And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan

Today’s guest is a singer, songwriter, producer and dancer who has spent her career trusting her own instincts—and building a world around them.

From “2 On” to “Nasty” and “No Broke Boys,” Tinashe has kept releasing music through major-label deals, independent projects and viral breakthroughs.

She’s collaborated with artists including Calvin Harris, Charli xcx and Kaytranada, and joins us to talk about the journey behind it all.

And The Writer Is... Tinashe!

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Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.Splice, the best sample library on the market, period.

and our lead sponsor, our Patreon page!

We're still giving away free Universal Audio Recording Gear in our next zoom hang.

Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/andthewriteris

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

0:46 Tinashe and Ross reconnect—back to The Stunners

3:48 “Deep in the Night”—the song she wrote at five

5:08 Tinashe’s French fry rankings

6:12 Child acting, Whoopi Goldberg, and moving to LA

9:11 Life in a girl group without creative control

11:22 Buying a microphone and building a bedroom studio

14:10 Getting signed—and expecting it to be easy

18:40 Join the ATWI Patreon

19:32 Splice: Sounds and Variations

20:39 Early Travis Scott sessions and being taken seriously in the studio

23:29 Recording 200 songs—and trusting the big producer’s opinion26:33 Trusting your gut and knowing when to leave a session

30:43 “2 On” takes off. What happens after the first hit?

36:03 Writing “2 On” in a garage with friends

37:37 Does having a hit teach you how to make one?

39:20 Leaving her label and rebuilding trust in her own ideas

43:29 What releasing music independently actually takes

46:10 Filming her own videos and building her visual world

48:14 How dancing shapes the way she writes songs

50:08 Working with a label again—and finding Ricky Reed

52:11 Getting the call from Calvin Harris

53:52 Why genre doesn’t define her music

55:19 “Nasty” takes off after she stops needing another hit

57:04 Why she won’t write for a TikTok trend

58:43 Charli xcx and finding freedom after early hits

1:00:41 The unexpected remix journey of “No Broke Boys”

1:03:31 Taking the Grammy off her lock screen after seven years

1:05:14 Making POPSTAR—and giving herself time to play

1:05:55 Which POPSTAR song fits every mood?

1:08:19 Claiming the pop star she’s always been

1:13:32 “Just don’t stop”—keep putting your music out

1:14:42 Her advice to young women in music: intuition

Credits

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s guest is one of the most unmistakable voices in modern pop — an artist, songwriter and producer who has built a career by making music that sounds like nobody else. Her catalog has passed two billion global streams. She’s played top billing at festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza and Outside Lands, opened for Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde and Paramore, and collaborated with artists including Nile Rodgers, Beck, Dominic Fike and Sylvan Esso.

And The Writer Is... Remi Wolf!

In this episode, we get into

- The USC training that rebuilt her voice

- Waiting tables and taking Craigslist gigs while building a career

- The 30-minute session behind “Photo ID,”

- Industry lessons for every artist to take notes on...

and much more.

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/andthewriteris

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

0:40 “You can’t teach tone” — how Remi found hers

2:13 USC: “We’re going to beat you down until you feel like you’re nothing”

6:15 Fourteen, busking the Bay Area, and writing songs in Chloe’s kitchen

13:40 “Carousel” — the first song she ever wrote

15:41 A substitute teacher, an apartment, and her first recording

18:05 Ski racer by day, songwriter by night

19:05 Meeting Jared Solomon at 15 — then finding each other again

21:07 Applebee’s on tour — and the road to sobriety

24:04 Rehab, writing Juno sober, and why clarity changed the songs

29:02 “It’s not ready” — why she refused to release music in college

30:22 Six songs in one week — the reunion that started everything

34:24 Restaurant shifts and Craigslist gigs: how she paid to keep making music

39:26 The Sofar show that led to her first manager

42:39 “I had no expectations” — making music before the industry got involved

45:28 35,000 decisions a day — what creative control actually costs

49:22 “You have to start protecting yourself”

51:34 What is the goal? Redefining success

56:51 Her first album rollout sober

59:21 Social media, warped expectations, and screaming into the void

63:22 “Photo ID,” TikTok, and the accident that helped it explode

66:40 “Photo ID” took 30 minutes — and she thought it was horrible

70:15 Her first professional topline session: “I was overcome with social anxiety”

72:11 Why I’m Allergic to Dogs worked during lockdown

74:56 Why Juno is called Juno

78:50 Hayley Williams and singing with another “belt queen”

82:25 Five years of nonstop touring — and finally hitting pause

87:15 “I Won’t Cry” — her favorite song she’s ever written

89:15 “I was sick of the uptempo shit” — writing 130 songs for Mud

90:49 Her first pitch session was for BTS

92:34 Which Mud song fits every mood

94:10 “I’m the happiest I’ve been in my life”

Credits

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a musician's musician who co-founded The National, the Grammy-winning band behind Boxer, High Violet and Sleep Well Beast.

He co-wrote and produced Taylor Swift's folklore and evermore, including cardigan and willow. folklore won Album of the Year at the Grammys.

He worked on The Tortured Poets Department and produced Ed Sheeran's Subtract.

He's behind Gracie Abrams' I Love You, I'm Sorry and Noah Kahan's Porch Light.

In the last year alone, he's made records with Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, Brandi Carlile, Sam Barber, Kevin Morby and Suki Waterhouse.

He's one half of Big Red Machine with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.

And he built Long Pond, the Hudson Valley studio where many of these songs were made.

And The Writer Is... Aaron Dessner!

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Amazon Music for Songwriters. Your support means the world to us.

And SONA — Songwriters of North America. If you write songs, join them. They fight for us.

0:00 Intro

1:00 Cardigan, willow, Porch Light — and eight albums in a year

5:26 Why "I Love You, I'm Sorry" was never the single

7:27 Secretly rooting for the weird song

8:17 When a pop star needs a single right now

10:25 Don't fill the space: how he walks into a session

12:12 Long Pond and "you never make a mistake investing in your creativity"

17:24 Twin brothers and their dad's jazz drums

22:48 "We faked it": how The National got signed

26:48 Playing to no one — then 500 strangers in Michigan

30:05 "Did you lose yourself?"

33:14 When one bandmate starts writing hits for other people

35:38 On stage with Taylor: "You're playing a stadium. It's okay."

37:27 "Hey, it's Taylor": the text in 2020

40:34 The Dropbox folder — and cardigan by 3 a.m.

47:45 The thank-you note that became willow

51:49 Meeting Gracie Abrams — and 2–3 songs a day

57:47 How an instrumentalist became the storyteller's whisperer

1:01:11 Why his albums don't get shelved: finishing Prizefighter

1:04:23 Studio stories: Gracie, Brandi Carlile, Florence, Sam Barber

1:11:40 Noah Kahan arrives burnt out — and Porch Light

1:15:41 Live Q&A: finding the corners, his first key change

1:18:24 Advice for musicians with day jobs

1:20:07 What all the greats have in common

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a Grammy-winning songwriter, bandleader and activist who has spent four decades inside the most famous name in reggae — but whose real story isn't the inheritance. It's the set of rules underneath it, the ones the family actually lives by, which turn out to have almost nothing to do with music.

And The Writer Is... Ziggy Marley!

Subscribe to our channel and follow us on socials @andthewriteris Every week we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.

And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

Chapters:

0:00 He inherited a legacy and built a voice of his own

0:45 Why reggae heals

4:53 What makes the Marley family so consistent

6:43 Seven kids, and the family business that isn't music

8:36 Why the whole album is tuned to 432

12:32 The one song he left at 440

16:06 What makes this album different from the other fifteen

18:11 Finishing the songs before going into the studio

20:37 Why he wrote "Many Mourn For Bob" 45 years later

24:54 Umbrella or shadow: being a Marley

26:39 The funeral, and the drive to Nine Miles

30:54 NMPA + Splice

33:15 Breaking the four-bar on "Racism"

36:03 "It sounds light, but it's heavy underneath"

38:37 What "Beach in Hawaii" is actually about

43:37 How he found out "Tomorrow People" was a hit

46:14 The Melody Makers, and the line you don't cross

49:15 "Create your own space"

53:45 Advice to the next Marleys

55:27 "You can't just ChatGPT life experience"

59:12 "When the fridge was empty, I was happy"

1:00:26 "I know my value"

1:03:07 "It's always new. Still a kid."

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is an artist and songwriter whose career has taken him from teenage YouTube covers to working with Beyoncé, Tyler, The Creator, Brockhampton, Miley Cyrus and Jack Antonoff.

But this conversation is really about something bigger: How to build a career in music without losing yourself along the way.

Ryan talks about learning to trust his own taste, being grateful he never had a hit record, protecting what makes an artist special, and refusing to let success, algorithms or other people's expectations define him.

We also get into Boy in Jeans, Brockhampton, Tyler the Creator's unexpected DM, writing four songs on Cowboy Carter, the making of "Bruises Off the Peach," and his new album Sweet Fortune.

And The Writer Is... Ryan Beatty!

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Follow us: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors:

NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association

Splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

1:36 The Greek, Hollywood Bowl & Pokémon evolutions

3:08 Being made fun of for singing

4:09 “I refuse to continue just being one thing”

8:32 Why being hard to define is freedom

9:52 How Ryan approaches a songwriting session

11:52 Teach people how to treat you

13:43 “I’m grateful I’ve never had a hit record”

14:12 What success feels like vs. what it looks like

20:08 “I didn’t feel smart enough to be a songwriter”

20:55 Boy in Jeans — finding his voice as a songwriter

26:42 Jack Antonoff and an unexpected Broadway placement

27:30 NMPA + Splice

29:19 His advice for artists going viral

31:55 The moment he decided to do it his way

34:06 Brockhampton, Kevin Abstract & finding confidence

37:05 Why Ryan never pitches songs

40:43 Tyler, The Creator’s unexpected DM

42:35 Dreaming of David, touring & burnout

44:52 Making “Bruises Off the Peach”

48:17 Finding his actual singing voice

50:30 Cowboy Carter — four songs, told nobody

54:30 Making Sweet Fortune & chasing timelessness

57:32 How he wants listeners to see themselves in his songs

59:36 Amy Allen, Clairo & making the studio a place of joy

1:04:25 “Doing this is scary for me”

Credits

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is the drummer who took punk out of the garage, put it on your radio, then on MTV, then on your body. But his real story isn't the discography. It's what he did with everything that was supposed to end him.

From a four-piece kit in Fontana to the center of the album cover, Travis carries three things simultaneously that most musicians never figure out how to hold at once: the craft of writing a drum part as a hook — singing it in his head before his hands ever get there; the conviction that no genre gets to own him, and no one else gets to write his ending; and the contrarian edge to ban Auto-Tune, editing, and drum samples from his own studio at the exact moment the rest of the industry is sprinting toward machine-clean.

And The Writer Is... Travis Barker!

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/andthewriteris

We're giving away 4 pieces of premium recording gear on zoom on August 25th! Join Patreon for details.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible. Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us. And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro

1:51 Why the documentary sat for nine years

3:18 The producers pitch an ending: "Can you just walk onto a plane?"

4:51 Survivor's guilt: "They wouldn't want me to sit here and not fly again"

6:33 "The doc was dead to me" — and living your life like it's a movie

9:41 "I don't make beats." "Now you do. I need it in two days."

12:23 Beastie Boys, Bad Brains, Buck Owens — refusing the box

15:28 The drums are a hook, not a timekeeper

15:54 "That's not music" — the teacher who wouldn't teach him rock

17:25 How he actually writes a part: "I sing it in my head"

18:21 Learning the whole blink-182 set in an hour

21:29 Trash men in Laguna, and one store that sold their tape

22:52 The untitled album, and the day the process changed

25:57 The lyrics he wrote: "We'll have Halloween on Christmas"

27:15 "I Miss You" — the loop he had to convince them to keep

28:07 "You have to put your ego away to be a drummer who's a songwriter"

35:46 The burn center: "How am I going to play drums?"

36:25 The hand he couldn't feel, and why he told no one

43:20 "Too heavy for blink" — Boxcar Racer, and Mark

56:30 "There was no therapy for what happened"

1:10:19 What drummers should actually practice

1:19:29 AI: "I hate it" — no Auto-Tune, no editing, no samples

1:31:20 "All the Small Things" — the day Tom told him to open the valve

1:33:33 "Where's all the hits?" — the note that made Rock Show and First Date

1:35:15 "One More Time": writing about your own band breaking up

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is an artist most people meet through the bit: the deadpan internet, the cowboy suit, the one-sided war he's been waging with Harry Styles for a year that Harry Styles knows nothing about.

So this is the other version of him. A kid in Pittsburgh with a borrowed mic and beats ripped off YouTube, broke and failing out of school, who gets a message that Mac Miller loves a song off his first EP — and uses those three days in LA to convince his parents to let him drop out.

It's also one of the more honest conversations we've had about what the industry's upgrades actually cost you. Not the version where getting signed is the happy ending — the version where the nice studio, the engineer recording your vocals, and the A&R in your ear slowly make music that isn't yours. Chuck Timely & The Hourglass is what's on the other side of that: a record about time, made by someone who spent years trying to get his own back. And the only person who ever told him not to make it was his mother.

And The Writer Is... Role Model!

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.

And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

They are also maybe the only ethical ai-integrated sample library and they pay creators for using their work in the new Variations update and beyond.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

2:00 The year-long war with Harry Styles that Harry Styles knows nothing about

2:41 Mac Miller and Odd Future on Vine are why he finally said yes to TikTok

3:33 The message about "Stolen Car" that came while he was failing out of school

15:01 "Did you scrub the internet?" — "Yes. Because I was embarrassed."

16:13 "I was trying to impress a label. I just made shitty music."

24:16 A 16-year-old in Portland, Maine, and an EP made entirely over email

25:44 The labels start calling: "I was a sitting duck"

27:01 The studio trap — how nice rooms take the music out of your hands

28:01 The two EPs he's blocked out: "I don't remember making that music"

28:54 Why he won't pitch songs to other artists

31:06 The 80s synth album they made for two months and scrapped

34:33 The two rules: no synths, no drum machines

35:06 His mom: "There's country in it? Your fans are gonna hate that."

37:39 "Sally," written in the 30 minutes a session ran short

42:09 "But who is Chuck?" — inventing Chuck Timely

47:12 Ross defines a good song: "This will piss off a lot of people"

53:10 What he'd say to Mac Miller

54:44 "Look at That Woman" started as a joke — and why the loose ones win

56:27 The permission Kansas Anymore gave other songwriters

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.