From club promoter to DJ to music producer who is doing official remixes for major artists like Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello and Cardi B. This is the story of England based Andy Jarvis. We had the chance to catch up with him for a quick Q&A:
Can you give us a little background story on how your latest single “My Love” came to life?
My Love came to life as I had written an instrumental track with Malarkey and RobbieG, but I needed a vocal. I went through hundreds of Spotify playlists, then heard Yasmin Jane on Simon Fields track. I was in love with her voice, she was perfect fit for it. So I got in touch and currently it now has over 100,000 streams.
How do you feel about the evolution of digital music streaming services?
I am all for it! It’s just the way life and technology evolves, everyone wanting things quickly and to be easily accessible. Vinyls to CD’s to mp3 and so forth. I do miss going into HMV and getting an album signed by the artist doing a meet and greet though!
Could you sum up some personal milestones in your artist development?
This was a very unexpected one but producing a remix for Ed Sheeran is definitely up there. I always wanted to do an official remix for a charting artist but going straight into Ed Sheeran was so unexpected! I listened to him at the very start of his career with ‘A-Team’ and even learnt the lyrics to his improvised song with Example about Nandos. Anytime I hear any of his songs on the radio, I’m just still shocked that I have an official remix of South Of The Border.
My first play on the Radio was also a great milestone for me. It was always a dream and seeing my name on the Radio was awesome! I was so nervous for my first interview on the radio too, buckets of sweat and nerves!
Getting signed to a record label was another great personal milestone, that has definitely aided my artist development.
There’s many many more to choose from but anything I upload on my Instagram is captioned with another milestone.
Do you have some insights on running a smooth dj set?
For me, it is definitely a mixture of pre planning and just going with the flow. A day or two before my set, I would structure a set list on Rekordbox. Commonly, I would add more songs than needed as a backup if needed. However, I do like to feel the vibe from the crowd and would dip out of the set list if I feel it fits right with the energy of the crowd. It’s always good to support the unknown songs to the crowd too, give them something they haven’t heard before but fits with flow and the genre you are playing.
When you start a new track – what are the first steps?
For me, all tracks start in different ways. It could be from a sample I find on splice, or a track I really love in the charts that I want to remix and put my own spin on it. Most importantly, it has got to be something that is motivating from the get go. It has to stand out to me straight away and make me go ‘YES! This is what I want to work on’. Usually though, my inspiration stems from something else, whether that is from a vocal, guitar loop and so forth. I then build from that original structure and go from there! Then I pray that it becomes a hit!
Last year you signed with Sony/Epic Oslo – How did you connect with the major label?
This was actually thanks to a friend of mine ‘Malarkey’. We went to the same University and Malarkey used to be signed to them so recommended me! Malarkey ended up being the middleman and the rest is history!
Name 3 major mistakes you made and other musicians could learn from.
I laughed reading this question, where do I begin?! Firstly then, your music stream figures. I had this constant addiction to constantly feel the need to refresh to see the stream numbers going up. However, this ended up backfiring, as it began keeping me up at night or constantly feeling negative if the numbers weren’t as I expected. It was only recently until I have taught myself to switch off from the stream numbers. So if you are stressing over your monthly listeners going down, then ignore it! You will worry less and feel so much better mentally.
The second one follows on from this and is possibly the joint first mistake I made. Stressing over the song itself. Again, it was hard for me to come to terms with but being upset or annoyed that an earlier song didn’t do as well as I expected or I thought it would get into the charts. This creates massive anxiety and stress. Just let the process happen and what is meant to be will be! Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are number ones!
Last but not least, and again, all these go hand in hand. Stop comparing yourself to other artists! Being totally honest, I used to be annoyed if another Artist I know had more streams than me or was getting more radio plays. If you stay with that mindset then you’re doing it wrong. Everyone is on their own little path in life.
How important are data insights for your (strategic) decisions?
Loosely important to me, personally. It is great to see what type of sound is in the charts or what’s hot right now in the industry or in the clubs, but overall, do what sound you want to do and stay true to your own sound.
What’s next for Andy Jarvis?
The crucial thing next for me is to finally get a haircut when the barbers reopen in the UK! I look like one of the members of The Beatles at the moment! After that though, I have DJ gigs lined up and a couple new releases coming out in the near future. I definitely want to just ride the wave for the rest of this year and not overstress with everything. Also, I want to try and travel as much as I can with my friends. I definitely took that for granted before Covid.
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0 be the first one to show some appreciation for this!