In times of emergency, it’s the children who suffer the most. Right now, over seven million children in Ukraine and its bordering countries are in need of food and clean water, medical care, clothing and a safe place to sleep.
For the past 75 years, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has built an unprecedented global support system for the world’s children. UNICEF‘s mission is to deliver the essentials that give every child an equitable chance in life: health care and immunizations, safe water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF USA advances the global mission of UNICEF by rallying the American public to support the world’s most vulnerable children.
War in Ukraine has intensified, posing an imminent threat to more than seven million children. Heavy weapons fire along the contact line in eastern Ukraine has already damaged water infrastructure and schools. UNICEF is scaling up its emergency response inside the country while also racing to meet the urgent needs of vulnerable children and families on the move as they stream into neighboring countries.
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The 100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers limited series podcast gives music fans a front-row seat for conversations with songwriters behind some of the biggest hits of yesterday and today. You’ll learn the stories behind the songs from the people who wrote them. Each episode will focus on one writer: sometimes, they’ll just talk about one song, other times, they’ll talk about a number of hits.
100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers special podcast series is produced in partnership with Beasley Media Group, XPERI (HD Radio), and BMI in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the first commercial radio broadcast.
So, let’s talk about Brockhampton’s “Sugar.”
It all started when I met up with one of my friends, a guy called [Bowofoluwa Olufisayo] Odunsi. Odunsi (The Engine) is a Nigerian artist and producer. So I was hanging out with him. And Jabari [Manwa], who is one of the one of the members of Brockhampton. He was in London at the time and he was just hanging out with Odunsi over four or five days. You know, we just became really good friends. And he was like, “Hey if you are ever in L.A., come through, let’s make some great music and let’s just have fun.”
And so a couple of months later, I was touring with Burna Boy, I’m his guitarist, and we just finished Coachella. It was incredible, it was crazy. And after Coachella, I hit Jabari up: “Hey bro, let’s let’s do this, let’s work.”
So for three weeks after that we just just went in and just a bunch of songs and made a bunch of beats. And “Sugar” was one of those.
So, you’re Burna Boy’s guitar player, and you also write for other people.
Right, That’s correct.
Are you always saying, “Hey, man, I write songs too.”
[laughs] No, no, he loves to work with everyone and we actually have a song together. But, you know, that’s just one out of 10 million songs he has. Hopefully it will come out [at some point].
Are you a multi instrumentalist as well, or do you write everything on the guitar?
I actually grew up in church, so I got to learn everything. Guitar is my main instrument, but I also play keys. I play bass. I play drums. And the triangle [laughs]!
What do you remember specifically about “Sugar?” Was there a moment where it clicked and you’re like, “Whoa, this is going to go far?”
Right from the start, actually.
We had worked on, like, a gazillion songs. And I just started playing this riff on the guitar, the guitar progression that you hear on “Sugar.” And Jabari was like, “Oh, my God, that’s so dope! Record it!” So I recorded it. And then he starts working on the beat and then I jump on the keys, put some chords in and then put some bass in. Then he starts working on the hi-hats.
And then I went out for a meal and then by the time I was back, some of the other guys already started recording, The Brockhamton guys — I call them the Brockhampton family — they work really fast. Literally the song was done that day and by the next day it was getting mixed.
It clicked for me when we were hearing it back and I was just looking out the window into the pool in their mansion. And I was just like, “Man, this song is not only great, but it’s really capturing my heart and my soul. And I’m connecting to it on a spiritual level, you know?” And I just knew that, you know, the song is going to be something.
To check out the rest of the interview, download and listen to the podcast: scroll up to download it.
The 100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers limited series podcast gives music fans a front-row seat for conversations with songwriters behind some of the biggest hits of yesterday and today. You’ll learn the stories behind the songs from the people who wrote them. Each episode will focus on one writer: sometimes, they’ll just talk about one song, other times, they’ll talk about a number of hits.
100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers special podcast series is produced in partnership with Beasley Media Group, XPERI (HD Radio), and BMI in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the first commercial radio broadcast.
Brock Barryhill has written hits for a number of huge country stars, including Kane Brown, Brantley Gilbert and Kenny Chesney. Here, he takes us behind the scenes of some of those hits.
Let’s start out with Kane Brown’s “Good As You.”
“Good As You”; man, that we wrote that back on tour. We were on the bus with Kane, Shy Carter, Will Weatherley and Taylor Phillips. We were trying to write songs… and it was one of those weekends where you felt like you couldn’t hit nothing.
So, it was later in the evening, and Kane had just got done playing [his concert], and Shy picked up a little ukulele, just started picking some chords, and he’s like. “Brock, go grab your your guitar and start playing along with this,” and that’s when Taylor Phillips was like, “I just want to be good as you.” And we just all knew that was it. Forty five minutes later, the song came out and I think it was posted on Instagram, probably within two hours, maybe an hour after that happened, it was just one of those songs that just fell right out.
Sometimes songs happen like that and sometimes they take multiple sessions. That one was just kind of a gift from God.
I guess every songwriter, if they’re lucky, gets one or two of those that become hits.
We’re grateful for those days because like I said, that was a weekend where we probably wrote two or three other songs that no one will ever hear just because they didn’t have that “thing.” And sometimes it just takes a little bit of spark and picking up a ukulele and just feelin’ the groove and someone’s saying the right word and that triggers the song. And that’s how that hit happened.
What does the ukulele bring that’s different than if you guys are just playing on guitars or keyboards?
Something about the acoustics of a small guitar, just being so vibey. If a great song can be played on an acoustic instrument or a piano with just someone singing it, it should sound just like a hit song. The innocence of the ukulele, and Shy singing that melody just had this “thing” to it and then, obviously, hearing Kane sing it back, it always sounds amazing. He’s an incredible singer. I guess that’s the easiest way I can explain it.
Sure. So talk about Kane’s “Homesick.”
“Homesick”: it’s funny, I feel like all my hits have been written on busses. So that was another bus run that I was out with Kane, Taylor Phillips and Matt McGuinn. And we were… I can’t remember where that one was written. But we wrote some stuff that [wasn’t good so it] didn’t really matter. And on the way home, we wrote that one on the last day of the run; we wrote the verse. Kane had to go play the show, he got back, we wrote the chorus, and we ended up staying up writing that song till about 5:30 or 5:45 in the morning. I remember so vividly because we wrote the song and then we were driving back from whatever state we were in, we pulled up in Nashville and I laid down for 15 minutes and then we got thrown off the bus because it was time to go home. So it was an all nighter write [i.e. a writing session] Those happen a lot.
Later that evening I finished up the demo, sent it to Kane, he posted it on Instagram, and it became a single and obviously a big number one for all of us.
With an artist as young as Kane, he’s so social media savvy. I feel like the idea of putting something on Instagram or anywhere else would not have happened like 10 or 20 years ago. With most big artists on major labels, the label would not be OK with, “Hey, I’m just going to put this up on social media for the general public to hear before you guys hear it.”
I think it’s part of the beauty of the way the Internet is right now is that, as songwriters and artists, we can release songs and see how people connect with them. And obviously, Kane and Luke Combs and Thomas Rhett and a bunch of other guys are doing the same thing. It’s seeing what’s really hitting people’s hearts and what they can relate to. And it’s just translating. Versus just putting out a song out that you love that maybe the fans don’t see it the same way that you do.
Check out the rest of our Kane Brown interview; download the podcast (scroll up).
The 100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers limited series podcast gives music fans a front-row seat for conversations with songwriters behind some of the biggest hits of yesterday and today. You’ll learn the stories behind the songs from the people who wrote them. Each episode will focus on one writer: sometimes, they’ll just talk about one song, other times, they’ll talk about a number of hits.
100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers special podcast series is produced in partnership with Beasley Media Group, XPERI (HD Radio), and BMI in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the first commercial radio broadcast.
Scott Stapp has written and sung some of the biggest songs on rock radio over the past two decades. Here, he tells us the stories behind a bunch of them.
Scott, let’s talk about your song, “Survivor.”
“Survivor” was a song that started out as a self-affirmation. Lyrically, it was how I wanted to feel during the midst of a struggle, a crisis, a time in my life that was just tough and and trying to just convince myself, as I was going through it, that I would get through that situation. And I found that in doing that, it gave me strength. I think that song is has connected with with a lot of people that have gone through various things in life.
We’ve had folks that have gone through cancer or other diseases and overcome them, [people] that have been victims of of any type of abuse… and the song connected [with them].
It’s always cool when you pour your heart and soul into [a song] that you’ve lived and experienced, and at some level it connects with the listener. That’s what made it special. It’s really an empowerment song. And, you know, it’s celebrating that. It starts out as just affirmations and believing and speaking about what you want to accomplish and achieve and then celebrating that once you reach the chorus.
As you say, lots of people can celebrate getting through a difficult time in their life. Most people have at least a rough patch or two. In your case, it’s definitely different because you’re famous. Some of your struggles have sort of played out on social media and that’s something that most people don’t have to experience.
It definitely makes it more difficult to deal with, and there’s an added level of intensity and pressure when you’re going through a tough time and something that a lot of people would go through in private with their close, immediate friends and family. When you’re playing that out in the public eye, it can be mischaracterized and misrepresented.
But you know what? It just creates thicker skin, man. And that’s what any struggle and any adversity does for all of us as human beings, whether you’re in the public eye or not. It just makes us tougher. It makes us stronger. So we can hopefully use that experience once we get to the other side to help somebody else going through a similar situation, or any struggle.
Creed’s “Higher” was a lot of people’s first exposure to your voice. Talk about that song.
That song was really inspired by, you know, me kind of getting into this study of being awake in your dreams, dream awakening, lucid dreaming. And as I was kind of exploring that and reading books about that, I came up with those lyrics and and [guitarist] Mark [Tremonti] and I got together and put it to song.
Human Clay was where it seemed like people outside of rock radio listeners were starting to sing Creed songs.
I think that [“Higher”] was our first song that crossed over officially. Outside of the rock genre specifically.
I think it’s good for rock bands to have one album where you sort of “belong” to rock before you cross that pop threshold just so you get used to you like sort of a big audience before you get thrown into like a massively huge national audience.
I mean, it definitely it definitely worked out good for us that way. It definitely worked out good for us because we you know, we were a staple at the rock format. I think branching out into other formats was just a natural thing for us because it was a full expression of who we were as a band. You know, we wrote heavy rock songs all the way through our career and even our last album, Full Circle, had very heavy rock songs. But there’s always songs that can cross over that’s just part of our identity and what we do. And so it’s definitely worked good for us.
That you to Scott Stapp for the interview. Check out the rest of the interview in our podcast; scroll up and download it.
The 100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers limited series podcast gives music fans a front-row seat for conversations with songwriters behind some of the biggest hits of yesterday and today. You’ll learn the stories behind the songs from the people who wrote them. Each episode will focus on one writer: sometimes, they’ll just talk about one song, other times, they’ll talk about a number of hits.
New episodes will be released each Monday through November of 2020.
100 Years of Radio – 100 Years of Hit Makers special podcast series is produced in partnership with Beasley Media Group, XPERI (HD Radio), and BMI in celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the first commercial radio broadcast.
Sonny Digital has been one of hip-hop’s most successful songwriter/producers for nearly a decade, starting with YC and Future’s “Racks.” In this interview, he talks about some of his biggest hits. Hear the entire interview in the podcast; read some of the highlights below.
Let’s start off by talking about “Racks” by YC and Future. That was an important song for you.
We were still working to get on, nobody was really famous yet. When we got that song, everyone was brand new, I was new to the scene, YC was new to the scene, Future wasn’t new, but he wasn’t who he is today. He was like the leading force in that [song] though. I didn’t really know YC, I didn’t really know Future.
But the stars just kind of aligned and the right people connected at the right time and made the right song. You know, it just kind of set the tone for the next decade. I feel like that was just a song that kind of opened the doors for the what was about to happen [in hip-hop] next.
Like you say, you were new to the scene. People who knew hip-hop knew who Future was, but he wasn’t as popular as he is now. But for someone who was new, getting a song recorded with Future on it must have been a big deal.
Future wasn’t that big, to be honest, at that time. It wasn’t like mindblowing to me, like “I got a song with Future!” Future was signed to Rocko. Rocko was more popular at the time. Rocko’s one of my favorite rappers of all time. Whenever he hopped on my stuff, that’s when I was kind of like more excited. Future was kind of like Rocko’s artist at the time. It was like we were all coming up at the same time. He didn’t know who I was to be excited to be working with me, I didn’t know who he was at the time to be excited to be working with him. I made the beat and I sent it to YC. He played for Future to get [him] on it.
At the time, did that song take off pretty quickly from the time that you wrote it to the time that it got out to radio? Did it change your life at the time?
It wasn’t life changing. It was good. It was learning life-changing. At the time I had signed a bad publishing deal, and when all that stuff transpired, everything came to light and it let me know when real money started getting involved, that’s when I had real business under control. That’s when I started to figure out what kind of situation I was in, so it was good. I started making money, though, but it wasn’t as much as I was supposed to be making either. It was better than where I was. So, you know, I was still happy that at least we got the wheels on the car rolling. I wasn’t down on myself as a producer. I knew I can produce, I knew I could make more. I just had to head that first one, trying to get people to believe in everything else I was going to be doing.
Was that the first song of yours that you ever heard on the radio?
Yeah, that was most definitely the first song that I heard on my nose on radio.
Do you remember where you were, what the situation was?
Yeah, I was in a car. I forget where I was on the way to. But I remember exactly where I was. I was in Atlanta on 85. I was surprised, like, “Damn! I’m hearing my song on the radio.”
Tell me about “Tuesday” by ILoveMakonnen.
That whole ILoveMadonnen project was just something that I personally like. I personally liked it. I wasn’t looking for it to do anything crazy [commercially]. Even though that’s what we all hope for. But I wasn’t doing it with any intention, I just wanted to make something that I like. It was like everything was just, like, effortless. The vibe was just so cool. Just good songs that we can all vibe to. Then it transcended to the people too. Personally, I didn’t think people were going to f— with it, like heavily, how I did. And [co-producer] Metro [Boomin’] did.
Like I said, I was just working on it just because I really liked it, though. I liked what he was doing. So that was that. And everything in that situation just kind of transpired, just kind of like quick as hell. Like, honestly, we thought “I Don’t Sell Molly No More” was gonna be the single. In my eyes, that was kind of a bigger song than “Tuesday” but it didn’t get a feature like “Tuesday” had.
Drake called about “Tuesday,” so that’s when the focus shifted from “I Don’t Sell Molly” to “Tuesday.” But it was real simple, there wasn’t nothing to it. Keep in mind, when the ILoveMakonnen s— happened. I was kind of like… both my feet was kind of wet in the game by that time. Eveybody in the industry kind of knew me. And Metro was poppin’ too at the time. But we didn’t think it was going to resonate with people like it did.
I guess as a producer, you make beats, you put together a track, you send it out. But Drake being on that track changes things; it changes where that song is going to be heard.
I saw this interview that Kanye had done with Nick Cannon. He said that any record he co-produced with anybody, it would be their biggest record. I’m like, “Damn, bro! That’s kind of far from true.” It was just kind of a big statement, though. I was like, “Man, that Drake feature, that’s where you really do numbers. That’s life-changing.” You know, shout out to Kanye and everything. But Drake features? When he come through, that s— will change some s— around for you. Not to say that Kanye West won’t, but that Drake s— will surely do, and quick.
Well, we know that he says stuff like that all the time. The next song I want to ask you about is [2 Chainz’s] “Birthday Song,” which Kanye was on. Talk about that… and yeah, it’s interesting that he would make that comment, it takes away from what other people contribute. It’s not only about him.
When he said that, I had to say something about it. I only did that because, s—, it just felt like a direct shot though. But people who haven’t produced wouldn’t understand. They’re just going to look at him like Kanye West, the big producer. When we talk about co-producing… just because you have the biggest name doesn’t mean you’re making [the song] the best. My biggest record wasn’t with you, even though I had a big record with you. It’s cool, I’m not even trippin’ though. We “little people” still work too.
Check out the rest of our interview with Sonny Digital — he talkso about working with Travis Scott, Rae Sremmurd, 50 Cent and more — in the podcast. Scroll up to download it.
