New Found Glory on Becoming Self-Aware, Their Less Obvious Influences and Streamlining the Band

 When New Found Glory released Resurrection last fall, the band was adjusting to its new status as a four-piece. Original member and guitarist Steve Klein was out of the band, and the remaining members were deciding how to adapt to the new streamlined lineup on both a professional and musical level. The result was Resurrection, Resurrection was just given the reissue treatment, which included acoustic tracks, two new songs and a new version of "Vicious Love," featuring guitarist Chad Gilbert's fiancée, Paramore vocalist Hayley Williams.



The following interview was conducted last year, before the album's original release, and the band's new dynamic had resulted in Gilbert and frontman Jordan Pundik feeling extra enthusiastic about their future. They discussed some of their less-obvious influences, how they survived in a scene when most of their peers have vanished, and revisiting old material with a fresh perspective.


Q : Naming an album Resurrection comes with a lot of meaning already attached.

Chad Gilbert: A resurrection, to me, it isn’t a comeback. How I see a resurrection is something that’s suffered some sort of tragedy and comes back stronger from it, that’s a resurrection. Also, it acknowledges and it doesn’t ignore something that happened. It acknowledges that something happened and there was a struggle, and it’s a restart. We know that our band has been through a lot, that we were five members, we’re four members now, and that’s something that if you love this band, you’re always going to know that there was a point of seven albums with five people, and now there’s not five people, but we’re not afraid of that change, and that’s what the resurrection is. “We know this shit went down, and from this day on, we’re now better.”

Jordan Pundik: We’re more self-aware and rising above all that.

Gilbert: That is the message of the album, for anyone to not be afraid of the challenges you face in your life, because you don’t know what you’re worth, and you’ve gone through crap, and it tells people to not be afraid. Don’t feel bad for yourself when things happen to you, because when you come out of them, that’s how you know your worth as a person. People can hear it and say that this band has never been more proud to be in a band.

Q : How has it felt to play the older songs with a smaller lineup?

Gilbert: Honestly, it’s going to sound like I’m going to say that everything’s awesome, but the truth of the matter is, it really does nothing. We’re a tighter band, and as a musician, you know that less is more, and a band sounds bigger with less. Regardless, we’re a pop-punk band, we can try to convince you we’re anything else, but the truth of the matter is, our songs aren’t crazy, intricate songs. They’re creative, they’re clever, we have our own style that we claim, but live, you’re not missing anything.

Going into the new album, we went back and revisited Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven and the first Rage record and all the Descendents stuff, four-piece [bands]. When there’s a guitar lead, you only hear the bass, for the most part. If the guitar lead’s playing, there’s no rhythm guitar. That’s what we did on this album, we’re like, hey, we’re four people, four parts. When the chorus comes in, I double the guitar part, and it will feel more intense from the production side, but I don’t add a guitar part, it’s the same part.

Q : So is there more pressure on the bass player now to fill that rhythm guitar space?

Gilbert: On the record we did more with the bass than we have before, and we did more with the guitars, and it wasn’t like, “Oh, now we have to do all these parts to make it sound bigger,” but we’re going to make it sound bigger by doing way less. All these riffs, all the guitar riffs have this energy and emotion in them without the vocals, then you add the vocals and you’re like, “Classic New Found.” Every song has a guitar riff you can air-guitar to, honestly.

Q : You brought up Pantera as an influence, what were you able to learn from them?

Gilbert: It was more about how there’s riffs that sound huge and it’s the bass and the guitar doing the same thing. [Pundik sings “Cowboys From Hell” main riff, Gilbert sings “I’m Broken”] There’s all that stuff where you sing the bass riff almost more than you sing the guitar part. With that said, it’s not like it’s a heavier record, I don’t reference Pantera to say our record sounds like Pantera, we sound nothing like them, but when there’s a song that’s slower or poppier, it’s the guitar playing the riff. We have a song that I love, the slowest song on the new record, called “Vicious Love,” and the riff is the bass and the guitar, and if there was screaming over it and it was in a minor key, it could be a whole other thing.

Q : So many of your peers have come and gone, and some of them are getting around to doing the reunion thing now, but you never went away.

Gilbert: It’s cool, I really believe that you have four people in this band who didn’t start this band to be famous, the chances of getting popular on MTV or famous growing up in Coral Springs is slim to none, we weren’t living in L.A. or New York City with tons of punk bands, it was metalcore, hardcore, ska and us. We never were ones to have it easy, and I feel like we really worked hard as a band, and we love playing music. We know that a show with 150 kids could be more fun than a show with 15,000 kids, so when you have that mentality, you don’t really care where you’re at in the spectrum of who thinks they’re popular or who think you’re not. Where other bands, when their tours might not have done as well as their ones when they weren’t on the radio, they might have broken up, we said, “This is just as fun, there are people who want to be here and who aren’t hold to be here.”

Q : It feels like a lot of the early 2000s Orange County hardcore bands are doing the break-up/reunion cycle now. Did you cross paths with that scene much?

Pundik: Our band started in that scene, touring as a pop-punk band on a hardcore bill.

Gilbert: There’s a riff on our new album that’s totally a shout-out to Snapcase. When we did one of our first tours when we were a small band, the order was New Found Glory, Ensign, Grade and Snapcase. That was how a lot of our guitar tones started, we looked at their gear, and I remember their guitar player being like, “Dude, don’t steal my stuff,” and he had a dual rectifier and all this stuff and we were like, “Yeah, we want to sound heavy,” but we were playing pop-punk.


Q : When bands tour in a van, you're all listening to music together. Then when you make it to bus status, everyone can retreat to their own spaces and listen to things on their own. Do you still make time to listen to music together?

Gilbert: It’s more like putting on a record and having front lounge moshing, we’ll crowd-surf each other in there. Our bass player has his own back lounge parties, his is like Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, and he’ll blast it. You’d think he was listening to Slayer, but he just goes off to that stuff. I think a lot of listening together, especially if it’s not at three in the morning destroying the lounge, it’s right before we play, we all go in the dressing room and we have a boombox in there.

Q : What's the record you've heard more times than any other?

Gilbert: They Might Be Giants, Lincoln. From when it came out when I was in elementary school until now, I listened to them, but that album is the first one I got when they had a song on Nick Jr. or something, and from then on, from the eighties on, I’ve listened to that more than any other record.

Pundik: Probably a Dinosaur Jr. record, maybe Where You Been, I got that in high school, and it’s one of those records I always have a few songs on a playlist, any playlist, or the whole record, saved to my phone.

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Shania Twain

Shania Twain is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on August 28, 1965, the second oldest of five siblings. She was raised in Timmins, Ontario, about 500 miles due north of Toronto, where her adoptive father, an Ojibway Indian named Jerry Twain, and mother, Sharon, had both been raised. It was a proud but, at times, impoverished existence. They struggled to keep enough food in the cupboards, but there was always an abundance of music and love in the household.

Twain often grabbed a guitar and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom singing and writing until her fingers ached. "I grew up listening to Waylon, Willie, Dolly, Tammy, all of them," she recalls. "But we also listened to the Mamas and the Papas, The Carpenters, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder. The many different styles of music I was exposed to as a child not only influenced my vocal style, but even more so, my writing style." Her mom noticed Twain's talents, and soon the youngster was being shuttled to radio and TV studios, community centers, senior citizens' homes, "everywhere they could get me booked." An 8-year-old Twain was often pulled out of bed to sing with the house band at a local club but only after alcohol sales ended at midnight. Later, Twain spent summers working with her stepfather as the foreman of a dozen-man reforestation crew in the Canadian bush, where she learned to wield an axe and handle a chain saw as well as any man. In the winter season, she would sing in clubs and do television and radio performances as often as her schooling would allow.

In 1987, at age 21, Twain lost her parents in an automobile accident. She took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings. She managed to keep the household going with a job at Ontario's Deerhurst Resort, which not only provided for her new family responsibilities but also gave her an education in every aspect of theatrical performance, from musical comedy to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gershwin. Three years later, with her brothers grown enough to take care of themselves, Twain was on her own. Shedding her real name, Eilleen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, meaning "I'm on my way." Twain recorded a demo tape of original music and set her sights on Nashville.

Although Twain landed a record deal with Mercury Records on the basis of her original material, her self-titled 1993 debut album featured only one of her songs, the feisty "God Ain't Gonna Getcha for That." Singles "What Made You Say That" and "Dance With the One That Brought You" each peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard country singles chart. It took a phone call from a distant admirer, rock producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange (AD/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and many more) for Twain to find a true believer, both in her voice and her original songs. Twain and Lange met face to face in Nashville at Fan Fair in 1993 and married six months later, by which time they'd written half an album's worth of tunes together. As 1994 unfolded, they traveled and wrote their way across the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. They began to lay down basic tracks for a new album in Nashville, later recording overdubs and mixing in Quebec.

The first results of their labor, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," entered the Billboard country singles chart in January 1995, peaking at No. 11. Twain's second album, The Woman in Me, debuted on the country albums chart the following month. The collection has sold 18 million copies, making Twain the best-selling country female artist of all time. The single "Any Man of Mine," hit the charts in May and became the first of four consecutive No. 1 hits for Twain, including "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!," "You Win My Love" and "No One Needs to Know." The project won a Grammy for country album of the year and was named album of the year by the Academy of Country Music in 1995.

Twain's third Mercury collection, Come on Over, was released in 1997, two years after her last album. The project continued Twain's hot streak, producing No. 1 hits "Honey, I'm Home" and "Love Gets Me Every Time." The sultry ballad "You're Still the One" went to No. 1 on the country singles chart and made it to No. 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart, solidifying Twain as a crossover artist. The sassy "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," a Top 5 country hit, helped secure the singer a contract with cosmetics company Revlon, which used the tune in TV ads featuring Twain. Come on Over has sold 11 million copies to date.

While The Woman in Me broke records and made Twain an international star, critics didn't know what to make of her sexy image and independent approach to marketing her music. Instead of touring to promote the record, Twain made a series of sexy videos, one of which was shot on location in Egypt. The singer finally mounted her first major tour in 1998 following the release of Come on Over. The highly anticipated outing helped earn Twain entertainer of the year trophies from the ACM and the Country Music Association in 1999. Twain has won a total of five Grammys, including two for best country song ("Come on Over" and "You're Still the One") and two for best country female vocal performance ("Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "You're Still the One"). She also has taken home trophies from the Canadian Country Music Awards, Canada's JUNO Awards and the American Music Awards. In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) named Twain both country songwriter of the year and pop songwriter of the year. Her ballad, "You're Still the One," was named BMI's country and pop song of the year.
At the top of her game, Twain retreated to her home in Switzerland with her husband at the end of 1999. She and Lange welcomed their first child, a son named Eja, together in the summer of 2001 while preparing her 2002 release Up!, featuring the hit single "I'm Gonna Getcha Good."

Twain released her "Greatest Hit's" album in the fall of 2004. She was also featured on the "Desperate Housewives" soundtrack in 2005 and sang a duet with Canadian legend, Anne Murray, in 2007.

In 2008, Twain and Lange divorced. In April 2010, Shania joined forces with Oprah Winfrey's new television network, OWN, to star in a six-episode docu-series titled, Why Not? With Shania Twain. Why Not? is set to premiere in May 2011. Twain is also releasing her first memoir in the spring of 2011 with Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster. On January 1, 2011, it was announced that Twain and Swiss businessman, Frederic Thiébaud, were married in Puerto Rico. It is the second marriage for both.

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Carly Rae Jepsen

You know your song has become a bonafide cultural phenomenon when both Colin Powell and the Cookie Monster have covered it. The irresistible earworm “Call Me Maybe” was inescapable this summer, its ubiquity turning its co-author, Canadian singer and songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen, into a breakout star. The 5x-platinum “Call Me Maybe” has sold more than 9.1 million singles worldwide and climbed to No. 1 in more than 37 countries, including the U.S. where it spent a record-breaking nine weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. “I remember playing the song for my family for the first time,” Jepsen says. “My aunt started dancing and she never dances so I thought that was a good sign. But I never expected it to take off quite like this.”

Although she’s been an established artist in Canada for several years — with a third-place finish on Canadian Idol, two gold singles, two albums, and two Juno Award nominations to her name — Jepsen was a virtual unknown in the U.S. when “Call Me Maybe” hit it big. Now she’s looking forward to showing the rest of the world what else she has in her bag of tricks with the release of her U.S. debut album Kiss, which showcases her rich, distinctive voice, heartfelt lyrics, and down-to-earth charm.

“I definitely wanted to make a pop album,” Jepsen says. “My love affair with pop music has been growing stronger and stronger each year. I’m a bit of a hippy at heart so it’s kind of like flower-child pop. My intention was to make an album that really felt like me and shows what I have to offer the music world. It’s inspired by Robyn and The Cars and it’s all about matters of the heart.”
Jepsen wrote or co-wrote nearly every song on the album, collaborating with songwriters and producers Max Martin, Dallas Austin, LMFAO’s Redfoo, Toby Gad, Marianas Trench singer Josh Ramsay, and Cherrytree/Interscope artist Matthew Koma. “I flew to Sweden to work with Max Martin and I’ve always wanted to witness his process so that was huge for me,” Jepsen says. “But I really owe a lot of people thanks for investing their time and talent to my project. The RedFoo and Matthew Koma collaboration on [first single] ‘This Kiss’ is a bit of a funny story. We wrote the entire song via e-mails, telephone calls, and text messages. It’s probably my favorite track on the album. It’s all about temptation and lust. Another track I really enjoyed working on was ‘Your Heart is a Muscle’ with Toby Gad. The concept was something I had been thinking about for a while. It’s kind of gruesome, but true: You can make your heart stronger if you try. ‘Turn Me Up’ is fun because it’s not your typical break-up song. It’s about the ending of a relationship, but in a positive light.”

“I have a life-long fascination with the subject of love,” Jepsen continues. “When I meet people for the first time and we get past the surface-y conversations, I am always dying to know what their ‘love story’ is. Everyone has one. It’s not always happy, but it’s a story, and I like putting it to music.”

Other highlights on Kiss include “Good Time” — a duet with Owl City that hit No. 3 on the Billboard Pop chart and has sold over a million copies since its release in June. “I’ve been a big fan of Owl City since ‘Fireflies,’” Jepsen says. “I remember seeing Adam perform live in Vancouver and thinking he was brilliant, so when he asked me to feature on the track I was beyond flattered.” Then there’s the acoustic guitar-tinged “Beautiful,” which Justin Bieber wrote with Toby Gad and presented to Jepsen the day he and Jepsen first met. “I thought the song was lovely,” she recalls. “Not only did he ask me to sing on it, but he encouraged me to try it right then and there. So literally 30 minutes after meeting Justin for the first time, I was thrown into the studio to start tracking.”

Bieber, with whom Jepsen will tour North America this fall, is of course the catalyst for Jepsen’s new life in the spotlight, having jumpstarted her career in the U.S. in February when he began Tweeting about a song he had heard on the radio while home for Christmas vacation: “Call Me Maybe.” He and his manager Scooter Braun signed Jepsen to Braun’s Schoolboy Records and Interscope Records and watched “Call Me Maybe” race up the charts. Its rapid rise was initially fueled by a video that Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale, and others shot of themselves lip-synching and dancing to the song and subsequently posted on YouTube, where it inspired fans and such celebrities as Katy Perry and James Franco to post their own homemade videos in response.

“I first saw Justin and Selena’s video along with everyone else when it was posted on Carlos Pena’s YouTube channel,” Jepsen says. “I had to watch it three times before it actually registered. It’s still hard to believe all of this is actually happening to me. If you had told me a few years ago that I would be in this position, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would not have written this experience into my story.”

Jepsen’s story begins in Mission, British Columbia, where she grew up the daughter of educators and music lovers. “Since I was a kid, my parents and step-parents could see that I was really passionate about music,” Jepsen says. “I sang to anything I could mimic.” Jepsen’s father played guitar and would sing her James Taylor songs at night before bed while her mother taught her lyrics to Leonard Cohen songs. “Music was the way I connected with everyone and my family encouraged that in me,” she says.

Jepsen caught the musical theater bug in high school, starring in Annie, The Wiz, and Grease, and attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria after graduating. At 17, she got her first guitar and, because her parents were in the school system, thought she might become a music teacher, although singing her own songs eventually won out. Jepsen performed in pubs, challenging herself to win over indifferent audiences. “I knew I had done well if they got quiet and were watching me by the end,” she says. “It felt like, ‘I had to fight for that one, but it was so worth it.’”

By 2007, playing in pubs had gotten old and somehow becoming a music teacher didn’t seem too appealing either. Jepsen’s high-school drama instructor, whom she describes as “a Mr. Holland’s Opus type,” encouraged her to try out for Canadian Idol. “I wasn’t convinced, but my teacher said, ‘The only way that any of these doors are going to open is if you knock on every single one of them. Don’t decide your path. Let it decide you.’ The day of the audition, I remember thinking, ‘I could have a long bath, or I could just go audition.’”

Jepsen placed third on Canadian Idol and released her first album Tug of War independently through Fontana/Maple Music in August 2008. The album spawned two gold singles, “Tug of War” and “Bucket,” and earned her a Canadian Radio Music Award for Song of the Year along with a new signing to Canada’s 604 Records. Carly was also nominated for Juno Awards for New Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year (with her producer Ryan Stewart) and a Much Music Video Award for UR FAVE New Artist.

In February 2012, Jepsen released Curiosity, a six-song EP that showcased a poppier sound than she had delivered on the folk-flavored Tug of War. “I knew that I had changed as an artist after being on the road with bands like Marianas Trench and The New Cities,” Jepsen says. “I saw the effect they had on the crowd, how they inspired the audience to get up and dance and that appealed to me. I wanted to create that kind of energy with my music. I was also listening to different things, like Robyn, La Roux, and Dragonette, and I just felt a change in myself. I didn’t know how it was going to be accepted, but I couldn’t deny that it was happening.”

Following her instincts has paid off for Jepsen. Kiss is a killer dance-pop set that is poised to launch her even further into the stratosphere. “I just want people to enjoy it,” she says. “I hope it’s music that makes you feel happy and want to sing or dance along. And maybe it will inspire people to be brave in love.”

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Drake

Aubrey “Drake” Graham (born October 24, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian actor, rapper and singer signed to Universal Records. So far he has released three mixtapes, 2006’s Room for Improvement, 2007’s Comeback Season, and 2009’s critically acclaimed So Far Gone, which is considered one of the best mixtapes of 2009. He is in the beginning stages of recording his major label debut, tentatively titled Thank Me Later, which is projected to be released late 2009. The first single from the album, Best I Ever Had, debuted at #92 and has since reached #2 on the Billboard Top 100. Should it reach the #1 position, Drake would be only the second artist to have a #1 single without having a recording contract at the time of its release. The music video for the song is directed by fellow rapper Kanye West. In June 2009, it was revealed that an unauthorized album entitled The Girls Love Drake, that featured songs from his mixtapes and credited to be an official Drake release, was up for sale on iTunes. A lawsuit is planned against the Canadian label who uploaded the album and claimed they represented Drake. Drake has previously dated singer Keshia Chanté, and is rumoured to be seeing R&B sensation Rihanna though neither have confirmed or denied the relationship.

Drake has been writing songs since he was ten years old. Since then he’s collaborated with The Clipse, Pharrell and Justin Timberlake, has 30 registered fan clubs, more than 80,000 topics on message boards, and a collective attendance of over 20000 fans for mall tours. He has done interviews and specials for MTV, The New York Times, TeenNick, Teen People, Elle Girl, Pop Star Magazine, and 17. In 2006, Drake has launched and promoted his first mixtape. It provides insight into the mind of a changing man. From the smooth ballads that can be cherished by the softest women, to tales of his family during “the Memphis days” – songs best understood by a genuine hustler. In his words: “I didn’t make this album to be judged, or for listeners to tell me what I need to alter about my image for the next project. I simply made it because it felt right. All the songs on here were made on certain dates due to certain events in my life and nothing was rushed. I’m telling you right off the bat who I am. I used to lie to people to impress them but those times had to cease. It’s like trying to get back together after a break up. You’ve had your time apart, and right away you want to express all your concerns, all your flaws, and let them know exactly what you’ve been through so that there’s little room for error. I really just want to draw the fans into me as a person so that we can communicate better in the future. I need you to understand my concept before you listen. If you’re not willing to do me that favor, we may as well remain split up.” Drake continues to pursue his passion for R&B, penning lyrics for many up and coming R&B singers. Much of his musical influence comes from his family, which includes funk creator Larry Graham (Graham Central Station) who’s hit song “One In A Million” became a top 10 hit, and Mabon ‘Teenie’ Hodges who, alongside Willie Mitchell, was the soulful mastermind behind the majority of Al Green’s hits (9 Grammy Awards). Drake has worked with Cash Money Records, TVT Records, BMG, and has featured on tracks for producers Mike City, Neek Rusher, Saukrates, and Brian Cox. He’s been a guest on Soul Food, and has appeared in movies with Mekhi Phifer and Omar Epps, and received two Young Artist Awards, the Shaw Rocket Award, and a Teen Choice Awards.

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The Weeknd

Abel Tesfaye is a Toronto-based R&B singer famous by named " The Weeknd "  . He recorded his all songs under " The Weeknd " name , his first song leaked in late 2010, though the identity of the individual behind the project was initially unknown. " The Weeknd " released a nine-song mixtape, House of Balloons, on 21 March 2011.

 In late 2010 " The Weeknd " uploaded three songs on  YouTube, by names :

 1 ) What You Need
2 ) Loft Music
3 ) The Morning

His 9 track mixtape as a titled " House of Balloons " was digitally released on 21 March 2011 through the artist's official website. A famous Hip-hop artist Drake has been partly credited for generating public awareness for " The Weeknd ", after he quoted a line from the track "Wicked Game" via Twitter and linked to the singer's music on his website.

In a review of the House of Balloons mixtape, Pitchfork Media's Joe Colly wrote that "all the thematic and sonic pieces fit together - these weird, morning-after tales of lust, hurt, and over-indulgence ... are matched by this incredibly lush, downcast music. It's hard to think of a record since probably the xx's debut ... that so fully embodies such a specific nocturnal quality." Frontier Psychiatrist's L.V. Lopez claimed the album was "brilliant, disturbing, and not safe for work," calling the song "Loft Music" a song that is "so unsafe it should come with a child-proof cap, so dirty that you'll feel guilty the next time you see your wife." Tom Ewing of The Guardian said that although the singing and songwriting on House of Balloons "aren't especially strong by R&B standards," the Weeknd is receiving "so much attention" as a result of its "command of mood." Sean Fennessey of The Village Voice called the mixtape "impressive"

and added: "It's patient, often gorgeous, and consistently louche ... with the sort of blown-out underbelly and echo-laden crooning that has already made Drake's less-than-a-year-old Thank Me Later such an influential guidepost." Maegan McGregor of Exclaim! praised the mixtape: "Packed full of sex, drugs and some downright killer production, this easily stands as one of the year's best debuts so far, hipster, Top 40 or otherwise. Sputnik Music's Tyler Fisher said that "despite being a free mixtape, House of Balloons feels like a true album, a true labor of love." The title track samples Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1980 single "Happy House".

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Avril Lavigne

Avril Lavigne has made an indelible mark on the music community, selling more than 35 million albums worldwide, more than 50 million singles, 8 Grammy nominations and the winner of 8 Canadian Juno Awards. She burst onto the music scene in 2002 with the critically acclaimed Let Go featuring the smash singles “Sk8r Boi” and “Complicated.” Her 2004 release, Under My Skin, debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts, as did her third album, The Best Damn Thing, which produced the irrepressible #1 single “Girlfriend” logging more than 202 million views on YouTube! Lavigne also wrote the song “Alice” for Tim Burton’s critically acclaimed Disney Film “Alice in Wonderland.” Lavigne’s fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby, featured the smash-hit singles “What The Hell,” and “Smile,” released in 2011 to critical acclaim. Outside the recording studio, Lavigne is continuously adding pieces to her lifestyle apparel brand, Abbey Dawn; has released three fragrances, Forbidden Rose, Black Star, and Wild Rose. In early 2010, Lavigne created The Avril Lavigne Foundation. To date, the Avril Lavigne Foundation has raised more than half a million dollars to provide support to children and youth living with serious illnesses or disabilities through awareness-raising initiatives and grants. To learn more, visit: www.theavrillavignefoundation.org Avril Lavigne’s eponymously titled fifth studio album released on November 5, 2013 debuting at #1 in more than a dozen countries. Avril Lavigne features the top 20 hit single “Here’s To Never Growing Up,” which debuted at #1 in 22 countries and was a top 10 single in 44 countries, and the smash hit duet with husband Chad Kroeger, “Let Me Go.

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Michael Bublé

“TO BE LOVED” BY MICHAEL BUBLE´

 

“I think it’s the best album I’ve ever made…I know every artist on earth says that when their new album is coming out but really - this time it’s true. I swear. You can ask my mother. But don’t take my word for it or my mom’s. Play it yourself and you’ll see and hear I’m telling the honest truth. I want to take you on a wonderful journey about love – all different kinds of love. The album swings big time – it rocks – it’s soulful – it’s happy –sometimes a little sad - it’s romantic – it’s yummy and it’s heartfelt.

Do not think I take my success these last ten years for granted. I was anything but an overnight sensation which inspires me to deliver big time for my fans – maybe even make some new ones this time out. Trust me, there’s no sitting back, no dialing in for me. I labored over every song, every note and every arrangement because I can’t resist trying to make each record better than my last one. It helps that I’m pretty happy in my life at the moment and feel that I’ve really grown a lot as a songwriter and interpreter of great songs. On “To Be Loved” I felt a new sense of freedom to create and kind of take things further – maybe take a few risks and dig deep to find some gems.

For starters I wrote four songs – twice as many as on my previous record. Once again, I wrote with my usual great collaborators including my musical director Alan Chang, Amy Foster Giles and Jann Arden. I also wrote with my fellow Canadian - the great Bryan Adams, eh...Little aside here… The first album I ever bought was “Reckless in 1985” by Bryan Adams. He was such a big hero of mine and still is. Imagine how thrilling it was to write with him and then go into the studio and record “After All” the song we wrote together.


The first single, “It’s A Beautiful Day” is what I’d call an “anti-love” song – maybe a kind of revenge song. It sounds like a really happy song but if you listen closely it’s a song for all of us (yes I include myself) who have been dumped but realize that it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened because life is beautiful out there and sometimes when your heart is broken you forget that. I’ve been the jerk in a relationship and have been on the receiving end of a break up so I have a good perspective. I’d describe the song as the good and the bad of love. Another song I’m pretty proud of which I also co-wrote is “Close Your Eyes”. I wrote it about my wife and about the power of all the women in my life – my sisters, my mom, my grandma and all women in general. Let’s face it, where would we be without them? Some men may disagree, but I think we’re definitely not the stronger sex. “I Got It Easy,” another original, is basically a song where I count my blessings and is a reminder to me and everyone to appreciate all the good parts of life. I’m a very lucky guy and I never want to forget it.

As for the selection of standards, I wanted to cover songs from artists that I’ve loved and who have inspired me over the years…The Bee Gees “To Love Somebody”, “Who’s Lovin’ You” by the Jackson Five and the title song, “To Be Loved” originally recorded by Jackie Wilson have all been huge favorites of mine and it’s exciting to think that I can remind people how timeless these songs and introduce them to new generations. I’ve talked about my worship for Elvis Presley over the years and gave “Have I Told You Lately” extra love.

I’ve been a big fan of Reese Witherspoon for a long time and thought her performance as June Carter Cash was incredible. I was thrilled beyond belief when she agreed to sing the Nancy and Frank Sinatra classic “Something Stupid” with me. She was a dream to work with and we’re both so happy with the way the song came out. I hope she’ll sing it with me on stage one day. I recorded the great Randy Newman song from “Toy Story - “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” because I often feel like I’m still ten years old and I love the sentiment of that song. Who can’t relate to that message? Doesn’t matter what your age is.



I think the song “Nevertheless” is one of the most beautiful ones on this record.. I was helped immensely by the great Puppini Sisters. Be warned their harmonies on this can make a person swoon - be warned. “Come Dance With Me” – well I went totally wild with this song. I can’t wait to sing this one live with my band behind me. I think it will be a show stopper. I know my fans will be dancing in the aisles to this one. You cannot sit still when you hear it. And that’s exactly what I wanted to do with this one.

My album opens with “You Make Me Feel So Young” and closes with the classic “Young At Heart”. The sentiment and message of both songs are quite similar. “You Make Me Feel So Young” is surely one of the happiest songs I’ve ever recorded.. We took the arrangement and really made it swing. It’s pure joy. I’ve sung the song for years but it’s taken on new meaning for me now as I’m about to become a parent for the first time. “Young At Heart” is my love letter to Mr. Sinatra and his early years on Columbia Records. I tried to honor him with this version and for those who still like to listen to an album from beginning to end, I’m glad it’s the message I leave people with when the music ends. It’s all about hope. “Life gets more exciting with each passing day… Love is either in your heart or on its way.” That’s what I call a perfect philosophy to have about life.

And for the people who buy my record at Target, there are some special treats including the Phil Spector classic “Be My Baby” with that great “wall of sound”. There’s also an ultra-romantic version of a long time favorite of mine and my grandpa’s, “Melancholy Baby.” When I was very young, I put that song on a tape and played it over and over and over. I practically feel like I wrote it. You can’t get more romantic than that song. The Target exclusive also has a fresh and reinvented version of the “Beautiful Day” single.


None of these songs would be what they were without the help of my partner in crime, the great Bob Rock who helped me realize all my dreams with the songs on “To Be Loved”. He is a producer extraordinaire and was there 1000 percent every day we were recording. Special thanks go to the vocal talents of Naturally 7, The Puppini Sisters and The Dap Kings for perfecting the sound I was trying to create.

I don’t know if people even read these things so if you’ve gotten this far, thank you for taking the time. I know I sing better than I write but I wanted you to understand a little bit about what I wanted to accomplish with “To Be Loved”. I hope you love my record. See you on the road.” Love, Michael

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Jeff Daniels Reflects on His Musical Roots and Shows His Serious Side

Jeff Daniels was just nominated for a second Emmy for his role as Will McAvoy on HBO's The Newsroom, and has entered the cultural lexicon via his acclaimed appearances in The Purple Rose of Cairo, Dumb and Dumber, Arachnophobia, The Squid and the Whale and Pleasantville But beyond acting, Daniels' affinity for music runs deep, from his early days as a frustrated piano player to a folk-loving teenager who performed in a bevy of stage musicals. He's gone from putting on annual performances to benefit his Purple Rose Theater in his hometown of Chelsea, Michigan, to hitting the road for live dates, sometimes alongside his son, Ben. He also put out an album last year, Days Like These, and is currently in the midst of a set of shows at the Purple Rose Theater, running through Sunday, August 2.

We caught up with Daniels to talk about his earliest musical memories, why he used to stress out significantly more before musical performances than before his acting roles, his desert island disc and why he felt it was time to move into more serious musical territory.

Q : As a kid, what music do you remember hearing around the house?

Jeff Daniels: My dad used to play piano, he could play some jazz, he knew two or three jazzy improvisations, or maybe just one, to be honest. He loved Nat King Cole. We had a piano and he’d bang around on the piano, suddenly you’d hear these jazz chords and stuff, but he didn’t play that much. He told me I should learn how to play piano, so I spent high school doing that. I fell in love with Elton John and then just started trying to play like Elton John, which sent my piano teacher up a wall. Then I kind of gave it up.

The first concert I ever saw was Arlo Guthrie at the Masonic Temple in Detroit in 1970, maybe. I didn’t have a driver’s license, so my dad and mom took me and a couple of friends to see Arlo. He had just had “Coming to Los Angeles,” and all of that was going on. There might have been a lot of pot going through the Masonic Temple audience if I remember right. But I loved it, I loved the acoustic guitar, I loved that Arlo was standing out there with a band, but right front and center was an acoustic, and I think that’s where I said, “What is that, he’s not doing Top Ten hits, he’s doing Arlo Guthrie songs,” and I liked that, and that got me to Steve Goodman, and by the time I got to New York I saw him at the Bottom Line, a friend turned me on to Doc Watson, and that guitar that I’d bought at Herb David’s guitar shop in Ann Arbor suddenly got pulled out, and I was learning how to fingerpick like Doc Watson, and that was in the late seventies.

Q : Michigan had a lot of different kinds of music going on.

Daniels: MC5, I remember, for nothing else, that lyric. But I remember MC5, I remember seeing J. Geils Band, and just the energy of that kind of stuff really turned me on, I really loved…I remember seeing Elton John at Jenison Field House, probably two-thirds full, and I loved the energy of what a concert could do, what music could do. And I was an actor, I was going through the theater programs in college and then off to New York, so that was a whole other thing, but there was that thing that happens when a band walks out onstage and everyone leans forward and here comes the music, I never lost interest in that.

Q : So you could appreciate the energy of the MC5 but you didn't feel compelled to make music like that.

Daniels: No, I was an actor, I was supposed to be an actor, that’s what I was supposed to do. So you can buy a guitar if you want and you can sit around in New York and write songs, but it’s a hobby, because you’re there to be an actor, you can only do one thing. That was what was in my head for 20 years, it was just something I really enjoyed doing, it was very relaxing, it kept me sane in a business that doesn’t breed sanity, and it was a wonderful creative place to go that I had complete control over, which is not what being an actor is like. Being an actor, you’re at the mercy of so many others. It was a wonderful creative outlet, and that’s all it was, and I worked at it, but it wasn’t until 2000 that I stepped on the stage at the Purple Rose to raise some money with it. But there were no gigs, no dreams of being a musician, it was just something I enjoyed doing.

Q : Were you always comfortable singing in front of people?

Daniels: I was in musicals, and that was fine, I had no problem from high school on, that was no problem at all. But when I did walk out with a guitar the first time at those Purple Rose shows, there was a nakedness to it that I didn’t see coming, and the flop sweat, literally, I had pit stains down to my belt, it was just so obvious, I had to hold up my arms and show the audience, because I looked like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News, it was horrible. I couldn’t understand why I could be on a Broadway stage or be in musicals, but this is so difficult. The songs were mine, they were personal, so maybe that’s the problem, and I would do these shows at Purple Rose, a little Christmas thing or New Year’s thing, those were the only shows I’d do. I’d do one on New Year’s Eve and then I wouldn’t do it again until the following Christmas, and I’d write and get ready for it, and it was still the same flop sweat.

By the third year I realized, “Oh, there’s no character, I don’t have a character to play, I’m not hiding behind a filter.” You’re using yourself in acting, but you’ve got almost this protective shield called the character in front of you, so I said, “Oh, that’s what it is,” so who’s the character? Oh, it’s Jeff in a good mood. That’s who you’re playing. Now suddenly the flop sweat was gone. That, plus the woodshedding. There’s the whole thing of it’s just you and a guitar and you realize that you aren’t good enough, so you spend months getting better with the guitar so you feel like you’ve earned the 90 minutes that they’re paying money to see, and there will always be people better. I remember seeing Kelly Joe Phelps at [Ann Arbor venue] the Ark and going, “Well, I could only dream of playing like that, so let’s enjoy the show.” But you can get better, you can really work at it, and that’s what I’ve done over the last 10, 12 years is just work on getting better so that’s not a cause for any kind of nerves or anything. “I can play, here it is.”

Q : What musicals did you do?

Daniels: The first one, when I was a senior in high school, I played Fagan in Oliver!, and that was the one where people said, “Look out, there’s something going on here, this kid’s really standing out.” Right away, she put me as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, 18, blond, Midwest, don’t have a clue what Jewish is, but I’d seen the movie six times, so it was a pretty dead-on impression of Topol, I must say. I remember going to New York and within six weeks I was sitting in an agent’s office and he goes, “What have you done, kid?” and I said, “Well, I recently played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and the guy almost laughed himself out of the chair. I was able to step onstage and do things like that, and that’s kind of all I did, Snoopy in Charlie Brown, El Gallo in The Fantasticks, Harold Hill in The Music Man, Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly!, we had a regular little amateur musical theater company going on in Chelsea for about six years, every summer we’d do one or two musicals, it was a great experience, I learned a tremendous amount.

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Jess Moskaluke

2013 kicked off with a bang as Jess Moskaluke (MDM Recordings Inc./Universal Music Canada) released her new single “Hit N’ Run” to Canadian radio airwaves on January 28, 2013, hitting number 48 on the BDS radio charts for country radio in Canada in two short weeks. A small town gal from Langenburg, SK, she celebrated her first Saskatchewan Country Music Association Award for Female Vocalist of the Year! On October 14, 2013 Jess will release the first single “Good Lovin’ ” off her forthcoming album (release date TBA) to
 Canadian country music radio.

With her collective YouTube views to date just shy of 20,000,000, the past few years have been a whirlwind for this country songstress, a Tyler Ward Featured Artist who rocked the stage on a 45-city tour with his camp throughout North America in 2011. Wearing her signature stilettos and sporting her long dark rocker-chic hair, she released the title track and video “Catch Me If You Can” on June 4, 2012, and the 8-track EP on September 4, 2012.

Certainly no shrinking violet, her rich, edgy vocals and stunning beauty has attracted the attention of many music industry executives including the Identical Entertainment team in Nashville, who signed her to an artist development/publishing deal in 2010. Of German/Ukrainian heritage, she is a Saskatchewan native, born and raised in the town of Langenburg. When she is not on the road touring, Jess splits her time between her home base in Saskatchewan, Canada and the US, writing in Nashville alongside the Identical Entertainment team. In 2011 she continued to further her career working with Canadian country music distributor and record label MDM Recordings Inc.

Her EP is a medley of pop-infused country tracks, with 3 tracks produced by award-winning musician Mitch Merrett (2007 Canadian Country Music Award Producer of the Year and Juno nominee). Fresh faced, bubbly and full of spirit, Jess is ecstatic to see what her musical future has in store. A sign of exciting things to come, she was chosen to represent Canada and perform at the Country Music Association (CMA) Global Artist Party at The Stage to help kick off CMA Fest 2012.

An award-winning Canadian country artist in her own right, she won both the 2011 Big Dog 92-7/Astral Media’s “The Next Big Thing” (securing an opening spot with Grammy award nominee Dierks Bentley) and the 2011 Canadian Country Music Awards New Artist Showcase. Jess’ rapidly growing fan base is evident with her first indie EP “Cover Up” debuting at number 5 on the iTunes Canada album charts, whilst her YouTube cover of The Script’s “For The First Time” reached over 1,000,000 views in only 3 weeks. On November 4, 2012 her track “Go Big Or Go Home” was featured on the hit TV show Heartland.

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Paul Anka

Paul Anka born July 30, 1941, in Ottawa Canada, into a tight-knit family, He didn’t waste much time getting his life in music started. He sang in the choir at St. Elijah Syrian Orthodox Church and briefly studied piano. He honed his writing skills with journalism courses, even working for a spell at the Ottawa Citizen. By 13, he had his own vocal group, the Bobbysoxers. He performed at every amateur night he could get to in his mother’s car, unbeknownst to his her of course. Soon after, he won a trip to New York by winning a Campbell’s soup contest that required him to spend three months collecting soup can labels. It was there his dream was solidified, he was going to make it as a singer composer; there was not a doubt in his young tenacious mind.

In 1956, he convinced his parents to let him travel to Los Angeles, where he called every record company in the phone book looking for an audition. A meeting with Modern Records led to the release of Anka’s first single, “Blau-Wile Deverest Fontaine.” It was not a hit, but Anka kept plugging away, going so far to sneak into Fats Domino’s dressing room to meet the man and his manager in Ottawa. When Anka returned New York in 1957, he scored a meeting with Don Costa, the A&R man for ABC-Paramount Records. He played him a batch of songs that included “Diana” – Costa was duly enthusiastic about the potential of the young singer and songwriter. The rapid and enormous success of “Diana”- his first number one hit - made him a star.

“They are all very autobiographical,” says Anka of his early hits. “I was alone, traveling, girls screaming, and I never got near them. I’m a teenager and feeling isolated and all that. That becomes ‘Lonely Boy.’ At record hops, I’m up on stage and all these kids are holding each other with heads on each other’s shoulders. Then I have to go have dinner in my room because there are thousands of kids outside the hotel -- ‘Put Your Head on My Shoulder’ was totally that experience.

Soon Paul found himself traveling by bus with the ‘Cavalcade of Stars’ with the top names of the day in the era of segregation, performing at the Copa Cabana, the youngest entertainer ever to do so, and honing his craft surrounded by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Frankie Lyman, and Chuck Berry.

By the time the Beatles arrived in the sixties, Anka had another tool in his survival kit. “After a few hits,” he says, “I knew I was a writer, and with writers, the power was always in the pen. When I started writing for Buddy Holly and Connie Francis, I felt that it made me different for people -- they’d say, ‘Hey, you can write, you can fall back on something.” Among his proudest accomplishments was writing the Academy Award-nominated theme for The Longest Day, the 1962 film in which he also starred.

Songwriting and performing “are what gave me the confidence to keep going,” he says. Becoming a junior associate of Sinatra and the Rat Pack also had its privileges. By the ‘70s, the success of “My Way” and a string of hits like “(You’re) Having My Baby” confirmed his status as an icon of popular music. His later achievements as a recording artist included “Hold Me ‘Til the Morning Comes,” a hit duet with Peter Cetera in 1983, the Spanish-language album Amigos in 1996, and Body of Work, a 1998 duets album that featured Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion, Patti LaBelle, Tom Jones and daughter Anthea Anka. If this wasn’t enough, it was revealed upon its release in 2009, that Anka co-wrote Michael Jackson’s posthumous #1 worldwide hit, “This Is It,” which has further cemented his place upon the most prolific and versatile songwriters of any generation.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Anka’s two most recent albums – Rock Swings and now Classic Songs, My Way – ingeniously featured songs originally created by some of the biggest rock performers of the day – as well as other established artists across several genres. The twist: Paul Anka did the songs ‘his way.’ His goal: “taking great songs and rework them so they’re natural for me.” With the help of his five daughters, Anka spent months researching music from the ‘80s and ‘90s, trying to find the songs that would work in the radical new context he proposed. The songs that made the cut included Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” Even more dramatic were his transformations of “Wonderwall” by Oasis, “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Rock Swings went Top 10 in the UK, and was certified gold in the UK, France, and Canada, hit No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Jazz Albums chart and went on to sell half a million units worldwide.

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Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber full name is Justin Drew Bieber. He was born on 1st of March in 1994  in London, Ontario. He was raised in Stratford, Ontario.

Bieber is a famous canadian singer and songwriter. He was famous from his best ever song "Baby" It was preceded by his most successful single to date, "Baby". In his career, he has received three Grammy nominations, winning one for Best Dance Recording for the song "Where Are Ü Now" at the 2016 ceremony. He also has won numerous fan-voted awards, including American Music Award for Artist of the Year in 2010 and 2012.

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Celine Dion

From humble beginnings in a rural French Canadian home town, Céline Dion has risen to international superstardom like a shooting star. Céline has been called the premier contemporary pop vocalist of the Nineties. She has earned music industry accolades from around the world: Grammy Awards in the US, Juno and Felix Awards in Canada, and World Music Awards in Europe. The entire world has seen Céline Dion literally transform herself from a gifted pre-adolescent into an international superstar.

Born in Charlemagne (a small town 30 miles east of Montreal, Quebec, Canada), Céline is the youngest of 14 children of a highly musical family. Her parents, both musicians, operated a small club, and on weekends, the entire family performed and entertained the local population. From the tender age of 5, Céline sang with her siblings and quickly acquired the ability to perform live. At the age of twelve, together with her mother and one of her brothers, Céline composed a French song which would forever alter the course of her life.


The demo tape containing the song was brought to the attention of René Angélil, a well respected personal manager. In January 1981, René was so taken by the voice of the young Céline, that he became determined to make her an internationally known talent - he even mortgaged his house to finance the recording of Céline's debut album!

Céline began to receive recognition for her talent in 1982, winning the Gold Medal at the Yamaha World Song Festival in Tokyo, along with the coveted Musician's Award for Top Performer. In 1983, she became the first Canadian ever to receive a Gold Record in France.

By 1988, Céline had established a strong name for herself in her native province of Quebec, where she was enjoying superstar status, receiving numerous Felix Awards and racking up platinum albums. That same year, Céline won the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin Ireland, where she performed live before a television audience of 600 million viewers throughout Europe, the USSR, the Middle-East, Japan, and Australia.

In September, 1990 Céline released 'Unison' - her first English-language album and her first for Sony Music - and scored a breakthrough US hit with the Top 5 single "Where Does My Heart Beat Now".



Céline's international breakthrough came when she recorded the title track for the soundtrack to the animated Disney hit movie 'Beauty and the Beast.' The song went to number one and garnered an Academy Award and a Grammy Award. "Beauty and the Beast" formed the cornerstone for Céline's second English language album, called simply 'Céline Dion.' That album produced four more hit singles including "Love Can Move Mountains," "Water From The Moon," "If You Asked Me To" and "Did You Give Enough Love." In Canada, the album went six times platinum and set the stage for an incredible streak of Juno Awards.


 
On December 17, 1994, Céline Dion and René Angélil were married at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal.

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Al Jourgensen Just Wants to Have Fun With Surgical Meth Machine

Fueled by the memory of his late guitarist and friend Mike Scaccia, as well as the power of his new medical marijuana card, Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen tapped into his zanier side for Surgical Meth Machine, a new project dripping with sarcasm, pummeling grooves and even some hints at his band's early synth-pop days. So if you lost track of Ministry during the band's temporary retirement or during their lengthy anti-George W. Bush phase, this might be the time to check back in and be pleasantly surprised.

We called up Uncle Al to make sure he's still OK, which is always a good idea, and then we talked about the genesis of Surgical Meth Machine, why he despises social media, why Devo is the best, and how a kid from Cuba ended up becoming a huge hockey fan.

Q : Surgical Meth Machine sounds like it was probably a lot of fun to make. How important is the fun aspect to you at this point in your career?

Al Jourgensen: It’s the most important thing. The whole premise of this album and this band and everything about it started with some ideas towards the end of recording the basic tracks of From Beer to Eternity, the last Ministry record. Me and the late, great Mike Scaccia, my little brother, my best friend, who died right after finishing the basic tracks, it was me, him and my engineer, Sammy [D'Ambruoso] in the studio. When I record a record, I just bulk-record a lot of ideas, I get a lot of ideas down on tape, and at the end of the day we check out what we’ve got, and the ones that wound up on From Beer to Eternity seemed to go with each other, so we kept those, but we had all these other really fast, brutal ideas that didn’t seem to fit on that album, but we kept them for a later date.

Then Mikey died, and so what we did was after we got done finishing From Beer to Eternity, I had to mix it after he died, and then we had all these ideas on the shelf that me and Sammy went back and recorded, things that were in that spirit, just balls to the wall, fast as shit stuff. We were having a lot of fun doing it, we wanted to do it in the spirit of Mikey. In the middle of that record I wound up moving from Texas to California, and when we moved to California, within a couple of weeks I went out and got my medical marijuana card, and so you can pretty much see the album completely change as soon as I got my weed card out here. It turned from a really fast, brutal assault into, “Whoa, the sky is so beautiful today.”

Q : So that's the second half of the record.

Jourgensen: Yeah, exactly. This record is fun to me, because it’s a real good chronology of the way the record was made. It’s in chronological order of when they were recorded, so it starts getting more hippie. We changed from smoking crystal meth into doing MDA halfway through the record – not literally, but in abstract terms.

This record is really fun for me, man, just like the opening song, it’s a piss-take on social media and Facebook shit, “I’m so sensitive, you’re unfriended,” this and that, it’s just making fun of a lot of different shit, which is not only my personality but also Mikey’s and Sammy’s. If you look at SMM as the Muppets, me and Sammy, pretend we’re the two old grumpy guys in the balcony at the theater, that’s what this record is. 

Q : "I'm Sensitive" is probably the first time I've heard the term "unfriended" used in a song.
Jourgensen: I just watched my 30-year-old daughter, who’s grown up on this shit, it’s such a part of her day to day life, and I’ve met her friends, and it’s such a part of their life, and it’s so not a part of my life, I’m so out of the loop on this shit. It just amazes me, they sit there and fret over their likes, it would be like me actually reading reviews I get or reading the interviews I just gave, I don’t do that shit. I’ll do it because I have to, I understand my promosexual duties as a member of the artistic community, you have to self-promote, but it’s not something I pore over and critique the critique, if you will. It’s mind-boggling to me, it’s just not in my DNA. I found it funny, counting how many likes you have, “My likes went down this week!” “Yeah, so what, you’re probably doing something right.”

Q : How much of the record is you playing a character versus being yourself?

Jourgensen: It’s 100 percent me, because the character would be me, too, it’s just something I write into a character voice, but it’s also Sammy’s take on that, he does a lot of vocals on this record, a lot of the rants and raves, like on “Rich People Problems” and “Tragic Alert,” those rants aren’t samples, that’s Sammy, and some of the character voices are mine, but I’ve been doing that for years all throughout Ministry and RevCo, we have a lot of character voices. It hits the point home without having to go and borrow someone’s sample, but it’s of the same mental makeup, we’d just rather do it ourselves.

Q : On "Unlistenable" you name-check a bunch of bands and then dismiss them in a tongue-and-cheek way. Are you ready for people to misunderstand that song as you actually calling them out?

Jourgensen: The response I’ve gotten to that, just with friends going, “Do you really want to do that? You’re going to piss some bands off.” I’m like, “That’s not the point, I even slag Ministry off on that.” The point is that, once again, social media, with all these people under the cloak of anonymity, that creates braveness, and surliness and belligerence, because they don’t have to answer for it. When you ask about anything, “What do you think about Ministry?” “Ahh, they suck! Fuck Ministry, fuck Iron Maiden, fuck Megadeth, fuck Lamb of God!” It’s all these little kids in their mom’s basement suddenly becoming music critics, and that’s what it’s about.

It reminds me of in 1988 when we released Land of Rape and Honey, that song starts out with sieg heils, and it’s a complete anti-Nazi song, yet for that tour, we had nothing but fucking Nazi skinheads up front seig hieling me and getting pissed when I wouldn’t do it back and called them a bunch of cunts. Sometimes you have to do that, it’s called parody. In the immortal words of Robert Plant, “Does anybody remember laughter?” “Unlistenable” is a piss-take, it’s a parody, it’s irony, it’s sarcasm, it’s not to be taken like, “Oh, Ministry and Lamb of God are at war!” Fuck that.

Q : The punchline of the song is that the only band you like is Devo, and then you go straight into a Devo cover. What's your favorite Devo album?

Jourgensen: Every single Devo album. I hate to sound like Sarah Palin and her journalistic review, but there’s not anything that they can do that’s bad, because I understand their agenda or their intent on making a song. I may not like a particular song, they may have some songs that are more favorites than others, but the whole shtick of what they do, I just found it genius back then, and to this day, it still holds the test of time. Usually, what I think of as gimmick bands will fall to the wayside many years later, it was a gimmick for that time period, like those rapper kids with the backwards clothes, that’s a gimmick band. That wouldn’t work today.

But Devo still stands the test of time, they’re very anthemic in everything that they do, and they’re very true to their beliefs, the whole de-evolution of man and all that shit. You have to remember, that came out in 1979, 99 percent of people who have heard of Devo at this point, in all of our careers, weren’t alive when Devo started doing this stuff. So I find it even more amusing to that extent, which is why I decided to cover a timeless classic and make it as anthemic as I possibly could for “Gates of Steel.”

Q : How early on did you get into them?

Jourgensen: In 1980, I went to the Art Institute in Chicago as kind of an internship and helped found their sound department, and the person that was the professor and was basically my overlord was Devo’s first manager. They were very influential in my career as far as my musical taste and how it translated to how I do things. I’d have to say my three biggest influences, Devo is right in there along with the Ramones and Buck Owens.

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