda, but he’s not signed officially, right?
He don’t gotta be [signed], he is Griselda. I’m actually going to executive produce his Babygrande album.
Another name I wanted to bring up is Mach-Hommy. You brought up Pray for Haiti earlier. Can you speak on why you guys haven’t worked together again?
It ain’t no issue. We literally just hugged each other four days ago. We’re going to make another one. It’s about timing. Even with WWCD2, they’ve been wanting to do it, but they also had their time to shine all year, too, and I didn’t. Can I get mine? [Laughs.] Benny hit me like, “Buz, when we starting? Conway hit me, “Bro, when we starting?” But it’s like, “Yo, like, can I get my rocks off, man? Y’all had yours, let me get mine off and then we going to do that.”
And then I also want to get that out the way, respectfully, because then I want to focus on what me and Stove got going on. But then guess what? I can come back and cook with Mach, I can come back and cook with Estee Nack, the people that I love cooking with.
On Saturday, Nov. 2, you’re doing something in Chicago with your wrestling company Fourth Rope. Can you talk about that a bit?
Fourth Rope comes from me being front row at every WrestleMania, every Royal Rumble, every Survivor Series, every Summer Slam, every Double or Nothing, every Full Gear. I’m at three wrestling events this week. I just left Detroit for TNA’s pay-per-view, and I leave here tomorrow to go to AEW Dynamite in Cleveland. So, me being front row, I say I am the fourth rope because there’s three ropes on the ring and I’m front row.
The first party we had was during WrestleMania, we sold out TLA in Philly. The second one we did the same thing, House of Blues in Cleveland during Summer Slam. This weekend we had the opportunity to throw our matches and make it about us and not piggybacking off Summer Slam or WrestleMania. And I picked Chicago because I go there to see more pay-per-views than anywhere else and every rap show I’ve ever had in Chicago sold out, too. I figure I mix both worlds, I already know what it’s gonna do. Illinois period is a big wrestling state and Chicago is a wrestling city.
You have your own wrestlers and everything?
Not only do I have my own wrestlers, but I have the best wrestlers in the world. I have the wrestlers from TNA. I have the TNA champ. I have Moose, Jordan Grace, Mike Santana from TNA. We also have a no-holds-barred steel cage match with the Death Match legend Nick Gage. We got the legend MVP that was with WWE, he’s our commissioner. They got the whole Usos thing going on right now with The Bloodline. So for the championship, we got Moose versus Zilla Fatu. We got a piece of The Bloodline too. We also got DJ Premier and Pete Rock. All of this sh—t is for $60, bro.
How did you meet AA Rashid? The first time I heard of him was on your albums. Sometimes, I’ll listen to a track of him talking like its a song. It reminds me of Popa Wu.
It’s crazy how I met him, because I was hustling. I had some work on a Mega Bus, taking my trips, doing what I’m doing. I was hustling still when I did HWH 1 & 2, and all of that, nobody really knew who I was yet. I was only out of the Feds for two years, I was just on my chill sh—t. I was still on my papers hustling, you know? Grinding. I was getting off in Atlanta and AA was on the bus, and I had just did HWH 2 with the Chanel ski mask on the cover. Griselda Records comes from Griselda by Fashion Rebels, so I was already designing. The jacket I had was a Griselda bomber and he was looking at it like, “That sh—t crazy.”
He was going to see his daughter or something and we started kicking it during the stop before Atlanta. He said he was into fashion too and designed and that he had some friends in the music industry. So, once we got off I handed him a copy of HWH 2 with the Chanel ski mask. If you see that Chanel ski mask cover for the first time, especially back then, it was like, “Yo, what the f—k is this?” He said, “Yo, this you? I’ma play this for some friends,” and come to find out his friend was Planet Asia. This started with me meeting AA on that Mega Bus on the way to Atlanta. Planet Asia then played the CD for The Alchemist.
That’s how you got on the radar.
Exactly, and Planet Asia is cool with Hus Kingpin, so Hus was out there and I had never been to L.A. in my life. I’m an Eastside Buffalo n—a, we never had no opportunities. Buffalo n—as never really leave Buffalo. I took the opportunity to go out there and link with these n—as.
Has it been hard to go to Toronto because of your past?
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I’m going to try again soon. I was recently in Toronto to check out Raekwon’s Purple Factory.
Speaking of Raekwon, I was gonna bring up if you would ever consider executive producing an album with him and Ghostface?
Of course, just last month it was brought up. I’ve talked to Rae and Ghost about it, and I talked to Jada about it. Them the only people I’ve ever came to and was like, “Yo, I want to do this for y’all.” A Rae and Ghost by me and a Jadakiss by me would be legendary. I wanna do something with Nas too. There’s a mutual respect with them.
I’m sure you guys remind them of themselves.
Rae has been in Buffalo with us. He’s shown us love since day one. Prodigy was a big supporter early, too. Prodigy used to come to Buffalo and f—k with us on his own since day one. I done visited Prodigy in this hospital bed. Sean Price, rest in peace, was a supporter, as well. You know, I have songs with Sean Price, Prodigy, MF DOOM, and DMX. A lot of people can’t say that. Dolph was my favorite rapper, that was my dream collab.
It’s refreshing to discover new artists in this day and age. The Internet has essentially blurred the lines between what constitutes as underground these days, and depending on who you’re talking to, one can make the case that the world wide web has replaced the underground scene in hip-hop completely with social platforms like TikTok being critical to new music discovery.
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Enter Laila!, the teenage Brooklyn phenom with rap royalty coursing through her veins. The daughter of Yasiin Bey (formally knowns as Mos Def), her songs “Like That” and “Not My Problem” went viral before the masses really knew what she looked like. It wasn’t until she performed the songs on YouTube shows On the Radar and From the Block, that we really got a chance to put a face to the music we kept hearing on social media. She sings, raps, writes, and produces everything herself and her stage presences isn’t half bad either.
Last month, Laila! performed her first headlining show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, a place that’s earning the reputation as the first venue to catch your favorite up-and-coming artist. The place was packed to the brim and featured a diverse crowd of all races, ages, and creeds coupled with an infectious energy in the air as we all waited for her to hit the stage. She ran through the hits, but also performed some cuts from her earlier work featured on her In Ctrl! EP that fans in the crowd seemed to know the words to. There was also a part of the show where she reminded me of her father.
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In the middle of her set, Laila! brought out the keyboard and started jamming out and singing. Yasiin did something similar in back in 2010 during his Martin Luther King Day Weekend performance at the Highline Ballroom. During the middle of his performance, Bey hopped on the drums and started jamming out, too. I don’t know, it just felt like a surreal, full circle moment. “That’s sweet,” she said when I brought it up during our talk. “I get anxious, but I like being on stage. I like showing people that I’m versatile.” And versatile she is, all you have to do is check out her debut album Gap Year! if you haven’t already.
We talked about a wide range of topics including her freestyling with her father and Jay Electronica in Puerto Rico when she was just a kid. Hopefully, that footage will be released from the vaults one of these days. Maybe for the documentary.
Check out our chat with Laila!, October’s Rookie of the Month, below.
I went to your show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, so I want to lead off with that. Tell me about that experience, because you seemed nervous at first, but you did pretty good for it being your first headlining show.
Yeah, I was definitely really nervous. I always get really nervous before I got on stage. I don’t know what it is, I just get super anxious. But then when I saw everyone’s energy and how excited they were to be there, it was just really beautiful. It was special for me, so I kind of was able to calm down and give them a good show.
I was impressed because people knew the words to songs that were relatively new.
That was the most insane part to me. Just to hear them, not even just singing the most popular songs, but the other ones too. It was just insane. It was very big for me. It was also my first time ever in front of my own audience, people that really came specifically to see me. It was really special. I was able to take pictures with some of them and sign stuff. And it was just really sweet. It was the sweetest thing ever.
I’m assuming you had a lot of family and friends there too because it was a packed house, and you could tell some people were family.
I had some people from my high school, my tías [my aunts] were there. Like, just everybody. But then there were kids with their parents and it was the cutest thing ever. It felt very supportive.
You mentioned your “tías” and you had a voicemail of your grandmother Mami Nelly on your album telling you how proud she is of you. Are you Dominican or Puerto Rican? The Caribbean delegation is looking to claim you.
Yeah, she has a thick accent. I’m Dominican and African-American. My mom is Dominican and my dad is from here. My accent comes out sometimes [Laughs.]
Your sister Sani DJ’d your show and she killed it. Is that the same sister that was freestyling about you not wanting to go to school on your album?
Yeah, it was so funny because me and my sister put the whole show together. We rehearsed for like two weeks and put everything together, and we literally did not even think about doing the freestyle song live. We didn’t even think about that. Looking back, we should’ve done it, but we were so focused on making sure everything was right. Definitely a learning experience, but it was also very fun doing the show with her.
I liked her set. She was playing U.K. garage and jungle, some Jersey Club, and mainly dance music. I know you mentioned Brent Faiyaz, Frank Ocean, Solange and SZA — these are people that you listen to a lot — but what are some other genres or artists that you also listen to and draw inspiration from?
I really like jungle music, too. My sister Sani introduced me more to like jungle music because she’s a DJ. She has such a broad taste in music. I feel like she’s kind of helped me in that aspect where she’ll play really good club tracks from forever ago, or a lot of old mixes. The thing that’s really cool about it is you can find a mix and sometimes it’s just specific to that period of time or that specific DJ, so you can’t find that same version of the song anywhere else, which is kind of cool about garage music or jungle music.
You could hear a song that you like and then hear a part of it that you’ve never heard before, and it’s only specific to that remix. I listen to jungle, I listen to a lot of Budgie. He does sample flips. He’s mad cool, and I found him on SoundCloud, but he does like stuff like that. I also listen to a lot of older ICYTWAT beats when I’m trying to get into a hype mood.
His song “Shirt” is one of the greatest songs ever. I still play some ICYTWAT’s Soundcloud remixes and mixes.
I listening to his older stuff, those are my favorite albums from him, like Fubu vs. Twat any ICYTWAT Radio.
He’ll have some ill flips too, like he’ll remake songs and s–t like that.
I love listening to all kinds of flips. Also, I just be playing my SoundCloud, it just be playing shit. Like once you play a song, it’ll keep recommending really good stuff.
Do you have any flips or remixes that you have in the stash?
I certainly do, and I used to post them on TikTok. So like, some of the real OG people that follow me, they’d be like, “Where’s this flip? Where’s the Aaliyah flip? You need to post this.” And I’m like, “Yo, the fact that they remember that is so insane because they’ve been around for a minute.” I have so many that I want to put out.
You were working the crowd and it was crazy when you started playing the keyboard. Is the piano the only instrument that you know how to play?
I would say officially, yes. When I was younger, I used to be in band like in elementary school and stuff like that. And the first instrument that I learned was the trumpet. My mom was a teacher, so they had a steel pan band. So I would like, go there and play steel pan sometimes. But then, yeah, I think piano was like the first instrument that I learned that really stuck with me. I feel like it’s the basis for everything that I produce, or everything that I make. But I’m not classically trained, and I really want to learn, so hopefully that’s something I build on in my future.
When you were on the keys and Juan was on the guitar, that was my favorite part of the whole show.
I think that was probably one of my favorite parts as well, because it was just so special. And when I was putting together the show, and thinking about what I wanted, I was like, I have to have Juan come and do “Talent Show.” We made this song together, and it’s so special to me. And to hear people singing along was even more insane for me.
The show felt like a New York show before the pandemic. There used to be shows with that energy all the time in the city. It was interesting to experience. You and Cash Cobain have NYC on lock right now. The city is behind you guys.
Yeah, I love that. That’s so sweet. That’s all I ever wanted to do. Whenever I talked to my team about doing a show, ,all I wanted was it for just to feel like good vibes, comfortable, just very familial so everyone could enjoy themselves in a good environment. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. So I’m glad that it felt that way.
So, you taught yourself how to play the piano and the keyboard. What do you use when you make beats? Any programs or drum pads?
More often than not, I’m actually just using the keys on the keyboard because it’s easy and it’s simple for me, but then a lot of times I also just use my MIDI keyboard that I could just put into my computer, and then I’ll just play like that. And yeah, it has beat pads on it too, which is cool, because you can do fun little stuff there. If I wanna play the drums, and maybe don’t wanna use the keyboard, I can use that.
Do use a program like Fruity Loops or something?
I use GarageBand, it’s very helpful. There’s so much good stuff on there that I feel people tend to overlook.
You know when you’re young and growing up, you don’t always know what your parents do for a living. Were you always musically inclined, like even before you knew what your father did for a living?
Yeah, it was just always a part of me. My mom has videos of me just singing and doing all this stuff, and I was like, a little, little kid. I wasn’t at the age where I knew what my dad did. The moment I could form words, I think I was singing and dancing and doing all that stuff. I don’t know a life without music, or making music.
When did it really click for you, though, where you wanted to take music seriously? Angela Yee mentioned in an interview with that you were in Puerto Rico freestyling with your father and Jay Electronica, when you were really young — which, I wish there was audio or a video of this. I wanna hear this freestyle.
I feel like my mom probably has a video [laughs]. I think it wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school. I always wanted to make music and have that be my career. That was always my plan. I was like, ‘I’m gonna get out of school and then I’m gonna start making music and, you know, whatever.’ But I was always so shy and so nervous about it, and I just didn’t really know what I was doing. So, at certain point I had to stop being so afraid and follow my passion do what it is that I feel like I love to do the most. I put out my first song, and that’s kind of where it all began.
So this was when you’re 16, right? When you made “Like That.” Do you feel like you’ve gotten better since then already?
I think I’ve definitely gotten a lot better. I don’t know how to explain it, but once you make something, you’ve sat with the feelings, you felt the way that you felt, you’ve written the lyrics, and then once you release it and it’s out there, it’s kind of like, OK, I don’t necessarily have those same feelings or I’m not the same person. It’s almost like a release. You know what I mean? I don’t know. So I feel like, when I look back at “Like That,” it was a period of time in my life, but now I’m moving on, and I’m growing up, and with everything that I make, it feels like I’m growing up a little bit more.
So yeah, I think that the stuff that I’m making now versus “Like That,” I think it it shows my growth in that sense, even just as a person, maybe not so much like sonically, maybe it doesn’t sound a million times different, but as a person, I feel different.
I definitely get what you’re saying. You blew up so fast and I’m curious about how old some of the songs are on Gap Year!
Yeah, that’s actually such a good question, because Gap Year! is basically just a compilation of the stuff that I made from the time I was, like, 16 until now. So a lot of the songs on there are actually older. “If You’re Listening,” I recorded that when I was 16. “We’re So Over,” too. But then I made “Want To” around four months before we dropped the album. I made the beat for “Are You Down?” maybe when I just turned 16. That was one of the first beats that I made where I was like, “Yo, I’m kind of good. Maybe I’m nice at this like, maybe I could really make beats.” I made the “Like That” beat when I was 15, and didn’t record on it until about a year later. It was a blend of the journey that I’ve taken with music and learning how to make beats.
You mentioned feeling anxious when you go on stage. Do you feel any pressure right now?
Yeah, sometimes. I feel like I always feel pressure, though. I’ve always felt pressure even before I had put out a song, even before people followed me, or anything like that. I always felt pressure because… I don’t know, sometimes pressure can be bad, but sometimes it also can feel like I wanna get this done, I wanna execute an idea I have, or whatever. And when I say pressure, it’s not like pressure from my family or pressure from external people, because I always have so much love and support around me, which I’m so grateful and thankful for. Everybody’s always just trying to make sure I’m good or whatever, just whatever I need. They’re always there for me. I’m just really grateful about that. But I think the pressure kind of comes from within. I want to make sure I’m doing everything to the fullest capability. I’m just always trying to be better than I was before.
This is a complicated question, but how would you describe your sound?
I think I really would describe my sound as fresh and fly and cool, but also nostalgic, I pull from so many things that I love. I have such a love for R&B and writing. I always think so melodically. And a lot of that comes from my biggest inspirations, and I kind of take the bits and pieces that I can.
I feel like an important thing about music and even human life, is that we learn through imitating. We see something we like, and we try to become that. For me as a producer, it’s been really interesting being able to take like, ‘Okay, I like this progression, or I like the way that this bassline sounds, or I like the way that the snare hits here on this song. And you take those little bits and pieces and almost transform that into something that’s completely different by studying things that I really like, whether it’s The Neptunes or an Aaliyah song or whatever, or a Darkchild beat. I’ll sit there and I’ll listen to things that really make that specific song click for me. Nostalgic, but fresh is how I would describe my music.
Yeah, it’s like an amalgamation of all these things. It’s like retro and futuristic at the same time.
Thank you. That’s what I’m going for.
Your On the Radar performance made me look into you more — and and then obviously when people figured out who your father was, everyone’s minds were blown.
Yeah, it was very funny how it kind of just built up and people started. None of this has been planned. The only thing that was planned was to do something cool like On the Radar. The whole objective was to get my face out there. I wanted people to get a sense of who I am or what I do.
As it was going viral, were you like, “Yo, I have to put my name on this somehow?”
I just wanted people to be able to connect the song with who I am, like, as an artist, because I feel like, I don’t know, nowadays, it’s so easy for the artists to get lost in the shuffle when something gets really popular. So, I just kind of wanted to do something. And I did the From the Block, which was really cool. That was just an awesome experience. Doing that like at the playground was mad fun. But yeah, I wanted to do stuff that people could be like, “OK, this is her, this is her face. This is what she’s doing.” It was such a cool moment for me, aand I did not anticipate how crazy it was gonna go at all. And then even the whole thing with my dad, I couldn’t have anticipated that would happen. That was the Internet.
So, you wanted to be a rapper first, right?
Yes. When I was a little kid, I used to always love singing songs and always write songs. But I really used to freestyle. I had a whole thing, I had a little swag. I was probably, like, nine or or 10, but I used to write all these raps, and I used to go to school, and I used to show all my friends. It was my thing.
And I remember I had this one teacher, and I was like, “I guess we were talking about our future?” This was in middle school, so I must have been like, 11 or 12, and they were like, “What do you want your career to be?” And I was like, “I’m going to be a rapper.” And the teacher was like, “Sure.” That always stuck with me — because what do you mean, “Sure?” Like, you really don’t think that I could do this? From that day on, I was like, “You know what? This is exactly why I’m going to do whatever the f–k I want to do.” And I was like, 11, but I was like, “No” — because what do you mean, “Sure?” Like, I know, I know I could do this.
Did you have a rap name?
I never had a rap name. I was just writing raps. Like, I wasn’t rap name. Even now, sometimes I’m like, damn, should I have come up with an artist name or something cool, but I just couldn’t think of one. I literally just couldn’t think of one. That’s why I put the exclamation point, because there was too many other Lailas and I just couldn’t think of anything else.
Now that the the album is out, are you going to produce for other artists? I know one of your dreams is to produce for artists that you like. Send some beat packs out.
Absolutely. That’s what I’m working towards now. I really want to be able to work with other artists that I admire, but I really love working with artists in person, like I like to show, like, I don’t know. I like to see how people feel about what they’re listening to. I prefer to show people what I’ve been working on when I’m with them. Let’s actually connect. And feel the music together.
Nuestros Sonidos, Carnegie Hall‘s ambitious season-long celebration of Latin music and culture, got off to a spectacular start on Oct. 8 under the baton of the Venezuelan virtuosic conductor Gustavo Dudamel — Billboard‘s cover star this month — and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Kicking off during Hispanic Heritage Month, the festival boasts an impressive lineup, featuring talents such as Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade, Cuban funk artist Cimafunk, Colombian indie pop band Monsieur Perine, salsa legends Grupo Niche and Chilean jazz virtuoso Claudia Acuña.
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One of the most eagerly awaited highlights of the festival is the Carnegie Hall debut of Ivy Queen, the formidable reggaetón superstar known for her fierce advocacy for women’s empowerment within the male-dominated genre. “Being on this stage allows me to celebrate not only reggaetón but also the essence of what it means to be Latino, our roots, and our global musical influence,” Ivy Queen expresses to Billboard Español. “It is an honor to be part of this representation and to continue taking our music to every corner of the planet.”
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Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director Clive Gillinson and Adriaan Fuchs, director of festivals and special projects, articulate that Nuestros Sonidos aims to shine a spotlight on Latin music that has deeply influenced both American culture and the world at large.
“Latin music was something that has had such a huge effect [not just] on American culture, but on culture around the world,” Gillinson notes. “It was something really important to do. We look at who are the greatest experts in the field so that we make sure all the ideas that we’re considering and exploring come from people who are leaders in thinking, knowledge, experience and background.”
Gustavo Dudamel & Natalia Lafourcade at Carnegie Hall
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Fuchs adds, “We work with curatorial councils and advisors who help put these festivals together. They include Latin music experts, ethnomusicologists, cultural and societal experts in terms of how culture in America has developed. In conjunction with them, we decided that we wanted to cover a range of different genres one would expect, such as salsa, reggaetón, Latin jazz, classical music, and so forth. We really wanted to focus on those genres that have played a key role in the American cultural landscape, and in America, particularly.”
As Nuestros Sonidos unfolds throughout the season, it promises a diverse array of Latin musical styles and expressions, inviting audiences to explore the powerful narratives that have shaped the past, present, and future of Latin music.
Read our Q&A with Ivy Queen and Carnegie Hall’s Clive Gillinson and Adriaan Fuchs below:
What inspired Carnegie Hall to launch Nuestros Sonidos, and what do you hope to achieve with this initiative?
Clive Gillinson: We try to look at things that are important issues and areas of culture. Last season, we looked at the Fall of the Weimar Republic: The Fragility of Democracy, because we felt that’s a very major issue in the world today. The year before, we looked at Women in Music, and before that, Afrofuturism. [In 2021], we looked at [Voices of Hope] Artists in Times of Oppression; artists who wrote despite the most horrific circumstances — be it in the Holocaust, slavery, the Soviet Union, and so on. They still wrote things that were about hope and aspiration.
Latin music was something that has had such a huge effect [not just] on American culture, but on culture around the world. 11 years ago, we did Voices from Latin America, which looked specifically at the music of three Latin American countries. The emphasis was to look at the influences of Latin music on American culture, particularly. We felt it was something really important to do, something that maybe hasn’t been looked at enough in terms of the way people look at culture in America.
Ivy, as a pioneering figure in reggaetón and an advocate for female empowerment in the music industry, what does it mean for you, on a personal and professional level, to debut at Carnegie Hall with the Nuestros Sonidos series?
Ivy Queen: For me, debuting at such an iconic place as Carnegie Hall represents both a personal and professional validation of the path I have traveled in my career. I have fought to open doors for women in a genre that has historically been dominated by men. Being on that stage not only represents recognition of my years of work and effort but also proves that reggaetón, a music born from the streets, has a legitimate place in the most prestigious spaces in the world. It is an achievement that celebrates the resilience, strength, and talent of all the women who have been part of this movement.
How does Nuestros Sonidos intend to impact the local New York community and the broader Latin music scene?
Gillinson: We want this to be meaningful for devotees, advocates and people who come from the Latin music background so that they feel represented. They feel that their culture is given center stage. To make sure that all of these areas of music also reach people who maybe it has not been their background, and where they trust Carnegie Hall as a curator to take them on a journey of exploration.
Fuchs: New York had such a huge role to play, in terms of Latin music flourishing this country throughout the decade. We wanted to make sure that we have programming that addresses all of that. In putting together the concerts at the Hall, we were very much aware of the Latin communities that exist in New York City: the Puerto Rican community, Colombian community, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba, etc. We made sure that we had artists representing those different cultures, musical genres, and styles as part of the festival.
The range of partners that are involved are the Cuban Cultural Center of New York, the Colombian Film Festival of New York, the Association of Dominican Classical Artists. Then we also have iconic New York institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Center, New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development all participating in this festival. It’s really an exciting citywide celebration of Latin culture.
Ivy, how do you see this opportunity in terms of promoting and celebrating the diversity of Latin music and its impact on the global music scene?
Ivy Queen: This opportunity at Carnegie Hall is an incredible platform to showcase the richness and diversity of Latin music in all its forms. Latin music is not a single genre; it is a universe full of rhythms, cultures, and stories that connect with audiences around the world. Being on this stage allows me to celebrate not only reggaetón but the essence of what it means to be Latino, our roots, and how we have influenced music on a global level. It is an honor to be part of this representation and to continue taking our music to every corner of the planet, demonstrating that Latin music is much more than a passing trend: it is a cultural and artistic force that continues to transform the global music industry.
Are there any particular performances or elements within the series that you’re especially excited about?
Fuchs: We’re really excited about Ivy Queen on November 20. It was important for us to find a big headlining artist like Ivy Queen to be part of the festival because of the fact that she’s such a trailblazing female artist within the industry. Really in terms of, obviously reggaetón and hip-hop, she stands out as someone who forged her own path and is someone really to be celebrated for her achievements in a very male-dominated field. We wanted to make sure that she appears at Carnegie and as part of Nuestros Sonidos.
We’re also really excited about Grupo Niche. They’re just an extraordinary ensemble that have pioneered and pushed the envelope in terms of salsa music for so long. It’s exciting to have them at Carnegie Hall for the first time. Monsieur Periné, who will be part of the festival on February 22, are such a funky and interesting group. I’m sure that people are going to be getting up and dancing when they start to play. It’s going to be such a joyful concert. Then the incredible Chilean jazz vocalist, Claudia Acuña, who is bringing a very interesting program. Songs in jazz that have stood the test of time through various decades. It’s a moment for us to celebrate the Latin songbook.
When Katie Gavin announced that she would be releasing a solo project, she expected the backlash to be worse. Seated in the living room of her grandmother’s house on a September afternoon, the 31-year-old singer chuckles nervously as she looks back at the announcement. “I thought they might get mad at me,” she says of her fans.
As one-third of the self-described “greatest band in the world” MUNA, it makes sense that Gavin would be nervous. Over the course of the last decade, she and her friends Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin have built the kind of impassioned fan base that most indie acts only dream of. Between sold out shows at iconic venues like Los Angeles’ Greek Theater and headlining slots at beloved alt-rock festival All Things Go, MUNA has grown to fit the legend its members created around it — meaning any perceived threat to its existence could be met with vocal opposition.
With the benefit of hindsight, Gavin says that fear is a nice problem to have. “It’s a good thing, ultimately, to have a project where people are invested in what you’re going to create next,” she says.
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That anger from her fans never quite materialized — in fact, they overwhelmingly expressed enthusiasm for What a Relief, Gavin’s debut solo LP due out Friday (Oct. 25) via Saddest Factory. Described by Gavin as “Lilith Fair-core,” the album is interested less the genres of its songs, and more in their emotional lyrics — tracks charting the cyclical concept of motherhood (“The Baton”), emotionally inauthentic romance (“Sanitized”) and the grief of losing a pet (“Sweet Abby Girl”) all bear Gavin’s stamp of remarkably poetic-yet-lucid songwriting.
As MUNA’s in-house lyricist, Gavin found herself in 2019 with a backlog of what she refers to as “MUNA castoffs” — songs she wrote and presented to her bandmates, but that ultimately didn’t fit within the trio’s creative vision for themselves. “There is a tonal difference that speaks to the scale of things — MUNA has become so ambitious, so the songs have to be scalable to a certain size,” she explains. “A lot of these songs feel like they live in a much smaller world.”
But when she shared a selection of those songs with her friends Eric Radloff (known on-stage as Okudaxij) and Scott Heiner (MUNA’s original drummer), they both told her how much they loved them. “They were the first fans of this solo project,” she says. “I wasn’t really thinking about doing anything with them until that started happening, where I started to realize, ‘Oh, there’s enough of these songs that it’s become something else.’”
Radloff invited Gavin to play a “secret set” at a February 2020 show of his, allowing her the space to learn “what it would feel like to play these songs as just me,” she recalls. By the time she was done, she knew that she had something special. When COVID-19 shut the world down the following month, Gavin got to work with Radloff and Heiner arranging the songs for a potential solo release.
The spirit of sharing songs she wrote with her friends suffuses the finished product of What a Relief, making the case for Gavin as one of the most talented songwriters working today. It’s a strong case to be made — outside of writing all of MUNA’s songs, Gavin has garnered a number of co-writes with artists like Maren Morris and The Japanese House, which she says has only contributed to a “shift in my confidence” that allowed her solo LP to exist.
“One of the things that’s interesting about co-writing is, if I’m in a room with someone else, I naturally attune more to what they want. I can lose my own sense of what I want,” she says. “I have had to both develop that and try to practice that, while also simultaneously accept who I am and be honest about it when I’m working so that I can navigate and find a way that works for me. It’s kind of about self-advocacy.”
Part of that practice means knowing when she is not the best fit for a job — when it came to fine tuning the sound of her album, Gavin says that she offered her input, but gave producer Tony Berg and his team of engineers and mixers like Will Maclellan the space they needed to make What a Relief soar. “I wish that this wasn’t true, but my instinct was to say that I am a pillow princess in the studio — I don’t care what microphone we use, I just want to be able to tell you if I like it!” she exclaims. “I think part of getting older and developing as a creative is understanding delegation, and not trying to be in control of something if that’s not your passion.”
While the project spans a wide variety of genres, Gavin acknowledges that much of the record settles somewhere within the range of folk music, in the vein of her heroes like Joni Mitchell, the Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman. Violins, mandolins and guitars pepper the album’s various backdrops, as Gavin sings directly to the human condition of looking to change. As she says: “I’m gonna fiddle.”
One of the album’s most beloved singles, “Inconsolable,” even dips into bluegrass, featuring the vocals of Sean and Sara Watkins of string-band Nickel Creek. But Gavin reveals that, had it not been for her friend and label boss Phoebe Bridgers, the song may not have existed in its current form.
“We had kind of done this, like, Ben Folds, Regina Spektor-esque piano version of it, and it just wasn’t hitting the same way. We only had a few days left in the studio, and Phoebe was like, ‘I liked it when it was bluegrass,’” she says. Once they had the Sean and Sara in the room, the song finally clicked. “We ended up recording the song in about 10 minutes, I think we did a total of two takes.”
The song doesn’t come as a complete shift for fans of MUNA — on 2022’s affirming anthem “Kind of Girl,” the pop trio leaned into the stylings of country ballads to better convey the emotional heart of the song. But Gavin explains that there is a potent lyrical difference between a song like “Kind of Girl” and one like “Inconsolable.” “It sounds weird — I think there is this difference between singing ‘work in the garden’ (on ‘Kind of Girl’) and singing ‘baby lizards’ (on ‘Inconsolable’),” she quips.
Early in the process of creating her album, Gavin went to McPherson and Maskin, telling them that she wanted to release the LP as a solo project. Despite some jokes shared on an episode of their podcast Gayotic (“What was the reason you wanted to do this without Naomi and I?” Maskin pointedly asked), both of Gavin’s bandmates supported the idea, with Maskin even playing a series of backing instruments on the final version of the album.
“I’m so grateful that they’ve been super, super supportive,” Gavin beams. “The only thing that they’ve ever expressed concern about is my own workaholism, because this just means that I took on a second job — they would both check in, like, ‘Cool, are you okay?’”
The individual band members’ work ethic, though, is what has helped MUNA become a cult favorite in pop spaces. With the trio’s oft-cited status as the leading “queer heroes” of pop music, Gavin has noticed the outsized rise of queer artists over the last year, with pop stars like Chappell Roan, Reneé Rapp and others breaking through to mainstream audiences in a way that once felt impossible.
“It makes me really emotional, I see these young people that are coming up as actual superheroes,” Gavin says. The singer is hesitant to take too much credit for the current state of queerness in pop music (“There’s a loud voice in my head saying, ‘This would have happened regardless, b—h,’” she laughs). But she eventually admits that she is watching, in real time, as she and her two best friends at least help in making lasting change.
“If you keep your head down and work and believe that what you’re doing with your friends is cool, you can eventually, in ten years, shift f–king culture,” she says. “It’s wild how far your impact can go if you’re consistently trying to ground [yourself] in the world that you want to be in.”
But there are aspects of the current ascent of LGBTQ+ artists that Gavin is wary about — especially when it comes to how non-straight and non-cisgender identities are already being viewed as trends for the music industry to capitalize on.
“That’s how the current stage of capitalism that we are in functions,” she says with a sigh. “Every time the structure realizes that it can profit off of a new identity, there is a choice presented to people of that identity — do I want to assimilate and take on those privileges?”
Gavin validates many artists’ choice to accept those benefits — after all, “everyone’s in such desperate financial situations that it makes sense.” But she makes it clear, when it comes to both MUNA and her solo career, that she’s more interested in building a sustainable future for herself and artists like her.
“There are so many people that I see as siblings in my community who are not safe in this moment, and I want to be with them. I don’t want to be with the straights,” she says. “So we’re going to continue pushing the envelope and making it clear that we’re not happy to be ‘part of the club.’”
Riding a wave of indie success, Chicagoʼs Friko — led by vocalist/guitarist and principal lyric writer Niko Kapetan and drummer Bailey Minzenberger — will embark on a 40-date headlining tour beginning Nov. 2 in Amsterdam (with U.S. dates beginning Dec. 27) and on Nov. 22 release an expanded version of their 2024 debut album, Where we’ve been, Where we go from here — with 11 bonus studio and live tracks, and a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep.”
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The first track from the expanded album, “If I Am” — which Kapetan says was among the first songs the band played at its initial club shows in the Windy City — drops on Oct. 23.
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This past summer, Friko brought its fiery full-on sound — powered by Kapetan’s turbo guitar-playing and quavering emo vocals, and Minzenberger’s high-energy drumming — to their first festival performances at Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival and Fuji Rock, and they recently finished a tour opening for Royel Otis. The group’s November European dates will be their first and include an appearance at Pitchfork Festival London. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 10am local time.
Before one of Friko’s last summer dates, as the band’s van chased Royel Otis’ buses and semi. Kapetan spoke to Billboard about the the evolution of the group, its album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here, the rigors of touring and plans for the future.
For a band that released its debut album in February, Friko has really blown up on the indie scene. How did you arrive at this point?
I had a cover band with friends beginning in sixth grade, and we would play local shops or block parties or whatever. Friko started in 2019, and that’s when we just started doing lives. We played a ton of Chicago shows and in Milwaukee, Minneapolis. By the time we got through making this debut record, we had a lot of live time in our back pocket. We were releasing stuff independently and in the Chicago scene but releasing with ATO introduced us to most of the people that know us now. We’re figuring out our live show at an exponential rate, especially now that we’ve been on a tour with big, sold-out rooms with Royel Otis over the past couple of weeks. Even now, this is the first time it feels like we’re a true band, band. We felt that with the record, too, and we just keep pushing that.
You’ve said that Where we’ve been, Where we go from here was completed before you signed with ATO.
Yeah, pretty much, because we recorded it – Scott Tallarida, a friend who has an event space in Chicago with a studio in the back of it, let us record there for free as long as we were out of the way of events. It could get booked at any time ,so that’s why it took a while, but we were able to do it basically free.
Is that what you hear when you play the album now, or did you sweeten it after signing to ATO?
After we recorded at Scott’s place and then also Palisade Studios in Chicago, we basically mixed it ourselves for months as well. We mixed it with our friend Jack Henry, and it was a learning process for us. This whole first record was just us pretty much doing everything ourselves and learning how to do it. It was a good learning experience, but we’re excited to expand from that. We probably had it done at the end of 2023 — maybe November-ish. We signed to ATO before we were done mixing it, but it was all recorded and half mixed.
Did ATO come to you?
We were playing Chicago clubs, and Erik Salz from Arrival Artists — who’s now our booking agent — came to some of them. Then once we got a small team together, they were pitching labels. It got down to a final few labels, and ATO was very passionate about working with us, not just for a record, but to start our career. It seemed like the right choice.
Were you able to keep your masters?
We definitely did.
The album has a kind of do-or-die urgency to it. It almost demands that you listen to it. Where does that come from?
It’s just a natural thing. Every show feels like that for us, and we play it that way. When you’re opening for another band, and everybody’s there to see them, you need to give them a reason to listen. You need to have the songs, but then you also need to have something for people to look at. I think Mitski said that people are paying to see people go out there and believe in themselves. There’s a bunch of bands coming up now — bands we grew up loving — that just give everything they can, and when that happens, I feel like I can get lost in the music.
I read that you love Nirvana’s “All Apologies.” What other artists do you like?
I don’t listen to The Beatles as I did growing up, but they definitely informed my melodic and cord progressions and learning the basics. I love The Replacements. I like a lot of the more melodic punk stuff that just has all the attitude but also the melody. There’s a lot of cool, new bands I love. Black Country, New Road definitely blew my mind in 2020. We just hung out with English Teacher in New York. They’re super cool. We want play shows with them. Them and Stellar, East. I like the local scene in Chicago, and I like Horsegirl, Genome. There’s a lot of exciting new bands out there.
You do put on a riveting live show, and I think that’s super-important for a band’s longevity. A number of bedroom acts that were signed around the time of the pandemic have faded because they’re not compelling onstage.
I don’t want to speak to TikTok bands. We just want to do the real thing, and we want to feel like we’re doing that every night. The goal is for the show to feel as cathartic as possible. The other day, at one of our shows, I accidentally broke my guitar from going too hard. My head was bleeding. There’s a beauty to that.
What was the inspiration for “Get Numb to It”?
During the pandemic, I dropped out after one year of college and started working in a warehouse. I did that for a few years, and after one particularly bad day there, I was in the car listening to a broadcast song. I started singing along to the song with lyrics that ended up in “Get Numb to It.” The demo came together through that, but then the band started playing it and it took on even more energy.
Is it true you released “Get Numb to It” on your own before it became a Friko tune?
I started off Friko as a solo thing at the start of the pandemic. I was just releasing demos and that was one of them. I remember showing it to everybody in the band one day on my laptop, and then it came together. It was the first song that people started singing along to at the Chicago shows, so it took on a real life with the fans.
How do you and Bailey collaborate. Is it just you two or are more band members involved now?
We probably would be considered a four-piece now. Especially with the live show, we’re writing new stuff, and it has been much more of a band effort from the start of the writing process. Also, Bailey plays guitar too, so there are a bunch of guitar parts. All four of us are the best at guitar in some way, so it has been a realy useful thing.
I love “Crimson to Chrome,” particularly the lyric, “Caught on the wrong side of the shoe” — nice turn of phrase. What are your favorite lyrics on the album?
“Where We’ve Been,” the first song on the record, is definitely one of them. That song came in like an hour or so. All the lyrics just flowed out and felt so natural. It’s what you want to go for with songwriting — where something just spills out and there’s no thought in it. That feels like the magic of it.
Now that you’re about to embark on a headlining tour, will your live show change?
It’s going to be kind of what we’ve been doing on the last tour, although we’ll be playing our new music. We’re playing larger venues — sweet spots that we’re excited to play. On the last tour, we started thinking more about stage design and lighting. For Thalia Hall, which will be a homecoming show at the end of the year, we’re definitely going all out. We’re touring with just five people — the band and our tour manager — so there’s only so much we can do on the road, evening with a headlining tour. We’re going to give it our all until we can have more people along.
When you say you’re playing new songs at your shows, are these slated for the next album?
Yeah, we’re in the talks about whatever the next thing is, whether it’s an EP or an album. For us, an album needs to be a full statement. We love the classic album format. So, we’ll see, but at this point we’re trying to keep writing and see what comes.
Have you started talking about when this new release will drop?
We want it to be fall 2025.
You’re also releasing a deluxe version of the current album. What’s new on that?
There are five songs that we were working on right before the album songs started coming along, and then we kind of pivoted. We were like, these are what we need to work on right now. We’ve always been fans of B-sides, so we’re excited that they’ll see the light of day. We are also including some demos that we released before Friko was playing shows, and some live mixes from our album release show.
What are the best and worst parts of touring?
The best is definitely when the shows are great and then you can — in New York, we went out with friends both nights. That feels like the adventurous part when you’re younger and you dream of going on tour. But sometimes that results in not getting much sleep and, like today, we’re bus-chasing Royel Otis for the first time. They have like a 20-person team — very nice, good people— two buses and a semi. We’re in a van and a trailer; just the band and two managers. So, we’re all driving, we’re setting up everything and we’re selling merch. So, it’s just a different team, amount of people on the road. It’s a lot of driving, which is not the worst thing, but when it’s two 10-hour days of just driving, you get kind of braindead.
Yeah. Do you have any advice for up-and-coming artists? Any survival tips?
Yeah, you have to love the people you’re touring with. Especially when it’s small scale. That’s the biggest thing by far, and just a s–t ton of caffeine. It’s sugar free herbal lattes because it’s the healthiest that you can do. There’s no other way around it.
This fall, two months after Venezuela’s disputed presidential election plunged the country into crisis — with Nicolás Maduro claiming victory despite overwhelming evidence he’d lost — six of the country’s most influential figures convened in Miami for what some of them considered a historic conversation.
Despite the travel challenges posed by Hurricane Helene, Danny Ocean managed to arrive from Mexico, Elena Rose made it from Italy, and the rest — Nacho, Mau y Ricky and Lele Pons — met them at a studio in Coconut Grove.
All of these artists are part of a growing wave of Venezuelan musicians who are succeeding at levels perhaps not seen since the 1980s, when stars like Oscar D’Leon, “El Puma” José Luis Rodríguez or Ricardo Montaner had successful careers outside of their home country.
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This year, there are more than 20 Latin Grammy Award nominees from Venezuela — including Elena Rose, Danny Ocean and Mau y Ricky, with multiple nods each — and a greater presence of Venezuelans on the Billboard charts. But the artists who are here today have not only stood out globally with their music — or in Lele Pons’ case, as a social media content creator — but also use their voices to speak out about the political strife in their home country, a cause close to their hearts.
Until the July election, the concert business had been a rare bright spot for Venezuela’s economy: Luis Miguel and Karol G filled stadiums in Caracas with their spectacular tours in February and March, respectively, and there were others scheduled. But an artist like Nacho, who until recently lived part time in Venezuela, has not been able to sing in public in his country since 2016, presumably for criticizing the government.
In Miami, Mau y Ricky chat animatedly with Nacho, reminiscing about better times in Venezuela. Elena Rose and Lele Pons give each other a sisterly hug. A rugged Danny Ocean arrives straight from the airport and greets everyone with a wide smile.
At 41, Nacho is the oldest of the group by a decade. He paved the way for them as a Venezuelan musician — first as part of his popular duo with Chino Miranda and later with a successful solo career — and the respect they have for him is evident. “You made us understand that it is possible to make it when things are difficult,” Danny Ocean tells him about Chino y Nacho, who achieved international fame in 2010, when there were practically no singers coming out of Venezuela.
Unlike superstars from Mexico, Colombia or Puerto Rico, who started in their countries with the support of a local industry and then went international, all, with the exception of Nacho, have built their careers outside of Venezuela, having left as children or teenagers, as in the case of Mau y Ricky, Elena Rose and Lele Pons, or right before his first release, like Danny Ocean with “Me Rehúso,” the song that put him on the map in 2016, in which he already sang about pain of emigrating leaving behind a loved one.
Today, multinational record companies practically don’t have a presence in the country, and most local artists are independently produced. “There is no industry as such, really, with a solid base in Venezuela,” Elena Rose will later explain. Gone was the boom of the ’80s, when great talents like Yordano, Frank Quintero, Karina, Kiara and more flourished nationally with the support of labels like SonoRodven and Sonográfica, as well as a law that forced radio stations to play a song by a Venezuelan artist for every song by a non-native act.
At the time of this interview, two months have passed since the consequential presidential elections of July 28, when the Venezuelan electoral authority declared Maduro the winner with 51.2% of the votes (although it has not shown proper documentation that support the results) and the opposition denounced irregularities in the count and stated that its candidate, Edmundo González, had obtained almost 70% of the votes. The demonstrations that followed turned violent due to the repression of the Armed Forces and police, with dozens of deaths and more than 2,000 detained. An arrest warrant against González has led him to seek asylum in Spain, and opposition leader María Corina Machado has been forced to take shelter.
Today, this group has gathered to speak openly about the roles they play as musicians in the context of Venezuela’s politics and society. Just before starting, Elena Rose says, “We have not prayed today.” We all hold hands and Mau does the honors, finishing with gratitude: “Thank you for allowing us and giving us this platform to talk a little more about who we are and where we come from.”
From left: Mau Montaner, Ricky Montaner, Lele Pons, Danny Ocean, Elena Rose, Nacho and Sigal Ratner-Arias photographed on Sept. 26, 2024 at Grove Studio in Miami.
Ingrid Fajardo
Nacho, since you’ve been doing this the longest, what do you feel when you see this kind of renaissance of Venezuelan musicians?
Nacho: Pride. I feel very proud when I hear from everyone wherever I am in the world, because we Venezuelans have gone through many difficulties. But something that these difficulties have left is the fact that we all feel part of the same family. Like when we met this morning, right? We felt like we were cousins or family in some way. We use the same lexicon; we almost always have stories in common with Venezuela and we feel close.
What do you think has unleashed this new wave of talent?
Nacho: The desire, the drive, the disposition, the responsibility that characterizes us as Venezuelans. And of course, I suppose that social media has played an important role and has been sort of an escape door for us in the face of the difficulties that Venezuelan talents face to be able to export their music. Because there is a need for a lot of music industry culture in Venezuela, and I believe that talent cannot be covered with a finger. When I talk about Venezuelan talents, you realize that everyone plays an instrument, everyone writes, everyone has a lot to say through their songs.
That is something that has also caught my attention, how the lyrics of Venezuelan artists tend to be very deep. They say that art is often a response to sublimation and repression.
Elena Rose: I dare say that, in this particular group of people here, what stands out is sensitivity and humanity. I feel that if we were born again, we would choose things to happen in the same way that we have experienced them. But at the same time, I think it goes much further. I think that when we make music, we do it in such an intentional way, really, so from our soul, so wanting to leave something behind, that all the sacrifices we’ve made are worth it.
Elena Rose
Mary Beth Koeth
Danny Ocean: Yes, I think that we all write based on our angle and our perspectives of the things that we have all experienced. I think art is about that, about each person writing through their eyes and sensations. I make music because I love music, I need to write.
Everyone here has publicly expressed their frustration and feelings about what a long list of organizations and governments have pointed out as electoral fraud in Venezuela, and the repression that followed the elections. Most of the comments on your social media are positive, but some have written that artists should dedicate themselves to being artists and not get involved in politics. Do you feel that artists have a duty to speak out?
Lele Pons: If it’s not us pushing people, who is going to do it? Because many times people are afraid, and because we do it or people you admire do it — if you admire Elena or Danny or Nacho and they do it and they speak for you, it also pushes you to speak. That is our power, communication, so that everyone knows what is happening, not just us [Venezuelans].
Mau: Beyond me thinking that it can generate a change or not, for me the important thing is that people … feel that Ricky and I have their backs and that we are with them. Many times, when you are going through something, what you need, beyond a voice, [is] people to hold on to so you can say, “I’m not in this alone.”
Mau Montaner
Mary Beth Koeth
Lele, you also used your enormous social media platform for an Instagram Live with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for which Maduro later mentioned you in a speech. What did you think when all this happened?
Lele Pons: Well, I think it’s the most important thing I’ve done in my career. Because being an influencer is helping. It’s a way to be a leader. And if I can help another leader to talk to people who don’t know what is happening, because I have an audience that [is not all Venezuelans] … When I made a video [about the situation in Venezuela], I did it in Italian, I did it in English and I did it in Spanish so that everyone knows what’s happening, so that they can share, repost and use my platform, so that [María Corina Machado] would have a voice. I listen and I see what people are saying, what they tell me: “Please help me. This is going on.” And I go, “Jeez! I’m here, what can I do?” I use everything I have to help, so that people know and the world knows too.
Danny, Nacho, after the July 28 elections, you two called on the Armed Forces and police to avoid the use of violence against demonstrators. Nacho, you even said, “I promised my family, for everyone’s safety, that I would not do this again, but I can’t see what is going on in the country and stay silent.” Have you feared for your life while in Venezuela?
Nacho: The truth is, no, but not because something bad can’t happen, but because for some reason — I don’t know if it’s because I’ve had a closer encounter with God — death is something that doesn’t mortify me as much … But definitely there are people around you who may tell you, “The actions you have taken have had an impact on my stability, on my tranquility, on my integrity.” Then you start to feel guilty, because these are people that you love, that you have around. Or “Look, they took my job away because they found out I’m your cousin.” Or “They don’t want to do anything with me anymore because they know I’m your friend.” Or “They shut down my business because they saw me in a photo with you or hanging out with you.” So, more than fearing for myself, those were actually the repercussions that worried me when it came to expressing myself. But there are bigger purposes than that.
Danny Ocean
Mary Beth Koeth
Danny, you released an EP dedicated to Venezuela days before the elections, venequia., and you called on your fans who had relatives in the Armed Forces or the police to talk to them to make them see reason to avoid the use of violence. What is your message to them today?
Danny Ocean: For me, the issue of Venezuela stopped being political a long time ago. For me, it is already a humanitarian issue. We are surely in the top three countries with the most displaced people in the world … We have [almost 8] million people who have had to leave our country, leave everything, leave a life to look for a better future, and that is not right. So, why did I do venequia.? Because … eight years after having to leave Venezuela, I am still seeing the numbers [of emigrants] increasing and saying, “But nothing is happening.” And the video I made calling the families of the military, because it’s true. I mean, we need a change.
Elena Rose: And something that happens to us a lot, for example, when we arrive in another country, when a Venezuelan sees us, it is as if they see fresh water and they’re hot. It’s happened to me that someone hugs me and tells me, “I haven’t seen my dad in years, I have been separated from my children for years.” Those are the kind of things [they say that go] beyond the limit of what we can accept … What do you say to that person? Something I always do; I like to pray with them at that moment, and my message has always been to nourish faith. I really don’t want any Venezuelan to surrender without seeing their country free.
Lele Pons: Knowing that you are on the right side of history, that you go to sleep and say, “I did something good today, I am proud of my friends, of my family, of what is happening,” gives you peace. Even if you can often lose friends or followers or whatever, you don’t have to care … It’s not political. It’s for the people.
Lele Pons
Mary Beth Koeth
Elena Rose: (To Danny Ocean.) The night before [venequia.] came out, I remember that you called me, and we talked for about an hour about how you felt at the moment. And these are the things that people don’t see and don’t know…
How did you feel, Danny?
Danny Ocean: Distraught.
Elena Rose: We both did! We were like, “OK, this is going to happen, and after we cross this line, it’s going to be OK.” But at the same time, I remember telling you, “This has been in your heart for a long time and you have to say that now.” … It is a love letter to Venezuela, as is your album [Hotel Caracas] too, [Mau y Ricky], as is [our song] “Caracas en el 2000,” which at the end of the day was also what we always talked about: I want this to be a hug for Venezuelans and for Venezuela.
Mau and Ricky, speaking of Hotel Caracas, you traveled to Venezuela for the first time in many years to shoot all the videos for the album, as well as a documentary which is nominated for a Latin Grammy. You were able to reunite with Venezuela and really get to know the country.
Ricky: It was like a personal need of knowing who the f–k I am … I was 10 when I left Venezuela, and my reality of Venezuela and Caracas was different. My father [singer Ricardo Montaner] was kidnapped when I was 6, so my relationship [with Venezuela] was almost toxic. There were 20 years of fears of thinking that I was going to get there and get killed or something… So, when we started making Hotel Caracas, which is an album where we are returning to our creative beginnings as well, we realized that we needed go back to where we are from … Being able to stand up in a stadium in Argentina and say, “¡Viva Venezuela!,” and not feel that the people there would say, “Oh, how cute, they say they are from Venezuela, but they haven’t gone.” I felt imposter syndrome; I didn’t want to feel that anymore. And I got there and felt their pride in saying, “I’m so proud of what you’ve accomplished out there and how you’re representing us.” That, for us, became our motivation. So, making Hotel Caracas was literally, “How can we carry this communication on another side as well?” And our way was going back to Venezuela, making a movie, employing 200 people there, investing an absurd amount of money in the country for hope and for telling people, “Hey, what we are fighting for is worth it. Look at the people of this country. Look at the talent and that we can make an entire movie in Venezuela.”
Ricky Montaner
Mary Beth Koeth
A year ago, international artists were returning to Venezuela to play massive shows, something that had not been done in many years. You have not had the chance to do that. Do you hope that will happen for you one day?
Ricky: My biggest dream is imagining us returning to Venezuela with our people singing. Obviously now it can become very uncomfortable for us … because we have clear opinions of where we stand, so stepping on a stage and not communicating a truth is very complicated. There are real threats, there are things happening that are serious.
Danny Ocean: Look, I’m going to be very frank and excuse me, I’m going to try to choose the best words. I’m not thinking about concerts … All I want is for this to end and for us to be calm and be able to walk in peace … I’m not saying that Venezuela is not suitable for concerts; I believe that people deserve joy, I believe that people deserve to be able to enjoy [concerts]. But personally, I can’t think right now about a show in Venezuela knowing the critical situation we are in. With electricity problems, with water problems, with basic needs.
Elena Rose: There are many things that are missing in Venezuela [also] regarding the music industry. The concert is like the last thing that in theory should happen. There is no industry as such, really, with a solid base in Venezuela. There are many things that are happening with artists who are there, who have other needs than ours, who have fewer opportunities to say no, to put it that way. Unfortunately, there has not been a good education for the artists to explain to them the value of their art, that it is not OK to give away what is truly priceless, that no one should be able to say to you, “Give me [your song] and take this.” I have seen cases that hurt me a lot.
Can you give an example?
Elena Rose: Yes. There are wonderful, super talented songwriters there, and they tell them, “Look, I’ll give you 500 dollars for your song and you no longer have any power over it.” And the person who is really struggling says yes.
In Colombia, music has caused a tangible change in how the country is perceived. Do you think the same thing could happen with Venezuela?
Nacho: I think it can happen, but we need to count on the resources that Colombia has. For example, consumer platforms that generate dividends for artists through streams, through views. You see a Venezuelan artist succeeding abroad, and perhaps Venezuela does not appear as the country that consumes their music the most. If you check which are the countries that consume me the most, Mexico is No. 1 and Venezuela is 17, and it’s not that there are not more Venezuelans who follow my career than Mexicans, but that there is no industry. That’s the problem. And for there to be an industry we need to change the reality of the country, start to see what is best for us in terms of the economy so that things begin to move the way they are moving in Colombia … In our country, we are survivors, really.
Nacho
Mary Beth Koeth
Ricky: To give you an idea, on Spotify Mexico, a No.1 can be 2 million streams in a day, while in Venezuela it can be 8,000. I mean…
Everything is relative…
Danny Ocean: The numbers aren’t condensed into one place. Our numbers are scattered. So, since there is no industry to be able to concentrate the numbers in one place, in the end we are not attractive … There is great work to do.
Nacho: The thing is that our main market is not our main market … Because you say, [if] a Venezuelan is achieving this level of consumption, it is because he is conquering the world around Venezuela. So, it is not a fair fight for us. And obviously — without detracting from the wonderful talents and numbers that artists from Colombia are achieving, or our colleagues who we love and adore and follow and admire — for us it is definitely a little more difficult.
Mau: And I’ll tell you something that I find very interesting. Listening to you speak, Nacho, heals many things in me … It is beautiful to know that there are other people living the same thing as you. You know? It’s very nice to know that, damn, I’m not alone and that maybe I, a little bit foolishly, should have taken refuge with my Venezuelan colleagues before. Why do I think that is happening what’s happening with Venezuelan artists in the world right now? Precisely because we are more united than ever. I think that is the difference and that is why it is happening, because I think we are realizing something what Colombia realized a while ago. And Puerto Rico, of course. They understood that to be able to carry and take out and make people on the outside talk too — “Wow, you’re from Colombia! From where J Balvin is!” You know, that wasn’t just J Balvin, that was them grabbing each other and saying, “Hey, let’s go into this together.”
Nacho: But that’s this generation. We come from generation that was quite separated, where egos won all the time and the competition was between who is going to achieve the most things without understanding. And that is why I bring up technology, because now you can see with numbers what you can achieve through unity … Now the new generations are being trained with knowledge and education about the music industry. And it is not only motivated by unity, by knowing that together we are more, but also knowing that we are enhancing what we are doing.
Music and the arts in general have the power to help us deal with hardship. How do you feel it has helped you as artists and as people?
Ricky: Music is my great love. Music is everything to me. I don’t remember a time in my life where there was a plan B.
Elena Rose: I always say that music dedicated so many songs to me, that I can only dedicate my life to music. Through music I feel like I got to know God more, because I can’t put God into words, and I can’t put into words what I feel when I listen to music.
Lele Pons: You all are so talented, and you write music. But for me, since I was little, I used music as therapy, as a way to communicate because I didn’t talk much. I don’t talk that much in my videos either, so I put on music so that it speaks for me in my videos.
Music can change lives. Music can change hearts. Do you feel that it can help change the course of history?
Elena Rose: Wherever there is music, and someone who wants to listen to it, there is love.
Danny Ocean: Sigmund Freud said that music is to the soul what gymnastics is to the body. I very much agree with that.
Sarcastically noting that answering questions is “my favorite thing to do,” Cher answered a few from the press backstage at the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday (Oct. 19).
After taking the Rock Hall to task during her speech for waiting 35 years to induct her after she became eligible, Cher acknowledges that, “I have a kind love hate relationship [with the Rock Hall], because I thought, ‘What do I have to f–king do , y’know, to be inducted into this place? What do you have to do to be a part of it?’”
Though tempted to tell David Geffen, who she said wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame Foundation on her behalf, to “please take it back,” Cher said that in the end she was happy with the way things turned out. “I felt good. I can say that I’m happy that I’m in,” she says. “If I didn’t [think] it, I wouldn’t be here.”
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Reflecting on a 60-year career dating back to work with her late ex-husband Sonny Bono and sessions with Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew, the singer said that she struggles with thoughts of legacy. “I [didn’t] have perspective, exactly — I just was busy living my life, so I wasn’t like thinking about it at all,” she says. “I was thinking about it from minute to minute, thing to thing. I thought of myself as a bumper car and when I hit a road I would just back up and turn in a different direction, because I wasn’t going to stop doing what I loved.”
And what about Sonny & Cher making it to the Rock Hall one day? “I think that we deserve it, ” Cher tells Billboard. “Even if we weren’t exactly rock ‘n roll, we represented music. I know it’s not like … we were corny, but we were very avant garde for what was happening at the time, so, I don’t know. I didn’t expect to get in. I just thought, ‘They’re never gonna let you in, b–ch.’”
During her speech, Cher made sure to send a message to all of the women watching around the world: “The one thing I have never done, is I never give up,” she explained. “And I am talking to the women, okay … we have been down and out, but we keep striving, and we keep going and we are somebody. We are special.”