Interview with Swedish Producer: Jonth

5/7/2018

Jonth is a 22 year old Swedish producer who has had a magnificent 2017 and shows no signs of stopping in 2018. He's had releases on Futurized Records, Strange Fruits, and NIK COOPER and received support from Tiesto, Jordan Jay, Uplink, and Foxa to name just a few.

How long have you been producing?
This might be surprising since I'm just starting to get out there, but I believe I started messing around with FL Studio way back when I was eleven years old or so. At the time, I was just looking to have some fun. I wanted to make sure that I could produce some strong material before really putting myself out there. Now I've got my sights set high and I'm working my way up!

Could you talk a bit about the other genres you tried out before you got into Future House?
Back in the day, I was a huge fan of everything that was getting released on Monstercat; you can probably hear some of that inspiration in the drop of my release with Debris, "Trippin." I have also been enjoying Pop because it blends so many genres together. In addition to my own music, I also produce hip-hop beats for some clients here in Sweden. I've been picking up a little bit of everything from all the different genres I've produced over the years. I've in no way settled for Future House but that is where I'm comfortable right now. I love it because it is a genre that is built around innovating and coming up with unique ideas for almost every track. I always want to make something new and fresh so I guess I will move on to a different genre whenever inspiration strikes me!

Could you talk about how you come up with some of your fantastic melodies?
It's sort of hard to explain but it usually goes something like this: I hear a short piece of a melody from another track I get instantly inspired. My mind starts turning that short piece in to something with a bit of character. I've been writing melodies for as long as I can remember; I just sort of have my way of knowing what combination of notes are able to bring forth a certain emotion. After I've made the rest of the melody, I use some other techniques to finish it off and polish it like adding slides and vibrato.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jonth Official (@jonth_official) on Jun 24, 2018 at 2:52am PDT

I'd like to talk about your sound and production techniques, how do you pack so much punch into your tracks? Any techniques or tips you'd like to impart to us?
One thing that I'd really want to tell aspiring producers is that it's the details that make a good track great. Like a sweep here and a vocal shot there, percussions to fill out spaces, automating reverb around the melody etc. Another tip is that if you feel like you have a solid drop but it doesn't drop as hard as you'd like when it comes around, try working the buildup a bit more by changing the pre-drop fill, automate reverb and one thing I always do is to high pass all my elements with an automation clip towards the end of the build.

What was it like to work with Rudelies on "Never Right"?
When Kristaps from Rudelies first contacted me on Facebook, he messaged me in Swedish and I was like "who the hell could this be" because at the time, I had no clue that they were Swedish like myself. I had a look at his profile and was like "Whoa! Rudelies actually wants to work with me!" So we started hanging out on Skype with the rest of my producer friends and that's when I got that sudden inspiration and drew out a melody and a progression. I showed Kristaps and he was very keen on working on it. We set a day to meet up and I took time off from work and got on the train down to Stockholm and to crash on his couch over the weekend. We pretty much finished the track over that weekend. While I was there, we got up around lunch time and worked non-stop until 5-6 in the morning. Both Kristaps and Daniel were very amazing people and we got along very well. However, our styles of mixing differs a lot so I just leave that to Kristaps whenever we work together. And yes, we do have more music to be finished and released together!

I did notice your collab had a bit more of their sound but the melodies seemed like they were yours. Well we're very excited for the upcoming ones if the first is any indication of the quality we should be expecting!
That is exactly what we were going for: I told Kristaps that I wanted the track to have that Rudelies sound because I just love their style so much!

I don't blame you, their "Rude" remix has been stuck in my head for quite some time now. But in your solo tracks like Memento, you have a powerful sound yourself! When I was making the mix, I couldn't find anything to follow it up because it's just hard to match that specific kind of energy. Well let's move on and talk about your work with Debris!
I can't think of another producer that I get along with better than Debris. Jurgen is definitely one of my best friends even though weâ€™ve never met in person. We've been working on tons of tracks besides the ones we've released together so far! I got to know him in the weirdest way: I sent him a track of mine just to get some feedback because the track seemed like it would be right down his alley. The next day he messaged me and said that he'd love to work on it with me and now here we are. Even though that specific track has yet to be completed, we're still working on other ideas on the daily, so there's more to be expected from us two as well.

What would you say your breakthrough moment has been?
The moment I stopped being lazy I guess. When I got the patience to wait for proper labels, when I got the discipline of actually getting in touch with people with influence and when I started producing without thinking "that's not gonna work" or "that's too time consuming." Iâ€™ve had the knowledge for a long time, Iâ€™ve just been too lazy to use the knowledge and I think that it's like that for a lot of people.

Is there anything you want to say about your life outside of music?
I'm really a people person and Iâ€™m very interested in psychology and how the mind works like thinking about the different ways of reasoning and how to spot a liar. Just studying a person and knowing what to say and how to say it. I know that it's a very popular thing to like but I've studied it on my free time for many years and I know a lot about psychology and how to apply it in practice.

Did you study psychology in university?
I actually dropped out of school when I was eighteen.

Could you tell us more about what drove you to drop out?
There were many reasons like one being that I don't believe one's capabilities should be measured on paper. I'm very good at my job and that is what my boss, colleagues and other coworkers say, so school wasn't necessary for me it turns out. It sounds a bit clichÃ©, but another reason was that I wanted to pursue music and I was confident that I could manage without an education.

A post shared by Jonth Official (@jonth_official) on Apr 29, 2018 at 6:15am PDT

I'd like to get a brief picture of your thoughts on that like about the day you decided to really go through with it and how you went about building your life after you dropped out.
Honestly, one day I just that I had enough and couldnâ€™t keep going on like I was. I was fed up with trying to live up to other people's expectations of me when I just wanted to do me. I had a couple discussions with my mother about it and even though she wasn't supportive of the idea, she still accepted that she couldn't change my mind. Things have changed now and today I have the support of both my parents because they saw that I made the right decision regardless of what they both thought at the time.

Where are you hoping to go from here?
The only way is up! I take one step at a time, one label at a time, one collab at a time. I ultimately set the bar so high I'll never be able to actually reach it. There was a time when I thought I'd never be able to get on Spinnin' records, but that doesn't seem so impossible anymore. I'm also very excited to go to ADE and meet all of my friends and perhaps arrange an event when we all get there.

Well I'd love to hear back from you after that all goes down! Last question: What has been your proudest moment so far?
It'd have to be a collection of moments: I've had the pleasure to sign so many contracts for single releases on different labels in the past weeks and I feel like I'm really progressing now. I'm releasing a track together with Marvin Vogel, Two Worlds Apart, ONEDUO and Ria Lucia coming up on Illicit this month. I've also signed a track to be released on Quartzo records this summer. 2018 is absolutely going to be the most productive year of my life so far!

A huge thanks to Jonth for taking the time to answer our questions! Be sure to follow his social pages for all the latest updates!
Facebook
Instagram
Soundcloud
Spotify