UK producer and DJ Jordan Peak has built his career around a house sound rooted in classic US influences, combining driving rhythms, deep basslines, and distinctive vocal hooks.
Photo credit: Jordan Peak – Official
Over the years, Peak has developed a catalogue spanning labels including Defected, Edible, Saved, Three Six Zero Recordings, and Dansu Discs. His productions have received support from artists such as Pete Tong, CHRIS STASSY, Patrick Topping, Peggy Gou, and TSHA, while his own imprint, Peak Trax, provides another outlet for his music.
His latest release, ‘Be With Me,’ marks his debut on Prunk’s PIV Records. The single combines heavy drums, a hypnotic bassline, and a recurring vocal hook, while Kellie Allen contributes a remix that introduces brighter synth arrangements and a more melodic direction.
To mark the release, Jordan Peak shares four music production tips, discussing how he approaches creative ideas, works with limited elements, structures tracks around vocals, and develops memorable melodic hooks.
1. Ideas not projects
I use Ableton to make my tracks. When you open it, there’s the word ‘Project’ there staring back at you. That can seem quite cold, businesslike, and also quite daunting. I prefer the word ‘Ideas.’ To me, all music is, at the end of the day, a collection of ideas put together.
Some of my most successful tracks aren’t made in the first take. ‘Be With Me,’ for example, is the second attempt at it. I found the spoken word vocal for it and thought, “That’s a great idea to use in a track.” I made one beat for it but wasn’t quite happy with it, so shelved that for months. Then in another session I came back to that spoken word vocal and built another beat around it, which I was much happier with. Using this simple mindset change has helped me massively.
2. Do more with less
You often hear the phrase ‘less is more,’ but what I’ve come to realise from music that I really like is that it’s a case of ‘doing more with less.’
The track might only have a few elements in, but those elements are really worked and slightly altered to keep them engaging and not sounding too repetitive. I apply this philosophy to every track I do, whether I’m making something much more driving and peak time, or even my deeper tracks.
3. Know your track type
This is something that’s helped me massively in the writing stage when trying to come up with something. I started to look at all music, regardless of genre, as these three archetypes of tracks, and it’s all down to how much vocal is used in each song.
The next time you are writing something, ask yourself, “Am I making an instrumental, a beat, or a song?” If you’re making an Instrumental, then you know that there’s going to be no words in, and the instrumentation will be doing all the work.
If you’re making a beat, then this could include a one-shot vocal at some point in the track (in club music, this is often a phrase just before a drop, but not all the time), a hooky, loopy vocal à la Armand Van Helden’s ‘I Want Your Soul’ or Dean Turnley’s ‘Actin Tough’, or even some spoken word dialog at some point in the track. A lot of club music falls into the ‘beat’ category.
If you’re making a song, then this follows the vocal usage and structure of a typical pop song by having an intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, and then a chorus again.
If you follow these guidelines, this can help you work out what you need in the writing stage, and this can apply to any music genre you work on.
4. If they ain’t humming, they ain’t coming
I try to make my tracks as hooky as possible. This doesn’t have to be a vocal hook people could sing along to. It could be a melody they could hum back. I will often hum the melody myself first when writing and then work out what sound or instrument that melody should be played on and how it should be structured.
My ideal reaction for the melody hook-based tracks is people hearing it in a club; they get excited hearing that element and then sing it back.
Jordan Peak’s ‘Be With Me’ is out now via PIV Records. Stream and download here.
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