Interview | Dublin Producer Emi Dragoi
In recent years, Romanian-born producer Emi Dragoi has worked on tracks for the likes of G-Eazy, Tory Lanez, and Sasha Sloan. Now, he’s signed a publishing deal with Duke City, the label of Grammy-nominated producer and artist King Henry. With this move, Emi Dragoi has moved a few degrees closer to the likes of Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, and Diplo in the songwriting game. Lately, he’s been in the studio with artists like Meghan Trainor, Lennon Stella, and Sam Hunt, but he took a little break from the production work to answer some questions for HeadStuff.
1) How did you get started producing music? Did something trigger it, or have you just always felt this was what you wanted to do?
I’ve always been really passionate about music, I started studying violin when I was 7, then took piano lessons, taught myself how to play bass and then guitar when I was about 16 and I always wanted to grow and learn more so it felt like the natural progression for me to go into music production next.
2) Do you have a favourite track, or album, you’ve worked on? Something you’re most proud of?
Of the tracks that are already released definitely the 2 songs I worked on for Sasha Sloan’s EP are my favourite – ‘Version Of Me’ and ‘Again’. Before working with her I was a huge fan of her songwriting for years. So it was a dream come true for me to be involved in the making of those songs. But there’s also a few big ones with other artists lined up for release this year that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for everyone to hear.
3) Signing to Duke City seems like it could open a lot of doors for you, what do you see as the next big step in your career? What are you hoping to achieve by the end of the year?
Yeah, I mean it already has opened a lot of doors for me, I’ve never dreamed that I’d be working on songs for Meghan Trainor or Sam Hunt and other artists at that level that I now have access to through King Henry.
Right now, I’m focusing on finishing the process for my work visa in the US and I’ll be travelling there for a few songwriting sessions later this year hopefully. I’m looking forward to the opportunity of being in the same room with all these amazing songwriters and creating something special together.
4) Do you hope to release material under your own name in the future or do you prefer working with other artists and focusing on your production/writing?
At the moment I’m just focusing on production and writing for other artists because that’s what feels natural right now. But I think in the future I would definitely like to release original material, if I have something that I think would contribute to the music industry in a positive way.
5) What artists do you feel have influenced your production/writing style the most?
Oh that’s a big one. Since I was really young I’ve been a huge fan of Coldplay, U2, OneRepublic and few other artists in that spectrum. But right now I really like studying the people that work in the background of the songs. Mainly songwriters and producers like Ryan Tedder, King Henry, Joel Little, Scott Harris, Julia Michaels, to name a few.
6) Living or dead, who is your dream collaborator?
It’s really hard to choose just one because there’s so many but I can name a few – Chris Martin, Ryan Tedder, Labrinth, Lorde and Sia.
