#27 - Rookie of the year 🌞

Happy Sunlighter Sunday! It’s only February, but we already have a rookie of the year. Also, make sure your notifications are ON for Fred again…, Skrillex, and Four Tet. They might be in your city next.

This week, we're dropping the poll to give you all another music newsletter we enjoy reading.

Here's what we have queued up this week:

1. 🌶️ Review of Let's Start Here. by Lil Yachty.

2. 🎹 Songs we're currently listening to.

3. 🎙️ Julia Wolf is our artist of the week.

4. 💿 Industry updates are EDM-heavy with Skrillex, Fred again… and Avicii.

5. 📈 Data on SOS.

6. 🎡 Festival Announcements: Kygo and Myles Shear’s Palm Tree Music Festival.

7. 🤘 Tour Announcements: SUGA, P!NK, Wiz Khalifa, The Chicks, The Smile, and more.

Chris: After taking the Wock to “Poland,” Lil Yachty surprised us with a very unexpected album that feels as much psychedelic and ethereal as it does existential and non-conforming. The production throughout the album emphasizes the uniqueness of Lil Yachty’s voice while exploring Lil Yachty’s thoughts - give a listen to :(failure(:. It’s really hard to know what to make of it, but the sound in hip-hop is beginning to change, and it’s being led by the popularity of Gemini Rights by Steve Lacy and Lil Uzi Vert’s single “Just Wanna Rock”.

Donya: I literally texted Chris earlier this week saying, “Wait am I… enjoying this Lil Yachty album?” It feels like an alternative rock album with a classical twist, but also nothing at all that you would expect. And you know what? It works. As the album progresses, you hear the influence of Steve Lacy’s success loud and clear, but I think Lil Yachty does it better. “The Alchemist.” is a standout track.

The Sunlighter Playlist 🔀

Songs we’re currently listening to 🎹

Artist of the Week: Julia Wolf🎙️

From the esteemed music programs of NYU and Juilliard to the evolving hip-hop culture of the Bronx and Queens, New York continues to be one of the epicenters of music. This week, we’re introducing you to Queens-based artist, Julia Wolf.

Gothic Tendencies

Growing up on the North Shore in Long Island, Julia was raised by her Italian-American parents who supported her independent artistry from an early age. When Julia turned seven, her father gifted her a white baby grand piano, allowing her to initially explore her musical interests. Throughout her youth, Julia’s parents continued to expose her to the arts with dance and painting classes, while simultaneously introducing her to musical artists like Madonna, The All-American Rejects, and Avril Lavigne (her first live show). By the time she became a teenager in high school, her musical taste and socially introverted propensity ultimately inspired her to embrace the emo/goth scene. She began to realize that her passion for performing music helped push her social boundaries and allowed her to come out of her shell from time to time. During her senior year, Julia performed for her senior talent show, dedicating her first original song to her best friend as she was set to leave for college the following year.

Father’s Intuition

After high school, Julia attended SUNY Purchase College, where she initially enrolled in the Conservatory of Music to focus on music composition. After her first year, she took a short hiatus from college to study classical music under a Brooklyn-based composer (Darren Solomon) who motivated her to become a concert pianist. However, when she returned to SUNY Purchase, she enrolled in a songwriting program, realizing that her vision for her personal music style was different from the producers and composers that had been collaborating with her. Her work ethic greatly outpaced her progress, and she began to feel the pressures of failure. Around the same time, her father provided her with a shocking proposal - “what if we move to Italy to open up a pizza restaurant?” It was a desensitizing realization for Julia that her music dreams might take a backseat, but with her music career struggling, she happily said yes. After selling their house, her father sensed that the move might not be the best path for her daughter, and the family opted to stay. They moved to Queens, and shortly after, Julia serendipitously met Jackson Foote.

Rookie of the Year

As a self-proclaimed “only hip-hop and Taylor Swift fan,” Julia admired clever storytelling and lyricism. Revering artists like Frank Ocean, SZA, and Jack Harlow, Julia took lyrical and production inspiration from hip-hop and R&B tracks to formulate her early songs, keeping creative songwriting front and center. Her songwriting usually manifested in late-night sessions at the studio she interned for (right past Times Square) or tirelessly writing on her bedroom walls with invisible ink. But she had always felt that there was always something missing from the production side. After meeting Jackson in what she describes as a meeting of kindred spirits, the momentum of her music career changed. Throughout their collaboration, Julia became one of the first singer-songwriters to be featured in Spotify’s Fresh Finds program, appearing on a billboard in Times Square (a true full-circle event). She also had the opportunity to work with artists like FLETCHER and blackbear before releasing her sophomore album, Good Thing We Stayed, earlier this year.

Make sure to catch her on tour this year with Quinn XCII because she’s definitely this year’s rookie of the year:

Industry Updates 💿

💸 Rihanna made history last weekend as the first female billionaire to perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Who run the world? Queen Rih Rih. She also said it would be “ridiculous” if she didn’t drop a new album in 2023. We agree, and we fully support that. Now, let’s get into this week’s updates.

💿💿 Skrillex dropped two albums in two days and performed in the middle of Times Square with Fred again… and Four Tet, The 1975 announced their biggest headlining show in the UK yet, a gamer scopes out seats to the RENAISSANCE Tour while playing The Last Of Us 2, David Guetta believes AI is the future of music, Pharrell Williams succeeds the late Virgil Abloh as Louis Vuitton’s Creative Director, and footage was released from Avicii’s last-ever gig.

🤝 A few big partnerships announced this week: SoundCloud makes an investment in the EDM artist discovery space by signing a deal with WUGD, Deezer expands to new markets with its agreement to power Sonos, Napster acquires Mint Songs as it continues to build in the Web3 space, Hipgnosis invests in Timbaland’s Beatclub catalog, and Iconoclast acquires Diplo’s Mad Decent catalog.

Here are a few more things you might have missed:

• 👑 From Startup to CEO: After being Google’s 16th employee in 1999, Susan Wojcicki steps down as the CEO of YouTube, having held the role for 9 years and been at the company for almost 25 years.

• ⏰TikTok on the Clock: Snoop Dogg brings the Death Row music catalog to TikTok’s SoundOn distribution service for one week only after removing it from all streaming platforms last year.

• 💪 Pakistani Spotify Streaming Records: Shae Gill breaks streaming records with her song, “Pasoori,” which was featured on Disney+ show, Ms. Marvel, building upon strides for the Pakistani music industry and women.

• ✂️ Tunecore: The digital music platform is beta-testing a feature on how to split royalty payments amongst artists.

Data 📈

SOS, SZA Broke All the Records: This week, we’re spotlighting SZA and all of the records she broke with her third studio album:

• SZA was one of the four female artists to debut a #1 album on the Billboard 200 in 2022.

• SOS became the first album by a black female artist to spend its first three weeks at #1 since Beyoncé’s self-titled surprise album in 2013.

• SOS became the first album to spend its first five weeks at #1 since Adele’s 30.

• SOS became the longest-running #1 album on the Billboard 200 by a female artist released in 2022, surpassing Midnights by Taylor Swift.

• SOS becomes the first R&B album to spend its first seven weeks at #1 since Whitney Houston’s Whitney in 1987.

• SZA joins Adele and Taylor Swift as the only female artists in the last decade to have an album spend at least seven weeks at #1.

• SZA and Taylor Swift become the only female artists ever to simultaneously chart at least 20 songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

• This week, it aims ten weeks at #1, which would be the longest-running #1 album by a female artist since Adele’s 25.

Festival Announcements 🎡

🌴Endless Summer Vibes: Palm Tree Crew started as a tight-knit community founded by Kygo and his manager, Myles Shear, in 2016. Since then, it’s become a convergence platform of live entertainment and capital investments while embracing the tropical summer vibes along the way. This June, they’re hosting a one-day concert series at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California.

Tour Announcements 🤘

• Get ready ARMY. SUGA will be the first of the seven BTS members to go on a solo tour now that BTS is on hiatus until 2025.

• Charlie Puth will be providing his fans with The “Charlie” Live Experience starting in May and ending in July.

• P!NK announced her 14-city The TRUSTFALL Tour, which kicks off later this fall, following her Summer Carnival Stadium Tour this summer. GROUPLOVE and KidCutUp will be accompanying her.

• Future Islands will be on tour this spring, playing 16 shows within the month of May.

• Wiz Khalifa is going on a Good Trip Tour with a few friends, including Joey Bada$$. His brief stint on the road will end in the Mile High City at Red Rocks. Is that the mountain fog or…

• The Chicks announced a North American tour across 29 cities with special guests Maren Morris, Wild Rivers, and Ben Harper.

• Jason Aldean announced his Highway Desperado Tour, headlining 41 cities with openers Corey Kent and Dee Jay Silver.

• Thom Yorke’s The Smile will be back on tour this summer.

• Noel Gallagher’s High-Flying Birds and Garbage announced a co-headlining tour that will take place this summer. Metric will be joining the tour as special guests.

• Ben Folds announced his What Matters Most Tour, which will be supporting his upcoming album, his first in 8 years.

• Fleet Foxes will continue to tour in 2023, which 22 additional dates announced.

• Milky Chance is coming back to the Americas with their Summer Haze Tour.

• Yellowcard is going on tour for the first time in six years to celebrate 20 years of Ocean Avenue (wow do we feel old). Special guests include Mayday Parade, Story of the Year, Anberlin, and others.

• Count them in. All Time Low will be on tour this year from May to June. Mayday Parade will be joining them at select cities.

• Breaking Benjamin will be co-headling a tour with Bush before joining Disturbed later in the year.

• Disturbed announced the Take Back Your Life tour, which kicks off in Montreal in April. Theory of a Deadman, Breaking Benjamin, and JINJER will be joining the tour as special guests.

• Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper announced they will be co-headlining the Freaks on Parade Tour, which kicks off in August.

Wrap Up 👏

We're closing the newsletter this week with that SZA energy. This is one of our favorite tracks from the album that broke all the records.

Sharing is Caring

If you know any music fans or friends who would appreciate something like this, forward them this email and they can use the button below to subscribe.

Check out our other articles and give us a follow on Twitter!

See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya