Of all the bands to grace our company on The Art of Longevity, Keane have ridden the music industry rollercoaster through all the stations of the cross: struggle, success, excess, disintegration and if you’re lucky - enlightenment. Tim Rice-Oxley doesn&apos;t hesitate for a moment: “Yeah, absolutely. Our struggle was quite long and our disintegration was quite quick, although we clung on effectively for quite a while. I feel like now we are in a more positive and exciting place than the day before Hopes &amp; Fears came out”. It’s easy to forget in these days when the monoculture is a dot in the rear view mirror, that Keane really went huge: five consecutive number one UK albums (album six ‘Cause &amp; Effect’ was number two). Their early success carried an unstoppable momentum. Yet behind the sheen of that success, as quickly as their second album ‘Under The Iron Sea’, the band was imploding - a combination of exhaustion and the pressure of heightened expectations causing an emotional disconnection between bandmates - a difficult thing to handle for old school friends. Every band of longevity should make a book and/or a film. It’s what fans in today’s crowded music landscape deserve really - the scarcity of access to the inner circle, whether that’s present or past. And for Keane themselves it sounds like the book has served a therapeutic purpose in a way. “We’re insanely hard on ourselves, to the point where it’s not good. We’d find any feedback and take it as a stick to beat ourselves up with. But we’re finally at a point now where we can say that we are quite good at what we do, proud of our music and our place in the world”. As Keane heads back into the studio next year, the band is far better equipped than when they headed to Sanger’s French farmhouse 20 years ago to make their debut - both emotionally and technically. The only problem is that they have set the bar high when it comes to track record. The creative ambition and self-critical muscles of this band are no doubt twitching away. “I know I’m going to have to write a lot of songs to get to the magic. One of the things bands struggle with is quality control - knowing the difference between what’s good and what’s great. There are millions of people out there trying to write songs as well so you have to raise your voice about everything else out there”. On page 35 of the book Hopes &amp; Fears: Lyrics and History are two lists on the page of a ring bound notepad, titled The OK Computer Test. “There’s no way we thought we were making the next OK Computer but you’ve got to try. You ask yourself “how do our heroes do it”. But if we knew then what we know now, we might have put ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ at number five instead of first”. For the next Keane record I suggest they apply “The Hopes and Fears Test”, just to make sure their new material is up to scratch. <a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com">Support the show</a>Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

<description>&lt;p&gt;Of all the bands to grace our company on The Art of Longevity, &lt;b&gt;&lt;em&gt;Keane&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/b&gt; have ridden the music industry rollercoaster through all the stations of the cross&lt;em&gt;: struggle, success, excess, disintegration and if you’re lucky - enlightenment. &lt;/em&gt;Tim Rice-Oxley doesn&amp;apos;t hesitate for a moment:&lt;em&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;“Yeah, absolutely. Our struggle was quite long and our disintegration was quite quick, although we clung on effectively for quite a while. I feel like now we are in a more positive and exciting place than the day before Hopes &amp;amp; Fears came out”. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;It’s easy to forget in these days when the monoculture is a dot in the rear view mirror, that Keane really went &lt;em&gt;huge&lt;/em&gt;: five consecutive number one UK albums (album six ‘Cause &amp;amp; Effect’ was number two). Their early success carried an unstoppable momentum. Yet behind the sheen of that success, as quickly as their second album ‘Under The Iron Sea’, the band was imploding - a combination of exhaustion and the pressure of heightened expectations causing an emotional disconnection between bandmates - a difficult thing to handle for old school friends.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Every band of longevity should make a book and/or a film. It’s what fans in today’s crowded music landscape deserve really - the scarcity of access to the inner circle, whether that’s present or past. And for Keane themselves it sounds like the book has served a therapeutic purpose in a way. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“We’re insanely hard on ourselves, to the point where it’s not good. We’d find any feedback and take it as a stick to beat ourselves up with. But we’re finally at a point now where we can say that we are quite good at what we do, proud of our music and our place in the world”.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;As Keane heads back into the studio next year, the band is far better equipped than when they headed to Sanger’s French farmhouse 20 years ago to make their debut - both emotionally and technically. The only problem is that they have set the bar high when it comes to track record. The creative ambition and self-critical muscles of this band are no doubt twitching away. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“I know I’m going to have to write a lot of songs to get to the magic. One of the things bands struggle with is quality control - knowing the difference between what’s good and what’s great. There are millions of people out there trying to write songs as well so you have to raise your voice about everything else out there”. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;On page 35 of the book Hopes &amp;amp; Fears: Lyrics and History are two lists on the page of a ring bound notepad, titled The OK Computer Test. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“There’s no way we thought we were making the next OK Computer but you’ve got to try. You ask yourself “how do our heroes do it”. But if we knew then what we know now, we might have put ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ at number five instead of first”. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the next Keane record I suggest they apply “The Hopes and Fears Test”, just to make sure their new material is up to scratch. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com"&gt;Support the show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Of all the bands to grace our company on The Art of Longevity, Keane have ridden the music industry rollercoaster through all the stations of the cross: struggle, success, excess, disintegration and if you’re lucky - enlightenment. Tim Rice-Oxley doesn't hesitate for a moment:“Yeah, absolutely. Our struggle was quite long and our disintegration was quite quick, although we clung on effectively for quite a while. I feel like now we are in a more positive and exciting place than the day before ...

The Art of Longevity Episode 67: Keane

What happens when you are a cult band (indeed when Pitchfork refers to you as “the ultimate cult band”) and you make the most accessible, most ‘mainstream’ album of your career? It’s a relevant question for many bands these days, because emerging from cult status to the mainstream (what’s left of it) is a very valid path to longevity and success. Look at Nick Cave for example. He’s done alright. But I can’t think of a better example right now, than Los Campesinos! With All Hell, they have made the kind of record that can win over new fans, which isn’t easy on your 7th album. If we whisper it quietly, they may have even made a classic album. Only time will tell, but for now the band is enjoying basking in a little bit of well deserved success, including an 8.5 on Pitchfork, hitting number 14 on the UK album chart and sold out UK venues - bigger ones than they have played before. Not quite a jump from cult status to daytime radio playlists, but nonetheless, progress. Los Campesinos! have just found a route to a larger audience. “We’ve always looked for validation elsewhere, but to achieve the best reviews of our career and chart position [for All Hell] is very flattering and something we appreciate more now than at any other point in our career.” It remains to be seen if the glut of year end ‘best albums of’ lists remember to include All Hell, if indeed they considered the record a suitable candidate. Well, it’s on my list. What’s more, the vinyl package is lovely (apart from the 45 RPM but we’ll let that one go for now).  Nothing better though, than a band in the enlightenment phase:“When we formed we were very much ‘indier than thou. Very pretentious. We were very prescriptive to what being in a band should be. Authenticity has always been very important to us but now, our approach to releasing music, playing live shows - we’ve become the band we always should have been. So now I can be smug!” <a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com">Support the show</a>Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

<description>&lt;p&gt;What happens when you are a cult band (indeed when Pitchfork refers to you as “the ultimate cult band”) and you make the most accessible, most ‘mainstream’ album of your career? &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;It’s a relevant question for many bands these days, because emerging from cult status to the mainstream (what’s left of it) is a very valid path to longevity and success. Look at Nick Cave for example. He’s done alright. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;But I can’t think of a better example right now, than Los Campesinos!&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;With All Hell, they have made the kind of record that can win over new fans, which isn’t easy on your 7th album. If we whisper it quietly, they may have even made a classic album. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Only time will tell, but for now the band is enjoying basking in a little bit of well deserved success, including an 8.5 on Pitchfork, hitting number 14 on the UK album chart and sold out UK venues - bigger ones than they have played before. Not quite a jump from cult status to daytime radio playlists, but nonetheless, progress. Los Campesinos! have just found a route to a larger audience. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“We’ve always looked for validation elsewhere, but to achieve the best reviews of our career and chart position [for All Hell] is very flattering and something we appreciate more now than at any other point in our career.”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;It remains to be seen if the glut of year end ‘best albums of’ lists remember to include All Hell, if indeed they considered the record a suitable candidate. Well, it’s on my list. What’s more, the vinyl package is lovely (apart from the 45 RPM but we’ll let that one go for now). &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Nothing better though, than a band in the enlightenment phase:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;em&gt;“When we formed we were very much ‘indier than thou. Very pretentious. We were very prescriptive to what being in a band should be. Authenticity has always been very important to us but now, our approach to releasing music, playing live shows - we’ve become the band we always should have been. So now I can be smug!” &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com"&gt;Support the show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;</description>

What happens when you are a cult band (indeed when Pitchfork refers to you as “the ultimate cult band”) and you make the most accessible, most ‘mainstream’ album of your career? It’s a relevant question for many bands these days, because emerging from cult status to the mainstream (what’s left of it) is a very valid path to longevity and success. Look at Nick Cave for example. He’s done alright. But I can’t think of a better example right now, than Los Campesinos!With All Hell, they have made...

The Art of Longevity Episode 66: Los Campesinos!

Artists have a duty to claim that their most recent project is the best work they have ever done. But what if it’s true? I’m so taken with David Gray’s new album Dear Life (released January 2025) - and so too is David of course - that it seemed churlish to dwell too much on his earlier career success, no matter just how definitive that was. “I’m always all in with the new stuff. If I wasn’t I would just retire. It’s always a moment of total commitment. I like the danger of writing and recording. There is gold in them there hills and you have got to go and find it”. Dear Life is led by rhythmic singing and short-story style writing, underpinned by unusual song arrangements. But the songs catch on, almost every one a ‘grower’. It’s one of those records that is shot-through with reflection, philosophy, mortality. You could say it’s a mid-life record and there is nothing wrong with that, given how well it stands up to his classic breakthrough work White Ladder and his first decade of popular success. “I feel like these songs are strong enough to go shoulder to shoulder with the big songs”. His instincts this time around, are good. When David Gray takes to the stage on his extensive 2025 tour to play songs like Leave Taking, Fighting Talk and (recent single) Plus &amp; Minus, he will not need to precursor them with an apology. The understated quality of the past 10 years&apos; work is a run of form that may have gone unnoticed by the music industry mainstream, but also suggests that Gray has been building to a head of steam. If this was 2004, he would be releasing Dear Life into the world as a surefire classic album. But here we are in 2024 - algorithm powered and neck deep in social clips. Releasing a magnificent record into the content void of today guarantees nothing. Especially when you are running your own small record label as Gray now is. “You’ve got to go on a cookery show just to get the opportunity to play a song for two minutes.”  White Ladder was one of those CDs everybody had. It came at the end of the CD era, one of the last albums that achieved cultural ubiquity. Lest we forget, the record was self-funded (on a budget of £5,000) and self-released. Inventing a sub-genre is one thing, and with White Ladder, David Gray did that - folktronica was the label the music press attached to it. But there was much more to it than that. In a sense, Gray pioneered bedroom pop, 20 years before it became huge on Spotify. Rex Orange County, Yellow Days, Alfie Templeman and a whole generation of others owe something to him. But his huge success with White Ladder will always leave him with something to prove. “The disaprovers are waiting every time you do something new. But I’m a very determined person. But then I love doing what I do. There is no trout farm for me. I just love doing this thing. And it’s getting richer and richer. There is always more to put into song”. He is literally making music for Dear Life. It shows. <a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com">Support the show</a>Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

<description>&lt;p&gt;Artists have a duty to claim that their most recent project is the best work they have ever done. But what if it’s true? I’m so taken with David Gray’s new album &lt;b&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dear Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/b&gt; (released January 2025) - and so too is David of course - that it seemed churlish to dwell too much on his earlier career success, no matter just how definitive that was. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“I’m always all in with the new stuff. If I wasn’t I would just retire. It’s always a moment of total commitment. I like the danger of writing and recording. There is gold in them there hills and you have got to go and find it”. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Dear Life is led by rhythmic singing and short-story style writing, underpinned by unusual song arrangements. But the songs catch on, almost every one a ‘grower’. It’s one of those records that is shot-through with reflection, philosophy, mortality. You could say it’s a mid-life record and there is nothing wrong with that, given how well it stands up to his classic breakthrough work White Ladder and his first decade of popular success. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“I feel like these songs are strong enough to go shoulder to shoulder with the big songs”. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;His instincts this time around, are good. When David Gray takes to the stage on his extensive 2025 tour to play songs like Leave Taking, Fighting Talk and (recent single) Plus &amp;amp; Minus, he will not need to precursor them with an apology. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The understated quality of the past 10 years&amp;apos; work is a run of form that may have gone unnoticed by the music industry mainstream, but also suggests that Gray has been building to a head of steam. If this was 2004, he would be releasing Dear Life into the world as a surefire classic album. But here we are in 2024 - algorithm powered and neck deep in social clips. Releasing a magnificent record into the content void of today guarantees nothing. Especially when you are running your own small record label as Gray now is. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“You’ve got to go on a cookery show just to get the opportunity to play a song for two minutes.”&lt;/em&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;White Ladder was one of those CDs &lt;em&gt;everybody&lt;/em&gt; had. It came at the end of the CD era, one of the last albums that achieved cultural ubiquity. Lest we forget, the record was self-funded (on a budget of £5,000) and self-released. Inventing a sub-genre is one thing, and with White Ladder, David Gray did that - &lt;em&gt;folktronica&lt;/em&gt; was the label the music press attached to it. But there was much more to it than that. In a sense, Gray pioneered &lt;em&gt;bedroom pop&lt;/em&gt;, 20 years before it became huge on Spotify. Rex Orange County, Yellow Days, Alfie Templeman and a whole generation of others owe something to him. But his huge success with White Ladder will always leave him with something to prove. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;“The disaprovers are waiting every time you do something new. But I’m a very determined person. But then I love doing what I do. There is no trout farm for me. I just love doing this thing. And it’s getting richer and richer. There is always more to put into song”. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is literally making music for Dear Life. It shows. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com"&gt;Support the show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Artists have a duty to claim that their most recent project is the best work they have ever done. But what if it’s true? I’m so taken with David Gray’s new album Dear Life (released January 2025) - and so too is David of course - that it seemed churlish to dwell too much on his earlier career success, no matter just how definitive that was. “I’m always all in with the new stuff. If I wasn’t I would just retire. It’s always a moment of total commitment. I like the danger of writing and recordi...

The Art of Longevity Episode 65: David Gray

My guest for this pilot episode is Gale Paridjanian of (the magnificent) Turin Brakes. If you listen to the song Underdog (Save me) by Turin Brakes, it will tell you a lot about how Gale plays and what he brings to a song with his guitar playing. Gale is an underrated and understated guitar god - as all Turin Brakes fans know. Olly Knights, singer in Turin Brakes describes Gales playing as “the real deal since the very beginning&quot;, and also “band cheat code” which Gale &amp; I explore further in this conversation. Gale&apos;s choice of guitar is a Charvel electric-acoustic model from his days working in the acoustic department of one of the music shops in London’s famous Denmark Street, for which he paid something like £469 (roughly £1,200 in today’s money). “It’s got my sound in it. If you plug it in it just sounds like The Optimist and that’s our sound. It’s a battle to play but there’s something about how it sounds when it’s recorded. It sounds like me”. An inexpensive one-off model, in Gales hands, the Charvel became the signature sound for Turin Brakes - Gales says “it feels more honest the more acoustic we are” - and it’s true - the band were pioneers of the acoustic-led pop that followed, paving the way for singer-songwriters like Newton Faulkner, even Ed Sheeran. But Gale and the band are on fire, still.  His own influences include The Stones, Chuck Berry, Chris Whitley and Derek Trucks.  Gale plays some of his own and Turin Brakes fans’ favourite pieces - a lot from the band’s debut LP The Optimist - and tells stories of the band, his own life as a guitar player and the Charvel he holds dear, even if it is falling apart. Let’s hope he gets it serviced soon. <a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com">Support the show</a>Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

<description>&lt;p&gt;My guest for this pilot episode is Gale Paridjanian of (the magnificent) Turin Brakes.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;If you listen to the song Underdog (Save me) by Turin Brakes, it will tell you a lot about how Gale plays and what he brings to a song with his guitar playing. Gale is an underrated and understated guitar god - as all Turin Brakes fans know. Olly Knights, singer in Turin Brakes describes Gales playing as “the real deal since the very beginning&amp;quot;, and also “band cheat code” which Gale &amp;amp; I explore further in this conversation. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Gale&amp;apos;s choice of guitar is a Charvel electric-acoustic model from his days working in the acoustic department of one of the music shops in London’s famous Denmark Street, for which he paid something like £469 (roughly £1,200 in today’s money). &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;em&gt;“It’s got my sound in it. If you plug it in it just sounds like The Optimist and that’s our sound. It’s a battle to play but there’s something about how it sounds when it’s recorded. It sounds like me”. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;An inexpensive one-off model, in Gales hands, the Charvel became the signature sound for Turin Brakes - Gales says “it feels more honest the more acoustic we are” - and it’s true - the band were pioneers of the acoustic-led pop that followed, paving the way for singer-songwriters like Newton Faulkner, even Ed Sheeran. But Gale and the band are on fire, still. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;His own influences include The Stones, Chuck Berry, Chris Whitley and Derek Trucks. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Gale plays some of his own and Turin Brakes fans’ favourite pieces - a lot from the band’s debut LP The Optimist - and tells stories of the band, his own life as a guitar player and the Charvel he holds dear, even if it is falling apart. Let’s hope he gets it serviced soon. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com"&gt;Support the show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;</description>

My guest for this pilot episode is Gale Paridjanian of (the magnificent) Turin Brakes.If you listen to the song Underdog (Save me) by Turin Brakes, it will tell you a lot about how Gale plays and what he brings to a song with his guitar playing. Gale is an underrated and understated guitar god - as all Turin Brakes fans know. Olly Knights, singer in Turin Brakes describes Gales playing as “the real deal since the very beginning", and also “band cheat code” which Gale &amp; I explore further i...

That One Guitar (pilot) Episode 1: Gale Paridjanian, Turin Brakes

When I heard the Chilly Gonzales song Neoclassical Massacre, I immediately got in touch with his management and label to get Gonzo on the Art of Longevity. Not only are his views on AI and background music incisive, but Gonzo has some strong opinions about the music industry and the modern culture in which it operates. The ever-evolving tension between creativity and commerce has been a career-long exploration for Gonzo. It makes him the perfect guest for The Art of Longevity. Indeed, his own career has been a perfect metaphorical rollercoaster of ups and downs. After a few years on the scene as an alternative/performance artist (which he very much is right now) he had surprise success with a quiet piano instrumental album Solo Piano (2004). Only to follow up with a full-on 70s influenced pop album, launching a brief and unspectacular phase as a major label pop artist. “That first Solo Piano surprise success was a foundational moment in encouraging me to continue to take risks. When and if I wanna go back there it will be a very beautiful thing, so long as I am doing it for the right reasons, there is something fluffy and safe about it for me.” As for the pop record Soft Power, it became his “misunderstood masterpiece”, demonstrating very nicely that you can always make failures part of your narrative after the fact. “It became an opportunity for me to make it a retrospective part of my mythology - injecting a bit of drama to my career”. Fluffy and safe isn’t a typical Chilly Gonzales career choice. Indeed, on the new self-titled album, he returns to his alternative origins, rapping on most tracks. And without doubt, he is a scholar of Rap - not only on a musical level, but on a cultural level. Rap seems more influential on his career than his impeccable classical training. No other musician I can think of blends the two in such an inimitable way. As such, on new album Gonzo, the songs come across as both avant garde and yet hugely entertaining at the same time. “The best works of art will always function on a superficial level that brings you in - everybody is on the same page now - we are all trying to succeed by having a catchy song that can live on 20 second snippets on TikTok but artists who are doing it at the highest levels are still managing to sneak in a deeper artistic meaning or holding up a mirror to society. “Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan or Melanie Martinez…you can tell their goal is for their music to exist on both levels…that’s something that Rap gifted culture”. It also gifted us Chilly Gonzales and for that we are eternally grateful.  The full interview write-up is on https://www.songsommelier.com/<a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com">Support the show</a>Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

<description>&lt;p&gt;When I heard the Chilly Gonzales song Neoclassical Massacre, I immediately got in touch with his management and label to get Gonzo on the Art of Longevity. Not only are his views on AI and background music incisive, but Gonzo has some strong opinions about the music industry and the modern culture in which it operates. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The ever-evolving tension between creativity and commerce has been a career-long exploration for Gonzo. It makes him the perfect guest for The Art of Longevity. Indeed, his own career has been a perfect metaphorical rollercoaster of ups and downs. After a few years on the scene as an alternative/performance artist (which he very much is right now) he had surprise success with a quiet piano instrumental album &lt;em&gt;Solo Piano&lt;/em&gt; (2004). Only to follow up with a full-on 70s influenced pop album, launching a brief and unspectacular phase as a major label pop artist. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“That first Solo Piano surprise success was a foundational moment in encouraging me to continue to take risks. When and if I wanna go back there it will be a very beautiful thing, so long as I am doing it for the right reasons, there is something fluffy and safe about it for me.”&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;As for the pop record &lt;em&gt;Soft Power&lt;/em&gt;, it became his “misunderstood masterpiece”, demonstrating very nicely that you can always make failures part of your narrative after the fact. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“It became an opportunity for me to make it a retrospective part of my mythology - injecting a bit of drama to my career”. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Fluffy and safe isn’t a typical Chilly Gonzales career choice. Indeed, on the new self-titled album, he returns to his alternative origins, rapping on most tracks. And without doubt, he is a scholar of Rap - not only on a musical level, but on a cultural level. Rap seems more influential on his career than his impeccable classical training. No other musician I can think of blends the two in such an inimitable way. As such, on new album &lt;em&gt;Gonzo&lt;/em&gt;, the songs come across as both avant garde and yet hugely entertaining at the same time. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;“The best works of art will always function on a superficial level that brings you in - everybody is on the same page now - we are all trying to succeed by having a catchy song that can live on 20 second snippets on TikTok but artists who are doing it at the highest levels are still managing to sneak in a deeper artistic meaning or holding up a mirror to society. “Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan or Melanie Martinez…you can tell their goal is for their music to exist on both levels…that’s something that Rap gifted culture”.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;/em&gt;It also gifted us Chilly Gonzales and for that we are eternally grateful. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;The full interview write-up is on https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a rel="payment" href="https://www.songsommelier.com"&gt;Support the show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Get more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/&lt;/p&gt;</description>

When I heard the Chilly Gonzales song Neoclassical Massacre, I immediately got in touch with his management and label to get Gonzo on the Art of Longevity. Not only are his views on AI and background music incisive, but Gonzo has some strong opinions about the music industry and the modern culture in which it operates. The ever-evolving tension between creativity and commerce has been a career-long exploration for Gonzo. It makes him the perfect guest for The Art of Longevity. Indeed, his own...

The Art of Longevity Episode 64: Chilly Gonzales

Uniquely honest conversations with famous and renowned musicians. We talk about how these artists have navigated the mangle of the music industry to keep on making great music and winning new fans after decades of highs and lows. We dive into past, present and future and discuss business, fandom, creation and collaboration. What defines success in today's music business? From the artist's point of view.&nbsp; The Guardian: “Making a hit record is tough, but maintaining success is another skill entirely. Music industry executive Keith Jopling explores how bands have kept the creative flame alive in this incisive series”.

The Art of Longevity

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