Genre:Dance
Way up in the Hollywood Hills, via a winding stoney path, is a treehouse bedroom studio hidden by palm trees and filled with a well-used drum kit, a modest production desk, a healthy rack of guitars, a blow-up amplifier and a trumpet randomly hanging over a sink. The best part, however, is the room next to the bedroom studio; a treehouse restroom, with a deer's skull on the door, shocking pink paint inside and golden taps. The toilet is one of those self-cleaning contraptions commonly found in Tokyo, not Southern Californian treehouses. When I ask the proprietor of this restroom – producer/songwriter Jarrad Rogers – whether or not he wants to follow in the footsteps of Pharrell Williams, Diplo, and Mark Ronson, making the transition from behind-the-scenes tinkerer to proper “rockstar”, he says “Hell yeah!” without a moment's hesitation. Of course, the pink bathroom would suggest he already has that nailed…Most people never get to peak behind the curtain and meet the real heroes of the music industry. It's there where you find some of the greatest characters of all. They're often better than the puppets-for-hire who sing the radio hits. These are the mavericks who come up with the stuff that soundtracks your car journeys, chillout sessions and trips to the beach. These are the people who have changed your life, without you even knowing their names. They have greater anecdotes, looser opinions, and the knowledge base to explain why it is that you can't get a given chorus out of your brain. Choruses like the ones on 'I'll Take You' and 'Pray For You' – currently unheard by mankind, but soon to be printed on your skulls. You'll be incapable of remembering a time when you hadn't heard them. With that, I introduce you not to Jarrad, but to 'Mr Rogers'.Like some of the most iconic producers in the current electronic space, Mr Rogers has his own stamp and sound. It takes some of the groundbreaking global beats recently catapulted across the radio by Diplo and Skrillex's Jack U project, and mixes that carnival vibe with the soulful heft of a track like 'Rolling In The Deep' by Adele. Jarrad is particularly inspired by chain gang era R&B – the likes of Nina Simone are clear reference points on the rousing vocals for 'Kingdom Come' about “walking this road” to glory. He's also stoked on Big Beat era dance music and that same track bears an uncanny likeness to 'Block Rockin' Beats' by The Chemical Brothers. Classic era Fatboy Slim is also detectable. Jarrad recognises that there's a formulaic pattern to much of the successful beats-led music out there in 2015, and while he recognises that it's within his grasp to play the game, he just can't bring himself to do it. What's the point when he can be having so much more fun playing with expectations and toying with the public's perception of what comprises a club anthem or a festival highlight? “As a DJ you gotta have that show-off moment. When you turn around and ask, How the hell did they do that?!” he explains. “Ariel Rechtshaid does it. Diplo does it. At the heart of it there's real musical melody, that's what I really love.”Mr Rogers believes in offering something deeper. He grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and was raised as a classical nut who loved a bit of Prince and Michael Jackson. His grandfather was a famous trumpeter and his brother was an accomplished drummer, who'd bash on his kit next to Jarrad while growing up, literally drilling rhythm into his fabric. Three hip-hop records changed his outlook early in his production career in Australia. “I'd drive to the studio in my little MG every day listening to 'Deltron 3030' by Dan The Automator, D'Angelo's 'Voodoo' and 'AOI: Bionix' by De La Soul, learning about the feel of music.” Today he cuts a svelte figure, dressed entirely in casual black, with a matching slicked-back quiff and an Aussie chirp. His skin is glowing from his year stint in Los Angeles, having moved from London where he's spent most of the past decade producing pop hits for everyone from Icona Pop to Charli XCX and Rita Ora and working with such an array of credible artists including Lauryn Hill, Alex Clare, Annie Lennox, Lana Del Rey and Groove Armada, to name a few. “Throughout it, I was keeping my identity. I was never one of those producer/writers who would just do whatever. I always had to have a little something artistic that was mine.”Mr Rogers has decided that now he wants more than just a little something of his; it's time to prove himself all by himself by putting his own name out there. It all started at the tail end of last summer when he wanted to make a deep house record, again for his own enjoyment. When he played it to an A&R and was asked who it was for, he just blurted out, “Me!”. “I felt so empowered by it,” he laughs. Rogers doesn't believe in completely reinventing the wheel. “I'm not super left of centre like Ariel Pink'. Someone said to me recently: If you're too far ahead you're as irrelevant as someone who's