Andy Grammer is the father of two young daughters — 5-year-old Louisiana and 2-year-old Israel — and they’ve changed how he makes music.
Speaking with The Harvard Crimson, the “Honey, I’m Good” singer said having girls altered the messaging in his songs.
“It’s been really fascinating to have a whole different relationship with the feminine,” he disclosed. “I spent most of my life writing love songs, like straight across to my wife. And there’s something really fun about writing downward.”
Andy garnered a reputation for being music’s “good guy” because he tends to write lighthearted and upbeat music. He broke out into the music scene in 2011 with his hit “Keep Your Head Up” and he says he infuses all his music with that sincerity.
“At the core, [it’s] just who I am,” he explained, noting he writes songs about “life proofs” — or life experiences.
“That’s my main goal [when writing]: How do I find a part of life that we’re all going through?” said the Dancing with the Stars alum. “I think that music has a way of getting at those things better than anything else.”
Now he’s writing music with his two girls in mind. He’s released a track that is father-daughter dance worthy titled “Good Man (First Love).”
Andy is set to release his fifth studio album, which he says will include all the singles he’s released over the past few months. “Even for me if someone drops an album, even if I love them, I find my attention span is [too] low to appreciate all of it,” he admitted. “I don’t want a track eight to just never get heard. I care so much about every one of these songs.”
It is currently unknown when Andy’s still-untitled new album will arrive.
WILLOW has released a new song called “hover like a GODDESS.”
The track is available now via digital outlets and will appear on the “Transparent Soul” artist’s upcoming album , due out September 23.
follows 2021’s lately I feel EVERYTHING, and appears to continue in the pop-punk footsteps of its predecessor with the guitar-driven “hover” and the previously released “ it’s my fault.”
Meanwhile, WILLOW will compete at the upcoming 2022 MTV Video Music Awards with the Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker-featuring “Grow” and the Machine Gun Kelly collaboration “Emo Girl,” both of which are up for Best Alternative at the August 28 show.
Highly Suspect has premiered two new tracks off the band’s upcoming album, The Midnight Demon Club.
The tracks include the previously teased “Ice Cold,” as well as a cut titled “New California.” Both are available now via digital outlets.
The Midnight Demon Club, the follow-up to 2019’s MCID, will arrive September 9. It also includes the previously released songs “Natural Born Killer” and “Pink Lullabye.”
Highly Suspect will launch a U.S. tour in support of The Midnight Demon Club September 16 in Minneapolis.
There’s a reason why Meghan Trainor named her new album Takin’ It Back — it’s a promise to fans she’s returned to her roots.
The Grammy winner’s experimented with her music since coming out with her breakthrough debut album, but she tells Billboard it’s time to go back to doo-wop.
“I’m taking it back to my sound that apparently I had,” she revealed. “I started writing and one of my co-writers were like, ‘It’s crazy, these artists are coming in saying I want to do Meghan Trainor sound.’ And I was like, ‘I have a sound?’ I have the doo-wop sound!”
“At the same time, [my song] ‘Title’ blew up on TikTok, which is 7 years old and it’s very doo-woppy. I was like, ‘Wow, universe is talking to me, and I’m listening.'” She said when “Title” blew up, it “felt like my birthday.”
Meghan’s first album, Title, emulated music by the Beach Boys, Dion and other doo-wop greats. For example, Meghan’s hit “Dear Future Husband” sampled Dion’s “Runaround Sue.”
“I’m taking it back to the old school music,” she grinned. The singer said her new album’s title starts with a “T” to honor her last name and her family, as with her other albums: Title, Thank You and Treat Myself.
Meghan added she went into making Taking It Back with a different approach. “Usually, as a songwriter, I go in with melody and this time I went in with a concept,” she explained, noting her recently released single “Bad For Me.”
She said the song was born after “a real tough therapy session.” Meghan added she initially wanted to name the track “Reality,” as it was about hating a toxic family member’s reality that’s “wrong.”
The recently announced limited-edition box set gathering together Paul McCartney‘s three self-titled solo albums — 1970’s McCartney, 1980’s McCartney II and 2020’s McCartney III — hit stores today.
The McCartney I II III collection is available in three formats -– a three-CD set, a three-LP black-vinyl package and a limited-edition three-LP colored-vinyl set.
All three versions feature three photo prints with notes from the former Beatles star about each record.
Coinciding with the release of the box set, McCartney, McCartney II and McCartney III have become the first solo albums by Sir Paul to be mixed in the high-res Dolby Atmos format. You can listen to the Dolby Atmos mixes via various streaming outlets.
The common thread between all three albums is that Paul wrote, produced and recorded them almost entirely by himself.
Released in April 1970, McCartney was Paul’s debut solo album and signaled the breakup of The Beatles. The record spent three weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, although no singles were released from it. The album included the enduring song “Maybe I’m Amazed,” as well as such gems as “Every Night,” “Junk” and “Teddy Boy,” three tunes that McCartney previously had worked on with The Beatles.
McCartney II was released in May 1980 and found the veteran rocker experimenting with synthesizers and modern recording techniques. The album reached #3 on Billboard 200 and included the chart-topping hit “Coming Up” and the tune “Waterfalls,” which was a top-10 single in the U.K.
McCartney III was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown and was released at the end of December 2020. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200.
Here’s the McCartney track list:
“The Lovely Linda”
“That Would Be Something”
“Valentine Day”
“Every Night”
“Hot as Sun/Glasses”
“Junk”
“Man We Was Lonely”
“Oo You”
“Momma Miss America”
“Teddy Boy”
“Singalong Junk”
“Maybe I’m Amazed”
“Kreen-Akrore”
Here’s the McCartney II track list:
“Coming Up”
“Temporary Secretary”
“On the Way”
“Waterfalls”
“Nobody Knows”
“Front Parlour”
“Summer’s Day Song”
“Frozen Jap”
“Bogey Music”
“Darkroom”
“One of These Days”
Here’s the McCartney III track list:
“Long Tailed Winter Bird”
“Find My Way”
“Pretty Boys”
“Women and Wives”
“Lavatory Lil”
“Slidin'”
“Deep Deep Feeling”
“The Kiss of Venus”
“Seize the Day”
“Deep Down”
“Winter Bird/When Winter Comes”
Mötley Crüe, Asking Alexandria, Ice Nine Kills and From Ashes to New have teamed up on a new song for the soundtrack to the upcoming thriller film The Retaliators.
The track, titled “The Retaliators Theme Song (21 Bullets),” was co-written by Mötley’s Nikki Sixx and his Sixx:A.M. bandmate James Michael. It marks the first new music from the “Dr. Feelgood” rockers to follow the 2019 soundtrack to The Dirt, which featured four new Crüe recordings, including the Machine Gun Kelly collaboration “The Dirt (Est. 1981).”
“Writing a new theme song for a horror flick was inspiring,” Sixx says. “This was my first time writing for a horror-thriller film, and it took me in a different direction from the first theme song I wrote — ‘The Dirt (1981)’ by Mötley Crüe.”
“I worked with some great new artists to create a new sound that will stretch Mötley Crüe’s audience to new fans,” the bassist adds. “I had a great time writing it, and I think our fans will love it, too!”
You can listen to “21 Bullets” now via digital outlets and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
The Retaliators will be released September 14, and its soundtrack, which also includes contributions from Papa Roach, Five Finger Death Punch, The Hu and Band Wolves, drops September 16.
Mötley’s Tommy Lee, Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix and members of FFDP have roles in the film, as well.
Meanwhile, you can catch Mötley Crüe on their ongoing Stadium Tour with Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, which continues Friday in Boston.
The Killers have released a new single called “Boy.”
The track, which the “Mr. Brightside” outfit first debuted live in July during their European tour, follows the band’s one-two punch of 2020’s Imploding the Mirage and 2021’s Pressure Machine albums.
“This was the first song written after we had to cancel the Imploding the Mirage tour due to the pandemic,” frontman Brandon Flowers says of “Boy.” “I had recently moved back to Utah and started to make trips to Nephi, where I grew up. I found that the place I had wanted to get away from so desperately at 16 was now a place that I couldn’t stop returning to.”
“I have a son approaching the age I was at that time in my life,” he continues. “With ‘Boy,’ I want to reach out and tell myself — and my sons — to not overthink it. And to look for the ‘white arrows’ in their lives. For me now, white arrows are my wife, children, my songs and the stage.”
“Boy” is available now via digital outlets and is accompanied by a lyric video streaming now on YouTube.
The Killers will launch a North American headlining tour August 19 in Vancouver.
For Scotty McCreery, soda brand Dr. Pepper is a nostalgic favorite.
“I’ve been drinking Dr. Pepper ever since I was a kid playing baseball with my friends. That was always our drink after the games,” the singer says.
That’s why he jumped at the chance to team up with the brand in order to give one lucky concertgoer a grand prize fan experience. Dubbed “The Flyaway Experience You Deserve,” the big prize will include travel and tickets to one of Scotty’s upcoming shows, plus a meet and greet, hotel accommodations and dinner before or after the show.
Meanwhile, Scotty’s at the center of a promo campaign for Dr. Pepper, which centers around the singer’s recent hit, “You Time.” You might also spot him in promotional materials for the soda in major grocery chains in select markets.
In musical news, Scotty is at the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart for the third consecutive week with “Damn Strait,” his breakup ballad honoring the King of Country George Strait.
(WASHINGTON) — Two Wisconsin residents have died following a lightning strike near the White House on Thursday night, police confirmed to ABC News Friday.
Police said 76-year-old James Mueller and 75-year-old Donna Meuller, both from Janesville, Wisconsin, died after being injured in the strike in Lafayette Park in front of the White House.
Thursday night, D.C. Fire and EMS said it had responded and was treating four patients that were found in “the vicinity of a tree.”
It said the two men and two women were transported to area hospitals with “life-threatening injuries.”
Officials said it’s still unclear what the adults were doing prior to the lightning strike, if they knew each other and why they were in the park.
Uniformed U.S. Park Police officers and members of the Secret Service were also on the scene and immediately rendered aid to the victims, an EMS official said during a news conference.
The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area Thursday evening.
ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tuesday night’s lopsided result in the Kansas abortion referendum — which saw the anti-abortion measure defeated some 59-41 in a traditionally red state — has Democrats and Republicans wondering if the post-Roe fight over the social issue marks a sea change in the midterm landscape or a less dramatic shift in an environment that still favors the GOP.
The proposed amendment, which gave voters a direct choice over whether or not to strip the state constitution’s abortion protections, marked the first tangible answer to the question of how June’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade will influence the electorate.
Turnout in the summertime primary spiked to nearly the same level of the 2018 midterm general election. And with an approximately 18-point win for abortion access advocates in one of the nation’s conservative bastions, debate is underway among many over whether that victory could ripple outward.
Democrats who spoke with ABC News insist they have a new lease on life after being pummeled by President Joe Biden’s low approval rating, historic inflation, high gas prices, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and more.
Republicans, meanwhile, insist the wind is still at their backs — though even some GOP operatives acknowledge the Kansas results indicate that their gains could be curtailed as the party largely embraces a strict anti-abortion agenda.
“If I were a Republican House or Senate candidate or a Republican strategist, I would be panicking right now,” said Democratic strategist Jon Reinish. “Voters are furious, and voters are mobilized. Looking at [Tuesday’s] extremely definitive results, I think that this scrambles a lot of conventional wisdom and calculations on the whole midterm landscape this November.”
Had the amendment passed, it would have offered the GOP-controlled state legislature a path to restricting or banning abortion, continuing a pattern seen in other conservative areas of the country. Kansas law currently allows most abortions to take place up to 22 weeks in a pregnancy.
However, Tuesday night’s results marked a comprehensive win for abortion rights supporters in a state former President Donald Trump won by nearly 15 points just two years ago and where registered Republicans outpace registered Democrats by hundreds of thousands.
In a sign of intense enthusiasm on the issue, the vote against the amendment significantly outran President Joe Biden’s showing in Kansas in 2020.
Abortion access supporters won in Shawnee County, home of Topeka, by a 66-34 margin Tuesday. Biden won the county by only 3 points in 2020.
The same trend followed in Kansas’ rural expanses. In Hamilton County, for example, abortion opponents only defeated the amendment by about 12 points, whereas Trump beat Biden in the county in 2020 by 65 points.
Democratic operatives cited that as persuasive evidence of an argument they’ve made since before Roe’s demise: Abortion has the power to supercharge turnout in a midterm cycle that was previously expected to be characterized by a depressed Democratic base, given Biden’s unpopularity and economic headwinds.
“When voters know that abortion is on the ballot, they show up and they send a resounding message,” said Democratic pollster Molly Murphy. “Republicans are on the wrong side of that message, and as voters learn what Republicans’ priorities are if they take power, it is incredibly encouraging to see the way voters will respond.”
“Voters understand the difference between the parties on abortion, and they are increasingly seeing Republicans take steps to ban it,” Murphy said, “which can help create a real choice between the two parties.”
Leading Democrats seized on the results Wednesday.
“The voters of Kansas sent a powerful signal that this fall the American people will vote to preserve and protect the rights and refuse to let them be ripped away by politicians,” Biden said in remarks before his interagency task force meeting on reproductive health care.
“The people of Kansas spoke yesterday, and they spoke loud and clear. They said this is not a partisan issue,” Vice President Kamala Harris added in her own remarks. “The women of America should not be the subject of partisan debate or perspective.”
It’s still unclear, though, how much voter enthusiasm on that one issue will translate to Democratic support.
Biden’s approval ratings have been stuck in the 30s, weakened in part by dissatisfaction among his base that key campaign promises are mired in the narrowly divided Congress, stymied by legal and administrative uncertainty or blocked by the courts.
ABC News polls and other surveys have also shown that economic issues remain top of mind for voters in a cycle that won’t feature many more single-issue referendums like the one in Kansas.
On top of those dynamics, some Republican strategists and pollsters cautioned against extrapolating the results of a unique abortion referendum onto the more typical midterm races this fall.
“A difficult-to-pass constitutional amendment ballot issue in a state does not erase two years of mismanagement, higher costs and incredible dysfunction in Washington,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard. “For those on the left and in the media breathlessly trying to change the political headwinds facing the Democratic Party, they should be reminded the midterm elections will not be an up-or-down [vote] on codifying abortion but instead a referendum on Biden, the economy and dysfunction in D.C.”
On top of that, the timing of Tuesday’s referendum could offer advice to Republicans running this November on how to message on abortion to avoid the significant backlash seen in Kansas.
Democrats have been pouncing on some states’ efforts to outright ban abortion, even in instances of rape and incest — proposals some Republicans said should be avoided.
“This result does not mean pro-choice candidates are going to win in a rout this November. Other issues are still far more important, and candidates are a bundle of issues. The key for Republican candidates is to back away from a total ban and get in line with public opinion, including conservative opinion, that favors time limits and exceptions for the mother’s health,” said one GOP strategist.
Still, Republicans conceded they may have to temper their expectations for the fall.
Last year’s election results in Virginia, where now-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won by 2 points in a state Biden took by 10 points in 2020, had the GOP boasting that even congressional districts Biden won by 10 points were no longer safe.
But with such a potent and prominent issue giving Democrats late momentum, operatives now say Republicans’ target lists may face a crunch even as their chances of flipping the House remain strong.
“There’s no doubt overturning Roe has given Democrats some momentum,” said one GOP strategist working on midterm races. “It seems the front-line races this fall won’t be as far down as a lot of folks had hoped. I think realistically we’re back to where D+5 districts are the front-line battles this fall.”
