15 questions with… John Newman
John Newman’s career is already full of number one hits and million-selling albums, but his ethos has always been to move on to the next thing, and with his latest releases he’s certainly doing just that. After starting out in music while studying in Leeds, Newman moved to London and ended up singing with Rudimental on their number one Feel The Love which kick-started a hugely successful solo career. He enjoyed four huge hit singles from the platinum and chart-topping album, Tribute, while its follow-up, Revolve, strayed further into dance, house and disco genres.
After taking a break from the industry, Newman is now back with what he describes as ‘v2.0’ and a completely new dance-orientated direction. It’s a risk, but really a continuation of how he started out…
“I signed one of the biggest deals of 2012… but still had to borrow money”
1 How did you start out in music production in the first place?
“When I was a kid, I grew up in a small town in North Yorkshire called Settle. There wasn’t much going on and my dream was to be a Formula One mechanic. However, I was DJing in my bedroom from being really, really young and playing old funky house tunes and other amazing things, like electro house tunes. And then I started producing hip-hop and dance music on my computer, and my and it changed my whole life. It made me make music for a reason, to talk about that subject and the issues I was going through. And I think Otis Redding really showed me how you can do that in music.”
