Laura Studarus is a contributor to the Recording Academy / GRAMMY.com.
At 73, Alice Cooper is in the middle of his first extended break from touring. Time away from his black-caped, blood-soaked alter-ego has given him plenty of opportunities to continue working (for instance, before our call, he was demoing ideas for the next album by Hollywood Vampires, a project he shares with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry). But mainly, he’s looking forward…
Jez Williams is calling from his studio in the Manchester countryside. The area is currently experiencing a downpour of Biblical proportions, but the Doves guitarist isn’t terribly bothered. As he explains, accidently hitting a cymbal on the drum kit he’s perched on while trying to emphasize a point, music as always been a comfortable place for him. And returning to…
Kevin Parker is calling from under the covers. Given 2020's stay-home ethos, bed seem like a logical place to conduct business, even though the Tame Impala frontman swears it's only because it’s morning in his time zone, and he hasn’t quite summoned up the energy to start his day. His comfort with isolation makes sense—he is, after all the guy…
Jessy Lanza is far from home, specifically on the side of the road in Texas at a Jiffy Lube. The last few weeks have been a lot for the singer/songwriter. A cancelled tour, an unexpected relocation from New York to San Francisco with her partner after her landlord refused to extend their lease, and—of course—a global pandemic that colors almost…
For many musicians, 2020 has felt like an indeterminable pause. Calling from their respective homes in North Carolina, Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack acknowledge that the unplanted time off the road has been emotionally trying. But for the members of Wye Oak, this era has also been an extended opportunity to regroup after nearly a decade of hustle, which in…
Rufus Wainwright has come home. In the past, the singer/songwriter's taste for decadence has taken him to creative extremes. There was a GRAMMY-nominated Judy Garland tribute concert, staged at Carnegie Hall (and then again at five different historic venues across the world). Two operas, 2009's Prima Donna, and 2018’s Hadrian. And even a brief role in the 2005 film The Aviator…
Soko is having a rough 2020. (Then again, aren’t we all?) There was a broken foot that kept her from walking for two months. Then came Covid-19, which she caught and is only now feeling fully recovered. And of course, having to promote an album at home—when like every musician, she'd rather be out in the world, performing and experiencing the…
What do you do when you're, quite literally, dressed up with nowhere to go? That was Jessie Ware's issue when, after three albums of moody R&B-focused pop, the singer/songwriter saw her fourth album What’s Your Pleasure? as a big-beat filled opportunity to get down with her fans. The Mercury Prize-nominated singer/songwriter envisioned listeners dancing with the same reckless abandonment she…
The day before the scheduled release of her sophomore album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers let the cat out the bag. "I’m not pushing the record until things go back to ‘normal’ because I don’t think they should," she tweeted, along with an album link. "Here it is a little early. Abolish the police. Hope you like it." The move, while unorthodox by most promotional…
Jehnny Beth’s newest work, To Love Is To Live, opens with the spoken-word declaration "I am naked all the time/I am burning inside." It’s an aggressive statement, one delivered in an androgynous, robotic voice. But for fans of the musician (née Camille Berthomier), it’s not an outside-of-the-box ask. Through her work as front person of the Mercury Prize-nominated band Savages, and as her…
It’s absurd, promoting an album in the middle of an international crisis. Sondre Lerche admits as much, bridging the social distance via video chat from his home in Oslo. The singer/songwriter's ninth solo album Patience was supposed to be his reemergence into music after two years spent reconnecting with life in one place—something he admits he hasn’t done in nearly…
Mike Hadreas, the creative force behind Perfume Genius, has been whispery and confessional. (See: his first two albums, Learning and Put Your Back N 2 It, which addressed physical abuse, addiction and pain.) He’s been confrontational. ("No family safe/when I sashay," he sang on 2014 track "Queen.") And thanks to a string of experimental performances with the YC Dance Company in November of…
As Nandi Rose recalls, leaving New York City for the twisted wilderness of Chatham in upstate New York was an easy decision. The relocation allowed Rose, who performs as Half Waif, to concentrate strictly on making music, and the extra time at her craft resulted in the lavish sounds and detailed production of her 2018 album, Lavender. But having an album fans…
When it comes to telling it like it is, Courtney Barnett has nerves of steel. Across three full-lengths, including 2018's Tell Me How You Really Feel, the Australian singer-songwriter has unpacked a host of complicated ideas throughout her wry folk rock. <style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed…
Frances Quinlan is shocked. The singer-songwriter was attempting to expound on an answer, thoughtfully tackling the idea of solitary art, when nature intervened in the form of a particularly aggressive muskrat, springing into action outside of the Milwaukee Art Museum. "He just tackled a duck and went for his throat!" she yelps. "I'm surprised he could take her down!" "Animal…
The word "supergroup" was coined in 1966 to describe the band Cream. However, since then, it's become winky shorthand to describe a group of accomplished musicians more interested in goofing off with their equally talented friends than creating anything memorable. But tell that to Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear who revived their legendary rock/grunge outfit Nirvana for a…
There’s a certain romantic connection artists share with New York City. As Valerie Teicher Barbosa recalls, for a time the city acted as an effective creative incubator while she made music as Tei Shi. It was where she introduced herself in 2013, anonymously at first, with a series of crystalline vocal loops she called "mermaid music." It was also where she met…
