INTERVIEWS
Victoria Monét Sharpens Her Claws on Jaguar, Earns Quincy Jones Co-Sign
Victoria Monét is soft-spoken in conversation — maybe not what you’d expect from the artist behind one of 2020’s most ambitious R&B projects. Despite her gentle tone during our interview, one sound pierces through her surroundings — just like the punchy horn sections on her August release, Jaguar. But the noise wasn’t musical — it was Monét’s instantaneous reaction after being compared to Off The Wall-era Quincy Jones. She squeals with excitement, as if the Grammy-winning songwriter hadn’t already been used as a critical reference point. But she should be used to it by now. “He’s definitely been an inspiration,” Monét says of Jones. “The more that I learn, after watching his documentary, after meeting him and hearing his stories, I’m like, ‘You’re exactly the type of per...
A-List Publicist Emily Tan Celebrates 30 Years in Business
Emily Tan’s 30 year career as a music publicist is equally impressive as the roster of A-list talent she has represented. Her work ethic and values are amongst the highest in the industry. Here is to many more successful years of business and friendship between our respective business! Congratulations Emily! EDM.com: We at EDM.com don’t normally profile publicists or PR agencies, but there’s been quite a bit of buzz lately on your agency, EMILY TAN Media Relations, hitting its 30-year anniversary this summer. That’s quite a feat! EMILY TAN: Yes, thank you! It’s been an eventful trip and I’m still riding this wave. EDM.com: We’re sure you’ve seen some crazy things over the three decades you’ve been in business. Can you sha...
Bully Conquer ‘Paranoia,’ Challenge Societal Norms on SUGAREGG
Alicia Bognanno used to experience a persistent anxiety about her work: needing to be at the center of the entire music creation process. The Nashville indie-rocker’s Bipolar 2 disorder enlarged those fears tenfold. “With [Bully’s 2017 LP, Losing], I kind of had it stuck in my head that I was more concerned about how the record was going to be received and a little bit more concerned about what other people want to hear and what they think is ‘cool,’” she tells SPIN. “I also felt in the past that I had a responsibility to produce my own records because I had something to prove, like I needed to prove I could do it. And if I wasn’t tracking them myself then I wasn’t showing people that I was capable.” Bognanno escaped that thinking by finding a suitable treatment for her disorder. Insp...
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Moore Kismet Premieres “Self Expression” and Talks Inclusivity-Driven Message Behind Upcoming EP [Interview]
Out August 14th via Never Say Die Records, “Revenge of the Unicorns” will be the producer’s third EP. For the average 15-year-old, life is still pretty simple. They might pass their time on TikTok, learn how to drive a car, or get a low stakes after-school job. For prodigal producer Moore Kismet, their day-to-day isn’t all that different—just add playing high-profile livestream concerts, traveling for gigs, and consistently making trailblazing music. This week, the artist can also tack on the release of their third EP, Revenge of the Unicorns. Out Friday, August 14th via Never Say Die, the six-track EP includes the previously released “Flair,” featuring Momma Kismet, their mother, “Adore” with Leotrix and “Duplex” with V...
Shirley Manson on the Misery and Magic of Garbage’s Genre-Stomping Debut
Shirley Manson doesn’t do nostalgia. Cooped up in her Los Angeles studio, the fierce frontwoman has agreed to chat about the days she spent writing and recording Garbage, the double-platinum debut LP that launched her band as genre-smashing harbingers of a new alt-rock sound. But she’s going to tell the story her way. “You try walking in insane 100-degree heat through Madison, Wisconsin in black combat boots, thick black tights, a kilt, and you’re sweating your fucking arse off,” Manson tells SPIN, speaking of the unromantic trudges she spent nearly a year retreading between her hotel room and Smart Studios — then a headquarters for well-traveled producers Butch Vig, Steve Marker, and Duke Erikson. It was summer 1994 (then fall, then winter, then spring ‘95) as the foursome methodically wo...
Meet the AC/DC Superfan Who Unlocked Angus Young’s Back in Black Guitar Tone
We continue our celebration of 40 years of AC/DC’s Back in Black with the story of how one fan followed his obsession and became part of the AC/DC legend. Also, be sure to enter our huge giveaway below or here. You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger AC/DC fan than… Please click the link below to read the full article. Meet the AC/DC Superfan Who Unlocked Angus Young’s Back in Black Guitar Tone Jon Hadusek You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.
Avatar’s Johannes Eckerström Talks Hunter Gatherer, Pandemic, and Corey Taylor’s Musical Assist
Even when the world is turned upside down, we can count on Avatar to churn out an opus of groovy, melodic metal that sings and soars. That’s just what you’ll find on the Swedish metal band’s eighth studio album, Hunter Gatherer, due out Friday, August 7th. Spearheaded by lead single… Please click the link below to read the full article. Avatar’s Johannes Eckerström Talks Hunter Gatherer, Pandemic, and Corey Taylor’s Musical Assist Anne Erickson You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of In...
Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil on Being Betrayed, Regaining His Confidence and His Favorite New Scream Queen
Affable, good-natured to a fault, the usually upbeat Scotsman Simon Neil reluctantly admits to feeling a tad flustered lately. There’s not much that can bring down this fun-loving frontman for chart-topping rock trio Biffy Clyro, but our current coronavirus crisis and the attendant lockdown has come damned close. He turned 40 last year, having endured several personal upheavals, but he’d spent two studious years composing the group’s reflective new A Celebration of Endings set, their ninth, and six months perfecting it in the studio. “And then just as you’re about to reveal it to the world, the world makes other plans, saying No, you just can’t release this now,” Neil sighs over the phone while explaining the necessary postponement from spring. “And then not being able to bring it to life ...
‘Little Steven’ Van Zandt on Activism and How to Save Rock ‘N’ Roll
He’s best known as Bruce Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band guitarist (and consigliere) but in 1982, Steven Van Zandt, a.k.a. Little Steven, was in heavy rotation on MTV with “Forever,” Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul’s debut single. A few years later, Van Zandt recruited a collective of famous musicians including Miles Davis, Bono and Bob Dylan for Artists United Against Apartheid to protest South Africa’s institutionalized racial segregation with “Sun City” which garnered two Grammy nominations (Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, Best Music Video, Long Form). By 1999, when Van Zandt set aside his solo career to rejoin Springsteen after a 15-year absence, he’d released six records that eventually went out of print. [embedded content] Tomorrow (July 31), V...
The Mail Man: Bfb Da Packman Is the USPS’ Greatest Rapper
Days before our interview, Bfb Da Packman texts to say that we can talk, “any day any time.” When the 25-year-old rapper answers the phone, it’s clear he wasn’t kidding. His voice cuts in and out as he moves a recently delivered table inside his Houston home. From there, he hits Chick-fil-A for some french fries, yelling to the cashier, “Be smoove, baby!”, before pulling away. Then, he heads to the grocery store to buy some “pop” (soda) for his manager at the post office. Confident and polite, Bfb convinces the woman cashier to stream his music and follow him on Instagram. On the phone, his jovial personality and disarming, unabashed honesty make him endearing immediately. There doesn’t seem to be any artifice. If nothing else, he knows his audience. “I don’t know how other artists treat y...
Slipknot’s Corey Taylor Recorded His Solo Debut Album While in Quarantine
For many years, journalists have been asking Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor not if but when he’s going to take the plunge and record a solo album. And until about a year-and-a-half ago, Taylor usually dismissed the question without giving it much more thought or insight. “But it kept coming up, for some reason, and so the more I started thinking about it, I was like, ‘Well, what the hell would it even sound like?’” Taylor tells SPIN over the phone. “I had kind of stockpiled these songs I’d written over the years, and I realized, ‘Oh, it would sound like these songs.’” If those asking were intentionally trying to subliminally plant the solo album idea in Taylor’s head, well, it worked. On Oct. 2, Roadrunner Records will release his first set of solo material, in the form of C...
How Alessia Cara Sat on the Floor and Made a Difference on Her New EP
Alessia Cara spent last summer finding strength in pain. She gravitated further toward the melancholic pop tracks she’s known for, harnessed all the negative emotions she remembers feeling at the time and twisted them all into the bubbly six-track concoction, This Summer; her third release and first nontraditional project, created entirely on tour. And this (actual) summer hasn’t been much different. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter returned July 17 with This Summer: Live Off the Floor, an acoustic reimagination of last year’s emotive EP, complete with recording sessions done mostly on a studio floor, a full band — credited entirely on the project’s cover art like some of her favorite vintage jazz records — and an overarching charitable cause behind it. [embedded conten...
