February 26, 2024 • 20 mins
Celebrating his smash "Past Life" w Felix Jaehn hitting #1 on the dance charts, Jonas Blue shares how the song was born, who originally wrote it, and how many Vs there were of it before release. Jonas also breaks the news of which massive artists his next song is with!
We also get to know Jonas a little better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
We also get to know Jonas a little better w #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
- the first thing he wanted to be growing up
- the first time he ever DJ'd
- the first choices for artist names when he was deciding on one
- the first song he ever produced
- the first dance song that made him fall in love EDM
- the first person he would want to be if he could be anyone in a past life
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on stations around the world!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Jonas. Honestly, it is sogood seeing you again. It has been
like three and a half years sincewe've had the chance to really catch up.
Yeah, it's been a minute.The one thing I do want to
say is you do not age,to see it. I'm actually Benjamin Button.
I drank polar Bear blood when Iwas younger, and it's helped me
to like age backward. Yeah,whatever the skincare routine is, you need
(00:23):
to send it over to me,because yeah, you do not age at
all. I appreciate that same toyou. How have you been house Quincy?
Yeah, Quincy's good. I literallygot back yesterday. I was doing
South America tour, so yeah,it was literally I've just walked into the
studio. I haven't been in herefor a few weeks now, so yeah,
(00:45):
it feels good to be home,back into routine and Quincy's good.
Thank you for asking. I appreciatethat you wore blues there as well.
I love it just for you.It didn't go on. Notice. You
know what's so funny, as Iwore it for America's Dance thirty, not
even thinking Jonah, but yes,of course that's why I wore it.
Of course, dance counting down thebiggest dance songs in the country. This
(01:21):
is America's Dance thirty. Jonas Blue, Welcome back to America's Dance thirty.
Thanks for having me. Appreciates itas always. Congratulations on another number one
with Past Life with Felix Yan.It is so incredible. Thank you.
Yeah, that was a that wasa real special track to do with with
Felix. Yeah, super happy.I only found out yesterday it was number
(01:45):
one on the on the US DanceAirplace. So yeah, amazing as always,
so thank you very much. I'mso happy it made it to number
one because I've loved it ever sinceI first heard it. I want to
say it was September of last yearit came out. This has been a
journey for this song. Yeah.I mean, I release records very differently
(02:06):
now. I've obviously been doing ita very long time, so I don't
really have expectations when I release songsnow. I just I just released music
that I love and I play myDJ sets and if it goes on to
do great things, and that's amazingand I'm super privileged, you know,
to have those opportunities, and I'mjust glad that everyone likes the music because
(02:27):
that's kind of the stage that I'mat now. I just love making music.
I love putting it out there.If it does great things, and
that's even better. So yeah,and obviously doing doing the music with Felix
has been great. You know,we we kind of came on the scene
at the same time. I thinkin around twenty fifteen. He had ain't
nobody and I had fast cars atthe time. And yeah, you know,
(02:53):
we were just kids really and wealways said about doing doing something together
at some point. And yeah,fast forward, what ten years later or
so, it took a bit.Yeah, we finally did it. We
had a song out called Weekends,which is I love playing that record out
and then yeah, past Off wasthe follow up to that. Well,
(03:13):
I can't wait to find out howthis song was born. But first,
let's get to know Jonas Blue alittle better with Finky's first to do it.
I gotta be honest, you know, all the times that we've chatted,
even I want to say the firsttime we met over Tacos, we
maybe discussed it, But I don'tknow a lot about the early life of
(03:38):
Jonas Blue. Was music the firstthing you wanted to get into or was
there something else growing up? Yeah, I've always done music. I started
out as a musician. From theage of like eight, I was playing
flute, So yeah, I startedout as a musician first and foremost.
Then I got into djaying at theage eleven, and that was that was
(04:01):
purely by In the UK, weused to have a program on TV that
was purely based on drunk Brits inIbitha or Ebiza American and I was hooked
on that program. You know,you'd see people like Carl Cox, David
Moralez, Eric Mariillo, you know, all the classic DJs on there,
(04:28):
and I used to watch that asan eleven year old kids and just be
amazed by, you know, thisother world that was going on and just
knew that I wanted to be apart of it. So yeah, from
the age of eleven, I've beendoing this every single day. There's never
been a day where I haven't donethis, so yeah, you know,
the consistency definitely came into play there. And yeah, I started out djan
(04:51):
at eleven and then at the ageof twelve realized being a musician first and
foremost. I got quite bored ofplaying other people music. I was only
a year in Dios Easier, butwe were already bored. Yeah, I
was. I was quite bored ofplaying other people's music, and I think
just the creative in a person inme just wanted to be able to,
you know, play the music thatI could create, essentially. So yeah,
(05:15):
very quickly got into music production atthe age of twelve, and dude,
this has been it every day.You know, I've not done anything
else. I'm very privileged that allmy jobs when I was slightly younger were
always within music. And then Ione of my first deals I signed as
(05:35):
an artist was to Defected Records,So that was when I was eighteen years
old. So yeah, I've beendoing this for a minute. It's been
a minute. I'm thirty four now, so yeah, it's been a minute.
Well, let's talk about this firstshow at eleven when you started DJing.
You know, we just mentioned theyyou were just playing in Columbia.
(05:55):
I know, you wrapped up lastyear doing like your biggest multi city tour
of was it Japan ever and yousold out those shows. Do you remember
the first show you ever did ateleven? Oh? Yeah, no,
I do, I do, AndI actually have a picture of it somewhere
I'm wearing like this bandana. Itwas a Halloween party. It was my
friend's eleventh birthday party that I wasdjoing at And how did it go?
(06:21):
It? This is this is thefunny thing about that gig. So it
was my first ever gig I had. So when I was young, the
decks that we had were CD mixers, so I actually started out on CD
mixes, then went back to Vinyland so on. But yeah, I
have my my new Mark CD mixersand I had my dad's Hi Fi system
(06:46):
to do the gig with. SoI was absolutely smashing the life out of
that amplifier and speakers and about Ithink it was about two or three hours
into the into the evening, everythingblue. Ah, Yeah, it was.
It was a great, great learningexperience. Actually it kind of set
me up for the for the futureof you know, if ever things went
(07:08):
wrong, how to deal with thosesituations and so on. But yeah,
it was a great night. Butyeah, the whole system cut out,
but at least you got three hoursinto it instead of it cutting out like
five minutes into it. Yeah,I mean we got it back up and
running and I carried on. Soyeah, that was a great experience.
Funny enough, had a very verysimilar I always tell people this story that
(07:29):
I always remember that when I waseleven years old, But I also remember
the first gig I had as JonasBlue was at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico
City. So it's one hundred thousandpeople. Oh my god, and the
whole system cut out the irony ofmy first gig as Jonas Blue, and
then the first gig when I wasyounger as well. Just yeah, it's
(07:51):
obviously you the problem. You're theproblem now. Obviously Jonas Blue isn't your
real name. I know we almosthad Jonas Klein, which is funny.
(08:15):
Can you share with us some ofthe first names you almost went with your
artist name? There was So thereason my name isn't Jonas Blue is because
at the time there wasn't really anyBritish DJs that were kind of doing things
big globally. It was always likeScandinavian or Dutch or French, and I
(08:41):
just kind of realized that I hadto be one of those guys to kind
of fit in to allow because thething is a lot of people knew me
from my previous music under guy IRobin my real name, and yeah,
I had to switch it up.It was a completely different sound and so
on. So yeah, I rememberwhen I had the list then I was
thinking of names. I remember havinglike a Vici as one of the names,
(09:03):
and I looking how I could getsomething similar because it had such a
you know, great ring to itwith a veach. You know, It's
like maybe it could just be likea one word and so on. But
yeah, we ended up we endedup landed on Jonas Blue, and that
was very It was kind of inspiredby Calvin Harris, because Calvin Harris isn't
his real name either. Yeah,it was kind of inspired from that.
(09:24):
So why didn't you just go withJonas because it didn't have the correct ring
to it. Jonas just doesn't completeit. When you say Jonas Blue,
it's much better, much better.Now. Of course, you've had some
amazing smashes, Fast Car and PerfectStrangers just hit the billion Stream Club,
which is incredible. Of course yournumber one pass life with Felix Yen.
(09:50):
Do you remember the first song youever produced? I don't really, but
the the I used to so Igot into music production because of when I
was younger, I used to eatthis cereal called it's basically at cheerios.
They used to back when I wasyounger, they used to include little gifts.
(10:11):
Do you remember that when you usedto all yeah and on on one.
On this one occasion, it wasactually production software. It was.
It was a CD. Yeah,it was mental. I know someone else
had this as well, but Ican't remember who it was, but yeah,
it was. It was. Itwas CD software for a PC and
(10:35):
it was called e J and everythingwas all pre made in it, so
you were literally just arranging the block. So one of those would have been
my first time, and I havegot it somewhere funny enough. I remember
speaking to Calvin Harris about this aswell. He's also got I think all
the old documents of like when hewas messaging record labels and and so on.
I've got the same. I've gotall the all the old documents and
(10:58):
the demos of when I was younger. So I'll have to dig it out.
I'll have to dig it out forsure, but I can't remember exactly
what it was. But it's socrazy that I was in a cereal box.
I bet Jax Jones had the sameexperience, because everything of his is
serial beast maybe maybe Yeah, Now, what was the first dance song that
(11:18):
made you fall in love with edmJunior jack My feelings? Wow, such
a classic. If the listeners don'tknow that song, you should definitely go
check it out. I mean theoriginal sample in that is Alexander O'Neill criticize
and ah, yeah, I meanit's it's just a timeless classic for me.
I mean again, the irony ofhearing that song for the first time
(11:41):
when I was eleven years old andit being a defected release who I ended
up signing two years later as anartist. So yeah, it was that
song for me. Even now whenI hear it, it's just it just
brings back all those memories of justyeah, just beautiful times. Well,
finally, and think he's first inhonor of past life going number one.
(12:03):
If you could go back and beanybody in a past life, who would
be the first person you would wantto be? Oh, connect dead or
alive? Dead or alive? Youknow what? I would love to be
Quincy Jones. Oh well, Imean he's alive, isn't He's alive?
(12:24):
I was watching what was it was? On Netflix the other day? The
kind of greatest night in Music orwhatever it's called where they did the charity
single. I see that popping up. Yeah, I mean, just to
watch that studio footage is just like, you know, this is a guy
that was scoring movies, Quincy Jones, you know, scoring movies and then
doing charity singles and then making thrillerat the age of fifty. It's like,
(12:46):
you know, it's just it's inspirationalfor me. And yeah, so
I'd say either him or Max Martingood choices, very good choices. Let's
talk about this smash. How wasPast Life born? With Felix yn I
was in the studio with a UKproduction duo called Punctual, and they were
(13:11):
playing me some demos of what theyhad done. They had an initial demo
of PASSI Ie I remember, andI fell in love with it straight away.
And actually me and Felix hadn't plannedto do a follow up after Weekends,
our first collaboration that we did,We didn't actually plan to do any
kind of follow up. It wasjust the fact that I'd heard this this
(13:33):
little demo that the Punctual guys haddone, and I just I just thought
it was perfect. I just thoughtthat, you know, following on from
Weekends. It had, you know, similar kind of tones. It had.
It just felt consistent, carrying onwith that kind of a song.
And I sent it over to Felix. I think I've got the what'sapp somewhere
and we would. I just messagedhim, I said, I have our
(13:54):
next song. It's done, it'sfinished, done, complete, and I
sent it's him and he was actuallytaking a break, I think at he
was taking a break for about ayear. And I sent it over and
I said, this is the followup. And here he fell in love
with it because he hadn't been listeningto music like that for a minute because
he had been taking his break,and I sent it. Oh, I
(14:15):
was so hyped. You know,we've got it. Fire Emoji's fire emos
and then yeah, and then youknow, I ended up just ended up
finishing off the production with Felix,and it all came together really quickly.
To be honest, it was.It was a very very natural song,
and it's been really interesting playing itout in the DJ sets. It's been
the reaction has been insane. Itblew my mind when I was doing the
(14:35):
research and I saw Punctual on thisone too, because they are behind so
many smashes. Yeah, yeah,they're great guys, funny enough. I
actually I actually signed one of theirsongs called Imagine, which is a cover
of a UK artist called Shola Amma. And yeah, we released that years
(14:56):
ago on a label that I wasworking me at the time called Electronic Nature.
And yeah, I've been working withthose guys for a while. You
know, I love what they didand I'm so proud that they've gone on
to amazing things. Yeah, Ilove that. Not only do they have
the stuff like they've done songs forArmin van Buren, but then they also
have their own stuff like out ofthe Blue was such a great song,
(15:18):
great song. Yeah, very talented. So how long ago were you in
the studio with them working on thissong? It was last year we were
working together. I had I wasdoing a writing camp in my studio here
and they were here and yeah,they were playing me, playing me some
initial demos and I didn't pick thatit was one of the ones on the
(15:39):
list, but it wasn't something thatI was working on a year ago.
I had it on my list asin it was a great song to you
know, maybe look at and yeah, I think it was around August time
last year that I I kind ofwent back to the to the demo and
I thought, wow, this isa really great song. Weould we should
do this, And then that's whenI messaged Felix and we wrapped it up.
Yeah. Now, something I lovefinding out about songs is how many
(16:11):
different v's there are, from whenyou start working on it, all the
tweaking that goes on to when youfinally put it out. Mastard, do
you remember what the final v wasof Past Life? Yeah, this one
wasn't that bad. Actually, thiswas like I think, I think we
did two or three versions. Ohthat's not bad. Like I said,
this one came together really quickly.It was very very It just felt felt
(16:34):
right. So there wasn't too muchthat needed to be done. I think,
if anything, it was just probablyme on the mix down, just
going back and forth. Yeah,because I mix all my own records,
so yeah, just going back andforth and the mixed sounds might have been
the only thing that But again,I think it was only two or three
versions. I've had. I've hada lot work. That's what every artist
(16:56):
says. I love it now.It was the vocals I think is her
name Navy. Yeah, it wasthat the first time you went. Because
I had never heard of her before. Yeah, I'd never heard of her.
She was she was just doing sessionswith Punctual and this was just one
of I think they had from whenI asked asked them both. They were
(17:18):
just doing back to back sessions withher and this was one of the songs
that they that they started working on. I think when we did it.
When I initially heard it, itonly had the chorus, it didn't have
the verses yet. Oh wow.So yeah, so we went back and
forth from that a little bit.But yeah, they were just doing back
to back sessions with her, andagain I had never heard of her either,
(17:40):
So it was just amazing, youknow, to again have a new
voice and a new talent on thesong. Yeah, she absolutely killed it
on the vocals. You and Felixand Punctual all killed it on the production.
Congratulations on a going number one.Thank you appreciate that man, Thank
you for the support. As always, what is next for Jonas Blue released
(18:00):
today my brand new remix of ArianaGrande Hale Yes and so that came out
today, So very happy about that. That's been a big one in my
set I have. So the kindof first official Jonas Blue single of this
year is coming out at the startof April with I haven't actually mentioned this
(18:22):
to anyone yet, so this isan exclusive. This is it's my next
single called Mountains and it's with Galantis. Oh wow, that's been a special
record to be working on. That'sbeen three years in the making, that
record. Yeah, that was thatwas a long one. That was a
long one for sure. But yeah, that's amazing. That's going to be
coming first week of April, ifcorrect, and yeah, incredible for me.
(18:48):
It's you know, it's kind oftaking it back to the original kind
of Jonas sounds a little bit moreand we have an amazing vocalist artist on
it called Zoe Weeze who's from Germany. So yeah, you got some powerhouses
on that. Yeah, you knowit's yeah. I mean me and Christian
(19:10):
we were playing, we were playingtogether last year in Miami and the record
still wasn't finished yet. And yeah, it only got finished, I tell
you what. I finished the recordon the twenty third of December. I'm
still working around the Christmas period gettingthis record finished. So yeah, it's
been three years in the making.And it comes out in April, so
I'm very excited about that. Ibet it's going to feel good when it's
(19:32):
finally out and you can move onwell Jonah's. Like I said, it's
always awesome seeing you and catching up. Thank you so much for your time
with us on America's Dance thirty.Thank you man. I appreciate that you
wore blue today as well. Ilove it just for you. It didn't
go unnoticed. You know what's sofunny is I wore it for America's Dance
(19:52):
thirty not even thinking Jonah's Blue.But yes, of course, that's why
I wore it. Dance thirty countingdown the biggest dance songs in the country
America is Dance thirty.
Jonas. Honestly, it is sogood seeing you again. It has been
like three and a half years sincewe've had the chance to really catch up.
Yeah, it's been a minute.The one thing I do want to
say is you do not age,to see it. I'm actually Benjamin Button.
I drank polar Bear blood when Iwas younger, and it's helped me
to like age backward. Yeah,whatever the skincare routine is, you need
(00:23):
to send it over to me,because yeah, you do not age at
all. I appreciate that same toyou. How have you been house Quincy?
Yeah, Quincy's good. I literallygot back yesterday. I was doing
South America tour, so yeah,it was literally I've just walked into the
studio. I haven't been in herefor a few weeks now, so yeah,
(00:45):
it feels good to be home,back into routine and Quincy's good.
Thank you for asking. I appreciatethat you wore blues there as well.
I love it just for you.It didn't go on. Notice. You
know what's so funny, as Iwore it for America's Dance thirty, not
even thinking Jonah, but yes,of course that's why I wore it.
Of course, dance counting down thebiggest dance songs in the country. This
(01:21):
is America's Dance thirty. Jonas Blue, Welcome back to America's Dance thirty.
Thanks for having me. Appreciates itas always. Congratulations on another number one
with Past Life with Felix Yan.It is so incredible. Thank you.
Yeah, that was a that wasa real special track to do with with
Felix. Yeah, super happy.I only found out yesterday it was number
(01:45):
one on the on the US DanceAirplace. So yeah, amazing as always,
so thank you very much. I'mso happy it made it to number
one because I've loved it ever sinceI first heard it. I want to
say it was September of last yearit came out. This has been a
journey for this song. Yeah.I mean, I release records very differently
(02:06):
now. I've obviously been doing ita very long time, so I don't
really have expectations when I release songsnow. I just I just released music
that I love and I play myDJ sets and if it goes on to
do great things, and that's amazingand I'm super privileged, you know,
to have those opportunities, and I'mjust glad that everyone likes the music because
(02:27):
that's kind of the stage that I'mat now. I just love making music.
I love putting it out there.If it does great things, and
that's even better. So yeah,and obviously doing doing the music with Felix
has been great. You know,we we kind of came on the scene
at the same time. I thinkin around twenty fifteen. He had ain't
nobody and I had fast cars atthe time. And yeah, you know,
(02:53):
we were just kids really and wealways said about doing doing something together
at some point. And yeah,fast forward, what ten years later or
so, it took a bit.Yeah, we finally did it. We
had a song out called Weekends,which is I love playing that record out
and then yeah, past Off wasthe follow up to that. Well,
(03:13):
I can't wait to find out howthis song was born. But first,
let's get to know Jonas Blue alittle better with Finky's first to do it.
I gotta be honest, you know, all the times that we've chatted,
even I want to say the firsttime we met over Tacos, we
maybe discussed it, But I don'tknow a lot about the early life of
(03:38):
Jonas Blue. Was music the firstthing you wanted to get into or was
there something else growing up? Yeah, I've always done music. I started
out as a musician. From theage of like eight, I was playing
flute, So yeah, I startedout as a musician first and foremost.
Then I got into djaying at theage eleven, and that was that was
(04:01):
purely by In the UK, weused to have a program on TV that
was purely based on drunk Brits inIbitha or Ebiza American and I was hooked
on that program. You know,you'd see people like Carl Cox, David
Moralez, Eric Mariillo, you know, all the classic DJs on there,
(04:28):
and I used to watch that asan eleven year old kids and just be
amazed by, you know, thisother world that was going on and just
knew that I wanted to be apart of it. So yeah, from
the age of eleven, I've beendoing this every single day. There's never
been a day where I haven't donethis, so yeah, you know,
the consistency definitely came into play there. And yeah, I started out djan
(04:51):
at eleven and then at the ageof twelve realized being a musician first and
foremost. I got quite bored ofplaying other people music. I was only
a year in Dios Easier, butwe were already bored. Yeah, I
was. I was quite bored ofplaying other people's music, and I think
just the creative in a person inme just wanted to be able to,
you know, play the music thatI could create, essentially. So yeah,
(05:15):
very quickly got into music production atthe age of twelve, and dude,
this has been it every day.You know, I've not done anything
else. I'm very privileged that allmy jobs when I was slightly younger were
always within music. And then Ione of my first deals I signed as
(05:35):
an artist was to Defected Records,So that was when I was eighteen years
old. So yeah, I've beendoing this for a minute. It's been
a minute. I'm thirty four now, so yeah, it's been a minute.
Well, let's talk about this firstshow at eleven when you started DJing.
You know, we just mentioned theyyou were just playing in Columbia.
(05:55):
I know, you wrapped up lastyear doing like your biggest multi city tour
of was it Japan ever and yousold out those shows. Do you remember
the first show you ever did ateleven? Oh? Yeah, no,
I do, I do, AndI actually have a picture of it somewhere
I'm wearing like this bandana. Itwas a Halloween party. It was my
friend's eleventh birthday party that I wasdjoing at And how did it go?
(06:21):
It? This is this is thefunny thing about that gig. So it
was my first ever gig I had. So when I was young, the
decks that we had were CD mixers, so I actually started out on CD
mixes, then went back to Vinyland so on. But yeah, I
have my my new Mark CD mixersand I had my dad's Hi Fi system
(06:46):
to do the gig with. SoI was absolutely smashing the life out of
that amplifier and speakers and about Ithink it was about two or three hours
into the into the evening, everythingblue. Ah, Yeah, it was.
It was a great, great learningexperience. Actually it kind of set
me up for the for the futureof you know, if ever things went
(07:08):
wrong, how to deal with thosesituations and so on. But yeah,
it was a great night. Butyeah, the whole system cut out,
but at least you got three hoursinto it instead of it cutting out like
five minutes into it. Yeah,I mean we got it back up and
running and I carried on. Soyeah, that was a great experience.
Funny enough, had a very verysimilar I always tell people this story that
(07:29):
I always remember that when I waseleven years old, But I also remember
the first gig I had as JonasBlue was at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico
City. So it's one hundred thousandpeople. Oh my god, and the
whole system cut out the irony ofmy first gig as Jonas Blue, and
then the first gig when I wasyounger as well. Just yeah, it's
(07:51):
obviously you the problem. You're theproblem now. Obviously Jonas Blue isn't your
real name. I know we almosthad Jonas Klein, which is funny.
(08:15):
Can you share with us some ofthe first names you almost went with your
artist name? There was So thereason my name isn't Jonas Blue is because
at the time there wasn't really anyBritish DJs that were kind of doing things
big globally. It was always likeScandinavian or Dutch or French, and I
(08:41):
just kind of realized that I hadto be one of those guys to kind
of fit in to allow because thething is a lot of people knew me
from my previous music under guy IRobin my real name, and yeah,
I had to switch it up.It was a completely different sound and so
on. So yeah, I rememberwhen I had the list then I was
thinking of names. I remember havinglike a Vici as one of the names,
(09:03):
and I looking how I could getsomething similar because it had such a
you know, great ring to itwith a veach. You know, It's
like maybe it could just be likea one word and so on. But
yeah, we ended up we endedup landed on Jonas Blue, and that
was very It was kind of inspiredby Calvin Harris, because Calvin Harris isn't
his real name either. Yeah,it was kind of inspired from that.
(09:24):
So why didn't you just go withJonas because it didn't have the correct ring
to it. Jonas just doesn't completeit. When you say Jonas Blue,
it's much better, much better.Now. Of course, you've had some
amazing smashes, Fast Car and PerfectStrangers just hit the billion Stream Club,
which is incredible. Of course yournumber one pass life with Felix Yen.
(09:50):
Do you remember the first song youever produced? I don't really, but
the the I used to so Igot into music production because of when I
was younger, I used to eatthis cereal called it's basically at cheerios.
They used to back when I wasyounger, they used to include little gifts.
(10:11):
Do you remember that when you usedto all yeah and on on one.
On this one occasion, it wasactually production software. It was.
It was a CD. Yeah,it was mental. I know someone else
had this as well, but Ican't remember who it was, but yeah,
it was. It was. Itwas CD software for a PC and
(10:35):
it was called e J and everythingwas all pre made in it, so
you were literally just arranging the block. So one of those would have been
my first time, and I havegot it somewhere funny enough. I remember
speaking to Calvin Harris about this aswell. He's also got I think all
the old documents of like when hewas messaging record labels and and so on.
I've got the same. I've gotall the all the old documents and
(10:58):
the demos of when I was younger. So I'll have to dig it out.
I'll have to dig it out forsure, but I can't remember exactly
what it was. But it's socrazy that I was in a cereal box.
I bet Jax Jones had the sameexperience, because everything of his is
serial beast maybe maybe Yeah, Now, what was the first dance song that
(11:18):
made you fall in love with edmJunior jack My feelings? Wow, such
a classic. If the listeners don'tknow that song, you should definitely go
check it out. I mean theoriginal sample in that is Alexander O'Neill criticize
and ah, yeah, I meanit's it's just a timeless classic for me.
I mean again, the irony ofhearing that song for the first time
(11:41):
when I was eleven years old andit being a defected release who I ended
up signing two years later as anartist. So yeah, it was that
song for me. Even now whenI hear it, it's just it just
brings back all those memories of justyeah, just beautiful times. Well,
finally, and think he's first inhonor of past life going number one.
(12:03):
If you could go back and beanybody in a past life, who would
be the first person you would wantto be? Oh, connect dead or
alive? Dead or alive? Youknow what? I would love to be
Quincy Jones. Oh well, Imean he's alive, isn't He's alive?
(12:24):
I was watching what was it was? On Netflix the other day? The
kind of greatest night in Music orwhatever it's called where they did the charity
single. I see that popping up. Yeah, I mean, just to
watch that studio footage is just like, you know, this is a guy
that was scoring movies, Quincy Jones, you know, scoring movies and then
doing charity singles and then making thrillerat the age of fifty. It's like,
(12:46):
you know, it's just it's inspirationalfor me. And yeah, so
I'd say either him or Max Martingood choices, very good choices. Let's
talk about this smash. How wasPast Life born? With Felix yn I
was in the studio with a UKproduction duo called Punctual, and they were
(13:11):
playing me some demos of what theyhad done. They had an initial demo
of PASSI Ie I remember, andI fell in love with it straight away.
And actually me and Felix hadn't plannedto do a follow up after Weekends,
our first collaboration that we did,We didn't actually plan to do any
kind of follow up. It wasjust the fact that I'd heard this this
(13:33):
little demo that the Punctual guys haddone, and I just I just thought
it was perfect. I just thoughtthat, you know, following on from
Weekends. It had, you know, similar kind of tones. It had.
It just felt consistent, carrying onwith that kind of a song.
And I sent it over to Felix. I think I've got the what'sapp somewhere
and we would. I just messagedhim, I said, I have our
(13:54):
next song. It's done, it'sfinished, done, complete, and I
sent it's him and he was actuallytaking a break, I think at he
was taking a break for about ayear. And I sent it over and
I said, this is the followup. And here he fell in love
with it because he hadn't been listeningto music like that for a minute because
he had been taking his break,and I sent it. Oh, I
(14:15):
was so hyped. You know,we've got it. Fire Emoji's fire emos
and then yeah, and then youknow, I ended up just ended up
finishing off the production with Felix,and it all came together really quickly.
To be honest, it was.It was a very very natural song,
and it's been really interesting playing itout in the DJ sets. It's been
the reaction has been insane. Itblew my mind when I was doing the
(14:35):
research and I saw Punctual on thisone too, because they are behind so
many smashes. Yeah, yeah,they're great guys, funny enough. I
actually I actually signed one of theirsongs called Imagine, which is a cover
of a UK artist called Shola Amma. And yeah, we released that years
(14:56):
ago on a label that I wasworking me at the time called Electronic Nature.
And yeah, I've been working withthose guys for a while. You
know, I love what they didand I'm so proud that they've gone on
to amazing things. Yeah, Ilove that. Not only do they have
the stuff like they've done songs forArmin van Buren, but then they also
have their own stuff like out ofthe Blue was such a great song,
(15:18):
great song. Yeah, very talented. So how long ago were you in
the studio with them working on thissong? It was last year we were
working together. I had I wasdoing a writing camp in my studio here
and they were here and yeah,they were playing me, playing me some
initial demos and I didn't pick thatit was one of the ones on the
(15:39):
list, but it wasn't something thatI was working on a year ago.
I had it on my list asin it was a great song to you
know, maybe look at and yeah, I think it was around August time
last year that I I kind ofwent back to the to the demo and
I thought, wow, this isa really great song. Weould we should
do this, And then that's whenI messaged Felix and we wrapped it up.
Yeah. Now, something I lovefinding out about songs is how many
(16:11):
different v's there are, from whenyou start working on it, all the
tweaking that goes on to when youfinally put it out. Mastard, do
you remember what the final v wasof Past Life? Yeah, this one
wasn't that bad. Actually, thiswas like I think, I think we
did two or three versions. Ohthat's not bad. Like I said,
this one came together really quickly.It was very very It just felt felt
(16:34):
right. So there wasn't too muchthat needed to be done. I think,
if anything, it was just probablyme on the mix down, just
going back and forth. Yeah,because I mix all my own records,
so yeah, just going back andforth and the mixed sounds might have been
the only thing that But again,I think it was only two or three
versions. I've had. I've hada lot work. That's what every artist
(16:56):
says. I love it now.It was the vocals I think is her
name Navy. Yeah, it wasthat the first time you went. Because
I had never heard of her before. Yeah, I'd never heard of her.
She was she was just doing sessionswith Punctual and this was just one
of I think they had from whenI asked asked them both. They were
(17:18):
just doing back to back sessions withher and this was one of the songs
that they that they started working on. I think when we did it.
When I initially heard it, itonly had the chorus, it didn't have
the verses yet. Oh wow.So yeah, so we went back and
forth from that a little bit.But yeah, they were just doing back
to back sessions with her, andagain I had never heard of her either,
(17:40):
So it was just amazing, youknow, to again have a new
voice and a new talent on thesong. Yeah, she absolutely killed it
on the vocals. You and Felixand Punctual all killed it on the production.
Congratulations on a going number one.Thank you appreciate that man, Thank
you for the support. As always, what is next for Jonas Blue released
(18:00):
today my brand new remix of ArianaGrande Hale Yes and so that came out
today, So very happy about that. That's been a big one in my
set I have. So the kindof first official Jonas Blue single of this
year is coming out at the startof April with I haven't actually mentioned this
(18:22):
to anyone yet, so this isan exclusive. This is it's my next
single called Mountains and it's with Galantis. Oh wow, that's been a special
record to be working on. That'sbeen three years in the making, that
record. Yeah, that was thatwas a long one. That was a
long one for sure. But yeah, that's amazing. That's going to be
coming first week of April, ifcorrect, and yeah, incredible for me.
(18:48):
It's you know, it's kind oftaking it back to the original kind
of Jonas sounds a little bit moreand we have an amazing vocalist artist on
it called Zoe Weeze who's from Germany. So yeah, you got some powerhouses
on that. Yeah, you knowit's yeah. I mean me and Christian
(19:10):
we were playing, we were playingtogether last year in Miami and the record
still wasn't finished yet. And yeah, it only got finished, I tell
you what. I finished the recordon the twenty third of December. I'm
still working around the Christmas period gettingthis record finished. So yeah, it's
been three years in the making.And it comes out in April, so
I'm very excited about that. Ibet it's going to feel good when it's
(19:32):
finally out and you can move onwell Jonah's. Like I said, it's
always awesome seeing you and catching up. Thank you so much for your time
with us on America's Dance thirty.Thank you man. I appreciate that you
wore blue today as well. Ilove it just for you. It didn't
go unnoticed. You know what's sofunny is I wore it for America's Dance
(19:52):
thirty not even thinking Jonah's Blue.But yes, of course, that's why
I wore it. Dance thirty countingdown the biggest dance songs in the country
America is Dance thirty.
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