We check in with British producer Alex Ross who has just unleashed his brand-new club-rumbler, ‘Deep In Your Heart’, an anthemic production with Futureclub, which is making waves across dancefloors all over the planet…
Welcome to DMC. You’ve just dropped ‘Deep In Your Heart’ What are your top three career highlights from then until now?
Back in 2016 I travelled down to London to work with my good friend Jamie Harper (Calper) in his studio flat. He played me this vocal he had written with his friends Martin & Debbie and I instantly liked it. We played around with it, I took it away and worked on it some more. 12 months on it was re-recorded by Leona Lewis and became one of Pitbull’s songs on his album “Climate Change”. Pitbull personally invited me down to London to a party to meet us. I didn’t have the cash to stay over in London and when he heard I was planning on travelling back that night. He insisted I stayed in the hotel that night where he was and even paid for my room! A True gent and genuinely nice guy! The tracks called “Only Ones To Know” if anyone’s interested! In 2017 I got the email that id been booked for Creamfields by Mistajam for his Jampacked stage along with Stormzy, J-hus and many more. Quite literally a dream come true. There’s so many highlights its been a rollercoaster so far but the third would have to be the signing of my first single dreams, Ministry heard a bootleg of the Gabrielle classic I’d made and signed it instantly, I worked on it some more and the rest is history. Not to mention T-Pain jumping on it.
How did the collaboration with Futureclub for this record come about In the first place?
And how did this collaboration come to work? Futureclub came to me with a concept that he had started already, I instantly loved the idea and we decided to collab. we worked on it some more back and forth and I added my signature stamp to it. We got the vocal re-recorded and then we were offered a record deal!
Massive congrats on the success of Dreams.. you reworked such a classic song and did an amazing job with it, which is such a challenge. What was the process like working with this one? Did you know instantly Dakota and T-Pain vocals were suited for this?
Thank you! And thanks for supporting it! I guess I just knew the voice had to be different. I didn’t want a big house diva vocal but I also didn’t want a soft airy vocalist either. I knew as soon as I heard Dakota sing that she had the tone I was looking for. We played her the record and she jumped on it. The song was ready but I knew it just needed one more twist to make it special. We sent it to T-Pain to experiment with and when I heard what he had come up with after sending him the demo, I was sold! He killed it!
Where in the world would you love to tour your new releases?
Everywhere! I Just love playing to crowds who are there for the music and are open to listening to new stuff no matter where. If you get a chance to come to one of my gigs I do drop in a lot of unreleased music I’m working on.
You’re from Huddersfield, do you think where you were brought up and your experiences has had an impact on your musical tastes? And how so?
I’m not sure “Where” comes into it as such but definitely who I was around and who was playing music to me from a young age. My Grandad must have sparked my love for music, he had the bug I have. Its just your life. He had a karaoke company and on a Saturday when I’d visit my Dad he would take me up to my Grandads shop and id be in awe of all the amps, speakers, soldering irons and wires. My Grandad lent me my first PA setup to do a disco at 15/16 years old. He was an insane Frank Sinatra sound-a-like and he even used to play around on his old computer on some music software called band in a box and write and produce his own songs even up until he passed. I need to dig those out, there could be a hit in there!
A lot of your background into making music was making bootlegs and using Soundcloud to promote yourself, how do you think Spotify has changed things up? And do you think its created a limitation to artist’s creativity?
Don’t even get me started with Soundcloud! Ha, it’s a love hate relationship! Spotify is better, much better however it does limit the creativity as bootlegs are pretty much not allowed. Then again they aren’t on Soundcloud no more either. It’s a sad time for creators who are trying to make a name for themselves but struggle to be heard. There’s a HUGE gap in the market for something like Soundcloud but different in that it makes sure original artists get the numbers and revenue and yet bootleggers or remixers can still get their creations heard. If I had the cash id set a website up myself! Surely all the legal side of things can be agreed somehow!
Last one, what 5 big tunes are you spinning in your sets at the moment?
Theres sooooo many! Top Five..ok …
Fisher – I’m Losin It
Alex Ross & Future Club – Deep In Your Heart (VIP Mix)
Cardi B – Like it Like That (MDB Remix)
David Guetta Ft. Sia – Flames (Pink Panda Remix)
Sigma – Anywhere
What else can fans expect this year in the world of Alex Ross?
Well you’ll have to wait and see, it’s only just beginning!
Thanks so much for the interview Alex! Anything you’d like to send out to our readers?
No problem thanks for having me! If you ever get the chance, come to one of my gigs and see how we throw a party!
www.facebook.com/alexrossuk
