Though his beats generally follow the punchy cadence of deep-diving future house, he brings a hip-hop producer’s collage sensibility to the mixing desk: Many of his productions slyly interpolate other songs. Raised in London by a Turkish father, a Malaysian mother and a Nigerian stepfather, the Apple Music Up Next alum grew up on a mix of American hip-hop, UK dance and African music, which might help to explain the mix of styles that swirls through his own tracks: His youthful fondness for Prince shows through in funk-infused cuts like 2015’s “Ocean Drive”, while Afro-Caribbean accents bubble up in 2018’s “Ring Ring”, a lilting tropical-house collaboration with Mabel and Rich the Kid. In fact, Jones (born Timucin Aluo in 1987) was a co-writer and producer on the song, and its No. When Duke Dumont topped the UK charts with his single “I Got U” in 2014, many listeners may have assumed that featured artist Jax Jones was the singer.
With reality TV in the rearview, these days Corry’s simply keeping it real. As he told Apple Music: “With all my records I like to do my own VIP mix”-that is, a club-ready version that’s a little tougher and heavier. While Corry’s timeless hooks are perfect for radio, he’s careful to always have something special for the dance floor. He’s pursued a similar approach on subsequent singles like “Lonely” and “Head & Heart”, updating the piano chords and organ stabs of ’90s dance pop with 21st-century production values. While 2015’s “Back Again” and “Light It Up” flirted with big-room EDM, Corry looked to the past for his breakout hit, a 2019 cover of Monsta Boy’s 2000 UK garage classic “Sorry” that paired soulful vocals with crisp, jittery drum programming. Born in London in 1989, Corry was just a boy when the slinky sounds of UK garage catapulted underground dance music into British pop around the turn of the millennium, but he brings the same crossover spirit to his own productions. While that program captured its cast members’ romantic misadventures with tongue firmly in cheek, Corry has treated his musical career with far more seriousness, faithfully updating the sounds of classic house with a sleek contemporary touch. “Back Again” might seem like a strange title for a debut single, but not for Joel Corry: When the British DJ/producer dropped his first record in 2015, he was already well known to UK audiences from his appearances on the MTV reality show Geordie Shore. Joel Corry and Jax Jones featuring Charli XCX and Saweetie “Instead of trying to find a sound, when I want to make something and when I have an idea of what I want to make, I’m just going to make that.” - Apple MusicĢ018 47 lovely (Billie Eilish & Khalid) -3- MILLIONAIREĢ018 21 when the party's over -2*- MILLIONAIREĢ019 60 you should see me in a crown -1*-Ģ019 77 all the good girls go to hell -5*-Ģ021 35 Lo Vas A Olvidar (Billie Eilish & ROSALÍA) -OST-ġ x #1 | 6 x Top 5 | 8 x Top 10 | 10 x Top 20 | 15 x Top 40 | 22 x Top 100 “If people think I have a sound, if people are like, ‘Oh yeah, her sound is this,’ if someone asks you what my sound is and you have an answer for them-you’re wrong,” she told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe. Despite the attention, Eilish is doing her best to stake out a space of freedom and fluidity, expanding her range of collaborators (Vince Staples, Khalid) and dodging easy definition.
Writing and recording with her brother-and producer-Finneas O’Connell at their parents’ house, Eilish released dont smile at me in 2017, followed by an ever-evolving series of singles-a prime example of the fact that, in the streaming era, artists are now free to move directly from their bedrooms into the spotlight. “You can say the truth, and you can not tell anyone that it’s the truth-you can just write it, and it’ll be yours.” Raised and homeschooled in Los Angeles by actor/musician parents, Eilish (born Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell in 2001) started writing songs when she was around 11, exploring a strain of melancholy, minimal and slightly surrealistic pop influenced as much by Lana Del Rey as the radical honesty of rappers like Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt.
“You can write anything,” she told Apple Music in an interview for the Up Next series. When singer-songwriter Billie Eilish feels something new, the first thing she does is take out her phone and write it down.