And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan

Today’s guest is a multi-platinum rapper and songwriter who took Compton to the charts and gave the world “My Hitta,” “Who Do You Love?” and “Big Bank.”

From his debut album My Krazy Life to collaborations with Drake, Nipsey Hussle, and Nicki Minaj, he’s built a catalog that’s done serious damage to club speakers. Now, with The Gentlemen’s Club, he’s getting personal and reminding everyone there’s a storyteller behind the hits.

And The Writer Is…

YG!

In this episode we go deep on:
- The inspiration behind his new album
- The Def Jam singles deal with five album options: "I could have sued everybody"
- What he'd tell an 18-year-old holding a label offer
- Why having a catalog doesn't mean you own it
- What a YG session looks like: tequila, "next beat," and a BPM in his head
- How "FDT" got made with Nipsey, and why Def Jam wouldn't release it
- The night Nicki said "don't put this out without me"
- "Who Do You Love?": three months, hook writers, and Drake telling him to do it himself
And much more...

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Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.
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Our lead sponsor, our Patreon!
Patreon.com/andthewriteris
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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:32 Hiring a "Hitman"
8:07 "Were you ever suicidal?" and the homies who said "same"
9:10 Chin up, chest out: what the streets never let you say
10:28 "2004," the song he cut from the album
24:31 Turning himself in while his song blew up, and the label that called his mom
27:31 Signing young: "I could have sued everybody"
28:24 Ross: athletes get rookie orientation, artists get "good luck"
34:57 What he'd tell an 18-year-old holding a label offer
39:40 The masters trap: you have a catalog, but you don't own it
41:30 What a session with YG actually looks like
47:39 Why he made Gentleman's Club: "they were playing with my name"
50:10 How "Hollywood" with Shoreline Mafia got made
53:51 How "FDT" happened with Nipsey, and why Def Jam passed
59:40 Meeting Nipsey: two different gangs, one mission
1:05:56 How do you stay brave when the people around you get killed?
1:10:59 The night "My Hitta" got made
1:13:03 "Big Bank": Nicki says don't put it out without me
1:18:15 What he knows at 36 that he didn't at 20: the streets don't love you back
1:27:20 "Who Do You Love?": three months and Drake's "you do the hook"
1:30:02 What makes a Mustard beat different

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 a singer, songwriter, producer and dancer who has spent her career trusting her own instincts—and building a world around them.
From “2 On” to “Nasty” and “No Broke Boys,” Tinashe has kept releasing music through major-label deals, independent projects and viral breakthroughs.
She’s collaborated with artists including Calvin Harris, Charli xcx and Kaytranada, and joins us to talk about the journey behind it all.

And The Writer Is... Tinashe!

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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.Splice, the best sample library on the market, period.
and our lead sponsor, our Patreon page!
We're still giving away free Universal Audio Recording Gear in our next zoom hang.
Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/andthewriteris

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:46 Tinashe and Ross reconnect—back to The Stunners
3:48 “Deep in the Night”—the song she wrote at five
5:08 Tinashe’s French fry rankings
6:12 Child acting, Whoopi Goldberg, and moving to LA
9:11 Life in a girl group without creative control
11:22 Buying a microphone and building a bedroom studio
14:10 Getting signed—and expecting it to be easy
18:40 Join the ATWI Patreon
19:32 Splice: Sounds and Variations
20:39 Early Travis Scott sessions and being taken seriously in the studio
23:29 Recording 200 songs—and trusting the big producer’s opinion26:33 Trusting your gut and knowing when to leave a session
30:43 “2 On” takes off. What happens after the first hit?
36:03 Writing “2 On” in a garage with friends
37:37 Does having a hit teach you how to make one?
39:20 Leaving her label and rebuilding trust in her own ideas
43:29 What releasing music independently actually takes
46:10 Filming her own videos and building her visual world
48:14 How dancing shapes the way she writes songs
50:08 Working with a label again—and finding Ricky Reed
52:11 Getting the call from Calvin Harris
53:52 Why genre doesn’t define her music
55:19 “Nasty” takes off after she stops needing another hit
57:04 Why she won’t write for a TikTok trend
58:43 Charli xcx and finding freedom after early hits
1:00:41 The unexpected remix journey of “No Broke Boys”
1:03:31 Taking the Grammy off her lock screen after seven years
1:05:14 Making POPSTAR—and giving herself time to play
1:05:55 Which POPSTAR song fits every mood?
1:08:19 Claiming the pop star she’s always been
1:13:32 “Just don’t stop”—keep putting your music out
1:14:42 Her advice to young women in music: intuition
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 one of the most unmistakable voices in modern pop — an artist, songwriter and producer who has built a career by making music that sounds like nobody else. Her catalog has passed two billion global streams. She’s played top billing at festivals including Coachella, Lollapalooza and Outside Lands, opened for Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde and Paramore, and collaborated with artists including Nile Rodgers, Beck, Dominic Fike and Sylvan Esso.

And The Writer Is... Remi Wolf!

In this episode, we get into
- The USC training that rebuilt her voice
- Waiting tables and taking Craigslist gigs while building a career
- The 30-minute session behind “Photo ID,”
- Industry lessons for every artist to take notes on...
and much more.

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
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.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:40 “You can’t teach tone” — how Remi found hers
2:13 USC: “We’re going to beat you down until you feel like you’re nothing”
6:15 Fourteen, busking the Bay Area, and writing songs in Chloe’s kitchen
13:40 “Carousel” — the first song she ever wrote
15:41 A substitute teacher, an apartment, and her first recording
18:05 Ski racer by day, songwriter by night
19:05 Meeting Jared Solomon at 15 — then finding each other again
21:07 Applebee’s on tour — and the road to sobriety
24:04 Rehab, writing Juno sober, and why clarity changed the songs
29:02 “It’s not ready” — why she refused to release music in college
30:22 Six songs in one week — the reunion that started everything
34:24 Restaurant shifts and Craigslist gigs: how she paid to keep making music
39:26 The Sofar show that led to her first manager
42:39 “I had no expectations” — making music before the industry got involved
45:28 35,000 decisions a day — what creative control actually costs
49:22 “You have to start protecting yourself”
51:34 What is the goal? Redefining success
56:51 Her first album rollout sober
59:21 Social media, warped expectations, and screaming into the void
63:22 “Photo ID,” TikTok, and the accident that helped it explode
66:40 “Photo ID” took 30 minutes — and she thought it was horrible
70:15 Her first professional topline session: “I was overcome with social anxiety”
72:11 Why I’m Allergic to Dogs worked during lockdown
74:56 Why Juno is called Juno
78:50 Hayley Williams and singing with another “belt queen”
82:25 Five years of nonstop touring — and finally hitting pause
87:15 “I Won’t Cry” — her favorite song she’s ever written
89:15 “I was sick of the uptempo shit” — writing 130 songs for Mud
90:49 Her first pitch session was for BTS
92:34 Which Mud song fits every mood
94:10 “I’m the happiest I’ve been in my life”

Credits
Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And The Update Is…a weekly beat on the industry . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a musician's musician who co-founded The National, the Grammy-winning band behind Boxer, High Violet and Sleep Well Beast.
He co-wrote and produced Taylor Swift's folklore and evermore, including cardigan and willow. folklore won Album of the Year at the Grammys.
He worked on The Tortured Poets Department and produced Ed Sheeran's Subtract.
He's behind Gracie Abrams' I Love You, I'm Sorry and Noah Kahan's Porch Light.
In the last year alone, he's made records with Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, Brandi Carlile, Sam Barber, Kevin Morby and Suki Waterhouse.
He's one half of Big Red Machine with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.
And he built Long Pond, the Hudson Valley studio where many of these songs were made.

And The Writer Is... Aaron Dessner!

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.

Amazon Music for Songwriters. Your support means the world to us.
And SONA — Songwriters of North America. If you write songs, join them. They fight for us.

0:00 Intro
1:00 Cardigan, willow, Porch Light — and eight albums in a year
5:26 Why "I Love You, I'm Sorry" was never the single
7:27 Secretly rooting for the weird song
8:17 When a pop star needs a single right now
10:25 Don't fill the space: how he walks into a session
12:12 Long Pond and "you never make a mistake investing in your creativity"
17:24 Twin brothers and their dad's jazz drums
22:48 "We faked it": how The National got signed
26:48 Playing to no one — then 500 strangers in Michigan
30:05 "Did you lose yourself?"
33:14 When one bandmate starts writing hits for other people
35:38 On stage with Taylor: "You're playing a stadium. It's okay."
37:27 "Hey, it's Taylor": the text in 2020
40:34 The Dropbox folder — and cardigan by 3 a.m.
47:45 The thank-you note that became willow
51:49 Meeting Gracie Abrams — and 2–3 songs a day
57:47 How an instrumentalist became the storyteller's whisperer
1:01:11 Why his albums don't get shelved: finishing Prizefighter
1:04:23 Studio stories: Gracie, Brandi Carlile, Florence, Sam Barber
1:11:40 Noah Kahan arrives burnt out — and Porch Light
1:15:41 Live Q&A: finding the corners, his first key change
1:18:24 Advice for musicians with day jobs
1:20:07 What all the greats have in common

Credits:
Hosted by Ross Golan
Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.