As he tours Australia and anticipates the release of his new album The Whole Twelve Inches next month, Larry catches up with Jesse Rose to talk about the album and look to the year ahead…
The number 12 seems to have hijacked your creative decisions over the last year or so! 12 songs, 12 months, The Free Twelve Inches, The Whole Twelve Inches… What does the number mean to you now?
It doesn’t actually have real significance. In late 2012 (ironically) I came up with an idea to spread an album’s worth of material out over the course of the year, which is where I came up with the 12×12 series. From there I just carried on the theme. So ‘The Free Twelve Inches’ free download & my album ‘The Whole Twelve Inches’ with twelve tracks was just was part of the whole thing.
How did the process work for you musically – were you creating month-by-month or did you have the music worked out ahead of this campaign launching?
I honestly went into it thinking I had a big enough bank of tracks to not have to spend all my spare time in the studio last year. I did have a few songs ready to go, but after ‘Love The Feeling High’ the first release got the reaction that it did, I had to work really hard to make sure every track after that was as on par as the one previous.
This begs the question, how did the response from say the first and second track, impact what we heard on the third track and so on…? If at all?
…exactly, the reaction to the first single ‘Love The Feeling High’ was so good that every spare chance I had in-between touring last year I spent in the studio making songs the best they could be. There were some tracks that I really love that didn’t get the reaction I had hoped for but i guess that’s what music is about. It’s not like making burgers at burger king, everything is unique.
What did you learn about yourself through this process?
When I think I can’t work any harder, I can!
What did you learn about your fans?
Probably that they expect the best i can give, it has to be fresh but also that they are super supportive and really kind of get what i do and what i’m about.
Do you think a clear favourite came out of the pack – perhaps for yourself and for the fans?
Definitely. I would say all the tracks with original vocals did the best with the fans. ‘Time is But a Moment feat . Arama did really well, I was also surprised how well Not Hit Enough with Chuck Inglish & playmode did.
Over such a long period of time, there much be a lot of tracks that didn’t make the cut. What happens to the music on the proverbial cutting room floor?
As Switch once said to me ‘Deleting tracks is a great thing to do, The world has enough fillers’.
What can we expect from the tour?
Dancing. Tequila. Memories. No sleep. Fun. Jet Lag. Well at least that’s what i can expect. I guess from a crowd perspective, it’s gonna be a heads down affair.
Any particular cities you’re looking forward to playing?
Well I’m really happy how this Australia tour’s turning out at the moment. I played a surprise 5 hour set in Melbourne, then the SASH party in Sydney was proper Europen vibes, people go nuts there and really know their tunes. Then of course I’m excited to do my big release party at Watergate in Berlin. I love playing, and am always getting surprised by clubs and cities i’ve played before but can be different every time.
After the 12×12 series and tour has come to an end, what’s next for you in 2014?
We’ve got loads of great releases coming up on my label Play It Down from our exclusive artists Dansson, Oliver $, Christian Nielsen, O&A, Lewis Boardman and Dick Johnson, as well as a mini-album from Brillstein, who co-produced a couple of tracks on my new album. We’ve also got a label compilation of exclusives from all our artists which has been in the works for a while cause we wanted to make sure it was a full album of brand new content with no fillers.
As far new projects for 2014, right now I’ve been working in the studio with legendary producer Leon Ware, working on some modern day funk/soul cuts. It’s been amazing to be able to work with someone like Leon. That stuff will come out later in the year. I’ve also got another project in the works which I get to involve some of my friends in, definitely looking forward to sharing more about that soon. Other than that just continuing to be exited for the album, the remix album, more from Play It Down, and continuing to play music and enjoy myself all over the world.
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Jesse Rose‘s New Album – The Whole Twelve Inches – is out on February 12th. Jesse is Currently touring Australia with gigs remaining in Sydney at Kings Beach Tavern in Caloundra on the 31st and Chinese Laundry on the 1st of February.
For more details: https://www.facebook.com/jesseroseofficialpage
