Lollapalooza Music Festival celebrated its 32nd edition this past weekend in Chicago’s historic Grant Park, and we were there to capture the festivities – see our 2023 recap here.
We were lucky enough to speak with many of the talented performers about playing Lollapalooza, their musical process, new music, and much more. View all interviews from Thursday below:
THURSDAY:
THE BEACHES:
Your second album Blame My Ex will be released in September. Can you tell me more about the process of putting the album together and the main themes behind it?
Jordan Miller: Blame My Ex kind of came at a very strange time for us as a band. It was just after Covid, we’d been dropped from our label, and we had fired our managers and changed management teams. We really wanted to take the opportunity to explore a new sort of sound for us and be really creative and throw away all the labels and all the preconceptions about our music. As we were exploring this I was dumped and the records kind of about dealing with those compounded losses as a band but also as a single woman, and learning to rediscover yourself and feel empowered being a single woman and being an independent person.
Eliza Enman-McDaniel: Yeah it’s not 100% about the break-up itself, it’s about what happens afterwards. It’s about rediscovering your love for yourself, your friendships, and new possible romantic relationships. It’s not about just the break-up, it’s about the whole process.
What is your songwriting process – do you usually work on the lyrics first, find a melody, or have an idea that you want to convey?
Eliza: Every song was different. Either Jordan would come in with a kind of a theme about the lyrics that she wanted to write about, or one of us would have a guitar line or start with a drumbeat. And honestly every song started differently, but we wanted to make sure that each song was saying something different.
Kylie Miller: We had two collaborators: a co-writer and producer Lowell, and our other co-writer and producer Gus Van Go. We hadn’t done that in a couple of years. We used to go on writing trips to LA a lot and then we kind of just became the four of us writing together so it was really great to come back and collaborate and it was just a very open honest discussion about everything we were going through and everything we were listening to.
Jordan: Sort of half musical discussion half therapy session.
You’ve played a lot of festivals this year already – but how did it feel to play Lollapalooza?
Jordan: I can’t believe it’s over frankly, I kind of want to go back and do it again it was so fun.
Leandra Earl: We get really nervous leading up to huge moments like this and then it’s over so quick so we try to stop and appreciate it and really just enjoy the moment.
Who have you been listening to lately?
Kylie: I have been obsessed with Boygenius of course – just like the whole world.
Eliza: I’ve been listening to the Barbie soundtrack just a little bit too much. I love “Speed Drive” by Charli XCX it’s so good.
Jordan: Yeah I love I’m Just Ken – that’s all i’ve been listening to.
Leandra: The new Aces album is their best work and they’ve been crushing it.
What’s next for you?
Eliza: We’re going on the Blame My Ex Tour which we’re really excited about and going through basically the whole east coast of the United States and then through Canada and then we’ll be back again next year.
MATT MALTESE:
On playing Lollapalooza:
“It felt really, really amazing. I feel like that was my favorite U.S. festival. it was lovely.”
BEAUTY SCHOOL DROPOUT:
You’ve have a busy few days coming up playing multiple Lollapalooza stages. How does that feel?
Cole Hutzler: Exhilarating, wild fun, all the feelings.
Brent Burdett: Surreal.
Bardo: It feels sexy.
Cole: It feels super slay.
Bardo: It feels super slay. Yeah that’s what it is. Too long, didn’t read, super slay.
You’ve also had a whirlwind of a year – first on tour with Jxdn, then on tour with blink-182. I saw your set at Madison Square Garden when you opened for blink-182. How were those experiences?
Bardo: That was a wild one for us. It was a surreal one because there were so many of our friends there. And I think that was the moment it hit me and I’m like whoa, our friends from LA and like industry people are out here watching us play Madison Square Garden like we need to deliver. It was great and crazy and felt weird it was so cool. It was also crazy because we had an MTV performance earlier that day, so we literally got to the venue and had 20 minutes to put all our stuff on stage before we played. Like none of our stuff was on stage and we had 20 minutes. So we’re up there running. It was awesome. But you know high risk, high reward.
Brent: Controlled chaos.
Any fun tour stories?
Cole: It’s been pretty exciting. I think it’s like – it’s life you know, constant ebb and flow, constant ups and downs. I think we’re always learning and always trying to rediscover ourselves and figure out how we can optimize our growth as a band, as individuals. So that’s really the exciting part. And then sometimes we get the little freak moments in between where your super icon childhood heroes are acknowledging what you’re doing.
Bardo: A lot of ups and downs but net positive. We’re on our way up and it’s great. It’s a good reminder that our lives are crazy and it seems crazy, but we deal with the same ups and down that every single person deals with, and we still have to wake up every morning and figure out how we’re going to have fun today. So there’s a lot of figuring out how to have fun. We’re grateful. Very, very, grateful.
Your sophomore album READY TO EAT will release this fall. Can you tell me more about the process of putting it together?
Bardo: I don’t even remember it. We just blacked out and did it.
Brent: This one was exciting just because I think we are ready to go onto our next era, because we don’t want to do the same thing twice. We were battling where we wanted to take that. So we were writing a bunch of different styles and stuff, and then we finally landed on something that feels like an elevation from everything else that we’ve put out. And we’re just trying to forever change and grow and be a new artist every time we drop stuff.
Bardo: This is the first step into our next chapter of sound.
What are the main themes of the album?
Cole: It’s really just about our lives and our personal histories and the crazy shit that we’ve endured and been through to get to this point.
Brent: Every song is a different story.
Bardo: Yeah it’s not like one thing. We really try to write about real life experiences. I don’t think we’ve ever written a song about – at least one that’s out that wasn’t real. Like real shit happens.
Brent: I would say this one touches on low points, but also like a lot of love interactions.
Cole: For sure. I don’t know, it’s funny because we have one song that talks a little bit about mental health. But aside from that – like most of our stuff in the past has been about mental health, but I think this time has been a little bit more about struggles with like relationships and drugs and you know family and certain things that just happen in life that you have to swallow and deal with and turn you into an adult.
You just dropped the track “beautiful waste.” When writing a song, what is your process – do you usually work on the lyrics first, find a melody, or have an idea that you want to convey?
Bardo: Simultaneous combustion. We take all our clothes off and just scream as loud as we can until something comes out of that – and that’s how we got “beautiful waste.” It pretty much was that. But in all seriousness, that one specifically and like many others kind of comes from one little idea spark. With that one we went to our good friend Andrew Goldstein’s house. Andrew Goldstein is a phenomenal producer and we had this little idea that I had started on the Jxdn tour and I just played the beat for it. It was just like this fast drum beat. And then we ended up scraping all the music on top of it and Cole would start playing some chords and we had some hook ideas. And then it’s just like everyone throws ideas and we’re beating each other’s ideas until we get the best mega idea.
Cole: It’s like when you’re making your parents breakfast as a kid and you think like this will be good in the eggs.
Bardo: Like throwing in vinegar – sometimes it tastes terrible.
Cole: This time around it tastes really good.
Bardo: Music is literally cooking. That’s, that’s all it is. We’re just cooking with sounds. We’re sonic chefs. We’re like the Gordon Ramsay of chronic flavors and cool beats.
Cole: How to make the perfect beat in 2 minutes.
Bardo: That would be a crazy show. A cooking show set up but for making beats, like making music. It’s called The Cookbook and we go all “No! What snare is that?”
Cole: We have Gordon Ramsey in our studio saying “Terrible, absolutely terrible.”
Bardo: This is how our ideas are formed, we just throw things out there. This is literally us making music.
Who have you been listening to lately?
Cole: A band called Speed. They are an Australian hardcore band that is just absolutely obliterating the scene right now. Also Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile.
Brent: I’ve been listening to Knox and Stray from the Path, and a lot of Bring Me The Horizon.
Bardo: I’ve been listening to a lot of Noah Kahan. Bon Iver as always, and Del Water Gap.
SOFI TUKKER:
You’ve had a whirlwind of a festival year, bringing your immersive show to multiple festivals including Coachella, The Governors Ball, and Electric Forest. How does it feel to be bringing that experience to Lollapalooza?
Sophie: It feels amazing. We played Lollapalooza a long time ago right at the beginning of our career so its very cool to be back.
Tucker: Yeah I’m excited. I’ve always wanted to play at one of these big stages at this festival because it always looks like so huge so I’m excited to play it.
Your live show is intricate with lots of moving parts – from backup dancers to interacting with a playground setup. How did the idea for your stage show come about?
Sophie: We talked about it many, many years ago, and we just kept hitting logistical issues because of safety, cost, et cetera.
Tucker: Honestly, it was a logistical thing. We are finally at the size shows where we can pull it off and have a large enough crew to help and take heavy set pieces on the road.
Sophie: We wanted it to be a combination of playground, architecture, and the tropics. So we kind of mix all of it together.
What is your songwriting process – do you usually work on the lyrics first, find a melody, or have an idea that you want to convey? What is your process?
Sophie: It really depends on the song – literally everyone is different. I think it depends on what is the most inspiring in the moment.
Tucker: Sometimes Sophie will have a poem she wrote or I’ll have a beat that I made or a guitar riff or say a reference idea that gives us an idea.
Sophie: Like a visual that we want it to sound like.
Tucker: A lot of times we’ll come in from a night out or from a show and be really inspired and something will just come up.
Who have you been listening to lately?
Tucker: A lot of unreleased Sofi Tukker.
Sophie: I just did a nice gym workout yesterday with Burna Boy radio. And it was so good. I couldn’t stop dancing in the gym, drawing a lot of attention to myself.
What is next for Sofi Tukker?
Tucker: We have been working on an awful lot of music, and that’s the most exciting stuff and we can’t really tell you about it because honestly we’re not even fully sure what the plans are – but we have a lot of touring to do and we can definitely promise that there’s more music than ever and it’s really fun.
ISABEL LAROSA:
How does it feel to be playing multiple stages at Lollapalooza?
Isabel: I’m just so happy to be here and am just grateful that i’m able to do all of this stuff. I feel like when we stop all the chaos my body is just going to shut down; but it really is such an honor to be playing at all these things and I’m so grateful.
You make all of your music with your brother Thomas. When you are creating a song – what comes first? Do you write the lyrics, or do you have an overall idea of what you want to convey?
Isabel: It’s usually melody – a main melody and a main lyric first. I feel like the hook of the song is the most important part of the song so it usually starts with main lyric and a main melody. When that’s right, we’ll decide whether the chorus needs other lyrics and then add pre-melody and pre-lyrics and then decide what the production feel should be from there. So that’s usually how it starts, but it kind of can be whatever. Honestly, we write so much stuff on just acoustic guitar. So it really depends, but that’s generally the timeline for things.
Who have you been listening to lately?
Isabel: NewJeans – i’ve been listening to a lot of NewJeans. I wish I could have seen them because I was playing at the same time. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Cigarettes After Sex and “Dumbest girl alive” by a 100 gecs is a really good running song. I just feel like everybody’s been dropping music recently. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Ari Abdul.
What’s next for you – any new music coming out?
Isabel: I definitely have some tour stuff coming up but nothings been revealed yet. I have some tours coming up that I’m really really excited about. There’s one specific tour that I’m very, very excited for. We’re working on new music right now. Thomas literally just sent me a bunch of mixes for things, and we wanna get a new song out very soon. So a lot of new things that I’m very excited about.
CHRI$TIAN GATE$:
This is your first music festival. How did it feel for your first festival performance to be at Lollapalooza?
Christian: It felt great. I was so ecstatic – there were a lot more people that came than I was expecting. I tried to crowd surf and it didn’t work out very well – but everything else was great. It was a blast.
Your EP Why Do I Hear Breathing was released earlier this year. Can you tell me more about the process of putting it together?
Christian: Each song in the EP is just kind of a grieving process for an emotion in a relationship. Starting off with when you first like somebody and then ending with acceptance of it not being the right fit after a long emotional journey.
Did you work with anyone when putting the EP together?
Christian: I just grabbed a bunch of my producer friends and told them to do individual things for it, and then we just threw this giant creative pile of love together to make an EP.
You released a new track “Take Me Back” yesterday. When writing a song, what is your process – do you usually work on the lyrics first, find a melody, or have an idea that you want to convey?
Christian: It’s usually a mix of lyric, melody, and idea. After we come up with what the general vibe is, then we come up with the idea of the song and flush it out – kind of like a story and then write to that idea.
Who have you been listening to lately?
Christian: Friday Pilots Club, Noah Kahan, Billie Eilish.
What’s next for you? Any new projects you’re working on?
Christian: “Take Me Back” is part of an EP. So I have another EP coming out that’s going to have “I Won’t Beg For You” on it and three or four other songs; and then a song coming out with Natalie Jane which is going to be dope – i’m excited for that.
Can you tell me more about the theme of the upcoming EP?
Christian: It’s really just like a mix of naturistic sounding folk music and it’s a whole different vibe than I usually go for. But it’s cool and I’m really excited for it.
