JONATHAN "J.R." ROTEM  (April 2005) | Interview By: Westcoast2K

      

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Westcoast2k.Net - Can we get some background information on you and how you started as a producer?

J.R. - Well basically, the short version of the story is I been a classical and jazz pianist all my life, I started doing classical all through junior high and high school. Ever since I was a kid I was doing competitions and things like that. Then I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston right after high school where I studied jazz. And then I moved back to the Bay Area which is basically where I grew up. I was a jazz pianist in the city and I started leading groups and we started playing Hip Hop songs in the jazz format. And then from that, I decided I wanted to start making tracks being influenced by producers like Dr. Dre. So I made a few tracks and they got to Dwayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Toné, who took a couple tracks to Beyoncé of Destiny's Child, because Dwayne Wiggins was the one who signed Destiny's Child to Sony/Columbia. And Beyoncé ended up writing to a couple of my tracks, one of which got placed on the "Survivor" album by the name of "Fancy". Then when that happened I decided to move down to Los Angeles and really get in the music scene. So basically, I came down here and started working and a year or a little bit more later I ended up hookin up with my manager and partner now Zach Katz. He helped me kind of develop my sound even more in Hip Hop. And then I started doing tracks for Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, a bunch of people, just a lot of stuff in the past few months. That's kinda the short version of the story.


Westcoast2k.Net - How was the transition for you from classical music to the Hip Hop world?

J.R. - Obviously it's completely different. My musical understanding and roots and everything, I definitely apply that in my music now, but I have to say that I really had to start from ground zero in the music industry. I mean I moved to L.A. not knowing a single soul, not really fully understanding what kind of beats would be commercially accepted. That's why I needed a guide from somebody like Zach, who helped me see what I was doing right and what I wasn't, and how to sort of develop it. So it's a completely different world, I mean before I wasn't really in the music business, I was just in the music. To me as a producer, I see myself as a composer of music, and that's something I've always done, in one form or fashion. Whether it was practicing on the piano and just making compositions on the piano, or arranging jazz music for groups, so to me it's an extension of that, it's just that I'm doing that in a different genre.


Westcoast2k.Net - Talk about the change from playing the piano to picking up a piece of Hip Hop production equipment?

J.R. - Well I was always playing keyboards, even when I was doing classical piano I had keyboards and I was kinda into sequencing. So the music technology part of it wasn't really all that new, I been playing keyboards and I was always fascinated by synthesizers and computer related stuff in music. So that part of it really wasn't a big transition. Obviously now I'm doing everything on keyboards, MPC and drum machines and things like that.


Westcoast2k.Net - So you lived and worked at a whole bunch of different places, what city would you call home?

J.R. - I would definitely call Los Angeles home, I've only been here for a few years, but there's something about this place... I've lived in different places, I lived in Boston, New York, I actually grew up the early part of my life in Canada, Toronto, and my parents are Israelis. So I've been to different places, but honestly I call Los Angeles home. I love the weather here, I love the music business. My family is still in the Bay Area and I visit them, but Los Angeles is my home.


Westcoast2k.Net - Would you call your music regional, since a lot of producers in Los Angeles pick up the sound from the West Coast?

J.R. - No, I don't think I sound like a West Coast producer. There's a lot of good producers on the West that don't necessarily have a West Coast sound, but me coming from a classical and jazz background, with that influence I think I never really sounded too West Coast. I mean my biggest influence and inspiration is Dr. Dre, but in general no. I'm selling a lot of music to New York people, more even so than here. So I would say no, my sound is not regional.


Westcoast2k.Net - Can you name some of the artists that you produced for in the past 12 months?

J.R. - Yeah, 50 Cent ("So Amazing", "Position of Power"), Dr. Dre (1 untitled track from "Detox"), Lil' Kim (6 untitled tracks from upcoming release), Foxy Brown ("Talking" from upcoming release), Obie Trice ("24s", "My Mama", "Ghetto", all from upcoming release), Stat Quo ("Just Called" from upcoming release), Fabolous ("Po Po, "Can You Hear Me"), Snoop Dogg ("Bang Out"), Young Buck ("Look At Me Now", "Paid The Cost" from upcoming release), Tony Yayo (1 untitled track from upcoming release), Olivia ("Daddy Nigga"), Fat Joe, Redman, Talib Kweli ("Work It Out"), Conway ("Nutcracker", "The Gutter"), Lil' Flip ("I Shoulda Listened"). Those are the main big ones I would say.


Westcoast2k.Net - How come you ended up on all these major albums?

J.R. - I was basically just working really really hard with Zach Katz. Zach has a lot of connections in the industry and a lot of good relationships, and also he has very very good ears and he helped me cater my sound to certain people. So he helped me cater it to certain people and he had all the avenues to get it to them we the relationships. It's basically just a lot of hard work. When people ask me 'What do you say to other people who're trying to make it?' I would say number 1, you have to have faith, number 2 you have to send out positive energy and be as good of a person as you can and try to help others in music and otherwise, and number 3 relentless hard work.


Westcoast2k.Net - So that song you did for Destiny's Child got you the first big break?

J.R. - It was one of my first ones. I actually wasn't even credited as a producer, I was credited more as a writer and instrumentalist, even though the track was my track. But yeah, that was the first major label thing that happened to me.


Westcoast2k.Net - Was that the point where you noticed that your career as a producer has reached a major level?

J.R. - I mean it was a very very exciting point, cause it was obviously the first taste of something major that has happened to me up until that point. And I moved down to L.A. and I thought it was gonna be easy, but in reality I found out that it's not like that at all. I mean yes, that thing definitely helped, and it helped people take me somewhat seriously, but in the end I had to work very very hard for a long time before other opportunities happened. So you could look at that as beginners luck. The music was good, it wasn't just that I didn't deserve it, but it happened real quick and it wasn't easy from then on. When it first happened I thought 'OK, here we go, now I'm gonna be able to do a lot of things', but then I learned the hard way that 'No, you have to work very hard, it doesn't just happen overnight like that'.


Westcoast2k.Net - How big would you say is your experience as a producer since you first started? Seeing that you've already learned from the likes of Dr. Dre?

J.R. - I would say I'm at the beginning of my career, definitely at the very beginning. I've been lucky to work with big artists, but in the end for a producer it's infinite how much better you can get. And there's people who have a lot of skills that I could learn from, so I'm at the very beginning. I'm trying to learn all I can, about workin with artists and really learn what makes a song. There's people who play keyboards, there's people who make beats, and there's producers, and a producer is somebody who puts it all together. So yes, it helps that I can play keys and make all the beats, so I can play everything. But in the end that's not what really makes a good producer. A good producer is somebody who starts from nothing and turns stuff into a hit. Somebody who sees the whole process from start to finish. So I think in that definition of a producer, like a Dr. Dre, a Kanye, or The Neptunes, I have a long way to go and a lot to learn. But I'm very excited and very pleased with my accomplishments, but it's just infinite, there's a lot more to learn.


Westcoast2k.Net - You also formed your own company, can you tell us about that?

J.R. - Yeah, my company is called Net Worth Entertainment. And it's me and Zach Katz, who is also my manger, but in this venture we're partners. And basically, we're slowly trying to build an empire, the way that Interscope is an empire, the way any of those things are. Obviously it's gonna take a lot of time. And the first thing that we started with is we signed an artist by the name of Jasmine Lopez, who we featured on a few of my beats. She's singing hooks on the Snoop Dogg stuff and the Fabolous stuff. She's also a very talented writer, she wrote the hook for "So Amazing" which is one of the tracks I did for 50 Cent. So right now we're developing her as a solo artist. And we're constantly looking for new talent, we're trying to be very very selective. We're the type of people who work very very hard, and we wanna chose things very selectively, and focus on them.


Westcoast2k.Net - Do you accept material from up & coming artists?

J.R. - Yes, we're always open to talent. It just gotta make sense. We defnitely wanna meet with as many people, but taking the next step of actually being exclusive with an artist takes a lot of thought. Make sure that they fit in with what you're doing, and that everything makes sense and feels natural. But we're definitely open.


Westcoast2k.Net - Now you have a degree in music. How much did that help, seeing that a lot of producers make it into the game by just making beats and then getting picked up by a big name?

J.R. - To be honest, a degree in the music business doesn't really give you an edge. The best thing you can do is to get in as early as possible and just learn by experience, whether it's music or any side of it. There's certain professions like being a lawyer or a doctor where you need a degree in order to do it. I think the music business is one of those places where people that are successful are the people who really really work hard and are smart and positive, and do it from a very very young age. Those are the people who accomplish a lot. So I would not necessarily recommend that to somebody. Everyone has their own experience, and I enjoy and cherish mine, but I can't say that I would say to other people that they should get a degree. It's not like rappers wanna listen to my beats more because I have a degree. Bottom line is it's natural talent. People make hot music who don't have a degree or who don't even know how to play piano. It's just about natural talent and what you do with it.


Westcoast2k.Net - What instruments do you play?

J.R. - Mainly I play piano and obviously all the keyboards. Some guitar and bass, but I wouldn't really call myself a guitarist or a bassist. I would say mainly a pianist and a keyboarder.


Westcoast2k.Net - So could you basically get down with any artist right now, from a jazz singer to a gangsta rapper?

J.R. - Yeah, I would like to think so. I don't wanna be cocky and say I'm good enough to do anything, but I think my musical background will allow me to stretch out into R&B or Pop. I've been doing R&B records, our artist Jasmine Lopez is R&B, I produced for Olivia from G-Unit, she's R&B, and obviously the first thing I did which is Destiny's Child. But it's all about working hard and paying dues and trying to learn all you can and stretch out. I don't think it's good to just do one thing, at least not for me.


Westcoast2k.Net - Who were your main influences coming up?

J.R. - The biggest as a producer definitely Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg as an artist. I was very influenced by them. But in reality I only started really taking being in the music business seriously very very recently. So a lot of my influences are kinda new. I mean I was very influenced by Eminem, and I listen to 50 Cent. People that are new that I started working with. But as a producer Dr. Dre, and Scott Storch is an influence too. Denaun Porter is a producer that showed me a lot of stuff hands on. He tought me about drum sounds, and what kinda keyboards to use and things like that. So he was defnitely one of my biggest teachers in Hip Hop in producing. I definitely have to credit Denaun Porter with helping me being an entry level beatmaker and somebody who can place tracks with major label artists.


Westcoast2k.Net - With you being from the Bay Area, did you produce or are there plans to produce anything for Bay rappers?

J.R. - When I first started out I worked a little bit with some Bay Area rappers like Suga T and people from that clique. But overall, I wasn't really in the music industry when I was there, so not too much. There are Bay Area rappers that are legendary that of course I respect like E-40, Too Short and people like that. But I haven't worked with them, of course I would love to.


Westcoast2k.Net - One of your first beats that I heard was "Nutcracker" by Conway. I remember that there was a mistake going around saying that the song was produced by Dr. Dre.

J.R. - Yeah there was a mistake that I really don't know how it happened. Maybe the track had a Dre-kinda West Coast influence to it. But yeah, that was a mistake that they were crediting Dre with it. But I really don't know who said that or how that rumour got started. But it definitely was not Dre. It's funny, I talked to Dre about it the day it was airing on the radio. I was in the studio with Dre and he was like 'Hey they going around saying that I produced this "Nutcracker" song'. And it was funny cause he didn't even know that it was me who produced it. And I was like 'No, that was me who produced it!', so we kinda laughed about it.


Westcoast2k.Net - Did the fact that everybody thought it was Dre disturb you a little bit?

J.R. - To be honest with you, it didn't really disturb me that much, cause it was a mistake so it was no big deal. And to some extend I was a little bit flattered, cause Dre obviously was one of my biggest influences, and for somebody to listen to a track and think that Dre could have produced it, at that time I sort of took it a little bit as a compliment. Of course I wanna be credited for the things I do, but to be honest with you, there was a part of me that was kinda flattered that somebody thought that this track was on the level where somebody might even think it was Dre, cause I was so influenced by him. But it really wasn't that big of a deal to me.


Westcoast2k.Net - Now I heard you did some work on "Detox". How much can you elaborate on that?

J.R. - On Detox I made a track that Dre heard. It was a very futuristic sounding track, and Dre was so excited about it that they bought it the next day. They wanted it that bad that they paid for it the next day. It was the first track that Dre laid vocals on for "Detox". This was a while ago, cause he started "Detox" a few times then he put it down to produce Game. This was right before he started going full time with Game. This was like a year ago. So he heard it and laid vocals to it. I heard a version where he laid vocals, and he sounded incredible on it. Dre really sounded unbelievable on it, like a master and a veteran in the game. He's talking about all the incredible accomplishments that he's had, from starting gangsta rap with Eazy E, to signing Snoop, Em, and 50 Cent. It's an incredible track with a lot of energy. I mean Dre's a perfectionist, so he's gonna record a lot of material before he selects what he's gonna put on his album. So I'm not holding my breath for it to actually end up on the album, but I was kinda blown away by what it was. But it wasn't completely finished when I heard it, it was not a finished track. But it was definitely one of my favorite tracks that I have ever done, and hearing Dr. Dre on it was just mind blowing.


Westcoast2k.Net - Now that you've worked with a lot of artists on Aftermath, is that sort of a new relationship or family for you?

J.R. - With Aftermath it's definitely a relationship that's building, but to be honest with you, I would say I wanted to build more, but ironically I've done a lot more work with G-Unit than I have with Aftermath. With G-Unit I've worked with Tony Yayo, I've worked with Olivia, I've worked with [Young] Buck, I've worked with with 50. I've basically worked with everybody on G-Unit. OK, I've also worked with Game, who is on both. You know, I'm a huge fan of Aftermath, a huge fan of Dre, everybody on the label, Busta, Eve, everybody. So it's kind of like, different people gravitate to different things. So the times I sold a track to Dre, or played keys for him on occasion, I would say lately my music has been embraced more so by people in New York, and other parts of the country like the South too, than they have at Aftermath. It's kind of ironic cause I'm based out here. But it's like, you can't plan who you gonna be workin with or who's gonna be feeling your beats. So I'm just happy to be creating music, and I love when people that I respect enjoy my music. So while I would love to work with Dre and Aftermath more, I'm not basing my career on it. It's not up to me if that happens, all I can do is make the best music I can. And if Dre or anyone wanna use it, then I'm very very happy if they do.


Westcoast2k.Net - What else can we expect from you this year?

J.R. - A lot of those artists I mentioned earlier that I produced for are about to come out with new projects. So I'm just gonna be focusing on trying to produce for as many artists as I can. Obviously the artist that we signed, Jasmine Lopez, we're focusing on doing her project. Definitely growing the company, looking for other talent. We're gonna spend a lot of time on that. Basically just working hard.