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Eric Nam talks to Billboard about the inspiration behind his new album House on a Hill, the 80-date accompanying tour, directing multiple music videos for the album, his journey to becoming an artist, his mental health and self-care app, Mindset, and more! Eric Nam:It’s taken years for us to gain the trust of the artists […]
Taylor Swift’s football era is in full swing, and Mama Kelce is loving it. In a joint video shared by SNF on NBC and football star Travis Kelce‘s mother Donna on Instagram, the tight end’s mom is seen hugging the “Anti-Hero” superstar, both smiling from ear to ear. “Travis Kelce’s biggest fans,” the caption on […]
Kacey Musgraves and Noah Kahan are teaming up to release a new duet rendition of Kahan’s “She Calls Me Back” on Friday (Oct. 6). Kahan revealed the upcoming collab through a social media post that included a voicemessage from Musgraves saying, “Hi, you’ve reached the voicemail box of Kacey Musgraves and Noah Kahan. We’ll call […]
Lady Gaga has spent the past month or so in Las Vegas for her Jazz & Piano residency, and when one of her recent shows fell on an important anniversary, the singer made sure to pay tribute to the city she’s been calling home. Gaga’s Sunday night (Oct. 1) concert happened to be on the […]
BTS member Jung Kook announced the release date for debut full-length solo album on Tuesday (Oct. 3), revealing that Golden will drop on Nov. 3. The 11-track album will feature the singer/dancer’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit single with Latto, “Seven,” as well as his new song with Jack Harlow, “3D.” According to a […]
Like the NFL and its broadcast partners, late night show hosts could not resist going all-in on everything Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce related when the returned from a five-month strike-related lay-off on Monday night (Oct. 2). Chief among them was Stephen Colbert, who celebrated the reboot of The Late Show with a cold open bit in which he played a bearded Earnest Hemingway-esque sea captain crooning Jimmy Buffett’s “Son of a Son of a Sailor” while getting the latest news from a dolphin.
“Really? She’s dating Travis Kelce?” Colbert said in response to a series of squeaks breaking the celeb love affair news to him. “I think this is the one.” And while Colbert knows a lot of things, at this point neither Swift nor Kelce have publicly commented on or confirmed the rampant speculation that they are dating. The loud whispers, of course, have been stoked by Swift’s appearance at the last two Kansas City Chiefs games, where network cameras have cut to her dozens of times cheering on two-time Super Bowl champion tight end Kelce.
The proper monologue opened with Colbert hinting that a “major world leader” had come to New York the night before… of course he meant Swift being in town to watch Kelce. “At the game, Taylor drank some dranks, hung out with Blake Lively, while injured Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sat alone in the Sadness Box,” Colbert said over footage of Swift living it up and injured Jets QB Rodgers glumly texting while watching his new team keep it close in what was an eventual loss to the Super Bowl champs.
If nothing else, Colbert said it’s all great publicity for the NFL. “Mere rumors that Tay-Tay might be at last night’s game-game sent ticket prices surging more than 40 percent,” Colbert joked. “It used to be that you couldn’t afford to watch Taylor Swift. Now you can’t afford to watch Taylor Swift watch something. The Swift Lift is not limited to tickets,” he added, noting that “maybe-boyfriend” Kelce’s jersey saw a 400% sales spike over the past week, while the denim shorts she wore to the game have sold out everywhere.
“Everything she touches is instantly revitalized,” Colbert said while getting an idea for another possible Swift target. “Taylor: If this relationship doesn’t work out, is there any way you can start dating one of our nation’s crumbling bridges?” And because every celeb couple needs a clever portmanteau, he suggested “Traylor Swelce.”
Colbert and fellow late nighters Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers all played a bit of catch-up on Monday, hitting the high (and low) points they missed over the summer, from former president Donald Trump’s quartet of indictments to Rep. Lauren Boebert’s viral Bettlejuice musical hand jive and jokes about the The Golden Bachelor, as well as heartfelt thanks to their returning writing staffs after a long, hot strike summer. Plus, Traylor jokes, of course.
Fallon also performed a tiny song recapping the strike summer that opened with him singing, “First things first, there’s Taylor Swift. Wonder if she’ll write a song about meeting… Travis Kelce’s mom.”
Watch Colbert’s bits below.
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In February, during a writing camp in Palm Springs, Calif., singer-songwriter Teddy Swims had a professional breakthrough — amid a period of personal turmoil, following a breakup. “I was so unhinged at the time,” he remembers. “I just needed to say a lot of stuff.” Over the course of five days, he poured his emotions into half of the songs that would ultimately comprise his debut album, including his biggest hit to date, “Lose Control.”
Rooted in piano-driven production — and an impressive ability to stretch his vocal runs — the R&B-pop ballad details a relationship that’s been tainted by substance abuse. “Lose Control” has steadily grown since its release in late June, leading to Teddy Swims’ first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. “When it was finished, I was showing everybody before the song came out,” he says. “I just felt that energy, like, ‘This is lighting in a bottle.’ I knew this was going to change my life.”
Born Jaten Dimsdale, the 31-year-old began performing a decade ago at his suburban Atlanta high school, trading football for musical theater (he joined with a friend, who still plays guitar in his live band today). His senior year was particularly pivotal: he helped the theater department out of debt prior to graduation with an in-school production of a Star Wars musical parody he created with his teacher. That same year, his band at the time, Heroic Bear, released its first EP, a hardcore project he now deems “really bad.”
In the years that followed, he explored countless genres including country, alternative, funk and metal in various musical projects. “He was in, I kid you not, like eight bands,” says Luke Conway, who started managing Teddy Swims while he was touring as an opening hip-hop act in early 2019. “He was doing every single thing that you could possibly do.”
From left: Teddy Swims and manager Luke Conway photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
In June 2019, on the 10th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, Teddy Swims uploaded a YouTube cover of “Rock With You” that soon went viral. The success prompted him to ask his friends for a six-month commitment to help him keep momentum. During that time frame, he sang classics (Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me”) and hits of the moment (Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved”) alike, with his spins on Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” and Mario’s “Let Me Love You” each eclipsing 100 million YouTube views. Publishers called first, then booking agencies, and before long, a dozen record labels had made offers. On Christmas Eve 2019 — a day short of six months from when he uploaded “Rock With You” — he signed to Warner Records.
While the covers helped grow Teddy Swims’ audience on a global scale, his priority upon signing was to create an identity all his own. “Some people get stuck in that world and never really make it out,” he says. “There was a lot of fear in no one caring about my [original] songs. I wanted to be an artist with my music.”
Warner placed him in rooms with veteran songwriter-producers like Julian Bunetta and John Ryan to help him hone his voice, and over the next few years, he wrote hundreds of songs, releasing singles across four EPs (including the holiday-themed A Very Teddy Christmas) and getting featured on tracks by Meghan Trainor, X Ambassadors and others. “I go back and listen to some songs that I did four years ago,” Teddy Swims reflects. “They started this idea of the signature Teddy sound that I feel like I’m finally nailing now.”
Teddy Swims photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
That “signature” sound punctuates his September debut album, I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy (Part 1), which is full of “sad boy breakup songs,” as he puts it. His powerhouse vocals (“Some Things I’ll Never Know,” “The Door”) and poignant writing chops (“Suitcase”) are on display throughout its 10 tracks, but no song better illustrates the style he’s created than “Lose Control.” After its June release, he shared three new versions — live, strings and piano — as the song gained steam on digital service providers and radio. By the end of August, “Lose Control” debuted on the Hot 100, where it has since reached a No. 67 peak. On Adult Pop Airplay, it climbs to a new No. 26 high on the Oct. 7-dated chart.
As the hit keeps growing, Conway says the strategy isn’t to strike while the iron is hot with unrelated follow-up content. In fact, it’s the opposite: he hopes the song becomes “cemented in culture” in the months to come, likening “Lose Control” to Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
“We have to be protective,” he says. “It’s his story. This is the golden egg we’ve been searching for and fighting to dig out of the ground for five years. There have been a lot of conversations about finding a feature, but we see the lifespan of this song. We can’t dilute it by giving it anybody else’s identity.”
Teddy Swims is currently on a 43-date North American tour in support of the project, studying how each city reacts to the new material. “There’s no A&R that [compares to] when you’re at a show and you see what really moves people,” he says. As the title of his album suggests, there are plans for another installment. He says it could arrive by the middle of next year, though both he and Conway share that the writing likely won’t begin until after the tour wraps.
However, Teddy Swims does suggest that, if all goes well, the follow-up will contain brighter content. “I’m really hoping the next time is me falling back in love and moving on,” he says, taking a beat and then laughing. “Or it’s more sad s–t. You never know. Life is happening to us, what are you going to do?”
Teddy Swims photographed on September 15, 2023 in New York.
Meredith Jenks
A version of this story will appear in the Oct. 7, 2023, issue of Billboard.
NBC has taken some slings and arrows from the traditional sports press for its over-the-top coverage of Taylor Swift‘s attendance at yet another Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday night. But the network might have the last laugh as ratings for the exciting prime time win by the Super Bowl champs over the New York […]
Ethan Hawke and daughter Maya Hawke share one of their family’s beloved go-to playlist tracks on an upcoming Record Store Day Black Friday compilation Light in the Attic & Friends. The compilation, due out on Nov. 24, features covers of songs released on the reissue label including the Hawkes’ hushed take on Willie Nelson’s “We Don’t Run.”
The song appeared on the country icon’s bare bones 1996 Spirit album and in a statement, Ethan Hawke explained, “This song is off Willie’s brilliant album Spirit, which has been a mainstay in our home since it was released in 1996. Everybody needs a good anthem song. This is one of the best.”
The Hawke family Nelson cover opens with Ethan singing over gently picked acoustic guitar, “You are the road, you are the only way/ I’ll follow you forever more/ We’ll look for love, we’ll find it in the eyes/ The eyes that see through all the doors.”
Maya then comes in for the third verse, matching her dad’s hushed, vulnerable vocals with the lines, “There is a train that races through the night/ On rails of steel that reach the soul/ Fueled by fire as soft as candle light/ But it warms the heart of a love grown cold.”
The family then comes together for the inspiring chorus, “We don’t run, we don’t compromise/ We don’t quit, we never do/ We look for love, we find it in the eyes/ The eyes of me and the eyes of you.”
Stranger Things star Maya released her sophomore studio album, Moss, last month, which she said was “super inspired” by Taylor Swift’s Folklore. Dad Ethan has long kept a hand in music, from directing the 1994 video for Lisa Loeb’s breakthrough hit, “Stay (I Missed You),” to his 2014 documentary debut with “Seymour: An Introduction,” a profile of classical pianist/composer Seymour Bernstein. He also portrayed a fictional musician in the 2018 film Juliet, Naked and directed the biopic of obscure country singer Blaze Foley in that year’s Blaze; he also portrayed jazz icon Chet Baker in 2015’s Born to Be Blue
In a statement about the collection, archival label Light in the Attic said it has long sought to spotlight the “most unique — and often forgotten — voices” in music. “We believe that an essential component of archival work, aside from simply honoring the music, is to seek ways in which to bring fresh perspectives, context, and reverence to the original artists and their work,” said LITA Founder and co-owner Matt Sullivan. The 20-track collection collections LITA’s 7″ vinyl and digital singles from its Cover Series, in which contemporary artists pay tribute to their favorite LITA artists and songs.
Among the other notable covers are Iggy Pop & Zig Zags covering funk queen Betty Davis’ “If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up,” Mac DeMarco taking on Japanese pop singer/songwriter Haruomi Hosono’s “Honey Moon” and Swamp Dogg, John C. Reilly, Jenny Lewis and Tim Heidecker doing the Louvin Brothers’ “The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea.” The collection also includes covers by Vashti Bunyan and Devendra Banhart, late Screaming Trees singer and solo star Mark Lanegan and Angel Olsen, among others.
Listen to the Hawkes sing “We Don’t Run” and see the Friends announcement below.
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A crowd of girls, gays, theys and every combination therein milled about Madison Square Garden on Monday night (Oct. 2). They chatted with each other about their favorite shows they’d seen lately, swapping lyrics and showing off tattoos.
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Moments later, aside from a few errant cheers, the 20,000 person gathering had gone quiet, gently humming and singing along to an a capella hymn. The leaders of this communal canticle were the women of Boygenius — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus. Huddled around a microphone backstage and broadcast onto a massive LED screen, the trio offered a promise to their entranced congregants: “I’ll give everything I’ve got/ Please take what I can give,” they sang. “I want you to hеar my story/ And be a part of it.”
The ensuing 2 hours of Boygenius’ sold-out debut set at the iconic New York venue further proved why the supergroup has become one of the most essential bands of this generation. Through raucous hell-raising, intimate storytelling and proficient performing, the alternative triumvirate delivered their screaming fans an all-time great show fueled by emotional outpouring and a sense of genuine (and overtly queer) community. As Dacus put it towards the end of the evening, “this has been the best night of our lives.”
The band was certainly set up for success from the start — fellow queer-femme alternative purveyors MUNA (who Baker referred to as “our collective favorite band” later on) brought the house down with their high-energy, crowd-pleasing opening set. Skipping around the stage and kicking inflatable horses into the eager audience, the band made sure they got the crowd’s excitement that much higher for “MUNAGenius,” the portmeanteau fans used to further hype up the performance. “It’s like the capital of friends being horny with each other onstage,” lead singer Katie Gavin said with a laugh.
By the time the headliners pranced onto the stage, the house was already in shambles as attendees screamed along to every word of the rousing “$20.” Throughout the set, fans made a point to shout along in perfect unison on specific lyrics, like “sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie” on the exhilarating “Satanist,” or “f–k around and find out” on “True Blue.” With each member dressed in their crisp suits and wielding their guitars, you would be forgiven for drawing parallels between the cheering masses of today and those at the height of Beatlemania.
The feeling was most certainly mutual — at multiple points throughout the evening, the band stopped to survey the excited masses and express their awe. Dacus first addressed the crowd with a giddy scream; Bridgers shook her head and laughed that “this don’t make no sense”; Baker said she would do her best to actually keep her eyes open when singing, despite the fact that she was “so nervous” at the “insane” crowd.
It was that communal, reciprocal energy that brought something fresh to Boygenius’ show — as moved as fans were by the band’s tender ballads like standouts “Emily, I’m Sorry” and “Revolution 0,” the trio were just as moved by their fans’ attentive action. After Dacus was tossed a series of pink carnations during her performance of “We’re In Love” (a reference to the song’s lyric “I’ll be the boy with the pink carnation”), she couldn’t hold in her tears. Her cries of joy led to a group hug that sent waves of sentimental fervor through the audience.
At one point early in the evening, Bridgers couldn’t help but point out how different a Boygenius show felt to any other concert. “Our fans are all so nice to each other and to us, that the security team up here has literally been handing out tissues,” she said. “Thank you for your service, guys.”
The sentimentality certainly didn’t stop the band from letting fans in on sillier moments. When prompted to introduce one another almost halfway through the event, each member was given their own WWE-style introduction from their bandmates. Right after starting fan-favorite “Me & My Dog,” Bridgers brought the song to a halt in order to ask fans to hold up pictures of their pooches.
Much like their songs, the band made sure to show off the talents of each member at every given opportunity. Dacus’ crystal clear voice pierced through the artifice with”Please Stay”; Baker let her demons out on the outstanding “Favor”; Bridgers poured tender passion into each word of “Graceland Too.”
At one point towards the end of show, the trio decided to treat their adoring audience to something even more special; after a top-notch rendition of “Not Strong Enough,” the band ran to the venue’s B-stage on the opposite end of the Garden’s floor. Taking up their new position in a sea of rapt onlookers, the trio performed all four songs off their unreleased EP The Rest, set to release on Oct. 13. Whether embracing oblivion on “Black Hole” or dissociating on “Voyager,” Boygenius ran through the entirety of their new project, beaming at their fans the entire time.
Yet the highlights from the evening came when the band allowed themselves and the crowd to experience release, be it through confessional, tender performances like “Letter to an Old Poet,” or Dacus and Bridgers physically releasing their bodies by going partly-topless for closer “Salt in the Wound.” Bake had her own moment of catharsis on “Anti-Curse,” after which she revealed that she had lost her sense of confidence before getting to work with her friends again.
“These guys have given me my voice back,” she said, holding back tears as Bridgers and Dacus beamed at her from either side of the stage. “I think that is what music is for; to hear your voice against another person’s. So if you need confirmation, then let us be your confirmation bias. We need you to be able to do this.”
Check out Boygenius’ full setlist from their Oct. 2 show at Madison Square Garden below:
Boygenius’ Madison Square Garden Setlist:
“Without You Without Them”
“$20”
“Satanist”
“Emily, I’m Sorry”
“True Blue”
“Cool About It”
“Souvenir”
“Bite the Hand”
“Revolution 0”
“Stay Down”
“Leonard Cohen”
“Please Stay”(Lucy Dacus song)
“Favor” (Julien Baker song)
“Graceland Too”(Phoebe Bridgers song)
“Me & My Dog”
“We’re In Love”
“Anti-Curse”
“Letter to an Old Poet”
“Not Strong Enough”
B-Stage
“Black Hole” (unreleased)
“Afraid of Heights” (unreleased)
“Voyager” (unreleased)
“Powers” (unreleased)
Encore:
“Ketchum, ID”
“Salt in the Wound”
