April 20, 2026 • 14 mins
Featured Artist: Bruno Mars
Featured Vinyl: The Romantic
Alexis’ Hot Pick
Risk It All
Sam’s Hot Pick
Something Serious
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CREDITS
Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor
Co-Host: Sam Timmerman
Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel
Voiceover: Ruby Miguel
Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to B Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records hold.
Good afternoon, good evening.
How are we?
How are we?
Well.
Better in seeing you.
(00:50):
Oh, you are lovely for saying that.
Thank you so much.
Um, I have to ask very quickly, remind me about your shirt before we get started on this episode.
Oh my goodness.
So for those listening, you need to make sure you get your ear holes around An Australian artist called Ben Abraham.
Now he has a merch run of t-shirt.
(01:14):
And on the front, front on, yeah, on the front of the T-shirt, it says, never been worse, and the bike says, never been better.
Because of one of his songs.
And it's a beautiful song.
It's a great song.
I'm sorry for derailing the show straight away.
No.
This episode or this is all about music and I'm just wearing the merch, baby.
(01:37):
That's it.
I think the first time I saw you in it, your shirts had never even been worse.
And I went, are you okay?
Yeah, yeah.
But then you just turn around and go.
Never been better.
That's true.
Yes.
But yes, those listening, make sure you get onto.
Abraham, he is a delight.
Absolute delight.
And maybe we'll listen to some music by him at some stage.
(01:59):
Yes, a hundred percent.
And just food for thought.
He always does Christmas concerts.
When he comes back to Australia.
Ah.
And last year was the biggest that he had, which was at the Forum Theater.
So they're like, growing forum is amazing too.
Ah, and yes.
So just FYI just keep an eye out if you are anywhere near.
(02:22):
Victoria and you'd like a laugh and great music, and he always has collaborations and different guest spots.
You never know who's gonna be there.
Do you mean that you are gonna be there next time?
No.
You just never know.
He, yeah.
Rings, rings up all sorts of people vibe.
Love it.
But I have one.
I got one, and I've been listening to this for a long time.
(02:43):
Is this the offering of today?
Yes, it is.
Managed to completely not notice that it was being made, missed.
All the promo somehow single came out and I was like, that single's wicked.
And then there was a video that popped up and it said, Bruno has just dropped a new album.
And I went, what?
And it was this, it was the Romantic by Bruno Mars.
(03:07):
And.
So first off, the vinyl cover is black and white.
It's got that nostalgic when you think about romantic with like roses and that kind of drawing, and then it's, yeah, Bruno, why wouldn't you have your face on a mile?
(03:28):
And the man's just gone with his own style and has just run with it.
It doesn't matter who's caring, who's not.
It's got to the point now where.
Like you're at megastar status, but you're just living your best life and it's awesome.
I'm an unapologetic Bruno Mars fan.
Yep, you certainly are.
So I bought this, the minutes I found out it existed, pre-ordered, it did the whole thing, and I pre-ordered this one because it looks like this.
(04:01):
Again, for those of you who are listening, you're just gonna have to look at a photo, but it looks like this.
Holy hell, is that gold?
This is gold.
What the hell?
I'm thinking like Cadbury caramel milk gold.
Yes.
That's a good way to describe it.
And it has roses on the insert.
Oh my goodness.
It's a beautiful piece of work.
Absolutely stunning.
(04:22):
Full lyric sheet and line of notes.
And it's just done in the composition book and it's gorgeous and we love it.
But diving into this thing I had, I'd been listening through it.
For as long as I could.
As many times as I could, as soon as it was released before I bought the physical.
And man, talk about an artist who's just gone into their own style and done everything that they want to do.
(04:45):
Mm-hmm.
He, he's been going towards the feel good.
Your disco, your Latin influenced rhythms, your just beautiful harmony.
Hmm.
For the longest time now, the evening with Silk Sonic was that just piqued my interest and I love that album dearly and he's gone next level with this one.
(05:10):
It's so much fun.
And it's interesting when you dive into this record because he's done projects where he is done a lot of like.
Hitter collaboration.
I was curious to find out who he had on this record, and it's interesting how intentionally he seems to have.
(05:32):
Made it all about him in the best.
Yeah.
This is very much, this is a Bruno record.
This isn't a collaborations record.
Yep, yep.
Because he releases all the singles.
He's got his tie with a smile with Gaga.
He's got his appetite with Rose and all the rest, and he's not, I'm gonna make mine.
Yeah.
But it's great because it means that you get to have one narrative.
One kind of perspective.
(05:55):
We've spoken about this before about I really vibe a record that is cohesive and almost a bit of a concept album, and I do feel like all of these songs sit so well together.
They're not all sounding the same, but they're the concept of this almost nostalgia that he's doing with the lyric book.
(06:15):
The kind of drawings, the kind of songs, my favorite, my top pick that's on this vinyl Go on Truly eat.
Okay.
If we talk about nostalgia, it just reminds me of going to your first dance class and learning how to do the chacha, or learning how to do simple steps with a dance partner because, so for the, there are three songs that I could think of that would be, yeah, I was just about to say, I feel like you're like, which one?
(06:48):
The first track on first side.
Oh, risk it all.
Risk it all.
Now if you, just from a musical perspective, it just, it reminds me, and it has that nostalgia of old dance school Ballad dance school, which like I absolutely love.
But on the flip side of it, if you start to listen to the lyrics, start to dive into the story, you know that I'm all for like things, you're all into the mushy stuff, aren't you?
(07:19):
All the mushy stuff.
This is Bruno.
It's at its core.
It's like.
Loving someone and willing to risk it all.
Willing to lose it all.
Just to keep them.
It's this, yeah.
The push pull or the trying to bridge the divide or, mm-hmm.
I'm just gonna burn the world down to fight for it and do it anyway.
(07:40):
Like to hell with it.
That's what it feels like.
And so I love it to have that beautiful story mixed into this really Latino feel.
The Qatar, it drives it.
Yeah.
So you can fall into either one of these camps and just thoroughly enjoy this track and yeah.
(08:01):
I just wanna put it on repeat.
I was beautifully surprised that this record started with a Mariachi song.
Yes.
It made me feel really good.
Have you watched the music video?
I only watch the Gotta go watch it.
Watch.
But I, yes.
Gotta go watch it.
Yeah.
On the same note, because the director of the music video was also, he did the photography for the cover out Daniel Ramos vibe.
(08:27):
He directed that one.
He directed the music video for, I just Might, which took off as a single.
The concept of all the Clone Brunos was his as well.
He did, what else did he do?
He did Die with the Smile.
He did Aita.
So he is has, he's been the director of all of these music videos
and he did, he did an absolute, another one, another absolute killer video, and it's just, you melt when you're watching it, just going, yeah, this is beautiful.
(08:56):
See, hitting it outta the ballpark once again.
Love this.
If you had to have a top pick.
I know it's a hard one for your face to a point, but not really for me.
This one, as soon as I heard the first eight bars of this tune, I was like, this is mine.
This is something serious.
Because not only is Bruno keeping horn players, string players, and percussionists in work single handedly.
(09:26):
Yeah, this thing.
Oh, what Such a fun tune.
I, yeah, just going into, coming out of having done Chacha Cha earlier in the album, it really just teases the Cha Chacha again and just drops into this kova groove.
We are always going nuts over the top.
(09:46):
There's a timbales solo before the vocals even come in.
Come on.
Stunning.
Right.
It's so much fun.
Yeah, and I will say, I would love to know if when they do it live, they don't.
Run an extra long fade out and or they don't run an extra long chorus.
I would love them to finish on that.
Yeah.
(10:06):
Caught just for me.
Yeah.
Yeah, just for me.
Put a request in, but yeah, and it tickles my ears as well because it comes straight out of my honorable mention.
On my soul, which is for all those musos out there, same tempo, completely different feel.
(10:28):
Yeah.
And all of a sudden you're back into this Latin groove again and you go, oh yeah, this feels good.
This feels great.
Nice.
But yeah, something serious.
It is a strutting song.
Love You Ever Wanted to Stru to a song, stru to that one.
But I've went digging as well because this is, that's thing's what we, yeah, we went digging.
(10:51):
And part of this, we like to look at some of the creative collaborations that happen, some of the recording artists that are on this thing, and Bruno being Bruno, has just pulled up just some incredible talent for this stuff.
His strings, I have to say.
'cause his disco strings have been a part of these albums for a while.
(11:13):
Disco strings are arranged by Larry Brown.
If you don't know who Larry Brown is, go and listen to.
Ain't No Stopping Us Now by McFadden and Whitehead.
Mm-hmm.
Oof.
That's the person who wrote those string parts.
Yes.
He wrote Strings For Justified by Justin Timber Blake.
He wrote Strings For Born to Die.
(11:34):
Lana Del Ray, this guy has done everything.
I think he's from 90 something Platinums as a string arranger.
So here, wrote the strings, such a sucker for strings, right?
And then you go, okay, cool.
So then this is amazing arranger.
Bruno's band are always incredible who produced it?
And all of a sudden you look at it and you just go and surveyed Genya Ater and just go and research Nia because 25 Grammy Awards something like 1500 releases on.
(12:11):
The official disco discography.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And all of the best pop pop albums and releases of the last 10 years.
It's ridiculous.
Huh?
All mixed by this one person,
ous.
Right.
Who else would get this group of people together to make a record?
(12:35):
The one and only Bruno Mars.
That's why we love him.
That's true.
This is true.
This is why we love him and it's why I do have some close friends who are massive fans as well, and I will be sending them this so they can talk about it as well.
That's always, I ran into a friend the day after it came out and they went favorite song as a way of saying hello.
(13:00):
They didn't say hi.
Mm-hmm.
They just said favorite song They knew.
They knew.
They knew.
Brother.
I think that's our time.
Sounds like it too.
Yes.
Trying to, yeah, A 10 minute sesh.
I think we've gone way over, but well worth it for a Bruno Mars record.
Absolutely.
Pleasure as always.
Always a pleasure, brother.
Talk to you later.
(13:25):
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
If you enjoy our episodes and find value in them, consider supporting us by making a donation.
Just visit buy me a coffee.com/through the creative door, or via the link in our Instagram buy where you can choose an amount and even write us a little message.
(13:48):
Every little bit helps, and we truly appreciate all of your support.
But if you can't donate, no worries.
You can still help us out by sharing our podcast with your friends and family, and leaving a review on your favorite platform.
Thanks so much for being part of our community, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
Welcome to B Side, the mini series.
From through the Creative Door, join Alexis and Sam as they dive into the timeless world of vinyl.
For Alexis, vinyl was more than music.
It was a Sunday ritual she shared with her dad, listening, talking, and soaking in the stories behind each album and the artwork on every sleeve.
(00:30):
Though her dad is no longer with us, she continues this tradition with her friend Sam Timmerman.
Join them as they share their passion for vinyl and the stories is records hold.
Good afternoon, good evening.
How are we?
How are we?
Well.
Better in seeing you.
(00:50):
Oh, you are lovely for saying that.
Thank you so much.
Um, I have to ask very quickly, remind me about your shirt before we get started on this episode.
Oh my goodness.
So for those listening, you need to make sure you get your ear holes around An Australian artist called Ben Abraham.
Now he has a merch run of t-shirt.
(01:14):
And on the front, front on, yeah, on the front of the T-shirt, it says, never been worse, and the bike says, never been better.
Because of one of his songs.
And it's a beautiful song.
It's a great song.
I'm sorry for derailing the show straight away.
No.
This episode or this is all about music and I'm just wearing the merch, baby.
(01:37):
That's it.
I think the first time I saw you in it, your shirts had never even been worse.
And I went, are you okay?
Yeah, yeah.
But then you just turn around and go.
Never been better.
That's true.
Yes.
But yes, those listening, make sure you get onto.
Abraham, he is a delight.
Absolute delight.
And maybe we'll listen to some music by him at some stage.
(01:59):
Yes, a hundred percent.
And just food for thought.
He always does Christmas concerts.
When he comes back to Australia.
Ah.
And last year was the biggest that he had, which was at the Forum Theater.
So they're like, growing forum is amazing too.
Ah, and yes.
So just FYI just keep an eye out if you are anywhere near.
(02:22):
Victoria and you'd like a laugh and great music, and he always has collaborations and different guest spots.
You never know who's gonna be there.
Do you mean that you are gonna be there next time?
No.
You just never know.
He, yeah.
Rings, rings up all sorts of people vibe.
Love it.
But I have one.
I got one, and I've been listening to this for a long time.
(02:43):
Is this the offering of today?
Yes, it is.
Managed to completely not notice that it was being made, missed.
All the promo somehow single came out and I was like, that single's wicked.
And then there was a video that popped up and it said, Bruno has just dropped a new album.
And I went, what?
And it was this, it was the Romantic by Bruno Mars.
(03:07):
And.
So first off, the vinyl cover is black and white.
It's got that nostalgic when you think about romantic with like roses and that kind of drawing, and then it's, yeah, Bruno, why wouldn't you have your face on a mile?
(03:28):
And the man's just gone with his own style and has just run with it.
It doesn't matter who's caring, who's not.
It's got to the point now where.
Like you're at megastar status, but you're just living your best life and it's awesome.
I'm an unapologetic Bruno Mars fan.
Yep, you certainly are.
So I bought this, the minutes I found out it existed, pre-ordered, it did the whole thing, and I pre-ordered this one because it looks like this.
(04:01):
Again, for those of you who are listening, you're just gonna have to look at a photo, but it looks like this.
Holy hell, is that gold?
This is gold.
What the hell?
I'm thinking like Cadbury caramel milk gold.
Yes.
That's a good way to describe it.
And it has roses on the insert.
Oh my goodness.
It's a beautiful piece of work.
Absolutely stunning.
(04:22):
Full lyric sheet and line of notes.
And it's just done in the composition book and it's gorgeous and we love it.
But diving into this thing I had, I'd been listening through it.
For as long as I could.
As many times as I could, as soon as it was released before I bought the physical.
And man, talk about an artist who's just gone into their own style and done everything that they want to do.
(04:45):
Mm-hmm.
He, he's been going towards the feel good.
Your disco, your Latin influenced rhythms, your just beautiful harmony.
Hmm.
For the longest time now, the evening with Silk Sonic was that just piqued my interest and I love that album dearly and he's gone next level with this one.
(05:10):
It's so much fun.
And it's interesting when you dive into this record because he's done projects where he is done a lot of like.
Hitter collaboration.
I was curious to find out who he had on this record, and it's interesting how intentionally he seems to have.
(05:32):
Made it all about him in the best.
Yeah.
This is very much, this is a Bruno record.
This isn't a collaborations record.
Yep, yep.
Because he releases all the singles.
He's got his tie with a smile with Gaga.
He's got his appetite with Rose and all the rest, and he's not, I'm gonna make mine.
Yeah.
But it's great because it means that you get to have one narrative.
One kind of perspective.
(05:55):
We've spoken about this before about I really vibe a record that is cohesive and almost a bit of a concept album, and I do feel like all of these songs sit so well together.
They're not all sounding the same, but they're the concept of this almost nostalgia that he's doing with the lyric book.
(06:15):
The kind of drawings, the kind of songs, my favorite, my top pick that's on this vinyl Go on Truly eat.
Okay.
If we talk about nostalgia, it just reminds me of going to your first dance class and learning how to do the chacha, or learning how to do simple steps with a dance partner because, so for the, there are three songs that I could think of that would be, yeah, I was just about to say, I feel like you're like, which one?
(06:48):
The first track on first side.
Oh, risk it all.
Risk it all.
Now if you, just from a musical perspective, it just, it reminds me, and it has that nostalgia of old dance school Ballad dance school, which like I absolutely love.
But on the flip side of it, if you start to listen to the lyrics, start to dive into the story, you know that I'm all for like things, you're all into the mushy stuff, aren't you?
(07:19):
All the mushy stuff.
This is Bruno.
It's at its core.
It's like.
Loving someone and willing to risk it all.
Willing to lose it all.
Just to keep them.
It's this, yeah.
The push pull or the trying to bridge the divide or, mm-hmm.
I'm just gonna burn the world down to fight for it and do it anyway.
(07:40):
Like to hell with it.
That's what it feels like.
And so I love it to have that beautiful story mixed into this really Latino feel.
The Qatar, it drives it.
Yeah.
So you can fall into either one of these camps and just thoroughly enjoy this track and yeah.
(08:01):
I just wanna put it on repeat.
I was beautifully surprised that this record started with a Mariachi song.
Yes.
It made me feel really good.
Have you watched the music video?
I only watch the Gotta go watch it.
Watch.
But I, yes.
Gotta go watch it.
Yeah.
On the same note, because the director of the music video was also, he did the photography for the cover out Daniel Ramos vibe.
(08:27):
He directed that one.
He directed the music video for, I just Might, which took off as a single.
The concept of all the Clone Brunos was his as well.
He did, what else did he do?
He did Die with the Smile.
He did Aita.
So he is has, he's been the director of all of these music videos
and he did, he did an absolute, another one, another absolute killer video, and it's just, you melt when you're watching it, just going, yeah, this is beautiful.
(08:56):
See, hitting it outta the ballpark once again.
Love this.
If you had to have a top pick.
I know it's a hard one for your face to a point, but not really for me.
This one, as soon as I heard the first eight bars of this tune, I was like, this is mine.
This is something serious.
Because not only is Bruno keeping horn players, string players, and percussionists in work single handedly.
(09:26):
Yeah, this thing.
Oh, what Such a fun tune.
I, yeah, just going into, coming out of having done Chacha Cha earlier in the album, it really just teases the Cha Chacha again and just drops into this kova groove.
We are always going nuts over the top.
(09:46):
There's a timbales solo before the vocals even come in.
Come on.
Stunning.
Right.
It's so much fun.
Yeah, and I will say, I would love to know if when they do it live, they don't.
Run an extra long fade out and or they don't run an extra long chorus.
I would love them to finish on that.
Yeah.
(10:06):
Caught just for me.
Yeah.
Yeah, just for me.
Put a request in, but yeah, and it tickles my ears as well because it comes straight out of my honorable mention.
On my soul, which is for all those musos out there, same tempo, completely different feel.
(10:28):
Yeah.
And all of a sudden you're back into this Latin groove again and you go, oh yeah, this feels good.
This feels great.
Nice.
But yeah, something serious.
It is a strutting song.
Love You Ever Wanted to Stru to a song, stru to that one.
But I've went digging as well because this is, that's thing's what we, yeah, we went digging.
(10:51):
And part of this, we like to look at some of the creative collaborations that happen, some of the recording artists that are on this thing, and Bruno being Bruno, has just pulled up just some incredible talent for this stuff.
His strings, I have to say.
'cause his disco strings have been a part of these albums for a while.
(11:13):
Disco strings are arranged by Larry Brown.
If you don't know who Larry Brown is, go and listen to.
Ain't No Stopping Us Now by McFadden and Whitehead.
Mm-hmm.
Oof.
That's the person who wrote those string parts.
Yes.
He wrote Strings For Justified by Justin Timber Blake.
He wrote Strings For Born to Die.
(11:34):
Lana Del Ray, this guy has done everything.
I think he's from 90 something Platinums as a string arranger.
So here, wrote the strings, such a sucker for strings, right?
And then you go, okay, cool.
So then this is amazing arranger.
Bruno's band are always incredible who produced it?
And all of a sudden you look at it and you just go and surveyed Genya Ater and just go and research Nia because 25 Grammy Awards something like 1500 releases on.
(12:11):
The official disco discography.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And all of the best pop pop albums and releases of the last 10 years.
It's ridiculous.
Huh?
All mixed by this one person,
ous.
Right.
Who else would get this group of people together to make a record?
(12:35):
The one and only Bruno Mars.
That's why we love him.
That's true.
This is true.
This is why we love him and it's why I do have some close friends who are massive fans as well, and I will be sending them this so they can talk about it as well.
That's always, I ran into a friend the day after it came out and they went favorite song as a way of saying hello.
(13:00):
They didn't say hi.
Mm-hmm.
They just said favorite song They knew.
They knew.
They knew.
Brother.
I think that's our time.
Sounds like it too.
Yes.
Trying to, yeah, A 10 minute sesh.
I think we've gone way over, but well worth it for a Bruno Mars record.
Absolutely.
Pleasure as always.
Always a pleasure, brother.
Talk to you later.
(13:25):
Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Through The Creative Door.
If you enjoy our episodes and find value in them, consider supporting us by making a donation.
Just visit buy me a coffee.com/through the creative door, or via the link in our Instagram buy where you can choose an amount and even write us a little message.
(13:48):
Every little bit helps, and we truly appreciate all of your support.
But if you can't donate, no worries.
You can still help us out by sharing our podcast with your friends and family, and leaving a review on your favorite platform.
Thanks so much for being part of our community, and we'll catch you on the next episode.
Bye.
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