Photos by Matt Doheny
[Damon Sharpe](https://www.instagram.com/damonsharpe/?hl=en) brings all the good vibrations, from the music industry and beyond. The definition of a multi-hyphenate, the DJ, producer, songwriter, actor, and recording artist is best known for his work behind-the-scenes working with all the greats from Jennifer Lopez and Ariana Grande to Pitbull and Alesso… and now he’s ready to step into the limelight as his own artist.
In describing himself, Damon states, “I’m a man who’s worn many hats. I used to call myself jack of all trades, master of none, but then I realized that’s what kept me here doing this. Now over the past 2 to 3 years, I’ve come into a fun reinvention chapter where I’m now a DJ and I’m signed to Armada Records.”
The sky’s the limit when it comes to Damon, and he’s here to bring you more timeless hits to make long-lasting memories. Exploding onto the scene and making his debut as an Armada signed artist with single, “[Lost Years](https://armas1852.lnk.to/LostYears)” featuring Josh Cumbee, most recently Damon unleashed his newest track titled [“15 Minutes”](https://open.spotify.com/track/6ugG8Q9SqaMe6K8fSBPYqd) featuring Disco Fries. The feel-good anthem will have you moving and grooving on the dance floor, paired with a cinematic visual where Damon enlists his celebrity friends Mario Lopez and The Martinez Twins as cameos.
When he’s not doing music, he’s recording his monthly podcast show called Damon Sharpe presents Brainjack, available via Insomniac Radio and all streaming platforms. _Flaunt_ caught up with Damon via Zoom, who was in very high spirits driving on his way to his session with his dog in the passenger seat. Read below as we discuss his first hit song with Jennifer Lopez, his upbringing, leaving his day job, new single “15 Minutes,” enlisting Mario Lopez for the visual, upcoming music, his podcast, studio essentials, and more!
Photos by Matt Doheny
**Jennifer blessed you with your first hit, what song was that & fondest memories?**
It was incredible. I’ve had so many chapters in my career and have been blessed. That was the second chapter of my career where I was going in and out of different signed acts, I was in all of these failed boy bands. At that point, I’d been through 6 different major record deals. I was always writing and producing, but I started to really put hyperfocus on that. I had just lost my last record deal, was broke. Was trying to pay my bills, waiting tables, doing whatever I could. My mentor Ric Wake found a CD of songs on his desk, called me like, “Hey, I love these records, are these available? You wrote these?” I said, “yeah I wrote these. I’ve been trying to tell you for a few years I wanted to write and produce songs, but you’ve always looked at me as the boy band kid.” He said “alright, let me run with these songs. I’m going to try to place some of these records for you.”
A month or two goes by, he calls me like, “Hey, guess what? I got a couple of your songs placed.” Okay cool, I didn’t really know what that meant. He said, “do you know who Jennifer Lopez is?” At that point, she wasn’t as huge. She wasn’t J Lo yet, she had “If I Had My Love.” I said “awesome, great. He said, “I’ll call you back, I’ll keep you posted.” Another two months go by, I figure I’m never going to hear anything, then I get a call from one of my friends who’s interning at a record label. She said “Damon, did you do a song for Jennifer Lopez?” I said “I think so, maybe?” She said, “go get R&R Magazine right now, flip over the back, and call me back.”
I go and flip it over, sure enough, there’s the iconic midriff shot of J-Lo and it says “Love Don’t Cost A Thing” written by me and my co-writers. From then on, things really started to snowball for me. It’s been 20 years now, I’ve been blessed to work with some of the biggest names in the industry. It keeps going: hundreds of millions of streams as a producer and writer, and now 60 million streams as an artist. It’s awesome, I feel really blessed to be able to do this.
**Where are you from originally?**
I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio, but I moved when I was really young. I moved from there when I was 7, then I was in Phoenix for my teenage years from 7 to 15. I’ve been in LA since.
**Coming up as a kid did you ever think you’d be where you are today?**
No! It’s been this amazing rollercoaster. I keep getting handed new chapters. A friend of mine Jeremy Skaller nicknamed me the King of Reinvention, and I’m owning that. At first, I didn’t really get what he meant. Now I look back on my career like “wow, I’m constantly reinventing myself and having a great time.”
**What was the turning point in your music career?**
I quit my last day job in 2000 and never looked back. I went overnight from being flat broke, not being able to pay my bills to having a hit song on the radio. I didn’t realize how life-changing that was at the time, but it literally changed everything for me.
**Where were you working before?**
I was waiting tables. That was my last day job in Westwood.
**“15 Minutes” with Disco Fries out now, how are you feeling?**
It’s amazing, I’m super excited. I wrote the record with my boys Cimo Frankel and Rik Anemma. It started off as a regular song idea. I sent it over to Disco Fries on a whim, “what do you guys think?” They loved it and jumped on, it became a collab. I was fortunate enough the label greenlit a video for me to do. I’ve always had the concept in my brain.
For me, “15 Minutes” always tied into the Andy Warhol saying of “in the future, everyone’s going to be world-famous for 15 minutes.” In a world of influencers and social media, that’s absolutely the truth. In my career looking back, I’ve had multiple chapters where I got 15 minutes taken away and it’s come back. I feel I keep resetting the clock, and the video ties into that fun concept. It’s very self-deprecating, it’s me making fun of myself, poking fun at the business. It’s a little mini-movie.
**Who’s idea was it to have the CEO of the label tell you you hadn’t had a hit in so many years?**
Again I really don’t mind making myself the butt of the jokes. This business is very up and down and I think it’s important for people to understand that. I always had a rough idea of what I wanted the video concept to be. I laid out the treatments and sent it to my buddy Éli Sokhn who’s an amazing director I work with all the time. He said, “dude, I love it! Let me do some tweaks on it.” He massaged the treatment, we shot it. It was one of those things where we did one day of shooting, we started looking at the narrative and felt like we didn’t have everything. I flew to Vegas, we did another day of shooting with Disco Fries and it finally all came together. I’ve always had this vision of it being this 3 minutes 30 seconds mini-movie with act one, act two, and act three, as opposed to a regular performance video.
**How does it feel to have the video out?**
It’s amazing, it was definitely a labor of love. It was not just another video for me. I try to tie something personal into all my video concepts.. Even my last video “[Lost Years](https://armas1852.lnk.to/LostYears)” with Josh Cumbee, also on Armada, was me going back in time to meet my former younger self. Telling him to take chances and risks, making up for the lost years. That was a fun one as well, same director.
**How was it having Mario Lopez and The Martinez Twins in there?**
It was awesome. Mario I’ve known forever. We go back since we were teenagers. That was fun, I did his podcast, On The Air With Mario, as well. I did a real interview as myself, and a fake interview with him as the fictitious Damon from the video. That’s how we’re able to get some funny moments. I’ve been producing The Martinez Twins for about a year now, they’re obviously crushing it. They have over 70 million followers across the platforms. They’re the most humble and gracious kids. I really have a heart for them. I want to help them transition from being influencers to being real musicians. They’ve been a passion project of mine, they’re like little brothers.
**Best memory from shooting the video?**
Every part of it was a blast. Being on stage with Disco Fries in Vegas, AREA15 was a blast playing our song for the first time in front of a packed crowd. Doing the dance routine which originally was meant to be funny, like TikTok but super cringy. I met with my choreographer buddy Bobby Newberry who’s amazing, we only did one rehearsal. He said “dude, that looks good. Do it for real, don’t do it as a joke.” It turned out fun, I went with it. It was a journey. It’s funny, I don’t think people realize how much blood, sweat, and tears you put into something to get a 3-minute song or video. It’s a lot of time and work.
**Talk about your working relationship with DVRKO.**
We’ve done a couple of things together. We have a single out called “Sushi” with BIJOU that now has over one million streams on Spotify. It was a fun one, a fun little G-House collab. A little different, outside the box from my sound as a DJ. That’s what makes collabs fun, you get to do other sounds.
Photos by Matt Doheny
**How was the one-hour livestream DJ set?**
It was sick. We did that at Melody Ranch where they shot _Westworld_ and a bunch of other big shows. We made it very big. Originally, he was going to do a cover of “The Power Of Love” from _Back to the Future,_ for Back to the Future Day that they do now. I was originally thinking of doing a livestream from there anyway so we teamed up, it was a blast. It was the middle of last summer so it was super hot, but still really fun. We had a Delorean and Marty McFly in there as well!
**Talk about having your own monthly podcast, Damon Sharpe presents Brainjack.**
I do that monthly on Insomniac Radio. It’s an hour of me playing my music, a lot of pre-released music, a lot of the dance music I love. I curate it and talk a little bit throughout the podcast. I try not to talk too much since I know people are essentially there for the music. It’s nice to be able to give some background on some of the records, things I work on, give fun little updates. Sometimes, I’ll have a guest mixer come on and do a 15-minute mix on the show. That makes it fun and gives it a special twist.
**What can we expect from your long-awaited track, “Paint The Sky”?**
I’m super excited, that comes out on September 10th. It’s features a vocalist named Polina Grace out of Vancouver, she just did a single with Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. She has a killer, really unique tone. Kind of soulful kind of emo, she brings a cool flavor to the record. It’s a more festive feeling than most of my records. A little more high energy, but still has that heart I like to have in all my releases.
**What are you currently working on?**
I’m just continually cranking stuff out. I have more releases on my own, I have some collabs I’m working on. A single I did with Loud Luxury called “Safe with Me” just came out, I produced and wrote that with the boys. I’ll be doing the official remix for that, which should be out in the next month. I’m excited about all of it, there’s so much new music I’m working on. I’m excited to start playing live shows again, obviously, Covid’s put a damper on that. I played a private party in Vegas weeks ago and that was a blast. It was a small number of people, but it allowed me to get back into the zone.
**3 things you need in the studio?**
Wow, that’s a good one. PH Water, I gotta keep hydrated. Wow, that’s tough. I don’t do tons of snacks, but I love flavored popcorn so that’s one of the things I’d like to have around. And people that inspire me. That’s why I bring my dog, she inspires me. If I’m with other collaborators, I need that inspiration.
**What’re you most excited for as the world semi begins to open up?**
It sounds simplistic, but I love being able to go out back to dinner. I’m a foodie so I love being able to go to dinner and not be stressed about it. To be able to see my friends and be out in the world, even in the simplest form. Obviously, I want shows back, but even being able to go out with 3 or 4 friends, enjoy conversation and catch up is a blessing at this point.
**What do you like to do for fun when you are not working?**
I’m a travel bug, I like to travel a lot. That was one of the bummers of Covid. Pre-Covid, I miss traveling like crazy, not only for business but for pleasure. I was in China, Amsterdam, Romania, Mexico, I was all over the place. That’s one of the things I’m super excited about: getting back to traveling. Just simple things, I love going to the movies. I love to Netflix and chill at home. I love some outdoor activities: hiking and things like that. It’s pretty hot in LA right now. It’s high 90’s, but the pool is always fun. Poolside, have some drinks, enjoy.
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