Last week, I made the final round for a chance to be on the red carpet at the MusiCares Person of the Year event in February honoring Paul McCartney! One of six bloggers selected, I have a chance to head to Los Angeles the week of the Grammy’s and interview all the musicians attending the event and cover the show as well.
Many of you have been following You Sing I Write since day one and this is a huge opportunity. For more information and to vote, click here. Make sure you Like MusiCares, click on the Enter Now button, type in your Name, Email and select me (Finalist #5 – Annie at You Sing I Write: MusiCares: Changing Lives One Song at a Time). Voting ends November 30th.
If I win, you can be sure I’ll be taking some of your questions to the red carpet to ask all the artists performing. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get to stay around for the Grammy’s. Thanks for all your support!
Last month, I met fellow music journalist Markos Papadatos while covering Martina McBride’s performance at the Empire State Building. This weekend, Papadatos was kind enough to interview me for Suite101.
We chatted about my beginnings as a writer, You Sing I Write, some of my favorite interviews (which include Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman as seen above) and being one of six music bloggers nominated to cover a red carpet event honoring Paul McCartney during the Grammy’s. Below is an excerpt from his article.
“Annie Reuter is one of New York’s most accomplished, dedicated and passionate music and entertainment journalists. Reuter’s articles and feature interview profiles with some of the biggest names in pop and country music have appeared in such prestigious outlets as Billboard‘s official website, Rolling Stone, Marie Claire’s website, AOL’s The Boot, CBS, MTV, among many others; moreover, she is the founder of her successful music blog, ‘You Sing, I Write.'”
With gritty guitar and a heart-pounding drum and bass beat, “Happens Every Day,” grabs the listener’s attention right away. Frontman Matt Reich’s catchy vocals only continue to add to the song.
The first single and track off Lights Resolve’s debut album, Feel You’re Different, it’s an adequate introduction of what’s to come. Clocking in at nearly three minutes, it’s hard not to have the band’s “oh-oh-oh-oh’s” stuck in your head long after the song is over.
Watch Lights Resolve perform the track live in the studio below. Download “Happens Every Day” for free when you post it on Twitter.
There is nothing I enjoy more than learning how a song comes together for a band. This week, Buick released a video that showcased the writing and recording process of indie rock band Hellogoodbye. Tasked with the challenge to write a song in two days while on the road, frontman Forrest Kline expressed his nervousness.
“We’re trying to come up with and record a song in basically two days, against my better judgement probably,” said Kline. “I like to sit and tweak the things for days on end. We’re trying to capture the whole progress of making that and the end result.”
Constantly on the road touring, Kline admits that the road is actually a really good place to get inspired.
“On the road things happen that you don’t plan for and you learn from all those experiences. With this track, we really just tried to write an honest song and capture it in an honest way,” he added.
Watch below to see Hellogoodbye’s songwriting process. To download the track, like Buick on Facebook. For more on the band, read my interview with Forrest Kline.
With over 20 performances by nearly 30 musicians, the CMA Awards is the show to watch.
Airing on ABC at 8/7c, be sure to tune in for performances by Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum and many more. Watch the pre-show red carpet interviews and more exclusives below. I’ll be covering the show via Twitter, so be sure to follow me @countrynyc.
The Drums played to a sold-out crowd Monday night at Bowery Ballroom. Their third New York show and final North American tour date before a stint of performances in Europe, the Brooklyn based band proved just why they’ve become one of New York’s most buzzed about bands.
With dance along beats, driving percussion and a charismatic frontman, The Drums showcased their staying power. In fact, it was hard not to be captivated by Jonny Pierce flailing his body around the stage, mic in hand and arms contorted in various positions throughout the show.
Their 80-minute set combined fan favorites from their self-titled debut release and current LP, Portamento. While energetic single “Money” had the audience singing and dancing along, tracks like “If He Likes It Let Him Do It” slowed down the pace of the night with deeper vocals and an intriguing drum beat.
“Oh New York, you’re making us feel so great. It feels so therapeutic to us and kind of heals us,” Pierce told his hometown crowd. “We have to go to Europe in 20 days but we’d love to stay in New York for the rest of our lives.”
Concertgoers shared the same sentiment as many screamed out song requests, most of which were later performed. From songs about Pierce’s dead dog to a track dedicated to Girl Scouts everywhere, the band impressed with layered textures, dark bass parts and enticing synthesizer. Though they won’t be staying in New York for long, the band’s next homecoming is sure to be equally well received.
For more on The Drums, visit their Website. Be sure to watch their album-themed web series, “Visiomento,” (episode 1 below.) Each Tuesday, the band airs a new episode through their website and YouTube page, featuring song previews, special guests, exclusive interviews, in-studio performances and more. To watch each episode, click here.
The traveling music festival known as the International Pop Overthrow (IPO) is in New York City this week, as a number of bands take the stage on the Lower East Side for a massive showcase of up-and-coming talent.
Festival founder David Bash conceived the idea – to introduce bands from all over the world to the masses and have them play together under one platform – in 1997, and a year later, the first edition was held in Los Angeles, Calif., where 120 bands performing throughout 10 days.
Three years later it became a traveling festival when New York and later Chicago and Liverpool got added to the bill. Today, IPO is held in 16 cities throughout the US and Canada. A major success in Los Angeles, Bash said it took convincing from bands who continually played the festival before it went on the road.
“It was really more just urging of bands, who I think didn’t want to travel as far and thought it would be cool to have it at a place where they lived,” he said. “I’m glad they did that. It was immediately fun and successful.”
For more on the International Pop Overthrow, visit CBS.
Exactly two years ago I posted this Switchfoot song as my Song of the Week. Just hours before my 25th birthday, the song held great meaning to me. As the years have progressed, his words still ring true.
Of “Twenty-Four,” frontman Jon Foreman said, “I wrote this song near the end of my 24th year on this planet. Wherever we run, wherever the sun finds us when he rises, we remain stuck with ourselves. That can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like my soul is polluted with politicians, each with a different point of view. With all 24 of them in disagreement, each voice is yelling to be heard.
“And so I am divided against myself. I feel that I am a hypocrite until I am one, when all of the yelling inside of me dies down. I’ve heard that the truth will set you free. That’s what I’m living for: freedom of spirit. I find unity and peace in none of the diversions that this world offers. But I’ve seen glimpses of truth and that’s where I want to run.”
Watch Foreman perform the track along with some behind the scenes footage from a Switchfoot tour.
Earlier this month, We Are Augustines captivated a sold-out crowd at Bowery Ballroom. Their second of four performances at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, they had festival-goers screaming along song after song. While tracks like the poignant “Chapel Song” captivated with emotive lyrics, others like the bass heavy “Headlong Into the Abyss” stood out with sweeping guitar and horn features.
After having their album on repeat for days, I chatted with frontman Billy McCarthy about his songwriting process, the band and what it’s like playing live. Formed after the demise of former band, Pela, McCarthy explained the start of Brooklyn-based We Are Augustines.
“I think we had an abbreviated run with our last band and we felt like there was so much more to say so it was worth our time to refocus our lives to do it,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy writes candidly about his life within his music, something he likens to running down the street screaming your journal to rooms full of people.
“Honestly, it’s not always easy to talk about stuff in the literal sense and have to keep redoing it every night but I think it depends what kind of art you’re doing,” he says. “It is personal and I guess that’s just my commitment to the music that we’re making. I just want to be honest. It’s not always easy, but that’s what it is.”
While on stage, McCarthy says a mixture of thoughts run through his head.
“Every single night it’s different, it has a different feel, a different color, a different smell. It’s a lot of reaction to that. The lyrics . . . sometimes it’s a great feeling of relief and sometimes, when I sing in the moment they hurt a little bit. It’s like this big mash up of emotions for an hour. It’s an interesting thing to do with your life.”
You can read my interview with McCarthy on CBS. Below are additional questions that didn’t make it into the writeup.
What is your songwriting process like?
I think I’ll take a song any way I can get it. Maybe one that’s a little more imagined that’s in your head before you even get to an instrument. Or, it’s keeping your eyes open for something that’s happening in the moment. It’s funny. There are songs that happen very quickly.
There’s a song on our record called “Augustine.” I wrote it in the morning, wrote the lyrics in the hotel room and recorded it the next day and it was done. And then there are songs that you work on for eight months. A song, “Headlong into the Abyss,” that song was just really difficult to get control over. It was like a wild horse or something. I just couldn’t reel it in, and then you do. Sometimes you find that you work on a song for months and the song’s frankly not really that good but you just can’t stop trying to wrap your mind around it and get it out. It’s just about getting stuff out.
Do you have a favorite song to play live?
They’re all special to me. I like them all. Some of them are easier than others, just technically. But some of them are really difficult with your fingers and moving around it can be a little hard. Some of them you’re just so happy because it’s like a Cadillac cruising down the highway, a big old boat, just cruising, it’s easy. And then some of them are little nimble, challenging ones.
Is there a song that means more to you now then when first written?
No. I guess I’m like a mother hen with the songs. But there are songs that I didn’t think were very good or didn’t come out very good that I go back and I have a different relationship with them now. They say different things to me now, or they kind of make me smile.
Currently on the road with Glasvegas, visit their Web site for more information. Watch their video for “Chapel Song” below.
I really don’t know what my life would be like without music. Nor do I care to imagine.
So much of life’s biggest moments are defined by music. From falling asleep on long car rides to the sound of the Beatles and Elvis Presley as a kid to waking up every morning to John Mayer on my alarm clock today, my entire existence exudes my love of music.
In middle school, I would lock myself in my bedroom for hours with Backstreet Boys on repeat, pouring over magazine articles. When my grandmother died in the ninth grade I found solace in their song, “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” when nothing else seemed to make much sense at the time.
In high school, not much changed. Switchfoot’s The Beautiful Letdown eventually became my anthem with its introspective lyrics and my constant questioning of what life in college and the dreaded “real world” would be like.
Today, I can’t help but think of how this early obsession with music shaped who I am. While I no doubt was made fun of for my music taste as a kid, I know that my early love of music is what led me to creating You Sing I Write and had a major factor in my determination to become a music journalist.
Very few things in life have the power to connect and heal the way music does. Whether it’s hearing Adele’s heartbreaking new ballad, “Someone Like You” to convince you to move on from a relationship or witnessing that favorite song performed at a concert for the first time in years, music plays a huge part in our day-to-day lives, more so then we often realize.
It’s organizations like MusiCares® that transcend that love of music to an even bigger purpose: helping those in need. For music to provide emergency financial assistance, addiction recovery and safe harbor rooms, it is furthering it’s job as a mere hobby to some and actually making a difference in someone’s life. I can’t imagine a better partnership.
Luckily, as a music blogger I get to experience this firsthand and evaluate it each day. It’s not always an easy job to do, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Disclaimer: This blog post has been written for entry into the MusiCares® Music Blogger contest.
MusiCares® helps and supports the people who dedicate their lives to making the music I blog about. Please join the Be A Part of the Heart MusiCares® mosaic at https://beapartoftheheart.com and be entered for a chance to win a trip the 2012 GRAMMYS®!
