KROQ Sound Space Artist Interviews Audacy

The Black Keys joined host Nicole Alvarez live from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles for a special interview and performance, talking about their brand new album, Ohio Players, and giving a taste of what's to come on their International Players Tour kicking off in September.

The Black Keys just dropped their 12th studio album, Ohio Players -- featuring the previously revealed single "Beautiful People (Stay High)" and more -- on April 5 via Nonesuch Records. Just before the release, Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach gave some lucky fans at KROQ an exclusive preview of the record and spoke candidly about their early days together, making the new album with a who's-who list of collaborators, and more.

Since Dan and Patrick have known each other for most of their lives, Nicole started off the conversation by showing off a few photos of the duo when they were younger. “The first time I met Dan, it was like, right when I moved to the neighborhood,” Patrick remembers. “It was dusk and all the kids were riding bikes. I had grown up in a neighborhood where it was just like, really old people who just yell at us all the time. So, it felt like I had moved into the Goonies’ neighborhood. They kind of had all the characters; I'm not sure which one I was, but there's definitely a Chunk and all that.”

“I mostly remember his older brother Will, because he was a train enthusiast,” says Dan about his first impressions of Pat. “He was the local eccentric kid,” Patrick says of his brother. “You would focus on Will,” Dan adds. “You wouldn't see Pat or his brother, Michael.”

Diving into their new album, Ohio Players, which features collaborations with Beck, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Juicy J from Three-Six Mafia, and more, “on the last album we started to dip our toes into collaborating with people, which we really hadn't done much of… like when we worked with Danger Mouse on a record, it was just him and the two of us. So, it was only in the last couple of years that we actually felt comfortable, I guess being in the studio with other people creating stuff from scratch. Once we broke through that barrier, and we needed to start this new record, we thought we’d dig into the Rolodex a little deeper.”

“The first person we thought of was Beck because he was someone who helped us out very early on, took us on tour very early,” he continues. “He always talked about making some music with us and it, we'd never gotten around to doing it. So we reached out to him and that kind of got the ball rolling -- and it was that spirit of collaboration that we carried on making the record.”

“I think the only thing that you need to know is that we've been doing this for a long time,” Patrick says, “and I think we just really figured out how to really enjoy it seriously. This is a product of us working harder than we ever have, but having more fun than we ever have.”

“We got to this collection of songs, they all work together and it is different than anything we've made," he explains, "and it was really hard to pick the first couple of songs that got shared. So, I feel like people really don't have a concept of what the album sounds like yet. ‘Beautiful People’ is, by far, the most kind of ‘mainstream’ thing on the album… I'm excited for people to hear the whole thing.”

Tickets for The Black Keys' International Players Tour are on sale now. 

Don't miss The Black Keys' full interview and performance above -- and stay tuned for even more action from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ right here on Audacy.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Nicole Alvarez

Chicano Batman joined host Canyon Cody for a special interview and performance, giving fans details on their 2024 album Notebook Fantasy and upcoming tour, live from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles.

Kicking off Alternalido this past Sunday (3/31), Carlos Arévalo, Bardo Martinez, and Eduardo Arenas of Chicano Batman previewed a few songs from their new album Notebook Fantasy and sat down with host Canyon Cody to discuss the release and much more.

After working, as he feels, harder than anyone else over the course of the pandemic and exhausting every socially distant angle they could, Eduardo tells us there's nothing that matches the feeling of “getting live in a room with people… you can't replace it.”

“We record all our music live,” he adds. “’Notebook Fantasy,’ this new record, we did all that live (and we do overdub), but it's what happens in the room. That is the magic that you can't replace.”

Offering some advice for rising artists, Eduardo says, “If you have something compelling to say or play or art or anything or display, go do that and keep doing that, and don't rely on anybody else on the outside to give you that confidence to keep doing that. It's hard when you depend on other people to like you to upgrade your art. You gotta like yourself… put the blinds on, just do it ‘cause you like it. It really pays off.”

“Nobody's gonna feel you unless you feel what you're doing,” adds Bardo. "For me, Chicano Batman was always about doing what I was feeling inside… the words on the paper, this is my experience that I'm writing. I would say, just really dig into yourself. Cheesy but hey, f*** it!”

The band will hit the road this year in support of Notebook Fantasy, with U.S. tour dates kicking off on April 19 at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, making stops in major cities across the country through the end of June.

Don't miss Chicano Batman's full interview above, and stay tuned for even more action from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ right here on Audacy.

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Canyon Cody

The Beaches recently joined host Megan Holiday for a special interview and performance, giving us a preview from the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ in Los Angeles of what to expect while on the road on their current Blame My Ex Tour.

Canadian Alt faves The Beaches made their U.S. Billboard debut in 2023 with “Blame Brett,” helped along by TikTok which pushed the single to go viral and grab the attention of the likes of Demi Lovato, Mark Hoppus of blink-182, and more. Keeping the momentum going, Leandra Earl, Jordan Miller, Eliza Enman McDaniel, and Kylie Miller are currently on the road with G Flip as well as a number of dates supporting girlinred, making stops in the U.S, Australia, and Canada through September -- with a few festival dates thrown in as well.

Diving right in, the band discussed their most recent milestones; of course getting into their entire sold-out tour, including two shows at the iconic Troubadour in Los Angeles and a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “They were so cool. Obviously, growing up, we've heard about that venue and we know how infamous and iconic it is,” says Kylie. “So, to be able to sell it out and play it twice was such a crazy feeling --and we had a bunch of friends and family in the house yesterday. It was such a fun experience.”

“Yeah, we made my mom cry,” Jordan adds. “She was like gasping for breath, like so sad.” Adding to the emotional responses, Eliza admits, “Our manager cried when we did, ‘Kimmel,’ there's been a lot of major milestones just in the last like 48 hours, and then to do this here with you guys today is a dream too.”

It's all thanks to the tremendous success the group has seen since the release of their 2023 album Blame My Ex, which has without a doubt resonated on a deeply personal level with fans, highlighted by their single "Blame Brett," which was inspired by a real-life breakup. As host Megan notes, “When there is this good of a story behind a song, we have to tell it for people that may not know.”

Breaking down the track, Jordan explains: “I was in a relationship with this guy who is also in a big Canadian band, Brett [Emmons] from The Glorious Sons, and we broke up, and it was pretty brutal. We broke up during a very tumultuous time for us as a band. We had just been dropped by our label, we had just fired, our two managers, COVID had happened. It was a very difficult period for any musician, and then on top of that, like the person who I thought was gonna be my soul mate, broke up with me.”

After a chorus of boos from the crowd, Leandra clarified, “No guys, it’s OK. She's in love again,” which elicited a round of cheers -- and the rest of her bandmates to out her new flame, Ryan. “We’re not gonna blame Ryan,” Jordan says. “Not yet. Hopefully, this next sucker's happier.”

Jordan continues, “We had started writing what was gonna be ‘Blame My Ex.’ ‘Shower Beer’ had been written, ‘Kismet’ had been written... But, you know, once I had my heart broken, there was really nothing else I wanted to write about. I sort of used the record as sort of a way to interrogate my feelings, to figure out who I was without my partner.” Adding some clarity, she says “the album really isn't about my breakup with Brett, like the disillusionment of our relationship. It's more about what happens to a person when they have to start over. I think there weren't a lot of records from a female's perspective about that, and I was really interested in writing about that... the highs and lows of going through that kind of inexperience.”

It’s worth mentioning that Jordan did call Brett to find out if he would be OK with there being a song out there with his name on it. “He was very gracious about it," Jordan says. “I don't think he realized the hit it was gonna be! He had slightly different feelings once it started to go viral on TikTok, but he has since come around and he and his band have actual

Royel Otis (Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic) join us for a special performance and interview with Kevan Kenney from KROQ's Helpful Honda Sound Space in Los Angeles as the Australian Alt-Pop duo gets set to drop their debut studio album, Pratts & Pain, scheduled for release on February 16.

After forming in Sydney in 2019, Royel Otis have three official EP's under their collective belts (2021’s Campus, 2022’s Bar & Grill, and 2023’s Sofa Kings) as they're steadily ramping up anticipation for the release of their full-length debut, Pratts & Pain, in just a few short weeks.

Already on the minds of music fans following the release of their 2023 single “Sofa King,” it was their recent cover of “Murder on the Dance Floor” that has gone nuclear right at the moment. The fan reaction has been “crazy,” they both admit.  “We rehearsed it one day before we started doing it,” says Pavolic. “Yeah, we had about an hour to get it done and then well, that’s what happens,” adds Maddell. They had a few ideas in mind for the session, including the classic, “Build Me Up Buttercup.”

“We were just running through ideas, pretty stressed out,” Royel admits, “ and then someone was like, ‘just try ‘Murder on the Dance Floor,’ and we were like, ‘give it a crack,’ and then it worked out.”

Flipping the script, if the guys could pick a contemporary artist to cover their single }Sofa King,” Maddell chooses fellow Aussies DMA'S... “I reckon they'll do it, however expanding the pool of artists to those who have already passed, Sinéad O'Connor was first to be mentioned.

Discussing their hit single, they explained how it came about as a demo that Royel had, being good friends with the DMA’S guys who were starting to take off. “I was like, ‘I'm gonna take advantage of my friends, capitalize on it,’ and I was like, ‘Try to write a song that I thought would suit them. And then I was like, ‘no, it's better for me.’ Then Otis and I started doing music, and I was like, ‘it's actually better for Otis.’

Royel Otis is currently on the road in New Zealand and Australia, with plans to hit North American cities beginning in April supported by Girl and Girl. 

Listen to Kevan Kenney's full interview with Royel Otis above -- and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists right here on Audacy. 

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Kevan Kenney

Nathan Willet and Matt Maust from Cold War Kids chat with KROQ's Nicole Alvarez before their performance in the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ.

Micah Pueschel from Iration chats with host Nicole Alvarez before the band's performance inside the Helpful Honda Sound Space at KROQ.