STEPHEN TO ANNE MARIE:

SB: What is your favorite song?

AM: Stand Up by King Canyon. Yeah, I dropped that right into a writing playlist for an upcoming movie of mine for sure…

SB: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

AM: Just Mike Sabath. Yeah, hella weird that it doesn’t happen more often.

SB: Time does strange things to music, especially the interpretation of music and artists. Nickelback is on every station and selling out stadiums and now they’re the punchline to so many jokes. Conversely, you’ve got artists that were blips on the radar back in the day like Rick Astley who now are household names because someone/something in culture today breathes new life into them. Do you have any artists/songs you can think of that surprised you in either direction?

AM: This is such an interesting question, because (gossip coming) I recently learned a hilarious story — something like — P Diddy never asked Sting if he could sample “I’ll Be Missing You” before he used it and now he pays him and few thousand dollars a day in royalties for it? I also read that Cardi B tried to sample a Tracy Chapman song and Tracy found out and Cardi initially asked to use it for free? I dunno if any of that is true, but, man, the music business is wild!

I mean, the one that comes to mind rn is Kate Bush’s song Running Up That Hill that was in Stranger Things. Talk about a song nobody clicked on and it became the song of the summer last year. I heard it everywhere. On Top 40 stations. In bars and clubs. Taxis.

I think it’s super interesting when things resurface in the culture. Part of me thinks music is very different than movies in this regard. In the movie business, people are constantly looking at the old box office numbers and going, this was a sure thing, let’s repurpose it. Whereas, for music, it really feels like a producer or an artist really loved a song from the past and it inspired them in some way and they came up with a way to utilize it, and they think about all the business aspects in hindsight after the thing has been crafted. There are obviously pitfalls to each approach, but I like hearing sampling in music because it reminds me that art always informs and begets art…even when we think it doesn’t and/or we don’t understand the connect.

ANNE MARIE TO STEPHEN:

AM: What is your favorite song?

SB: Gotta go with your lead off track. Tentación by Marte. Got ‘em coach!

AM: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

SB: Only Mike Sabath, since we both featured the same song. Doesn’t happen often. Let’s pour one out.

AM: Since you’re out of retirement and hooping again this month… What’s the intro song for you getting on the court… the song or album that makes you think you can still ricochet layups like you did in your 20’s? And what’s the outro music… for when you’re crawling home and toward the ice bath…?

SB: Haha, my gut would be to answer with the same song ‘cause I’m pretty sure I knew where it was going before the game started. If I had to pick two different songs, I’d probably say to start it would be “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number” by Aaliyah. And then, after the game, it would hands down be “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.