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 After a 3 year break, Jay Sean returns on 21st January with the single ‘Ride It,’ a sleek fusion of shimmering Eastern strings, enticing percussion and seductive vocals. The first track to be taken from upcoming album ‘My Own Way,’ released 31 March, it features productions from fresh new British production team, Sampson Productions, along with top-notch production from New York posse J-Remy and Duro.
Jay on ‘Ride It’: “It started off with me f*!king about in the studio with a rap, jumping around like a joker. It’s all about the games people play across the dancefloor on a night out – how you can catch someone’s eye and accept a challenge that lasts the rest of the evening. We put it up on the internet early ’07 and it blew up!” The underground frenzy highlighted by the video to ‘Ride It’ being viewed over 500 000 times on YouTube from leaked demos in little over 4 weeks.
Jay’s debut single ‘Dance With You,’ released in ’03, was recorded with top cutting-edge producer Rishi Rich, peaking at number 12 in the UK charts and establishing Jay as a serious new talent. His debut album ‘Me Against Myself’ consolidated expectations and went on to chart within the UK top 30, with further singles (‘Eyes On You’ and ‘Stolen’) hitting numbers 6 and 4.
New album ‘My Own Way’ was recorded in New York and London, and uses the production talents of J-Remy (Fabolous, DJ Clue) and Duro (Mariah Carey, Jay Z, Mary J Blige, Rhianna, Pharrell Williams).
What have you been up to in your break?
Yeah it’s been mad busy man! Since my last album it’s been 3 years and it’s been a mixture of touring the world and writing my second album. It hasn’t even been a break really. I’m not a believer in bashing out another album just so you can rinse it out again. I’d rather take my time. I didn’t even start writing until about a year afterwards because I didn’t have any inspiration. It was the same old R&B stuff going around and it was all getting rinsed, I wasn’t feeling anything. I toured for a long time from Hong Kong to Australia to Africa. Inspiration suddenly hit me and I started listening to the old good stuff like Jodeci and Blackstreet. I thought ‘I miss R&B back then.’ It was real melodies and none of this gimmicky crap. That’s what I thought I have to do with this album.
What kind of tracks do you have on this album? 
I concentrated a lot on song-writing. If you listen to a Jodeci song from back then you don’t think ‘what a sick beat’ it’s more like ‘what a bad song.’ It was all about the song and not the production. I went for a less production driven album and concentrated on making good songs. That’s what you’re going to find on this album. If you love R&B hopefully many of you will love my album. I know it’s good so hopefully you’ll like it!
If you’re that confident, maybe you’re right! ‘Ride It’ is being totally rinsed on the radio stations right now. How do you feel about that?
It’s crazy! You never know how a song is going to take. I wrote Ride It with my boy and us two knew the tune was good but we didn’t know how anyone else was going to react to it. Before you know it it blew up over YouTube. Nowadays everything gets leaked and there was no way of controlling it. We put it up on MySpace and some clever hacker managed to rip it from there and put it on YouTube. The song had over half a million hits before we decided to make a video for it. I’m very happy about the reaction.
When I first heard the song I had no idea it was you. Even your look has changed.
That’s what a lot of people have been saying. My whole style and sound has flipped a bit from the last time. Everything’s changed. It’s been 3 years and I had to reinvent myself. I just feel like I know who I am now. It’s very difficult when you’re a student and you’re plucked from obscurity by this record label and then you’re famous. You don’t have time to understand who you are and what kind of music you really like making. The record company just wants to bash out an album and you don’t know what a hit is or what a good song is. You just do a song then they ask you to do another one. I didn’t want to rush this album, I wanted to take my time and work on it. I didn’t care if it took 3 years; to me it was worth it.
The album is called ‘My Own Way’ is that a hint that you were in total control here?
That’s exactly what it is. It’s coming out on my own record label. Everything is from me including the producers that I chose to the singles that I’m going to put out. Everything has been how I wanted. Music is my life and people judge me on it. I needed to show people something I’m proud of. I wanted to be able to defend it which I think I can this time.
I read that you didn’t want to make an issue-heavy record. What does that mean?
It just means that I’m not trying to do anything life changing. I’m not Eminem. I’m not writing stuff where people are gonna be like ‘wow, what a profound lyricist.’ I am a good lyricist and I always put my time and effort into lyrics but in terms of saying something to change the world – I’m not a politician. I write love songs, that’s what I do. I write songs about girls, I write songs about love, I write songs about being heartbroken or fancying a bird. At the end of the day that’s what I do. For me, love is the most substance there is in the world. I don’t write songs about bling or Lamborghinis or guns. It’s not what I do. The songs we love the most are about relationships.
Is there any rapping on this album?
There’s no rapping on this album. Rapping is something I love doing, I could also have put a bit of Jungle on this album as well but it wouldn’t go. I didn’t want to confuse people and chuck in every little thing I like doing. If I could chat in patois should I do that as well? It’s too much. I wanted to put one message out there. This is an R&B album, if you buy it you know what to expect. You won’t find a hip hop track straight after a beautiful ballad on this one. I still do my hip hop and beat boxing at my live shows and people enjoy that. I reckon it’s one of those CDs where you don’t have to skip a track. I always wanted to make a body of work like that.
Who else did you work with on this album?
There are 2 duets on this album that I recorded in America. There’s one guy you might have heard of called Michael Jackson, only joking! There’s a finalist from American Idol called Jared Cotter, his voice is wicked. He co-wrote some of the songs with me as well. I also did a song with Thara who’s bubbling on the scene out there. She’s coming up big time. I wanted to work with people who were on the rise including the producers. I didn’t work with Scott Storch. I worked with Stargate on my first album who have now worked with everyone from Beyonce to Ne-Yo. This time around I needed to find something real and organic. I worked with people I had a vibe with. One of the guys is from Slough and has never had a hit in his life but he’s behind half of my album. It’s about getting the right music. If you get the names they sometimes give you a shit beat that you can’t do anything with.
You’re still one of the only Asian artists that have been successful in this area of music. Do you feel like you’re holding it down by yourself?
Yeah, that’s the truth. Nobody else has stepped up yet. I think it’s a matter of time before someone does. The one thing I learnt is that you can’t put out shoddy bits of work. When you put something to mainstream radio it has to sit alongside artists like Jay-Z and Amy Winehouse. You have to really work hard at putting out quality music.
There are actually no Asians out there doing it. Why not?
I’ve spent the last 4 years looking around the Asian scene and kids come up to me telling me they’re singers. I listen to their stuff and just think they’re not really thinking about it. They need to think whether it can sit alongside Usher. People need to step up their game. I want people to step up their game because God knows I’ve been flying the flag for us or the past 4 years. I want people to come through now because if they don’t we’re only ever gonna be a niche act. Look at the black R&B scene when the first black singer came up. He was holding the fort on his own but after his success there would have been more and more artists coming through until it wasn’t a novelty anymore. They’re running the scene. That’s what we need. Asians need to come correct and act right, talk right, look right, sing right, dance right. I’m getting tired! There are a couple of phenomenal singers they just need to be given a shot but it will come in time. 40 years ago my grandad came over from India and he couldn’t even get a job in a sausage factory but now his grandson is on TV. It’s a dream that’s taken 40 years. It’s going to take time.
How are things going with your label?
I can’t tell you how good it feels to be under control of everything. I will always thank Virgin, my last label, for the work they put in for me. They put in a lot of money and effort into me and we did well together. Now that I’m on my own and I’m seeing where it’s going I’m proud of it. This time it’s on my own back and I need to work like a dog. When it’s your own thing you gotta make it work. Before you could lay back and sing a bit but now I’m working constantly to make sure things are right. People need to go out their and buy it!
www.jaysean.com
www.myspace.com/jayseanbeats
Interview By : Rashmi Shastri
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da 1st comment went a bit wrong lolz but da 2nd 1 was ryt bye ppl watch sunrise tv n jay sean cums on dat 
