'I can do whatever I want now': Brit-Indian singer-songwriter Jay SeanMar 11 (AZINS) Here's a new club banger for fans of dance tracks – Jay Sean's With You (with Gucci Mane and featuring Asian Doll) the R&B-hip hop number that he admits is a deviation from the mid-tempo ballads he has done of late. “The song came about during a writing session in LA when my producer played this tune and I just had to write the lyrics,” the singer-songwriter says, adding that he completed writing it in a couple of hours and they recorded it immediately. “We were dancing around the studio, we loved it so much. Lyrically, it's tongue-in-cheek, playful yet mature – signature Jay Sean,” he laughs. Excerpts from an interview...

Collaborations coming up

Jay's breakthrough song was Dance with You (Nachna Tere Naal) in 2003, as part of the Rishi Rich Project that included Rishi and Juggy D. It peaked at #12 on the UK charts. The trio will soon release another song, which will come right after Freak in 2015. “I think it's going to change the game. We wanted to be on the forefront of a sound that hasn't been done yet – a mixture of three to four genres in a single track,” says one of the pioneers of Bhangra and R&B. One can also look forward to collaborations with international artistes after he famously worked with Li'l Wayne (Down and Hit the Lights), Sean Paul (Make my Love Go), Hardwell (Hardwell) and many others. However, Jay prefers to stay tight-lipped about it. “It's so hard to keep a secret these days,” he points out, “So, it's fun to keep things a bit of surprise for fans.”

Following Indian music

The Eyes on You hitmaker is a biggie in the Asian Underground music in the UK as well as the US. Jay tells us that he has followed the Indian music scene carefully and passionately since he emerged as an artiste 15 years ago. “There's been so much fusion of genres, whether Hindi and hip or reggaeton and bhangra. This movement has been so exciting, especially the explosion of hip hop, which didn't exist earlier,” he observes.

No full-length record

Jay hasn't released a full-length album since Neon in 2013. That's the case because he is aware that practically, they don't work anymore. “You live with your body of work till it's being made but it's only good in theory now. Fans don't want to wait that long and they will be happier if you give them music constantly – as a single, mixtape record, live version, acoustic rendition or a feature,” he explains. The new trend is exciting for him because, “I can do whatever I want now. I can drop seven songs in two weeks and fans don't care about whether it's from an album or not. They just care about the music.

More Bollywood work

Jay's only Bollywood encounter was in 2005 with the song Dil Mera in Kyaa Kool Hai Hum. Though one hasn't seen or heard more of him in Hindi films, that's about to change. “Now that Rishi has found a footing in the industry, especially after Gully Boy, I will be doing more work here. Music in Bollywood is high on my priority list now. I look forward to giving my own flavour to movie songs and mix genres like I do to create something exciting,” he states.