Bringin' it Backwards

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Conor Matthews on the phone! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​​ ​​ ​​BIO ​​"You could practically watch the scene unfold in slow motion. ​​ ​​A classic coupe pulls up, and Conor Matthews steps out like a character from some timeless flick. With effusive charisma, Midwest manners, old school charm, R&B swagger, and no filter, he brings blunt authenticity to his patented raw pop sound. After posting up over 25 million streams and receiving looks from Billboard, Idolator, Refinery29, and more, the singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer invites everyone to join him for a wild ride on his 2020 EP, Heartbreak In The Hills [Warner Records]. ​​ ​​"I wanted to showcase the parts of a breakup that can be exciting and fun, because you're casting off weights you didn't know you had and embracing life to the fullest–meeting new people, new friends, and lots of new experiences," he explains. "I was having the time of my life, post a toxic three-year relationship. To me, it felt like what a summer breakup feels like. Half of my heart was bleeding, but the other half was LIT. Rather than telling this like a sad boy, I wanted people to be able to bump this EP. I'm continuing to iron out my lane and embrace all of the influences from pop to R&B. This project adds a piece to the narrative of who I am as a person and an artist." ​​ ​​It also represents the culmination of a quiet grind that began in his Illinois hometown "where the suburbs meet the farmland." Plucked out of his freshman year at Belmont University, he landed a publishing deal with Keith Urban and Warner Chappell Music. During a long road trip, he expanded his palette from Tim McGraw and Brad Paisley to Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, Usher, and Tank as well as classic rock bands. ​​ ​​In 2018, he kicked off his solo career. Incorporating Nashville-style storytelling and vivid lyrics into a slick pop landscape, his breakthrough independent single "Forever Right Now" generated upwards of 7 million Spotify streams and counting. Signing to Warner Records, he took off on the 2020 Balloons EP highlighted by "Older" [2.2 million Spotify streams]. Along the way, Conor crafted Heartbreak In The Hills with a collective of collaborators dubbed Hollywood Hillbillies in Los Angeles, Denver, and Nashville. ​​ ​​Now, he ignites this ride with the first single "Way Out." A woozy melody echoes as he cycles through fluttering runs above a slick bass line and airy beat. He paints an honest picture punctuated by lines such as, "she back in my old sweater," "traded a Four Runner for a Mercedes," and his personal favorite, "I'm not a homewrecker. It's a renovation." ​​"It's a prequel to the story," he goes on. "Toxic relationships are the hardest to let go of. You move on from your ex. You start seeing other people, and then you rekindle an old flame. She breaks up with her new guy when you're in town. It's an upbeat summer jam. I tackled a taboo subject from a different angle." ​​ ​​Following this thread, "Hit Me Back" hinges on a sing-song chant, "She don't hit me back no more, wanna hit it like before," over a hypnotic harmony. The intoxicating and infectious "Drunk" depicts "the reason she doesn't hit you back, because you're drunk and being ignorant and shit," he explains. "It's the brother to 'Hit Me Back'." ​​Then, there's "S EX." His clever lyricism takes the spotlight as he coyly brags, "You know if your sex life was a playlist, I'm your greatest hit." Everything concludes on the title track "Heartbreak In The Hills." Slick raps skate across a skittering bounce before climaxing on the ultimate late night in the hills. ​​ ​​"It's the culmination of the EP," he explains. "I'm being coy and saying, 'This isn't even bad. I'm having the time of my life'. It opens with me arriving at some mansion. I've got my new girl, and we're going hard until the morning. You can practically see the party." ​​ ​​Accompanied by a narrative series --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Betcha over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​"Betcha are carving their own path and have a distinctness to their sound…" ​​-BAEBLE ​​ ​​"A band that prides itself on the energy it generates in a live performance…" ​​-AMERICAN SONGWRITER ​​ ​​"A dynamic sound that spans across alternative rock and pop…" ​​-ONES TO WATCH ​​ ​​BETCHA UNVEIL INFECTIOUS NEW SINGLE, "IF THAT'S ALRIGHT" ​​ ​​NASHVILLE-BASED BAND RETURN WITH CATCHY NEW SINGLE ACCOMPANIED BY HIGH-ENERGY, PERFORMANCE-BASED VIDEO WITH A CAMEO BY BRISTON MARONEY ​​ ​​"Nashville-based alt-rock band Betcha has released their eagerly- awaited new single, "If That's Alright," the first release from the band since their critically-acclaimed debut EP, FALLING, last year. The single was written by the band and Brian Phillips (blink-182, Saint Motel, COIN) and is accompanied by a fun, performance-based visual directed by Joey Brodnax – now streaming on the group's official YouTube channel. "If That's Alright" is available now via all digital music retailers and streaming services https://atlantic.lnk.to/IfThatsAlrightFA. ​​ ​​The high-energy, fun-loving band are bringing their electrifying live show on the road with indie-pop band WLDLFE this spring. The can't miss tour kicks off in Pittsburgh on April 9 and wraps May 15th in St. Louis. The epic tour will feature shows at New York's legendary Rough Trade on April 14th and Los Angeles' Moroccan Lounge on May 9th. For all tickets and information visit http://betchaband.com/. ​​ ​​Betcha has quickly drawn the attention of critics and fans alike with their idiosyncratic fusion of sweetly stoned rock, alternative electronica, and punchy pop anthems. "Betcha is one of those bands you should get to know," raved Baeble. "They are carving their own path and have a distinctness to their sound." Ones To Watch hailed "Lucy Lucy" as an "alternative rock banger with vintage vibes," while further commending the band for "a dynamic sound that spans across alternative rock and pop." ​​ ​​The tried-and-true configuration of a four-piece rock band has long unlocked an endless array of possibilities. The quartet – Charlie Greene (vocals, guitar), Ben Booth (lead guitar), Taylor Dubray (bass, keys), and Chase Wofford (drums) – first united at Nashville's Belmont University, winning a school-sponsored "Battle of the Bands" whilst still known as Wilder. Fueled by support from GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Kaleo), the band recorded a series of demos that ultimately saw them signed to the legendary Atlantic Records roster. In 2018, they rechristened themselves as Betcha – an amalgamation of the first letters of each member's name (Ben, Taylor, Charlie, and Chase) – and moved into a shared house in Nashville where they still hang out, writing, recording, and pushing their unique strain of 21st-century rock music further than ever before." ​​ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​ ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/​​ ​​#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Best Ex over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​"Good At Feeling Bad (release date: May 22, 2020 via No Sleep Records and Alcopop Records in the UK) is the follow-up to Best Ex's debut EP ICE CREAM ANTI-SOCIAL (2017), and it's a balance of the yin and yang of Mariel Loveland's life from the past two years (with some lyrics dating back to 2015). Loveland says that over the course of writing this album, she's gotten a little bit better at existing in her daily life in spite of whatever undesirable and earth-shattering thing is happening. "It's like I've found a compartment somewhere in my body to just throw all the bad stuff, roll my eyes, and hope the locker still closes all the way at the end of the day," she explains. "I'm not sure you ever get over the fear of happily waking up to read the news and discovering awful things about people you love, your life, or the world. But, at this point, when something bad happens, I think, 'Oh, of course'. That's when I decided to name my EP Good At Feeling Bad." ​​ ​​The second single off the EP, the dazzling indie synth pop "Gap Tooth (On My Mind)", is about the terrible feeling of getting lost in someone else's life. "When I wrote it, I had been living on and off in England for the last few years with my then-boyfriend and his family," she explains to FLOOD who premiered the video. "I started to realize over the course of our relationship that my life completely dissolved into his, which I think can happen when you're dealing with a partner who's suffering from depression. I had become so obsessed with caring for him and making him happy that one day, I woke up with an entirely different life in a foreign country. The future looked fantastic, so when he decided to dump me in a short phone call right before the holidays, it felt like someone had broken in and robbed me of my entire life in the middle of the night. I spent all of Christmas crying and the entire New Year's begging my mom to come pick me up from my brother's house. A few months later, I wrote this song." ​​ ​​The first single off the EP, "Bad Love", is a melancholic dark pop song that revels in minor keys while Loveland's clear and emotive vocals tell the universal story of poor decisions turning into bad love. Likewise she says, "Lemons" though one of the peppiest tracks on the album, came from a really lonely place of realizing that most of the friends she thought she'd have forever - the kind of people she pictured next to her at her future wedding or babysitting their future kids - were quick to ditch her when things got tough. The most difficult track to write, however, was the menacing "Feed The Sharks." She started writing this track nearly a year after admitting publicly that she suffered abuse and it absolutely spiraled in the press in a way she didn't think was possible. "This is going to sound painfully millennial, but I remember standing on a street corner with an acai bowl, so happy they included this beautiful edible flower in my takeout order, thinking that things were finally looking up. Then I refreshed my social media and saw that days, later, someone finally published his public response. Almost none of it was true, but it seemed like everybody believed him and nothing would make it go away." ​​ ​​The melancholic ballad "Two Of Us" could actually be seen as a love letter for friendships, though it's the most somber track on the EP. The high energy "Good At Feeling Bad", an uplifting track about remembering that people can be good even if the world has been unkind, closes out the EP with a major boost. It was written when she was splitting time between England and New Jersey while on her usual bus route in Kent. "I was planning on refilling my reusable bus pass but realized I didn't have enough UK currency. A stranger ended up giving me £10 - I only needed 50p - just in case I needed extra if something else happened, and I thought, ' --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Jared Navarre of Static Cycle over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​​ ​​ ​​"When Static Cycle lead vocalist Jared Navarre hit the scene at age 19, MTV called him 'the greatest young frontman in rock." An epic showman, the Alaska native learned to play and write music at an early age, establishing a reputation for being high-flying onstage and explosive on the mic. Now, 5 years after leaving Alaska to hone his craft in Nashville and 200 songs later, Nevarre is ready to debut his new sound that will soon be accompanied by an insane, genre-shattering life show that is an incredible hybrid between Cirque Du Soleil, live theatre and hard rock." ​​ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​ ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com ​​https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the pleasure of interviewing Tim of OK Go over the phone! ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ "Formed as a quartet in Chicago in 1998 and relocated to Los Angeles three years later, OK Go (Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka, Andy Ross) have spent their career in a steady state of transformation. The four songs of the all-new Upside Out EP represent the first preview of Hungry Ghosts, due out in the fall on the band's own Paracadute. This is the band's fourth full-length and the newest addition to a curriculum vitae filled with experimentation in a variety of mediums. The band worked with longtime producer and friend Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Weezer, MGMT), while also enlisting a new collaborator in Los Angeles, veteran Tony Hoffer, (Beck, Phoenix, Foster the People) to create their most comfortable and far-reaching songs yet. Building on (and deconstructing) 15 years of pop-rock smarts, musical friendship, and band-of-the-future innovations the EP, Upside Out, offers a concise overview of forthcoming Hungry Ghosts' melancholic fireworks ("The Writing's on the Wall"), basement funk parties ("Turn Up The Radio"), IMAX-sized choruses ("The One Moment"), and space-age dance floor bangers ("I Won't Let You Down"). Drawn from the same marching orders issued to big-hearted happiness creators as Queen, T. Rex, The Cars or Cheap Trick, and a lifetimeof mixed tapes exchanged by lifelong music fans, Upside Out is a reaffirmation of the sounds and ideas that brought the band together in the first place. The four songs provide an assured kick-off to a new sequence of interconnected performances, videos, dances, and wild, undreamt fun. "As the band has evolved over the last 15 years, the creative palettewe work with has expanded in so many unexpected and gratifying directions," says frontman Damian Kulash. "This record feels like it's the musical manifestation of that — like we can speak in a clearer voice when we are playing in a bigger sandbox. Just as the band's whole project became clearer to us as we learned to find more homes forour creativity — we triangulated it from more directions. And, I think the music itself has gotten more focused for similar reasons. We went in with fewer preconceptions of who we are or what our sound is, and came out with a record that sounds much more uniquely our own because of it." Continuing a career that includes viral videos, New York Times op-eds, a major label split and the establishment of a DIY trans-media mini- empire, collaborations with pioneering dance companies and tech giants, animators and Muppets, OK Go continue to fearlessly dream and build new worlds in a time when creative boundaries have all but dissolved." ​​https://www.instagram.com/okgo/ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ ​​#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing songwriters/producers George Panagopoulos and Mark McMaster of Radio Free Universe and Jetpack Records over Zoom audio! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​Radio Free Universe is - George Panagopoulos [vocals, guitar], Steve Pelletier [bass], Adam Neumann [guitar], Ashton Norman [drums], and Vincent Sciara [keys]. ​​ ​​The band has paved the way for the Love with a pair of singles in 2019. Fusing airy acoustic strumming and a stark vocal, "Even Angels" has clocked over 110K Spotify streams and the soulful strut of "She's High Again" surpassed 66K Spotify streams in just a few months. "Never will you find a more innovative way of shaking up the typical three-minute, listener-friendly indie rocker that has existed for over half a century" -- Pure Grain Audio. ​​ ​​See the video for Even Angels here - https://youtu.be/yRF3bxURhUk ​​ ​​See the video for She's High Again here - https://youtu.be/gRJujcpohu4 ​​ ​​About Jetpack Records and Sanctuary Recording Studio: "Jetpack is an independent record label founded in Hamilton, Canada in 2016 by Panagopoulos and McMaster. A few years before the two met McMaster had purchased a century-old inner-city church and converted it into a premiere recording studio outfitted with top shelf analog gear. The two started writing and recording together and by the end of 2014 they became partners in Downtown Hamilton's Sanctuary Recording Studio. Bringing their collective vision to life, the two incorporate a hybrid of the best of both old-school and modern technology and methods, both in the recording studio and on the songs on Radio Free Universe's album Love." ​​ ​​More information can be found here: ​​https://jetpackrecords.com/ ​​https://radiofreeuniverse.ca/ ​​https://www.facebook.com/radiofreeuniverse ​​https://twitter.com/RFUniverse ​​https://www.instagram.com/radiofreeuniverse/ ​​https://www.youtube.com/user/RadioFreeUniverse ​​https://open.spotify.com/artist/1zFTiW1QT1MQzYL9iU7mHv ​​ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​ ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ ​​ ​​#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom #radiofreeuniverse --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Broadside over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​The band recently announced that they have signed to SharpTone Records and released a brand new single called "Foolish Believer." ​​ ​​"Richmond, VA – March 20, 2020 – With an unrivaled passion and a deep determination to succeed, Broadside are thrilled to announce that they have signed to independent label SharpTone Records. The band is making their label debut with brand new single "Foolish Believer," streaming now at shrptn.co/foolishbeliever. ​​ ​​"We've been working side by side with Shawn for years and he has helped us out a great deal as our manager," shares vocalist Ollie Baxxter. "It feels more than natural to be signed to SharpTone for the next step of our career." ​​ ​​He continues: "When I was 11 years old, I would sit on the edge of my bed and look at the cheap Walmart mirror hanging on the back of my bedroom door and pity the reflection. I realized at a young age I hated being alone even though I was incredibly good at it. Now, as an adult, I find myself chasing a dream that feels unattainable in hopes that I don't have to see what I once did. I pay my own rent, I can afford a better mirror but the reflection still feels the same. I just want to be remembered. That's the moral of the song. It's selfish, to dream as much as I do but I'm sick of pretending I'm fine behind closed doors, I'm just not." ​​ ​​Oliver Baxxter grew up in a trailer park, sharing a room with his mother, stepfather, and brother. When he was 11, his stepdad died, leaving him fatherless for a second time. Even when the family moved into a better home, in Richmond, Virginia, Ollie felt worthless. Fast forward to young adulthood when his band, Broadside, crested on a wave of two well-received pop-punk albums and tours across America and Europe, only to come crashing down with lineup changes and behind-the-scenes frustrations. That familiar feeling of isolation returned. And it lit a fire. ​​ ​​Ollie dusted himself off and leapt forward, leading to a Broadside that sounds like a brand-new band. Though the backstory is no less impressive. ​​ ​​"Coffee Talk," from the band's 2015 debut album, Old Bones, has been streamed more than 13 million times on Spotify. Songs like "Come & Go" and "Storyteller" likewise became anthems for an audience in tune with Ollie's tales of brokenness and triumph, as the band were hailed as part of the vanguard of a punk-rooted pop rock resurgence. They spent 2016 on tour with likeminded bands on the Vans Warped Tour and with State Champs. The Billboard Heatseekers smash Paradise (2017), like its predecessor, was produced by Kyle Black (All Time Low, New Found Glory). A UK run co-headlining alongside With Confidence and a tour with Silverstein and Tonight Alive were no less successful, culminating in a return to Warped Tour in 2018. But trouble loomed on the horizon, as the band's earlier lineup disintegrated, and label frustrations mounted." ​​ ​​"After the 2018 Warped Tour, I was in this downward spiral of questioning. What is my purpose? I felt like I was in a box," Ollie recalls. "Everyone was looking at me, like, 'Your move. What are you going to do?' But I'm sitting there questioning myself. 'Can I pick the pieces up?' I realized the thing that's kept me going, since the days when we were paid in French fries, is that there was never a 'Plan B' for me. I want to be something more than where I came from, more than I am." ​​ ​​Ollie isn't ashamed to have grown up poor; he'll self-deprecatingly mention his "daddy issues"; and he's a longtime champion of the broken. But Broadside stands for overcoming those things. ​​ ​​"From the very beginning, my attitude was: I don't have shit to look forward to and everything behind me is trash, so I'm going to make myself the hero of my own story," he explains. "I've always known struggle. As I get older, it's more mental than physical, but it's always --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

We had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Silverman over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​Eric Silverman releases debut solo EP Rookie produced by Grammy-nominated Damien Lewis. ​​Buy the EP here: https://ericsilverman.bandcamp.com/album/rookie ​​ ​​"Silverman and producer Lewis met while working on San Francisco darling pop-rock band, HEARTWATCH, where he made a name for himself as their driving force and bandleader. When the two went into the studio in late 2019 they were looking to explore a feeling and sound for a later project but emerged a week later with a record that establishes Silverman's voice as a solo artist. ​​ ​​Craving a new musical path Silverman is branching out on Rookie for a return to deeper songwriting and a chance to write music that really speaks to people at this troubling time in our world. The retro feeling and powerful opener "As My Country Drifted Away (I Got Stoned)" has a wild yet melodic quality to it as it bursts forth in glorious bombast. While driving rhythms guide the powerful title track "Rookie" which features some amazing guitar riffs. "Reno Nights" is filled with catchy melodies, while wah-wah guitar adds to the inherent funkiness and swagger of "Losing Touch". Stripping everything away "Living in Your Mind" opts for a sense of intimacy to close out the EP. Throughout Silverman's vocals add to the joyous flavor of the work and his lyrics veer into pure poetry." ​​ ​​"People talk, they should scream," Eric Silverman exclaims on the song and video for "As My Country Drifted Away (I Got Stoned)" see it here: https://youtu.be/Q6mFxAA3B9g ​​ ​​https://www.facebook.com/songsfromericsilverman/ ​​https://www.instagram.com/ericsilverman ​​ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​ ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/ ​​ ​​#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #zoom --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Josie Dunne over Zoom video! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​"When most effective, music possesses an almost supernatural ability to take listeners on a vibrant journey. Listen closely to a well-constructed song, and an artist's pathway to the present comes into laser-sharp focus. To that end, if ever one was curious where Josie Dunne stands at a given point in her life, her sophisticated and ever-soulful songs told the tale. Songwriting then, for the 22-year old breakout singer, has always been a matter of "deep diving into who you are as a person," she offers. Because you have to be super self-aware to figure out your sound." Having worked as a professional songwriter since age 16, and now on the cusp of releasing Late Teens Early Twenties, her soul-baring second EP for Atlantic Records, Dunne says in so many ways we have been and are continuing to play witnesses in real time to her self-discovery. ​​ ​​"You're hearing me grow up — the real growth spurt," the singer says of her meandering road towards finding herself and, in the process, her unique brand of soul-infected pop. On Late Teens Early Twenties, a collage of sweet-and-sticky pop and timeless soul, "You're seeing me learn these lessons for the first time," Dunne says of her warts-and-all storytelling that, in conjunction with an electrifying sonic evolution, makes her one of the most thrilling, buzzed-about young pop stars of the moment. ​​ ​​To hear Dunne tell it, Late Teens Early Twenties is the clearest distillation of her sonic and lyrical maturation. The process of constructing To Be The Little Fish, her debut EP released last year via Atlantic, was a soul and sound-searching process Dunne likens to a healthy dose of trial and error. Only a teenager at the time, she experimented with a mélange of sounds and styles. Not until she wrote and recorded "Old School," that EP's centerpiece and her breakout single, did she feel she'd truly found her musical voice. "When we wrote Old School," she says of the sticky-sweet single directly inspired by her parents' relationship, "everything shifted. I was like, Boom! That's the direction!" she recalls, noting how prior to its completion she'd felt compelled to write for any and every genre, but in pinning down what made her tick -- fresh and funky soul music with a contemporary pop flair-- she finally felt at home. ​​ ​​And, not surprisingly, her evolution as a songwriter and artists has only continued: Dunne's new music is the result of endless sonic tweaking and intense self-examination – a process that first began in her middle school years when she'd post cover songs to YouTube and play local bars and restaurants in her native Chicago suburbs, and was aided by her endlessly supportive family of artists. "Everyone in my family is super-creative, Dunne says. "All of my siblings do something in the arts. They're my biggest fans. I don't know how I could have done it without them. To that end, her sister, Maisy Dunne, choreographed and stars in an alternative dance video for "Ohh La La," the infectious single from Late Teens she released earlier this year. ​​ ​​"I have such a different viewpoint now," Dunne says of the songs that comprise her bold new EP. In addition to opening herself up like never in her songs, the singer-songwriter injected them with a diverse palette of influence that more accurately reflects her current musical tastes ​​ ​​"Listen," she continues. "A shirt that I would wear as a 17-year old I'm not really trying to wear now. And it's the same with songs." It's why, Dunne says, while her latest work undoubtedly pays tribute to her longtime love affair with vintage soul, it also points to an ever-growing love of mainstream pop and hip-hop. ​​ ​​Dunne points to "Ooh La La" as a major turning point in her artistic advancement. Its initial spark occurring when holed up in a hotel room on a songwriting retreat in Las Vegas ("I have all --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/

​​We had the pleasure of interviewing Josh Speers over the phone! ​​ ​​Please share while we are #togetherathome ​🏠​ ​​ ​​"Josh Speers is your quintessential All-American hero. A blue-collar rock songwriter, a motorcyclist, a lover of baseball, an extremely well-read guy. On paper he sounds made up, like Dean Moriarty. A workman who has been a pottery apprentice, a carpenter, a busboy, an assistant to a governor, a nanny, a baseball coach; a hopeless romantic who looks like a walking black-and-white Herb Ritts portrait. ​​ ​​One of four brothers from Delaware, Josh moved out to Los Angeles in 2018 to take a real shot at a music career, where he wound up finding kindred spirits in the likes of songwriter Tommy English (Kacey Musgraves) and producer Lars Stalfors (St. Vincent, Cold War Kids), who largely wrote and produced Human Now with Speers, as well as Jon Castelli (Khalid, Summer Walker x Drake) who mixed several songs on the EP. While missing the East Coast amid a breakup, the task of being more honest than ever about his experiences forced him to see himself in his least comfortable form. The result is Human Now, named in reference to a WH Auden poem. ​​ ​​Human Now begins with the epic song "Bad Night" and continues with the synth-y ode to solitude "Happy Birthday You're Alone." "Can I Fall In Love With A Broken Heart," which features a string arrangement written and performed by Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Alabama Shakes, Arcade Fire), isn't just a song title but a very literal question he was trying to answer. "Oh Brother" is a self-aware reckoning about doomed romance. "Stray Bullets" is a tongue-in-cheek meditation on breaking free from our overstimulated world. The songs are inspired by essayist Didion whose main writing goal was always to incorporate honesty, to describe "how it felt to be me." ​​ ​​We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com ​​ ​​www.BringinitBackwards.com https://americansongwriter.com/american-songwriter-podcast-network/bringin-it-backwards-podcast/​​ ​​#podcast #interview #bringinbackpod #foryou #foryoupage #stayhome #togetherathome #phoner #joshspeers #joshuaspeers --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bringinbackpod/support Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bringin-it-backwards--4972373/support. https://bringinitbackwards.com/