Meet The Dynamic Trio A2 Productions x Mari Cray

If you’re looking for a track to ring in the spring season then A2 Productions and Mari Cray’s brand new collaboration is for you. With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect the world around us, A2 Productions and Mari Cray found solace in creating new music for the dancefloors of tomorrow. After Cray fell in love with the classic track ‘Back to Life’ by Soul II Soul, the three artists quickly began to revamp the record. Keeping its nostalgic roots, A2 infused their diverse electric sound with Cray’s showstopping vocals to breathe in new life within the record.

Filled with love and an undeniable spark, ‘Back to Life (However, Do You Want Me) is a dancefloor anthem unlike any other. We were able to chat with A2 Productions and Mari Cray about everything from their collaboration history, their new record, upcoming releases and more. Check the full interview and BTS shots of the music video below.

Heya A2 Productions and Mari Cray! Thanks for sitting down with us! 

A2 (Anthony) – Hey there.. and, thank you for asking us for this little break away from the lockdown-life we’ve all been living. Crazy times…

How’s your 2021 going so far? 

Mari – I’m not going to lie, we are in total lockdown here in Oslo. It’s a little bit claustrophobic from time to time, so I’m really eager for us all to get “back to life”… pun intended haha. Luckily for us, we have music and we rolled into 2021 locked and loaded. Releasing ‘Back to Life’ was such a kick and I’m extremely excited to release more soon!

Okay, let’s dive into the music! Can you take us through your origins? How did you three end up meeting each other?

Mari – I was just about to move to Macau, China´s Vegas to perform at Hard Rock Cafe in the City of Dreams. Just a couple of weeks before I got the news while I was on holiday in Egypt. I got the residency! Next thing I knew I was sitting in a mega tall, block building, looking down on the city of dreams, my new home. When I was done with my residency in the spring of 2013, it was then when Andre invited me to LA where I met Anthony. I think I remember Anthony asking “who is that 22-year-old fat ass laying on your couch?” when we first met, haha. Gotta love that sass. 

A2 (Andre) – Anthony and I met at Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins’ studio. He came in for a writing session in 2011 and we ended up having a great bonding experience about music and he just had a special kind of vibe. But, I was busy working with Rodney and he was doing the same with will.i.am.. so, we just stayed on each others radar and it wasn’t until 2013 that we were able to focus in on something creative together. With our mentor’s blessing, We decided to start a new journey focusing on developing artists and to fall back on just pitching songs to other established artists. We were looking through photos of a recent songwriting camp that had taken place in Norway and came across an image of Mari Cray. The energy had was so apparent in just a photo, so I reached out to her and she ended up staying at my place for months on end and we became instant best friends. During the day, Anthony would come over to work, then at night we’d go out and explore LA or just hang out at home. But, slowly, it all started taking shape. It’s been a long journey with closed doors, but it’s nice to see that they are starting to open just because we never stopped working. That’s what makes it so cool!

Your cover of the legendary Soul II Soul track ‘Back To Life’ is incredible. What inspired you three two cover this song? 

Mari – Actually, it was a friend of mine, Amir Mehic, who is a scout for The Vibe Guide. He brought the song to my attention. I loved it, and the message felt right. Like this could be our getting back to life anthem! I quickly recorded the vocals and sent them off to the guys. A2 got funky with it and the rest is history! 

The sound of this cover is so dynamic and breathes new life into the song. Can you take us through the creative process for the record? 

A2 (Anthony) – Wow – that’s incredible to hear. At the time, we thought we were just gonna be editing some vocals for baby girl when they started screaming out for this guitar that we had recorded a while back with our homie Anders. It was funny when we realized that the tempo and key was exactly the same as this particular guitar and ruff 80/future concept we were developing. So, we imported Mari to that 80s project and pushed play. We were blown away by how awesome that melody and voice sounded with that guitar. After that, it was just a matter of tying it all together. We already had all the pieces spread around on the hard drive ready to go. 

A2 (Andre) – Yeah – the process from that point was to make a hook come together – what exactly should that sound like? Anders had also played a bass riff in one of our jam sessions that was tweaked to work – we like using real instrumentation as a starting place. We really had to force some of the pieces to work, but we didn’t stop until it ended up working. And, then we really wanted the drop to sizzle: that where our guy King Henry provided the idea of flipping the vocals down an octave… that really opened things up. It came together fast. Oh, we also had some horns leftover from my old trumpet teacher, Jens Petter Antonsen – it was awesome to be able to put him on the song. He’s the Norwegian version of Jerry Hey, for real… we had so much fun working with real musicians that bring such unique and incredible qualities to the music. 

What do you want fans to feel after listening to the single? 

Mari – I hope they feel the love and are inspired to pass the love on. 

A2 (Anthony) – Yeah, and with everything that’s going on it’s very easy to get distracted from your dreams, but I really believe that the world is about to have another Renaissance after this global siesta. Disco was always that for me, Andre and with a twist of the future in there – we are sure we all can celebrate on the dancefloor again very soon as the world is coming slowly but surely BACK TO LIFE!

Is this single a sneak peek at collaboration between A2 Productions and Mari Cray?  

Mari – We´re just getting started and can’t wait to share what we’ve been cooking up!

A2 (Anthony) – We’ve been working on her debut EP for years – it’s a pretty amazing piece of work. But, we might release another one together one day – who knows haha. 

With the pandemic slowly but surely becoming more controlled, what do you three hope to achieve in the coming months? 

A2 (Andre) – We wanna get enough traction with this release so that we have some real momentum built up for her solo project. It’s so good and we just can’t wait for the world to hear it. Mari Cray is the way – and we just LOVE her and her artistic abilities are limitless. 

Watch A2 x Mari Cray’s video for ‘Back To Life’ below and listen to the track here.