We hung out with Producer extraordinaire, DJ Fresh and powerhouse, Ella Eyre for a morning of fine-art and quick-fire questions.

With their collaborative and infectious new single ‘Gravity‘ destined for this weekend’s official Top 10, we thought it would be a great idea to take the Artist’s minds off chart positions and live show rehearsals by getting Fresh and Ella to sit down and draw one another’s portraits, as we threw some quick-fire Q’s in their direction. Enjoy.

Fresh, you’ve collaborated with everyone from Rita Ora to Ellie Goulding. What really stood out about Ella that made you want her to be part of the new single?

DJ Fresh: It was her hair really!
Ella: He sent me a message on Twitter and I didn’t see it, my mum did and asked if I knew DJ Fresh. He then got in contact saying that he liked my work that I’d done with Paloma Faith and Sigma, which was cool. I went down and had about 2 hours in the studio and by the end of that we had ‘Gravity’

Were there any compromises / creative differences when it came to how the final track would sound?

E: We had that issue all day as initially the session didn’t flow too well because we’d only just met. We stopped recording for a bit and just got to chat and get to know one another and that made everything flow much better.
F: We sat down with the piano and the ideas came from nowhere.

If you could have guest-featured on one another’s individual hits, which track would you have chosen to be part of?

E: For me it would be ‘Louder ‘-  I think that’s my favourite.I really like ‘Hot Right Now’ too but that might be too close to home because of the Rita Ora comparisons.
F: Rita has an incredible voice too.

How do you think would fare in the modern day as artists without the help of social media?

E: I’ve grown up with it so I think it varies. I think it’s great to project your personality out there to an audience who may not have otherwise got to see it. I miss my privacy, but that comes with the job. I think I could cope without it though. I think we’re losing some of the organic elements of the music industry because of social media.
F: I think it’s bad for music that things other than the quality of the music itself are becoming more important than the music. At the same time it’s a reflection of what the people want. I’m pretty passionate about music and maybe other people aren’t as much. For us guys, as musicians, because we’re so close to it we really care about it and want to create new things and have artist integrity. Social media promotes the idea of people being just famous for the sake of being famous. When you see people who are genuinely talented getting ignored in favour of people  that dress in a crazy way or go out with someone famous, it’s a bit depressing. It is a great tool for emerging artists though.
E: I think Adele is incredible at it! You don’t ever hear from her and when you do, it’s for a good reason. I enjoy that. MNEK is another one who is great at it! He’s very active and has a great sense of humour.

We have you both dawing one another’s portraits or us today – how would you describe ‘Gravity’ as a painting or an artist?

E: I think ‘Gravity’ as an artist would be Banksy.  The idea is that nothing can stop Banksy from getting his art out there and the lyrics to Gravity are that ‘even Gravity can’t hold us down’.
D: The cover of the single by definition and the video very much characterise the song.

Is there a certain track by another musician that you would loved to have written?

E: ‘Telephone’ by Lady Gaga and Beyonce – the video is great and I wish I had a dance routine for it.
D: There’s a bunch that I wish I hadn’t made!

To be in with a chance of winning both signed portraits from DJ Fresh and Ella Eyre, see details here.

Photography: Christopher McCrory | www.christophermc.co.uk