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Mayhem Reloaded: The Re-Up (with ZEE MACHINE & DJ John Michael)
218 Plays26 days ago
Zee Machine and DJ John Michael are back to further process our feelings about Lady Gaga's latest masterpiece, "Mayhem." We reflect on our first reactions now that we have had a week to digest the project and see where our favorite moments from the album are currently sitting. We also take a moment to talk about Chappell Roan's highly anticipated "The Giver" as well as JADE's latest offering "FUFN."
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:17
Speaker
introducing my friends hole oh ladies and gentlemen yeah
00:00:27
Speaker
ah so good okay welcome back to homophonic everybody we are just giggling about some hole pics you know You know, celebrity skin.
New Amphitheater and Tour Potential
00:00:41
Speaker
Celebrity skin. Celebrity skin. Well, we also have a new amphitheater opening up. So when you ah go on tour, maybe you can stop here What's the capacity?
Biggest Show and Audience Reactions
00:00:52
Speaker
am trying to remember. it's It's been a controversial build because it's like being built next to the river. It's like beautiful It looks like it's going to be a beautiful venue. Anyway, I don't remember how many people. Not me like asking like realistically for booking. You're like 20,000? If it's more than 300, never mind.
00:01:10
Speaker
What's the biggest show that you've played? Um, how you know, weirdly, it might have been um omaha Pride. oh yeah. Yeah, it was literally in like an arena.
00:01:22
Speaker
And like the whole floor was filled out. um it was it was there's a I have a video. It's like a whole crowd shot where it like pulls out and I'm like, oh wow. So that was that was events. Right. Yeah. Those those were big. the The one the biggest we've like sold out like a ticketed event ah probably either the London or the L.A. Tears and Gears workshop. It was like we sold like almost 250 each.
00:01:45
Speaker
I mean, for each show, not each not
Queerities Experience and Social Media Impact
00:01:47
Speaker
each person. And not that this is like we're going to pivot to just being an interview about you. But I want to ask a question specifically is do you find that there that the people in the UK react differently to your music than Americans?
00:01:58
Speaker
um ah Sort of. ah it was It was weird because we promoted that one differently. We were actually... There was a booker and and event promoter who um reached out to us and he and he was the one who promoted this show and set it up. and So the meet and greet was different. and So it kind of had a little different vibe to it. like like we For the US shows, we did 10 VIP tickets max.
00:02:24
Speaker
With here, it was like anyone who wants to buy meet and greet gets two. wow. And so we had like... 40 people by the london meet and greet um so so it felt it felt different it maybe felt more intense because like we aren't there as much or ever um so that that was cool um but yeah so it was just it was just set up a little differently so it's hard to compare We got to get Bentley on here, too.
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it so it was just a lot of it's a lot of coordinating schedules. But he he when I told him I was on um last week, he was like, oh, my God, why? did Why can't I? Why wouldn't you let me be on? He's like, we tried, girl. yes We tried. Is he in New York? He is in New York. he i don't understand. He's actually on a plane flying back to New York right now.
00:03:06
Speaker
Right. I need to. Bentley, a we're sending out an APB right now. Yeah. Come on, Bentley. What the fuck? Wait, hold on. You guys were also at the Queerities. Yeah. Yes. So he was nominated and performed. How was it?
00:03:17
Speaker
It was a really, really good time.
Music Nostalgia and Discovery
00:03:19
Speaker
it's This is my my third year going. um You know what? World of Wonder or whoever plans this, Queerty, why do I have to beg for an invite? I'm a nominee. I'm a former nominee.
00:03:33
Speaker
i was the inaugural nominee for that category. were ah lost with chapel rhone so no anyway no but but last year i was um lucy la duca from drag races plus stop was cute and then this year i just reached out to a friend who was on the organizing team was like look i never do this but can i please go um and so i got to uh walk the carpet with bentley that was a good time um you know ah every every anyone like gay famous you can think of was probably there yeah um it was at a new venue it was a really good time yeah
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, it looked like a lot of fun. I have made carousels before about being like, why the hell have I not been nominated for? You know, that actually is wild. i will try to i don't know what if I have any push or pull. Oh, you know what? I do know a few of the journalists who work for them. I can see if I can, you know,
00:04:20
Speaker
I mean, I feel like a lot of it has to do with like, I feel like a lot of it has to do with management. Like I don't have a manager or So like, or I don't have PR. I mean, i found out I was nominated by getting a DM from Queer T on Instagram.
00:04:34
Speaker
Like no warning. but Yeah. I don't know. It was literally just, there was someone who worked there. who i think I think that the um breakthrough artist was a new category that year. And I just was lucky enough to have someone on the on their team who was vouching for me.
00:04:52
Speaker
It was like there are so many other artists who were like could have easily been in my spot. um So it was just, you know,
Song Creation and Post-Release Reflections
00:04:58
Speaker
good luck. Good timing. Wait, so I'm literally after, I guess, as you've been posting these things on social media, the clips from the show, I get a slack yesterday from someone, from this kid John that I work with, and he's just like, not you post not you showing up on my timeline in an interview with Z Machine. I was like,
00:05:15
Speaker
oh no i was like i work with you i was like and z's more famous than i am now i was like here we go oh my god he was like i love him he's like fuck shit up is always on my my workout playlist we'll tell him if he's listening hi yes or or you know say hi for me i guess thank you that is a good workout song yeah yeah i just yeah actually no i just listened to that for the first time like in a long time last week and it was like oh you know what Okay, i write not too bad. I hate that I do that too because sometimes I put out stuff and I'm like, this isn't it this isn't really that good, whatever. And then three years I go back and I'm like, you know what no what? Maybe she does know what she's doing. Yeah, it's like you get you get tired of your own stuff because you have it's like by the time it comes out, you've heard it a thousand times.
00:05:56
Speaker
I was going to ask, like, how when you're making a song, how how many times do you think you listen to it before you finally release the final mix? I have to walk away. i Yeah, I mean, like, literally, i mean, when I say a thousand times, that's probably exaggerating. i would say probably at least a hundred.
00:06:12
Speaker
easy yeah Yeah. Especially in the in like the mixing process. yeah yeah like yeah Your ear starts to go crazy. You start hearing things you've never heard before. there and and then when you're on that final mix, that you'll hear one tiny little pop or one tiny little like like ah volume discrepancy that you just...
00:06:29
Speaker
for some reason missed every other time and you feel like a crazy person asking the mixing engineer to please go in and change that and even though gonna like just go back in the studio and i feel so bad because i'm such a people pleaser but but i know and i try to convince myself i can let it slide but then i listen to it again it just sticks out like a sore thumb and so it's just you go crazy and then you just want to put it away forever Yeah. And then you put it out and you never listen to it again. you But then everyone else is like, oh my God. And it's like, oh God, I'm happy for you, I guess.
00:06:55
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm so glad that you like it, but that hi-hat is missing still. Yeah. It's like, yeah.
Lady Gaga's Music Evolution
00:07:00
Speaker
It's like, can't you tell? but What do you mean? I hate this song. Yeah. Oh, that's incredible.
00:07:07
Speaker
i wonder how Gaga feels about Mayhem being out now for a week. Right? oh right I mean, she seems like she's having a really good time. Nice pivot, by the way. um She seems like she's having a really good time with this one.
00:07:19
Speaker
um Every interview, she seems like so in her body. The last Culturistas interview is maybe one of the best interviews I've seen in a long time. Yeah, i just I just wish it was longer.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yes. same like I wish it was like the length of a Howard Stern interview, but with the fan fan level of Las Culturistas. Yeah. And I'm sorry, like if you're not coming, if you have the chance to interview these people and you're not coming with that type of stuff, because I mean, look, I think the three of us.
00:07:48
Speaker
watch a lot of interviews from all of our favorites. And it gets so like when it like I share as a person that's perfect for this. They ask her now because she's in her 70s and she's had this illustrious career, the exact same like seven questions over and over again.
00:08:02
Speaker
So you've had a number one hit song in seven decades. What's that feel like you mean What does it feel like? Check her bank account. It feels great. So surface level. Right. yeah And it's so like, I think of that interview that they did on genius with Mariah Carey, where they like really went in depth with her songwriting.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, that was cool. That is the type of interview I want to see. The last culture East is Lady Gaga. That is the type of interview I want to see. Like, When you see the little monster press conference and they're like, what did you whisper in Ariana Grande's ear? Oh my God. That's what I want to see. I feel like those were the best questions they've ever asked her.
00:08:34
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Was that also, I feel very validated by her saying that born this way is her favorite album. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Correct. And i I will say outside of mayhem, when I look back now amongst the catalog, it feels like the most Gaga album to me. Yeah.
00:08:51
Speaker
Mayhem or Born This Way. Gotcha. yeah Yeah. Yeah. That was, it was, i don't know. Like like that born, heads up, Born This Way is my favorite album of all time. So I don't know. It's just.
00:09:02
Speaker
yeah I love that. That's a real fight. Controversial, you praise. I feel like they're, and honestly, it is the closest thing to a no skip album of that length that I can think of for me.
00:09:16
Speaker
I love that. Wait, okay, so here's a question, because i oftentimes feel like that there's a lot of studies being done about music and nostalgia and, like, being a certain age, and, like, that's a kind of, like, when you develop your taste or, like, whatnot. I think I know where you're going. How old were you when this album came out?
00:09:31
Speaker
Guess. I want to guess the age that Born This Way came out. It came out in 2011. Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, what's the age that what's the age that people say you you like?
00:09:44
Speaker
ah i wast it Was it like 12? Oh, no. Oh, wow. No. I try not to reveal my age too much, but I was 21. Okay. Okay.
00:09:55
Speaker
I love that. Okay. Wow. A little youngin'. Okay, you're 10 years younger than me. Got it. Got it. uh i'm not not great at math but yes yeah i guess if you were 21 then i think i was 31 then okay yeah so yeah it was like my first year like going out like to the clubs and stuff like that so that was yeah the music of that era really imprinted right oh absolutely yeah for sure and i mean that but that that time period was really magical for music i mean this is femme fatale yeah is this is born this like
00:10:27
Speaker
Come on. We had Adele. I mean, was 21 came out that year. Goddamn. What a fucking rollercoaster year. Jesus. Yeah. um But now that Mayhem has been out for a week, I mean, we did an episode to kind of reflect, you know, give our kind of initial reactions. We recorded it like 12 hours upon release. Yeah. Yeah. we were is It was fresh.
00:10:48
Speaker
It was very fresh. And now we've had time to marinate on it. And let me tell you what, have I been marinating it? It's almost exclusively what I've listened to this entire week.
00:10:59
Speaker
Well, and let me tell everybody else for the for the listeners at home that um the three of us have been on a group text. Oh, a little bit before the first episode. And it has been this entire week of us just like sending pictures and clips in this. And it's just like, what's your favorite song today? This is the and it's it's been how bad you want me moved up one slot. It's been the gayest group chat that I've been on in like.
00:11:22
Speaker
all my life it's been fantastic yes literally i think that i think that i because i think in the last episode i said that how bad do you want me was in my top five i i would say zombie boy is now replaced how bad do you want me in my top five okay the bridge of zombie boy you know what it reminds me of do either of you remember alpha beat oh yeah alpha beat uh i know the name They were, they were like, i popular might be, might be generous, but like they were, they I think they're from Denmark, pop group.
00:11:55
Speaker
And they did they did a cover of Gaga's telephone and bad romance, like a mashup. They released it as a cover and they called it, I think the monster mashup or something.
00:12:06
Speaker
And then anyway, they're super pop group, very fun. Anyway, they're that the bridge of Zombie Boy is very much in like the style of kind of like their biggest hits. Oh yeah. Check that out. And so, yeah.
00:12:18
Speaker
and And so I like did a little rabbit hole revisiting them yesterday actually because of because of that. i was like what is this reminding me of? But well yeah. And it's so funny too, because like for anybody who is unaware of who I am, I work at Peloton. I'm obviously a DJ, producer music programming. So I work on the music team at Peloton. And so anytime that there's a huge release,
00:12:35
Speaker
That's all we do is just sit around and just talk about it and analyze it and whatever. And so I went into work because I was out this week and for the first time saw my team and we were talking about mayhem. And um it's so funny because like when you've, I find that when you've been talking with specifically mostly gay people about a release like a Gaga, it's one thing. And then when I go and I talk about it with a majority straight people, I'm like,
00:13:02
Speaker
You are not my people. No, I'm like you you maybe don't understand me as much as I thought you did and no there's no shade at all, but it's like it's a very very different conversation and Sometimes they people have strong opinions. and I'm like Lindsay Lohan and Mean Girls wrong.
00:13:17
Speaker
So wrong. No, so wrong so so wrong So wrong in my brain and I'm like, oh wow, okay. Yeah, yeah, it is um I will say and like, you know, I try to you know keep my own opinions as you know as mine as I can right um but hearing ah Mayhem be discussed on like different podcasts and like reading different reviews about it.
00:13:37
Speaker
This has been very acclaimed. And um ah honestly, i was not expecting that. Like I was listening to this. I'm like, I love this. I like that. It's giving us a little bit of everything. I'm not sure how this is going to go over.
00:13:50
Speaker
It gets an eight from Pitchfork. Oh, wow. I didn't like that. Yeah. Give it eight. Like every it's pretty much but like every major platform has has been like, this is the best thing she's done in over 10 years.
00:14:01
Speaker
So here's the other thing that I realized listening to this album. And and I think it's also in the the recency of Cowboy Carter and Renaissance and all that other stuff. What I've realized and even with Madonna, too,
00:14:12
Speaker
um Because they're artists that have such a POV on their music, on their life, on their politics, on everything that they stand for. i i I don't know if it's me being a DJ either that I tend to have like a recency bias when it comes to stuff.
00:14:29
Speaker
But yeah when I think of Renaissance and Cowboy Carter and I think about, you know, i Mayhem and Chromatica, while I love and it is iconic, the early Beyonce, Crazy in Love, Baby Boy, all those other bangers.
00:14:44
Speaker
And the same thing with Gaga, Just Dance, Monster, Bad Romance, yada,
Streaming's Impact on Music and Nostalgia
00:14:48
Speaker
yada, yada. There is something about getting to what I feel is the full evolution of their POV, their voice, their creative talents that I don't know, just draws me more to the more recent projects because like even on Mayhem, yes, of course there's throwbacks. Yes, of course I hear all of the the different, you know,
00:15:10
Speaker
her reaching out in different ways to different moments of her career. But it feels like such an evolved version musically that I'm like, I don't know, this is this might be like, i think Zach, you said it, top three Gaga albums for me. Because right now, Mayhem and Chromatica are really like two of my favorite albums as a complete work of hers.
00:15:30
Speaker
And I love all the other stuff, but I feel the same way about Cowboy Carter and Renaissance. I very rarely go back to most things before, like the four era. Yeah. I mean, if that feel, it feels like a completely different artist.
00:15:41
Speaker
right it's Right. Right. yeah And that's what I mean. So it's like, you know, yeah, you hear the party hits like what love what Zach, what you had said on the Madonna episode about how you don't really revisit Madonna's 80s stuff because you're going to hear it everywhere.
00:15:52
Speaker
I feel that way about. Right. But it's true. Like, and I feel that borderline aside, because that's my favorite Madonna song. Yeah. Like all of that other stuff. I very rarely listen to.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah. Very rarely. Yeah. But I'm like, i will I still put on the Madame X album? I was going to say as i was going to say the Madame shirt. i just And I put it on specifically for all of your people, Zach, that are in the comments talking shit about Madame X. They are just dragging her for filth right now. Because we had put out as part of an episode, ah one of the social media posts was like, what's the worst Madonna song? Because someone actually had DMed me being like, what's Madonna's worst song?
00:16:28
Speaker
And so we were kind of discussing it on the podcast. Yeah. And so we put it as a social media clip and people have opinions. My God, it's crazy. And I, there are some wrong opinions. yeah We were talking about right before you jumped on. see Absolutely. There are some wrong opinions. Someone said secret was one of her worst songs.
00:16:46
Speaker
oo Girl, what are we doing anymore? Secret. I was like, um... No. and that's fact That is categorically false. Wrong. So wrong. You know what? Y'all will be either proud or appalled.
00:16:58
Speaker
um I listened to, oh my god, ah Bedtime Stories for the first time ever last week. Yay! We welcome. We welcome. Oh my gosh, how did you feel?
00:17:10
Speaker
I was like, oh, this is different. But I liked it. And then I started listening to... um Because, okay, so Erotica, Bedtime Stories, that's an era of Madonna I just had not really ever visited. um Like, I knew the hits,
Madonna's Vocal Journey
00:17:22
Speaker
but that's about it. But I listened to them as as an album. I'm going have to, like...
00:17:26
Speaker
marinating that for a little bit but i enjoyed it yeah and and to and for the listeners who might be gobsmacked flabbergasted by this revelation you lived overseas for quite some time in your youth yeah yeah the the first time I ever heard of Madonna was music Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, you were also. yeah Yeah, that makes sense to me. Because you lived in. Was it I lived in Beijing for um for nine years.
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah. So you had you had not really had that exposure to her. I i didn't really have like pop radio.
00:18:02
Speaker
In my, like, you know, universe ah growing up until the my first real experience with, like, pop culture in real time was around, like, 99, I would say. And I bought, like, a, no, that's what I call music. Good time to get into pop culture. Not bad, yeah.
00:18:17
Speaker
Like, i remember I remember, like, Spice Girls, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys happening around that time. And then I moved to China. Yeah. Okay. Okay. yeah So that makes sense.
00:18:28
Speaker
I think on, on bedtime stories, um, forbidden love is one of my favorite Madonna songs that we don't talk about enough. Yeah. That's a beautiful song. that I mean, i would love, Oh, that would be so interesting to discover those albums for the first time now. Right.
00:18:43
Speaker
That would be really interesting because they're very nineties. mean, yes it is, yeah it is very nineties R and B, which is my personal favorite. Um, But, I mean, it's just, i to me, the Bedtime Stories album, to me, the production is very lush. Her voice sounds great. I think that she's constantly being berated for being a bad singer. I personally disagree.
00:19:06
Speaker
yeah and And I think that Bedtime Stories is a great album that shows that. I think Ray of Light is a great album that shows that. Yeah. And well, I feel like it's also like the everything that happened, like for Ray of Light, she was at her vocally her strongest because of all the work she had to do for Evita.
00:19:22
Speaker
Like in the only way that she was able to do that role was I think that was I don't know if it was part of her contract or something, but she either way. um remember her going into the studio and they had to like really tell her how to support i into that role. Sing better. I actually knew the Evita version of her before I knew most of her music.
00:19:38
Speaker
I believe that. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that because it was a big deal when that happened.
Lady Gaga's 'Mayhem' Album
00:19:42
Speaker
It was. yeah And that was a project that was also in the works for quite some time. like Because i want I remember her, I think, talking about wanting to be a part of it or potentially being attached to it in like the early 90s. She lobbied hard for that. yeah yeah yeah yeah um But anyway, speaking of Madonna, back to Gaga.
00:20:04
Speaker
what do yeah What are you guys' thoughts on Mayhem now that we've had a week out? my My rankings have changed a little bit. there i I've, you know, the stats and like the streams.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah. The on repeat on Spotify doesn't lie. ah There are some that I pull it up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Same. Oh, yeah. Same. Wait, you have that. feet Wait, what is this? on repeat If you type into your search and just type on repeat, Spotify has a playlist of all the songs that you've listened to the most recently.
00:20:32
Speaker
yeah or Yeah, kind of like, is and some will like kind of linger longer. They like they don't always like, oh, wow, well Gaga's not actually my number one right now. Relationships by Haim is my number one Work, I still haven't listened to it. Oh, my God, I love it. I love I love it.
00:20:49
Speaker
I love I'll just like end up like hyper fixating on like one song. It's not really necessarily how I feel about it in comparison to Mayhem. I did not. i'm I'm apparently listening to other songs that I didn't realize more than others, even though they're I would rank them differently. But apparently my Spotify is calling me out as a liar. And my number one track right now is How Bad Do You Want Me? oh Wow. Okay. That one has gone up in my ranking. Wow. Yeah, I will say that one's gone up.
00:21:16
Speaker
it's um right now it says shadow of a man is still my highest ranked one but number two that is my i mean my hang on my list has disease is still my number one like just favorite favorite um but i think love drug is my number two just in my heart i love that you've been you've been kind of campaigning for love drug you know what it it sounds like uh I feel like such a douchebag. It sounds like a song i would write.
00:21:46
Speaker
No, but it does. does It absolutely does. It's just it's just such it's just so solid. I don't know how else to to explain it. Like just like every section of the song is like. The hooks feel correct. The production is very it just I don't know. It hits that serotonin spot in in my brain. it It's got.
00:22:05
Speaker
um Oh, also, someone pointed out yesterday, I was like, oh shit, the I don't want to feel that. It sounds like it felt so wrong. felt so right. i don't want to be in I didn't even catch that.
00:22:19
Speaker
Wait. Yeah. Why am I blanking on what song that is? I kissed a girl.
00:22:25
Speaker
i love that. I
Bonus Tracks and Album Flow
00:22:27
Speaker
love that. Which, hey, great song. Whatever. Right. you know but I just love in Love Drug how it's sort of like the first in the chorus. some I'm going to want to feel whatever. I just need a hit of your love drug. And then how she does the second bit with the your love drug. Yeah, hope is so.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah, just me. Oh, no, it's yeah, but the um the the melody construction of that sits really nicely in my brain and my ear.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah, well, according to Spotify, and I'm going to call bullshit on some of this because i I go back and forth with listening to the album in my Dropbox because of the two extra songs and then onto Spotify when I don't have that.
00:23:09
Speaker
But it looks like it's How Bad Do You Want Me, Shadow of a Man, Zombie Boy, Abracadabra, and then Love Drug. I'd love that. That's the top five right now. I have a major FOMO right now because Apple Music, at least to my knowledge, does not do this. But you get to put the bonus tracks on there.
00:23:27
Speaker
I do. So I can brag about that. can brag about that. Let's celebrate that. You're not going to like my thoughts on those this week. Oh, no! Because let me tell you what.
00:23:38
Speaker
Let me tell you what. We know. We can't stop Zach from talking about can't stop the high. I don't know what broke in my brain. i don't know like what kind of mental illness I have right now. But like when I listen to that song, I have to listen to it three times in a row.
00:23:55
Speaker
And I feel like I'm in Coyote Ugly. Like, I'm not kidding when I just made that. man i don't know if you saw the meme, but i I'm not kidding. I feel like I'm in Coyote Ugly. I'm pouring water all over myself. I'm about, ah again, like I just, I'm obsessed. I don't know why.
00:24:06
Speaker
i can't put my finger on it still on what it reminds me You don't need I don't need to know why. You're right. You're right. and i did so And I did send this in the group chat, and I'm saying this right now. I'm going to say it into your face. That I have not listened to a song this much on repeat than your own song, the radio.
00:24:23
Speaker
Like, I'm not even kidding. And knowing how feral you're going for this one, that's quite the compliment. So thank you. But, and wow, okay. yeah And I feel like these two might be further up on my list if I was able to listen to them, like, easier. Honestly, same. I feel like if Can't Stop the High was was after, like...
00:24:41
Speaker
I don't know, don't call the night or something like that. I think I would appreciate it a lot more just because like, I feel like I have the opposite of recency bias, which is like, if I, if I hear so like an album one time, it doesn't really like, I could never review music because i need to sit with something for like a week before I can really know how I fully feel about it.
00:25:02
Speaker
Yeah. And, and so just like, that's why I feel like after reviewing this album after 12 hours was just not, giving a credit yeah and and like and not having these songs in the context of the of the um track order is really not doing them uh service because now in my mind i'm thinking it's like oh these are the offshoots and these are like castoffs like sure so that so i have this this like voice my brain being like these weren't good enough to make the album and i feel like i might feel differently if they were in the context of like two songs i like Well, this might, i don't know if this would change your brain or not. Change your brain. yeah oh Please, please change my brain. But on the CDs, so the physical versions themselves, yeah which I purchased legally. I'm going to try to purchase it because I just i just got a CD player like two days after you recorded.
00:25:45
Speaker
obsessed I love that. for Specifically for this. I mean, no I don't know why. what No, because I found my old CD case from high school. That's fun. Okay, we need to dive into that in a second. It's crazy. It's so straightforward. I can't wait. I can't wait.
00:25:58
Speaker
but um So on the seed on the web store CD, which has Can't Stop the High, it's tracked it's track five. So comes right after Purp. celebrity and so I put that in my playlist right after Netflix. it's interesting Interesting. Yeah it's great and kind of makes sense because she's kind of talking about being a perfect celebrity you know and she's like ah trying to find that like balance between being herself and then the celebrity that we all know and and everything and then going into Can't Stop the High which Can't Stop the High is about her kind of just like living in this high of life being and you know and and after the context of perfect celebrity it's like oh yeah like you're living this like high life of everyone knowing you and you're the life of the party
Influences in Songwriting
00:26:41
Speaker
and everyone wants to be with you and uh it's a great flow between the two that's so interesting i mean not that i'm to you know
00:26:50
Speaker
question Lady Gaga's artistic choices. I almost feel like those two are like like, like if I were like constructing like a live set order or something like that, those two feel like really similar sonically in a way. Like they're both kind of that electro grunge, mixolydian mode.
00:27:08
Speaker
type of thing so i i would have put it after something that feels different because i love it when there's just like variety you can space it out so you don't get you don't get overloaded with one sound right too much in one spot because then it just starts to feel lopsided i'm really talking with my hands a lot which is great for podcast ah But yeah, okay, okay. I also saw a version where it was like track number like 12 or 13 or something. Oh, interesting. maybe it was Kill for Love. I don't know. Well, Kill for Love, i believe, on on that physical CD comes right before Shadow of a Man.
00:27:39
Speaker
Oh, that's on the CD too? Uh-huh. Oh, I didn't realize. Okay, and you know what i am I'm going to order this right now. and it's on It's on the Target CD. so yeah because Target?
00:27:50
Speaker
Right. Who goes there? It's on the Chick-fil-A CD. um No, it's like... Lobby Lobby edition. Right. Like for me, like I've never been, what do they call it? Vinyl file? ah Vinyl head?
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Sure. Anyway. i So like... and Why not? like So like I've just been like, you know, I'm more of a CD collector. And so you can kind of see my CDs below me. But um I used to have like nearly a thousand at one point. It was insane.
00:28:19
Speaker
As I sit here with my Danny Minogue. de luck yeah I love that. Oh my gosh. Justice for Danny. Justice for Danny. Justice for Danny. But what were your thoughts on Kill for Love?
00:28:30
Speaker
Me? yeah oh oh i didn't know sorry didn't know no it's it's definitely still one of my favorites and i was gonna say you know because of spotify being what it is i think that kill for love would probably be somewhere in that top five if it was because when i do go to my dropbox a lot of times i start there and i'll listen to that a few times and then i'll move on to something else but yeah i i absolutely love it i'm i'm going to continue to manifest that there is a version of this in the future that comes out, whether it's a deluxe, whether it's a, what did they do that thing for, for Britney's glory when they added mood ring and it was like mood ring by demand. oh yeah yeah I want it to be like kill for love by demand. Well, like that you know what? I don't know if either of you saw this. She commented on someone's TikTok because they were apparently my soulmates talking about how much they love Can't Stop the High. And she was like, or maybe it's going to be one of those rare tracks that vinyl heads will find 50 years from now and it'll be rare and cool. Yes.
00:29:29
Speaker
Okay. i like that perspective. Yes. I see what you're saying, but please still give it to me on streaming. hey you know So that way I can give you the 50 cents that you deserve after listening to it 117
Songwriting Credits and Industry Complexities
00:29:40
Speaker
times.
00:29:40
Speaker
Right. I mean, if Beyonce can finally put... um but what Wasn't like the the self-titled album like withheld from Spotify for years? That was Lemonade. or Lemonade was. yeah Lemonade. and then But she also she withheld Grown Woman from the actual album itself. For a decade.
00:30:00
Speaker
For a decade, yeah. On the 10th anniversary, she just quietly put plopped Grown Woman on streaming. And I was like, she listens to Pop Theory because we had talked about it. But Gaga, please don't do that to us. Please don't wait 10 years for that. Yeah.
00:30:14
Speaker
Oh my god. Yeah. You know, here I feel like I'm the Simon Cowell of the podcast coming in with just the bad vibes. Give it give it to us. i So I refreshed these the the bonus tracks this morning before going on.
00:30:30
Speaker
i like Kill for Love less than I liked it last week. I get it. It's okay. I find, and you know what? Again, you know i was going say, favorite favorite artist of all time.
00:30:41
Speaker
yeah I find her vocal performance on that a little bit grating. oh interesting okay i see what you're saying like the kill for love kill for it just it gets like it's too high if that makes sense it's pretty like her vocals are very intense on the chorus for sure yeah yeah yeah yeah and and it's and it feels like they're it almost feels very like an old school mix like like it does not have like uh like a modern pop vocal chain on it so it feels yeah so it feels very like retro and like that's the vibe and the style of the song so i understand yeah um i just it feels a little out of place and kind of jarring after we've just had things like i'm trying to look at the trump list i don't know i guess i just feel like it's it sounds like it should be on a different album but at the same i don't know at the same time that the album is kind of all over the place uh but it does it does still give
00:31:36
Speaker
bonus track for me. So I have it at number 14 out of 16. I will say at out of most of the things on the album, as much as I do love it, it does seem to stand out yeah outside of the rest. Like it's just like, oh, this is definitely an outlier for me. Like like even like ah Zombie Boy, which is kind of the most most disco song outside of this one feels like it has like a modern flair to it or like or like something fresh that like I haven't really heard before. This just sounds straight up like it could have been a disco song from like 1976. Right. Yeah.
00:32:08
Speaker
right yeah Right. Yeah, for sure. You know, it's funny with but with Monster Boy with Zombie Boy. yeah i it's as the more I listen to it, I'm like, it's definitely clearly like referenced from like the 70s but i also feel like there's a lot of eighty s vibes in it but then but then the bridge that i had just mentioned i feel is very 90s in a way it's just it's all over the place in the best ways and yeah i just like the chance uh Well, and I think that the the thing that's interesting, knowing that Michael Polanski, her fiance has been all over this album.
00:32:41
Speaker
I didn't realize that like until I saw the Las Culturistas thing that they sort of write music together at times. Yeah. Yeah, and you know what that's kind of giving me? And I, i okay, i correct me if I'm sounding like a hater. i don't want to be a hater. But you know what? You're after what I just said? Go for it, please. It's giving me, it's kind of giving me Renee Elizondo, Jackson's former husband. Mm-hmm.
00:33:05
Speaker
And I just, I just, I, Gaga seems so happy. So happy. And I really hope that she is happy. And I have no reason to believe otherwise. right Yeah. Yeah. you know Like, ah love it.
00:33:15
Speaker
But like Renee Elizondo had writing credits on a lot of Janet Jackson's like biggest work. Right. And, um and then they secretly got, well, they secretly got married and then secretly got divorced and then she released All For You.
00:33:29
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So Gaga, we're waiting for your All For You then. Yeah.
00:33:35
Speaker
We're waiting for your ah Would You Mind but moment. Here's a stack of Luther Vandross records. Go make us some samples. um But yeah yeah, I don't know. And like hearing her talk about how like certain songs would be started like by the two of them at home, I'm like, okay. I said, well, I guess that makes sense.
00:33:52
Speaker
And also, Gaga, your husband really co-writes some gay-ass music. I mean... why did I get the vibe. I mean, who knows? Maybe... Michael Polanski is like, you know, literally writes songs when he's not, you know, doing cancer research.
00:34:09
Speaker
I get the sense that he's like provides inspiration. I don't know if he's like suggesting chord changes. right Right, right, You know, I get the vibe because, you know, i I feel like there are many ways you can divvy up song credits and many reasons you could do it. And so I feel like he probably provides like inspiration and like yeah feedback gets her out of her head you know like is is like an objective i think he has good taste right yeah right ah clearly like yeah yeah um his monstrously fat cock
00:34:42
Speaker
Let's just say it. Let's just say it. So hung. hung. Oh my God. Oh, that was so funny. oh what was I going to say though? But it's, it's, it's funny.
00:34:54
Speaker
Cause one of the songs that she talked about him and kind of inspiring and I forget if he co-wrote, co-wrote on it or not, was, but how bad do you want me? Yeah. And Z, you got kind of embroiled in not one but two controversies online this week. Hold on, hold on. Wait, before we go down this road, can we please just say somewhere publicly that, like, if you're going to be a person on the internet, on social media, anything, if you start to comment on content before you have finished watching it, I cannot handle you.
00:35:25
Speaker
yeah cannot handle you because not only are you not being objective, but, like, You're not even in the same room. You're not having the same conversation. Your your opinion becomes invalid at that point. and I watched it. like re It's like reviewing a movie after watching 20 minutes of it.
00:35:41
Speaker
Right. Right. Especially when your post said, wait to the end. Yeah. yeah it's No, and it's crazy. It's nuts. It's fucking crazy. And your video was like, what, less than a minute?
00:35:52
Speaker
Right. It was like 35 seconds. like let Like, come on, attention spans. And to be fair, to be fair, too, when you put the songs up next to each other like that, they really do fucking sound alike. Baby, like, here's people. Okay, I'm i'm trying to, like, think. i have so many. but Okay, just just for context, for people who might not know, um I...
00:36:16
Speaker
Got myself into a bit of an interesting situation reel that I posted. I guess TikTok as well, but it really blew up on reels. Where...
00:36:27
Speaker
When I was, okay, first time I heard Zombie Boy, not Zombie Boy, oh my God, Kill I get those two mixed up because they're back to back and they're both kind of like, kind of creepy vibes. Yeah. um I was like, oh my God, like this this is kind of giving me elements of my own song, Brain Chemistry, ah which is a song of mine that I don't even particularly care for that much. If I'm being honest, like, can I be honest?
00:36:53
Speaker
and You know, because there was just, there was elements, it was a very similar tempo. Uh, bait, the baseline was going in a similar pattern. It had this kind of like guitar funk part. The key was like practically the same.
00:37:06
Speaker
um the groove was very, very similar. And then she does this melody in the pre-chorus that is almost identical to the chorus of my song. And I was just like, Oh, the fact that both of these very similar elements to my song, which obviously I'm also not the first to do, right but the fact that they both, um,
00:37:24
Speaker
coincided at the same time. I was like, oh, look at that. That's really amusing and fun. Maybe I'll do a video about that and I'll kind of come in real hot. And then after that, I'll be like, yeah, obviously I'm joking, but how cool is that? I would love it if my favorite artist in the world was stealing from me, which I don't think she did.
00:37:41
Speaker
like and then... and
00:37:44
Speaker
It was crazy. It was so funny. But specifically because you say wait for it and you're like, and and it's like, again, like you said, it's like 35 seconds and people for were going nuts. It got to Twitter. It's on TikTok. Oh my God. Yeah. you you Everywhere I posted it, it went crazy.
00:38:03
Speaker
People were trying to educate you on who Prince was. right yeah Oh, people were like, it's actually actually, they're like, actually you both copied David Bowie. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, no, what we're not going to do anytime we hear a funky guitar reference. David fucking Bowie.
00:38:18
Speaker
Right. Right. Because where did he get it from? Let's start. Yeah. Yeah. And this is no shade on David Bowie. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Because they heard one Gaga interview where she talked about how much she loved David Bowie. Yeah. And you know, it to be fair, it does sound like Fame by David Bowie.
00:38:33
Speaker
And Gaga also literally sampled Fame by David Bowie on Fancy Pants, unreleased song. Oh, and then this also brought up a whole thing. It's like, no, you both sampled David Bowie. Can we talk about it? whole a whole other can of worms of sampling interpolation. Go, go, go, go. We have the same gripe here. yeah, oh yeah i'm I'm sure. I'm sure as as like a DJ, this is like a door in your side.
00:38:57
Speaker
A sample is when you take a portion of the actual master recording of a song and repurpose it into your song. like Like, what are some samples?
00:39:09
Speaker
little bit Madonna's hung up. but There we go. Hung up. Hung up. We do it. Oh my God. every Every breath you take, I'll be missing you. Whatever. daddy He who shall not be named. um um Diana Ross in my house. ah In Z's favorite song, Replay. Oh yeah, Replay. Best song in the world. and um Yeah, so so it's literally the actual master recording. And then interpolating is something like Ava Max does. I was just going to say that. Yeah. yeah where Where she is singing the melody or or there is like you you re-record an idea from and a previously existing song but there is no part from the original recording on the song yes but anytime there is something that is even remotely similar they're like oh you're sampling i know what and this happens again on this album with how bad do you want me yes people are like oh they're uh sampling yaz
00:40:04
Speaker
Or whatever. Right. and And it's like, no, they're not even credited. Right. yeah Like there's there's no part of that song that is on that. It's a similar idea. And that's where that ends.
00:40:16
Speaker
um And they they do. OK, and they do sample Suzy and the Banshees on Abracadabra. Like they take the guitar part from that song, modulate the key a little bit make it fit the tempo.
00:40:27
Speaker
I don't know, but but people don't want- But they're credited. And they are credited. Right. People don't want to, and case in point, with them not watching the whole fucking video, they don't want to do any work. Right. They want attention. They want to blow up. They want to feel validated by like calling calling someone out and thinking they did something.
00:40:44
Speaker
And my my most liked comment in my own section is is of that video is, thank you all for educating me about these up-and-comers, David Bowie and Prince. I really hope they make it big someday. Yeah. Crossing fingers. Oh my gosh. Best of luck Best of luck.
00:41:01
Speaker
So I don't know. yeah and you know what? It was, hey, you know what? Whatever. I got 2,000 new followers from this. So let's celebrate that. Celebrate that And you know what?
00:41:12
Speaker
Gaga reposted another video of mine this week. So that's really right. Not that one. It was me dancing to shadow of a man in the street like a dork. But hey you know that's amazing. I love it.
00:41:23
Speaker
I love that. i'm gonna We'll be looking for you in the tour montage. good Thank you. I'm not even kidding. It better happen. She's yet to ever comment or like any of my posts.
00:41:33
Speaker
ah Bobby has. Have you ever used like and the official sound on TikTok of one of her songs? Because I think that's what she goes through. have. That makes sense. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe not.
00:41:46
Speaker
because it because she's Because she is reposting like a maniac. Right. And I think she just goes through like the official like ah sound clip on TikTok and just like repost, repost, repost, repost. Well, and it's funny, too, because I make sure we do that with this episode. Right. In the last Culturistas episode, she talked about how it is her doing it.
00:42:02
Speaker
Yeah. And how she's the one that's commenting. And I'm like, that's cool. Like, I love that. Yeah, I do believe that. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. um It feels like, yeah. was trying to think if there's anything else I had to act well there was Well, there was the other kind of pseudo-controversy on Twitter where you had mentioned about, you had talked about kind of clicking with How Bad Do You Want Me? well yeah, so she explained that song that song on Las Culturistas. And like...
00:42:27
Speaker
Okay, I don't feel like this was blaringly obvious. When you hear how when I hear how bad do you want me, i think it's like, oh yeah, how bad do you want me, baby? Like, like how much do you want me?
00:42:39
Speaker
Like, how much are you longing for Yes, exactly. And then she explained it as like, you know, everybody wants me to be this bad girl. and And sometimes I will be that for you.
00:42:50
Speaker
yeah And so it's like, how bad do you want me to be for you? yeah and and I was like, oh my god. Ah, that makes sense. Because like, I will say the lyrics in that were like, they felt a little all over the place. It kind of felt like she was talking about some other girl who she was like trying to like steal her man or something like that. That's how I thought. That's yeah what when I first listened to it. That's what I thought. Yeah.
00:43:09
Speaker
But really, she's talking about it's like, it's like, you want me to be this like bad girl, but like, I'm not really always her. Right. So like, how bad do you want me to be? Yeah. what So what was the controversy then?
00:43:21
Speaker
goes so well was like Sorry, go ahead. I guess it wasn't that controversial. But but it was a tweet that picked up, some it got like 2,000 likes and I'm just like, Jesus Christ. And people were just, again, trying to be, they were being more like like, well, it was really obvious to me. This was really obvious, I fear.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah. my god Two phrases that will get me heated are adding I fear when you're being condescending or hope this helps. Ooh, there there There were a few times I was going to let a comment slide, but they added, hope this helps. I was like, you know what, bitch? I was just going to let you go. but you know what? if if you If you came to play, okay, let's do this.
00:44:00
Speaker
And I i just want to say for the record, backtracking a little bit with Brain Chemistry, my my song that like I quote unquote copied David Bowie and Prince, my actual inspiration that I was trying to not copy, but pull from was love me by the 1975. So let's just, well let's just, you know, get that out in the open, which, you know what?
00:44:17
Speaker
Maybe they were inspired by fucking Bowie or some shit, but I was, Bowie was not at the front of mind. I'm going to be controversial. I don't really care about David Bowie that much. oh Ooh! That ain't going on social media. I respect the hell out of him. I will never take away his place in history. He is an icon. He's probably a top 10 rock artist of all time.
00:44:35
Speaker
I don't really listen to him that much. I get that. I get that. But you know why and that that you know what? That's important to say because I think that right now on social media, especially when it comes to pop music, We all act like if you don't love every single thing that's out there, then you're a hater. yeah Sometimes, and that's why i've just that's why I've been saying a lot of times lately, like like I'm like, things don't connect with me.
00:44:58
Speaker
And that's okay. That's fine. What were we talking about last week? yes I am not the intended audience. I've said that a few times this week since then. Yeah. And it's true. Yeah. yeah There's, there's so many legends and musicians in this world that I completely honor and revere and respect and think they're wonderful and talented, but their music just isn't for me.
00:45:19
Speaker
I will. And John Michael might throw something, but like, but like Dolly Parton, not for me. I get it. i get it. I get No, it's fine not for me. But at the same time, i understand she's one of the greatest songwriters in the world. She's insanely talented She has 80 albums or something like that. i don't know if that's true or not, but like, but probably so i'm like but but like, she's, she's, but like, again, like I'm not going out of my way to listen to Dolly Parton's music, right but I also, I'm not going out of my way either to be like, fuck Dolly Parton. yeah You know, the first time anybody's ever said that. There's also like a whole movement with this new generation. And like, look, I'm not saying you have to like them, but like, we got to stop downplaying the Beatles.
00:46:03
Speaker
Yes. I just feel like you are being intentionally contrarian and stupid to try and downplay the fact that they are the most influential music act to ever exist.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah. And like they completely changed pop music. And I think more than maybe Michael Jackson as much, but I would argue maybe the Beatles more. like And I feel like ah kids now are being like, i don't know, they're kind of overrated. It's like,
00:46:35
Speaker
No, no, no they They are like... They set the precedent. They are the blueprint. like They are they the original blueprint. Yeah. yeah ah Sorry. And you don't have to like it. like That's the thing. like And this is why I keep saying like I'm not the intended demographic because it is to me the most freeing phrase where I'm just like, I appreciate it. I appreciate Bjork. I'm not the intended demographic. Same.
00:46:57
Speaker
Right. I appreciate Sarah McLachlan. I'm not really the intended demographic. you know And I think that she's amazing at what she does. And there are some songs that I love, but it's like... yeah It's just the way that it is. And that's totally fine. And the sooner that I feel like this generation realizes that, the better off that they're going to be. Because I don't understand how your fandom has to include streaming data.
00:47:19
Speaker
How you have to, well you're listening to music by the numbers and it makes no sense to me. Because like, none of that is going to matter. And I talk about i've talked about this on the on the earlier pod, but I think with you, Zach. And it's like,
00:47:31
Speaker
you No one's going to remember this. These are vanity metrics. yeah you know like It's all of these things when you talk about Spotify and you're just like, this is this but now enter the Billions Club. And it's like, okay, you got a plaque. It's an award. It's cool. That's great. And I think it's a wonderful thing for the artist. But at the end of the day, no one is going to see ed Sheeran on tour because Shape of You has a billion streams.
00:47:54
Speaker
right No one is going to buy Kylie Minogue tickets because Padam Padam won a Grammy. Like, i they're all accomplishments, but I need you to understand that the art is what actually is the thing that lasts. And that's what we will discuss. And it has no one.
00:48:08
Speaker
No one is going to remember how many streams Gaga has on this album, how many streams Taylor has on this album. None of that actually matters in the real world at all. but What I've learned, I mean, obviously, I'm like not a big time artist, but like something I've noticed.
00:48:22
Speaker
But like, you know, it it it does translate. The thing that matters is. who are your fans? Where are the fans? Who loves your music? Who is going to show up and invest in your career? Yep. Who's going to like talk to you, talk about you to their friends, spread the word, support you.
00:48:38
Speaker
Like, I don't care if, if, you know, was it ah making diamonds, my song like flopped or whatever, like ah people are still buying like people still want to come up and like buy tickets right and like that is the thing that matters above all else and it can be hard to you know remember that like you can get lost in the data like it's it's easy to like over prioritize metrics right um when when that's all you're seeing well like at the end of day even even if this album flops gaga's gonna sell out at a stadium
00:49:10
Speaker
Right, but I also feel like, and and this is the thing that's weird for me, like if you're one of these fans or part of one of these fandoms that does this, like to me, it feels like you're doing a disservice to your artist because you're reducing all of the work, all of the collaboration, the hours in the studio, writing the experiences that they had to create this art,
00:49:29
Speaker
To just reduce them to be like, well, this song only got 100,000 likes, so it's a shit song. That's not how art works. Right, yeah. You know, and it's like, i we already have a problem in the internet age where people's media analysis skills are less than zero. So it's like,
00:49:45
Speaker
to take everything that your favorite your supposed favorite is doing and reduce it to numbers is so counterintuitive to art and counterintuitive to your artist because i can promise you and i've seen so many of them talk about it they don't care either yeah yeah and that's the thing that's wild the streaming numbers can be gamed like you know and influence like flowers broke the the debut uh day streaming record by miley cyrus like right in what world? It's a great song. You can pay to put that shit on playlists right at the top of every playlist. And they do. And algorithmically come up after every song you play. and I'm just like,
00:50:26
Speaker
That song is so aggressively fine. And like, honestly, like, where is it now? i don't know. yeah but right But this is the problem with the streaming. And I always bring up the same example because Zach and I have talked about this many times. Despacito.
00:50:40
Speaker
Yeah. Where is it now? Where is it now? Literally the biggest song. Closer. Old Town Road. Old Town Road. Haven't heard her. Haven't heard her. I would be so curious.
00:50:53
Speaker
To see streaming numbers based ah like on Spotify or something just based on who is searching for the song, who is adding it to their playlist. Right. Yeah. And nod they have that data. Yeah.
00:51:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yep. not Not what is being algorithmically fed to you or not what is being placed on the biggest editorial playlists because that gives it such a push. um Oh, and it's and let me tell you, and i I get when I deal with the labels at work, ah some of the things that they'll tell me that they'll pitch stuff when they're talking about artists will be like, oh, and it's been added to this playlist and it was um it was it had this many impressions on TikTok and it had all, and all of that stuff is fine. And again, vanity metrics, none of that actually matters. I mean I'll take some of it, sure. Sure, yeah sure, absolutely.
00:51:35
Speaker
But it's like, It's just become such a point of marketing that fans, stans, if you're listening out there, you don't need to do that work for the label.
00:51:47
Speaker
The label is going to do that work. Your job is to like the art, appreciate the art, and I guess I almost want to say deepen your parasocial relationship with your favorite artists because you're connecting with their art. Well, no, i'm not saying it's a good thing, but I'm saying like that. I understand what you mean. but Right, right. I'm not saying that you should, you know, you're not going be like outside of Taylor's door, like not, you know, knocking on her window, but it's. Right.
00:52:09
Speaker
But that's what it is. Every time that an artist reveals their art to you, that's that you're supposed to deepen your connection with that artist and be like, I don't know. I think that's why when it comes to Gaga, Beyonce, or any of these, these girls that have been out for so long,
00:52:22
Speaker
why I feel so strongly about these projects now because I've grown up with them and we've all matured, some of us more than others, we've all matured with this artist. So it's like you sort of get where they're going or where they've been and what they've gone through.
00:52:34
Speaker
Well, that's what gives me a lot of cringe a lot of times when I go online and I'm seeing accounts that, of course, a lot of these people, you can't see their face. You have no idea who they are. But like you're like judging by the artist that maybe they're standing. You're like, this is probably and fully formed adult. Right.
00:52:52
Speaker
This is most likely a gay man that's roughly maybe around my age. And I'm like, this is weird. Like to hear to hear them and see them act this way. It's so immature and just, the I just, I can't stand it personally.
00:53:08
Speaker
Like specifically ah the one that comes to mind was that Mr. Pop account on Twitter. Oh my God. know what I have beef with them. and I have, that they blacked me. They blacked me. so you're better off.
00:53:20
Speaker
Yeah, they blocked me. So Mr. Pop was trying to be kind of like a ah blend between, honestly, I'm just going to go out. Pop Craven you? Pop Craven me. Yeah. Like, honestly, kind of trying to toot my own horn a little bit.
00:53:32
Speaker
But um he went on this rampage to talk about Katy Perry in such a negative way. oh when yeah. yeah i'll More on that in a sec. Yeah. and And to the point where I don't even remember what I said.
00:53:49
Speaker
But I was just basically like, I was like, first so oh, I think i said, wow, for someone who really hates Katy Perry, you're certainly giving her a lot of attention right now. Because it was like every other post was talking about how awful she was for it was Dr. Luke. How awful. the ah Yeah, it was crazy. This is, if I want to say, a 53-year-old man. No.
00:54:11
Speaker
See, I Do you know that? i I can't i can't with that prove that he's 53, but people did show me photos and I was like, this person is older than me.
00:54:22
Speaker
Right. at minimum Minimum my age. Right. Yeah. That's crazy i mean to me. I mean, he is quite the little monster, it seems. but But like, okay, so that so apparently I have a habit of like making these like joke comparisons to song like, because, you know, Lifetime sounds like fucking on air.
00:54:42
Speaker
Oh, no, I was going to say motions by me and Dave on day. Oh, yeah. And posted, ah here's the thing, my videos like don't go viral, that don't blow up that often. So when I post something like this, I don't expect it to get that many views.
00:54:54
Speaker
He goes and um retweets my video of it. on um on Twitter yeah of me making the comparison and I just get an onslaught of Katie Katz right coming for me yeah on that one. when When like obviously it's the most overused piano house line of all time. was going to say who hasn't done it at this point? Yeah and also I didn't come up with that piano line. Dave sent me that track. so and yeah so This is the thing that also like kills me and I noticed this when Taylor's TTPD came out and it's like
00:55:28
Speaker
At this point in her career, this woman is at the height of heights. The Eros tour is one of the most legendary, unstoppable, record-breaking tours of all time.
00:55:39
Speaker
The woman has a hot football fiance or boyfriend or whatever the hell he is. Like, exactly every, right, like she's she is winning on all accounts no matter how you look at it. The streaming numbers, the, the, 97 vinyl variants, all of it. And I'm like, the idea that you would be so stressed and pressed about numbers or anything else that this woman is doing or or what any other pop star is doing in relation to or even around her ecosystem is wild to me.
00:56:07
Speaker
yeah because I'm like, you have this is the this is the good time. This is this is your you know ninety Celine Dion moment. this is This is the height of everything. This is your blonde ambition tour. Right. like this is Enjoy this and take every bit of it. Make your friendship bracelets.
00:56:23
Speaker
Do the whole thing. But like arguing with people online over it, it's like none of that is going to matter. And it's so silly. And I'm like, I just wish that they would enjoy all of this for what it is. they Swifties love to still try and act like anyone could possibly be punching down a Taylor at any given moment, anytime she receives any criticism. And it's like...
00:56:44
Speaker
I don't know, girl. At this point, like her just being 10 times more successful metrically is just kind of a given. And I don't think anyone's denying that. But they'll be like, and they always try to discredit her. if It's like, no, i don't know. what At this point, nobody.
00:56:59
Speaker
We all accept that that Taylor Swift is in like even more so from a numbers standpoint than like Beyonce. Yeah. On another level. Right. Like, I don't think it's like, let's stop acting like she's, she's not this little girl getting right ah her award moment ruined by Kanye West anymore. Like she is right her own music. She has her own economy.
00:57:22
Speaker
Right. she Really? really she's the cal no She's the California of the music industry. yeah Yeah. with myself Yeah. Oh my God. Um, Are you guys the intended audience for Chapel Rhone's new single?
00:57:34
Speaker
I kind of am. Yeah, I actually didn't know when it started if I was, but I was like, oh no, the Shania of this is totally getting No, I love it. I love it. I love it too. i I've been waiting for this since she performed at NSNL.
00:57:47
Speaker
And i I'm very curious to know the promotional strategy behind that. but what Did you see the billboards? I saw the billboards. I loved it. And everyone was complaining about it. But I'm like, y'all, just, I don't know. It's fun. It's different. Sure, it's taking a little while, but just go with it.
00:58:03
Speaker
But that's ah that's what I mean. I thought it was ah very interesting that they premiered it back in October of last year only to withhold it. But maybe that was just because of the holidays. And they just knew that kind the onslaught of the holidays coming up. She also just loves to do things differently.
00:58:16
Speaker
and know She does. So why not? I feel like the easy thing to do would have been Good Luck Babe and, I guess, Pink Pony Club. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just said everybody should just I need everybody online to relax.
00:58:28
Speaker
Yeah. Like just relax. Just take a deep breath because it's like this is just like a fun one off single. Well, I think it's part her album. Sure. But I'm saying like it's just it's it's it's not yeah it's not giving lead singles.
00:58:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah. No, no, no. it's It's definitely giving kind of like droplet because it's been almost a year since she put out a song. Yeah. Well, I mean, ah ah her previous album was predominantly droplets that were sprinkled out for four years. Like nine or ten of them were droplets. And then there was like four new songs.
00:58:57
Speaker
Yeah. But she did ah debuted titles of new songs in the lyric video. i don't know if you saw that. And like the menu. there was Oh, no, I didn't see. theres There's a song title called Read and Make Out. um the Because it it's ah it's like one of those like old school like DVD menus or whatever. And so she's like selecting. So then it goes to The Giver. Nice.
00:59:16
Speaker
we can celebrate that the subway is listed there. So I was, was, I was nervous for a second. I was like, Oh my God, she's going to Alanis Morissette this and not release the song. And um so where it looks like we're going to the subway.
00:59:30
Speaker
um There was another song. Shoot. I don't remember the other side. There was I think there were five titles altogether. So amazing. I look, I will always be excited for new music from her.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, i I love it. i don't people There are people who are like, it's there's too much fiddle or whatever, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I'm blasting you, Dave. Sorry. and oh by But I'm just kind of like, this song, you knew this was coming since October.
00:59:54
Speaker
right So it's like, the shit you should have allowed yourself to digest. Well, and you know, ah what else I was thinking randomly recently is that You know how that conversation comes up every once in a while where they're like, if you were going to do Lady Marmalade in the you know nowadays, like who would you cast in it?
01:00:07
Speaker
I feel like... Who cast? I would... Well, listening to Chapel, I was like, I feel like Chapel would be the pink part for me. Ooh, interesting. Interesting. Okay. Yeah.
01:00:19
Speaker
I feel like she would nail that vocally. i could see I can see it. I almost... My controversial choice for that is um Miley. Ooh, that's good too. Because she has she has the grit.
01:00:32
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah. right Who would I cast in Lady Marmalade 2025? twenty twenty five I have to really think. i like I would put Megan in the Missy Elliott part, Megan Thee Stallion, for sure. Oh, yes, yes. Hands down. Or even Dochi. i mean look now Oh, 100%. Yes, either one is fine. Dua Lipa would be my Maya.
01:00:49
Speaker
Well, Missy's only doing ad-libs, so you've got Lil' Kim's part. that what you mean? right, right. Sorry, Lil' Kim. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Lil' Kimberly, as I like to say. Lil' Kimberly. um Yeah, Dochi. Oh, my God. that would be so good.
01:01:01
Speaker
Dochi or Megan. um Who else would... And also, it's like... like are Is Miley in the same category as these new girls? Yeah, but was Maya in the category as... I mean, she... Yeah. As those other girls?
01:01:17
Speaker
I mean, no offense to Maya. Miley's only... Miley's like 30 and she had a number one hit like a year ago, you know? True, yeah. Right. So, yeah I don't know. Her career is just so much longer than them. That's what I'm like. Yeah, I mean, fair. I mean...
01:01:31
Speaker
Let's be real. I mean, we'd put Ariana at the k Christina part, and she's had just a long career, too. That's fair. Longer than them. Yeah. yeah Oh, interesting. it could go a lot of ways. There's a lot of talented girlies. but You could put Jade in there. Jade? I would love to put Rina Sawayama in there.
01:01:48
Speaker
Right. It gets hard. It gets hard when you have to start selecting. I do love Rena, although I don't know if anyone else does, but right I love Rena. You know, I really, I just, I know she wants to do all the things, and I went to specifically to see the John Wick movie because she was in it, and by the way, if you have not seen it, she was phenomenal in it.
01:02:05
Speaker
Good. haven't seen any of them. Me either. need to get into those. Yeah. I literally just went to see this because she was in and it was like, it was so worth it. She was really, she's excellent. And it's like, girl, do the acting, do the modeling, do all of it, but I just want her to focus on the pop stuff a little bit more, although I do hear she's in the studio. So let's celebrate that.
01:02:23
Speaker
Yeah. But I really like, I feel like it, that should be her thing. Sarah Hudson. If you're listening to this, it better knock out some bangers with her. Please, please. I have nothing but the utmost of faith in her.
01:02:35
Speaker
Did you know Sarah Hudson's related to Kate Hudson? I did not. What? Yeah. i i think In what way? Oh my God. Oh, wow. I just learned this. Wow. Yeah.
01:02:46
Speaker
and If anybody doesn't know, Sarah Hudson famously song wrote, um shares DJ play a Christmas song. and And let's celebrate that. And physical, but doula. She's written a lot. yeah She's written a lot. She's unbelievable.
01:02:58
Speaker
Yeah. If you look up Sarah Hudson, she's written just pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we should do an episode. I'm just going to call it now of all of the songwriters. Yeah. And really give because like, I mean, between if you think about some of these people like Sarah Hudson, Justin Trantner, like there's there's an incredible list of songwriters that yeah i feel like maybe don't get the shine as much as the artists. And they really, really should, especially because we live in a time where songwriting is such a lost art economically. hmm.
01:03:25
Speaker
Right. Z machine, a songwriter, which, um, by the way, someone has a deluxe EP coming out. uh-o Oh, Oh my, you are, you and your segues.
01:03:38
Speaker
um you're getting Let's talk about that. Oh my gosh. Like you. yeah You next week, actually. So the day after this episode comes out, you will have a deluxe version of your EP.
01:03:50
Speaker
Can I be really honest? Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Tell us about it. You, um in the group chat this morning, you were like, oh, by the way, let's bring that up. And i'm like, oh, yeah, that is coming out.
01:04:03
Speaker
That's right. Yeah. we've i've I've just had like a gazillion things going on that I've i've ah completely... And and also, I... busted my ass so hard like getting it like finished on time that i just put it out of my mind because didn't you you were telling me that you recorded was it prom dress yeah in like a day or was that pretty much so okay so there's a lot of lore to this kind of um and i don't want to let's see how far back should i go so so i originally wasn't going to do deluxe
01:04:37
Speaker
Um, and then Bentley kind of got into my head and he gave me some ideas and he thought it told me like why it was like beneficial. He told me like, just like add this and this and then boom, you can repackage it. It puts new attention onto the old tracks.
01:04:51
Speaker
You know, you can have some new momentum with some new stuff. Um, yeah, exactly. It's like, it's, he's like, it's good branding and it's like a nice kind of way to cap off the era. And I was like, oh, and this was back at like the end of December.
01:05:05
Speaker
And I was like, oh, k okay. But like, you know, me being the procrastinator that I often am, um I didn't really get going. Because it's it's like, you know, you you get all these ideas when you sit down to actually do them. It's a whole different thing.
01:05:19
Speaker
And yeah, and you know, beginning of the year, everyone's tired. i was it it it took me a lot to to to get motivated to do this. But I was like, okay. Yeah. i have so i could put i i had you know fucking myself which was like the droplet single i was gonna do i put out back in october i was no i can add that because there's one song um and then basically i just need like two more and then i can do like maybe an acoustic version of something so really i was like all right if i just haul ass um i could do this i could get this out by you know
01:05:52
Speaker
March or something like that. Yeah. So i ended up... ah There's a an artist-producer that I had been following for a while called Bad Dreamers.
01:06:04
Speaker
He's very kind of like 80s synthwave kind of stuff. And then he posted in his Instagram story that he was selling old tracks he wasn't using. And I was like, oh, wait. You know what? I would really... This would really fit the vibe of what I'm doing right now. So I went and...
01:06:21
Speaker
I bought one of them from him and he was going to like produce it. um i won't go too much into it, but communication kind of broke down between us. And i was like, you know what? Things are not, I really need to get a move on this. So I asked him, do you mind if I recreate this track and produce it with my producer? I will keep, I will give you your points on this because these are your ideas, but like, I need this done now.
01:06:46
Speaker
And yeah like, it just isn't where he was like, yeah, totally fine. So I have one that and that ended up being prom dress. It's, it's very, just, it's very kind of like giving PYT vibes. um And then I had, I was like, you know, I'm going to do like a real like ballad ballad. Yeah. And so, and so the, the, the other new track on there is grass.
01:07:06
Speaker
yeah oh my I'm going to be honest and i am I'm going to be so real. This is better than Blade of Grass. This one is called Should Have Been Yours. completely agree. it's kind of Oh yeah, you've heard it. You have heard it. okay yeah yeah um no No big deal. no You're my sounding board. But but I was kind of trying to tap into like my image in Heap, ah Caroline Polachek influences there. and Because like i I didn't really have... like ah I mean, I guess, you know, worse from the... if I don't know if anyone listening is actually familiar with my my original version of the EP.
01:07:41
Speaker
But like I guess worse is the closest thing I kind of get to about it on there. But even that gets like really, really big and anthemic. um But I was like, I want to do something where there's like barely percussion. It's it's mostly just like laid over the synths.
01:07:55
Speaker
um i know i had to before i sent zach the the soundcloud file i was like i'm sorry that these songs are short i did not i did not have time straight up just did not have time and that's fair and that's fair like and that's something that and that's something that i need to recognize and this is that but major label artists you have all the money in the world i don't want to hear it that's the thing they do i don't hear because because they'll get more streams i did it because i got sick for two weeks yeah before i left for tour and i just did not have time to write right because yeah because i was like i need to have this done by the time i'm done with tour right so what ended up happening was had all i had i i my poor producer oh my god we got on zoom i like
01:08:43
Speaker
banged out these tracks and like like the instrumental tracks in like a week. He was such a trooper. They sounded gorgeous. I took my one day off on my like extent my my run on tour that we like we were about to start a run of like six shows in a row. And I was like, Oh, God, this is gonna be crazy.
01:09:00
Speaker
I recorded all the vocals for both of them in I want like a day and a half. um Just like in in some the house that we were staying at, like in between shows, I pulled myself into this room um like it's like no one come in.
01:09:15
Speaker
um And I just recorded everything right there. And I was just like praying that it didn't like blow out my voice before i had to do these shows. It all ended up being fine. They sound good. It was like, okay, cool. So I don't need to like book studio time, which is kind of nice because if you if you just have like a quiet room and the the right mixing engineer, you can make these vocals sound really good.
01:09:32
Speaker
Right. Absolutely. So that's, that is a, that's going to change the game right there. okay the Hey, game changer. Let's celebrate that. Yeah. So, ah so we ended up putting on those and honestly, it's like, they're, they're not like,
01:09:45
Speaker
They're not like entree portions of songs like the radio might be, but I really feel like they they it gives some some variety. They're doing something that the other songs aren't doing, but I still think they sound cohesive in the world of this. And they're finally songs that I'm not writing about the same guy from the other one.
01:10:04
Speaker
fact, it's the first time I've actually written about a different guy. it was like, oh my God, who am I? Who am i who is this person? So he's someone I've been like seeing who you know, and it's actually funny because I wrote it about like a situation where like We had tried to hang out a second time, but he had to like rain check or like cancel like three times in a row. And I was starting to get really like in my own head about it because I hadn't because i hadn't put myself out there like this. And so there was one time it was like the third time that like he wasn't able to do it. And I was like really frustrated. And then it was it should have been yours.
01:10:41
Speaker
I got to hope he doesn't listen to this because so so this is actually the number one listener. i would be very shocked. and that No offense to you. Just like knowing like like what he listens to.
01:10:54
Speaker
um And so he canceled me. And then there was some other kind of like semi regular hookup like hit me up like an hour later. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm not you know doing anything else. And then after that, I was like, oh no. like Straight up, that load should wasn't supposed to be for you.
01:11:13
Speaker
It should have been yours. But I think I turned the phrasing in a very romantic way. yeah you know i don't make it sound that crass, but it really is like...
01:11:26
Speaker
all this all this you know all this dick should have been yours and not theirs because after that i felt kind of like ah this isn't this isn't what i wanted right yeah but i was i was desperate right right but theres and desperate times and not to not to completely left turn but i do want to go back to something that you said because i don't know that many people understand it when you were talking about buying the track from the producer and doing oh yeah when you talked about making sure that they get their points Oh, yeah. oh yeah. Thank you. Yeah. If you could explain that, because I don't think that a lot of people understand how this works.
01:11:59
Speaker
Basically, it's like writing credit gets split up into points. um I will say this is like an an aspect of like the industry that I'm not always like super on top of because I'd say I primarily work with one other producer right um i i usually will write the majority of it but because his you know his production elements you know create so much of of sort of you know what becomes the song and he'll end up adding things into the track that like i might not have thought of so we we we usually settle on a ah pretty specific um point split like he'll get 20 um oh i shouldn't be i don't know if i want to be saying it's fine whatever whatever and i'll retain 80 but um But, you know, he'll also charge me like a reduced production rate so he gets, you know, his cut. um
01:12:45
Speaker
Basically, it's just how we divvy up the songwriting. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I think it's it's that's the part of the business that I think a lot of people don't understand or appreciate how it works. Yeah. yeah Because I feel like there was – I don't know what exactly this was, but there was some sort of sheet – that got leaked in terms of Lady Gaga and that revealed the points that she was receiving on certain songs. And I think it did create some confusion and chatter about what that was because she got like 40% on one song with 60% on another and like things like, and it's like all of these different things
01:13:18
Speaker
Well, and I think they so like and see you can correct me if I'm wrong, but my my impression of how I understand this to be is or at least with the major label stuff that I that I hear is that, you know, everybody just sort of gets in the room, does the thing. And then afterwards, a bunch of lawyers that represent all of the stakeholders, all the songwriters sort of get in a room and then sit down and decide and figure out who did how many ah how much percentage of what song.
01:13:44
Speaker
I mean, i don't have a ton of major label experience. Right, right. But, you know, I would imagine it's probably a case-by-case basis. Like, I'm assuming if, you know, you get in the studio with Max Martin, he's probably like, I take this much and that's right that's that because i'm I am who I am.
01:13:57
Speaker
Right. Can you imagine and being like, actually, no, Max. Right, right, right. Or like, you know, no shade because, you know, she is the ultimate curator. But, like, Beyonce immediately gets points on things she writes, even though I think it's like an open...
01:14:14
Speaker
Secret, so to speak, that like she's not in the studio writing, but it's, you know, but it is her vision on the project that gets her in the credits. Right. And it's interesting how this happens, too, because since everybody is so like obsessed with metadata and all this other stuff, an experience that I had to deal with at work was so...
01:14:33
Speaker
not this most recent Bad Bunny album, but I think it was either the one before it or the one before that. He thought as a very, very nice gesture. And of course, if I had a friend like Bad Bunny, I would also want to be a friend like this. um He gave one of his friends who is not a songwriter, who is not in the music industry, 1% of the publishing on every single track on his album.
01:14:53
Speaker
I think did hear this. Yes, which is fine. And that's a wonderful thing. And I mean, really good luck good good for that friend. But for what I do for work, we had to track down this non-songwriting man somewhere in Colombia and like try to figure out and explain who we are, what we do and why we need. Oh God.
01:15:10
Speaker
to handle this because otherwise we won't be able to play the album and it's like getting his friends set up with like as cap right right and basically that's it was that was trying to like you know spending months trying to figure out how do we how do we hold hands here was but was it the album that like is like the most streamed album yes uh not a bad album to right credit right because it's like a lot of times so like if you go on either ASCAP or BMI, like that's where you'll find most of the information for the songs if they're registered properly and like what the splits are.
01:15:43
Speaker
So that's usually like where we'll go first. And we kept seeing this name and it's like, who is this person? Who is this man? is this? And how do we find him? And it's, yeah, kind crazy. hope I don't sound ridiculous. I don't know who this man is. Sorry to this man. Sorry to this man. But...
01:15:55
Speaker
but you'd be walking down the street, I wouldn't know a thing. Right. Sorry to this man. And I also want to say for any of the artists who may or may not be listening to this, know who your collaborators are. And I swear one day I'm going to write a book about this when my my my tenure and my job is over. But it's like,
01:16:11
Speaker
i There have been times where I have tried to reconcile publishing for big artists, very, very big artists, and have dealt with either songwriters or collaborators that they've done who have at just basically said, you know, well, I make enough money doing this and I don't really see the need to put all the effort in to do all of this. So whatever. And then they're the ones keeping said big artists out of the platform.
01:16:35
Speaker
So it's like you you see these things and it's like you really you have to know who your people are and whether or not you can trust them or whether not they're going to do the best thing for you. Yeah. And on that point, I have some stuff to tell you about some of these tracks off mic.
01:16:49
Speaker
Ooh, can't wait to hear that yeah Off air. Yeah. air. But it is, it's, it's a really, really murky business. And i do I think people don't realize that. And I think that if people understood the business or at least understood how like rollouts and marketing work, I think that maybe the stands would get a little bit less uptight about things because it's like so much of these decisions are made so far in advance. Yeah.
01:17:13
Speaker
And it's like everything is so like planned out that it's, yeah, I don't know. Everybody just needs to take a breath. It's art. It's fun. It's fun. We're just going to go. We're going to have fun. I certainly did did not get in this for the money. Right, right, right. right
Underappreciated Music and Personal Influences
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy.
01:17:30
Speaker
Wow. Well, you guys, it's gotten to the point, the famous point of this show. so famous. I'm never ready for this. and if it's If it makes you feel any better, I'm usually never ready for it either. Right. I'm like, I have to pull my usually come with it on the spot.
01:17:43
Speaker
But this is the famous segment of the show where we each ah talk about a song that we don't talk about enough. It's usually a deep cut, rare track, maybe a remix. Some some sort. We love a remix.
01:17:54
Speaker
um do Who wants to go first? Who has a song we don't talk about enough? I'm going to go through, I think I have one. I don't think I've talked about it. And it's going to be so freaking random. And I don't know what I was thinking when I put this up. and I'll be very surprised if you know this song. Thank you for saying freaking after we just talked about loads being shot. and yeah um But do you guys know Charlotte Church?
01:18:19
Speaker
Of course. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I think I know what to say. Is she the one who ruined her voice singing opera age 15? Yes. Did she ruin her voice? 11 12 or something. Oh, yeah. I feel like she famously, like, was – people were just, like – I don't actually know a a whole lot about her, but, like, what I have heard is that, like – She was this, you know, operatic child prodigy, but like she actually wasn't singing correctly and she like ruined her opera voice.
01:18:43
Speaker
That wouldn't surprise me because I felt like they were like billing her as like the new Sarah Brightman when she came out. And I was like, this is an 11 year old. I was like, Sarah Brightman is a very well established, but okay, whatever. Anyway, somewhere in the like the early 2000s, she went pop after all of this as she sort of like did her I guess I heard Leigh-Anne Rimes' TikTok moment.
01:19:04
Speaker
I love that. You know, I feel like that's the right reference. Like that was sort of like Leigh-Anne's like sluttier sort of like, you know, whatever song. This is kind of that. It's called Call My Name. And it's a super fun, very raunchy for her at the moment.
01:19:17
Speaker
Kind of, you know, talking about how she likes, you know, when she hears the belt crack and you drop your keys and like what they're about to do. And it's like a totally like, really raunchy song for this absolutely just British white girl who is lovely. And the video was great. And it's, I'm the only person who talks about this song, let alone anybody not talking about it enough. I'm obsessed that you even brought it up. Charlotte Church, I absolutely adore you. And she's also just a good person.
01:19:44
Speaker
I thought you were going to bring up Crazy Chick. Also a great track. which was the I want to say the single prior to it. yeah ah and Specifically, Z, this is for you. The Cardinal Beats remix is a banger. It's like her like marching band moment.
01:20:02
Speaker
yeah but call my name is so like It's just so funny and like funky. and it's it's It's got a really cool production to it. so That's mine. yeah that's a great That is a great choice, z um I'm having okay this is this isn't gonna be interesting to either of you um he's like this David Bowie song I love no yeah it's called fame have you heard it this new artist it goes I'm a killer you know okay I'm gonna they'll never hear this and you've never heard it um I was so I was listening to a couple weeks ago i put on the new Halsey song
01:20:43
Speaker
ah And I let it and then I let it just kind of play like, you know, like Spotify will just kind of do like related songs. I let it play for a few songs and it kind of was doing like, you know, delving into like a lot of is ah more of a rock radio station that I would normally put on But this one song came on by this, I believe this British band called My First Time.
01:21:06
Speaker
They have 18,000 monthly listeners. This song is called Brand New. And it is not really the vibe of anything. i i've I feel like I've listened to a lot lately, but there was just...
01:21:18
Speaker
It almost feels like like sex pistols. It feels like grungy. It feels punky. But it still has like a pop sensibility to it. um Almost like kind of white stripes in a way. Okay.
01:21:30
Speaker
But like i would I would check them out. It's it's really, really fun. Yeah. And what are they called again? they're called The band is called My First Time. First Time. This song has 15,000 streams. So we're on it first.
01:21:43
Speaker
Yeah. So I don't know. I really... I'm also trying to see, like, are they on... Oh, they're on Fresh Finds Rock. Cool. Okay. Yeah, good for them. um Yeah, it looks like they're UK-based.
01:21:55
Speaker
I really, really, really like the song. um it's it's It's very outside my wheelhouse. Like, it it is not...
01:22:04
Speaker
in it's not pop at all but like i and i don't even listen to a lot of music that sounds like this but something about this was just really giving like a really cool attitude i really like the singers um their accent really comes through in it um and it's and it's like one chord all the way through but just like the way it's it's really well produced too so i don't know give them give them a give them a listen i ah Give it give them a listen. That that actually but before before I say mine, I want I'm that brings up a question like what would maybe be the most shocking thing that like if you like someone what am I trying to say like what would be the most shocking artist or like type of music that you listen to that people would be like what?
01:22:47
Speaker
Well, shall I go through my CD case? ah my My high school CD case? Hang on one sec. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. Get that CD case out. while he's go While he's doing this, I just want to also shout out since we're talking about like an indie type artist or like an artist that doesn't have a lot of followers or listeners.
01:23:04
Speaker
um I'm going to throw one thing in first. um There is a band that I discovered specifically because they covered Chapel Rhone's Good Luck Babe. It's a band. I don't know if it's two people. It looks like it's only two people and their bio on Spotify only says we met on Craigslist.
01:23:19
Speaker
um But they do this like rock cover of Good Luck Babe, which is so good. I almost listened to it a little bit more than Chapels. It's got like three million streams. It's like their most streamed track on Spotify. But the band is called Senses. S-E-N-S-E-S. Oh,
01:23:36
Speaker
Have you heard this? Yeah. It's so good. Do you know? I don't know them, but I know i don't know the song, but I know the band. ah The drummer is i want to say, you know, singer Vincent. I believe that's his roommate or his best friend. my God. work What a small world. I see them. I see them. I see them around town.
01:23:54
Speaker
But yeah, I'm familiar. fantastic Her voice. Her voice is phenomenal. They have a bunch of tracks that are that are streaming over a million, you know, for all the stands out there that are keeping track. Yeah. um But really check out their their cover of Good Luck, babe. Anyway, back to you.
01:24:07
Speaker
Oh, no, no, it's fine. I'm just sort of like this. So this is like a frozen in time kind of moment. Like and what what moment is this? This would high school. I would have been like 17 or 18 the last time I added.
01:24:18
Speaker
Oh, but also in here. um Oh, I think I just added this to the the case. my my It was Wednesday, May 1st, 2013. A ticket to see ah French Horn Rebellion, Betty Hu and Evolvo Dauphette at the Red Room Cafe 939.
01:24:40
Speaker
ah This is when she was just some kid at Berkeley. I want to do nothing more than give Betty Hu her flowers. Yes. Literally. Yeah. but but i But I have like the CD of her first EP that I just put in here like a few days ago.
01:24:54
Speaker
Okay. John McLaughlin. Eric Johnson. jo Wait, hold on. John McLaughlin. Not like the singer. As in like the the from the 70s from what's it? What's oh my God. What's the band he was in?
01:25:07
Speaker
Oh my God. Not Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was something, it was something, it was something like that. he he was like a guitar player from like the seventies and eighties. Eric Johnson, also a guitar player.
01:25:20
Speaker
uh niccolo paganini's violin caprices john coltrane emerson lake and palmer yes uh annie lennox bear uh grateful dead uh the yes album led zeppelin 2 all the led zeppelin jimmy hendrix but this also feels like it attracts for me i feel like this yeah yngwie malmstein work um temple of the dog uh derek and the dominoes john and here i here i am i'm just like who who are like these people yeah right i was a straight boy in in high school right all the brothers king crimson ozzy osborne nirvana
01:26:00
Speaker
uh there's jeff buckleaf oh my god wait who's oh mars volta steve vi pantera santana radiohead tool rolling stones frank zappa Derek Trucks and the Beatles. Oh, wow. You really were a straight boy. Like I thought, the who?
01:26:16
Speaker
So like the- Pat Metheny. Cool. The thing that I feel like people wouldn't expect the most from me is that I grew up like absolutely on the Bible of glam metal.
01:26:27
Speaker
Like Motley Crue is my favorite band of all time. Wow. I've seen them five times live. I've seen Vince Neil solo twice. like i was i could I could sing every single note of every album they've put out with Vince as the lead singer. We do not recognize the time when they tried to bring John Karabi in as the lead singer. Absolutely not.
01:26:45
Speaker
No, thank you. um But yeah, anything that was warrant, winger, slaughter, ah all of it. Anything that's hair metal, poison, I am on it and I will...
01:26:55
Speaker
Ride or die till I die. So I played. Welcome to our new. this this This show is now called Straight Phonic. Yeah. Heterophonic. Heterophonic. Heterophonic. Yeah. I played a Motley Crue after party.
01:27:09
Speaker
Stop it. With my band in Boston in 2012. It was just Vince. But um they it was after their show in Boston in 2012. They came to Machine.
01:27:21
Speaker
And my band just did a bunch of hair metal covers. Incredible. Fun. And so I met him and everything. Because i will say, I do feel like when you listen to a lot of the 80s metal specifically, it really is just pop music with distortion effects. It's pop with guitars. Right. yeah And just like an overdrive. like Oh, absolutely. Love me some like Whitesnake and Def Leppard too. Right, right. Yeah. And yeah it's the Desmond Child of it all. It's the, you know, it's just these. And also Desmond Child, if you're unaware for anybody out there, like very famous songwriter, wrote You Give Love is ah You Give Love a Bad Name, Bon Jovi.
01:27:55
Speaker
Ton of stuff, ton of stuff. But the gayest man ever. I feel... I feel like Desmond Child, i might be wrong on this, but i i I do feel like Desmond Child worked on Hanson's debut album.
01:28:07
Speaker
You might be right. i i am almost positive on that. you might but His name pops up in the strangest, like Diane Warren pops up in the weirdest of places. Yeah. yeah yeah yeah Like yeah the Vivian.
01:28:18
Speaker
yeah yeah Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. um Okay, so all of this – wait, before I go into song – you done your song? Oh, yeah. Not yet, but right before I go into that, I was going to say, speaking of all of this, I know that you're not a huge remix person, but have you ever heard the DJs from Mars remix of Telephone by Gaga and Beyonce? Yes, but actually, that note, DJs from Mars – ah Smells Like Teen Spirit.
01:28:46
Speaker
Yes. Remix. I remember the very specific moment where that was, it was like end of the night. I was like drunk and stoned. And it was one of the last songs they played at Machine that night. And I had a spiritual moment to the DJs from Mars remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit.
01:29:04
Speaker
God bless DJs from Mars. Right. That remix tastes like a vodka crayon. yeah Yeah. It's because it's like they didn't, it's, it, um I don't like it when remixes change too much of the song. I kind of like it when they take elements of the song and then like just make them hit harder. it This felt like they they like they kept the guitar riff and they just kind of like made it a little faster like dance tempo and made the drums hit like like ah like an EDM song. And I'm like, oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Yeah.
01:29:32
Speaker
So good. Okay, so I was going to go with a different song we don't talk about enough, but I'm going switch it. ah Because ah someone has an EP coming out on Wednesday.
01:29:43
Speaker
And I want to talk about, so Z, it's been such an honor. trip And um I might get vulnerable for a second. going to get oh for a second. But it's been truly an honor, like becoming a friend of yours over the years. And and it's been so fun.
01:29:59
Speaker
like watching your career grow and seeing your artistry grow and like getting the chance to hear your music before it comes out to the world is really really fun and I remember you sent me ah can I be honest the original version of this EP um I forget how how soon it was before it it came out but you sent it to me before it came out And I was on a walk. So in Grand Rapids, i live in this like cute little tiny little apartment, but i there is like a really cute lake nearby. And what I often do in the spring, summer and fall is I walk down to this lake, walk around it and walk back. It's like an eight mile walk.
01:30:37
Speaker
It's a lot. oh wow um Or sometimes I'll just do the short version, which is like a three mile walk to the lake and back. Anyway. And she's in heels, by the way. and I'm in heels. Oh my God. I did that once in heels. Never again. Never, never, never again.
01:30:49
Speaker
but Never again. Um, but i was on one of those walks and you had sent me the EP and I listened to it and it was just such a magical moment because the, the, all the songs are brilliant. But I remember specifically hearing the intro to, um, I'm in love with everyone for the first time.
01:31:09
Speaker
and it's just acapella that like ghosty, I don't forget what that effect is, what they do on your voice well as you come in. to the song like the very oh like kind of like the reverse sort of reverb yeah yeah um but it's such a fun bop song that is so catchy it gives me ninety s feels which you know i love the 90s and it's just it that and just listening to that on that walk specifically that day i remember then and then it went into
01:31:40
Speaker
The rest of the EP, I remember specifically also Heartbreakery. Like i was like, oh, this is a vibe. Like this is the whole album or EP is just incredible. And so it does not get talked about enough. And you deserve all of your flowers in the world because it's absolutely brilliant. And I'm so excited for this Deluxe. I love that.
01:32:01
Speaker
Yeah. wait but now what what What did you change it from? Well, i was going to say, what were going to What was he? Oh, I'm like, now that we got that. was like, ugh, You know, we got that out of the way. I know, yeah, everyone's crying. He's like, Kendi Lee Gifford in 1998 put out an album. Which, let me tell you, as somebody who owns that album,
01:32:22
Speaker
it wild it it was a moment and i only own it because if you could believe such a thing soul solution did a remix of one of her songs that was crazy yeah that's that actually tracks that feels right yeah that feels correct um so i was gonna pick wait i'd mentioned them earlier alpha beat um they had a so a single called dj that's really really fun um very 90s inspired i would say i'm trying to think of like who it kind of kind of gives me a here we go here we go it gives me gina g vibes and any excuse any excuse to bring her up any excuse gina g's number one fan you'll never find anyone bigger um but it gives me little vibes from her it just like it's a very fun dance pop song um and i wish that the single version was not streaming um i mean the album version's great too but the single version just kind of beefs it up a little bit and um
01:33:14
Speaker
Yeah. So that's, so I guess there we go. we got two about it well We got two out of me. Before we wrap up, since we're talking, since we've now gone to the UK, I do just because I don't think we brought it up with Jade's new single. Oh, I listened this morning. I like it.
01:33:26
Speaker
I i like love it. i absolutely love it. Shout out to Ray, by the way, who's co-wrote it. Oh, did she co-wrote it? Oh, amazing. Yeah. yeah but yeahp No, jade Jade is a force to be reckoned with. I am so excited. like This new single is brilliant. And I have to say, snippet-wise, I was kind of like, oh, this might not be the one that I'm going to be in love with like I was with the rest of the singles. And...
Conclusion and Goodbyes
01:33:46
Speaker
complete opposite reaction i um i love it this gives me like 90s like if for any of the uk listeners um steps it reminds me a lot of steps music um and i it's just pure perfect brit pop and thank you and and produced by lost boy which is this is like a new style of production for him that i have not heard from him before lost boy did padam padam and so i was of that style of production So, um yeah, I love it.
01:34:13
Speaker
I think it's fuck you for now. Let's celebrate that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, i feel I kind of feel that way about certain someone right now. lets say Anyway. Oh, so. So, yeah. Well, you guys, I love you both.
01:34:25
Speaker
Thank you love you for joining on this episode. I forgot to introduce you both earlier, but everyone should know you by now. And if you don't, then our name should be in the title. I hope it really should be. Oh, absolutely. Here we go.
01:34:36
Speaker
And until next time, everyone, thanks for listening and we'll catch you later. Bye. Bye.