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Josh Groban And Rob Cavallo Visit The GRAMMY Museum

GRAMMY-nominated pop singer/songwriter and GRAMMY-winning producer perform a brief set and discuss collaborating on Groban's latest album, All That Echoes

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

GRAMMY-nominated pop singer/songwriter Josh Groban and GRAMMY-winning producer Rob Cavallo recently participated in an installment of the GRAMMY Museum's An Evening With series. Before an intimate audience at the Museum's Clive Davis Theater, the pair discussed songwriting and collaborating on Groban's latest album, All That Echoes. Groban also performed a brief set featuring two tracks from All That Echoes, "Changing Colours" and "Happy In My Heartache," the latter on which he was joined by Cavallo on guitar.

"A great producer will bring out the best in you without having to demand it," said Groban. "It's [Cavallo's] job to … get the best performance out of everybody, including me, without us knowing that he was doing his voodoo."

"I'd rather just be real natural about [recording] and go, 'How are you feeling? Let's really get into this song,'" added Cavallo. "If you love the song, what happens is you put the essence of that song into you … and [you'll] do your best because you want to, not because you're threatened to."

A Los Angeles native, Groban released his self-titled debut album in 2001. Co-produced by GRAMMY winner David Foster, the album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. He followed with 2003's Closer, which topped the chart and garnered Groban his first GRAMMY nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the hit "You Raise Me Up." Subsequent releases included 2006's Awake and 2007's Noël, which peaked at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200, respectively. Noël garnered Groban a GRAMMY nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 51st GRAMMY Awards. Groban's 2010 album, Illuminations, reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and featured songs such as "Hidden Away" and "Higher Window." 

Born in Washington, D.C., Cavallo has collaborated with artists such as Gary Clark Jr., Green Day, Fleetwood Mac, Goo Goo Dolls, and Black Sabbath, among others. In 1998 he co-produced the Goo Goo Dolls' Top 15 album, Dizzy Up The Girl, and garnered his first GRAMMY for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical at the 41st GRAMMY Awards. Cavallo co-produced Green Day's No. 1 album, American Idiot (2004), and received a GRAMMY for Best Rock Album at the 47th GRAMMY Awards. In 2005 Cavallo took home a GRAMMY for Record Of The Year as co-producer of Green Day's "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams." Cavallo currently serves as chairman of Warner Bros. Records.

Released in February, Groban's All That Echoes was co-produced by Cavallo and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The album features 12 tracks, including "Un Alma Más," which features GRAMMY winner Arturo Sandoval, and a cover of GRAMMY winner Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)." A deluxe edition of the album includes four additional tracks, including "Changing Colours." 

Upcoming GRAMMY Museum events include Johnny Cash: The Life — A Book Discussion With Author Robert Hilburn (Nov. 5), The Drop: Divided & United — Music Of The Civil War (Nov. 7) and An Evening With Swamp Dogg (Nov. 14).

Songbook: A Guide To Stephen Sondheim's Essential Works & Classic Tributes
Stephen Sondheim at the Fairchild Theater in East Lansing, Michigan, in February 1997.

Photo: Douglas Elbinger/Getty Images

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Songbook: A Guide To Stephen Sondheim's Essential Works & Classic Tributes

With his name appearing in three categories at the 2024 GRAMMYs, musical theater icon Stephen Sondheim's legacy continues to thrive. Take a deep dive into the masterful works of the late composer/lyricist, from "Company" to "Sweeney Todd."

GRAMMYs/Jan 11, 2024 - 05:41 pm

Stephen Sondheim had three rules when speaking about his own writing: Less is more,  God is in the details, and content dictates form. While the first two are rather self-explanatory, when it comes to a career as storied as Sondheim's, the third begs the question, how can you possibly describe this content?

Over his lifetime, Sondheim — who lived to be 91 years old, dying of cardiovascular disease in 2021 — was first and foremost a composer and lyricist of the musical theater. He wrote music and lyrics for 16 shows, counting the posthumously produced "Here We Are," and lyrics solely for three (or four, depending on how you count) more, two of which — "West Side Story" and "Gypsy" — are among the most famous and highly-regarded productions of all time. 

Even two years since his passing, his influence is still being honored. At the 2024 GRAMMYs, Sondheim's likeness appears twice in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category: for Vol. 3 of the popular Broadway concert series, Sondheim Unplugged (The NYC Sessions), and for Liz Callaway's tribute project, To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim. What's more, the 2023 Josh Groban-starring Broadway revival of Sondheim's famed musical "Sweeney Todd" earned a nod for Best Musical Theater Album. ("Sweeney Todd" won Sondheim a GRAMMY in 1980 for Best Cast Show Album, one of seven GRAMMYs he won in his lifetime.)

All of that barely begins to describe his accomplishments. Sondheim, a protégé of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, revolutionized the art form that his mentor helped to invent. Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers created "Oklahoma!," considered one of the first examples of the "integrated musical," a show where the music, the lyrics, the book, and the dances all work together to tell a story. Sondheim would take those lessons to heart, simultaneously expanding and blowing apart the structure. 

Take his 1970 show "Company," for example, which has no real plot at all, and is often referred to as a "concept musical." It's a series of vignettes, and it's unclear whether they happen consecutively or are months or years apart. 

That was only the beginning of his experimentation. He did a show featuring ghosts ("Follies"), a show about cannibalism ("Sweeney Todd"), a show about geopolitics ("Pacific Overtures"), a show about historical pariahs ("Assassins"), even a show where time goes backwards ("Merrily We Roll Along"). But no matter how far out he got, there was always coherence and heart at play. Everything about the songs his characters sang — the harmonic language, the musical style, the delivery, the melody, the vocabulary, the rhyme choices — was determined by the character and the story. 

And what wonderful characters and stories they were. While his shows appeal to all ages, Sondheim's best work is mostly for adults. His characters have known disappointment, love unattainable people, are not where they saw themselves in life, and have hard choices to make in complicated situations. Sometimes they make the challenging but necessary decision to "Move On"...and sometimes they kill a President. To take those complexities and make them sing, well, that's the root of his genius.

Because Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics (and lived to his nineties), there are a nearly infinite amount of ways to experience his work. The best, of course, is to go out and see a show in person. Three of his shows are playing in New York right now ("Sweeney Todd," "Merrily We Roll Along," and "Here We Are"), and "Company" is currently on tour.

Aside from live theater, there are countless other ways to delve into the work of musical theater's Shakespeare. Below, Sondheim's career is broken down by seven categories, each of which include a mix of canonical classics and personal favorites. This is in no way comprehensive or definitive, so apologies for missing your favorite Gypsy revival cast album or Sondheim birthday concert. And away we go!

Cabaret Albums

Hearing Sondheim songs without the context of a show can be surprising at first. After all, everything about the material is meant for a particular moment in a specific story. And yet, hearing one singer interpret a range of numbers can be a revelatory experience. You can find different meanings (and in at least one case we'll examine shortly, different lyrics!), and hear new interpretations. 

The most famous interpreter of Sondheim is arguably Barbra Streisand, who recorded eight of his songs on her massively successful LP The Broadway Album (and three more on Back To Broadway). Her singing is (unsurprisingly) stunning, but what's most notable is that she actually got Sondheim to write new material — to rework "Putting It Together" to make it about a singer instead of a painter, and to write a new bridge for "Send In The Clowns." 

English singer and actress Cleo Laine released Cleo Sings Sondheim in 1988, and she smartly got Sondheim's longtime orchestrator Jonathan Tunick to conduct. So you can not only hear songs Tunick orchestrated in their original stage productions, you can also hear his arrangements of songs from before he and Sondheim started working together in 1970. Curious what a Tunick-orchestrated "Anyone Can Whistle" or "Evening Primrose" might have sounded like? You can get a taste here.

Several actors who have been in Sondheim shows have further honored his greatness by interpreting his material. Three quick examples: Bernadette Peters' superb Sondheim, Etc.: Live At Carnegie Hall; Mandy Patinkin's Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim; and Liz Callaway's GRAMMY-nominated To Steve With Love (which includes a great version of a nearly-forgotten comic song from "Do I Hear A Waltz?"). Patinkin's deserves special note because his only accompanist is the living musical theater jukebox pianist Paul Ford.

Books

The gold standard for books on Sondheim are the ones he wrote himself: the two-volume memoir/book of lyrics Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat. But if you're not ready for that investment yet, there are other alternatives. 

Meryle Seacrest's Stephen Sondheim: A Life is a comprehensive and extremely readable single-volume biography. It manages to reveal some aspects of Sondheim's life without feeling exploitative, and gives tremendous insight into both his work and the personal and professional relationships that informed it.

There are also a number of excellent books about the process of making individual shows; the two best come from opposite ends of the production spectrum. James Lapine, the book writer and original director of "Sunday In the Park With George," created an oral history of the making of that show called Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim And I Created Sunday In The Park With George. All the way on the other side of the power structure, Ted Chapin, a gofer during the rehearsal process for Follies, turned his detailed journal entries into Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies

On the more scholarly end, check out Joanne Gordon's Art Isn't Easy: The Achievement of Stephen Sondheim. If you really want to go all the way down the rabbit hole (and have a piano handy to play the musical examples), there's Stephen Banfield's extremely thorough Sondheim's Broadway Musicals.

Movies

Turning a stage musical into a movie can be a tricky business; some of the greatest shows have been turned into middling films. The less said about the movie versions of "Sweeney Todd" or "Into the Woods," the better (though it should be noted, in its defense, that Sondheim himself actually liked the former). The movie version of "A Little Night Music" is so forgotten that it's basically impossible to find.

But there are some marvelous Sondheim-related films. Most famous, of course, is West Side Story, the 1961 movie of which was so popular — and acclaimed, winning a whopping 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in 1962 — that it turned a successful but risky Broadway show into an immortal classic. It also inspired several remakes: not just the Oscar-nominated, Spielberg-directed one from 2021, but even a late-'70s Egyptian adaptation. The 1990 movie Dick Tracy contained five Sondheim songs, three of which were sung by Madonna, successfully introducing countless '80s babies to his work.

The Last of Sheila contains no music, so it's a bit of an oddity here. But Sondheim turned his lifelong obsession with games and puzzles into a fun murder mystery movie, co-written with Anthony Perkins. When you watch this 1973 gem, you might recognize some themes and ideas that would later show up in the Knives Out series, in particular Glass Onion (director/writer Rian Johnson has been very open about this).

Speaking of Perkins, he is the star of one of Sondheim's great filmed musicals, the disturbing "Evening Primrose." He plays a young poet who sneaks into a department store after hours so that he can have some privacy to write. What he discovers there is funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately horrifying. Think The Twilight Zone with songs written by a genius. 

Finally, no mention of Sondheim and movies would be complete without D.A. Pennebaker's 1970 documentary Original Cast Album: "Company." It is, at root, Pennebaker and crew filming the recording of "Company"'s cast album. But it's so much more than that. It's about how, as Sondheim once said, "Art isn't easy," and how the actors and musicians are trying — under several very watchful sets of eyes, including the composer/lyricist's — to do the near-impossible in a very limited time. The film has become so iconic that the satirical series Documentary Now! did a hysterical 25-minute-long parody, complete with original songs that are loving send-ups of "Company" numbers.

Tributes/Anthologies

This category combines two similar types of projects. First is the tribute concert, where a bunch of notable singers come together on a single night and each do one or a few songs. Then there are anthologies, where a small group of performers put together a show using songs originally meant for other purposes. Sometimes they have plots, and sometimes they're revues. 

Among the best of the latter category is "Side by Side by Sondheim," the 1976 revue in which three English singers strung together an extremely well-chosen and well-sequenced collection of songs. This was the show that really cemented Sondheim's reputation in England, and justly so. 

In the big one-night-only category, 1992's Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall is right up there at the top of the list. The array of talent at that one show is simply unbelievable, and will never be duplicated. Sondheim regulars like Betty Buckley and Bernadette Peters were there, but so were Liza Minelli and Billy Stritch; Patti LuPone; ballet legend Robert LaFosse; Glenn Close; Karen Ziemba; and even the Boys Choir of Harlem, all roped in to perform some of the finest songs in the musical theater canon.

Sondheim's 90th birthday celebration is also noteworthy. Because it was in the early days of the pandemic, it was all done remotely. The actual live broadcast was a bit of a mess, with false starts and tech snafus (hey, who knew how to work Zoom in April 2020?). Luckily, Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration has been edited down and archived on Broadway.com's YouTube page, and is well worth your time.

Revivals/Concert Productions

Another convenient bridging of categories here. Revivals are versions of shows done after the original production has stopped running. Concert productions are exactly that: people perform all the songs, with minimal (or sometimes no) staging or costumes. The amount of dialogue performed can vary wildly as well. 

Among concert productions, the 1985 New York Philharmonic concert cast recording of "Follies" is justly the most well-known. This is in part because, due to budget restrictions, the original cast recording of "Follies" doesn't contain most of the show's music. So to finally have a full recording of all the material — performed by a who's who of actors including Mandy Patinkin, Barbara Cook, Lee Remick, George Hearn, Elaine Stritch, Jim Walton, and even the legendary writing team of Comden and Green — well, it's as magnificent as it sounds. There's even a documentary to go along with it. 

Another of the top concert recordings arrived a decade later: the 1995 concert version of "Anyone Can Whistle." Angela Lansbury, who starred in the original Broadway production for all of the nine performances it lasted, comes back as the narrator. Bernadette Peters and Madeline Kahn are absolutely incredible, and have an all-time-great duet in the usually cut song "There's Always a Woman," gloriously restored for this production. If you really want to get deep into "…Whistle" (a flop at the time, but a fascinating show), there's also a complete recording released in 2020 that is the closest thing to what you might have experienced in the theater in 1964 — it even restores all the dance music.

Revivals…well, where to start? A good place would be one you can see right now, "Merrily We Roll Along." There is a superb cast recording of the production currently playing on Broadway with Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe

There have been a handful of major reimaginings of "Company" over the years. The best were a stripped-down version where the cast plays its own instruments, and a gender-swapped one where inveterate bachelor Bobby is portrayed as perpetually single woman Bobbie. 

Points also go to the 2004 Broadway cast recording of "Assassins," and not just because Neil Patrick Harris does such a great job. The whole album captures the project's challenging beauty.

Original Cast Recordings

An original cast album of a Sondheim show will reveal countless treasures if you dig into it. It is often the best way to hear a show, since the actors are the ones who originated the roles, whether it's Ethel Merman as the obsessed stage mother Mama Rose in "Gypsy" or Donna Murphy as the tortured Fosca in "Passion." 

The 1970s have a surfeit of treasures. To take a few not yet mentioned, there's "Sweeney Todd," with timeless performances by Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou; and "A Little Night Music," perhaps Sondheim's ultimate example of writing music for character. It's nearly impossible to hear the show's two main female characters as anyone else but the late Glynis Johns as the actress Desiree Armfeldt and Hermione Gingold as her mother.

If you haven't already heard the original cast recordings of "Gypsy" and "West Side Story," do so immediately. Both are iconic pieces of 20th century art. (Music for the former is by Jule Styne, and for the latter by Leonard Bernstein).

Proshots

Luckily, productions — many featuring the original casts — of many of Sondheim's shows have been captured on tape, so you can see and hear them in their entirety. They are often referred to as "proshots," a portmanteau of "professionally shot." 

"Pacific Overtures" works well as an album, but it really comes alive when you can see the gorgeous staging. "Sweeney Todd" gains extra comedy and menace in its proshot. There's a New York City Opera version of "A Little Night Music" that is masterful. You can't really understand "Passion" without seeing Donna Murphy. "Merrily We Roll Along"'s complicated story becomes comprehensible when viewing the filmed revival.

But the most unmissable are two of the 1980s productions. There's "Sunday In the Park With George," a classic meditation on the life of the artist Georges Seurat starring Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters; it was filmed for TV in 1986. Because this is a show largely about a painter and the creation of his most famous painting, actually seeing the show — literally seeing the painting come to life — is essential.

Arguably the most important of all, though, is the filmed play that introduced generations of children to Sondheim's work. His fairy tale show "Into the Woods" was taped in 1989 (though not aired until 1991), and its frequent TV showings have made it a gateway drug for theatergoers ever since. 

The show is not just a collection of children's tales and songs. It uses the background of those stories to really delve into uncomfortable truths about parents and children, growing up, consequences, and what it really means to be good. Its themes, music, and sophistication, all while still being absolutely appropriate for, and speaking to, children, make it, as scholar Stephen Banfield wrote in 1993, "Sondheim's finest achievement yet."

That "yet" is a lot sadder now than it was when Banfield wrote it. But the show still stands as the epitome of a legendary writer and genius composer — one whose legacy and songs are already proving to live on past his lifetime. 

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GRAMMY Rewind: Kendrick Lamar Honors Hip-Hop's Greats While Accepting Best Rap Album GRAMMY For 'To Pimp a Butterfly' In 2016
Kendrick Lamar

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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GRAMMY Rewind: Kendrick Lamar Honors Hip-Hop's Greats While Accepting Best Rap Album GRAMMY For 'To Pimp a Butterfly' In 2016

Upon winning the GRAMMY for Best Rap Album for 'To Pimp a Butterfly,' Kendrick Lamar thanked those that helped him get to the stage, and the artists that blazed the trail for him.

GRAMMYs/Oct 13, 2023 - 06:01 pm

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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A Guide To Modern Funk For The Dance Floor: L'Imperatrice, Shiro Schwarz, Franc Moody, Say She She & Moniquea
Franc Moody

Photo: Rachel Kupfer 

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A Guide To Modern Funk For The Dance Floor: L'Imperatrice, Shiro Schwarz, Franc Moody, Say She She & Moniquea

James Brown changed the sound of popular music when he found the power of the one and unleashed the funk with "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." Today, funk lives on in many forms, including these exciting bands from across the world.

GRAMMYs/Nov 25, 2022 - 04:23 pm

It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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Living Legends: Billy Idol On Survival, Revival & Breaking Out Of The Cage
Billy Idol

Photo: Steven Sebring

interview

Living Legends: Billy Idol On Survival, Revival & Breaking Out Of The Cage

"One foot in the past and one foot into the future," Billy Idol says, describing his decade-spanning career in rock. "We’ve got the best of all possible worlds because that has been the modus operandi of Billy Idol."

GRAMMYs/Nov 25, 2022 - 04:19 pm

Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with Billy Idol about his latest EP,  Cage, and continuing to rock through decades of changing tastes.

Billy Idol is a true rock 'n' roll survivor who has persevered through cultural shifts and personal struggles. While some may think of Idol solely for "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," the singer's musical influences span genres and many of his tunes are less turbo-charged than his '80s hits would belie.  

Idol first made a splash in the latter half of the '70s with the British punk band Generation X. In the '80s, he went on to a solo career combining rock, pop, and punk into a distinct sound that transformed him and his musical partner, guitarist Steve Stevens, into icons. They have racked up multiple GRAMMY nominations, in addition to one gold, one double platinum, and four platinum albums thanks to hits like "Cradle Of Love," "Flesh For Fantasy," and "Eyes Without A Face." 

But, unlike many legacy artists, Idol is anything but a relic. Billy continues to produce vital Idol music by collaborating with producers and songwriters — including Miley Cyrus — who share his forward-thinking vision. He will play a five-show Vegas residency in November, and filmmaker Jonas Akerlund is working on a documentary about Idol’s life. 

His latest release is Cage, the second in a trilogy of annual four-song EPs. The title track is a classic Billy Idol banger expressing the desire to free himself from personal constraints and live a better life. Other tracks on Cage incorporate metallic riffing and funky R&B grooves. 

Idol continues to reckon with his demons — they both grappled with addiction during the '80s — and the singer is open about those struggles on the record and the page. (Idol's 2014 memoir Dancing With Myself, details a 1990 motorcycle accident that nearly claimed a leg, and how becoming a father steered him to reject hard drugs. "Bitter Taste," from his last EP, The Roadside, reflects on surviving the accident.)

Although Idol and Stevens split in the late '80s — the skilled guitarist fronted Steve Stevens & The Atomic Playboys, and collaborated with Michael Jackson, Rick Ocasek, Vince Neil, and Harold Faltermeyer (on the GRAMMY-winning "Top Gun Anthem") —  their common history and shared musical bond has been undeniable. The duo reunited in 2001 for an episode of "VH1 Storytellers" and have been back in the saddle for two decades. Their union remains one of the strongest collaborations in rock 'n roll history.

While there is recognizable personnel and a distinguishable sound throughout a lot of his work, Billy Idol has always pushed himself to try different things. Idol discusses his musical journey, his desire to constantly move forward, and the strong connection that he shares with Stevens. 

Steve has said that you like to mix up a variety of styles, yet everyone assumes you're the "Rebel Yell"/"White Wedding" guy. But if they really listen to your catalog, it's vastly different.

Yeah, that's right. With someone like Steve Stevens, and then back in the day Keith Forsey producing... [Before that] Generation X actually did move around inside punk rock. We didn't stay doing just the Ramones two-minute music. We actually did a seven-minute song. [Laughs]. We did always mix things up. 

Then when I got into my solo career, that was the fun of it. With someone like Steve, I knew what he could do. I could see whatever we needed to do, we could nail it. The world was my oyster musically. 

"Cage" is a classic-sounding Billy Idol rocker, then "Running From The Ghost" is almost metal, like what the Devil's Playground album was like back in the mid-2000s. "Miss Nobody" comes out of nowhere with this pop/R&B flavor. What inspired that?

We really hadn't done anything like that since something like "Flesh For Fantasy" [which] had a bit of an R&B thing about it. Back in the early days of Billy Idol, "Hot In The City" and "Mony Mony" had girls [singing] on the backgrounds. 

We always had a bit of R&B really, so it was actually fun to revisit that. We just hadn't done anything really quite like that for a long time. That was one of the reasons to work with someone like Sam Hollander [for the song "Rita Hayworth"] on The Roadside. We knew we could go [with him] into an R&B world, and he's a great songwriter and producer. That's the fun of music really, trying out these things and seeing if you can make them stick. 

I listen to new music by veteran artists and debate that with some people. I'm sure you have those fans that want their nostalgia, and then there are some people who will embrace the newer stuff. Do you find it’s a challenge to reach people with new songs?

Obviously, what we're looking for is, how do we somehow have one foot in the past and one foot into the future? We’ve got the best of all possible worlds because that has been the modus operandi of Billy Idol. 

You want to do things that are true to you, and you don't just want to try and do things that you're seeing there in the charts today. I think that we're achieving it with things like "Running From The Ghost" and "Cage" on this new EP. I think we’re managing to do both in a way. 

**Obviously, "Running From The Ghost" is about addiction, all the stuff that you went through, and in "Cage" you’re talking about  freeing yourself from a lot of personal shackles. Was there any one moment in your life that made you really thought I have to not let this weigh me down anymore?**

I mean, things like the motorcycle accident I had, that was a bit of a wake up call way back. It was 32 years ago. But there were things like that, years ago, that gradually made me think about what I was doing with my life. I didn't want to ruin it, really. I didn't want to throw it away, and it made [me] be less cavalier. 

I had to say to myself, about the drugs and stuff, that I've been there and I've done it. There’s no point in carrying on doing it. You couldn't get any higher. You didn't want to throw your life away casually, and I was close to doing that. It took me a bit of time, but then gradually I was able to get control of myself to a certain extent [with] drugs and everything. And I think Steve's done the same thing. We're on a similar path really, which has been great because we're in the same boat in terms of lyrics and stuff. 

So a lot of things like that were wake up calls. Even having grandchildren and just watching my daughter enlarging her family and everything; it just makes you really positive about things and want to show a positive side to how you're feeling, about where you're going. We've lived with the demons so long, we've found a way to live with them. We found a way to be at peace with our demons, in a way. Maybe not completely, but certainly to where we’re enjoying what we do and excited about it.

[When writing] "Running From The Ghost" it was easy to go, what was the ghost for us? At one point, we were very drug addicted in the '80s. And Steve in particular is super sober [now]. I mean, I still vape pot and stuff. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but it’s incredible. All I want to be able to do is have a couple of glasses of wine at a restaurant or something. I can do that now.

I think working with people that are super talented, you just feel confident. That is a big reason why you open up and express yourself more because you feel comfortable with what's around you.

Did you watch Danny Boyle's recent Sex Pistols mini-series?

I did, yes.

You had a couple of cameos; well, an actor who portrayed you did. How did you react to it? How accurate do you think it was in portraying that particular time period?

I love Jonesy’s book, I thought his book was incredible. It's probably one of the best bio books really. It was incredible and so open. I was looking forward to that a lot.

It was as if [the show] kind of stayed with Steve [Jones’ memoir] about halfway through, and then departed from it. [John] Lydon, for instance, was never someone I ever saw acting out; he's more like that today. I never saw him do something like jump up in the room and run around going crazy. The only time I saw him ever do that was when they signed the recording deal with Virgin in front of Buckingham Palace. Whereas Sid Vicious was always acting out; he was always doing something in a horrible way or shouting at someone. I don't remember John being like that. I remember him being much more introverted.

But then I watched interviews with some of the actors about coming to grips with the parts they were playing. And they were saying, we knew punk rock happened but just didn't know any of the details. So I thought well, there you go. If ["Pistol" is]  informing a lot of people who wouldn't know anything about punk rock, maybe that's what's good about it.

Maybe down the road John Lydon will get the chance to do John's version of the Pistols story. Maybe someone will go a lot deeper into it and it won't be so surface. But maybe you needed this just to get people back in the flow.

We had punk and metal over here in the States, but it feels like England it was legitimately more dangerous. British society was much more rigid.

It never went [as] mega in America. It went big in England. It exploded when the Pistols did that interview with [TV host Bill] Grundy, that lorry truck driver put his boot through his own TV, and all the national papers had "the filth and the fury" [headlines].

We went from being unknown to being known overnight. We waited a year, Generation X. We even told them [record labels] no for nine months to a year. Every record company wanted their own punk rock group. So it went really mega in England, and it affected the whole country – the style, the fashions, everything. I mean, the Ramones were massive in England. Devo had a No. 1 song [in England] with "Satisfaction" in '77. Actually, Devo was as big as or bigger than the Pistols.

You were ahead of the pop-punk thing that happened in the late '90s, and a lot of it became tongue-in-cheek by then. It didn't have the same sense of rebelliousness as the original movement. It was more pop.

It had become a style. There was a famous book in England called Revolt Into Style — and that's what had happened, a revolt that turned into style which then they were able to duplicate in their own way. Even recently, Billie Joe [Armstrong] did his own version of "Gimme Some Truth," the Lennon song we covered way back in 1977.

When we initially were making [punk] music, it hadn't become accepted yet. It was still dangerous and turned into a style that people were used to. We were still breaking barriers.

You have a band called Generation Sex with Steve Jones and Paul Cook. I assume you all have an easier time playing Pistols and Gen X songs together now and not worrying about getting spit on like back in the '70s?

Yeah, definitely. When I got to America I told the group I was putting it together, "No one spits at the audience."

We had five years of being spat on [in the UK], and it was revolting. And they spat at you if they liked you. If they didn't like it they smashed your gear up. One night, I remember I saw blood on my T-shirt, and I think Joe Strummer got meningitis when spit went in his mouth.

You had to go through a lot to become successful, it wasn't like you just kind of got up there and did a couple of gigs. I don't think some young rock bands really get that today.

With punk going so mega in England, we definitely got a leg up. We still had a lot of work to get where we got to, and rightly so because you find out that you need to do that. A lot of groups in the old days would be together three to five years before they ever made a record, and that time is really important. In a way, what was great about punk rock for me was it was very much a learning period. I really learned a lot [about] recording music and being in a group and even writing songs.

Then when I came to America, it was a flow, really. I also really started to know what I wanted Billy Idol to be. It took me a little bit, but I kind of knew what I wanted Billy Idol to be. And even that took a while to let it marinate.

You and Miley Cyrus have developed a good working relationship in the last several years. How do you think her fans have responded to you, and your fans have responded to her?

I think they're into it. It's more the record company that she had didn't really get "Night Crawling"— it was one of the best songs on Plastic Hearts, and I don't think they understood that. They wanted to go with Dua Lipa, they wanted to go with the modern, young acts, and I don't think they realized that that song was resonating with her fans. Which is a shame really because, with Andrew Watt producing, it's a hit song.

But at the same time, I enjoyed doing it. It came out really good and it's very Billy Idol. In fact, I think it’s more Billy Idol than Miley Cyrus. I think it shows you where Andrew Watt was. He was excited about doing a Billy Idol track. She's fun to work with. She’s a really great person and she works at her singing — I watched her rehearsing for the Super Bowl performance she gave. She rehearsed all Saturday morning, all Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning and it was that afternoon. I have to admire her fortitude. She really cares.

I remember when you went on "Viva La Bamback in 2005 and decided to give Bam Margera’s Lamborghini a new sunroof by taking a power saw to it. Did he own that car? Was that a rental?

I think it was his car.

Did he get over it later on?

He loved it. [Laughs] He’s got a wacky sense of humor. He’s fantastic, actually. I’m really sorry to see what he's been going through just lately. He's going through a lot, and I wish him the best. He's a fantastic person, and it's a shame that he's struggling so much with his addictions. I know what it's like. It's not easy.

Musically, what is the synergy like with you guys during the past 10 years, doing Kings and Queens of the Underground and this new stuff? What is your working relationship like now in this more sober, older, mature version of you two as opposed to what it was like back in the '80s?

In lots of ways it’s not so different because we always wrote the songs together, we always talked about what we're going to do together. It was just that we were getting high at the same time.We're just not getting [that way now] but we're doing all the same things.

We're still talking about things, still [planning] things:What are we going to do next? How are we going to find new people to work with? We want to find new producers. Let's be a little bit more timely about putting stuff out.That part of our relationship is the same, you know what I mean? That never got affected. We just happened to be overloading in the '80s.

The relationship’s… matured and it's carrying on being fruitful, and I think that's pretty amazing. Really, most people don't get to this place. Usually, they hate each other by now. [Laughs] We also give each other space. We're not stopping each other doing things outside of what we’re working on together. All of that enables us to carry on working together. I love and admire him. I respect him. He's been fantastic. I mean, just standing there on stage with him is always a treat. And he’s got an immensely great sense of humor. I think that's another reason why we can hang together after all this time because we've got the sense of humor to enable us to go forward.

There's a lot of fan reaction videos online, and I noticed a lot of younger women like "Rebel Yell" because, unlike a lot of other '80s alpha male rock tunes, you're talking about satisfying your lover.

It was about my girlfriend at the time, Perri Lister. It was about how great I thought she was, how much I was in love with her, and how great women are, how powerful they are.

It was a bit of a feminist anthem in a weird way. It was all about how relationships can free you and add a lot to your life. It was a cry of love, nothing to do with the Civil War or anything like that. Perri was a big part of my life, a big part of being Billy Idol. I wanted to write about it. I'm glad that's the effect.

Is there something you hope people get out of the songs you've been doing over the last 10 years? Do you find yourself putting out a message that keeps repeating?

Well, I suppose, if anything, is that you can come to terms with your life, you can keep a hold of it. You can work your dreams into reality in a way and, look, a million years later, still be enjoying it.

The only reason I'm singing about getting out of the cage is because I kicked out of the cage years ago. I joined Generation X when I said to my parents, "I'm leaving university, and I'm joining a punk rock group." And they didn't even know what a punk rock group was. Years ago, I’d write things for myself that put me on this path, so that maybe in 2022 I could sing something like "Cage" and be owning this territory and really having a good time. This is the life I wanted.

The original UK punk movement challenged societal norms. Despite all the craziness going on throughout the world, it seems like a lot of modern rock bands are afraid to do what you guys were doing. Do you think we'll see a shift in that?

Yeah.  Art usually reacts to things, so I would think eventually there will be a massive reaction to the pop music that’s taken over — the middle of the road music, and then this kind of right wing politics. There will be a massive reaction if there's not already one. I don’t know where it will come from exactly. You never know who's gonna do [it].

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