RECENT ARTICLES

Legendary songwriter Aimee Mann remembers putting in the extra work for her acting role in the 1998 comedy, The Big Lebowski. She’d been cast in the film after a successful, though light-hearted audition, and she was set to play a German nihilist. Mann says that because the character was a nihilist, she didn’t expect much acting or dialogue. Yet, she pulled one of her scene stars aside and put forth the idea of practicing a little something. So, they got together and worked up a short conversation about the whereabouts of a hotel key, in German. It was a good thing, too. For when it came time to shoot, the director said, “We’re going to zoom in and you guys just talk in German.”

They say the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. In this case, that’s especially true. Mann is always detail-minded; she loves intricacies. It’s the superpower she brings to her songwriting and the music she makes, which is especially so on Mann’s latest LP, Queens of The Summer Hotel, which is out officially on November 5 via Mann’s label, SuperEgo Records.

Read More

At first, Colin Blunstone just wanted to play the guitar. The young burgeoning British-born musician just liked the instrument. He kept it by his side ever since he got his first one around 12 years old. Blunstone, who would later front the rock band, The Zombies, whose hit, “Time of the Season,” is probably being used in a new movie or commercial right this moment, was born into a musical home. He had five brothers who were multi-instrumentalists and a sister who sang and played guitar. Blunstone listened to Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and loved rock ‘n’ roll.

Today, the vocalist is experiencing his own recognition. The Zombies have a big tour and new album set. Blunstone himself is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his debut solo record, One Year, and the discovery of a lost album, That Same Year, which is set to drop on vinyl on Friday (December 10).

Read More

Legendary hip-hop producer, Pete Rock (born Peter Phillips), met the legendary songwriter and performer James Brown when he was 7 years old in Mount Vernon, New York. That moment, coupled with a childhood immersed in music, helped to open Rock’s eyes to the very real idea that he too could be a professional musician. That he too could live a creative life.

When Rock was just 3 years old, he’d realized music was always around. His father was a record collector and DJ and Rock used to listen to his jazz and soul albums (Brown included). At 7, Rock’s mother took him to a show in his hometown of Mount Vernon where Brown was performing. His mother even had the confidence to introduce herself and her son to Brown that night. To this day, Rock, who has since worked with Nas, Kanye, Jay Z and is considered one of the most influential producers ever, says that was one of the greatest days of his life. Now, as the latest judge for the Tracklib Beat Battle Competition (winner announced this Sunday), Rock is taking on the role of mentor to a number of aspiring artists. For Rock, it’s part of paying back what he’d received earlier from people like Brown and others in his more immediate family.

Read More

Growing up, Jenna Raine played centerfield, the position that sees everything. Despite regularly being the shortest, smallest, and youngest kid on the team, she often shined on the diamond. Raine played softball from about four years old to about 13 and despite being more accomplished at that than anything else, she gave it up to pursue her passion for songwriting.

While no one in Raine’s immediate family had any particular talent for music, she says, it’s something she always knew she wanted to dive into. When she was eight years old, for example, something innately told Raine to enter a talent show. It was then when her mother asked, “What’s your talent?”

But by playing piano and singing in the competition, Raine showcased the beginning of her future. She began taking vocal lessons at nine—this on top of the YouTube karaoke videos she’d sing along to at home, developing her chops. Now, nearly 10 years later, Raine has worked with some of the world’s biggest names and earned millions of song streams on the very platform she used to obsess over. And her latest release, “See You Later (Ten Years),” continues to portend a bright future for her after it recently hit No. 1 on the Spotify Global and U.S. Viral charts.

Read More

Songwriter and performer K.Flay (born Kristine Flaherty) comports herself with consideration. She is not a flippant person. Instead, she is precise and thorough. It’s a position born of an interest in the small, personal revelations that can become big and booming. But these can only be conjured organically or originally if one is intent on observation being a mode of education. And Flay is most assuredly paying attention. She always has been, she’s invested.

That passion comes through in the music she makes and the albums she releases. Take, for example, the EP she released in June, Inside Voices, which harnessed the power of her id, she says. It was the proverbial blurt before the thought. Now, her newest EP, Outside Voices, represents her superego, or the more conscious, societally influenced part of her brain. The records represent a dualism that many (all?) walk around with daily, and one prominently exacerbated over the past few devastating years.

Read More

Doug Robb, the crystal-clear-voiced, Southern California-born singer, performer, and frontman for the Los Angeles-based rock band Hoobastank remembers dancing in his room in his “tighty-whiteys” at four years old. He and his family lived in a small apartment at the time and Robb can recall his mother listening to what he remembers as lively Salsa music.

The sounds emanated through his bedroom door and, without even thinking about, Robb says he got up and started dancing. “I still remember that,” Robb tells American Songwriter. “Very vividly.” Something about the music got him to jump out of bed and start to move. Ever since then, Robb has existed in music, from early years making up joke songs with friends to releasing platinum records with some of those same pals a decade-plus later. And on Saturday (November 20), Hoobastank will celebrate two full decades since releasing the self-titled LP that changed the members’ lives with a show at the Whisky A Go-Go in L.A.

Read More

Los Angeles-born rock band L.A. Witch began from a dire situation. “This is kind of fucked up,” says the group’s frontwoman and co-founder, Sade Sanchez. After the preface, she continues with the story of a bad relationship. Her then-boyfriend was physically and mentally abusive, she says, to the point that, when Sanchez decided she wanted to start a band, he forbid her from including male members. So, not yet ready to part ways with him, which Sanchez later did, she sought women players for her new group. “That was really hard at the time,” she says.

Now, though, some years later, Sanchez’s group is going strong and so is a burgeoning community of like-minded rockers, including groups like the Coathangers across the country in Atlanta. On November 19, L.A. Witch and the Coathangers will release their new split 7” album on vinyl, which features covers of Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and The Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway.”

Read More

Sometimes when you’re a world-class performer, the difference between focus and failure is all about the small, most minute details. Sure, there are the big things like which hit movie or television series you’re starring in (or set to star in), what is your latest popular song? Those are the headline grabbers. But for the people who work in creative fields day in and day out, there must be smaller, more granular aspects of thinking about things so as to maintain focus and clarity.

For rapper and actor TJ Atoms, who stars in the popular Hulu series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, one bit of crucial minutia that he keyed in on was his name. Born Tyree Adams, the artist wasn’t into his last name, so he changed it to Atoms. Why? He’s all about energy. More than any line or lyric, the energy he puts into work is most essential. Which is why his latest song “Potato Chips,” which Atoms released last month, is so full of verve and vigor.

Read More