I hope that they do play the Music Week update - I want to hear Ash at number 23!! :D

Can anyone with access to Music Week post the RedOne interview pretty please?

I'll love you hard forever!

x

Can anyone with access to Music Week post the RedOne interview pretty please?

I'll love you hard forever!

x

Responsible for sculpting Lady GaGa’s sound into a million-dollar business and launching a label with Universal, RedOne is one of pop’s hottest properties. Music Week caught up with him in London

 

While established hubs of creativity such as Nashville, Manchester, New York and Berlin have traditionally attracted the musically ambitious, for Moroccan teenager Nadir Khayat it was always about Sweden.

 

Now, long out of his teens, Khayat – aka RedOne – is established as one of the most successful and sought-after producers in popular music. Having become synonymous with the sound of Lady GaGa, his work with top-billing acts such as Enrique Iglesias and Michael Jackson means barely a week has gone by recently without RedOne’s credit featuring on the singles chart.

 

The latest stage in RedOne’s soaring career trajectory will this autumn see the first output from his newly established 2101 Records, a label he has founded in partnership with Universal Group CEO Lucian Grainge.

 

But life has not always been so rosy for RedOne. Born the youngest of nine children in Tetouan, Morroco, RedOne was raised listening to everything from Led Zeppelin to Stevie Wonder but it was the Swedish sounds of ABBA and later Europe that would lead him, aged 19, to travel to the country and seek out the source of that music first-hand. It was a move that would help form the foundations of his career.

 

Having relocated to Sweden and met his idol, Europe frontman Joey Tempest, RedOne set about launching a career as a guitarist and vocalist in a rock band but came unstuck when a management deal went sour.

 

A move to pop production proved far more fortuitous. His breakthrough came in 2005 with Darin’s Step Up, which reached number one in the Swedish singles chart in 2005, while the following year he finally reached a global audience when the track Bamboo was used throughout the World Cup Finals.

 

But his subsequent move to New York in an effort to build on that momentum and break into the US market proved, at first, to be less than successful.

 

Sitting in an immaculately turned out room in St Martin’s Lane Hotel in London, RedOne is brimming with energy which subsides only when he looks back on what proved to be a low point in his otherwise glittering career.

 

“I reached the point where I broke down. I was about to give up on music, I was broke and owed two month’s rent on my apartment. But my wife persuaded me to stay three more months and those three months changed my life,” says RedOne.

 

Having caught the ear of Epic Records president Charlie Walk, RedOne was asked to work on Kat DeLuna’s album 9 Lives, an opportunity he grasped with understandable enthusiasm.

 

“I had five days, we did five songs, and they were hits. The first single went to number one and that got me rolling,” he smiles.

 

On the back of that success RedOne’s manager introduced him to Stefani Germanotta, a young artist who had recently been dropped by her label, She was also someone that RedOne was at first reluctant to work with.

 

“My manager persuaded me to meet her, we went and I heard her music, it was good but I told her it was a little too left, we needed to take it to the middle, make it global with the big sound and she said, “I’m open, let’s do it’,” recalls RedOne. The rest is history and their collaborations such as Poker Face and Bad Romance have helped Lady GaGa become one of the biggest-selling acts in years.

 

Currently working on new tracks with Lady GaGa as well as material for Nicole Scherzinger’s forthcoming album, RedOne is also poised to launch his record label 2101, named after the number of the New York apartment where he turned his life around.

 

The Universal venture aims to sign around four acts a year, the first of which being Mohombi, who ended up living in Sweden after escaping a war-torn Zaire as a teenager. “He is half-Congolese and half-Swedish – he’s got rhythm and pop,” laughs RedOne, who met his protege in LA.

 

“It is amazing how he has turned the rough experiences he had as a kid and become a very positive person, he makes everyone feel good and you can hear that through his music.”

 

“Ten years ago I was hearing about him constantly but at that time I wasn’t in the position that I am in now. He is an incredible writer. I saw his looks, I knew his performances are incredible and his own material was great, very unique.”

 

An album has already been recorded in Sweden, Holland and LA, but RedOne is in no hurry to unleash it on to the market before he his certain the time is right.

 

“We are going to wait until people really want it. I don’t believe in pushing things on people; you have to have people wanting it. Underground and on the streets they love him and it’s building on the internet and radio,” he says.

 

RedOne also reveals that he has inked a deal with New York-based singer L.P., who he describes as “a unique girl with a unique voice”.

 

“One of the reasons Lucian [Grainge]loved my vision is because I don’t want to do what has already been done; you have to create something new,” he says. “Mohombi was that thing, very new, very rhythmic – I told Lucian that this guy will be a career artist that will take it all the way. He is a stage guy, he is a performer, he creates a new dance for every song, he is good-looking, he has his own world and he is going to own it,” says the producer.

 

With RedOne not planning to produce each and every 2101 artist and by cherry-picking the appropraite Universal label to release each project, he is intent on treating the acts on his roster as individually as possible, but in turn he is looking for acts that are willing to work hard and build a career.

 

“There needs to be a solid body of work and a concept – a sound and a vision is everything. They need to have all the pieces that real bands and artists had back in the day. I think that is missing now, it is just about singles that fly out like hamburgers. We are looking at acts that will tour and get people to buy into the whole concept.”

 

Having worked pretty hard himself in recent years, RedOne is naturally enjoying every moment of his success and smiles when he considers what the future will hold.

 

“It’s always been one step at a time. Now I want to build my own empire.”

Chart update still going ahead.. Greg James just mentioned it

Radio 1 chart update coming up :cheer: let's see how accurate it is :lol:

Deary me- no Apple Data again- Roll Deep are certainly number 1 with the added data, I wonder where Chase and Status- they could be higher

 

Wonder whats going on at the OCC?

23 Ash - Embers

 

He seems to be playing the duffed up version :rofl:

Ash are at 23??? :lol:

Yeah, they're playing Ash :cheer: I didn't think he gave a position :unsure:

Yay for Ash! :D

 

Hopefully Apple forgets to send its data for the rest of the week. :P

Oh dear, the one with missing data is being played, they really shouldn't have bothered at all if it's not correct. Now Reggie will claim that Eminem/Rihanna were the 'midweek' update #1 on Sunday when Roll Deep are almost certainly ahead realistically...

 

The OCC would never do send an incorrect chart for the Sunday show so why for the Wednesday update, it's still supposed to be official? :lol:

But do they have choice? The programme is scheduled, they can't cancel it anyway. So they'll play this incorrect chart instead, it's better than nothing.

Yay for Ash! :D

 

Hopefully Apple forgets to send its data for the rest of the week. :P

 

I was thinking of that earlier, it be hilarious if that happened

 

But do they have choice? The programme is scheduled, they can't cancel it anyway. So they'll play this incorrect chart instead, it's better than nothing.

 

 

They could have cancelled it, and played other tracks instead not to do with the chart whatsoever.

The OCC would never do send an incorrect chart for the Sunday show so why for the Wednesday update, it's still supposed to be official? :lol:

Do we REALLY know that? :lol: I also wondered what would they do if iTunes or whatever else data missed till Sunday.

 

Besides, about mid-week chart: barely anyone knows that the iTunes data is missing, for the usual user it'll still be an actual update.

But do they have choice? The programme is scheduled, they can't cancel it anyway. So they'll play this incorrect chart instead, it's better than nothing.

 

I guess so. It's not Radio 1's fault, but the OCC's or I guess iTunes' if blame's to be placed. It just seems unprofessional that one or more of these organisations can do this. I'm only bitter because I reckon Stromae would be top 40 with iTunes data added and I wanted them to play it again :heehee:

 

That's the first time I've heard Inna's radio edit - absolutely culled, doesn't flow well at all compared to the regular radio edit that the rest of Europe got.

They could have cancelled it and explained why. If there were doubts about Sunday's chart they'd have a bigger problem.

Oh dear, the one with missing data is being played, they really shouldn't have bothered at all if it's not correct. Now Reggie will claim that Eminem/Rihanna were the 'midweek' update #1 on Sunday when Roll Deep are almost certainly ahead realistically...

 

The OCC would never do send an incorrect chart for the Sunday show so why for the Wednesday update, it's still supposed to be official? :lol:

Technically Roll Deep is #1, it just makes Radio 1 look dumb for not knowing that iTunes data is missing, surely it would look strange with low sales starring at him, if he has got the sheet in front of him.

 

gooddelta, yep, Inna's UK Radio Edit is horrible, but AATW know everything. :P

 

And I'm not sure that Stromae would be top-40, he's falling drastically now. It's quite scary as #41 could be his peak now.

If Stromae isn't selling enough to be Top 40 based on other download site sales, I'd doubt he's that far into the Top 40 with Apple data included to be honest.

Technically Roll Deep is #1, it just makes Radio 1 look dumb for not knowing that iTunes data is missing, surely it would look strange with low sales starring at him, if he has got the sheet in front of him.

That's assuming he's got sales figures. The biggest clue is the presence of Ash.