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Sam Asghari is looking back at his past relationships with love. The model and actor recently told Us Weekly that he’s “not really focusing on [dating] at the moment,” following his 2023 divorce from Britney Spears, adding, “When you’re in a relationship or any experiences that are major in your life, you learn so much. […]
Halsey is reflecting on communicating closely with Britney Spears throughout the process of making her new single “Lucky,” which interpolates Spears’ 2000 song of the same name, as well as Monica’s “Angel of Mine.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The star sat down with BBC Radio […]
Just four days into 2024, 4Batz made an appearance in Billboard’s weekly Trending Up column off the strength of the virality of “Act II: Date @ 8,” the second single of his burgeoning career. Seven months later (Aug. 1), the ascendant Dallas-bred R&B star sold out Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg for the third stop […]
Newspeak, a three-piece band made up of vocalist Rei, drummer Steven, and bassist Yohey, have released their third full album, Newspeak. Newspeak has been praised for its bold, borderless sound, influenced by UK and US rock. It’s drawing attention from all corners, having been selected as an opening act by artists such as The Fratellis and Mando Diao. Billboard Japan talked to the trio about what went into their new album.
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Since you named the new album Newspeak, I get the strong feeling that you see it as a crystallization of what you are as a band.
Rei: After we finished our last album, Turn, we decided to work with Warner Music Japan. We were thinking about what kind of album to make next, and our minds kept turning to why we started Newspeak in the first place and why we were making music. We kept thinking about how we started this band because we wanted to make this kind of music and to share this kind of message, so what else could we do besides making it a self-titled album?
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Starting with this album, I get a feeling of hopefulness and expectation for the future from you for the first time. The songs are powerful, positive, and energetic. It’s like they have the power to just blow away any uncertainty or worry. I think that you can especially feel that strength in what is, effectively, the album’s first song, “White Lies.”
Rei: We wrote “White Lies” after “Be Nothing,” and the director of the music video asked us to send pictures of times when we found ourselves at crossroads or critical moments in our lives, along with pictures of people who are important to us. Looking back on my own photo albums, I remembered how I felt back when I was 20 years old, in America, looking down at the scenery below me from the top of the Empire State Building. I think everyone feels that way, when you go up somewhere high: “I’m going to make it big!”
That hallmark of youth!
Rei: Yeah, exactly. Like, I had no particular foundation for that belief, just this vague desire to make my mark on the world. I was like, “I’m going to achieve something!” [Laughs] But even now, looking back on it, I feel like that’s the way it had to be. Now, I want to express that unfounded confidence.
The songs are so powerful, it’s like they could rekindle that motivation slumbering inside — tap that well of energy deep within.
Rei: That’s why the album starts with the question “What would you do if you weren’t afraid at all?” That concept is at the root of everything I do, and I feel like I’ve finally been able to express it really well.
Having a powerful will is important for anything you do.
Steven: I like powerful songs with that confidence of “I am the best!” “Nobody stop me!” with no deeper thought, but the songs that speak to me even more are the ones that demonstrate an understanding of the darker aspects of reality. In that sense, Newspeak’s songs, like “White Lies,” are well-balanced, showing that we see the negative parts of reality, too.
Most of Newspeak’s lyrics are in English, and your sound is heavily influenced by the UK and US rock scenes. There’s a strong sense of focus on the foreign music scene, but you’ve also established a unique position in the Japanese music scene. How much attention do you pay to trends or fashions?
Rei: Just trying to revive old music all the time would be fruitless. As a musician, I think it’s important to enjoy music, to convey a message, and to create a new sound, so I listen to new music, and when I hear new or interesting sounds, I try to incorporate them.
Yohey: I don’t just listen to rock. Lately, I’ve even been thinking about going to see Dua Lipa (Editor: She is scheduled to perform in Japan in November). Trying to incorporate every kind of different sound in our own style of music would be impossible, but there are some sounds where I think “this might be interesting to work into our music.”
Rei: We like sounds that are really striking. Not things we’ve heard before, but more sounds like “booooiiiing.” [Laughs]
Steven: Sometimes we use modern synth sounds, but sometimes we go the other way, using old-school drums or old bass sounds. It’s a mixture of classic and modern. I think there’s some originality in that approach.
“Alcatraz” is a danceable song with a catchy melody. The phrase “So many faces and faces to please” stands out.
Rei: No matter where you go, there are always faces to please, whether they’re other band-mates or even in situations like this interview. In “Alcatraz,” we’re singing about how you can’t let yourself always get caught up worrying about that. You have to make yourself happy, or what’s the point?
We’re in an era in which there are a lot of “faces to please” online.
Rei: That’s true, of course. But the message of this song is more about “let’s enjoy the music.” The main message is to have fun and set yourself free.
The song “Tokyo” has a line that stands out: “This city can hurt you or ignite you.” What’s your image of Tokyo?
Steven: It’s huge — I think it’s the world’s biggest city. It’s always busy, and so many people come to Tokyo from the countryside to make money. I think that’s why even for people who love Tokyo, there are times when it’s hard. The song “Tokyo” sends the message to those people that “We understand. We think the same way. I know it’s hard, but you’re not alone.”
Rei: There are a lot of songs about how hard it can be to live in Tokyo, but what I wanted to convey through this song is that no matter what city or community you’re part of, it’s the same. I mention it in the lyrics, too, but we’re using Tokyo as a symbol to represent being a member of a community, so instead of Tokyo it could just as well be London or New York or Kuala Lumpur. No matter where you go, there’s stress. How you respond to that is up to you. You may find your school or your company tedious, but then when you go outside, you realize that you were agonizing over something inconsequential. So what I wanted to say is that all you have to do is just go out. Why are you clinging on so tenaciously? Why do you look at the world like it’s your enemy? I think the same about myself. Just because I’m in Tokyo, or just because I’m in Japan, doesn’t mean I can’t go overseas.
The last song on the album, “Nokoribi,” closes with the line, “A wingless believer on the night before the revolution.” It feels like here you’re singing about Newspeak itself.
Yohey: The lyrics to this song are an answer to the question posed in the intro to “White Lies.” It’s the kind of song you’d expect from Newspeak, but surprisingly, we’d actually never written a song like this. We have a lot of songs that are like “just be yourself” or “don’t give up,” but we hadn’t written any songs that praised the beauty of striding forward. It’s a song with the power of self-affirmation, like saying “we shine because we act.”
Rei: It’s a song about how there’s a beautiful world out there, so why don’t you go set out into that world? You’ve got “Tokyo,” about being stuck within a community, unwilling to step out, and then that’s followed with this song, the final one on the album, about the moment when you finally take that step forward. We thought it would bring the album to a nice close. We actually wrote the song a long time ago, but it just happened to fit here really well, so we were like “Now’s the time to use it.”
In closing, what kind of future do you want to see for the band?
Yohey: I want to play at Coachella.
Rei: I used to perform as a musician in Liverpool, so I’d like to make a triumphant return by playing at the Glastonbury Festival.
Yohey & Steven: Yeah!
—This interview by Azusa Ogiwara first appeared on Billboard Japan
Summer is continuing to heat up when it comes to new music releases. Charli XCX continued Brat summer with a remix of “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish. Fans first began speculating that Eilish would be the surprise guest on the new track when Charli teased a new collaborative version of the song, with her special guest’s face cropped […]
On a 95-degree day in late July, Channel Tres shows up on Zoom from his place is Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood wearing a tank top and intermittently drinking from a large water bottle.
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It’s been a few weeks since the artist released his debut album, Head Rush, 17 tracks that package myriad elements of Tres’ psyche — “my love life, dealing with loss, dealing with the transition when my dreams become reality” — into a sophisticated, swaggy amalgamation of hip-hop, R&B and electronic music that tracks his rise from his native Compton to big tours and big festival stages.
“Now I’m somebody people will recognize sometimes,” he says. “I’m not just a bedroom musician anymore. I’m doing things. It was like, ‘I have all these things going on, and I only have this one brain to process it. That was the meaning of the title, Head Rush. It was something that could be euphoric, but it’s also something that can be a headache.”
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This characteristic depth is balanced by a lot of output that’s just purely danceable. This fall, Tres will go on a 15-date tour with Kaytanada for shows he predicts will be “the biggest dance parties of the year.” He’s also currently working on dance music that he’s testing out at DJ sets and afterhours. And the reach is real: When he recently went back to Compton to hang out on the set of Kenrick Lamar’s “Not LIke Us” video, he says “a lot of people came up to me like, ‘Yo man, we love what you’re doing. We’ve gotten into house music.’ I would never think going back home that I’d hear this from people. Stuff like that inspires me.”
Ahead of his performance at HARD Summer in Los Angeles this weekend, Tres talks about what he’s done, what he still wants to achieve and the times he’s just been able to enjoy the moment.
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It’s been a month since your album came out. What has this time been like for you?
The first two weeks were like hell, because I was reading everything. I would search my name on Twitter and read everything; I was reading Reddit, just engulfing myself in the positive and negative feedback. It was a lot for me, but I felt like it was important to get both sides of criticism, just because I want to teach myself how to take whatever it is and be okay with it.
That sounds intense.
I didn’t want to feed into all the positive feedback and fill my head up with all positive things, thinking I’m the shit when I still have things to work on. Then I wanted to also look at the negatives so I could build strength to have thicker skin so it won’t affect me as much. Because the more you get into this, you realize it’s just going to be all types of comments coming at you. I always safeguarded myself from that, but this time, I was like, “No, I’m going to engage.”
Then after that two weeks, I stopped. I was like, “Okay, cool. I’m going to go back to therapy, and instead of bi-weekly make it once a week.” [Laughs.] Then I just got really excited about the future. I was like, “Wow, I really put a chapter of my life into 17 songs and released it, and it feels so good.” I’m excited to take what I learned from this process to inform the next body of work.
Were able to shake off the best and worst things you read about yourself?
Yeah. I learned how to be like, “This is how I feel. I know what I was saying right here. I know how I freaked the production right here and what that means to me as a producer.” After it was all said and done, I was like, “Oh, I’m only in competition with me.” I get to do something I’m passionate about, and it serves me, and it serves my creative juices and the the child in me, but it also pays the bills. So wow, look at the life that I get to live.
You mentioned being recognized and having your profile rise. The last time you spoke with Billboard, in 2023, you said were “ready for big s–t… ready for the big stage type of energy.” Do you feel like you’ve achieved that with this album?
No, I don’t feel like I’ve achieved that. But I feel like I achieved what this album was supposed to achieve for me. I didn’t get to where I want to go with this album, but I’m thankful I did it, because there’s more stories to be told, and I want to leave a trail of [output.] Whenever that moment comes, cool. I feel successful already, but I know there’s places I want to go.
What places are those?
I still want to play Glastonbury. I still want to headline Coachella. There are certain things that I want automatic, like I want to get Tonight Show automatically. I want more excitement behind things I’m doing, but I’m not in a rush for that. I know those things come with the more work I put in.
Have there been moments when you’ve felt like you were getting exactly what you wanted or dreamed of?
I had an album release party for my project and Thundercat showed up, Ty Dolla $ign showed up, Kaytranada showed up, Estelle, Ravyn Lenae. I was wondering if they’re all going to show up. I was like, “Let me just go for the fans and give this body of work the appreciation it needs.” Then everybody showed up. We all listened to the album, then afterwards, everybody I mentioned came on stage, and I was able to play my favorite songs with them and vibe with the crowd. I was so full of love. I was like, “This is what it is. It’s about community.”
These are people I’ve looked up to since like, 2010, and now some of them I can call friends and collaborators. And my mom was there, my aunt, my grandma came. Everything clicked. At that point, nothing mattered — like the successes I want, or my personal ambitions. For my cousins or other people from L.A. that knew me before to see where I’ve gotten to now, that brought a lot of gratitude.
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Maybe this is an unfair question since you just released your album, but are you working on music right now?
I’ve already been working on new music. I’ve been finding new sounds. With Head Rush, I needed to rap more and incorporate some of my hip-hop roots and R&B roots. It’s an electronic album, but it’s not the dance album I wanted to make. It’s more of a album of self -expression, but I put some dance songs in there that are going to be good to perform. But I still have a really crazy electronic dance project I want to make.
Ooh. Tell me more.
I’ve been making dance music again. I mean, I never stopped, but I have a re-love for it again. I’ve been practicing DJing again, and I’ve been finding sounds and new BPMs. I’ve been doing more after parties and underground club parties and testing out records in my DJ sets. I’m getting hungry again about how I relate to dance music. I feel like how I felt when I first fell in love with it again, but in a new way, because I have more skills.
What are the best business decisions that you’ve made so far in your career?
I would say firing the team I started off with. I was very loyal in that situation, and I wasn’t necessarily getting the best work. When I came into the music, I’m thinking I’m working for my team, when in reality, I’m Channel Tres. I created Channel Tres. I’m in the studio creating the songs; I’m putting my life on the line going on these tours. So the people around me need to be held to a standard, and we need to be working together. Nobody’s working for anybody. Being able to let a situation go based on business and not being so loyal because you have emotional connections has been a really great thing for me. Because, yes, I’m very loyal. But sometimes that doesn’t mean that that person is doing the best work for you.
How have things shifted for you since you made that decision?
I feel like I have business partners now. We can look at Channel Tres objectively and make the best decisions for what we’re trying to get to. Because I am a musician and a creative, but I’m also well invested into the business of Channel and how we can further that. I know that I’m gonna show up, and I’m going to put the work in, and when I have somebody that’s working with me, and they have the same energy, I can sleep at night with that.
You’re going on tour with Kaytranada this summer. What’s that show going to look like?
When the Kaytranada tour offer came it was just like, “Wow, this is exactly what I need right now.” I was excited to go on tour by myself, but then I was like, “Nah, Kaytranada and I together on a tour is just going to be the biggest dance party of the year.”
[My team and I] are so locked in to capitalize on the things I’ve already done. My routine is better. Me and creative partner, we’ve gotten better. I’m open to learning, but I’m also coming with fire. I’ve been rehearsing, and I’m honing in on things I haven’t before. Even if it’s just a dance move I want to add to my repertoire. I’ve been watching a lot of Broadway shows like The Wiz. Now I’m walking around in the house, but I’m doing it in a Broadway fashion.
There aren’t that many dance artists that incorporate actual dancing into their live show. Why is that a compelling thing for you to do?
I’ve been dancing since I was a kid. In high school I was in ballet. I’m just an art kid. If I wasn’t doing music, I’d probably be doing a play. I have to make things interesting for myself. Also my first tour I ever went on was with Robyn. I got to watch her every night. The way she worked the crowd, you could feel the love and energy. There’s no mistake that the universe put me on that tour. I want to bring people that type of energy.
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Have you always been so able to freely express yourself, or has it taken a long time to get to this place of just following the impulses?
Naturally as a kid I was like that. But then I did a talent show in seventh grade, and I got booed and made fun of for the rest of the year. It shut me down for a while and I was reserved, and like “I’m just gonna be a producer and be in the background.”
What changed?
Something happened when I was in college. I was a drama minor. I started learning how to act and then kind of felt the energy again. I don’t live where I grew up anymore. I’m not the person that all those people knew anymore.
I experienced house music and dance music and was like, “There’s no time to be precious about this. I’m going get a choreographer. I’m going start taking classes. I’m going to practice and start being the person I want to be. Fuck it. There’s just no time to be cool. If it falls through the floor, it falls through the floor, but I’m just going to put myself out there, because you only get one life.” And it worked.
What was the seventh grade talent show performance?
I grew up in church, that’s how I got good at instruments. I grew up with my great grandparents, so I was wearing loafers and slacks. So I just was like, “I’m gonna bring this energy to school, and it’s gonna be good.” Me and my friend wrote a gospel song. I sang it. I was dancing, and it was just a sea of laughter.
That’s tough.
Because it wasn’t cool to be like that. I’m going to school in Compton. Either you play sports, or you’re a gangbanger. That shit wasn’t cool.
Well, if they could see you now.
They do.
Megan Thee Stallion is getting something off her chest and laying it to rest. Though her performance at Kamala Harris’ kickoff campaign rally in Atlanta was met with lots of praise, others criticized the rapper for not taking a more conservative approach — something she addressed during her headlining Lollapalooza set Thursday (Aug. 1). “Let […]
The 2024 Tencent Music Entertainment Awards (TMEA) were staged at the Galaxy Arena in Macau, China, from July 19 to 21.
Themed “High Five. Music Drive” and organized by Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the TMEA showcased a three-day music extravaganza, featuring a stellar lineup of international top artists and more than 100 performances, alongside a two-day indoor music festival and music ceremony.
The titles of Best Male Singer of the Year and Best Female Singer of the Year were awarded to Zhou Shen and Zhang Liangying, respectively, while Xue Zhiqian received recognition for Best Concert of the Year.
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Zhou Shen
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Wang Yuan was honored as the Most Influential Male Singer in the Chinese Mainland, while Yuan Yawei (TIA RAY) was awarded the title of Most Influential Female Singer in the Chinese Mainland. Additionally, the Most Influential Male and Female Singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan were awarded to Eason Chan and G.E.M., while the honors for Most Influential Singer-Songwriter and Most Influential Mandarin Group went to Jay Chou and Mayday, respectively.
The evening also featured the announcement of the Best of the Year awards: the titles of Best Male and Female Singers in the Chinese Mainland were awarded to Xue Zhiqian and Shan Yichun, while the Best Male and Female Singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan were given to Wilber Pan and Angela Zhang.
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Shan Yichun
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International artists were also in the spotlight, with Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift awarded Best International Male Artist and Most Influential International Artist of the Year, respectively.
The TMEA Music Ceremony brought together a lineup of iconic Chinese-language singers. Wang Yuan, Wilber Pan, Zhang Liangying, Tia Ray and Zhou Shen all performed, showcasing their hit songs and diverse musical styles.
Tia Ray
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In addition to established artists, the TMEA also highlighted many emerging stars in the Chinese music scene.
As a world-class choreographer, RIKIMARU served as the dance director for the 2024 TMEA and debuted his new song “Can’t Get Enough.” A representative of Chinese electronic music, who was the only Mandarin artist to perform on prestigious international electronic music festival stages such as Tomorrowland, Ultra, ADE and EDC, CORSAK delivered an electrifying DJ SHOW at the gala.
Established in 2019, the Tencent Music Entertainment Awards is an annual music awards ceremony that has captivated millions of music enthusiasts.
TMEA
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Justin Timberlake made a brief appearance via Zoom in a Sag Harbor, NY courtroom on Friday morning (August 2) where a spokesperson for the singer confirmed to Billboard that he entered a not guilty plea in connection with his June arrest for DWI. According to CNN, Timberlake, 43, attended the arraignment virtually and spoke twice […]
Snoop Dogg has kept busy amid the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but he’s still finding time to take in a little culture. In a hilarious Instagram video posted Friday (Aug. 2), the rapper embarks on a guided one-on-one tour through the city’s famous Louvre museum while no one else is around. “We’re finna be snooping […]
