Post Malone keeps going country at Coachella
Post Malone closed out the first weekend of this year's Coachella festival on Sunday night with a 90-minute performance in which he remade some of his smash pop-rap hits as down-home country jams.
Sauntering onstage holding a red plastic cup and a cigarette, the 29-year-old singer — who went Nashville in 2024 with the chart-topping 'F-1 Trillion' after years of dominating pop and hip-hop radio — opened his set with twangy renditions of 'Texas Tea,' 'Wow' and 'Better Now' that felt like they could've been performed at Coachella's country cousin, Stagecoach (where in fact Malone launched his country phase last year).
'I apologize for being pitchy,' he said later in the show. 'Auto-Tune is a hell of a drug.'
Dressed in tight jeans and a weathered ball cap, Malone put across his usual self-effacing vibe as he ran through oldies like 'Go Flex,' 'Goodbyes,' 'Lemon Tree' and 'Psycho,' the last of which had him yowling on his knees. He also did solo versions of some of the country songs from 'F-1 Trillion,' including 'I Had Some Help' (which features Morgan Wallen on record), 'Losers' (which features Jelly Roll on record) and 'M-E-X-I-C-O' (which features Billy Strings on record).
Despite his many friends in Nashville, Malone didn't bring out any surprise guests on Friday — a decision in keeping this year with his fellow headliners Lady Gaga, who brought only her producer Gesaffelstein, and Green Day, whose set featured no guests.
Before jumping into the crowd to shake fans' hands as he finished his set with 'Sunflower,' Malone gave a little motivational speech to introduce his song 'Congratulations,' telling the audience that he remembered when a 'lot of motherf—' were calling him a one-hit wonder.
But just look at him now, he seemed to be arguing: a rapper who'd made himself into a country star at pop's most important music festival.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Cosmopolitan
16 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
Exclusive Premiere of Between Friends' Music Video for '1234567'
The ever-evolving world of alt-pop allows artists to reach fans where they are by marketing themselves directly from their bedrooms. Every other week, a new artist emerges who feels like an online bestie. But few acts have managed to build a universe as distinct and genre defiant as BETWEEN FRIENDS. The sibling duo—Savannah and Brandon Hudson—make a striking return with '1234567,' a frenetic and infectious single that offers yet another glimpse into their forthcoming album, WOW!, slated for release this summer. And Cosmopolitan is lucky enough to debut the video along with some BTS they captured on set. (Party anthem, incoming!) Following the razor-sharp satire of 'American Bitch' and the pulsing energy of 'DJ,' this new track plunges deeper into the duo's kaleidoscopic vision. '1234567' is a swirling, glitch-drenched odyssey through late-night anxieties and adolescent reveries. With its warped hooks and hypnotic beats, the song captures the signature tension BETWEEN FRIENDS is known for: equal parts chaos and control, nostalgia and novelty. Savannah and Brandon's musical partnership is more than just a family affair—it's a lifelong experiment in genre-blurring innovation. Raised in a digital age but shaped by analog influences, the Los Angeles–based duo is described by their label as an act that draws as much inspiration from the atmospheric charm of Laurel Canyon as they do from the glowing hues of computer screens. That description is felt the moment you press play on their Spotify page. Their sound—eclectic, unpredictable, emotionally raw—feels tailor-made for a generation raised on internet rabbit holes and emotional transparency. BETWEEN FRIENDS first made waves in 2018 with breakout EP we just need some time together, a bedroom pop gem that introduced their unique blend of vulnerability and sonic daring. Their single 'affection' became a viral anthem, racking up over 600 million streams and cementing the pair as quiet icons of Gen Z introspection. When the pandemic cut live performances short, the duo didn't retreat—They adapted. In 2021, they dropped i like when you shine!, a love letter to the mixtape format, steeped in lo-fi textures and emotional candor. The following year brought CUTiE, a shapeshifting EP that melded future R&B, glitch-pop, and surreal visuals into an immersive digital dreamscape. A sold-out tour and a triumphant set at Governors Ball in 2022 solidified their transition from streaming darlings to full-blown performers. Then came 2023's i love my girl, she's my boy—a debut album that was as bold as it was beautiful, exploring identity, love, and transformation with unfiltered honesty. Now, with WOW! on the horizon, '1234567' signals not just a new chapter but a creative leap. BETWEEN FRIENDS aren't just pushing boundaries—they're redrawing them entirely. If this latest track is any indication, the album promises a wild, emotionally charged ride through the restless heart of a band that refuses to sit still. Cosmo caught up with the siblings ahead of this debut, and here's what they had to say. Savannah: I think each project is very different. Something that really carried through with WOW! for us was just trusting our gut. Brandon: We brought the music on the road with us. Savannah: Yeah, and listened to what the fans thought in real time. We experimented with different vibes for each single because an album can encompass so many feelings and so many vibes. Brandon: Last fall, we did our first tour of Europe, and we played our first show at Berghain in Berlin, then we played in Amsterdam for the first time and spent some time in London. And during that time, we were working on this album in the green rooms and dressing rooms in between sound check and the show. Just finalizing things. And it was really cool being able to sort of test out the demos in these new places in front of new people. It reminded me a lot of how we started with our first EP, where we would just put our music on at college parties and not tell anyone it was our music. We would just let people react to it. This album has a very full-circle feeling to it, the way we tested the music out. Savannah: We tried a lot of different things on this project, so we really wanted to show that variety with the singles. They each have a unique theme and different elements to them. It's been fun, but the rollout is a bit spontaneous. We've just been kind of dropping them and seeing how it feels. Brandon: So you totally get it! That makes me happy. Brandon: Oh 100 percent! Bridging the aesthetic with the sonic is our favorite way of creating. I mean, it's like I said, it's how we started. Savannah: We were Tumblr kids too. We spent so much time online creating and learning. We are very much children of the internet. So yes, the Tumblr era influence is very much present in this music. Brandon: Such a wide variety! Savannah: Crystal Castles and Sky Ferreira were top for me. They were literally everything. Brandon: Remember when you could customize your Tumblr with music and moving graphics? Savannah: Damn, jealous. Brandon: I wish kids had that still. Instead of being force-fed everything, we used to be so intentional with our curation and be very tasteful, so everything looked right. Savannah: I literally learned how to code at 10 years old just to have a cool Tumblr! Brandon: But back to the music question *laughs*, our household was very musical, even though our parents weren't musicians. Savannah: Like, they were very into music; they just weren't musical people. Brandon: Yeah, so we grew up with music always on in the background. That included everything from Sade's Love Deluxe and Daft Punk's Discovery to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. The list goes on and on. But as you can see from those three records, there was no shortage of variety. And we grew up in Florida so Miami dance music was also a huge part of our childhood. Our parents were really into the beats they would hear out at places like Club Space or the Delano, so we were exposed to a wide range of influences that have definitely shaped the way we make the music we make. Savannah: It's so funny, because this is probably our most asked question. But we don't know any different. We've been buddies since we were really, really small. It's a strange thing when two people who share the same creative vision are put on this earth. It really feels like this sort of twin flame thing. It's incredible, but we do recognize that it's not the norm. Brandon: We do bump heads though. Just like anyone else would. *laughs* When making WOW!, we felt a lot of growth as humans, which shaped this record into something that feels exceptionally personal to the both of us. It's like a time capsule of this time period in our lives. We're growing up together and becoming the adults and creatives that we've always wanted to be. Savannah: Our parents are the best. We're a very close family. We also have two other siblings who aren't part of this music project, but they're awesome and supportive. We're a very lucky family. Savannah: Yeah. Mom only has to check one of our locations. *laughs* Savannah: The week before we shot the video, I was in New York for literally less than 24 hours for a job. I was shooting with Sandy Liang, a brand that I love. Their whole campaign was this sort of paparazzi style vibe with a lot of walking around, so I was able to see parts of the city that I hadn't really discovered before. When we ended the shoot, I ordered two martinis alone at a bar in Dimes Square with some steak frites and FaceTimed Brandon and I was like, 'This place feels so on fire right now.' And we had been talking about shooting a video for '1234567' and the whole concept of that song is about romanticizing the mundane. Just wanting to get through the days before it's the weekend. Take a load off, essentially. And it just feels like New York is so about that. It feels like New York really gets the whole work-life balance thing. You work so that you can play. And I told Brandon, 'I think you should come here. I think we should do it in New York.' So we did. We both flew in again on my birthday, on May 6, and shot the video the next day. We started in Times Square then made our way downtown then onto a ferry to Brooklyn. It was beautiful. Savannah: Yeah! A lot of this song comes from the working relationship we have as siblings. We learned a lot about each other and grew so much as friends. Writing this song came out of a poem I wrote in a therapy crash-out session. My therapist told me to write a poem and then throw it away, just to get it on paper. But then the next day, we were having a studio session with our friend Tove out of Stockholm, and she started playing these insane sounds and as soon as I heard them, I knew that the poem had to be this song. The lyric is all about wanting to dream and escape but instead loving a moment even if it might be kind of bitter. Brandon: Exactly! I think there's a special contradiction between our choruses and verses. They sometimes feel heavier than they're meant to be. But sometimes that's just life. Savannah: Oh my god, one of my friends called me to say how she couldn't believe we rhymed 'image' with the word 'damage' and I didn't really think much about it. But it's fun to see how people are picking out different lyrics that stick out to them Brandon: We also don't want to stamp any official meanings. It's cool to see what people are pulling from these songs and how they're interpreting them. Brandon: To be completely honest with you… Savannah: I think it's me. *laughs* Brandon: Yeah, *laughs* but we talk about everything before we do it. Savannah: We get random visions in real time and then force the other to take it. And New York really brought that out. Brandon: And that was the best thing about shooting this in New York! Anything we wanted to shoot or source was like a block away. Savannah: We got bit by the New York bug real bad after shooting this. After leaving, we were like, 'What are we doing?' Brandon: Asking ourselves like, 'Maybe we should time-share a place.' Savannah: I was looking at apartments! My L.A. friends are going to think I'm crazy. Brandon: There's a magic to the city and we really tried to capture that through our own lens. We've never done a video or project in New York, but it's been on our list so hopefully we were able to pay some homage. Brandon: There's been so much growth. Savannah: We were just talking about this the other day! We're bedroom pop kids. We were at the forefront of that whole wave right before COVID, and then we were trying to connect with all these people over the internet that we weren't able to see in real life. And that isolation had a profound effect on our perspectives and our minds. But we always find ourselves coming back to that initial whimsical world. Brandon: As artists, you never want to do the same thing twice. With us, we're always trying to impress one another and push each other to create something super authentic in any given moment. And WOW! kind of feels like the project we wanted to make at the beginning. We didn't know how to then, but I'm glad we've found it in ourselves now.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Hailey Bieber's ‘Priority Is Protecting Her Family' Amid Speculation About Husband Justin's Mental Health
Heads turned when Hailey Bieber stepped out of NYC's Carlyle Hotel. Wearing a black double-breasted menswear-inspired Saint Laurent mini dress, sky-high patent leather heels and Tiffany & Co. diamonds, she waved to photographers with one hand while clutching a vodka cocktail in the other as she left for the Met Gala. 'One thing about me,' she wrote on her Instagram Stories following the glamorous May 5 event — which she attended solo — 'is I'm gonna wear a blazer and drink a martini.' Another thing about Hailey? She's not going to answer questions about her husband, Justin Bieber, amid ongoing speculation over his health and well-being. Fresh concerns for the music star, 31 — who instead of attending the gala alongside his wife watched an NHL playoff game with friends, he revealed on Instagram — emerged one day earlier after he posted yet another image of himself using a bong. Though it's unclear exactly what he was smoking, the snap came weeks after he was spotted dancing and lighting up what fans believe was marijuana next to his 15-year-old brother, Jaxon, at California's Coachella music festival in April, following months of similarly worrying behavior. While his rep in February told TMZ the Grammy winner wasn't using hard drugs, branding the 'harmful narratives' about Justin's mental and physical health and tired, gaunt appearance 'exhausting,' Hailey, 28, is loath to publicly engage. 'She refuses to make excuses or speak for Justin,' a source exclusively tells Life & Style. 'The constant speculation about his mental state and their marriage has to be tough, but Hailey has a remarkable ability to stay calm. She is resilient and won't take any crap.' After nearly seven years of marriage to a former child star who's long courted controversy and been candid about his past issues with substance abuse and depression, Hailey's figured out how to handle the attention. The model, influencer and founder of the skincare line Rhode — who gave birth to their first child, son Jack, in August — 'makes and follows her own rules,' explains the source. 'Friends say her priority is protecting her family. Justin and Jack come first, which is why she is tuning everyone else out. She's focused on their future, not the drama.' That doesn't mean facing the seemingly never ending chatter has been easy. Fans follow and react to Justin's every move, so when he posts pictures with drug paraphernalia or confesses he's dealing with imposter syndrome — as he did this spring in a heartbreaking Instagram message, admitting he's 'always felt unworthy, like I was a fraud' and 'definitely feel[s] unequipped and unqualified most days' — they worry. So do friends and former members of the 'Sorry' singer's inner circle, many of whom he's cut ties with over the last year, including former manager Scooter Braun, 43. 'Whatever [Justin's] going through, I pray for him and hope he's OK,' songwriter Poo Bear, 45, a former collaborator, told The Hollywood Reporter in April. An ex member of Justin's team further told the outlet 'seeing him disintegrate like this' makes them think 'he's lost' and that 'there's no one protecting him.' A source close to the 'Love Yourself' hitmaker, however, insisted Justin isn't in distress. 'Artists are artists — they don't look at the world the way you and I do,' that source told THR, claiming, 'He's healthier than all of us — physically and mentally.' Justin and Hailey have put on a united front. He's been complimenting her social media posts — 'I see it I like it and I want it,' he commented on her Met Gala pics — and accusing haters of being envious. 'Honestly if I was [you] it would be hard not to be jealous if I saw me and Hailey going so brazzzzyy,' he told his Insta followers in April. 'Hailey and I are the Jones's [sic] that are impossible to keep up with.' Hailey's previously vowed to support Justin through anything. Three years into their marriage, she recounted a difficult period early on when he was struggling with his mental health. 'Imagine abandoning somebody in the middle of the worst time of their life,' she said on the "In Good Faith with Chelsea & Judah Smith" podcast, insisting, 'I'm not that type of a person.' That hasn't changed, the source confirms: 'Those who know her best are proud of the strength Hailey's shown.'
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Turnstile's Brendan Yates on what the hardcore band's new album might be about
Brendan Yates says he's learned innumerable things fronting his band Turnstile over the last decade and a half, not the least of which is that an ambitious musician needn't move to Los Angeles or New York to make it. 'There's nothing we haven't been able to figure out living in Baltimore,' Yates says, and Turnstile's success suggests he's right: In 2021, the band — which spent the 2010s steadily rising through the East Coast hardcore scene — scored three Grammy nominations with its breakout album, 'Glow On,' a set of fervent yet luscious punk jams laced with bits of funk, dream-pop and electronic dance music. The next year, Turnstile toured arenas as an opening act for My Chemical Romance then did the same for Blink-182. At April's Coachella festival, Charli XCX ended her main-stage performance with a video message predicting a 'Turnstile Summer.' Even so, the proud Charm City quintet — Yates on vocals along with guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills, bassist Franz Lyons and drummer Daniel Fang — did come to L.A. to record its new follow-up LP, 'Never Enough,' setting up a studio in a rented mansion in Laurel Canyon where the band camped out for more than a month. 'We were looking for the experience where you kind of isolate a little bit, and Laurel Canyon has this tucked-away thing,' says Yates, who led the sessions as the album's producer. 'It was such a vibe.' The result extends 'Glow On's' adventurous spirit with sensual R&B grooves, guest appearances by Paramore's Hayley Williams and Blood Orange's Dev Hynes, even a flute solo by the British jazz star Shabaka Hutchings; 'Never Enough' comes accompanied by a short film that just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will screen in selected theaters this weekend. Yates, 35, discussed the album over coffee last month in Silver Lake, a few days after Turnstile played a rowdy gig at L.A.'s Ukrainian Culture Center that featured an endless succession of stage-diving fans. Who did the cooking while you were recording in the house? We had a couple friends come in and cook meals. And we kept the fridge stocked. 'What are we gonna eat?' — you can lose hours out of every day to that. What's the advantage of making a record the way you did? You can kind of break away from normal life for a little bit and just exist in the music. You're not going to the studio but thinking, 'I've got to go to the grocery store later.' You wake up, have your little peaceful time in the morning before you get started, then just go right into the living room. We didn't really need to leave the house for weeks at a time. In a recent New York Times profile, the writer referred to you as Turnstile's 'workaholic frontman.' A fair characterization? I wouldn't describe myself that way, but I understand the sentiment. I'm in a band with people I grew up with — my closest friends — and we're really passionate about what we're doing. I give myself to it, but it never feels like work. When I was younger, I always separated music and real life. I thought of music as the thing that I love and real life as going to school and hating it. Even when I went to university, I was like, I'm not gonna do music. You wanted to protect music from the strictures of school. I guess so. I was doing these majors that I had no interest in. I started with kinesiology until I realized I suck at science and math. I switched to criminal justice, then I was like, 'Wait, what am I doing?' Honestly, I think I was just looking for whatever major I could mentally check out on the most to make more space for music. Did you graduate? I left early because I wasn't interested and I wasn't doing well, and I got the opportunity to tour with this band that I played drums in. Eventually, years later, I went back and got a communications degree online. Why? I ask myself the same question all the time. One thing is, I'd started and I wanted to finish it. I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for remote schooling. I never went back into the classroom — I was in the back of the van writing essays. Does 35 feel old in hardcore years? It would have seemed ancient to me as a 16-year-old. Never in my wildest dreams would I think at 35 that I'd be doing the same things I was hyped on doing when I was in high school. But I feel like age is a bit of an illusion. When you're 12, you're like, 'I'm definitely gonna be married by 18 and have my first kid at 19.' Certain aspects of aging are less illusory, right? Physical sturdiness, for example. How does that compare to 10 years ago? I remember playing shows 10 years ago, and I had two knee braces on. At that time, I was just like, 'This is what it is — here on out, this is what my knees are doing.' You're saying in fact you're sturdier now. What I figured out — look, I'm not a singer. Earlier on in playing shows, I'd throw the mic down and just jump into the crowd, mostly because of nerves and adrenaline. Feels important to say that you're definitely a singer. I sing, but I wouldn't call myself a singer. I've never done vocal lessons. Even forming the band, at that time everyone was like, 'OK, we've got this band, but we should start one where you're on the drums.' This band was literally: 'Let's do one on the side where I'm singing and you should get on guitar. Franz, you've never played bass, but you should play bass in this one.' Then you wake up 10 years later and — oh, shoot — this is the one we've put a lot into. For every fan of Turnstile, you've got someone accusing you of ruining hardcore. Ever hear a critique that actually stung? I have no interest in having any dialogue about anyone's opinion about anything that I'm doing. I appreciate the definitiveness of that. It just doesn't matter. Whose praise has been especially meaningful? There's a great viral TikTok of James Hetfield and Rob Halford digging your set at some festival. We've had so many cool moments like that — just like, 'How is this real?' Obviously, getting to meet your childhood heroes is huge. But then there's also the people you build relationships with and end up in the studio together — Dev or our friend Mary Jane Dunphe. You realize: These are actually my favorite people making music right now. Notwithstanding your view on the opinions of others, what's a moment on this album that feels creatively risky? In the first single ['Never Enough'], after the band drops out, there's like two minutes of just this synth chord. There was very much a conversation: 'Is this too long? Should we shorten it?' And I'm sure there's plenty of people where it might just be white noise to them — like, 'Skip — I don't need this.' But I feel like with this album there's this intention to force yourself to sit with the chaotic moments and then sit with the very still moments and kind of have that relationship going back and forth. I think those moments of stillness are very connected to the film — you'll kind of see how it all works together and why those moments are necessary. Our dream scenario would be that people's first time hearing the album, they're watching it with the film. Someone says to you, 'I didn't really get the album until I saw the film' — that's OK by you? I would love that. Who opened the door to the idea that you could make a movie? The last album, we did a four-song EP ['Turnstile Love Connection'] that came with a video. I'd called my friend Ian [Hurdle], who's the DP, and I was like, 'Hey, I have an idea: We do this video, and it does all this and it's about 10 or 11 minutes with these four songs.' I told him the whole idea, and then I asked him, 'So who should we get to direct it?' He goes, 'It sounds like you're directing it.' I was like, 'I guess you're right.' I mean, I'm not a director. You've now called yourself not a singer and not a director. On paper, I don't have any experience. The only thing I have experience in is really being excited about trying to make something work. But that video was a huge learning experience — the idea of, like, OK, this is possible. There's a rainbow color pattern that recurs throughout the new album's videos. You're using it as a live backdrop too. What's it mean? There's a lot in the album that maybe ties into those colors. The record cover itself is a double rainbow. We were in Paris playing shows like a year and a half ago. We were walking around and it started raining while the sun was out. We're like, 'Yo, look' — there was this double rainbow. My friend snapped a photo, and that's the album cover. Maybe there's interpretations of that on a spiritual level — new beginnings or a transformation or openings to a different dimension. The album cover is very subtle. You could easily look at it and just see blue. That was brought to me — how intangible the cover is. But that's the point: I don't want vibrant rainbows. I want it to almost feel like nothingness. A small speck in a vast universe is kind of the feeling that was going into the music. The blue too — in the film, there's lots of ties to water and the vastness of the ocean. Very Malibu of you. I mean, side note: I drowned like 10 years ago in the ocean. I was saved by some locals — this was on a big surfer beach in Hawaii. This is not necessarily what the album is about, but more just like a thought process. What's always fascinated me about the ocean is its power and how small I felt in that moment as I was passing out. And I truly did pass out — saw the white light and everything. Just how fast that could happen and how small I could feel put things into perspective in a different way. OK, few more for you: One thing you guys have sort of crept up to but not quite done yet is a full-on ballad. The final song on the new record ['Magic Man'] is literally just me and a Juno [synthesizer] in my room. In some ways it's uncomfortable, but simultaneously it felt like it needed to happen. I needed to sing that. You don't drink. Does that have to do with your upbringing? Is it connected to a hardcore or straight-edge ideology? Maybe experience seeing things when you're younger that can lead you in a different way? But, I mean, getting into hardcore, finding out about straight-edge and stuff — I felt a little more comfortable in my own skin, not needing to drink. I like to make sure it's never from a place of being stubborn, where I'm just like, 'I don't drink because I made up this idea in my head that I'm not going to drink.' I don't think that's a good way to be about anything in life. If you were starting the band now, would you still put your website at Probably. At the time, was taken. I feel like that was such a cool time, where every band's MySpace or Twitter, it was the band's name plus 'HC.' That was such a time stamp. But yeah — hardcore music is what we all grew up in. It was like the funnel for us to find ourselves through a music scene and a culture and a community. What feels outside the window of possibility for Turnstile? 'We'll never write a country song,' or 'We'll never play a cruise.' We've done so many things that were outside our comfort zone. We did some arena shows, and that was such a cool learning experience — how to connect to someone who's 100 yards away, sitting down in a chair, versus a kid that's onstage with you. That show in L.A. the other night was like the ideal for us, where the stage is low and it's this intimate room. But then I had so many close friends who couldn't get in. You could see the show as Turnstile keeping it real or as Turnstile indulging itself. In a way, it made us inaccessible. I look forward to the Turnstile Cruise in 2028. It's been offered. It's never made sense. My first question is: What does the show feel like? Is it more about people going on a boat just to day-drink and throw up while we're playing? Or can you figure out a way to make it an actual thing? I don't know — it's not off the table. But I've never been on a cruise in my life. You've accurately sussed the vibe. I've seen the pictures.
