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John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, the journeyman rockers who brought bar-band authenticity —and hits like the real-life top 10 Billboard Hot 100 smash “On the Dark Side” — to the group portrayed in the 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers, have returned with Sound of Waves, their first album of all-new songs in […]
After opening for Taylor Swift at some of the biggest venues in the world, Gracie Abrams says she hopes to return as a headliner someday.
In her Billboard cover story published Thursday (April 17), the 25-year-old singer-songwriter was candid when asked by staff writer Hannah Dailey whether she aspired to someday tour through stadiums amid her recent career spike, which has found Abrams leveling up from playing shows in theater-sized venues to full-on arenas in a matter of months.
“Hell yeah,” the “That’s So True” musician replied immediately, before confessing that she didn’t always feel that way. “I could have never imagined myself admitting to that. I think having had the privilege of opening for Taylor in the stadiums that we played, to now have a visual reference and a real sense of what it feels like to be on a stage in that environment … It’s something that I miss and desperately hope to earn over time,” she added.
The interview comes about two years after Abrams opened her very first show on the “Anti-Hero” singer’s global Eras Tour, which kicked off in spring 2023. In between headlining her own treks for albums Good Riddance (2023) and The Secret of Us (2024), the “Risk” artist would go on to spend a collective six months supporting Swift in stadiums all over North America.
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Shortly after playing her final Eras show in December, Abrams embarked on her first-ever arena trek that began with a month of European shows earlier this year. She’ll continue over the next few months with legs in Asia and Australia, and this summer, she’ll return to the U.S. for more arena dates, including two nights at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Abrams has been open about how studying Swift on the Eras Tour has taught her ways to improve her own performances, but in her Billboard cover story, the former also shared how simply observing the latter has helped her stay afloat amid the new level of fame she’s hit. “It’s like, I really don’t have it that bad in terms of invasion of privacy, you know what I mean?” Abrams marveled. “I feel like I learned a lot from [Taylor], obviously, but one of the things that I’ve felt lucky to observe is how extreme it can be [for her].”
She added, “It helps right-size my own s–t.”
The Grammy nominee also gushed about another one of her past tourmates: Olivia Rodrigo. “She gave me such a shot, opening for her on the Sour Tour,” Abrams raved of the “Vampire” singer. “I adore her with my whole heart for forever and ever.”
“Gracie has such a singular voice when it comes to songwriting,” Rodrigo said in return. “I think it’s rare to be so young and already have developed your very own lane.”
See Abrams on the cover of Billboard and photos from the shoot below.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “KUSUSHIKI” rises 6-1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, on the chart released April 16.
The three-man band’s latest single is being featured as the opener for the anime series The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 Part 2. The song was digitally released on April 5 and debuted on the chart last week at No. 6 despite having only two days to count towards the chart week. Looking at each metric, the track rules streaming (313% week-over-week) and comes in at No. 2 for downloads (92%) and video views (275%), and No. 4 for radio airplay. Other songs by the hitmakers also only saw slight decreases in points and 17 continue to chart on the Japan Hot 100.
HANA’s “ROSE” drops a notch to No. 2 after bowing atop the chart last week. Downloads and video views for the brand-new girl group’s debut single are down to 42% and 78%, respectively, but streaming and radio have gained to 131% and 168% week-over-week. Perhaps due to the impact of its debut at No. 1 last week, the track is spreading across various platforms.
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Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s “Lilac” slips to No. 3. Logging its 53rd week on the Japan Hot 100, downloads for the Oblivion Battery opener have gained to 112% and only show slight decreases in other metrics: streaming at 99%, radio at 73%, video at 94%, and karaoke at 87% compared to the week before.
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NMB48’s “Chu Strike” bows at No. 4. The group’s 31st single launches with 253,080 CDs, more than its predecessor, to rule sales this week and comes in at No. 63 for radio.
Sakanaction’s “Kaiju” follows at No. 5. Radio airplay for the track is up to 114% compared to last week and karaoke to 118%. The Orb: On the Movements of the Earth opener comes in at No. 14 for downloads, No. 5 for streaming, No. 22 for radio, No. 4 for video, and No. 18 for karaoke.
Snow Man unleashed its catalog on digital platforms during the chart week (April 7) and six tracks by the popular boy band have charted. “Brother Beat” currently leads the pack, hitting No. 48 on the Japan Hot 100 (No. 12 for downloads, No. 51 for streaming), “Tapestry” is at No. 52 (No. 8 for downloads, No. 62 for streaming, No. 93 for video), “Dangerholic” is at No. 64 (No. 23 for downloads, No. 66 for streaming), “D.D.” is at No. 77 (No. 26 for downloads, No. 79 for streaming), “EMPIRE” is at No. 87 (No. 19 for downloads, No. 88 for streaming), and “SBY” is at No. 98 (No. 21 for downloads, No. 57 for streaming).
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, audio streams, radio airplay, video views and karaoke data.
See the full Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart, tallying the week from April 7 to 13, here. For more on Japanese music and charts, visit Billboard Japan’s English X account.
MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (MAJ), the largest music awards in the country, is set to take place at the ROHM Theatre Kyoto on May 21 and 22.
With this year’s theme “Connecting with the World, Illuminating the Future of Music,” the inaugural international music awards is hosted by the Japan Culture and Entertainment Industry Promotion Association (CEIPA), jointly established by five major organizations in the Japanese music industry, including Recording Industry Association of Japan, Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, Music Publishers Association of Japan, and All Japan Concert & Live Entertainment Promoters Conference.
Although the entities are in the same industry, the five organizations have rarely collaborated until now because of differences in business and objectives. But the crisis faced by the entertainment and live music industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the spread of streaming services and the success of Japanese entertainment spaces such as the world of anime, prompted the five organizations to unite to work for the future of the country’s music industry.
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The content industry, which includes music, is worth 4.7 trillion yen and gaining momentum. That’s a sizable figure compared to the sectors in Japan’s export sales, as the automobile industry is worth 17.3 trillion yen, the semiconductor industry is worth 5.7 trillion and the steel industry is worth 5.1 trillion. The Japan Business Federation has positioned content as a key industry for the country and proposed that it be increased from 4.7 trillion to 20 trillion yen by 2033. The export of entertainment from Japan to the world is set to become a full-fledged industry. And with the aim of supporting and promoting the globalization and sustainable growth of the country’s music industry, CEIPA joined forces with TOYOTA GROUP to launch the MUSIC WAY PROJECT. In March, the project hosted a showcase event in the United States featuring Ado, ATARASHII GAKKO! and YOASOBI called matsuri ’25: Japanese Music Experience LOS ANGELES. It was presented by CEIPA x TOYOTA GROUP “MUSIC WAY PROJECT,” and the MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN ceremony is part of this endeavor.
So, why was the MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN created in the first place? The answer lies in the changes in Japan’s unique music market, which sits on the border between opportunity and challenge. According to the RIAJ, physical sales accounted for 62.5% of Japan’s content sales in 2024. According to the IFPI, Japan maintains the world’s second largest market and its market structure differs from that of other countries. The temporary increase in disposable time due to the stay-at-home orders during the pandemic led to the expansion of the streaming market worldwide and a change in market structure has also occurred in Japan. Today, the number of artists gaining recognition in the U.S. and East Asian countries is increasing, and the revenues of the streaming and live music industries continue to rise. The Japanese music industry and companies are seeing potential in the fact that the number of Japanese songs and artists being listened to outside the country are only gaining traction.
When it comes to nominations, MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN places importance on four factors: transparency, global collaboration, celebration and creativity. The awards place the highest importance on trust and fairness, both from the artists and creators involved, as well as from the listeners who support the music. The criteria for selection, including the chart data from Billboard Japan, of approximately 3,000 works entered in the 62 categories include the six major awards for Song of the Year, Artist of the Year and more. The considered works are ones that have gained significant attention and recognition between Jan. 29, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025. The entries for each category were announced in March, and the nominees will be revealed on Thursday, April 17. The detailed rules and schedule for how these works are selected as final nominees are listed on the website. The overseas voting members include Hannah Karp (Editorial Director, Billboard), Lucian Grainge (Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group), Rob Stringer (Chairman, Sony Music Group) and Robert Kyncl (CEO, Warner Music Group).
Now, CEIPA is calling on music industry professionals eligible to vote to consider the future of Japan and music when choosing works they think deserve an award. This means there is nothing wrong with artists voting for their own work or for those of other artists. There are also categories where fans can vote for the artists they support, too.
The nominated works chosen through this process have just been announced and can be seen onthe awards’ official website. After another round of voting, the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will be broadcasted live on YouTube so viewers across the world can have the opportunity to hear the selected works. This will be a step toward helping artists in their activities overseas. Although the majority of awards are targeted at Japanese works, there are also awards that celebrate Asian artists in collaboration with other Asian countries, and awards that recognize foreign artists who are listened to in Japan.
As the inaugural awards aim to deepen the connection between Japanese music and the rest of the world, Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) has been honored with the Symbol of Music Awards Japan 2025. Founded in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono and the late musicians Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi, YMO is one of Japan’s most beloved acts who toured successfully overseas from the early days of their career and gained popularity around the world. The “Rydeen” group’s timeless, innovative music, activities and style make them a “symbolic presence that teaches us the future” that the MAJ strives to aim for. A YMO tribute concert will take place at the Kyoto International Conference Center on May 20.
“We want to use matsuri ’25 and MAJ as springboards to promote Japan’s wonderful music content,” Tatsuya Nomura, president of the Federation of Music Producers Japan and chairman of the Music Awards Japan Executive Committee, said at the matsuri ’25 JP Music Industry Mixer & Panel press conference hosted by JETRO. “And we want to create the future of the Japanese music industry through a cycle in which Japanese artists are inspired by these projects and create wonderful works.”
Global music exchange will influence fans around the world and will lead to the enrichment of the global music market as a whole. As the Japanese music industry prepares to make a strong move toward repositioning itself in the world market, it’s surely worth paying attention to the direction it’s taking.
Ben Affleck has nothing but nice things to say about his ex Jennifer Lopez. More than a year after Lopez filed for divorce following the couple’s whirlwind second shot at romance, the actor told Entertainment Tonight that the “Dear Ben, Pt. II” singer remains a vital, loving part of his family’s life.
“For the record, Jennifer Lopez is spectacular, great to my kids, great ongoing relationship with them,” he said on Wednesday night’s (April 17) red carpet for his action-packed sequel to his 2016 drama about an autistic CPA who does forensic accounting for criminal gangs. The praise appeared to be in reference to Lopez’s ties to Affleck’s three children with ex-wife, actress Jennifer Garner, Violet, 17, Seraphina, 16 and Samuel, 13.
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Affleck intimated that he also has affection for Lopez’s children, 17-year-old twins Max and Emme, whom she shares with her ex-husband singer Marc Anthony. “I love her kids. They are wonderful,” he said. “She is enormously important, [a] tremendous person of a lot of integrity who I adore and am grateful to.” The Oscar-winning actor and producer also noted that he was “thrilled” to have his kids and Lopez’s children with him at the movie’s premiere in Los Angeles.
“That’s the kind of thing where the relationship that you have with children like that is a joy in my life,” he said, noting that he was “very excited” to have the whole blended family out with him. “Those kids are amazing and I’m glad that this is a movie they want to come to… I love when all the kids come out.”
Despite the tabloid-magnet allure of the couple’s relationship over the past few years, Affleck noted that he doesn’t, “read the stuff online much and sometimes I get the sense that people perpetuate this idea of like, I don’t know, they want to find something negative to talk about.” Affleck and Lopez, both 55, first began dating in 2002 and got engaged before calling things off in 2004.
They reunited in 2021 and got married the following year. Lopez filed for divorce in February 2024, just months after the release of This Is Me Now: A Love Story, a movie co-written by the couple that was loosely based on their real-life love story. A candid behind-the-scenes doc, The Greatest Love Story Never Told, was also released at the time, opening up a window into their private lives. The couple’s divorce was finalized in January.
In March of this year, Affleck opened up for the first time about their second split, saying he had “nothing but respect” for Lopez, adding that there was “no scandal, no soap opera, no intrigue” about their divorce.
04/17/2025
The non-singles worth remembering from our favorite albums of 20 years ago.
04/17/2025
When fans finally get to hear Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter VI — an album he’s been working on for six years at this point — they’ll be treated to a mixed bag of collaborators, including two major pop stars.
In a Rolling Stone cover story published Thursday (April 17), the “Lollipop” rapper revealed that both Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus are featured on the June-slated sixth installment of his Tha Carter album series, which has been ongoing since 2004. He didn’t share any further details about what the “Bad Guy” singer and “Flowers” artist’s contributions will sound like, though, simply telling the publication that he’s extra focused on his collaborations this time around.
“If there’s one thing about this album that’s different, it’s me approaching it like, ‘Man, what would I sound like on something with such and such?’” Wayne explained.
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Tunechi did, however, reveal that U2’s Bono will costar on a track titled “These Are the Days,” which also features Wayne’s son, Kameron. Plus, one song on Carter VI will include opera titan Andrea Bocelli singing “Ave Maria.” Wyclef Jean, Weezy’s main collaborator on the album, apparently flew all the way to Italy to ask the tenor for permission, winning him over with the famous story of how Wayne survived a self-inflicted gunshot at the age of 12.
All in all, Rolling Stone reports that Wyclef and Wayne have recorded around 30 songs together for Carter VI, though the final tracklist is still very much up in the air. Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, produced a song for the project that may or may not make the cut, while Wayne teased that Elephant Man and MGK could also have guest credits.
Once it finally drops on June 6, Carter VI will mark Weezy’s first album since 2020’s Funeral, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Wayne has been anything but inactive in the five years since his last LP, though, collaborating constantly with artists such as Jack Harlow, DJ Khaled, Drake, DaBaby, Tyler, the Creator, Tyga, Ye and numerous others.
See Wayne on the cover of Rolling Stone below.
BTS‘ Jin announced the dates for his first-ever solo tour on Thursday (April 17), the #RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR. The outing that incorporates the singer’s full given name (Kim Seok-jin) will hit nine cities around the globe for two nights each, kicking off with a double-down at the Goyang Auxiliary Stadium in Goyang, South Korea on June 28 […]
Life in the spotlight isn’t nearly as glamorous as it looks, particularly for new artists.
Between taking every road gig available, meeting programmers in multiple cities on radio promotion tours, creating new material and building a social media base, it’s not unusual for acts in their first year or two in the national spotlight to operate regularly on just four or five hours of sleep.
Artists don’t usually talk about it publicly — most folks with more typical jobs don’t want to hear anyone b–ch about playing music for a living. Sometimes even the family refuses to take pity, as new Nashville Harbor artist Greylan James discovered.
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“Talking to my parents every weekend when I got back from being on tour, [I’d be] complaining, ‘Y’all, I’m just exhausted. I’m stressed all the time. You guys have no idea how hard it is to be a country music songwriter and artist,’ ” James remembers. “Of course, my mom, being the Southern woman with the sass that she is, her favorite comeback was always, ‘Well, you think you’re tired and stressed now, Greylan, just wait ’til you have kids.’ ”
Thanks, Mom.
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“Wait Til You Have Kids” is now the title of James’ first radio single, released to country broadcasters via PlayMPE on March 3. It embraces the impact that raising children has on a parent’s view of life’s details while loosely tracing the kid’s journey from toddler to young adult. The stories are familiar, though neither James nor his co-writer, Matt Roy (“Done”), actually have children of their own.
“Sometimes we get a little caught up in that,” Roy says. “At the end of the day, a really good example is ‘There Goes My Life.’ I mean, as far as I know, [Kenny] Chesney doesn’t have any kids, and he’s not married. It just was a great song that he wanted to do.”
James had suggested writing “Wait Til You Have Kids” several times, but his co-writers invariably passed. He brought it up again in a May 2024 appointment with Roy on Music Row in Nashville, and they pinpointed Cody Johnson and Jordan Davis as artists who might be good targets, but then they moved on to other titles. Ultimately, Roy decided they should invest at least an hour into “Kids” and see if it worked.
James developed a flowy acoustic guitar part, and they kicked into a series of attitudes that would distinguish childless adults from parents: “Some people drive too slow,” “Tattoos are no big deal” or “If ‘There Goes My Life’ [is] just another song on the radio.”
“When I graduated high school, ‘There Goes My Life’ was the theme song,” James recalls. “That’s one of those songs that’s been a timeless classic, and so it was kind of a reference for us.”
When they reached the chorus, James was determined to make slight changes to a line or two in each iteration, the same way it had worked when he co-wrote Jordan Davis’ “Next Thing You Know,” another song with a significant parenting element.
“I’m sure Matt was dreading that,” he says. “When you’re trying to get out of the room by 3:00, like most writes work, changing the lyrics and the chorus gets a little complicated.”
But Roy saw the chorus modifications as a key development. Each time they changed the lyric, it advanced the kid’s age, making it a song with big-picture implications, rather than a gooey portrait of one particular age. It was trickier than it sounds.
“It grows the song up, but it doesn’t grow [the singer] up,” Roy says. “That was the hardest balance to maintain, just because every singer wants to be young and hip and cool — and particularly, for a young artist to act like a 60-year-old rocking around his porch telling advice wasn’t the direction we really wanted to go in.”
The second verse was surprisingly easy: They developed so many examples of the changes that kids bring to a life that they had plenty of options. “You just need to make it all rhyme,” Roy says.
They worked it so that the child’s aging process peaked in the bridge, with the kid “a thousand miles away” — presumably in college, but maybe married and living in another town — and the singer asking them to visit. James worked up a demo on his own at home. “I knew it was kind of a special song from the beginning,” he says. “Originally, I was like, ‘This doesn’t need to be something super-built up. It can just be a kick drum, guitar, vocal, maybe little cymbal swells here and there.”
James was very intentional about the vocal, recording 10-15 passes to make sure he showcased it in the best way possible. A few artists took a look at it, but when Nashville Harbor president Jimmy Harnen heard it, he called James and told him he should cut it himself. James protested — since he didn’t have kids, he didn’t think he was the right messenger — but Harnen assured him the song’s emotional value outweighed that issue.
Harnen convinced him they should release it early in 2025, and they assigned it to producers Jason Massey (Kelsea Ballerini, Kylie Morgan) and Brock Berryhill (Parmalee, Jelly Roll), with a tight one-week deadline. Booking a studio and a full cadre of musicians was an unlikely proposition, so they decided to build around the best parts of James’ demo. They kept his vocal and his acoustic guitar, and overdubbed the other instruments atop that core.
“It’s crazy because we’re writers, too,” Massey says, “so we were doing it around our writing schedule.”That meant it was mostly late-night work for the week. “I was just sending him all of my parts, and then he would send me a revised stereo file and I would just keep adding stuff,” Berryhill says. “We didn’t really have to do a whole lot on this one.”
Massey handled the bass guitar and drums while Berryhill supplied background vocals and other small touches, including a manditar, a smaller guitar with sonic similarities to mandolin. “For the most part, [the melodic instrumentation] is just two acoustics and doubling some of the parts with electric, kind of vibey tones,” Berryhill notes. “Then from there, it’s a lot of ambient layering, swelling guitars and some weird effect things.”
Despite the limited time frame, they did a little more than they needed. James asked them to pare it back. “There were some bigger drum moments,” Massey says. “It got a little bigger, and then Greylan was like, ‘I kind of miss the intimacy of the demo.’ I think he was right. That was a good call.”
Though James had reservations about releasing “Wait Til You Have Kids” as a childless man, he has grown more comfortable with the situation. He relates to the song as a son, and the possibility exists that he’ll become a father somewhere down the road. He expects the job will be at least as challenging as his current one in country music.
“I don’t hate where I’m at right now,” he says, “but if it ends up changing, that’s something I’d be blessed to be a part of.”
As it gears up to release its fifth studio album Bet The Farm on Friday (April 18), country duo LOCASH is celebrating a two-week No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “Hometown Home.”
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That milestone is significant, given that it marks LOCASH’s first No. 1 on its own label Galaxy Label Group, with “Hometown Home” also being its debut release for the label. The duo launched Galaxy in 2024, in partnership with Studio2Bee Entertainment, led by Skip Bishop and Butch Waugh, with BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville handling distribution for the label.
LOCASH’s Preston Brust and Chris Lucas co-wrote “Hometown Home” with Zach Abend and Andy Albert, with production by Jacob Rice. It has been nearly a decade since LOCASH previously summitted on the Country Airplay chart, in 2016 with “I Know Somebody.” While “Hometown Home” has spent two weeks atop the Country Airplay chart, the duo says it is still holding strong.
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“We were just talking about how well it’s still testing at radio, and we’re not in a hurry to take the foot off the gas on this one,” Brust tells Billboard via Zoom. “Sometimes you get a No. 1 and you just kind of let go quickly and go to the next single, but [their fellow label execs] were like, ‘If we could give you any advice, just let this one breathe a little bit, because we’re sitting in evergreen status.’ We definitely had Skip and Butch guiding us and [BMG president of Frontline Recordings for The Americas Jon] Loba is always one call away for us, so we did help guide it. We saw the research kept coming back positive, which — you can’t ask for better than that.”
Billboard spoke with Brust and Lucas about the success of “Hometown Home,” their new album and what is ahead for their Galaxy Label Group.
Some artists want to court radio, and some don’t. Did you initially plan to take “Hometown Home” to radio?
Brust: Definitely. We released it on DSPs and then went to radio very quickly. It’s kind of tongue-in-cheek when I say we were born at radio; that’s where Chris and I cut our teeth and began our journey and created all these real friendships and relationships. We’ve been on a few labels over the years, and I remember someone at a different label, a long time ago, said, ‘Those guys aren’t your friends — they’re not really your friends.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa. No, these folks really are our partners and our friends.’ Radio’s always been important to us, and so are the DSPs. It all works together. These relationships are real, and they reach beyond just the songs — we get to know each other’s families and about their lives.
You have an “Easter Egg Hunt” happening that involves fans finding clues in your album cover. What is the story behind that?
Brust: Chris and I both have 9-year-old daughters and other kids as well, but they’re really Taylor Swift fans. I mean, just love Taylor and when she comes out with an album, our kids love it. They’re digging in, they’re trying to find the Easter eggs and [figuring out] what does it all mean? They have fun with it, and so I was like, “Why not us?” So we hid 16 things that we love, and that ties in with a song on the album called “Things We Love.” Once the listener finds all 16, they register themselves into a drawing and the winner gets a free LOCASH concert at their house or backyard. They win that concert.
How did you decide on Bet The Farm as the title of the album?
Lucas: We were trying to find the name of the album, couldn’t find the name of the album, and it had to be turned in like yesterday. Preston gets a text message with a song start of “Bet the Farm,” and we ended up finishing it in like two days — and we told our team, “Hold off, I know we turned in the album, but let’s wait until this song is finished,” and we turned that in. It says everything about what we’ve done in our career: we celebrate the wins, but then put our chips back in and we bet the farm again.
You interpolate Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” on the song “Isn’t She Country.” How did that come about, and what was it like getting the approval of Stevie and his team?
Lucas: We were on the bus and had some writers [Rob Pennington and Forrest Finn] out with us, just trying to write songs for the album. It was like 11 at night and we had just come offstage. We started writing it, not thinking it was going to be on the album. We were just having a good time and Rob [Pennington] started strumming guitar and singing “Isn’t she country, isn’t she real small town?”
We were just changing the words as we went, and it wasn’t really writing a song — just rewriting some lyrics and giving it a country flavor. So we ended up recording it. We had to get Stevie and his team’s approval, and it took maybe two or three months. But it feels so cool to have Stevie and his team’s blessing on this — because music is a serious thing, and when a song has been written, you don’t want to mess it up.
Preston, you’re wearing a [Contemporary Christian artist] Forrest Frank hat on this Zoom call. Would you ever do a CCM collaboration?
Brust: I went to the Forrest Frank show [in Nashville, Tennessee] with Jordan Feliz. We went backstage, and I got to shake Frank’s hand and tell him he did a great job. He’s a really humble guy, and it was a good night. We want to do [a CCM collaboration] so bad, because a lot of our music is positive already, and it just puts people in a good place — so we’re looking or the right thing. I was talking to the Elevation [Rhythm] folks and talking to Jordan [Feliz], so you just never know when the time might be right. If the song is right and it feels like the right project, we’ll jump all over it.
In addition to your own hits, you’ve written hit songs such as Tim McGraw’s “Truck Yeah” and Keith Urban’s “You Gonna Fly.” Whether it’s an outside cut or one you had a hand in writing, how do the two of you decide what to record, if one of you likes a song more than the other?
Brust: It’s a little tricky, because there are certain songs that each of us gravitate towards — and for different reasons, because music is so subjective to mood and opinion, and that can change daily. So, you have a pile of songs that are important to Chris and important to me and we talk it out. And then sometimes you record them and see how they sound. And then there are times when, if one of us isn’t feeling a song, instead of putting it in a “no” pile, I’ll put it in a “Play this for him again in three months” pile. And that’s worked from time to time. There was a song called “Til The Wheels Fall Off” on an album a couple of years ago, and it became one of our favorite songs in the end. So you just never know.
What advice do you have for artists wanting to make it in the industry?
Brust: I think it’s important that artists understand that we need deal-makers, not deal-breakers at the table. And if we want to get down the road together, we have to find ways to make sure that everyone’s going to have a shot at winning together. Chris and I really learned that early on. We went into our first negotiation like, “Oh man, we’ve read all the books. We know what to do. We’ve watched all the scary stories on Behind the Music on VH1. We’re not going to get screwed.”
And sometimes you just have to take a step back and say, “How are we all going to do this together? How can we win?” With Galaxy, even though we are the CEOs and with Skip and Butch, we did have to sign ourselves to that label and we had to give up a few things to sign with our own label, because that’s what it’s all about.
Are you looking at signing more artists to Galaxy Label Group right now?
Lucas: We’ve got four or five artists we are really digging. One is an alternative rock band, one is a Christian artist, and then a few country artists and we’ve had initial talks with them. But they knew we wanted to get “Hometown Home” as high as we could first, so now it’s time to have those meetings. It’s exciting, because we just want to best serve the artists. We know where the pitfalls are, and we’ve stepped into all the quicksand over the 20 years we’ve been in town. We want to help them get the best possible project that means something to them out to the listeners.
