She’s an icon, she’s a legend, she is Kylie Minogue, and she checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about her new album, Tension II, her upcoming TENSION Tour, and more.

From putting together her setlist to touring North America again, while gaining new fans, and reflecting on the days of cassettes and CDs -- Kylie covers it all.

Starting off expressing her excitement to be touring in North America after “too, too, too long,” Kylie admitted that putting together the setlist for, as Mike put it, “a show of this magnitude,” currently “lives rent free” in her head.

“Obviously it’s the TENSION Tour, so we're going to have songs from 'Tension' and 'Tension II,' even 'Disco,' my previous album I didn't get to tour,” Kylie noted. "But," she added with a smile, “we’re going to serve you ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head,’ and ‘All The Lovers,’ and even take you back to ‘Locomotion.’”

Pointing out how Kylie’s influence spans generations, Mike mentioned how “it's gotta be mind-blowing,” to have songs on the setlist like ‘Locomotion’ that have “the eighties babies dancing,” but also have a song like ‘Padam Padam’ that has their kids’ heart rates rising, Mike asks Kylie if she expects her shows to be a family affair.

“I'm so glad that you've recognized that,” Kylie responded, adding, how “because that’s been… such a buzz. That the OGs fans that have been around… they’re having a blast. And then the newer fans, new people who come to the Kylie party… I know they've been introduced, a lot of them with ‘Padam Padam’ or 'Tension,' whatever -- but they lose their minds over ‘Locomotion,’ which is just brilliant. So it means I can encompass the scope of my career, which is over five decades.”

When asked if there is a key to longevity in this crazy business, Kylie expressed, “There's a few things that definitely count,” listing them off, “persistence, tenacity, passion, luck.”

Noting he’s nostalgic about the long-ago days of cassettes and CDs, “when you would find the secret song at the end when you would just let the final track play.” Mike asked Kylie if there was anything she missed about the industry, from when she was first getting into it.

“Just the thrill of, you had to make the effort, go to the shop… that was like your kind of own private Idaho is to have put that record on, "Or, have to argue with your brother and sister, like, ‘what are we playing?’, Kylie answered. Also noting that “until I got a Walkman… You didn't have music on the move. So, I guess I can be nostalgic about all of that, but cut to now and it's great to go, ‘What do I want to listen to? What's new?' So much has changed.”

Talking about the changes she’s seen for women in the industry since her start, Kylie expressed, “It’s very encouraging that I'm proof, I'm sat here,” but also acknowledged, “Now we bring up the age topic, but I think it's at least with a positive spin on it.” She goes on to reveal, “It wasn't that many years ago that I felt I was in quite awkward positions where people would question me to my face in an interview,” and basically ask her “When are you too old to be a woman in this business?” And to that, Kylie said, “firstly — rude, but secondly — I don't know.”

She continued, “I guess I've always had women in the industry that I've looked up to, I didn't really think about their age at the time. I'm 8, 9, 10, obsessing over Olivia Newton-John and Donna Summer, And then as an older teenager, you know, Whitney [Houston], Madonna, Cindy [Lauper], all of them, I guess there wasn't such an age gap between my teenage years and their years. But I don't know what happened where it was suddenly deemed distasteful or, I don't know. But thankfully it is becoming, certainly for the younger generation… they’ve just got new minds, and open minds,” when it comes to “ageism, and particularly in music.”

Fun fact — Kylie also revealed which chart-topping song was almost hers, but ended up going to another artist. Sharing, “Yeah, there’s a little song called ‘Toxic’ that was headed my way, and I was like ‘Toxic’? I don't know if I want a song called ‘Toxic’… As it's turned out, it was meant to be a Britney Spears song, I can't imagine it being anything else."

Before concluding their conversation, Mike asked Kylie, if she were to put together her own charity -- “We Are The World”-type track -- today, which artists she would enlist. “It might be a girl group because I'm giving the girls a lot of spins,” Kylie revealed. “I mean, I do really have a penchant for Indie bands, I definitely love some Yacht Rock just on in the background, but I wouldn't mind being with Chappell [Roan], Sabrina [Carpenter], Lana [Del Rey], Miley [Cyrus]… and Madonna.” Adding, that if she could broaden the number of members, she’d also add, Rihanna, and Beyoncé.

To catch it all, check out Kylie’s entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

She’s an icon, she’s a legend, she is Kylie Minogue, and she checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about her new album, Tension II, her upcoming TENSION Tour, and more.
From putting together her setlist to touring North America again, while gaining new fans, and reflecting on the days of cassettes and CDs -- Kylie covers it all.
Starting off expressing her excitement to be touring in North America after “too, too, too long,” Kylie admitted that putting together the setlist for, as Mike put it, “a show of this magnitude,” currently “lives rent free” in her head.
“Obviously it’s the TENSION Tour, so we're going to have songs from 'Tension' and 'Tension II,' even 'Disco,' my previous album I didn't get to tour,” Kylie noted. "But," she added with a smile, “we’re going to serve you ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head,’ and ‘All The Lovers,’ and even take you back to ‘Locomotion.’”
Pointing out how Kylie’s influence spans generations, Mike mentioned how “it's gotta be mind-blowing,” to have songs on the setlist like ‘Locomotion’ that have “the eighties babies dancing,” but also have a song like ‘Padam Padam’ that has their kids’ heart rates rising, Mike asks Kylie if she expects her shows to be a family affair.
“I'm so glad that you've recognized that,” Kylie responded, adding, how “because that’s been… such a buzz. That the OGs fans that have been around… they’re having a blast. And then the newer fans, new people who come to the Kylie party… I know they've been introduced, a lot of them with ‘Padam Padam’ or 'Tension,' whatever -- but they lose their minds over ‘Locomotion,’ which is just brilliant. So it means I can encompass the scope of my career, which is over five decades.”
When asked if there is a key to longevity in this crazy business, Kylie expressed, “There's a few things that definitely count,” listing them off, “persistence, tenacity, passion, luck.”
Noting he’s nostalgic about the long-ago days of cassettes and CDs, “when you would find the secret song at the end when you would just let the final track play.” Mike asked Kylie if there was anything she missed about the industry, from when she was first getting into it.
“Just the thrill of, you had to make the effort, go to the shop… that was like your kind of own private Idaho is to have put that record on, "Or, have to argue with your brother and sister, like, ‘what are we playing?’, Kylie answered. Also noting that “until I got a Walkman… You didn't have music on the move. So, I guess I can be nostalgic about all of that, but cut to now and it's great to go, ‘What do I want to listen to? What's new?' So much has changed.”
Talking about the changes she’s seen for women in the industry since her start, Kylie expressed, “It’s very encouraging that I'm proof, I'm sat here,” but also acknowledged, “Now we bring up the age topic, but I think it's at least with a positive spin on it.” She goes on to reveal, “It wasn't that many years ago that I felt I was in quite awkward positions where people would question me to my face in an interview,” and basically ask her “When are you too old to be a woman in this business?” And to that, Kylie said, “firstly — rude, but secondly — I don't know.”
She continued, “I guess I've always had women in the industry that I've looked up to, I didn't really think about their age at the time. I'm 8, 9, 10, obsessing over Olivia Newton-John and Donna Summer, And then as an older teenager, you know, Whitney [Houston], Madonna, Cindy [Lauper], all of them, I guess there wasn't such an age gap between my teenage years and their years. But I don't know what happened where it was suddenly deemed distasteful or, I don't know. But thankfully it is becoming, certainly for the younger generation… they’ve just got new minds, and open minds,” when it comes to “ageism, and particularly in music.”
Fun fact — Kylie also revealed which chart-topping song was almost hers, but ended up going to another artist. Sharing, “Yeah, there’s a little song called ‘Toxic’ that was headed my way, and I was like ‘Toxic’? I don't know if I want a song called ‘Toxic’… As it's turned out, it was meant to be a Britney Spears song, I can't imagine it being anything else."
Before concluding their conversation, Mike asked Kylie, if she were to put together her own charity -- “We Are The World”-type track -- today, which artists she would enlist. “It might be a girl group because I'm giving the girls a lot of spins,” Kylie revealed. “I mean, I do really have a penchant for Indie bands, I definitely love some Yacht Rock just on in the background, but I wouldn't mind being with Chappell [Roan], Sabrina [Carpenter], Lana [Del Rey], Miley [Cyrus]… and Madonna.” Adding, that if she could broaden the number of members, she’d also add, Rihanna, and Beyoncé.
To catch it all, check out Kylie’s entire interview above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Kylie Minogue | Audacy Check In | 10.21.24

It’s been eight years since Grace VanderWaal was the bashful 12-year-old girl who wowed and won America’s Got Talent with her ukulele playing and textured, breathy vocals. Now 20 and all grown up, Grace is back with brand new music and a scandalous Megalopolis role, and she’s checking in with Audacy’s Bru to chat about it all.

Despite some admitted “ups and downs” throughout 2024 thus far, Grace told Bru she currently feels “like I have some strong footing right now, I feel very confident in what we're brewing up.”

Newly signed to Pulse Records, Grace shared a bit of insight into some of the changes this year brought, that had her feeling those “ups and downs.”

Starting off with a positive, Grace admitted the decision to sign with Pulse has been “the best thing that ever happened to me.” Going on to note, “There were so many things that happened that was like so destined and just me writing ‘What's Left of Me,’ and then Columbia dropping me, and got rid of everyone around me,” which she admitted, “wasn't planned.”

“I was already getting rid of everyone around me,” she continued, “and then I got that call and they were like, ‘oh you can't have any of the music that you've made in this long time.’” Which Grace revealed was around “40 songs.”

Feeling determined to rise above, Grace decided, “I’m going to f***ing write an album, I'm going to write an album and I'm going to do this right… the way that I knew it always should be.”

Comparing the way things went down to a bad relationship that you’re being gaslit about, Grace expressed, “I feel like every single day for the past six months, at least once a day, I'm like, ‘I f***ing knew it was real. I knew it was real, and I'm doing it right now, and I knew that people could work like that.'”

Feeling invigorated in this new chapter, Grace confessed, “I was so afraid of change for a really, really long time because I've been doing this for so long,” so much so that the people she surrounded herself with evolved to feel more like family, “like I've known you since I was like 12 years old.”

“So you can feel so trapped and stuck… but I knew that a change needed to happen because things weren't really working. Also my personal life was weirdly exactly mirroring this as well," Grace added, “like the similar parallel of things are going wrong because I can't let go of things and staying in places for the mere fact of staying there, but not for any other benefits.”

Deciding to “pull the trigger,” and make a change, “five great things happened,” and she realized, “good things are happening when I do that,” and she understood it was time to let go.

Delving into those exciting things she’s got brewing, which includes that album she mentioned, and intended to do right, Grace expressed, “it turned out better than I could have ever imagined.” Adding, “It ended up being way more of this conceptual thing,” and “way bigger than I was expecting.”

Noting she didn’t want to give too much away, Grace did offer that, “From there… I started tweaking it more, and being like, okay, let me lean into what's naturally happening here because this is really like abstract and cool.” Additionally revealing the project should be expected in early 2025.

In the meantime, Grace has other exciting things going on, which includes plans to release “acoustic versions of the singles,” as well as her role as Vesta Sweetwater, "a virginal pop star who gets snagged in a deep-fake sex scandal,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Megalopolis, which Grace also wrote a song for.

Grace talked a bit about the experience of working with such formidable titans of industry, admitting that while it was “intimidating at times,” it was a “kind environment," and everyone was “very nice and funny.” Also sharing about how writing “Pledge” was quite different that when she’d contributed to the soundtracks of Disney movies she been in in the past.

Discussing her album a bit more, Grace described the new sound it will bring, saying, “I feel like it's very rich in writing. So I wanted to produce the songs around the writing, so some of them are more abstract in that way,” she added, bringing up Frank Ocean’s production style as example of what she loves. "I would say that that's one I can listen to and I genuinely feel like he wrote it first and then put emphasis from the words with music. But then some of them are more funzy, whatever. So I would say an equal balance of that. Some are more artistic and weird, and then some… you can sing in the car.”

Expanding more about her songwriting process, Grace shared, “I'm obsessed with the Mellotron, I basically write everything on it like I always have.” So her songwriting “normally starts there and then words and then… you just take it from there.”

To wrap up the conversation Grace discussed how she wants to read more, how she’s “basically like a reinvented person weekly," plus a few other random topics you won't want to miss. To catch it all, check out the entire Check In above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

It’s been eight years since Grace VanderWaal was the bashful 12-year-old girl who wowed and won America’s Got Talent with her ukulele playing and textured, breathy vocals. Now 20 and all grown up, Grace is back with brand new music and a scandalous Megalopolis role, and she’s checking in with Audacy’s Bru to chat about it all.
Despite some admitted “ups and downs” throughout 2024 thus far, Grace told Bru she currently feels “like I have some strong footing right now, I feel very confident in what we're brewing up.”
Newly signed to Pulse Records, Grace shared a bit of insight into some of the changes this year brought, that had her feeling those “ups and downs.”
Starting off with a positive, Grace admitted the decision to sign with Pulse has been “the best thing that ever happened to me.” Going on to note, “There were so many things that happened that was like so destined and just me writing ‘What's Left of Me,’ and then Columbia dropping me, and got rid of everyone around me,” which she admitted, “wasn't planned.”
“I was already getting rid of everyone around me,” she continued, “and then I got that call and they were like, ‘oh you can't have any of the music that you've made in this long time.’” Which Grace revealed was around “40 songs.”
Feeling determined to rise above, Grace decided, “I’m going to f***ing write an album, I'm going to write an album and I'm going to do this right… the way that I knew it always should be.”
Comparing the way things went down to a bad relationship that you’re being gaslit about, Grace expressed, “I feel like every single day for the past six months, at least once a day, I'm like, ‘I f***ing knew it was real. I knew it was real, and I'm doing it right now, and I knew that people could work like that.'”
Feeling invigorated in this new chapter, Grace confessed, “I was so afraid of change for a really, really long time because I've been doing this for so long,” so much so that the people she surrounded herself with evolved to feel more like family, “like I've known you since I was like 12 years old.”
“So you can feel so trapped and stuck… but I knew that a change needed to happen because things weren't really working. Also my personal life was weirdly exactly mirroring this as well," Grace added, “like the similar parallel of things are going wrong because I can't let go of things and staying in places for the mere fact of staying there, but not for any other benefits.”
Deciding to “pull the trigger,” and make a change, “five great things happened,” and she realized, “good things are happening when I do that,” and she understood it was time to let go.
Delving into those exciting things she’s got brewing, which includes that album she mentioned, and intended to do right, Grace expressed, “it turned out better than I could have ever imagined.” Adding, “It ended up being way more of this conceptual thing,” and “way bigger than I was expecting.”
Noting she didn’t want to give too much away, Grace did offer that, “From there… I started tweaking it more, and being like, okay, let me lean into what's naturally happening here because this is really like abstract and cool.” Additionally revealing the project should be expected in early 2025.
In the meantime, Grace has other exciting things going on, which includes plans to release “acoustic versions of the singles,” as well as her role as Vesta Sweetwater, "a virginal pop star who gets snagged in a deep-fake sex scandal,” in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Megalopolis, which Grace also wrote a song for.
Grace talked a bit about the experience of working with such formidable titans of industry, admitting that while it was “intimidating at times,” it was a “kind environment," and everyone was “very nice and funny.” Also sharing about how writing “Pledge” was quite different that when she’d contributed to the soundtracks of Disney movies she been in in the past.
Discussing her album a bit more, Grace described the new sound it will bring, saying, “I feel like it's very rich in writing. So I wanted to produce the songs around the writing, so some of them are more abstract in that way,” she added, bringing up Frank Ocean’s production style as example of what she loves. "I would say that that's one I can listen to and I genuinely feel like he wrote it first and then put emphasis from the words with music. But then some of them are more funzy, whatever. So I would say an equal balance of that. Some are more artistic and weird, and then some… you can sing in the car.”
Expanding more about her songwriting process, Grace shared, “I'm obsessed with the Mellotron, I basically write everything on it like I always have.” So her songwriting “normally starts there and then words and then… you just take it from there.”
To wrap up the conversation Grace discussed how she wants to read more, how she’s “basically like a reinvented person weekly," plus a few other random topics you won't want to miss. To catch it all, check out the entire Check In above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Grace VanderWaal | Audacy Check In | 10.15.24

Joining Bru for an Audacy Check In, Gwen Stefani is here to fill us in on her forthcoming album Bouquet. From finding the right sound, to feeling inspired by the “group of amazing songwriters” she worked with, the “spiritual” recording process, and more.

Following Bru wishing Gwen a happy belated birthday, (it's October 3), Stefani shared some deets about this year’s memorable celebration, after feeling a bit lonely during her birthday last year.

“A year ago… I had a show in Hawaii on my birthday and I was like, oh, yeah, I'll go get a little pile of money and come home and I don't care about my birthday.” However, as Gwen revealed, “I went on my own and I, like, spiraled into this like place. I was like, everybody needs to have a birthday I think like a celebration.”

That being said, something good came out of it. “I ended up writing this song called ‘Swallow My Tears,’ which is on the new record,” Gwen offered. “But this birthday, I was like, OK, no, we got to do something,” she continued, sharing all about the Colorado trip her hubby Blake Shelton took her family on.

With Gwen’s upcoming fifth studio album, Bouquet, set to drop on November 15, the singer shared her current emotional state about everything as a whole, saying, “I feel so grateful… it was one of those like… all I can do is look back at all of the whole career and be like, wow, how did that happen?”

After 2020, Gwen felt the want to start writing again, but also felt that she had so many things going on. “I'm a mom… I felt guilty to even go to the studio and try to write music because a lot of times you go and nothing happens,” Gwen shared. “But I started working on it and I think I went down like a lot of like, weird cul-de-sacs musically, because I didn't really know what I wanted to be or who I was. I was trying to chase the old me like, okay, I want to do reggae or I'm gonna do this, and nothing was landing.”

After a few failed attempts, and less than stellar reviews when she’d play the material for people, Gwen came to the realization that, “it really just comes down to, you have to like it,  you as the person doing it.”

“I wanted to always be real and truthful and honest and I just had to find that real honest place.” Noting it also has a lot to do with “the people that I actually end up writing the songs with, like finding the right chemistry, the right everything to make it all come together.”

“Once I wrote ‘Purple Irises’… that was like, finally, okay, I landed in the spot, and then the record kind of happened pretty quick after that.”

Discussing the sound she landed on for the album, Gwen said, “I knew I wanted to make something that I wanted to listen to. The older I get, the more I go back to the songs that I grew up with as a kid. Which I think we kind of call it yacht-rock now, but at that time it was just the popular soft rock music, like anything from Steely Dan, The Eagles, Carly Simon, James Taylor. There was like a lot of singer-songwriters back then… there was no computers, it was just music, organic. So I really wanted to do something in that kind of world.” Going on to recall that after writing and demoing the songs, despite how out of her comfort zone it might have been, the next step was to “rerecord the whole thing with a live band in that style.”

“So we ended up going back and I got to work with this producer called Scott Hendrix, who’s actually a Country producer, which I knew through Blake,” and had just recently retired. “I wasn’t able to work with them until that happened,” adding, “so it just all lined up exactly.”

“Four days after he retired we were in the studio and we cut all the songs with live music," Gwen continued, expressing how “amazing” and “spiritual” the process was. “That’s what the record is… A bouquet of all these songs that are a collection… edited down to me kind of right now, and what I've been going through, healing, to get to this point in my life.”

Gwen also went on to chat about getting to work on her duet with Blake, what direction she thinks her music would have taken if she didn’t grow up in Orange County, and that Coachella performance with Olivia Rodrigo. Also discussing feeling inspired by her songwriting process with a “group of amazing songwriters,” two of which were “young girls that were like ‘oh my God, my mom used to listen to you’, it was just so inspiring for me, you know, to be with, to see these girls and try to think back to what I was at that age and like they were.”

The conversation continued from there, with Gwen listing off and expanding on some of the amazing collaborators she worked with, getting a star on the Walk of Fame, being a coach on The Voice, and so much more. To catch it all, check out the entire Audacy Check In above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Joining Bru for an Audacy Check In, Gwen Stefani is here to fill us in on her forthcoming album Bouquet. From finding the right sound, to feeling inspired by the “group of amazing songwriters” she worked with, the “spiritual” recording process, and more.
Following Bru wishing Gwen a happy belated birthday, (it's October 3), Stefani shared some deets about this year’s memorable celebration, after feeling a bit lonely during her birthday last year.
“A year ago… I had a show in Hawaii on my birthday and I was like, oh, yeah, I'll go get a little pile of money and come home and I don't care about my birthday.” However, as Gwen revealed, “I went on my own and I, like, spiraled into this like place. I was like, everybody needs to have a birthday I think like a celebration.”
That being said, something good came out of it. “I ended up writing this song called ‘Swallow My Tears,’ which is on the new record,” Gwen offered. “But this birthday, I was like, OK, no, we got to do something,” she continued, sharing all about the Colorado trip her hubby Blake Shelton took her family on.
With Gwen’s upcoming fifth studio album, Bouquet, set to drop on November 15, the singer shared her current emotional state about everything as a whole, saying, “I feel so grateful… it was one of those like… all I can do is look back at all of the whole career and be like, wow, how did that happen?”
After 2020, Gwen felt the want to start writing again, but also felt that she had so many things going on. “I'm a mom… I felt guilty to even go to the studio and try to write music because a lot of times you go and nothing happens,” Gwen shared. “But I started working on it and I think I went down like a lot of like, weird cul-de-sacs musically, because I didn't really know what I wanted to be or who I was. I was trying to chase the old me like, okay, I want to do reggae or I'm gonna do this, and nothing was landing.”
After a few failed attempts, and less than stellar reviews when she’d play the material for people, Gwen came to the realization that, “it really just comes down to, you have to like it,  you as the person doing it.”
“I wanted to always be real and truthful and honest and I just had to find that real honest place.” Noting it also has a lot to do with “the people that I actually end up writing the songs with, like finding the right chemistry, the right everything to make it all come together.”
“Once I wrote ‘Purple Irises’… that was like, finally, okay, I landed in the spot, and then the record kind of happened pretty quick after that.”
Discussing the sound she landed on for the album, Gwen said, “I knew I wanted to make something that I wanted to listen to. The older I get, the more I go back to the songs that I grew up with as a kid. Which I think we kind of call it yacht-rock now, but at that time it was just the popular soft rock music, like anything from Steely Dan, The Eagles, Carly Simon, James Taylor. There was like a lot of singer-songwriters back then… there was no computers, it was just music, organic. So I really wanted to do something in that kind of world.” Going on to recall that after writing and demoing the songs, despite how out of her comfort zone it might have been, the next step was to “rerecord the whole thing with a live band in that style.”
“So we ended up going back and I got to work with this producer called Scott Hendrix, who’s actually a Country producer, which I knew through Blake,” and had just recently retired. “I wasn’t able to work with them until that happened,” adding, “so it just all lined up exactly.”
“Four days after he retired we were in the studio and we cut all the songs with live music," Gwen continued, expressing how “amazing” and “spiritual” the process was. “That’s what the record is… A bouquet of all these songs that are a collection… edited down to me kind of right now, and what I've been going through, healing, to get to this point in my life.”
Gwen also went on to chat about getting to work on her duet with Blake, what direction she thinks her music would have taken if she didn’t grow up in Orange County, and that Coachella performance with Olivia Rodrigo. Also discussing feeling inspired by her songwriting process with a “group of amazing songwriters,” two of which were “young girls that were like ‘oh my God, my mom used to listen to you’, it was just so inspiring for me, you know, to be with, to see these girls and try to think back to what I was at that age and like they were.”
The conversation continued from there, with Gwen listing off and expanding on some of the amazing collaborators she worked with, getting a star on the Walk of Fame, being a coach on The Voice, and so much more. To catch it all, check out the entire Audacy Check In above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Gwen Stefani | Audacy Check In | 10.11.24

Hozier joined host Bru backstage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles for a special Audacy Check In while on his 2024 Unreal Unearth Tour, revealing he's ready to get back into creative mode once his overseas dates wrap up.

Currently taking a break at home before bringing his show to Australia and New Zealand to wrap things up by the end of November, Hozier tells us the tour so far has been “super rewarding… the crowds have been amazing,” especially after releasing brand new music while out on the road.

Now a decade since the release of his first album, Hozier finds it funny how he doesn’t seem to have felt that time went by very quickly. “It's so weird,” he admits, “maybe 6 to 7 years of that was me on the road, or promoting, or touring or something, and life on the road kind of becomes this blur -- it feels like no time passes and it feels like a lifetime as well.”

Once the tour wraps overseas, Hozier is “super eager to get back creating. I really enjoyed making the last record,” he says of 2023’s Unreal Earth. “I'm kind of at that point now where I'm hungry again to have space and time to think about new music, and I've pretty much emptied all of my pockets now at this point… I'm kind of hungry to feel my way through new work again.”

“We start fresh,” he adds, revealing he does have some tracks from previous writing sessions that will never see the light of day. “Everything that I felt like, ‘this nearly made the record, that this could have made the album, or if we'd finished it in time, or this was battling out for another song,’ I feel really glad that I've released a lot of that after-work, or work that didn't make the album proper. That's been super-rewarding, but yeah, I'm just at the end of that.”

Choosing which songs make it onto a release can be “like picking which children go on the right boat,” he admits. His latest hit "Too Sweet," is just one example of a track that almost didn't make the cut on his 2024 Unheard EP.

“It can be tough. There's ones that you really feel so close to and you feel very protective of certain songs -- you really want them to see the light of day because they mean so much to you," he adds. "Everybody has their favorites; Your producer or the team that you work with are gonna have their thoughts, you have your thoughts… it's a whole process.”

Hozier also got a chance to work with Noah Kahan recently on his “Northern Attitude,” and aside from sharing incredible songwriting prowess and similar luscious locks a beard, Hozier joked that they also share fashion senses.

“Noah's amazing and he's having such an incredible couple of years, and this wild kind of hurricane is going on around him. He's so cool, he's so grounded, he's just so down to earth. He's a really nice guy as well too, and he carries it very lightly. Jumping on ‘Northern Attitude,’” he adds, “I remember first hearing that song before they'd reached out, I f***ing loved that track and was so delighted to hop on.”

Don’t miss Bru’s full Audacy Check In with Hozier above -- and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists on Audacy.com/Live.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Bru

Hozier joined host Bru backstage at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles for a special Audacy Check In while on his 2024 Unreal Unearth Tour, revealing he's ready to get back into creative mode once his overseas dates wrap up.
Currently taking a break at home before bringing his show to Australia and New Zealand to wrap things up by the end of November, Hozier tells us the tour so far has been “super rewarding… the crowds have been amazing,” especially after releasing brand new music while out on the road.
Now a decade since the release of his first album, Hozier finds it funny how he doesn’t seem to have felt that time went by very quickly. “It's so weird,” he admits, “maybe 6 to 7 years of that was me on the road, or promoting, or touring or something, and life on the road kind of becomes this blur -- it feels like no time passes and it feels like a lifetime as well.”
Once the tour wraps overseas, Hozier is “super eager to get back creating. I really enjoyed making the last record,” he says of 2023’s Unreal Earth. “I'm kind of at that point now where I'm hungry again to have space and time to think about new music, and I've pretty much emptied all of my pockets now at this point… I'm kind of hungry to feel my way through new work again.”
“We start fresh,” he adds, revealing he does have some tracks from previous writing sessions that will never see the light of day. “Everything that I felt like, ‘this nearly made the record, that this could have made the album, or if we'd finished it in time, or this was battling out for another song,’ I feel really glad that I've released a lot of that after-work, or work that didn't make the album proper. That's been super-rewarding, but yeah, I'm just at the end of that.”
Choosing which songs make it onto a release can be “like picking which children go on the right boat,” he admits. His latest hit "Too Sweet," is just one example of a track that almost didn't make the cut on his 2024 Unheard EP.
“It can be tough. There's ones that you really feel so close to and you feel very protective of certain songs -- you really want them to see the light of day because they mean so much to you," he adds. "Everybody has their favorites; Your producer or the team that you work with are gonna have their thoughts, you have your thoughts… it's a whole process.”
Hozier also got a chance to work with Noah Kahan recently on his “Northern Attitude,” and aside from sharing incredible songwriting prowess and similar luscious locks a beard, Hozier joked that they also share fashion senses.
“Noah's amazing and he's having such an incredible couple of years, and this wild kind of hurricane is going on around him. He's so cool, he's so grounded, he's just so down to earth. He's a really nice guy as well too, and he carries it very lightly. Jumping on ‘Northern Attitude,’” he adds, “I remember first hearing that song before they'd reached out, I f***ing loved that track and was so delighted to hop on.”
Don’t miss Bru’s full Audacy Check In with Hozier above -- and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists on <a href="https://www.audacy.com/live">Audacy.com/Live</a>.
Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Bru

Hozier | Audacy Check In | 10.1.24

On the heels of releasing “It’s ok I’m ok,” her latest hit in a procession of many, Tate McRae checked in with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about having fun working on what’s next, her focused studio session behavior that inspired the lyrics to her new bop, the vulnerability of the writing process, and a whole lot more.

Sharing that “creating the world of my next” project is what she’s currently having the most fun with right now, Tate noted, “my next songs and all the music videos and the treatments, I love that part, it’s one of my favorite parts. So, it's been fun to start to carve that world out and see what it looks like.”

Of course, our first introduction to this “new world” arrived earlier this month with the release of “It’s ok, I’m ok,” another banger Tate can add to her ever growing collection.

The track which lyrically assures her ex’s new boo that she’s more than fine with no longer being with a walking red flag, actually “started from a conversation of me being like, 'It's ok I'm ok' - and we were like, 'That would be a crazy pop song,’ Tate previously told Rolling Stone.

That conversation, as she went on to revealto Capital Breakfast's Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby, earlier this month, actually had nothing to do with relationship woes at all. "I have this thing in [music writing] sessions where I just won't eat unless I finish the song. It's honestly just like if I'm in the studio I have to finish the song and then I'll eat my meal, I can't eat in the middle of writing," she explained to the UK radio morning show.

"So then Ilya and Savan would be like, 'Hey do you want food?' and then everyday for like two weeks straight I'd say, 'It's okay, I'm okay’” Tate revealed. "Then we were like, 'We should just put that down as a joke', and then it ended up turning into a song.”

Expanding more on the reasoning for her focused studio session behavior during her chat with Bru, Tate said it’s “because you never know when you're going to crack the song, like you're sitting there sometimes it can be like nine hours before you crack the best idea." In addition to the delayed gratification of a meal, Tate also isn’t a fan of yapping in the studio.

“I mean, a lot of people treat sessions like a yap fest,” McRae said, noting “it’s me and Amy Allen, who's an unbelievable songwriter,” that prefer quiet creative spaces. “She did ‘Greedy’ with me, and she's in the majority of my album… Me and her have the same thing… everyone yaps around us and we're just laser focused.”

Sharing why her new track didn’t make the cut for her sophomore album, Think Later, Tate said, “I think like the beat and how it sounded to me, wasn't the sonic of the last album. I don't think I was ready to feel, or do a chorus like that, or even just make a song like that until this year. I was waiting for that kind of beat,” she added. “I needed to do the right video with it, the right performance with it.”

Reflecting on how crazy it is that it’s been a year since “Greedy” and Think Later came out, Tate expressed, “this year has flown by so fast… like that feels like literally yesterday.”

“Well, it's a really vulnerable process, being in the studio. And the people around you affects your product the most,” Tate admitted. “Because I'm a pretty private person. Like I usually walk in and I’ll summarize everything into like five words… I will not spill like my whole life, you know. I'm so not like that, where I would just completely open up to people. But if I get really comfortable, then I want to actually talk about the real stuff. So it just takes time to find those people that you gel with," she says of finding the right team. "And also like the production of it too… you have to trust who you're in the room with and that they're going to make it sound like how you want it to.”

Tate also talked about having an athletes mindset to her career, the performer persona that takes over when she’s onstage, and when IRL Tate sometimes breaks through.

Tate, who is part of the impressive Audacy We Can Survive 2024 lineup alongside Justin Timberlake, Benson Boone, Khalid, New Kids On The Block and Isabel LaRosa, taking place this weekend, Saturday, September 28, 2024 at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, also opened up about the topic of mental health. As We Can Survive continues Audacy’s mission to support mental health via I’m Listening and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) -- because talk has the power to save lives.

Sharing what she does when she needs a mental health break, because sometimes being a pop star can be hard, Tate revealed, “Actually, the other day, I literally walked outside and sat in the grass. I was like, I need to realize that — number one thing always is just like finding gratitude in every situation. If you're not happy or something is stressing you out, you have to look around and realize the things that you do have… Because I think as people, we just get into this flow of always wanting more, and always wanting to look for the next thing, and compare, and sometimes you forget that our life is very blessed.”

“Whenever I get into a spot where I get stuck, I always need to be like, ‘Ok, you need to step out of your head and realize that you're really lucky to be in the position that you're in…' and I think that it always puts things into perspective for me.” Circling back, saying, “You really do have to touch the grass sometimes… And realize that your phone isn't a real thing.”

After performing on the stateside We Can Survive stage, next Tate is headed to Asia for a 4-date addition to her Think Later World Tour. “I have been dying to go to Tokyo for so many years,” McRae mentioned of the bucket list first stop she’ll make, before heading to Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila. “I’m so excited to just look around and see the culture and just be there.”

Discussing the making of the “It’s ok I’m ok” music video, which despite having to “do that strut… so many times in those heels,” was the most fun she had making a music video. “It was like a crazy day, it was a very ambitious day, we got so many outfits and shots in 10 hours.”

Tate also went on to talk about the feeling she gets listening to Country music, and possibly of doing “like a folk country thing at some point… once I no longer want to dance.” As well as, what it was like to perform her headlining tour at Madison Square Garden, bringing out her boyfriend The Kid LAROI for an acoustic performance, which of her songs she thinks would be a good fit to duet with Britney Spears, and more.

To catch it all, check out the entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

On the heels of releasing “It’s ok I’m ok,” her latest hit in a procession of many, Tate McRae checked in with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about having fun working on what’s next, her focused studio session behavior that inspired the lyrics to her new bop, the vulnerability of the writing process, and a whole lot more.
Sharing that “creating the world of my next” project is what she’s currently having the most fun with right now, Tate noted, “my next songs and all the music videos and the treatments, I love that part, it’s one of my favorite parts. So, it's been fun to start to carve that world out and see what it looks like.”
Of course, our first introduction to this “new world” arrived earlier this month with the release of “It’s ok, I’m ok,” another banger Tate can add to her ever growing collection.
The track which lyrically assures her ex’s new boo that she’s more than fine with no longer being with a walking red flag, actually “started from a conversation of me being like, 'It's ok I'm ok' - and we were like, 'That would be a crazy pop song,’ Tate previously told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMYPTvRgY5E">Rolling Stone</a>.
That conversation, as she went on to reveal<a href="https://www.capitalfm.com/news/tate-mcrae-explains-song-its-ok-im-ok-origin/"> </a>to Capital Breakfast's Jordan North, Chris Stark and Sian Welby, earlier this month, actually had nothing to do with relationship woes at all. "I have this thing in [music writing] sessions where I just won't eat unless I finish the song. It's honestly just like if I'm in the studio I have to finish the song and then I'll eat my meal, I can't eat in the middle of writing," she explained to the UK radio morning show.
"So then Ilya and Savan would be like, 'Hey do you want food?' and then everyday for like two weeks straight I'd say, 'It's okay, I'm okay’” Tate revealed. "Then we were like, 'We should just put that down as a joke', and then it ended up turning into a song.”
Expanding more on the reasoning for her focused studio session behavior during her chat with Bru, Tate said it’s “because you never know when you're going to crack the song, like you're sitting there sometimes it can be like nine hours before you crack the best idea." In addition to the delayed gratification of a meal, Tate also isn’t a fan of yapping in the studio.
“I mean, a lot of people treat sessions like a yap fest,” McRae said, noting “it’s me and Amy Allen, who's an unbelievable songwriter,” that prefer quiet creative spaces. “She did ‘Greedy’ with me, and she's in the majority of my album… Me and her have the same thing… everyone yaps around us and we're just laser focused.”
Sharing why her new track didn’t make the cut for her sophomore album, Think Later, Tate said, “I think like the beat and how it sounded to me, wasn't the sonic of the last album. I don't think I was ready to feel, or do a chorus like that, or even just make a song like that until this year. I was waiting for that kind of beat,” she added. “I needed to do the right video with it, the right performance with it.”
Reflecting on how crazy it is that it’s been a year since “Greedy” and Think Later came out, Tate expressed, “this year has flown by so fast… like that feels like literally yesterday.”
“Well, it's a really vulnerable process, being in the studio. And the people around you affects your product the most,” Tate admitted. “Because I'm a pretty private person. Like I usually walk in and I’ll summarize everything into like five words… I will not spill like my whole life, you know. I'm so not like that, where I would just completely open up to people. But if I get really comfortable, then I want to actually talk about the real stuff. So it just takes time to find those people that you gel with," she says of finding the right team. "And also like the production of it too… you have to trust who you're in the room with and that they're going to make it sound like how you want it to.”
Tate also talked about having an athletes mindset to her career, the performer persona that takes over when she’s onstage, and when IRL Tate sometimes breaks through.
Tate, who is part of the impressive Audacy <a href="https://www.audacy.com/topic/we-can-survive">We Can Survive</a> 2024 lineup alongside Justin Timberlake, Benson Boone, Khalid, New Kids On The Block and Isabel LaRosa, taking place this weekend, Saturday, September 28, 2024 at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, also opened up about the topic of mental health. As We Can Survive continues Audacy’s mission to support mental health via <a href="https://www.audacy.com/im-listening">I’m Listening</a> and the <a href="https://afsp.org/">American Foundation for Suicide Prevention</a> (AFSP) -- because talk has the power to save lives.
Sharing what she does when she needs a mental health break, because sometimes being a pop star can be hard, Tate revealed, “Actually, the other day, I literally walked outside and sat in the grass. I was like, I need to realize that — number one thing always is just like finding gratitude in every situation. If you're not happy or something is stressing you out, you have to look around and realize the things that you do have… Because I think as people, we just get into this flow of always wanting more, and always wanting to look for the next thing, and compare, and sometimes you forget that our life is very blessed.”
“Whenever I get into a spot where I get stuck, I always need to be like, ‘Ok, you need to step out of your head and realize that you're really lucky to be in the position that you're in…' and I think that it always puts things into perspective for me.” Circling back, saying, “You really do have to touch the grass sometimes… And realize that your phone isn't a real thing.”
After performing on the stateside We Can Survive stage, next Tate is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C56zd_7JfTB/">headed to Asia</a> for a 4-date addition to her Think Later World Tour. “I have been dying to go to Tokyo for so many years,” McRae mentioned of the bucket list first stop she’ll make, before heading to Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila. “I’m so excited to just look around and see the culture and just be there.”
Discussing the making of the “It’s ok I’m ok” music video, which despite having to “do that strut… so many times in those heels,” was the most fun she had making a music video. “It was like a crazy day, it was a very ambitious day, we got so many outfits and shots in 10 hours.”
Tate also went on to talk about the feeling she gets listening to Country music, and possibly of doing “like a folk country thing at some point… once I no longer want to dance.” As well as, what it was like to perform her headlining tour at Madison Square Garden, bringing out her boyfriend The Kid LAROI for an acoustic performance, which of her songs she thinks would be a good fit to duet with Britney Spears, and more.
To catch it all, check out the entire interview above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Tate McRae | Audacy Check In | 9.26.24

Halsey checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, to chat all about her new single “EGO,” forthcoming album The Great Impersonator, arriving October 25, and more.

With her 30th birthday coming up, Halsey started the conversation off by reflecting on just how much has happened in the last decade, both personally and professionally.

“I'm excited for this birthday… because it means a lot to me. It's been a hard couple of years and I'm about to turn 30. It's a big, big birthday. It's also, you know, 10 years since I put out my first album, Badlands." She continued, “so… that decade from being 19 turning 20, putting out my first album, now being 29 turning 30 about to put out my fifth album. It all just feels mystical… feels like a lot of synchronicity in that.”

As for feeling her age, Halsey admitted, “I’ve felt 30 since I was like 15. I’m catching up now."

“Sometimes, there's certain people in this life who are the age they are and then they stay that way… Like my mom, for example, is just perpetually 21. She had me when she was 20, and has just been 21 for as long as I've known her. She's 51 and she is like tatted up, tongue piercing, like super cool girl, but she just gives off the energy of someone who's like 21. I've been 35 since I was born.”

Halsey who outwardly loves Halloween, also shared she has some costume ideas for this year, but didn’t feel like sharing them. Noting, “I’m a big gatekeeper about Halloween,” not wanting to give any ideas away.

“I love Halloween, every couple of years I throw a huge Halloween party in LA, and we do it to benefit My Friend's Place, which is a charity organization and a resource center for unhoused youth in Los Angeles. It’s super awesome, super close to my heart, and I love it,” Halsey expressed. “I prepare for my costume for like months.”

Ultimately deciding to share her idea after all, Halsey revealed the costume idea she wants to do with her son. “I really want to do The Shining, and I want to get him on his little tricycle as Danny, and I want to be Shelley Duvall and I just want to like take these pictures with my creepy little kid on a tricycle and his hair is like the perfect, he's got those long bangs.” Naturally shifting the conversation from Halloween to parenthood, Mike asked Halsey if having a child has changed her relationship with her parents.

“Oh my gosh, I'm actually really glad you asked me this question because there's a lot of this on the album actually,” Halsey answered. “So when I was writing The Great Impersonator, I was going through a lot in my personal life, a lot of those changes were becoming a new mom, and I also, I got really sick. I got the kind of sick that makes you think about your life and look at it in that way,” Halsey reflected. “I started thinking about my childhood, and there's a lot of songs on this album that kind of touch on that, touch on my relationship with my parents.”

Noting that “one in particular” is “just about watching my mom grow older. Like I said, she's perpetually 21 to me, just watching her age… it’s like this cognitive dissonance, like your brain can't compute.”

“In the song, I talk about when I was a kid listening, hearing my dad, like make a snide remark about her or like, you know, me and my dad kind of ganging up on my mom. I wanted his approval so much and I did it at the cost of like kind of ganging up on her. And I say in the song, that alliance didn't save me from her fate. Like, aligning with my dad didn't stop my life from turning out almost exactly like hers. I became a single mom, and I look back on that and I go ‘wow, I should have had more compassion for her,’ and I say in the record, ‘I hope my son realizes it before it's too late,' like I did.”

Sharing about what her mom’s reaction was to hearing the track, Halsey said, “my mom cried like a baby.” Before delving into the specifics of how she played the song for her mom at “the worst time,” after she had stayed up all night taking care of her after getting sick in the studio and going to the hospital. “It was just like this crazy moment where I looked at her and I was like, I'm a mom too. We are more the same right now at this moment in life than we ever have been,” she said of the emotional moment.

With the Badlands anniversary coming up next year, this year Halsey gets to celebrate 10 years of her OG EP, Room 93. A project she looks at with nothing but love, “I love Room 93,” Halsey expressed, “I loved it so much that I took half the songs and put them on the debut, you know, ‘Hurricane,’ ‘Ghost,’ like I still play ‘Is There Somewhere’ live a lot of the time, it's definitely a fan favorite.”

“You know, it's funny, I love Room 93 so much. I actually reference it in a way… there’s a single on this album called ‘EGO,’ and in the song I say ‘I want to go back to the beginning when it all felt right / a rooftop lower East side I'm singing.’” Sharing how “that story is real,” Halsey continued, “it's about a time where I was at a friend's apartment… on Orchard Street, this little apartment above Hair of the Dog, like on the roof. And I have these demos from my EP on my iPhone and I'm playing them at the table for all my friends… and they're all like, this is sick. And all that mattered to me in that moment was making music that like my friends and my peers and the people I spent every day with would like and would think was cool music.”

“Then obviously comes all these expectations and this pressure and everything about the way I make music changes,” she added. “But Room 93 is kind of like the perfect moment where I was just making something because I felt like it. So I just love it for that.”

Halsey also went on to discuss the eclectic theme of The Great Impersonator, which she describes “as a confessional concept album” that sees the musician explore herself and her musical identity through the lens of different time periods, as if she were an artist during the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. She shared which of those decades happens to be her favorite, listing off artists of that era she loves and draws inspiration from, and more. To catch it all, check out Halsey’s entire Check In above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Halsey checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, to chat all about her new single “EGO,” forthcoming album The Great Impersonator, arriving October 25, and more.
With her 30th birthday coming up, Halsey started the conversation off by reflecting on just how much has happened in the last decade, both personally and professionally.
“I'm excited for this birthday… because it means a lot to me. It's been a hard couple of years and I'm about to turn 30. It's a big, big birthday. It's also, you know, 10 years since I put out my first album, Badlands." She continued, “so… that decade from being 19 turning 20, putting out my first album, now being 29 turning 30 about to put out my fifth album. It all just feels mystical… feels like a lot of synchronicity in that.”
As for feeling her age, Halsey admitted, “I’ve felt 30 since I was like 15. I’m catching up now."
“Sometimes, there's certain people in this life who are the age they are and then they stay that way… Like my mom, for example, is just perpetually 21. She had me when she was 20, and has just been 21 for as long as I've known her. She's 51 and she is like tatted up, tongue piercing, like super cool girl, but she just gives off the energy of someone who's like 21. I've been 35 since I was born.”
Halsey who outwardly loves Halloween, also shared she has some costume ideas for this year, but didn’t feel like sharing them. Noting, “I’m a big gatekeeper about Halloween,” not wanting to give any ideas away.
“I love Halloween, every couple of years I throw a huge Halloween party in LA, and we do it to benefit My Friend's Place, which is a charity organization and a resource center for unhoused youth in Los Angeles. It’s super awesome, super close to my heart, and I love it,” Halsey expressed. “I prepare for my costume for like months.”
Ultimately deciding to share her idea after all, Halsey revealed the costume idea she wants to do with her son. “I really want to do The Shining, and I want to get him on his little tricycle as Danny, and I want to be Shelley Duvall and I just want to like take these pictures with my creepy little kid on a tricycle and his hair is like the perfect, he's got those long bangs.” Naturally shifting the conversation from Halloween to parenthood, Mike asked Halsey if having a child has changed her relationship with her parents.
“Oh my gosh, I'm actually really glad you asked me this question because there's a lot of this on the album actually,” Halsey answered. “So when I was writing The Great Impersonator, I was going through a lot in my personal life, a lot of those changes were becoming a new mom, and I also, I got really sick. I got the kind of sick that makes you think about your life and look at it in that way,” Halsey reflected. “I started thinking about my childhood, and there's a lot of songs on this album that kind of touch on that, touch on my relationship with my parents.”
Noting that “one in particular” is “just about watching my mom grow older. Like I said, she's perpetually 21 to me, just watching her age… it’s like this cognitive dissonance, like your brain can't compute.”
“In the song, I talk about when I was a kid listening, hearing my dad, like make a snide remark about her or like, you know, me and my dad kind of ganging up on my mom. I wanted his approval so much and I did it at the cost of like kind of ganging up on her. And I say in the song, that alliance didn't save me from her fate. Like, aligning with my dad didn't stop my life from turning out almost exactly like hers. I became a single mom, and I look back on that and I go ‘wow, I should have had more compassion for her,’ and I say in the record, ‘I hope my son realizes it before it's too late,' like I did.”
Sharing about what her mom’s reaction was to hearing the track, Halsey said, “my mom cried like a baby.” Before delving into the specifics of how she played the song for her mom at “the worst time,” after she had stayed up all night taking care of her after getting sick in the studio and going to the hospital. “It was just like this crazy moment where I looked at her and I was like, I'm a mom too. We are more the same right now at this moment in life than we ever have been,” she said of the emotional moment.
With the Badlands anniversary coming up next year, this year Halsey gets to celebrate 10 years of her OG EP, Room 93. A project she looks at with nothing but love, “I love Room 93,” Halsey expressed, “I loved it so much that I took half the songs and put them on the debut, you know, ‘Hurricane,’ ‘Ghost,’ like I still play ‘Is There Somewhere’ live a lot of the time, it's definitely a fan favorite.”
“You know, it's funny, I love Room 93 so much. I actually reference it in a way… there’s a single on this album called ‘EGO,’ and in the song I say ‘I want to go back to the beginning when it all felt right / a rooftop lower East side I'm singing.’” Sharing how “that story is real,” Halsey continued, “it's about a time where I was at a friend's apartment… on Orchard Street, this little apartment above Hair of the Dog, like on the roof. And I have these demos from my EP on my iPhone and I'm playing them at the table for all my friends… and they're all like, this is sick. And all that mattered to me in that moment was making music that like my friends and my peers and the people I spent every day with would like and would think was cool music.”
“Then obviously comes all these expectations and this pressure and everything about the way I make music changes,” she added. “But Room 93 is kind of like the perfect moment where I was just making something because I felt like it. So I just love it for that.”
Halsey also went on to discuss the eclectic theme of The Great Impersonator, which she describes “as a confessional concept album” that sees the musician explore herself and her musical identity through the lens of different time periods, as if she were an artist during the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. She shared which of those decades happens to be her favorite, listing off artists of that era she loves and draws inspiration from, and more. To catch it all, check out Halsey’s entire Check In above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Halsey | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24

Checking in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, Khalid chatted all about his new album Sincere, song samples, possible collab project pairings, and more.

With five years between his last and most recent album, Khalid spoke to why he knew now was the time to finally drop his third album.

“Well when I started off, I started writing music at 17 years old. So to go from being a high school student to a multi-platinum career in a matter of 2 to 3 years… it was insane,” Khalid began. “It’s nothing that they can teach you, it’s nothing that they can prepare you for. So I really feel like I had to take some time off to write, to understand what I wanted my true impact as an artist to be on this earth. What ways I wanted to connect with my fans, and so it took a lot of lived experiences, and walking life, and seeing the world… seeing different sides of the world for me to get to this point where I finished this album… and I feel like I’m putting something out that is rooted in my core, it’s exactly the name of the album, it’s Sincere.”

The album’s lead single "Please Don't Fall in Love with Me,” samples the Alicia Keys and Drake 2009 bop “Unthinkable (I’m Ready).” A song millennials need no introduction to, but perhaps the Gen-Zs listening do. A thought that got Mike thinking to ask Khalid if he can remember the first song he heard that he didn't know was a sample, that introduced him to an old song or even a recent song that he might have not known about before.

“I would say it was this song, one of my favorite songs actually that I've loved for years, ‘Feel It All Around’ by Washed Out," Khalid shared. “I didn't know that the whole baseline of that song is a sample from another song." After some internet research, it turns out the sample is Italian singer Gary Low's "I Want You,” released in 1983.

Khalid also mentioned “Changes,” by Tupac as an example, noting “I love the sample now,” adding that he’s “been listening to ‘The Way It Is,' Bruce Hornsby, for a minute now, I’m addicted to that song.”

Having sampled Drake and being, as Mike put it, “a lifelong die hard Kendrick fan as well, he wanted to know Khalid’s thoughts on if he feels that “in 2024 rap beef is still important for the culture, for Hip-Hop."

Admitting that he while definitely believes “that competition in any sport is important to thrive, to create, for the culture,” he went on to say, “Me, I'm a little Pop star that stays out the way and minds my own business. So I don't really get too much in other people's business or anybody else's altercations. I kind of try to choose a low profile, chill, relaxed life over here.”
Adding, “as long as people are looking at it for their benefit, to thrive in creativity… I don't necessarily see it as a problem.”

So if Khalid was to come out with a full project, or even an EP with a rapper, Mike wanted to know who the self-proclaimed “Pop star” thinks he’d pair well with, and create the project with. “Oh, I don't know, actually… I'm more of a vibe person. I feel like it's about just sitting in the room with you, getting to know who you are, connecting with you on a deeper level,” Khalid said at first, before coming to the realization that if he were to “choose any rapper to do a collaboration project with, I'm definitely going with 6LACK.”

“I mean, we've already done songs together so we have chemistry," he continued. “I would probably do something with J. Cole as well. I've met him and he was super kind to me… I feel like kindness is key, if you can have a conversation and you can meet someone and you can connect with them, then the sky's the limit.”

Khalid also went on to reflect on the polished engineering of today’s music, as opposed to the more raw and less refined vocals from musicians of the past, such as Al Green or Marvin Gaye.

“I feel like nostalgia is one of the biggest drugs known to man. We have to just understand that times are different and auto-tune can also be a talent. The way that people can utilize these programs on their computers, that has to be respected for something. But it doesn't mean that there's not classically trained musicians that are thriving and are killing it in the game. But I like to see the beauty in both sides of the spectrum.”

Khalid also went on to reveal what track almost didn’t make it on the album, talk about his love for writing music, his music writing process, and more. To catch it all, check out the entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Checking in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York, Khalid chatted all about his new album Sincere, song samples, possible collab project pairings, and more.
With five years between his last and most recent album, Khalid spoke to why he knew now was the time to finally drop his third album.
“Well when I started off, I started writing music at 17 years old. So to go from being a high school student to a multi-platinum career in a matter of 2 to 3 years… it was insane,” Khalid began. “It’s nothing that they can teach you, it’s nothing that they can prepare you for. So I really feel like I had to take some time off to write, to understand what I wanted my true impact as an artist to be on this earth. What ways I wanted to connect with my fans, and so it took a lot of lived experiences, and walking life, and seeing the world… seeing different sides of the world for me to get to this point where I finished this album… and I feel like I’m putting something out that is rooted in my core, it’s exactly the name of the album, it’s Sincere.”
The album’s lead single "Please Don't Fall in Love with Me,” samples the Alicia Keys and Drake 2009 bop “Unthinkable (I’m Ready).” A song millennials need no introduction to, but perhaps the Gen-Zs listening do. A thought that got Mike thinking to ask Khalid if he can remember the first song he heard that he didn't know was a sample, that introduced him to an old song or even a recent song that he might have not known about before.
“I would say it was this song, one of my favorite songs actually that I've loved for years, ‘Feel It All Around’ by Washed Out," Khalid shared. “I didn't know that the whole baseline of that song is a sample from another song." After some internet research, it turns out the sample is Italian singer Gary Low's "I Want You,” released in 1983.
Khalid also mentioned “Changes,” by Tupac as an example, noting “I love the sample now,” adding that he’s “been listening to ‘The Way It Is,' Bruce Hornsby, for a minute now, I’m addicted to that song.”
Having sampled Drake and being, as Mike put it, “a lifelong die hard Kendrick fan as well, he wanted to know Khalid’s thoughts on if he feels that “in 2024 rap beef is still important for the culture, for Hip-Hop."
Admitting that he while definitely believes “that competition in any sport is important to thrive, to create, for the culture,” he went on to say, “Me, I'm a little Pop star that stays out the way and minds my own business. So I don't really get too much in other people's business or anybody else's altercations. I kind of try to choose a low profile, chill, relaxed life over here.” Adding, “as long as people are looking at it for their benefit, to thrive in creativity… I don't necessarily see it as a problem.”
So if Khalid was to come out with a full project, or even an EP with a rapper, Mike wanted to know who the self-proclaimed “Pop star” thinks he’d pair well with, and create the project with. “Oh, I don't know, actually… I'm more of a vibe person. I feel like it's about just sitting in the room with you, getting to know who you are, connecting with you on a deeper level,” Khalid said at first, before coming to the realization that if he were to “choose any rapper to do a collaboration project with, I'm definitely going with 6LACK.”
“I mean, we've already done songs together so we have chemistry," he continued. “I would probably do something with J. Cole as well. I've met him and he was super kind to me… I feel like kindness is key, if you can have a conversation and you can meet someone and you can connect with them, then the sky's the limit.”
Khalid also went on to reflect on the polished engineering of today’s music, as opposed to the more raw and less refined vocals from musicians of the past, such as Al Green or Marvin Gaye.
“I feel like nostalgia is one of the biggest drugs known to man. We have to just understand that times are different and auto-tune can also be a talent. The way that people can utilize these programs on their computers, that has to be respected for something. But it doesn't mean that there's not classically trained musicians that are thriving and are killing it in the game. But I like to see the beauty in both sides of the spectrum.”
Khalid also went on to reveal what track almost didn’t make it on the album, talk about his love for writing music, his music writing process, and more. To catch it all, check out the entire interview above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Khalid | Audacy Check In | 9.11.24

Back for another Audacy Check In now that her album has dropped, Gracie Abrams stopped by to chat with Bru all about The Secret of Us, and share what fans can expect from her upcoming headlining tour, plus a whole lot more.

Released June 21, Gracie’s sophomore album features lead singles, “Risk” and “Close To You,” as well as the standout track, “Us,” featuring Taylor Swift, who Gracie opened for on The Eras Tour last summer. Set to rejoin Swift for some additional dates this fall, Gracie also has tour plans of her own. Hitting up theaters across the United States from September 5 through October 10 with special guest, Role Model.

Filling us in on what she’s most excited about on The Secret of Us Tour, Gracie shared, “Honestly I’m just excited to be back with everyone, I feel like the heart of tour is the people that you get to do it with both backstage and also the people that show up and make up the audience.”

“I've missed the community, and I feel like touring is such a specific environment and brings out like a very chaotic, beautifully chaotic side in people. So I've missed that kind of chaos and I'm excited to kind of just have a really fun loose tour.”

Sharing what fans can expect, and what makes this tour different from the previous, Gracie noted, “This is like a different scale for us… I mean, even seeing the stage yesterday for the first time was pretty mind blowing. I didn't even anticipate, even after having seen renders of the stage, it's just really wild when you're actually standing there and everything exists and is tangible.”

That being said, Gracie is no stranger to big stages, having opened up for artists like Noah Kahan, and of course, Taylor Swift. Revealing that stepping onto their stages inspired her when putting together her own show, Gracie revealed, “I think it's like infectious to be around artists that are great at what they do. And I think, you know, Noah and Taylor are both incredibly talented performers and both are so connected to their audiences. So I think more than anything, it just contributes to the itch of wanting to be back on stage.”

A feeling, that as an introvert, Gracie found surprising to crave. “I never thought when I started playing shows that I would miss it, just because it is… intense. And also even just socially for someone that leans kind of more on the introverted side, it can feel like a lot of almost overexposure. But then it's funny, I totally fell in love with what it is, to connect with people in that way.”

Though it might seem like The Secret of Us just dropped, because it kind of just did, Gracie, while enjoying it’s success and spoils, naturally already has her mind on what’s next. “I think after something's been released, I tend to just get this anticipatory anxiety around making the next thing. So I've started to feel that creep up.”

Part of that next step obviously includes her tour, which will of course get a heavy does of The Secret of Us tracklist added to the setlist. “Honestly it's been great just because I get to put all of that into the tour,” Gracie expressed. “But it does feel like I have just enough time where it's been out, that there's like some perspective of it, where I feel like I'm in a even slightly different place than when I wrote all the songs. Which is just, I'm always surprised by how quickly that feeling comes up, even though it consistently does happen every single time, I think it's just like songs are such a moment in time really.”

“It's funny how quickly life can change,” she continued. "Mostly I just am so thrilled about the opportunity to share in the kind of love that I have for the album with the people that are kind enough to come out to the shows.”

Gracie also chatted about her music videos, which despite being the daughter of JJ Abrams, she credited to coming from more of a creative or experimental self-expression.

Among the many facets of being a musician, which include vocals, performance, production, and so on, Gracie see’s herself, first and foremost as a songwriter. When asked if there’s a particular lyric that she loves or wishes she wrote, Gracie had the answer right away.

“I mean, like all of Adrianne Lenker’s music. I feel like everything that she's made I just, it feels like my ribs are breaking and my heart is split open. Just the most beautiful words every single time. So I'd say her entire discography.”

As for any of her tracks that with time past, she feels she would now rewrite or change, Gracie admitted “Yeah, of course,” however she’s “accepted that those songs just have to exist as they are.”

That being said, Gracie note that with live shows “you get to mess around with old songs and rearrange them. We've done that with some stuff this upcoming show. Just reimagining songs that I kind of have gotten a little bit tired of that I put out years ago. But if I take it and like restructure melodies and stuff, I have new love for lots of old songs now.”

Gracie went on to talk about her relationship with her fans, social media, what’s currently on her playlist, and her “pressure free” desire to close out the summer with writing “one more song that I really love that I can mark as the end of this season.”

To catch the entire conversation, check out Gracie’s Check In above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Back for another Audacy Check In now that her album has dropped, Gracie Abrams stopped by to chat with Bru all about The Secret of Us, and share what fans can expect from her upcoming headlining tour, plus a whole lot more.
Released June 21, <a href="https://www.audacy.com/topic/gracie-abrams">Gracie</a>’s sophomore album features lead singles, “Risk” and “Close To You,” as well as the standout track, “Us,” featuring Taylor Swift, who Gracie opened for on The Eras Tour last summer. Set to rejoin Swift for some additional dates this fall, Gracie also has tour plans of her own. Hitting up theaters across the United States from September 5 through October 10 with special guest, Role Model.
Filling us in on what she’s most excited about on The Secret of Us Tour, Gracie shared, “Honestly I’m just excited to be back with everyone, I feel like the heart of tour is the people that you get to do it with both backstage and also the people that show up and make up the audience.”
“I've missed the community, and I feel like touring is such a specific environment and brings out like a very chaotic, beautifully chaotic side in people. So I've missed that kind of chaos and I'm excited to kind of just have a really fun loose tour.”
Sharing what fans can expect, and what makes this tour different from the previous, Gracie noted, “This is like a different scale for us… I mean, even seeing the stage yesterday for the first time was pretty mind blowing. I didn't even anticipate, even after having seen renders of the stage, it's just really wild when you're actually standing there and everything exists and is tangible.”
That being said, Gracie is no stranger to big stages, having opened up for artists like Noah Kahan, and of course, Taylor Swift. Revealing that stepping onto their stages inspired her when putting together her own show, Gracie revealed, “I think it's like infectious to be around artists that are great at what they do. And I think, you know, Noah and Taylor are both incredibly talented performers and both are so connected to their audiences. So I think more than anything, it just contributes to the itch of wanting to be back on stage.”
A feeling, that as an introvert, Gracie found surprising to crave. “I never thought when I started playing shows that I would miss it, just because it is… intense. And also even just socially for someone that leans kind of more on the introverted side, it can feel like a lot of almost overexposure. But then it's funny, I totally fell in love with what it is, to connect with people in that way.”
Though it might seem like The Secret of Us just dropped, because it kind of just did, Gracie, while enjoying it’s success and spoils, naturally already has her mind on what’s next. “I think after something's been released, I tend to just get this anticipatory anxiety around making the next thing. So I've started to feel that creep up.”
Part of that next step obviously includes her tour, which will of course get a heavy does of The Secret of Us tracklist added to the setlist. “Honestly it's been great just because I get to put all of that into the tour,” Gracie expressed. “But it does feel like I have just enough time where it's been out, that there's like some perspective of it, where I feel like I'm in a even slightly different place than when I wrote all the songs. Which is just, I'm always surprised by how quickly that feeling comes up, even though it consistently does happen every single time, I think it's just like songs are such a moment in time really.”
“It's funny how quickly life can change,” she continued. "Mostly I just am so thrilled about the opportunity to share in the kind of love that I have for the album with the people that are kind enough to come out to the shows.”
Gracie also chatted about her music videos, which despite being the daughter of JJ Abrams, she credited to coming from more of a creative or experimental self-expression.
Among the many facets of being a musician, which include vocals, performance, production, and so on, Gracie see’s herself, first and foremost as a songwriter. When asked if there’s a particular lyric that she loves or wishes she wrote, Gracie had the answer right away.
“I mean, like all of Adrianne Lenker’s music. I feel like everything that she's made I just, it feels like my ribs are breaking and my heart is split open. Just the most beautiful words every single time. So I'd say her entire discography.”
As for any of her tracks that with time past, she feels she would now rewrite or change, Gracie admitted “Yeah, of course,” however she’s “accepted that those songs just have to exist as they are.”
That being said, Gracie note that with live shows “you get to mess around with old songs and rearrange them. We've done that with some stuff this upcoming show. Just reimagining songs that I kind of have gotten a little bit tired of that I put out years ago. But if I take it and like restructure melodies and stuff, I have new love for lots of old songs now.”
Gracie went on to talk about her relationship with her fans, social media, what’s currently on her playlist, and her “pressure free” desire to close out the summer with writing “one more song that I really love that I can mark as the end of this season.”
To catch the entire conversation, check out Gracie’s Check In above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Gracie Abrams | Audacy Check In | 9.3.24

Following the release of his summer singles singles "Out of Time” featuring Bea Miller and “Lucky” featuring Remi Wolf, and ahead of dropping his forthcoming album, Telos, out August 30, Zedd checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about both, plus a whole lot more.

Curious about how the final work comes together, Mike asked, “Were you able to get in studio with the majority of these people or does that just not happen that much anymore?”

“It depends,” Zedd admitted. “What I will very frequently do is I will ask singers to record a little demo for me just so I can feel the tone on a record and see if this is something that I think will fit.” Adding, “Now, when it matters, I will usually be in the studio and record them.”

“I think that's one of my strengths,” Zedd continued, “to get the best out of a singer and to make them feel comfortable and confident to sing they're heart out. So when it matters, when I record the final vocal, I will in 99% of cases, record the singers myself.”

Admittedly very demanding, and the type of producer to want to get as many takes to have the most amount of options possible, Zedd said, “Every singer temporarily hates me at the end of a session and I typically will stop just before the voice gives up. But the reason is because in the past I recorded a song where I had to have a singer come back to sing one singular word and I don't want to do that. Honestly, I do it for for the singer because I want them to be super happy.”

“I record an obscene amount of takes of everything in octaves and doubles and harmonies. But then in every case, when I then send them the final result, they're always so happy.”

Zedd recalled working with Bea Miller in the studio on his new album’s first single, as a prime example of a demanding studio sesh. “I think Bea Miller was one of the artists that I've probably pushed the hardest because the song is not easy to sing and it's in a really high range and she already was kind of unsure if she could do it.”

“I knew she could do it without a question,” he continued, “but I think there's so many vocals, vocal parts, and octaves… that like we really went up until the voice gave up.” Facetiously adding, “I think she still to this day has severe PTSD of recording with me.”

“She's funny because she's so good and she's such an incredible singer but she doesn't think of herself that way. I mean, she's very humble about her voice, but genuinely saved the song we did together because she brought an energy to the song that really was missing.”

Mike then recalled a time after Zedd’s 2018 hit track “The Middle” came out, there were many headlines reporting that “there were 5,000 demos from everybody from Camilla Cabello to Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha,” for the song, that ultimately went on to feature Maren Morris.

Referencing Zedd’s earlier comment, Mike inquired if it’s a regular occurrence for the producer to “have people record these demos… where you're shopping around a song?”

“Sometimes I bring a song to 80% and the only missing link is the final vocal and I just have a demo,” Zedd expressed. “And then it can get tricky and either nobody wants to sing it or everybody wants to sing it. Like in the case of ‘The Middle,’ where everybody wanted to be a part of it. But I didn't feel like anybody had everything that I wanted.”

When it comes to his forthcoming album Telos, Zedd revealed, that it “has much more been a case of me getting in the room with the singers and just working through it and figuring things out and doing it together.” Later on adding, “But yeah, it depends, sometimes I do shop for singers and the only way to do it properly is for everybody to record a little bit of a demo.”

“Sometimes that turns into like a full blown production and sometimes it turns into people being disappointed because they don't end up on the song and they spend time recording it. That happens unfortunately.” However, just because that particular song and artist combo didn’t work out, Zedd noted its not a hopeless cause. “The real ones, I still work with them, the ones that know that it might not be the one but another song.” Revealing that was actually the case on Telos, “I actually got to work with the people that I for so long wanted to work with,” Zedd said.

Before concluding the conversation, being that they were in the Hard Rock Artist Lounge, and the Hard Rock is known for its unique collection of items. Mike inquired what Zedd’s contribution would be. We can guarantee its not what you’d think.

To find out and catch more of the convo, listen to the entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Following the release of his summer singles singles "Out of Time” featuring Bea Miller and “Lucky” featuring Remi Wolf, and ahead of dropping his forthcoming album, Telos, out August 30, Zedd checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about both, plus a whole lot more.
Curious about how the final work comes together, Mike asked, “Were you able to get in studio with the majority of these people or does that just not happen that much anymore?”
“It depends,” Zedd admitted. “What I will very frequently do is I will ask singers to record a little demo for me just so I can feel the tone on a record and see if this is something that I think will fit.” Adding, “Now, when it matters, I will usually be in the studio and record them.”
“I think that's one of my strengths,” Zedd continued, “to get the best out of a singer and to make them feel comfortable and confident to sing they're heart out. So when it matters, when I record the final vocal, I will in 99% of cases, record the singers myself.”
Admittedly very demanding, and the type of producer to want to get as many takes to have the most amount of options possible, Zedd said, “Every singer temporarily hates me at the end of a session and I typically will stop just before the voice gives up. But the reason is because in the past I recorded a song where I had to have a singer come back to sing one singular word and I don't want to do that. Honestly, I do it for for the singer because I want them to be super happy.”
“I record an obscene amount of takes of everything in octaves and doubles and harmonies. But then in every case, when I then send them the final result, they're always so happy.”
Zedd recalled working with Bea Miller in the studio on his new album’s first single, as a prime example of a demanding studio sesh. “I think Bea Miller was one of the artists that I've probably pushed the hardest because the song is not easy to sing and it's in a really high range and she already was kind of unsure if she could do it.”
“I knew she could do it without a question,” he continued, “but I think there's so many vocals, vocal parts, and octaves… that like we really went up until the voice gave up.” Facetiously adding, “I think she still to this day has severe PTSD of recording with me.”
“She's funny because she's so good and she's such an incredible singer but she doesn't think of herself that way. I mean, she's very humble about her voice, but genuinely saved the song we did together because she brought an energy to the song that really was missing.”
Mike then recalled a time after Zedd’s 2018 hit track “The Middle” came out, there were many headlines reporting that “there were 5,000 demos from everybody from Camilla Cabello to Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha,” for the song, that ultimately went on to feature Maren Morris.
Referencing Zedd’s earlier comment, Mike inquired if it’s a regular occurrence for the producer to “have people record these demos… where you're shopping around a song?”
“Sometimes I bring a song to 80% and the only missing link is the final vocal and I just have a demo,” Zedd expressed. “And then it can get tricky and either nobody wants to sing it or everybody wants to sing it. Like in the case of ‘The Middle,’ where everybody wanted to be a part of it. But I didn't feel like anybody had everything that I wanted.”
When it comes to his forthcoming album Telos, Zedd revealed, that it “has much more been a case of me getting in the room with the singers and just working through it and figuring things out and doing it together.” Later on adding, “But yeah, it depends, sometimes I do shop for singers and the only way to do it properly is for everybody to record a little bit of a demo.”
“Sometimes that turns into like a full blown production and sometimes it turns into people being disappointed because they don't end up on the song and they spend time recording it. That happens unfortunately.” However, just because that particular song and artist combo didn’t work out, Zedd noted its not a hopeless cause. “The real ones, I still work with them, the ones that know that it might not be the one but another song.” Revealing that was actually the case on Telos, “I actually got to work with the people that I for so long wanted to work with,” Zedd said.
Before concluding the conversation, being that they were in the Hard Rock Artist Lounge, and the Hard Rock is known for its unique collection of items. Mike inquired what Zedd’s contribution would be. We can guarantee its not what you’d think.
To find out and catch more of the convo, listen to the entire interview above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

Zedd | Audacy Check In | 8.28.24

On the precipice of her brand new era, Katy Perry checked in with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about her upcoming performance plans, as well as receiving the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs, reflecting on everything she’s accomplished, and more.

By bidding adieu to her American Idol judging days, Katy has been able to make time and space for other things. "We're developing a big show. I'm going to be playing big, big shows on the album release on September 20 I'll be in Rio de Janeiro and playing Rock in Rio, and it's like over 100,000 people," Katy shared. "And then I get to go to Australia to play the Australian Football League game. It's kind of like the Super Bowl there, but their version of it.”

But before all that Katy will be attending the MTV VMAs to receive the Video Vanguard Award, revealing, “I get to just do a celebratory show,” where we’ll “get to hear the familiar songs and be introduced to some new ones.”

While Katy’s Vegas residency experience is great to have under her belt, the singer expressed how “totally different” it is than a tour, when it comes to coming up with creative concepts for the show. Explaining, “because with a tour show you have to move, you're on the go every single day. Vegas, you actually get to play with more toys and there's less restraints.”

“But… we’re trying, we're figuring some things out,” she continued. “I'm just excited to go out into the world again. It's been a minute… 2018 was my last tour. Then everything was on pause, and then I had my child and I was raising a whole human being very responsible for it, wanted to get it right. So far so good,” Katy jokingly added.

“I want to go tour and visit all of my fans who have come out so hard, and so supportive, and they have ridden so hard for me and, not to like be cheesy, but we have really loved each other for lifetimes,” Katy noted, plugging her latest single “LIFETIMES.”

“The truth is I’ve grown up with them and we've grown up together and we've kind of leaned on each other. I've seen photos of them when they're 13, and now 26, 28… It's amazing, they all have lives, families, some of them and it's so cute, it’s adorable and I really appreciate it. So I got to go give my love out and that's what I'm going to go do.”

For those of us, like Bru, who started listening to Katy in our formidable pre-teen/teenage years, we truly have grown up with her, and she’s grown up with us. Reflecting on what it’s like coming from her Warped Tour and “I Kissed a Girl” days to now receiving the Vanguard Award and reaching that icon status, Katy said, “I don't know… I mean, I still crowd surf… Look, I just, I’ve got some fun toys to play with now, and I’m very proud of everything I accomplished, and I really don't feel like I have anything to prove.”

“I’m creating from this abundance space and this artistic space… I said I always wanted to make a dance pop record, and so I feel like I've kind of checked that bucket list off for me. And there's a couple of records that I have in my mind that I still want to make, and I'll just go along that process if I get the opportunity to… This is a part of my purpose,” she went on to note, “this is a part of my vision for myself.”

Katy went on to talk about the calculated risk she took jumping 15-20 feet out of a helicopter in her “Woman’s World” music video. A risk, she revealed, her beau Orlando Bloom, wasn’t too keen on.

She also gabbed about her love and appreciation for lint rollers, and shared a special message to her fans listening, saying, “I just want to tell them I love them. I’m so excited to see them around the world. If you wanna have a fun dance party or if you want your spirits lifted, I think 143 will do the trick.”

Before closing out the convo, since she’ll no longer be guiding aspiring singers on American Idol, Bru asked Katy to offer up “advice to anyone” that wants to make it on the singing competition or just make it in music. To hear what she had to say and more, listen to Katy’s entire Check In above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

On the precipice of her brand new era, Katy Perry checked in with Audacy’s Bru to chat all about her upcoming performance plans, as well as receiving the Video Vanguard Award at the MTV VMAs, reflecting on everything she’s accomplished, and more.
By bidding adieu to her American Idol judging days, Katy has been able to make time and space for other things. "We're developing a big show. I'm going to be playing big, big shows on the album release on September 20 I'll be in Rio de Janeiro and playing Rock in Rio, and it's like over 100,000 people," Katy shared. "And then I get to go to Australia to play the Australian Football League game. It's kind of like the Super Bowl there, but their version of it.”
But before all that Katy will be attending the MTV VMAs to receive the Video Vanguard Award, revealing, “I get to just do a celebratory show,” where we’ll “get to hear the familiar songs and be introduced to some new ones.”
While Katy’s Vegas residency experience is great to have under her belt, the singer expressed how “totally different” it is than a tour, when it comes to coming up with creative concepts for the show. Explaining, “because with a tour show you have to move, you're on the go every single day. Vegas, you actually get to play with more toys and there's less restraints.”
“But… we’re trying, we're figuring some things out,” she continued. “I'm just excited to go out into the world again. It's been a minute… 2018 was my last tour. Then everything was on pause, and then I had my child and I was raising a whole human being very responsible for it, wanted to get it right. So far so good,” Katy jokingly added.
“I want to go tour and visit all of my fans who have come out so hard, and so supportive, and they have ridden so hard for me and, not to like be cheesy, but we have really loved each other for lifetimes,” Katy noted, plugging her latest single “LIFETIMES.”
“The truth is I’ve grown up with them and we've grown up together and we've kind of leaned on each other. I've seen photos of them when they're 13, and now 26, 28… It's amazing, they all have lives, families, some of them and it's so cute, it’s adorable and I really appreciate it. So I got to go give my love out and that's what I'm going to go do.”
For those of us, like Bru, who started listening to Katy in our formidable pre-teen/teenage years, we truly have grown up with her, and she’s grown up with us. Reflecting on what it’s like coming from her Warped Tour and “I Kissed a Girl” days to now receiving the Vanguard Award and reaching that icon status, Katy said, “I don't know… I mean, I still crowd surf… Look, I just, I’ve got some fun toys to play with now, and I’m very proud of everything I accomplished, and I really don't feel like I have anything to prove.”
“I’m creating from this abundance space and this artistic space… I said I always wanted to make a dance pop record, and so I feel like I've kind of checked that bucket list off for me. And there's a couple of records that I have in my mind that I still want to make, and I'll just go along that process if I get the opportunity to… This is a part of my purpose,” she went on to note, “this is a part of my vision for myself.”
Katy went on to talk about the calculated risk she took jumping 15-20 feet out of a helicopter in her “Woman’s World” music video. A risk, she revealed, her beau Orlando Bloom, wasn’t too keen on.
She also gabbed about her love and appreciation for lint rollers, and shared a special message to her fans listening, saying, “I just want to tell them I love them. I’m so excited to see them around the world. If you wanna have a fun dance party or if you want your spirits lifted, I think 143 will do the trick.”
Before closing out the convo, since she’ll no longer be guiding aspiring singers on American Idol, Bru asked Katy to offer up “advice to anyone” that wants to make it on the singing competition or just make it in music. To hear what she had to say and more, listen to Katy’s entire Check In above.
Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Bru

Katy Perry | Audacy Check In | 8.26.24

Listen as our favorite artists Check In for candid conversations about music and more.

Listen as our favorite artists Check In for candid conversations about music and more.

Audacy Check-In

Social links:

Follow the podcast:

262 clip(s)