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Brooklyn, New York-based rock ‘n’ roll singer, Bette Smith, grew up loving music. She sang her first song at five-years-old in church, a full choir behind her. But her parents, who were Trinidadian immigrants, forbid her from singing secular (read: nonreligious) music after that. So while she could listen to standouts like Mahalia Jackson, she couldn’t openly enjoy others like Gladys Knight & the Pips and Otis Redding. Adhering to her parents and their strict upbringing, Smith studied hard. She went to college, got a job as a receptionist, worked on Wall Street. But, years later, as her older brother, Louis, was dying of kidney failure, things changed. He told her to sing, to achieve her dreams. So, Smith went and did just that. Her latest installment is today’s premiere of the new single, “Everybody Needs Love.”

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Wayne Coyne, front man for the Oklahoma City-based rock band, The Flaming Lips, remembers being in the green room at a show with the once-infamous group, Creed. He remembers the anxiety Creed’s band members were experiencing. At the time, the band was one of the most well known in the world. Their songs were topping charts but, nevertheless, the members continued to fret. And Coyne, surprised, kept wondering what was eating them? How can you be so successful and yet so worried? But it’s that type of buoyant behavior that marks Coyne and the way he navigates the world. It’s not effortlessness. Rather, it’s lightness. Like the bubbles The Flaming Lips often shoot into the crowd during shows, there’s jauntiness to Coyne and that energy is ever-present on his band’s new record, American Head, set for release September 11th.

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Acclaimed songwriter and performer, Hamilton Leithauser, who rose to popularity in the early 2000s with his stirring rock ‘n’ roll band, The Walkmen, remembers before any of that standing in the Guggenheim Museum with his thoughts. One summer, as a young person, Leithauser worked as a security guard in the New York City museum and, as such, he stood there for countless three-hour shifts. The most effort he put forth then was to occasionally tell a person to stay back from a painting. But the time – before cell phones – forced upon Leithauser many hours to think. With these moments, he composed a handful of songs that would eventually lead him toward more creative successes. Leithauser will release his latest creative endeavor, Live at Café Carlyle, on September 4th.

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When Mike Skinner, front man for the British rap outfit, The Streets, records new music, he rarely uses an engineer. It simply wouldn’t work for the artist. Skinner says he regularly does upwards of 100 different versions of a single song, often revising tiny, miniscule details or rearranging a single word here and there. It would be madness for any engineer to go along for that ride. So, Skinner often does it all himself. He creates sound booths, erects studio spaces and fashions other makeshift apparatuses to help create his off-kilter, glorious beat-centric music. Skinner, who released his latest record, None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive, in July, continues his streak of successful projects, this time featuring living legends on the tracks like Tame Impala and IDLES.

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Felix Hatfield, the Portland, Oregon-based ramblin’ folk singer whose lived all over the United States (including Alaska), says he met the memorable songwriter, Jolie Holland, when she picked him up hitchhiking one day. After meeting one another, Hatfield says, the two hung out for a couple days, shared philosophies, read books, sang songs and now, years later, Holland is an essential collaborator on Hatfield’s first-ever vinyl release for his new LP, False God. Hatfield and Holland will celebrate the collection of songs, which is set for a formal release on October 23rd, with the new single, “Nobody For Me,” which we’re happy to premiere at American Songwriter here today.

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For many artists, the global health pandemic and resulting quarantine have been difficult – perhaps, that’s putting it mildly. But despite the halting of tours and the general inability to get together, some have found ways to keep their creativity sparked. And, on some occasions, even to collaborate. Los Angeles-based dream-pop songwriter, Winter (born Samira Winter), has done just that. Prior to the pandemic, she composed a new track in-person with Brazilian singer, Dinho Almeida, of the band, Boogarins. But, more recently, the two got to collaborate digitally on an intercontinental music video for their shoe-gaze song, “Bem No Fundo,” which Winter recently released into the world.

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Wesley Schultz, lead singer of the popular Americana band, The Lumineers, remembers standing on a subway platform in New York City giving his co-founding band mate, Jeremiah Fraites, his best sales pitch. It was early in the duo’s career. They were still playing east coast bars and small clubs but they knew, deep down, their music meant something more. They knew it had a spark. But how to turn that spark into flames was still unknown. So, Schultz formed a plan. They would move from New York City to Denver, Colorado. They would forge a new, uncharted way for themselves. It would work. Hopefully.

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Aminé (born Adam Aminé Daniel), the fantastically popular Portland, Oregon-based rapper, who rose to fame with his 2016 song, “Caroline,” remembers listening to music in the car on the way to school with his mother. Those early morning trips, which seemed commonplace at the time, would provide both the spark and the foundation for the artist’s burgeoning, now-global career.

Today, Aminé, who recently dropped his latest record, Limbo, is one of the most popular lyricists on the scene and he’s become so thanks, in large part, to the support of his family and friends. From Limbo, there is a direct line to artists like Tupac, Michael Jackson and Keith Urban. Those artists Aminé’s mother adored.

“It made me have a deeper connection with music, subconsciously,” Aminé says. “She just had a love for those artists. I’d never seen someone know the words to so many songs until I saw my mom sing. It made me want to have that deeper connection with music, too.”

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