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LP, the operatic singing, keen-eyed songwriter who is known for epic songs like “Lost On You” and “When We’re High” isn’t afraid to curse. She’s not afraid to lust or show off fantasies, either. She’s confident in herself and in her vast abilities. From hiding her eyes underneath her curly coif to singing three-octave range while strumming a ukulele.

This bravado, perhaps, is made most evident in the song and accompanying music video for “When We’re High,” a sultry, slightly depraved song about tumbling into a lover and becoming a mess of arms and legs while enjoying the effects of, say, a little Mary Jane. It’s just another Tuesday night for LP and friends.

We caught up with LP to talk about many things, including the origins of both the hot-under-the-collar song and music video. Here, she tells us about the worlds she creates and the urge to stay in them forever. Her new forthcoming album, Churches, is out December 3.

Songwriter and performer, Nessa Barrett, is the very young, very popular, and very capable artist you’re about to hear from just about every day. She has earned millions of YouTube streams for her dark, pop- and rock-infused tracks ever since dropping her single, “Pain.”

On Friday, September 10, Barrett released her debut EP, Pretty Poison, which includes hits like her signature track, “i hope ur miserable until ur dead.” The album is a sleek trip through some at times-morbid, snarling thoughts but that’s what makes Barrett stand out: she isn’t afraid to say what’s on her, and your, mind.

We caught up with the 19-year-old New Jersey-born artist to ask her a few questions about her early days in music, how she found her macabre voice, and what Pretty Poison means to her today on its release.

These days, there are probably about three-to-seven people on earth who haven’t shed a tear or grinned widely after seeing singer Jimmie Herrod on America’s Got Talent. He’s touched many and the videos for his recent performances have garnered hundreds of thousands of views and will likely soon earn millions more.

Herrod, who resides in the Pacific Northwest when he’s not wowing Los Angeles audiences, has a voice like a whole Broadway musical packed into each and every note. He’s Annie and Hamilton in a single modulation. These are the qualities that have enraptured audiences since he auditioned on the show weeks ago.

At times, while Herrod is supremely talented, it’s what he sings as much as howhe does it that is so striking. We caught up with Herrod, who will next perform for the AGT Finals on Tuesday (September 14) before the winner is announced on Wednesday (September 15), to ask him about his journey to the show, how he’s keeping a level head and how the surreal experience is sinking in.

A Great Big World—the duo comprised of Ian Axel and Chad King—sometimes can’t believe their eyes and ears. When their music is on popular television shows like Glee or when they’re performing at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or when they’re sharing a song with the global icon, Christina Aguilera, sometimes they just pinch themselves, happy at the result of loads of hard work.

Together, the two friends and longtime collaborators (ever since their college days at New York University) have worked quite hard. Through lots of internal, existential digging, they’ve come up with a formula for writing that works for them. But sometimes something unpredictable happens. Sometimes you write a great song like “Say Something” and Aguilera calls and wants to sit in.

We caught up with Axel and King to talk to them about their songwriting process, how they wrote their 2013 piano-based hit, “Say Something” (with co-writer Mike Campbell), which has since featured Aguilera, earned a Grammy Award, and garnered over half-a-billion streams on YouTube, alone.

In 2001, when the Omaha, Nebraska-born band, 311, released its newest single, “Amber,” from the album, From Chaos, it likely came as a surprise to most fans of the raucous group. In 1995, when 311 released its massively popular self-titled album, the band rocketed to fame with rock-rap-reggae hybrid songs that shook the paint off the walls like, “Down” and “All Mixed Up.”

Throughout the band’s subsequent years, 311 has experimented with tones, moods, and sounds while still trading in the hybrid sonic space they helped establish in the mid-‘90s. But when “Amber” came out, it seemed like the most docile track from a band known for knocking the fillings out of your teeth.

But a mellow vibe was exactly the point, which 311 frontman Nick Hexum describes below about “Amber,” which hit No. 13 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts and was certified Gold. Here we catch up with Hexum to ask him about the track’s origins, impact, and feeling.

Judy Collins is an all-time American performer, songwriter, and, frankly, storyteller. She’s regal, like United States royalty; one could curl up next to a giant fireplace and hear Collins recount story after story, casually dropping friends’ names like Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, not to mention countless other writers, directors, and producers.

But Collins, who has a new live album, Live At Town Hall, NYC, released on August 27, is not from any blue blood lineage, per se. Her father, who was blind from the age of four, was a singer, songwriter, and radio host. He was a hardworking man who taught his daughter the value of sweat equity and laying a good, solid foundation.

Perhaps the songwriter’s biggest hit is her recording of “Send In the Clowns.” Penned by famed stage lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, Collins’ rendition went on to earn her a Grammy nomination (and win for Sondheim) and, in many ways, is credited with putting the song (and Sondheim) on the map. Here, we catch up with Collins to go behind the song of “Send In the Clowns,” which charted for 27 weeks and appeared on Collins’ 1975 album, Judith.

In 2012, if you turned to anyone on your left or right and asked, “Have you heard the new song, ‘Thrift Shop’?” It’s likely one or both would have emphatically said, “Yes! It’s great!” The song was a giant, ubiquitous hit, winning multiple Grammy Awards and on February 2, 2013, in its sixteenth week, “Thrift Shop” hit No.1 on Billboard.

“Thrift Shop,” which came out nine years ago today, on August 27, 2012, was a definite smash. It was written by Seattle’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and features the deep voice of Michael “Wanz” Wansley, a longtime veteran of the Emerald City music scene. While they didn’t know each other before, they’re in the history books now permanently together.

Wanz, who is today a regular at Seattle Mariners games, singing the National Anthem, remembers the day he went in to record the track’s hook. From call to completion, it took maybe three hours. Since then, those three hours have gone on to generate billions of streams and likely millions of dollars.

We caught up with Wanz to talk about “Thrift Shop,” the accompanying lavish music video, and how the world flipped upside down for him in 2012.

Chris Ballew, frontman for the Seattle-born band, The Presidents of the United States of America, remembers the super-tornado that sprung from his band’s self-titled 1995 album and its smash, worldwide hit, “Peaches.” It was in 1996 some 25 years ago when “Peaches” really took over the airwaves, playing seemingly every 30 minutes on commercial rock stations around the country (and, likely, globally, too).

“Peaches,” which hit No. 1 in Iceland and reached the top 20 in a handful of other countries, peaked at No. 29 on Billboard and No. 8 on its Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. In the mind of many teenagers at the time, though, it was surely a domestic No. 1 hit. The song, itself, is cartoonish, fun: Peaches come from a can, Ballew sings. They were put there by a man. In a factory downtown”

But the story behind the hit is both drug-filled (in a good way) and full of coincidence. Here, we catch up with Ballew to learn the origins of the song and how it changed his life dramatically. Ballew, who recently put out a new solo project, I Am Not Me, under his own name is a true dynamo of creativity.

Yes, Damian Lillard is a six-time NBA all-star and six-time All-NBA selection. Yes, he came from a small college to burst on the scene in the world’s top basketball league and become a perennial MVP candidate. He’s a superstar with commercials on every channel for products like sports drinks, shoes, and streaming services.

But Lillard is also a world-class musician and emcee. Candidly, this is not a case of a famous athlete leaning on his celebrity to sell a few records, boost YouTube views, or try to make a pseudo name for himself in another area of entertainment. Instead, Lillard’s is a story of hard work—“brick by brick,” as he says.

Perhaps more than his ability to shoot the basketball or spit a verse, Lillard’s ability to work hard, to “check every box” and not skip steps is what’s most admirable and world-class about him. The “D” in his first name assuredly stands for “Dedication.” More than a game or a song, it’s what he excels at.

We caught up with Lillard—aka Dame D.O.L.L.A.—to ask him about his new record, Different On Levels The Lord Allowed, out Friday, Aug. 20, with features from Snoop and Lil Wayne. We also talked about his origins in music growing up in Oakland, his legendary work ethic, his close-knit musical family, his community, and where he first learned a love for language.

Acclaimed singer-songwriter, Julien Baker, has already done a great deal in her life. At 25 years old, she’s released three LPs, three EPs, a number of singles and earned great praise and recognition for these works. But, for Baker, it’s what she doesn’t know, what she hasn’t yet done that seems to fuel her more and more.

With her latest release in February, Little Oblivions, Baker pushed her own creative boundaries, recording the LP over a longer period of time and with more musicians and soundscapes at her disposal. For much of her earlier career, Baker made songs with a more restricted scope, often performing live solo with just a loop pedal.

As part of Baker’s push toward sonic exploration, she is poised to soon release her next album, a five-song remix EP featuring reworked tracks from Little Oblivions. For the debut release from the work, Baker sought Helios frontman, Keith Kenniff, to offer his ambient and electronic expertise. The result is a new contemplative reimagination of Baker’s already thoughtful track, “Bloodshot,” which is out today (Aug. 10).

We caught up with Baker and Kenniff to talk about their collaborative relationship, how the newly remixed song evolved in the process, and much more.