November 13, 2023 • 12 mins
Celebrating the release of his new smash "Superhero", Audien shares how the song was born, who the vocalist is on the song, and how many Vs there were before releasing it. He also talks about his recent massive L.A. Coliseum show!
We also get to know Audien better w a special 'Superhero' edition of #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
We also get to know Audien better w a special 'Superhero' edition of #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out:
- which superhero he would choose to be
- who his sidekick would be
- what his superpower would be
- where his superhero lair would be
- who he would breathe back to life
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How are you man, I'm good, man, How are you? I'm
good? Where are you? I'min my car. My girlfriend has like
she's a therapist and she has likea session. Let's crash it, I
know, right, Like it's likeHippa confidential and I'm like, I'm roaming
around. But how perfect is thatbeing in a relationship with a therapist.
(00:20):
Oh? Man, it's awesome.It's so great. It's so great.
Every past girlfriend of mine has overanalyzed everything as it is. I could
just imagine if they were a therapist. She literally has a degree in it.
She has a master's degree in analyzingpeople. What you're saying is there's
no winning in an argument for you. No, No, even if I
(00:44):
win, I still lose. That'sthe problem. I stop trying counting down
the biggest dance songs in the country. This is America's Dance thirty. Oh
(01:07):
the end. It is so greatseeing you. Welcome back to America's Dance
thirty. Good to be back,Brian. So are you still riding high
off of your LA Coliseum show?Honestly, yes, I framed the poster.
Oh no, I framed I thinkit was LA Weekly or something.
I framed an article and it's mystudio. How amazing? Was it so
(01:29):
amazing? I mean, like itwas. It was a dream come true?
And like we we did crazy numberstoo. I didn't really expect it
to be as like packed as itwas, but it was like a sea
of humans. I saw. Icouldn't see the end of all the people
that came. Now, was thatyour first time doing a stadium like show?
Yeah, honestly, And it wasthe first time it was my own
show at that size. You know, it wasn't it felt like a festival.
(01:53):
It felt like a but it wasa headline show. I mean,
I can't even believe it. Sothis is going to be a weird question
to answer. But what is itlike going from a show like that back
to doing like normal club shows.Man, I have to say a little
jarring, but I but it wasit was like a good just like payoff
(02:15):
moment. You know. It's likeyou play some shows where you get kind
of humbled, but like I think, you just find the fun in whatever
show it is. That's what Itry to do these days, is just
find the fun and everything. Yeah, I bet it was jarring. Well,
can I just take a second tothank you? For another emotional smash
from Audien. Congratulations on Superhero,Thank you man. I love that song
(02:37):
honestly, like the first in along time that I was like really like,
yeah, this is like, thisis exactly how I wanted it to
be. Yeah, I can't waitto hear how this smash was born.
But first, in honor of Superhero, let's get to know Audien a little
better with the Superhero edition of Thinky'sFirst. Let's do it. If you
(03:04):
were a superhero, what would beyour first choice of superhero to be?
Batman? Really outfit. You know, he's fresh, and he's got the
car. Look at that car.All the different iterations of the Batmobile are
insane, insane, I'll take anyof them. Plus he's just super fly,
Like, who would want to beBatman? Hold on a second,
(03:28):
I don't know if there's a badsign we might need you to be Batman
because our fire alarm is going offright now. I planned that I went
and pulled it for this interview.Great timing. Always something with you,
audience, and I bring all theall the weird stuff with me. Back
to the superhero discussion. If youwere a superhero, who would be your
(03:52):
first choice for a sidekick. Doesit have to be a superhero sidekick or
could it be just anyone? Itcould be anybody, my dog, you
know, emotional support man. Batmancan't be Batman without like some fluffy love
next to him. I absolutely lovethat answer, because I would cut your
cat exactly, but I would totallyNow what would be your first choice for
(04:16):
superpower teleportation? Because I hate flying? I hate no more. If I
could just avoid American airlines or likeDelta or anything, can you imagine teleporting
to shows? I would do waymore shows. I don't think it's the
actual flying that gets me. It'slike the security and the packing and the
lead up and getting there and allof that is what stresses me the f
(04:41):
out. It's like the whole justexperience. But also I'm convinced that my
back is now shaped to an airplaneseat. Like if you were like to
do an X ray, there wouldbe like all the nuances of like an
American Airlines seat shot fired on Americanairlines, they're not even the worst.
I mean, like United, canyou imagine their seats are like bored,
(05:03):
Like it's just it's like, Idon't know, they're just really uncomfortable.
Have you been on a Spirit Airlinesflight? I actually took one, believe
it or not, like a yearago, and it was because it was
the only option out of I thinkit was actually I think it was EDC
Orlando or something. I was playingand I was trying to get home after
my sex I had an earlier set, and I think I flew Spirit and
(05:27):
we were delayed for like four hours. Like laying on the airport floor was
best. Did they ask you forany chewing gum to add to the wings?
I know Duc Tate no duck datewas at horrible anyways, shots fired
on them too. But where wouldbe your first choice of superhero layer?
I would say it'd be somewhere inMalibu, in some abandoned cave somewhere,
(05:51):
because then I'm kind of near thestuff I like, I love Malibu,
But like then I would still behidden, because I feel like that's how
Malibu really is. You got likethere's lots of like trails and like hikes
and things you can hide and somethink can like be near all the beaches
and all the other stuff. Youknow, that definitely sounds awesome. I
would probably choose a mountain, though, and the only reason is just for
(06:14):
like when you're going out to savethe world. I think it would be
so bad ass to like shoot outof the mountain, like the Boston Powers,
like Doctor Evil type thing. Ilike that. Finally, in the
(06:35):
Superhero version of Finkey's First And thisis gonna be a deep one and probably
a little depressing. But if youcould breathe anyone back to life, who
would you choose? Paris Fulton?Oh wow, good choice, man.
I came to you know, Imiss him all the time, and I
(06:57):
still every set I play one ofhis songs to honor him the best.
Yeah, that was such a tragicloss. It was not to belittle that,
but I would probably choose my catthat just passed away, because man,
I'm god, miss Oh you didn'tknow, No, I didn't know.
Yeah, Aiden passed away a fewmonths ago. Unfortunately, I'm so
(07:17):
sorry. That's the worst. That'sthe worst. I appreciate it. It
has been the worst. And youknow, even as I say that,
I don't know if I would chooseAiden, just because the awkwardness of breathing
a cat back to life. Iwould maybe sneeze, I'm awkward, but
(07:38):
I'm sorry, man, I'm sorryfor your loss. That's terrible. I
appreciate it. Man. Let's talkabout happier stuff. This smash Superhero.
Now. When I was doing theresearch, I saw that Joe Jury was
one of the writers. Is hethe vocalist on it as well? He
is? Actually he's the vocalist.Wow, that is amazing, And of
(07:59):
course it went was it Drifting Awaythat he was on as well? Yeah,
so how was this song born?Interestingly enough, I work with Armada,
the record label, and they hadsent me this vocal but they didn't
say who it was, and Ididn't know who was singing, and I
was like, this voice sounds reallyfamiliar. And I immediately started working on
(08:22):
it because I was so inspired byit. And then I realized when the
song was done that it was him. I was like, Wow, we
have another record together. What that'samazing, incredible. I remember you mentioning
that when we did the interview aboutDrifting Away, that you guys might have
some stuff in the future. Butobviously this wasn't it because you didn't know
it was him. No, Ihad like no idea that it was him.
(08:43):
And then like when I when Ifound out I was, I was
really stoked about it, but likehe's just like so just like a gem,
he's like underrated. Wait, underrated? Is he? Or everyone's gonna
want to work with him now?Though I bet you, I bet they
will now? Is he not listedas the vocalist because of other projects he
had going on? I believe soYeah, it's usually something kind of like
(09:05):
music political like that, but likeyou can tell it's him, like you
hear it, and it's just likeit really is like the next drifting Away.
I think it's better than drifting Awayby a long shot. But I
just like I don't know. Iwish I had this one before drifting Away,
you know what I mean. Likeit it's a really good song.
I knew immediately that it was likevery special. What's so funny is you
(09:26):
say that you can tell it's him, but you couldn't tell it was him.
I mean it like just has likea general just like great voice,
and like I would probably attribute thatto other people too, and so like
I wouldn't know exactly if it washim, but like I had a hunch,
I was like, this sounds likehim. How long ago did you
(09:46):
start working on it? I cametogether really quickly, like probably only like
three months ago. Oh wow,really came together quick. And then,
of course, something I love tofind out is how many different v's there
are of the song from when youstart working on it, all the tweaking
through it to when you finally putit out. Do you remember what the
final v was of Superhero two ShotUp? No Way? Yeah. For
(10:11):
the first time, I've had likeeighty versions of songs, this one I
knew it was done on version two. I was playing out version one,
which just needed a little bit ofsauce, and then I gave it the
sauce, and then at version twoand that was the final That is incredible,
And that actually leads into the questionI was gonna ask next, which
was when was the first time youactually played it out. I played it
(10:33):
out the very first time in uhSan Francisco. I was playing a pool
party at the Phoenix Hotel. Itwas a six show, by the way.
It was like a beautiful day,and the Phoenix Hotel is like very
mid century like very like kind oficonic, and they had this great pool
in the center and it was justlike a perfect little venue and I just
like I had just finished it thatday and I was playing it and it
(10:56):
was like the reaction was crazy.I was like, people could tell it
was a new song by me,and there was like a lot of videos
online and stuff, so I wasreally bumped. That's when I knew.
I was like, Okay, Igot to finish this, like for real,
for real. Now, have youever run into a situation where you've
taken a new song that you justget done and you test it out and
it doesn't react, well, yeah, oh for sure, And like it's
usually The thing is, I can'treally always tell how the crowd likes it,
(11:20):
but I know when playing it ifit's missing something, like I can
immediately tell like oh it's missing bait, it's missing X, Y and Z.
But also like you know, youcan just feel the energy of it.
The thing is, when you playa new song, a lot of
people won't like react big because they'retaking it in. It's their first time
ever hearing it and they know it'syou, and so they're like, oh,
(11:41):
this should be this might be anew you know, audience song.
So like if it doesn't get thereaction, like I don't, I don't
trip over that. But at thesame time, Superhero did get the reaction.
That's why I knew it was special. Well, it is such a
special track. Congratulations on it.Congrats on the La Colis Cum show is
(12:01):
so amazing audience. As always,it's great seeing you. Thank you so
much for your time with us onAmerica's Dan's thirty. Thanks Bro, and
uh, make sure to book anappointment with your girlfriend for me, please,
I will wait. That sounds awkward. We could do We could do
couples. There are me and youthe couple. No, no, you
(12:26):
have more than one cat, right, geez, why you gotta keep bringing
it up? No? No,I thought you had like three cats.
I thought you had like more thanone. No. Now it's just me
and Tucker. We're just boys nowagain, great seeing you. Thank you
always for your time. Next time, please don't bring up Aiden. I'd
appreciate I want Oh sorry. America'sDance thirty Counting down the biggest dance songs
(12:52):
in the country. Americas Dance thirty
How are you man, I'm good, man, How are you? I'm
good? Where are you? I'min my car. My girlfriend has like
she's a therapist and she has likea session. Let's crash it, I
know, right, Like it's likeHippa confidential and I'm like, I'm roaming
around. But how perfect is thatbeing in a relationship with a therapist.
(00:20):
Oh? Man, it's awesome.It's so great. It's so great.
Every past girlfriend of mine has overanalyzed everything as it is. I could
just imagine if they were a therapist. She literally has a degree in it.
She has a master's degree in analyzingpeople. What you're saying is there's
no winning in an argument for you. No, No, even if I
(00:44):
win, I still lose. That'sthe problem. I stop trying counting down
the biggest dance songs in the country. This is America's Dance thirty. Oh
(01:07):
the end. It is so greatseeing you. Welcome back to America's Dance
thirty. Good to be back,Brian. So are you still riding high
off of your LA Coliseum show?Honestly, yes, I framed the poster.
Oh no, I framed I thinkit was LA Weekly or something.
I framed an article and it's mystudio. How amazing? Was it so
(01:29):
amazing? I mean, like itwas. It was a dream come true?
And like we we did crazy numberstoo. I didn't really expect it
to be as like packed as itwas, but it was like a sea
of humans. I saw. Icouldn't see the end of all the people
that came. Now, was thatyour first time doing a stadium like show?
Yeah, honestly, And it wasthe first time it was my own
show at that size. You know, it wasn't it felt like a festival.
(01:53):
It felt like a but it wasa headline show. I mean,
I can't even believe it. Sothis is going to be a weird question
to answer. But what is itlike going from a show like that back
to doing like normal club shows.Man, I have to say a little
jarring, but I but it wasit was like a good just like payoff
(02:15):
moment. You know. It's likeyou play some shows where you get kind
of humbled, but like I think, you just find the fun in whatever
show it is. That's what Itry to do these days, is just
find the fun and everything. Yeah, I bet it was jarring. Well,
can I just take a second tothank you? For another emotional smash
from Audien. Congratulations on Superhero,Thank you man. I love that song
(02:37):
honestly, like the first in along time that I was like really like,
yeah, this is like, thisis exactly how I wanted it to
be. Yeah, I can't waitto hear how this smash was born.
But first, in honor of Superhero, let's get to know Audien a little
better with the Superhero edition of Thinky'sFirst. Let's do it. If you
(03:04):
were a superhero, what would beyour first choice of superhero to be?
Batman? Really outfit. You know, he's fresh, and he's got the
car. Look at that car.All the different iterations of the Batmobile are
insane, insane, I'll take anyof them. Plus he's just super fly,
Like, who would want to beBatman? Hold on a second,
(03:28):
I don't know if there's a badsign we might need you to be Batman
because our fire alarm is going offright now. I planned that I went
and pulled it for this interview.Great timing. Always something with you,
audience, and I bring all theall the weird stuff with me. Back
to the superhero discussion. If youwere a superhero, who would be your
(03:52):
first choice for a sidekick. Doesit have to be a superhero sidekick or
could it be just anyone? Itcould be anybody, my dog, you
know, emotional support man. Batmancan't be Batman without like some fluffy love
next to him. I absolutely lovethat answer, because I would cut your
cat exactly, but I would totallyNow what would be your first choice for
(04:16):
superpower teleportation? Because I hate flying? I hate no more. If I
could just avoid American airlines or likeDelta or anything, can you imagine teleporting
to shows? I would do waymore shows. I don't think it's the
actual flying that gets me. It'slike the security and the packing and the
lead up and getting there and allof that is what stresses me the f
(04:41):
out. It's like the whole justexperience. But also I'm convinced that my
back is now shaped to an airplaneseat. Like if you were like to
do an X ray, there wouldbe like all the nuances of like an
American Airlines seat shot fired on Americanairlines, they're not even the worst.
I mean, like United, canyou imagine their seats are like bored,
(05:03):
Like it's just it's like, Idon't know, they're just really uncomfortable.
Have you been on a Spirit Airlinesflight? I actually took one, believe
it or not, like a yearago, and it was because it was
the only option out of I thinkit was actually I think it was EDC
Orlando or something. I was playingand I was trying to get home after
my sex I had an earlier set, and I think I flew Spirit and
(05:27):
we were delayed for like four hours. Like laying on the airport floor was
best. Did they ask you forany chewing gum to add to the wings?
I know Duc Tate no duck datewas at horrible anyways, shots fired
on them too. But where wouldbe your first choice of superhero layer?
I would say it'd be somewhere inMalibu, in some abandoned cave somewhere,
(05:51):
because then I'm kind of near thestuff I like, I love Malibu,
But like then I would still behidden, because I feel like that's how
Malibu really is. You got likethere's lots of like trails and like hikes
and things you can hide and somethink can like be near all the beaches
and all the other stuff. Youknow, that definitely sounds awesome. I
would probably choose a mountain, though, and the only reason is just for
(06:14):
like when you're going out to savethe world. I think it would be
so bad ass to like shoot outof the mountain, like the Boston Powers,
like Doctor Evil type thing. Ilike that. Finally, in the
(06:35):
Superhero version of Finkey's First And thisis gonna be a deep one and probably
a little depressing. But if youcould breathe anyone back to life, who
would you choose? Paris Fulton?Oh wow, good choice, man.
I came to you know, Imiss him all the time, and I
(06:57):
still every set I play one ofhis songs to honor him the best.
Yeah, that was such a tragicloss. It was not to belittle that,
but I would probably choose my catthat just passed away, because man,
I'm god, miss Oh you didn'tknow, No, I didn't know.
Yeah, Aiden passed away a fewmonths ago. Unfortunately, I'm so
(07:17):
sorry. That's the worst. That'sthe worst. I appreciate it. It
has been the worst. And youknow, even as I say that,
I don't know if I would chooseAiden, just because the awkwardness of breathing
a cat back to life. Iwould maybe sneeze, I'm awkward, but
(07:38):
I'm sorry, man, I'm sorryfor your loss. That's terrible. I
appreciate it. Man. Let's talkabout happier stuff. This smash Superhero.
Now. When I was doing theresearch, I saw that Joe Jury was
one of the writers. Is hethe vocalist on it as well? He
is? Actually he's the vocalist.Wow, that is amazing, And of
(07:59):
course it went was it Drifting Awaythat he was on as well? Yeah,
so how was this song born?Interestingly enough, I work with Armada,
the record label, and they hadsent me this vocal but they didn't
say who it was, and Ididn't know who was singing, and I
was like, this voice sounds reallyfamiliar. And I immediately started working on
(08:22):
it because I was so inspired byit. And then I realized when the
song was done that it was him. I was like, Wow, we
have another record together. What that'samazing, incredible. I remember you mentioning
that when we did the interview aboutDrifting Away, that you guys might have
some stuff in the future. Butobviously this wasn't it because you didn't know
it was him. No, Ihad like no idea that it was him.
(08:43):
And then like when I when Ifound out I was, I was
really stoked about it, but likehe's just like so just like a gem,
he's like underrated. Wait, underrated? Is he? Or everyone's gonna
want to work with him now?Though I bet you, I bet they
will now? Is he not listedas the vocalist because of other projects he
had going on? I believe soYeah, it's usually something kind of like
(09:05):
music political like that, but likeyou can tell it's him, like you
hear it, and it's just likeit really is like the next drifting Away.
I think it's better than drifting Awayby a long shot. But I
just like I don't know. Iwish I had this one before drifting Away,
you know what I mean. Likeit it's a really good song.
I knew immediately that it was likevery special. What's so funny is you
(09:26):
say that you can tell it's him, but you couldn't tell it was him.
I mean it like just has likea general just like great voice,
and like I would probably attribute thatto other people too, and so like
I wouldn't know exactly if it washim, but like I had a hunch,
I was like, this sounds likehim. How long ago did you
(09:46):
start working on it? I cametogether really quickly, like probably only like
three months ago. Oh wow,really came together quick. And then,
of course, something I love tofind out is how many different v's there
are of the song from when youstart working on it, all the tweaking
through it to when you finally putit out. Do you remember what the
final v was of Superhero two ShotUp? No Way? Yeah. For
(10:11):
the first time, I've had likeeighty versions of songs, this one I
knew it was done on version two. I was playing out version one,
which just needed a little bit ofsauce, and then I gave it the
sauce, and then at version twoand that was the final That is incredible,
And that actually leads into the questionI was gonna ask next, which
was when was the first time youactually played it out. I played it
(10:33):
out the very first time in uhSan Francisco. I was playing a pool
party at the Phoenix Hotel. Itwas a six show, by the way.
It was like a beautiful day,and the Phoenix Hotel is like very
mid century like very like kind oficonic, and they had this great pool
in the center and it was justlike a perfect little venue and I just
like I had just finished it thatday and I was playing it and it
(10:56):
was like the reaction was crazy.I was like, people could tell it
was a new song by me,and there was like a lot of videos
online and stuff, so I wasreally bumped. That's when I knew.
I was like, Okay, Igot to finish this, like for real,
for real. Now, have youever run into a situation where you've
taken a new song that you justget done and you test it out and
it doesn't react, well, yeah, oh for sure, And like it's
usually The thing is, I can'treally always tell how the crowd likes it,
(11:20):
but I know when playing it ifit's missing something, like I can
immediately tell like oh it's missing bait, it's missing X, Y and Z.
But also like you know, youcan just feel the energy of it.
The thing is, when you playa new song, a lot of
people won't like react big because they'retaking it in. It's their first time
ever hearing it and they know it'syou, and so they're like, oh,
(11:41):
this should be this might be anew you know, audience song.
So like if it doesn't get thereaction, like I don't, I don't
trip over that. But at thesame time, Superhero did get the reaction.
That's why I knew it was special. Well, it is such a
special track. Congratulations on it.Congrats on the La Colis Cum show is
(12:01):
so amazing audience. As always,it's great seeing you. Thank you so
much for your time with us onAmerica's Dan's thirty. Thanks Bro, and
uh, make sure to book anappointment with your girlfriend for me, please,
I will wait. That sounds awkward. We could do We could do
couples. There are me and youthe couple. No, no, you
(12:26):
have more than one cat, right, geez, why you gotta keep bringing
it up? No? No,I thought you had like three cats.
I thought you had like more thanone. No. Now it's just me
and Tucker. We're just boys nowagain, great seeing you. Thank you
always for your time. Next time, please don't bring up Aiden. I'd
appreciate I want Oh sorry. America'sDance thirty Counting down the biggest dance songs
(12:52):
in the country. Americas Dance thirty
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