Go with Elmo Lovano

Episode 112: Stanley Clarke is one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, both on acoustic and electric bass. His long time collaboration with Chick Corea and Return To Forever changed music. His solo albums and the success from it had him as the first bass player to ever take front and center stage. He's a multi GRAMMY winning artist, and one of the greatest living master teachers, as well as being an incredibly sweet and loving human. Stanley is one of a kind. This is the longest and deepest Stanley Clarke interview on the internet, and we're so happy that Stanley chose us for this.

Coming up in Philadelphia, how he found the bass, moved to NY and starting gigging with Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, and Chick Corea. We go DEEP on drummers. His work with Tony Williams, Lenny White, Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham, John JR Robinson, etc

How Chick talked him out of a classical career, the switch to electric, Romantic Warrior, why it ended, and losing Chick. We talk School Days and being the first bass player to headline his own shows. The Alembic that changed his sound, his solo records, the great George Duke, and how a jazz bass player ended up scoring, meeting a young John Singleton, and writing the music for Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, and over 70 film and TV scores.

His new album Last Train To Sanity is INCREDIBLE.

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Stanley Clarke, George Duke - Sweet Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6AHjroSkfM

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Stanley:

https://www.instagram.com/stanleyclarke/

Follow Go With Elmo:

https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/

https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

https://x.com/gowithelmopod

Follow Elmo Lovano:

https://Instagram.com/elmolovano

https://x.com/elmolovano

#stanleyclarke #chickcorea #returntoforever #fusion
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 111: Hit-Boy is one of the biggest producers in modern day music. He's produced some of the biggest songs for Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Drake, Travis Scott, Big Sean and Nipsey Hussle. He's a 3x Grammy winner. He gave Jay-Z the first diamond record of his career, off a beat that six artists turned down before it ever got to him.

This Hit-Boy interview is different than the others he's done. We go deep into the craft, how the beats actually get made, cut, released, and paid! Why he's numbered every single beat he's made since 2006, and what happened to the 1,600 nobody picked. We got into all of it. Making "Backseat Freestyle" for Ciara before Kendrick ever heard it. Producing a #1 country record for Beyoncé. Being flat broke in 2017 with a future #1 already sitting on his hard drive. Getting free after 18 years and putting his new album out himself, on his own site, with no label and no DSPs. He also still makes everything in FL Studio, the same program he started on at 15 years old in Fontana, California.

He's one of the most important producers of the last 15 years and he's still working like he has something to prove. His biggest days are still ahead of him. This one's for anybody who makes music in the modern world, especially hip hop and pop. I hope you enjoy my interview with the legendary, Hit-Boy!

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Hit-Boy:

https://www.instagram.com/hitboy/

Follow Go With Elmo:

https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/

https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

https://x.com/gowithelmopod

Follow Elmo Lovano:

https://Instagram.com/elmolovano

https://x.com/elmolovano

Follow Jammcard:

https://www.youtube.com/@jammcard

https://www.instagram.com/jammcard/

jammcard.com

#hitboy #hiphop #rapproducer #musicproducer

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 110: Evan "Kidd" Bogart has worn nearly every hat in the music industry. From mailroom A&R at Interscope Records to hit songwriter (Beyoncé's "Halo," Rihanna's "SOS"), artist manager, booking agent, and now buying music catalogs with Seeker and advocating for creators as Vice Chair of the Recording Academy. He's one of the rare people who has sat in nearly every seat at the table. In this episode, Elmo Lovano goes deep with Evan Bogart on both the craft and the business of music.

Evan is the son of Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart, the legendary executive behind KISS, Donna Summer, Parliament, and the Village People, and manager, Joyce Bogart Trabulus. He grew up inside the music business, tried to make it as a rapper, and worked his way up from the Interscope mailroom to the A&R department. As a teenager, he discovered Eminem and was the first person to put Em in front of Jimmy Iovine. He'd go on to sign Kara's Flowers, who later changed their name to Maroon 5.

After getting sober in his early 20s, Evan reinvented himself as a songwriter, and his very first composition, "SOS" for Rihanna, went to No. 1. He followed it with the Grammy-winning "Halo" for Beyoncé, co-written with Ryan Tedder in just three hours, plus hits for Britney Spears, Madonna, Lizzo, Jason Derulo, Leona Lewis, and more.

Today, Evan is the CEO of Seeker Music, the creator-led music rights, publishing, and record company he's built into a catalog of more than 19,000 copyrights and master recordings valued at roughly $400 million. The catalog includes works by Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Drake, Christopher Cross, Joan Jett, Run the Jewels, and Lewis Capaldi. Named the #2 Most Innovative Music Company of 2025 by Fast Company, Seeker recently closed its inaugural $267 million asset-backed securitization with M&G Investments and announced a global distribution partnership with Virgin Music Group. If you don't know what that means, that's OK, because we break it all down.

We get into how you actually value and buy a music catalog, the business of publishing and masters, how songwriter splits and royalties work, why music rights have become an institutional asset class, and how music-backed securitization deals get financed. We also dig into Evan's role as Vice Chair of the Recording Academy and Co-Chair of the GRAMMYs Songwriters & Composers Wing, where he fights for fair mechanical royalty rates, helped create the Songwriter of the Year Grammy, and is helping shape the conversation around AI and the future of music rights, creativity, and ownership.

This is the deep, insider version of Evan Bogart's story. The craft, the deals, the money, and the mission. For anyone who wants to understand how the music business actually works.

I hope you enjoy the conversation with my dear friend, Evan Bogart!

This episode is brought to you by our friends at The Pod Company! Their portable sauna makes it easy to prioritize your health wherever you are, whether you're on tour, traveling, or at home. Use promo code ELMO to get yours for $499 instead of $999! Learn more at https://podcompany.com/

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Evan:
https://www.instagram.com/kiddbogart/

Follow Go With Elmo:
https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/
https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo
https://x.com/gowithelmopod

Follow Elmo Lovano:
https://Instagram.com/elmolovano
https://x.com/elmolovano

Follow Jammcard:
https://www.youtube.com/@jammcard
https://www.instagram.com/jammcard/
jammcard.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 109: Michael League is the founder of Snarky Puppy, the GroundUP Music label, and the GroundUP Music Festival, and he's one of the most independent minds working in music today. He sat down with us for a deep conversation about how he built the whole thing. This isn't an interview about bass tone or gear. It's about how the entire machine actually works: how a bandleader turns a college project into a five-time Grammy-winning institution, an artist-first record label, and an international festival, all on his own terms, and all without a major label calling the shots.

We trace the whole arc. League started Snarky Puppy in 2004 at the University of North Texas because he wasn't getting to play, so he built his own band. It transformed when he immersed himself in the Dallas gospel and R&B scene, absorbing the mentorship of the late Bernard Wright, the "North Star" who reshaped its feel. Out of that came the Snarky Puppy sound and the rotating cast fans call "the Fam," nearly 40 players who launched solo careers like Cory Henry's ("Lingus" is one of the most-watched instrumental performances online), Bill Laurance, Mark Lettieri, Larnell Lewis, Robert "Sput" Searight, and more.

Michael pulls back the curtain: how he leads and pays this rotating collective, schedules a year out so everyone gets bandstand time, and sees himself, borrowing from Béla Fleck, as "a leader among equals." We get into why he founded GroundUP Music after growing disenchanted with the label system, how it works as an artist-friendly alternative to majors, and how the GroundUP Festival became a no-headliner gathering that's crossed the Atlantic.

We also cover his life as collaborator: his partnership with David Crosby, whose late-career renaissance he helped spark; Lalah Hathaway entering the Snarky orbit; Family Dinner coming together; discovering Jacob Collier early; his band Elipsis with Antonio Sanchez and Pedrito Martinez; his love of the oud; and running it all from a 500-person Roman-era village in Spain. We talk making a living in music, sustainable careers for musicians, mentors and friends he's lost, and AI's effect on the industry.

This is for musicians, bandleaders, producers, and label-builders and anyone who's wondered how to build something lasting without compromising the art. If you love Snarky Puppy, jazz fusion, and the real workings of the industry, this one's for you. Subscribe and hit the bell. Lets go!

This episode is brought to you by our friends at The Pod Company! Their portable sauna makes it easy to prioritize your health wherever you are, whether you're on tour, traveling, or at home. Use promo code ELMO to get yours for $499 instead of $999! Learn more at https://podcompany.com/

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Michael:

https://www.instagram.com/michaelleagueplaysmusic/

Follow Go With Elmo:

https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/

https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

https://x.com/gowithelmopod

Follow Elmo Lovano:

https://Instagram.com/elmolovano

https://x.com/elmolovano

Follow Jammcard:

https://www.youtube.com/@jammcard

https://www.instagram.com/jammcard/

jammcard.com

#michaelleague #snarkypuppy #groundupfestival
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 108: Labrinth joins us for one of the deepest interviews he's ever had about music, creativity, production, songwriting, and the journey that shaped his career.

From his early days in London to being discovered by Simon Cowell, producing Tinie Tempah's "Pass Out," forming LSD with Sia and Diplo, scoring HBO's Euphoria, collaborating with Billie Eilish, Finneas, Zendaya, Beyoncé, The Weeknd, Fred again.., and more, this is a career-spanning deep dive into one of the most original artists of our generation.

We talk about how Labrinth approaches songwriting and music production, how he thinks like a producer, why every sound matters, his philosophy on creativity, imagination, originality, building a unique sonic identity, and the lessons he's learned throughout his career. We also dive into his new project, Cosmic Opera, his home studio, live performance, and what it really takes to create music that moves people.

Whether you're a musician, producer, songwriter, or simply fascinated by the creative process, this episode is packed with insights on finding your sound, making meaningful art, and building a lasting creative career, while staying true to yourself. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the amazing, Labrinth!

This episode is brought to you by our friends at The Pod Company! Their portable sauna makes it easy to prioritize your health wherever you are, whether you're on tour, traveling, or at home. Use promo code ELMO to get yours for $499 instead of $999! Learn more at https://podcompany.com/

Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year!

Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo

Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated!

Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/

Follow Labrinth:

https://www.instagram.com/labrinth/

Follow Go With Elmo:

https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/

https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo

https://x.com/gowithelmopod

Follow Elmo Lovano:

https://Instagram.com/elmolovano

https://x.com/elmolovano

Follow Jammcard:

https://www.youtube.com/@jammcard

https://www.instagram.com/jammcard/

jammcard.com

#labrinth #euphoria #cosmicopera
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices