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It was 3:00 a.m. in Austin, Texas, and Rüfüs du Sol couldn’t figure out the chord arrangement.
The trio had been working for hours, assembling and re-assembling a single chord progression in dozens of different ways. “I think we were on our 30th coffee,” jokes the group’s keyboardist Jon George.
Then, they thought of Underworld’s “Born Slippy (Nuxx),” and the way the 1996 song’s classic intro sort of stutters into existence like passing digital clouds. They transposed this structure onto what they were working on, and there they had it, with the idea helping complete a darkly lush song called “Edge of the Earth.”
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It was an in-the-moment creative spark that probably wouldn’t have happened if the guys had been on an afternoon remote work session from separate cities, a method they’d tried when first starting on music for their new album. But with the group’s singer Tyrone Lindqvist based in San Diego, Calif. and George and drummer James Hunt living in Miami, they couldn’t just casually assemble in the studio.
“There was some nerves about how we would finish the next record,” says Lindqvist. “We always knew we were going to keep making music regardless of where we live, but there was some uncertainty about how that was going to play out. We tried writing separately, and it wasn’t really clicking.”
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Together, they decided on a series of two week work sessions. They met for two weeks in Austin, then took eight weeks off. They met for two weeks in Ibiza, then took eight weeks off, with the next two week session happening in the Australian group’s former home base of Los Angeles. They’d bring ideas and what Hunt calls an “amazing playground” of instruments to their traveling creative bubble, then go their separate ways and flesh the music out separately.
After 18 months of this workflow, the guys ultimately assembled their fifth studio album, Inhale / Exhale, out Friday (Oct. 11) through Warner Records. The 15 tracks are classic Rüfüs: dreamy and delicate, occasionally dark and full of longing, but never overtly challenging, and altogether built from as much analog as electronic instrumentation.
“Each time we did a block, I feel like we got stronger at exploring ideas, breaking the ice quicker, playing and being very free,” says Hunt. “We’d initially finish around 10:00 p.m. and by the end, because we’d be having so much fun, we’d be wrapping at like, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. We’d leave those two weeks fatigued, but very satisfied and stoked, because there’d be so much material.”
And in this way, instead of writing being a slog with no end in site, the eight weeks off provided a built in restoration period. Both in and out of the studio, the process was enhanced by the load of wellness practices that have been part of the Rüfüs repertoire for years, with group workout sessions, breathwork, ice baths and guided meditations all part of the routine. “It put us in a really dialed in zone where we felt focused and present and optimized and in a good place,” says Hunt.
But after nearly 15 years and five studio albums, the trio required a bit more maintenance than some diaphragmatic breathing. They’d started partaking in group therapy a few years back, and — recognizing that they wanted their creative space to be, Hunt says, “sacred” and therefore free of interpersonal drama — did therapy during the making of Inhale / Exhale as well. Speaking to Billboard over Zoom from Australia, the guys (assembled on a couch together and all dressed in black) agree that therapy has been valuable in enhancing their communication and creating, Hunt says, “connection that feels way healthier. I think our friendships have improved dramatically as a result of it.”
So too has it helped them navigate the touring lifestyle and its myriad challenges and siren calls. “We began this endeavor to be touring on the road and to be all focused on the music,” says George, “and that would maybe lead to maybe immature decisions. We just didn’t do a lot of growing for a period of time. It was just us relying on each other and being caught up in this washing machine that is being in a band and indulging in a rock star lifestyle for a little bit there.
“We naturally had to do a bit of growing up at some point,” he continues, “and we’re lucky that we were safe enough in that time that we didn’t blow ourselves out, or blow a tire on our bus, so to speak.”
Now, armed with more sustainable life choices and better listening skills, within Rüfüs there’s generally “less pointing fingers,” says Lindqvist, and more “working on communicating as soon as we can in an appropriate space, and not doing it in a room of 30 people, or just before we’re about to go on an interview.”
It’s wise to have brushed up on it all as the Rüfüs du Sol machine has turned back on over the last four months. The guys, who say they enjoy the album cycle process, marked the last one with a massive global tour and a win for best dance/electronic recording at the 2022 Grammys for their track “Alive,” from the album Surrender.
Their two years of touring behind that album began with three shows at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles (which for many attendees marked their first post-pandemic concert), and ended in August of 2023. Beyond a few festival dates in Australia and their ongoing residency at Las Vegas club XS, the guys were largely quiet until this past spring, when they were a late addition to the Coachella lineup, then showed up for a surprise set at Lightning in a Bottle near Bakersfield, Calif. in May. (Lindqvist does not perform during DJ sets, leaving that element of the Rüfüs oeuvre to George and Hunt.)
Rüfüs du Sol at Portola 2024
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The lead single from Inhale / Exhale, “Music Is Better,” dropped in June, ultimately reaching No. 1 on Dance Mix Show/Airplay earlier this month. Another three singles, (and another DJ set played at Burning Man 2024 and uploaded to YouTube), built hype for both the album and Rüfüs’ September headlining set at Portola Music Festival in San Francisco, their only live U.S. show of the year.
This Portola show drew a giant crowd and found the guys unveiling a new stage set up less focused on lights and lasers and more focused on…them.
“No shade being thrown, but what’s happening a lot in the [live] electronic music scene is a lot more visuals,” says George. “We were playing into that a fair bit on our last couple of tours, with big LED walls and [the like], so we were just excited by showing something different and leaning into the musicality.”
Their Portola set up — designed by their longtime creative director Katzki, who’s also George’s brother — struck a sparer, more industrial aesthetic, with visuals focused on showing the guys playing their instruments in cutting edge IMAG (image magnification), which Katzki was inspired to incorporate after seeing a Rosalía show.
“It’s focusing on the musicality of what we’re doing between the three of us,” George says of the Portola performance. “Now I’m excited for what we’re pushing further for next year.” (Rüfüs has not thus far announced any additional tour dates.) For now, they say having another album out is a success, as are the creative directions they’ve pushed themselves on it, as are the number of fans who’ve been with them for the duration of their career.
Just as they started writing it, they did a guided meditation focused, George says, on “how we were going to feel after writing a record, and what my future self looks like during that process.” (They’d done the same kind of meditation before the 2022 Grammys, envisioning what it would be like to win, and then winning.) During this process, George simply saw his future self, the one who’d just released the album, smiling widely like a cheshire cat. Today on Zoom, he flashes a big grin, like the one he says he’d imagined. They all do.
Run-DMC’s Darryl McDaniels is getting vulnerable about his mental health. The rapper appears in the Generation X portion of MSNBC’s four-part documentary, My Generation, where recalls hearing Nirvana for the first time in the early 1990s. “Nirvana was an honest expression of not being ashamed to put your angst on the front page,” he said of […]
All artists bare their hearts, but none quite like Dana Margolin. Whether she’s rocking out or inward, the frontwoman and lyricist of Porridge Radio sings with an arresting, visceral intensity that never comes across as performative.
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So, it’s surprising — and heartening — to find an upbeat, almost breezy Margolin in pajamas at her London home once the Zoom cameras are turned on. The close-cropped, blond Joan of Arc hairstyle she wore in previous years is now shoulder length and brown, and she punctuates her comments with an easy laugh.
This may have something to do with Porridge Radio’s fourth album, Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me, which Secretly Canadian will release on Oct. 18. It’s a breakthrough record for Margolin and the band, and a cathartic sequence of songs in which the former anthropology major reclaims her identity after losing her way in what she describes as the “fog” of an intense breakup, after months of touring and promotion behind the British band’s excellent last album, 2022’s Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To The Sky, its first to hit the top 40 in the United Kingdom. “I have let go of my needs to be perfect and to be pure,” Margolin says. “I just want to have a nice life. I want to be with the people I love.”
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Clouds in the Sky finds Porridge Radio putting the hype of its 2020 Mercury Prize nomination well behind it and achieving a new level of artistry and sound. The poetry of Margolin’s lyrics has also evolved. Her songs have become more sophisticated without sacrificing the emotional wallop of her earlier work — a conscious effort on her part, and one of the subjects she discusses below with Billboard, along with the visual art she also creates and her tendency to fall in love easily.
You look very chill in pajamas right now, but on Porridge Radio’s records and at your concerts, you perform with an intensity that most humans cannot or will not approach. Do you live life outside of music like that?
You know I never really realized that not everybody experiences the world as I do until a few years ago. And it was quite shocking to me to find out that most people don’t have this kind of constant experience of their emotions.
What are the pros and cons of living with that kind of sensitivity?
It’s often very painful and exhausting to always feel like that. It’s a lot — but also, I feel that I have very strong connections with the people in my life, and I get to make music and share it, and people come towards me because of it. I always had this fear that it would push people away. It took having a really bad relationship that made me feel like I was too much. Suddenly, I was like wait, other people aren’t like this. They don’t have this intensity and why am I so weird? I’m always experiencing all the feelings of everything past and the future. Now, I’m okay with it. I think some people would kill to feel as much. Sometimes it’s incredibly difficult and painful but it’s given me a lot of love and connection and beauty, Also, I get to be in a band and go travel the world with my friends. I feel lucky even though sometimes I’m despairing.
It’s like in “God of Everything Else,” where you sing, “You always said that I’m too intense/ It’s not that I’m too much/ You just don’t have the guts.”
[Laughs.] That one is kind of cheesy. It’s so on the nose, but in a way, I was just like, right.
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These songs all started as poetry, right?
Yeah, in a way. They all started from me writing with more focus on the words. I was challenging myself to be a better writer. My songs always started as poetry in some way. With these especially, I felt that.
You refer to a swallow in some songs and in one, a sparrow. Did you have specific symbolism in mind in using this bird imagery?
I was looking for a symbol for a particular relationship that I was describing, and I was drawn to birds and the symbolism around birds. Especially with swallows, it was this idea of somebody who goes away and comes back, or somebody who is there and then they just disappear. I was thinking of migrating birds, and this idea of somebody who needs to travel because it’s in their heart. They need to go away. They need to be far away from you, but they always come back. Then I think by the time it turned into a sparrow, the idea of, I thought you were one thing — and you were something else.
You sing about you having to be someone that you aren’t.
Yeah. That’s me.
“God of Everything Else” reminds me of the Porridge Radio song “7 Seconds” in terms of the emotions that it evokes. “7 Seconds” is about a self-destructive relationship as well. Was that the same person, or do you fall in love easily because you’re so vulnerable?
You know, I do fall in love so easily, unfortunately. But no, there are multiple relationships. They’re from different periods of my life and very different people.
Dreams figure a lot into your songs. Is that a literary device for you, or do you remember and record your dreams?
I’ve always had very intense dreams. It’s not even a practice of writing down my dreams. It’s just that I have so many. I enjoy leaning into this idea of a dreamlike state, where the dreams I’m having whilst I’m awake and the dreams I’m having whilst I’m asleep are blending into each other. And I’m not sure which is which. What I like about poem or song is that something can be presented as real life, and you can’t necessarily tell if it’s a dream, something that really happened, a fantasy or a daydream.
Where was your head at when you wrote these songs?
I spent a long time when I was writing these songs feeling incredibly depressed and having this extreme sense of burnout. This feeling of fog that is enveloping me as I go around my life — of being unable to distinguish myself and my surroundings from these fantasies and imagined versions of what’s happening. I really wanted to bring that feeling into the songs which I think is what I almost do. The main one that really does that is “In a Dream I’m a Painting,” which was maybe the most literal version of that.
Was the burnout you were experiencing from a heavy touring schedule and making up dates postponed during the pandemic?
Yeah, definitely. We played over a hundred shows in a year. That doesn’t include the six months before that year that we were touring. We just didn’t stop. We were touring two albums and releasing one of them in the middle of that tour, and I was so tired. I felt like I had to do everything, but this is the first time I have had this opportunity to do this. I really wanted to — had to — prove myself, and I had to do it justice. The end result of that was I said yes to everything. We were playing loads and loads of shows. I was also doing interviews all the time and doing promos, doing sessions. And we were traveling. It took everything out of me.
Then towards the end of that year, I fell in love with someone and all these feelings of intense burnout, sadness and exhaustion were tying into this excitement and potential, and it was quite confusing. Then we got home, and I suddenly had nothing to do. I was just functioning and like, who am I? I didn’t know how to do anything, like go and have a coffee or see my friends. I hadn’t been home for so long, I was like, “Hey, can you ask me to hang out?”
And traveling the world on a tour has to change you as a person?
Yeah, you become a version of yourself that is constantly in motion, that has not quite caught up with yourself.
The covers of previous Porridge Radio albums have been your artwork. The cover of Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me, is a photograph of you looking at a birdlike sculpture. How did that come about?
I made this sculpture of a swallow, and I made it whilst I was writing these songs because I was really focused on this idea of the swallow. I’d also been doing lyric paintings that reflected the songs either in their states as poems before they became songs, or after they’d been put into songs. I had all these different images. When we were recording the album, at that point we didn’t know what it was going to be called. I remember talking to Georgie [Stott], who plays keys, about what it should be. And somehow, we both secretly arrived at this idea that it should be a photo.
I was thinking that it should be a photo of the swallow sculpture. I hadn’t finished making it, but I knew that I wanted it to be a mobile which fit into this [Centre] Pompidou show we did in April 2024, which was this huge live show my sister directed which had all these shadows and puppets. Somehow, we realized that I should be in the photo, but then because of that, I needed to find somebody who could take the photo that I had in my head.
A friend sent me the work of about 20 photographers. I saw Steve Gullick’s work, and I thought he could capture this image that I had in my head. Luckily, he followed us on Instagram. I sent him a message that just said would you be interested in doing this. He said, “Yeah, let’s have a phone call.” I described it to him and did a sketch of the album cover and showed it to him. Then we spent a whole day in my art studio playing around with the swallow. My sister was there as well giving movement direction. He managed to capture the image that I had in my head. He really brought it to life. I love this picture.
Weren’t you inspired after seeing some of Alexander Calder’s mobiles and sculptures?
It was around the release of the last record. I was in New York and went to the Whitney [Museum of American Art]. They had this video playing of Alexander Calder’s Circus, and I fell in love. It was so whimsical in such a serious way —and so beautiful. I spent a long time watching documentaries about him and thinking about mobiles and shadows. I’ve always enjoyed the way that sculpture exists and interacts with the space, the world it’s in. I think the swallow mobile I made is very close to his work.
I love your word paintings. Have you gotten a proper gallery exhibit?
Not a proper one, no. I would love to have one, actually. Very fun. I have a lot of paintings from this album that I don’t quite know what to do with.
I first heard “Sick of the Blues” as a single before I heard the album. I loved it then, but where it falls at the end of the album makes it all the more powerful. It functions as both culmination of a journey and the start of a new one. Was that what you were trying to accomplish with the track list?
Yeah, exactly. We were all kind of amused because we didn’t know the first single was going be “Sick of the Blues,” which, for us, was the closing piece that ties the album all together. If you start with [the album’s first track,] “Anybody,” it’s this intense introduction that takes you through everything else that you’re going to experience across the album. Then you end with “Sick of the Blues,” which is just like oh, f–k it.
“I’m going to make it. I’m going to get through this.”
Exactly. It’s like — “I don’t believe this yet, but I will at some point. I’m just going to hope for the best and go for it.” And that was why it came at the end.
In “Sick of the Blues,” you sing, “I’m sick of the blues, I’m in love with my life again/ I’m sick of the blues, I love you more than anything.” It makes the listener think, “What do you love more than anything? Life or the person you lost?” You’ve done that with other songs, like “7 Seconds” — the lyrics are open to interpretation.
I think it is important that people come to the songs with what they have and what they need from them.
Based on the song credits, it looks like you work collaboratively with your bandmates.
This was the first time that I really felt comfortable having those credits with everyone. Even though the process was very similar in that I wrote these songs on my own, I showed them to the others, and over months and months, we arranged them together. We also did the preproduction together, and we were all in the studio together recording. It was all mixed with us together.
It felt like everyone was more a part of it than they ever had been. Their input was what made the making of this album feel fresh, even though we have been a band for years. Me and Georgie and Sam have made music together and been close friends for about ten years now, but this felt like the first time in a lot of ways that it was ours, and that I was really relying on them.
When I was researching this story, a lot of the press was about Porridge Radio’s nomination for the Mercury Prize. Now that you’ve come so far from that, with this album, where do you see Porridge Radio as a unit, a group of artists?
It’s funny. We’d already been a band for about five years, and then suddenly, the industry said, “Oh, this is a hot new band.” We weren’t. It was chaotic at the beginning, with us figuring out where we were in relation to each other. And it was me kind of figuring out I had all this emotional outburst to give and found the space to do it. I was like, “Oh, no one cares about this, but this is for us.”
Suddenly we’re this hype band and I’m getting the Mercury nomination. I was like, “This is amazing, because this means that I’m going to be able to do this as a job at some point.” I also remember being almost cynical about it. Like, the music industry chooses you for a minute, and then it spits you back out again.
And then came the endless touring.
We ended up touring a really long time, and I got so completely jaded by the whole industry — by the way you’re expected to tour and live. It feels like everyone is expecting you to do everything, you’re not really making much money, and you’re supposed to be so grateful for this thing that you have that is extremely painful and physical. I’ve seen so many friends go through this kind of whirlwind and come out exhausted, disappointed and alienated.
And now with this album I think we’ve made the best thing we’ve ever made. It’s so exciting to me. I loved writing and recording these songs. I’m excited to release it and tour it. I’m like, “That’s enough, right?” My goal is to enjoy my life; to just be in it and not worry too much if anyone cares — because sometimes people care and sometimes, they don’t. I’m letting go. I’m releasing my expectations of myself.
You feel like that’s finally happening.
I think this record has allowed me to do that, and even in the process of recording it’s the first time that I felt like I could be anything that I needed to be whilst recording. I mean, I was crying for about a week of making this, and I made it. Maybe what I’ve learned from this is that I’m allowed to be intense, and I’m allowed to have peace.
Brooklyn rapper Ka has died at 52 years old.
Ka’s family released a statement to his Instagram on Monday (Oct. 14) revealing that the beloved rhymer — born Kaseem Ryan — died unexpectedly on Saturday.
“Born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Ka lived a life of service—to his city, to his community, and to his music,” the statement reads. “As a 20-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department, he put his life on the line to protect his fellow citizens.
The post touches on Ka’s life of service as a captain of the New York City Fire Department for two decades: “Ka rose to the rank of FDNY captain and was a first responder on September 11, 2001 during the attacks on the World Trade Center. He leaves an extraordinary legacy as a recording artist, including eleven remarkable self-released solo albums. Ka is survived by his wife, mother and sister. We kindly ask the privacy of Ka’s family and loved ones be respected as they grieve this incalculable loss.”
The independent rapper delivered his final album, The Thief Next to Jesus, in August. Ryan got his start as a founding member of the group Natural Elements in 1993 before forming the Nightbreed duo with the late rapper Kev prior to his solo career taking off. He’s best known for conceptual solo projects Grief Pedigree and The Night’s Gambit.
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Following a hiatus from rap, he made a guest appearance on GZA’s Pro Tools album while going on to release his Iron Works debut in 2008. Outside of his nine solo LPs, Ka also got busy a producer. He’s notched collaborations over the years with his unofficial Metal Clergy partner Roc Marciano, Navy Blue and more.
The Brooklyn native formed the Hermit and the Recluse duo with producer Animoss, in addition to teaming up with producer Preservation under the alias Dr. Yen Lo.
Plenty of fans and fellow rap peers paid tribute to Ka in his comment section.
“KA is one of the greatest lyricists ever…. And without rhyming, being a fireman is one of the greatest jobs we as people respect. Im heartbroken. Condolences to the family,” Mickey Factz wrote.
Rome Streetz added: “Rest in paradise to a Legend.”
Rest in peace to the highbrow gutter connoisseur. Ka was 52.
Darius Rucker isn’t exactly feeling like a spring chicken after a recent onstage mishap at a Hootie & the Blowfish concert. As captured on video by a fan, the 58-year-old singer/songwriter took a tumble while performing with his band at Riverfront Revival in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. In the middle of singing the opening […]
Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” rules both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts for a seventh week.
The ballad ties for the longest Global 200 reign this year, matching the seven weeks that Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” notched at No. 1 in February-April. “Die With a Smile” is one week from potentially equaling the longest Global Excl. U.S. command in 2024, after only the eight-week stays for “Beautiful Things” (February-April) and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” (May-July).
Meanwhile, “Die With a Smile” has topped the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. for seven weeks consecutively, marking the longest uninterrupted run atop each tally this year.
The Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
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Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
“Die With a Smile” leads the Global 200 with 115.5 million streams (down 2% week-over-week) and 8,000 sold (down 13%) worldwide Oct. 4-10. The song is Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ first No. 1 each since the chart began.
Notably, the duet has drawn over 100 million streams globally in each of the last six weeks – the most such frames for a song this year, doubling up on Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” each with three.
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” holds at No. 2 on the Global 200, following three weeks at No. 1 beginning in August.
Carpenter claims three songs in the Global 200’s top 10 for a seventh week: “Taste,” up 4-3 after reaching No. 2; “Espresso” (5-4, following three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in June); and “Please Please Please” (7-10, after two weeks at No. 1 also starting in June). She’s the first artist to triple up in the top 10 over seven weeks in 2024; Eilish and Taylor Swift follow with two such weeks each this year.
The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s “Timeless” dips to No. 5 on the Global 200 a week after it debuted at No. 3.
“Die With a Smile” tops Global Excl. U.S. with 93.2 million streams (down 1%) and 5,000 sold (down 11%) outside the U.S. Oct. 4-10. As on the Global 200, the ballad became Gaga and Mars’ first No. 1 each since the survey started.
Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” keeps at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S., following three weeks at No. 1 beginning in August; Carpenter’s “Espresso” maintains the No. 3 spot; and Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” climbs 5-4, after reaching No. 2.
Carpenter’s “Taste” rises 6-5 on Global Excl. U.S., after hitting No. 4, while “Please Please Please” pushes 10-9, following a week at No. 1 in June; already the only artist with multiple weeks with three songs in the top 10 simultaneously this year, she logs a seventh week earning such a triple.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Oct. 19, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, Oct. 15. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Four influential Latina executives from diverse sectors of the music industry — including marketing, legal, artist, and label — spoke about how they bossed up and assumed their own power in leadership roles during Billboard Latin Music Week.
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The panel She Runs the Boards took place on on Monday (Oct. 14) during the annual event, and was moderated by Billboard‘s social media manager/staff writer Ingrid Fajardo.
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Fajarado was joined by Apple Music’s music marketing lead Andrea Portela, Dominican actress/artist Dascha Polanco, Rostrum Records president Erika Montes, and Protege Tu Música’s music & entertainment attorney Yira Santiago. During their discussion, the four panelists spoke about the strategies for overcoming challenges, building meaningful connections and thriving in a competitive landscape.
Below, find some of the best and most memorable quotes from the She Runs the Boards panel:
Andrea Portela on the power of authenticity: “Es más fácil subirte en un trend. Authenticity plays a big role in who you are as an artist. It’s easy to follow the noise. The artists who go far are those who are true to themselves. Your team is a big reflection of an artist; be authentic in every aspect. Don’t just follow the trend because there are 500 artist trying to do what you’re doing. Success doesn’t come quick and easy, invest in yourself. Know your audience is Marketing 101. Social media is such a powerful tool but it only resonates if you’re authentic.”
Dascha Polanco on the importance of the team: “The most essential thing an artist must have is a team that supports and protects you legally. Many artists have gone through problems in a contract. We believe in dreams and we are very busy being creative, seeing the vision more than you […] I’ve been working in music for eight years, time waits for no one. I have a dance project with a lot of Latin music essence. I went to Berklee College of Music online. I do my engineering and record myself. Educate yourself and invest in yourself. Letting yourself be guided, trusting the process, is a very magical thing for me.”
Erika Montes on artist development: “I look for two things when I see an artist: You have to want it more than me. Secondly, always make an assessment, what can you do well? If you’re a good songwriter, but not good at production. Know what you’re good at and look at what to build. Focus on who your audience is and not on a look. When I start with artists I let them know this is a grind. Relationships are key. We’ll do everything we can, shake hands and kiss babies. [Success] doesn’t happen overnight, be patient.”
Yira Santiago on the importance of education and transparency in music: “Opening a YouTube channel to protect your music came about when I noticed that certain information was being kept and I felt the need to share it. There were lawyers withholding this information and not sharing it on to the public. It was important for me to share this, to establish that relationship with myself and the law, and how I monetize my music. It’s also crucial to manage relationships with record labels, marketing and handlers, in addition to assistance in all other areas. To take your career to a higher level and turn it into a business, you need a team to support you. It’s essential that the team aligns with your visions.”
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
Olivia Rodrigo handled what could have been an embarrassing — and scary — situation like a pro. In a video circulating TikTok from one of the “Drivers License” singer’s show at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, Rodrigo is seen hyping up the crowd by running across the stage. However, there was an opening in […]
Who gets songwriting credit on a song and who doesn’t can sometimes lead to an uncomfortable conversation. But at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week, that topic took the spotlight in the riveting (and informative) Why Are There 50 Writers On My Song? panel on Monday (Oct. 14).
Moderated by Pierre Hachar, managing partner at The Hachar Law Group, panelists included regional Mexican singer-songwriter Eden Muñoz, renowned producer-songwriter Sergio George and Colombian hitmaker Keityn. At one point during the conversation, the group reflected on why, today, even managers can get a songwriting credit.
“I think it is clear that the composers deserve the credit,” said Keityn while discussing the subject. “The credits go to the one who deserves it and that is the actual composer.”
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The conversation also touched on how nuanced the concept of songwriting credit can be, particularly when someone is in the studio who doesn’t technically write the song but contributes somehow to the idea or inspiration of the lyrics.
Below, find the best quotes from the panel:
Eden Muñoz: “The credit has to go to whoever participates in the writing process. When you’re in a studio, you know who is a composer and you know who is not. It’s something that you can almost feel. You can’t just be sitting around in the session and expect credit. It’s extremely important to set limits in the studio. It’s how I work today. I separate the songwriters and take them to a different table and they are the only ones in that room.”
Sergio George: “In my opinion, anyone who contributes to the process should have songwriting credit. I remember I was in a songwriting camp, there were like four to five people, and there was one person who gave some ideas of how the song could be. That person actually had nothing to do with my music, but got credit because if it wasn’t for her, the song would not have been made. That’s true of the arranger, because some arrangements are so emblematic and make the song. We should be fair all around.”
Keityn: “The 50 songwriters thing is not even about the artist, songwriter or producer, to be honest. Platforms like Spotify, when they do the breakdown of who gets credit on their platform, it is always based on the actual split, and they label them as songwriters. I don’t understand why everyone who is in the split [gets listed as] as a songwriter.”
Muñoz: “Today, we are in a business where managers [have the] sin of arrogance and want to be everywhere and get songwriting credit. I remember back in the day, the manager would sometimes even hide, but now it seems like they are glued to one another. Sometimes the manager acts more like the artist.”
The 2024 Billboard Latin Music Week coincides with the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards set to air at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 20, on Telemundo. It will simultaneously be available on Universo, Peacock and the Telemundo app, and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
Looking for some motivation to help power you through the start of another work week? We feel you, and with some stellar new pop tunes, we’ve got you covered. These tracks from artists including Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler, Mt. Joy, Yukimi and more will get you energized to take on the week.
Coolest Pop Song of the Week: Bishop Briggs, “Good For Me”
“I’m dreaming of all I ever wanted,” Bishop Briggs sings, stretching out the word “dream” to glide a little bit longer before following falling back down with, “was it ever good for me?”
The chorus to “Good For Me,” a darkly pretty meditation on achieving longtime goals as your identity evolves, buttresses Briggs’ tone with a dream-pop arrangement built around a driving beat and gradually deepening guitar chugs. Her voice, which has often been deployed as a hurricane-level force in the past, bends and lilts here, simmering in the question rather than finding a declaration.
Eight years ago, the UK native hit it big with “River,” a soul-rock anthem that crossed over to alternative radio and reached the top 5 on the Rock Airplay chart. Briggs continued finding success at the format, with seven entries on the Hot Rock & Alternative chart across her first two studio albums (2018’s Church of Scars and 2019’s Champion) on Island Records; a half-decade later, the singer-songwriter is now in her thirties, a new parent, still grieving the tragic loss of her sister, Kate McLaughlin, and operating outside of the major label system, while delivering the most revealing and emotionally resonant songs of her career.
“Good For Me,” the latest offering from new album Tell My Therapist I’m Fine (out this Friday through Virgin Music Group), crystallizes the album’s compelling juxtaposition of Briggs figuring out the possibilities of the next phase of her career while simultaneously settling into her skin. Songs like “My Serotonin” and “Shut It Off” allow Briggs to keep rocking out, but she now turns up the volume to emphasize her lyrical darts rather than shout over them. Meanwhile, Briggs mourns her sister and also utilizes her grief to push herself forward — in “Mona Lisa on a Mattress,” for instance, she doubles her voice and sings about a broken romance, “Kate would always say, I should run away,” as a means of finding resolution through a memory.
In the center of the album is “Good For Me,” the subtleties of its production and the maturity of its lyrical perspective slowly blooming and hooking the listener. Briggs has experienced several life changes since her last album, and is wondering what she’s even chasing anymore — but the care given to that exploration makes the song, and its host album, worth absorbing in full.
Here are some more new pop songs worth checking out this week…
Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler, “A-Frame”