Jaren Cerf‘s passion for the trance music genre grew after meeting Matt Cerf back in 2005. Bringing in her amazing vocals to the group known as Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren, she set off to change the sound of trance music forever with her awe inspiring vocals. Many chart topping hits later, this group continues to set a new standard for the genre and furthermore has become a sensation around the world. We recently spoke with Jaren and here’s what she had to say:

Jaren Cerf Interview by AscenDance Radio

Dayanna: We’re speaking with singer and songwriter Jaren Cerf, of Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren, who has captivated trance fans everywhere with beautiful lyrics and her outstanding voice. So Jaren, you met Matt Cerf back in 2005, and you started collaborating with he and Shawn Mitiska under the name Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren, what has it been like to work with them?

Jaren Cerf: Oh you know, it’s been good. (laughs) but we all have extremely different personalities and tastes in music and stuff so I think we bring quite a bit to the table, a lot of variety so it’s great. You know, Matt and Shawn are kind of like brothers in a way. So you know, we argue about music and how things need to sound but I think it’s all in the best interest of any of the music we are doing so no complaints.

Dayanna: So each person contributes their own little part to the group and to the sound of the overall songs that you all produce?

Jaren Cerf: Absolutely, absolutely. Matt is like really melodic so he likes to do a lot of the melody basically. Shawn does a lot of that too, he adds a lot of like the lead melodies and stuff and Shawn is like the percussion specialist of the world. He’s crazy; he’s so good at that so yeah they do a lot of that work together. They’re pretty good, they let me kind of come in and do my own thing in regards to the writing, and they give me feedback and you know so its great.

Dayanna: It sounds great. Now, I’ve heard that you write your own lyrics, what’s that process like and what inspires you to write?

Jaren Cerf: You know, I think I’ve always I guess maybe kind of maybe some sort of a writer at heart. I didn’t really start writing my own songs until maybe I was like seventeen, but I never, ever, ever thought that I would be a song writer I always you know growing up thought hey I’m going to be a ballerina. That’s why I’ve done ballet for like fourteen years and then that didn’t end up working out, so I ended up switching gears to music and I just don’t think that I could sing somebody else’s lyrics convincingly which is why I always wrote my own. But now I do sing other people’s lyrics occasionally but I really like to write so much that I enjoy writing for others as well.

Dayanna: That’s really nice to hear.

Jaren Cerf: Well thanks; I think there’s kind of a shift going on. There are a lot of singers out there that are writing their own music now specially in the dance world and I think that’s cool like, power to the people, you know? Power to the songwriters! It’s great.

Dayanna: And one of your first releases “Light the Skies” was featured on Armin van Buuren’s A State Trance 2007. How did you feel when news first broke that your work would be included on this legendary series?

Jaren Cerf: To be honest, it was a mixture of things because you know I’m fairly new to this and in 2007 I was brand new to the industry, I didn’t even know how Armin was. I had hear the name and I had kind of been told who he was but I really didn’t know who he was and even when I met him I was like okay who am I shaking hands here with here? you know? And so there was a feeling of like okay everyone else is telling me this is really wonderful news and this is really fantastic so it must be really fantastic and then that feeling of like oh wow this is really exciting you know? And also in the beginning, Matt and I and Shawn too we all kind of released tracks hoping and praying that one day we would have one of our tracks play in a club somewhere. We had no idea this could happen, we had no idea that once light the skies was going to be on that compilation that all of a sudden things were going to kind of snowball for us so it was great.

Dayanna: And most recently, you did the vocals for one of Armin van Buuren‘s one of his latest singles “Unforgivable.” What was it like to work with the world’s number one DJ?

Jaren Cerf: Oh he’s a good guy, he’s really musical, he studied all of his music so I think he’s fun to work with and fun to write with musically because I can bring in the elements that I want to bring in through my experience in music because I grew up in country music and some rock but a lot bluegrass so I get to pull from those elements and he knows where I’m coming from musically and he has an appreciation for that. You know I don’t think he goes into the mind set of like I’m just going to write trance music , i think he goes in thinking these are songs and songs can be in all different types of genres and they can translate well into dance music so I don’t know he was just a pleasure to work with, he was great.

Dayanna: You’re latest single “Beggin You” is one of the highest rated songs here on AscenDance Radio and it’s been in high rotation since December of last year. Did you write the lyrics and can you tell us what it’s about?

Jaren Cerf: Sure, probably sounds kind funny but a lot of people think that I write heavily from personal experience and maybe I do but I think it’s must be kind of subconscious. When I sit down and write I don’t usually think okay what’s an experience I’ve been through, this is what I’m going to write about. How that song came about was actually that I had been asked to write and to demo for work for cosmic gate for their album at the time and so I had one of their instrumentals and I had written a track but the information had been kind of confused along the way and so actually their album had already been finished by the time I had demoed it and so we had this song, we had the top line obviously that was still mine and I thought I just love this top line so much and it was really inspired something about the feeling that we wanted to take it to another level and do it our way so that’s how that song came about.

Dayanna: Well it’s an amazing song.

Jaren Cerf: Thank you.

Dayanna: You’re welcome. Recently you mentioned on your website jarenlive.com that your first solo album “Fixin It Upright” might be getting some airplay and might be featured in some films & TV. Now this release is a departure from trance, can you tell us more about it and how it came to be?

Jaren Cerf: Sure, actually this is the genre that I feel like I was supposed to be doing originally, I just kind of fell into the dance music scene. This is what I originally had come out to Los Angeles to do even though I hadn’t really found my style yet these songs had been written from the time I was seventeen till the time I was twenty two. So I ended up meeting with a gentleman in Sweden who was a pretty well known producer and engineer he worked with Rockfet and ABBA, great guy so (his name is Alar) and he and the co-producer Jerker really were the ones behind this album to give it the feel that it has so I call it folk pop soul rock because I think it’s kind of a blend of all of those and I’m not really sure what genre to put it in so yeah that’s here my heart and soul is. I have a heart and soul for dance music as well but they’re pretty different.

Dayanna: Yeah that’s great and during the interview that Cerf & Mitiska had with Armin van Buuren at A State of Trance 450 in New York we found out that you’re finishing up your first artist album. How is that coming along and when can fans expect its release?

Jaren Cerf: That is a good questions, that is a really good question. It’s coming along really well, it’s coming along a little slower than we had anticipated but that’s because we get to a place in a song we feel like okay we think it’s almost there and then one of us tweaks something in the song and then we kind of have to go back to the skeleton and then re-build it again. So we feel like we’re constantly making the songs better, and we’re you know maybe adding a few here and subtracting a few there so I don’t know when it’s going to be released but we’ve got quite a few surprises on it so we’re excited about it.

Dayanna: We’ll keep an eye out for it, now one of the tracks on this CD is a reunion of sorts for you, as some may already know; your roots go back to country music where you and your sister would do duets. Now you two are teaming up once again but this time in the trance world. Whose idea was it to work together again?

Jaren Cerf: Well, I don’t know who’s going to take the credit but I will say that I always wanted to do a duet and I always wanted to bring Josie on board at some point so if Shawn and Matt aren’t here to argue I’ll take the credit for that.

Dayanna & Jaren Cerf: Laughs

Dayanna: And it’s been a blast working with your sister?

Jaren Cerf: Ohh yeah, all the time. She’s fun to work with you know, so she’s in Wyoming and she does her thing in Wyoming and she comes out here to visit and we work on music together. I love to working with her, it’s such a different dynamic you know, now that we’re both not little kids anymore, we used to fight a lot so now to work together its really cool, it’s something special.

Dayanna: Besides your first artist album, is there anything else that your fans can look forward to seeing from you in the future?

Jaren Cerf: Oh goodness, there are a few surprises in the works right now, but I can’t really say. I can say that however though that for any of you out there who actually like that Delerium, Conjure One style I am working with Conjure One on his next album. So that’s been very exciting for me. Yeah really looking forward to that!

Dayanna: Well Jaren, Thank you so much for chatting with us and we look forward to your continued success.

Jaren Cerf: Thank you, thank you, you too, thanks for having me.

For more information on Jaren, be sure to visit the official Jaren website or Jaren’s Facebook page..

For more information on Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren please visit the Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren Official Website for updates.

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