Rashid Ajami will release his new single, ‘Night Prayer’ (ft. JAW) tomorrow (25/09/15). We caught up with the man himself ahead of the big day…
Talk to us a little about your new single ‘Night Prayer’.
The beat came to me after spending the day walking along the river Thames in London. Old buildings and paths, that kind of thing. I went to the studio straight after and the music just came together really quickly. I wanted to something mysterious and emotive. Something a bit dark, but still accessible.
How did you get JAW involved? What was it like working alongside him?
So I reached out to JAW to show him the beat. He loved it and came up with these perfect vocals that fit the mood and concept… just completely on point. He understood without us even needing to talk about it. It was amazing working with him and great fun.
The record is being released on Noir’s label Noir Music – how did that association come about? Are you a fan of the label?
It’s really an honour to be on Noir Music. I’ve been a fan of the label for years and it’s still quite surreal to see my record coming out on it. It really is one for the bucket list. Hopefully I can work with the label more in the future. If I can come up with some more decent records that is!
We’re told there are remixes from dOP – how did they get involved? How would you describe their remixes?
Noir actually suggested it would be a nice touch to have dOP do a remix especially as JAW is part of them. They were feeling the track and they said yes! It’s so cool that they perform it live, I’ve seen a few clips on YouTube of them performing it.
How does ‘Night Prayer’ compare to your past releases?
It’s my favourite release personally. I still enjoy listening to it as much as the first time. It is similar in many ways but certainly has its differences. It has emotion like my past releases but there is something special about it. Something subtle.
Looking ahead, what more can we expect from you across the remainder of 2015?
I have just signed with Radius Management who will be doing my worldwide bookings. They also look after Olivier Giacomotto’s bookings too which is cool as I have a lot of respect for him as a producer. So the rest of 2015, I plan to start playing out a lot more! In terms of music there are quite a few projects in the pipeline which I hope to share soon. Some collabs and more original work. You will be able to get tasters of some of it in forthcoming episodes of my ‘Reveal’ Podcast. Each episode will have exclusives/edits on it that will never appear on, or be signed anywhere else. Head over to my SoundCloud if you want to check them out.