Aug 07, 2018
Summer Catch Up: Jay Hardway
Today, we’re thrilled to be joined by a 1001Tracklists community favorite, Jay Hardway! Jay’s celebrating the recent release of his single “Solid,” and the track has quite a story. Made during a tutorial for the online platform 789ten.com, it’s another signature Jay Hardway melody that has his fans dancing for joy. With more IDs in store, a new Mesto collab, and loads of big shows under his belt, our latest interview with Jay was an exciting affair!
Jay, thanks for joining us today. How’s your year been going?
Thank you for the interview guys. My year has been going great. I've released a couple of records which are doing great in my sets as well as online. The tours this year have been awesome and my shows are getting bigger with more fans attending each.
We’re celebrating your new track “Solid” – a stand out feel good production! Talk to us about the inspiration and drive behind that record.
I actually made it during a tutorial I did for 789ten.com. In the tutorial I was asked to start a track from scratch, so I did, and the end result is “Solid.” I was inspired by “Sky And Sand” by Paul Kalkbrenner for the break and the melody has a bit of trance influences in there. I think this is a typical Jay Hardway melody and I'm very happy with the end result.
How has “Solid” worked its way into your sets? Do you have a favorite memory playing it out?
I always like to play it near the end of my sets, because it has a euphoric feeling to it because of the melody. I sometimes play it with the “Fade Into Darkness” vocal by Avicii and this is always quite emotional, for me and for the crowd. I don't have one favourite memory playing it, but every time I play it there are people who know the track and sing along with the melody. That’s always very special to me.
July has been a busy month for you release wise with your Mesto collaboration “Save Me” dropping earlier. I’ve heard some of users describe that just as “just epic,” but how would you describe the track?
A positive energy filled banger haha! I think that collaboration is the perfect 50/50 between me and Mesto, which I always strive for in collabs. Happy with the support for that one and it is still doing great on streaming platforms like Spotify. More and more people know the track at live shows, so this makes it a lot of fun to play.
The success and response to that collaboration has been just huge as well. What’s the reception been like through your eyes? What do you think made you and Mesto such a good match?
Mesto and I are both real producers so we produce everything ourselves. I think the fans know this about us, and really appreciate that. We make real music and try to be as genuine as possible in our artist personalities, so to say – we’re really quite the same in this way which I think makes us a good fit.
In your Slam FM set together with Mesto you included two really big IDs (track 2 and 6) – anything that you can tell us there?
Well all I can say is one is a remake of a classic dance track and the other one is a collab of mine together with another producer. People will not expect that collaboration, so that makes it very exciting! That is unfortunately all I can tell haha.
Last year saw you release some more almost experimental like tracks such as “Scio” and “Need It.” Will we see anything like that from you in the future?
YES! I loved and still love making those kind of tracks and have a bunch of projects laying around with that kind of vibe. Can't wait till after the summer to have more time available in the studio again and finish those projects.
And lastly, what are you looking forward to most in the second half of summer? PS – any ADE insights or plans that you may be able to share?
Sziget Festival is going to be awesome in August, definitely one of my favourite festivals in the world to play! ADE is going to be packed with shows, but I'm not hosting an event of my own this year. BUT in 2019 we're going to try and come back with our own event that is a bit bigger!
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