Category: Music Feature

Billboard Cover: Ariana Grande’s Dangerous Year

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I went to Ariana Grande’s home in order to figure out exactly who the big voice with the small frame actually is. Turned out I was out of luck: She had zero decor in her Benedict Canyon digs, and was both perfectly pleasant and personally elusive. But that’s sort of the story. Herein we meet Chairwoman Grande, Ariana from Boca, and a latex-adorned heroine/villain named Super Bunny, all of which dwell behind the Chanel shades seen above. See you at Whole Foods…

(awesome photos by Joe Pugliese)

L.A. Reid Talks Fifth Harmony

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I won’t hold it against the man that he made a Coldplay joke (w/r/t Chris Martin) the minute I got on the phone with him. L.A. Reid is a legend after all. Too often I have great chats with industry folk, and all I have to show for it is a quote or two in a profile about an artist. Here he is speaking at length about Fifth Harmony, Simon Cowell, and how much he loves Justin Bieber’s sound.

Billboard Cover: Surviving Pop with Fifth Harmony

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In which I make Fifth Harmony cry, and try to patch it up with a trip to the froyo shop (spoiler: birthday cake flavor heals all wounds). I had the chance to interview these five for a smaller introductory Billboard piece just 14 months before (among my first for the mag), and now they (we!) are on the cover. RIYL an honest-to-god window into all the weird anguish that comes with being thrust into an ultimately impossible situation—which is to say, a girl group in 2016.

The Passion: Inside Fox’s Bizarre Biblical Musical

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“Replace the robes and sandals with Jordans and jeans, and you have a visual people can relate to.” That’s Tyler Perry, summing up what’s one of many, many very odd elements of Fox’s The Passion, a live televised musical set in modern times, using modern pop songs, but depicting the last mortal days of Jesus Christ. I spoke to all those dudes above, plus Perry in an attempt to make sense of the spectacle. The jury’s out on that, but it’s a good, weird read.

Read my standalone Q&As (in order of fun-ness) with:

Charlie Puth’s Weekly Grind Is ‘Mostly Girls’

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Charlie Puth is 24 and incredibly famous for writing swoony hits. He’s also a Berklee grad who writes and produces all of his songs. He takes selfies with Al Roker too. A week in the life of this man isn’t like any week I’ve ever known (also markedly different from weeks had by Ricky Reed, Machine Gun Kelly, and the guy from Disturbed) — click his handsome mug to see why.

Esperanza Spalding’s Surrealist Dream

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Esperanza Spalding, the Grammy-stacking perpetual “jazz darling,” has made a prog album. Well, it’s a very soulful, jazz-streaked, noisy rock record called Emily’s D+Evolution, which is a concept LP about that titular character, who is Esperanza’s alter ego. (When you talk to her, it starts to make sense.) For the story, I also got to interview the legendary Wayne Shorter, who name-dropped Haruki Murakami and Neil deGrasse Tyson during our chat. That part didn’t make it into the piece, but, well, now I’m name-dropping.

Anderson .Paak Was Homeless Before He Was a Star

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Anderson .Paak and I went cruising down the PCH on the first day that El Niño truly dumped on us. It was a little harrowing, but you wouldn’t know it from watching our video interview. Plus, if you read the story (which includes a chat with the mighty Talib Kweli), you’ll see that this dude’s made it through much much worse. His crazy soulful new album Malibu is out now.

Billboard Cover: Zayn Malik’s Own Direction

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At last, proof that a Zayn Malik does indeed sh-t in the woods (and maybe the One Direction bed a little bit too). What do you do when you quit one of the biggest boy bands the world’s ever seen? You go home, back to Northern England, to steel yourself on mom’s cooking before buying a house in Bel Air and getting to work on your solo alt-R&B career. Also, you go camping with Frank Ocean’s favorite producer and record out among the trees.

Billboard Cover: Lady Gaga Is Woman of the Year

 

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Lady Gaga had me over to her beachside Malibu palace to play some new songs on her old piano and chitchat a lil’ about being crowned Billboard’s Woman of the Year. Click through to read about how she bet big on her own talents, poured her rage into American Horror Story: Hotel, and did whatever it took to save herself from becoming, in her words, a “fashionable robot.” With input from Tony Bennett, Ryan Murphy, Diane Warren, and Matt Bomer.