He is up for two Brit Awards this week for his breakthrough single. But Jonas Blue has very humble musical origins — he learned how to DJ from a CD which came free inside a packet of Coco Pops.
Blue, 27, whose real name is Guy Robin, got his first DJ residency at 15 after cutting his teeth remixing tracks on the free software.
Last year he released a cover of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car, with singer Dakota, which went platinum in the UK and topped the charts in 21 countries.
He said: “All my life I wanted to remake that song but I didn’t want to record it until I was 100,000 per cent sure it sounded right.
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“I had the instrumental done, and was out at a pub in London with my manager. We heard a voice coming from the basement — I immediately thought whoever was singing would sound amazing on the song. It was Dakota.”
Blue, from Essex, was introduced to house music at 11 when he watched a TV show about Club 18-30 reps.
He added: “A few years later I was having Coco Pops and instead of a free toy, it came with a CD with a piece of software on it which allowed you to mix your own tracks. That taught me about how to understand arrangements.”
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He and Dakota performed the song at a pre-Brits party at One Embankment last night, with a live band. “It is important to me for people to know that I can play — everything starts at the piano,” he said.
“People just expect you just to be sitting at a laptop but for me it’s very different. I’m not the typical DJ that everyone expects.”