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GRAMMYs On The Road With Oberhofer, Orchard Lounge And Miike Snow

Backstage at the 2012 Lollapalooza festival

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

The Recording Academy Chicago Chapter played host for GRAMMYs On The Road at Lollapalooza on Aug. 3–5 in Grant Park in Chicago. The Chapter conducted exclusive backstage interviews with artists performing at the festival, including indie pop group Oberhofer, DJ collective Orchard Lounge and indie electro/pop group Miike Snow.

Oberhofer discussed studying music at New York University, utilizing social media and creative inspirations, among other topics.

"Studying music theory and composition in college affects the arrangements a lot," said frontman Brad Oberhofer. "It probably affects my melodic approach, but I think I've always inherently had a melodic approach that borrows from classical music."

Oberhofer was founded in 2008 by musician Brad Oberhofer after he moved from Tacoma, Wash., to study music composition at New York University. In 2010 he self-released the lo-fi synth pop single "o0o0o0o0o," which led to spots on tour with Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian, Twin Sister, and Bear In Heaven. Oberhofer teamed with five-time GRAMMY-winning producer Steve Lillywhite to record his debut album, Time Capsules II, which was released in March.

Orchard Lounge discussed musical inspirations growing up, how they met and the influence of house music, among other topics.

"We met on Orchard Street in Lincoln Park and we just had chemistry from the get-go," said Bethany Briscoe Lokken. "We thought [house music] was our secret, so we would go see DJs … every single night of the week. … We would be [in] the front row of their shows just learning, loving and dancing."

Orchard Lounge was formed in Chicago in 2000 and features DJs Spencer Lokken, Bethany Briscoe Lokken and Ben Silver. Known for their heavy touring schedule, Orchard Lounge have performed alongside DJs including DJ Krush, the Disco Biscuits, the Meters, the New Deal, Jamie Jones, and the Magician, among others, and have performed at venues including Red Rocks in Morrison, Colo., and New York's Hammerstein Ballroom.

Miike Snow's members discussed meeting producer Mark Ronson and winning a GRAMMY for Britney Spears' "Toxic." 

"He has a real good ability of zooming out and hearing the whole picture of a song," says Miike Snow's Andrew Wyatt regarding collaborating with Ronson. "He doesn't try to over-fix things or over-manipulate things in the studio. … It allows magical things to happen inside of a song."

Formed in 2007, Miike Snow is comprised of writers/producers Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg and Andrew Wyatt. The trio released their debut single, "Animal," in 2009, followed by a self-titled debut album. In 2012 the trio formed the indie label Ingrid with Lykke Li, Dungen and Peter Bjorn And John and in March released their sophomore album, Happy To You.  Karlsson and Winnberg also work as the production duo Bloodshy & Avant and in 2004 earned a GRAMMY for Best Dance Recording for producing Spears' "Toxic."

(GRAMMYs On The Road at Lollapalooza: Interviews and news contributions by Ramon Alvarez-Smikle, Christina Castillo, Max O'Kane, and Emily Ornberg.)

Inside Christian Karlsson's Musical Genius: How Punk Rock, Britney Spears & Doing "Crazy S—" Built The Swedish Producer's Legacy
Christian Karlsson

Photo: Tung Walsh

interview

Inside Christian Karlsson's Musical Genius: How Punk Rock, Britney Spears & Doing "Crazy S—" Built The Swedish Producer's Legacy

As he prepares Galantis' latest release, "Dreamteam," superproducer Christian Karlsson details the most monumental parts of his career thus far — from penning major pop hits to headlining EDM's biggest stages.

GRAMMYs/Oct 24, 2023 - 06:00 pm

What do Galantis, Miike Snow, Sky Ferreira and Britney Spears' "Toxic" all have in common?

Christian Karlsson, the Swedish DJ and songwriter who spent the last 30-odd years becoming one of the most influential and untamed voices in modern music. 

Since his early days as a skateboarder-turned-rapper and punk rocker-turned-beatmaker, Karlsson has quietly stacked up top-tier credits and international awards, launching project after successful project. Yet, he's never explicitly made himself the center of attention. 

You may have heard of him as Bloodshy, one-half of the storied pop production duo Bloodshy & Avant, under which moniker he's worked with major artists from Christina Milian to Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and more. Or perhaps you recognize him from the eclectic dance act Galantis. But you've never quite heard his full professional story — until now.

On Galantis' latest string of singles — the newest of which, “Dreamteam” featuring Neon Trees, will arrive on Oct. 27 — Karlsson opens up about his personal struggles with ADHD and gets back in touch with his rebellious music roots. After jumping from project to project, he's ready to connect the dots of his musical past into one sonic story. 

Below, Karlsson details the biggest milestones of his remarkable journey so far, from starting in punk rock to the latest chapter of Galantis.

Finding His Voice

It was punk rock and skateboarding that got me into music; the subculture of being political and against everything.

That expression is the most important part for me, and it will always be. I have a professional side, of course, but the seed that started it all was being in the punk rock and skateboard scene, and that will never go away. Every time I need inspiration, I take inspiration from subculture, hip-hop or anything inspiring to me. I think I'm too old today to understand what's going on with new subcultures, but I really hope that it's growing and that it's always there for young people. I think that's very important.

I started writing songs with a really bad acoustic guitar, learning three chords to write punk rock. My biggest wish in life was to get an electric, and once I did, I started a punk rock band when I was 14. 

I loved melodies from the start. I did like a lot of other punk rock too, but I was drawn to really cool, melodic punk rock. That's where it started. It's a good genre to start with, because it's easy.

Beat-Making A Name For Himself

[I became interested in making beats] when hip-hop came into skateboarding through House of Pain and Cypress Hill. I collected vinyl. I had Public Enemy and EPMD. I was already a fan of hip-hop, but when punk rock and hip-hop met, that was really interesting to me. 

All of a sudden, I really want a drum machine. That was my first step into production, learning an MPC 60 and starting to program. I was one of the first signed rappers in Sweden when I was 15. I did two albums and opened up for the Fugees in all of Europe. Jay-Z asked me to do a remix for "Hard Knock Life." 

In that way, I started as an artist. Producing for others was never anything that I planned. It wasn't that I wanted to be on stage. I just wanted to create music, and I didn't realize there were other people behind artists producing the songs. It's not like the punk rock bands I was listening to had a producer. That [understanding] came from hip-hop.

When I was 22, Quincy Jones invited me over to the U.S. the first time. I hardly spoke English. I worked with him on a lot of projects, actually. That's when I introduced that I actually know melodies, that I'm not only a beatmaker. I had a lot of great ideas for melody, and the melodies started to become a very important tool for me, as well as making something really fresh and somewhat left-field.

Finding The Formula

Bloodshy was my rap name. I had a group called Gold Mine where I was a producer, rapper and founder. Pontus [Winnberg] was the keyboard player in the live band. That's when we got to know each other, and then we split paths. I moved to Stockholm, and he was in Gothenburg. 

Later on, when I made that remix for Jay-Z and a bunch of other things, I invited Pontus to come and try making music with me. I was like "I went away a little bit from the hip-hop stuff. I'm trying to make beats for other people." Christina Milian was one of the first ones that was big for me, and Pontus came when I was doing that. That's the first time we worked together on something. 

Milian wasn't really signed or anything. It was more of an artist development thing Def Jam was doing. Instantly, I wanted to work with her. I believed in her, and we did a lot of songs together. That was the first really big project I took on as a serious production role.

Breaking The Charts…

After Christina Milian, I was working with a lot of artists and just writing so many ideas every day. I now understand that I was never the perfect producer because I never hit the mark of anything an artist was aiming for. I always hit a completely different place. I just need to go where I want to go, and if someone wants to tag along, that's amazing, but I'm not really the producer to say, "Can you do something like this?" I'm like, "No, I'm gonna do something else."

I actually wrote "Toxic" for Kylie Minogue. I think the A&R was on vacation or something, because they never got back to me. Then, I was working with another artist, Samantha Mumba, in L.A. The A&R for Britney was working across the hall and really wanted to meet me. I played him "Toxic." I didn't even play the whole thing. He came back like, "I want you to work with Britney, and I really liked the song you played," and it turned around really quickly. 

I had a very tough choice to make, because Janet Jackson flew me over to London, and she wanted to work with me at the time, too. I had to choose. That was a very tough decision for me, because I was a huge fan of Janet. But I felt like, with Britney, I had someone that could follow where I wanted to go and do some crazy stuff. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but Janet was really strong. She knew what she wanted to do and was telling you. I was super into it, but I felt like, if I'm going to do my crazy s—, maybe Britney's project was better fit for me.

From then on, me and Pontus were with Britney all the time, from being with her on the tour bus to different studios in different cities. She trusted us, which was great. We felt like we had freedom, and we had a great relationship with whoever she was working with at the time. I really liked working on [Spears' 2007 album] Blackout. We wrote so many great songs, and we really took the freedom and just went with it.

…And Breaking The Mold

Miike Snow started as me and Pontus being really fed up with Top 40 music. Everyone was just asking us to make another "Toxic" or whatever it was, and we decided not to work on other artists anymore. We didn't answer any emails or calls or anything like, Let's just do our own thing

We met Andrew Wyatt in a studio in New York. We really clicked with him and instantly started working on music together. Our plan was to release it on MySpace, and that was it, just follow the freedom. "Hey, if the song is eight minutes, it's f—ing eight minutes!" 

I'm really proud of the decision, and Miike Snow just grew. Probably the first 100 shows were tiny venues, like 100 people, and we're the opening act, traveling in a van, carrying all the gear and building our stage stuff. People are like, "You're a big producer, why are you doing this?" I was like, "I f—ing love doing this!" 

Miike Snow organically grew and started getting a lot of love and support from other musicians and creators. That was what we wanted. It was actually exactly the right love because someone was giving us love for the crazy s— that we liked to make. Then we started to play bigger festivals and tour like crazy.

Me and Pontus had been looking at the dance scene for a long time. You can hear that in our productions. There's a lot of electronic music and dance music in it, and we had it in Miike Snow. Then we started to DJ the parties after Miike Snow shows. 

I started to love DJing, and we got really tight with Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello — before they were Swedish House Mafia. They were huge fans of Miike Snow and the song "Sylvia," and we took a peek into their world. I was with them in Ibiza like, Oh my god, this is crazy. That sparked something in me that kept on going until, eventually, the Miike Snow DJ sets I was playing became so disconnected from Miike Snow that I had to start a new thing. Indie dance could only take me that far into the night, right? I needed to be a little bit more clubby. And I just needed a vehicle for that.

Nurturing New Talent

I [met Sky Ferreira] when she was 13. She DMed me on MySpace, and I was blown away. This was the cockiest 13-year-old girl I'd ever spoken to. She keeps on saying she's the best at everything. I showed Pontus like, "There's something about this girl. She's so confident, and everything she's saying, I'm buying." 

She was cool in the club space. Sky is gonna hate me saying this, but I was like Maybe she's a new Uffie. Uffie was, like, blowing up at the time, and I worked with Uffie later in my career because I was a huge fan. Anyway, I'm like "maybe she's like Uffie" because she was in the headspace of dance music and indie, that Ed Banger [Records] world that Uffie was in. Then Sky sent me [a clip of] her singing. I'm like, "You gotta be kidding."

I dove right in and started to create a sound working with her, inviting people that I thought would be good for the project.

Starting Galantis

I took a break from touring with Miike Snow after 600 shows or something. I felt like I was a little bit cornered, like how I felt when I started Miike Snow to get away from Top 40. I felt pinned down in this touring thing, and I needed quicker output. 

Linus [Eklöw] was a good friend of mine, who remixed "Animal" by Miike Snow and my first Sky Ferreira song, "One." We started to talk, and I said "I'm going to start my own thing. We should work together," and that's how Galantis started.

I knew I had something when DJs started coming out with pop songs. It wasn't just techno DJs like Richie Hawtin anymore. That's when I felt like, This is what I do. I write songs and DJ. These guys were great, but I've been doing this way longer, so if you want a songwriter that can DJ, I'm like, "Alright, let me show you how." I just wanted to throw all my s— out the door as quickly as possible, because I knew if the world was ready, then this would be amazing.

Galantis was so important to me. I struggle with ADHD, and that's why I call the first album Pharmacy because I needed to go back into the studio and make so much music. I just wanted to feel good again about creating, because I wasn't creating as much on tour. This is my medication, and then I also wanted something that was an "upper," something that was happy and leaned the way I wanted to feel. 

I said to myself and Linus, "I only want happy, cool-feeling dance music, but I don't want to be cheesy." There is a line. When you think about Motown, it's all cool, but it's also happy vibes. Why can't we try to get that into dance music? Cool, but happy, warm and inspiring without being cheesy. That's what I was going for, anyway.

I think "Peanut Butter Jelly" is the most like that. Now, people are gonna read this and be like, "Well, that's cheesy," and I'm gonna say, "No, it's not!"

Getting Personal

I'm chasing freedom all the time in my music. Miike Snow is so much freedom, but I'm writing the songs with Pontus and Andrew, so it's not the complete freedom I get in Galantis. Now, I can pick any vocal and work with anyone, and dance music was the way I wanted to express myself because I was so into DJing. 

I wrote [Galantis'] "Bang Bang" because I've never told anyone really about my ADHD, and I just wanted it out there. Recently, I've come into different communities, and hearing about ADHD from other people has helped me a lot. That's what I want to do with the song, give something back and tell my story.

"Koala" definitely hits very close to home in terms of just doing my own thing wherever it goes and not being scared of going there. This is something that doesn't sound like anything else I know. It's a weird one, but I love it. 

I wrote it with a very good friend of mine, Andrew Bullimore aka Beatbullyz's, who I wrote "No Money" with. His son is singing "No Money." He was 10 at the time. And I was back with Bully and writing, and he had an idea where his now two sons could sing a song to his newborn daughter. The mom is from Australia, and his sons call her Koala. So Bully's two sons are singing to their little sister about Koala.

He sent me a little snippet singing it with his boys. I had, like, five studio sessions going, and I threw everything away, just skipped everything and worked on this. That's how much I felt like, I just want to go where this is taking me. That's what inspires me every day, coming back to freedom. I just did it because I felt like I wanted to do that, and now I'm really happy that we're putting it out.

The third recent single is "Dream Team." That's a very collaborative record with some people that I'm working with more and more. The idea was sent to me, and I was drawn to that little bit of something punk rock. I heard so many different pieces of music in one song that I felt very inspired to work on it. 

If "Koala" was like, Zoom, here it is;  this is the other type — when you're drawn to it, you like it, and then you have to keep on working on it. At times, I wanted to give up so badly, but there's something in me that won't ever give up on that challenge; some type of pressure I put on myself. This is a collaborative record with other people, and we're sending it back and forth. Snippets were changing, but it was a cool journey, and sometimes that's what it takes to make a record. I'm not scared to put it down and take it back up again. I'll never give up. 

It's like "Peanut Butter Jelly." I wrote that thing 10 years before it came out. I pitched that to so many artists, and no one liked it. Everyone hated it, and every time someone disliked it, the more I used to be like, I'm gonna put it out one day, and I did — and it's a pretty big record for Galantis, actually.

It gets easier with experience, to have more output but less of a stressful life. You know how to do stuff. In the beginning, I was living in the studio basically, but today, I get more music out than ever, and I don't have to live in the studio anymore. I do create music 24/7 anyway. It's just in my head, you know?

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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

video

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."

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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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