Latest news with #DREAMSICLE
Forbes
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Sunday Conversation: Maren Morris On New Music, Women Scorned And More
Maren Morris' superb new album, DREAMSICLE, is an infectious, engaging collection of songs largely rooted in pop. This has led to a whole hullabaloo about Morris leaving country behind, the same way it did when Neil Young began playing synths in the '80s, when Joni Mitchell embraced her love of jazz, hell, when Bob Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Fest 60 years ago and got called a 'Judas.' As a certain Mr. Shakespeare coined it, 'Much ado about nothing.' Every great artist experiments musically, this should be considered the norm, not the deviation. Of course, the gifted Grammy-winning Morris, who released her debut album at 15, should be expected to change things up after 20 years. Just ask Miles, Prince, Joni, Bowie, Tom Waits, Rod Stewart, Taylor, Willie, the list goes on. Morris, now 35, is growing as an artist. And the boldness musically and lyrically of DREAMSICLE reflects an artist gaining confidence and finding new paths to sojourn as her voice grows stronger with age and experience. I spoke with Morris about the new album, touring and much more. Steve Baltin: You just played We Ho Pride. How'd that go? Maren Morris: Oh, it was so fun. It was my first Pride to perform at. So, the fact that it was the West Hollywood one felt really official, but it was so fun. It was such a beautiful night out and the energy in the crowd was so just optimistic and it just gave me a jolt like, 'Okay, we're going to be all right.' Baltin: I know Qveen Herby opened for you. I just had dinner with her and her husband last week, so they were telling me how much fun they had opening for you and how lovely it was. Morris: Oh my gosh, I've been such a fan of her. I was listening to her album so much during COVID and back in the Karmin days too, but like the Qveen Herby era has been…I met her that night for the first time and she was so sweet. And you can just tell she's a songwriter. I love picking people's brains that come up with turns of phrases like she does, but then also in a live way, just so fun to watch side stage before our show. Baltin: You say that about songwriters and in fact, we also just spoke to Julia Michaels in the last two weeks. Morris: Oh, you're naming all my favorite people. Yeah, she's such a gem of a human. And I'm so happy that we've been able to collaborate so much over the last couple years. She's just a real one. Baltin: We had the best conversation about the song, 'Go F**k Yourself,' and how much fun she had doing that. We were talking about how liberating that sentiment is. Are there songs on this record that had the same feeling for you? I love the honesty, for instance, of 'Bed No Breakfast.' Morris: Thanks. Yeah, there are a couple of moments like that on the album of not where I outright say like, 'Oh f**k yourself,' but definitely 'Too Good' is one of those that's very brash and then 'Lemonade,' like the intro of the album was also in that sort of acidic lane of like I've had enough. Yeah, a woman scorned who also writes songs is a thing to behold. A beautiful, scary thing to behold. Baltin: Every great artist has gone from genre to genre. It's the most natural thing in the world. So are there those artists that have really influenced you in the way that they have moved around musically? Morris: Yeah, I think all of my favorite records, artists, they're so different. Like if you listen to Sheryl Crow between Tuesday Night Music Club and The Globe Sessions there's a big musical shift, but you can still obviously tell the heartbeat is Sheryl's writing, her voice. Then Patty Griffin is another one that I have had a long-time obsession with. Flaming Red is one of my favorite albums, but it's also the most sonically ambitious album I've ever heard. And I guess it would be considered a rock album, but it's just Patty. So, it's very singer/songwriter-y and folky in moments, but then she's going balls to the wall on these drums to kick the album off. There are so many examples of people that genre blend, genre shift. I think that's the name of the game is not copying and pasting your work over and over and over again, just to make a buck. I think it's exciting when people do something that's out of leftfield. Baltin: I think as an artist that's the only way to also keep yourself happy and interested. Otherwise, you're going to lose your mind. Morris: I've always have been influenced by a lot of different kinds of music. And I think that comes out in my own work. But depending on who I'm writing with or collaborating with, who's producing, every day is different. So, sometimes for me, honing in on a lane has never been a thing. It's also not something I should have to do. I love that with this record DREAMSICLE I can weave between lanes pretty seamlessly and it feels still at the end of the day like a cohesive project because it's the same brain, the same voice, the same heart. Especially when I'm going to tour rehearsals next week was like, I really want to work up songs that I'm excited about, that I loved making in the studio that kept me going each day. Baltin: What are your favorite women scorned songs? Morris: The ones that like come to mind are definitely like, because I was just listening to it, 'You're So Vain,' Carly Simon. A recent one is Taylor Swift's 'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,' that's a really good one. Then also not to circle back, but I just like love Julia Michaels EP so much. I think that she's so good at having a unique take each time, there is a scorn to be had. Even with 'Scissors,' the one that I'm on, I was like this is such a beautiful way of saying I don't care about you enough to mourn this relationship if you decide to end it. I'm good either way. She just has such a unique way of spinning something like that Baltin: Let's come onto the tour for one second. What are the songs that you're most excited to do live? What are the songs you are most excited to see how people responded to them? Morris: Weirdly, it's all the ballads. I think the one I'm really excited to work up with the band because it was such a spiritual experience writing it. And it's literally about losing religion. But the song 'Holy Smoke,' I'm really excited to work up with the band because there are so many layers musically that Jack Antonoff added. Lots of backing vocals that I layered, Laura Belts, my songwriter friend, layered and it just has this really communal sing-along element to it. So, I think in a live setting it's one of those songs that I love on the album; it's beautiful, we produced it beautifully. But you know when you're writing something that is going to slap live. Baltin: What were the songs that have surprised you most over the years, those ones in your catalog that have become live favorites? Morris: There's a song from my first record. It's called "Once." And it's just a really vocally strenuous song live, it just takes you to another dimension. I'm the one singing it and I feel like I accessed some different astral plane when I'm singing that song. It's just so guttural. But over the years, like the last eight, nine years it has been an audience favorite, even though it was never a single. It's a really heavy song. But live it is just this transcendent experience, and you never know that thing until you go and do it in the show. So, it's one of those songs I always have a tough time taking out of the set list because I just know it's going to bring the house down each time.
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)
