Hello Jonathan Karkar, welcome to Buzz Music and thank you for being here. You really brought the energy in your new single "Adrenaline Rush." What are some of your inspirations when it comes to songwriting and production? I'm very grateful. Inspiration can come from anywhere, at any time. The real trick is putting yourself in a mental and physical space conducive to creativity, and then inspiration just comes naturally. In terms of this song specifically,
I had originally written the melody and structure with Kyra Mastro, and it was called "Cruise Ship Crush." It was supposed to be a song for Kyra, and we were going to reference the "Call Me Maybe" production, but after a few months, we decided it wasn't the right sound for her brand, so I took the melody and re-wrote the song to be about a spontaneous romance, made a dance/pop production out of it and voila!
The production of this song seems calculated and purposeful. What have you learned from your many years of producing pop hits?
The biggest thing I've learned from producing pop music is that productions are more about clever sonic changes than musical changes. Instead of being fancy with chords and harmony, you have to be fancy with your sound design. I've also found that working with material that's already there and remaining as minimalist as necessary is a great way to go in order to not clutter a production. Less is more. At least most of the time.
"Adrenaline Rush," tells the story of ‘love at a first touch.’ How do you come up with themes to write about?
When I write a song, 9 times out of 10, I'll have a melody that I'll mumble over and over again until syllables and vowels start coming out, which then inform some words, and then whatever words sound coolest with the melody is where I'll start, and then I'll try to write around that. This song is not a biographic story at all, it's complete fiction, but the first words that came for this song were "the adrenaline rush," followed by the rest of the chorus, and then I wrote the verses and bridge to fit those parameters.
There is no doubt that you are an incredible producer and artist. What plans do you have in the future for both your solo project and working with other artists?
Thank you so much; I really appreciate the compliment! I have some absolute fire in the kitchen right now with a bunch of different artists, I'm not too sure about release timelines for those projects, but some of these tunes are seriously competitive. In terms of my artistry - all these tunes I'm doing on my own are portfolio pieces to demonstrate my ability so that I can get more production work, honestly - that being said, I love doing it, and it's great having complete control over a project and being able to do whatever you want.