Music

Ellie Goulding is the proud mom to son Arthur Ever Winter Jopling, whom she welcomed in May 2021. But in a new interview, she reveals she was “in denial” about her pregnancy as she was working on her new album, Higher Than Heaven, due out February 3.

Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Ellie explains she wrote most of the album after the COVID pandemic lockdown, during which she and everyone she was working with was “in this kind of strange haze of the fact that we’d all been forced into this very strange situation … everyone seemed to be on the same page that they wanted this escape from reality.”

And Ellie wanted to escape from the reality that she and her husband, Caspar, were expecting their first child. “I was pregnant and I was desperately … I was in denial about being pregnant,” she reveals. “Trying to be like, ‘It’s nothing,’ and just hiding it.” 

“That was kind of part of my defense mechanism that I just wanted to escape … it’s a scary thing, finding out you’re having a child,” she says. And that feeling ended up influencing the entire album.

“That’s exactly what this album is. It requires a certain amount of pain to go through to write what I write,” she tells Zane. “This album is ultimate escapism about being completely, insanely in love. There’s a lot of sexuality in there.”

She adds, “It’s almost like a psilocybin-induced love.” In case you’re not familiar, psilocybin is the psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms. Maybe that’s why the album’s called Higher Than Heaven?

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A Very Backstreet Christmas, the first holiday album from Backstreet Boys, is out now. Backstreet’s Howie Dorough says he’s relieved — not just because the album was postponed from 2021, but because they’ve literally been trying for decades to record it in the first place.

“I feel a big weight lifted off of all of our shoulders,” he laughs. “This is something that…we’re going on almost 30 years, I think. Every Christmas we keep on saying ourselves, ‘When are we going to do that Christmas record?’ And…we just never had the proper time to be able to do it.”

But as Howie notes, “The one positive thing that came out of COVID…was the blessing of giving us time to actually make this record.”

Due to production deadlines, Backstreet had to record in the middle of the summer, but Howie says their producer helped them get in a holiday mood: “[The studio] was all decorated with Christmas tree and stockings and the Yule log and stuff like that up on the screen, so it was quite easy,” he says.

The album mixes religious and secular favorites like “O Holy Night” and “Last Christmas” with three originals.  Howie says when it came to picking the classics, all five members had “a lot of opinions,” so they stuck to the data.

“We said, ‘Everybody go and put down your top 15 songs,'” he explains. “And we did…almost like an Excel sheet, where the ones [with] the most votes…are the ones that made it.”

Backstreet fans definitely approve of the finished project.

“Nick [Carter] and I went on a live chat on Instagram, and the response from the fans was just overwhelming,” says Howie. “It seems like they really love it…I hope it was worth the wait!” 

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News of Blink-182‘s reunion with Tom DeLonge led to a jump in the band’s streaming numbers.

According to Billboard, U.S. streams of the “All the Small Things” outfit’s catalog increased to 3.87 million on October 11 — the day the reunion news broke — from 1.73 million the previous day, marking a spike of 124%.

By the time Blink released their comeback single “Edging” the following Friday, streams reached a total of 6.22 million.

“Edging” marks Blink’s first new material with DeLonge in over 10 years. Following DeLonge’s departure from the group in 2015, Blink released two albums — 2016’s California and 2019’s Nine — with Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba on guitar.

With DeLonge back in the band, Blink will launch a worldwide tour in 2023. A new album is also in the works.

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Break Every Rule, Tina Turner‘s 1986 follow-up to her career-reviving Private Dancer album, will be reissued as a three-CD/two-DVD package on November 25. It will also be available as a double CD and a single vinyl LP.

The three-CD/two-DVD package includes the original remastered album, a collection of remixes, B-sides and live performances. The first DVD also includes Tina’s 1988 Rio de Janeiro concert, which set a new Guinness World Record for concert attendance, attracting 180,000 fans. The second DVD has all the videos Tina made for the album, plus video of an intimate London gig in 1986.

Break Every Rule featured the top-10 hit “Typical Male,” as well as “Back Where You Started,” which won Tina her third straight Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. It also included, on various tracks, songwriting and production by David Bowie, Bryan Adams and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, plus Phil Collins on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar and Steve Winwood on keyboards.

The live CD and DVD features in-concert renditions of “Better Be Good to Me,” “Private Dancer,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and “Proud Mary,” and includes Tina’s hit versions of Al Green‘s “Let’s Stay Together,” Ann Peebles‘ “I Can’t Stand the Rain” and her live covers of The Beatles‘ “Help,” Robert Palmer‘s “Addicted to Love” and Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour.”

You can preorder the reissue now.

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Paramore is in the business of rumors, which apparently are true.

Ever since they started teasing new music, Hayley Williams and company have kept a mysterious calendar going on their website with cryptic phrases accompanying specific dates. The latest update to the calendar features a new entry for this Friday, October 21, reading “rumors are true.”

Given that Fridays are the international release days for new music, fans are speculating that Paramore may be dropping another preview of their upcoming album, This Is Why, on October 21. The group released the This Is Why title track in September.

This Is Why, the follow-up to 2017’s After Laughter, will be released February 10, 2023.

Paramore is currently on a U.S. tour, marking the band’s first live shows in four years. The tour was supposed to make a stop in Los Angeles on Thursday, but the show has been postponed to October 31 due to a positive COVID-19 case within the touring party. Paramore plans to return to the stage for the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas this weekend.

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Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford recently revealed to ABC Audio that former guitarist KK Downing will be performing with the group when the band is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on November 5.

In a new interview with the Detroit Metro Times, founding Priest bassist Ian Hill discusses whether he thinks the reunion could lead to Downing, who has had a contentious relationship with his former bandmates since quitting the group in 2011, rejoining the metal legends.

“I think time is not on our side for that, you know? Never say never, put it like that,” Hill says. “[Downing is] gonna be there at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame anyway. He’s gonna get up and play some songs with us there. It might kickstart something, I don’t know. On the other hand, he might pull us all apart.”

Judas Priest will be inducted into the Rock Hall in conjunction with receiving the Music Excellence Award, rather than being included in the regular Performer category, something that Halford has admitted annoyed him.

Hill says he thinks the rest of Judas Priest are “on the same page” with their singer.

“[W]e’ve been in the game now for 50 years, and I think heavy metal is … a little bit overlooked because it’s not in your face every day,” he notes. “Obviously pop music and rap music, country music, it’s like every day you get in your car, you drive to work and you’re getting the same 40 songs thrown in your face all the time. Heavy metal, on the other hand, you have to go look for it.”

Meanwhile, Judas Priest continues the fall U.S. leg of their 50 Heavy Metal Years tour on Wednesday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

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Killswitch Engage has announced a trio of holiday-themed concerts to close out the year.

The shows will take place December 28 in Sayreville, New Jersey; December 29 in Huntington, New York and December 30 in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do a holiday show so let’s fix that,” says frontman Jesse Leach. “We are stoked to announce these three ‘holiday-themed’ shows, which will surely be fun and maniacal. Expect things to be out of control and crazy!”

“The sets, the stage, and the vibe will be like no other Killswitch show you have seen!” he adds. “This will be a perfect send off for us as we head into the studio for our new record!”

For ticket info, visit KillswitchEngage.com.

KsE’s most recent album is 2019’s Atonement. The band is currently on tour with Lamb of God.

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A few days after sparking dating rumors, Billie Eilish was seen locking lips with The Neighbourhood singer Jesse Rutherford.

The two had previously been spotted at Universal Studios, where they checked out the Halloween attractions and left a haunted house while holding hands.

Page Six reports the two added more fuel to the rumor mill when they were spotted having a steamy make-out session outside a California restaurant.

Billie took her rumored new beau to Studio City’s Lal Mirch. The 20-year-old singer was photographed grabbing Rutherford, 31, by the face and kissing him several times.

Fans are not entirely loving this rumored relationship because of the 11-year age difference. Others also pointed out Rutherford has known Billie since she was 15 after a photo surfaced of them posing at a Halloween party back in 2017.

But some Eilish fans have argued that since Billie is an adult she is capable of making her own decisions about who she dates.

Neither singer has made a public statement about their rumored relationship, but fans are taking this latest PDA session as confirmation that they’re an item.

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John Legend is busy juggling his music and television obligations — and he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Appearing on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, John spoke about the gratification he gets from making music. A favorite aspect of the job, he revealed, is when he walks “into a room and nothing exists except loose ideas in your head — and then a few hours later, you walk out with this new thing that exists.”

“That song could be the one that changes your life,” he continued, noting how his music has positively impacted other people.

“One of the weddings I went to this weekend, some guy said, ‘I went to your show and it actually saved my marriage,'” Legend recalled. “I could be writing that song and save someone’s marriage tomorrow.”

“The fact that I get to go to work and create something brand new that didn’t exist before is such a joy,” he smiled, adding this is something he wants to do “all the time.”

When asked who he would collaborate with if he could choose anyone, John selected Nina Simone and revealed he named his daughter, Luna Simone, in honor of his idol. “I’ve always loved her artistry … I would just love to jam with her,” he said of the late jazz legend. 

As for a living artist, he’d have to go with Kendrick Lamar; Legend noted it’s weird they haven’t collaborated yet, since he’s worked with “almost every rapper in history.”

Legend also revealed the best advice he was ever given, which was from record producer Quincy Jones. “He says steal from the best … that means be open to being influenced and take some of that,” he remarked.

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