Music news. Beyond the headlines.
Writer
Julian Park can get distracted by a drum sound for an unreasonable amount of time. A strange synthesizer patch or a clever bit of sampling can send him down a rabbit hole that lasts most of an afternoon.
His tastes lean heavily toward house, techno, synth-pop, ambient, and experimental electronic music. He's fascinated by the relationship between technology and creativity, particularly the ways producers find new uses for equipment that wasn't necessarily designed to do what they're asking of it.
He's also surprisingly fond of restraint. A sparse arrangement with three perfectly chosen sounds interests him more than a production packed with layers that have nowhere to go. Julian enjoys pulling recordings apart in his head, figuring out what makes them tick, and occasionally realizing that the simplest explanation was the right one all along.
Miley is releasing her 10th studio album, Bass Persuades, on September 18, but she is already thinking about what happens when the record reaches the stage. In a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the singer described her two upcoming Hollywood Bowl concerts as an “ultimate dress rehearsal” for…
Soccer Mommy has returned with “Rings of Saturn,” Sophie Allison’s first original song since 2024’s Evergreen, pairing fuzzy guitars and a searching vocal with an idea that began while she was looking through a telescope in her backyard. Released September 17, the single was produced by Elliott Kozel, whose credits…
A chorus can be perfectly catchy and still not be strong enough to carry a song. That sounds contradictory until the third repetition arrives. The first time, the melody feels fresh. The second time, familiarity starts doing some of the work. By the final return, however, there is nowhere for…
A song is finished when its remaining problems are no longer songwriting problems. That sounds simple until a writer has listened to the same chorus 80 times, changed one line six different ways, moved the bridge, moved it back, recorded a new demo, and started wondering whether the second verse…
Change the tempo of a song by a surprisingly small amount and the song itself can seem to change. A vocal that felt relaxed can suddenly sound impatient. A drum groove can become heavier or lose its pocket. A lyric that had room to land may start rushing past. Slow…
Lit has reached a settlement in principle with Sony Music Entertainment in a lawsuit built around an unusually modern question buried inside a recording contract signed in 1998: should streams be paid like record sales or licenses of the band’s master recordings? The rock band behind “My Own Worst Enemy”…
Firebird Music has launched a $750 million platform for music catalog acquisitions, giving the artist-management and independent-label company a major new pool of purchasing power for recorded-music and publishing rights. Announced June 30th, the platform is backed by Ares and The Raine Group, one of Firebird’s earliest investors. Ares funds…