Monthly Archives: February 2021

Dave Grohl brings Grammys to his kid’s ‘Bring your Dad to School Day’ – Music News

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Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl joined Absolute Radio Hometime hosts Bush and Richie on the show where they discussed being mistaken for a magician and his kids growing up on the road. See below for some key quotes from the chat.

On going to his daughters ‘Bring your Dad to school day’ “When my daughter was maybe like, five-years-old, she was in pre-school and they had this bring your dad to school day… So I grabbed a couple of Grammys, I got a bunch of laminates. I got some drumsticks and I thought, okay. I’m sitting in like a rocking chair in front of all these little kids. And I’m like, “Okay. Hi. I’m Violet’s dad. My name’s Dave. And I’m a musician. And I passed the Grammy around they’re like, “Oh, wow.” I’m like, “I play the drums” and I hand the sticks. I hand ’em the lanyards. I’m like, “These are backstage passes… So, later on that night one of my friends, whose daughter is also in the class, told her parents, “Violet’s daddy came to school today and explained and what he does.” And my friend said, “What does Violet’s daddy do for a living?” And the kid said, “He’s a magician.”

On his kids growing up on the road “My kids, they’ve grown up on the road with me… they know the road crew are a bunch of pirates. They know that the backstage rider is full of stuff that like, ‘we’ll never touch’, you know? When they stand on the side of the stage and 100,000 people sing along to a song, like they know that that’s special. But everything else it’s like, “All right, you’re going to work. All right. Well, do me a favour on the way home, will you pick up some chocolate bars…”



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Celeste: ‘I think that people are getting to understand me in my ways and the way I actually am’ – Music News

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In his latest ‘At Home With’ conversation on Apple Music, Zane Lowe is joined by Celeste who breaks down her acclaimed debut album ’Not Your Muse’ and shares selections from her 50+ song playlist of soulful inspirations. She also discusses why she loves vinyl, being drawn to Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse’s influence, learning from Tyler, The Creator and Outkast, and more.

Celeste Tells Apple Music How She Feels Following The Release of Her Debut Album ’Not Your Muse’…
Well, it’s a weird feeling. On the day it actually came out, I described it as it’s like waking up on your birthday, but not getting to see your friends yet kind of thing. It’s kind of like that. You don’t feel that different at first, but now it’s been a few days. I just feel really happy and hearing what songs people like, I feel quite relieved that it’s just out there now kind of thing.

Celeste Tells Apple Music About Success and Taking Things a Day at a Time…
I think that even in conversation and just taking the stance to just be as honest as I possibly can, I’m getting on with people more actually. And I think that people are getting to understand me in my ways and the way I actually am, even if it’s awkward sometimes or all of those kinds of things. And I think in doing that as well, I’ve felt a little bit less pressured by those things that you mentioned, like BRITs and that kind of stuff, because people get to say stuff to me. I think in the week leading up to performing and doing that, all I was thinking about was that how I’m going to sing certain bits and certain phrasing, what the lights were going to look like and what I was going to wear. And that was literally all I thought about. And then after I started speaking to people, mainly press and that kind of thing. And people would say, “Did you know this person won that, and this person won that and you’re going to be a superstar?” And I just used to just think, well, I think even so when people say it to me now, I just think it’s a bit silly really, because I just kind of know, I don’t know. I just think it’s silly basically, because as well and myself, I just try to go with the flow and take things day by day. So I just never really think of what that final thing is. I just sort of set myself goals of the things that I want to do to feel fulfilled from what I’m doing.

Celeste Tells Apple Music Why She Loves Listening To Music on Vinyl…
I think most of the artists and performers that inspired me, I discovered them from listening to them on vinyl. And there was a charity shop near where my mum lived, and I think it’s still there. And I used to go there, and I’d be the only one that bought the vinyl because it was in an OAP area. So it was all bungalows, one floor. And I was one of the only kids that lived in the neighbourhood. So everyone was getting rid of their vinyl. And I was like, “Wow. There’s so much of it there.” And yeah, so that was kind of like the first time I really heard Shirley Bassey and those kinds of things and Stan Getz, and I’d listen to them on vinyl. So I think something about that has come into my way of thinking and how I want to make music. But it’s maybe not so conscious, such a conscious decision to go, “I want this to sound good on vinyl,” but it’s definitely my favourite way of listening when I have the time to go and put something on.

Celeste Tells Apple Music About Being Drawn To Aretha Franklin’s Voice…
It’s just that she allows herself to explore and express the rawest part of her emotions. She doesn’t really hold anything back. So I think from a young age, I was just really drawn to it because it’s arresting and it demands you to listen. There’s no way you can hear one of those songs and just pay no attention to it. So I think that’s why I’ve really, really enjoyed her voice and taken a lot from listening to her. And I guess, as I’ve got older, I have toned down my voice a bit where I don’t really sing as loudly anymore. And I don’t try to do as big of notes. And sometimes it comes out in some songs here and there. But when I first started taking things serious, when I was 16, every time I sang, I’d be like, “Ah. Ah.” I’d always tried to do the most loud, like Etta James-style, Aretha Franklin. So they definitely were quite good in me just trying to be quite bold. And those were my measure of whether I was a good singer or not, if I could reach some of the notes that they could in comparison, singing along with them and stuff like that.

Celeste Tells Apple Music About Amy Winehouse’s Influence…
Well, I think just in the UK and I’m sure the rest of the world too, but you feel it in London so much that people just so completely admire her and adore her, whether that’s people that have never come into contact with her, but just absolutely love her music. And it’s almost like a blueprint for them and what they do. And anyone that you ever come across that’s met her holds her in such special place in their heart. But I just found that actually I really understood her music when I was more like 18, 19. So I think when those albums first came out, I was like 10 and 12 and it was the kind of thing that my mum had a CD of it. And I knew I really liked her voice and I’d have “Rehab” in my head because I’d see it on the video channels. And I remember hearing “Stronger Than Me,” but it wasn’t until I was older that I really understood where she was coming from and what she was really talking about. And that’s when I learned to appreciate it so much more. I think when I listened to her, it does remind me of that, that like, ultimately you just have to write something that is true to your existence and your thoughts and your feelings…Definitely that, both of those albums, Frank and Back to Black. I don’t know at the time if they were as appreciated as they are now, I’m sure they were, but like they are complete classics. Like to me, nothing really comes close to the writing and the sound and her voice on those albums and every single song. It’s just, as soon as I turn one on, actually I always end up listening to the whole thing. And then listening to the… Yeah.

Celeste Tells Apple Music About Being a Fan of Tyler, The Creator and Learning From Him…
I think I was about 16 when I first heard Tyler, The Creator. And I think he had like a website where he had two or three albums already uploaded for free. And I remember listening to them and I was like part of a bit of that like frenzied teenage group of people that would just think he was like a god. I remember hearing songs like “Fish” and “Tron Cat.” And it was kind of so outlandish, but then there was a tenderness too at the same time, because you could tell it was like fraught. Again, there was so much raw emotion, everything he was saying. And I remember hearing people say so much stuff about him as though it was so offensive and that… I didn’t find that within it. I understood the nuance to it and the different voices of this person. I guess a lot of teenagers at that time that are into it – and I still am as a 26 year old – that you kind of felt there was someone that understood you in all of your insecurity and displacement, because of like all of the stories that he would tell. And I think something else I was really drawn to in all of it was the chord progressions. Yeah, I remember watching a video one day on YouTube and he was just… He broke down one of his earliest songs on piano and the chord just sounded so jazzy to me. And then I was like, I know I liked this for a reason kind of thing. Yeah. When you find those little moments in contemporary songs that kind of murmur back to sounds of the past that you’re familiar with, you can really begin to sort of analyze them and it can teach you a lot and how you want to get to your own thing. I think when you stop doing it. And I think even now, I still go back to listen to those early albums because you just learn a lot and you can sort of then track the progression, because now we’re blessed with, like you said, Igor and Flower Boy, and you get to see the evolution, basically.

Celeste Tells Apple Music About Outkast and Sly and the Family Stone…
Well, I think that when you just see two individuals like that really being themselves. I remember seeing Andre 3000 at a festival and I was like 17 and he came out wearing a grey wig and that top that said, “My dad has better CDs than you” or something like that. And I don’t know, it was just embracing the weirdo, it definitely is one of those things I’m drawn to in person. And I think when I was a kid, obviously I liked, “Hey Ya” and the pop songs, like “Roses” and “Ms. Jackson.” And you kind of know now that I guess… we’ll hear that there’s nods to Motown and blues and funk. And I think that as I’ve got older, kind of how I mentioned earlier, when I can sort of draw these parallels between something from the past and something in the now, it really helps me to kind of unravel how I want to do and approach my own thing. And I’ve always listened to Sly and the Family Stone, my mum’s boyfriend showed me Sly and the Family Stone and used to play it around the house a lot when I was younger. So it kind of seems strange, but I heard Andre’s verse on “Pink Matter,” on the Frank Ocean album I guess quite a long time ago now, 2012. And that’s when I really, really realized the intelligence of this person and what that is in his music. And that’s when I really started to go back and listen to stuff that came out when I was quite a young kid. And then yeah, kind of drawing comparisons, and I guess like Sly and the Family Stone.Songs like. “Thank You” and “If You Want Me To Stay,” and “Just Like A Baby” and just those slow, percussive rhythms that they have an attack, but it’s very subtle how it gets you.



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Zara Larsson’s upcoming album inspired by Swedish pop legends ABBA – Music News

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Zara Larsson’s upcoming album, ‘Poster Girl’, is inspired by Swedish pop legends ABBA.

The ‘WOW’ singer is set to release her third studio record on March 5, and she’s revealed she embraced her Swedish roots and was inspired by the artists she used to listen to for “escapism” growing up.

She said: “I’ve really been inspired by Swedish pop legends like ABBA, Roxette, Robyn – I’ve definitely been proud of my pop heritage.

“One thing I realised is that, for me, pop has always been a form of escapism. Now we got Tik Tok, we got Instagram, and algorithms that sucks you in and take you away from reality, but, growing up, pop was my form of escapism and it always has been. I would look in the mirror and pretend I was somewhere else, that I was someone else. I think it’s very tied to me wanting to entertain people.”

The main theme on the LP – the follow-up to 2017’s ‘So Good’ – is love and the 23-year-old singer admitted she had far more creative control this time.

She said: “I feel a bit more honest. I feel I can resonate more with emotions and it’s mostly about love there. ‘Poster Girl’ – my album – is about what I want to do, what I want to talk about, and I always talk about love, because I feel that’s the most important feeling in the whole world.

“I feel I have way more control creatively over this album, so I allowed it to be way more pop and dancey, because I fucking love pop. It’s still the same old me, but I’ve just taken myself a notch up. If you liked ‘So Good’, I think you will like this album a lot. It’s way more fun and if it helps people through these times then I think that is what’s really important.

“I’m always in development mode. I don’t think I’ll ever be like, ‘this is the new me’ or, ‘I’m a whole new person’. I’m never going to be a finished version of myself – it’s an ongoing process.”

The ‘Ain’t My Fault’ hitmaker is dating model Lamin Holmén and gushed that being “happy and in love” has gotten her through the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: “It’s going to sound so cheesy, but I am so happy and in love. That is really what’s gotten me through all this. I’ve never really felt love like this before. I don’t know how to say this without being super corny, but I am just so in love. I’m like ‘I want to have your babies’, ‘I want us to marry, I want it now’ – it’s insane! Sometimes I think I can’t be this lucky. I know, something bad is gonna happen to me really soon, because it’s just not legal to feel this good.”
“You know, no one is strong by themselves and nobody is an island, especially in these times, and it’s really helped me. How are you supposed to be confident in yourself if you don’t have people supporting and believing in you? I just don’t think it’s really possible. I’m just really grateful. I think it’s so important to find your community, where people understand you and uplift you – it’s like finding your little tribe in a way.”



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Cardi B: New song ‘Up’ is ‘more cocky’ compared to ‘very sexual’ hit ‘WAP’ – Music News

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The 28-year-old rapper has dropped her first track of 2021 and the eye-popping music video, which is helmed by Tanu Muino, who flew from the Ukraine to shoot the promo.

Cardi bids farewell to 2020 with a funeral for the unprecedented year with a gravestone with “RIP 2020” on it and also locks lips and tongues with a group of female dancers in the racy video.

And she’s explained that she didn’t want to repeat herself and recreate another video and song like ‘WAP’, and insisted the goal was to create “something more gangster” and inspired by the Chicago Drill music scene.

She told Zane Lowe on Apple Music: “I wanted to do something really different. It took me more than a month …we started rehearsing in December for this moment …The grind don’t stop. I thought that my last song was more sexy … I wanted to do something more gangster, more cocky.

“My last song was very sexual, very sexual. So I always want my next songs to be different than the one before. If a topic on one of my songs is money, the other topic I want it to be about something else. When I started rapping, when I first put music out, like my mixtape, it was all … This might sound crazy, but I got really inspired of Drill Chicago music. I was young, and I liked that and everything, so my mixtape was very all about gangster violence. If it’s up, then it’s stuck. That’s where I wanted to take it with this record.”

‘Up’ is set to feature on Cardi’s follow-up to her 2018 critically-acclaimed debut studio album, ‘Invasion of Privacy’.
Meanwhile, Cardi recently claimed it cost $1 million to shoot the music video for ‘WAP’.

The bold promo – which saw the girls film at a mansion with real-life snakes with the likes of Kylie Jenner and Normani – cost the eye-watering sum, Cardi told a fan on Twitter.

First of all, the ‘Press’ rapper shared that the video for her 2017 major-label debut single, ‘Bodak Yellow’, cost $15,000.

She wrote: “Fun fact : Bodak yellow music video cost me 15 thousand dollars .I was in Dubai and I said ….I gotta fly picture (videographer) out here …BOOM BOOM BANG ! Ya know the rest . (sic)”

A follower then replied: “girl that’s a lot (sic)”

However, Cardi responded with the cost of ‘WAP’ and ‘Money’ and ‘Please Me’, which came to $400,000 and $900,000, respectively.

She wrote back: “Naaaa honey ….Money cost 400K ,Please me Cost 900K ,Wap Cost a M ! (sic)”



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The Weeknd prepares for Super Bowl with record-shattering greatest hits album – Music News

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The Weeknd has kicked off his Super Bowl weekend with a record-shattering greatest hits release.

The Canadian pop star, who will headline the Super Bowl half-time show in Tampa, Florida on Sunday, dropped The Highlights on Friday – and it has already become the most streamed album of all time on Spotify.

The release comes a day after The Weeknd announced dates for his rescheduled After Hours World Tour, which will keep him on the road for much of 2022, with 104 dates in North America and Europe planned, beginning in his native Canada on 14 January.

The Weeknd has also dropped a video, entitled The Last Meal Before the Super Bowl, in which the Blinding Lights singer enjoys a final feast on the field before the big game.

The Weeknd has also announced a collaboration with food delivery service Postmates and their Black-owned national merchant collection – Postmates users will be offered a collection of local options at the top of their feed when using the app.

To kick the collaboration off, The Weeknd chose a local Tampa black-owned restaurant, Mama’s Southern Soul Food, to feed the frontline healthcare workers at AdventHealth Carrollwood, which is near Raymond James Stadium, where the Super Bowl will take place.



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Dave Grohl learned to play drums on a set of pillows – Music News

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The Foo Fighters frontman started his career as the drummer in Nirvana and he has revealed that he had to improvise when it came to learning his instrument of choice and though his DIY kit helped him hone his playing style, it also caused problems when he finally got a real set of drums.

He said: “I didn’t even have a f****** drum set when I was learning how to play drums.

“I had two drumsticks that were actually marching sticks so they were gigantically fat, and I would set up pillows in the formation of a drum set, and play along to Ramones records or Minor Threat records, with really fast, 200 beats per minute, aggressive drumming.

“So when I was 16 and someone gave me an actual normal pair off drumsticks on a normal drum set, I just shattered everything.

“I was breaking cymbals like they were teacups.

“That’s the reason I’ve always been such a basher. I’ve tried to learn the subtleties of dynamic drumming but it’s no use.

“So when the rock ‘n’ roll bug hit I really decided, ‘This is who I am.’

“All the sport went out the window. I was like, this is my passion. This is my love.”

And the ‘Everlong’ hitmaker also honed his musical skills on long road trips he used to take with his mom and sister during school holidays.

In an interview with Big Issue magazine, he explained: “For our family trip in the summer, the three of us would pile into our tiny Ford Fiesta and drive to Ohio or Chicago, which is a good 12-hour drive, going through mountain passes and cornfields.

“And I learned about rhythm in a funny way on those trips.

“My mother and I would sit up front in the car and she taught me how to sing harmonies or we would do these little games – name that tune. Or snap our fingers to the song on the radio as we drove through the mountain passes to see if, when we came out of the tunnel, I was still on the beat.

“Honestly, it taught me about rhythm and metre and still to this day it’s one of my favourite games to play. Those were the days, man.”



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Coldplay set to release a new album – Music News

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The band – which comprises of Chris Martin, Jon Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion – have made the biggest hint their next LP is imminent and that it is called ‘Music Of The Spheres’, after they formally trademarked the term, The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column reports.

A source said: “Chris and Co have been dropping hints for a while but now it’s finally getting off the ground. They’ve been busy working on new music during lockdown and it’ll all culminate in the record, which has the working title ‘Music Of The Spheres’. Chris and the group have now officially trademarked the name ready for an album. It also includes merchandise and everything they’d need for a tour. It’s a really exciting time for everyone. There’s no doubt this project will also go straight to the top spot.”

Meanwhile, the musician recently admitted he “doesn’t really understand” Coldplay’s recent songs.

The 42-year-old singer and his bandmates had decided not to tour ‘Everyday Life’ due to environmental concerns, and he’s also doing very little to promote the record as he doesn’t really know what to say.

He said: “We’re not touring and we’re not really talking and not doing anything normal. This album feels like we have to just release it into the world and let it fend for itself. Because a lot of these songs came from a place I don’t really understand, and other reasons too, it’s just not tourable yet. We’re trying to wait to tour until we can figure out the environmental side of things.

“I stayed in a real cocoon cos I feel super-focused and super on a mission of some sort. This time I’m not even aware of any reaction or any result … nothing, cos I feel a very strong calling to be doing a certain thing. It’s always been there but maybe because the way the world is it’s been bubbling extra hard, extra-strong, like, ‘OK, this is what we’re supposed to be doing, let’s head this way.'”



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Prince’s beloved white dove Divini dies – Music News

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The late ‘When Doves Cry’ hitmaker’s Paisley Park Estate has announced the female bird previously owned by the late music legend – who passed away in April 2016 at the age of 57 – flew to the heavens on Tuesday (02.02.21) at the grand age of 28.

A statement issued on Prince’s estate’s website this week read: “Paisley Park today announces the passing of Divinity, the female white dove once owned by Prince Rogers Nelson, following a recent decline in health due to age. Divinity died peacefully on Tuesday, February 2, 2021 after 28 years of life. One of the original doves Prince kept at his iconic Paisley Park complex, Divinity was an ever-present fixture for countless Paisley Park tours, events, and productions.”

Alan Seiffert, Executive Director of Paisley Park, shared that Divinity was “one of the enduring links to Prince for thousands of fans”.

He added: “Divinity’s beautiful coo has welcomed visitors since Paisley Park first opened its gates to the public in October 2016. She was one of the enduring links to Prince for thousands of fans. She will be missed.”

Prince – who released ‘When Doves Cry’ in 1984 – adopted Divinity and a male dove called Majesty in the 1990s, and they lived at the atrium of Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

The latter passed away in 2017 and both had received credits for their “ambient singing” on 2002’s ‘Arboretum’.
In 2016, Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson revealed that the doves had stopped singing since the ‘Raspberry Beret’ hitmaker’s death.

She said at the time: “If they’re quiet, it doesn’t feel the same. After he passed, they weren’t talking. When I first came in, I’m like, ‘Where’s the doves? What’s going on?’”

The 60-year-old singer subsequently asked for them to be played her late sibling’s music in a bid to get them cooing again.

Following the passing of Divinity, the estate is set to get a new influx of doves to greet visitors at Paisley Park, the ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker’s legendary former residence and studios.

Mitch Maguire, Legacy Preservationist, added: “Although the original doves have passed on, visitors to Paisley Park will continue to enjoy the warm greetings from a new generation of doves that will continue to grace Prince’s home.”



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Rita Ora deletes entire Instagram before returning hours later to announce new EP – Music News

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Rita Ora sparked concern on Thursday night when she deleted her entire Instagram grid, before returning just hours later to announce the upcoming release of a new EP.

The Hot Right Now star caught the attention of her fans by getting rid of every single picture on her Instagram page, but then teased her comeback by posting a promotional picture for her new record Bang.

Rita told fans she had teamed up with Kazakh DJ Imanbek and French EDM star David Guetta for her latest offering, which will drop 12 February.

In a second post, the singer is seen wearing a barely-there leotard and wet look hair as she seductively winks to the camera and bites her tongue.

Rita’s decision to erase her Instagram page and start again came after she reportedly lost 200,000 followers on the social media site due to her rule-breaking during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.

The singer invited friends to join her at Casa Cruz restaurant in London on 28 November to celebrate her 30th birthday – just four days before London’s second lockdown was lifted.

The bash was visited by police officials and Rita reportedly voluntarily paid a $13,700 (£10,000) fine shortly after she issued a public apology for her “serious and inexcusable error of judgment”.

She’s now in Australia, where she is quarantining in a hotel for 14 days before reprising her judging role on The Voice Australia.



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Migos drop lawsuit against talent lawyer – Music News

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Hip-hop stars Migos have dropped their lawsuit against longtime talent attorney Damien Granderson.

The Bad and Boujee hitmakers – Quavious ‘Quavo’ Marshall, Kiari ‘Offset’ Cephus, Kirshnik ‘Takeoff’ Ball – filed papers against Granderson back in July, accusing him of charging them “excessive fees” without a proper written agreement and for allegedly cheating them out of millions by failing to disclose conflicts of interest by taking them on as clients in 2014, even though he already represented bosses at the band’s label, Quality Control Music.

They had sued him for malpractice and unjust enrichment, but filed a voluntary dismissal without prejudice in November – meaning they could file a future claim against Granderson. However, on Wednesday, Migos filed another request for dismissal, this time with prejudice.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this usually happens when a “tentative settlement” is reached between the two parties, while the specific points of the deal “haven’t been finalised”. In that way, Migos would be free to revive their case against Granderson if their deal fell apart.



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