Latest news with #DREAMSICLE
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Kiwi producer and songwriter Joel Little on life, Lorde, legacy and the power of giving back
'When my wife and I moved back from LA, we were in a position where we could do something,' he tells the Herald of the inception of Big Fan, which opened as an all-ages performance space and studio in late 2022. 'I feel like for me in my career, I wouldn't be where I am if there hadn't been certain people along the way that had said the right thing or given me a little opportunity. We wanted Big Fan to provide opportunities for people to upskill, to connect with other like-minded people, and to learn.' While Big Fan and helping support rising stars has been one of Little's main passion projects of late, he's still writing and producing for some of the industry's biggest stars, albeit trying to do it from his home turf as much as possible. 'I was doing, like, three weeks here, two weeks in LA, like back-and-forth travelling way too much,' he says. 'Now I've got a little 4-year-old as well as our two older kids, and so I'm trying to just keep the balance a bit more, leaning a bit more towards New Zealand.' While he notes that his kids also liked to dabble in music, he jokes that his 17-year-old once told him that 'the legacy dies with you Dad'. Recently, he's worked with country-pop superstar Maren Morris on some songs on her album DREAMSICLE, and in 2023 struck up a great creative friendship with former One Directioner Niall Horan, collaborating with him on his hit album The Show. 'He'd sent me a song of his called The Show, where he just had, like, a piano and a vocal, and I thought it was a great song,' Little recalls, noting the process started during the pandemic. 'So I just, at home here, produced the rest of the track, played all the instruments on there, and sent it back to him and he was like, 'Oh crap, this is awesome'.' Working in collaboration and figuring out how to manage different creative processes is a skill Little said he's learned over more than a decade in the music business, and it wasn't something he could do 'right off the bat'. 'Sometimes an artist will come in with the start of an idea and other times they'll want to hear some sounds or some music, so I have ... a bunch of tracks that we can work off of,' he reveals. 'Other times they just want to play, like pick up guitars and play that way or jump on a piano. There aren't really any rules, it's just whatever people need to do to feel inspired that day.' Most Kiwis would naturally link Little's name to New Zealand's biggest musical export: Lorde. The pair gained international acclaim after Little produced and co-wrote her EP The Love Club (with Royals winning the 2014 Song of the Year Grammy) and her album Pure Heroine. 'I'm always so grateful for that. It genuinely changed both of our lives and the lives of everybody around us,' he says. 'We were just making music in my studio, Golden Age, which is actually just a few hundred metres away from here, and we just had zero expectations. We were just trying to make something that we liked and that we thought was interesting, but obviously it took on a life of its own.' With the superstar about to release a new album, Little says he can't wait to see what impact it makes. 'It's always nice when she's releasing new music and comes back and saves pop music every three to four years,' he says. Before his stint as a fulltime producer, Little was also the lead vocalist for pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse, an experience he said helped him appreciate the value of live music. 'A song can bring people from so many different walks of life together,' he says. 'Live shows in particular create a way for people to feel connected with the music and then connected with each other at the same time.' After not playing live for 13 years, he and the band reunited to open for My Chemical Romance in Auckland in 2023. 'To go out, and in front of 17,000 people, and play, it was such a powerful thing,' Little says. 'Just reconnecting with the guys in the band and seeing fans that had been Goodnight Nurse fans when they were teenagers, all that kind of stuff is really powerful.' Fittingly, for New Zealand Music Month, he's also shifting his efforts towards another powerful cause, the local charity MusicHelps. 'I've been a board member for maybe five years,' he says. 'They fund hundreds of projects across the country every year that use music in various ways to help people out, whether that be music therapy, providing instruments to community groups, or helping people who are in palliative care or rest homes.' Just like Little's work at Big Fan, the charity also helps provide support services for working musicians and those in the industry. 'Another arm of it is to do with helping those with mental health issues or who are struggling in various ways. There's a wellbeing service that people in the industry can access, and also things like counselling and access hardship grants.' Those who want to support the cause can do so in various ways, but one of the biggest is through the New Zealand Music T-Shirt Day on May 30. All net profits of official New Zealand Music Month T-Shirts are donated to the MusicHelps Grants programme. People can also text Music to 2448 to donate $3. 'I have, like, an embarrassingly small collection of music T-Shirts and I always wheel out the same ones,' Little admits, saying it would be poor form to wear a Goodnight Nurse one.
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Maren Morris Announces New Zealand Tour Dates For 2026: The Dreamsicle Tour
Press Release – TEG Live TEG Live is thrilled to announce GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Maren Morris has announced New Zealand tour dates for her highly anticipated The Dreamsicle Tour, bringing Maren's signature sound and fearless storytelling to the New Zealand fans. The New Zealand tour will kick off at Auckland's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on February 11 before heading to the Christchurch Town Hall on February 13, 2026. General public tickets will go on sale Tuesday 20 May 2025 at 3pm local time from Maren Morris has broken boundaries, smashed records, and affirmed herself as a dynamic vocalist, prolific songwriter, and showstopping performer on her own terms. Among numerous accolades, she has garnered a GRAMMY® Award, five ACM Awards, five CMA Awards, and three Billboard Music Awards. She has earned dozens of multiplatinum and gold certifications worldwide and tallied billions of streams. Her catalogue encompasses a trio of acclaimed albums, namely HERO [2016], GIRL [2019], and Humble Quest [2022]. Speaking to her versatility, she's the rare force of nature equally suited to collaborating with Zedd on the 6x-platinum 'The Middle' or featuring on tracks with everyone from Taylor Swift, Stevie Nicks, and Sheryl Crow to Teddy Swims, Hozier, and Jessie Murph on tracks. Beyond standout late-night television performances, she notably served as guest host for ABC's Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! Not to mention, she has sold out tours on multiple continents, gracing hallowed stages in the process. The tour announcement follows hot on the heels of Maren's latest album, D R E A M S I C L E. Her most personal and sonically adventurous work to date, the record is a fearless exploration of heartbreak and healing, while also infused with warmth, wit, and hard-won optimism. ' D R E A M S I C L E felt like it was already translating itself to a live environment while I was writing the album,' Maren shares. ' The acoustics, layers of harmonies, stacked synthesizers against raw vocals; it was coming to life in the studio without an audience, so I'm very excited to finally allow these songs to hit the air and feel them amplified by the energy of a crowd. it'll be a dreamy experience all around for fans and for myself.' ' This tour is my love letter to the fans who've stuck by me — and to the person I've become because of them.' ABOUT TEG LIVE TEG Live is a dynamic and diverse promoter of live content operating in many genres, including music, sport, family entertainment, esports, and exhibitions. TEG Live connects millions of fans every year with unique live experiences and adds value to events with hospitality, partnership, and sponsorship services. TEG Live is owned by TEG, a global leader in live entertainment, ticketing, digital and data which sits at the heart of the live event experience for millions of fans. TEG operates globally and includes TEG Live, TEG Sport, TEG Rugby Live, TEG Experiences, TEG Dainty, TEG Van Egmond, TEG MJR, Laneway Festival, Handsome Tours, TEG Europe, TEG Asia, TEG USA, Qudos Bank Arena, Ticketek, Ovation, Fan+, VIP NOW and SXSW Sydney.
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Maren Morris Announces New Zealand Tour Dates For 2026: The Dreamsicle Tour
TEG Live is thrilled to announce GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Maren Morris has announced New Zealand tour dates for her highly anticipated The Dreamsicle Tour, bringing Maren's signature sound and fearless storytelling to the New Zealand fans. The New Zealand tour will kick off at Auckland's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on February 11 before heading to the Christchurch Town Hall on February 13, 2026. General public tickets will go on sale Tuesday 20 May 2025 at 3pm local time from Maren Morris has broken boundaries, smashed records, and affirmed herself as a dynamic vocalist, prolific songwriter, and showstopping performer on her own terms. Among numerous accolades, she has garnered a GRAMMY® Award, five ACM Awards, five CMA Awards, and three Billboard Music Awards. She has earned dozens of multiplatinum and gold certifications worldwide and tallied billions of streams. Her catalogue encompasses a trio of acclaimed albums, namely HERO [2016], GIRL [2019], and Humble Quest [2022]. Speaking to her versatility, she's the rare force of nature equally suited to collaborating with Zedd on the 6x-platinum 'The Middle' or featuring on tracks with everyone from Taylor Swift, Stevie Nicks, and Sheryl Crow to Teddy Swims, Hozier, and Jessie Murph on tracks. Beyond standout late-night television performances, she notably served as guest host for ABC's Jimmy Kimmel LIVE! Not to mention, she has sold out tours on multiple continents, gracing hallowed stages in the process. The tour announcement follows hot on the heels of Maren's latest album, D R E A M S I C L E. Her most personal and sonically adventurous work to date, the record is a fearless exploration of heartbreak and healing, while also infused with warmth, wit, and hard-won optimism. ' D R E A M S I C L E felt like it was already translating itself to a live environment while I was writing the album,' Maren shares. ' The acoustics, layers of harmonies, stacked synthesizers against raw vocals; it was coming to life in the studio without an audience, so I'm very excited to finally allow these songs to hit the air and feel them amplified by the energy of a crowd. it'll be a dreamy experience all around for fans and for myself.' ' This tour is my love letter to the fans who've stuck by me — and to the person I've become because of them.' ABOUT TEG LIVE TEG Live is a dynamic and diverse promoter of live content operating in many genres, including music, sport, family entertainment, esports, and exhibitions. TEG Live connects millions of fans every year with unique live experiences and adds value to events with hospitality, partnership, and sponsorship services. TEG Live is owned by TEG, a global leader in live entertainment, ticketing, digital and data which sits at the heart of the live event experience for millions of fans. TEG operates globally and includes TEG Live, TEG Sport, TEG Rugby Live, TEG Experiences, TEG Dainty, TEG Van Egmond, TEG MJR, Laneway Festival, Handsome Tours, TEG Europe, TEG Asia, TEG USA, Qudos Bank Arena, Ticketek, Ovation, Fan+, VIP NOW and SXSW Sydney.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Maren Morris talks new 'DREAMSICLE' album, coming out as bisexual
Maren Morris is back with her fourth studio album, 'DREAMSICLE.' The country star talks creating the album post-divorce and coming out as bisexual. (May 9) (AP interview and production by Gary Gerard Hamilton)
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Maren Morris Shares Soulful Empowerment Anthem 'Carry Me Through' from Upcoming Album 'Dreamsicle'
Maren Morris is ready for her next chapter! On Thursday, March 27, the "My Church" singer shared her soulful new single "Carry Me Through," just days after she announced her fourth studio album Dreamsicle. "The first taste of D R E A M S I C L E is here," wrote Morris on social media about the song's release. "Yeah, I know tomorrow's gon' come / Preaching to a choir of one / It's taken me a while I'll get there soon / Yeah, I got friends around / Plenty of hands held out / But I'm still the one who has to choose / To carry me through," Morris, 34, sings with a smoky lilt on "Carry Me Through." Alongside the song, Morris also shared the song's music video which features the country star on her own, intimately performing the song while looking straight into the camera as she sits on wooden chairs and digs through sand. Midway through, the video turns from black-and-white to a bright golden hue, seemingly calling to the journey through hardship described in the song's lyrics. At the end, Morris is seen smiling ear-to-ear. Related: Watch Julia Michaels and Maren Morris Castrate a Man Using Tiny Scissors in New Music Video Morris announced the release of her fourth studio album Dreamsicle on Tuesday, March 25. "🍦 D R E A M S I C L E 🍦my fourth album arrives may 9," she captioned an Instagram post, alongside the album artwork which features her holding a glass of what appears to be iced tea with a slice of lemon in front of her eye. "the first taste 'carry me through' is out this thursday at 11am CT 🧡 pre-save at the link in my bio." The 14-track LP, due May 9, will also feature songs from her Intermission EP. Related: Maren Morris Has Been 'Deeply Creative' amid Divorce and Pivot Out of Country Genre: 'There's a Lot to Write About' View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙴𝙽 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝚁𝙸𝚂 (@marenmorris) Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Morris released her last album Humble Quest in 2022, but dropped the five-song EP Intermission in August 2024. At the time of its release, she shared an introspective message on Instagram about hitting the "scariest reset button." "Intermission is the distillation of the strangest year of my life. i decided to hit the scariest reset button i could have ever conceptualized and there was no looking back," Morris, who filed for divorce from husband Ryan Hurd in October 2023, wrote. She added: "The lengths one will go to feel joy again are sometimes desperate and terrifying as all get out, but we all deserve peace in these very short few trips around the sun." Read the original article on People
