Portugal. The Man are having a good year.

Their eighth studio album, Woodstock, dropped early this past summer, and the album's lead single, "Feel It Still," rocketed to No. 1 at Alternative and AAA radio, becoming the group's first chart-topping single in either programming format.

With production aid from Mike D of Beastie Boys fame, the band has continued their current trend of heading into the studio with top-tier talent at the helm. (Their last LP, Evil Friends, was co-produced by Danger Mouse)

Lead vocalist and guitarist John Gourley and guitarist Erick Howk of Portugal. The Man sat down with the Recording Academy to discuss the intent behind their new album, the influence that Woodstock has on modern music, and how co-producer Asa Taccone helped them coax "Feel It Still" out of the ether.

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Let's talk about "Feel It Still." Top 10 hit, No. 1 at Alternative radio. Can you share a little bit of the story, inspiration or the intent behind the song?
Gourley: "Feel It Still" came around pretty much as organically as you can put a song together. I believe we were working on "Live In The Moment" with John Hill. We were working on mixing at the end of the day, and I think I had just stepped out while they were doing that. I'd stepped out and I just picked up this bass, and I started plucking this bassline. Asa Taccone from Electric Guest happened to be in this room, and he heard me playing this bassline. It's a strange thing with other artists, because they're not always the most outgoing and open to collaboration. I'm really glad Asa heard what was happening and he just caught it and it was all just him recognizing that there's something in this groove. It was basically 45 minutes at the end of the day, which is the most frustrating thing to tell anybody, but I really just sat there and started playing that bassline. Asa said, "Hey, do you have a bridge?" I said, "Yeah, it's music, man." And he was like, "Well, write a bridge."

So I used three different chords and he handed me a microphone and just had me riff off the top of my head.  The "rebel just for kicks" lyric, I had actually had that for a little while. I'd tried it a few times and it just never felt right. Sitting down working on that track, there's something about it that reminded me of that '60s era, and I think it was probably the Hofner bass. It was all very natural. The funniest thing is how I got the bridge on the song. That "Is it coming? Is it coming?" That was actually Asa. I couldn't write a bridge at that moment. The first verse and the second verse and all the choruses, that all came from the first 45 minutes.  

It's a modern song — lyrically, it's modern. It's got the right sub [bass], it's got the right feel to it, and there's just something that happens when you hear that, and you connect all these pieces from the '60s and the bass tone and the simplicity of the way we recorded it.

Let's talk about the album title: Woodstock. You guys have commented that the title comes from this idea about the persistent mission of music. Can you expand a bit on that statement and what you feel is the mission of music?
Howk: I think just having an album called Woodstock, it's a bold move; it's a pretty ballsy move. It's not just named after the little town in upstate New York, and we took a huge inspiration from the festival. Woodstock was a reactionary moment that was coming out of an America that was pretty bleak. A Richard Nixon presidency, McCarthyism, xenophobia, fear-based politics, and it was pure reactionary. It was was proof that a large crowd can change history so much more than one president can or one bill being put into place. It was mob rules and it was rad.

Obviously, we weren't alive. I did not go to Woodstock. I think I was probably 12 or 13 years old, learning how to play guitar, like really getting into rock and roll, right when the 25th anniversary of Woodstock came around. So they remastered the film and suddenly it's on public television, basically on a 24-hour loop. Like, I'm trying to figure out a G and a C chord and there's Jimi Hendrix and Santana and CCR just wailing, and specifically that Richie Havens moment — we've all talked about this. We all kinda separately in our own families, and in our own living rooms around the TV, had a very connected experience just watching him do his "Motherless Child" performance. And basically, he's killing time until the next act. He's just filling space, opening the festival, but he's going for it and he's sawing the guitar in half and his technique was so interesting. He's got the thumb hanging over, just these massive hands, sawing the guitar in half. And you can practically see the blood coming out of his throat on to the microphone. It was the first real passionate performance I think I'd ever seen.

I'd seen punk. I'd seen, you know, metal dance and stuff. Nothing compares to that. There's nothing harder and heavier.

Another comment you've made in the past is that your intention is to make music that helps people "feel like they're not alone." I'm interested in what music makes you guys feel like you're not alone, that you're not lost in the world? Your influences?
Gourley: I hear The Beatles, and I'm like, "Well, no one's gonna do that." (laughs)

Howk: I used to tour … I'd drive all night by myself, and any time I would get tired, I had this routine down: When I was just at the point where I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, I'd chug a Red Bull. I'd pull over. I'd set a timer for 35 minutes, and I'd put on Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. I'd turn the heater up in my car and kick the seat back, and fall asleep for 35 minutes. I'd wake up right at the last moment. And there's something so comforting and beautiful about that record, I just feel like I'm in my living room with my family. It's beautiful. Like, "Wouldn't it be nice if I wasn't alone on the side of a road right now?" (laughs)

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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The three members of Say She She are only home for what feels like "two seconds" — a much-needed but all too brief respite from a whirlwind year that included two records, nearly 100 performances and almost twice as many flights.

The Brooklyn-based trio of Piya Malik, Nya Gazelle Brown and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham perform a dizzyingly funky, operatic take on dance music — an entrancing and ever-danceable vein they dub "discodelic soul." For their groovy efforts, Say She She have garnered fans across multiple continents, topped radio charts and performed at some of the globe’s biggest festivals.   

And somehow, in the midst of international touring, Say She She managed to record their sophomore album, Silver. An expanded and sonically evolved take on their 2022 debut, Prism, the group’s latest drops on Sept. 29 with 16 tracks of earwormy disco ("Forget Me Not"), Bollywood-inflected vibes ("Find A Way") and politically-laced funk ("Norma").

"We’re all just doing the thing that we love. It is a lot of work, no one's denying that," Malik tells GRAMMY.com. "It's a lot of love and work and sacrifice and community helping us."

On Silver, the trio’s impeccable voices are front and center. All are classically trained vocalists, and their harmonic and personal bonds apparent. The ladies of Say She She first met in 2018 when Cunningham and Malik, who were neighbors in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, began casually writing songs. Each were involved with other groups — Malik performed with El Michels Affair and Chicano Batman; she and Brown were both members of Brooklyn group 79.5 — and eventually became a trio. 

The rest, as they say, c’est si bon.  

In the brief interlude between tour stops, Malik, Brown and Cunningham reminisce about their favorite moments from the past year, creating Silver and their hopes for a more empowered future.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

On Writing Their New Album, Silver

Sabrina Mileo Cunningham: We planned the writing of the second album and did a nice writing camp in L.A. with our band. It was a labor of love. When we were planning when to do these writing sessions, we knew we wanted it to be a good chunk of time, but we definitely consulted the stars for a creative period of the year.

Piya Malik: If you ask any person who grew up as a Hindu, we consult the stars for everything.

Cunningham: That was definitely the most creative that I've ever personally felt. That was like channeling all sorts of different things. And yeah, it was just a really kind of wonderful and big, magical experience to write all those songs.

Malik: Prism was made in this kind of context of the fact that we were in a lockdown. And we had these old tape stems that we'd made with our friend Joey Crispiano that were originally meant to be demos and Sab and I had gone in and cut those. When we first started the band, it was really just a very quick thing.

And then, of course, we had COVID, and a lot of it was done remotely with all the production and the mixing and all that stuff, which is extremely difficult. Now, fast forward to Silver, we're all physically in the room during the process of the recording and the writing, just feeding each other's energy. And that absolutely changes things. Most of the lyrics were written on the spot — I think it's to do with capturing this excitement and this energy and this moment. 

Nya Gazelle Brown:  After we wrote "Questions," I think we all had to take a moment. I don't know if all the listeners would feel the same way, but there's a certain drive in that song — what the bassline is doing and what the drums are doing together — that creates this tension that physically works your body up. We had to have a moment of silence after we wrote it because we just couldn't believe that that came out of us.

Championing Progressive Causes Through Their Music 

Malik: We are all political just by being who we are, not just because of the jobs and the experiences that we've had. Just by being women from diverse backgrounds with something to say, who have gone through some life experience. So why not allow our truest expressions to come out in our music?

In "Reeling," there's a lyric, "Kick the door down, smash the ceiling, leave them reeling."So I think, again, you can see here, there's passion and rage, but also trying to be constructed and move forward. And we launched that single with a piece of evovinyl with Frank Moody and the money goes towards climate change activism.

Cunningham: For "Norma," there were so many emotions that we were experiencing. Because we woke up and read in the Times that Roe v. Wade might be overturned, and we just came into the studio. I think half of us were crying, half of us were just pissed. And it was just a very visceral expression of exactly what we were feeling and there was just not really anything else we could write that day.

Brown: To be able to use our voices in such a forward way, standing for the things that we really truly believe in, was really important for me. It's really special when we see the audience relate to it and sing along and do the choreography. It just feels like we're united and that we're going to be okay.

Malik: [Our tour had some] all-ages shows, and you could see teenagers. And they were screaming the lyrics, and I got such chills on that stage watching them. I felt like they felt supported. Okay, there are older women fighting for us. Even if the government isn't, we're here fighting to try and make sure that things don't go so far to the right.

"Echo In The Chamber" is about gun control and we've actually launched a postcard writing campaign; it's a letter to senators that we're going to be including this on the mailouts with all of the vinyl …a campaign to help support the Background Check Expansion Act. We need to do something to use our voice in a constructive way. We start every writing session and well, "What is it that we want to say and what are we mad about right now? What are we feeling and what's going on out there in the public?"  

Our live set and a lot of our music is there to uplift, and we believe the medium is the message. And so the way in which you present messages is important for how people receive them. So I love that our protest song, "Norma," is actually a space to dance and to make people get up. To protest, to fight for your rights, to defend that doesn't have to be violent. It can be a celebration too.

Playing Glastonbury Four Times In 48 Hours…And Almost Getting Crushed 

Brown: There was so much drama getting our equipment to the recording [of the BBC's live from Glastonbury coverage with Lauren Laverne]. Fatboy Slim and Lana Del Rey were performing and their crowds were massive! So we had to get our gear from one place to the other and go through that crowd. It was just impossible. I don't know how many hours we waited to be able to get the stuff through the people.

Malik: Nya and I nearly got crowd crushed trying to run to the van and come back! They're waiting for our backline and there's an hour to go before we're meant to go tape. So we turn around and we look at each other and we're like, "Okay, get your boots on. There's no way we're letting this not happen." We managed to just lug the gear across the field and get it to the BBC in time and use some of their backline. 

Lauren Laverne [is] a childhood hero of mine. You never think of an Indian girl in the UK that Lauren Laverne's going to put you on the radio one day. Everyone in England watches this. My family are crying, tears of joy for once, instead of telling me, "What are you doing? This is not a proper job. Come home."

Performing Sold-Out Shows At Iconic Venues

Cunningham: Opening for Thee Sacred Souls at Brooklyn Steel was a real highlight. It was a sold-out show. We're all from New York, so the family was there and it just was such an incredible night.

Brown: Just the air was right, the sound was right. The energy was just so perfect. Everybody was waiting to experience the night and the magic was just so thick.

Malik: [Playing] the Hollywood Bowl was really special. Portugal. The Man are just the nicest people on earth; we'd met them some years back and stayed in touch. And so, it was crazy that they invited us to open for them for the Hollywood Bowl. Who could have thought? We were practically an unheard of band — people wait their whole lives to play the Hollywood Bowl. And it's special for the boys [in the backing band] because they're from LA. [The venue holds] 17,000 people and it's a sold-out show and we didn't know that until afterwards. 

Making Their National TV Debut On "CBS Sunday Morning"

Cunningham: That was a huge moment for us. 

Malik: It was so inspiring to me to watch this female director — she's absolutely gorgeous and this badass powerhouse — and she's like, "Cut to here! Do this! Camera! Directing!" And I just like, Yeah, of course you're amazing at this, you multitasking, amazing woman. She put so much thought into every single detail of the stage. It was a newfound appreciation for how much work goes into everything that you watch on the TV.

Getting Creative With Couture At Chanel's Summer Music Series

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Brown: It's Chanel, okay? It was really a special treat. We got to wear these beautiful clothes and pick out things and the people there consulted with the Paris office in real time, "Do we like this? Do we like that?" That was pretty cool.

Malik: We really manifested that. What's the line? "Say She She. Say Chanel?" That was a favorite brand of ours. We always wanted to work with that brand. It was very specific and it was something that we would say quite a lot.

We love couture, but you want things to be accessible. And I think that Chanel has really reached out to kind of bridge the gap between affordability in the fashion world, but still keeping class and celebrating women's bodies. 

Cunningham:[Co-curators Caroline de Maigret and Vivienne Rohner] were looking for working bands from New York, and the fact that the name of the band is a silent nod to Nile Rodgers. And now Rodgers is someone that Chanel's been working with quite a bit in a lot of their campaigns.

And we got the call and we were just like, "Yeah, definitely." Again, we had two seconds to drop our bags: We were in the UK, came back and then headed to the Hamptons. 

Malik: Caroline de Maigret is just an icon; she's this incredible musician and producer. She's navigated the music business for so long with such grace and she treats people with such respect. It was this beautiful alignment of all the things that we wished to be and places where we wanted to be.  

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This year marks the 15th anniversary of San Francisco's Outside Lands, and while the festival always boasts the Bay Area's best, the 2023 lineup is especially stacked with incredible female and nonbinary talent. From aespa making K-pop history to La Doña's homecoming, the fest's latest iteration is bound to be badass.

Whether you're planning on shimmying to Janelle Monáe, spitting every Megan Thee Stallion verse, or sobbing to Lana Del Rey, Outside Lands will be bursting with energy and seemingly endless options.

As San Francisco transforms Golden Gate Park into a lavish festival ground for three days, check out these 10 performers ready to electrify the city.

Megan Thee Stallion

Time to get lit like a match. Megan Thee Stallion has been hitting stages across the country this year — from LA Pride to her hometown of Houston for the Men's NCAA Final Four — and there's no doubt she'll bring the heat to Golden Gate Park on Sunday. Though the three-time GRAMMY winner is known for her high-hype, feel-good freestyles, her latest album, Traumazine, opens up about anxiety and the importance of self-care. So whether you're having a hot or healing girl summer, her headlining set will be the spot for festgoers to let loose.

Janelle Monáe

On Friday, Janelle Monáe will usher San Francisco into The Age of Pleasure. Sensuality and freedom flood the singer's most recent album, and for Monáe's headlining show, fans can expect bursting psychedelic soul, pop and hip-hop in an evening full of color and love.

Emphasizing intersectionality and identity (Monáe identifies as nonbinary), her wide-ranging performance will traverse her trailblazing concept albums like GRAMMY-nominated Dirty Computer and The ArchAndroid. Having conquered both the big screen and the stage as a multihyphenate, Monáe's set will be nothing short of a spectacle.

beabadoobee

Hot off supporting Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, beabadoobee is headed to Golden Gate Park on Sunday afternoon. The Filipino-English singer/songwriter has carved out a space for herself between indie rock and bedroom pop, first becoming known for her sweet, spacey falsetto and her sleeper hit "Coffee" in 2020. The indie star has since expanded her worldbuilding abilities rapidly, spinning intricate scenes from her debut Fake It Flowers into her scenic second album Beatopia — similarly, beabadoobee's Outside Lands set will likely flaunt the vitality of her imagination.

Raveena

Raveena is the definition of grace, and her Friday Outside Lands set is sure to swell with serenity. Mindfulness is the objective of the singer's soulful music as she grounds herself through tranquil mixes of R&B and pop. From her 2019 debut Lucid to 2022's Asha's Awakening, her voice epitomizes comfort whether it floats through delicate strings or stony drums. At Golden Gate Park, Raveena will bring momentary, blissful peace to the festival's chaotic fun.

Ethel Cain

Ethel Cain is ready to take concertgoers to church — even on a Friday. The experimental breakout star is known for dissecting dark, Southern Gothic themes in her music, establishing herself as a rising leader in the modern alternative genre (and also in the LGBTQIA+ community, as she is a trans woman). Her debut album Preacher's Daughter only came out last year, but the critically acclaimed album swiftly earned the musician a cult following. After bewitching Coachella audiences back in April, Cain's upcoming Outside Lands set is sure to be compelling.

NIKI

More than 10 years after she wrote her first original song, NIKI is ready to storm the Twin Peaks stage. Her deeply sincere indie pop drifts with bittersweetness, and it's powerful to witness how well the Indonesian singer's intimacy translates to massive crowds.

Signed to label 88rising in 2017, NIKI soon found herself playing concerts for a growing global fan base that resonated with her heart-to-heart songwriting. Ranging from the dramatic depths of her debut album, MOONCHILD, to 2022's earnest self-titled Nicole, NIKI's Outside Lands set will be perfect for listeners who want to escape with their head in the clouds.

Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey is the reigning queen of summertime sadness, and she'll be doin' time at Golden Gate Park as one of Saturday's headliners. Known for spinning tales of tragic romance, the GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter plans to enchant audiences at Twin Peaks stage following her release of Did You Know There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard. Her discography haunts and aches, filled with everything from folky gospel to trap pop; if one thing's for sure, Del Rey's highly anticipated performance is bound to be a spiritual journey.

La Doña

Born and raised in San Francisco, La Doña is making her city proud by performing at the Bay's biggest annual music festival. Taking the Lands End stage with her 11-piece band on Friday, the Chicana musician has come a long way since picking up the trumpet at age 7.

Centering around personal identity and community, her music beautifully merges traditional Latin folk with modern cumbia, reggaeton, and hip-hop. La Doña's progressive sound just earned her a spot on Barack Obama's annual summer playlist, and less than a month later, her hometown will get to see what all of the hype is about.

aespa

When aespa takes to Twin Peaks stage Friday, they'll make history as the first K-pop act to ever perform at Outside Lands. Exploding onto the music scene in 2020, the innovative South Korean girl group gives K-pop a fresh edge, distinctively inspired by hyperpop and hip-hop. The group's name combines the words "avatar," "experience," and "aspect," representing their futuristic style that's often embellished by a metaverse aesthetic. Their mind-blowing Coachella and Governors Ball debuts hinted that aespa is ready to pull out all the stops for their Outside Lands crowd.

Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers knows how to break free. The 2020 Best New Artist GRAMMY nominee will get the crowd hyped for Saturday headliners Foo Fighters with an enthralling set. Although her debut album Heard It in a Past Life pulses with steady revelations, her alternative follow-up Surrender leans into sweat and desire. As she's proven at many festivals past, Rogers' show will be infused with bright energy, from the slow emotional burn of "Light On" to the exhilarating "Want Want" as the sun goes down.

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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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