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!

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

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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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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

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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.

Today's guest wrote "The Climb." She also wrote "I Drive Your Truck," "Mine Would Be You," "Don't Think Jesus," and "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma." But her real story isn't the hits. It's the ten years before the first one, the five years after it when the phone stopped ringing, and what she figured out in between about how to actually last in this business.

From a dropped record deal and years as what she calls a washed-up artist nobody would write with, to Song of the Year, a Grammy nomination, and a run of hits she wrote while raising three kids under three. She carries three things at once that almost no writer figures out how to hold together: a working method she can actually teach, a conviction that this is a calling and not a job, and a refusal to write the safe version of anything.

And The Writer Is... Jessi Alexander!

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.

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

0:00 Intro

0:48 Her favorite non-songwriting songwriter trick

1:54 "How do you make unavailable country men emotional?"

5:33 The five songs on her Hall of Fame plaque

11:07 Pool halls and stick shifts: "that color is what I draw from"

12:42 The artist deal that fizzled — "I wasn't the artist type"

13:31 No man's land: "no one took me seriously, I was a washed-up artist"

14:01 The insane story behind writing The Climb: "just another damn day"

20:11 Bud Light, a guitar pull, and a British director

22:07 Being told The Climb would change her life "Sir, that doesnt happen to people like me"

28:08 Nashville still said No

30:38 Getting men to sing: long notes and the falsetto flip

31:44 "What part of their tool belt have they not used?"

34:32 The professor who told her to quit school

36:18 Her album, the mergers, and Redneck Woman

40:27 New mom: "they'll just put someone else in my spot"

45:30 Good mom or good at work — never both

46:16 2015 to 2020: "the water just turned off"

48:23 Advice for the writer whose phone stopped ringing

50:24 The song that rang every bell

57:21 Concept-first or melody-first: "I'm the director"

61:16 Songwriters own it. Screenwriters sell it.

64:16 Imposter syndrome and the Billy Strings answer

65:24 What makes Morgan Wallen great

69:46 "I don't like to not know where all the bodies are buried"

71:43 I Drive Your Truck (Crazy story)

74:37 Her granddad's truck in the driveway

75:44 "Call in the third. Call in the fourth. Call in the 10th."

76:46 No #1 party until they found him

80:36 The truck-song traffic jam they were worried sick about

85:38 "Keep your head down." Still the only answer.

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 songwriter four albums deep, with a song that's been picking up new listeners for nine years and Mick Fleetwood playing on her latest record. But her real story isn't any of that.

From weekend stage camps in West London to opening Wembley for Taylor Swift five months after giving birth, she spent a decade releasing roughly one song a year into near silence. What kept her going wasn't a plan — it was a pair of collaborators who got nothing back for years and got up and made something every day anyway.

This is an honest conversation about what a long stretch of nobody listening actually feels like, and what happens when the proof finally shows up on a timeline you didn't choose.

And The Writer Is... Suki Waterhouse!

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.

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've developed a Sounds plugin that allows creators to actually get paid for derivatively generated work from their art, and they have paid out $100M+ to artists already since inception.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:46 How's being a parent and doing music?

1:18 "Being a parent is only hard for good parents"

2:49 "The girl with the guitar" — how her daughter describes her job

4:30 Test-driving album demos on a toddler in her "no" phase

12:44 Somewhere Over the Rainbow — and losing to the girl who sang All Saints

14:38 The voice teacher who told her she was too skinny to sing

15:58 "I was angry. I had this huge fire in me."

16:42 The friend group that turned on her: "fuck this school, fuck these people"

26:45 "You walk through open doors" — model, actor, musician

28:56 "Brutally," 2016, and ten years of making things nobody heard

31:01 Advice to a young female artist: learn to produce, even basically

32:56 "I went hunting for my fucking tribe. And I found them."

35:54 Amy Winehouse at the pub, The Libertines, and a London scene that's gone

38:12 Backstage at a Jake Bugg show — meeting Natalie and Jules at eighteen

39:23 "They got zero back for years and years and years"

42:45 Extreme ADHD, a giant sitar, and a fight over a song

46:26 December 7th: flying to London for a song that didn't exist yet

47:16 The pact: "if we're not writing something brilliant, we're not carrying it on"

47:28 The worst audition of her life, in the dark

48:09 A Wurlitzer, a Mellotron, and the song that opens the album

1:01:39 "Good Looking" — top ten on TikTok, written nine years ago

1:05:53 Covid, Daisy Jones, and deciding to just make the record

1:06:32 Every label said no except Sub Pop

1:08:40 "It's nothing about what happens in the first week"

1:10:16 "Dangerous Woman" and a song that gains meaning over time

1:11:38 Daisy Jones: "my name wasn't on the list and I was fucking pissed"

1:16:24 "You're more envious of the check than the song"

1:26:14 What makes a good song — Beck, Elliott Smith, and roughness

1:29:26 Red Rocks with no ear monitors: "I was in insane debt"

1:32:04 Opening for Taylor Swift at Wembley

1:34:17 Hayley Williams: "this one's for Mr. Waterhouse"

1:37:02 A baby in March, a record in September

1:39:44 "When everyone goes a bit red — that's when you keep it in the song"

1:40:35 What to play driving at night, heartbroken, walking through London

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.