The Grammys

Dec 07, 2023

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Pop superproducer Jon Bellion is the man behind Tori Kelly's new ep, 'tori,' but he's also been involved with countless hits for more than a decade. Check out nine of Bellion's biggest songs, from Eminem to Jonas Brothers.

If the name Jon Bellion sounds familiar, it's probably because of his 2016 single "All Time Low." With its relentless "low-low-low-low-low" chorus, the electronic-fused pop confection scored Bellion his first major hit — as a solo artist, that is.

Prior to Bellion's breakthrough with his debut solo single, he'd already made a name for himself behind the scenes by writing and producing songs for the likes of Eminem, Jason Derulo, Zedd and CeeLo Green. And in the seven years since "All Time Low" became a top 20 hit, he's celebrated plenty of other smashes with some of pop's A-listers from Christina Aguilera to Justin Bieber.

This year alone, he worked with the Jonas Brothers to executive produce their statement-making record The Album, helped shape Maroon 5's "Middle Ground" — which is expected to be the lead single off the veteran pop-rockers' forthcoming eighth studio album — and teamed up with Switchfoot for an orchestral 2023 update of the band's 2003 breakout single "Meant to Live."

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Bellion's most recent work can be heard on Tori Kelly's new self-titled EP tori, which dropped July 28. Along with producing the project, Bellion joined Kelly for a magnetic, electro-tinged track titled "young gun." Upon the EP's release, Kelly herself noted Bellion's impact, calling their collaboration "the start of something really special."

In honor of Bellion's latest project, take a look at nine songs you may not have known contained Bellion's signature touch — a roadmap to his becoming one of the most in-demand producers of the moment.

One of Bellion's earliest smashes came courtesy of Eminem — well, and Bebe Rexha. The pop singer penned the track's dark hook while working on her debut album, but it later made its way to Eminem and eventually shapeshifted into his fourth collaboration with Rihanna. The song became the duo's second No. 1 collaboration following 2010's "Love The Way You Lie" and remains one of most monstrous hits in Bellion's career.

Jason Derulo worked solely with Bellion on this top 20 hit from his 2013 Tattoos, which was later re-packaged as 2014's Talk Dirty. Built around an irresistible horn line of, yes, literal trumpets, Bellion and Derulo concocted a bouncy, flirtatious symphony to smoothly objectify the R&B singer's lady love, and manages to name drop Coldplay, Katy Perry and Kanye West over the course of just three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

Bellion handled production on Christina Aguilera's fierce 2018 team-up with Demi Lovato, "Fall in Line," off the former's 2018 LP Liberation. Behind the boards, Bellion effectively captured all of the feminist rage and empowerment that the two vocal powerhouses lit into their lyrics, pairing their sneering vocals with a vamping strings section, rattling chains and a robotic male overlord futilely demanding, "March, two, three, right, two, three/ Shut your mouth, stick your ass out for me."

"Fall in Line" scored a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2019 GRAMMYs, marking Aguilera's twentieth career nod and Lovato's second.

To kick off their seventh album, JORDI, Maroon 5 enlisted Bellion to co-write lead single "Memories." The gentle ballad found frontman Adam Levine mourning the loss of a friend, pouring one out over a lilting reggae-pop line that cleverly samples Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major." While the heartfelt song is dedicated to the band's longtime manager (and namesake of the LP) Jordan Feldstein, who tragically passed away in 2017 due to a blood clot, the relatable sentiment of "Memories" helped it peak at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

In addition to "Memories," Bellion also worked with the band on two other songs from JORDI, co-writing fourth single "Lost" as well as Anuel AA and Tainy collab "Button." Three years later, he would reunite with the band to co-write and co-produce their latest, equally delicate single "Middle Ground" alongside the likes of Andrew Watt and Rodney Jerkins.

Miley Cyrus came raring into her glam rock-inspired album Plastic Hearts on the back of "Midnight Sky," an unapologetic statement of independence following her split from longtime love Liam Hemsworth. Dripping in sultry synths, the power ballad took a page from '80s rock icons like Joan Jett, Debbie Harry and Stevie Nicks.

The sound was an entirely new one for Cyrus — which is one of Bellion's tools when working with a new superstar for the first time. In a 2023 Billboard interview, he likened his approach to inventing a new kind of ride for the given A-lister. "They have already built an amazing theme park: millions of people go to it and experience their roller coasters," he said. "They put me in charge of revamping or creating a new section of the theme park, and they let me be the foreman of it all." The new style worked in Cyrus' favor, and earned Bellion yet another top 20 hit on the Hot 100.

Bellion's fingerprints are all over Justin Bieber's 2021 album Justice, starting notably with its Chance the Rapper-assisted lead single "Holy," which he both co-wrote and co-produced. The superproducer contributed to six other songs on the pop-driven LP — including the pop radio No. 1 "Ghost," which was inspired by Bellion's late grandmother — as well as three deluxe tracks. And though Bellion didn't have any credited features, his voice can still be heard: he offered background vocals on seven of the songs.

Justice earned Bellion his very first GRAMMY nomination, as the project was nominated for Album Of The Year at the 2022 GRAMMYs (Bieber also received seven other nods).

Bellion first collaborated with Selena Gomez on Rare album cut "Vulnerable" alongside Amy Allen, Michael Pollack and The Monsters & Strangerz. Two years later, the entire team reunited for the title track to the pop singer's Apple TV+ documentary My Mind & Me.

Bellion and co. helped Gomez tap even further into the most vulnerable side of her psyche to date. "Vulnerable" saw Gomez letting her guard down with a new flame, but "My Mind & Me" allowed her to completely lay bare her mental health journey. "Sometimes I feel like an accident, people look when they're passin' it/ Never check on the passenger, they just want the free show," she sings. "Yeah, I'm constantly tryna fight somethin' that my eyes can't see," over spare guitar and piano.

After the success of their 2019 comeback album Happiness Begins with producer Ryan Tedder, the Jonas Brothers recruited Bellion to helm the boards on their 2023 follow-up The Album. The producer helped the hitmaking siblings tap into a new facet of their pop-rock sound, finding inspiration in the '70s music their dad raised them on. (As Joe Jonas told GRAMMY.com upon the album's release, Bellion "was saying exactly what we were hoping for" when they first met to mull over ideas.)

While Bellion had a hand in every song on The Album, second single "Waffle House" is the latest to earn both him and Jonas Brothers a top 15 hit on pop radio. Bellion also serves as the one and only featured artist on The Album, coming out from behind the boards and into the vocal booth for bombastic closer "Walls."

Tori Kelly first linked up with Bellion thanks to Justin Bieber, as the pair worked together with the Biebs on tender bonus cut "Name" from the Justice sessions. So, when it came time to launch a new era with her self-titled EP tori, the songstress turned to Bellion to help bring her vision to life.

On lead single "missin u," the two-time GRAMMY winner throws the guitar-driven singer/songwriter vibes of her past work out the window in favor of a sleek R&B sound reminiscent of the early 2000s. The sonic gear shift is a natural fit for her lithe voice as she replays a romance that "was rainin' purple skies in my room." Somehow, Kelly even manages to outdo the vocal acrobatics of "missin u" with a deliriously brilliant "R&B edit" that adds even more layers, soul and vocal flourishes to the single.

"When I first started working with Jon Bellion, we were just beginning to scratch the surface on a new sound that truly felt like my own," Kelly explains in a video celebrating the release of her self-titled EP tori. "I know that I'm gonna look back on this collaboration as the start of something really special." As for Bellion's thoughts on his latest project? "Tori Kelly's the greatest vocalist of all time!"

Ariana Grande's Musical Growth In 15 Tracks, From "The Way" To "Positions"

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The summer of 2023 may be winding down, but its musical offerings remain white-hot. Check out some new songs and albums that arrived on Aug. 25, from Maluma to Burna Boy.

The faintest hint of fall is in the air, but the summer of 2023's musical deluge continues unabated. Across genres, scenes and styles, the landscape continues to flourish.

We have Miley Cyrus's first song since Endless Summer Vacation — a vulnerable, proudly "unfinished" offering. On the opposite end of the vibe spectrum, Selena Gomez has thrown caution to the wind with the carefree "Single Soon."

And that's just the beginning — beloved acts from Burna Boy to BLACKPINK are back with fresh material. Before you dive into the weekend, add these songs to your playlist.

On her first song since Endless Summer Vacation arrived in March, two-time GRAMMY nominee Cyrus avoids tidiness, and pursues honest reflection.

"The time has arrived to release a song that I could perfect forever. Although my work is done, this song will continue to write itself everyday," she said in a statement. "The fact it remains unfinished is a part of its beauty. That is my life at this moment ….. unfinished yet complete."

"Used to Be Young" belongs to the pantheon of "turning 30" jams; therein, Cyrus looks back on her misspent youth, and the attendant heat of the spotlight. "You say I used to be wild/ I say I used to be young," she sings.

In the stark video, she gazes unflinchingly into the lens, without varnish or artifice.

Where Cyrus' new song bittersweetly gazes backward, Gomez's carbonated new jam "Single Soon" is focused on the promised reverie of tomorrow — sans boyfriend.

"Should I do it on the phone?/ Should I leave a little note/ In the pocket of his coat?" the two-time GRAMMY nominee wonders, sounding positively giddy about her unshackling from Mr. Wrong.

As the song unspools, Gomez gets ready for a wild night out; the song ends with the portentous question, "Well, who's next?" If you're ready to slough off your summer fling, "Single Soon" is for you.

The two-time GRAMMY winner and 15-time nominee's acclaimed debut album, Yours Truly, arrived on Aug. 30, 2013; thus, it's time to ring in its tin anniversary.

Granted, these aren't "new songs," per se: rather, in a weeklong celebration, Grande is reintroducing audiences to Yours Truly.

Dive in, and you'll find "Live From London" versions of multiple songs. Plus — perhaps most enticingly — the sprawling re-release contains two new versions of "The Way," her hit collaboration with late ex Mac Miller.

Papi Juancho is dead; long live Don Juan. "Fue un placer," Maluma wrote on Instagram last New Year's Eve. (It translates to "It was a pleasure.")

And with that, the Colombian rap-singing heavyweight ushered in a new character. He's now Don Juan — in a reference both to the fictional libertine and his birth name of Juan Luis Londoño Arias.

Now, Don Juan's out with his titular album — which he dubs a "mature" blending of the musics that got him going, like reggaeton, house, salsa, and hip-hop.

Just over a year after his latest album, Love, Damini, Burna Boy is back with I Told Them… The Nigerian star offers another forward-thinking missive with his seventh album.

Featuring the likes of 21 Savage, J. Cole, and Wu-Tang Clan's GZA and RZA, I Told Them… is one highlight after the next — and "Cheat On Me" is one of them. For the advance single, the GRAMMY-winning Afro-fusion dynamo teamed up with London rapper Dave.

Therein, the pair expound on getting out of their own way. The chorus, powered by a sample from British-Ghanian singer/songwriter Kwabs, sums it all up: "I couldn't see/ I was cheating on, cheating on me."

BLACKPINK are a bona fide cross-cultural sensation, but they won't stop at the music: they're a game now.

A little over a year after their second studio album, Born Pink, the acclaimed South Korean girl group has released a mobile app, succinctly called "The Game." Therein — and above — players can watch the video for "The Girls," their first post-Born Pink jam.

Don't say Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa didn't warn you: "Stop sign, we're burning it down/ Better watch out, we coming in loud/ Bang, bang, just playing around/ Don't mess with the girls, with the girls, with the girls."

The Killers' beloved debut album, Hot Fuss, turns 20 next year; as a ramp-up, here's "Your Side of Town," a new slice of electro-pop from the Vegas crew.

The sleek, aerodynamic, Auto-Tuned "Your Side of Town" is their first single since their acclaimed pair of albums, 2020's Imploding the Mirage and 2021's Pressure Machine.

Here, the five-time GRAMMY nominees take a Pet Shop Boys-like tack with the music; lyrically, they're still putting the "heart" in heartland rock.

"I'm hanging on your side of town/ I notice when you're not around," frontman Brandon Flowers sings on the chorus. "Can't keep my cool, I'm burning inside/ A broken heartbeat, barely alive."

But the Killers — like everyone on this list — remain very alive.

New Music Friday: Listen To New Songs From Travis Scott, Britney Spears, NewJeans & More

Photo: Katia Temkin

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Actress turned pop songstress Renée Rapp details the inspiration behind her unflinching lyrics and surprising production — both of which have helped her concoct a sound all her own.

"As a woman, if people say you don't talk enough, you're quiet and demure, and if you talk too much, you're loud and annoying," muses pop singer Reneé Rapp, referring to the truth behind her earworm breakout song, "Talk Too Much." "I've always been someone who expresses how they feel."

For Rapp, that penchant for fearless self-expression has manifested itself through what's been a relatively short rise. The 23-year-old first catapulted to fame with her acclaimed portrayal of Regina George in the Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls, taking her prowess to television screens in the popular HBO Max series 'The Sex Lives of College Girls.'

Along the way, Rapp has been steadily building a career as a singer/songwriter to be reckoned with. Seamlessly blending elements of pop and rock, her lyrics exhibit a no-holds-barred look at the machinations of her mind and personal life. On the heels of her 2022 EP Everything to Everyone (which featured the viral single "Too Well"), she recently unleashed her debut studio album in the form of Snow Angel.

Showcasing her knack for autobiographical lyrics and surprising production, the album strays from a cookie-cutter pop aesthetic. Instead, it's crafted to defy the cliches of pop at every turn — from its eponymous ballad, which starts off demure and explodes with passion, to the single "Talk Too Much," the alt-pop-rock concoction that's a sonic cross-stitch of a throwback track with a modern sound.

Ahead of Snow Angel's release, Rapp spoke to GRAMMY.com about the creation of her debut album, from its musical influences to the unfiltered, non-fiction truth behind her trademark lyrical style.

Some songs come out and you can hear the specific influence, but I can't really tell with Snow Angel's opener "Talk Too Much." It sounds like something from this era, but also reminiscent of a song from the past. What was your intention?

It's just how an uptempo pop song looks to me. Of course it comes from all of my influences and everything I've learned and consumed over the years, but when I was writing "Talk Too Much," it had nothing to do with how I wanted it to sonically sound. This was the second song me and [singer/songwriter and Snow Angel producer] Alexander 23 had ever done together. So because it was so early on, it was the most authentic version of my sonic palate.

As a woman, if people say you don't talk enough, you're quiet and demure, and if you talk too much, you're loud and annoying. I've always been someone who expresses how they feel and it's been something I was laughed at for a lot of my life. So it's a good [opening track] for my album, because it's a fear that I've lived with for a long time — and I think a lot of people do, whether you're a girl or not.

So then did you use "Talk Too Much" as a sonic and lyrical guide for the rest of the album?

I will congratulate myself just a little bit: I just really am chasing a good song. I want every song to be strong and narrative-driven, and want to be proud that it can stand on its own, while also serving a larger intricate purpose on an album. So I'm sure that subconsciously it was kind of a guideline, but more than anything it gave me a little confidence. It also made me want to branch out and explore more intricate sounds than I have in the past.

When it comes to "Talk Too Much" and other Snow Angel tracks, there are many different elements that make up each individual song. You have no idea where any song is going structurally. Where did that manifest itself?

That is exactly what I want. I cannot tell you how many times I said in my head and out loud, "It should be exciting, it should keep you on your toes, it should be all different sonic palettes."

Honestly, I wish I could take a lot of credit for it. But it comes from my dad, that motherf—er! I grew up listening to bands like Yes, Journey, Queen and the Carpenters. My dad would always stress to me: "Reneé, you have to make music that's unexpected and has parts that are thoughtful and significant, but are also so exciting they make you want to keep listening."

That's something he's beaten into my head since I was a kid, even before I started making music. So it comes from exactly that place and I actually agree, and I think his taste in music does that really well. It's a classic rock kind of thing — which is not to say I make rock music, but I do feel like I have a lot of influence from those classic bands.

Its chorus also resurrects the "woo-woo," which you don't really hear in modern music as of late. We need more woo's! Do people "woo-woo" when you perform it live?

I'm totally with you! And oh yes, the b—es are woo-wooing.

There's also an anxious, stream-of-consciousness monologue we hear you deliver during the bridge. Where in the process did that portion come about, and is it a nod to your acting career?

I'm a big bridge believer. I think if you're going to have a bridge, you have to make it good, and intentional, and not just to serve the structure of a song; it needs to be thoughtful.

"Talk Too Much" was written because I just started a new relationship and I had a dream that I killed my girlfriend, and then felt really compelled to tell her. It was a weird guilt I was carrying. So Alexander said, "I think you should just be talking and ranting during the bridge."

He asked if I wanted to write it, but I said, "No, I just want to go off." We did a couple of passes of me reenacting the situation with my girlfriend in a car. We spliced it together, and now it lives there in the song.

Your lyrics are so specific. How much of them are factual, or are you jazzing things up a bit and ratcheting up the spicy parts?

It is accurate to a fault — to a point where we had to rewrite the song "Poison Poison" so many times, because I was just doxing the person I was singing about. Alexander said, "This is not good. This sounds like you're just yelling at somebody." So we had to tone it down.

I'd love to one day write about hypothetical situations, but I can't. I get too angry and frustrated. So usually I'm having to pull things back so I don't get in trouble, which is nice for everyone on my team. [Laughs.]

They say the more specific you are, the more people can relate. Especially in a song like your title track, "Snow Angel," which starts softly and revs up like a roller coaster. Can you take me into the studio while you were concocting it?

For that one, it was really late at night and Alexander said to come over; I was sitting on the floor and he was playing piano. It started out as a really depressing lullaby and all of the sudden we started hitting the chords harder and it just became that. The greatest songs are the ones you have no idea how they're made. It was just one of those vibes.

Between the cycle of writing, producing and performing, what part of the process do you find the most cathartic?

It is every single part of the experience for different reasons. They're all a part of my overall therapy and artistry. But I love writing; songwriting is such a specific and special medium that I feel so lucky to be a part of.

I was never part of a religion growing up, but I feel like I found community in a parasocial way through songwriters. They're people who say how they feel without anybody else interjecting, and it was so nice and so refreshing. I loved it, even if I don't agree with what they say, because it's so true to themselves. And if it's a narrative I love that too, because I'm a theater kid and I love a f—ing narrative.

As much as I can get quite nerdy, when it comes to performing, I'm making music to find a community for people to enjoy. I so desperately want people to like it and enjoy it, because I know what it's like to love other artists and consume music. So the community is unmatched.

Then you have the producing side, which I've been so f—ing picky about. Having an incredible producing partner like Alexander really changed my life in a lot of ways. I was born right after my dad's dad passed, but he owned a music shop and that was his whole life. So I'm really tied to production because of that.

In an overarching way, they're equally important to me, and they all fulfill my life in every single way. It's the best thing in the world.

JVKE's "Golden" Year: How The Singer's World Turned "Upside Down" With TikTok, Collaborating With Charlie Puth & More

Photo: AM Photography Team/Adam Yoshihara

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Indonesian singer AGNEZ MO prefers to showcase her powerhouse vocals only with the best mic in the biz — the same brand that's used by the likes of Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake.

When many artists are asked about their favorite piece of equipment, they often think of an instrument. But Indonesian singer AGNEZ MO swiftly thinks of her superpower — her voice — which is why her Sennheiser microphone is her favorite item in her collection.

"I had to compile this folder of all the names I wanted to work with... Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake," MO explains in the latest episode of It Goes to 11. "I study them and literally write down the equipment they use on stage. Justin and Beyoncé use Sennheiser 5200."

One of her favorite parts about her mic is that she customized it to the color of her choice, white. But beyond aesthetics, MO enjoys the mic because of its sound quality.

"It has that warm tone to it. My tone of voice is mid to high frequency, and this definitely warms it up," she says. It also gives the perfect level of reverb, so "whenever I hear myself, it imitates me talking to the audience," she adds.

Through it all, MO simply likes her microphone because it can take ages to find the perfect fit. "It's like finding a boyfriend," MO laughs. "Honestly, this is like my soulmate ... This might not be the right one for you, but it's the right one for me. So, I'm going to hold onto it."

Press play on the video above to learn more about how AGNEZ MO gets the perfect quality voice on stage with her top-of-the-line tech, and check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of It Goes to 11.

Herbal Tea & White Sofas: DABOYWAY Reveals His Favorite Sweet Treats For Tour

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interview

As Irish singer/songwriter Hozier releases his third album, he details how he channeled his pandemic experience into a 14th century tale — and tapped into a creative side he'd never unleashed before.

Like many, Hozier used his lockdown time to dive into some literature. Little did he know, it would inspire his third album.

In Unreal Unearth, which arrived Aug. 18, Hozier muses about his pandemic experience through the lens of Dante Alighieri's famous poem Inferno. Part one of the 14th-century epic Divine Comedy, the poem narrates Dante's journey through Hell and its depicted nine circles — an eerily brilliant framework for an album.

"I didn't want to write songs that were about a lockdown; I didn't want to write songs that were about the pandemic," Hozier tells GRAMMY.com. "But I did want to explore — or at least acknowledge, even as a nod structurally — this feeling of going into something, these new circumstances and experiences in that time and coming out the other side of it."

Born Andrew Hozier-Byrne, Hozier has always been an artist with an intellectual approach; he referenced Irish poet Seamus Heaney on his second album, 2019's Wasteland, Baby!, and Biblical and Celtic contexts on his 2014 self-titled debut.

But Unreal Unearth felt different for him. "[There's] a more announced intention of a thread in the structure," he says, adding that he tapped into two new territories: collaboration and deeper plumbing of his Irish roots.

The trio of facets helped Hozier create an album that fits right in with the deeply thoughtful lyricism and beautifully layered soundscapes of his previous releases, but with a sense of reinvigoration. Its journey from the darkness of opening track "De Selby (Part 1)" to the breakthrough of closer "First Light" creates a captivating tale that only a voice like Hozier's could narrate.

Below, hear from Hozier about three of his biggest inspirations for Unreal Unearth, and how it all resulted in a project that opened a new creative door for the Irish star.

There was some old poetry — and I mean, like, old, classic poetry — that, as a lyricist, I always wanted to explore. Then the pandemic happened, and offered so much free time. I was working on other songs [at the time], and I put a lot of those ideas aside.

In March 2020, it felt like the world changed, and priorities changed, and my priorities changed with it. And there was some lines in [Inferno] that resonated with me at the time. It just felt like there was a great deal of potential loss hanging in the air.

Early in that poem [is] that sort of famous quote that Dante imagines is written over the door of hell — you know, that "Abandon all hope" line. There's a larger passage that says "through me, you enter into the population of loss."

As a structure, I did want to acknowledge something in my experiences of [that] two, three year period, and what I was processing. I [wanted] to find a way that nods to that, and the significance of that — albeit, not necessarily in a way that was a lockdown album or a pandemic album, or songs that focus on the nuances of that experience, but at least acknowledge the journey. And it's taking the structure of that journey as imagined by Dante, these Nine Circles he walks through and then he comes out the other side.

I kind of viewed the last album as all these same voices sort of singing or screaming into the same bonfire, all from different perspectives. That's something that I wanted, in particular, to explore in this album — that each Circle is a slightly different voice. It deals with a slightly different theme, in a playful way, sometimes.

[Dante's Inferno] is a poem about a person who's wandering through this sort of underworld space, and in each Circle, they meet with a new person who shares their grievance, their pain, their experience. That was something I allowed myself to play with a little bit — that each song starts with my voice, but it allows into itself and the license to just let the song grow to where it needs to be. Let the voice explore the idea that it needs to explore.

Something that I had hoped to achieve with these is that the songs come from a personal place, and a very real place, but I also wanted them to explore, at times, things that were kind of mythological in nature, or were collectively held fictions. Like in the case of "Francesca," who is a character in Dante's Inferno [Second Circle, Lust], and she's not a terribly famous character from literature, but it's definitely a significant moment in that poem.

It's a song that I wrote for somebody in a difficult moment and was finding a lot of themes with that character. I just resonated with a lot of stuff in her story. This fictional idea that there is this woman who is being punished in Hell for falling in love.

The [ending] lyric is "Heaven is not fit to house a love like you and I, I would not change it each time." The song is basically saying this isn't a punishment, I would make this decision time and time again. I don't regret or repent anything." [I tried to] explore that and sort of turn that punishment on its head, and write from an empathetic point of view of some of the characters in that poem.

So it's song by song, and depending on where the theme is — like, "First Time" plays with Limbo, this idea of this never ending thing that cycles. That song explores this kind of birth and the sort of death and ending at the end of a relationship where everything feels like it's collapsing around you, and it being the start of the next thing.

Then "Eat Your Young," Circle of Greed, it reflects upon how the real destruction in a global sense, in a larger sense, is not done. It reflects on being young, that sort of coming-of-age feeling of just being free and powerless, but having fun and enjoying the little things that you can enjoy, and how every generation will always blame the younger generation for our coming destruction in some way — some very imaginative, funny way. The Circle of Violence, "Butchered Tongue" looks back at sort of historical violence, colonial violence, and the destruction of language that comes out of it.

It was just finding the sympathy between "Okay, here's this theme, and here's these elements of the song. And there is personal experience, but at the same time, I'm nodding to and playing with the images found in either myths of characters that are dead — so Icarus, who dies at the end of his myth; De Selby is a fictional character in a book about a man who doesn't know that he's dead; Francesca, Dante includes her into population of Hell.

"Son of Nyx" is named after Alex Ryan, who co-wrote that song with me, his father's name is Nick, so Alex is technically a son of Nick's. Nyx is a Greek goddess of nighttime — so again, reflecting on darkness — and a son of Nyx in the Greek stable is the boatman or the ferryman, Charon, who ferries everybody over the river. The song has a life above ground and below ground, and trying to find that sympathy points between the two.

It was also important to me that you can just listen to the songs and know nothing about this and be able to say "That sounds beautiful," or "There is something in that that is universal." These themes are universal — the theme of lust is universal, the theme of loss, and betrayal, and being hurt by somebody is universal. We love and listen to and write these songs every single day. But creating the album in this structure and arranging the themes in sympathy with the circles as Dante imagined it was something I really wanted to do.

It's important to me that these songs just feel good. That they exist on their own terms in a way that I felt was worthwhile and beautiful enough to exist on their own too.

I will say I struggled with where the line was with how tightly to hold the poem. There's an early version of "Francesca" which I tried to write using the same rhyming scheme that Dante uses in the poem — he invented a rhyming scheme called terza rima. He was kind of obsessed with this idea of Trinity, he invents this interlocking triplet thing, which is like, really, really hard to write in English.

Somewhere early in the album [process], I realized the more I referenced the text and the poem directly, the less universal it is, the less open it is, and it becomes, like, a history lesson. And actually, it became like musical theater as well too, because it was like referencing these moments in this journey, as opposed to just exploring moments in the journey of life that we all experience. So these feelings of betrayal, these feelings of disillusionment, and loneliness or love.

There's all sorts of reasons [I used the Irish language on this album]. I mean, part of it was being at home for the year for those years, and reassessing my place at home during that pandemic period.

But, ultimately, the Irish language is a language that a lot of us in Ireland like study for 12 years, and I guess I just got to this point where it's like I had this entire palette of mouth sounds, this entire palette of words, this whole language that was in my vocabulary — it's kind of like a bunch of tools hanging on the wall at home that I just never used.

An example of that is uiscefhuaraithe, which is described in "To Someone From A Warm Climate" as the cooling action of water. It just seemed right. It's like why not use these tools? It's like all these paints that I just never painted with.

"Butchered Tongue" explores the sort of experience of traveling around the world with the Irish view of history, or with a view of history and global politics that's informed by the Irish experience or my Irish experience, and my understanding of Irish history.

I [channeled] the playfulness of the Irish language on a song called "Anything But." On paper, it reads like a kindness. The verses are saying, "If I was a riptide, I wouldn't take you out." The second verse says, "If I was a stampede, you wouldn't you wouldn't get a kick." These are all Irish-isms that I heard as a teenager growing up. They're nice ways of saying that somebody wants nothing to do with you. So that's where that double meaning sort of thing comes in. They're all they're all Irish-isms, fun idioms.

I'd written many songs — actually, the majority of the songs from my first two albums — I just wrote everything myself. Writing for me was always a very solitary thing. And then I sort of found the limitations of what solitude and writing in solitude would give me towards the end of lockdown. I'd written a bunch of ideas. I've gotten a lot of ideas out of my pockets and out of my head, and then I kind of got into LA.

I'd never worked with Dan Tannenbaum, who's done a lot of stuff with Kendrick Lamar. [He's an] incredible producer and his team, Pete Gonzales and Daniel Krieger, and this fantastic team of guys are all incredible musicians. Our first day of jamming, I honestly thought that we were going to hang out for a talk, and we were just going to get to know each other. And then he sort of threw a microphone in my hand and was like, "Let's make some music."

So for the first time I just jammed. We just jammed music together and would create these soundscapes. I knew that I wanted to explore classic synthesizer sounds and some more electronic sounds, but marry them to organic acoustic sounds, like in the case of "De Selby (Part 1)," or in "First Light" or in "Anything But."

Part of that was also just creating with musicians that I've never created with before, and then knowing where the line was of what felt right to me, and not a diversion, but an exploration and an expansion. It was just trusting the skills of these great producers and their great musicianship, and just creating for the sake of creating and seeing what came out of it. It was really enriching and super exciting, because it was a new way of writing for me.

With Jen Decilveo and Jeff Gitty [Gitelman], two other fantastic producers across the album, I was recording a few songs with Jen separately, I was recording a few songs with Jeff. So I became the sort of central point of making sure that these songs would all work together as an arc.

I tried to do something which I thought was going to be a fun and interesting challenge, and I feel like I did that as best I could. I gained all these wonderful skills of collaborating, and also being the central point of like trying to hold a lot of spinning plates with different producers and make everything work in a cohesive way and just being that one central point between a lot of creative minds. So I'm proud of it. And I'm excited to explore those skills again.

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