Month: September 2022

This week in dance music: We recapped 17 things that happened at last weekend’s Portola festival in San Francisco; Ultra Music Festival released the first phsae of its 2023 lineup; the Avicii estate sold 75% of the late producer’s recordings and publishing catalog to Pophouse; Circus Records released the first posthumous track from bass producer Cookie Monsta; David Guetta and Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue)” hit No. 1 on Dance/Electronic Songs, Calvin Harris released the video for “Obsessed”; we spoke with the new owner of Defected Records; and we broke down the top tracks and artists from Mysteryland 2022.

And new music? We got that, too. Let’s dig in.

Honey Dijon & Channel Tres feat. Sadie Walker, “Show Me Some Love”

After teasing us with singles for what feels like forever, Honey Dijon has finally revealed the details of her forthcoming album, Black Girl Magic, which is set to be released on Nov. 18 via Classic Music Company. With the news, Dijon has shared what a statement reveals is the final preview of the LP: “Show Me Some Love,” a collaboration with Channel Tres. Dijon’s jacking-house energy and Channel’s low-key vibe meet in the middle for an alluring track that struts and slinks across the dance floor with its smooth bass line and hypnotic synth oscillations. “Tell me how I don’t miss,” Channel suggests in his deep baritone. “Tell me that you can’t handle it.”

In addition to Channel Tres, Dijon has built up a collaboration-filled suite for Black Girl Magic, with Eve, Pabllo Vittar, Mike Dunn, Hadiya George and more set to feature. — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ

SNBRN, “Old Days”

Is it just us, or is everyone feeling extra nostalgic in the post-quarantine world? It’s easy to see the past through rose-colored glasses when the news is bad and your world is forever changed by the pandemic blues, but there is still a lot of hope to be felt and good times to be had, and certainly lots of new music to make you dance.

SNBRN’s sophomore LP The Old Days sounds like a pandemic silver lining. Full of emotional funk and undeniable groove, the 19-track effort captures the producer’s descent into lockdown reflection, turning his own inward thoughts and uncovered memories into a thrilling journey of sound. The project definitely looks back with fondness for things that were before, but it’s also a message to look ahead wherever the road takes you.

“The writing process became self healing, working with family members and close friends,” SNBRN says in a statement. “The Old Days plays into those thoughts we have of a better time, an old relationship, lost loved ones and just dwelling on the past. I had to remind myself to keep going and create the next chapter of my life. The story is never over. I hope there’s a little something for everyone in this album, and that it can help others as much as it’s helped myself.” – KAT BEIN

Eagles & Butterflies, “Retropolis”

UK producer Eagles & Butterflies, the man behind one of our favorite tracks of 2019, returns with the slick, futuristic “Retropolis.” A propulsive jam soaked in synth and moving at warp speed, the track sounds like something from the Blade Runner soundtrack, a simultaneously vintage and futuristic Italo disco thrill ride capturing that galvanizing slightly hectic feel of a big night out in a packed club.

“‘Retropolis’ for me is the past meets the future,” Eagles & Butterflies says. “I love influences and technology from the past and making music that sounds like it could be from for a time yet to arrive.”

The track is the debut from the producer’s forthcoming EP, out October 14 via Gerd Janson’s Running Back label, with a second installment of the EP being prepped for an early 2023 release. — KATIE BAIN

Shygirl, “Shlut”

Shygirl has certainly cemented her place as one of the most evocative alt-pop princesses of the modern dance floor. She’s never turned away from a devilish beat, and her latest sex-positive bop melts mean and delicate energies into one strong and salacious single. She’s whisper-singing “I wish I were you just to get a piece of me,” then turning a bit soft, admitting that she just can’t stand the thought of her lover leaving. We’re here for a queen that can hold space for both her own baddie-ness and her feelings. Also, the music video directed by Diana Kunst is a real black-and-white slice of sensual art. – K. Bein

Tensnake, “Coma Cat (Purple Disco Machine Re-Work)”

Few dance tracks wholly embody summer like Tensnake’s “Coma Cat.” For over a decade, the dance floor classic has gripped us with its immediately recognizable and transporting vibraphone melody. Though the summer season has just barely exited, Purple Disco Machine is keeping the spirit alive with an official “Coma Cat” re-work. An unreleased fan favorite for over three years, the remix adds disco heft to the original’s airiness via a foundation of grinding bass, chunky drums, glowing synth keys, and the kind of wind tunnel build-and-release that festival dreams are made of. — K.R.

Carlita, “Bon Trip”

After playing what felt like 30 sets at Burning Man around this time last month (including b2bs with DJ Tennis and Diplo), Turkish-Italian producer Carlita is releasing her Bon Trip EP. Inspired by Scandinavian disco producers like Todd Terje and Lindstrøm, the title track does indeed sound like a happy voyage both inwards and across the dance floor. Released via Tennis’ Life and Death label, the Bon Trip EP also features the heavier and similarly hypnotic “Run Run Run,” along with top-shelf remixes of both tracks.

“I conceived this EP during the pandemic as I wanted to create positive energy for myself, I dreamt of parties that I wanted to play, iconic venues, I dreamt of people being able to dance together carelessly again,” Carlita says. “I have been putting the finishing touches throughout the summer while touring nonstop to realize summer of 2022 was the ‘bon trip.’  With Bon Trip, I stepped out of my comfort zone to create this psychedelic and uplifting package.” — K. Bain

Scooter Braun is talking about the messy battle over Taylor Swift‘s masters again in an interview with NPR’s The Limits With Jay Williams, in which the manager/entrepreneur said if he had it to do over again he would definitely choose a different path. “Yes, I would have,” Braun said when asked if, in hindsight, he’d have handled things in another way.

“I learned an important lesson from that,” he explained, noting that when he recently sold his company to BTS’ parent company, HYBE, he was determined to have everyone involved participate and take a proper share, even if they didn’t work for him anymore. “When I did that deal that you’re referring to with [Swift’s former label home] Big Machine, I was under a very strict NDA with the gentleman who owned it, and I couldn’t tell any artist,” he said of the 2019 deal in which he acquired Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records Label Group and Swift’s catalog for $300 million; Braun later sold Swift’s masters in 2020, prompting Swift to begin the process of re-recording her first six Big Machine albums.

After the Big Machine deal cut by Braun — who manages Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, among others — his Ithaca Holdings turned around and sold the Big Machine catalog to Shamrock Holdings, marking the second time in 17 months that ownership of Swift’s first six albums changed hands.

Braun said he wasn’t legally allowed to talk to any of the artists on the label while negotiating the deal and that he told Borchetta that, “if any of the artists want to come back and buy into this, you have to let me know.” He once again referred to a letter Borchetta later shared in public in which Swift — who Braun never refers to by name in the interview — is reported to have said that she didn’t want to “participate in my masters. ‘I’ve decided to, you know, not make this deal, blah, blah, blah.’ So that was the idea I was under,” Braun told Williams.

At the time of the first Big Machine deal, Swift lashed out at the sale to Braun, writing in a Tumblr post that she said learned of the pact “as it was announced to the world”; a source in Swift’s camp said at the time that they’d known about the acquisition for several days beforehand.

She wrote that the news immediately brought her back to “the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at [Braun’s] hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

She called the acquisition her “worst case scenario,” claiming that Borchetta was well aware of her feelings about Braun.

For his part, Braun told Williams that he was “excited” to work with every Big Machine artist and that when the deal was finalized he began making calls to let the interested parties know he was part of it. “And before I could even do that – I made four phone calls… all hell broke loose,” he said, not specifying who the four calls were to. “So I think a lot of things got lost in translation. I think that when you have a conflict with someone, it’s very hard to resolve it if you’re not willing to have a conversation. So the regret I have there is that I made the assumption that everyone, once the deal was done, was going to have a conversation with me, see my intent, see my character and say, great, let’s be in business together. And I made that assumption with people that I didn’t know.”

Braun said the “important lesson” he learned from that imbroglio is that he can “never make that assumption again. I can’t put myself in a place of, you know, arrogance to think that someone would just be willing to have a conversation and be excited to work with me. I don’t know these people.” That explains why he said that when he cut the deal to sell Ithaca Holdings to HYBE in April 2021 he took “50 million of my own stock… and I gave it to my employees and my artists.”

Because it is a publicly traded company, his effort was reported on and Braun said he was happy to now talk about how “everyone participated significantly,” even former employees, noting that he called up shareholders including longtime Bieber collaborator Poo Bear, as well as Bieber, Grande, Demi Lovato and J. Balvin to let them know about the HYBE deal.

“And everyone felt good, you know, and they could sell the stock if they want to. It’s worth real money. But I wanted them to feel good about it ’cause I learned that lesson,” Braun said. “So I choose to look at it as a learning lesson, a growing lesson, and I wish everyone involved well. And I’m rooting for everyone to win because I don’t believe in rooting for people to lose.”

Watch Braun’s interview below.

The worlds of Harry Styles and SEVENTEEN fans have collided. Seungkwan of SEVENTEEN tried his hand at a Styles cover by taking on the British artist’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “As It Was.” Seungkwan’s rendition was released Friday (Sept. 30) along with a video as part of the Spotify Singles series.

Though the K-pop star’s visual kicks off with a creepy thunderstorm, his cover matches the original’s upbeat feel. As the song’s twinkling synth instrumental acts as a countdown to the lyrics, he sits down in a chair in a pastel green suit and places headphones over his ears before singing. Seungkwan delivers the song’s infectious first verse while walking on a treadmill, then appears in a Styles-appropriate crochet shirt, beaded necklaces and jeans, and delivers the chorus from a room decorated with a green-and-white checkerboard pattern and upside down microphones.

“In this world, it’s just us/ You know it’s not the same as it was/ In this world, it’s just us/ You know it’s not the same as it was,” he sings, opting for a more languid, airy delivery for the track.

Mid-song, the video as takes a startling turn as the thunderstorm and lightning interrupts the recording. The bright lights flicker before going out, and Seungkwan pauses his performance, cowering a bit from the loud tempest. As the lights come back on, the singer resumes.

“There are CARATs who love and look forward to my cover versions of pop tracks. When it comes to covers, I like to challenge myself with songs that are different from my usual genre and style as an artist,” Seungkwan shared in a press release. “‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles has been my go-to song for the last couple of months, so I hope they enjoy this single as much as I did creating it.”

Seungkwan’s rendition of “As It Was” — the original just celebrated its 15th week atop the Hot 100 — was also recorded for Spotify’s K-Pop ON! playlist. Check out the video above.

The pandemic hit all artists hard, but perhaps none so badly as developing acts who were just starting to have some career momentum. Such was the case with soulful country singer Adam Doleac: In late 2019, he signed with Sony’s Arista Nashville imprint and scored a gold single with his sweet, catchy breakthrough song “Famous,” which hit No. 1 on SiriusXM’s The Highway’s Hot Country Countdown.

Then, in March 2020, the world stopped. On the positive side, Doleac wrote 150 songs during the pandemic, and he and his now fiancé spent a lot of time with his family in Mississippi, where he grew up. Yet any traction he’d gotten with “Famous” nearly trickled to a halt (though he managed to take another song, the lushly romantic “Another,” to the top of The Highway’s chart during the pandemic). The release of his debut album also got pushed back nearly two years, but Barstool Whiskey Wonderland finally arrives today (Sept. 30).

The 18-track collection shows off Doleac’s smooth, sultry vocals. “[My voice] gets [called] warm a lot, soothing a lot. It’s like a big hug sometimes when people listen. Everybody needs one. I’m a big hugger myself,” he says. The album also displays his strong storytelling craft­­–he co-wrote all but one of the tracks on the set. 

Now, back on the road and ready to pick up where he left off, Doleac talked to Billboard about the debt he owes Kenny Chesney, what he learned from Florida Georgia Line and why he almost called it quits.

You came to town to be an artist, but like so many before you, first landed a publishing deal and then got songs you wrote cut by Kane Brown and Darius Rucker. How did that come about? 

I was playing a showcase for labels and the labels passed on me, but [then Sony Music Publishing Nashville head] Troy Tomlinson walked up to me and said, “Why don’t you come in tomorrow and play me a couple songs? I liked what I heard.” I went in the next day and played a song called “She was Right.” He put his phone in front of me and said, “Play that one more time,” and he recorded it. He sends it straight to Kenny Chesney. While I’m sitting there, Kenny responds and goes, “Oh my God, what is this song? I’m cutting it.”

He recorded it, but it didn’t make the record. Kenny doesn’t know this, but he got me my first publishing deal, because what more could you ask for in your first meeting than to have Kenny be like, “What is this song?” But it was never the goal for me to come write songs [for others]. I was always writing for me the whole time.

You played baseball at University of Southern Mississippi, even reaching the College World Series. What did you learn about being a college athlete that carries over to a music career?

Somebody’s always gonna be better than you if you show up lazy that day. Also, I think hearing the word “no” and not being devastated by it. You hear the word no [in Nashville] about 20 times a day. You get your dreams crushed 20 times a day. And so you have to be able to start the next day with the same inspiration and motivation to try to get something to happen.

You didn’t start writing and singing until you were in college. When did you realize that you could do that?

My teammates on the baseball team booked my first show for me. They’re the ones that would hear me singing. They always said, “You should sing in front of people.” I always said, “No, absolutely not. I’m terrified to sing in front of anybody.” I just saw one of my buddies from college in Manhattan Beach and he was like, “Remember we used to sit around the campfire and sing, but you were too scared to sing at all?” I had to be pushed into singing. They booked three shows in Hattiesburg (Miss.) and they sold out mainly because people knew me from baseball. But I just kind of fell in love with performing pretty immediately. Like once you sing a song and hear the reaction, it was just kind of awesome.

The only song on your album you didn’t write is “Fake Love,” which was written by some pretty heavy hitters:  Maren Morris, Ryan Hurd, HARDY and Jordan Schmidt. How did that come to you?

Roxy King, who works at Universal Music Publishing Nashville, sent that song to my manager, Eric Garcia. He rarely sends me songs, but he sent that over pretty much immediately. I just remember thinking whether you’re in the best relationship or the worst relationship, the lyric calls you out so hard. You’re either gonna go, “Oh, s–t, I need to get out of this relationship I’m in,” or “Yeah, me and her, we’re the real deal.”

How did it end up as a duet with Danielle Bradbery?

Maren was singing the demo. I’m such a fan of hers and it made me want a female feature on it immediately. Danielle actually reached out to try to cut the song herself two weeks after I put it on hold. When I heard that I was like, “I love Danielle’s voice. Why don’t we see if she wants to sing on it?”

The album is deeply romantic. What is your favorite romantic song that’s not yours?

One of my favorites is “The Heart of Life” by John Mayer. I am a very romantic person. I do see the world through child eyes as much as I can. I fall in love with every palm tree I see, every sunset. I try to really, really take all that in. And I hope that never goes away. 

One of the lighter-hearted, catchiest songs on the album is “Close That Tab,” where you tell a woman that the man she likes is as appealing as a “watered-down vodka soda” and she should leave him for you. How did you come up with that? 

[My co-writers] and I were in Florida and said, “Let’s invent a new insult. We want to call this guy something that nobody’s ever called anybody before.” And we came up with “he’s a watered-down vodka soda.” We were like, “Would any of us want to be called that?” And we were like, “Hell, no.”

Two weeks later, I was playing it at The Listening Room in Nashville for the first time. The third chorus came around to the “watered-down vodka soda” line and all 300 people in that place screamed it without being prompted. I was like, “Okay, we might be on to something here.”

Where does radio fit in for you? 

Well, unfortunately, it hasn’t right now, which is a bummer. It’s tough. I did sign at a weird time. That’s the reason you sign a record deal, so they can take you to radio. I think radio is still very, very important, we just haven’t been able to crack the top 40 yet. I’m out-streaming half the chart on a regular basis. We’re selling more tickets than a lot of people on the chart. You’ve got to get the first one, and we haven’t quite got it yet.

But you’ve been building an audience through streaming and live shows. 

Streaming is very powerful. I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to be a new artist. I have Sirius XM to thank a good bit for that, too. I want my label focused on radio nonstop. But with our crew and talent agency, we have a plan in place: We want to be selling 5,000 tickets [per show] by this time next year. And if radio happens, that’s sprinkles on top of the cake. Radio is always going to be a great thing, no matter when it happens. 

You’re headlining your own shows now. What is something you’ve learned from an artist you opened for? 

We did a show with Florida Georgia Line a few years back, and they had me come out and sing a song with them and they were like, “Come join the huddle before the show.” It was really cool. I picked up from them to always try to include whoever is on the show with you and hang and not be the cool guy who’s secluded the whole time. 

You wrote an Instagram note to your fans after CMA Fest this summer thanking them for coming see you play and how it had been bad break after bad break for you lately. Has there been a moment when you’ve thought about giving up?

Yeah, there’s several of those moments. We were coming out of COVID and we got the [support slot] on the Zac Brown Band tour–20,000 people a night. It was the best news we could have gotten. We ended up playing [only] six shows because [Zac] got COVID and had to cancel the whole second leg. In the middle of that, we had $100,000 worth of gear stolen in our trailer. Then we tried to go out on the road with Jessie James Decker and she ended up canceling the second part of the tour because she had gotten COVID. It was just thing after thing after thing.

There were definitely moments where I was like, “Is this where I’m supposed to be?” I believe that God will speak to you through limitation sometimes. You’ve got to pay attention to that kind of stuff. But then [at CMA Fest], 6,000 people showed up.  I was told it was the biggest crowd they had all week on that particular stage. I wanted to say thank you because it really motivated me to get back to it and not give up.

What does success look like to you?

It changes. I remember being independent and just thinking, “If I could just get a record deal.” You get a record deal and then it’s “If I could just get a gold record,” and then I got a gold record.  I know myself pretty well, I think they’ll always be more that I’m trying to get to. My goal from the get-go has been to sell out stadiums. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I feel I’m built for.

Billboard’s First Stream serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

This week, Kid Cudi is back with a multimedia opus, Paramore keeps gloriously evolving, and Ed Sheeran has gotta catch ‘em all. Check out all of this week’s First Stream picks below:

Kid Cudi, Entergalactic 

Thirteen years ago, Kid Cudi was a rising artist fresh off a breakthrough hit in “Day ’N’ Nite,” and his excellent debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, included the track “Enter Galactic” as a sweaty electro-dance experiment. Today, Cudi is correctly revered as one of the more influential figures in modern hip-hop thanks in large part to his sonic eccentricities, and Entergalactic, a new album coinciding with his new animated Netflix series of the same name, captures the artistic ambition that has defined his career. Entergalactic is moody in parts, soaring in others; Don Toliver, Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz all swing by, but the album is very clearly the work of one boundary-pusher still telling his stories on a wide screen.

Paramore, “This Is Why” 

Aging gracefully while sensibly reshaping your sound is a difficult trick to pull off in modern rock music, but Paramore have spent years refining their identity, and striking a balance between understanding their hardcore fans and not trying to recapture their early career magic. “This Is Why,” the title track for their first new album since 2017, represents another bold yet sonically grounded triumph: while the production recalls the art-rock idiosyncrasies of After Laughter, Hayley Williams sneers, spins and strikes with the tenacity of her Riot! work.

Ed Sheeran, “Celestial” 

“I’ve played Pokémon since I was in primary school,” Ed Sheeran says in a press release for his new single, “Celestial.” A lot of us have, too — but Sheeran is a stadium-playing superstar, and one of the perks of that status is being able to partner with the franchise for a video game tie-in track and have Pikachu and Squirrel appear in its video. “Celestial” continues the pop-rock shimmer of Sheeran’s = album from last year, with its far-reaching chorus standing in admiration of a particularly inspiring partner, or pocket monster.

YG, I Got Issues 

While YG typifies the West Coast veteran that could stay in his trunk-rattling lane for decades and still please plenty of listeners, I Got Issues is more than a smattering of G-funk and A-list guests (although it does have both, with J. Cole, Nas, Post Malone and Moneybagg Yo all pulling up). In between the tough talk and big hooks are moments of reflection, as YG grapples with being stuck between his pre-fame upbringing and his extended time in the spotlight, with the paranoia the latter brings: “Livin’ life, lookin’ over my shoulder, gotta hide my face,” he spits on “Alone.”

Ciara feat. Summer Walker, “Better Thangs” 

As R&B experiences a boom of cross-generation collaboration, with veteran artists hopping on new-school projects and vice verse, the meeting of Ciara and Summer Walker on the new single “Better Thangs” marks an especially delightful summit of two gifted vocalists with similar mainstream instincts. As the two stars bond over moving on from drama, the drums keep pumping and the harmonies flutter in and out, resulting in a rhythmic and irresistible showcase.

Björk, Fossora 

Björk’s music endures for many reasons, but her ability to seamlessly blend personal experience and universal ideas — to share her life, and also stretch it into the cosmos — must be considered primary to her brilliance. The Icelandic legend’s 10th studio album, Fossora, meditates on nature, love and womanhood as orchestral lushness envelops Björk’s unmistakable tone, but also offers an intimate glimpse of her relationship with her mother, who passed away in 2018, on the towering one-two punch “Sorrowful Soil” and “Ancestress.”