Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a Grammy Producer of the Year who's tied with Babyface for the only three-in-a-row run in the award's history — and whose real story isn't the trophies, the radio, or the run of hits. It's the decision he makes once every few years that almost no other producer at his level makes: which artist he'll spend the next decade building.

From frontman of touring indie band Steel Train to one of the most decorated producers of his generation, he built his career against almost every modern industry instinct.

This is one of the more honest conversations about what it actually takes to bet a decade of your career on one person. When you're quietly refusing the industry's playbook from inside the room — who do you become?

And The Writer Is... Jack Antonoff!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

• The importance of finding your people

• Why "Album is God" — and what a single actually is

• The Sabrina Carpenter origin: a random run-in two weeks after a Bleachers show

• "Workaholics aren't disciplined. They're sad." — why he refuses all-nighters

• The "Getaway Car" bridge moment Taylor's documentary caught in real time

• 5 voices that feel like 100 — the "Please Please Please" vocal stack walkthrough

• The artists he's passed on who became stars — and why he doesn't regret it

• Why he writes his best on instruments he doesn't understand

And much more...

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers Association. Your support means the world to us.

And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:10 Ross gave Jack his first co-writing session

2:42 The myth and folklore of the LA writing scene

8:02 "There's no proof more sessions makes you better"

10:08 What gives energy vs. what takes it

13:12 Body-of-work first, not single first

16:48 "Album is God. Singles are a long hallway to nothing."

17:58 The hit-song tour that sold 12 tickets

19:17 Sabrina, Chappell, Charli — the only lesson from artist development

22:35 Working with artists who already have the vision

23:33 Amy asks: how do you make something timeless?

25:40 Album tracks are like movie scenes — "Scarface doesn't fit in The Holiday"

26:55 How the sonic palette emerges (Mastermind, Tulsa Jesus Freak)

31:43 Bleachers — letting the band teeter

33:22 "I write my best on what I understand the least"

37:47 "Workaholics aren't disciplined. They're sad."

40:18 The "Getaway Car" bridge moment Taylor's documentary caught

41:28 Keeping it small even when the artist is the biggest in the world

44:24 Writing for yourself is how you reach more people

48:48 "Geniuses finish things"

52:01 Why he protects his circle from outside voices

54:37 What Producer of the Year three years in a row actually means

56:36 The producers Jack steals from (Jeff Lynne, Sam Dew)

61:17 5 voices that feel like 100 — "Please Please Please" stack walkthrough

64:10 Dyslexic, Adderall, the VS 840 zip-disk teen years

68:13 Authenticity is the only currency that lasts

68:57 When their song "March" became a MeToo women's marches anthem

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki

Watercolor by Michael White

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a multi-instrumentalist, music educator, interviewer, producer, and songwriter. He is also one of the most influential independent music voices online. His real story isn't the channel he built after a 90-second video of his son's perfect pitch hit 80 million views overnight, it's his incredible value to the music community and the conversations he sparks online about the state of the music industry and his conversations with some of the biggest creators within it's orbit.

This is one of the more unflinching conversations we've had about what's actually happening to music. Two musicians from different generations of the same fight, working it out in real time. Where do you stand when the rules of the music industry keep changing under your feet?

And The Writer Is... Rick Beato!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

• How getting dropped in 1999 built a YouTube empire 16 years later
• Why Ringo would be a co-writer of every Beatles song in 2026
• The Eli Mercer experiment: building a fully fake AI artist with Claude — and what happened when he uploaded it
• The NPR EDM stunt: 4 million monthly Spotify listeners, 6,300 followers, and what that math says about AI
• The 90-second video of his son's perfect pitch that hit 3 million views by 10pm and 80 million total
• "There's no two current artists with the gravity of Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder" — and Ross's case for their modern counterparts
• Who is the Michael Jordan of pop music? Queen at 3 billion streams enters the chat
• Why Ross is still bullish on songwriting — and what the Music Modernization Act got right that the No Fakes Act needs to finish

And much more...

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers Association. Your support means the world to us.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

2:14 The beginning of Rick Beato's music career

3:11 The rollercoaster of an early music career

5:32 The Napster era and the dawn of digital recording

9:16 Producing Shinedown — and how "Simple Man" became the hit

10:54 Why "Yellow Ledbetter" was a B-side — and why bonus tracks are back

12:48 What country radio still gets right about hits

14:54 Inside Nashville sessions and the number triangle

17:28 The future of AI in music — and the No Fakes Act

21:20 The future of prompting and curating music

23:54 Would The Beatles be a four-way publishing split in 2026?

25:39 The modern music economy: are album tracks worthless now?

27:58 American writers are chasing global stars now

34:30 The Eli Mercer experiment: a fake artist built with Claude

36:52 The NPR EDM stunt and what it proved about AI on Spotify

41:18 4M monthly listeners. 6,300 followers. AI is winning the algorithm.

42:58 How Rick Beato built a YouTube empire

45:22 The "What Makes This Song Great" era

51:49 1984 vs now — and the search for a modern Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder

54:18 Who is the Michael Jordan of pop music?

55:51 Queen at 3 billion streams — what counts as "biggest"

1:00:28 Golden, Blinding Lights, and what makes a 2020s standard

1:06:53 Songwriter similarities and the lawsuits that never happened

1:09:42 "Best era of pop music. Am I wrong?"

1:13:56 1998: how Clear Channel and Cumulus consolidated radio

1:20:14 The Music Modernization Act and what's actually next

1:24:54 Is the future of songwriting still bullish?

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is a prolific producer behind Sicko Mode, Broccoli, Bad at Love, Kiss Me More, Laugh Now Cry Later, First Class, and APT. — but whose real story isn't the catalog. It's how most of those songs happened by accident.

A classically trained concert pianist who spent his teens grinding through Liszt and Prokofiev knuckle-busters, Rogét quietly became one of the most important producers in modern pop and hip-hop — and almost none of it happened the way he planned.

This is one of the more honest conversations about what mastery is actually for — what happens when a decade of preparation collides with a 9pm pull-up, a stock preset, and a flute sound turned on by accident. When the world keeps rewarding your simplest moves, who do you become?

And The Writer Is... Rogét Chahayed!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

Years of grinding Liszt and Prokofiev — and a first big check from four major triads on a flute

The three-week run in 2016 that produced Broccoli, Skywalker, Bad at Love, and the seed of Sicko Mode

The Mr. Miyagi era under Doctor Dre's right-hand man — and a pajama meeting at Dre's hidden studio

Sicko Mode — made on a stock preset in a closet-sized vocal booth — and the moment he heard it open Astroworld

Kiss Me More — a 2-5-1 with a walk-down — and what jazz school actually trained him to do

Co-executive producing Jack Harlow's album from 4pm to 4am for a year — and how First Class came together

APT. — the song he forgot about until Bruno Mars mentioned it at a friend's barbecue

And much more...

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishers' Association. Your support means the world to us.

Chapters

0:00 Intro

2:12 "How does a classical pianist come up with the chords for Broccoli? By turning the keyboard on."

4:24 The 9pm Yachty pull-up and the original Korg stock piano

6:35 Hearing his flute everywhere — Macklemore, Drake's Portland

7:50 The early break that taught him how the music business actually works

13:39 "I believe in the good of the business — we can be the generation that watches each other's backs"

15:59 Lebanese father, Argentine mother, and a meet-cute at a gas station

17:00 Why his dad named him Rogét

19:35 Discovering jazz at 15 and the chord that opened the world up

24:14 College, hip-hop, and reading liner notes for Scott Storch and Ryan Leslie

33:30 Telling Eastern parents he was leaving Juilliard-track for hip-hop

37:03 Getting kicked out, teaching 25 piano students a week to survive

41:45 The Mr. Miyagi era — Mel-Man, strip-club errands, and getting hazed

46:17 The pajama meeting at Doctor Dre's hidden studio

50:08 His Lebanese dad hearing Broccoli on the radio

52:17 NMPA

54:36 Bad at Love — the beat he made and forgot

57:50 What is a songwriter? Rogét's answer

1:01:28 Skywalker, Hit-Boy, and the arpeggios that became the splish

1:04:00 Sicko Mode: a stock preset, a closet-sized vocal booth, and Travis pulling up

1:07:08 "Drake comes in and says 'Astro' and I lost it"

1:14:23 Laugh Now, Cry Later: a Big Sean intro session to a Drake single in a month

1:18:15 Kiss Me More: "the perfect riff" — a 2-5-1 with a walk-down, sped up

1:23:15 "Genius comes out of editing" — Miles vs. Dizzy and what jazz actually trains

1:24:54 First Class and a year co-EPing Jack Harlow's album from 4pm to 4am

1:30:39 APT. — the song he forgot until Bruno mentioned it at a barbecue

1:36:04 What he'd tell a 16-year-old version of himself in the Valley right now

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London and Jad Saad

Edit by Jad Saad

Post Production VFX by Pratik Karki

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, And the Writer Is brings you the most important news moving through the music industry — straight, sharp, and no fluff. This week Ross Golan opens the weekly And The Writer Is… news update (week of April 20, 2026) by highlighting major chart wins:

• Swimf by BTS is #1 on the Global 200 for a fourth week
• Choose In Texas by Ella Langley holds #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a seventh week
• Her album Dandelion debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200

He teases an upcoming Stagecoach interview and notes a strong country music moment.

New music + industry highlights:

• Olivia Rodrigo dropped a new single Drop Dead, debuting at #1 on Spotify charts, co-written/produced by Dan Nigro
• The podcast re-released Dan Nigro’s episode to celebrate

Business + industry news:

• Paul Epworth sold his catalog for a massive (undisclosed) amount
• Streaming platform Deezer is now receiving 75,000 AI-generated tracks per day (44% of uploads), raising concerns about “AI slop”
• Splice introduced a new AI tool that pays sample creators, which Ross praises

Other updates:

• Massive Attack signed a new deal banning certain rules (brief mention)
• Miranda Lambert signed with MCA Nashville, signaling a major upcoming era

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is the Grammy Producer of the Year who built the two biggest pop breakthroughs of the last five years back to back — and whose real story isn't about the hits. It's about the three years he spent making nothing and the rule he wants every producer in the game to understand.

From indie rock frontman in As Tall As Lions to pop's most trusted collaborator, Dan built his career against almost every industry instinct. He carries three things at once that most producers never figure out how to hold: the commercial ear of someone who's had back-to-back Grammy runs with Olivia Rodrigo, the patience of a craftsman who sat on "Good Luck, Babe" for 18 months before it ever left his hard drive, and the conviction to say no — to every rushed demo, every session hop, every label note that doesn't serve the artist.

This is one of the more honest conversations about what it actually takes to build a superstar.

And The Writer Is... Dan Nigro!

In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on:

• The three years he spent making nothing — and what finally broke it

• Why getting Chappell dropped from Atlantic was "the greatest thing that ever happened"

• "We're building like an icon here" — the real work behind Chappell Roan's rise

• Why Dan refuses to send demos

• 20 days with one artist, not 20 sessions with twenty

• Meeting Dua Lipa in 2014 — "this girl is a superstar"

• Artist development, finding your lane

• Writing good songs sucks — and why that's fine

And much more...

Hit subscribe and turn on notifications. Every week, we go deep with the most interesting creatives in music.

Follow us on socials: @andthewriteris

A special thank you to our sponsors for making these conversations possible.

Our lead sponsor, NMPA — the National Music Publishing Association. Your support means the world to us.

And @splice — the best sample library on the market. Period.

Chapter timestamps:

0:00 Intro

3:01 Why Atlantic dropping Chappell was "the greatest thing that ever happened"

4:16 Atlantic's note: cut one of the Pink Pony Club guitar solos

8:20 Self-releasing Karma, Naked in Manhattan, and building a label with Island

11:33 "We're building like an icon here" — Bowie, Madonna, the Chappell blueprint

13:13 What makes somebody "have it" — the gut call you can't fake

17:21 "There are no more superstars" — the article that pissed Dan off

19:34 20 days with one artist, not 20 sessions with twenty

21:27 Good Luck Babe's million rewrites — the "Good Luck Jane" era

22:59 Why Dan refuses to send demos — ever

24:54 18 months on the hard drive

26:01 Justin Tranter asks: how do you have the confidence to dive that deep?

28:04 Three years. Ended up with nothing.

33:12 The Madonna model — outside songs, finding your lane

43:21 Taking five months off after Olivia and Chappell

46:41 Steph Jones asks: rituals, guilty pleasures, happy accidents

51:43 Amy Allen asks: has your feeling ever been wrong?

52:58 "The most egotistical thing I've ever said" — never wrong about an artist

53:20 Meeting Dua Lipa in 2014 — "this girl is a superstar"

55:55 Vampire — and the label that thought it was "three songs in one"

62:39 People need to take more risks

63:37 Writing good songs sucks — and why that's fine

68:21 Five for five — As Tall As Lions, Sour, Guts, Amusement Records

70:31 The second-album mountain

72:58 Playing Olivia and Chappell for his daughter

Credits:

Hosted by Ross Golan

Produced by Joe London & Jad Saad

Edited by Jad Saad

Post-Production VFX by Pratik Karki

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.