Panic! At the Disco is the Grammy-nominated project of Brendon Urie, who originally started it as a band with his high school friends from Las Vegas in 2004. In the eighteen years since, Panic! At the Disco has won American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, iHeartRadio Music awards, and more. In August 2022, Brendon released the seventh Panic! at the Disco album, Viva Las Vengeance. The title track hit #1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. In this episode, Brendon tells the story of how he, Grammy-nominated producer Jake Sinclair and Oscar-nominated songwriter Mike Viola all got together to make the song “Viva Las Vengeance.”

You can buy or stream “Viva Las Vengeance” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
‘Army of the Dead’ (zombie movie)
Rob Mathes, arranger
The Cars

Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She has 12 albums that have gone multi-platinum. She’s won seven Grammys, and has had fifty songs reach number 1 on the Billboard Dance chart. That’s more number 1s than anyone in any category, ever. In this episode, she talks about one of those number 1 hits: “Hung Up,” from her 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The song and that album were co-produced by Stuart Price, an electronic musician, producer, and DJ from the UK. “Hung Up” began in part because Madonna was working on a film with director Luc Besson (whose films include The Fifth Element and Taken). But the song also grew out of Stuart’s DJ sets.

Madonna has a new career-spanning album out, called Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, and in honor of its release, Madonna and Stuart Price told me the story of how their collaboration and partnership led to one of Madonna’s biggest hits.

You can buy or stream “Hung Up” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” by ABBA
Studio 54

Kae Tempest is a songwriter, rapper, an award-winning poet, and best-selling novelist. They’ve been nominated for the UK’s Mercury Prize and Brit Award. Their most recent album is The Line is a Curve, which came out earlier this year. It was executive produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin. Kae made the album alongside their longtime collaborator, producer Dan Carey. I talked to Kae and Dan about the song “Move.” You’ll hear the first demo they made, which sounds basically nothing like the final version. In this episode, they talk about how it evolved. Kae’s own life changed a lot during that period. They came out as trans and non-binary in 2020, and this song, in part, helps tell the story of what they were going through.

You can buy or stream “Move” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Swarmatron
Grian Chatten
Confucius MC
Bridget Minamore