Music Life

Floyd Lavine, Lakuti, Coco Em and Desiree discuss where their inspiration comes from, the challenges of being an African artist trying to tour, and the Afro boom. Floyd Lavine's sound takes in influences from his childhood listening to Kwaito, soul, jazz and South African house, alongside the house and techno club sounds of London, and his adopted home town of Berlin. He runs his own label Afrikan Tales, and produces for international labels like Innervisions and Ninja Tune.Lakuti is a DJ born in Soweto in South Africa, who since the early 90s has organised underground parties around the world. In 2007 she founded Uzuri Recordings, and later Uzuri artist Management. She’s also a resident at Berlin’s legendary Panorama Bar.Coco Em is a photojournalist turned DJ who was born in Kenya. She’s the founder of the Nairobi-based femme collective Sim Sima, which is also the name of her label. Last year she released her debut EP, Kilumi.Johannesburg-based DJ and producer Desiree’s been making waves with her impeccable selecting skills and eclectic tastes. She co-founded Boys Club, an electronic music events movement which seeks to empower femme DJs. She released her debut EP, Femme Tech, last summer.

Melike Şahin, Kutiman, Dijf Sanders and Ah! Kosmos discuss combining lyrics with music, working with others over long distances, and their favourite parts of the collaboration process.Melike Şahin was born in Istanbul, and developed a great interest in music as a child. After university she worked with Turkish psychedelic group Baba Zula, before beginning her solo career in 2017. Her sound navigates across Middle Eastern and Anatolian pop, and she collaborates with musicians from all over the world.Kutiman is an internationally revered producer, composer and animator from Israel who is constantly creating. He’s known for his dance and groove-orientated style, and prolific productions. He’s also responsible for the Thru You series, in which he mashes together unrelated YouTube videos to create original tracks. Dijf Sanders is a Belgian multi-instrumentalist and composer who specialises in experimental music and field recordings. Previously a member of synth-pop bands Teddiedrum and The Violent Husbands, his sonic universes explore electronica, jazz and psychedelia, enriching his sound with influences from across the world. Turkish composer, producer and performer Başak Günak, also known as Ah! Kosmos, uses polyrhythms and electronic composition to build immersive, mystical worlds of sound. Her works and sound installations have featured in festivals and institutions across the world, and as a performer she’s supported the likes of Sigur Rós, James Holden, and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.

Ffour artists who are playing Christine and the Queens’ Meltdown festival at the Southbank Centre in London - Sheila Maurice-Grey from Kokoroko Anja Plaschg (AKA Soap&Skin), Django Django’s Vinny Neff and Let's Eat Grandma’s Jenny Hollingworth - where to find inspiration outside of music, how to overcome creative blocks, and what they might be doing in a parallel universe.Sheila Maurice-Grey is a London-based trumpeter, vocalist and visual artist who leads eight-piece afrobeat, soul, funk and jazz collective Kokoroko. They released their self-titled debut EP in 2019 and their debut LP, Could We Be More, in 2022. They have played across the globe at the likes of Glastonbury, Jazz à la Villette, SIM São Paulo, Boiler Room, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Anja Plaschg, AKA Soap&Skin, is an Austrian experimental singer-songwriter. She’s released three albums, including From Gas to Solid/You Are My Friend in 2020. You might have heard her music in the TV series Breaking Bad or the film Sicilian Ghost Story, or even seen her on screen acting in the Austrian movie Stillleben.Vinny Neff is the singer and guitarist from British art rock band Django Django. He’s fresh from cooking up their fifth album, Off Planet, and they’re gearing up to tour this summer.Jenny Hollingworth is one half of ‘sludge pop’ group Let's Eat Grandma. Last year they released their third album Two Ribbons, and they also scored the soundtrack for the Netflix series The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself.

Cello players Peter Gregson, Dobrawa Czocher, Dom La Nena and Sebastian Plano discuss working with new collaborators, overcoming creative blocks, and how to define success.Peter Gregson took up cello at age four after seeing James Bond sled down a mountainside on a cello case in The Living Daylights. You may have heard his cello solos in the soundtrack to the BBC's Sherlock series, or on the album ÷ (Divide) by Ed Sheeran. He released his latest solo album, Patina, in 2021.Dobrawa Czocher is a Polish cellist who started playing at the age of seven. She’s an award-winning chamber and orchestra musician, and her motto is to never stop growing. At the start of 2023, she released her debut solo album, Dreamscapes.Brazilian-born, Paris-based cellist Dom La Nena spent her teenage years studying cello in Buenos Aires with the renowned Christine Walevska, before a pop apprenticeship backing Jane Birkin. She’s one half of Birds on a Wire, and her stage name translates as “Dom the Little Girl”, an allusion to her time as a child prodigy.Sebastian Plano is an Argentinian cellist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, who is best known for his unique approach to music creation: Uninterrupted nights playing and recording every single note by himself in his Berlin studio, layering each musical phrase at a time.

John Grant celebrates Music Life’s 200th episode with highlights from the shows to date. Nearly 800 singers, producers, DJs, visual artists, and performers have come to have a chat on the show so far, sharing their experiences and unique perspectives on their lives as musicians. To celebrate this milestone, this week we’re looking back at some of the best conversations from the series, featuring the likes of alt-pop artist Santigold, soul singer Gregory Porter, rock singer Skin from Skunk Anansie, rock legend Elvis Costello, video game composer Olivier Deriviere and Uruguayan legend Jorge Drexler.They take us on a journey through the songwriting process, discussing the merits of simplicity vs technique in recording, revealing insights into the processes of big stars, considering how to deal with the biggest topics within music, looking at the bigger picture, and finally the future of the music world. And yes, that involves AI!In its 4 years or so to date, Music Life has joined the dots between every genre of music imaginable and featured artists from every corner of the globe. We’ve heard Hans Zimmer explain how he went from playing in a new wave pop band to composing for the biggest films in the world, Santigold on how to use songwriting as an opportunity to make social commentary, Moonchild Sanelly on what she can’t say in her music, David Byrne on the pressure to do something different, Lykke Li on going it alone, Dele Sosimi on sustaining creativity, Angel Olsen on trying to not make ‘normal’ music, Kranium on how he made his best chorus, Iggy Pop on genre-crossing, Eris Drew on the importance of positivity in dance music, Mykki Blanco on the role of resistance in their work, and Becky Hill on how to write the perfect hit.

Deena Abdelwahed, 3Phaz, Aïsha Devi and débruit discuss the effect of using computers when writing music, dealing with the press and their labelling, and converting studio music into a live set.Deena Abdelwahed is a producer and DJ from Tunisia. She arrived in France at the age of 26 after earning her stripes in the Tunis scene as part of the Arabstazy collective. She has played for Boiler Room, and at iconic Berlin club Berghain. 3Phaz is a Cairo-based DJ obsessed with bass, distortion, and the deconstruction of the Shaabi aesthetic. If you don’t know it, Shaabi is an Egyptian musical genre coming from working-class roots and is the core of popular music in the country's streets. His self-titled debut album came out in 2020, and he describes his music as “post-Shaabi”.Aïsha Devi is a Swiss-Nepalese producer who co-founded the experimental club label Danse Noire. She applies meditation techniques in her approach to production, and describes herself as a “radical alchemist”. Her latest release was her EP S.L.F. (Spirit Liberation Front) in 2019, and she won the Swiss Music Prize in 2020.Xavier Thomas, aka débruit, is a French artist and musical explorer who imagines alternate worlds and the way they'd sound from his adopted home of Brussels. He explores complementary culture clashes, combining elements that have never existed together before. He’s also part of KOKOKO!, a collective born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Phil Selway, Hannah Peel, Valentina Magaletti, and Errollyn Wallen discuss how to progress from a blank page to a room full of musicians, navigating barriers to development, and balancing the various demands of being a musician.Phil Selway grew up in Oxfordshire and met his Radiohead bandmates at school. They formed the band in 1985 and released their debut album Pablo Honey in 1993. They’ve released nine studio albums to date. Phil’s debut solo album, Familial, came out in 2010, and he recently released his third solo album Strange Dance.Hannah Peel is a Mercury Prize and Emmy-nominated composer, musician, artist and broadcaster. Her music is primarily electronic and often includes classical scoring and sound design, with references to the links between science, nature and music. As well as solo releases, she has also composed soundtracks and collaborated with artists such as Paul Weller, John Foxx and Phil Selway.Valentina Magaletti is a drummer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, with an inventive approach to drums and percussion. She moves effortlessly between the seemingly disparate worlds of alternative and mainstream music. She’s played with artists such as Jandek, Mica Levi, Sampha, Kamasi Washington, and Nicolas Jaar.Errollyn Wallen is a multi award-winning Belize-born British composer and performer. Her output includes 22 operas and a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber, and vocal works. She composed for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games and for the climate change conference COP26. In 2020, she was awarded a CBE for services to music.

Sam Ryder, Mr. Lordi, Teya and Poli Genova discuss writing for Eurovision, how it impacts their creative process, and how they handle nerves on stage.Sam Ryder was inspired to get into music after seeing Sum 41 in concert when he was 11. He took up the guitar after seeing Lordi win Eurovision in 2006, and was also influenced by David Bowie and Queen. He co-founded a band called The Morning After, and during the first Covid lockdown he started posting cover songs on TikTok, which caught the attention of Elton John, Justin Bieber and Alicia Keys. One of the songs he wrote during the pandemic was called Space Man; it went on to be the UK's 2022 Eurovision entry, finishing second behind Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra. Mr. Lordi is the lead singer and costume maker of Finnish heavy metal group Lordi. The monster mask-wearing band won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 with Hard Rock Hallelujah. Poli Genova's music career began aged 4, as a member of the children’s ensemble Bon-Bon. Since then, she’s represented Bulgaria at Eurovision twice, has appeared as a coach or mentor on The Voice of Bulgaria and X Factor Bulgaria, has had three #1 singles, and hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2015.Teya is one half of Teya & Salena, the first-ever female duo to compete for Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest. They’re entering this year’s competition with a song about being possessed by the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe.

Soweto Kinch, Eska, Esperanza Spalding and Tumi Mogorosi discuss responding artistically to lockdown, changing the ways they create and release music, and the latest idea they got excited about.Soweto Kinch was born in London to a Bajan father and British-Jamaican mother, and began learning saxophone at the age of nine. He discovered jazz in his teenage years and subsequently fell in love with it, with early influences including Wynton Marsalis and Frank Holder. He established the Soweto Kinch Trio in 2001, and has released albums on themes ranging from austerity and modern slavery, to mathematics. His most recent project, White Juju, came out last December, recorded alongside Lee Reynolds and the London Symphony Orchestra.Eska is a vocalist, composer and producer with Zimbabwean heritage who grew up in London. She makes genre-hopping soul music with folk, jazz, reggae and classical influences. Her eponymous debut album was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Prize.South African drummer Tumi Mogorosi's music transcends labels and styles. His flexible, powerful drumming brings a distinctive South African inflection to the polyrhythmic tradition of Elvin Jones, Max Roach and Art Blakey. His powerful new album Group Theory: Black Music came out last July.Esperanza Spalding is a Grammy-award winning bassist, singer and composer from Portland, Oregon, who has consistently pushed boundaries and married genres in her illustrious career. She’s a breathtaking performer who has made her mark not just as a virtuoso jazz bassist or incredible singer, but as a hybrid of the two.

Gaye Su Akyol, Dana Colley, Marc Ribot and Via Mardot discuss who they would most like to collaborate with, how they deal with the politics of the industry, and which musician or band has been a game changer in their lives.Gaye Su Akyol was born in Istanbul to an artistic family. Her father Muzaffer Akyol was a painter, and her mother loved Turkish classical music. She listened to a lot of Turkish jazz and psychedelia growing up, along with bands like Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, which influenced her own songwriting. Her latest album is called Anadolu Ejderi (Anatolian Dragon), and one of her biggest inspirations is her home town of Istanbul.Dana Colley is a saxophonist from Massachusetts in the USA. He was the co-founder and baritone and tenor saxophone player in the band Morphine, and also a visual artist who studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.Marc Ribot is an American guitarist whose work has touched many styles, including no wave, free jazz and Cuban music. He’s known as the go-to guitar guy for all kinds of people: Tom Waits, Robert Plant and Elvis Costello, to name a few of the stars he’s worked alongside.Via Mardot is a composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist from Detroit. Her music has been heavily influenced by film music - classical, exotica, spaghetti westerns, noir - and she even plays the theremin!