“Fast Car” came about because Tracy Chapman’s original was my mom’s favorite song. I was born in 1989 and the original came out in ‘88 and I remember she said it was on radio all of the time. We would go on long car journeys and it was always played on the radio like it is today. It stuck with me. It’s been such a classic, timeless song. Later on in life, I knew I wanted to play it in my DJ sets so the mixture of that I always knew I wanted to make a new version of it. The problem was building up the courage to take on this classic record. A lot of people told me my remix is cool, but to me it wasn’t a remix, it was a re-imagination, carrying on from where Tracy Chapman left off and giving it a new lease on life. I remember I was out one evening–Aug. 15, 2015– with my friend and had this crazy idea of how “Fast Car” could sound. This was me just being in a daze. I had this idea of how this euphoric riff could go. I went to the studio and laid that down for this idea I’ve wanted to do for so long. I literally had the instrumental done in one evening.

We got lucky with Dakota. I found Dakota singing in a pub in East London. This pub is known for breaking new acts. She was singing in the basement at the time. I told her, “I can hear you singing on my version of ‘Fast Car.’” At first she was quite hesitant because she had never recorded any dance music before. She ended up adding something so fresh and so new to this track.

On June 9, 2017, “Fast Car” was certified 1x Platinum by the RIAA: