JORDAN Riley and Adam Argyle are the new home-grown UK pop production duo Hazers, already having worked alongside pop royalty in the form of Anne-Marie, Liam Payne, James Bay, John Newman, Becky Hill, Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, Sigrid, Zara Larsson and many more.
Now with their outstanding credentials they combine to bring us their brand new and original work with new release of ‘What We Do’ featuring YouTube and Instagram sensation Alex Aionio. With the same management as UK pop sensation Jonas Blue, Hazers are our definite ‘one to watch’ for 2019. Read about them here first.
How did the two of you originally meet and why did you decide to come together and create Hazers?
Adam: A mutual friend of ours got introduced to Jordan at an awards party a few years ago and as they were both from the North East, they somehow got on really well!
Jordan: Yeah, so they asked me to work on some of their productions – they clearly really needed me…. and from there we became friends and eventually we had this idea… hey, why don’t we start our own project together.
How many millions of streams do you think you have altogether across all of your songs?
Adam: Early days at the moment so we’re only on around 30 million streams… still you’ve got to go through that on your way to the first billion.
Tell me about some of the epic songs you have written and artist that you have worked with to date? Which of the songs and artist are you most pleased about? Who is next in the pipeline to work with?
Jordan: As a football fan it’s been amazing to have the Tom Grennan single I co-wrote used as the theme tune for Sky Sports football coverage. As a new young writer / producer having tunes on three top 5 albums this year has been awesome. Looking forward to so much more next year – I love the stuff I’ve recently done with Zara Larsson.
What was the point you decided that you would go it alone? – What are the challenges of releasing your own songs after working with such established talent?
Adam: Well, we’re still working as writers and producers for other acts so we get to mix it up a little. Being in Hazers allows us to realise our ideas unfiltered by anyone else. Sometimes you get really excited about a new lyric or hook and the artist you’re working with goes …”Uh….I don’t really think that’s me…” and you cry and die a little inside ‘cos you know it would have been sooooooo great!
Who are the other pop acts that are really killing it out there for you at the moment?
Jordan: I love King Princess and Lykke Li’s albums which are so good. Charli XCX is always ahead of the game. Bazzi’s flow is so so good, his song ‘Mine’ is my favourite song for ages.
Adam: Love the Alec Benjamin tunes, Tove Styrke and ‘cos I grew up with country music I’m so pleased to see Maren Morris having one of the songs of the year with “The Middle”.
You are in the same management team as Jonas Blue, are you buddies and does he help you with your tracks and productions?
Jordan: I co-wrote and co-produced ‘Drink To You’ on Jonas’ album. He’s a great guy to work with.
Adam: We’re waiting for the invite to hang out at some of his mega DJ gigs ‘cos Jordan and I are all about iconic Ibiza super clubs these days. Then we can go on and write a mega hit with him.
What is the story behind you’re recent single ‘What Do We Do’? You worked with vocalist and Internet sensation Alex Aiono on the track. Tell me a bit about him, how did the collaboration arise and how did he feel about being asked?
Adam: Our manager told us about Alex ages ago so we checked him out we were totally blown away by his vocals. Then when we chose “What Do We Do?” as the new single we thought, oh wait, Alex would be the perfect voice for that tune.
Jordan: ‘Cos it’s the modern world we did all the recordings with Alex without actually meeting up in person but when I was in LA recently, we shot a little acoustic video together for “What Do We Do?” He was even more an even more amazing singer in person!
What is your production sound? Do you mould it to fit the sound of the moment or do you just do your own thing?
Jordan: Right now we’ve got more than a hint of electronic dance music but it will move through time as we’re always keen to explore new styles and stretch ourselves as writers and producers. I guess that’s what great about collaborating with other artists all the time, it influences what you put into your own project.
As well as your own singles, you’ve done a number of remixes for pop stars including Dua Lipa’s song IDGAF. How did this remix come around and what are some other remixes that you are most proud of?
Adam: Well I co-wrote a tune on her album and we share the same record label so those things helped. Well at least the label thing anyway!
Jordan: We really enjoyed re-mixing Sigrid’s “High Five”. The central sound on it was actually a little guitar part we recorded on my phone then I worked up a lot of the track on a flight to LA when we went out there to work on new Hazers’ tunes.
With 2019 just around the corner, what does the rest of the year look like for you? Do you have any exciting projects and releases coming up?
Adam: We’re so excited about the new tunes we’ve been working on. We’re trying to mix up new elements and styles production wise but we’re all about strong lyrical concepts and weaving in classic song writing. That’s the ambition anyway!
Hazers “What We Do’ is Out Now.
