Jerome Price Interview

Joining Endor and Felon at Selected Live this Friday 12th, Jerome Price is still riding high from the release of 'Me Minus You' - an equation we'll leave up to you to solve the answer to (clue, it's not 'Us'). Get tickets for the party here.

Straddling the line between poppy song-writing and bumping garage-inspired basslines, his big break came thanks to being talent spotted by J.Lo and Pitbull: more on that below. Since then he's been steadily building momentum, earning a major remix for Major Lazer. With a new single in the works, as well as an appearance at Creamfields later this month, we chatted to him about adopting a trans-Atlantic lifestyle, his inspirations and what it means coming from Leicester with the city's new found football fame...

We're intrigued by your bio, which says you split your time between Newcastle and Los Angeles. They're not necessarily cities that you'd imagine being paired together. How come you're living in both, and not one or the other?

Well, Newcastle is now home and I've lived here for at least six years now. I came for university and kind of stuck around! LA is where my publishers are based and when I signed with them they were keen to fly me out so I could make the most of what the place has to offer.

Newcastle is an amazing city for many things, but as a producer there aren't many opportunities. So it's great to get to go to LA and work with the amazing songwriters, spread my sound and enjoy some sun.

You're originally from Leicester, currently best known for having won the Premier League. Is it's nightlife scene a similarly dark horse? What influence did it have on developing your taste for electronic music, if any?

It's crazy, before this year no one had heard of Leicester when I told them where I was from! I moved away from Leicestershire when I was about 18/19 for Uni so I never really got to experience the Leicester nightlight to the fullest. At the time I was more into hip hop and grime music and was only really starting to discover house. I've been back a few times since to play and it's always good to see old faces.

J.Lo and Pitbull personally selected your remix of 'Booty' as the winner of a remix competition, which helped kickstart your career. Did you get feedback from them personally? How did things change after you'd been announced and what had you been doing before this happened?

It was actually a contest for an online record pool called DJ City and prior to the contest I had been submitting a lot of unofficial remixes, edits and bootlegs to the site anyway. My tracks always seemed to get a really good response with the user DJs. I would look for songs that were popular at the time, which didn't already have a decent official house remix, and put my own spin on them. This was often without the acapellas, so when the opportunity came to work with official stems for 'Booty' it was a no brainer. I just did what I had been doing before. I think the judges narrowed down to the top three and J.Lo and Pitbull picked the winner. Of course, there was a prize but the biggest part was the extra exposure it brought and getting the chance to officially remix the Pitbull and Chris Brown single 'Fun' further down the line. Jennifer Lopez following me on Instagram is still my claim to fame!

Remixing Major Lazer was another big moment. How did you end up doing that with James Hype? Do the pair of you have any other collaborations planned?

At the time I had already committed to a few other projects and was really short on time to finish them. I was sent the stems and was given a few days to finish it. But when you get offered to remix a Major Lazer track you don't turn it down. I knew James through DJ City because he was doing the whole 'Unofficial Remix' thing at the same time as me and his stuff had great feedback with DJs as well. Plus I knew his work ethic is unlike anyone else's! We had actually been talking about working on something together for a while, so when the Major Lazer opportunity arose I asked him if he wanted to collaborate and help me out with the time constraints. It turned out sick and we had some really great support on it. The last time I was in London we managed to squeeze in a studio session and there will definitely be more in the works.

Your latest release was 'Me Minus You'. Which of your original releases so far has been your favourite or made the biggest impressions?

I've been making music since I was about 13 and a lot of that time was spent trying to find my feet musically. Right now, I think I'm making the best music yet and I'm really proud of it. 'Me Minus You' is my first big release and the reaction and support has been pretty overwhelming. It's kind of the bench mark for me at the moment. I've been working hard in the studio on new material to try and top that!

What others DJs or producers do you have an affinity with?

I really like CamelPhat at the moment. I think they've been really consistent with their releases and always put out something that I'd want to play. Also I'm a fan of Just Kiddin. I can really see them doing well over the next few years. Gorgon City are the guys I look up to and really admire, the balance they find with underground and crossover audiences is what I want to emulate.

What's next on the horizon?

I can't wait to get on the road. I've just signed with my agents CAA and I've already got some really great gigs coming up that I'm really excited about. I'll be playing Creamfields later this month as well which is dream come true. And of course I'll be in the studio. I've been working hard on the next single and having collaborated with some exceptional songwriters over the past few month, its looking really exciting.

What are three tracks which sum up your current sound?

Jerome Price - 'Me Minus You'

Jhonsson - 'Some People (Jerome Price Remix)'

Tim Berg - 'Seek Bromance (Jerome Price Remix)'