Fun

With Nate Ruess releasing his debut solo album, he spoke to us at contactmusic.com about working with Beck - one of his favourite musicians. According to Ruess, his love for Beck stems from the artist's continuing ability to release new and interesting music, as well as his ability to shapeshift musically, and take on various different styles and genres at will. 

Nate Ruess is set to release 'Grand Romantic' on 16th June 2015

When Ruess originally reached out to Beck to work on his album, he had already an idea for the song - and it was supposed to sound like Beck's 'Midnight Vultures' album. While he was a fan of both the albums 'Sea Change' and 'Modern Guilt', Ruess didn't want to make Beck record more music like that because he "didn't want to give him more of that, because he'd just been touring with that for a whole year". After continuing to work on the song for a bit, he soon discovered that it "wasn't like 'Midnight Vultures', unfortunately, but it was what it was, and I'm quite proud of that."

Continue reading: Nate Ruess Reflects On "Pretty Phenomenal" Beck Collaboration

He's already watched Fun.'s lead guitarist break away to do his own new thing, but now frontman Nate Ruess has finally made the decision to go solo for the first time with his upcoming debut album 'Grand Romantic'. And after this emotional onslaught, you'll sort of feel like you know him personally.

Nate Ruess is soon to release solo album 'Grand Romantic'

Ruess admits that while he always writes personal songs, his new album marks a very thorough digging through of feelings and memories. A cathartic experience for the songwriter, who admits he's had a very personal issues to contemplate over the writing process and finds it difficult to write from an objective perspective.

Continue reading: Unlikely 'Narcissist' Nate Ruess Connects With Feelings On 'Grand Romantic'

Lady GaGa's status as an iconic singer has been confirmed by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Hall will present Gaga with the Contemporary Icon Award which is presented to a singer "who has attained an iconic status in pop culture".

Lady Gaga will receive the Contemporary Icon Award.

Read More: Lady Gaga Lands Guest Starring Role On American Horror Story: Hotel.

Continue reading: Lady Gaga Receive Contemporary Icon Award Songwriters Hall Fame

Nate Ruess is the latest member of chart-topping indie band Fun to break off into a side-project, with his highly anticipated debut solo album 'Grand Romantic' now set for release this Summer with production from Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie.

Nate Ruess to release his debut solo album this Summer

The album sees the return of previous Fun collaborators as well as a bunch of other contributing artists such as Josh Klinghoffer of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lykke Li, who both appear as guests on 'Grand Romantic''s upcoming lead single 'Nothing Without Love'; an uplifting pop anthem with a video directed by the much accomplished Anthony Mandler. Ruess first performed the track at this year's iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Continue reading: Nate Ruess Goes Solo With Debut Album 'Grand Romantic'

Surprise albums are all the rage, and it’s easy to understand why. They make sense for both fans and artists, and there’s hardly any downside to just throwing your highly anticipated album up for download on a random Saturday night with nothing else going on around the Internet. It practically sells itself at that point.

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly saw an early release

Take a look at Kendrick Lamar: his new record, To Pimp A Butterfly, wasn’t even technically a surprise, as it was just allegedly “accidentally” released early on iTunes before its release. It still yielded the same results as a complete surprise album would, and it smashed a ton of streaming records like the 9.6 million number that was achieved via Spotify listens. The record-holder before that was, of course, none other than Drake’s surprise mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. You can see the trend here.

Continue reading: Four Artists Most Likely To Release A Surprise Album This Year

New music from indie-pop superstars Fun. is definitely in the works, considering the multi-platinum band just recently performed a brand new song, 'Harsh Lights,' on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. But during the band's time off over the past year or so, it gave each member a break from the constant spotlight and touring.

Bleachers released 'Strange Desire' on July 15

This break allowed for much needed personal endeavors - especially for guitarist Jack Antonoff. Instead of hanging around and putting music on the backburner, Antonoff got his creative juices flowing with a new band by the name of Bleachers, and he just released his debut album, Strange Desire. Strange Desire was revealed back in May via an ad posting on Craigslist. It may sound weird, but Antonoff had a pretty good explanation for it. "There's something very special about waiting for things or discovering things, like, putting an ad out on Craigslist and not blasting it everywhere and having some people discover it," he said of the posting. "I was very conscious about making an album that didn't sound like 11 singles." Now that Strange Desire is finally out for the public's consumption, does the music hold up to Antonoff's ambitions of a complete album as opposed to just hits? Though it has its fair share of radio ready jams, it excels perfectly at being one of the most consistently charismatic pop albums that'll be heard all year. With that said, here are some of Strange Desire's "can't miss" tracks.

Continue reading: Bleachers' 'Strange Desire' - The Five Best Songs

The guys in the indie pop group Fun. got a much needed break from ruling arenas, charts, and radio after the cycle ended for their 2012 hitt album, Some Nights. During that time, the band notched a Platinum record, two top ten singles, and even got some Grammy awards to put the icing on the cake. However, despite their mini break, Nate Ruess and Co. weren’t hiding away in seclusion. Ruess hit it big with his features on Eminem’s ‘Headlights’ and Pink’s ‘Just Give Me a Reason,’ keyboardist Andrew Dost went into composing, and Jack Antonoff is in the process of releasing a full-length from his fantastic side project, Bleachers. But, of course, vacations do come to an end -- so where does that leave Fun. when it’s time to get back to business?

Fun. performed their new song, ‘Harsh Lights,’ on The Tonight Show [Photo: Getty Images, credit: Brad Barket]

Actually, they’re off to a pretty good start already. Ruess spoke with Rolling Stone about the beginning stages of the new record, stating "And with this album – and after being on the road for a few years – you can't help but think of how each song is gonna fit. You start thinking about what you're gonna want to play, and what you're gonna want to say." Though a tour may be a distance away, the band clearly thought about what they were going to play last week -- and they decided to play a brand new song.

Continue reading: Fun Debuts 'Harsh Lights' Live - What's In Store For Their New Album?

While pop superstars Fun were off on a well-deserved break after basically taking over the world all of last year, it didn’t mean that the members remained dormant. Lead singer Nate Ruess can be found in the new Eminem music video for 'Headlights,' while keyboardist Andrew Dost is busy composing for film and television, as he recently scored the music for MTV's upcoming scripted series, ‘Faking It.’

Jack Antonoff's new project goes by the name Bleachers

This leaves lead guitarist Jack Antonoff, who is embarking on perhaps the most ambitious venture of any of his bandmates -- a new band by the name of Bleachers. It's not uncharted territory for Antonoff, however, seeing as before he joined Fun, he also fronted the indie-rock group Steel Train. The only difference is this time, it seems like things will be getting a little more weirder. Bleachers, which was revealed this past February, aimed for a big sound with this new music, and it was proven in the first released song, ‘I Wanna Get Better.’ Additionally, the song's music video was directed by Antonoff's girlfriend, Lena Dunham, the star and creator of the HBO hit ‘Girls.’

Continue reading: Jack Antonoff Of Fun's New Project: Bleachers

Eminem released the full details of his 16-track line-up for his upcoming album, The Marshal Mathers LP 2. The follow-up to 2010's chart-topping Recovery will be released next month, and in a bid to produce further excitement, the Detroit-native released the full tracklisting, including guest spots, on Tursday, 10 October (via Billboard).

Em will release MMLP2 on 5 November

MMLP2 will feature a host of special appearances from the likes of rap's latest wunderkind Kendrick Lamar, Skylar Grey, Fun. frontman Nate Ruess and Bajan beauty Rihanna, who Em also worked with on his last album for the mega-hit 'Love The Way You Lie.' On top of these guest artists, we already know that long-time collaborator Dr Dre has at least one production credit on the album along with the legend that is Rick Rubin, with the pair also serving as executive producers. DJ Khalil, Scoop DeVille, Symoblyc One, No I.D. and Eminem himself have also contributed beats to the album.

Continue reading: Eminem Reveals The Tracklist For 'The Marshal Mathers LP 2'