What is the story behind the creation of the new single?

The song has a long history. In early 2019 I wrote the first version, which I also recorded back then. That was right after I released “Not Only Sunshine”.

Turn It Up was initially titled “Turn Up The Music”, and it should be, and will be, the opening song of my next record. The title of that record is in the lyrics. Can you spot it? 

While recording Turn It Up, I listened to ELO a lot, and I think you can hear that. The song itself has over 160 layers of stuff happening. How about that, Jeff Lynne?

It was not a very easy song to record; I kept making adjustments because the result was always not what I wanted. I didn’t make it easy for myself either because I really wanted to incorporate samples of classical music into the song; if you listen carefully, you can hear Bach. Finding the right balance between pop/rock and classical music was a nerve-wracking process, and I only got it right after the 20th mix.

At first, I played all instruments on my own. Then I decided to get help from a few of my friend-musicians such as JK Harrison and Marcos De La Cruz.

The lyrics are very self-explaining, I think. It’s me telling the people to turn up their radio 😊!

Due to Covid-19, the new record wasn’t released in 2020. Anyway, I still hope to finish the new album sometime in 2022.  

And then you asked Roger to sing on your song. How came that about?

That is a very unspectacular story. Well, since I discovered Jellyfish and Roger’s solo stuff, I always loved his vocals. When I wrote Turn It Up in 2019, I already felt like, “Damn, I wanna have Roger on it “. 

Roger is a very busy man. He is very involved in working with Beck and his new project called “The Lickerish Quartet “.

I was very lucky to be able to hire him. The vocals he recorded blew my mind. He nailed the “Bach” harmonies at the end. And those harmonies have given me sleepless nights because I couldn’t manage to sing them.

He said “Love it!” when the work was done, which made me very happy and proud.