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tswiftdaily · 5 years ago

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In the 2010s, she went from country superstar to pop titan and broke records with chart-topping albums and blockbuster tours. Now Swift is using her industry clout to fight for artists’ rights and foster the musical community she wished she had coming up.

One evening in late-October, before she performed at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Taylor Swift’s dressing room became -- as it often does -- an impromptu summit of music’s biggest names. Swift was there to take part in the American Cancer Society’s annual We Can Survive concert alongside Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Camila Cabello and others, and a few of the artists on the lineup came by to visit.

Eilish, along with her mother and her brother/collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, popped in to say hello -- the first time she and Swift had met. Later, Swift joined the exclusive club of people who have seen Marshmello without his signature helmet when the EDM star and his manager stopped by.

“Two dudes walked in -- I didn’t know which one was him,” recalls Swift a few weeks later, sitting on a lounge chair in the backyard of a private Beverly Hills residence following a photo shoot. Her momentary confusion turned into a pang of envy. “It’s really smart! Because he’s got a life, and he can get a house that doesn’t have to have a paparazzi-proof entrance.” She stops to adjust her gray sweatshirt dress and lets out a clipped laugh.

Swift, who will celebrate her 30th birthday on Dec. 13, has been impossibly famous for nearly half of her lifetime. She was 16 when she released her self-titled debut album in 2006, and 20 when her second album, Fearless, won the Grammy Award for album of the year in 2010, making her the youngest artist to ever receive the honor. As the decade comes to a close, Swift is one of the most accomplished musical acts of all time: 37.3 million albums sold, according to Nielsen Music; 95 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 (including five No. 1s); 23 Billboard Music Awards; 12 Country Music Association Awards; 10 Grammys; and five world tours.

She also finishes the decade in a totally different realm of the music world from where she started. Swift’s crossover from country to pop -- hinted at on 2012’s Red and fully embraced on 2014’s 1989 -- reflected a mainstream era in which genres were blended with little abandon, where artists with roots in country, folk and trap music could join forces without anyone raising eyebrows. (See: Swift’s top 20 hit “End Game,” from 2017’s reputation, which featured Ed Sheeran and Future.)

Swift’s new album, Lover, released in August, is both a warm break from the darkness of reputation -- which was created during a wave of negative press generated by Swift’s public clash with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West -- as well as an amalgam of all her stylistic explorations through the years, from dreamy synth-pop to hushed country. “The skies were opening up in my life,” says Swift of the album, which garnered three Grammy nominations, including song of the year for the title track.

She recorded Lover after the Reputation Stadium Tour broke the record for the highest-grossing U.S. tour late last year. In 2020, Swift will embark on Lover Fest, a run of stadium dates that will feature a hand-picked lineup of artists (as yet unannounced) and allow Swift more time off from the road. “This is a year where I have to be there for my family -- there’s a lot of question marks throughout the next year, so I wanted to make sure that I could go home,” says Swift, likely referencing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, which inspired the Lover heart-wrencher “Soon You’ll Get Better.”

Now, however, Swift finds herself in a different highly publicized dispute. This time it’s with Scott Borchetta, the head of her former label, Big Machine Records, and Scooter Braun, the manager-mogul whose Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group and its master recordings, which include Swift’s six pre-Lover albums, in June. Upon news of the sale, Swift wrote in a Tumblr post that it was her “worst case scenario,” accusing Braun of “bullying” her throughout her career due to his connections with West. She maintains today that she was never given the opportunity to buy her masters outright. (On Tumblr, she wrote that she was offered the chance to “earn” back the masters to one of her albums for each new album she turned in if she re-signed with Big Machine; Borchetta disputed this characterization, saying she had the opportunity to acquire her masters in exchange for re-signing with the label for a “length of time” -- 10 more years, according to screenshots of legal documents posted on the Big Machine website.)

Swift has said that she intends to rerecord her first six albums next year -- starting next November, when she says she’s contractually able to -- in order to regain control of her recordings. But the back-and-forth appears to be nowhere near over: Last month, Swift alleged that Borchetta and Braun were blocking her from performing her past hits at the American Music Awards or using them in an upcoming Netflix documentary -- claims Big Machine characterized as “false information” in a response that did not get into specifics. (Swift ultimately performed the medley she had planned.) In the weeks following this interview, Braun said he was open to “all possibilities” in finding a “resolution,” and Billboard sources say that includes negotiating a sale. Swift remains interested in buying her masters, though the price could be a sticking point, given her rerecording plans, the control she has over the licensing of her music for film and TV, and the market growth since Braun’s acquisition.

However it plays out, the battle over her masters is the latest in a series of moves that has turned Swift into something of an advocate for artists’ rights -- and made her a cause that everyone from Halsey to Elizabeth Warren has rallied behind. From 2014 to 2017, Swift withheld her catalog from Spotify to protest the streaming company’s compensation rates, saying in a 2014 interview, “There should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.” In 2015, ahead of the launch of Apple Music, Swift wrote an open letter criticizing Apple for its plan to not pay royalties during the three-month free trial it was set to offer listeners; the company announced a new policy within 24 hours. Most recently, when she signed a new global deal with Universal Music Group in 2018, Swift (who is now on Republic Records) said one of the conditions of her contract was that UMG share proceeds from any sale of its Spotify equity with its roster of artists -- and make them nonrecoupable against those artists’ earnings.

During a wide-ranging conversation, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade expresses hope that she can help make the lives of creators a little easier in the years to come -- and a belief that her behind-the-scenes strides will be as integral to her legacy as her biggest singles. “New artists and producers and writers need work, and they need to be likable and get booked in sessions, and they can’t make noise -- but if I can, then I’m going to,” promises Swift. This is where being impossibly famous can be a very good thing. “I know that it seems like I’m very loud about this,” she says, “but it’s because someone has to be.”

While watching some of your performances this year -- like Saturday Night Live and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert -- I was struck by how focused you seemed, like there were no distractions getting in the way of what you were trying to say.

That’s a really wonderful way of looking at this phase of my life and my music. I’ve spent a lot of time recalibrating my life to make it feel manageable. Because there were some years there where I felt like I didn’t quite know what exactly to give people and what to hold back, what to share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade. I broke through pre-social media, and then there was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music. I’m not really here to influence their fashion or their social lives. That has bled through into the live part of what I do.

Meanwhile, you’ve found a way to interact with your fans in this very pure way -- on your Tumblr page.

Tumblr is the last place on the internet where I feel like I can still make a joke because it feels small, like a neighborhood rather than an entire continent. We can kid around -- they literally drag me. It’s fun. That’s a real comfort zone for me. And just like anything else, I need breaks from it sometimes. But when I do participate in that space, it’s always in a very inside-joke, friend vibe. Sometimes, when I open Twitter, I get so overwhelmed that I just immediately close it. I haven’t had Twitter on my phone in a while because I don’t like to have too much news. Like, I follow politics, and that’s it. But I don’t like to follow who has broken up with who, or who wore an interesting pair of shoes. There’s only so much bandwidth my brain can really have.

It’s sort of an amalgamation of all of it. People who aren’t active fans of your music, who like one song but love to hear who has been canceled on Twitter. I’ve had several upheavals of somehow not being what I should be. And this happens to women in music way more than men. That’s why I get so many phone calls from new artists out of the blue -- like, “Hey, I’m getting my first wave of bad press, I’m freaking out, can I talk to you?” And the answer is always yes! I’m talking about more than 20 people who have randomly reached out to me. I take it as a compliment because it means that they see what has happened over the course of my career, over and over again.

Did you have someone like that to reach out to?

Not really, because my career has existed in lots of different neighborhoods of music. I had so many mentors in country music. Faith Hill was wonderful. She would reach out to me and invite me over and take me on tour, and I knew that I could talk to her. Crossing over to pop is a completely different world. Country music is a real community, and in pop I didn’t see that community as much. Now there is a bit of one between the girls in pop -- we all have each other’s numbers and text each other -- but when I first started out in pop it was very much you versus you versus you. We didn’t have a network, which is weird because we can help each other through these moments when you just feel completely isolated.

Do you feel like those barriers are actively being broken down now?

God, I hope so. I also hope people can call it out, [like] if you see a Grammy prediction article, and it’s just two women’s faces next to each other and feels a bit gratuitous. No one’s going to start out being perfectly educated on the intricacies of gender politics. The key is that people are trying to learn, and that’s great. No one’s going to get it perfect, but, God, please try.

At this point, who is your sounding board, creatively and professionally?

From a creative standpoint, I’ve been writing alone a lot more. I’m good with being alone, with thinking alone. When I come up with a marketing idea for the Lover tour, the album launch, the merch, I’ll go right to my management company that I’ve put together. I think a team is the best way to be managed. Just from my experience, I don’t think that this overarching, one-person-handles-my-career thing was ever going to work for me. Because that person ends up kind of being me who comes up with most of the ideas, and then I have an amazing team that facilitates those ideas.

The behind-the-scenes work is different for every phase of my career that I’m in. Putting together the festival shows that we’re doing for Lover is completely different than putting together the Reputation Stadium Tour. Putting together the reputation launch was so different than putting together the 1989 launch. So we really do attack things case by case, where the creative first informs everything else.

You’ve spoken before about how meaningful the reputation tour’s success was. What did it represent?

That tour was something that I wanted to immortalize in the Netflix special that we did because the album was a story, but it almost was like a story that wasn’t fully realized until you saw it live. It was so cool to hear people leaving the show being like, “I understand it now. I fully get it now.” There are a lot of red herrings and bait-and-switches in the choices that I’ll make with albums, because I want people to go and explore the body of work. You can never express how you feel over the course of an album in a single, so why try?

That seems especially true of your last three albums or so.

“Shake It Off” is nothing like the rest of 1989. It’s almost like I feel so much pressure with a first single that I don’t want the first single to be something that makes you feel like you’ve figured out what I’ve made on the rest of the project. I still truly believe in albums, whatever form you consume them in -- if you want to stream them or buy them or listen to them on vinyl. And I don’t think that makes me a staunch purist. I think that that is a strong feeling throughout the music industry. We’re running really fast toward a singles industry, but you got to believe in something. I still believe that albums are important.

The music industry has become increasingly global during the past decade. Is reaching new markets something you think about?

Yeah, and I’m always trying to learn. I’m learning from everyone. I’m learning when I go see Bruce Springsteen or Madonna do a theater show. And I’m learning from new artists who are coming out right now, just seeing what they’re doing and thinking, “That’s really cool.” You need to keep your influences broad and wide-ranging, and my favorite people who make music have always done that. I got to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the Cats movie, and Andrew will walk through the door and be like, “I’ve just seen this amazing thing on TikTok!” And I’m like, “You are it! You are it!” Because you cannot look at what quote-unquote “the kids are doing” and roll your eyes. You have to learn.

Have you explored TikTok at all?

I only see them when they’re posted to Tumblr, but I love them! I think that they’re hilarious and amazing. Andrew says that they’ve made musicals cool again, because there’s a huge musical facet to TikTok. [He’s] like, “Any way we can do that is good.”

How do you see your involvement in the business side of your career progressing in the next decade? You seem like someone who could eventually start a label or be more hands-on with signing artists.

I do think about it every once in a while, but if I was going to do it, I would need to do it with all of my energy. I know how important that is, when you’ve got someone else’s career in your hands, and I know how it feels when someone isn’t generous.

You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently -- staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals.

We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about recalibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers.

We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal -- not as a renegotiation ploy -- and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me.

Thankfully, there’s power in writing your music. Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use “Shake It Off” in some advertisement or “Blank Space” in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.

Do you know how long that rerecording process will take?

I don’t know! But it’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine. When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.

Ten years ago, on the brink of the 2010s, you were about to turn 20. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?

Oh, God -- I wouldn’t give myself any advice. I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs. And maybe that seems ridiculously Zen, but … I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats.

#taylor swift #interview #billboard #women in music #woman of the decade

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emisonme · 5 years ago

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Romance................

I've already stated, I think May through July, was rushed to make the narrative fit the album. You don't have to rush the truth. You simply allow it to happen. So, the fact (in my opinion) that all this shit was rushed, proves it all a bunch of fake bullshit. But, you know me. I like to try and prove my opinions, so here we go.

Let's get this out of the way. "Romance" is NOT about Ew, or Canada. Have you wondered why they waited to announce the "split" from Ew, until after Señorita was released? They needed to wait to fit the narrative of BKOB. It's that simple.

All of this shit has been in the works since BEFORE "Camila" was even released. Yeah, I said it. CC1 was completed long before it was released. When she finishes a project, for her, it's on to the next. She is always writing and planning for what's next.

It is pretty much fact, at least 6 of the songs on "Romance" was written and recorded during 2018. Those 6 are "First Man", "Living Proof", "Dream of You", "Señorita", "Should've Said It", and "Feel It Twice".

How do I know this? Because she said, FM was the first song she wrote for the album. The first snippet of the song was leaked in October of 2018. She also said she wrote LP and DoY, the same week she wrote FM.

She said SSI was one of the first songs she wrote for the album. If she started writing her album in, at the very latest, October of 2018, it's pretty safe to assume SSI and FIT was written around the same time FM, LP, and DoY was written. She also said, FIT was written the same week as SSI, and they are about the same situation.

We all know by now, Señorita was written while Camila was touring with Charli XCX and Taylor. That was during 2018, as well.

I'm pretty certain she had completed her album in April, early May, at the latest. I'm also pretty sure she had written and recorded "Liar" and "Shameless" BEFORE she left for Italy, in early May.

Why? Like I said before, she had at the very least started filming the "Liar" music video in late April. There was some internet chatter that she was seen filming a music video around that time. (I think it was either the 26th or the 27th)

It was also around that same time, she posted an insta story with a pic of her in her new house, along with the phrase from DoY, which was on the note in the video, and she also posted a pic of an interracial couple about to kiss. It's not a damn coincidence, she posted that particular phrase, and that particular pic, knowing her secret love interest in the video, was played by a (gay or bi) black man.

So yeah, "Liar" was definitely written BEFORE she PUBLICLY said it was. Since she wrote "Liar" and "Shameless" the same day, that means they both were written and recorded BEFORE the narrative said they were.

Yeah, I know there were a couple of videos, that mysteriously appeared, showing her "liar" shoot location, in August (I think). Haven't we learned by now, it's common practice for videos to be shot at one time, and released at another time...Like when THEY want us to see them, and think a certain way. THEY wanted us to think the "Liar" video was shot just after the "Shameless" video, because we are supposed to think they were written AFTER Señorita was recorded. Why? FOR NARRATIVE PURPOSES!!!

Hell, the damn duet wasn't even recorded when they want us to believe it was recorded. It was recorded in April, as well. One of Canada's people mention they had recorded his part of the song, during the European leg of his tour. That didn't even end, until April 19. They may have hit the studio in May, to tweak a few things, but that damn song was recorded BEFORE the narrative says it was.

She also said, "Used To This" was the last song, for the album, she recorded. We are supposed to believe, this happened sometime after July 12, and their San Fran stunt. That's bullshit, too.

She wrote that song with Finneas, and he has publicly stated he was in the studio with her in March. It was also stated in an interview, that he was in the studio with her, in April. I've seen some say, he was in the studio with her in May, but I haven't seen that stated anywhere, so I'm going to stick with what I can prove, and that's March and April.

OK, so I think I've established that her album was completed in April. (maybe a tweak or two in May) So, why did THEY need to condense the narrative, and give it a start date of May? Because Canada released "If I Can't Have You" on May 4.

That's the song, he supposedly wrote to her, to get this whole shit show started. The public narrative is... After he gave her a personal copy, and released the song, he "confessed" his true feelings to her. She wasn't happy, and it supposedly put a riff in their friendship. She runs off to Italy with Ew, because she needed time and space away from Canada. (The last time we see Camila with Ew is May 11.) On May 27, THEY release a pic of Camila and Canada having lunch. She don't look all that happy to be there. He is "fighting" for her. She still isn't having it.

Then, in early June, they start rehearsing for the duet video, and she starts second guessing her "relationship" with Ew. She hits the studio to write about it. (Shameless and Liar) On June 12, her twitter account posts a tweet saying, " The important thing in the end, is that you loved". (or something close to it) Bye Bye Ew!!!

The duet video comes out, the speculation starts to fly. They go to some party together on July 4, then on July 12 we get hit with the San Fran stunt. The rest is history....That's the PUBLIC narrative, and why everything was rushed. It's all total bullshit, as proven by the time line of her music. THEY rushed the narrative to fit the music...plain and simple!!!

Camila knew the concept for CC2, before CC1 was released. She damn near admitted it, herself. She has publicly stated, she knew the concept for CC2, like the day after she released "Camila". ( not her exact words, but close enough) Ew wasn't brought on board to help sell CC1, or even give cover to the songs on her debut album. He was brought on board to "solidify" her "straight" image, and give cover/fodder for CC2.

Canada was brought into the picture, when he was, because he was in desperate need of a damn beard and a career boost, and she needed cover for songs on "Romance" like BKOB, SSI, and FIT.

Ew could have covered most of the album, and the concept as a whole, but not those particular songs. The public narrative, is that "Romance" is about her first love, so THEY made Ew fit that bill. With some of the song choices for the album, she needed to leave her "first love" for someone else.

"Romance" isn't about either one of them. THEY have been carefully planning all this shit, for a while. Camila drug her feet, on agreeing to sign a PR contract with Canada, but in the end, she gave in. If she hadn't, THEY wouldn't have released "Romance", at all. THEY have no problem proving just how much power they have, and how little power Artists have. It's THEIR way, or no way!!!

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path-of-my-childhood · 5 years ago

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Billboard Woman of the Decade Taylor Swift: 'I Do Want My Music to Live On'

By: Jason Lipshutz for Billboard Magazine Date: December 14th issue

One evening in late October, before she performed at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Taylor Swift’s dressing room became - as it often does - an impromptu summit of music’s biggest names. Swift was there to take part in the American Cancer Society’s annual We Can Survive concert alongside Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Camila Cabello and others, and a few of the artists on the lineup came by to visit.

Eilish, along with her mother and her brother/collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, popped in to say hello - the first time she and Swift had met. Later, Swift joined the exclusive club of people who have seen Marshmello without his signature helmet when the EDM star and his manager stopped by.

“Two dudes walked in - I didn’t know which one was him,” recalls Swift a few weeks later, sitting on a lounge chair in the backyard of a private Beverly Hills residence following a photo shoot. Her momentary confusion turned into a pang of envy. “It’s really smart! Because he’s got a life, and he can get a house that doesn’t have to have a paparazzi-proof entrance.” She stops to adjust her gray sweatshirt dress and lets out a clipped laugh.

She also finishes the decade in a totally different realm of the music world from where she started. Swift’s crossover from country to pop - hinted at on 2012’s Red and fully embraced on 2014’s 1989 - reflected a mainstream era in which genres were blended with little abandon, where artists with roots in country, folk and trap music could join forces without anyone raising eyebrows. (See: Swift’s top 20 hit “End Game,” from 2017’s reputation, which featured Ed Sheeran and Future.)

Swift’s new album, Lover, released in August, is both a warm break from the darkness of reputation - which was created during a wave of negative press generated by Swift’s public clash with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West - as well as an amalgam of all her stylistic explorations through the years, from dreamy synth-pop to hushed country. “The skies were opening up in my life,” says Swift of the album, which garnered three Grammy nominations, including song of the year for the title track.

She recorded Lover after the Reputation Stadium Tour broke the record for the highest-grossing U.S. tour late last year. In 2020, Swift will embark on Lover Fest, a run of stadium dates that will feature a hand-picked lineup of artists (as yet unannounced) and allow Swift more time off from the road. “This is a year where I have to be there for my family - there’s a lot of question marks throughout the next year, so I wanted to make sure that I could go home,” says Swift, likely referencing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, which inspired the Lover heart-wrencher “Soon You’ll Get Better.”

Now, however, Swift finds herself in a different highly publicized dispute. This time it’s with Scott Borchetta, the head of her former label, Big Machine Records, and Scooter Braun, the manager-mogul whose Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group and its master recordings, which include Swift’s six pre-Lover albums, in June. Upon news of the sale, Swift wrote in a Tumblr post that it was her “worst case scenario,” accusing Braun of “bullying” her throughout her career due to his connections with West. She maintains today that she was never given the opportunity to buy her masters outright. (On Tumblr, she wrote that she was offered the chance to “earn” back the masters to one of her albums for each new album she turned in if she re-signed with Big Machine; Borchetta disputed this characterization, saying she had the opportunity to acquire her masters in exchange for re-signing with the label for a “length of time” - 10 more years, according to screenshots of legal documents posted on the Big Machine website.)

Swift has said that she intends to rerecord her first six albums next year, starting next November, when she says she’s contractually able to - in order to regain control of her recordings. But the back-and-forth appears to be nowhere near over: Last month, Swift alleged that Borchetta and Braun were blocking her from performing her past hits at the American Music Awards or using them in an upcoming Netflix documentary - claims Big Machine characterized as “false information” in a response that did not get into specifics. (Swift ultimately performed the medley she had planned.) In the weeks following this interview, Braun said he was open to “all possibilities” in finding a “resolution,” and Billboard sources say that includes negotiating a sale. Swift remains interested in buying her masters, though the price could be a sticking point, given her rerecording plans, the control she has over the licensing of her music for film and TV, and the market growth since Braun’s acquisition.

However it plays out, the battle over her masters is the latest in a series of moves that has turned Swift into something of an advocate for artists’ rights, and made her a cause that everyone from Halsey to Elizabeth Warren has rallied behind. From 2014 to 2017, Swift withheld her catalog from Spotify to protest the streaming company’s compensation rates, saying in a 2014 interview, “There should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.” In 2015, ahead of the launch of Apple Music, Swift wrote an open letter criticizing Apple for its plan to not pay royalties during the three-month free trial it was set to offer listeners; the company announced a new policy within 24 hours. Most recently, when she signed a new global deal with Universal Music Group in 2018, Swift (who is now on Republic Records) said one of the conditions of her contract was that UMG share proceeds from any sale of its Spotify equity with its roster of artists - and make them non-recoupable against those artists’ earnings.

During a wide-ranging conversation, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade expresses hope that she can help make the lives of creators a little easier in the years to come - and a belief that her behind-the-scenes strides will be as integral to her legacy as her biggest singles. “New artists and producers and writers need work, and they need to be likable and get booked in sessions, and they can’t make noise - but if I can, then I’m going to,” promises Swift. This is where being impossibly famous can be a very good thing. “I know that it seems like I’m very loud about this,” she says, “but it’s because someone has to be.”

While watching some of your performances this year - like SNL and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert - I was struck by how focused you seemed, like there were no distractions getting in the way of what you were trying to say. That’s a really wonderful way of looking at this phase of my life and my music. I’ve spent a lot of time re-calibrating my life to make it feel manageable. Because there were some years there where I felt like I didn’t quite know what exactly to give people and what to hold back, what to share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade. I broke through pre-social media, and then there was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music. I’m not really here to influence their fashion or their social lives. That has bled through into the live part of what I do.

Meanwhile, you’ve found a way to interact with your fans in this very pure way - on your Tumblr page. Tumblr is the last place on the internet where I feel like I can still make a joke because it feels small, like a neighborhood rather than an entire continent. We can kid around - they literally drag me. It’s fun. That’s a real comfort zone for me. And just like anything else, I need breaks from it sometimes. But when I do participate in that space, it’s always in a very inside-joke, friend vibe. Sometimes, when I open Twitter, I get so overwhelmed that I just immediately close it. I haven’t had Twitter on my phone in a while because I don’t like to have too much news. Like, I follow politics, and that’s it. But I don’t like to follow who has broken up with who, or who wore an interesting pair of shoes. There’s only so much bandwidth my brain can really have.

You’ve spoken in recent interviews about the general expectations you’ve faced, using phrases like “They’ve wanted to see this” and “They hated me for this.” Who is “they”? Is it social media or disparaging think pieces or... It’s sort of an amalgamation of all of it. People who aren’t active fans of your music, who like one song but love to hear who has been canceled on Twitter. I’ve had several upheavals of somehow not being what I should be. And this happens to women in music way more than men. That’s why I get so many phone calls from new artists out of the blue - like, “Hey, I’m getting my first wave of bad press, I’m freaking out, can I talk to you?” And the answer is always yes! I’m talking about more than 20 people who have randomly reached out to me. I take it as a compliment because it means that they see what has happened over the course of my career, over and over again.

Did you have someone like that to reach out to? Not really, because my career has existed in lots of different neighborhoods of music. I had so many mentors in country music. Faith Hill was wonderful. She would reach out to me and invite me over and take me on tour, and I knew that I could talk to her. Crossing over to pop is a completely different world. Country music is a real community, and in pop I didn’t see that community as much. Now there is a bit of one between the girls in pop - we all have each other’s numbers and text each other - but when I first started out in pop it was very much you versus you versus you. We didn’t have a network, which is weird because we can help each other through these moments when you just feel completely isolated.

Do you feel like those barriers are actively being broken down now? God, I hope so. I also hope people can call it out, [like] if you see a Grammy prediction article, and it’s just two women’s faces next to each other and feels a bit gratuitous. No one’s going to start out being perfectly educated on the intricacies of gender politics. The key is that people are trying to learn, and that’s great. No one’s going to get it perfect, but, God, please try.

At this point, who is your sounding board, creatively and professionally From a creative standpoint, I’ve been writing alone a lot more. I’m good with being alone, with thinking alone. When I come up with a marketing idea for the Lover tour, the album launch, the merch, I’ll go right to my management company that I’ve put together. I think a team is the best way to be managed. Just from my experience, I don’t think that this overarching, one-person-handles-my-career thing was ever going to work for me. Because that person ends up kind of being me who comes up with most of the ideas, and then I have an amazing team that facilitates those ideas. The behind-the-scenes work is different for every phase of my career that I’m in. Putting together the festival shows that we’re doing for Lover is completely different than putting together the Reputation Stadium Tour. Putting together the reputation launch was so different than putting together the 1989 launch. So we really do attack things case by case, where the creative first informs everything else.

You’ve spoken before about how meaningful the reputation tour’s success was. What did it represent? That tour was something that I wanted to immortalize in the Netflix special that we did because the album was a story, but it almost was like a story that wasn’t fully realized until you saw it live. It was so cool to hear people leaving the show being like, “I understand it now. I fully get it now.” There are a lot of red herrings and bait-and-switches in the choices that I’ll make with albums, because I want people to go and explore the body of work. You can never express how you feel over the course of an album in a single, so why try?

That seems especially true of your last three albums or so. “Shake It Off” is nothing like the rest of 1989. It’s almost like I feel so much pressure with a first single that I don’t want the first single to be something that makes you feel like you’ve figured out what I’ve made on the rest of the project. I still truly believe in albums, whatever form you consume them in - if you want to stream them or buy them or listen to them on vinyl. And I don’t think that makes me a staunch purist. I think that that is a strong feeling throughout the music industry. We’re running really fast toward a singles industry, but you got to believe in something. I still believe that albums are important.

The music industry has become increasingly global during the past decade. Is reaching new markets something you think about? Yeah, and I’m always trying to learn. I’m learning from everyone. I’m learning when I go see Bruce Springsteen or Madonna do a theater show. And I’m learning from new artists who are coming out right now, just seeing what they’re doing and thinking, “That’s really cool.” You need to keep your influences broad and wide-ranging, and my favorite people who make music have always done that. I got to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the Cats movie, and Andrew will walk through the door and be like, “I’ve just seen this amazing thing on TikTok!” And I’m like, “You are it! You are it!” Because you cannot look at what quote-unquote “the kids are doing” and roll your eyes. You have to learn.

Have you explored TikTok at all? I only see them when they’re posted to Tumblr, but I love them! I think that they’re hilarious and amazing. Andrew says that they’ve made musicals cool again, because there’s a huge musical facet to TikTok. [He’s] like, “Any way we can do that is good.”

How do you see your involvement in the business side of your career progressing in the next decade? You seem like someone who could eventually start a label or be more hands-on with signing artists. I do think about it every once in a while, but if I was going to do it, I would need to do it with all of my energy. I know how important that is, when you’ve got someone else’s career in your hands, and I know how it feels when someone isn’t generous.

You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently - staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals. We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about re-calibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers. We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal - not as a renegotiation ploy - and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me. Thankfully, there’s power in writing your music. Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use “Shake It Off” in some advertisement or “Blank Space” in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.

Do you know how long that rerecording process will take? I don’t know! But it’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine. When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.

Ten years ago, on the brink of the 2010s, you were about to turn 20. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time? Oh, God - I wouldn’t give myself any advice. I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs. And maybe that seems ridiculously Zen, but... I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats.

Taylor Swift Discusses 'The Man' & 'It's Nice To Have a Friend' In Cover Story Outtakes

Billboard // by Jason Lipshutz // December 12th 2019

During her cover story interview for Billboard’s Women In Music issue, Taylor Swift discussed several aspects of her mega-selling seventh studio album Lover, including its creation after a personal “recalibrating” period, her stripped-down performances of its songs and her plans to showcase the full-length live with her Lover Fest shows next year. In two moments from the extended conversation that did not make the print story, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade also touched upon two of the album’s highlights, which double as a pair of the more interesting songs in her discography: “The Man” and “It’s Nice To Have A Friend.”

“The Man” imagines how Swift’s experience as a person, artist and figure within the music industry would have been different had she been a man, highlighting how much harder women have to work in order to succeed (“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man,” she sings in the chorus). The song has become a fan favorite since the release of Lover, and Swift recently opened a career-spanning medley with the song at the 2019 American Music Awards.

When asked about “The Man,” Swift pointed out specific double standards that exist in everyday life and explained why she wanted to turn that frustration into a pop single. Read Swift’s full thoughts on “The Man” below:

“It was a song that I wrote from my personal experience, but also from a general experience that I’ve heard from women in all parts of our industry. And I think that, the more we can talk about it in a song like that, the better off we’ll be in a place to call it out when it’s happening. So many of these things are ingrained in even women, these perceptions, and it’s really about re-training your own brain to be less critical of women when we are not criticizing men for the same things. So many things that men do, you know, can be phoned-in that cannot be phoned-in for us. We have to really — God, we have to curate and cater everything, but we have to make it look like an accident. Because if we make a mistake, that’s our fault, but if we strategize so that we won’t make a mistake, we’re calculating.

“There is a bit of a damned-if-we-do, damned-if-we-don’t thing happening in music, and that’s why when I can, like, sit and talk and be like ‘Yeah, this sucks for me too,’ that feels good. When I go online and hear the stories of my fans talking about their experience in the working world, or even at school — the more we talk about it, the better off we’ll be. And I wanted to make it catchy for a reason — so that it would get stuck in people’s heads, [so] they would end up with a song about gender inequality stuck in their heads. And for me, that’s a good day.”

Meanwhile, the penultimate song on Lover, “It’s Nice To Have A Friend,” sounds unlike anything in Swift’s catalog thanks to its elliptical structure, lullaby-like tone and incorporation of steel drums and brass. When asked about the song, Swift talked about experimenting with her songwriting, as well as capturing a different angle of the emotional themes at the heart of Lover. Read Swift’s full thoughts on “It’s Nice To Have A Friend” below:

“It was fun to write a song that was just verses, because my whole body and soul wants to make a chorus — every time I sit down to write a song, I’m like, ‘Okay, chorus time, let’s get the chorus done.’ But with that song, it was more of like a poem, and a story and a vibe and a feeling of... I love metaphors that kind of have more than one meaning, and I think I loved the idea that, on an album called Lover, we all want love, we all want to find somebody to see our sights with and hear things with and experience things with.

“But at the end of the day we’ve been searching for that since we were kids! When you had a friend when you were nine years old, and that friend was all you talked about, and you wanted to have sleepovers and you wanted to walk down the street together and sit there drawing pictures together or be silent together, or be talking all night. We’re just looking for that, but endless sparks, as adults.”

Read the full Taylor Swift cover story here, and click here for more info on Billboard’s 2019 Women In Music event, during which Swift will be presented with the first-ever Woman of the Decade award.

[link to this tweet]

Was there ever a part of you that was like, “Oh shit, I like this darker vibe, let’s go even further down that path?” I really Loved Reputation because it felt like a rock opera, or a musical, doing it live. Doing that stadium show was so fun because it was so theatrical and so exciting to perform that, because it’s really cathartic! But I have to follow whatever direction my life is going in emotionally... The skies were opening up in my life. That’s what happened. But in a way that felt like a pink sky, a pink and purple sky, after a storm, and now it looks even more beautiful because it looked so stormy before. And that’s just like, I couldn't stop writing. I’ve never had an album with 18 songs on it before, and a lot of what I do is based on intuition. So, you know, I try not to overthink it. Who knows, there may be another dark album. I plan on doing lots of experimentation over the course of my career. Who knows? But it was a blast, I really loved it.

I mean, look, a Taylor Swift screamo album? I’ll be first in line. I’m so happy to hear that, because I think you might be the only one. Ha! I have a terrible scream. It’s obnoxious.

Why Taylor Swift's Lover Fest Will Be Her Next Big Step

Billboard // by Jason Lipshutz // December 11th 2019 - [Excerpt]

On why she chose to put together Lover fest: “I haven’t really done festivals in years - not since I was a teenager. That’s something that [the fans] don’t expect from me, so that’s why I wanted to do it. I want to challenge myself with new things and at the same time keep giving my fans something to connect to.”

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sadclearance · 4 years ago

Text

i don’t miss you at all

pairing: mahiru koizumi x female!reader

summary: mahiru misses y/n. (i don't miss you at all by finneas)

category: past fluff, angst, songfic

warning(s): minor suicidal thought for like a second, no actual suicide, non-graphic accidental death

word count: 1300

key:

italicized - past

bold and italicized - lyrics

i swear i don't

"i love you, mahiru," y/n said, giant grin growing even bigger.

miss you at all

"it's nothing, really," mahiru tried to subtly hide her face from her lover, embarrassed of how red those words made her.

"i'm serious! i'm not letting you act like it's nothing. you're the best girlfriend ever," y/n engulfed her.

and i barely still remember

"if anything, you are for letting me use you as my model," mahiru avoided taking the credit again. "thanks to you, i got recognized by real professional photographers out there. it's more like i'm hanging up my gold medals."

"oh, shut up. you did that by yourself with your talent. i'm glad i could be a part of your recognition," y/n kissed mahiru with a smile. "still can't believe you put up all these pictures of me."

"it's normal for people to hang up beautiful works of art."

who's in the pictures on my wall

'cause no i can't

"you smell like flowers," mahiru commented while being embraced by y/n.

"i'm glad you noticed," y/n smiled as she pulled back. "you said your favorite place that you've ever been to was mexico. did you know that tuberose are native there?"

"no, i didn't know that," mahiru smiled as she watched y/n talk animatedly about her newfound knowledge.

recall your scent

mahiru picks up the bottle of ridiculously overpriced perfume.

y/n had continuously bought it just because of that story mahiru had told her about her favorite travel spot.

mahiru had always found it ridiculous and unnecessary, but she couldn't deny that it made her all warm and fuzzy inside.

mahiru throws it in the trash can, ignoring the loud crashing of the glass.

jasmine, tuberose and lily

"stop doing that," mahiru made a face.

"but you just went to pari'. i must recreate the french girls you must 'ave missed," y/n continued on despite mahiru's protests.

"it's nowhere near close to how french people sound," mahiru smacked y/n's arm lightly. "and the only girl i've ever missed is you."

"okay, okay, i'll stop if you stop being such a cheeseball," y/n made a face of her own with a laugh.

or your silly french accent

all but forgotten

"you know, i read a book the other day."

"you, reading? i don't think so," mahiru joked.

"hey! anyway, it was an american book. the great gatsby."

"yeah, i've heard of that before," mahiru nodded as she continued to mess with the controls of her new camera.

about those eyes

"well, your beautiful green eyes are like the green light to me."

"oh, shut up, you flirt!"

the shade of green that if he'd seen would make f. scott fitzgerald cry

but i won't

the alarm clock on her bedside table flashes "2:00am" in an agitating red. it's been that color since forever, but it bothers mahiru a little more than usual tonight.

she blames that for her not being able to sleep.

she reluctantly grabs her phone from the bedside table and turns her alarm clock away so that it's no longer facing her.

she scrolls through some old photos, but they don't help ease the discomfort in her heart. she sighs exasperatedly at her own mistake and swipes out of the app.

she avoids the green icon with the telephone on it for as long as she can will until she eventually gives in, tapping the latest call.

"the number you have dialed is no longer in use."

break down at two a.m. and call

'cause i don't

mahiru throws her phone across the room, even if she knew that this would happen because she's been doing it every night.

miss you at all

neglecting the phone that she just threw, mahiru turns to her side.

and i'm sleeping fine

she closes her eyes, but her mind won't shut off for a while. she frowns as she gets more melatonin.

i don't mean to boast

mahiru wakes up feeling uneasy, her heart beating rapidly. she knows she must've been tensed up the entire time she was asleep because her shoulders are stiff and her limbs feel strained.

but i only dream about you

it's like it's a part of her routine, and she knows what the results will be, but she takes more melatonin anyway. she supposes that restless sleep is better than none.

once or twice a night at most

mahiru sits down at teruteru's restaurant on a saturday night--a tradition that she's been neglecting for a few months.

and it feels so good

"haven't seen you for a while, mahiru," teruteru forgoes the usual perverted comment.

"yeah," mahiru nods. "been busy."

"well, what can i get for you?"

eating alone

"why don't we share?" y/n asked with a cheeky grin.

"you just want to try everything, don't you?" mahiru shook her head but couldn't help the amused smile.

"you want to make me happy, don't you?"

"only because your smile's my favorite thing to capture on camera."

i don't get distracted by your smile

"drive safe," teruteru waves when she starts to leave. "wait, i didn't mean--"

she ignores him and continues to walk to her car.

she gets going as fast as she can because even though she knows teruteru's comment was just a thoughtless goodbye, it bothers her, and she wants to get away.

there's a red light, and mahiru can't do anything but stop.

she takes the time to look at the passenger seat. she sighs at her own mistake as she finds herself unable to rip her eyes away. there's a nostalgic reminiscent feeling inside, but it's chased by something cold and hopeless.

her hand goes to touch the seat when the person behind her honks.

and miss the green lights driving home

no sign of stopping

she had been there so often, she always sort of went on autopilot when driving around these familiar parts.

by the time she's conscious of her surroundings, she's sure she's just a turn or so from her home.

the house isn't far

a song that isn't necessarily to mahiru's taste comes on the radio that she had turned on to serve as a distraction from her thoughts, and the hands on the wheel turn white with how hard she's gripping it.

but i think our song is coming on

she's never liked it, but she's always let it play because y/n liked it, and mahiru had loved the way y/n sang it so passionately, putting her soul into it. she remembers making some offhand comment about how loud and rude it could be considered, but she hadn't really meant it.

looking back on it, mahiru regrets saying that.

thinking of all of the things she regrets saying and not saying, she considers the power she holds, with her foot strong on the gas pedal.

and now i wanna crash the car

she frowns and lessens the pressure on the pedal, her car slowing down as she continues on the road.

but i won't

"y/n!" mahiru screamed in horror as an unconscious y/n was put on a gurney. she was held back by the nurse who was treating the minor injuries and scratches she had received from the crash.

make that mistake again and fall

"oh, y/n," mahiru cries loudly, as if she was reliving that painful day.

so i say i don't

she lets her head fall onto her steering wheel when she's parked, accidentally causing a loud honk that had no doubt irritated her neighbors at this late hour.

miss you at all

"why?" mahiru sobs. "why did you have to... why did i have to..."

and someday i won't

she cries harder, and she feels like she'll be stuck with this feeling for the rest of her days.

miss you at all

❥๑━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━๑❥

a/n;

5:33am - 6am i usually take like seven years to come up with an idea then actually finish writing it woah

i guess coming up with the idea thing is...

i wrote a songfic with this song almost a year ago for another fandom that i was only really in because i can't sit through and watch something longer than like a minute for--which gives you a hint on what it was--

and i liked the plot for it actually and wanted to reuse <3

and immediately mahiru came to mind because green eyes

most of the characters i choose for the oneshots are like on a whim or small reasons like that lol

#danganronpa mahiru #mahiru koizumi #koizumi mahiru #mahiru koizumi x female reader #koizumi mahiro x female reader #danganronpa #super danganronpa 2 #danganronpa x female reader #x female reader #female reader #wlw #female reader insert

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tillidontneedfantasy · 5 years ago

Text

‘WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?’ - Billie Eilish REVIEW: Making ‘Em Bow One By One

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?

An interesting question you pose there, Billie. When I fall asleep, I usually dream about being a part of the Harry Potter universe and trying to defeat Voldemort with the golden trio. But unfortunately, I don’t go there every night. I mean, believe me, fighting off The Dark Lord can be scary sometimes. But sometimes I go to even darker places, and it always takes a few moments when waking up to believe I’m really in my bed. Much of Billie Eilish’s debut album invites you into the dark parts of her subconscious, and sometimes her extreme consciousness, to which she goes. Of course, “asleep” could also be interpreted as, well, dead. Which is a nice way to phrase it. Ideal, really. How wonderful would it be if death was just an eternal nap? No one would ever be afraid to die.

Maybe that’s what Billie believes it is, and why she seems so desperate to go there on WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (WWAFA,WDWG?) For a then-16-year-old girl, I wish she wasn’t so tired. “ilomilo,” “bury a friend” and most concerning, “listen before I go,” explore her friends who have been taken from her, and her desire to join them. I’m glad she hasn’t.

So is she. In a now traditional Vanity Fair video, Billie answers the same interview questions three years in a row, exactly a year apart. Expect The Fourth Year one October 18th, 2020. It is one of the most fascinating videos I have ever watched. Though the same at the core, there is a different version of Billie in each year. Which is to be expected, as she is a teenager in the limelight. But the video of year 2, which was around 5 months prior to WWAFA,WDWG?’s release, Billie openly admits to being in a very dark place, discussing how her friend had died. Her posture and affect are noticeably different in years 1 and 3. In the third and latest installment, Billie is an upgraded, happier and more comfortable version of the previous two. You can hear the change in her voice, see it in her face. In response to the question, “What’s most important to you right now?” her answer is, “Maintaining my happiness, which I have been experiencing for the first time in many years….I wanna stay happy. That’s a big goal for me.”

Billie Eilish is one of the biggest breakout stars of the past few years. Her following is enormous, and though fans vary in age, many of them fall in her cohort. Generation Z is special in many ways: morbidly funny, proudly outspoken, self-aware, and unafraid to be different. Billie Eilish is all of these things incarnate, the perfect spearhead for this generation and what they represent. She dresses how she wants to dress and makes the kind of music that she wants to make, refusing to follow the molded expectations of young up and coming female stars before her. In that music, she also does what very few artists, young or old, have ever done: candidly explores mental illness and suicidal ideation.

These issues have become more and more prevalent in today’s society, yet they are still extremely stigmatized. Like many teenagers, I experienced the sadness and darkness Billie is singing about. I’m almost 25 now, but I can imagine how 15-year-old Cass would feel hearing this album and seeing Billie as she is in the third year of that Vanity Fair interview. Understood. Not alone. And hopeful, hopeful that things get better. At that age you feel like everything is the end of the world, because it is developmentally and socially some of the most difficult years in the human experience. And to hear someone you look up to say, “I feel this way, too,” and then see them continue fighting, and happy that they did...that can change someone’s life.

Thankfully, Billie still injects some levity into the album. The musical hook in “bad guy” feels like a defining moment for Gen Z the way the musical hook in “Toxic” was for us Millennials. “all the good girls go to hell” unflinchingly decrees that God Is A Woman™, and “my strange addiction” has cuts from The Office, Eilish’s favorite show, interspersed throughout the song. Gen Z is taking over, and Billie’s one hell of a ringleader.

STRONGEST TRACK(S): “i love you,” “xanny”

The phrase “I love you” has never felt so intimate as it does coming from Billie’s mouth in the penultimate track on WWAFA,WDWG? Sandwiched between two tracks where all together they form a sentence (listen before I go, I love you, goodbye) "i love you" is the most mesmerizing and most vulnerable, not just of the three but of the whole album. As a listener, you are dying to know what's hidden between the lines. Why doesn't she want to love this person even though she clearly does? What did she do to make him cry? Why are you, the listener, crying right now? With the smallest breath, the quietest whisper, the emotion Eilish emits is enormous. Every once in a while you hear a song that you feel will never leave you, and “i love you” has all the makings to be everlasting.

As does the message in “xanny,” a dynamic song that mostly sounds like an old-time jazz track, although infuses a blaring noise over the chorus, as if you are standing right next to the booming stereo at the party setting in which she speaks. The layering of hums in the background and at the end of the song provides a necessary subtle softness, making it all the more beautiful. The track is a statement from Eilish that she has no interest in the lifestyle that so many kids her age- famous or not- lead, partly because she does not understand the appeal of its effects, and partly because she does not want to invest herself in someone willingly bringing harm upon themself, as she previously has. “I can’t afford to love someone who isn’t dying by mistake,” she asserts. Of course, most things in moderation are good and fine, but there is an ever-persistent pressure for young people to use substances, for easier social interactions or easier claim to desirable social status. There is a plethora of music out there promoting the party lifestyle, but very few saying, “hey, it’s okay if you’re not about this, you’re still cool,” and so a celebrity as big as Billie abstaining from it, and providing a reasonable explanation, gives a figure of understanding and solidarity to all the outliers.

WEAKEST TRACK: “8”

Not a bad song by any means, “8” is just the least memorable on an album filled with extremely intriguing and standout tracks. There is an interesting choice of vocal styles that alternate throughout, one of which it sounds as if Eilish is emulating the voice of a little girl. She is asking the subject to just give her some common courtesy and hear her out. "Who am I to be in love / when your love never is for me?" she asks, in the most compelling moment of the song. It is a difficult line to walk, knowing someone doesn't owe you anything but wanting them to anyway. Although the song is effective, its replay value doesn't quite match with the other contenders.

THE IN-BETWEENS

Although Eilish is authentic in her own right, you can see the draw of inspiration from unique artists before her. Lorde's imprint is all over "you should see me in a crown," a catchy song about ruling the world and making everyone bow down to her with the sound of a knife sharpening at the top, and “listen before i go” is reminiscent of Lana Del Rey’s morose romances. “when the party’s over,” written solely by Billie’s brother, collaborator, and best friend, Finneas O’Connell, is a beautifully quiet moment in the middle of the album, with absolutely gorgeous high notes from Billie. The song is succinct and poignant, noting the inner conflict between wanting a friend to be more than just that and yet feeling the need to keep up boundaries to protect your heart; but when has that done anyone any good?

BEST PROSPECTIVE SINGLE: “my strange addiction”

In the age of Netflix, The Office continues to grow in popularity with younger viewers who missed it on air. Who better to bolster the movement than Verified The Office super fan, Billie Eilish? In “my strange addiction,” Eilish and O’Connell draw inspiration from the classic episode, “Threat Level Midnight,” where Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) has finally finished his movie and is ready to premiere it to the office. In his movie, Scott’s character, Michael Scarn, teaches the entire bar how to do his signature dance, “The Scarn.” “No, Billie, I haven’t done that dance since my wife died!” the song begins, which is a real line from the episode. “my strange addiction” borrows from the track for “The Scarn,” which is simply genius. Everyone is doing “The Scarn,” fictional or nonfictional, even NFL player Trey Quinn, who did the famed routine for his touchdown dance. Not only will “my strange addiction” convert The Office fans to Billie Eilish fans, but just imagine the amount of TikToks there could be of people doing “The Scarn” to this song…think about the meme potential, Billie! *Ed Helms voice* There’s a whole crowd of people out there who need to learn how to do the “my strange addiction.”

*****

Billie Eilish, and her debut album, WWAFA,WDWG? is impressive in a multitude of ways: she is raw, candid, silly, wildly intelligent, and most importantly, full of a lot of love, no matter how much she claims she does not want to be. Perhaps most impressive is that the only writers and producers credited on this album are Eilish and O’Connell, ages 18 and 22, respectively, at the time of this review, yet 17 and 21 at the time of its release, which means they were 16 and 20 at the time of writing and production. For two young people to create such an impactful album on such a massive scale on their own is a rarity, and has not been seen since the beginning of Taylor Swift’s career, and look at where she is now. Billie’s music might be different, but her trajectory seems quite similar. At Billboard’s Women in Music ceremony in December of 2019, Swift was honored with Woman of the Decade while Eilish was honored with Woman of the Year. Both artists paid homage to the other in their speeches, harkening back to Swift’s 2014 Woman of the Year speech where she alludes to a future Woman of the Year recipient learning piano and singing in choir; Swift had said back then that we need to take care of her, and Eilish tearfully thanked the room for doing just that. As Swift continues to fight against the system to pave the way for female artists, the clearing is all Billie’s. If Billie continues to maintain ownership of her voice, as I’m sure she will, it looks like the woman of the next decade is a lock. The crown looks great on Billie, and I cannot wait to see where she takes us while we’re all awake. Grade: 4.5/5

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: The first time I listened to WWAFA,WDWG? the only tracks that really captured my attention were “bad guy” and “my strange addiction.” I wanted to like it so bad, but I felt like I was missing something. Maybe that’s because I listened to the album at work and did not take it in properly. But I also felt like she was whispering too much, which made it difficult for me to stay interested. So I did not revisit it. However, over this past year, despite not listening to her music, I started to form a big-sister-type love for Billie, feeling as if I must protect her at all costs (any man over the age of like, 20, reading this: stay the fuck away from her you sickos!!!). I loved how she embraced her individuality and did whatever she wanted. I watched many interviews of her on YouTube (one being the Vanity Fair one, where she talks about how the criticism that she whispers a lot is hurtful yet true- Billie, I’m sorry!!) and found her to be so intelligent. To me, her and Taylor Swift (my number one love) are two sides of the same coin, or two paths to the same destination. What I mean by that is that as a lover of music and as a girl going through a difficult time, sometimes you need positivity to counteract the negative feelings, other times you need to lean into the sadness to release it all; though they both possess a bit of both, Taylor is more of the positive route, Billie more of the sad route. The thing is, you need both options. Billie reminds me of Taylor so much; she writes all of her own music (with her brother as her only co-writer), she has blown up at such a young and vulnerable age (if WWAFA,WDWG? wins AOTY at the Grammys, Billie will be the youngest ever recipient since Taylor won for Fearless at the age of 20), and she is committed to saying and doing what she wants to do the way she wants to do it. After listening to the album a few more times leading up to the Grammys to write this review, I get it. I truly get it. I’m sorry it took so long. And although her super soft vocals are definitely effective, I still want her to project more. The girl has a gorgeous voice; she should use it! But also she doesn’t need my advice, she’s doing fine. Keep whispering, baby girl. I feel very nervous for Billie, because when a woman reaches the top this quickly, everyone gets ready to push her off just as fast, and the fall can be fatal. But I believe in her ability to stand her ground. Please protect Billie at all costs!!!!

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bringinbackpod · 4 years ago

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Interview with Emma Charles

Together with American Songwriter, we had the pleasure of interviewing Emma Charles over Zoom video!

Please share while we are #togetherathome 🏠

Check out her new single “Book” out today! Emma co-wrote the song with Doug Schadt (who also co-wrote "Alaska" with Maggie Rogers and Ashe's "Bachelorette" with Finneas O'Connell) and Cara Salimando (who wrote Kesha's "Hymn" and Dua Lipa's "Begging"). https://linktr.ee/emmacharles

22 YO "glowing folk-pop artist" Ones to Watch Emma Charles is able to mix "effortlessly beautiful vocals" American Songwriter Magazine that "flutter upwards serenely through the loneliness and darkness like a beam of radiant light" LA Weekly with "savvy lyricism and intuitive musicianship offering layers not always seen in contemporary mainstream music" Popmatters.

Emma was recently chosen as a "What's Next" artist by the world's largest music compilation brand NOW, That's What I Call Music joining previous “What's Next” artists Billie Eilish, Shawn Mendes among others. Introspective, relatable and immensely talented, Emma is poised to be a significant presence on today's music scene.

Hailing from the artistic enclave Westport, Ct, in 2019 Emma graduated with honors from the prestigious Berklee College of Music and immediately began performing nationally headlining and opening for singer-songwriters Howie Day and Tyler Hilton. Now, LA based, Emma is writing, recording and continuing to perform.

She returns east regularly to continue her long standing collaboration with producer Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, SHAED, Ashe). Says Doug "It's rare as a producer to come across an artist who is completely open to experimentation, while maintaining their vision of what a song is supposed to be. I think the results speak for themselves. Working on Emma's latest material with her was an absolute joy, and I can't wait for what's next."

Emma's recent releases have been streamed collectively well over 250,000 times and she will be releasing four additional new songs over the next several months.

We want to hear from you! Please email [email protected]

www.BringinitBackwards.com

#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwork

source https://bringin-it-backwards.simplecast.com/episodes/interview-with-emma-charles-5_LDxxvN

#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #music #aspn #americansongwriter #americansongwriterpodcastnetwor

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newandbrave · 8 years ago

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Billie Eilish – Bellyache

The last five to ten years has seen a massive rise in a number of young American artists making their mark on television and then transitioning into music after. Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande are just a few names that come to mind when I think about these types of musicians who had the spotlight on their careers from a young age. However, one up and coming artist who has managed to stay out of the eye of the media and develop herself as an amazing musician is Billie Eilish. At just 15 years of age Eilish has already released multiple singles and is forging herself a reputation for being a unique artist and a highly talented musician who is going to continue to develop and could one day be very famous female artist with a big following.

Eilish is a 15-year-old Californian singer, actor and dancer. Eilish grew up in Los Angeles to a family of actors and musicians, and like her brother and fellow musician Finneas O’Connell she was home schooled. At eight years old she joined the Los Angeles Children’s Choir where she would develop her soulful vocals. Her first releases of music was when she was barely a teenager. These were her first two singles, Six Feet Under and Fingers Crossed. Following their release Eilish got her big break with the single Ocean Eyes which was produced and co-written with her brother. It would acquire fourteen million streams online as well as a number of remixes. Some of the well noted remixes included those by Astronomyy Blackbear and Goldhouse. Since then she has also received attention from various websites such as Stereogum and Purple Sneakers. She has also recorded a cover of Frank Ocean’s song Thinkin Bout You in 2015. At the moment she is focussing the production of her music, writing songs and enjoying her time as a teenager, but she has recently released her latest single Bellyache, and a music video for it may not be too far away.

The music Eilish releases can best be described as a cross between an earthy sounding style of folk and electro-pop, giving it a very experimental indie feel. She is also developing her own image as a young musician. One of her other big interests is fashion and she has said that she enjoys wearing clothing that is unique and different from what is on trend. In terms of comparisons to other artists she has a very similar voice and low key indie sound like fellow American songstress Lana Del Rey and New Zealand’s Lorde. As inspiration for lyrics Eilish has also said she likes to imagine herself as different characters in almost impossible situations. Belly Ache is a primary example of this. Her older brother is currently a member of the indie-rock band The Slightlys. One thing that needs to be remembered is her age, at only fifteen she has an idea of who she wants to be as not just a musician but as an artist as well.

Bellyache is her first release of 2017 and it contains a smooth folk sound which displays Eilish’s amazing vocals as well as some bass driven electro-pop to offer a contrast in the song. This is also used to create a feeling of tension and panic which can be heard in Eilish’s voice. Her voice is the focal point in the song, but it is great how the folk rhythm and electronic sound work around it perfectly. The folk sound doesn’t overpower her voice at all but it still compliments it in a very nice way, and when the electro-pop kicks in it a pleasant surprise as well as a welcome change of pace. Eilish has said that Bellyache is about guilt and that feeling you get when you have done something bad but you just don’t seem to care. In this song she takes on the perspective role of a psychopath. Some inspiration for this song also came from horror films which she is a big fan of. The song reflects Eilish’s creativity and it is based around the insane things that we all do for love. Her use of imagery and description is something really special in this song. This is probably best shown in her lyrics ‘They’ll be here pretty soon, lookin’ through my room, for the money, I’m bitin’ my nails, I’m too young to go to jail, it’s kind of funny’. The best word to describe the song would be dark. What Billie has been able to do is create a spooky horror film like story which is supported by an eerie guitar sound which builds up to a manic burst of electro-pop. She really has set the mood brilliantly and it is something that she deserves a lot of praise for.

Bellyache is one of those songs that really needs a listen simply because of the amount of outstanding creative concepts that are hidden within it. From the creative and well thought out story that the lyrics tell, to the contrast between the folk guitar and electronic snippets, this song really shows Eilish’s musical creativity at its finest. Eilish has put a lot of thought in to this song, and what she has produced is a song which could fit in to any sort of horror film or thriller.

At the moment Billie Eilish could probably be best described as one of the front runners in the next generation of up and coming musicians. Music and performance seems to run in her family and she really has been blessed with incredible talent. In the coming years you can probably expect to see a lot more of her, and her growth as a musical artist is definitely something to keep an eye on. We could very well be looking at the future of female indie artists in Billie Eilish.

Influences: Horror films

Why we love it: Fresh sound, incredible contrast, fascinating lyrics

Facebook • Twitter • BUY IT

By Kieren

#folk #electropop #horror

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mmgnews · 4 years ago

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Billie Eilish and Finneas Recreate NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Set for At-Home Performance

With many, including the NPR Music staff, working from home, musicians have been recording themselves performing the iconic Tiny Desk sets themselves. Whether it’s been in their homes or in the Caribbean, fans have been treated to a variety of looks in the series.

But Billie Eilish and Finneas brought us back to tradition — kind of. In the latest episode of Tiny Desk at-home, they are seen…

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jessicakmatt · 5 years ago

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Why New Gear Doesn’t Always Spark Inspiration

Why New Gear Doesn’t Always Spark Inspiration: via LANDR Blog

NAMM 2020 is finally behind us and the latest technology at the industry’s biggest trade show is creating a ton of excitement.

If you follow a lot of music producers on social media, you’ve probably seen a lot of flashy new gear on your feed lately.

If you’re an instrumentalist or a sound engineer yourself, maybe you even got a little envious. You pictured how far you could get in your career if you just had all the equipment you’ve ever wanted.

So many musicians, especially those of us who are technology-oriented, can get fixated on owning new gear.

Some of us think new equipment automatically breathes new life into our music. Sometimes it can.

Sometimes you might try a new audio effect and feel like it’s a breath of fresh air. This doesn’t always mean that the latest and best gear will lead us to the highest quality music we’ve ever created, though.

Everyone is obsessed with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS’s intimate creative space nowadays. It’s a room in their house with no sound absorption panels in sight.

They still record, write and produce in that very room. Kind of surprising yet inspiring at the same time, isn’t it?

From the way FINNEAS talks about their setup, it’s obvious that all he cares about is having the tools he needs within his reach.

Essentials vs excess

I’ve been walking the thin line of deciding between what’s essential and what’s excess in my home studio for a while now.

I see the new Valhalla Delay, and I want to get it, but with so many other amazing delay plugins I own already, I can’t justify purchasing it.

Still, the temptation I feel is not so different from that of a little kid in a giant candy store. On the other hand, I find following the updates in music technology genuinely inspiring, too.

The recent announcement of UAD’s console/DAW hybrid LUNA is especially exciting.

I’m almost giddy thinking about how much this program could increase the sonic detail of my takes and streamline my recording process.

There’s a healthy middle ground between the essentials and excess, just like there is one between rejuvenation and hindrance.

Learning a new instrument or purchasing your dream microphone can get you excited to create. But obsessing about how your music is going to sound when you buy your dream gear can hold you back.

Essentials can lead to happy accidents

When Skrillex took over the music industry a decade ago with his aggressive sound, many sound engineers called him out.

They claimed his masters sounded like they were clipping and suddenly, he was a proclaimed front runner in the loudness war.

Today, we know he was onto something. We’ve gotten used to grittier sounds over the years and Skrillex has undoubtedly played a huge role in that.

I keep coming back to this video where he breaks down how he followed a strategy that many would have called “insane” back in the day.

He describes how he has created an organic synth out of Justin Bieber’s voice for “Where Are U Now.” by degrading its sonic quality.

Skrillex can certainly afford to work out of a state-of-the-art studio today, but it’s clear that he doesn’t always feel the need to do so.

Inventions beyond music tech

Resisting the temptation to purchase new plugins has already done wonders for my music this year.

Drawing inspiration from new gear is complicated. On one hand, you can get carried away going on a shopping spree.

On the other, if you don’t open yourself up to new tools, your approach can get stale in a long music career.

There are several artists out there who are known for re-inventing themselves for this very reason. Björk is one of them. In fact, she has gone as far as commissioning several new instruments for her recent albums.

And it’s not all that surprising when you think about it. After experimenting with so many arrangements, she must have wondered, “what else is there?”

There are five instruments that were specifically designed for “Biophilia” alone. One of the most prominent instruments on the album, gameleste, can be heard all over the single, “Crystalline”.

More recently, Björk has taken it even further by offering the handmade birdcall flutes featured on her album, “Utopia” in a box set. Now her fans can get one step closer to hearing the album from Björk’s point of view.

My New Year’s resolution

The list of every piece of equipment I want in my studio continues to grow. But my biggest revelation of the year so far is to expose myself to the “new” in moderation.

I’ve discovered that sometimes being an observer alone is enough to inspire me.

I don’t think I’ll unsubscribe from the mailing lists of my favorite music companies anytime soon. However, resisting the temptation to purchase new plugins has already done wonders for my music this year.

As I’m surrounded by distractions, I value the moments where I’m laser-focused on my craft now more than ever.

The post Why New Gear Doesn’t Always Spark Inspiration appeared first on LANDR Blog.

from LANDR Blog https://blog.landr.com/new-gear-inspiration/ via https://www.youtube.com/user/corporatethief/playlists from Steve Hart https://stevehartcom.tumblr.com/post/190952865359

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mastcomm · 5 years ago

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A Bond Theme Suits Billie Eilish Quite Well

Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, famously recorded her megaselling, multi-Grammy-winning debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” by themselves in Finneas’s childhood bedroom. The songs they made there conjure an even more tightly claustrophobic space: Eilish’s music sounds like it’s taking place within the quivering confines of a single anxious mind.

But midway through her latest single, “No Time to Die,” the swell of a full orchestra and the smoke rings of a moody guitar riff open into something more panoramic — and familiar — than we’ve heard from her before. The orchestral part was composed by Hans Zimmer, and the riff is played by the former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who collaborated on the score for “No Time to Die,” the forthcoming 25th James Bond movie.

The track makes the 18-year-old Eilish the youngest artist ever to record a Bond theme, the latest in a string of achievements that has made the precocious Gen-Z-er a regular fixture on the Guinness World Records blog. But “No Time to Die” also comes during a monthlong stretch that has felt a bit like a mainstream debutante ball for the young superstar, who until very recently was better known by her fellow teens than their parents. The Grammys changed that; Eilish’s subsequent performance at the Oscars two weeks later cemented the feeling that she was suddenly everywhere. (She crooned a solemn, tasteful cover of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” during the ceremony’s ultra-decorous In Memoriam segment.) In between those two busy weekends, she was revealed as the cover star of the latest issue of Vogue.

Unlike her generational cohort of anarchic SoundCloud rappers and sartorially sex-positive pop stars, Eilish has the kind of talent that is easily understood and praised by the old guard: She writes her own songs, she redirects the gaze from the shape of her body with oversized silhouettes, she has a voice that, while whispery and strange, is still classically lovely. The 56-year-old Marr summed up this sentiment on the red carpet at the Brit Awards on Tuesday. “Billie’s just the best new, I don’t want to say pop act, but it’s great when someone that cool is that popular, individual and a lot of people can relate to her,” he said. “I know a great musician when I see one.”

At the same time, the ever-expressive Eilish has a way of telegraphing a certain reluctance at becoming the next-gen poster girl of pop culture’s most time-tested institutions. Just before clinching the Grammy for album of the year — the win that completed her sweep of the big four categories, making her the first woman and youngest person ever to do so — she could be seen on-camera whispering, “Please don’t be me, please.” (A tweet captured the moment: “Billie Eilish being genuinely disgusted by her own success is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen at a major awards show.”)

At the Oscars, she was even less comfortable in her sanctioned role of Ambassador to the Youth. In an interview with Zane Lowe the day after the show, she told him that she’d been sick on Oscar night and felt that she had “bombed” her performance: “That [expletive] was trash.”

She added, “It was also, like, the Oscars is not my people. I’m not used to that.” She said as much wordlessly when the camera cut to her during an absurdist bit by the comedians Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig. Eilish’s reaction shot of cartoonish befuddlement instantly went viral. “If OK Boomer were a face,” wrote one Twitter user, “Billie Eilish just nailed it.”

She has also pushed back vehemently against those who commend her for covering up her body. “The positive comments about how I dress have this slut-shaming element,” she said in a V Magazine interview last summer. “Like, ‘I am so glad that you’re dressing like a boy, so other girls can dress like boys, so that they aren’t sluts.’ That’s basically what it sounds like to me. And I can’t overstate how strongly I do not appreciate that, at all.”

Eilish’s Bond theme, though, might be the Boomer-approved role she’s embraced with the most straightforward enthusiasm. “We’ve been wanting to make a Bond song for years,” she told the BBC this week.

Macabre and elegant, “No Time to Die” proves that — despite the fact that the franchise has existed for 39 more years than Eilish has — there is quite a bit of overlap between the aesthetics of Billie and Bond. Her vocal has her characteristic focused intensity, but as the strings swell toward the climactic ending, Eilish rises to belt a note that is showier than anything on her debut album. When she hit it during her transfixing performance alongside Finneas, Zimmer and Marr at the Brit Awards, the crowd went wild.

As more opportunities and accolades inevitably come her way, time will tell which pop-star traditions Eilish will wholeheartedly welcome, which she’ll rework in her own style and which she’ll reject with her signature side-eye. Given that the past two Bond themes — by Adele and Sam Smith — have earned their artists Oscars, it’s quite possible that Eilish will be invited back among the movie stars next year. Maybe we’ll get another “please don’t be me” moment right before her name is called. Or maybe by then Eilish will have had a chance to make more sense of the surreal dream that has suddenly become her life.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/a-bond-theme-suits-billie-eilish-quite-well/

#Entertainment

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