News Archive
When Ruston Kelly’s debut full-length, Dying Star, came out on Rounder Records in September, he was immediately pegged as an artist to watch, drawing comparisons to the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Townes Van Zandt. Lauded for his vulnerable, fearless songwriting – and a masterful melodic sensibility, no doubt shaped…
BMI Congratulates its 2019 GRAMMY Nominees
BMI is exceptionally proud to congratulate its many affiliates nominated for awards by the Recording Academy at the 61st GRAMMY Awards, scheduled to be held on February 10, 2019 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Nominations for the music industry’s most prestigious accolades were announced on December 7. In…
Create Better Songs by Painting With Sound
It takes a keen ear to understand how to produce tracks that have warmth, depth and above all, layers of color, as if the finished product were a painting rather than a recording. In director Matthew Longfellow’s 2010 documentary on the making of Damn the Torpedoes, Mike Campbell, sidekick to…
Indie Spotlight: The Wrecks
The origin story of The Wrecks, a pop-rock band from Thousand Oaks, California, began a few years ago with some secret overnight recording sessions. The band, who has been inspired by The Pixies, The Strokes and Weezer, didn’t have the funds to rent their own recording space, but a friend…
Indie Spotlight: AJR
An indie-pop band of brothers with an Ivy League pedigree, AJR stands for Adam, Jack and Ryan Met, a Columbia University alum, junior and freshman, they’re packing rooms across the country with their contagious energy and irresistible songs. They got their start a decade ago busking in the streets of…
The Song or the Studio: Which Comes First?
It’s a debate that has raged since the advent of multitracking: should a studio be seen as a workshop to craft new material on the spot, or, by contrast, do you wait until you have an inventory of fully fleshed-out song ideas? Actually, there are merits to both, and in…
BMI Writers Take Major GRAMMY Nominations
After another prolific year of incredible music, BMI songwriters made a strong showing in the nominations for the 59th Annual GRAMMY Awards, slated to be presented Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Earning multiple nods across the prestigious Recording Academy accolade’s 84 separate categories, the…
Indie Spotlight: Bully
Alicia Bognanno is not afraid to be called insecure, intense or even insane. The singer-songwriter’s openness is her greatest weapon in Bully, the buzzy band that’s taking familiar ‘90s alt-rock (Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Weezer) and turning it into smart, sharp-edged indie rock. The name Bully itself may not…
Indie Spotlight: Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly’s success as a solo artist has been gestating for almost a decade, when she started out playing bass in a punk rock band and singing hip-hop hooks in her native Atlanta. A precocious songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, her talent garnered support from established musicians such as GRAMMY-nominated J. Que…
Indie Spotlight: Dear Boy
Dear Boy’s four members - Ben Grey (vox/guitar), Keith Cooper (drums), Austin Hayman (guitar) and Nils Bue (bass) - were all born in Los Angeles but raised in South London. It’s in Vauxhall, London, that they recorded their eponymous debut EP, due later this summer. Singer Ben Gray recalls: “The…