A Day in the Life of…
A Day in the Life of… Muzi
When asked about his earliest musical memory, Muzi remembers very clearly. “My dad is playing Bob Marley, ‘Buffalo Soldier,’ out of his Toyota Cressida,” he recalls. “I’m four.” Since his 2016 studio debut, South African DJ/singer/songwriter/producer Muzi has earned a reputation for unpredictable sonic experiences. The magic of his music is rooted in a rich recipe of African Zulu influences (specifically Mas-kandi, Kwaito, and Iscathamiya) and pop and electronic music. On his fourth studio album, 2021’s Interblaktic, Muzi demonstrates a natural talent for writing engaging, theatrical music about the under-explored universe of intergalactic adventures and African space travel. (“[I love] the idea that humans can do extraordinary things.”) In his 2021 single “Zupiter,” the lyrics describe hi...
A Day in the Life of… MOD SUN
When I caught up with Mod Sun, he was lounging in bed with his new cowboy boots on and, as he tells me, doing “wonderfully”, evoking his trademark easy outlook. “Today…I felt like putting on a pair of great beat-up leather cowboy boots,” he says. “To me, one of my favorite sounds is the sound of boot heels on tile floor. There’s nothing like wearing a nice pair of boots.” He’s just spoken with his mother who, to no surprise, wasn’t thrilled watching her son’s character get brutally pummeled—all-too realistically by Mod’s on-screen antagonist played by Zach Villa (American Horror Story)—in his powerful, filmic new video for his pop-punk ballad “Battle Scars.” “The song itself is like a piece of my body honestly,” he tells me. “It was the first song I made when I got sober and it was my best...
A Day in the Life of… Dave King of Flogging Molly
“For me, a great anthem is inclusive and gives people a sense of belonging,” Flogging Molly frontman Dave King says, when asked what makes a great anthem. Some of his personal favorites include Bowie’s “Heroes,” the Clash’s “Clampdown,” and surprisingly, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Over the years, King has written such legendary Celtic-punk anthems as “Devil’s Dance Floor,” “Float,” and more recently, “These Times Have Got Me Drinking/Tripping Up the Stairs” off their new album, the aptly titled Anthem. The album’s title was a response to a simple sentiment the band wanted to capture in response to the difficult past few years. “After the pandemic we wanted to create something with a sense of camaraderie,” he explains. “We thought the titleAnthembest embodied that sentiment.” With that sense...
A Day in the Life of… Claude VonStroke
When you watch the video clips below, the first thing that will strike about Claude VonStroke is how endearing the DJ and producer is with the people around him. You can’t help but notice the ever-present common denominator of warm smiles, all the result of his emotive electronic music. “Anything that someone can remember and creates some sort of emotion for them…or magic with their friends or lover or just even inside themselves,” he says, of what makes a great song. Or, anything that makes you need to drop your butt down a few inches and groove on the spot.” Born in Cleveland, and raised in Detroit, the now LA-based VonStroke started off listening to the beats of rap and hip hop, eventually finding his way deeper in sonic spaces like drum and bass, as well as house music, where he’s foun...
A Day in the Life of…Doll Machine
“Creativity is something I’ve learned needs to be nurtured like a baby bird,” electronic artist Tara Klein–who goes by the stage name Doll Machine–explains somewhat sagely. “It can’t be forced and it must be authentic. So, keeping my phone or notebook on me at all times to write down and record ideas is vital.” Her music includes a series of spontaneous stand-alone singles, generating well-deserved buzz, including her newest highly-danceable, hypnotic track “Techno Cowgirl” (August 12). Doll Machine’s natural playfulness branches out into her live shows where she revels in the close connection she seeks and finds with the audience. “The stage is my literal playground and the audience my playmates – it’s all about having fun for me,” she says, also admitting she reads crowd reactions for fu...
A Day in the Life of…Wallows
Playing Lollapalooza is a big step forward for any band. But for Wallows, who were playing the event for the second time in their career, the moment was even more substantial. With a mid-day slot on the T-Mobile stage (one of the two main stages), it was a chance to see how far they’ve come in four years. They’ve been here before, but the pre-game jitters still exist. “There’s more pressure because we’re in a much bigger slot,” frontman Dylan Minnette says in the band’s dressing room a few hours before the set. “And we’re a bigger band compared to what we were then. There was pressure last time since it was our first festival we’d done as Wallows. You try not to have expectations or hopes of what it will look like [from the crowd]. I always get a little nervous before festival sets more th...
A Day In The Life of… SOFI TUKKER
“We met in college at an art gallery. We were both booked to play the same event. I was there with a jazz trio playing mostly bossa-nova inspired music and Tuck was the DJ after me that night,” recalls Sophie Hawley-Weld of first meeting Tucker Halpern, the other half of SOFI TUKKER. “He came early and saw me play and ended up remixing one of my songs on the spot. I remember thinking he was very tall. The dude’s 6’7”. You don’t see it often.” Since that fateful meeting at Brown University in 2014, they two have been making some sweet (sassy/fun/upbeat) music together. “It’ll make you dance,” Tucker says. “And hopefully feel good. It’s got global influences. And it mixes raw and real instruments with electronic sounds.” Sophie attributes their special magic to the fact that they’r...
A Day in the Life of… Jordan Hawkins
R&B superstar-on-the-rise Jordan Hawkins was an economics major—with hopes of becoming an investment banker—before committing to music, and even interned on Wall Street, creating a pretty unique segue into a life in music. “That same summer my uncle gave me a book by Dennis Kimbro entitled The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires. While he likely thought that it would inspire me to double down on my dreams to become a banker, the book inspired me to pursue my gifts in music,” Jordan tells me. “While all of the millionaires in the book had different trades, the most important commonality in their success was that they followed their passions. This trait gave them the drive to reach the success they aspired to achieve.” The North Carolina native credits his early life in ...
A Day in the Life of… Jeremy & Ajay Popoff of Lit
“Jeremy and I grew up around music. Our grandfather was a musician and our dad was in radio,” explains Lit’s Ajay Popoff of how he and his older brother, guitarist and bandmate Jeremy, were destined for a life in music. They started playing instruments at a young age. By seven, Jeremy had learned a few songs on his grandfather’s Hammond organ, and his grandfather bought him his own. “I used to take lessons from this older lady who’d get mad at me for not reading the music and for playing everything by ear,” says Jeremy. “I would see her daughter taking kids upstairs for guitar lessons and I was super envious of those kids. They seemed super happy.” Everything changed after they went to their first concert: UFO, with Iron Maiden as the opening act. “My mind was absolutely blown and I never ...
A Day in the Life of…Eddie Berman
“When I first heard the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan I had this strange compulsion to learn how to play the guitar,” Eddie Berman says, also noting Dave Van Ronk, Mississippi John Hurt, and Leonard Cohen as early influences. “I never really had any interest in playing music before then, but as soon as I started fingerpicking, I never stopped and it all snowballed from there.” His fourth album Broken English (released in January) is a modern folk commentary on our tenuous American life–written before the pandemic. Though performed on guitar, the songs were written on the banjo. “With the fingerpicking, flat-picking style I play there’s sort of the bones of the melody baked into whatever I’m playing. When I come up with a progression I like, I turn on a recorder and just start singi...
A Day in the Life of… Alaska Thunderfuck 5000
“A little bit stunning, a little bit shocking, a little bit funny, and a little bit heartfelt.” That’s how drag and recording artist Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 describes her music, and how we would also describe her–only putting ‘heartfelt’ at the forefront. In completing her 5 Albums I Can’t Live Without feature with us last year, she said she’s best known for “being from outer space,” and with her meteoric rise to media fame, we’re believers. This glorious superstar’s yet-to-be-released fourth studio album Red 4 Filth teased us with several pre-release singles, including the early-2000s rave-inspired “XOXOY2K”. Of all of the songs on her new album, she tells us that “22,” written by Jay Stolar, JBACH, Chester Krupa & Justin Honard (aka Alaska), is the most personal. “We wrote it as a le...
A Day in the Life of… S-X
Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/producer S-X has made his name collaborating with such heavy-hitters as Lil Wayne, Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper and J. Cole. This year, the 29-year-old’s long-awaited, soon-to-be-released debut album Who We Are showcases the artist’s signature lyrical prowess paired with a unique pop-R&B sound. “I’d say it’s relaxing, chill and honest,” the artist says. “But also energetic at times. I’ve never been able to describe my sound — it’s just S-X music.” The so-called Wolverhampton Wonderkid took a step back from the industry in 2015 to slow down, start a family, and think about his next move. “I got to know myself more,” he says. “I was experiencing things with my mental health and I really had to just stop music for a while. I got a normal job....
