In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
For the last ten years, the best place to find a Sergio Mendes record was in the grungy bins at Goodwill. In fact, second-hand stores were so overloaded with his albums that the situation became a joke on Seinfeld; when Kramer and Newman have problems unloading their Mendes vinyl at a used record store, they argue that the singer is so famous “he can’t even walk down the street in South America.”
But long before the time of Seinfeld, that was the case in North America, too. In the late 1960s, Mendes was the biggest Brazilian artist in the United States. Along with his band, Brasil ’66, he had a platinum-selling LP, numerous top 10 hits, and even performed at the White House for Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.
While he continued to find success throughout the world, Mendes’ popularity in America dropped off through the 1970s. He did have one more U.S. hit, 1983′s “Never Gonna Let You Go,” but that was it. Outside of the adult contemporary and world music scenes, Mendes became a remnant of the past.
And then, a few years ago, everything suddenly started to change.
“I got a phone call from the president of A&M Records who told me he had a band called the Black Eyed Peas,” recalls Mendes from Los Angeles. “And that the leader of the band, will.i.am, was a big fan of mine. I didn’t know the Black Eyed Peas, nor will.i.am. And the question was could he come to meet me at my house. He wanted to talk to me, and I said, ‘Okay.’”
Two days later, will.i.am (real name: Will Adams) showed up at Mendes’ door with a stack of the samba legend’s old albums. According to Adams, Mendes’ “Slow Hot Wind” was the first song he ever sampled.
“The story was when he was 15 or 16 years old in L.A. he went to a record store and discovered my music, and my music was a big influence in his life,” says the 65-year-old Mendes. “I was really touched by that.”
Soon after the visit, Adams, 31, invited Mendes to guest on the Black Eyed Peas’ 2003 album, “Elephunk.” The two struck up a friendship immediately in the studio, where Mendes contributed a piano solo to the track “Sexy.”
“I really liked the way he was doing things and the way the whole thing sounded,” says Mendes of the session. “So I had an idea a couple days later. I called him and said, ‘Why don’t we do something together? I’ll bring the Brazilian classics, the music that you love, and you bring the hip-hop world and we’ll make this great encounter of those two cultures and rhythms.’ And he said that’d be a dream come true for him.”
The musical lovechild that spawned from the collaboration is called “Timeless.” Released in February on Concord Records, the album includes both new songs and reworked versions of Mendes standards like “Mas Que Nada” and “The Frog.” The structure of the record sees Mendes’ classic Brazilian sound used as a foundation, while Adams builds on that base with his urban production values and hip-hop artistry.
“I felt it was like working with a great musician, a young musician full of fresh ideas,” Mendes says of Adams. “We had a great time in the studio ? everything was like no pressure, no deadline. We just experimented with things and tried things out. The whole process was very natural, very organic. I brought some of my musicians in. My wife sings on the album. And he brought his world to it also.”
Another thing that Adams brought to “Timeless” was an impressive lineup of guests. Erykah Badu, Q-tip, India Arie and Justin Timberlake all contributed to different tracks at Adams’ request. But the album’s most impressive guest appearance came out of a lucky coincidence.
“We’re in the studio one day here in L.A.,” remembers Mendes, “and Stevie Wonder was next door. He knew who I was, he’s an old friend, and he came to the studio and listened to the song (“Berimbau”) and he loved it. He asked for a copy of the tape. The next day he brought a harmonica and did an incredible solo.”
The recording of “Timeless” was also a big learning experience for Mendes. It’s his first new album since 1996′s “Oceano,” and a lot had changed since he was last in the studio.
“Last time when I did a record, there was no ProTools,” says Mendes, referring to the popular recording software. “It was still the old heavy tapes and you had to make slaves and to punch in took a long time and the editing? Now, the speed is so fast, but also the quality so good and transparent. And Will’s a genius at that ? he operates the ProTools like it’s just amazing. The new way to make records is really good and really efficient.”
And Mendes couldn’t be happier with the finished product. More than 20 years after his last major hit, “Timeless” marks a new opportunity for the musician to bring Brazilian music to a wider audience.
“I think it’s a wonderful new marriage of Brazil and hip-hop ? bossa nova hip-hop,” he says. “It’s two cultures meeting each other out of mutual attraction and interest in trying to discover new things, new rhythms, new melodies. And the idea of introducing those classic Brazilian melodies to the young generation ? that’s why I’m very interested in doing it.”
As far as the future of his career is concerned, Mendes is already musing about a follow-up to “Timeless.”
“I really enjoyed working with Will,” he says. “I think I’d love very much, and I think he would too, to do a volume two and continue the adventure.”
