We’re coming up on eight years since Rockstar North released Grand Theft Auto V. Originally released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, GTAV will appear on its third generation of consoles a little later this year, as the game is slated to be available on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X starting in November.
The game is unique both in how it has managed to evolve as time has gone on (namely with the addition of Grand Theft Auto Online) and the fact that it’s, you know, really good. It’s also a huge game placed inside the world of San Andreas, so getting through it takes some time … well, unless you’re YouTuber UnNameD, who was able to beat the entire thing in a nine-hour speedrun that took place across three videos. Even more impressive: UnNameD took zero damage across the entire run.
IGN laid out how they managed to pull this off — as you might guess, this wasn’t exactly a “try it once and have it go perfectly” thing:
Speedrunner UnNameD managed the feat earlier this week, posting their three-part video to YouTube. UnNameD says it took them 48 attempts to actually achieve it, using a mod known as One-Hit Knock Out, which sets character health at a measly one point. As if that weren’t hard enough, the speedrunning rules also forbid UnNameD from using any armor to protect themselves, and the mod disables Trevor’s invincibility ability.
It took me at least 40 hours to beat GTAV the first time I played it and I died a whole bunch of times, so this is the most impressive thing in the world to me.
Ghanaian-Australian singer, songwriter, and producer sisters Savannah and Briony Osei make music together under the name Kinder, and have been steadily bubbling in the Australian music scene recently. Over the last few years, they have played festival stages across the country and even opened for the likes of Rita Ora. The duo recently released the new track “Bus Stop,” a supremely danceable number built upon pulsing beats and an unexpected chorus structure.
To celebrate the new track, the Osei sisters sat down to talk McDonald’s, Olivia Rodrigo, and performing in Brazil for the latest Pop Life 20 Q&A.
What’s the first pop song you remember hearing?
Spice Girls – “Wannabe.”
What do you think pop music will be like in the future?
We think pop artists will really start to push more boundaries, both the sound and visual components of pop music may become more experimental. As technology progresses we may start to see electronic sounds used in the production reach exciting new places. We think organic instruments will always play a part in pop music but we feel that as technology advances so too will the sounds in the pop world.
If you could perform in any country in the world, where would it be and why?
Brazil! We have a really strong love and appreciation for the electronic music coming out of Brazil. Some of our favourite artists come from Brazil. We have worked with some dance artists over the internet but it would be amazing to be able to meet them in person, collaborate and perform with them.
What is your favorite food?
Cheeseburger from McDonald’s.
What is your favorite ‘90s or early ‘00s pop hit?
“Stronger” – Britney Spears !!!! TUNNNE
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?
Halsey “Hopeless Kingdom Fountain” tour! Also a couple of years ago we saw Panic! At The Disco and that was amazing!!!
What is the best outfit for performing and why?
Something very theatrical and bold. Having an outrageous costume gives us a boost of energy and helps us really vibe on stage.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram?
What’s your most frequently played song for a dance party?
At the moment it would be Logic1000’s – “Perfume.”
What’s the last thing you Googled?
What is the spiritual meaning of a moth? Haha
What album makes for the perfect gift?
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours, most people get around that.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour?
We stayed at this creepy school camp centre in the middle of the bush that was possibly haunted. The power shut down ten minutes after being there. We were told that the whole touring party was staying out that way, however when we arrived we realised it was just us staying there. It was really spooky and I don’t think we got much sleep.
What’s the worst tattoo you’ve ever seen?
We have a friend with Colonel Sanders tattooed on him, It’s only the worst because we didn’t think of it first and he gets free KFC when he likes, which we are pretty jealous of.
Who do you think is the most exciting new voice in pop this year?
I mean it’s hard to look past Olivia Rodrigo.
What pop song do you most associate with heartbreak?
It is a really hard decision between “Writer In The Dark” by Lorde and “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” – Gracie Abrams.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self?
The universe has your back! Don’t overthink anything cause you’re on the right path.
What’s the last show you went to?
We supported Rita Ora and then afterwards we got to enjoy her show which was incredible.
Which music festival is your favorite and why?
Groovin The Moo. It’s an annual touring festival occurring in regional towns in Australia. The people who run it and the people who attend the festival are nothing but good vibes.
What would you say to Beyonce if you got the chance to meet her?
Please, what’s your workout routine? How do you sing like that and dance for hours? We would love some tips.
Here are somethings happening in the world of sports right now: The NBA play-in games are ongoing, the final step before embarking on the months-long journey known as the postseason. Playoff hockey is underway in the NHL. The MLB season just kicked off and Shohei Ohtani might be the most fascinating athlete in the world right now. In soccer, domestic leagues are wrapping up, the Champions League final is next weekend, and some international tournaments will go down this summer. Speaking of the summer, the Olympics are slated to happen in a few months and the NFL will be back around the corner.
But in the midst of all of this, we would like to highlight something that we found extremely impressive: This dude who grabbed an umbrella and what appeared to be a wrapped up cheeseburger from McDonald’s and then made magic happen, all while “HandClap” by Fitz and The Tantrums played.
The main questions here are how a person realizes both that this is a thing that is possible and that they are the one to do it. To be clear, very glad that my guy realized this, because it is extremely entertaining and really impressive, but the genesis of this becoming a bit he does seems fascinating.
Is this explicitly sports? Probably not! But it is definitely cool, plus it takes a kind of ridiculous hand-eye coordination that you might expect from athletes, so like Oasis implored us to do, we’re gonna roll with it.
Since 2018, Heaven Hill has been releasing three editions of their limited edition Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond decanters. These bottles usually drop in spring (with a green label) and fall (with a black label) plus a third BHC or “bourbon heritage collection” release (with a dark burgundy label) each year. All of these bourbon expressions are much-sought-after and that drives the prices up hundreds of dollars above their suggested retail. The fancy decanter that the liquid comes in helps add to the mystique and desirability.
Today, we’re reviewing the first release of 2021, the spring “green label” release. This is a pretty straightforward assessment based on taste alone. You alone can decide if this bottle of Old Fitzgerald will be worth the massive markup these bottles usually get at retail. Or how much you’d pay for that cool decanter. We’re just here to tell you about the liquid in the bottle!
This year’s spring release is a marriage of eight-year-old whiskeys produced in the spring of 2013. That distilled juice rested in barrels spread throughout three warehouses on several different floors. In spring of this year, those barrels were vatted and whiskey was proofed down to 100 (per bottled-in-bond law). Then the whiskey was filled into Old Fitzgerald’s signature decanters and sent out into the world.
Tasting Notes:
Goddamn! This is gorgeous. The nose draws you in with warming eggnog spice, creamy vanilla pudding, rich toffee, mild fruit, and a hint of wet cedar and very muted citrus. To say this is “smooth” would be an understatement. The silky taste dances around oven-hot pans of pecan and maple-glazed sticky buns with plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg next to caramelized orange peel vibes and lightness that’s almost hard to believe. The finish is long, effervescent, and leaves you with this soft sense of having just eaten the best oatmeal raisin cookie of your life with just the right amounts of oats, spice, raisins, brown sugar, and crumble.
The Bottle:
Let’s face it, half of the people who buy this whiskey buy it for the iconic bottle. And you know what? We get it. This bottle looks really fly on your bar cart. It’s stylish without being garish. It’s classic while still feeling fresh (in the stale bourbon bottle world, anyway).
It helps that the label is understated and holds onto that throwback vibe.
Bottom Line:
We can see how people go crazy for this juice. This is one of the most beautiful American whiskeys we’ve had in a while. This is classic bourbon flavors in a classic decanter but elevated to the next level. The taste is welcoming and fills you with a sense of ease. There are no rough edges. It’s somehow light while also brimming with big flavors. It’s a goddamn masterpiece.
Rating:
Ugh… I almost hate to do this, seeing as it’s such a high ranking for our first single bottle review of the year. But I just nosed and re-tasted this expression against my two favorite expressions of 2020 and, whew — 99/100. Final answer.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Mannequin Pussy’s new EP opens with a reinforcing thought in the face of uncertainty: “‘I’m in control’ / That’s what I tell myself / When all the walls around me / Close in,” Marisa Dabice sings over a lone shimmering guitar. It isn’t long, though, before the full weight of the rest of the band cuts through the silence to stand by Dabice’s side. It is actually quite an emotional and impactful moment, serving not just as an introduction to an excellent collection of power pop and punk rock songs, but also a reminder of just how vital music can make you feel when it’s been missing for so long. Thus begins Perfect, a five-song EP following the band’s stellar 2019 Epitaph Records debut, Patience.
“EPs definitely get tossed aside, I think, as almost, ‘I don’t know what to say or I don’t know what to do,” Dabice told me over Zoom alongside drummer Kaleen Reading and bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford. “They don’t really get that kind of attention, but it is really nice. We wrote an EP kind of out of necessity. We didn’t really have a lot of time to get together.”
After nearly a year in quarantine, the band finally booked studio time with Will Yip to shake off the cobwebs and try to put some new music to tape. They entered the studio with only “Control” fully written, practiced, and demoed, but quickly hit their creative stride and wrote the majority the EP’s remaining tracks by the end of their second day in the studio. It was also helpful to have Yip sitting in the corner during the writing sessions, making suggestions and serving as an additional creative brain to help bring the songs to full fruition.
The final product available this week reflects the natural order of the project’s creation. “This is my first natural sequence,” Bear explains. “We came in with ‘Control’ and then the rest of the songs literally are as they were written.”
“Sequencing is everything,” Dabice adds. “Sequencing is like the amusement ride basically of human emotions, journey of a thought.”
Although clocking in at just under 15 minutes across its five songs, Perfect illustrates the full spectrum of Mannequin Pussy’s unstoppable power. “Control” is followed up by the raging, raucous title track that will get any room spinning with a mosh pit and stage divers. “To Lose You” is a glimmering power pop love song, featuring what might be the band’s biggest chorus hook to date, but it doesn’t last long before charging straight into the chugging “Pigs Is Pigs,” which brings Bear to the front for lead vocals. The EP concludes with “Darling,” a somber track from the band’s vault that dials back all of the instrumentation to its bare minimum.
To echo the process of creating Perfect, I wanted to present the below interview in the order it happened to maintain the natural flow. However, it was a rather freewheeling conversation encompassing everything from the new EP to TikTok to the band’s involvement in Mare Of Easttown, so it has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
How do you decide what songs are going to be more aggressive, heavier punk songs and which ones are going to be more melodic and pop-oriented?
Dabice: I think you can tell within the first second of starting to play something where it’s going to go. It’s a very different playing style for something like “To Lose You.” You don’t start playing a super downstroke, reverbed out riff like that, and then Kayleen starts doing blast beats on it you know, it’s like —
She could!
Dabice: Oh yeah, she could, and she would make it f*cking sick.
Reading: Yeah, I have played blast beats to Enya songs just jamming out before.
I think that there’s no song that wouldn’t be better with blast beats.
Reading: I love blast beats, but I don’t know if I can agree with that. Like “Landslide,” I don’t know if that needs a blast beat.
Well, we’ve never heard it with drums. Anyway, was there a difference in inspiration for this EP than on past projects?
Dabice: I wasn’t really listening to like any music before we went into the studio, personally.
Bear: During the pandemic, Radiohead was dropping recordings from concerts every week or so. Honestly, it was very inspiring for a good portion of it. I was just very drawn to how they were able to show themselves as a band through their careers. I think they’re a very inspiring band in the sense of understanding that you don’t have to just be one singular thing and you can expand in ways that you just never even thought you could, but you just have to explore them. So I would say that was my biggest inspiration, in a very dark time: what can make me feel like fulfilled? I want to make something that makes me excited, because if I’m not excited, how can I expect you to be excited?
Dabice: I felt like it was inspiring to me that we were together, being able to be loud, [rather] than living in my row home where I can hear what my neighbors are doing and feeling very self-conscious about making noise sometimes. And then being in a space where it’s completely safe for you to be as loud as you want, say whatever you want, scream, whatever you need to. It definitely opens that door in your mind that’s been closed off for a long time.
What was the process of writing these songs? Do lyrics come first or riffs?
Dabice: Riffs to the front, I think.
Bear: Can we make a t-shirt of that? I like that.
Dabice: Is this a very rip heavy EP? I’m not sure. I don’t think so.
smh @Indie_Mixtape posts 1 (tbh not great sounding) tiktok of us performing & now my tiktok DMs are all dudes who all look exactly the same telling me to quit music. It’s been so long since someone’s been mean to me on the internet and I’ve missed this. Your hatred fuels me.
I want to talk about the TikTok backlash that I inadvertently caused a few months ago. First of all, I sincerely apologize for opening that door.
Dabice: Apology accepted. Yeah, they hated it. They weren’t happy with the mix. They thought it sounded like sh*t.
Well, I recorded it on my iPhone from the front row, so I’m not really sure what they want from me. But also, I found your response to it very interesting, which was something along the lines of, “I should get used to this because we’re releasing new music soon, so it’s going to happen anyway.”
Dabice: It reminded me of like how quickly people are ready to make assumptions on your entire body of work, based on a ten-second representation of your sound and how that, for so many people, is the first impression of what a band is and what their artistry is. And it also reminded me just how uncomfortable a woman screaming about things makes people. And when you have people coming into your DMs like, “you have a horrible voice” and “you sound like sh*t.”
Wait, do they really do that?
Dabice: Yeah, I got two DMs that were like, “You sound like sh*t. I don’t know why you’re a musician.” And I’m just like, “Dude, you saw a ten-second iPhone video, chill the f*ck out.” It just reminded me that this is a part of being an artist. We share ourselves and we create different types of the spectrum of what human emotion is, everything from anger to anguish, and how we represent those things. So it just reminded me, “Okay, prepare yourself, because once you start playing shows again, and once you start putting music out, someone might just feel so compelled to tell you to quit because they don’t like the 10-second representation of what it is.”
Are you able to brush it off or does it actually bother you?
Dabice: I would say five years ago it would have really bothered me, but I haven’t thought about it since. I think that’s just growth. I’m comfortable with what we make, I like what we make. And I really don’t care if it offends someone.
Bear: I’m too sensitive. I just don’t look at the comments. I try to keep a very low profile. Marisa’s way better at it and tougher than I am.
Dabice: I think the three of us are very sensitive people to what people can say, where it’s like, “Oh man, it sucks that someone took their time to make me feel bad.”
That’s actually a nice segue, because my next couple of questions are about Mare Of Easttown. There was that tweet where a guy didn’t believe that your band name was real, and then the whole interaction was incredible.
Dabice: We did win a fan.
Can you explain a little bit more about how your involvement in the show came to be?
Dabice: Our friend, Allison Pearce, is a costume designer. She worked on the “Drunk II” video and the “Perfect” video. She’s a talented, talented person. She was an early costume designer on the show and she had a job one day to just go to Philly. They wanted her to pull t-shirts and things from the music world. I think we were on tour at the time, and she hit us up and was like, “Look, I know this sounds ridiculous, but you need to overnight me a shirt. Best case scenario, your shirt could be on the screen for like 10 seconds.” I was like, “Oh, that sounds cool.” So I sent the shirt. Then a few weeks go by and we get an email from the music supervisor that was like, “Myself and Brad Inglesby, the creator, checked out your music and we absolutely love it. There’s a band in the show that we want to model after your band. We want them to play your songs.” We were like, “That sounds very cool. Let’s do it.”
So it’s kind of the polar opposite of those guys on TikTok sliding into your DMs and being mean.
Dabice: Yeah. There’s a net positive and a net negative. That’s the balance of life, right? You kind of need some people to be a little mean because it makes the sweethearts all the more sweet.
Have you noticed any increase in visibility for the band since the show started airing?
Dabice: I’ve noticed more old heads reaching out. I’ve definitely gotten numerous DMs from people like, “Oh, I was watching Mare Of Easttown with the captions on, and now I’ve gone through your whole discography. You guys rock.” It’s definitely like from an older set. I don’t know if this is a Gen Z show.
So when are you going to meet Kate Winslet?
Dabice: Hopefully, at the Emmy’s? I don’t know.
Would you go to the Emmys if —
Dabice: F*ck yeah. I’ll go to any party.
Bear: Look, I’m the oldest member of the band, I’m not afraid to say it. I was definitely in high school when Eternal Sunshine came out, so I definitely used to be such a big fan boy. So if she were to be around, I’d probably be like, “I have to leave. I can’t even look at you. I’m sorry.”
Was there anything else that I didn’t ask about that you were like, “This is really important and I want people to know about it”?
Dabice: I don’t know. But we’re going to start writing our new record now.
Perfect is out May 21 on Epitaph. Pre-order it here.
Kacey Musgraves‘ 2019 album Golden Hour catapulted the singer into the mainstream and even earned her four Grammy Awards including Best Album. But with her next LP, the singer is taking things in a bit of a different direction. Musgraves has been endlessly teasing the new release and she’s now revealed some of the surprising musicians that inspired her upcoming songs.
Musgraves sat down for a cover interview with Elle where she recounted her quarantine experience and offered some insight into the new album. In the conversation, Musgraves name-drops some musical inspirations like Bill Withers, Daft Punk, Sade, the Eagles, and Weezer. “I feel like I don’t belong to country in any way on one hand, but on the other hand, I’m deeply rooted in that genre,” she said. “So I’m not owned by it.”
While Golden Hour was written during a period of falling in love, her upcoming record was made as she was processing emotions surrounding her divorce. But instead of recounting the explicit details about her breakup, the singer says she instead tells the story of “two people who love each other so much, but they cannot make it work in the physical realm to be together, because it’s just not written in the stars for them.” Musgraves continues: “It almost takes the blame off the two people, which is what I like, because it could be easy in a heartbreak to be like, ‘Well, you f*cked up, it’s your fault.’ ‘No, you f*cked up, it’s your fault.’ And it’s like, ‘No, let’s just blame the stars. Let’s just say that we’re not meant to be.’”
Reality TV host-turned-failed president of the United States Donald Trump has officially been informed by the New York Attorney General’s office that the Trump Organization is under investigation for all sorts of shady dealings, and that the probe “into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity.” So, as Jimmy Kimmel shared during his Wednesday night opening monologue, the former POTUS did what any totally innocent and law-abiding former president would do: he did an interview with OAN—his favorite far-right, totally bonkers “news” network—to peddle false claims about a rigged election.
After noting that “there’s no greater divide between anyone’s future than Donald Trump. In 2025 he could either be president again, or trading cigarettes for face bronzer,” Kimmel shared part of Trump’s sit-down. What did #45 want to talk about?
“There was an expression that I’ve heard that you’ve heard for many years: ‘The vote counter is far more important than the politician or the person running for office.’ And that was the case in this instance for the presidential election. Very sad that this could happen. It was a third-world election.”
First: Is that really an expression that we’ve all heard?
More importantly: Please note the MyPillow promo scrolling at the bottom of the screen!
OAN
When the interviewer stroked Trump’s ego by nodding her head and saying that it looks like a lot of that could be uncovered soon, Florida’s ultimate Florida Man said, “It’s being uncovered now. And it would be nice if the papers would report it. But they don’t want to do that.”
Poor Trump. Always the victim.
Kimmel, who accurately described the reporter’s demeanor as being “like a nurse at a mental institution,” summed up the story by wryly noting that:
“All this nonsense—all this division and anger and mistrust—it’s all because one guy’s ego is so out-of-control, he can’t deal with the fact that he lost an election. Trump did that interview with OAN because even Fox and Newsmax are scared to keep going down this election fraud road. Fox News right now is asking a court to dismiss a $1.6 billion that was filed against them by Dominion Voting Systems. They claim they were just reporting the news; they say they were ‘covering both sides of this vigorous election dispute.’ That’s their quote.”
Native Americans have been especially hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Montana, Native Americans account for 6.6% of the population but are 17% of the state’s total COVID-19 cases.
The Blackfeet Nation Reservation in northwestern Montana is no exception. The reservation is home to just under 10,000 people but in less than a year, it recorded a total of 1,3838 COVID-19 cases.
At the pandemic’s height, there were 390 cases of the virus on the reservation and the number tripled over just 10 days. The tribe lost 47 members to the virus.
Given the devastation the pandemic has on the Blackfeet Tribe, it has taken vaccination seriously. As of late April, 98% of the tribe was vaccinated.
In an act of goodwill, the tribe has decided to donate its leftover vials of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to their neighbors on the other side of the border in Canada. The tribe calls the donation is a “gift” of “reconciliation” between governments, nations, and tribe members.
“We started having some discussion about that about a month ago,” Piita’hkotokii James McNeely, the public information officer with the Blackfeet Tribe, said in late April. “We threw this together in the last seven, eight days and it really fell together.”
Over the past month, the tribe has held multiple clinics that have drawn hundreds of people from all over Canada to get vaccinated. The first clinic in late April vaccinated over 450 people. A follow-up clinic on Monday provided many with their second doses.
A huge thank you to The Blackfeet Tribe, based in Montana. They had an abundance of vaccine and decided to share i… https://t.co/VUgK0OlBb5
Ken Sawartzy drove nearly 400 miles from Calgary to make sure he got his booster shot. His wife is a cancer patient, so he had no problem going the extra mile for his final shot. “This will make sure we’re both safe, because I’m her caregiver, too. I think it’s a great thing,” Sawatzky told the CBC.
“It’s absolutely beautiful. The Blackfoot Indians are just coming through (for us),” Dave and Cathy Goodbrand from Calgary, who just got their second shots, told the CBC.
A Toronto man, cars full of 18-year-olds and Calgary residents getting their second shot are among those the Blackf… https://t.co/IcczndjYCh
The long lines of Canadians flocking to the reservation highlight the difference in vaccine availability between the two countries.
“I had a hard time believing it was that hard to get a shot in Canada,” Bonnie Healy, health director for the Blackfoot Confederacy, said.
America has vaccinated its population at a faster rate than Canada, but Canada will eventually surpass the U.S. in the percentage of citizens who’ve got the jab. A major reason for the difference is vaccine hesitancy.
Thirty-four percent of Americans have said they will not be getting the shot, versus just 12% of Canadians.
Blackfeet Tribal leaders are happy that their gift has been so well-received.
“I am actually brought to tears today hearing that the efforts to assist our relatives and folks across the medicine line with vaccines has been awesome! Many of the folks cried today when they were able to get vaccinated,” McNeely said.
Bloodshy’s voyage throughout the music industry mimics that of a mythological shapeshifter. Chalk it up to whatever’s in the magic water of his native Sweden, which has birthed fellow pop greats like Max Martin, Swedish House Mafia, and Robyn.
“I also think that bands like ABBA have played a big role in making [Sweden] big. Sometimes Sweden has been fresh and stood for something new,” he tells UPROXX. “And other times it’s made the biggest cheesy pop songs. But sometime in the ‘00s, there were studios everywhere. Everyone was cooking up beats and writing melodies. I feel like when it’s very dark and you’re very much inside, creating in the studio is appealing. I wanted to escape and be in my own little bubble.”
Born Christian Karlsson, Bloodshy first emerged as one-half of production and songwriting duo Bloodshy & Avant with Pontus Winnberg. The pair’s breakthrough was Christina Milian’s self-titled debut album in 2001, producing top 10 singles “AM To PM” and “When You Look At Me.” From there, Bloodshy & Avant worked with major pop stars, including Madonna, Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lopez, Sky Ferreira, Kylie Minogue, and Katy Perry.
But their most prominent work was that with Britney Spears. Beginning with 2003’s In The Zone (including the Grammy-winning “Toxic”), the producers helped bolster her sound for nearly a decade: 2004’s Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, 2005’s Chaotic, 2007’s Blackout, 2008’s Circus and 2011’s Femme Fatale.
Bloodshy continued to redefine himself. In 2007, he and Winnberg founded indie-pop band Miike Snow alongside American musician Andrew Wyatt (who later won an Oscar for co-writing A Star Is Born’s “Shallow”). In 2013, Bloodshy formed Galantis as a collaborative project with Swedish DJ Linus Eklöw. The electro-house duo refreshed the genre while dominating the festival scene worldwide. Along the way, they earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for “Runaway (U & I).”
The duo has released a string of singles since last February’s Church album, and its latest is “Heartbreak Anthem.” Shared today (May 20), the motivational anthem features Little Mix and David Guetta, whom Bloodshy previously worked with on 2015’s “Bang My Head.” “A good friend of mine works as an A&R with me. He’s also a producer/writer and tight with David Guetta,” he says of the song, which was born out of a London writing camp. “So he came to the idea to ask David if he wants to jump on it. He really liked it and started to work on drop ideas. It kept on taking different shapes and forms for a long time until the final product.”
Below, Bloodshy goes down memory lane with UPROXX about his punk beginnings, working with pop all-stars and the state of dance music.
Can you take me back to that time when you first discovered music as a teen?
I definitely came into the music industry from being in the subculture of skateboarding. When you were a skateboard kid, everyone was doing some sort of music. But I started in punk rock ‘cause it’s very easy to get into. There are like three different chords and you don’t need to be a very amazing singer to be able to get straight into starting your band. I love that culture still today. It meant so much to me, but hip-hop came into the skateboard culture in the early ’90s.
So I started to rap and make beats really when I was like 15. With punk rock, when you had the guitar, a mic, and somewhere to rehearse, that was it. You didn’t need anything more. But for hip-hop, you needed a sampler and a drum machine. That opened up so many new things because those tools were just so new and so exciting. I guess making beats just spoke to me. I continued to be a rapper for a bit, but more and more, I started to give away my beats to other people.
Really early on, I got the chance to remix Jay-Z’s “Hard Knock Life.” That was one of the first gigs I got and I was really proud of that. That was the beginning of everything. I was taking any work that I got because even though I was a beatmaker, I was still writing melodies. So when I got the chance to do both, I jumped on that. Whoever was knocking at my door, I was just giving it my all. I never left the studio. I basically slept on the floor and ate ramen noodles. [laughs] The struggle was beautiful though.
There’s a lot of producers who throw anything on a beat to make a quick hit. But you make sure the melody is perfect first.
Because I was so engaged in writing melody, I found out that a great beat isn’t a great song. You can force a melody on top of it and it won’t be a beautiful combination. As much as I like hip-hop, I still wanted everything to sound like a great song, even if the beat wasn’t even there, even if you have to play it on a shitty guitar around the campfire.
I couldn’t play a lot of chords, so I used the sampler as my tool. But to come up with a melody, I didn’t need anything but my voice and ideas. I kept on sharpening that to not be scared just because I wasn’t a singer. I also believe that when you’re not a great singer, you have to work even harder to get a great note [in order] to pass in a room with people that can sing. You really have to bring your game. Otherwise, they’d be like, “What is that?” But in the writing session, that shouldn’t matter. Unless the artist is with you writing it, the great melody is what should be the winner.
Speaking of melodies, you and Avant have created some of my favorite songs for Britney Spears. I love the way that you guys flipped that Bollywood sample on “Toxic.” It is a major pop song, but the sound itself is pretty terrifying.
No one else, as far as I know, was making songs that way. But that day I had probably 10, 15 ideas going and I was playing around with different types of Bollywood strings. The one we used was the only one going on a loop [begins singing “Toxic” melody]. I was thinking, “How do I make this into a song?” It’s kinda annoying but there’s also something brilliant about it. Slowly it was this procedure when you’re [chipping away at] something like Da Vinci. But it wasn’t like, “Oh my God, this is the one!” There were other songs done the same day. But this one also wasn’t made for Britney.
From what I know, “Toxic” was first pitched to Janet Jackson and she didn’t want it. And then to Kylie Minogue but she didn’t respond, so Britney ended up taking it.
You’re the first one to have the full story correct. [laughs] Actually reminded me about it. I always tell the Kylie story, but I flew to London to meet Janet and I played her the song. Later on, I had to make a big decision between continuing to work with Janet or start working for Britney. I chose Britney, and not because I was a bigger fan of her, but I just felt like I had more stuff that would fit her whereas Janet had a very strong plan of what she wanted. I sent [“Toxic”] to Kylie’s team as well and they didn’t get back to me [in time]. They did later on though and wanted the song, but then I already gave it to Britney.
A lot of fans, including myself, see Blackout as her best musical moment. There’s “Radar,” “Freak Show,” and “Toy Soldier.” But “Piece of Me” was a huge statement for her.
There’s so many layers to the story with me and Britney because there were different times in her life. But I totally agree with you, Blackout is a standout pop album. I’m very proud of being a part of it because I also loved the other work on it like Danja, T-Pain… it’s an amazing album. But it’s interesting because it was made when I think she was down and not in a good headspace at all. I think everyone that worked on the album was trying to help her come back in whatever way we could, which was with music. I was told by everyone at her label: “Whatever you do, don’t write anything about what’s going on with her. Just write other stuff.”
I was like, “I have to write ‘Piece Of Me.’” I just wanted her to come back and they said, “I know we told you not to, but this is really good.” And she really liked it. She was in there working really hard on the vocals and everything. But there were different types of journeys. Sometimes it was spending a lot of time in the studio with her or being with her on tour and making music on the bus. But around the Blackout album was a very different time for her. So it became a very different time for me as a producer and writer as well.
I think around that time you formed Miike Snow and that indie sound was completely unexpected. Why did you want to branch out?
Because there was something that I was holding inside all the time. Coming from punk rock and hip-hop where I was expressing myself, and then going into being a writer-producer where I worked for other people. I was just pushing down what I wanted to do. I was still making the music, but [I was told] “This is too left.” I put it in a drawer basically. Then at some point, I was like, “This is a big drawer of stuff here. How do I create a vehicle for the music?” It was a combination of being a little bit fed up being told by everyone in the industry that they wanted another “Toxic.” They wanted me to basically repeat myself. There wasn’t anything that appealed to me to do that. I always want to change what I’m doing and explore making music. So Miike Snow was kinda like my way of saying, “It’s been a good ride. I’m doing something else now. And I don’t care if no one listens to it.”
That was your middle finger to the music industry. [laughs]
It was actually. [laughs] And it felt really good to do that at the time. I was so proud of me, Pontus [Winnberg] and Andrew [Wyatt]. We really didn’t care if anyone would hear it. Like maybe we put it out on MySpace since that was the thing at the time. Also [I was] coming from being a top producer-writer going to the bottom again because we were a brand new band. We weren’t telling anyone who was in Miike Snow. We were like, “Let’s do some shows and be the first act of three in venues for a hundred people.” We were in a van going around and putting together all these gear for every show, which took hours.
There were like 10 people there who all hated our music ‘cause we were opening up for bands that didn’t really sound like our music. But we loved it anyway. We learned something from every show and what we wanted to do for our next steps. It was the same way I think about music: “How do I create the next sound for pop?” All three of us let ourselves just have the craziest ideas, then we just went for it.
So I know you’re busy with Galantis, but can we get a new Miike Snow album soon?
Absolutely. We’ve been working this whole year in the pandemic, although it’s been a little tough cause we’re usually in the same room together. We have been a little bit, but also sending a lot of stuff back and forth. But I’m back in Sweden after 10 years, so I’m now with Pontus again. Back to where it all started.
You’ve seen the evolution of dance and pop firsthand. Now we’re in an era where hip-hop has taken over because of streaming, but dance still has a stronghold on music festivals.
During my time in the music industry, hip-hop has had very big highs and lows. But pop and dance haven’t had such dramatic ones. But I don’t like trying to change my style just because it’s trendy, but a lot of colleagues of mine are jumping on hip-hop now. I like to stick to what I want to do. You’re absolutely correct because the stock never went down in the festival scene.
It went down in streaming because hip-hop [dominated] so I guess it took people’s attention. And it makes sense ‘cause dance is very easily the favorite for a lot of people in a big stadium maybe over hip-hop. It depends, I guess. But dance music has been so engaged in making big shows for a long time and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. Even when I wrote “Toxic,” it has a lot of dance elements to it. It actually won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording and I was surprised because I didn’t think about it as a dance song.
And to go back to the whole story of Miike Snow kind of giving a finger to the industry, for every show, [fans] wanted an after-party and a DJ set. And that’s where Galantis was born because I didn’t have enough dance music for those sets. So I wanted to create more music.
Can you recall any fun studio moments with an artist?
It’s funny, you have a working relationship with someone and you’ve done a lot of music and then you end up being friends because the music never came out. Like I worked a lot with Ricky Martin a long time ago and then nothing came out, but I became good friends with him.
But other than that, I think one of my most memorable moments in the studio was working with Madonna [on 2005’s Confessions On A Dance Floor] because she was probably one of the most hands-on huge artists. I didn’t expect her to be listening to everything in the production. She was like on me, sitting behind me being like “Hey hey, wait!” [laughs] She’s amazing and such an inspiration being in a studio with her.
I’m curious how you balance all of this. Miike Snow, Galantis, and Bloodshy the Producer are three completely different entities.
I actually just make music every day. To be honest, a lot of the time I’m working on something and I think it’s Galantis, but it ends up being Miike Snow later on. Or I give it away, like “Bang My Head” for David Guetta. I like to say you can dress up a song in different types of clothing and it will fit different projects. So I try to not think about what the song is for. I let it go where it wants to go.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While Jenny Lewis is primarily focused on music these days, once upon a time, she was a successful child actress. Lewis appeared in movies like The Wizard and Troop Beverly Hills, as well as TV shows including The Golden Girls and Growing Pains. Lewis’ IMDb page is nothing to scoff at, but it turns out it could have been even more fleshed out, as she was really close to appearing in a number of classic movies and TV shows.
Earlier this week, Handmaid’s Tale actress Ever Carradine tweeted, “Actors: What is a show or movie you came [extremely] close to getting that no one would ever believe? I’ll go first: I tested for Grace on Will and Grace three or four times.” Today, Lewis decided to offer a response, sharing a lengthy list of projects with which she apparently came super close to being involved.
Lewis said she screen tested for the movies Firestarter (1987), Empire Records (1995), Dazed And Confused (1993), and The New Adventures Of Pippi Longstocking (1988). She apparently also got far along in the casting processes of the shows My Two Dads (premiered in 1987), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997), and That 70’s Show (1998), as well as the movies Clueless (1995), Gas Food Lodging (1992), Slums Of Beverly Hills (1998), and The Big Lebowski (1998). Lewis later confirmed that the Big Lebowski role for which she read was Bunny Lebowski, a part that ended up being played by Tara Reid.
screen tested for firestarter empire records, dazed and confused & the new adventures of pippi longstocking ! network for my two dads, buffy & that 70’s show read for clueless, gas food and lodging, the slums of beverly hills & the big lebowski
Lewis doesn’t do much acting anymore, but over the past few years, her credits include A Very Murray Christmas and the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV series.
Jenny Lewis is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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