VERSED: The ASCAP Podcast
40 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsVERSED: THE ASCAP PODCAST illuminates the heart and soul of music - the songwriters and composers whose work makes us sing, dance and want to change the world. Regularly featuring the greatest music creators from a diversity of genres who share the stories behind writing their hits and best-loved work - and the gems of wisdom they gained in the process - as well as industry experts who discuss the important issues that affect the lives and livelihoods of all music creators, VERSED offers insight into the hearts and minds of music professionals like never before. If music is your life, and you want to experience what it’s like inside ASCAP’s music creator community, then VERSED is required - yet fascinating - listening.
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Episodes
Lenny Kravitz Hits the Road
January 10, 2024 11:43 - 16 minutes - 22.4 MBSinger-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 ...
Cirkut: Record Maker, Record Breaker
October 06, 2023 12:31 - 55 minutes - 76.3 MBOver 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 multi...
What Drives Lainey Wilson?
September 08, 2023 00:14 - 49 minutes - 67.7 MBSinger, 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 Tr...
Steve Aoki Talks Health and Heritage
May 25, 2023 23:31 - 45 minutes - 62.6 MBCounting 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 C...
Music + Mental Health with Dr. Chayim Newman and Zack Borer
May 19, 2023 15:00 - 38 minutes - 52.4 MBMay 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 239-q...
Maroon 5's James Valentine Riffs on Sustainability in Music
April 05, 2023 18:53 - 37 minutes - 52.1 MBAs 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 boa...
Amy Allen's A-List Playlist
December 22, 2022 22:23 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MB2023 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 GRAMMY-nom...
Esperanza Spalding is always evolving
July 28, 2022 23:20 - 47 minutes - 64.9 MBThis 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 premi...
Music and the AAPI Experience
May 26, 2022 11:12 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBIn 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 Justi...
Adam Gardner and Reverb's Music Climate Revolution
April 22, 2022 00:05 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBIn 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 some o...
mxmtoon's rising star
March 29, 2022 00:38 - 46 minutes - 43 MBIn 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 i...
Episode 27 - Tim Fain and Music Tech Innovators from the ASCAP Lab
November 04, 2021 20:01 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBWe 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 demonstra...
Episode 26 - Diane Warren's New Album is a Master Class in Songwriting
October 01, 2021 13:07 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBWe 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 Beatl...
Episode 25 - Michael Abels
August 19, 2021 23:59 - 54 minutes - 50.4 MBIt’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 director...
Episode 24 - Yasmin Williams and the 2021 Newport Folk Festival
July 22, 2021 11:30 - 56 minutes - 52.1 MBThe 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 tra...
Episode 23 - Rufus Wainwright
June 04, 2021 01:16 - 49 minutes - 45.8 MBIn 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 singer-songwriter-produ...
Episode 22 - Elevating Asian Voices
April 09, 2021 18:32 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBIn 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 also ...
Episode 21 - Amythyst Kiah
February 26, 2021 14:07 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBAs 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 co-...
Episode 20 - Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
January 29, 2021 02:01 - 1 hour - 78.7 MBWe 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 th...
Episode 19 - Devon Gilfillian
December 07, 2020 18:18 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBDevon 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....
Episode 18 - Herb Alpert
November 14, 2020 02:49 - 1 hour - 60 MBOne 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. Trum...
Episode 16 - Benjamin Lerner
September 24, 2020 16:11 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBSongwriter, 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 he...
Episode 17 - Benjamin Lerner
September 24, 2020 16:11 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBSongwriter, 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 he...
Episode 16 - Scarypoolparty
September 04, 2020 00:00 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBIn 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, Ara...
Episode 15 - Rep. Adam Schiff and Paul Williams
August 07, 2020 02:30 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBASCAP 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 posi...
Episode 14 - Du Yun
July 10, 2020 12:22 - 1 hour - 61 MBThis past February, Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun premiered her new opera Sweet Land, an ambitious site-specific work that reflects on the way cultures swallow up, resist and intertwine with one other. Two weeks into Sweet Land's initial run, the coronavirus epidemic shut down the production - but not before it was captured on video. Listen to Du Yun talk about this fearlessly creative work, how her Chinese upbringing has impacted her career, and the unexpected gifts of the pandemic. PLUS...
Episode 13 - Honey Davenport
June 19, 2020 13:51 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBIn celebration of both Black Music Month and Pride Month, we called up the eternally fabulous Honey Davenport - a drag superstar, singer-songwriter and activist who has left an indelible mark on New York’s nightlife and beyond. In their decade-plus entertainment career, they’ve earned 18 pageant crowns, starred in off-Broadway musicals and earned a worldwide audience on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11. As a black, non-binary performer, Davenport has also been faced with discrimination throughou...
Episode 12 - Sundance Songwriters
May 15, 2020 02:00 - 1 hour - 70.1 MBJust a few short months ago, ASCAP presented its 22nd Annual Sundance ASCAP Music Café at the heart of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The Café featured eight days of performances from visionary recording artists and songwriters from across the musical spectrum. At the time, we spoke with all of our performers in the green room about their craft, career, inspirations and more. We thought we’d share just a few of these conversations as a reminder that creativity was in full for...
Episode 11 - Techy Fatule
April 17, 2020 23:31 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBSinger-songwriter, artist and actress Techy Fatule has lived almost her whole life in the entertainment industry. The daughter of Dominican showman Carlos Alfredo Fatule and writer and motivational speaker Tania Baez, Techy grew up in Santo Domingo in a home filled with music and love for the arts. She studied piano, guitar and honed her skills as a vocalist with the best teachers in the Dominican Republic. She started her career as a child-star in the famous Latin American TV show Don Franc...
Episode 10 - Jaren Johnston of The Cadillac Three
March 26, 2020 17:27 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBJaren Johnston is a Grammy-nominated country songwriter with hit songs for Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and more. He’s also the leader of The Cadillac Three, a great American rock band from Nashville with a new album called Country Fuzz full of kick-ass songs that celebrate southern living. ASCAP’s very own Evyn Mustoe (who knows Jaren better than most – she’s married to the guy) sat down with him a few weeks back to discuss his dual career. Since their interview, Nashville was hit hard by a torn...
Episode 9 - Cassadee Pope
March 06, 2020 05:18 - 51 minutes - 47.9 MBGrammy-nominated, Platinum-certified singer-songwriter Cassadee Pope first gained acclaim as lead singer for the pop-punk group Hey Monday, then rose to fame as the winner of Season 3 of The Voice, before transforming into a #1-selling country artist. Throughout her long and winding career, Pope has never stopped pushing herself creatively. For this special International Women's Day episode of VERSED, ASCAP’s Beth Brinker sat down with Pope in Nashville to talk about a whole range of things:...
Episode 8 - Dom Flemons
February 21, 2020 04:00 - 58 minutes - 53.5 MBGrammy-winning singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, is also a historian with a passion for the history of black musicians in America. His acclaimed album, Black Cowboys, pays tribute to the music, culture and complex history of the golden era of the Wild West. It received a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Folk Album,” and just last year Flemons won an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for the liner notes he wrote. The recording is now part of...
Episode 7 (Bonus) - Sundance Film Composers Pt. 2
February 13, 2020 05:00 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBAt the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, ASCAP members' music amplified the impact of dozens of official festival selections. In this bonus episode of VERSED, we talk to another talented group of this year’s Sundance composers: Anne Nikitin (Lost Girls, directed by Academy Award nominee Liz Garbus), Dan Romer (Wendy, directed by Benh Zeitlin), Amanda Jones (Baldwin Beauty, directed by Thembi Banks), Alex Weston (Wander Darkly, directed by Tara Miele) as well as Ryan Miller of Guster who has score...
Episode 6 - Sundance Film Composers Pt. 1
February 07, 2020 03:00 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBA great film is a feast for the eyes and the ears. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, ASCAP members' music amplified the impact of dozens of official festival selections. In this special episode of VERSED (Part 1 of 2), we talk to Nainita Desai, Bear McCreary, Alex Somers and Jay Wadley - four ASCAP film composers whose music graced some of the winning films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. PLUS: our very own Amanda Shoffner, ASCAP Director of Film & TV/Visual Media Membership, sch...
Episode 5 - Anaïs Mitchell
January 23, 2020 04:40 - 1 hour - 68 MBAnaïs Mitchell is a contemporary folk singer-songwriter with an ever-growing font of solo and collaborative projects. Her best-known triumph: Hadestown, an avant-garde "folk opera" that underwent a 12-year transformation into a Tony-winning, widely acclaimed Broadway musical. On January 24, just days before Mitchell finds out if she can add a Grammy to her mantle, Mitchell releases her first album with Bonny Light Horseman - a group of indie-folk heroes reinterpreting timeless traditional so...
Episode 4 - Carly Pearce
January 09, 2020 04:00 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBBorn and bred in Kentucky, Carly Pearce was destined for a life in Country music. After her debut single “Every Little Thing” reached #1 and put her in the rare company of only three women in the last decade to have accomplished that feat, Pearce is now in the vanguard of top women in country music. We spoke with her on the eve of the 2019 ASCAP Country Awards in Nashville, where she celebrated the success of her single "Hide the Wine" onstage, alongside collaborators Ashley Gorley and Hilla...
Episode 3 - Nicholas Britell
December 19, 2019 04:00 - 46 minutes - 85.4 MBNicholas Britell is the Academy Award-nominated composer whose music has graced such films as If Beale Street Could Talk and Best Picture Oscar winners Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave as well as Vice, The Big Short and others. He just won an Emmy for his theme to HBO’s critically-acclaimed series Succession and his music can be heard in the new Netflix film The King. He opens up about his educational and professional development, working with some of today’s most provocative film directors su...
Episode 2 - (Bonus Episode) Paul Williams on Recovery and Wellness
December 10, 2019 04:00 - 7 minutes - 7.23 MBIn addition to being a legendary songwriter, Paul Williams is uniquely qualified to speak about how essential health and wellness is to one’s music career. Sober for nearly 30 years, Paul is passionate about recovery and works tirelessly to destigmatize alcoholism and addiction. His work in recovery was chronicled in the acclaimed documentary, Paul Williams Still Alive. He is a certified Drug Rehabilitation Counselor. And he co-wrote a best-selling book with Tracey Jackson called Gratitude a...
Episode 1 - Paul Williams
December 05, 2019 04:00 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBIn our debut episode we talk with Paul Williams, the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning, Hall of Fame songwriter and President of ASCAP. Paul talks about unexpected opportunities and shares the inspiring story of Phantom of the Paradise, a commercial film flop that evolved into one of the most influential works of his career, and amazingly netted him an Album of the Year Grammy with Daft Punk 40 years later. PLUS: From the ASCAP archives, Captain Marvel and Fortnite composer Pinar Topr...
VERSED: The ASCAP Podcast - COMING SOON
November 20, 2019 16:48 - 1 minute - 2.4 MBVERSED: THE ASCAP PODCAST illuminates the heart, soul and power of music with the songwriters and composers whose work makes us feel, sing, dance and want to change the world. Regularly featuring the greatest music creators from a diversity of genres who share the unvarnished truth about their creative life – the struggles, hard work, breakthroughs and paths to success – as well as the wisdom they've earned along the way - VERSED offers insight into the hearts and minds of music professional...