Music News

Sam Smith is penning the follow-up to his debut album 'In The Lonely Hour' in Paris.
The 'Stay With Me' hitmaker has flown to the French capital, which is known as the City of Love, to write his second studio album following the success of his Grammy Award-winning first offering.
The 22-year-old singer - who wrote his first record after suffering heartbreak - told The Sun newspaper he is "completely over" his old crush and is now looking for some new inspiration.
Sam's bass player Brendan Grieve tweeted: "Another amazing writing session with @samsmithworld @itsreubenjames."
While Sam is dedicated to producing his second album, he also took some time out from working in the studio to enjoy the romance capital of the world and visited the iconic Eiffel Tower.
He wrote on Twitter: "Amazing hotel room. So happy right now."
Sam recently vowed not to "hide anything" and promised complete honesty on his new record.
The star told the crowd at his sold out concert at Brixton O2 Academy in London: "I had a very broad idea of things I needed to do to become well known. And I thought that if I lost loads of weight ... then people would listen, but the truth was people only started to properly listen to me when I started being myself. And the way for me to do that through music was to be honest. This album is my diary, I've hidden nothing from anyone and I won't hide anything from anyone on my future record, my future songs."

Charli XCX wrote a song about pleasuring herself to make "a feminist statement".
The 22-year-old singer wrote 'Body of My Own' for her second major label studio album, 'Sucker' - released earlier this year - and revealed she made the saucy song to help other young women feel comfortable with their bodies and sexuality.
She explained: "'Body of My Own' is about masturbation, but it's a feminist statement more than a song telling you to put your hand in your pants, because girls should own their own bodies. If they're going to be sexualised, they should sexualise themselves and not let someone else do it for them."
However, the 'Boom Clap' hitmaker believes because of her unusual sources of inspiration and quirky image, she isn't a real pop star, not least because she doesn't own a hairbrush to maintain sleek and silky locks like other female musicians.
She told The Times newspaper: "I feel like an outsider more than a pop star. Sometimes I feel good about it, sometimes I feel bad, but I never feel like one of the pop gang. I don't say the right thing. I'm not always happy. I don't always brush my hair. I don't even own a hairbrush."

The Rolling Stones are considering performing 'Sticky Fingers' in full on tour.
The iconic rockers will head out on a 15-date North American tour in May and are thinking about treating fans to the entirety of the celebrated 1971 album, which features tracks including 'Brown Sugar' and 'Wild Horses', at the shows.
Speaking about the prospect, frontman Sir Mick Jagger said: "We're floating the idea of playing the whole album.
"At the very least, we'll play the songs we don't normally play."
Popular singles from the record - which will be reissued in Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions in May - are regular set highlights for the group, although the band haven't played 'You Gotta Move' live since 1976, while 'Sister Morphine', 'I Got The Blues' and 'Moonlight Mile' have not been performed since the 1990s.
However, the 71-year-old musician is unsure whether it is a good idea as he doesn't want the stadiums filled with fans to get bored by their slower songs.
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "It's a really great album, but it has a lot of slow songs. Normally in a show we'd just do one or two ballads. 'Sticky Fingers' has about five slow songs. I'm just worried that it might be problematic in stadiums. Maybe we'd play it and everyone would say, 'Great,' but maybe they'll get restless and start going to get drinks."
The group - which also features Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts - will kick off their 'ZIP CODE Tour' in San Diego before ending in Quebec in July.

Charli XCX claims 'I Love It' made her life "awful".
The 'Doing It' hitmaker penned the chart-topping Icona Pop single back in 2011 but admitted she felt like it haunted her after it was released, because she thought it was "s**t".
She recalled: "I wrote 'I Love It' in a hotel room in half an hour.
"The next day I gave it to my producer and told him I thought it was s**t, so he sent it to the girls in Icona Pop and a week later they recorded it. That's what made the next year so awful."
The 22-year-old singer released her debut major label album 'True Romance' in 2013 when 'I Love It' topped the UK singles charts, and quickly became fed up with praise for the track because she thought the songs she had included on her record were much better, but weren't appreciated.
She continued: "I made what I thought was a genius pop album and all anyone wanted to talk about was 'I Love It'. I was so bummed out that I decided I hated pop music."
And as a result of the song's success, she jetted off to Los Angeles to work with acclaimed pop producer Dr Luke in an attempt to create a similar hit, but hated the experience because she said it felt too manufactured.
Speaking to The Times newspaper, she added: "After the success of 'I Love It' I was inundated with offers to write 'I Love It' mark II. That led to me going to Dr Luke's house in Los Angeles at 2am, writing in a basement and trying to make a hit. There was a bad vibe, partly because I got pulled into this competitive mentality."

AWOLNATION's Aaron Bruno goes to Steve Perry for advice.
The 36-year-old frontman revealed he has become pals with the Journey icon since rising to prominence as part of the electronic rock group, and also counts Weezer singer Rivers Cuomo as a professional acquaintance.
Speaking to Yahoo about Steve, he said: "He's just this beautiful human being that is still an amazing, caring musical mind, and to have him in my corner and care is incredible. And he's great to go to for advice. I've become acquaintances with Rivers Cuomo and I love Weezer so much, so that's really incredible to me as well. I guess to have these people that I looked up to as a kid just a phone number or text away is absolutely incredible, because I can ask them how they felt when they went through some of the trials and tribulations."
The rocker - who is in the group alongside Drew Stewart, Kenny Carkeet and Isaac Carpenter - performed at Camden's Electric Ballroom in London on Wednesday (01.04.15), where they played tracks from their 2011 debut, 'Megalithic Symphony', as well as new songs from their second album, 'Run', which they released last month.
Opening with their latest record's title track, the 14-song set raced through fan favourites including 'Not Your Fault' and 'Kill Your Heroes'.
After briefly exiting the central London stage, the four-piece group re-emerged for a four track encore, eventually ending with a powerful rendition of their international hit single, 'Sail'.
The band will kick off their tour of North America later this month.

Lorde is struggling to write songs for her new album.
The 18-year-old singer/songwriter is currently working on the follow-up to her critically-acclaimed debut album 'Pure Heroine', released in 2013, but is finding it difficult to write tracks for the collection and moaned about her troubles on Twitter.
In an update, which she has since deleted, she wrote: "today i tried to write a chorus for almost 4 hours i wish that was an april fools joke (sic)."
Although fans haven't been able to enjoy any new music from the 'Royals' hitmaker since her contribution to the 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' soundtrack last year, 'Yellow Flicker Beat', she hinted her future tracks might have a slightly different sound because she has been trying to write a ballad inspired by Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit, 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'.
Tweeting a pal, she said: "we were actually writing a total eclipse of the heart-inspired jam today (sic)."
The news comes just weeks after Lorde - whose real name is Ella Yelich-O'Connor - started working with her trusted producer, Joel Little, once again, after he confirmed in February they would be heading into the studio together "very soon".
He said: "We're gonna get in the studio again very soon. That's the plan, basically. We're just going to start writing some songs.
"We haven't got some planned out 'this is what it's going to sound like'... I think we're just going to start writing and when it starts to feel right, we'll know that it's right. It's pretty simple really."

Lewis Hamilton is seeking feedback on his music from Pharrell Williams and Drake.
The Formula One racing champion has been teasing the launch of his music career for several months, and has now revealed details about the favourite of his tracks, titled 'J'adore', which he has sought advice on from his musical pals including rapper and producer Timbaland.
He explained: "My best song is called 'J'adore'. It is kind of urban pop and I sing as well.
"I have played it for Pharrell Williams as well as Timbaland and Drake because I want feedback from as many people as possible."
The 30-year-old hunk - who split from on/off girlfriend, 'Don't Hold Your Breath' hitmaker Nicole Scherzinger in February after seven years together - admitted he is using his creative talents to express his feelings and finds it "a really good way of clearing your thoughts".
He continued: "I write my own stuff. I really enjoy the whole creative thing and I've always loved doing it."
However, the racer revealed he only got into making music after he created a recording studio in his home for his former flame.
In an interview on BT Sport, he added: "I actually built the studio in my house for someone else and ended up using it.
"I built it so we could be in the same place all the time ... but now I use it all the time instead."

Taylor Swift has been named the most powerful person in pop.
The 25-year-old singer has beaten off competition from Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Rihanna and Ariana Grande to top this year's The Pop Powerlist for 4Music.
The 'Blank Space' hitmaker has taken home the title - which is decided by a panel of industry experts - thanks to her 55 million followers on Twitter, number one album '1989' and estimated £88 million fortune.
The Powerlist takes into consideration everything from critics opinions to airplay, with previous winners including Adele, Rihanna and Beyonce.
The blonde beauty's close friend Ed took the second spot, with Sam Smith, Rihanna and Ariana Grande, taking the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Katy Perry, Maroon 5, Beyonce, One Direction and Meghan Trainor make up the top ten.
Matt Rennie, Managing Director at The Box Plus Network, said: "The 2015 Pop Powerlist is dominated by female pop icons this year, with Beyoncé, Rihanna and Katy Perry joining Swift in the top ten.
"It's great to see British artists like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith taking the hot spots, proving the rise in popularity of our home grown talent."
The announcement follows Taylor's recent success at the iHeart Radio Music Awards on Sunday (29.03.15), where she took home the Artist of the Year title, Best Lyrics Award for her hit single 'Blank Space' and the Best Song gong for 'Shake It Off'.

The Pop Powerlist for 4Music 2015 Top 10:

1. Taylor Swift
2. Ed Sheeran
3. Sam Smith
4. Rihanna
5. Ariana Grande
6. Katy Perry
7. Maroon 5
8. Beyoncé
9. One Direction
10. Meghan Trainor

Plain White T's have described their new album as a "reinvention".
The group - who shot to fame when they topped the charts in 2007 with 'Hey There Delilah' - fought to be freed from their record deal for their new album 'American Nights', which means the LP feels like a "new life".
Frontman Tom Higgenson told BANG Showbiz: "We're independent again for the first time since 2003 so it feels like a reinvention. A new life."
Bass player Mike added: "It also feels like it's our band again, not that it ever wasn't."
The 'Pause' singers - who have partnered with Lipton Ice Tea to create a video for the track, inspired by their Be More Tea campaign - explained self-funding their latest release, which is their seventh studio album, meant they were able to choose how it was created.
Guitarist Dave Tirio said: "The label was great but there were certain times where we didn't have 100 per cent of the say on some things, you inevitably have to please other people which kind of sucks some times."
Tom continued: "So with this album we were able to record exactly what we wanted to record, where we wanted to, with who we wanted to. It was just whatever we wanted to do, we could do it, which made it more fun."
However, the band - which also features guitarist Tim Lopez and drummer De'Mar Hamilton - added it was tough escaping their record deal because it resulted in "drama".
Tom confessed: "We went through a bit of drama with the label trying to get independent again.
"It was stressful because we were trying to fight to get our music back."
Fans can get involved with the #BeMoreTea campaign on Instagram at @liptonicetea, and watch the 'Pause' video on Lipton's YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/vAnChA7HrbU