Sam Ryder has shared that he is in the final stages of finishing his debut album, ‘There’s Nothing But Space, Man’. Watch our video interview with Ryder above.
Speaking to NME at Truck Festival in Oxfordshire this weekend (July 24), the Eurovision singer said it was looking like the record would be finished this month, adding that it’s been an “amazing” experience.
Asked what the record might sound like, he replied: “I’ll tell you next week when I finish it. We have a day off tomorrow, and then it’s into the studio and just singing nonstop until that album is done.
“I didn’t really know that I was making the album. Last year, I wrote about 100 songs, and not all of them are good, it’s just the nature of writing songs.”
Ryder continued: “Some of my favourites we’ve put together for an album. It’s done, you’re just curating the thing. You’ve got this collection of work and you’re putting it together now, and then making the final touches and then listening back to ones and going, ‘God, that line’s a shocker, I’ll have to change that next week’.”
The singer also spoke about the whirlwind journey he has been on since coming second at the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
“None of us knew what Eurovision would be, we went there to do something for the love of Eurovision with no expectation of where we’d come, because that would be foolish for a UK entrant to ever imagine that they could go in and have the results that myself and the team had, but it was just for fun,” he said.
“So every blessing that’s coming our way at the moment is just to be enjoyed, who knows what will happen next? I don’t tend to look too much at the schedule because I want to throw up.”
Ryder also spoke about the “amazing milestones” he has experienced in recent months – such as performing at festivals and prestigious events like the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee concert.
“Only this time last year, I was at Boardmasters and I wanted to go and see The Kooks, but I couldn’t get into their tent because it was full. And yesterday, that happened to us at Tramlines,” he said. ‘”[I was] saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ over and over again in my head that this tent was full and I was able to experience that.”
Ryder will also embark on a 14-date UK and Ireland tour next year, kicking off at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on March 17, 2023, with dates in Glasgow, London and Cardiff, before finishing up at Brighton Dome on April 5. Tickets are available here.
‘There’s Nothing But Space Man’ will be released October 14.
Speaking to NME at Truck Festival in Oxfordshire this weekend (July 24), the Northumberland-born, US-based singer-songwriter told us about new song ‘Save Your Tears’ – which she performed in her set – as well as what fans can expect from her third studio record.
“[It’s] probably 50/50 on the new album,” she said of the new song. “Been working really hard on the new album, I think it’s got about halfway there. And it really is the best stuff I’ve ever made, so that’s really exciting.”
Bird, who is now based in Austin, Texas, also revealed that she has worked on some of the record in LA, adding that it’s “quite a vulnerable album”.
“I think I’m just kind of powerhousing its way through, and this one’s kind of taking a few layers off,” she said.
Asked what has been inspiring the new material, she joked: “A breakdown!”
“I think there’s a lot of us, I’ve noticed, coming out of the pandemic they’ve been going through a hell of a lot, and I’m no different to be honest with you” she said. “So that’ll be fun to talk about!”
“Usually I’ve been quite insular because I wanted to progress on my own, and now I feel kind of open, which is lovely.”
She also shared that the collaboration for her new record is happening behind the scenes with writing. “I’ve written hundreds and hundreds of songs by myself now, let’s see what other people do, let’s learn from other people.”
Bird’s last album, ‘Different Kinds of Light’, came out in August last year, which received four-stars from NME, describing Bird as being at her “vocal and poetic best” while “knocking down the genre walls she was once placed within”.
“I wanted it to feel like a massive trip,” Beabadoobee told NME of her second album ‘Beatopia’ at her first-ever Glastonbury last month. “If [listeners] came out of it feeling like they were in some sort of lucid dream, then I did my job.” The Londoner’s triumphant debut ‘Fake It Flowers’ saw them live up to the role of Gen Z guitar hero – one who could draw influence from the angsty grunge and ‘90s alt-rock of her favourite era, but still create something that would one day evolve into a sound that was truly her own. On ‘Beatopia’, the seeds that were planted in ‘Fake It Flowers’ not only blossom, but inhabit an entirely different world.
What started as a place that existed only as an escapist haven in the imagination of a seven-year-old Bea – a drawing of which was once mocked by a “dickhead” teacher in front of the class – now serves as a “feeling” of acceptance and openness. Finally stopping to smell the flowers, the singer serenely dawdles through ‘Beatopia’s 14 tracks, an album which feels like watching a hazy cloud float by on a balmy spring day. This sense of contentment trickles into the folksy, communal chant of ‘Beatopia Cultsong’, while similarly blissful melodies can be found in the glistening guitar chords of ‘fairy song’ and classical strings of ‘Ripples’.
But interspersed among the album’s most gentle moments, like the chill-hop guitar of ‘Sunny day’ and the syrupy ‘Lovesong’ – which is primed to be snatched up for a sync on the next great coming-of-age TV series – boasts a thrilling rock eruption. Her cursive vocals are magnetic on rowdy lead single ‘Talk’, while ‘10:36’ pairs synths and rousing guitar chords with honest reflections on her personal relationships (“You’re just a warm body to hold / At night when I’m feeling all alone”). There’s also new direction in the swaying Bossa Nova rhythms of ‘the perfect pair’ and the sprawling midwest emo inspired ‘Pictures of Us (co-written with and featuring vocals from The 1975’sMatty Healy).
The most unique song comes in the shape of ‘tinkerbell is overrated’ with PinkPantheress, which lacks the rough edges of the album’s best moments, but speaks to the growth of an artist who is starting to let others into her process, having also written with Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club and borrowed strings from Georgia Ellery of Jockstrap and Black Country, New Road.
The Taylor Swift-approved, shroom-trip inspired ‘See you Soon’ leaps out as the record’s highlight, building sweet, echoey vocals that teeter on the edge of a tantalising crescendo that never fully arrives. The world of ‘Beatopia’ is finally in full bloom again as its creator embraces not only the vibrant colours of their own imagination, but the magic of letting the world in to see.
Ahead of the launch of his new BBC Maestro production series, Mark Ronson tells NME about his time in the studio producing Winehouse’s seminal album, as well as his experiences working with Lizzo and the late Taylor Hawkins
Mark Ronson has reflected on the process of creating ‘Back to Black’ with Amy Winehouse as he opens up his studio process for the first time in a new BBC Maestro production course. Watch Ronson discuss his late close friend and collaborator, as well as discuss recent projects and what to expect from the new course, in the video above.
The multi-award-winning musician, producer and songwriter will offer lessons on everything he’s learned throughout his career in the new series, from songwriting, recording, and production, to using industry software. The lessons are also filmed in the same New York studio where he first met and worked with Winehouse, and one of the pre-order perks includes access to Ronson’s breakdown of the single ‘Back to Black’.
“The six songs that we did on ‘Back to Black’ together, we did in five to seven days. I always think, ‘Damn, I wish it did take longer’, because I would have more memories,” he told NME. “Not that we didn’t spend plenty of time hanging out after that, but it was just so quick.”
He also reflected on when he first started working with the Camden singer-songwriter on her second studio album. “I think she’d been working on the record for a while because it had been three or four years since ‘Frank’,” he said. “Even though I wasn’t a big producer at that time I was just happy to have any gig, I remember people being like, ‘Oh, you’re working with Amy Winehouse, good luck with that. I heard she’s been working on that album forever’.
Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse CREDIT: JMEnternational/Redferns
“I just met this person who was so incredibly together and lucid. I was like ‘I don’t know who they’re talking about, but I just met this incredibly smart girl who’s just come in and told me what she wants her record to sound like’. And she’s playing me five demos on the guitars, she blew me away. So I was just very excited, and I really liked [that] we instantly kind of hit it off.”
The producer also remembered Winehouse writing the lyrics to ‘Back to Black’ in an hour and a half, and initially questioning if they would work. “I do remember one thing that I said that I feel really stupid about,” Ronson said. “She said, ‘We only said goodbye in words, I died a thousand times’. And I was like, ‘Well, that doesn’t rhyme. Because in my little novice experience at that moment, I was like, ‘Producer 101, the words rhyme in the chorus, they have to, or it won’t be a hit’. And she just looked at me like, ‘This is what I wrote, I’m not changing this’.”
Ronson also told NME how he recently unearthed the raw demo tape for ‘Back to Black’. “I just forgot that I had it honestly,” he said. “I was making a TikTok and I was just talking about that song. And I went back to open the demo, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is different lyrics, different melodies. And it was just cool.” The producer also revealed he has all of the singer’s old demos, even suggesting there could one day be potential to release a “boxset”.
More recently, Ronson has been in the studio with Lizzo, working on her forthcoming new album ‘Special’. “I loved it,” Ronson said of his time creating with the ‘About Damn Time’ singer. “It was my first thing back after the pandemic so I hadn’t been in the studio with anyone in a while. I nearly cancelled it eight times because I was like, ‘I haven’t been around anyone, what if I don’t have any good ideas, the pressure, she’s such a big artist,’” he said.
Mark Ronson CREDIT: Pip Cowley
But the experience exceeded his expectations. “We just had so much fun and we made a bunch of great music,” he said, adding that “it’s one of my favourite things I think I’ve ever done.” He also described her as the “real deal”, and expressed his admiration for her musical abilities.
As well as Lizzo’s project, the producer has also been working with King Princess on her sophomore album ‘Hold On Baby’, out July 29. The record includes Ronson’s “favourite song she’s ever written”, which he revealed features drums from late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. “It’s just one of the most fucking incredible drum performances I’ve ever recorded,” Ronson said.
The producer shared they had been texting just the week before Hawkins died in March this year. “He was such a versatile drummer to watch, it wasn’t just like Gonzo rock. He had amazing feels, like soulful. We’d just done this [song] together, and I really felt it was like we were just about to do a lot more.”
Ronson will pay tribute to the drumming legend at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley this September: “Dave Grohl asked me to be a part of this thing to celebrate him. I mean, that’s all he had to say. He could have literally just said ‘We need some extra roadies on the night’, I’d be like, ‘OK, whatever you need’.”
Watch NME’s full interview with Mark Ronson above, where he also speaks about feeling “nervous” to open up his studio for the first time and his memories of producing ‘Valerie’ with Winehouse.
When the time came for Lauv to start writing his second album, the singer found himself looking inward. What he unearthed was a realisation that would determine the direction of his upcoming second album, ‘All 4 Nothing’. “I had such an existential breakdown,” he says. “At one point, I was like, ‘I want to step away from music’. And then, I came back around and realised, I don’t feel an innate sense of deserving to be happy.”
The weighty epiphany would serve as the turning point on the journey to more authentic output from LA-based pop star Lauv – real name Ari Leff – that could only flourish when he set out to confront the source of his restlessness. “Can I tell you a story / ‘Bout a boy who broke his own heart? / And he always blamed everybody else / But the truth is that he did it to himself,” he sings on album opener and recent single ‘26’, which he describes as the “prelude” of the record. “I feel like it sets up the problem of why this album exists,” Lauv, now 27, adds. “26 and I’m rich / How the hell did it come to this?” he asks on the single, questioning why, after arriving at the destination he always dreamed of, did he still feel empty?
After all, the hallmarks of traditional success were certainty there. His 2018 single ‘I Like me Better’ has amassed more than two billion streams, while ‘i’m so tired’ featuring Troye Sivan and ‘fuck, i’m lonely’ with Anne-Marie were UK Top 10 and Top 40 hits respectively.
But something was still amiss. “For so much of my life I was just like, ‘All I want to do is make music that connects with a lot of people,” he says. “And then that happens – and I still feel the same. I don’t feel any better. And [I was] feeling like, ‘What the fuck do I do to feel OK?’” The problem seemed to stem from his obsessive desire to achieve external validation in the search for fulfilment, which caused him to neglect those close to him. “I spent a lot of time chasing goals and achievements as opposed to growing relationships with people in my life,” he says. “I let music take up so much space in my life to the point where everything else was kind of just stagnant.”
It’s a regret he’s been pondering since his 2020 debut album, ‘~how i’m feeling~’, a long-awaited release that followed a near-decade of releasing music online. The album featured three songs about feeling “lonely”. “Love my friends to death / But I never call and I never text” he sings on ‘Modern Loneliness’, while on ‘Drugs and the Internet’ he reflects on the people he pushed away: “I traded all my friends for drugs and the internet / Ah, shit / Am I winner yet?”).
But something else he found in this period of self-reflection was the reason to make a change. “I found that I’m an extremely loving person,” he says. “But I felt a lot of anxiety and shame around that.” That’s where the album’s title track ‘All 4 Nothing (I’m So In Love)’ celebrates the moment everything started to fall into place. “Falling in love with my girlfriend was this experience of full surrender and [feeling] like, ‘This feels really nice, and I don’t want to lose this’, but also in the back of my head I’m like, ‘But I could lose it at any moment’.” Or, as he described it on his TikTok, it’s a song about “falling in love when ur an anxious person and you finally let go and give in to it”.
‘All 4 Nothing’ is Lauv’s journey to embracing more of the good stuff life has to offer, and learning to savour the process along the way. The end result is an album that is not confined to any one direction, while still showcasing his knack for earworm vocals and rich melodic production. The freedom he granted himself in the creative process was starkly different to ‘~how i’m feeling~’, where each song fell within one of six personas. “This album was more like, ‘Let’s remove all the different versions of me; this is just me’.” He was so committed to enabling a natural creative flow that he experimented with freestyle rap. “A couple of times I killed it,” he admits, “but usually [I was] not very good”.
Instead, ‘All 4 Nothing’ is a window into Lauv existing on multiple timelines, exploring the good, the bad and the ugly. “I guess it was just me trying to make sense of everything that I was going through during a pandemic,” he says. “It’s literally just all the things that I was thinking about.” But two overarching themes did prevail: confidence and childhood. “I feel like it’s somewhere in between,” he says. “[It’s about] pulling from that innate confidence you have as a kid, and also accepting that you’ve got to grow up at the same time.” Upcoming single ‘Kids Are Born Stars’ represented a chance to “rewrite my history”, as he boasts to an unrequited crush that he will one day be a “really big star”.
But there are equally sincere moments where he explores his reliance on drugs and alcohol to feel comfortable in his own skin. “It feels kind of shitty, writing some of those lyrics, honestly,” he says. “I’m kind of like, ‘When are you going to change certain things, instead of just writing about them?’”
While he is vocal about his battle with depression and anxiety, having founded the Blue Boy Foundation to raise awareness around mental health, he still struggles to confront his OCD through lyrics. “It’s hard for me to channel it. I feel like any time I try to write about it, the songs never turn out good,” he says. Obsessive patterns manifest for him in the form of “super repetitive, negative, destructive thoughts that basically fully tear me down internally”, or “thoughts that contradict my reality”.
It’s the process of actually releasing music that can feel torturous, too. “I just kind of try to detach as much as possible – create what I create but then step away,” he says. The pressure to craft the perfect release strategy, including the right amount of teasers and singles, can trigger a spiral: “I can’t strategize or plan, because if I’m like, ‘Later today I want to do this’, by the time later today happens, I will have thought of it like seven million times.”
This kind of thinking unsurprisingly doesn’t mesh well with social media habits. “It’s really all of this TikTok and teasing music thing that’s destroying my mind,” he says. But where more artists – from Halsey to FKA Twigs – are rebelling against the sometimes formulaic and insincere nature of TikTok marketing, for Lauv, the decision-making involved is what’s most excruciating. Listing every variable, he asks himself: “How much to tease? What’s the right part? Should I cut it off? Should I be in the video?”
But after coming out the other side of an intense period of self reflection, how is Lauv doing now? “I’m doing a little better,” he says. “For a while, I tried to get off all my medication. Then I got back on medication. I realised there’s no problem with that. I think I was like, ‘I want to prove to myself that I can do life without it’.”
Speaking to Lauv in person, you detect flashes of the overthinking he’s trying to explain. “I hope I’m making sense,” he says midway through the hour-long interview. “Sometimes I make no sense.” When we’re discussing his first viral hit, ‘The Other’, concentration wanes momentarily. “God, this is so funny,” he says before folding in on nervous laughter. “I don’t know why… sorry. I just totally lost track.”
He later offers a possible explanation for the wobble when discussing why meditation serves an important purpose in his life: “I constantly judge myself so much. So I try to not do that. I speak and then I go, ‘What the fuck are you talking about? Shut the fuck up’.” But there’s also a carefree, goofy side to Lauv, who, at the end of our interview, points at trees on the wallpaper of the hotel lounge we’re sitting in, and says, for no apparent reason: “This is cheese.”
He’s aware that his mind works in contradictions. “Why do I feel sometimes like a really socially anxious and awkward person, but sometimes really confident?” he asks. But while he’s conscious of being in his head too much, he also speaks endearingly about his joy in human connection, another realisation that has allowed him to freewheel musically. “I feel such immense love in general for people. I just feel like we’re all so connected,” he says.
“I hope for all the Number Ones. I’ve never been able to say I would want something like that”
Wary that such a sentiment might come across “corny”, the singer does offer good reason to believe he’s genuine. Not only does Lauv begin and end this interview with a hug, regularly asking for my take on matters discussed throughout our conversation, but the following day he also arranges a meet-up in London where he spends time with fans and performs old and new material.
In some ways, the “messy, long, experimental process” of ‘All 4 Nothing’ accurately captures the whimsy of Lauv’s personality. His quirky humour makes more sense when he details the early days of his career that flourished in the edgy MySpace era. When the singer was around 14 years old, he would create music with his friends and upload it to the networking site. “I would have this friend bot where it would add thousands of people. I felt like it was an actual hustle,” he says. “Artists would comment or message people and be like, ‘Hey, my song’s on iTunes for 99 cents, if you want to check it out’. And people back to then would actually just be like OK!’ and buy it, so I actually had like, thousands of downloads back then.”
The artwork for Lauv’s single ’26’. Credit: Vince Aung
The platform – which holds such a special place in Lauv’s hear that he has the logo tattooed behind his ear, which occasionally peeks out when he talks enthusiastically – helped foster the DIY spirit that has enabled him to remain an independent artist throughout his career. “I think that the whole industry is shifting more towards that kind of stuff being possible,” he says. “There’s tons of successes from doing traditional label deals, but [there’s] friends of mine who have not gotten the opportunity, or things have gotten totally out of their control.” He adds: “Having that full control and ownership of it is awesome.”
It was this freedom that enabled the final product of Lauv’s debut album to total 21 songs with six guest features, including ‘Who’ with BTS and ‘Canada’ featuring Alessia Cara. But ‘All 4 Nothing’ is a more modest offering, whittled down to 13 songs without a single feature.
“I hope for all the Number Ones,” Lauv replies with a smile when we ask about his hopes for the new album. “I feel like I’ve never been able to say that I would want something like that,” he adds, seemingly coming to this realisation as the words leave his mouth. Does this signal a big growth moment? “Hell yeah!” he says. “And if it’s not this one, it’ll be the next one.”
– ‘All 4 Nothing’ is due for released on August 5 via Virgin Music. ‘Kids Are Born Stars’ will be released later this month
“There’s actually a spirit in a room like this,” Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler says after commanding near-silence from the crowd at KOKO. “There’s some major shit that’s gone down in here. There was a fire that almost burnt it to the ground, and it’s been a really fucked up a couple years.” Tonight, the Canadian indie-rockers become the first band to perform at the iconic Camden music venue following a £70 million restoration project, a refurb so new that you can still smell the fresh paint.
But there’s even more cause for celebration, with the christening of the revamped venue also marking Arcade Fire’s first UK show in four years, ahead of the release of sixth studio album ‘WE’ this week. The uncertain times that birthed the record are addressed in set opener ‘Age Of Anxiety I’, before charging ahead with the rip-roaring kinetic arrangements of ‘Ready To Start’. The subdued charm of ‘The Suburbs’ then allows Butler a moment to relish in the crowd’s optimistic echo of the chorus: “Sometimes I can’t believe it / I’m moving past the feeling”. But just as easily as the house is brought to a still for the hymnal ‘My Body Is A Cage’, the intimate space is revived by a spirited rendition of ‘Afterlife’ – possessing Butler to charge into the crowd under a shimmering disco ball – which is followed by the galactic synths of ‘Reflektor’.
The nine-strong group’s eccentric coordination is a spectacle in itself, as they rotate and rearrange seamlessly between instruments in a makeshift fashion that almost feels improvised. This communal spirit carries them through the carefree glow of ‘Sprawl II’ and the jubilant piano melodies of ‘Everything Now’. But there’s also showy fun in Régine Chassagne’s piercing LED laser knuckles and the beaming belt she dons during ‘Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)’, or the chorus line of wacky inflatable tube dancers which sprout from the audience in the five-song encore that features propulsive slow-burner ‘The Lightning I and II’.
The set crescendos with timeless favourite ‘Wake Up’, conjuring a biblical chant from the crowd. One final encore follows after the show’s livestream is cut as Butler insists he’s had enough of “that internet shit”, before debuting epic odyssey ‘End Of The Empire I-IV’. While there is a celebration of the old and new, tonight is about looking forward to what marks a new era for both the band and a legendary venue. With an album that journeys through fear and loneliness to joy and reconnection, KOKO’s intimate, historic walls prove to be the perfect setting to do just that.
London’s KOKO recently underwent a £70m refurbishment. Credit: Jamie Waters for NME
Arcade Fire played:
‘Age Of Anxiety I’
‘Ready To Start’
‘The Suburbs’
‘The Suburbs (Continued)’
‘Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)’
‘Generation A’
‘My Body Is A Cage’
‘Afterlife’
‘Reflektor’
‘Age Of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)’
‘Creature Comfort’
‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’
‘Everything Now’
‘The Lightning I’
‘The Lightning II’
‘Rebellion (Lies)’
‘Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)’
‘Wake Up’
Encore 2:
‘End Of The Empire I-III’ (live debut)
‘End Of The Empire IV’ (Sagittarius A*) (live debut)
Mac DeMarco remembers being impressed the first time he met Vicky Farewell, the newest signee to his own label imprint, appropriately named Mac’s Record Label. Introduced by a mutual friend in DeMarco’s converted backyard studio at his house in Los Angeles, he recalls Farewell taking to the keys on a Yamaha CS-60. “I was like, ‘oh, you’re pretty good at that,” he says, reflecting on their very first jam session in their Friends Like These video chat for NME.
It’s not surprising that Farewell, a classically trained pianist, caught DeMarco’s eye. Having spent a number of years behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer, with credits on Anderson .Paak’s 2016 album ‘Malibu’ and Grammy-winning 2019 record ‘Ventura’, it wasn’t until lockdown that she set out to create something of her own.
The result was her first album, ‘Sweet Company’ – a distinctive eight-track debut coloured by balmy R&B melodies and funky retro-synth production – which came out earlier this month. “I would say I was the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Farewell says of the self-written, produced and engineered album. When she played DeMarco the record, he offered her a label deal immediately.
The creative spark that drove Farewell’s debut is something DeMarco says he is “chasing after eternally”. But he does hint that process may currently be in motion. “I’m working on a record. I’m in New York. Am I working on it in New York? Maybe a little bit, some. Just in New York? No, I don’t think so. But I’m here now.” Remaining elusive about the follow up to 2019’s ‘Here Comes The Cowboy’, the only hint he gives is that it’s somewhat Star Wars inspired. “You guys seen Return of the Jedi?” he asks. “You know the Ewok village? Sounds like that, I would like to think.”
But it’s not all about soul searching and record-making for the musical pals. They pair also reveal they sometimes head out together to hit a karaoke spot in LA, and before DeMarco shares his artist of choice, Farewell correctly guesses that his go to is Billy Joel. Though DeMarco’s concerned he needs to find something a bit more “fun” than the artist’s 1977 classic ‘Just the Way You Are’.
In their Friends Like These interview, the musicians also discuss their favourite artists of all time, first live show experiences and the biggest misconceptions people have about them. Watch the video in full above.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about indie-pop sensation BENEE over the past two years, it’s that she knows how to make the best of a situation. When the first coronavirus lockdown grounded much of the music industry in March 2020, the unsuspecting New Zealand singer watched her breakout single ‘Supalonely’ go viral from the […]
If there’s one thing we’ve learned about indie-pop sensation BENEE over the past two years, it’s that she knows how to make the best of a situation. When the first coronavirus lockdown grounded much of the music industry in March 2020, the unsuspecting New Zealand singer watched her breakout single ‘Supalonely’ go viral from the comfort of her own home. Thanks to the explosion of TikTok, the platform’s biggest stars were body rolling and throwing up “L” hands to the song’s irresistible hooks, which has now reached a staggering four billion streams. Then, she managed to recruit the likes of Grimes and Lily Allen for her debut album ‘Hey u x’, which NME described as “the sound of a pop star who’s resolutely herself”.
Now BENEE is back with new EP ‘LYCHEE’, which she says brought a happier “energy” compared to her debut record. But the seven-track project still sees the singer weave real vulnerabilities into the largely “made up stories” behind the songs. From stripped-back ruminations on her mental health on lo-fi track ‘Doesn’t Matter’, to limber melodies and playful quips about dating on ‘Beach Boy’, the latest EP sees BENEE hone her lyrical and sonic range. We caught up with the singer for the latest in NME’s In Conversation series to hear about the creative process behind ‘LYCHEE’, stories of collaborations from her debut album, and plans for more music coming this year.
The music video for ‘Beach Boy’ was inspired by her love of Twilight
Having described sunkissed single ‘Beach Boy’ as “perfect for cruising down the freeway”, it seemed like an unlikely choice to channel the occult in the music video. “I was originally thinking, ‘let’s make it like a beachy date-y, kind of parody video,’” she explains of the early brainstorming. Reuniting with ‘Supalonely’ collaborator Rory Pippan, the director first suggested a demonic theme, but BENEE envisioned a slightly different direction. “We had this other discussion on the phone, and I was like, ‘I want a vampire moment’. I obviously love Twilight, and he had this weird idea of this vampire admirer dude, who is like my boyfriend in a video for a day.” The singer also confirms that she’s Team Edward all the way, who she jokes “would have been great in the music video.”
Lily Allen and Flo Milli collaboration ‘Plain’ almost sounded very different
BENEE’s 2020 debut ‘Hey u x’ featured an array of collaborations, including ‘Sheesh’ with Grimes who the singer says she “looks up to” as an artist. But on the track ‘Plain’ featuring Lily Allen and Flo Milli, there was initially a slight misfire from Allen about the song’s angle, which serves as a swipe at an ex’s new girlfriend. “I hopped on a quick call with Lily because she was writing her verse with my friend Jenna Andrews, and we were having a conversation about the lyrics,” BENEE says.
“We kind of had this miscommunication because they originally wrote this verse which was like, dissing me. And I was like, ‘no, no, we’re all banding together to diss an ex.’” She clarified that the song was actually an “anthem” with the three artists coming together. “So I had to have a call with them and be like, ‘we’re all together in this one, it’s not like hating each other’. It was kind of funny”.
Being diagnosed with OCD helped her grow creatively
Having been open in the past about struggles with her mental health, BENEE channelled these experiences into the poignant track ‘Doesn’t Matter’.“Maybe I’m consumed by my mental / Does it hurt me? / Maybe, oh well / If I medicate would it help me? / Cause I’m hurting / I feel unwell,” she sings. She reveals that the song came about around the time she was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, and explains that this, together with medication, made her a “completely different person”.
“I kind of was a little bit hesitant to go on anything because I was like: ‘is it gonna change my personality? Is it gonna make me less creative?’” she says. But it ended up having the opposite effect. “I just had this happy energy where I was like, ‘I feel like a little bit more myself now’. I went to LA for the trip as the meds had just kicked in. So I was stoked and I was like, ‘I’m ready to make some fresh music’. Because the stuff that I’d been making at home was just not it.”
Running her own label is her “dream job”
On ‘Hey u x’, BENEE took the opportunity to champion fellow New Zealand artist Muroki, who has since signed to her own label Olive Records. She’s also bringing him on the Australia leg of her upcoming world tour, along with recently signed band There’s A Tuesday for the New Zealand dates. She beams as she describes the joy of being a cheerleader for her fellow home-grown talent. “I feel like it’s like my dream job,” she says, explaining that the focus of the label is to be “artist friendly”, so newcomers can enjoy an all round positive first signing. “[It’s] doing everything that I don’t want to have to deal with, or maybe things that I’ve dealt with that have been bad with labels,” she says.
She’s featuring on at least seven new songs coming soon
After hosting a series of major guest features on her debut album, BENEE’s now reversed the roles and is set to feature on a number of upcoming tracks by other artists. “I’ve got so many feature songs with artists,” she says, keeping tight-lipped about who exactly. “I was counting them yesterday. This year people are gonna be like: ‘this girl is doing too much’. But I love featuring on people’s songs. So I’m stoked.” She estimates there are at least seven in the pipeline. “It’s fun to do features because they can be completely different to all of my music,” she adds. “There are no features on my EP, but I’ve made it up by other features.”
BENEE’s new EP ‘LYCHEE’ will be released on March 4
347aidan and renforshort are perfectly opposing forces on their October single ‘IDONTWANNATALKTOYOU!’. Playing a broken couple ruminating on their fading relationship, renforshort is the sweet voice of hope opposite 347aidan’s raspy teenage disillusionment.
18-year-old Aidan insists he couldn’t have chosen a better first feature than his fellow Canada native Lauren ‘ren’ Isenberg. “Having someone just as cool as me on the other side of the song is, like, double the coolness,” he says in their Friends Like These video chat for NME. “And now you’ve set the bar all the way up to the roof for collaboration. So anyone that I collaborate with, I’m just gonna hold them to the ren bar.”
19-year-old renforshort says she felt the pressure of collaborating with an artist who experienced a viral moment with his 2020 release ‘Dancing In My Room’, which was similar to the buzzy response which greeted her breakout track ‘mind games’. “Aidan was like, ‘I want you to be on my song’, and I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s a lot of pressure for me,’” she recalls. “[It was] such an easy collaboration. We just ended up getting in the studio, I did my verse and got some real-life feedback, which was sick. It was sick.”
“Except I was actually sick,” 347aidan adds. “Yeah!” ren responds. “Aidan was really violently ill.”
It’s really no surprise that the two artists clicked, considering it took 347aidan four attempts to record his introduction for this chat because renforshort made him laugh every time. The teen’s bashful charm is consistent with a singer who is still finding his feet as a full-time artist – he still hasn’t had the chance to do a live show yet (and that includes karaoke).
But renforshort offers some words of encouragement for Aidan here before he takes to the stage this month for his debut live performance. “It’s like the best drug ever,” she says. “It rushes endorphins through your body for hours and hours, and you can’t sleep – you’re just the happiest you’ve ever been.
“I will come on tour with you and be the person that goes, ‘You have to remember what you’re doing this for. This is the best night of your life.’”
347aidan and renforshort also discuss their love for Mac Miller and Bon Iver, address their biggest misconceptions and tease what they’re currently working on. Watch the full video above.
The two artists discuss their recent collaboration ‘Edamame’ and their shared love for Tyler, the Creator and Kanye West, while also recalling their eventful first live shows
bbno$ isn’t entirely sure where he found the inspiration for ‘Edamame’, his July single with Rich Brian. All he remembers is spontaneously throwing out the song’s first and catchiest line: “Balls hanging low while I pop a bottle off a yacht”. Well, it was either that or because he had a poke bowl with edamame in it the same day – he can’t really remember.
bbno$ (pronounced ‘baby no money’) is no stranger to producing addictive hooks, having released one of the biggest TikTok tracks of 2019 in ‘Lalala’ with Y2K. For ‘Edamame’ the Canadian rapper and singer recruited Rich Brian, with the pair being musically aligned when it comes to the serendipitous nature of finding inspiration.
“It’s not necessarily like you’re writing [about] something [that] actually happened,” bbno$ explains to Rich Brian during their Friends Like These video chat for NME. “I just write whatever comes to my brain – and it sometimes works.” Rapper/singer Brian agrees: “I have a certain idea for a bar and then I just write it down. So I have a thing in my Notes just full of one-liners.”
The pair’s wholesome friendship, meanwhile, is best captured in the slapstick music video for ‘Edamame’, in which they eat cereal, play Scrabble and cuddle together in bed, all while wearing suits of armour. “They forgot to put the shoulder pads on me,” Brian remembers about the chaotic shoot day. “It was straight metal weighing my deltoids down. It was the most uncomfortable thing ever.”
But at least the pair knew they had a winning track on their hands – that’s judging by the last text bbno$ sent to Brian, anyway. “We did it,” it reads. “Super global hit.”
With both artists being well-versed in viral fame, they’re each aware of the far-reaching impact that their music can have on their fans. “There’s always been this longing for me to not be someone that other people idolise,” Brian says. “It’s more, ‘How do I do something that motivates other people?’” bbno$ agrees: “The whole concept of being a positive influence… in the grand scheme of things, I feel we both are just like, ‘Yo, just be happy’.”
bbno$ and Rich Brian also discuss their love for Tyler, the Creator and Kanye West, reel off their favourite karaoke tracks and recall their first-ever live shows. You can watch the pair’s Friends Like These conversation above.
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