Ep. 276 - JENNA ANDREWS & STEPHEN KIRK ("Butter")

GRAMMY-nominated songwriting and production team Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk chat about their contributions to the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, their success with the huge BTS hit "Butter," and balancing their professional and personal lives as partners.  PART ONE Lest you think it a dead subgenre, Paul and Scott revisit their examination of the "stutter rock" phenomenon with a modern day twist.  PART TWO Our in-depth conversation with Jenna Andrews and Stephen KirkABOUT JENNA & STEPHEN Both professional and life partners, the Grammy-nominated songwriting and production team of Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk made a major splash with their contributions to the wildly successful soundtrack for the Netflix animated hit KPop Demon Hunters. Their contributions, “Free” and “What It Sounds Like,” came on the heels of their success with the BTS songs “Proof,” “Permission to Dance,” and “Butter,” which spent ten weeks at the top of the Billboard pop chart in 2021. The pair’s combined credits include work with Drake, Little Mix, Nelly Furtado, Ed Sheeran, Jennifer Lopez, Pharrell, Rita Ora, K. Michelle, and others. Both Jenna and Stephen appeared on the Netflix series Hitmakers, which spotlights the lives and careers of modern-day pop songwriters.    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two-time GRAMMY and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominee Rich Robinson joins us to chat about his songwriting with The Black Crowes. PART ONE Paul and Scott talk about their deep Black Crowes history that goes all the way back to high school. Then they revert to their high school selves and try to make each other laugh by proposing ridiculous imaginary partnerships between artists and restaurant chains (think Michael McDonald's or Ice-T.G.I. Fridays).PART TWO Our in-depth conversation with Rich Robinson of The Black CrowesABOUT RICH ROBINSON Rich Robinson is best known as the founding guitarist and one of the two primary songwriters of The Black Crowes alongside his brother Chris. Formed in Atlanta, the band’s 1990 debut album $hake Your Money Maker produced the successful singles “Jealous Again,” “She Talks to Angels,” “Seeing Things,” and a wildly popular cover of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.” The album earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and was eventually certified five-times platinum. The multi-platinum follow-up, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, debuted at number one on the Billboard album chart and yielded four consecutive chart-topping rock singles with “Remedy,” “Sting Me,” “Thorn in My Pride,” “and “Hotel Illness.” Subsequent releases such as Amorica, By Your Side, Lions, and Warpaint explored new sonic territory while remaining rooted in the quintessential Black Crowes aesthetic. In total, the band has released eleven studio albums, with 2024’s Happiness Bastards, breaking a more than decade-long recording hiatus and earning the band another Grammy nomination. Over more than three decades of volatility, breakups, lineup shifts, and offstage drama, the Black Crowes are still making pure rock & roll at the highest level. Their latest album, A Pound of Feathers, was recently released, and they are among the nominees for potential induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for the class of 2026.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A legend to the legends! Jeff Barry was named one of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time and is inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "Tell Laura I Love Her." "Da Doo Ron Ron," "Then He Kissed Me," "Be My Baby," "(Christmas) Baby Please Come Home," "Chapel of Love," "River Deep - Mountain High," "Doo Wah Diddy," "Leader of the Pack," "Hanky Panky," "Sugar, Sugar," "I Honestly Love You." It's mind boggling!  PART ONE Paul and Scott chat about crossing a new friendship milestone and the long road to getting to speak with the unbelievably cool Jeff Barry. PART TWO Our in-depth interview with Jeff BarryABOUT JEFF BARRY Jeff Barry began his career as a recording artist for RCA and Decca Records, but attracted more attention for his original songs. After scoring pop hits with “Tell Laura I Love Her” and Sam Cooke’s recording of “Teenage Sonata” in 1960, Jeff joined forces with Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector to pen such classics as “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me,” “Be My Baby,” “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” “Chapel of Love,” and “River Deep – Mountain High.” Greenwich and Barry also recorded together as the Raindrops while continuing to find success with other artists, including landing number one hits with “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy,” “Leader of the Pack,” and the Tommy James and the Shondells recording of “Hanky Panky.” Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 list of the “500 Greatest Rock Songs” included six Barry-Greenwich compositions, more than any other non-performing songwriting team. As a producer, Barry helmed such hits as “Cherry, Cherry” by Neil Diamond and “I’m a Believer” by The Monkees. After parting ways with Greenwich, Jeff began writing with Andy Kim, with whom he had the biggest hit of 1969 when he co-wrote and produced “Sugar, Sugar” by the fictional cartoon band The Archies. A few years later, Jeff was nominated for the Song of the Year Grammy for Olivia Newton John’s 1974 chart-topping recording of “I Honestly Love You.” Additionally, he found success on the country charts in the 1970s and ‘80s with top 5 singles such as “Out of Hand,” recorded by Gary Stewart” and “Lie to You For Your Love,” recorded by the Bellamy Brothers. Never bound by genre categories, he also enjoyed top 5 R&B successes in those decades with songs such as “Heavy Makes You Happy” for the Staple Singers and “The Last Time I Made Love,” a song he wrote with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was recorded by Joyce Kennedy and Jeffrey Osborne. In addition to writing more than 50 different songs that have reached the top 40 on the Billboard charts, Jeff penned the theme songs for TV shows such as One Day at a Time (“This Is It”), The Jeffersons (“Movin’ on Up”), and Family Ties (“Without Us”). In 2019 he and writing partner Clarence Jey composed and wrote songs for the animated Nickelodeon show Lego City Adventures.  Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich are in the top 20 of Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Jeff has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rival Sons front man Jay Buchanan takes us deep into the writing process for his fantastic debut solo album, Weapons of BeautyPART ONE:Scott and Paul talk about Scott's experiences at the GRAMMY AwardsPART TWOOur in depth conversation with Jay BuchananABOUT JAY BUCHANANJay Buchanan is best known as the front man of the rock band Rival Sons whose catalog includes the landmark albums Pressure & Time, Great Western Valkyrie, and Feral Roots, which earned GRAMMY nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Rock Performance. Hand-picked by Black Sabbath for their final tour and chosen by Guns N’ Roses for their 2025 European stadium run, Rival Sons have shared stages with The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica and Lenny Kravitz. Buchanan has recently switched creative gears to release his debut solo album, Weapons of Beauty, a stark departure from his work with Rival Sons that emerged from three months of intensive songwriting sessions in the solitude of the Mojave Desert.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Alexa Ray Joel, the daughter of legendary singer/songwriter Billy Joel and supermodel/actress Christie Brinkley, talks about her own experiences as a songwriter and performer who draws from a deep well of personal experiences. PART ONEPaul and Scott talk about...(gasp!) NEW music! PART TWOOur in-depth conversation with Alexa Ray JoelABOUT ALEXA RAY JOELSinger, songwriter, and pianist Alexa Ray Joel released her debut EP Sketches in 2006 and has since released a series of singles, including the most recent, “Heavy Eyes.” The daughter of legendary singer-songwriter Billy Joel and supermodel and actress Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray began writing songs as a teenager. Her performances at Café Carlyle have showcased her eclectic repertoire, including original songs, Broadway numbers, and nods to her father and Ray Charles, for whom she was named. The New York Times praised her as a “singer confidently following her heart.” She has been a part of The Gap’s “Back to Blue” television ad campaign, and has ventured into the fashion world, appearing on magazine covers and participating in fashion weeks. She sang alongside her father in the final year of his Madison Square Garden residency in 2024 and says her favorite Billy Joel song is “Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel),” which he wrote for her. Alexa Ray’s “Heavy Eyes” follows on the heels of “Riverside Way,” which illustrates the sonic diversity of her music and is leading up to the release of a 5 song EP later this year. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

18-time Grammy nominee and American musical legend Taj Mahal goes deep on his influences and his approach to the craft. PART ONEPaul and Scott kick off the new year with a discussion about the nominees for the upcoming Grammy Awards. And more! PART TWOOur in-depth conversation with Taj MahalABOUT TAJ MAHALSinger, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal has mastered the blues form and has further built upon it by incorporating world music influences and expanding the boundaries of the genre. Growing up in Massachusetts, he made his way to Southern California in the mid-1960s where he formed the Group Rising Sons with Ry Cooder, Jessie Lee Kincaid, and Kevin Kelley. They signed with Columbia Records but, upon disbanding, Taj joined forces with guitarist Jesse Ed Davis and remained on the label as a solo artist. After a dozen albums with Columbia, he moved to Warner Bros. Records in the mid-1970s. Following a period spent living in Hawaii and largely out of the limelight in the 1980s, he ultimately reemerged for a new era of commercial success. Taj has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards, winning five, including Best Contemporary Blues Album in 1997, 2000, 2008, and 2018, and best Traditional Blues Album in 2022 and 2025. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from both the Americana Music Association and the Recording Academy. His most recent album, a duet project with Keb’ Mo’ called Room on the Porch, is nominated for the Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy at the upcoming Awards on February 1st.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We've been celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, for our final "classic episode" of 2025, we're revisiting our 2020 conversation with "All I Want for Christmas" co-writer Walter Afanasieff. Happy holidays and thanks for a great year of looking back together as we continue to look toward the future!ABOUT WALTER AFANASIEFFThirteen-time Grammy nominee and two-time winner Walter Afanasieff is best known for his collaborative songwriting and production partnership with Mariah Carey that yielded hit singles such as “Can’t Let Go,” “Dreamlover,” “Hero,” “Without You,” “Anytime You Need a Friend,” “Butterfly,” “My All,” and “One Sweet Day,” a duet with Boyz II Men that was named ASCAP Song of the Year. It hit #1 in December of 1995 and stayed there for sixteen weeks—a record that remained unbroken for more than two decades. Their “All I Want for Christmas is You” was released in 1994 and has since become a holiday standard. It hit #1 on Billboard’s pop chart for the first time in 2019, giving Walter and Mariah the world record for the longest period of time between a song’s original release and its arrival at the top of the chart.  In addition to his success with Carey, Afanasieff carved out a formidable reputation as a go-to producer of hit movie songs. After co-writing and co-producing the Gladys Knight single “License to Kill” from the James Bond film of the same name, he went on to produce “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, “Even If My Heart Would Break” from The Bodyguard, and “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, which became the best-selling single in the world for 1998. Additionally he produced “Some Day” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Academy Award nominated “Go the Distance” from Hercules.Other hits from the Walter Afanasieff songbook include “Can You Stop the Rain,” a #1 R&B single for Peabo Bryson that earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song, “Missing You Now,” a #1 Adult Contemporary hit for Michael Bolton, “If You Go Away,” a Top 20 single for New Kids on the Block, Savage Garden’s #1 pop single “I Knew I Loved You,” and Ricky Martin’s massive global hit “She Bangs.”The long list of additional artists Walter has written and produced music for includes Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Destiny's Child, Kenny G, Andrea Bocelli, Johnny Mathis, Kenny Loggins, Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Marc Anthony, Babyface, and Josh Groban.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

GRAMMY winner and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mike Reid chats about his remarkable musical life. PART ONEScott and Paul talk about the sports games and so much morePART TWOOur in depth conversation with Mike ReidABOUT MIKE REIDNashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mike Reid has written twelve #1 country songs and has had his work recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Anita Baker, Bette Midler, Prince, George Michael, Nancy Wilson, Etta James, Kenny Rogers, Ann Murray, Wynonna Judd, Alabama, Joe Cocker, Tanya Tucker, Willie Nelson, Collin Raye and Tim McGraw. He is perhaps best known for co-writing the modern-day standard “I Can’t Make You Love Me” with Allen Shamblin. Launching his music career as a staff songwriter for country star Ronnie Milsap’s publishing company, Reid penned Milsap hits such as “Stranger in My House,” which won a Grammy for Best Country Song” and “Lost in the Fifties Tonight,” which was named ASCAP’s Country Song of the Year. As an artist, Mike signed with Columbia Records and scored a #1 hit with the self-penned “Walk on Faith.”Others who’ve recorded Reid’s songs include Tammy Wynette, Rita Coolidge, Don Williams, Billy Dean, Josh Turner, Shelby Lynne, The Judds, George Jones, and Shania Twain. A true Renaissance man, Reid went on to compose theatrical and operatic works, winning a Richard Rodgers Development Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters for 1997's The Ballad of Little Jo. His most recent project is a collaborative album with Joe Henry called Life and Time.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We're celebrating our 10th anniversary all year by digging in the vaults to re-present classic episodes with fresh commentary. Today, we're revisiting our 2020 conversation with Elvis Costello. ABOUT ELVIS COSTELLOReleased between 1977 and 1979, Elvis Costello’s first three albums—My Aim is True, This Year’s Model, and Armed Forces—were all included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. That early period of his recording career yielded now-classic singles such as “Alison,” “Watching the Detectives,” “Pump it Up,” “Radio Radio,” “Oliver’s Army,” “Accidents Will Happen,” and others.Though he established his career as a rock artist and reached commercial heights in the US with the pop hit “Everyday I Write the Book,” Costello’s more than thirty studio albums cover a breathtaking range of stylistic ground, from Almost Blue, his early 1980s album of country covers, to The Juliet Letters, his 1993 collaboration with The Brodsky Quartet, to North, an album of ballads partially inspired by his wife Diana Krall that topped Billboard’s Jazz chart in 2003, to Il Sogno, his first full-length orchestral work, which was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and topped Billboard’s classical chart in 2004, to Wise Up Ghost, a 2013 collaboration with Questlove and The Roots. In between, he’s continued to release albums both solo and with his bands The Attractions, The Imposters, and The Sugarcanes. Always an adventurous collaborator, Costello entered into a fruitful songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney that yielded more than a dozen songs, including Costello’s Top 10 single “Veronica” and McCartney’s “My Brave Face.” He went on to release entire collaborative albums with Richard Harvey, Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, and others. He has written lyrics for compositions by Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn and Oscar Peterson, as well as musical settings for lyrics by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. His songs have been covered by a range of artists including George Jones, Chet Baker, Dusty Springfield, and Solomon Burke. Costello has been nominated for fourteen Grammy awards, two of which he won, as well as an Academy Award for co-writing “The Scarlet Tide” with T-Bone Burnett for the film Cold Mountain. He has received two Ivor Novello awards for Songwriting, the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting award, and the ASCAP Founder’s Award, which was presented by Burt Bacharach. He was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and was named one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine. His genre-stretching new album, Hey Clockface, was recorded in Helsinki and Paris, and was released on October 30.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grammy-winning producer and singer-songwriter Joe Henry gives us insight into his multi-faceted careerPART ONEPaul and Scott chat about their music-themed road trip and say R.I.P. to MTV. PART TWOOur in-depth conversation with Joe HenryABOUT JOE HENRYJoe Henry is a singer-songwriter who became a record producer as a protege of T Bone Burnett. He went on to win Grammy awards for his work with Solomon Burke, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Bonnie Raitt. Additionally, he produced the final albums of the late Allen Toussaint, who credited Henry for ushering him out of retirement. Henry’s contribution to American music remains somewhat enigmatic. Joe’s own records often feature adventurous contributions by instrumentalists, such as one of only two cameos Ornette Coleman ever made with a singer, while his song “Stop” was reworked into Madonna’s hit pop single, “Don’t Tell Me.” The long list of artists Joe has produced includes Ani DiFranco, Aimee Mann, Bettye LaVette, Elvis Costello, Rodney Crowell, Aaron Neville, Hayes Carll, Joan Baez, The Milk Carton Kids, Rhiannon Giddens, and many others. As a songwriter he has collaborated with Rosanne Cash, Jakob Dylan, Loudon Wainwright III, Billy Bragg, Madonna, and many more, while releasing 17 studio albums as an artist. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Americana Music Honors & Awards in 2025. Joe’s most recent album is Life and Time, a collaborative project with fellow songwriter Mike Reid.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.