DJ Snake on New Album 'Encore' & Why He Almost Quit His Music Career
By Nicole Mastrogiannis
August 16, 2016
William Sami Etienne Grigahcine, better known as DJ Snake has had a hand in creating some of the biggest dance floor anthems over the last few years. It started with his No. 1 Billboard Dance single "Turn Down For What" with Lil Jon, which rolled into a series of hit dance songs including "Get Low" with Dillon Francis, his multi-time/multi-country platinum hit "Lean On" with Major Lazer and MØ, and his late 2015 single "Middle" featuring Bipolar Sunshine. The tone of these songs, which masterfully blend pop, hip hop, and electronic dance together, has continued with the tracks on DJ Snake's most recent career milestone: his debut album Encore.
Encore is DJ Snake's first studio album and was released on August 5th via Interscope Records. There have been three singles released so far including "Middle," "Talk" featuring George Maple, and his latest hit "Let Me Love You" featuring Justin Bieber. The star-studded album also showcases collaborations with artists like Skrillex, Travi$ Scott, Migos, Jeremih, Young Thug, Swizz Beatz, and more. In total, there are 14 tracks in total adding up to 52 minutes of catchy beats that are sure to have you wanting to play the record on repeat.
We recently caught up with DJ Snake during an exclusive interview where he opened up about the making of Encore, how he ended up up with the 14 songs featured on the album, the featured artists, and more.
"Encore" is what you'll be saying after you listen to DJ Snake's new album. But that's not really why he named his debut record Encore. In fact, the 30-year-old producer from Paris, France tells us a few years ago, he was considering quitting music. He tells us, "Four years ago, I wanted to quit music. I was just tired of the main stream, the music that I was making at the time, and I kind of lost the love." But then, he started working on his own project, and he says that felt like a rebirth. He adds, "That was like a new start. So that's why I call it ... I mean, the name of the album is Encore."
The Encore album art shows DJ Snake in a desert, walking towards a metro station. The visual imagery not only brings together the DJ's background -- his parents are from North Africa and he is from Paris -- there is also a deeper meaning to the picture.
On the meaning behind the Encore desert/metro station album art
"I felt like I was in the middle of the desert, and nothing worked. I was trying so hard to make it, and I kind of lost my touch and my vision, just because I wanted to make it so bad. And then I was like, f*** it, now I'll do me. And that's gonna be my vision, my sound, and myself, no matter what. I'm not going to try to change for anybody. And, the metro is the typical classic Parisian metro, so that's also a mix between my background. My parents are from Africa, North Africa. So the Sahara, and Parisian metro, the train station."Being a producer, DJ Snake is always making music. So you can imagine the challenge of trying to narrow songs down to a 14-song track list. DJ Snake explains that he had nearly 40 songs (he clarifies many of them were simply beats and hooks) before he chose which songs would end up on his debut record. "The 14 records that I chose, are the best ones. Some of them are good, but didn't make sense on the album, or maybe they're for other artists. So, I might give up those records, let somebody else use it, because it didn't make sense."
One of the most-talked about songs on the day the album was released is his collaboration with Justin Bieber, titled "Let Me Love You." The laid-back, addictive dance tune is the third single off of Encore.
On his collaboration with Justin Bieber on his latest single "Let Me Love You"
"We [have] a bunch of friends, common friends, and they kept telling me 'Justin loves your music, [he] keeps playing [your] music on tour.' And I was bumping his last album, and I was really surprised because [it] was one of the best albums from last year. And I had this record, called 'Let Me Love You' -- like the beat, the music, the idea of the song. I sent it to them, and he fell in love with it, and he killed it right away. That was really last minute, maybe like a month ago. I'm super proud of the record. That's going to be a big one."Speaking of "Let Me Love You," recently there was an extremely short (about 2 seconds) clip of a Selena Gomez version of the song making its way around the internet that appears to be from her Snapchat. And six days before he released Encore, DJ Snake sent a short and sweet tweet to Selena -- a simple purple heart. So are they working together? It appears so.
— DJ SNAKE (@djsnake) July 31, 2016
While DJ Snake did not comment on Selena's circulating "Let Me Love You" snippet, he did hint at a possible collaboration between them -- Selena is working on a new album, after all. It's unclear whether their collab would be a separate single or appear on her upcoming record, but he says, "We tried some things, and we're going to keep working. But something's coming, yes."
And while we're on the subject of collaborations, Encore is full of them. DJ Snake's album features songs with artists of all kind, from the up-and-coming musicians to the superstars like Bieber. Encore includes Bipolar Sunshine, Skrillex, JRY, Moksi, George Maple, Yellow Claw, Jeremih, Young Thug, Swizz Beatz, Travi$ Scott, Migos, G4shi, and Mr. Hudson.
On how he chose which artists to collaborate with on Encore
"It's a mix between the people that I really wanted to work with, and some people that sent me ideas. And I was like, okay, I don't know this artist, but I'm feeling the vibe, the vision, the voice, just the vibe in general. So there's a few artists that I didn't know before I started the album, and I was surprised. All I wanted to do is make great records, no matter what the name. The people that made the cut are the people that just came up with the best songs. That's it."Photos: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio