The Juniors

We’re called the Juniors because it’s a metaphor. Every beat we make is like a junior, a creation of ours. We let something off to the world, like a mom and dad would let a kid out into the world. That’s our beat, that’s our music. That’s how we feel. We’re so passionate about it. Every time you hear our beat, it’s a Juniors beat. From James and Rome, JR, the Juniors. And that’s how we came up with the name.

Where are the Juniors From? Los Angeles, LA

How long have you guys been producing? For about 4 or 5 years now. We’ve known each other since we were like 9 or 10. James was in a band and I had nothing better to do, so we came together making bangers.

What inspired you two to become producers? Well when I was younger, I played the piano. I started at about 10 and was introduced to hip-hop when I was 12. I pretty much combined the two and tried to make my own beats, I guess. (James) My inspiration came from when I was younger. My brothers would play Biggie and Wu-Tang and I would just hear the rhythm. It felt good, like it was a good feeling and I always wanted to do that. And you know I had James on my side, so it was like perfect. To me, we’re unstoppable. (Rome)

So where do you see yourselves in ten years? In ten years, I see myself as one of the great producers. Me and James. People knowing who we are. They know what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. I see myself just working with the greatest artists, already having my own artists. Teaching them what I learned from Lu. I just want to pass down what I was taught. (Rome) Um, pretty much the same- have a name for ourselves where we’d be known in the industry as great producers and just known for being great and creating great music. (James)

Who are the Juniors managed by? We’re managed by Luis “LuLu” Torres and he’s a wonderful guy. BYI Entertainment and Management. It’s perfect, we have no complaints. He means a lot to us. He’s more than a manager, he’s like the homie, a friend, and someone I could count on. So it’s like a family, he’s like my brother.

Are there any artists in particular, you would love to work with? Well like, if Jigga never retired, I would like to produce with him. He’s wonderful. He’s creative. He’s so passionate about what he does. That’s the type of stuff we look for. You know, there’s a lot of people that can rap, but there’s not a lot of people that could get into your mind and put you in a different place; put you in a new setting, give you dreams, and inspire you. And to me, that’s someone who I would want to work with. (Rome) Someone who I would want to work with? Busta Rhymes because he has so many different styles. I think he kinda compares to us in a way because we switch up our style. Whatever we put out, everytime we put something out, it’s totally different. That’s kinda what he does with his creativity. He just takes it to a whole new level each time. (James)

What projects are the Juniors currently working on? Right now we’re working on an album that drops February 3rd, called the Juniors- We make your sh*t hotter!!! It’s a compilation of artists’ acappellas with our beats. Pretty much a bunch of remixes put together on one CD. It should be alright… {Luis comes in} We did a remix on Kelis that’s on her DVD, so don’t forget that!

Because you two are young hot producers, are you being compared to the Neptunes? Oh yeah, but being compared to the Neptunes is a great honor. When people say that, we’re like, “Wow.” It’s not every so often you get compared to one of the hottest production teams out right now. But like I was saying, it goes beyond that. We want to have our own identity. We don’t want to be compared to the Neptunes when our album comes out. We want to be known as the Juniors, so that’s what we’re trying to do.

So what makes the Juniors stand out from other producers? I just think our sound is totally different. Each track we put out is very different. You can never really compare any two cause they just sound completely different. I think that’s really what separates us. We just create so many types of sounds, it’s really hard to tell if we made it or not. (James) Everything that we do is 100% us. That is, no samples. We don’t take stuff from nothing, from nobody. It’s like 100% composed by us, so you’re getting the creativity, the thought, the format. Everything is strictly the Juniors. (Rome)

How do you develop that creativity to make the Juniors stuff so genuine? Because both us have a wide taste in music, I think we try to combine a lot of different types of genres of music and add our own little flava to it. So that’s how we do it. We try to stay away from samples. We don’t go back to the 60’s and listen to records. A lot of producers are like that. A lot of people are sampling music and gettin’ away with it, but we’re gonna change that and bring that to the surface. - www.thaevents.com