AJ Moreno has been on dance music fans? radars ever since he was hand picked by Radio 1?s Danny Howard to open the BBC Introducing stage at Creamfields. Since then he?s headlined Be Street Festival in Paris and produced official remixes for Wiley, Will Young and Sam Lavery, while his up-front house banger No Trust peaked at #1, #8 and #17 on three Beatport charts and was featured on Radio 1, Kiss 100 and Rinse FM.
His last release on Humble Angel Dance ? Put ?Em High, released earlier this year ? has clocked up over a million streams on Spotify alone. The follow up however looks set to hit even bigger numbers, and may well prove be a career-defining record for AJ.
Preserving the upbeat, positive vibes of the original, AJ transforms Real Love from a sultry R&B classic to a soaring radio-friendly house anthem, with its warm, punchy bassline, crisp percussion and triumphant keys combining to incredible effect, alongside a stand-out vocal from Effie.
AJ MORENO INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE SALT
What is unique about the place you live, or is it famous for something?
So I’m from South-West London, but since Covid-19 we’ve had to move to Essex. It’s lovely in Essex, it’s rural and I’m actually closer to Central London than where I’m from. It’s a really cool place to live, there’s definitely a young and stylish vibe to the area. I live in Loughton and I love it, got loads of mates in the area too which is awesome. I should mention the TV series TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex) haha! A lot of people overseas used to ask me ‘So you live in London, is that near Essex?’ this cracked me up! Well now I do live in Essex and yes since being here I’ve jumped on the latest season of TOWIE! Essex has a lot of dope Artists and musicians too.
Through lockdown, what has been your favourite thing to do at the weekend?
So weekends are now my family days, I get to spend the entire weekend with my family. I’ve also managed to build and upgrade my studio setup at home. When in Lockdown, yes you make music, but you find yourself having more time than you’re used to so I ended up doing a lot of decorating to the house and garden too!
Any side hustles or skills you want to share with us?
Well alongside music and previous to music I’ve always been an Actor, but even that section of the industry has pretty much ceased. So I’ve just been doing remixes and some freelance audio engineering, additional production etc. Been dabbling back in trading a bit too.
You’re about to release your next single – have you always been a Mary J Blige fan?
Yeah, I’ve always been a fan! I think she’s one of the legends for sure! all her music is dope and my partner Sian and I, always had the idea to do a cover of ‘Real Love’ it’s one of our favourite tracks by MJB. I think I first made a version of the track back in 2016, it took 4 years, many different versions and singers to get it that shape that it’s in. I love it, I hope everyone loves it too!
How much have you been missing performing live over the last few months?
Honestly I’ve missed it a lot! Music/ DJ’ing are my full-time jobs, so with the whole situation the world is in, it’s really messed things up for most artists. All my 2020 gigs got cancelled from March. So financially it has been a massive struggle and the advice our government are giving (at the time of writing this) is for artists and musicians to get another job! I don’t want to get started with all that though, I’m just hoping we can regain some normality and clubs will be opened again, even with social distancing. To be honest, whenever I get in my studio, I have a set of pioneers all setup in the corner, I jump on them and spin a quick 15 minutes before I get down to production haha! I love DJ’ing!
What cheeky banger has been playing through your speakers on repeat for the last 6 months?
There’s been quite a few to be honest! A lot of bangers have come out this year. I’d say my favourite rotation has been ‘Diplo, Paul Woolford, Kareen Lomax – Looking For Me’, ‘Joel Corry – Head & Heart’, ‘Bob Moses & ZHU – Desire’. There are a few others, but those come to mind.
Favourite Friday night dinner at home or restaurant?
Uber Eats! I’d say Friday night dinner for sure, but recently it’s been a bit of an ‘Uber Eats and The Boys Season 2’ type of thing! Even though some of the scenes in that can put you off your food!