Jesse McCartney stopped by Hackensack Meridian Health Stage 17 and chatted with me about his “Better With You” tour and single, upcoming music and past tours with New Kids On The Block and Backstreet Boys. Plus Jesse reminisces a bit about Dream Street and talks about his roots in Ardsley, New York and current home of Los Angeles.
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Kygo, DJ and producer, talked to me about his latest music and tour – plus I asked him if he’d be checking out season two of “13 Reasons Why” on Netflix.
In the time between Parachute releasing its third and fourth albums, the band shrunk from a quintet to a trio. And the fact of the matter is, a lot can happen in two-and-a-half years.
“They got married and had kids,” lead singer Will Anderson responded when I asked what happened to former members Alex Hargrave and Nate McFarland. “It’s been a bit of a transition but it was just time, and the three of us have been friends since high school so we were obviously going to keep going.
“It was a very un-dramatic, sort-of exit. We’re still friends with them.”
When I inquired if this meant that no wedding bells would ring in the near-future for the band mates, I was quickly alerted to keyboardist Kit French’s nuptials, which apparently happened a while ago.
“It’s not for everyone,” French said of the balance between marriage and band life, before Anderson jokingly added, “Kit’s a very mature guy.”
Along with drummer Johnny Stubblefield, Parachute is currently touring behind “Wide Awake,” its fourth LP and first on Vanguard Records. While the label is independent, it’s owned by Concord Bicycle Group, which counts Paul McCartney and the catalog of Frank Sinatra amongst its roster.
Anderson revealed that the band worked primarily with Nathan Chapman on its latest release. Chapman is perhaps best known for his work with Taylor Swift, counting three GRAMMY wins to his credit for “Fearless” and “1989.”
“He was my main go-to,” explained the lead singer. “We talked a lot about this stuff.”
It makes sense given Anderson’s relationship with Swift; back in 2013 he told me the two were “great friends.”
“It’s also fun because she can give me advice on anything our band can possibly be going through; she’s already done it. Even though she’s a little bit younger than us, she’s the biggest artist in the world right now,” Anderson told me during Parachute’s promo run for the band’s third album, “Overnight.”
Do they still keep in touch?
“Distance separates us,” the lead singer said, noting Swift’s New York City apartment and Parachute’s roots in Nashville (although Swift owns property there, along with a slew of other locations). “But she’s great. She’s always been supportive of our band and we love getting advice from her.”
Considering Swift is still one of the biggest artists in the world, who wouldn’t?
“Ralphie Tonight” covered red carpet arrivals at the world premiere for “The Giver,” starring Jeff Bridges. OneRepublic penned “Ordinary Human” for the film, and lead singer Ryan Tedder shared a quick word with us outside of the Ziegfeld Theater. We later ran in to Ryan at the after party; of course as the DJ was spinning “Love Runs Out.”
Between scoring another hit single, releasing a revealing book, and leaving “The X-Factor,” Demi Lovato lifted a lot of weight off her shoulders in 2013.
“I worked so hard last year,” Lovato recalled to “The Ralphie Show” during a chat backstage at The 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards. “At the end of the year I was like, a little burnt out.”
But Lovato is turning a new page with 2014; she took most of January off to prepare for the “Neon Lights Tour.” It’s a far cry from a year in which she would pull all-nighters before national TV performances.
“I had press all day, then I had a concert,” Lovato explained of the first time she did this – coincidentally the last time she appeared on our show. “I was done at 10 p.m. I hopped on a private plane and I tried to sleep on there but it was only an hour flight. So we got in to New York, and I couldn’t sleep. So I was up for the entire day.”
Lovato’s work schedule became so overbearing that her team developed creative ways in which she could find time to sleep.
“I used to work so hard that they would prepare a bed in the back of the SUV,” revealed Lovato. “So whenever I got in to the car, there was already a bed prepared because I was not sleeping.”
The singer’s “Neon Lights Tour” begins on February 9 in Vancouver, Canada. Lovato’s supporting acts include Little Mix, Cher Lloyd, and Fifth Harmony. The trek wraps up in Indianapolis on March 30.
Over GRAMMY weekend, OneRepublic lead singer Ryan Tedder noted that the band’s third studio album, Native, was originally scheduled for a November 2012 release. When Tedder and his band mates stopped by the studio recently, he cited a couple reasons for the delay, including the influence of Swedish House Mafia on the record.
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“It was just like overwhelming because I saw them at Coachella; they were the best performer that whole weekend,” Tedder told me. “Radiohead is one of my favorite bands of all time, but I gotta say like… Black Keys, Bon Iver, Kasabian… none of them held a torch in my opinion to the Swedish House Mafia set.”
Despite Tedder describing himself as “not a card-carrying electronic music fan,” the experienced directly inspired the single, “If I Lose Myself,” along with the general tempo of Native.
“We’re not going to all of the sudden; three years after the fact jump ship and be like, ‘Oh! This is popular now. Let’s go do this!’” he explained. “That’s lame. You’ve got a handful of bands who did jump ship and just went pure electronic… and we’re the furthest from that. And then you’ve have other acts who kind of batted around with electronic; tried to do like a “dance” record and it kind of missed the mark. So we were like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s hit the nail on the head. And let’s capture that energy but still keep it sounding organic and like a band.’”
OneRepublic also decided to keep two tracks at the last minute – songs that Tedder almost gave away to other artists.
“We had a close call on this record. There was song that we were all really in love with,” revealed guitarist Drew Brown. “We went through a phase of feeling like it wasn’t going to fit with the rest of the continuity of the record. In the last hours of putting the record together there was a big ‘come-to-Jesus’ about like, ‘We absolutely can’t get rid of this song. We have to put it on the record.’”
The band called in Jeff Bhasker, who worked on the latest masterpieces for fun. and Kanye West, to finish the track. “Can’t Stop” made the album, due out March 26.
OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder sat in his seat inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome last Sunday just like any other spectator, watching Beyoncé perform during the Halftime Show. The singer/songwriter was 24 hours away from finishing the vocal recordings on the band’s third studio album, Native. Then, Beyoncé turned on to the final lap of her critically-acclaimed performance.
“She ended it with ‘Halo,’” recalled Tedder. “It was just completely shocking.”
Yes, the lead singer had no idea that the superstar songstress would end her set with a track that he composed.
“That was the best feeling,” he said. “What’s funny is, five seconds after it happened, I got a text from Max Martin.”
Tedder dubs Martin, “the greatest living songwriter/producer in the world,” and you’d be tough-pressed to argue against that title with a look at the Billboard charts over the past 15 years.
“I got a text from him saying, ‘Congrats on ‘Halo,’’” continued the singer. “This moment just got better, I’m sitting here watching this, and now Max Martin texted me.”
The next day, Tedder recorded the final pieces of Native. Now that the master is turned in (he beat the deadline by 10 minutes), fans of OneRepublic have an official, and final, release date of March 26.
“It was originally November,” said Tedder of the first target release date for the LP. “To be dead honest, we couldn’t finish the songs in time.”
The band now shifts in to promo-mode for the album, but not before a trip to Dubai this week. The band will also hit Europe before touring in the States this summer.
Last spring I sat down with B.o.B and asked him what we could expect from his forthcoming album, Strange Clouds, due out this spring.
The Atlanta rapper has already dropped the title track featuring Lil Wayne and “Play The Guitar” featuring André 3000. Now comes what is sure to be his breakout pop hit from the album – the Ryan Tedder-produced “So Good.”
SMASH HIT! I would be surprised if the record label didn’t push this as the next single from The Papercut Chronicles II, due out this Tuesday.
Gavin DeGraw has found living a “normal” life has afforded him more experiences to write songs from, something he says will be apparent when Sweeter is released on September 20. However, attempting to live like everyone else may have lead to an alleged incident on Monday morning, in which the singer was brutally beaten by a group of men.
“When someone says, ‘Oh well maybe you’re not on tour for a year or so, you’re in New York hanging out, watching bands and things like that,’ that’s so important to me as a writer,” DeGraw shared with me on his tour bus Saturday afternoon. “That’s my real life; otherwise I’d just be sitting here on the bus, singing songs about traveling all the time.”
But don’t let him mislead you: DeGraw is doing his fair share of traveling. He played a show in Camden, NJ with Maroon 5 and Train on Friday night. The next evening, DeGraw departed from the tour to headline a small show just outside of Scranton, PA. Sunday night, the “I Don’t Wanna Be” singer rejoined with M5 and Train for a date at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Mashantucket, CT.
DeGraw, a Manhattan resident, returned home Sunday evening. According to a report in the New York Post, he was assaulted around 4 in the morning, after leaving some friends at a bar. The singer suffered a broken nose and facial cuts before stumbling 13 blocks. Still dazed, a cab struck an injured DeGraw as he was trying to flee. He eventually made it to Bellevue Hospital, where a rep for the artist told TMZ, who broke the story, that DeGraw is stabilized and under doctors’ supervision.
Almost two days prior, DeGraw was all smiles on his tour bus in Jermyn, PA. The stop was one of just a handful of headlining shows for the Upstate New York-born singer. Perhaps it was growing up in South Fallsburg, NY that kept him grounded to reality.
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“There’s a different reality on the road,” said DeGraw of a singer/songwriter’s life on tour. “When you come off the road, you kinda have to come off the road and just be normal, and then go, ‘Whoa, something very f’ed up happened to me today,’ and other people are like, ‘What do you think we all go through man?’”Unfortunately for DeGraw, that “f’ed up” thing happened Monday morning, and proved another perception of a musician’s life incorrect.
“It’s funny talking with musicians about their schedule, and then you talk to someone who has a real job, and they’re like, ‘That’s your schedule? I wish I had that schedule.’”
Tonight, the only thing being wished upon is prayers for DeGraw and his family, as he recovers. The pop star was previously scheduled to rejoin Maroon 5 and Train Tuesday evening in Saratoga Springs, NY, and was slated to perform on “Live! With Regis and Kelly” Wednesday morning. As of press time, there was no word from J Records on the cancellation or rescheduling of either appearance.
