[Interview] Jérôme Hadey – a new EP with very varied styles

On the occasion of the release of his new EP Never For Money Always For Love, the JustFocus team met Jérôme Hadey to discover more about his musical and artistic universe. An eclectic and very interesting artist who has been able to transmit his values and experience in his music.

JustFocus: You have a hell of a career in music and in the artistic field in general, but how did you get started in music?

Jérôme Hadey: My first steps in music I took as a DJ around 14-15 years old. At first, I mainly mixed rap in Strasbourg, I saved the money my parents gave me to buy turntables. That was my first steps, I also had a label with friends where we mixed hip-hop with rappers, breakers… After with my best childhood friend Irfane, we started making samples, music for fun and that's where it all started.

JustFocus : In your new EP which was released on June 15th, we find a rather eclectic style with soul, electronic and urban, how would you describe your style of music? 

Jérôme Hadey: These are exactly the 3 genres that I try to mix. That's why I released these three titles. The idea was rather than releasing one title after another and people in the end get lost, I wanted to release an EP that represented a little bit the 3 musical genres that are present in my music. There is always an urban, soul, electronic side in all the songs but with a dominant each time of a style. I try to best represent my values through these styles and my music.

JustFocus: And in these musical styles, is there one that you particularly like? 

Jérôme Hadey: It's maybe the soul that I prefer in the end, it's the most important thing for me. After that, it's not easy because I like all three of them. On the other hand, I grew up with rap, all my youth I listened to that. That's kind of what marked me the most, that rocked me but if I had to choose one it would be soul, it's the soul of my music and my values.

JustFocus : For your new EP you collaborated with different artists, how did it go?

Jérôme Hadey: It went really well. RZA, I've known him for a very long time, I met him when I was 18 and since then we've become quite close, he's even my son's godfather so I might as well tell you that the collaboration was done by itself. Loco Dice, it's different I've known him for less time, I'm a big fan of what he does, I asked him if he could make me a remix and he immediately accepted. After him is also a big fan of RZA so it helped a lot for the collaboration. 

JustFocus : In your career, you have worked on many projects but what motivated you to release this new album?

Jérôme Hadey: It's true that I've worked on a lot of things that are quite different from each other, but I've always stayed close to music. From 2000 to 2010, I worked a lot in music but I also did a year of humanitarianism, film music, documentaries, I had my own musical projects, I worked with different labels. And what motivated me there was always the music. I come from Strasbourg where in music we don't have much hope of doing anything, where we say having an evening as a DJ is already great. And suddenly, I had all these opportunities that I was able to seize one after the other with always music as a common thread. Then I set up this project in Tuscany, Villa Lena at a time when I was disgusted with music, I had signed with Universal Music, it had not gone very well. On top of that, 4 years ago I had cancer, that's when I asked myself what is really important to me? It's the music. After one thing leading to another, this project was born and I am very proud of it, it was a necessity. And today I won't let anything interfere between me and the music.

JustFocus: In parallel with that, you founded Villa Lena, why this choice?

Jérôme Hadey: I took over this property in Tuscany with my wife. My wife lives from contemporary art, I from music and we had the project to create a place for our friends, for artists, which gave Villa Lena. We welcome an average of 10 artists per month in our residency. It's already been 8 years and since then there must have been more than 600 artists from different fields who have come, whether artists who work in music, cinema, painting, dance… It is a utopia that we set up with my wife, a meeting place for people, a place of exchange, creativity and sharing.

Just Focus: Do you have any other projects in mind for the future?

Jérôme Hadey: In parallel with my album which will be released in September, I created a new label called Villa Lena Recording to allow all the artists who come to Tuscany in our field to be able to record and release their projects. It is a certain structure that can give opportunities to these young artists. Everything happens in Tuscany at Villa Lena, all the artists on my album are also part of this label. In fact, at Villa Lena, many artists constantly offer me projects so we can say that I have a multitude of them.

The new EP of Jérome Hadey is already available since June 15, discover these musical nuggets now while waiting for the release of his album scheduled for next September.

Discover Jérome Hadey's new EP:

https://soundcloud.com/therealoutlines/sets/never-for-money-always-for-love/s-9OBZp