Interview
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Igmar Thomas exists in a musical ecosystem that engages every part of his human experience, allowing him to express the kaleidoscopic span of creative expression. In a recent chat with Hip-Hop Wired, Igmar Thomas shared a bit about his upbringing in California, encountering fellow leaders of the jazz scene, and his excitement about the inaugural Hip Hop &… festival at the Kennedy Center.
With a reserved vocal tone befitting of a band leader, Igmar Thomas’ breezy nature translated well in our brief chat with him. We opened up the talk by asking Thomas how growing up in San Diego, which isn’t known for its jazz scene, and how he came to encounter his love of music overall.
“Growing up in San Diego, it’s not New Orleans or New York, it’s more of a slice of franchise America,” Thomas began. “I wasn’t exposed to juke joints and things like that at a young age but my father’s love of music and his record collection was diverse. He loved all types of music.”
Thomas continued, “I heard everything growing up and discovering music via radio and television. My friends and family also got me into a lot of different genres. So my musical vocation at a young age isn’t like say, a cat from New Orleans.”
Thomas then explained that he began his formal training with music at age 11, joining the school band playing in a structured format, and learning the trumpet. He added that the public school system was key in getting him into playing music.
The West Coast jazz scene, much like the Los Angeles underground beat scene, is packed with talent. Thomas has worked alongside the likes of Ron Bruner, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Kamasi Washington, and others during their respective journeys in music. We asked about the early days of those connections.
“It all came together towards the end of high school and it was pretty organic [how we all met],” Thomas says of his early encounters with Washington. “I can’t recall everything but I think I saw Kamasi playing at the UCLA Jazz Fest, or he could’ve been with Christian McBride. Growing up where I did, it was amazing to see him play in the same lane I wanted to be in and killing it at that.”
Thomas adds, “Kamasi was playing better than I could. I actually got to meet Kamasi and his folks via Ray Hargrove, who was my big brother in music. So I was at Catalina’s a lot and met Kamasi and Ron [Bruner] there. I met Kamasi’s whole band eventually, which includes Brandon Coleman, Ron, and his brother Stephen, who everyone knows is Thundercat.”
In the chat, Thomas remarked on how Ron Bruner had more of an eclectic style of dress back then, which Thomas says may have been informed by his working with Sa-Ra Creative Partners at the time while Thundercat was conservative in comparison. These days, Thundercat is viewed as a style icon, something Thomas mentioned with a laugh. He respectfully referred to the bassist as his generation’s Bootsy Collins.
We then switched our conversation to the Revive Big Band and Thomas’ aims with the outfit from its early days to now. With a knowing nod to how his journey played out, Thomas shared that he’s hoping that his band can be an extension of creativity from him and those who make up the band.
“I felt like when we first came out, we were trying to prove something but now, I don’t feel that way anymore,” Thomas explains. “Our message is consistent and what I mean is we’re all one family. They used to box us in by styles, and genres. But our debut album will show our true family tree. That includes Hip-Hop, R&B, funk, rock, and jazz. When you see us play, you see we’re more aligned musically than the award shows would have you believe.”
Thomas added, “I came up in the jazz tradition which does have rules but also, in that same breath, some breaking of the rules. We’ve always mixed things up. Bird [Charlie Parker] did it. Miles [Davis] did it. It’s just history repeating itself and that’s what the band represents. We play within a space of invisible boundaries and sometimes cross them.”
We asked Thomas to share his thoughts on the upcoming Hip Hop &… festival at the Kennedy Center, where Revive Big Band has two evening shows lined up. Having played at the Kennedy Center previously, Thomas says he’s excited to share what his band is doing and is thankful for the hard work of Simone Eccleston, the director of Hip Hop Culture & Contemporary Music at the Kennedy Center.
“I love what they’re doing at the Kennedy Center, they’re doing a tremendous job,” Thomas said. “Seeing it from the outside looking in, I love every bit of it. The festival idea is amazing and I hope it’s a trend that spreads. I am a big fan of both Hip-Hop and jazz and I rock Hip-Hop ahead of my jazz gigs and vice versa. That same synergy I seek in life, we hope to give the fans in attendance via the Revive Big Band experience.”
Thomas continued, “I want to be sure to add that the Hip Hop &… festival is dedicated to the memory of Meghan Stabile, who started the Revive Music Group. Our work with Revive Music informed our interpretation of jazz and Hip-Hop. This is the result of Revive Music Group and all of the work Simone Eccleston has put in to make this happen. It’s all coming full circle because Meghan got us booked at the Kennedy Center in 2014 and now Simone is making all these wonderful things happen.”
Learn more about Igmar Thomas and the Revive Big Band here.
To obtain information on any of the ongoing Hip Hop &… festival happenings, featuring Robert Glasper, De La Soul, Rakim, and more, click here.
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Photo: Igmar Thomas/Kennedy Center
It’s a Thursday morning in Silver Lake, Calif., and singer-songwriter Lauren Sanderson is already feeling the fatigue set in. “It’s been all hands on deck 24 hours a day,” she sighs. “Anyone who’s in this industry and not drinking coffee might be insane.”
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The 28-year-old singer has a good reason for her exhaustion. While Sanderson spent much of her career bouncing between major labels (she signed to Sony’s Epic Records for her 2018 EP Don’t Panic before departing the label in 2019) and more boutique organizations (Rix Records, Young Forever Inc.), the singer is now taking the do-it-yourself approach to its most literal conclusion.
“I’m an only child, and I think the more I grow up, the more I realize how much I might sometimes be overly independent,” she says, laughing at herself. “I would rather go into this year, make the best album of my life and really meet the specific goals and vision I have for myself than rely on someone else. If a manager can do it for me, then I can do it for myself.”
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The aforementioned best album of her life is still coming down the pipeline (with a tentative July release date set in place), but those wondering what it might sound like recently got a first taste. “They Won’t Like This,” the recently released lead single from the new LP, features Sanderson at her most confident as she casually asserts that she simply doesn’t care how people perceive her. “I got a theory, yeah, it’s something they won’t like,” she raps on the song’s swaggering first verse. “‘Cause I’m not supposed to be myself, but I just might.”
The song was born out of what Sanderson calls “rejection exposure therapy,” where the singer opens herself up to the possibility of being dismissed in order to overcome her fear of it. “There’s that moment where you’re about to do something that you really want to do, but then something in your brain is like, ‘They’re not gonna like that, they’re gonna judge you,’” she explains. “But you can’t mistake judging yourself for other people judging you. It’s like, are they gonna laugh at you? Or are you laughing at yourself?”
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Despite the confident persona she projects to her fans, Sanderson still struggles with rejection — even when it comes to a song about the combatting that very idea. “I loved this song, but I still got in my head and told my girlfriend, ‘I don’t think that I should put it out, I don’t think people will like it,’” Sanderson says. “She looked at me and said, ‘Girl, then what the f-ck did you make this song for? Isn’t that the whole point?’”
Part of the reason the song immediately resonated with the singer is precisely because it reflected the sound of her early career, when she still lived in Indiana and started releasing rap-influenced pop tracks on her own. That, she points out, was her goal in approaching new music for 2024.
“My biggest inspiration for this whole album, this single, all of it was my younger self. It was for the 19-year0old girl who had no clue how to make a song, but she just started saying how she felt on a beat,” she says. “It’s actually really cool to now look back at her, to hear her words for big dreamers and to apply them to my current self.”
That dedication to her younger self also manifested with her new approach to doing business in the music industry. After spending the last six years of her career deferring to managers, promoters and executives at various labels, Sanderson is back to doing all of work for herself.
Sure, the prospect of managing her own career can be daunting — “It can be, like, ‘Oh, f-ck, this is a lot,’ and the goal is not to manage myself forever,” she says — but the singer-songwriter points out that she’s done it all before, albeit on a smaller scale. “This is exactly how I started in Indiana,” she says. “I was my own fake manager, I was a fake booking agent, and I booked an entire 28-city tour that I drove myself around on … I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Capricorn or what, but I love to send an email. I love to make a Dropbox folder.”
Part of her promotion strategy, as it has been with nearly every artist making their mark in the industry as of late, has been TikTok. Over the last few years, Sanderson accrued over 500,000 followers on the app, posting videos ranging from teasers of her latest songs, to diaristic entries on mental health, queer affirmation and more.
Now, that particular tool in her promotional strategy is in jeopardy. In January, Universal Music Group announced that they would be pulling their entire music catalogue — including the work of signed songwriters — from the app saying that TikTok was “trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.” In the intervening months since, multiple music organizations have come out in support of UMG’s protest, and even independent promoters have warned clients against relying too heavily on the app for virality. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill through to the Senate that, if made a law, would effectively force ByteDance — the company that owns TikTok — to sell the app to another company or have the app banned throughout the United States.
For her part, Sanderson recognizes the influence that TikTok has over the music industry right now — but she’s quick to point out that adaptability is more important to success than chasing viral trends. “Some people have built TikTok to be this thing where musicians feel like if you don’t have a million followers on the app, then you might as well just write yourself off,” she says. “TikTok is literally just an app, it is not the make or break for every artist. It definitely would suck if TikTok stopped existing … but if it was gone, I would definitely just start posting Reels. It’s really that simple.”
It certainly helps that before she pursued a career in music, Sanderson worked as a motivational speaker in her teens and early twenties. She could be giving a TED Talk or simply posting an inspirational video on YouTube, but Sanderson always made it clear that her goal was to help uplift anyone who were willing to listen to her.
That facet of herself remains entirely unchanged — even on “They Won’t Like This,” as she’s done with many of her past releases, Sanderson spends the song’s outro instructing her fans to “stop f–king doubting yourself and be this god that you are.”
She chalks up her mood-boosting tendencies to a “delusional confidence” she’s had since she started her career in Indiana. “I had to go to this place in my head and be truly so delusional and convince myself I already did massive things that I hadn’t done. In my head I was like, ‘I’ve already sold out Madison Square Garden,’” she says.
But now, she points out that some of the fantasy has already become reality. Over the last five years, Sanderson has opened for bigger artists like Finneas and Chase Atlantic on their respective solo tours, helped write songs for alt-R&B star Joji’s chart-topping album Smithereens, and cultivated a motivated, ever-growing audience of fans.
“Sometimes I forget that my confidence isn’t really that delusional,” she beams. “Now I have actual proof that I can do this.”
Four years ago, two-time Grammy-nominated R&B crooner SiR guest starred in Issa Rae’s Emmy-nominated cultural phenomenon Insecure. In that episode, titled “Lowkey Movin’ On,” SiR and fellow TDE artist Zacari perform their single “Move” ahead of Issa’s career-shifting block party; it’s one of those priceless TV moments where a fictional story pays tribute to the real city in which it takes place, this one being Inglewood, CA. Now, with the release of his deeply introspective and self-confrontational new LP, Heavy, SiR is lowkey moving on from a life-altering five years of destruction and healing.
Heavy – a harrowing project that features contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Anderson .Paak, Ab-Soul and Isaiah Rashad – marks the official follow-up to 2019’s Chasing Summer, a record that boosted SiR’s career to a new level of fame and success while also serving as one of the strongest efforts from that era of contemporary R&B. Where Chasing Summer was an ode to languid, sun-soaked West Coast soul – bookmarked by collaborations with Jill Scott and Kendrick Lamar – Heavy is much grittier.
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Between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the past half-decade has been nothing short of monumentally transformative for most of the world. For SiR, those kinds of world-shifting events served as mere backdrops to personal crises that threatened to upend the very life he built for himself. “I was taking the attention I was getting and using it the wrong way for selfish purposes and eventually that started to affect my home life in a way that I couldn’t talk about,” he says. “The only way I knew how to medicate or get through all of it was to self-medicate. And we know what drugs do. Don’t take long, you know? I have to learn these lessons the hard way.”
As a result, TDE CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith held up the release of SiR’s new record until he was sober, both literally and emotionally. “We always going to put our best foot forward at TDE, that should be an understatement,” SiR says. “We’ll wait five years if we got to. When we come, we come correct. We had to take a step back and reevaluate.” That approach has drawn ire from some TDE fans – remember how some fans reacted to the delays leading up to SZA’s SOS? — but it’s proven to be an effective one. SiR’s stint in rehab brought him back home to himself. The poems he wrote during his stay and during group therapy meetings turned into the 16-track opus that is Heavy. Last week (March 22), SiR broke down his five favorite Heavy tracks — from “Ricky’s Song” to “You.”
Below,, SiR unpacks his approach to album sequencing, the impact of gospel music and his faith on his new LP and that sticky Kai Cenat controversy.
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Heavy is your first full-length album in five years. Obviously, much has changed in the world and in your personal life during that time. Talk to me about the time since Chasing Summer.
The last five years were hectic for me, man. I’ve been through a lot. I was struggling with addiction and I had to sit myself down. A lot of people always look at the whole TDE thing, and they think that Top holds artists back or anything like that — Top just ain’t gonna release nothing unless it’s time for it. Or unless you’re ready. If you’re unhealthy or you’re not prepared or your music ain’t it… he’s gonna let you know. And I had a lot of growing to do.
The pandemic was rough on everybody. I hate to even bring it up. It’s been such a long time, but it was hard on so many people. I got the s—t end of the stick, and just wasn’t taking good care of myself. I needed some time to sit down and get my s—t together. Once we actually got me healthy, then it was time for us to start telling the story because it wasn’t like I went through it by myself. There’s so many people dealing with the issues I was dealing with. I think it was important for us to show people my humanity. As artists, we always get put on these pedestals and [thought] so highly of us, but, man, we’re human just like anybody else. And we go through things. Sometimes we make it out, sometimes we don’t.
I was blessed to make it out and be able to have a second chance at life. I just wanted to show the world what I was going through, but the only way I really get a chance to tell my side of the story is through my music. So we did a great job of being as transparent as possible with where we’ve been on wax, and where we’re going on wax. I think that for my fans especially, I just wanted them to know that I wouldn’t have never waited this long if it wasn’t for good reason. They’ll never have to wait this long again on music for me. I have a playlist right now that I’m working on. It’s great music, hopefully, we’re looking at 2025. But with the music that I’m dropping now, I just want fans to know that this is who I was. It’s honest. There’s pain in there, but it’s good pain. It’s beautiful pain, and I hope I’m putting this out for people to relate to, and I hope that I was so connected that it spreads like wildfire and people understand it because they’ve been through it or they’ve seen somebody go through it.
Why was it important for you to get so honest and so specific at this point in your artistic journey?
It wasn’t like I wanted to. I was going through it with most of these songs. Most of these are poems that I wrote while I was in rehab or stuck somewhere that I didn’t want to be. In some type of meeting or some type of therapy or whatever. [The songs] came from the actual places. It’s not like I waited until after and wrote the song; I was going through it when I was writing these songs. And it’s the only way I really know how to write things. All the stuff that people love from me comes from such a personal place. The only real way I know how to share my art is honesty. I’ve tried to write cool lyrics and write a single or a banger, but it just doesn’t work out for me trying to do it that way. I feel like I’m always going to have to find it in here before I get anything that’s worth listening to.
When did you know that you had an album in the works? When did these tracks start to coalesce into Heavy?
We been sitting on this playlist for damn near two years. Even last year, we were just biding our time because there’s been so much change in the music industry. There’s so many new artists coming out, we didn’t want to just drop in dead space. We want to make sure that everything we do has purpose. It’s crazy to say it’s been five years. So much music has come out. So many things have happened. But I think we picked the timing based what we had to say, too. We wanted to make sure that we dropped it in the right space and I think it’s the perfect time for this to come.
You’ve previously noted some similarities between Heavy and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, because of both albums’ focus on mental health and personal growth. Were there any specific moments on that album that inspired you? What other albums did you look to (if there were any at all) to prepare to take yourself to that headspace?
You know what’s crazy? There’s another album that I just learned about recently, Heavy by Jean Deaux, and didn’t know it existed. But the similarities… her cover and everything looked exactly like mine! You know what I mean? I say that to say, I feel like with creatives, there’s a pool of creativity that we all pull from, and sometimes we pull the same ideas and have the same thoughts coming from the same place.
I feel like there are so many similarities on The Big Steppers. I wasn’t listening to it when I was writing my music, but listening to it made me realize that whatever [Kendrick] was going through, I was going through. Wherever he was pulling from, I was pulling from. And saying with Jean Deaux.
I think that that’s the coolest thing about creativity, you can see your own creativity shine through other people and what they were doing or saying. I definitely feel like this round of music is so personal to me that it’s going to connect with other people and there are going to be so many similarities seen because mental health is a big conversation. Personal growth should always be a big conversation. I’m just making myself a part of that conversation, that’s all.
Let’s talk about “No Evil.” That was a very different sound for you, especially for a lead single. What went into picking that track to introduce Heavy?
Man, that was the curveball of all curveballs. [Laughs.] I think with that one that, that was a huge risk. I mean, making it the first single and taking that chance, the ode to D’Angelo, it was all risk, but a risk that paid off. That’s one thing you got to know about me — I’m not scared to fall on my face. We’ll take the chances. We’ll learn from them or we’ll win. And this one just so happened to be a win. We were already confident in the vocal and confident in the production and stuff. The visual and the timing of it was what we were most worried about, so having it work out feels really good. It was a scary moment for me, for sure.
The vocal on “No Evil” really is ridiculous. There are flashes of Prince and Lenny Kravitz and D’Angelo in there, you’re in full rock star mode. What do you tap into emotionally or mentally to pull off a vocal performance like that?
Oh man, straight up Metallica rock energy. It took a couple of times to figure that out. I started real soft and was like “That’s not what I’m saying, what am I saying?” Let’s yell. [Laughs.] The emotion had to fit the statement. And that song, it’s really about drugs of choice. It’s not about being an actual superhero. I flipped it on its head. It’s a poem I wrote in rehab based on the fact that I see no evil in you having an issue. Flipped that s—t on his head and it just became such a powerful thing.
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Now, “Karma” with Isaiah Rashad. There are a few really dope moments like the percussive alliteration in the hook and this line: “Wish I never bought the game my uncle sold me/ It’s a little too late to save the old me.” Talk to me about the writing process for this one.
“I need to stop treating h–s like I need them,” that’s the first line I came up with. When I heard the music, I knew I wanted to do something that was true to me. I knew I wanted to do something that was correct for me and where I was at that point. I rented a studio on the east side and it was my own space. I was sitting there getting high all the time, not really working. And I wasn’t taking care of myself. This song came out of that time. So, it came out of turmoil; those lyrics came from the depths of my heart. I was trying to be playful about it, but when you really listen to it, that’s a cry for help. It really is. And it’s me being aware, and for a lot of people, self-awareness is what they lack. It’s me being aware that I got issues and I got problems and if I don’t fix them I’m going to have to pay the price. There is no measurement on how big a sin is. A sin is a sin and you have to atone. It was me being transparent.
And we knocked it out of the park. That’s another one where I’m talking crazy. I remember thinking, “I don’t know how my female audience is gonna take this. I don’t know how my audience is gonna like me being this transparent. How dudes are going to like me putting them on blast?” It’s kind of similar to “The Recipe.”
As soon as I played it for [Isaiah Rashad], it was a no-brainer. He got it. So, “Karma” is special and the lyric is what I needed to say. A lot of these lyrics is what I needed to get off my f—king chest, you know? I want to normalize my life. I don’t want to be SiR, I want to be Darrell. Most times I’m SiR, because I get paid to do it. I got to remember that and respect it, you know. So having those lyrics where I’m showing the world that I got an ugly side, and y’all want to see me healthy and happy? Keep me that way.
There’s so much gospel coursing through “Brighter” from the melody to the way you arranged your background harmonies. How did gospel, and your faith in general, manifest during the creation of Heavy?
I think if you’re really listening to my music, you notice that all of my harmonies, all the stacks, all that stuff is choir-based. My mother is still administering music at our church, Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church. Pastor Beverly “BAM” Crawford still out there. She’s at the helm. I’m a [preacher’s kid] through and through. Can’t run from it. I think it’s a part of my job to hold on to my roots and to show where I come from as much as possible. There are slight nuances that people miss, and they won’t know that it comes from where I’m from. But the people that know me hear it.
“Brighter” is like the most obvious Easter egg. If you can’t tell I grew up in the church from this song… [Laughs.] It was meant to happen, and in the direction that the album was heading, I needed God at the tail end because that’s where we were headed. We were headed from the dark place into the light, and it worked out perfectly. It’s perfect placement. Just a week ago, I changed the order one more time to make sure that “Brighter” had its moment.
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What is your approach to sequencing an album?
I turned in this project [the week before it came out] I changed the order 8 days [before]. I’m telling you! It’s because it’s an emotional push and pull. The best records that I’ve heard are roller coaster rides with peaks, lows, great endings and great beginnings. Steady beginnings, you know? So, I always try to mimic the albums that I love most as far as structuring them. Now, mind you, mimicking what the structure is is one thing. Trying to copy the order and the speed and the tempo… stay away from that. You’re structuring it based on your preferences. So, it comes from having done it a few times.
With this one, in particular, I took my time. I wanted to do it in an emotionally charged order. If I were going to go dark, I want to start dark and continue on that path until we started to feel an emotional change. If I was going to start light, we’d probably end with “Ignorant” and start with “Brighter” you know? But this was the order that I think the album dictated it be in.
Heavy boasts a lot of familiar collaborators. How do you go about securing collaborations for a project?
A lot of phone calls, man. I gotta call these people personally, because we don’t do the whole reaching out thing. I will never buy no feature — unless it was like I got another Dot verse or I’m getting a Cole verse. But even with them, I would want to be there directly. I want to be in the studio. I would want it to happen organically. My features always happen organically, and I’ve tried, man. I’ve reached out to so many different artists, and I don’t know what it is… just business, I don’t know.
I think the people that that rock with me have always rocked with me and it makes it easy for us to make records that will stand the test of time. I don’t chase features and they come naturally and that’s the best way to do it.
How does it feel putting out your first project in five years? Especially since the music industry has changed so drastically since Chasing Summer.
I feel like a new kid on the block, honestly. There are a lot of fans that have stuck around and have been by my side for sure. But a lot if people don’t know who I am still and that’s crazy to me. I hate to say it like that — that makes me seem so arrogant. With all of the impact that we made over the last few years, I definitely feel like we could be getting bigger opportunities, and maybe there’s something in the heavens that’s keeping me out the door. Maybe it’s not my time yet.
But I love the adventure of being discovered. I’m putting this music out, and people are like, “Oh, s—t, wait! He’s got six albums. He got an actual following. They don’t go nowhere. Like they really love him. If I say something bad about him, they’re going to go off on me.” That’s a blessing to watch. And the new fans are sweet, and I tried my hardest to communicate with them and be online on my phone. My manager tries to get me to actually work on my Instagram, but I’m just scrolling. [Laughs.]
But in those periods, I’m commenting on people’s pages, I’m trying to talk to fans as much as possible and, with the new singles and so many new people coming, it’s been beautiful to see myself be reintroduced to my old fans and introduced to new fans.
Speaking of being on socials… we gotta talk Kai Cenat. A few weeks ago you tweeted some commentary on the Omah Lay concert situation and Kai’s role in the aftermath. That was met with some pretty swift backlash. How did you handle that?
I shouldn’t have took it down, because when I realized what people were actually mad at — and I realized it before we apologized, mind you — I was like… y’all mad at me because I know who he is? I just was at the All-Star Weekend with the kid! There was a lot of people not knowing and me trying to save face.
At the end of the day, I f–ked up. I’m human. I make mistakes. I really regret that it came out like it did. There’s so much confusion in the situation at the end of the day, nobody really knows that I know what happened. They think I’m ignorant to it. The fans that were tripping, when I really looked at them, they weren’t followers. They were just random people on the Internet and all of my actual followers were like, “Why didn’t you stand on business?!”
I think we live and we learn. I didn’t bat an eye, not like it messed my day up or made me feel like I should be worried about my rollout being messed up. That wasn’t the feeling that I got off of it. It was actually very laughable. That whole situation with the Omah Lay concert bleeding over into Kai Cenat, I’ve learned that in the realm of having an opinion on those type of things, it’s best not to. Just leave it alone, shut the f—k up and mind your business. That was my lesson, and thank God it went as light as it did. Could have been way worse! I’ll be more mindful next time.
Are there any plans for a tour to support Heavy?
Tour is looking like July, August — and we are excited to paint a different picture. It’s not going to be Chasing Summer. It’s not going to look anything like anything anyone’s ever seen from me. I’m so healthy and so happy. This is the healthiest I’ve been in a long time, so I’m just excited to go out and show my fans this side of me.
There was never supposed to be a “proper” Gossip comeback. After releasing its album A Joyful Noise nearly 12 years ago, the band — made up of lead singer Beth Ditto, guitarist Nathan Howdeshell and drummer Hannah Blilie — decided to call it quits and return to their respective lives, both in and out of the spotlight.
Fate, Ditto has since learned, works in funny ways. A brief 10th anniversary reunion tour for their Rick Rubin-produced album Music for Men in 2019 got the group back in the rhythm of things. But it wasn’t until the early days of the pandemic that Ditto found herself recording a solo album with Rubin in Hawaii, missing her bandmates.
“We have such a language that we have developed together,” she explains to Billboard via Zoom. “When you’ve done it for 20+ years, you just know what the other person is saying. It happens in band practice a lot, with me and Hannah and Nathan.”
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Calling up Howdeshell and Blilie to come work with her on a new album, Ditto is happy to say Gossip is officially back in 2024. Real Power, the band’s sixth studio album (out Friday, March 22 via Columbia Records), is both a return to form and a breath of fresh air for the pioneering rock group. Continuing their time-honored tradition of blending Northwestern punk aesthetics with dashes of dance, soul and funk, the fabled trio spend much of the 40 minutes of their newest album addressing a world that has changed — both for better and worse — in the intervening decade since their disbanding.
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Yet when Ditto first asked Howdeshell to come write and play on what would have been her second solo LP, she hadn’t intended to stage a headline-making reunion. As the childhood friends worked together on her project, Ditto says she noticed reticence from Howdeshell.
“He was holding back, because he didn’t want to step on my toes, you know? He was like, ‘This is your record, so I don’t want to have too much say over it,’” she explains. “It didn’t feel right to have Nathan just play on the record, but not give him the credit that he deserved for it. I asked Rick directly, ‘Should this be a Beth record or a Gossip record?’ And he said, ‘Obviously you should do what you want, but this should absolutely be a Gossip record.’”
Thus began the “piecemeal” process of putting together a comeback album from the comfort of Rubin’s home in Kauai. With a global pandemic raging, the production team had little choice but to build makeshift vocal booths and find creative ways of soundproofing studio space so an island breeze wouldn’t interrupt a take. “I would have to wear my swimsuit in order to make it through a take, because it got so hot in there,” Ditto offers with a laugh. “That approach made it feel way cooler than it could’ve been at a studio where everything was at your fingertips. You had to work for it, almost.”
The ad hoc studio was so slapped together, that at multiple points throughout the recording process, power for the entire building would blow out. It happened so frequently, in fact, that the trio and their production crew invested in multiple generators to try and keep some semblance of electricity running.
“One day, Rick was downstairs and I was upstairs with our engineer Dylan, and he said, ‘Is that the real power on, or is that the generator?’” she recalls. “And I said, ‘Real power … that’s a good line for a chorus.’”
When considering what “real power” meant, Ditto immediately turned her attention to Portland, the place she’s called home for the last two decades. The city had been flooded with massive protests following the death of George Floyd in May 2020; unlike many other cities, though, Portland’s protests continued strong through the summer and into the fall, becoming a centerpiece of then-president Donald Trump’s calls for “law and order” in Democratic cities.
Where others saw chaos and disorder, Ditto saw her neighbors putting up instead of shutting up. “I’ve always been really proud of living in a city where, for better or worse, people are protesting against injustice, and they’re mad enough that they burned a couple of dumpsters,” she says. “That’s the f–king world I want to live in — that’s why I don’t live in the outskirts of Little Rock.”
“Real Power” serves as the central, invigorating anthem on its titular album, driving a dance-punk melody through evocative lyrics, all while conjuring up scenes of protest against an uncaring system. “People in the streets are getting rowdy/ Come here to make peace but dressed to kill,” Ditto growls on the song’s verse. “Feeling overcrowded but I like it/ Do you feel what I feel?”
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There’s an easily-spotted similarity between “Real Power” and Gossip’s breakout 2006 single, “Standing in the Way of Control“; both tracks wield uptempo beats and bass-heavy melodies to call out discrimination against disadvantaged communities. Yet Ditto says, to her, the two songs could not be more different. “I have trouble connecting with [“Real Power”] live, because it’s one of the first songs I ever wrote with a story and a picture I was trying to paint,” she explains. “Whereas ‘Standing in the Way of Control’ came right off the top of my head — it was purely emotional.”
Outside of “Real Power,” though, the new album doesn’t often revel in the insurgent politics that defined so much of Gossip’s early days. As descendants of the queercore genre and heralds of the riot grrrl movement, Gossip used their success in the mid-2000s to platform their pro-queer, feminist and body-positive beliefs, often to the dismay of conservative onlookers. With federal rollbacks of protections for reproductive rights, a renewed slate of anti-LGBTQ laws sweeping the nation and a high-stakes election on the horizon, fans would be forgiven for thinking a new Gossip record would more thoroughly address our current cultural strife.
When asked about this, Ditto offers two explanations for the lack of protest songs on Real Power. The first (and simplest) is that the album is already a few years old. “The album was done, finished, signed, sealed and delivered long before Roe v. Wade had been overturned by the Supreme Court (in June 2022),” she says. “Since then … it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even name all of the insane, regressive s–t that’s happened.”
But her second point, and the one she focuses on thoroughly, is that rebellion and nonconformity are already built into the DNA of Gossip by default. Their presence as a band of mostly queer, all feminist rock stars is itself a middle finger to systems of oppression everywhere. As she sings on the album’s defiant opening line, “Every beat of my heart is a merciful act of God.”
Even with the release of Music for Men 15 years ago, the singer says she received constant critiques about the project lacking the “anger” of the band’s earlier output. “The album’s literally called Music for Men with a d-ke on the cover and made by feminist queers,” she chuckles to herself. “I guess that’s too subtle for people.”
“Everything that we do — even if it is just a dance song or a fun, seemingly harmless song — is done in the name of queer emotion and joy and empowerment,” she continues. “When you listen to something as a queer person, for a queer person, by a queer person, about a queer person, then suddenly everything about this is radical.”
Gossip
Cody Critcheloe
That sentiment shines throughout Real Power — even when Ditto is singing about her divorce from Kristin Ogata on heartbreaking ballads like “Turn the Card Slowly,” or just calling for a joyful expression of romance on funk jam “Give It Up for Love,” every sound is punctuated with a sense of unruly insubordination.
It’s a feeling Ditto is glad to see other queer artists embracing in 2024. Thanks in part to the work put in by bands like Gossip, Le Tigre, Tegan and Sara and other queer-fronted acts from the ’90s, the state of LGBTQ representation across the music industry has dramatically improved, even in the years since Gossip took their indefinite hiatus.
“It’s so cool to be 43 as someone who started out in this industry at 18, and to see all the ways in which things have changed,” she beams. “Because that’s really why we do it — it’s not about your ego, it’s not about whether or not you’ll make a lot of money or get famous. To me, the most important thing is just that the world is moving into place, and it reminds me that we are always going to exist, whether people f–king give us the right to or not.”
Of course, she points out, there is still much more work to be done to preserve the future of queerness in music. Along with honoring groundbreaking queer artists of the past — Sylvester, in particular, deserves recognition “for creating entire genres of music,” she says — Ditto hopes that representation spreads higher into the music business, beyond just the current class of queer-identifying artists. “We wouldn’t have to worry about [executives] meaning well if they would just step aside and let us tell our own stories and advance one another,” she says. “Put us in the positions that we deserve, because those are the positions that will allow us to make change.”
As for the future of Gossip as a band, Ditto is choosing to live in the moment rather than establishing unnecessary expectations. “It feels good to be a part of something and to know that it actually matters,” she declares. Come what may, she says, “We get to be our truest selves right now and make the art we want to make. That matters, more than anything.”
There is no shortage of AI voice synthesis companies on the market today, but Voice-Swap, founded and led by Dan “DJ Fresh” Stein, is trying to reimagine what these companies can be.
The music producer and technologist intends Voice-Swap to act as not just a simple conversion tool but an “agency” for artists’ AI likenesses. He’s also looking to solve the ongoing question of how to monetize these voice models in a way that gets the most money back to the artists — a hotly contested topic since anonymous TikTok user Ghostwriter employed AI renderings of Drake and The Weeknd‘s voices without their permission on the viral song “Heart On My Sleeve.”
In an exclusive interview with Billboard, Stein and Michael Pelczynski, a member of the company’s advisory board and former vp at SoundCloud, explain their business goals as well as their new monetization plan, which includes providing a dividend for participating artists and payment to artists every time a user employs their AI voice — not just when the resulting song is released commercially and streamed on DSPs. The company also reveals that it’s working on a new partnership with Imogen Heap to create her voice model, which will arrive this summer.
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Voice-Swap sees the voice as the “new real estate of IP,” as Pelczynski puts it — just another form of ownership that can allow a participating artist to make passive income. (The voice, along with one’s name and likeness, is considered a “right of publicity” which is currently regulated differently state-to-state.)
In addition to seeing AI voice technology as a useful tool to engage fans of notable artists like Heap and make translations of songs, the Voice-Swap team also believes AI voices represent a major opportunity for session vocalists with distinct timbres but lower public profiles to earn additional income. On its platform now, the company has a number of session vocalists of varying vocal styles available for use; Voice-Swap sees session vocalists’ AI voice models as potentially valuable to songwriters and producers who may want to shape-shift those voices during writing and recording sessions. (As Billboard reported in August, using AI voice models to better tailor pitch records to artists has become a common use-case for the emerging technology.)
“We like to think that, much like a record label, we have a brand that we want to build with the style of artists and the quality we represent at Voice-Swap,” says Stein. “It doesn’t have to be a specific genre, but it’s about hosting unique and incredible voices as opposed to [just popular artists].”
Last year, we saw a lot of fear and excitement surrounding this technology as Ghostwriter appeared on social media and Grimes introduced her own voice model soon after. How does your approach compare to these examples?
Pelczynski: This technology did stoke a lot of fear at first. This is because people see it as a magic trick. When you don’t know what’s behind it and you just see the end result and wonder how it just did that, there is wonder and fear that comes. [There is now the risk] that if you don’t work with someone you trust on your vocal rights, someone is going to pick up that magic trick and do it without you. That’s what happened with Ghostwriter and many others.
The one real main thing to emphasize is the magic trick of swapping a voice isn’t where the story ends, it’s where it begins. And I think Grimes in particular is approaching it with an intent to empower artists. We are, too. But I think where we differentiate is the revenue stream part. With the Grimes model, you create what you want to create and then the song goes into the traditional ecosystem of streaming and other ways of consuming music. That’s where the royalties are made off of that.
We are focused on the inference. Our voice artists get paid on the actual conversion of the voice. Not all of these uses of AI voices end up on streaming, so this is important to us. Of course, if the song is released, additional money for the voice can be made then, too. As far as we know, we are the first platform to pay royalties on the inference, the first conversion.
Stein: We also allow artists the right to release their results through any distributor they want. [Grimes’ model is partnered exclusively with TuneCore.] We see ourselves a bit like an agency for artists’ voices.
What do you mean by an “agency” for artists’ voices?
Stein: When we work with an artist at Voice-Swap we intend to represent them and license their voice models created with us to other platforms to increase their opportunities to earn income. It’s like working with an agent to manage your live bookings. We want to be the agent for the artists’ AI presence and help them monetize it on multiple platforms but always with their personal preferences and concerns in mind.
What kinds of platforms would be interested in licensing an AI voice model from Voice-Swap?
Stein: It is early days for all of the possible use cases, but we think the most obvious example at the moment is music production platforms [or DAWs, short for digital audio workstation] that want to use voice models in their products.
There are two approaches you can take [as an AI voice company.] We could say we are a SaaS platform, and the artist can do deals with other platforms themselves. But the way we approach this is we put a lot of focus into the quality of our models and working with artists directly to keep improving it. We want to be the one-stop solution for creating a model the artist is proud of.
I think the whole thing with AI and where this technology is going is that none of us know what it’s going to be doing 10 years from now. So for us, this was also about getting into a place where we can build that credibility in those relationships and not just with the artists. We want to work with labels, too.
Do you have any partnerships with DAWs or other music-making platforms in place already?
Pelczynski: We are in discussions and under NDA pending an announcement. Every creator’s workflow is different — we want our users to have access to our roster of voices wherever they feel most comfortable, be that via the website, in a DAW or elsewhere. That’s why we’re exploring these partnerships, and why we’ve designed our upcoming VST [virtual studio technology] to make that experience even more seamless. We also recently announced a partnership with SoundCloud, with deeper integrations aimed at creators forthcoming.
Ultimately, the more places our voices are available, the more opportunities there are for new revenue for the artists, and that’s our priority.
Can some music editing take place on the Voice-Swap website, or do these converted voices need to be exported?
Pelczynski: Yes, Dan has always wanted to architect a VST so that it can act like a plug-in in someone’s DAW, but we also have the capability of letting users edit and do the voice conversion and some music editing on our website using our product Stem-Swap. That’s an amazing playground for people that are just coming up. It is similar to how BandLab and others are a good quick way to experiment with music creation.
How many users does Voice-Swap have?
Pelczynski: We have 140,000 verified unique users, and counting.
Can you break down the specifics of how much your site costs for users?
Pelczynski: We run a subscription and top-up pricing system. Users pay a monthly or one-off fee and receive audio credits. Credits are then used for voice conversion and stem separation, with more creator tools on the way.
How did your team get connected with Imogen Heap, and given all the competitors in the AI voice space today, why do you think she picked Voice-Swap?
Pelczynski: We’re very excited to be working with her. She’s one of many established artists that we’re working on currently in the pipeline, and I think our partnership comes down to our ethos of trust and consent. I know it sounds trite, but I think it’s absolutely one of the cornerstones to our success.
The Oak View Group (OVG) will soon enter a key phase of its long-planned pivot to international markets with the opening of Coop Live in Manchester, United Kingdom, next month.
After its record post-pandemic run — which included opening seven arenas in 16 months, including Climate Change Arena in Seattle, UBS Arena in New York and Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. — the Tim Lewieke-led management and development company will transition from U.K. venue developer to U.K. venue operator in one of Europe’s largest concert and live entertainment economies.
First Manchester, then the world, says Francesca Leiweke-Bodie, OVG’s COO (and Leiweke’s daughter). She explains the United Kingdom will be the launch point for expanding the company’s private-public partnership model, which looks to government groups to aid in land acquisition in exchange for fully private financing and development work. Leiweke-Bodie says the model is key to driving expansion opportunities into Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where huge gaps in the world’s touring infrastructure prevent popular arena and stadium tours from accessing hundreds of millions of fans.
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Billboard recently caught up with Leiweke-Bodie to discuss the opening of Coop Live and detail OVG’s near-term expansion plans around the globe.
Why did OVG decide to begin their international expansion efforts with the Manchester project?
London and the U.K. have always been a frontrunner for where we as a company want to plant a flag and show the other countries and municipalities that we’re speaking to about public-private partnerships and prove what is possible when the private sector can step in and invest. That doesn’t happen as much overseas, where the market is really heavily driven by municipal financing. Having this project in the U.K., a $375 million privately funded arena with huge community support and more than $1 million going back to the local business — when other potential partners come to Manchester and see what we are doing, there is no doubt that we’re the real deal and will deliver on our promises.
What’s the biggest challenge OVG faces in its efforts to expand internationally?
I think the hardest thing to come by, whether it’s domestically or internationally, is land. We want to build in the urban core. We want to be where the fans want to be — in the city centers. We can do everything else. We’ll build it. We’ll finance it. We’ll book it. We’ll take the risk. But the partnership that we’re always looking for is the land opportunity. Most of these cities are much older than the United States with dense urban cores that we can’t even fathom. To find four or five acres available to build these types of projects with access to public transit is the crux of what we’re trying to create with these city partnerships. There’s also inbound opportunities from local owners and developers that see an opportunity to take land that they might have identified for retail and say, “Let’s rethink this.”
Once the Manchester facility opened, what’s next for OVG?
Hamilton, Ontario is next. It’s an existing 18,000-seat arena we’ve already started work on, taking the building down to its studs and [which] will reopen in late April. It’s the first project in Toronto that was a public-private partnership and ultimately became a renovation project, but it’s effectively a new arena. In North America, there’s only a few strategic markets left where one could make a really big difference with another arena. But overseas, we have a tremendous amount of opportunity because of the growth internationally of global music, from American country music to Latin.
What other metropolitan characteristics appeal to OVG?
Countries or cities that not only attract from surrounding countries but serve as the point of destination for a much broader area. One example is Sao Paulo in Brazil. From a financial perspective, Sao Paulo is an incredible point of destination for not only Brazil, but for Latin America. That’s why we want to plant our flag there because it doesn’t have an arena. Vienna, Austria is the same thing. You know, it is central to continental Europe. You can get to it from six different countries via car. We have about two dozen cities like that we’ve identified.
How does programming and booking drive the OVG strategy?
That’s such a key element. The first domino that we were really thinking about and analyzing from a construction and design perspective is making sure that the building is both turnkey and equipped with all acoustic treatments and back-of-house amenities to accommodate major tours. We talk to local promoters, and figure out what is coming in the rider and work with our partners at the building to alleviate costs. Arenas have to compete with the stadium shows and we have to make the economics work so we’re really looking at the take-home revenue for an artist to make sure that their touring costs are competitive and can exceed the expectations of fans and market partners.
Her scene lasts only a few minutes, but it is as memorable as it is relevant for the narrative of Poor Things. Portuguese fado singer and songwriter Carminho plays “O Quarto (Fado Menor)” in the Oscar-nominated film, captivating Emma Stone’s Bella, and marking a turning point in the character’s arc. And you don’t need to speak the language to get the feeling of melancholy.
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Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things follows the evolution of Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (played by Willem Dafoe). In the scene with Carminho, Bella is alone, strolling through a fantastical version of Lisbon, where she traveled with lover Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) in a coming-of-age journey of self-discovery. Suddenly, she is completely captured by this piercing, emotional voice.
“I was very happy to see how beautiful the scene was, how intense. It’s the first time there’s silence in the movie and Bella is alone,” Carminho tells Billboard Español. “I thought this is the transition of Bella’s character from a child to a woman. It was very beautiful to see that Yorgos used the fado to make that, because there’s such feeling of sadness in fado, even if we don’t understand [the lyrics,] there’s a little bit of pain in each of those interpretations,” she adds of the popular Portuguese music genre, characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics.
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This is not Carminho’s first movie appearance. Before Poor Things, she participated in the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura’s Fados (2007), and then in the Portuguese director João Botelho’s Filme do Desassossego (2010), in one case as a singer, in the other as herself. “But this is my first Hollywood movie,” she says, beaming.
And is also the one that has put her more on the international map. Armed with a Portuguese guitar — an iconic 12-string instrument Carminho learned to play specifically for the role — her powerful vocals were recorded live in only one shot, enough to fill the room with commanding force.
How she got to be in such a big production — one of the most acclaimed movies of 2023, with 11 Oscar nominations (including for best picture, best director and best actress) — is something that took her by surprise. “The director of casting just sent an email to my team asking if I was interested in doing a cameo in this film with this director, and I was completely excited with that idea — but I needed to understand first what the expectations were from Yorgos, and what he was looking for,” she recalls. “I needed to understand what he was seeing when he invited me.”
So, they had a “beautiful meeting” where Carmniho remembers Lanthimos saying, “‘I was looking for you because I think that you work the traditional fado [with a contemporary twist].’” She got to ask the director all the questions she had for him, and even suggest the song to play: “O Quarto (Fado Menor)” — “something very melancholic, something simple and traditional”, which is public domain and which she had just recorded for her then upcoming album. “I made the song in the film with music and lyrics that I wrote, and in my album Portuguesa, I do the same lyrics with another music,” she explains. “So, the version in the movie is unique.”
And “the lyrics were perfect for the moment,” she recalls the director telling her, translating part of it during our interview in New York City: “In this room so tight that I thought was just mine/ Infiltrated such a poison, it’s the loneliness and I/ And then, I don’t know how, the cold came in/ So now we are three, and the three don’t make one […] You come in as you don’t see me/ A heart that’s broken is this room that is so empty/ Even the air won’t fit.”
Carminho attends the “Poor Things” premiere at DGA Theater on Dec. 6, 2023 in New York City.
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Daughter of the renowned fado singer Teresa Siqueira, Carminho released her debut album Fado in 2009, followed by Alma in 2012, Canto in 2014, Carminho canta Tom Jobim in 2016, Maria in 2018 and Portuguesa in 2023 — the last of which earned her a Latin Grammy nomination.
Beyond that and her Poor Things-stealing scene, last year was a big year for the artist, with dozens of shows in Portugal and other European countries — as well as in Brazil, Mozambique, and the United States. She also performed for Pope Francis in Lisbon during a World Youth Day celebration, and sang at the New York City premiere of the Academy Award-nominated film.
Now she is set to come back in April to the U.S. as a guest on Caetano Veloso’s The U.S. Farewell Tour, where she’ll join the Brazilian legend to sing their collaboration “Você-Você,” included in his 2021 album Meu Coco.
Watch Carminho’s scene with Emma Stone in Poor Things here:
Luke Hemmings is introducing his new album era with the introspective “Shakes,” and to celebrate, the 5 Seconds of Summer vocalist sat down with Billboard‘s Rania Aniftos to discuss the writing process. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “I already had a lot of ideas for the album […]
Over the course of a decade, Grupo Marca Registrada has earned a place in the regional Mexican music scene by stamping their style on norteño music. In 2022, they released hits like “Si Fuera Fácil”, “No Me Acuerdo” and “El Rescate” with Juniro H. But by mid 2023, their album Corleone had not gotten the response they expected: it only spent one week on Billboard‘s Regional Mexican Albums chart, at No. 16, and one week on Top Latin Albums at No. 50. And in the midst of the craze for corridos tumbados, the outlook was not encouraging.
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Despite collaborations with Carin León (“Me Haces Tan Bien”) and Grupo Frontera (“Dí Que Sí”, which reached No. 1 on Regional Mexican Airplay and No. 3 on Latin Airplay in the spring of last year), they felt something was amiss. So their frontman, Fidel Oswaldo Castro, set about the task of changing musical direction and found emerging talent younger than himself — such as Octavio Cuadras, Joaquín Medina and Sheeno — who write, compose and produce with a unique touch and a “techno bélico” sound.
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Then came another trilogy of songs with which they would show a new face — “ELOVRGA” with Alex Favela and Joaquin Medina, which took them to No. 7 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and whose music video has over 102 million views; “Alucin” with Eugenio Esquivel and Sebastian Esquivel, and the happy corrido “Bling Bling” with Octavio Cuadras — released late last year; the latter with a remix featuring Colombian superstar Maluma.
Today (March 1), they are premiering a new version of Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas’ 2003 Latin pop hit “Andar Conmigo,” and soon something dance-driven with Belinda will be released.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard Español, Castro spoke extensively about the wheel of fortune that has Grupo Marca Registrada’s spirits high and their upcoming projects with stars that also include Peso Pluma, Junior H and Xavi.
After a winning streak, things didn’t work out the way you thought they would. Were you prepared for that?
I’m always prepared, so that in case something doesn’t work out, I have a backup. It’s the hunger to move forward. You also have to put intelligence into music, you have to look where no one else wants to look.
Why did you decide to give very young, practically unknown artists a chance?
Everybody wants to record with big artists. I didn’t look for that, I looked for quality, I looked for talent; I had the numbers. I looked for a product to sell, something good and of quality that was not overexposed. So I started with Joaquín [Medina] and Alex [Favela] for the song “Elovrga”, then with the Esquivel brothers I did “Alucin”, which has been a hit in electronic music charts in Spain. Octavio [Cuadras], a Sinaloan like me, also came along with a good song, “Bling Bling”, and I gave him the opportunity.
These three songs worked and what I wanted happened: to expose Mexican music as no one else had done. We released them and people accepted it incredibly. Let’s just say I feel rejuvenated musically. This led to other opportunities. The Maluma collaboration happened and we went to Colombia to record a new version of “Bling Bling,” which today is being listened to by [millions] around the world.
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Has taking a musical turn in your career affected your relationship with your regional Mexican colleagues?
On the contrary, now I have already received calls from big stars who at some point thought that Fidel had already sunk — but since they have seen the path I have taken, they are interested in working with me. I am not at odds with success, fame or money.
You could have stayed doing corridos, but you played the final card.
I’ve been doing this for 12 years, two on my own and 10 with Marca Registrada. The key is to adapt to what will give you work. It has always worked for me to adapt to the new, but I don’t stop doing my own thing.
Are you now working as a team with these new talents you discovered?
I made my group of artists with Sheeno and Octavio Cuadras, new talents that have a very nice respect for me. I have a lot of confidence in them, I want them to work and put the music of Mexico very high. I have told the guys that it is not about saying that the songs are mine because I am the well-known one; we are in the same boat together. Octavio has his place, as does Joaquín (Medina), Alex Favela and the Esquivel brothers. Everyone gets what they really deserve.
Are you working with them for the new Marca Registrada album?
Totally. The album, from RB Music/Interscope, is called The G.O.A.T (The Greatest Of All Time). There are 12 songs and an intro; it’s trap, it has nothing to do with norteño music. In the previous album, Corleone, I focused on what the people of Marca Registrada were asking for.
This production is very different — there are duets with guys that nobody knows, such as Angel Cervantes and Oslin, who co-wrote “Torai”, a song that I uploaded to TikTok and was doing very well when the label dropped the music. However, another one of our producers, Marcelo Rivs, who was working with Belinda, showed it to her, she liked it, we recorded it just last week and it was a great experience. It’s has a techno-bélico, dance vibe. Belinda is a very important figure; she is always in the news and that is very good.
Did you ever imagine yourself making house or electronic music?
Years ago, when I used to hang out in nightclubs, I thought how wonderful it would be to be as successful as the reggaetón heads with their music. Today, I can be proud that my songs are sung and danced to in those places.
You have a new collaboration with Julieta Venegas, how did this approach come about?
Julieta Venegas is an excellent person, I have always been a huge fan of hers. Today I can tell you that she is my friend. I had already recorded “Limón y Sal”, but I had the dream of doing something with her and, through my distributor, the contact was made, we sent her the demo and she liked it. Julieta told me that she wanted something in the style of Marca Registrada, very regional Mexican and she decided that it should be “Andar Conmigo.” We went to Buenos Aires [where she lives] to shoot the video, another unforgettable moment.
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What other collaborations are coming up in the short term?
There are collaborations coming with Belinda, with Peso Pluma and Junior H, with whom we have recorded in 2022, 2023 and we already have this year’s song, so we have great expectations. Also with Xavi. Beyond the fact that he is the artist of the moment is that we connect. I did not record with Peso Pluma at his moment, it will be done now. With Edén (Muñoz) something is also coming, as well as with Alfredo Olivas; they are great friends of mine and referents of regional Mexican music.
Do you still consider yourself a regional Mexican artist despite all these new sounds and mixes you are experimenting with?
One hundred percent, I always will be. The fact that I do new things does not define me as an artist of another genre. All the music I make will always be Mexican, proudly.
Matisyahu sat down with Billboard to run through the events that happened in Santa Fe, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month.
The reggae singer’s planned shows at Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf and Tucson’s Rialto Theatre were abruptly canceled due to security concerns, and he ended up performing a show at Tucson’s The Rock for fans to see for free. “There have been protesters at my shows, and two shows got canceled. One of them in New Mexico, where after we had driven hundreds of miles set up, had a sold out show, fans were starting to come, the staff claims that they were afraid to come into the show because of like, tenant protesters,” he says to Billboard. “We’ve discovered that that’s obviously not true and they chose to not come in and to wait untillthe last minute so that we had to cancel the show. The next night, there was a similar situation that happened and when they let us know that the show was canceled, I myself started making phone calls and found another venue, a legendary reggae venue down the street. […] They claimed there that it was a security issue at the Rialto, so we moved everything, found a completely new staff in two hours and had a beautiful concert with no security issues.”
He continued, “People can say what they want, but we know why these shows are being canceled. The bottom line is that we’re going to continue and we’re going to play every show on the tour and any venue that cancels, I have backup venues in every city in America. I’ve been doing 200 shows a year for 20 years in this country, and so we will play our shows regardless.”
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Following the cancellation, Meow Wolf shared a post that read, “On February 14th, we canceled a concert at the House of Eternal Return. Two hours before the show was set to begin, we found ourselves without adequate staff to safely manage the sold out crowd. Meow Wolf will always prioritize the safety of our employees and our guests. We are in the process of refunding all ticket holders […] Meow Wolf believes in free expression, respectful discourse and the power of art to bring people together. We do not tolerate Antisemitism, Islamophobia, hate, racism, discrimination or violence of any kind.”
The Rialto similarly cited “safety concerns and staff shortage” preventing the venue’s ability to “prioritize the safety of [its] employees and [its] guests.”
Matisyahu also opened up about his experience visiting Israel amid the ongoing Israel Hamas War, sharing that he “experienced hope,” which meant a lot “for the Jewish people right now and for a lot of people is this feeling of isolation, separation, anger, fear.”
He continued, “I was feeling really hopeless about what the future is going to look like for all of us and went to Israel and renewed like my faith in humanity and renewed my faith in God. You know, I have to say, I left with this feeling of light and I’ve been trying to take that and really put that into the music and into the shows and we’re facing a lot of tough situations right now. But that’s what I keep going back to. When I think about the people that I met, the survivors of those of that festival, the soldiers that I met, the families of the hostages and what they’re going through, and that’s what’s giving me the strength to to be myself and not be quiet about what’s happening right now.”
Watch Billboard‘s full interview with Matisyahu above.