He’s worked with Girls Aloud and Rita Ora, and now DJ Fresh, also known as Daniel Stein, has reworked a new single with Ellie Goulding.
The song, Flashlight, was originally included on Ellie’s album Halcyon Days but the track has been reworked into an edit featuring elements of electro, drum ‘n’ base and pop.
Daniel said: “We always thought it would be nice as a single but because of our busy schedules we couldn’t do it any sooner than now. We started in the studio with a piano and bass guitar messing around, writing the actual song. I took that away and produced it and we came back to it. We never clashed in the studio. Ellie is really talented as a writer, she’s the real deal, she’s a great person to work with – she’s very musical. She’s not like an X Factor-aided singer, she’s not manufactured – she’s grown up writing since she was a little kid. There is little of that around these days, everything is so manufactured and on a production line, so it’s really rare to find that [natural talent] and it was really good working with her.”
But working in the studio with DJ Fresh can be crazy. He explains: “I literally don’t eat [when I’m working in the studio]. I’m pretty bad, my girlfriend will bring a plate of food in which is really good because I basically haven’t eaten for a day and a half and have to eat something. I’ll just be sat there with an e-cigarette and a Diet Coke wasting away. When you’re in the creative flow, with creativity you achieve a momentum and when you break it it’s very difficult to get it back again. "When I worked with Harley from Rizzle Kicks he used to run around the block, to clear his head and get back into the zone. Everyone who is creative has their own little brand of eccentricity.”
In 2012 DJ Fresh’s second single Hot Right Now featured singer and new judge on The Voice, Rita Ora, and became his second number one in the UK. And the first drum and bass song to chart at number one in the UK.
Daniel said: “Rita Ora is a really talented singer, she has an amazing voice. There aren’t many singers where as a producer you put a microphone next to her and virtually any noise that comes out of her mouth can have anything done to it, she is like a finely tuned instrument. She’s very good with people, very friendly, light-hearted and fun so I’m sure she will do very well as a mentor on The Voice.”
Flashlight is just a taste of the brand new album from DJ Fresh which will arrive later in the year.