Music Life

Branko, Rita Vian, Dino D'Santiago and ZenGxrl discuss creating music in post-pandemic Lisbon, the balancing of new and traditional sounds, and loving the flaws of the voice.DJ and producer Branko draws inspiration from the music and the people across the Portuguese-speaking world, first as part of rap group Buraka som Sistema and then as a standalone artist, fusing techno and global club sounds with Zouk and Angolan Kuduro music. Rita Vian is a Portuguese singer who combines both traditional fado and electronic sounds. Her 2020 single Purga was named as one of Tidal's best songs of the year. Singer and former Music Life host Dino D’Santiago is one of the biggest names in Portuguese music, and his most recent album BADIU connects electronic music, Zouk, and hip-hop. ZenGxrl is an exciting new DJ and model who has been playing sets in some of the best clubs across Portugal.

Natalia Lacunza, Birdy, Matt Maltese and Silvana Estrada talk about the importance of being your own friend, out-of-body experiences when playing live, how being in the studio is like being a child again, and how they find the middle ground between self-doubt and ego.Spanish singer-songwriter Natalia Lacunza's music career was kickstarted by her appearance on the TV singing competition Operación Triunfo. Her music blends elements of bedroom pop with electronic overtones and heartfelt lyrics.Mexican singer and composer Silvana Estrada's music reimagines the legacy of Latin American song in her own personal, poetic style. She has performed internationally with artists including former Music Life host Jorge Drexler.Matt Maltese's sweeping indie ballads have taken TikTok by storm, and led him to be described as "the UK’s answer to Father John Misty". His track As the World Caves In has over 200 million streams on Spotify.UK singer-songwriter Birdy first shot to fame at the age of 14 with her cover of Bon Iver’s track Skinny Love. She’s since released four albums of her own magical indie folk, and her music has featured on the soundtrack of films such as The Hunger Games and The Fault In Our Stars.

Bonnie Banane, HSRS, Sébastien Forrester, Photay and QuinzeQuinze's Tsi Min discuss downloading ideas, why music is like a dish with an infinite number of ingredients, and the importance of not drowning in words.Tsi Min formed the French-Tahiti group QuinzeQuinze with a bunch of close friends who met at art school in Paris. Their music is electronic in nature, but draws on the sounds and traditions of their French-Polynesian heritage. French alt-pop star Bonnie Banane has a unique experimental sound that blends R&B and electronic music, and is known for some pretty eccentric music videos. Julie Bessard, otherwise known as HSRS, is a transgressive pop artist from France who started singing and producing in 2004 under the moniker BESSA. Sébastien Forrester is a French-British drummer and composer who was formerly known as Holy Strays. After spending lots of time in Gabon growing up, he developed a passion for percussion, particularly the Bwiti ritual drums. Photay is an electronic music producer based in New York, who is a master of combining natural and synthetic sounds. Being introduced to Aphex Twin at the age of nine provided him with the foundation for his musical journey, and he’s also a member of the Afro-Latin electronic collective WEMA.

Nova Twins, Cassyette, Dream Wife's Alice Go and Theresa Jarvis of Yonaka discuss how their music is like a lair full of poisonous frogs, writing in windowless rooms, how laptops have been an intimate sketchpad for the way they write music, making unusual sounds with smashed glass, and why a song doesn’t have to be personal to be meaningful.Nova Twins are one of the most exciting bands of the last 20 years. Amy and Georgia bring their metal energy to new audiences around the world, and have been friends since childhood. Alice Go is a guitarist and singer with Dream Wife, a punk band known for their lively on-stage performances and powerful feminist anthems. Theresa Jarvis leads the quartet Yonaka, who have gained a massive reputation in the British alt-rock scene for their heavy riffs and wild live shows. And London-based Cassyette's provocative blend of nu-metal and electro-pop has been winning fans since she dropped her debut single Jean in 2019.

Jessie Ware, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dave Okumu and Eska discuss why you shouldn’t appease anybody with your music, loving the souls of your audience, keeping in your mistakes, why music is an essential part of existence, being a jack of all trades, and why finishing a song isn’t necessarily a process of letting go.The legendary Grace Jones curates this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre, London, so Music Life is bringing together a selection of artists playing, and some of their musical friends. Jessie Ware has sold millions of records all over the world. After receiving a Mercury Prize nomination in 2012 for her debut album Devotion, she has become one of the biggest names in pop over the last decade.German-born, US-raised bassist, singer, songwriter, rapper and composer Meshell Ndegeocello's prolific musical output mixes jazz, R&B, hip-hop, funk and rock, and she’s been nominated for 11 Grammy awards over the course of her career.Producer, guitarist, and The Invisible front man Dave Okumu has worked with the likes of Adele, Amy Winehouse, and Grace Jones, and is an institution in the British music scene. Vocalist, composer and producer Eska grew up in London with Zimbabwean heritage, and makes genre-hopping soul music with folk, jazz, reggae and classical influences.

Elvis Costello, Marisa Monte, Jorge Drexler and Leo Sidran discuss how to create emotional lyrics, shouting to make yourself heard, arriving at the idea of a song through its title, competing with the scale of music, and working in multiple languages.Elvis Costello is a singer, songwriter, and producer who has sold millions of records both as a solo artist and with his amazing bands. His diverse genres and thoughtful lyrics have earned him various accolades including two Grammys, and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Marisa Monte is widely recognized as one of the greatest Brazilian singers and composers of all time. She completely shook up the role of women in the Brazilian music landscape, by becoming her own producer, business, and artistic director. She’s received four Latin Grammys so far, and is one-third of Brazilian supergroup Tribalistas.Jorge Drexler is a musician, singer, and composer from Uruguay. He trained as a doctor, but soon realised he wanted to dedicate his life to music. He’s been releasing records for over 30 years, combining styles from across the Iberoamerican world. Latin Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Leo Sidran's fascination with Spanish culture has led him to a celebrated career in music producing, composing and podcasting. Early in his career, he was “guided” on the drums by James Brown’s drummer Clyde Stubblefield.

Eyal El Wahab, Ana Kravanja, Kees Berkers, and Bex Burch discuss being in love with an instrument, not really knowing what you’re doing, moving sounds through your body, and using instruments made out of pumpkins.Eyal El Wahab is a Yemeni-Israeli musician who leads the four-piece folk jazz group El Khat, based in Tel Aviv and featuring musicians from Iraq, Poland, and Morocco. Slovenian musician Ana Kravanja plays on traditional, classic, and self-made instruments. She is one third of Slovenian experimental folk band Širom, a band who play 12 instruments between them, and also works with 10-piece band Olfamoštvo. Dutch percussionist Kees Berkers created the band YĪN YĪN with Yves Lennertz back in 2017. Their music is greatly inspired by south-east Asian psych-pop, funk and disco grooves. British percussionist Bex Burch spent three years with virtuoso musicians in northern Ghana, where she learnt to play the gyil. She has gone on to form the Jazz trio Vula Viel.

Country music stars Scotty McCreery, Tenille Arts, Matt Stell and Hailey Whitters discuss scrapping all of their work after the pandemic, trying to fit in to country radio, relating to fans who go through the same struggles, and being true to yourself in your writing.Scotty McCreery is a singer-songwriter from North Carolina, USA, and he loves those mountains. And his truck. He started playing guitar at the age of 9 or 10, and sang at school and at church. At 16 he auditioned for American Idol, and went on to win the competition in 2011. Tenille Arts is orignally from Saskatchewan, Canada, but now based in Nashville. Her single Somebody Like That made history in 2021 as the first song written, performed, and produced by an all-female team to top the country charts. Matt Stell is a singer and guitarist from Arkansas, USA, whose massive hit Prayed For You spent two weeks at the number one spot in 2019 and catapulted him to the country big leagues. Hailey Whitters is one of Nashville’s most in-demand songwriters. Born into a musical family in Iowa, she’s worked with the likes of Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss, and Keith Urban.

Two of this year's Eurovision hopefuls, Cornelia Jakobs and MARO, meet three former contestants - SuRie, Dami Im and KEiiNO's Alexandra Rotan - to discuss how writing music in rooms with strangers is like speed dating, the expectation that fans have of their sound, why there’s no formula to win the competition, and the strength in simplicity.Susanna Marie Cork, better known as SuRie, was the 2018 UK entry for the competition. Dance-pop singer-songwriter Alexandra Rotan is a member of the super group KEiiNO, who represented Norway in 2019. Stockholm-based singer-songwriter Cornelia Jakobs is representing Sweden in this year’s Eurovision, taking place in Turin, Italy, while MARO is representing Portugal. Korean-Australian pop singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dami Im came second in the 2016 competition.

Spanish musicians Carlotta Cosials, Depresión Sonora, NAVXJA and BERNARDA discuss why the best ideas happen when you’re happy, improvising lyrics, understanding different ways of writing, getting into music because of heartbreak, washing dishes and riding your bike to get ideas, and living like a vampire.Carlotta Cosials is the lead singer of the Spanish group Hinds. Depresión Sonora's dark brand of post-punk has rocked Spain since his first release in May 2020. He expresses the anxieties and frustrations felt by many people going through difficult times. Barcelona-based musician and filmmaker BERNARDA, used to play bass in rock band Holy Bouncer, and is now creating soft pop sung in Catalan and Spanish. Colombian-Spanish musician NAVXJA has experimented with making everything from Bossa-Nova to straight-up electronic music. Her lyrics eloquently express her personal experiences and vulnerabilities.