<p>Today’s guest is one of the most quietly enduring artists in modern pop — a songwriter and performer who’s spent over a decade growing up in public, learning how to separate perception from identity.</p><p>She was discovered online as a teenager and quickly thrust into an industry that had already decided who she was.</p><p>But behind the headlines, she was doing the real work — writing, refining her sound, and slowly building a career on her own terms.</p><p>This is a conversation about perception vs reality, creative control, and what it actually takes to become yourself in an industry that benefits from misunderstanding you.</p><br><p><strong>And The Writer Is… Madison Beer!</strong></p><br><p><strong>What you'll learn:</strong></p><p>• What it actually feels like to grow up in the public eye</p><p>• The gap between how artists are perceived vs who they really are</p><p>• Why longevity in music requires emotional resilience</p><p>• How Madison developed her sound and creative identity over time</p><p>• The pressure of early success — and rebuilding from it</p><p>• Why being misunderstood can either break you or sharpen you</p><br><p>This episode is brought to you by the NMPA — supporting songwriters and protecting the value of music.</p><p>And by Splice — the world’s largest library of sounds and samples, built for creators.</p><br><p><strong>Chapters</strong>:</p><p>0:00 Intro</p><p>1:42 Madison’s favorite songs of hers</p><p>3:00 Lyrics or melody first?</p><p>4:30 Ross meeting Madison at 13</p><p>6:00 Madison’s childhood, early memories</p><p>7:00 Going through parent’s divorce in early childhood</p><p>9:45 Why singing the national anthem is hard</p><p>10:00 Her family’s early encouragement</p><p>11:00 Madison’s first song</p><p>13:00 Starting her career at 10</p><p>18:40 Getting discovered overnight from a Justin Bieber tweet.</p><p>19:11 Contracts in music industry</p><p>19:58 Meeting Justin Bieber</p><p>21:46 Why getting dropped is a blessing</p><p>24:00 Struggling with early music identity</p><p>26:00 Why she felt she couldn’t fight back on creative control early on</p><p>28:00 finding her power through social media</p><p>31:55 Reclaiming creative control</p><p>33:50 writing reckless</p><p>35:28 Home with you</p><p>36:25 the importance of your collaborators&nbsp;</p><p>39:12 the original demo to Reckless</p><p>41:13 being easier to write dark songs than happy songs</p><p>41:40 the challenge of writing her new album</p><p>41:54 NMPA</p><p>42:36 Splice</p><p>43:26 Going back into the label system</p><p>45:00 her first tour in lockdown</p><p>46:50 Madison’s touring non negotiables</p><p>52:00 the story of Home to another one</p><p>53:41 Writing darker songs while in a happy relationship</p><p>55:55 Setting boundaries for mental health</p><p>56:55 “Showed Me” as an interpolation</p><p>58:37 Her mental health struggles and path to healing</p><p>1:01:54 How her album locket Freed her</p><p>1:03:25 the unlikely story of bittersweet</p><p>1:05:30 what writing a song with strangers is like</p><p>1:09:00 loneliness and missing out on a normal childhood</p><p>1:12:00 Dealing with constant criticism and how she manages it</p><p>1:12:47 Surviving the lowest point of her life</p><p>1:16:30 how she currently manages her mental health</p><br><p>Hosted by Ross Golan</p><p>Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad</p><p>Edited by Jad Saad</p><p>Post Production VFX by Pratik Karki</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>