Bruno Major restyles the Great American Songbook

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bruno Major blends old song structures from The Great American Songbook with contemporary production on his new album “To Let A Good Thing Die.” The result is a nostalgic, yet contemporary collection of love songs for the Netflix and chill generation. We speak with Bruno Major about how he draws inspiration from the past to craft something new. He breaks down his songs "Nothing," "To Let A Good Thing Die," and "The Most Beautiful Thing," which he wrote with Finneas. And we unpack how Bruno Major found success only after being dropped from his record label. SONGS DISCUSSED Bruno Major - Nothing Autumn Leaves - Nat King Cole Fly Me to The Moon - Frank Sinatra Stella By Starlight - Tony Bennett There Will Never Be Another You - Nat King Cole Like Someone in Love - Chet Baker Deep in a Dream - Frank Sinatra All The things you are - Ella Fitzgerald Paul Simon - Still Crazy After All These Years Wes Montgomery - In Your Own Sweet Way Bruno Major - Wouldn't Mean A Thing Bruno Major - Bad Religion (Live) Bruno Major - I'll Sleep When I'm Older J Cole - KOD J Dilla - La La La Bruno Major - The Most Beautiful Thing Bruno Major - To Let A Good Thing Die Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from the Genesis GB70 Performance SUV. Every Genesis is a reminder
0:07.6	to try something bold to keep growing, keep hustling. At Genesis, they've harnessed all
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0:28.8	like the 14.5-inch infotainment system, and fingerprint recognition plus the GB70 features
0:35.2	all-wheel drive, which is bound to add a little more acceleration to your next drive. Your Genesis
0:41.2	GB70 is waiting for you. What will you begin? Learn more at Genesis.com. Genesis, keep beginning.
0:59.2	Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. I was recently stumbling around Spotify,
1:10.6	and I found this artist Bruno Major and his album Let A Good Thing Die. I felt like it's something
1:16.5	that's a wormhole to a parallel universe in which the jazz standards of the Great American songbook
1:21.7	had merged with Modern Lofi hip hop with lyrics that perfectly captured contemporary romance.
1:28.4	It's really pretty stuff. You can hear what I mean in a song like Nothing.
1:32.4	When I started to research Bruno Major,
1:51.4	I found an artist who had to a certain degree totally failed at the major label system,
1:57.0	and yet remarkably leapfrog out of it into a really successful career in streaming. I knew I
2:03.8	had to speak with him to understand how he did it. I called Bruno Major up a few weeks back,
2:08.4	and this was a really interesting discussion where we talk about how to both simultaneously embrace
2:14.5	music from the past, but also forge new musical territory. I want to start our conversation where
2:20.5	Bruno and I are talking about that song we just heard nothing. There's this curious moment that
2:24.8	drew me right into it. This sort of Netflix and chill romance idea that is buoyed by this really fun
2:33.1	sort of sound effect and nostalgic reference. Here's Bruno on what's going on here.
2:40.3	The first thing that caught my attention were these sounds of Nintendo.
	...

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