Audacy Check-In

Saweetie stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel in New York for an Audacy Check In with 97.4 The Block’s Jen to chat all about how she always knew she wanted to rap, the inspiration behind “Richtivites” and “NANi,” the deeper meaning behind cutting off all of her hair, and more. Starting off the conversation talking about her reasons for opting for a more intimate birthday party this year, her Filipino and Chinese culture on her mother’s side, and being a first generation kid, as well as her college experience, Saweetie spoke about the transition of going from school kid to bona fide rapper. “So I always wanted to be a rapper,” Saweetie expressed. “I actually have a clip, I found my old MacBook and I have tons of videos of me talking to myself and I would just, I would pretend I was a rapper. I would pretend like I was interviewed by someone like you, no one was on the other side though. And this was happening as early as my senior year in high school girl, lots of videos.” Noting “that was one of the main reasons why I did want to stay at home because I was like, maybe I should just work on a mixtape, but then I eventually went to college,” which she previously explained was due to a plethora of inspiring and convincing reasons, one of which was J.Cole getting his degree at St. Johns. Referring to another one of her sit down interviews, Jen praised Saweetie for how open she is about her journey to finding success. Noting, “a lot of these artists, they only show the good side when they make it… But you are so transparent with where you were and where you are now. Specifically what stuck out to me was that ‘broke’ video,” adding, “I don't mean to say it like that, but that's what it was.” Going on to say, she “mentioned it because, you know, a lot of people are going through rough times right now and they want to hear words of encouragement, things are going to be OK.” Jen then asked Saweetie to reflect on that time in her life, and more than just not having money, but about the mental and psychological affects that time had on her life. “I would say what was difficult for me was having to figure out how I was going to pay my bills each month because after I pay my bills, my account would go down to whatever the amount would go down to, that was stressful.” Also finding a glass half full outlook on that time, Saweetie, noted, “my body was really in shape because all I would eat was like ground turkey rice, peanut butter sandwiches… because that's all I could afford.” Next, Saweetie dove into the topic of music, discussing her singles “Richtivities” and “NANi,” and how as Jen put it, she makes tracks that “very women empowerment centric.” Sharing the thought process that goes into putting together a record, Saweetie expressed, “It depends on what kind of record it is. For ‘Richtivities,’ that was very topic based and it actually came from an experience where I was on a yacht with me and my homegirls. We were drinking champagne, we were riding jet skis, we were ordering food to the boat, the food was being delivered to us. It was like a crazy experience, and I was like, this is a rich-tivity, a rich activity, and that's what inspired that song.” “So when it comes to a topic based song that's like flexin’, poppin’ s***, the undertone and the underlying message is if you work hard, this is what you reap… you reap the rewards of working hard. So I think it's a song to either celebrate your wins or it's a song to listen to when you're trying to reach certain goals.” As for “NANi,” Saweetie revealed, “it wasn't ‘NANi’ at first, it was a different word, it was body. I wanted to change it because I wanted a different word and we were trying to figure out the word.” After some deliberation she settled on Nana or Nani. “You know how Foxy Brown would talk about that Nana, and I love the way she was able to apply different meanings to it. So I was like, let's take that and apply it to this song, but let's use Nani and not Nana. So Nani...

It’s officially Freak Show release day, so obviously G-Eazy had to Check In with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about it -- touching on his new music era, his favorite track off the album, going viral with a throwback song, and a whole lot more. After a whirlwind week of debuting his new era, announcing a new album, dropping its lead single “Anxiety,” (with a music video), and sharing the news of his world tour, G-Eazy took some time out of his busy schedule to fill us in and welcome us all into the Freak Show. After taking some time to “live some life, to be able to tell the stories... find the inspiration,” and "get the perspective,” G-Eazy is now back with new music. “You know, I traveled a lot, I spent time in Paris, I spent time in London. That's where the album really started," he tells Bru. "You know, I started refining the inspiration, and then obviously moved to New York,” Eazy shared of his album-making process this time around and switching from West Coast to East Coast living. That’s not the only thing that’s changed. With all of his newfound inspiration, G-Eazy has shifted gears into a new musical era as well. Describing his new sound, he says, “Sonically, musically, I'd say it's more eclectic, it’s more diverse. It’s drawing from a lot of my different influences and inspirations musically. “I mean… there's a Clash sample on the album, there's a song with Burna Boy… there’s a song with Leon Bridges. You know, it taps into some of the kind of cabaret, dark circus style of music that I was listening to a lot," he explains, "that sonically kind of shaped the world of 'Freak Show.'” Sharing his favorite song off of the album, Eazy admits, "‘Anxiety’ is the one I'm most proud of. It was really raw and real, from a really honest, human perspective and place. It’s like the subject I'm talking about, and then I'm cutting myself open and pouring it out, revealing hard truths about myself. I'm asking myself tough questions, owning up to s***, you know?” G-Eazy also went on to discuss what it was like working with Coi Leray (another featured artist on Freak Show). “Coy is incredible, you know, super talented and it was an honor to get to work with her. And she just walks on that beat, she just floats, you know. So she killed it,” G-Eazy noted, referring to her contribution to “Femme Fatale,” which also features Kaliii. Towards the end of the conversation, Eazy quickly dove into what it’s been like having his 2012 track “Lady Killers” go viral over a decade after its release. “Oh man, it's just one of those full circle… just like, dude, what is life? It’s kind of surreal, you know. But you just take it in stride, and you take it with a thank you. A thank you to the universe… however that happened and just count your blessings.” Also in their chat, G-Eazy shared with Bru the special meaning behind his new album’s release date, where he tends to find his creative space, and plenty more. To hear it all, check out the entire interview above. G-Eazy U.S. Tour Dates: Oct 24, 2024 / The Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley / Berkeley, CA Oct 25, 2024 / Shrine Expo Hall / Los Angeles, CA Oct 26, 2024 / Soma / San Diego, CA Oct 28, 2024 / The Van Buren / Phoenix, AZ Oct 30, 2024 / Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater / Austin, TX Nov 1, 2024 / South Side Ballroom / Dallas, TX Nov 2, 2024 / 713 Music Hall / Houston, TX Nov 4, 2024 / Avondale Brewing Company / Birmingham, AL Nov 7, 2024 / Jannus Live / St. Petersburg, FL Nov 8, 2024 / The Eastern / Atlanta, GA Nov 9, 2024 / The Ritz / Raleigh, NC Nov 12, 2024 / Echostage / Washington, DC Nov 14, 2024 / Roadrunner / Boston, MA Nov 15, 2024 / Brooklyn Paramount / New York, NY Nov 16, 2024 / Franklin Music Hall / Philadelphia, PA Nov 19, 2024 / Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom / Chicago, IL Nov 20, 2024 / The Fillmore Minneapolis / Minneapolis, MN Nov 22, 2024 / The Mission Ballroom / Denver, CO Nov 23, 2024 / Rockwell at The Complex / Salt Lake City, UT Nov 24, 2024 / Revolution...

With a cleansed IG feed, a brand new self-titled album out, and a current North American tour underway, Bryson Tiller Checked In with Jen From BK of Audacy NYC's 94.7 The Block at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to catch us up on this latest phase in his career, and a whole lot more. After sharing his favorite cities to perform in and his usual pre-show ritual, Bryson spoke on his love for video games -- which he’s very into developing -- and actually was the inspiration for his new album’s cover art. Tiller went on to discuss the evolution of his musicality and admitted his reason for delving into new sounds on his latest album came from the natural drive of not wanting to stay stagnant. “Well… I’m just bored making the same stuff over and over," Bryson expressed. "It just gets so boring and repetitive, same stuff... I’m just like... I love all music, I’m trying to do everything. So, I think that’s the main reason, well, no, one of the reasons.” “The main reason,” Bryson continued, “is just because I really wanted to show people my versatility as an artist and where I could take it -- and just kind of take my creative control back ‘cause I feel like a lot of fans and people thought that they had creative control over my life and what I do, what I create. So, I’m a rebel, always have been, and… nobody can tell me what to do. I like to do my own thing.” Another way in which Tiller decided to take control of the discourse was with the title of the album. While usually it’s an artist's first album that gets the self-title treatment, Bryson shared why he dubbed his fourth album after himself. “I just feel like people just keep talking about this album and that album and… they would just make that my identity. My only identity is that I’m Bryson Tiller, you know what I mean? I know how to do everything, you know? And I’m gonna try new things and things that I’ve never done before. You know, I can hang with the people who do that type of stuff. I just wanna be able to prove that. And if I didn’t prove it this time… just know that I will continue to do stuff that will shock you for sure…” Discussing the sequencing of the album, and sharing why he decided to start with an instrumental intro, he says, “I wanted to give people some time to think, you know, and give them a cool sound to think over,” Tiller expressed. “Every time I heard that… it would just put me in a zone and a vibe and I would just start thinking and reflecting on everything that I've done thus far and what's about to happen." “I just wanted to create that kind of somber build-up for the album… I had to start that and take it back to like R&B that I've studied for so many years,” Bryson added about the wordless track that he admitted was very Trapsoul coded, before delving his different and various songwriting processes. Bryson also shared that he recorded a Christmas song with his oldest daughter, and how fatherhood has changed him, including if his kids recognize that their dad is famous. Bryson additionally opened up about being “super honest” about mental health, feeling “confident and unstoppable,” and making music for fans while evolving at the same time. To hear Bryson’s entire conversation, press play on the interview above. Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Jen From BK

Billie Eilish and FINNEAS dropped by the KROQ studios in Los Angeles for a special Audacy Check In with the Klein.Ally.Show, diving deep into their brand new album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, what to expect on their upcoming world tour, and much more. HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish's highly-anticipated follow-up to 2021's GRAMMY-nominated Happier Than Ever is available now, taking listeners through a rollercoaster of emotions as the record progresses through its 13 tracks. There was no defined road map that the brother and sister team decided to stick to when compiling the new collection, though Billie admits, “Honestly, I wish we had because then we could recreate it, but it was such a mess -- we didn't know where we were gonna go, or what we were gonna do, or how it was gonna turn out until we had most of the songs already floating around. That was when we put them together.” “I mean, they also had similarities,” she acknowledges. “We were thinking about them the whole time… thinking about calling back and having some lyrics on some songs that refer to other songs, or melodies that refer to other songs, but we didn't have a plan of like, ‘This is gonna be this, and this is gonna be this.’ It kind of just happened, which is frustrating because I don't know how to do that again. It just was so natural.” Touching on the many twists and turns throughout the new album, Billie reiterated her thoughts on the concept of musical genres being “such a funny thing,” especially seeing the way other artists she enjoys are categorized. “I'm always shocked. I don't know what that is,” she says. “I've really never cared about the idea of a genre. If someone says, ‘What kind of music do you listen to?’ I'm like, ‘Dude, everything.’ I love music so much and I really don't have lines like, ‘Oh, I don't listen to this genre or this genre.’ It's just music, you know? So, I think we try to do that with our own stuff too.” As the duo began to put songs together for HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, FINNEAS tells us when things became “messy --sub that in for if I wasn't feeling inspired anymore, if we were feeling like the momentum was slowing down a little bit, we'd just kind of like, get up and walk away, change gears. Maybe go on a hike or something or just start something completely different.” “I think it was about always feeling as engaged as possible,” he explains. “Sometimes as a producer and as a songwriter, it feels good to finish something and sometimes you have a great little chorus or great verse and you think, ‘Let's just write a bridge so that the song is done.' It was an effort on this album to be like, ‘If we don't have a good idea for a bridge today, let's write a bridge next week.’” Allowing themselves that space, he says, rewarded them with songs like “The Greatest.” “We came back to that song a week after starting it and Billie was like, ‘I think we should write a bridge for this,'" FINNEAS says "Then we had this whole fresh idea because we were approaching it on a different day, with different circumstances. There's just no way we would have written that bridge.” Billie adds, “Then that bridge then became the throughout melody of the album.” Though they're both unable to choose a favorite track, “I think if I were going to give an answer, ‘The Greatest’ was a really important process,” FINNEAS says. "Us making that song meant a lot to me. It was a big hurdle that we crossed in the process of writing all these songs. That was a song that I felt like we'd been looking for for a long time.” Suffering for her art is something Billie has never shied away from, even going to great lengths for the new album cover, which shows her almost drowning in dark waters -- eerily similar to something that happened to her when she was younger. “It felt like I was gonna drown,” she explains of her childhood experience. “I don't think I was actually in danger -- I was in the ocean and I did have to get saved by lifeguards, but it’s all good. I...

Twenty One Pilots’ Josh Dun and Tyler Joseph joined host Brad Steiner for a special Audacy Check In at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to celebrate the release of their 2024 album, Clancy, upcoming tour dates, and more. The duo’s new offering, Clancy, is named after the protagonist introduced on 2018's Trench, and marks the final chapter in Twenty One Pilots' intricate story told across multiple albums, beginning with the band's 2015 breakthrough, Blurryface. Throughout the four album series -- which also includes 2021’s Scaled and Icy -- everything from art details to music videos had been specifically chosen for a reason. “The story, I guess it was a bit of a hybrid in the overall arc of it was written out from the beginning, but there were a lot of twists and turns inside of the journey that we made,” Tyler says. “I guess in a way, we were really inspired by our own fans. As the story was being told, there were certain details that came out of the story because of watching how people reacted to it and what they were drawn to.” “We knew what we were gonna say and what we wanted to accomplish with the story,” he adds. “Basically, the album ‘Blurryface’ is a reference to a character in the story that we've been telling, who's kind of the antagonist. We find out his real name is Nico and he's constantly -- basically, the lead character of ‘Clancy’ is constantly hunted down by this character. A lot of details go into where they're from and how they got there, and I'm really excited to tell how it all ends -- and that's what this, this album is gonna do.” The idea to build a world around their music, Tyler says, arose when he realized that inside of his and Josh’s common goal of making music together, there were “so many artistic opportunities, whether it's the colors you use to tell the story, the font that you use, the band name, the album title, the album cover…. So, where it just starts out as ‘I just wanna make music and maybe perform some of it in front of some people,’ you quickly realize, ‘Oh wait, there's a ton more opportunity to be creative other than just making the music.'” “We have some awesome people on our team too,” Tyler adds. “They've been helping us on the creative side for a long time. Shout outs to our crew of creatives that help us. ‘We'll be like, OK, hold on, what is the weather supposed to be like in this world in the city of Dema?’ I’ll remember we established that, you know, it's cloudy here and there's a sound that happens at night -- there's a lot of details of the world that you create, and sometimes you need to be reminded of, ‘What was this character's motivation, and what were we trying to do again?’ To have a few people to help you kind of collect and archive all of the story that you've been telling has been really important.” “Like Tyler said earlier,” Josh adds, being inspired by fans has been a major driving force, “because when we started, we were playing in clubs so we didn't know. We had kind of like visions and dreams of what this would turn into, but we didn't know how deep we could get into it. Even starting the story, it's kind of just like, ‘OK, well, I hope people care enough to look into the story.’ As time's gone on and we've seen people do like find things and understand things, then that gives us more freedom really to be able to expand on that and have different areas in which we can share those visuals.” As far as intricate fan theories go, Tyler admits, “Sometimes we'll text each other, we'll see something where someone's theorizing… they spend a lot of time coming up with that theory, you want it to be right for them. So I would say, ‘Should we tell them that's not right?’ There have been times where we've wanted to jump in and be like, ‘It's close, but not right.’” “I can't think of anything particularly that's made it in,” he says of the many fan theories that have evolved. “If anything, they brought a lot of clarity to who these characters were and what their...

New Kids On The Block is celebrating the release of their first new album in 11 years, Still Kids, and they stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel New York for an Audacy Check In with Foxx & Annie to chat all about it. Released May 17, Still Kids, features 14 new tracks including everything from pop anthems and dance tracks to love songs and grooves that have all become fast favorites for their Blockheads fan club. “We’re excited it’s finally out, people can listen to it and we can share the experience,” shared the band’s Joey McIntyre. “It’s something we’re proud of. It’s a good mix of back in the day, but talking about things that are going on in our lives now.” With a little bit of old and a little bit of new, what makes the guys most proud is the cohesiveness of the project allowing fans to reminisce on the days of listening to an album from top to bottom — no skips. “I think what we’re most excited about… is we think we made an album you can listen to like we did in the old days,” said Donnie Wahlberg. “Nowadays you go on iTunes and you skip around, but when we were young, we put in a CD [or] an 8-Track of an album and listened to everything.” He continued, “I remember listening to [Michael Jackson’s] Thriller from front to back — I didn’t skip a song. We wanted to make an album where you don’t skip a song and I think we accomplished that... Every song means something, there’s no filler, there’s nothing that’s just there to take up space and after 11 years, the fans deserve that.” To celebrate their new music further, the guys have revealed plans for a brand new tour, The Magic Summer 2024 Tour. Kicking off June 14, the trek will visit more than 40 cities and feature members Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood. While bringing fans some of their greatest hits from the past, the guys also look forward to sharing their new music that has already proven to be a hit with fans everywhere. “The album is authentic,” said Wahlberg. “It’s still New Kids, it still sounds like New Kids, feels like New Kids — it has the feels — but is very genuine from all of us and is a very genuine love letter or ode to the fans, but also real stuff that we’re talking about, real experiences related to the journey of the band, some related to personal life stuff that, because it’s authentic, the fans are relating to it in a tremendous way.” Hear about the new music, the album-making process, what they’ve been up to the past 11 years and so much more by checking out Audacy’s Check In with New Kids On The Block, above. Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Foxx & Annie

As Train gets set to hit the road on their 2024 Summer Road Trip, lead singer Pat Monahan checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk music, the magic of albums, Taylor Swift covering his songs, and more. Before getting into the music, Mike had a question for Monahan. First, noting that while he was looking over “the bullets and the stuff they send me over before we do the interview,” one of the notes included a list of all of Train’s “timeless classics” listing all of their hits. “I was thinking about that," Mike expressed, asking Pat — “Do you think that's a thing that's no longer obtainable for new artists now, a timeless classic, because of you know, our deteriorating attention span?” Noting that “it's a good question,” Pat admitted, “I don't know the answer to it.” Adding, “I do know that we just came back from the UK and Europe,” and referring to the crowds they performed for, he said, “they are still a very album oriented group of people collectively. So we can play, you know, deep cuts from albums as long as the albums did well in those places, they will know every single song.” “And today's world is so quick, you can't even get a song, an entire song out. You have 30 seconds to get people hooked on whatever it is. And then possibly you'll inspire people to listen to the entire song," Monahan added. “So, an album is gonna be, that'll be a difficult thing for younger artists to do. But hopefully they can do it because we need to keep inspiring kids to want to do this.” Continuing to discuss the “magic” of listening to an entire album and discovering songs in that way, Pat mentioned that “if you really research, you know, old music or older music or classic music, sometimes it's the sixth song that was the biggest song, you know, not number one. So… it will be interesting to see where the whole world takes us. But it's gonna be up to young artists to demand that they make albums and have them heard.” Moving on to discuss Train’s latest single, “Long Yellow Dress,” Mike shared that he was scrolling through the lyric video comments on YouTube, sharing one he found particularly interesting that pointed out the drums on the track were giving The Beatles vibes. “Oh cool, I’ll listen differently,” Pat replied. Going on to praise his drummer, Matt Musty, calling him “a really gifted kid.” Revealing how the song came together, Pat said, “You know, we are always writing, like we have a musical that we're three years into writing and, you know, we'll just get together three days a week over Zoom and knock things out… But I hummed a melody into a Dictaphone or an iPhone and sent them my humming and then it turned into ‘Long Yellow Dress.’” Also discussing Train’s iconic album Save Me, San Francisco, featuring their global smash “Hey, Soul Sister,” which is commemorating its 15th anniversary in October, Pat shared his thoughts about things he loves, or would change about the album. Before chatting about joining forces with REO Speedwagon on their 45-city co-headlining Summer Road Trip Tour, which according to Pat, will definitely feature Save Me, San Francisco songs on the setlist. When it comes to music, Pat shared that aside from obviously needing to perform past songs at shows, he doesn’t really like looking back, and rather focus on going forward. That being said, Pat did look to the past when making the Led Zeppelin cover album. Talking about that experience, he said, “we wanted to record Led Zeppelin II, and the reason that I wanted to do it is because I think my band is incredible. It's not the band I started with. And so I wanted people to see how gifted they are.” As for which Train cover Pat considers his personal favorite, Monahan shared. “Well, you know, Taylor Swift back when she was much younger. She was on the Red Tour I think, and would play both, 'Hey, Soul Sister' and 'Drops of Jupiter.' That was a pretty cool thing for me, I think. You know, that was before she was who...

After dabbling in the music biz for many years, Kate Hudson is finally releasing her very own album, Glorious, officially out now, and she checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to chat all about it, and a whole lot more. Opening up the conversation with the album opener “Gonna Find Out,” that Mike noted gave him “old school Sheryl Crow vibes," which Kate was totally flattered by, noting “I love her so much.” “I was going to write with Linda Perry and Danny (Fujikawa) my fiancé, it was like just starting from a blank slate. I really wanted to approach it completely without any concept in mind.” She continued, “I remember… it came from me wanting to do something kind of swampy. It didn't end up being so swampy, but… I wanted like a swampy kind of blues and then of course, then you start writing and things kind of come out of that.” Because of this, “every day would be different,” which inevitably helped steer the album to its eclectic sound. Which is “important to me,” Kate expressed "because I don’t know if I really want to fit into a genre.” “I just love music so much, and since I'm writing it, and it's the first time I'm making an album, I wanted it to feel totally honest from where I'm at right now. And that's what came out.” In fact, Kate made sure this album was such a thorough representation of self, the 12-track project has zero features. With that being said, while it wasn’t right for this particular album, Kate did hint she has a few names in mind for possible future collaborations. “I would love to [do features,] but I think for this, it was simple. I didn't want it to feel like that I was doing that because I wanted the exposure… I already have some people that I'm like, ‘Will you do a song with me?,’” though she refused to name-drop. Why? “Because there’s one girl in particular who wants to do something, and it makes me really excited. I can't tell you because then I'll jinx it and it won't happen or something,” Kate said. Back to discussing the no feature decision she made for her debut album, Kate said, “I just wanted it to feel like old school and pure and intimate. I didn't want a lot of writers, even though, I love writing with people. I wanted it to just feel like it was a small little group of us putting this album out. So, it was just me, Linda, Danny, and Johan Carlsson producing.” While writing the album, Kate admitted she had no idea “Glorious” would end up being the title track, though, “it always sat with me as one of my top options.” "That song in particular, Linda and I wrote… on piano… in like 10 minutes," Hudson revealed. "It was such a big chorus and we kinda looked at each other when we were done, kinda like ’That was intense. Where did that come from?’” “When I was just riffing with the melody, that word ‘glorious’ just kept coming to me, so I wrote the song around that word.” said Kate. “Then as the album started to find its way and figure out what songs were gonna end up on the album it really came down to that word. It just embodies everything and the experience has been for me and how I feel about music. It's like, if someone was to say like, what's the most earnest word to describe music? It would be glorious.” Kate went on to open up about how the fear of sharing her own work has held this project back so long, and how yet, she still has no set expectations for the album. Hudson also talked about a possible tour, more albums and acting roles she wants to try, like “a real action movie or comedy action movie” as well as “a traditional musical.” To catch it all and more, listen to the entire interview about. Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Sad girl songstress of the moment, Gracie Abrams checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk all about her highly anticipated sophomore album, The Secret of Us (out June 21), her latest single “Risk” (out now), her writing process, and more. Gracie started off by spilling some deets about walking the Met Gala red carpet with Chanel, hanging with Troye Sivan and Charli XCX inside the event, and sharing how “rad” it was getting to witness Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo perform. Abrams then delved into her own “rad music,” discussing her new single “Risk,” which Mike described as “the perfect Pop song,” and also talked about it’s “terrifying” music video. Going on to discuss what it is about songwriting that allows her to open up about things she wouldn’t even divulge to a best friend in a private conversation, Gracie shared, “writing has always been my outlet and it’s always been my instinct when I’ve had feelings that I don’t wanna talk to people about, to just put it down on paper.” “I think the more experience I have, and the more my personal relationships have deepened and developed… I’ve gotten better at intimacy with people and vulnerability.” Noting that she believes “this album was a pretty significant turning point, just of tangible proof of my, just like, personal evolution, which I’m relieved about. I’m actually happy to talk about tricky experiences or tougher feelings with people. It’s at least for right now, the most effective way to work through things, cause I’m lucky to know some really wise people who I have a lot to learn from. So this album kind of came from real friendship and safe environments to really talk about everything.” Answering whether she’s a lyrics first, or beat first type of artist, Gracie revealed, “Typically lyrics first,” however recently, “they kind of happen at the same time for me. I feel like melody, I’ve had a lot of fun writing more whatever would be considered Pop, with more tempo. I’ve been looking for ear-worms and I feel like that’s been a really sweet thing to start with, and that’s newer for me, because I used to always start with lyrics. And now, I think the more that I’ve gotten into producing, the more I know how to use what I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by in the studio and that really helps inform melody.” As for if there were any lyrics she hesitated about including, Gracie admitted, there “totally” was, “but actually I felt like because I was writing with my best friend,” she felt the freedom to include any lines she might have not if otherwise. “The whole process with this album is really about being able to, not laugh at situations, but through them, and being able to really laugh at ourselves in the process,” Abrams continued. “Both Audrey and I love dramatic writing, and we do it outside the context of music as well, so there’s lots of characters in this album, there’s some exaggeration sometimes but, starting from seeds of truth. We know each other the best, and I wasn’t telling her and she wasn’t telling me, we can’t say that that’s nuts. It was more like we’re laughing… maybe someone else will think it’s funny, let’s include it.” For all that and more, check out Gracie’s entire interview above. Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Joining host Brad Steiner is Australian guitar-pop duo Royel Otis (Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic) for an Audacy Check In from the Hard Rock Hotel New York to discuss their current tour, new music, and plenty more. Currently on the road in support of their 2024 debut album Pratts & Pain, Royel Otis will be making stops in the U.S. until the end of May before heading overseas for the summer, and returning again to make their way across North America this fall. Amid their travels, the duo also decided to release a couple of bonus tracks from Pratts & Pain -- "Claw Foot" and "Merry Mary Marry Me" -- available for streaming now. A fan of the duo since the arrival of their 2023 single “Sofa King,” Brad admits he subsequently tried to tell everyone that he knew about them, but never could quite describe what they sounded like. “We stole the drumbeat from a Stone Roses song,” Royel admits. “It definitely has to have a little bit of that” -- and just like Stone Roses with their signature gang vocals, he and Otis both agree, "just us shouting.” Though Royel humbly says he places full faith in his writing partner, who he feels has a firmer grip on how to actually get things onto tape, Otis says their writing process is still similar to their early days of sending each other demos. “One of us will have an idea and then we just start working on it. It's the exact same,” he says as Royel adds with a stretch, “more sleep-deprived with them all.” Life has been a little bit more hectic for the duo these days, touring in support of their debut Pratts & Pain. “We just had a nice experience everywhere, and the crowds have been incredible It's really hard to differentiate all the shows,” Royel says of their time on the road. The most memorable part, he admits, was visiting our neighbors up north. “We had to go through a border and s*** our pants while we were getting searched and stuff,” he laughs. “I don't know if it's the timing or anything, but the crowds have been louder and much more enthusiastic again,” he adds. Tickets for Royel Otis' 'Glory To Glory' North American tour are on sale now. Don't miss our full Audacy Check In with Royel Otis above, and stay tuned for even more conversations with your favorite artists on Audacy.com/live. Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Brad Steiner

To celebrate the release of her highly anticipated third album, Radical Optimism, Dua Lipa checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to talk about getting the album's cover shot, her Service95 platform, and more. Jumping right into the deep end (pun very much intended), Dua divulged some details about the tranquil yet dangerous album cover. “We shot all the images for the album on film, and so I was waiting a little while for them all to get developed to kind of see what was gonna come out,” Dua shared. “And I remember when I saw this picture,” of herself wading in the ocean’s deep waters, just feet away from a shark, “it immediately said radical optimism to me.” “'Cause in my head, it's so much about moving gracefully through the chaos, you know, having that flare of optimism when things aren't going right. The idea that remaining calm and graceful while there's a shark nearby, like nothing screams radical optimism to me more than that. So that felt very fitting for the album cover to also encapsulate the meaning of the songs.” Praising her platform Service95, Mike noted that through it we get to see another side of Dua we don't necessarily see from the music. And further inquired how she plans on expanding on that as the years go on. “As it stand and something that I want to continue the newsletter and commissioning stories from all around the world,” Dua expressed. “I would love… to go deeper into production, whether that's film or TV. I just co-produced a documentary about Camden in London, which is going to come out at the end of May on Disney+.” Dua continued, “That was my first taste of getting into something like that, and I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes so much, so I’d like to do more of that.” Adding, “and I feel like Service95 really ties me to all of that.” "And my book club, it's the same,” Dua lastly mentioned, “maybe publishing in print, or something like that for other authors. We'll see, I have big dreams for it.” If you didn’t already know, those stories Dua shares on Service95 can be heard via podcast interviews, a part of Service95 that required Lipa to add interviewer to her resume. Talking about how she honed in and developed that skill, Dua said, “allowing yourself to be vulnerable in the moment and open makes you good at it.” “For me it was important that at no point did any of my guests feel like they were about to get called out or whatever. It's like asking them questions that really are of service. I guess maybe [it’s] a bit of a hidden talent, but it's hard work. Doing what you do, there's so much research and time that goes into it with every single guest. I respect it a lot. It's a real craft.” Opening up about how she approaches asking her guests questions, Dua shared, “I have my set questions, but I love going off piece, like naturally depending on where the conversation goes, whether it's leading into like transcendental meditation and how that helped somebody in their mental health journey or whatever it is. When those off pieced questions come along, that's when I know I'm really in it because it's a real conversation rather than just question and question-and-answer kind of thing.” When it comes to pre-interview jitters Dua admitted “I get nervous before all of them, because it’s so out of my comfort zone to interview someone, you know to be on the other side of the interview. So I get nervous every time and I wanna do a good job.” Adding, “It’s quite interesting when somehow it ends up [with] me being interviewed or something. I remember doing a conversation with Esther Perel and she kept asking me questions back and I was like, ‘Whoa, this a new experience,’ which I enjoyed.” Moving on to discussing how Dua’s father has also become the singer’s manager, a role he took on in 2022. Lipa joked how it was “very kind” of him to “take me on as a client.” Sharing a bit about their dynamic with this added element to their relationship, Dua expressed,...

Joining host Remy Maxwell today for a special Audacy Check in today are Tommy Lee and John 5 of Mötley Crüe to discuss "The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band" returning with the brand new single “Dogs Of War,” their upcoming tour dates, and much more. Mötley Crüe just rocked fans with their first new release since 2019, “Dogs of War,” ushering in a brand new era after recently signing to Big Machine Records and a return to form after 35 years with Dr. Feelgood producer Bob Rock at the helm. "Yeah, dude… Always f***ing pushing the envelope on how drums should be heard and felt. I love him so much,” Tommy says emphatically about working again with Bob. “He's always on the forefront of like hot, you know, ‘How do we get this to sound like it's thunderous, man?' And he does it with guitars. He does it with vocals. He does it with everything. He's a sonic beast.” “I use these aluminum sticks live because they're not impossible, but really hard to break,” Tommy explains. "But you can't use them in the studio. They don't record as well. So, I use wood and I'm just going through sticks. Just like wood choppers, just chips flying!” Guitarist John 5 is no stranger to working in the studio and on stage with absolute heavyweights in the scene, including David Lee Roth, Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest, and Rob Zombie -- on top of his prolific solo work over the past 30 years -- but never had a chance to work with Bob Rock until this point. “I was so excited to work with Bob. You know, of course, watching documentaries and all that stuff because I love studio documentaries... reading interviews,” he says. “So, It was a real pleasure to work with him for sure and I was beyond excited. I was, of course, the first to get there and last to leave.” With the exit of longtime guitarist Mick Mars, John 5 stepped in to fill the spot, which, according to Lee, “F***ing injected the Mötley with everything f***ing insanely wonderful… He can f***ing play anything. Like, play me a little bluegrass with some Chopin… Like, how does he know all this? How is this even possible? But you know what, at the end of the day, I'm gonna say this because you can be the best f***ing guitar player on the planet and be an a**hole. He is the sweetest man.” “I just treat people how I want to be treated and that's how I've always been since like middle school,” John says. “You know, these guys, it's the same. It's the same thing, we just treat each other how we want to be treated.” “Yeah, when is everyone gonna get that?” Tommy wonders. “F***!” Check out the brand new music video for "Dogs Of War" now streaming, and don't miss our full Audacy Check In with Mötley Crüe above. Plus, stay tuned for even more conversations with your favorite artists on Audacy.com/live. Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Remy Maxwell

Alt-icon St. Vincent (Anne Clark) has finally unveiled her full 2024 album All Born Screaming, and Audacy's Kevan Kenney is joining her in studio on release day to talk about the making of the new collection and much more. Join us right here as we celebrate with St. Vincent during our Audacy Check In. St. Vincent's seventh studio album and the follow up to 2021's Daddy's Home, officially arrives today, April 26, featuring the previously released singles "Flea," "Big Time Nothing," and "Broken Man." You can take a look at the full track listing below and pick up your copy NOW. Plus, grab your tickets for her upcoming supporting tour dates, on sale now. Brought to life with the aid of a highly curated roster of friends — Rachel Eckroth, Josh Freese, Dave Grohl, Mark Guiliana, Cate Le Bon, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Warpaint's Stella Mogzawa, and David Ralicke — the album is “an unadulterated expression of St. Vincent’s singular vision.” “The record is 41 minutes and 14 seconds…, I'm obsessed with all of it in terms of production and performance and all that stuff, but I knew that the master was perfect and that all the spaces in between the songs were perfect when it came back as a palindrome,” Clark explains. “41 minutes and 14 seconds. I was like, ‘OK, it is done.’ I love making records. I love the art form of a record… that's about what you want to spend, you know, 45 minutes, right around 45 minutes. That's kind of a digestible experience I think.” Even the spaces in between songs help continue the story and world she’s created. “I think as a producer, every sound has to have a meaning and it has to matter,” she says. “It has to add up to the bigger meaning of the song -- and there's just nothing that is superfluous. There's no sound that's just there just to be there.” Speaking of influences and some of her musical contemporaries, Clark says “I love things and records very deeply, but I might not know every single record of even my favorite artists. But I also have a couple of people in my life, heads like Questlove I'll hit up, or Justin Meldal-Johnsen if I need to know everything about Detroit House -- tell me everything Then I can get the real deal on these interesting subgenres of stuff.” Any calmness that you may sense in Annie's tone she admits comes from “a level of brain meltedness, two weeks straight of rehearsals for putting the show on and it's full on just like psychedelic decision fatigue.” That being said, she does acknowledge that now that she has seven solo records under her belt, "I got to learn how to be a person while learning how to be a better artist, and because my career was sort of slow and steady, like every single record, some more people were paying attention... So, I never had the crazy young fame or anything that. That, I think, can sometimes stunt a person's emotional growth, so I'm just kind of like, 'Keep it simple,' right?" “I'm just always trying to make music that is exciting to me that makes me feel something that matters, that's exactly about what's going on in my life at any given time and try to take all the chaos of life and put it into some kind of, I don't know, order in music and find out what I think and how I feel,” Clark adds. “I do that through music, so I have an outlet for it. But as far as critical acclaim…It's certainly nice to have, you know, be a sort of critical darling at times, but of course, that's gonna turn. The Sword of Damocles is just hanging over your head. They're going to have to, at some point, say you fell from grace and they're going to have to, again, at some point say you returned to form and you're back. That has nothing to do with me.” St. Vincent's 2024 North American tour dates kick off in May, making stops in Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, NYC, Toronto, and more before wrapping up on September 20 in Minnesota. Openers will include Momma, Yves Tumor, Spoon, Dorian Electra, and Eartheater on select dates. Don't miss our special Audacy Check...

To celebrate all things Usher, the icon himself stopped by Audacy Atlanta’s V-103 studios to check in with Greg Street. The duo discussed everything from his early ATL days, his majorly successful Las Vegas Residency, his new album Coming Home, and everything in between. After the longtime associates chopped it up and reminisced about Porsches and car shows, Usher went on to praise his mother for raising him to not only be creative, but also business savvy and entrepreneurial. After acting as his manager for many years in a male dominated industry that’s also “not necessarily welcoming to parents,” Usher admitted he picked up a few things. “She managed to learn the business and then be successful in the business. Then we launched an amazing career that, gave album after album, after album, and then eventually, [we were] able to just celebrate that look back over the years and realize that this was all a dream,” the “Confessions” singer expressed. “She inspired me to become the entrepreneur that I am today. After having been with record companies and being within this system for so many years now, coming back as an independent with my label Mega, and now I’m going back to the person who I started it with, which is L.A. Reid… We kicked it off here in Atlanta. Now here we are once again, after all that time we're back home.” Obviously a major figure in Usher’s journey, his mother wasn’t the only one to help shape Usher into the icon he is today. Taking a trip down memory lane, and dropping some names along the way, Usher looked back at all the amazing people he’s worked with that helped him become the artist he is now. “I’ve worked with incredible people,” Usher acknowledged, “including Jermaine Dupri, who helped me really find my voice, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who helped me find my pen. Also working with incredible musicians like Emmanuel Seal and Bryan-Michael Cox, Johntá Austin.” Gaining “incredible inspiration from people who were the pioneers in this city like Rico Wade,” Usher added, going on to note, “Not many people know this side. I don't even know if you know this Greg, but I'm an honorary member of the Dungeon Family. I was there in the early days down in the dungeon, before OutKast was OutKast when it was Sleepy Brown and Marques.” After delving into his origin story, which he began with meeting, AJ Alexander, who introduced him to Bryant Reid, “who discovered me at the talent search at EarthLink Live,” Usher got into how things began to really pop off once he met Jermaine Dupri. “Well, I think I had had enough of people attempting to try and make me an artist. It was JD who really took the time to listen… At that point of my life, I was working with these producers, Tim and Bob, and I was working with JD. So I would either be in there with, you know, Phil Tan and Emmanuel Seal, and we'd just be working through things. But it was JD who was really listening,” Usher confessed. “It would be in those conversations that we had in passing, they'd begin to help me craft what my story was and find something that was authentic, that would give me a brand of my own. It didn't feel like I was just kind of putting on a suit that was tailor made for me, but didn't necessarily work for me.” “This was my tailor made suit. This is when I actually established what Usher was, and it was authentic, it was from the South," he continued. “Even though I came by way of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Atlanta gave me an identity. It gave me something that I was proud of. It gave me something that I felt like I could represent. It gave me something of a style. It gave me something that was our own, you know what I mean? In the way we dress, in the way we sang, in the way we were able to articulate Hip-Hop and R&B in a way that wasn't like everybody else.” While originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Usher it’s very clear, “I represent Atlanta.” Declaring, “when I tilt that A hat to the right, it's because I found something here that...

Chris Janson is celebrating the premiere of his music video for his current single, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get,” with some help from his new friend — and global superstar — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and they both visited with Audacy to share all the details. The video shows the pals in their element cuttin’ up donuts in a pickup, raisin’ a cold one, and enjoying the great outdoors all while in their Bass Pro gear. “I did this and I asked him [to be in the video] because we’re friends and I thought it made sense, and I figured he’d like it because he’s a ‘Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get’ guy and we have a ‘Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get’ friendship,’” Janson told Audacy’s Heather Froglear. “The video is really fun, it’s unscripted. You’ll see we’re having a ball in it.” The unscripted footage is a glimpse into the pair’s real-life friendship which all started in a parking lot where they bonded over a love for the outdoors, Country music, and humility. “We met in a parking lot,” Johnson shared before detailing that Janson asked for a photo. “We were waiting for our cars to come around at valet and I get a tap on my shoulder, I turn around and he said, ‘Hey DJ, my name is Chris, I’d like to introduce you to my son, can my son take a picture with you?’” Photo requests are nothing new to The Rock, who has one of social media’s biggest followings at 379 million, but little did he know, that the photo request would turn into a new, meant-to-be friendship. “I had no idea who Chris was, Chris didn’t tell me,” Johnson explained. “We were talking for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, and finally, his wife, Kelly, when I met her… she goes, ‘I have to tell you, Chris is never going to tell you, but I know you love Country music, he sings Country music.” Crediting Janson for his humble ways Johnson explained, “It’s a reflection of Chris and his humility, and his grace and who he is as a human being… usually when I meet people who are celebrities in their own right, — from whatever industry — I’m going to know in about a minute. They’re going to find a way to tell me.” That evening in the valet lot turned into a lifelong friendship that is now captured in an upbeat, fun, Country music video that the pair hope will inspire everyone to be who they are and continue chasing their dreams. “At the end of the day, we just good ol’ boys, man,” Janson concluded. “I know that we hope to inspire people. When you watch the video, yes, it’s fun and yes, it’s awesome — holy crap, I can’t believe it’s happening — but we hope to inspire people… everybody in America. Young, old, or whatever walk of life you come from — The American dream is alive and well.” He continued, “If you don’t dream big, you can’t win big…. People say ‘I can’t believe you got The Rock to join you.’ Well, quite frankly, if you don’t ask, you can’t receive and what’s the worst that could happen in life? Somebody could tell you no and you just kick down another door and go on through it.” Check out more from Heather’s conversation with Chris Janson and The Rock above. Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Heather Froglear

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder joins us this week for a special Audacy Check In with KROQ's Nicole Alvarez discussing the band's brand new 12th studio album, Dark Matter, their upcoming world tour, and much more. For fans who know Pearl Jam’s music inside and out, it can be easy to track the evolution of the band as musicians and human beings by listening to their new album, Dark Matter. After hearing the finished product, frontman Eddie Vedder admits with a laugh that he was still surprised by “just how good it sounded.” Vedder goes on to expound on the masterful abilities of their producer this time around, complimenting “how good this guy Andrew Watt made our band sound and the performances he was getting out of us.” “It was moving very quickly,” Eddie explains. “It was recorded and written really quickly, and with the end of almost every night being just about a completed piece of music or, if not, very, very close. It just kept the momentum going, which, you know, we just hadn't recorded like that in a while.” The biggest surprise, he adds, was “the power that was coming out of the speakers… it held up that loud volume. And then the lyrics, I think that you're writing lyrics just to -- not keep up with the music -- but to be part of the fabric, to mesh. or if there's a song with a tempo.” Speaking specifically about the album track “Running,” Vedder explains how the lyrics for the song “are part and parcel with the tempo and performances of that song. It's a frenetic lyric to go with a frenetic song.” “Those are the things that, I guess, you're just surprised that you finish it,” he laughs. Vedder credits Watt’s passion for music in general for bringing out the best of his band, and making them feel excitement in new, almost embarrassing ways. “It's pretty over the top,” Eddie says. “But I'm telling you, it's so pure. He wouldn't mind me saying this; it comes from such a pure place that it’s just truly undeniable. And I'm sure The Stones felt the same way working with him. He's just really focused. He also has this strange kind of ADD ability to recall. You know, it would be a detriment to maybe some people that maybe had a little bit more of a normal occupation.” “He can remember a take that [guitarist] Mike McCreedy soloed 10 days ago, and he can remember that it was take number three,” Eddie continues. “He found the perfect occupation to put this kind of savant-like connection to music… he's using his powers for good. It’s pretty stunning and it bodes well for keeping things moving. Momentum is huge, and it also turns into positivity and confidence and flexibility… and then it's the ability to create an atmosphere where you feel like you can experiment, or try something, or, work harder to make it better. You’re not like, ‘OK, I think that's good enough.’” “There was no ‘good enough,’” Vedder says. “It had to rise to the level… the guitar had to match the level of performance of Matt Cameron on the drums. The vocals had to match the high intensity of the guitar. It was just kind of, everybody keeps stepping up to reach kind of a peak or pinnacle of what is possible. You're always trying to do your best, but it turns out you could do even better.” Eddie had a chance to work with Watt on his 2022 solo album Earthling, and remembers another trick that Andrew had up his sleeve for those sessions, which seem to have seeped into the new Pearl Jam offering as well. “What you could say about the mix is, everything's louder than everything else. Meaning, if you want to focus on what the bass is doing, it's more just attenuating your ear to the bass and all of a sudden that's the loudest thing. And then you say, ‘Well, what's the kick drum doing?’ Then that becomes the loudest thing, just by directing your brain, moving your ear like as if you were a horse catching up. Just tuning your radar, whatever you want to tune it into could be a background vocal or a guitar melody that you think is kind of in the back. But when you...

Girl In Red joins host Brad Steiner for an Audacy Check In to discuss her brand new sophomore album, I'M DOING IT AGAIN, BABY!, available everywhere April 12. Girl In Red's 10-track follow-up to her 2021 debut is out now, featuring the previously released singles "Too Much," "I'm Back," "You Need Me Now?," with Sabrina Carpenter, and plenty more. Norwegian-born singer, songwriter, and producer, Marie Ulven Ringheim, better known as Girl In Red, sat down with host Brad Steiner at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to get into details about how the new record came together, what she's got planned for fans on her upcoming supporting tour, and more. In the past and documented on her first release, 2020’s If I Could Make It Go Quiet, Marie has admitted to not being the best when it comes to the dating scene, but these days she says she has a girlfriend now, “So I’m good. I’m set for life.” Now happily “in love,” this second album she says reflects how “I know everything I'm doing… I'm so professional.” Looking back on the track “hornylovesickmess” from her debut release, where Marie sings about feeling weird about how things have changed in her life, she says, in all honesty, “probably not that much,” really changed. “I was probably hyping myself up way too much in that song. But, you know, in that song, I'm talking about being in Times Square and I'm looking at my face on a billboard… I feel like something similar is gonna happen in the next couple of days.” “I have a girlfriend and I have a dog. I have a car, I have an apartment, and I'm touring the world. I didn't do that before,” she says of how things have steadily progressed. Overall, Marie is ultra-excited for fans to hear the new album mainly because she believes “all the songs are really f***ing sick. That's like my most prideful moment, because I just think they're all really cool and funny, and just they all have such strong identities, in my opinion. Obviously, I'm very f***ing biased.” Reflective of her own personality, fans can expect the new release to be just as eclectic as her debut, only this time she’s spelling it with all caps. “I think I've kind of regained some of my confidence the last couple of months, maybe the last year and a half, going into my twenties,” Marie says. After finding quite a bit of success with her first record, she admits, “I definitely lost a lot of my self-esteem. I was like, ‘Damn, I f***ing suck. I'm unlovable. I hate myself.’ I was in a really bad place and now that I have a girlfriend and I have physical proof that I'm not unlovable. Also, I've managed to find my way back to that playful self-esteem that I had when I was a teenager because you kind of lose that when you get older and you start seeing that you're not special and nobody gives a f*** and the world is ending.” “I think that's kind of where I found the confidence with all these capital letters,” she explains. "‘I’M DOING IT AGAIN, BABY!’ is kind of like I found my confidence again, I found my self-esteem, and I realized nothing f***ing matters. So let's f****ing go!” Getting to that happier place “takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of hard work, and it takes a lot of realizing that you have to do the work yourself. And also, my go-to thing now is saying ‘yes’ to life… Say ‘yes’ and stop being a p***y. That's what I did because I was constantly falling for my own kind of hinders. Life is really uncomfortable. So, I'm just gonna be uncomfortable, embracing the uncomfortableness and then just saying yes to life.” Saying "yes" when Taylor Swift asks you to open for her on her world tour would certainly be one of those times. “I opened for her at the tour in four different cities. Eight shows, best eight shows of my life, especially watching her shows,” says Marie. “When you talk about the confidence and the things that give you the shot of adrenaline and confidence like that… Just pure humbleness, pure I don't know, maybe just like shock. Just getting that...

While it probably doesn’t seem like Glass Animals really ever escaped our ether and musical minds due to the sky-rocketing success of their song “Heat Waves,” the band did actually take a beat to make some new music, and now they’re officially back. On heals of sharing cryptic posts, making A LOT of references to what we now know to be their next album title, I LOVE YOU SO F***ING MUCH, and finally dropping their brand new single "Creatures in Heaven,” the band’s lead vocalist Dave Bayley checked in with Audacy’s Brad Steiner to chat all about it at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York. Discussing what it was like to put on the pressure of “Heat Waves” when going back into the studio, Dave admitted, “it was hard actually… It’s quite a surreal experience having that kind of song like that especially when it was, I’m gonna say the C word — COVID. We kinda watched it, we were spectators, we couldn’t go out into the world and like see it happening. We were kind of sitting in underpants at home… like just getting emails… like ‘people seem to like this song,’" which he noted was, “cool, wicked,” and “great.” “So coming back into the world,” he continued, “I think we’re all a little bit lost. And you know the natural place for us is to just hide in the studio, alone, be a little bit isolationist about it, in our underpants, yeah and that’s it. We just kept it as it always was, just sit down, focus, work on making the best thing that you can, without thinking about the past.” Wiping their social media and starting from scratch for this new era, one thing they’ve been able to do this time around is start this new musical phase with fan meet-up focus groups to introduce Glass Animals’ new sound with the lead single, "Creatures in Heaven.” At first joking that things went terribly, jesting that “someone threw up,” and that “someone flipped over a table and left the room,” and that he “got punched” and “that someone bit off my ear,” Dave then shared how things actually went down, expressing, “it was actually amazing, it was really emotional." As many artists have noted in the past, by they time we hear a song, they’ve listened to it so many times, “you get a little like immune to it.” And though “it’s really sad song, and when I wrote it I was really sad,” Dave admitted, he’d “gotten used to that feeling.” However, when “you get to the room, and you hear people listening, see people listening to it for first time, you hear that again and you feel it.” So the first one, we pushed play and I forgot how sad a song it was, everyone started crying and then I started crying and it was like ‘oh my God, this is more than I signed up for today.’” Recently sharing that every song on the album is “written for someone or the concept of someone,” Dave elaborated further that while some of them are very specifically about one person, "some are kind of more an amalgamation of people where similar thing happened.” The common thread is they’re all “very very personal.” Answering Brad’s question about if someone would be able to deduce if a song is about them, Dave conceded, “I think some people can probably work it out.” Revealing he’s feeling slightly nervous about the level of vulnerability on I LOVE YOU SO F***ING MUCH, Dave shared that while the last album was personal, "it was very much about things happened long time ago,” so there was this “level of detachment.” And with “Heat Waves,” “being such a personal song," along with “a lot of the other songs in the last record,” because of all the “positivity” and “kindness that came back from the people” it gave Glass Animals the “courage to do something, to push further,” which is “always the goal with the record.” Discussing his conceptual way of writing songs, Dave’s main goal is to do things differently, to do “something new.” Adding, “I’d hate to do something that’s been done before by someone else.” Also explaining what a peanut butter vibe is, something Brad has been wondering about for 10...

Joining us for an Audacy Check In today is Five Finger Death Punch's Zoltan Bathory, talking with host Abe Kanan about the band's brand-new single featuring DMX, their upcoming summer tour, and much more. Five Finger Death Punch's ninth studio album, AfterLife, was released back in August of 2022. and their new deluxe edition with bonus tracks, including the single "This Is The Way" featuring late rap icon DMX is out now. “We always thought he's kind of the ‘metal head’ of Hip Hop,” Zoltan says. “His delivery, the dog bark, the whole attitude… There are obviously other Hip Hop artists that I really like, but we always thought, how cool this would be to do something with him, because of that attitude. This conversation of trying to do something together has been going on for years and years, maybe 5-6 years, and for obvious and more reasons, he was not available from periods of times that we could really work with him, and then when he was available, that's in the last couple of years. It never really came to fruition because, unfortunately, he passed. However, what came out of it, since the conversation continued, we had access to some of these masters that he recorded.” “Obviously people around him, the family, the estate, the producers, everybody, his friends, is super protective about his legacy, his art, everything [that] has to do with him,” he continues. “So we had to be super respectful and we worked through the channels, got the green light to use some of these songs, some of his lyrics, and then we arranged the song… it's a true collaboration. We have our part, and then where there's a part that both DMX and Ivan [Moody] sings the same thing, and there's a part that the verses are all DMX -- and we kind of tone down the guitars there so you can really hear what he's saying. His cadence, his flow is DMX, you can't mistake it… if you know DMX, there's no mistake.” Because of publishing issues and red tape, the band was unable to include the song on AfterLife as intended, but luckily fans get to hear it “as it was meant to be” on the record’s deluxe edition, which also includes “a couple of really cool acoustic bonuses that we had,” says Zoltan. “The feedback was incredible,” he adds. “Everybody thought this is super respectful to him, the arrangement and the song, everybody loves it. Everybody thought, ‘Man, this is a hit and this might be the last thing we hear from DMX. And if it's the last thing we hear from DMX, then it's a proper track.” “That's how Hype Williams got involved too… as this was making its way within the community, we thought, ‘OK, how are we gonna do a video for this song?’ Hype did the movie ‘Belly’, and he worked on [DMX’s] music videos. He was very, very close with DMX.” After sending Williams the track, he immediately responded saying he wanted to be a part of the project. Then he told me his whole story… how close he was and he was like, ‘You don't even know what you guys are sitting on, this is huge.’” 5FDP is about to hit North American cities this summer and fall with special guests Marilyn Manson and Slaughter To Prevail. With dates fast approaching, performing the song live would be the next logical step. “The way to do this I think would be, we would have to have guests,” says Zoltan. “We would have to have guest rappers,” he says, rather than incorporating a backing track. “We’re definitely working on figuring out how and who we could install as a guest to do it together.” Looking ahead to this fall’s Aftershock festival happening October 13-16 in Sacramento, CA, where 5FDP are co-headliners amongst metal titans Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Pantera, Disturbed, Slipknot, and Mötley Crüe, as well as an opening spot for Metallica coming up, Zoltan says it’s “crazy” to think how many people will be seeing them for the first time, some who may not even give a band named Five Finger Death Punch a fair chance. “I can tell that we're turning them,” he admits. “I can tell that...

The Black Keys joined host Kevan Kenney at the Hard Rock Hotel New York, as we celebrate the release of their 2024 album Ohio Players, getting into some details and inspiration behind the release, including some of their favorite collabs. Getting straight into The Black Keys’ new album, Ohio Players, which features a number of collaborators, Dan admits, “it took us until this point to really be able to feel comfortable with ourselves, to get into a room and to be able to really collaborate. I think when we started, we were just kind of insecure, that was part of it. The other part was there was no one around us, really very few musicians that were interested in the same thing.” “Now that we got to this place,” he continues, “we reached out to a couple of people on the last album, some friends of ours, Greg Cartwright from the Oblivions, and our friend Angelo, and it went so well that we just decided to look into the Rolodex a little deeper. The first person we thought of was Beck and we invited him to the studio with us. The very first day we cut ‘This is Nowhere,’ and that just set it going… it took us 20 years to get to the point where we could really collaborate truly. This is the first time we've really dipped our toes in it… and we did those actually right before ‘Dropout Boogie’ came out… and then we went on tour. When that wrapped in the fall of 2022 we worked on the record kind of nonstop from November through June of 2023.” Oasis’ Noel Gallagher also makes an appearance on the new record, a “surreal” experience says Patrick after meeting only briefly in a small studio with very minimal equipment. “We wrote a song with him in a couple hours, and then we went back two days in a row. We end up getting three songs with him… We were writing songs from scratch with him… we could have made complete fools of ourselves and if anybody would let the world know what bozos we are, it would be Noel Gallagher.” “We've had a lot of practice [working with other artists], we just never really applied it too much to The Keys for whatever reason,” Patrick explains. “Once we started doing it, he had opened up this whole new world. Because it's an exciting thing when you bring someone into the fold, you can get, more than the sum of its parts, which I think on some of these tracks that we did with Noel [Gallagher] and Beck and Dan the Automator, and Greg Cartwright and Angelo and Lil Noid and Juicy J… I think that happened. Which is what you're looking for; which is why music is so cool, because it is a collaborative art form.” Their track with Juicy J for example stems from being “lifelong Hip Hop fans. We grew up in the era where Hip Hop was ‘top of the pops’ in America,” says Dan. “We played The Ghetto Boys at our middle school dance. I mean, it's like a part of us. And you know, we did do that ‘BlakRoc’ album with Damon Dash which was really amazing and influenced us hugely, especially going into ‘Brothers,’ which we did right after that. But over the last year, while we were making the record, I was really getting heavily into Memphis underground rap… it was only sold on cassette and it was like old school, like ‘90s… And Juicy J was a big part of that. Three Six Mafia is a big part of that, Lil Noid who Juicy J found when he was 16 was a big part of that.” Switching lanes abruptly, shock rocker Alice Cooper was also part of their latest sessions. “We made a lot of songs,” says Patrick. “We finished maybe 29 and we made a decision to hold a couple of the songs back, like that Alice Cooper song. It's called ‘Stay In Your Grave,’ we wrote it with Greg Cartwright and it's just kind of like a perfect Halloween song.” “There's a character in it who's essentially the devil,” Dan adds. “So, we're like, ‘Wow, wouldn't it be amazing if we get Alice Cooper to voice this character?’” “I think we're gonna hold it until closer to the season of the witch.” Don’t miss our full Audacy Check In with The Black Keys above -- and stay tuned for...