Jason Derulo revealed quite a bit about his sophomore album in an interview that aired Thursday evening on “The Ralphie Radio Show.” Future History is slated for a tentative September release. Derulo started with a pool of 150 songs for the project – which he narrowed to 20. The singer will drop six more before compiling a track listing. He estimates that producer J.R. Rotem will produce about a quarter of the album.
Derulo also spoke of his link to The Fliptones, who produced Future History’s first single, “Don’t Wanna Go Home.”
“The Fliptones are some friends of mine from back in the day,” he said. “Before I was signed (to a record deal), we used to make music together when we were younger, and I signed them to a management deal and a publishing deal.”
It’s certainly a refreshing tale of a superstar who doesn’t forget his roots and the friends he made on his way up the latter. Derulo has also signed a handful of singers and songwriters, some of which will be releasing material in the near future. But at the moment, the “Whatcha Say” singer has his hands full with this sophomore album, and making sure that people don’t hear premature tracks. While Derulo seemed to joke about the recent leak of a demo to “Don’t Wanna Go Home,” he also sounded a bit frustrated that a non-final recording made a first impression to some of his fans.
“I just want to have a talk with all the hackers out there, like, ‘If you’re going to hack these e-mails, just get a better version of the song!” he said. “Why does it always have to be like a crappy version of the song that has to leak out?”
In the instance of “Don’t Wanna Go Home,” the bootleg was one of the first working edits – usually Derulo will go in to the recording booth, freestyle lyrics, and work from there. A quick comparison of the demo to the final shows that in addition to some vocal and instrumental effects, there are actual differences in the words being sung as well.
“I would have no problem if (the leak) was like a copy that I was pleased with,” admitted Derulo. “It’s just the worst copy of the song you could hear.”
How bad was it? Personally speaking, I thought it was good enough to spin on “The Ralphie Radio Show.” Of course, I don’t have the ear of a musician. But, I think it speaks volumes to Derulo’s talent that one of his first edits is better than some of the final edits we receive from other singers.
By the way, unlike other artists (see: David Guetta), Derulo hasn’t hired an investigator to find the source of the leak. But Derulo offered a word of caution to other artists.
“You also have to be careful where you record material too because, I was in Miami when I recorded that version,” he said. “I think the studio may have… I shouldn’t guess like that, but I can’t think of any other way.”
Detective Derulo… forget “What If?” – who knew?
