Singer-songwriter extraordinaire, actor, designer and superstar Lenny Kravitz has been crafting his unique fusion of rock, funk, reggae and soul for more than three decades, creating such massive hits as “It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over,” “Again,” “Let Love Rule,” “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” “Fly Away” and “American Woman.” He’s a Grammy winner and has won numerous awards, including American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, Radio Music Awards, Brit Awards and has old over 40 million albums...

Over his 15-year career, writer-producer Henry “Cirkut” Walter has quietly emerged as one of the most trusted collaborators in music. He’s worked with a veritable Mt. Olympus of today’s biggest artists, from Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna to Maroon 5, Sam Smith and The Weeknd. You can hear Cirkut’s production skills on many of the most iconic pop songs and albums of the past decade, including Katy Perry’s “Roar” and “Dark Horse,” MiIey Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” and The Weeknd’s...

Singer, songwriter, superstar Lainey Wilson left Baskin, Louisiana and moved to Nashville in a camper trailer 12 years ago. She spent her early years building her career, song by song, show by show, before breaking through with her #1 hit “Things a Man Oughta Know” in 2021.  Since then, Lainey’s been on a wildly successful ride. Her second #1 song, “Never Say Never” with Cole Swindell in 2022 was followed by the #1 hits “Heart Like a Truck” and her collaboration with HARDY, “Wait in the...

Counting nearly 3 billion music streams to his name, Steve Aoki is a true visionary. A two-time Grammy-nominated music producer, artist, fashion designer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, NFT futurist and Dim Mak Records founder, he has been described by Billboard as “one of the most in-demand entertainers in the world.” He holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most Traveled Musician in a Single Calendar Year” and has performed at nearly every top music festival around the world, including...

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And as the weather warms up and music festival season starts, so many artists will hit the road to do what they do best - share their music, live-in-person, with the world, and bring joy to millions of people. But the challenges of being a touring artist can take a terrible toll on creators’ mental and physical health. In a 2022 paper in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, Dr. Chayim Newman and Zack Borer - revealed some sobering statistics from a...

As part of our Earth Day celebration in partnership with Studio Green @ ASCAP, we talk to James Valentine, founding member, songwriter and lead guitarist for one of the biggest bands on the planet - three-time Grammy Award winners Maroon 5. James’s work with the band has led to more than 135 million albums sold and created a steady stream of hit singles, including “She Will Be Loved,” “This Love,” “Payphone,” “Moves Like Jagger,” “Maps,” “Sugar” and more. James also serves as an advisory...

2023 Songwriter of the Year Grammy nominee Amy Allen is one of the most in-demand songwriters in pop music. Her credits include songs written for Selena Gomez, Halsey, King Princess, Charli XCX, Harry Styles, Lizzo, Alexander23 and many more.  She has landed a coveted spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and was featured as one of Variety’s “Hitmakers of the Month.” In 2021, Amy was honored at the Ivor Novello Awards, along with Tyler Johnson, Kid Harpoon and Harry Styles, for their...

This episode is about all that jazz. Esperanza Spalding is a five-time Grammy Award-winning bassist, singer, songwriter and composer. Recently, she has expanded her gifts to include work with fellow creators, teachers and practitioners in various fields to explore the therapeutic potential of music. Her last two albums, 2018’s 12 Little Spells and 2021’s Songwrights Apothecary Lab, reflect this new direction in her evolution as an artist.  She wrote an opera with Wayne Shorter, which...

In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we share highlights of two conversations from recent ASCAP Experience sessions featuring a diverse group of voices from ASCAP’s AAPI community. You'll hear a provocative discussion with playwright, librettist and lyricist David Henry Hwang and composer and conceptual artist Huang Ruo about art, identity and the power of music to help us fight racism and understand each other better. Then international superstar Amber Liu of K-pop royalty f(x), and Justin...

In celebration of Earth Day, we talk to Guster frontman and guitarist Adam Gardner, whose nonprofit environmental organization, Reverb, partners with fellow music makers like Billie Eilish, P!nk, Maroon 5, Dead & Company, Bonnie Raitt, Sleater-Kinney, Jack Johnson and more, as well as festivals and venues, to green their concert events while engaging fans to help tackle today’s most pressing environmental issues and create real, measurable change for people and the planet. Adam shares...

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we talk to one of today’s most exciting singer-songwriters, mxmtoon, who is set to release a new 12-song album, rising, that is “a triumph of pop-and-disco confessionalism,” while prepping a major North American tour. She opens up about the meaning behind her uplifting new song (and our podcast’s new theme song), “Mona Lisa,” how moving to New York City has affected her creativity, the storytelling benefits of playing video games, the women who have...

We talk to virtuoso violinist, composer, performer and producer Tim Fain about his adventurous and boundary-pushing career that spans film, the concert stage and virtual reality, and his collaborations with everyone from Philip Glass to The National. Then we talk to participants from the ASCAP Lab’s 2021 Immersive Music Studio Challenge, our partnership with the NYC Media Lab, that offers grants to startups and university teams to develop and expand upon prototype technologies that...

We talk to one of the most celebrated songwriters in music, Diane Warren, about Diane Warren: The Cave Sessions Vol. 1, her fantastic new cross-genre album of original songs recorded with some of the world’s best artists, including Ty Dolla $ign, Maren Morris, John Legend, Luis Fonsi, Jon Batiste, Pentatonix, G-Eazy, Carlos Santana, Rita Ora, Celine Dion, Darius Rucker and many others. She also talks about her Academy Award nominated work writing for film and what it’s like hearing The...

It’s Primetime Emmy Awards season, and in this episode we talk to two great nominees. Michael Abels joins us for a discussion about composing music for the acclaimed HBO docuseries Allen v. Farrow, for which he has received two nominations. He also shares his experience working with filmmaker Jordan Peele on Get Out, Us and a project in the works, and explains the mission of his advocacy group, the Composers Diversity Collective. PLUS: We take a dive into the exciting world of music directors...

The Newport Folk Festival is back with a passion. In this episode we talk to the talented Yasmin Williams, a virtuoso composer and musician who has been praised by the New York Times as “one of the country’s most imaginative young solo guitarists,” and who is set to make her Newport debut this year. She will join fellow ASCAP members performing, including Beck, Grace Potter, Bonny Light Horseman, Kevin Morby, Vagabon and many others. Williams shares her feelings about joining the Newport...

In celebration of Pride Month, we talk to Rufus Wainwright about his livestreamed concert on June 10th, Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios, where he re-creates and celebrates Judy Garland’s classic 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, and shares his thoughts on what it was like to be one of the first openly gay artists when he first emerged on the music scene in the ‘90s. He also talks about family, fatherhood and what the world needs now. We also talk to acclaimed Maine-based...

In response to the recent wave of racism and violence against the Asian American & Pacific Islander communities, this special episode of VERSED is devoted to lifting up our many AAPI songwriters and composers. We invited a diverse group of ASCAP members to give voice to their Asian heritage, and how it has impacted them as music creators and people. You’ll hear from Jihye Lee, Kazi, Amritha Vaz, Nick Lee, Alex Ritchie, Brian Warfield, Trace, Wendy Wang and Will Yip. Our own Brian Reyes...

As part of ASCAP’s Black History Month celebration, we talk to Amythyst Kiah - the provocative and powerful East Tennessee singer-songwriter and member of the acclaimed Americana supergroup, Our Native Daughters. Last week, Kiah released a new solo recording of her Grammy-nominated song “Black Myself” - and Our Native Daughters has a brand new documentary out on the Smithsonian Channel, called Reclaiming Our History. We also talk to Wayne Barrow, film producer, manager, entrepreneur, and...

We talk with Tony Award winners and Oscar and Grammy nominees Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, best known for their Broadway hits, Ragtime and Once On This Island, about their new song “How Can I Tell You?” that was written for the powerful new documentary, NASRIN, and performed by Angelique Kidjo. They also dig deep into their storied career collaborating on projects for the stage and screen and all the magic moments they've shared along the way. Then Allison Russell, founding member of the...

Devon Gilfillian grew up in Philadelphia on a steady diet of hip-hop, rock, blues and soul music. While soaking up the sounds of his musician father’s favorite music, Gilfillian also developed an appreciation for the beats and vibe of modern rap. He combined it all into his own music and after releasing an electrifying EP in 2016, he got signed to Capitol Records and hit the road performing with the likes of Anderson East, Keith Urban, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, Brothers Osborne and more....

One of the most accomplished artists in the music industry, Herb Alpert has sold over 72 million records and co-founded A&M Records, one of the most successful independent music labels in history and home to such artists as The Carpenters, Quincy Jones, Cat Stevens and Peter Frampton.  A brand new documentary, Herb Alpert Is…, directed by John Scheinfeld, provides a passionate and inspiring look at the life and work of Alpert and the incredible impact he’s had on American culture.   ...

Songwriter, pianist and rapper Benjamin Lerner is the great grandson of Irving Berlin - the songwriter of “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” Lerner has continued his family’s musical legacy, first as an award-winning classical pianist, then as a promising rapper who collaborated with Raekwon and Mac Miller. But his hip-hop career was halted when Lerner started using hard drugs, eventually becoming a full-blown heroin addict. Now four years sober, Lerner devotes much of his time to...

In 2019, the blazingly talented Alejandro Aranda (aka Scarypoolparty) made the finale of American Idol, and made history by performing more original songs than any previous contestant. It was an amazing achievement for a singer-songwriter-musician who was busking the streets of LA just a year before. Aranda followed it up with a daring debut album, Exit Form, which captured the many facets of his uncompromising muse. The same week he releases the fearlessly creative new EP Doom Hologram,...

ASCAP President Paul Williams talks to the honorable Congressman Adam Schiff of California, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a great champion of music creator rights, about what Congress is doing to include music professionals in coronavirus relief efforts, the need for federal guidelines on restarting live performances at venues, what’s at stake in the US Department of Justice’s upcoming review of the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees, and how you can join ASCAP in creating...