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Dua Lipa, Donna Summer, Loleatta Holloway & Aluna

(L-R) Dua Lipa, Donna Summer, Loleatta Holloway & Aluna

Photo design: Lauryn Alvarez

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The Women Singers Who Shape Dance Music donna-summer-gloria-gaynor-dua-lipa-aluna-women-singers-who-shaped-dance-music

Love To Love Them, Baby: From Donna Summer To Dua Lipa, Meet The Women Singers Who Shaped (And Continue to Shape) Dance Music

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Decades before Dua Lipa was born, disco began as a musical movement led by iconic divas like Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and Thelma Houston to create a sound for spaces in which Black, Latinx and queer audiences sought refuge and escape
Krystal Rodriguez
GRAMMYs
Mar 30, 2021 - 11:47 am

Earlier this month, on Music’s Biggest Night, Dua Lipa teleported us from our living rooms and yearlong quarantine to Studio 2054, her homage to New York City’s legendary Studio 54 nightclub where disco thrived from 1977–1980. In a stunning visual display entailing costume changes and dramatic dance interludes, Lipa performed two songs (“Levitating,” “Don’t Start Now”) from her GRAMMY-winning album, Future Nostalgia.

“I wanted to do something that felt fresh and new,” Lipa told GRAMMY.com last year, “something that touched on a memory, something that always rings so true to me, especially in my childhood.” Her dancefloor inspiration was integral to the perfect storm that was a 2020 disco-pop revival, with artists like Doja Cat and Victoria Monet also trying on the groove for size and dancefloor veterans Jessie Ware, Róisín Murphy and Kylie Minogue showing us how it’s done.

Related: Jessie Ware On Returning To Her Dance Roots And Continuing To Learn

The success of these recent releases is validation for strong women vocalists who make dance hits spanning multiple decades, sounds and perspectives. Though the genre has evolved over the years, women singers remain a constant. And while they’re not always given their due, it’s their voices we remember, their lyrics we sing and their legacies we celebrate.

Decades before Lipa was born, disco began as a musical movement of four-on-the-floor rhythms, deep synthesizers and lush melodies combining to create a sound for spaces in which Black, Latinx and queer audiences sought refuge and escape. What started underground made its way to the top of the charts and radio airwaves, thanks in large part to disco divas and their soul-stirring hooks.

The indisputable queen of them all was Donna Summer, who catapulted to international superstardom in the ‘70s with classics including the erotic epic “Love to Love You, Baby,” siren-like “I Feel Love” and the aptly steamy “Hot Stuff.” Together with GRAMMY-winning Italian producer Giorgio Moroder, she brought the sound of urban counterculture to middle America and beyond by simple musical seduction; her voice was warm and sensual, disguising disco’s radical message of liberation to unsuspecting listeners.

Read: Kaskade Talks New 'Reset' EP, Executing Epic Fortnite Show, NFTs & More

“This is it, look no further,” Brian Eno reportedly declared to David Bowie after hearing “I Feel Love” for the first time. “This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next 15 years.” It was an accurate prediction of Summer’s impact. A bona fide hit machine, she charted 32 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 (including four No. 1s) over the course of her career and nabbed 18 GRAMMY nominations, winning five.

While “I Feel Love” radiated euphoria, Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”—the first (and only) winner of the Best Disco Recording GRAMMY—was a timeless anthem for hard times. Its message transcended the era and also spoke to the moment. "The problems that we shared during the day,” Gaynor said, “we came together in the evening, to overcome together, or to get away together, and one of the ways we came together was on the disco dancefloor."

Sister Sledge, Anita Ward, Thelma Houston and Cheryl Lynn each had disco hits of their own, cooing in sultry tones across mirrorball-lit dancefloors. But being a disco diva was about more than being a singer: they were powerful, fabulous and aspirational. Long after disco’s heyday, the legacy of their artistry lives on through new-school chanteuses like Lipa, Ware, Minogue and Murphy.

The party eventually came to an end, as disco’s ubiquity in the ‘70s prompted a racist backlash in 1979 that abruptly led to its mainstream downfall. After some time in obscurity, club hits came back with a vengeance in the ‘90s as dance music’s next evolution: house music.

Martha Wash was the powerhouse voice behind two of the decade’s biggest hits, Black Box’s “Everybody Everybody” and C+C Music Factory’s “Everybody Dance Now (Gonna Make You Sweat).” Both songs, released in 1990, topped the Billboard Hot 100 and charted in the Top 10 internationally. While these achievements should have boosted Wash’s profile as an artist, the tracks’ producers had used her vocal recorded from studio demos without crediting her. Adding insult to injury, they cast other women to dance and lip-sync in Wash’s place for their music videos and live performances.

Loleatta Holloway, a vocalist best known from her ‘70s disco hits (including “Hit and Run” and “Runaway” with The Salsoul Orchestra), had faced a similar situation the previous year when Black Box sampled her 1980 single “Love Sensation” without permission on their U.K. No. 1, “Ride on Time.” Believing they were entitled to both compensation and credit for their work, regardless of it being a sample or a demo, Wash and Holloway each successfully sued the artists and their respective labels, winning both credit and financial settlement. Wash’s victory was bigger than herself; it set a precedent enshrining that record labels are responsible for assigning proper vocal credit for all releases, regardless of how the vocal recording was made.

As Holloway and Wash were writing new rules for vocalists, a singer/songwriter named Crystal Waters was working a government job by day while writing her own club hits on the side. Her second single, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” a socially conscious house track based on a true story, has a deceptively simple hook that burrows itself in your brain. Released in 1991, it was the first of Waters’ twelve No. 1 singles on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart, including “100% Pure Love” and “What I Need.” Like fellow dance music singers Ultra Naté and CeCe Peniston, Waters took four-on-the-floor tracks to the next level with pop-structured lyrics that were cathartic, catchy and universally relatable.

Related: Janet Jackson's Iconic 'Rhythm Nation 1814' Turns 30 Today & We Still Have Work To Do

During this time, Madonna and Janet Jackson approached the dance charts from a pop perspective. Both known for their theatrical performance style and vocal prowess as much as for their versatility, they could drop a ballad one moment and a club-ready track the next, from Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Express Yourself” to Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and “Throb.” These expert shapeshifters paved the way for future chameleons like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Beyoncé, pop artists who stepped onto the dancefloor with tracks like “Born This Way,” “Till the World Ends” and “Run the World (Girls),” respectively.

Beyoncé dabbled in dance music, but her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland opted for a fully immersive experience, reinventing herself as a solo artist with a fresh, pioneering sound. In 2008, producer David Guetta, a well-established club DJ in his native France, had recently cracked the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with “Love is Gone” and was looking for a bigger and better sequel.

That summer, Rowland went clubbing in Cannes, France at the club where Guetta was DJing. She became particularly enamored with a track he played during his set, the instrumental version of what would become their 2009 collaboration “When Love Takes Over.” She asked to write and record vocals for it, the final result being a big-room serenade sweetened with his piano melody but commanded by her euphoric, heart-swelling chorus.

“When I finished producing it, we were like, ‘Wow, we have a monster hit,’” Guetta said in a 2009 interview. “We could feel that it was really, really big.” More than an anthem, “When Love Takes Over” was the launchpad for America’s EDM boom, a neon era of radio-friendly dance-pop that could also bang on club dancefloors and festival stages. The song topped 15 charts across 12 countries, including Billboard’s US Dance Club Songs, and was nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 2010 GRAMMY Awards show.

Rihanna was also looking to take her music up a few BPMs after her 2009 album Rated R. Her first venture into EDM, 2010’s “Only Girl (In the World),” produced by Stargate and Sandy Vee, was a success, eventually winning Best Dance Recording at the 2011 GRAMMY Awards show. For her 2011 album Talk That Talk, Rihanna recruited Calvin Harris, a Scottish producer who had achieved critical acclaim and A-list studio sessions but who had yet to break through with a global hit. Harris produced two singles on the album: the winding, acid-electro house track “Where Have You Been” and “We Found Love,” on which Rihanna bares her vulnerable falsetto. They reunited for Harris’ massive summer hit (penned by Taylor Swift), “This Is What You Came For” in 2016.

Watch: Ellie Goulding Talks Songwriting, Loving Skrillex & Björk & Growing Up On Electronic Music

Rowland’s relationship with Guetta, and Rihanna’s with Harris, was symbiotic. Rowland and Rihanna each became early adopters of a fire-blazing dance-pop phenomenon while Guetta and Harris got to increase their profiles with a new, large and lucrative American audience hungry for more. Hoping to find similar success, pop artists like Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding and Kelis paired with Guetta, Harris, Zedd, Skrillex and more in the early 2010s. As dance music became more popular, the dynamic between producer and popstar shifted and producers became the popstars themselves, though a vocalist was usually not far behind.

In the current second-wave EDM era, where white men still sit at the top, Aluna has made it her mission to change how dance music perceives and treats women artists, especially Black women artists, asserting their importance even when it isn't obvious. “She’s there in the lyrics, she’s there in the voice, sometimes you see her in a video, but you don’t see her right there in the middle,” she told Billboard last year. “That’s really the shift we need to make.”

Aluna was best known to the world as one-half of electronic-pop outfit AlunaGeorge. Her cherubic vocals are instantly recognizable whether she’s singing on their own songs, such as “You Know You Like It” and “Attracting Flies,” or appearing on Disclosure’s “White Noise.”

In 2020, she made a huge statement by embarking on her solo career and releasing her debut album, Renaissance, that October. Tired of fielding daily requests from people who “wanted [her] voice, not [her] face. Not [her] Blackness,” Aluna made herself the record’s focal point as the main artist and producer rather than simply feature on different producers’ songs.

Read More: Aluna On New Album 'Renaissance' & Making Dance Music Inclusive Again

Whereas Aluna has beamed across radio airwaves worldwide, Anabel Englund has long been the voice of dance music’s underground. As a member of tech house supergroups Hot Natured and Pleasure State, the singer/songwriter’s smoldering tone and earworm melodies are the centerpiece of songs like “Electricity” and “Reverse Skydiving,” both of which she co-wrote.

Englund released her debut album, Messing With Magic, last October, and landed her first Billboard No. 1 on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart that same month with syrupy house chiller “Picture Us.” “Working with a group, I have to share my energy as part of a whole,” she said. “Being on my own, I’m able to harness my energy into what I have to say.” Like Aluna, Englund assumed co-production duties on the album in addition to singing and songwriting. Her former bandmates make appearances throughout while she remains the marquee name, never being overshadowed.

A more recent arrival to the scene, Lipa dabbled in dance music before diving headlong into Future Nostalgia’s disco-inspired sounds, including on her 2017 self-titled debut album (“Hotter Than Hell,” “New Rules”). In 2018, she collaborated with Harris and Silk City (Diplo and Mark Ronson), respectively, on the ‘90s-house-influenced hits “One Kiss” and “Electricity.” The latter song won Best Dance Recording at the 2019 GRAMMY Awards show and in a big look for dance music, Lipa performed “One Kiss” during the main ceremony. To cap the night, she also won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. Between house and disco, Lipa has provided two of dance music’s foundational genres a massive revitalized platform in the pop world.

Long after disco’s prime, Summer’s captivating artistry lives on in chanteuses like Lipa. Meanwhile, the voices and lyrics of Aluna and Englund pick up where Crystal Waters left off, and Wash and Holloway’s legacy can be heard in a new generation of house music divas like Karen Harding, Alex Mills and Kaleena Zanders. Just like Lipa showed on the GRAMMYs stage, each of these singers proves that the women on dance records are capable and deserving of the spotlight, hopefully always getting brighter than the ones that shone on the many women before them.

The Women Essential To Reggae And Dancehall 

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Kaskade stands in front of a cloudy blue sky

Kaskade

Photo: Courtesy of artist

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Kaskade On 'Reset' EP, Fortnite Show & NFTs kaskade-talks-new-reset-ep-executing-epic-fortnite-show-nfts-more

Kaskade Talks New 'Reset' EP, Executing Epic Fortnite Show, NFTs & More

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GRAMMY.com caught up with Kaskade in celebration of his latest EP, 'Reset,' featuring music from the Rocket League video game, and to learn more about the huge production that went into creating his March 26 Fortnite concert
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Mar 29, 2021 - 9:08 am

It's hard to imagine dance music and festivals without Kaskade. The beloved GRAMMY-nominated DJ/producer has been putting out melodic dancefloor bangers since 2001 and seems to have headlined almost every major music festival across the globe. Yet, somehow, none of it has gone to his head as he remains at the top 20 years into the game.

"The fact that other people wanted to hear my music, outside of that little, tiny world that I was in, just blew me away," he recently told GRAMMY.com over Zoom, from his studio in Santa Monica, California. "To this day, I am still so grateful for everything that transpired."

GRAMMY.com caught up with Kaskade in celebration of his latest project, the Reset EP, featuring four tracks that soundtrack the Rocket League video game, dropped on Monstercat on March 5. He also dived deep into the EP, the epic production that went into creating his March 26 Fortnite concert, and planning his foray into NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The "Atmosphere" producer also reflected on his journey to super stardom and said he looks forward to returning to the dancefloor.

Let's start with the new music. Your latest project, Reset, recently dropped on Monstercat. I'm curious what your vision for this EP was.

Vision. Wow, that's a big word. [Laughs.] I've known the Monstercat guys for—it seems like a really long time—probably three or four years. I was really intrigued with how, I don't know, progressive-minded the label was. So, I reached out and became friends with them. And then, maybe two years ago, they came to me and were like, "We want to do something [with you] in the gaming space. Are you interested in that?" And I'm like, "Absolutely." Oh, hey. [Motions behind at arcade games.] My studio's named Arkade and I have video games here. I'm like, "I love video games! Yeah, that would be super fun, and different." A different software company hired me about 20 years ago to remix some game stuff, but that was so long ago.

And so, the EP was a pretty collaborative effort in the fact that they were like, "Hey, we want it to fit in the game, and these are some of the different vibes." And so, I sat down and played Rocket League for the first time about eight months ago. I'll paint it as one of those silver linings of the pandemic. Typically, I'm doing 120, 150 shows a year, flipping out, and completely over-scheduled, and trying to find some kind of balance.

With more free time and more studio time, I've just been open to do things like this. Which I would have been, prior to this—I just think it would have been a lot harder to have that collaborative "What are you looking for?" element. And it would be harder to sit down and really sink my teeth into it and wrap my head around the game and give my take on what I think would work when you're playing the game.

It was like, "Okay, what's cool and energetic, fun and light? How can that fit with my sound? How can I cater my style to that?" Really, I just approached it that way. But certainly, the Monstercat people were all, "We love your classic sounding stuff." And "Miles To Go," to me, is quintessential me. This is about as me as I can sound, but with a fresh take on it, a 2021 vibe to it.

I want to talk a bit more about "Miles To Go," which I love. I feel like Ella Vos' voice sounds euphoric but also urgent. What was it like working with her?

Working with Ella was a dream. She's equally as cool and amazing as her voice sounds. I didn't know her before this project. And honestly, we met on the back side of it. It all kind of happened in the cloud, out in space.

True to the current state of affairs, it was a song that was sent to my manager. "Hey, this is something that Kaskade might be interested in. He likes this style of vocal." And when I heard it, I was like, "Holy cow! She killed the performance! I wish I wrote this song." It was just kind of a piano demo. And instantly, when I heard it, I had some ideas on how I wanted to produce it. But yeah, her voice was already recorded—beautiful, pristine.

I'd only heard her one time before that, on a song ["Exhale"] with R3HAB. And I loved her voice then, I was like, "Wow! Who is this?" So, it was a cool moment [when I got the demo]. And actually, I sat on the track for quite a bit, because I was like, "There's a message here." I was holding it for maybe a future album, or something that was part of a bigger picture.

And one of the life lessons I've taken away from this whole thing is, maybe I don't need to be holding on to those things. I produced it up, sent it over to Monstercat. I was like, "Is this right [for Rocket League]?" If we look at the tracks together, this is on one side and "Flip Reset" is on the other side. "Flip Reset" is more like banging, peak, kind of like you scored a goal in the game! "Miles To Go" is the most emotive out of the bunch. But that works. They didn't want one flavor.

And what are some of the sonic elements that you brought in to "Miles To Go" to give it that classic Kaskade sound?

Early on in my career, somewhere along the line, I decided that to set myself apart I wanted the electronic music I was making to be more about lyrics and melody. Even on my first album It's You, It's Me, it's almost 20 years old now, it's all about the songwriting. And that was my deal. I sat down and got in the studio with people who I thought were great songwriters and said, "I've been really testing my writing skills. I want to continue to push this boundary."

I feel like dance music shouldn't be only just sound design. I've always felt that something that resonates and goes beyond, and something you can leave a mark with, is where you take a cool message, these lyrics, and a strong melody, and marry that with something sonically interesting. It can be a global impact moment.

Dance music is always just where my head's at. Dance music's always been about sonics. That's where we came from. Drum machines, synthesis, "I'm going to put this in a box, and stretch it, tweak it and freak it out, and make it sound like nothing you've ever heard before." And you hear it, and you're like, "What is this? I want more."

A lot has changed over the years, because 20, 25 years ago when I got into it, nobody was really writing songs and pitching them to dance music producers, because we were such a tiny little niche. I think the biggest thing for me that's changed in the last five to seven years, with guys like David Guetta and Calvin Harris that were able to really crossover and conquer the pop charts, people were like, "Oh, that guy, Kaskade's called me before, maybe I should call him back?" Even though we were filling nightclubs and large venues, and playing massive festivals before that, I think it took a few guys from our world to clip through to let other songwriters and artists know our world was credible.

Watch: Up Close & Personal: David Guetta On “Let’s Love” Ft. Sia, Creating in The COVID-19 Era & More

I grew up listening to disco because of my dad—he loves Diana Ross and all the iconic female vocalists. And you were the first dance music I got into, back in college. Now, I definitely see the connection in your music to disco, especially as disco is the root of dance music.

100 percent. Let me take that one step further. When I really got into this initially, I grew up in suburban Chicago and most of those early house records were so—I mean, disco [had] just ended. In Chicago they're like, "No, we're still doing it. We're going to call it something different though, because people are burning disco records at Comiskey Park. Okay cool, we're doing this in a warehouse, let's call it house music." A lot of people argue how that happened, but I'm not here to be that guy. Those guys were so influenced by disco.

And when I came up, all of those first wave of producers, they were borrowing [disco] as inspiration, and sampling, all of that stuff. Now, we don't do that so much because it's illegal. But back then, there was a lot of stuff that wasn't figured out yet. There's so many of those early records that I look back to, I was a huge DJ Sneak fan growing up, and I am still. [Points to huge vinyl.] I've got probably 150 DJ Sneak records. He was cutting a lot of those old disco records up and making them sonically new.

When I first got into it, I was imitating that. When I moved to San Francisco is kind of when I had that mindset of, "Oh, I can write my own songs." By then, the power of the computer had got so great—first we had 10 seconds, then 12 seconds, then you could record lyrics inside your computer. That led to a creative boom in electronic music.

House OGs: Record Store Recs: Chicago House Hero Marshall Jefferson On Representation In Dance Music

What else did I want to talk about? Let's keep talking about disco.

Disco's good. You're lucky you grew up in a house with it. I got a little bit of disco. I got some Bee Gees, of course, but I got a lot of ABBA in my house, man. They're amazing. The first time I went to Stockholm, all I could think was like, "ABBA. Where did they live? Can I go to a bar where ABBA hung out?" My tour manager was like, "Just leave it already." And I'm like, "No, no, I'm not trying to be funny. I grew up listening to this stuff, it's a big deal for me."

I want to talk more about how you approached sound-tracking Rocket League. How was it different than when you're creating a song that will sound great at a festival or on the dancefloor?

Well, when I go into the studio—it's a pretty selfish thing—I write songs for me, mainly. I like writing, and creating, and sitting down and messing around with sounds. With the first remix I got hired to do ages ago, the A&R person was very particular like, "Hey, I really like this one song that you did, and I think it could fit stylistically with something like that because I want this to be played in nightclubs at one in the morning. How can you approach this?" I was like, "Oh, yeah. I can totally see that working."

It's that same mentality when I sat down to [work on Rocket League.] "What would I want to hear? What's going to work? How can I put my spin on this?" "Flip Reset," the song I did with WILL K, was the most obvious thing to me. It's something that's super energetic, fun, light, banging. So now, when you're in the lobby of the game and you're waiting to choose your car, it's banging and kind of hypes you up. "Closer" was more about just the vibe. It's the music in the background while you're playing, you want it vibey, cool, but still energetic. Honestly, I think that's why the gamers in general listen to so much dance music. I get messages all the time on Twitter and Instagram, usually people who ask me to post more sets because they've listened to them at least 20 times each and have them totally memorized. 

[For Rocket League,] I wanted it to range from banging, super energetic stuff, to vibey, and then some of my kind of classic, emotive stuff that will be memorable. The hope for me was, and it's cool it's working this way, is that people turn off the game and they're like, "Man, I love that one track. What was the name of it? Oh, 'Miles To Go,' let me put that on."Discovery now, it's happening through TikTok, these games and all these different platforms. The industry can barely keep up. It's cool to see the young upstarts and the real savvy people out there figuring out that they can connect to people in different ways and different platforms.

Watch Positive Vibes Only: Watch House Gospel Choir & Todd Terry Perform Joyous, Socially Distanced "Everything Is Love"

What's your relationship to video games? Obviously, I see the old-school arcade games behind you, but did you grow up playing them? Do you still play them?

I'm usually too busy, I don't get much gaming stuff in. But yes, I've got a PS4 and an Xbox at my house and every once in a while, I jump on there. But really, I still love the classics. I have some pinball machines in the other room. So, I love it all, I love gaming. But people are always like, "Dude, let me play you on Fortnite." I'm like, "You don't understand. I suck. I'm like 20 hours into that."

And speaking of Fortnite, your Fortnite concert happened on March 26. How did you prepare for that? And what do you see as a positive of being able to do a show in a virtual space?

That's a good question. I think the challenge for me [is doing shorter sets]. Even festivals are hard for me. You have 67 minutes of performance time. I came from the club world, and I'm used to playing two, three, four or five hours, and I feel really comfortable in that space.

What's cool about the whole virtual thing, especially when it's such a whole production like this, is that it can be quite planned. I'm totally winging it a lot of my concerts. That's one of the things that's cool about electronic music, because you can go one night and listen to me and feel, "My gosh! We were on the same wavelength." I mean, obviously, I strive for that every single night. But some nights go better than others. But the virtual space was cool because it was so thought out. It's like, "Here's your time allotment. This is what we need to deliver."

For the production of my shows, I'm very much a part of that process. And not that we get it right every time, we try to. For this, we're doing something much more rehearsed. We filmed the set, my goodness, over four days ... I'm going to say, conservatively, I did the set at least 30 times. And that is no exaggeration. I was so sore at the end of it because I was jumping around. On the second day, they were like, "Bro, are you all right on energy? You need a Red Bull or something?" I was so sore, because they kept being, "You got to bring the energy man, we're doing some close-up shots now." I can only spaz out so much. It's like I did two months' worth of touring in four days.

That's crazy. Did you work with a VR team? Or how did you collaborate on the visuals and all that stuff?

It's insane. Listen, we sent all my visuals in advance, and then I sent them a wish list of songs I wanted to play. We paired it down, got the visuals to sync up. And they started programming, a team of 50 people, when I showed up to film. This is massive undertaking. Honestly, I felt like I was preparing to go on the road for a year-and-a-half on a global tour. It was huge. And they had prepped for six or eight weeks before I showed up to perform.

The guys that  produced it and put it together are incredibly talented. It's wild. It was way beyond the scope of what I understood until I showed up there. During the streams that I've been doing during quarantine, I'm in my kitchen like, "Hey, I'm baking banana bread and playing some records. Tune in." That was the extent of my streaming. I did one at the Grand Canyon, that was awesome, and obviously, that took a small staff of people to execute that. But we were using the beauty of the surroundings to drop people's jaw.

This thing is very much a tech miracle. It feels like a festival. They had the camera on a boom, going over my shoulder, and then out into this virtual audience. Everything else [was] animated, except for me. It's like I [was] actually inside the game. 

Speaking of crazy things slightly beyond my imagination, you've Tweeted about working on putting out some NFTs [non-fungible tokens]. I'm curious what you see as the future for artists putting out NFTs and using that as a way to connect with their fans, and also as another revenue source.

I think it's exciting. [I'm always excited about] any kind of new platform or technology. Honestly, over the last 12 weeks, me and pretty much, I don't know, the rest of the art world, is reading, having discussions, watching YouTube videos, just trying to understand the space more.

For me, it's an opportunity for people to get my art in a different format, or see it in a different way, and potentially bring it to a new audience. I see it as a new opportunity to connect with my fans that have been around for so long, or even people that are just meeting me for the first time. I think on the music side, it's so new, we're kind of discovering the problems as we go along. I'm collaborating with a [visual] artist—and I'm not going to give any more than that away in this interview—because, to me, to be really effective, there needs to be a visual element to the music.

As far as the revenue, I mean, I am super fortunate to be in a position where, I'm in this part of my career, and I didn't spend all of my money. Although the pandemic sucked for many reasons, and I'm sure we all have our list of reasons why it sucked, for me, the short list of reasons why it was kind of cool is I got to slow down. I'm not looking to NFTs as part of some new gold rush. I think a lot of people are just head-over-heels like, "Oh, my gosh, money! I've got to get some of this money." 

It is kind of crazy how, a few weeks ago, all of a sudden the news was Kings of Leon has an NFT album and Grimes is doing an NFT, and then everybody's jumping on board.

I'm buddies with deadmau5, I follow him on his platforms, and chat from time to time, and he's up to his chin in this stuff. He put something [about NFTs] up, I think it was November of last year, and that was really when I was like, "Oh, wow!" Joel [Zimmerman, a.k.a deadmau5] is really ahead of the curve, and I really like what he does in the tech space. That's when I started getting into it. And I was already starting my run into this space, when boom, it happened.

It will be interesting to see how it evolves. I've been curious to see how blockchain can serve people and gets outside of its sort of techie, privileged bubble. NFTs are definitely a cool opportunity. And you know, people love merch, and I sort of see it as a new age of that even.

Yeah, for sure. I think it's going to get there. Right now, NFTs seem super high-end—and that's one of the things I'm trying to achieve with my drop, is make sure I have a number of items that are actually entry level. People that might be curious of NFT, and have a little bit of Bitcoin, or want to dip their toe into it, that there'll be something accessible for them.

I'm thinking more like, what's this next wave? Looking at it like merch, or something. Somebody can own my piece of art that's authenticated. I have fans I've met that are like, "I've been to 100 shows," so for somebody like that. And in my merch store, occasionally I would do prints from the photographer that's followed me around for a long time, Mark Owens, and offer something like that. It's interesting to stretch out that space. And I see this as a similar way, just in a digital medium.

That’s the spirit...until then we will have to start training for this - can you imagine how epic it’s going to feel to finally get these shows?!? https://t.co/6FgEtfPY7s

— Kaskade (@kaskade) March 10, 2021

You recently scheduled your Redux shows to 2022, which is crazy. What are you most looking forward to, about returning to shows IRL?

Oh man. Human connection. I miss it. It's been a challenge to make music in this black hole. I've been very spoiled in my career, even at the very beginning.  I'd make something and then I could go test it out at the club that night or the next night. To have that instant feedback is very inspiring creatively. It helped shape a lot of my early records.

Independent artists, and people in my space, we're not testing our music out out by pitching it to radio. I'm not writing radio records. Our space is in the nightclubs and at the festivals. And to just take that completely out of the equation, it's like, "Hold up. Does this even work anymore?" Fortunately, I get messages from fans like, "Oh, my gosh! I love this mix." And there's still some of that there, but nothing beats the real deal, in person, at a show.

Going back to the beginning, back in 2003, when you put out It's You It's Me, did you have any idea that you'd be where you are now?

[I had] Absolutely no inclination at all, no plan. I never had a clue. I was completely naïve, kind of dumb, young. If I would have tried to have planned any of this, I'm sure I would have screwed it up. There's no method to the madness.

I speak to youth groups from time to time, and they're always like, "Well, how'd you blow up?" And I'm like, "I have no idea. I can sit here and give you my two cents, but it's pointless because whatever I did is going to be completely different for you, if you're trying to go into this space." What I always tell them is I had zero expectations. I mean really, for me, it was like, if I could pay my rent in San Francisco, or even come really close and I'm buying Top Ramen, honestly, the world is my oyster. I am living.

To this day, I am still so grateful for everything that transpired. And not to say that I didn't work for it, I toured endlessly for the last 20 years, and just about killed myself out there on the road. Because I believed in the music and believed that somebody might be out there that likes it. I was always making an effort to connect with and build an audience. My endgame was just to be able to live, pay my rent, and take care of my family. 

And here you are now.

Now I'm sitting in this freaking ridiculous studio in Santa Monica, California. I went surfing this morning, and I have a pretty incredible life, all off of doing what I love. Honestly, as crappy as COVID-19 is, I'm not a guy that should be complaining. I don't have a complaint in the world. If you hear me complaining one day, just come up and whack me across the head or something.

Selena Gomez Talks Embracing Her Mexican Heritage on ‘Revelación,’ Greatest Hits & Using Her Social Media Platform for Good

Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa

Photo: Hugo Comte

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Dua Lipa Talks 'Club Future Nostalgia' dua-lipa-club-future-nostalgia-interview-madonna-blackpink-gwen-stefani

Dua Lipa Talks 'Club Future Nostalgia,' Working With Madonna And How She's Navigating The Music Industry In The COVID-19 Era

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The GRAMMY-winning pop superstar tells GRAMMY.com about the creative process behind her newly released remix album, the project's high-profile collaborations and the challenges of releasing music during the coronavirus age
Lucas Villa
GRAMMYs
Aug 29, 2020 - 5:33 pm

Club Future Nostalgia is open for business. As clubs and bar spaces around the world remained closed during the COVID-19 era, British pop superstar Dua Lipa has created a virtual club experience with Club Future Nostalgia, her newly released remix album she developed and curated alongside Chicago DJ/producer The Blessed Madonna while in quarantine.

Released Friday (Aug. 28), Club Future Nostalgia remixes all the tracks off her latest album, Future Nostalgia, which Lipa dropped in late March just as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread widely around the world. The remix album, which features contributions from fellow Brits like Mark Ronson, Joe Goddard, Paul Woolford and Jacques Lu Cont as well as American and international electronic DJs/producers like Jayda G, Masters At Work, Yaeji and others, reimagines Future Nostalgia into a nearly hour-long set that spans '80s soul and '90s house music to today's Lipa-led disco-pop revival. 

Other artists featured on the album include the Queen Of Pop, Madonna, and hip-hop icon Missy Elliott, who both guest on The Blessed Madonna's funky "Levitating" remix, as well as Gwen Stefani and K-pop princesses BLACKPINK.

The album's unique creative setting was central to the creation of Club Future Nostalgia, Lipa says. 

"It was the perfect opportunity to create something like this," Lipa tells GRAMMY.com by phone. "I had what felt like all the time in the world, and everyone's at home. It doesn't really happen so often that you get the opportunity to collaborate with all these incredible producers and artists. I think it was of-the-moment that I was able to snap everyone up, especially The Blessed Madonna, who would've been on tour by [that] time. This album really came to be because of the current climate."

Five years ago this month, Lipa launched her career with the release of her debut single, "New Love." It would take more singles to build some buzz and nearly two years for her 2017 self-titled debut album to see the light of day. After a slow-burn success, she wowed the world with her 2017 breakthrough hit, "New Rules." Never limiting her musical horizons, she next delved into dance music via collaborations with Calvin Harris ("One Kiss") and Silk City ("Electricity"), Mark Ronson and Diplo's supergroup duo. The latter garnered her a GRAMMY win for Best Dance Recording in 2019. That same night, she also took home the coveted Best New Artist GRAMMY.

With the breakout success of Future Nostalgia further solidifying Lipa's name in the music industry, she's reached a point in her career where she can do as she pleases. She now has a Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart-topper under her belt with "Un Día (One Day)," a collaboration with J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Tainy. The sky's the limit for Lipa, but what she wants most is for her fans to find joy in Club Future Nostalgia. 

Dua Lipa chatted with GRAMMY.com about the creative process behind Club Future Nostalgia, the album's high-profile remixes and collaborations and the challenges of releasing music in the age of COVID-19.

How did you manage to get Madonna on the "Levitating" remix?

It was very much a manifestation thing. I was thinking out loud. I was just talking with my manager and I was like, "You know who would sound really good on this? Madonna." And he said, "You know, we could try. We could send it to her and see if she likes it." She responded and she was so down. I was over the moon. I couldn't believe that she wanted to do this record with me. I'm such a fan. It was really exciting.

How did Gwen Stefani get involved with the "Physical" remix?

Oh my God! She is my queen. She's just amazing. When I got to interview her for "Jimmy Kimmel [Live!]," she was such a ball of light and energy. It was one of those things that just happened by chance. We had the "Hollaback Girl" sample on the remix album and we were contacting her and her team to get it cleared. I was like, "While we're at it, we should just ask her if she wants to be on the record." She was so down. She loved the "Physical" remix that Mark Ronson did. She was totally up for jumping on it. When I was waiting for her vocal to come in, I was jumping around like a 5-year-old. I was so excited.

"Physical" sounds like it was made for Gwen. She sounds great on it.

Yeah, she snapped! [Laughs.]

What was the experience like to work with BLACKPINK on "Kiss And Make Up"?

On the original version, it was really cool and fun. I had written "Kiss And Make Up" probably a year and a bit before it came out. It didn't quite fit with my album at the time, and I wanted to put it out, but I wanted it to be really special. 

I did a show in Seoul. [BLACKPINK's] Jennie and Lisa came to the show to hang out. We had an absolute blast. Immediately after hanging out with them, I was like, "I have a crazy idea. I have this song and I would love for you guys to be on it." They were so up for it and they went in the studio and translated the lyrics. It worked out so perfectly. It's one of my favorite collaborations that I've done.

The album comes with an extensive animated visualizer. Where did the idea for that come from?

Being in quarantine and lockdown, I had to think outside the box. While I was preparing the "Hallucinate" video, which I ended up doing an animation for with the animator Lisha Tan, who is amazing; it was so exciting to do that with her. I thought, "What a perfect time to try to get as many incredible and fun animators to bring their own world with every song." That's what we did with the remix album, where every producer and DJ threw their flavor and take on it. I thought it was the perfect pairing to create an animated visual video. 

Again, during this time, when would I ever be able to have the opportunity to work with so many incredible animators and artists? It's been an amazing thing to see so many people come together to create this record. A lot of time, effort and love has been put into it. It's been a fun way to reimagine the album.

There's a disco-pop revival happening in music right now. Future Nostalgia is one of the albums leading the way. Why did you decide to take that direction?

Thank you. That's such a compliment for me, especially from my first album moving into my next. I wanted to do something that felt fresh and new, something that touched on a memory, something that always rings so true to me, especially in my childhood. To be able to recreate that in a modern way was an absolute dream for me. I'm so happy that I stood by and honed in on that sound that I love. It makes me feel so good. I'm really proud of this record because I feel like I found my [footing] as an artist and as a songwriter. I really wrote things that I absolutely love. It's definitely a milestone for me in my career.

Future Nostalgia was also one of the first major albums to be released at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. What was that experience like?

At times, especially a couple days before, it was scary. It was a time of uncertainty that I was like, "I don't even know if people need my music right now." I was scared that maybe it won't get received well or that it would come across as tone-deaf because there was so much suffering. 

In the preparation to put it out, I remembered that I created this record to get away from any pressures or anxieties from the outside world. The album made me feel happy and want to dance. That persuaded me, like maybe this would at least get people's minds off what's going on and make them want to dance and feel happy. 

I'm grateful for the way people responded and the messages and videos I was sent. All the love that was pouring in—I was so happy. It still makes me so excited when people are like, "Thank you, because it was like the soundtrack to all our workouts and motivated us to stay fit during this quarantine." [Laughs.]

What was the experience like to work with J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Tainy on "Un Día (One Day)"?

It was really fun. They have such great energies, such lovely boys. What I love to do with the collaborations I do is always something that people don't expect me to do, something that's a little bit outside of my comfort zone. I love to experiment. I love to surprise people and learn so much from my peers. It was such a great experience. I love the song. 

I feel like it's another one that when I listen to it, it immediately transports me somewhere really sunny and warm. I feel like I'm by the beach when I listen to it. It was exciting for me to write to a track that I wouldn't naturally do for my own project. I think that's the magic of music and collaborations at this time. Everything is so genre-bending.

It's been five years since you released your debut single, "New Love." What have you learned about yourself in that time?

I think from five years ago, I really did stick to everything I believed in the beginning. And that was sticking to my vision, talking about my stories and being open and standing by things that I believe in and never backing down and believing in my art. That's something that I told myself five years ago that I stuck by. I always want to grow and learn so much. I really stuck to those words so much, so I feel like it helped me and guided me so much during this process.

You won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist in 2019. How did you feel when that happened?

Oh my God! I literally think I blacked out in that moment because I had to go back and listen to my speech afterwards. I was so nervous that all I did was "umm" and "ahh" because I just couldn't believe it. Like my whole world just exploded right in front of my eyes. It was the most insane thing to have ever happened. To be recognized by my peers and to have the opportunity to be up there was absolutely incredible and surreal. It definitely pushed me to be better and do better and work harder and really stick by what I believe in. I'm really grateful. I wanted to prove that I deserved it. 

You have always used your platform to support the LGBTQ+ community. Do you have a message for your LGBTQ+ fans?

Absolutely. I always believed that everyone deserves to live their truth. Tomorrow isn't promised, so we have to be as loud as we can and be proud. There's so much love and support, and I'm right here for you. I'm here every step of the way, and I love you. Thank you for everything that the LGBTQ+ community has done for me. I couldn't have done it without them.

Dua Lipa Reflects On Her Journey To Pop Stardom: "Absolutely Mental"

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San Holo Gets Personal On 'BB U Ok?' san-holo-personal-new-album-bb-u-ok-interview

San Holo Gets Personal With New Indie Rock EDM Album 'BB U Ok?'

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Genre-fusing San Holo artist shares the inspirations behind his emotional new album, 'bb u ok?,' and why electronic and rock can co-exist
Megan Venzin
GRAMMYs
Jun 9, 2021 - 12:18 pm

San Holo doesn’t call himself a DJ. Ask him for a more relevant term and his answer is simple: "I'm a musician."

It’s hardly left field to say that San Holo’s emotional productions feel right at home on a hip, college radio station. Instrumentals have always been a part of the Dutch artist born Sander Van Djick’s style, and his powder-pink electric guitar a present force at every live performance. Those hallmarks are likely to remain, even as his act evolves.

His signature approach shines again in his new 20-track LP bb u ok?, which arrived on June 4 via Counter Records. The extensive collection is an exploration of the analog sounds, soft vocals and surprising alt-rock cameos that have always set San Holo apart in a genre saturated by festival bangers and heavy bass. It comes as a follow up to his romantic and uplifting 2018 debut LP, Album1, and while many of those familiar, mellifluous chords persist in bb u ok?, there’s a palpable maturity to the new set of cuts, and a definitive rock edge—both fruits of gained perspective, perhaps.

"It’s like an indie album with EDM energy," he shares excitedly about the new album. "I feel like a lot of songs—even though they are sensitive—still have that level of energy and there's still a drop in there, you know?"

Between the opening strums of "i am thinking of you" and the final mirrored piano plunks of "one more day," he weaves a wistful, musical narrative that pays homage to his time in L.A. where he wrote the majority of the album in just two months. In his interview with GRAMMY.com, he speaks about the inspiration behind the highly personal album, the growing popularity of rock-driven electronic music, and what it was like to create art alongside a few of his greatest influences.

You’ve mentioned that Album1 was written during a period of your life when you were in love. How has your current phase of life influenced bb u ok?

It is definitely about the aftermath, or what happens after love and not per se in a very sad or depressing way. It's more about how you move on, and it's also about acceptance. I was in a relationship and it didn't work out. And it hurt like hell. But it's not like I'm saying, "Oh, I wish we could go back." I'm just saying, "This is life, and let's move on."

And I'm grateful for even getting to experience all these emotions. Also heartbreak, I know it sounds weird, but it's also a very important emotion to feel in your life. Life is a huge influence on my music. That's why it's so personal to me, I write everything myself or with people that I love. And when people like my music, it feels so good because, in a way, I feel like they understand me.

Read: Ian Sweet On Anxiety, Depression And Recovery: "I’m Learning To Not Sacrifice My Own Health And Well-Being For Others"

What does it take to build a highly personal album?

For me, it's really important that the album kind of feels like an ongoing story. In the first track, you hear a melody, and that melody comes back in the last track. So, it's kind of like a chapter. The first track opens a chapter and the last track closes a chapter, or maybe the book. When I write albums, it’s all about my world. You know the things I feel inside of my world and in my head, based on conversations and experiences with people. And I always try to translate those feelings and emotions that are oftentimes, really hard to put into words.

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"the great clown Pagliacci" is one track that stands out specifically. Why did you choose to include that sample?

So, "the great clown Pagliacci" is featured in a part of the album that revolves around loneliness. It’s something I've been feeling a lot—you know, when you're on the stage, and the lights go on, you kind of feel alone again. Even though you're in front of thousands of people, when they're all gone, It feels so lonely back in the dressing room.

I heard the sample on a record from Mr. Hudson, who I love, and I pitched it down and made it my own. I put some guitars on it and I changed it up, but it just felt like when I first heard that doctor say, "I am the great clown Pagliacci." It just really hit me, because I relate to it, because people always think you are the clown, the performer, the artist, just a happy face on stage. But rarely do people get to see all the struggles.

bb u ok? features your own vocals. Was it intimidating to create something so authentically "you?"

It's always a little bit scary, and there are some takes on there that are not perfect at all. You can hear the noise from the laptop or the air conditioning in the background. But something about that made everything feel so much more personal. Because, I can see the Airbnb I recorded at. I can see the garden and the rooms in my head. And it’s just personal, and that's the only way I want to do it.

Instrumentals are a unique element of your sound. Which analog instruments were new to bb u ok?

I think the biggest analog instrument featured on this album that wasn't really featured as much on Album1 is the acoustic guitar, because there's a lot of songs that feature acoustic guitars, chords or melodies played on acoustic and then combined with a heavier electronic beat. That's definitely something new to this album—almost like acoustic dance music instead of EDM.

Have you always known that "rock" would be part of your on-stage aesthetic?

I remember when I started playing guitar in my songs and during my live shows, and even during my DJ sets, I would just pull up the guitar and play some parts. I remember people didn't really like it at first—I think 50 percent didn't really get it. It was after a remix I made got popular, and I went from playing guitar every day to DJing, that I brought the guitar back into my work. I really believed in it, so it worked for me. It’s become my thing. Guitars have a place in electronic dance music—I'm not talking about the aggressive solo [electric] guitars but the sparkly, kind of small indie guitar parts can also fit in.

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There seems to be a higher adoption of that trend now. Why do you think that is?

I think it's just a natural progression of artists who make electronic music wanting to add more organic sounds. There's a whole new scene coming up that is incorporating guitars and their vocals into their electronic productions. Maybe it’s because back when I was like 15, I asked my mom, “Mom, can I get a guitar? Can I have guitar lessons?” And nowadays these kids probably say, “Hey Mom, I want to be a producer.” So, [the computer] is their first instrument.

You’re obviously a fan of indie music. What was it like working with a genre pioneer like Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo on “wheels up”?

He randomly hit me up on Twitter one day. He was like, “Hey I just heard one of your songs, and I love it.” I was like, “Is this really happening? Rivers Cuomo?!” I was double-checking if it was really his account. He asked me to send him some stuff—the amount of times artists have told me to send them stuff, and then I send them something and nothing happens.

But I made a track in the studio anyway, sent it to him, and I think, literally a week later, he sent back his vocals, and I was like, "Whoa, this is so good!" And then we went back and forth about some words and some more nuanced stuff. And then he recorded the vocals and I had a great take. For me, it's really funny because I used to be a guitar teacher after I graduated from the conservatory. I used to teach kids "Say It Ain’t So." Now to work with him—it’s so surreal, it's full circle!

Mija is another cool collaborator on the album. Is she someone you’ve always wanted to work with?

I haven't worked with her before but she was always someone that I thought also doesn't necessarily belong in the DJ world. She was a DJ for a while but now she's just doing whatever she wants, and I always felt like I related to her because I felt the same. I just appreciate Mija for doing her own thing.

So is it safe to say you feature a lot of artists who make music you prefer to listen to?

I'm really excited about the collaboration with American Football. They are a band that rarely collabs with anyone and, yeah, they definitely influence my work a lot. I think I am the first electronic artist to ever collaborate with them.

What do you want people who are struggling with a heartbreak to take away from listening to this album?

If you listen to the song and it touches you, then I've already done my job. I just want people to relate to it, whether it makes them sad or happy. For me, that's the beautiful thing about music—it’s different for everyone. I wrote the songs from my perspective and my emotions, and if my emotions can help someone feel something else, that's beautiful.

There's a song on the album called, “i get lonely around people, too.” I guess we all feel lonely around people sometimes, right? It's not like being around people makes you less lonely. It's a feeling that comes from within. The entire song has me repeating that phrase, “Don't you worry, it's not you, I get lonely around people too.” It's about relating to each other and even though we all have our own lives, and we get lonely in our heads sometimes, it's important to understand that we all have our own problems and our own struggles.

Given the content and themes, does now feel like a perfect time to share bb u ok? with listeners?

Even though the album was written before the pandemic, I think a lot of topics make sense for the current state of the world. The last song is called “one more day,” and there's a line that goes: “If we only had one more day, what’s the last thing you would say?” It's something so relevant for me throughout this pandemic because of all these existential thoughts [I’ve had] about life, how fleeting the moment is and how short life is. It still makes so much sense to release it right now.

Porter Robinson Finds Peace With Passionate New Album, ‘Nurture’

Porter Robinson poses in all-black, in front of a vine-covered fence

Porter Robinson

Photo: Aidan Cullen

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Porter Robinson On Passionate New Album, ‘Nurture’ porter-robinson-interview-passionate-new-album-nurture

Porter Robinson Finds Peace With Passionate New Album, ‘Nurture’

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The GRAMMY-nominated dance artist Porter Robinson talks about the importance of embracing reality, what it takes to build a live show and why his new album, 'Nurture,' has him feeling grateful
Megan Venzin
GRAMMYs
Jun 7, 2021 - 12:30 pm

Porter Robinson is finally giving himself permission to be human, though this road to acceptance was not without bouts of darkness.

It’s been nearly a decade since the GRAMMY-nominated DJ/producer’s 2011 debut project, the Spitfire EP, helped ignite North America’s explosive fascination with EDM—its instantly recognizable synth stabs and pulsing electro beats brought him to EDC that year, when he was just 18 years old. Then in 2014, his first album, Worlds, left its transformative mark on the genre, igniting a trend among electronic tastemakers to experiment with new sounds, many shifting focus away from festival bangers to create bodies of work packed with bona fide passion.

The years surrounding these divergent releases were defined by tireless tour schedules and the constant question: “What’s next for the wunderkind from Chapel Hill, North Carolina?” When one spends every waking moment poring over work, burnout is the only reasonable outcome. For Robinson, that realization came after years of battling depression and his own crippling fear that he’d never produce worthwhile art again. (Though fans of his trance-leaning alias Virtual Self or his powerhouse Shelter (LIVE) Tour in which he shared the stage with Madeon surely have rebuttals.)

“Self-compassion and being kind to myself, those are all things that don't come naturally to me,” Robinson shares candidly. “But when I'm able to get there, it's so good.”

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His newest LP is a testament to that fact. An exploration of his deeply personal journey in regaining his confidence, Nurture is a welcome collection of sunny productions, mellifluous piano chords and nature-laced soundscapes which offer ears exactly what its namesake promises. A foil to the dreamy, far-away sounds of Worlds, Nurture is (as Porter calls it) “intimate” and “up-close,” its instrumental elements and crackling lo-fi aesthetic a clear departure from past styles, yet distinctly Porter at the same time.

Fans recently had the chance to experience Nurture (LIVE) during Secret Sky, an online music festival created during the pandemic as a virtual alternative to his in-person gathering Second Sky, which will return to Berkeley, California for it’s second installment on September 17 and 18. Robinson sat down with the Recording Academy to discuss the album’s three-year metamorphosis, how he creates his multifaceted live performances, and what he hopes fans will take away from this musical lesson in perseverance and finding peace.

Was there a definitive moment where you shifted from feeling unable to create music to recognizing that you had something solid in the works?

For a project of this scale, those breakthroughs tend to happen over time, and little by little. One of the first moments where I could say things started to seem like they were getting better was in, I think, 2017. I had really not left my studio for some time, and my manager and my girlfriend were both like, “It's time to leave.” To my mind at that time it made no sense at all. I thought, “How am I going to do the only thing that I'm trying to do—make music again—if I'm not in my studio?” It felt like anything besides working was a waste of time. And that was one of the truly pathological beliefs I had to work through.

I ended up going to Japan with my girlfriend for a few months, and I had a studio rented just in case I wanted to try to make music. That was where I had one of my first breakthroughs and it wasn't visible to me at the time but what was happening was that I was basically running on empty in terms of inspiration and staring at a blank canvas and expecting something to spring out. It was a really kind of egocentric way of thinking about creativity, because I think for me, creativity is actually more like I find something new that I love, or something new that I haven't tried before, and it gets filtered through my senses and experiences and habits and it comes out the other side as something novel.

I started forcing myself to do new things and forcing myself to spend time not working. When I was there, that was when I wrote the chorus of “Look at the Sky,” which ended up being the lead single.

The lyrics to “Look at the Sky” and “Musician” obviously speak very much to this transformation, from the burnout to the breakthrough. Did the words or the beats come first?

Every song begins with the instrumental for me. That's how I've always worked, and I think maybe it has to do with coming from an electronic music background. I've actually thought about it—maybe I should try just writing a song first and then producing it second?

The only song on the album that I can say was written in that way would maybe be the song “Blossom,” because it's really stripped down. It's a ballad and it's a love song. It's just me and a piano over which I'm playing an acoustic guitar sound.

I can't move on until I have something in the instrumental that makes me want to bathe in the music, like live there. I'm looking for a sound that just feels like it fills the hole in my heart. And with “Musician” I definitely had that.

Whenever I have that breakthrough, I always do this thing where I walk back and forth in my studio and just listen to it super loud over and over and over and I'm like, “Wow, this is it, this is the best feeling ever.” I remember writing the beat instruments in the beginning and just being so excited and [thinking] I have to do this song right and ended up taking a year from that point to actually finish the song.

More Ambiance: 5 New Age/Ambient Albums To Soundtrack Your Zen

“Wind Tempos,” on the other hand, has no words. What inspired you to include ambient productions on Nurture?

I've mentioned before how one of the first inspirations for Nurture was this artist Takagi Masakatsu who made the soundtrack for this movie called Wolf Children which hit me at a really pivotal point in my life.

I'm always trying to make music that feels beautiful. For whatever reason, that's what calls to me. And the things that I found really beautiful in the past were these really big, epic, wide sounds that felt far away, and sort of dreamlike and imaginary. And when I heard the soundtrack for Wolf Children—everything feels so close. It’s almost like ASMR piano music.

I remember feeling so inspired writing “Wind Tempos” and thinking, you know, there's no chorus, there's no drop, are people gonna think this is an interlude? But I feel so grateful that a good chunk of my audience [are] treating it as the main course.

What steps were involved in creating the Nurture (LIVE) audio-visual experience?

In the case of Nurture (LIVE), it began with commissioning visuals. I needed a whole lot of video content to put on the screens, you know? And so, I'll typically put together some references and boards and inspiration and some descriptions and we'll put out these feelers to various visual artists. I’ll pay them and commission little 15-second clips of video content, and then I'll do that throughout the year.

As soon as I turned in the album, I started thinking about how I wanted to arrange a live show. The initial plan was to leave the music really untouched and before I knew it I had re-edited all the songs and made little adjustments. I'll produce the live versions of the songs. The next step from there is making it so that I can perform them live, so pulling out certain pieces so I can play them on the piano or on Ableton Push or on the keyboard, and pulling out vocals so that I can sing and recreate all my vocal effects that I use, because I prominently, on this album, use this [effect] where I pitch the vocals up, and making sure I was able to do that live.

The instruments that we have on stage are curated based on what's really needed for the set, and I knew there was going to be a lot of piano for this one so I wanted to have a big piano set piece that would be like a central part of the stage. And then the next step after that is, is taking all the visuals that we've commissioned and editing them to the music that I created for these live versions. And then I just rehearse and rehearse, and we troubleshoot.

So it takes a village to bring this performance to life?

It’s a big collaboration with a bunch of really talented artists. Some of the people who are working on this live show with me, like for example Ben Coker my Lighting Director, or Ryan Sciaino a.k.a. Ghost Dad, who's my VJ, I've been working with them for like 10 years, since my first EP, Spitfire.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8kKNgVBHXk

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You’ve come to the realization that constant work can stifle creativity. So, what activities will you always make room for in your life?

It is easy for me to lapse into being a bit of a workaholic and putting pressure on myself. Things that I think I have to make room for are being a present partner and doing things with Rika. That's of really high value to me and I always make room for the two of us to spend time together and that's just so important to me, and having time with family.

And forcing myself to experience media! This is so random, but ever since I was a teenager I’ve had a weird anxiety around the idea of watching movies. When someone asks, “Do you want to watch this movie?” I get this gut wrenching anxiety [because I feel like] I don't have an hour and a half to do this, like, I need to be working. So I'm trying to force myself to watch stuff, and listen to new albums and go to places I haven't been before, whenever that is safe.

A big thing for me I think is actively pursuing new things to love. I think it's a big part of being an artist that can fall by the wayside. I've always been a scientifically-minded type, but once I started actually coming to understand mindfulness and meditation—it's genuinely life changing stuff! And so I have to add, that is something I always try to make space for too.

Read: Justin Michael Williams Talks "I Am Enough," Teaching Kids Meditation & Pivoting Towards His Truth

“All we need is already here” is the motto of the album. It’s also been something we’ve had to remind ourselves of during the pandemic. What do you want people to do with this message now?

I think gratitude is a huge thing that I feel coming out of the pandemic and that I want people to feel when they listen to Nurture. And what I mean by that is [having] an appreciation for the extreme beauty and magic that there is all around us, in reality. I was so preoccupied with the idea of escapism and of going to this imaginary world that I think I sort of lost sight of how magical and mystifying our [real] world is.

Food is a place of comfort for many, so, of all the bites you munched on in the studio, what would you say was the “official snack food” of Nurture?

I'm gonna pare it down to three things. It would be these Quest Protein Chips, seaweed snacks, and then Oreos. Oreos are for the moment of weakness, and the other two are for the moments of strength.

Dawn Richard On Alchemizing Grief Into Joy, Advocating For Black Creators & Her NOLA-Honoring New Album 'Second Line'

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