Joining host Abe Kanan today for a special Audacy Check In is Breaking Benjamin's Benjamin Burnley – along with his son Ben Jr. -- giving us details about the band's brand new music, upcoming album plans, and plenty more.

Although Breaking Benjamin has not dropped a full length since 2018's 'Ember,' the longest span of time they have had in between albums, they have kept themselves quite busy in the meantime. The band just wrapped up their most recent co-headlining tour with Staind and special guest Daughtry, and at the start of the month released their brand new single "Awaken," which landed at the top of several Billboard charts.

Before discussing new music, Abe wanted to know from Ben Jr. what it’s like having a mega rockstar dad who performs in front of tens of thousands of people at his concerts each night. “It's like something special to me because, you know, I play on stage. I entertain like thousands of people and I'm grateful for that,” he tells us.

“Every time he's with me, he plays on stage with us,” Ben’s dad explains. “And also too, I want to mention, for real, the last chorus of ‘Awaken,’ there's like a pad vocal that's going on in the background and he's singing that. So, he's singing on the record. Yeah, he's singing on that song.” Giving us a taste of the raw audio featuring his son, Ben proudly says, “Not many people know, but, I mean, I'm kind of just spreading the word that he's singing on that track.”

The new single’s runaway success has, in a way, passed Burnley by since the band has been busy on the road since its release earlier this month. “I had no idea,” he tells us, “because I'm out on tour and just doing my thing out here. We have so much going on during the day… I haven't really checked in. I didn't know it was doing so well. I'm very, very thankful and grateful for that.”

“Our day to day out here on tour, we do a meet and greet and then we do the concert and we're not really, because we're traveling so much -- today is the last day of the tour -- the only kind of interaction that we get with actual people is at our meet and greet,” Ben explains. “So, we've gotten some good reactions from that and out here on tour, in the wild, that's really the only gauge that we get, because the rest of the day is stuff like this and the concert.”

The positive reaction he admits is “definitely gonna give us a little bit of a pep in our step,” to finish the rest of the album, “but we are already the type of band that we're going to give it our all no matter what,” he says. “That's what's taking so long… that and COVID.”

Taking his time writing music during what he considers such an uninspiring period, felt like the best course of action, he believes. “Everybody has a different personality, everybody works best under different conditions, and I'm just the type that I can have the negativity of COVID and all of that be turned into a positive thing. But I'm the type that it has to be after it's over and I reflect on it, not while I'm in it -- and that's like with anything. Like, if something bad happens and I'm hurting or whatever the case may be or even if I'm happy it has to be at a time, which is weird, I guess, but it has to be at a time when that's over and I'm looking back on it, not during. I'm too busy going through it during.”

Looking back now as a major headliner, Ben still remembers the early days quite fondly, playing at 11AM when the festival gates officially opened. “Yeah, I'm kind of surprised we're not doing that,” he says humbly. “I'm surprised we're not playing 11 o'clock. I'm really grateful that we're where we are, but I definitely do. I was just talking about that recently, you know how we've all been there, we've all done that. We all do the same things out here, and every step of the way is its own fun, its own allure, because I miss those days kind of in a way, because the climb, you know, the climb is fun. Reaching thin ...

Back on the music scene with three new solo singles, “Rockstar,” “New Woman” featuring Rosalía, and the latest “Moonlit Floor,” LISA checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to chat all about the new tracks, who's on her collab wish list, and what’s next.

LISA’s latest trio of singles, away from BLACKPINK, follows her first solo project, LALISA, a two-song set released in 2021 featuring title tune “LALISA,” and fan favorite “MONEY.”

Delving right it, Mike started the conversation discussing LISA’s latest single “Moonlit Floor,” asking her if she was familiar with the Sixpence None The Richer song “Kiss Me,” before she sampled it in the song. “Yeah, actually I remember when I was young, I don't know, five or six, my dad always played that in a car,” LISA recalled. “So I [was] kind of familiar with that song.”

Already stacking up an impressive list of collaborators like Ryan Tedder, Max Martin, and Rosalía with the three tracks she’s released thus far, LISA revealed she has a wish list of “a lot” more rockstars she’d love to work with, but at the moment, at the top of that list is Doja Cat.

Sharing some things she’s learned and picked up from the people that she’s worked with, LISA expressed, “when I did a music video with Rosalía… I learned something from her. She's amazing, she’s a professional, like every single take, that like action, she's just doing her thing. So I learned that confidence and identity, she just maintains her identity with her music, with her art and everything. So, yeah, I wanted to be someone like her that can maintain my identity.”

With dancing being such a big part of her career, LISA also shared a bit about starting dance lessons at the young age of four or five. Recalling her first day at dance school, which her mom dressed her for in a skirt, LISA said, “I just went in and they just tell me to kick… and I was like, I'm in the miniskirt.”

Noting, that dancing was something she had a great passion for and worked really hard on, “because I love it,” and “want to be good,” LISA went on to say, “I improved a lot when I moved to Korea, when they give me like intense dance lessons.” Especially through the power of repetition. “I just keep repeating it until my body memorize it."

Also discussing how she has the rights to her solo music, which Mike rightfully acknowledged is “just huge,” LISA concurred, saying, “I’m just so lucky, to have that on my own, I'm just so thankful… I’m so lucky.”

In addition to new music, also on the horizon, the K-Pop star is set to make her acting debut in season 3 of the hit HBO anthology, 'The White Lotus.' And while she didn’t share any scoop about the super secretive series that’s set to hit the small screen in 2025, she did share that she reached out to friends like band member Jennie, who also starred in an HBO series — 'The Idol,' for some guidance. “Yeah, I actually asked, like how do you memorize all the lines? Revealing the slightly unimaginative, but still helpful advice she received was, “you just memorize it.”

To catch the entire conversation, check out LISA's entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam

She’s an icon, she’s a legend, she is Kylie Minogue, and she checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York to chat all about her new album, Tension II, her upcoming TENSION Tour, and more.

From putting together her setlist to touring North America again, while gaining new fans, and reflecting on the days of cassettes and CDs -- Kylie covers it all.

Starting off expressing her excitement to be touring in North America after “too, too, too long,” Kylie admitted that putting together the setlist for, as Mike put it, “a show of this magnitude,” currently “lives rent free” in her head.

“Obviously it’s the TENSION Tour, so we're going to have songs from 'Tension' and 'Tension II,' even 'Disco,' my previous album I didn't get to tour,” Kylie noted. "But," she added with a smile, “we’re going to serve you ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head,’ and ‘All The Lovers,’ and even take you back to ‘Locomotion.’”

Pointing out how Kylie’s influence spans generations, Mike mentioned how “it's gotta be mind-blowing,” to have songs on the setlist like ‘Locomotion’ that have “the eighties babies dancing,” but also have a song like ‘Padam Padam’ that has their kids’ heart rates rising, Mike asks Kylie if she expects her shows to be a family affair.

“I'm so glad that you've recognized that,” Kylie responded, adding, how “because that’s been… such a buzz. That the OGs fans that have been around… they’re having a blast. And then the newer fans, new people who come to the Kylie party… I know they've been introduced, a lot of them with ‘Padam Padam’ or 'Tension,' whatever -- but they lose their minds over ‘Locomotion,’ which is just brilliant. So it means I can encompass the scope of my career, which is over five decades.”

When asked if there is a key to longevity in this crazy business, Kylie expressed, “There's a few things that definitely count,” listing them off, “persistence, tenacity, passion, luck.”

Noting he’s nostalgic about the long-ago days of cassettes and CDs, “when you would find the secret song at the end when you would just let the final track play.” Mike asked Kylie if there was anything she missed about the industry, from when she was first getting into it.

“Just the thrill of, you had to make the effort, go to the shop… that was like your kind of own private Idaho is to have put that record on, "Or, have to argue with your brother and sister, like, ‘what are we playing?’, Kylie answered. Also noting that “until I got a Walkman… You didn't have music on the move. So, I guess I can be nostalgic about all of that, but cut to now and it's great to go, ‘What do I want to listen to? What's new?' So much has changed.”

Talking about the changes she’s seen for women in the industry since her start, Kylie expressed, “It’s very encouraging that I'm proof, I'm sat here,” ...