Music Life

Francisco Carrasco and N. Hardem are joined by Graciela Zaera Moraña and Beto Robledo Zaragoza of the band Chapulines to discuss creativity and the songwriting process. These four Latin American artists, who are on the line-up of this year’s La Linea Festival in London, UK, talk about their most constant themes in song writing, writing songs in different languages, the spiritual nature of Spanish...

Mark de Clive-Lowe, Iman Europe, dot and Pat Junior talk about financial equity for independent artists, building community with your fans and the future possibilities of using blockchain tech. Mark de Clive-Lowe was born in Auckland and started piano lessons when he was 4. In high school in New Zealand and Japan, he fell in love with sample-heavy 90s hip-hop and early UK drum’n’bass. He lived in...

Molly Rankin, Tracyanne Campbell, Mac DeMarco and Molly Nilsson talk about whether or not you need to be social to make your best work, whether you’re a creative fox or a hedgehog, and how much of yourself to expose in your work. Molly Rankin grew up in a musical family on the remote island of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada. Her father was a professional folk musician, and she started writing...

Baaba Maal, Tricky, Jah Wobble and Chi-Chi Nwanoku discuss the influence of African musical roots and traditions in Western classical music, the importance of collaboration, and rhythm and its position in the song writing process. Baaba Maal was born into a family of fishermen in the north of Senegal, but rather than go into the family business, he studied music in Dakar and Paris. Since then, he...

Ana Moura, Pedro Mafama, Herlander and Pongo discuss celebrating music that is tied to its place of origin, moving away from home to carve out a musical career, and discovering the happy parts of their song writing. Ana Moura is a fado singer born in Santarem, Portugal to an Angolan mother and Portuguese father. Introduced to fado music at a young age by her parents, she’s performed the traditiona...

Sun-Mi Hong, Jen Shyu, Mark Guiliana and William Parker discuss art as an outlet to process grief, and how touring is the best way to meet interesting people. Sun-Mi Hong is a jazz drummer and composer. She was born and raised in Incheon, South Korea, but moved to Amsterdam in 2012 to study music. She’s since made her mark on the European jazz scene and in 2017 formed the Sun-Mi Hong Quintet, perf...

Liraz, Derya Yildrim, Adrian Younge and Ladybug Mecca discuss art as propaganda, the exhaustion of performing on stage and having the courage to seek the unknown. Liraz is an Israeli-Iranian singer, musician and actress. In 2022 she released her album Roya, a collaboration between musicians from Israel and Iran. Adrian Younge is a former Music Life host and self-taught musician who re-imagines sou...

Mia Gladstone is a New York based singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and programmer. Her genre bending style incorporates the cutting up of Jazz, Funk, and R&B, before reassembling it for the social media age. Promoting messages of self-acceptance, compassion, and creative freedom her Loopy project in 2022 explored gender, identity, social media, and the complexities of the human mind. Ro...

Amelia Moore, REI AMI, G Flip and Royal & the Serpent discuss favourite lyrics, the power of the second verse, getting inspiration in the shower, learning to become more vulnerable and how their upbringings influence their music. Amelia Moore is a singer and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, whose future pop sound is inspired by artists including Frank Ocean, SOPHIE and Flume. Having...

Sarathy Korwar, Nwando Ebizie, Sandunes and Abel Selaocoe discuss diversifying the classical music space, balancing capitalistic forces with creativity, and creating space in which to disappear. Sarathy Korwar is a composer and percussionist whose music combines jazz, Indian classical, Indian folk and electronic influences. His latest record, KALAK, explores what the past, present and future are,...

Santigold, Black Thought and theOGM of Ho99o9 discuss how best to balance information and imagery, how being an artist is about dancing between spaces, the importance of not overthinking your art, and how to write an arena banger. Santigold is a singer and producer whose music is influenced by everything from hip-hop and punk, to gospel and reggae. Born in Philadelphia, she began her musical caree...

Dele Sosimi, Angélique Kidjo, the Allergies and Shingai discuss discuss why music is their calling, loving the bass, being custodians and transmitters of messages, the importance of preserving music and putting it into a new space, and why making music is like your subconscious, creative self sending you messages. Dele Sosimi is a Nigerian-British singer and keyboard player, whose career went into...

Σtella, Michelle Gurevich, and Las Palabras discuss the difference between writing in your first or second language, insisting you use major chords in your work to sound happy, why the songs that live in your head are always so simple, and why more is actually more. Greek singer Σtella started out focusing on visual arts before getting into music, studying at Athens School of Fine Arts. Her sound...

November Ultra, Barbara Pravi, Mélissa Laveaux, Yael Naim, and Pi Ja Ma discuss writing songs from their beds, catastrophe in music, feeling connection to family, and being a bad musician away from the public. November Ultra started singing at the age of three in Paris with with her Spanish mother and Portuguese father. She embraces the many facets of folk, R&B and the Iberian music traditions...

Jockstrap, Flux Pavilion and Mala discuss writing music on games consoles, passing the baton between each other in collaboration, music connecting in the right time and place, and hearing your songs in a club. Jockstrap are Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye, a duo from London who are changing the indie world with their genre-bending debut album I Love You Jennifer B. The pair met when Georgia was stu...

Patrick Watson, Weyes Blood, Flume and Caroline Shaw discuss why perfection is a route to self-sabotage, having to play by the rules as a new artist, the pressure to be more candid and expose more of your personal life, and the ability of new technology to revolutionise music creation. Singer, film composer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Watson was born in California but raised in Montreal, Can...

Angel Olsen, Julianna Barwick and Marissa Nadler discuss going to the movies on Christmas Day, wanting to chill out over the holiday, why they try to not make ‘normal’ music, creating a rough exterior of your personality, and getting lost in landscapes. Angel Olsen is a guitarist, singer, and poet from Missouri, USA who sings about romantic crises, life on the road, forgiving yourself for making m...

Skin, Nona Hendryx and Paolo Nutini discuss writing songs in your dreams, knowing when to grab at an idea, why playing piano can take you to places you have no right to go, and fighting on stage. Skin grew up in a Jamaican family in Brixton, London, and as a child, wanted to be a pianist. She formed Skunk Anansie in 1994 and they became pioneers of the Britrock scene, speaking out against racism,...

Seckou Keita, Julie Fowlis, Anandi Bhattacharya and Richard Bona discuss why words are easy, story-telling being a family tradition, feeling free with the melody, and finding the confidence to experiment. Seckou Keita was born in Ziguinchor in Senegal and is descended from the Griots – a family of musicians and storytellers whose tradition is passed down from one generation to the next. Cameroonia...

Nyokabi Kariūki, Moor Mother, Edward Wakili-Hick and KMRU discuss yelling to the universe, why making music is easy, quick thinking collaborations, what experimentalism means to them, and struggling through your processes. Nyokabi Kariūki grew up in Nairobi and played classical piano from an early age, before moving to New York to study composition. Her sound is guided by a love for experimentatio...

George Fitzgerald, SOAK, Marie Davidson, Mount Kimbie's Kai Campos and TOKiMONSTA discuss how they make their music matter in today’s transient world, whether an artist’s work has to have a clear narrative, having to live with music that you're not 100% happy with, and accidentally writing knock-offs of your favourite artists. George FitzGerald is one of the most popular electronic producers and D...

Amahla, Corinne Bailey Rae, Tiana Major9, and Simeon Hammond Dallas discuss using music to freeze life, how much to reveal about yourself in a song, creating worlds through lyrics and crying in the studio. British soul singer-songwriter and Nile Rodgers mentee Amahla grew up in a Caribbean household, and her songwriting is inspired by a love of literature and activism. Multiple Grammy-winning arti...

Thomas Attar Bellier, Dina El Wedidi, Alsarah, Ali Güçlü Şimşek and Alain Johannes discuss collecting sound memories from birth, Egypt's rich tradition of melodies, the power of modal music, why folk music is fundamentally old-school pop, and adapting traditional instruments for modern listening. Thomas Attar Bellier is a French-American musician and producer from the Arab garage rock outfit Al-Qa...

Folk musicians Alela Diane, Rhiannon Giddens, Mariee Siou and Uwade discuss that spark of electricity you get when songwriting goes well, how moments of personal growth and transition affect the music, going a whole year without writing a song, thinking of taxes while performing, and how songs are their own little houses or realms that have their own energy. Alela Diane is a singer and guitarist b...

Harvey Sutherland, Yu Su, Paul Woolford and Stella Mozgawa discuss treating yourself (psychologically), the power of non-verbal connection, the thrill of being in a room together, producing new and experimental music in China, and nature’s ability to inspire. Harvey Sutherland is a 'neurotic funk' producer and synth player from Australia. Yu Su is a composer, DJ, producer, instrumentalist and prom...