Focus Music Notes. "Out of the Blues". Popular music through the decades

GRAMMY®, EMMY®, and Tony® Award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, playwright, and author Billy Porter unveils a brand new single entitled “Children” today. The single marks Billy’s debut under his newly minted joint partnership with Island UK and Republic Records. NEW YORK, NY (October 15, 2021) TAP>LISTEN TO “CHILDREN” HERE “Children” is a high-energy dancefloor anthem co-written with GRAMMY® Award-nominated songwriter MNEK [H.E.R., Dua Lipa] and Little Mix’s Jade Thirwell. Speaking about the inspiration behind the track Billy says, “It’s a song that is inspired by my life and everything I’ve gone through to get here.” The song begins wistfully, with Porter empathizing: See I know times are hard, Yeah I mean it from the heart You’re not losing the fight, love will make it alright Cos i’ve been there, done that, worn that dress, so you know mama knows it best A beat drop follows, kicking into a propulsive disco groove as Porter triumphantly promises: a change starts today...

Produced by Paul Epworth at The Church Studios in London, ‘Delta’ finds the band in sparkling, experimental form. Coupling their penchant for the grandiose and the intimate, the British four-piece paint their sound with a broad range of colours and textures. It’s a record that they are immensely proud of and draws on their own individual and collective experiences over the past two years since the writing and recording process for ‘Delta’ commenced. On Thursday evening, fans connected around the world for a series of special album playback events, where ‘Delta’ was accompanied by visuals curated by, and in partnership with, National Geographic. It was an idea by the band, originally inspired by their own creation process of the album. Mumford & Sons: "While we were recording and mixing Delta, we watched a lot of films on silent including some pretty epic wildlife films by National Geographic -- like a vision-track to our soundtrack. So, we felt it would be a nice idea to ...

  Mumford & Sons are pleased to unveil the first single from their forthcoming new album, Wilder Mind.  Believe is released on the 27 th April, and precedes the band’s third album, released on 4 th May through Gentlemen of the Road/Island Records. Listen to Believe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW6SkvErFEE x  Wilder Mind was recorded at Air Studios, London and produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, HAIM, Florence & The Machine). It features twelve new tracks, written collaboratively by the band in London, Brooklyn, and Texas. A number of the new songs were written and demo'd at Aaron Dessner’s (The National) garage studios in Brooklyn. This new album marks a significant departure for the young British band from their previous records, 2009’s Sigh No More, and 2012’s Babel. The early sessions in New York and London witnessed a change in the band’s approach not just to writing and recording, but to texture and dynamics, too...

“ We wanted to do something unashamed,” says Ben Lovett. “We’re confident and happy to be where we are as a band — everything that’s happened with us has exceeded expectations, and it’s all been a surprise, it’s all much bigger than what we were prepared for. So when we came to recording this record we had a choice: to shy away from that, or to realise that people dig what we’re doing, and make something robust, with that energy . ” It was December 2010, and Mumford and Sons had been on the road since the previous summer: a glorious, eventful, yet relentless time. Standing somewhere between exhilarated and exhausted, the plan now was for the band’s four members to spend a few weeks apart, write, recuperate, and then reconvene in Nashville in the New Year, with the intention of trying out material for their second album. The informality of the set-up in Tennessee perhaps helped to dispel any nerves they may have had about following up 2009’s Sigh No More, an album that had gone four t...

Mumford & Sons release their new single, ‘I Will Wait’ on the 24th September 2012. It is the first single to be taken from their second album, Babel, released on the same day. The story of Mumford & Sons has been written and mapped out on the road. Since before the release of 2009’s debut album Sigh No More, the band has rarely been off tour, but the recording of Babel brought them off the road and back into the studio. Many of the songs on the new record found their dynamic through years of tested live performance. ‘Whispers In The Dark’, ‘Lover Of The Light’, ‘Below My Feet’, ‘Lovers’ Eyes’ and ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ might be familiar to fans that have seen the band perform live over the past eighteen months across the world. Babel was produced by Marcus Dravs, a man whom the band trusts to replicate and to understand the importance of live energy as much as they do. In a similar fashion to its predecessor, it is a record that marries the upbeat with the intimate, and the unr...