Biography

The Freelance Hellraiser, alias of Roy Kerr, gained infamy as a mashup remix artist & DJ. Best known for his bootleg 7” single A Stroke Of Genius, melding The Strokes Hard To Explain with Christina Aguilera’s Genie In A Bottle, he gained worldwide recognition for a song that never even got an official release. This caught the ear of Sir Paul McCartney, who asked Freelance to mashup his back-catalogue for his European tour, which culminated at a headline slot at Glastonbury festival 2004. His debut album, Waiting For Clearance was written & produced with the help of longtime friends & collaborators, Gary Lightbody & Iain Archer (Snow Patrol), Jacknife Lee (U2,The Killers), Anu Pillai (Freeform 5), George Hoyle (Cage & Avery,Maurice & Charles) & the reclusive synth legend, Jan Hammer. In the 2010’s Roy Kerr formed successful partnerships with Anu Pillai as Kid Gloves & with Tim Bran as MyRiot. Kid Gloves wrote and produced Paris Is Burning with Ladyhawke as well as releasing their own music on A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold label. MyRiot produced London Grammar’s multi-platinum debut album & follow-up and went on to work with Halsey, Aurora, Bloc Party, KT Tunstall & more. As a new decade breaks, Freelance was approached by Never Fade Records to rerelease Waiting For Clearance. It seemed like now more than ever, its message of love and hope is just what the world needs. He wants you to know. Lawrence Nize, May 2020.