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Tuesday, 11 July 2006 |
 In 2005/2006, 50 cent Dr. Dre, Game, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Fabolous, Mobb Deep, Lil Kim, and most of the other top names in the music industry found a new collaborator in producer songwriter Jonathan "J.R" Rotem. His ability to work simultaneously with an A list group of hip hop, pop, and R&B artists is testament to the fresh and innovative perspective J.R brings to the game. With three hot singles now in heavy rotation ("SOS" by Rihanna, "Best Friend" by 50 Cent and "Whoa" by Lil Kim), multi-platinum producer, Jonathan "J.R." Rotem's innovative sound is reaching critical mass!
How do you feel about being number 1 for so long with SOS?
I don’t know if it’s been that long but it’s been amazing and incredible. I didn’t expect it to be like this and I’m really happy with it.
How has it helped your career having the hits that you’ve had lately?
A lot of doors have opened and the opportunities that are presenting themselves to me. I love working with different people.
What can we expect from Mya’s upcoming album?
I’ve been working quite a bit with her; we’ve worked on a few songs together. Mya’s a great artist. Her voice, style and vision for the type of music she’s doing now is impressive, it’s a real pleasure to work with her. She has no ego or diva attitude or anything like that. It’s just been two creative people working together.
What was it like working with Paris Hilton? She was also great. I co-produced/co-wrote her single with another amazing writer who also wrote for Ashlee Simpson and The Pussycat Dolls. When we were writing the song we just thought the song really suited Paris so I went in an produced the vocals with her. She’s really cool and has a lot of personality that comes through in her voice, she is also very professional.
What is Kevin Federline’s new material like, can he really rap? I’ve also worked with him a lot. I met him when I was working with Britney, he’s such a warm guy and we became friends and hanging out. He was playing me his stuff and I could tell that he was really stepping it up and being focused. I really wanted to put my hands on the project and we came up with some great stuff. One track we did is on his Myspace America’s Most Hated. I think his album is almost ready for release.
What does Britney think?
I think she really likes it. I don’t speak about them on a personal level but she definitely thinks it’s cool.
Have you made contact with Lil’ Kim recently? Is she happy with the success of Whoa?
It’s still doing pretty well which I’m happy about. I haven’t been able to speak with her in a while obviously because of her situation but I’m sure she’s happy about it too. People are responding to it well. I went to New York with some tracks which I thought would be good for her and we ended up doing a few songs together.
Who has been your favourite person to work with so far?
I can’t really say because I like a lot of them for different reasons, they all have variety, so I don’t have a favourite.
Is there anyone left that you really want to produce for?
I would love to work with Jay-Z, I didn’t get a chance to work on Christina Aguilera’s new album either or Beyonce on hers. Also Ludacris would be great to work with.
How important is jazz and being able to play the piano to your productions?
For me it’s just who I am, can’t think of it any other way. I’m a classical jazz pianist so it definitely comes through in my music. Some people are more into sampling, even though I do that my thing is playing the piano.
Where do you get inspiration for the melodies that you use?
Sometimes I just listen to a record and think of something or other times I’ll be playing the piano and stumble across some notes.
Where did you get your feel for hip-hop because you weren’t really brought up around that kind of music?
I kind of learned it. I really liked hip-hop from the time I first heard it. When I was very young I heard Run DMC’s Raising Hell album then when Snoop Dogg came out I was really loving it then. It was only over the past 2 or 3 years that I really learned to produce hip-hop. I had to listen to stuff and my manager at the time along with Hi-Tech (who I produced 50 Cent’s Best Friend with) helped me along and learned a lot from them.
What do you think makes artists like working with you?
They believe that I can execute a lot of the ideas in their head and that’s really what I want to give artists. I want to be able to bring their vision to life. I want to be able to bring the music around what they explain and be able to give them a song that they want but at the same time bring my musical sensibility to it.
How do you feel being compared with Scott Storch?
I’m probably flattered more than anything else; I really respect what he’s done with his career. I’ve followed what he’s done since he played keys on Dre’s Chronic album all the way to becoming a top producer. He could have just played keys for other producers but he believed he could do it for himself and built his empire in Miami.
Why do you think you’re compared with him?
In a sense we come from a similar background. We’re both white and Jewish and are keyboard players. I’m more like him than Dr. Dre so I see that comparison definitely. There are also some differences because he started playing for The Roots whereas I was playing strict classical music so the way we started out was different.
What will you be working on now?
The Game, JoJo and Trick Daddy projects will be out soon as well as the others we have spoken about, also a lot of new artists. A lot has happened over the past few months but we’ve been working hard.
More info: www.jonathanrotem.com
Words By: Rashmi Shastri
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