There’s no slowing down for Alex Warren. Between headlining tours and supporting his 2025 chart-topping album, the “Ordinary” singer somehow found space to create his latest project, 'WILDCHILD,' which is now available everywhere.

Warren recently joined us inside the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk with Mike Adam about the making of 'WILDCHILD,' his relationship with his “heroes” from the album’s rollout campaign, and a look back at his massive, historic hit.

Before diving into his latest project, Warren looked back on a few of his favorite “Ordinary” covers, and shares that despite fears of the song outgrowing itself, he’s happy with the way it’s been able to soundtrack so many moments for people around the world. “Regardless of how big a record got, you know, it was played at funerals, it was played at weddings, so many things,” recalls Alex. “I think that those permanent moments in people's lives have benefited from that song.”

As for covers, there’s a few from 'America’s Got Talent' that have blown him away, but he’d still love to see Gracie Abrams take his track, “First Time On Earth,” for a spin. “I think that song would really compliment her voice.”

'WILDCHILD' is another offering from Alex, after serving up a 21 track debut in 2025, composed between tour dates during his meteoric rise. “We were doing the album, on my off time in between tours,” he reveals. “So I had about 2 or 3 months in-between tours, and we started working on the album then, and then I started going on tour every March, and whenever I'd have off time or whenever I had days off, they'd fly out and finish the album, and we've been working on this album now for about 1 year, 1 and a half years, so it's been really cool to kind of like, perfect this a little bit.”

In the lead-up to 'WILDCHILD,' Warren enlisted celebrities like Kevin James and Jennifer Aniston to help introduce fans to the project. “I write the scripts a lot of times,” says Alex. “I just had fun with it.”

“Are these people in your phone now?” asked Mike, wondering how you start a text to Jennifer Aniston. “I text Kevin the most, I think. I text all of them. Jen's a sweetheart. Jen does these things every Sunday that's really fun. I've yet to go, but I hear they're fun.”

'WILDCHILD' is a good look at Warren as an artist, after watching him starting to put it together for his debut. “These are songs that are about me. You've known me for this amount of time now,” he says. “It feels like a debut album because it feels like this is me as a musician. This is me as an artist. That was me becoming one.”

For more from Alex Warren, check out the full Audacy Check In above. 'WILDCHILD' is now available everywhere.

Sara Bareilles has returned with her first studio album since 2019, an emotional exploration of grief and healing titled, 'Good Grief.' Co-produced by Bareilles and Aaron Dessner, the collection traces a line through loss to hope, with a sharp focus on mental health both inside the songs, and surrounding the project.

Sara recently stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel New York for an Audacy Check In with host, Mike Adam, to talk about the making of the album, her upcoming tour, and her connection to organizations furthering the mission of helping those struggling with their own mental health.

First recommended to Bareilles by Brandi Carlile, Sara shared her “gentle” experience working with the highly intuitive producer, Aaron Dessner. “There's just something incredibly facile and easy and flexible about working with him,” shares Sara. “He's not imposing at all. It just feels very easy. It's really easy to work with him.”

With so much of 'Good Grief' centered on Sara’s journey through healing, it was important for Bareilles to team with organizations, NAMI and The Jed Foundation, in an effort to pay it forward and support the work they are both doing in the mental health space for this album and upcoming tour.

“My goal for this tour is to donate a million bucks to charity,” Sara reveals. “I'm someone who has really struggled with my mental health over the years. I require a lot of support. I require medication, meditation, therapy, you name it, good friends, all of it, so I'm just trying to sort of pay it forward as best I can, and I think it's a really important time, you know, the world feels crazy, people are struggling, we're carrying a lot, and I think that helping ourselves get help is what I want.”

When asked by Adam about finding the line of using pain and struggle to create, versus it being too unhealthy, Sara admits that she found herself on the latter side in 2020. “When I knew it was too unhealthy was in 2020,” she says. “I have my now husband but then partner, Joe Tippett, to sort of thank for this, that he was like, ‘we gotta figure something out.’ I was just beside myself with anxiety all the time, ruminating thoughts, fixation, bad sleep, a kind of paranoia.”

“There's one song that actually is on the record that I wrote on my birthday of that year,” Sara adds. “This is like as bad as I've ever been. And it's the only experience I've had of feeling like I channeled something. I was sort of desperate and saying a prayer of just like, ‘I'm not OK,’ and I put my voice memo on record and I sat at the piano and the song, ‘Wind Is The Weather,’ sort of arrived and it arrived in completion.”

“It was all about that idea of writing a letter to your wiser self, or writing a letter to God, or the universe, or whatever your belief is, and the wisdom that comes back is, ‘whatever it is you can handle this, you're not broken, there's nothing to fix, you are OK you can hold this too.’ So I guess, yeah, something good comes out of it sometimes, but it's not comfortable. It's painful, it's scary.”

Bareilles will headline the 'Good Grief Tour' across North America this fall, kicking off September 9. For more on 'Good Grief,' check out the full Audacy Check In above.

GRAMMY-winning singer Tyla has returned with her sophomore album, 'A*POP,' making good on the promise of an industry-shaking superstar and somehow still marking another leap forward for 24-year-old South African artist.

A few days before the release, Tyla joined Brooke Morrison inside our Los Angeles studios to talk about her own evolution since first finding success, and the driving force behind 'A*POP.'

“Everything feels different. Like, I feel different,” admits Tyla. “Everything I do is based on a feeling, so, I don't know, like it wasn't really intentional. I just didn't sing what didn't feel like me and I didn't make what didn't feel like me because I know listening to ‘A*POP,’ it feels exactly like how I feel right now. It's fine growing up in front of the world and letting the world see all these different versions of me, and it's just weird at times cause I'm like ‘damn, like you guys have seen me grow up,’ but it's also interesting to for me also to sometimes look back and see who I was and now who I'm becoming.”

“I've just gone through so many different experiences that have led me to be this girl that I am right now,” she adds. “I've just grown so much, a lot of things that mattered to me in the beginning don't matter as much now and vice versa, so it's interesting to see me becoming more myself.”

That “feeling” has guided Tyla well, earning her 2 GRAMMY Awards from her debut album and already racking up millions of listens and views on A*POP lead singles like “CHANEL” and “IS IT.”

“I base everything on feeling. It's kinda weird, it's like a superpower, but like, girl, like when I hear a song, when I hear a beat, when I hear a lyric, like it rings in me when it feels right.”

“I can't explain it, but I just know when something is for me and when it's just not. It could be a hit song, but if it's not for me, I just, I don't even pay mind to it.”

The success and support that Tyla has found in her young career has helped her to feel “limitless,” and find purpose beyond the Pop. “I'm literally a girl from South Africa, like, this does not happen ever and I got two GRAMMYs of one album and all these crazy things and I don't like bringing it up cause I'm like, you know, but it's just kinda limitless. As humans, we're just so limitless and It's just exciting to share that feeling with people.”

To hear more about the making of A*POP and the evolution of Tyla, check out the full Audacy Check In above.