Hey Lohrasp, welcome to Music Crowns! How are you doing today?
I am doing great. I’m feeling so grateful. I’m full of joy and happiness. I actually just woke up to some insane news… Mark Knight the icon, the legend just picked “Follow Me” as his choice of one of the hottest new records out right now. This is an absolute honor and blessing, and I’m speechless.
Follow me is a record that I grew up on when I moved here from Geneva, Switzerland, to New York and lived with my basketball coach, who then became like my father. I would hear this record regularly at his cookouts. When I started to DJ, I first was a hip-hop DJ. During my sets I would always do an old school set with classic records like “Poison” by Bell Biv DeVoe, or “It Takes Two” by Rob Bass & DJ E-Z Rock and classic eighties and nineties uptempo tracks that made everyone dance and sing. During those sets, I would play, “Follow Me” as well. Fast forward to when I started to produce house music, I said to myself, I would love to remake this record with newer sounds and a newer vibe and groove, but still keeping the essence and the soul of the record. It was a goal of mine and it took me four years to get this version done and multiple singers, but I definitely feel that right now this version is very special and it’s getting an insane response from many, many people, including some of the biggest artists and DJs.
Why do you make music?
Well, I make music because I love music. I can’t live without music. Music is my entire life. My mother is a classical pianist and my biological father used to be a sitar player. I’ve always grown up around music and coming up as a basketball player, I was always playing music while I was practicing my jump shot or my movies in the park. I played all sorts of music from hip hop to heavy metal to rock, to disco, to house music. Also, I love making music. I love to make music that is emotional, inspirational, and touching, but at the same time makes people sing and dance and forget their sorrows while they’re partying to it. I want to leave a legacy of records that will be still played by future generations.
This is a real emotive brand of house music, what does this song mean to you?
Yeah, it’s emotional, but at the same time, it feels good. You know? It makes you want to sing and dance. It has every element of a great record to me. Some of my favorite house music records of all time are Bob Sinclair’s “World Hold On”, “Rise Up” by Yves Larock, “Sweet Disposition”, Axwell and Dirty South remix, Alesso’s “If I Lose Myself” remix… And all these records are emotional, but they make you want to sing and put your hands in the air and dance. This particular record means a lot to me because racism is everywhere in the world between all sorts of ethnicities and it really needs to stop because we’re all one. We are in a state in this world right now where things are very shaky politically, between genders, between financial backgrounds, the rich vs the poor, and I wanted to make a song that would hopefully inspire people to treat each other better.
I mean it when I say, the recording process was magical. We went to the studio with Norman Alexander, who’s an incredible, incredible singer, and we said to ourselves, look, let’s do it this way. Let’s not follow exactly the same arrangement as the original. Let’s be creative. I think the first verse is so powerful. So let’s repeat the first verse and let’s sing it with the power and the passion that only Norman has, and let’s try to hit as many different notes as possible to give it color. Next, let’s add some incredible ad-libs that will give people goosebumps. We were in the studio with my brother Cass Maya, who’s an incredible producer himself and an engineer, and we all knew instantly we were creating magic. Took us about an hour to record the vocals, and then we knew we had one. Simply put, it was just a magical session.
Hopefully a lot more shows, bigger shows. I mean, I already do really big clubs and festivals, but would love to have some even bigger ones and hopefully, I get to make and release a lot more music. I do have some big releases lined up and coming up soon. I’m working with some other big artists that I can’t mention right now. Collaborating with them and hopefully the most important for me, is good physical and mental health. Not just for myself but for my mom, who’s my rock, my girlfriend, who consistently supports me and encourages me and who I love so much, and for my friends and professional team. Yeah, that’s about it…The Dream is Alive Baby.
