Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Joe Leaving. Okay, so this time on
Speaker 1: the home edition of the show, we've got an exceptionally
Speaker 1: personal and fascinating interview with Jojo about her exceptionally personal
Speaker 1: and truly raw album Good to Know. And Jojo talks
Speaker 1: about her career, her bad habits, the relationship that inspired
Speaker 1: Good to Know, what it was like to have a
Speaker 1: number one song with her first single when she was thirteen,
Speaker 1: what it's like to still be getting to know herself
Speaker 1: at twenty nine. There's also some talk about chakras. You know.
Speaker 1: There's a track on Good to Know called pet a
Speaker 1: Light that has one of my favorite lyrics in recent memory,
Speaker 1: which is good afternoon feeling bad still, I need a
Speaker 1: prayer and an advil, And of course that's really about
Speaker 1: recovering after a night out, but during Lockdown, a lot
Speaker 1: of pretty sober afternoons felt exactly that way. And we
Speaker 1: started the home edition of Inside the Studio to let
Speaker 1: you know how the pandemic has impacted the lives of
Speaker 1: artists and how it's affecting the way they make music.
Speaker 1: And Jojo, who released an acoustic version of Good to
Speaker 1: Know in July that was recorded entirely during Lockdown really
Speaker 1: gets into all of this with our quarantine correspondent, Jordan
Speaker 1: Runt Talk. So if you enjoy this episode, be sure
Speaker 1: to check out the I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts.
Speaker 1: It's called Rivals, Music's Greatest Feuds, and it is available
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, My name is
Speaker 1: Jordan Runt. Talk. Enough about me. My guest today has
Speaker 1: one of the biggest, baddest voices on the planet. She
Speaker 1: always did, even when she was just a teenager. She
Speaker 1: had her first hit at age thirteen with two thousand
Speaker 1: four's Leave Get Out, making her the youngest person at
Speaker 1: that point to score number one. Her highly publicized battle
Speaker 1: with a record label kept her out of the spotlight
Speaker 1: for far too long, but now she's back with a
Speaker 1: new album, Good to Know. The soulful Sensual collection is
Speaker 1: her most personal work to date, detailing her journey from
Speaker 1: self medication to self love. The music is born out
Speaker 1: of her own trials, tribulations and uh, I think I've
Speaker 1: read trips to strip clubs near the recording studio. I
Speaker 1: believe I'm so thrilled to welcome Jojo. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking the time. I'm so happy to be
Speaker 1: with you. Jordan. Oh my god, so many questions, But
Speaker 1: I gotta say, the first time I listened to your
Speaker 1: new record, it was the streaming version, I hit play
Speaker 1: and the first words I heard you sing on so
Speaker 1: bad We're look at Me Now, and I just thought, hell, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you can say that again. It's
Speaker 1: an album with three acts, three chapters. Can you walk
Speaker 1: me through each one? How you structured it? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: and it was definitely intentional that that first lyric, that
Speaker 1: that kind of opened up the album, because the U
Speaker 1: when I came into this process of putting the album
Speaker 1: together and starting writing for it, I was deeply uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with myself, wanting to get out of my own skin,
Speaker 1: feeling a lot of shame, feeling a lot of guilt,
Speaker 1: regret about the way I handled things in my relationship life,
Speaker 1: and just feeling like I was a bad woman, like
Speaker 1: a bad girl, and I was just again ashamed. So
Speaker 1: I could kind of chronicle the ways in which I
Speaker 1: manifested that feeling, which is like, you know, kind of uh,
Speaker 1: drinking too much and going out and just kind of
Speaker 1: not I'm not showing myself that the most love, And
Speaker 1: then also like busying myself with with just different distractions,
Speaker 1: pretty much wanting to get distracted from my self. The
Speaker 1: middle of the album finds me realizing that I've never
Speaker 1: really been alone, never truly been single, and I need
Speaker 1: that that time. It's really important that as uncomfortable as
Speaker 1: it may be, that it's a necessary experience. And then
Speaker 1: at the end kind of realizing that I might make
Speaker 1: this journey more than once, make the same rotation more
Speaker 1: than once, but I'm more than capable. A matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I love myself, I'm strong, I'm resilient, and and just
Speaker 1: feeling empowered towards the end of it. So this journey
Speaker 1: you go through on the album, you were going through
Speaker 1: that in real time as you were writing these, like
Speaker 1: when you were started with bad habits and things like that,
Speaker 1: you really felt that way in that moment when you're
Speaker 1: writing it totally because I just wanted to stay busy
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't have to really think about what I
Speaker 1: was feeling. You know, sometimes we run from our feelings
Speaker 1: by whatever it may be, by just more and more
Speaker 1: and more and more stimulation. And what's been so interesting
Speaker 1: about this pandemic that we're all living through is that
Speaker 1: there's no opportunity for distraction. You know, really, we we
Speaker 1: like are forced to take a look inside and at
Speaker 1: what's around us. We just can't look away. Has made
Speaker 1: our vision so clear, And it's just interesting that I
Speaker 1: was I was kind of already on a journey inward
Speaker 1: and just um taking a lot of accountability within myself.
Speaker 1: I think there was a quote, uh that you said, Well,
Speaker 1: you said you were looking at yourself instead of reckoning
Speaker 1: needed to happen. What prompted that reckoning in your life? Honestly,
Speaker 1: I cheated on my best friend like we were in
Speaker 1: a relationship, and I I used a lot of the
Speaker 1: same like coping mechanisms of distraction and attention and all
Speaker 1: these things, and I just I really messed up. And
Speaker 1: it was like a catastrophic personal change in my life.
Speaker 1: When this person totally cut me off. There was no
Speaker 1: talking about it. I was just like, Wow, I can't
Speaker 1: just be out here doing whatever reckless with my heart
Speaker 1: and other people's. And I was just like, I have
Speaker 1: to grow up. I have to really look and be like,
Speaker 1: what kind of person do you want to be? Like?
Speaker 1: I know I'm a great friend. I know I can
Speaker 1: be reliable, but like, what type of woman do you
Speaker 1: really want to be? One of my favorite tracks on
Speaker 1: the album, I think relations think about You. It's such
Speaker 1: a raw song. I think is my favorite track on
Speaker 1: the album. What does that song means to you? Where
Speaker 1: did that come from? That came from that the end
Speaker 1: of that relationship that I was mentioning, um, And it
Speaker 1: is super raw and like very almost desperately vulnerable. And
Speaker 1: that's that's just it was kind of like a journal excerpt.
Speaker 1: And that was my first time working with my producer
Speaker 1: Leto and I had been a big fan of what
Speaker 1: I had heard him do with Paulsy and with his
Speaker 1: own material, and he's just I think he's a genie
Speaker 1: is And we connected instantly because I just like had
Speaker 1: these metaphorical like open wounds, um, because I was just like,
Speaker 1: how am I ever gonna move on? Like I keep
Speaker 1: just beating myself up about this. I was still very
Speaker 1: much in that shame spiral and um, and I hadn't
Speaker 1: forgiven myself even if he had forgiven me, you know,
Speaker 1: the the other person on the other side of the relationship. Oh.
Speaker 1: And I listened to Small Things, which sort of a
Speaker 1: follow on from that too, about all the little things
Speaker 1: that that you know remind you of this other person.
Speaker 1: That song is incredible because it's just is so relatable.
Speaker 1: We've all been there, Like you, you can't even sit
Speaker 1: up straight because you're thinking of this other person. It's
Speaker 1: it's so visceral and and sometimes it's just what I
Speaker 1: love about music in general is that everybody will listen
Speaker 1: to one song and like relate their own life to it.
Speaker 1: So it might not be a romantic relationship, but it
Speaker 1: might be just that you're not over something and you're
Speaker 1: acting like everything is okay. You know, maybe you had
Speaker 1: some type of experience that that shook you or changed
Speaker 1: you and you're just trying to move on from it.
Speaker 1: But maybe you hadn't fully dealt with it, and that
Speaker 1: can be and sometimes something can trigger you out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and just really make you realize, WHOA this is
Speaker 1: still very much present in my in my body and
Speaker 1: my in my heart. You move through it and if
Speaker 1: the first single from the album man I love especially.
Speaker 1: I love that the title because it's not really about
Speaker 1: another man at all. It's about you and what you
Speaker 1: want exactly. It's me taking a moment and feeling like, okay, yo,
Speaker 1: I'm live. I really dig myself right now, I have
Speaker 1: I'm in process. I'm certainly not perfect, but I do
Speaker 1: recognize everything that I bring to my own table and
Speaker 1: if it's more than enough, and I'm saying, I'm really
Speaker 1: enjoying this time with myself. So if I'm going to
Speaker 1: break out of this very delicious self partnership that I
Speaker 1: have going on, then it's gonna really take somebody incredibly special, strong,
Speaker 1: powerful too to move me. You know, I really enjoy
Speaker 1: stretching out and having my whole bed right now. So
Speaker 1: that's that's it. I was listening to the album and
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out and maybe it's both.
Speaker 1: Is this album more about moving beyond bad habits or
Speaker 1: is it about accepting yourself laws and all? Or is
Speaker 1: it both? I think it's both, um because for people
Speaker 1: with like addictive personalities or people that can just have
Speaker 1: this tendency to want more or to get really obsessed
Speaker 1: over things, this is probably a lifelong struggle. Like whether
Speaker 1: it's but I think we just find healthier ways of
Speaker 1: focusing that attention. And so am I going to be
Speaker 1: like have I removed all bad habits from my life.
Speaker 1: Hell no, Like I'm still you know, I still be
Speaker 1: messing up all the time. But um, I just don't
Speaker 1: I think this this album is just about getting better.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful way to put it. You know. I
Speaker 1: was thinking, just having a career in entertainment has got
Speaker 1: to be so tough, because I feel like that, more
Speaker 1: than almost any other career I can think of, you
Speaker 1: get so much to yourself worth from external sources fans
Speaker 1: or critics or label executives. That has to be really
Speaker 1: tough to deal with. How do you combat something like that? Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you just have to think
Speaker 1: about yourself as multifaceted and build up those other facets
Speaker 1: of yourself. And that was something that I had to
Speaker 1: grow through as well, and it was like really uncomfortable
Speaker 1: because when you get the messaging that your self worth
Speaker 1: is predicated on, it's just it's it's crazy. My first
Speaker 1: single went number one, you know, it was a number
Speaker 1: one pop record when I was thirteen, and you can't
Speaker 1: get any higher than that. So it's it's interesting to
Speaker 1: kind of like adjust. Okay, so what is success, what
Speaker 1: is happiness? What is sustainable? Like, who are you when
Speaker 1: nobody's looking? What are people going to say at your
Speaker 1: intimate birthday dinner? What are they gonna stay at your funeral?
Speaker 1: Like I just started thinking about all these things, like
Speaker 1: because we are more than numbers and statistics and we're
Speaker 1: people were I don't know. It took me so many
Speaker 1: self help books and therapy and all this stuff to
Speaker 1: really believe that. I think I read an interview where
Speaker 1: you said, you're more spiritual at this point in your
Speaker 1: life than you ever thought you would be, Like, well,
Speaker 1: how did you get to that place? So many people
Speaker 1: don't so many people knowing it close? Well, I grew
Speaker 1: up Catholic, so I love like rituals and tradition. I
Speaker 1: think that's really beautiful. But I, um so, I had
Speaker 1: that that background of like knowing a higher power, and
Speaker 1: I think just through yoga, meditation, I found that these
Speaker 1: things really really helped me. And the books that I
Speaker 1: was reading, the podcast I was listening to, the YouTube
Speaker 1: clips or whatever, it was just really expanding my mind
Speaker 1: to realize that not only is there not only am
Speaker 1: I like feeling this and it's something I can't describe,
Speaker 1: but there is science behind it. Um So, I think
Speaker 1: that linking your breath to movement, and I just I
Speaker 1: think I appreciate the little things more and I find
Speaker 1: God and all those I try to be in the moment,
Speaker 1: it just feels better. I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: the your album cover. I don't like the colors on
Speaker 1: the album cover. Orange has a great deal of significance
Speaker 1: to you with chakra, as I believe, Oh God, I
Speaker 1: am no chakra expert by any freaking means, but I
Speaker 1: am very interested in the energetic centers of the body.
Speaker 1: And I was absinent while I was writing this album,
Speaker 1: and I really wanted to, like hone in on my
Speaker 1: um my sensuality, my sexuality, and creativity, and that apparently
Speaker 1: comes from the same energy center and it's represented by
Speaker 1: the color orange, and that also represents you know, rebirth,
Speaker 1: regeneration and creativities. And I've just been really feeling the
Speaker 1: color orange because I love seed in the sunsets and
Speaker 1: the sunrises. It just makes me very happy. My step
Speaker 1: mom's a raicky master, So I really wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you about that. As fast a lot of chakra talker
Speaker 1: on these parts. I bet so you you you drop
Speaker 1: your album Good to Know in May and then in
Speaker 1: mid July, you drop an acoustic version. How did that
Speaker 1: come about? Was that all recorded in Lockdown or were
Speaker 1: those early demos or the acoustic was recorded in Lockdown,
Speaker 1: but the album was all done before that, so we
Speaker 1: stuck to the plan of releasing it, you know in
Speaker 1: uh in March, that's when it came out, right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So the the so Good to Know came out right
Speaker 1: in the beginning of of Lockdown, and then and then
Speaker 1: the the acoustic later. But I didn't want to. It
Speaker 1: was really important to me that I could stay consistent
Speaker 1: for my fans, Like I told him it was coming
Speaker 1: out at this time. I wanted to put it out
Speaker 1: at this time. I like, there's been so much that
Speaker 1: I can't control within my career that I just I
Speaker 1: felt like we're all hunkered down, and I know I
Speaker 1: could use some music right now. But then the acoustic
Speaker 1: came and I just felt like the songs can stand alone,
Speaker 1: like just stripped down with a vocal in one instrument.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to. I just wanted to express it
Speaker 1: in a different way, especially since I can't go on
Speaker 1: tour right now, like nobody can. You mentioned that Good
Speaker 1: to Know? It was so much about your own relationship
Speaker 1: with yourself and getting to know yourself and be alone
Speaker 1: with yourself and quarantine happened. How what have you learned
Speaker 1: about yourself in this period? What have I learned? I'm
Speaker 1: much more nurturing than I thought I was, Like, I
Speaker 1: really love making food for people, and like, uh, take
Speaker 1: like keeping my home a certain way, or like dropping
Speaker 1: cookies off to people. I'm like, I don't know when
Speaker 1: I turned into this person, but like that brings me
Speaker 1: so much joy. I realized. I guess that I'm creative
Speaker 1: in other ways and that being board is actually maybe
Speaker 1: good for us. Like we don't need to be constantly stimulated.
Speaker 1: We don't need to be on social media constantly. I
Speaker 1: still need to learn that because I do spend too
Speaker 1: much time to still scrolling. But yeah, there's there's nothing
Speaker 1: to be afraid of in my own company. At someone
Speaker 1: I've learned. And you're in California with your mom? What
Speaker 1: do you what do you both like to do together? Yes,
Speaker 1: it's been really cool. I try out new recipes on
Speaker 1: her because I'm super passionate about being in cooking and baking,
Speaker 1: and um, we walk my dog. Her name is Agathe.
Speaker 1: So many people I mean yourself included are cooking, doing
Speaker 1: puzzles during lockdown. You also filmed the music video which
Speaker 1: I know, oh my gosh with with Zelda Williams. How
Speaker 1: did that go down? Was that? I assume you had
Speaker 1: to do like all of it yourselves, right, Yeah. Zelda
Speaker 1: is one of my best friends. We met um when
Speaker 1: I was fifteen and I played her dad's daughter in
Speaker 1: r V and we met at the premier and she's
Speaker 1: like my first l A friend and like kind of
Speaker 1: taught me how to show me l A pretty much,
Speaker 1: so even friends for what feels like forever, and I
Speaker 1: love her. I she's she's a great creative all around,
Speaker 1: and she had directed a music video for me um
Speaker 1: on my like on a previous project called Save My Soul.
Speaker 1: And because I know her so well and I know
Speaker 1: how stringent she was being about COVID, I felt like
Speaker 1: I could feel confident in going over to her house
Speaker 1: and we literally shot at just me, her and one
Speaker 1: other person, and we did everything outside. We used natural sunlight.
Speaker 1: It's just really amazing what you can do with very
Speaker 1: very little and just a desire. It looked incredible. I Mean,
Speaker 1: I I'd seen them and I had no idea. I
Speaker 1: assumed you made them like months and months in advance
Speaker 1: before all this went down, and then I like I
Speaker 1: realized the backstory. It was just like three of you.
Speaker 1: It's incredible, It's absolutely amazing. It feels nice to find
Speaker 1: ways around things that are a little bit challenging, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, are very challenging, are very challenging. Yet have
Speaker 1: you been writing a lot of music during this time?
Speaker 1: I've been writing some Christmas songs. Actually interesting to be
Speaker 1: you know, writing I see cozy fireplace songs when it's
Speaker 1: like blazing outside Christmas in July action exactly. Um. So
Speaker 1: I've been been doing that and it's been I've been
Speaker 1: writing more poetry than full formed songs, and that's been
Speaker 1: nice because I used to do that a lot as
Speaker 1: a kid. And it's just a good exercise. Um and
Speaker 1: kind of like a good brain purge. Do you consider
Speaker 1: yourself a homebody? Like? Do you get more inspiration looking
Speaker 1: inward or looking outward? Um? I I can find inspiration
Speaker 1: almost anywhere, Like I could answer, I do like to
Speaker 1: be around people, though I like to be in I
Speaker 1: love traveling. I love being on the road. I missed that.
Speaker 1: But I'm also not going to make an excuse as
Speaker 1: if I can't be inspired unless i'm, you know, in
Speaker 1: another place that I'm trying to trying to find the vibes.
Speaker 1: I loved your special quarantine version of Leave Get Out
Speaker 1: Chill Stay In that was inspired by UM. I was
Speaker 1: doing a live stream and one of my fans like
Speaker 1: wrote in the comments it was like, stay in right
Speaker 1: now song to the UM, you know tune of Leave
Speaker 1: Get Out, And I'm like, ah ha, that's so smart.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, there's something there. So I just went
Speaker 1: ahead and it wrote the rest of it, and it
Speaker 1: just feels good to you know, to laugh. I'm glad
Speaker 1: some people got to smile out of it. I feel
Speaker 1: like your fans are more fiercely loyal than most because
Speaker 1: you know everything you've been through. They're incredible. Like, what's
Speaker 1: it been like staying connected to them throughout all of
Speaker 1: this quarantine lockdown stuff? It's been, I mean freaking awesome.
Speaker 1: It's it's like how we've stayed connected through everything. We've
Speaker 1: a lot of us have grown up together and we're
Speaker 1: going through a lot of um the same things in
Speaker 1: our respective places of where we live. And I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to figure out life. I've been listening to and
Speaker 1: watching some of the covers you've been posting on social media.
Speaker 1: D'Angelo TLC. I think one time you just sang the
Speaker 1: word hello, and it's still made my jaw drop. Uh
Speaker 1: expects the question, what are you doing to keep your
Speaker 1: voice that strong? It's amazing you're doing warm ups every day.
Speaker 1: You're doing like zoom sessions with a vocal coach. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I have been getting back to
Speaker 1: basics and kind of like doing scales at the piano.
Speaker 1: But I don't warm up every day before I record.
Speaker 1: I do some vocalizations if you will, um. But I've
Speaker 1: also just been going back and listening to some of
Speaker 1: my favorite singers and trying to impersonate them. That's how
Speaker 1: I started. When I was a kid, I tried. I
Speaker 1: tried to sound like Aretha Franklin or Whitney Houston and
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey. And now I'm finding that same passion for like,
Speaker 1: for recreating sounds. I saw that a couple of months back.
Speaker 1: You spoke on a panel for the Grammy Museum about
Speaker 1: any Winehouse, one of my all time favorite artists. What
Speaker 1: does she mean to you? Did you ever get a
Speaker 1: chance to meet her or perform with her. I never
Speaker 1: got a chance to meet her. And I remember when
Speaker 1: I discovered her first album, Frank. It was after Back
Speaker 1: to Black had already come out, and I think it
Speaker 1: was after she passed away, and I was the same
Speaker 1: age that she was when she wrote it and put
Speaker 1: it out, and I was just like, Yo, this girl
Speaker 1: is killing me softly with her words, like she is
Speaker 1: drumming my pain right now, Like I just feel everything
Speaker 1: that she was saying. Um, And she just had a
Speaker 1: way of Uh. She was so vivid with her storytelling
Speaker 1: and so raw, and I just love I loved everything
Speaker 1: about how giving she was with her artistry. And it's
Speaker 1: just so bringing unfair what fame can do to uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a sensitive soul that is just pure and Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but her music continues to just blow my mind
Speaker 1: and it's something that can continue unraveled, like you know
Speaker 1: when you when you go back to it and listen
Speaker 1: to it at different years in your life, there's still
Speaker 1: so much to take from it. I think I haven't
Speaker 1: thought about that with Frank and Good to Know. I
Speaker 1: see them as as very similar. I mean, some of
Speaker 1: her songs, like I've heard Love as Blinds or or
Speaker 1: take the Box. I mean, the lyrics are so funny,
Speaker 1: they're so brutal and bruising at points, but you just
Speaker 1: want to you feel like you know, or you want
Speaker 1: to give her a hug. It's it's incredible. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: such a good point. I mean, she's a type of
Speaker 1: writer that I look up to. She's so inspirational and aspirational,
Speaker 1: and I think she kind of continues in a line
Speaker 1: of female songwriters like Joni Mitchell, who were never concerned
Speaker 1: about looking uh like the perfect woman whatever that you
Speaker 1: know is thought to be, but like meaning, uh they
Speaker 1: were they mess up there, corny, They're hungry for more,
Speaker 1: they're dissatisfied, they're irrational there, you know, all these things
Speaker 1: that we can be while we're also worthy, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I just loved I loved that
Speaker 1: all of those things existed within her writing. Was there
Speaker 1: a lightning bolt moment for you when you knew that
Speaker 1: you didn't want to just be a musical appreciator, you
Speaker 1: want to be somebody who made it yourself. I don't
Speaker 1: know if there was a lightning moment, but um, I
Speaker 1: just remember being in the living room and watching my
Speaker 1: favorite divas on the TV on like vach One, Diva's
Speaker 1: Live or something like that, Like I want that, like
Speaker 1: I want to have big hair and I want to
Speaker 1: wear a little dress that I want to say um.
Speaker 1: And it was you know Mariah and Whitney and Selene
Speaker 1: uh Tina Turner, Shaka Khan, Donna Summer, just all these
Speaker 1: incredible singers. And I've been singing professionally since i was six,
Speaker 1: Like that's when I started. Beside when I think I
Speaker 1: got my first check from I did like musical theater
Speaker 1: or something. So it's hard to think back and remember
Speaker 1: a specific lightning moment, but shoot, once once I was struck,
Speaker 1: I was just like, you know, you can't get me
Speaker 1: away from this. I just love this. I forgot to
Speaker 1: ask you met Mariah, what was that? Like? That was
Speaker 1: so special for me? And it's really just through her
Speaker 1: actions and how giving and generous she was with me
Speaker 1: and the people around her. It taught me about um,
Speaker 1: how you can be larger than life and legendary but
Speaker 1: be so grounded and down to earth. And the way
Speaker 1: she made me feel was she was so present with me,
Speaker 1: she was so um, so kind, and I want to
Speaker 1: give you know young artists, younger artists who look up
Speaker 1: to me that same feeling that she gave me because
Speaker 1: she made me, she encouraged me even just with her
Speaker 1: actions and what she had to say, and I just
Speaker 1: ideally appreciate her. Two younger artists at their sensitive souls,
Speaker 1: who are you know, really dying to get in the
Speaker 1: music industry. What is your advice for them? Well, first,
Speaker 1: I would want them to get clear on why they
Speaker 1: want to be in the music industry, Like the music
Speaker 1: industry is gross, Like you know what I mean, But
Speaker 1: music is music is awesome, but the industry is whack.
Speaker 1: So you have to, like a do you want it
Speaker 1: for fame? Because if you do that is not sustainable.
Speaker 1: You have to really really have a thick skin and
Speaker 1: um and an unwavering belief in yourself. It can waiver,
Speaker 1: but you have to have a resilience, you know, and
Speaker 1: I understand that feeling when it's like, Okay, if I
Speaker 1: don't do this, I'll never forgive myself or I'll never
Speaker 1: start stop questioning what I what could have been had
Speaker 1: I not just chosen a quote unquote more guaranteed thing.
Speaker 1: Nothing in life is guaranteed. So if you love music.
Speaker 1: You can create a path for yourself. There is there's
Speaker 1: no one way to be successful. Um, you don't need
Speaker 1: to sign to a major label. You can do it yourself.
Speaker 1: Are so many different avenues in which you can build
Speaker 1: something really substantial and lucrative. And I would just encourage
Speaker 1: people to hone in on what it is that makes
Speaker 1: them special, unique, and be as much of yourself as
Speaker 1: you can, because that's what other human beings are going
Speaker 1: to connect to. Like that resonates in a way that
Speaker 1: we can't even describe. Sometimes, Was that Bernard, that Peter's quote,
Speaker 1: I feel like everybody else, what have they need you for?
Speaker 1: Something like that? I love that it's so true. I mean,
Speaker 1: was there ever a time when you were going through
Speaker 1: all the stuff you're going through. I don't even want
Speaker 1: to get into it, but that you ever thought, you know, what,
Speaker 1: the hell with it, this isn't worth it, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go do something else? Or did you never? Was
Speaker 1: that never even an option for you? You always knew
Speaker 1: that that this was it, this is what you were
Speaker 1: going to do. It's not that it wasn't worth it
Speaker 1: for me. It's that there was a time where I
Speaker 1: thought that I would not be able to ever put
Speaker 1: out music again because of the contract I was under,
Speaker 1: I didn't own my voice. So I felt like, okay, realistically,
Speaker 1: you know when we start thinking realistically, where like okay,
Speaker 1: well maybe I have to figure out something from my
Speaker 1: life because what am I going to do? Stay frozen? Like, no,
Speaker 1: I can't. I have to do something. So I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: like maybe, you know, I'll go to college, which sounds
Speaker 1: like a great idea, get a degree, and then maybe
Speaker 1: I'll become a teacher or maybe you know, like maybe
Speaker 1: I'll get deeper into songwriting and i'll you know, write
Speaker 1: songs for other artists and both would be a totally cool,
Speaker 1: fine thing to do. Um, I could have combined my
Speaker 1: passions for um, travel and culture and done something with
Speaker 1: that and I would have made away. But again, I
Speaker 1: would have always wondered like who would I have been
Speaker 1: if I had continued to develop as an artist? And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I had people around me who didn't
Speaker 1: let me believe that my dreams were over. You know,
Speaker 1: and this year you want to gram me with p
Speaker 1: H Morton for say, so that that must have been
Speaker 1: pretty damn validating. That's incredible, Congratulations, thank you. I'm so
Speaker 1: thankful to PJ. And I just love how things work out.
Speaker 1: It's just it was a very validating moment because I
Speaker 1: just followed my heart with this one. It was not
Speaker 1: like any uh, industry masterminding going on. It wasn't like,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's take this artist and this artist
Speaker 1: and get them on a smash track together. It was
Speaker 1: just like, I love p J. There's we have this
Speaker 1: mutual respect, and he sent me a song. I loved
Speaker 1: it and people really loved it too, So that felt
Speaker 1: really nice to be like, sometimes you can just do
Speaker 1: what feels right and it can work. Congratulations. What is
Speaker 1: next for you? You've got this Christmas project coming up?
Speaker 1: What else he working on? Like you're really excited about?
Speaker 1: I'm proud of. I have the deluxe version of Good
Speaker 1: to Know and a couple amazing surprise features that I'm
Speaker 1: really hype about. Um and I have a video coming
Speaker 1: for the single off of the deluxe And so the
Speaker 1: standard version of the album was only nine songs, and
Speaker 1: some of my fans were like, what the hell is
Speaker 1: this nine songs? So now it's like a complete this
Speaker 1: is a full suban and h A, I'm just super
Speaker 1: hype about these songs, like they're they're so good. So
Speaker 1: that coming. Um, and I'm gonna start putting things together
Speaker 1: for my next project, Like I'm just even putting together
Speaker 1: a vision board and like some some things, some goals
Speaker 1: that I want to reach and start putting together my
Speaker 1: dream team of collaborators. Can you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about who you want to work with or is
Speaker 1: it still you don't want to you don't want to
Speaker 1: speak it it's like superstitious. I kind of I kind
Speaker 1: of do feel a little bit superstitious. I just want
Speaker 1: to get in the room with these people and uh
Speaker 1: and really camp out and just see what we can do.
Speaker 1: I know you have a birthday coming up in December,
Speaker 1: a milestone one. I had the same one myself two
Speaker 1: Decembers ago. Yeah, some of December maybe also. Um, it's
Speaker 1: always a good time for reflection. I was wondering, what
Speaker 1: did the twelve year old who wrote Keep On, Keeping
Speaker 1: On think they'd be doing it thirty? Oh wow, at thirty.
Speaker 1: When I was twelve, I probably thought that I would
Speaker 1: be Oh god, I don't know, thirty sounded so distant
Speaker 1: and old, you know what I mean. And now that
Speaker 1: I'm here. I'm like, yo, I'm such a baby. So
Speaker 1: I probably thought that I would be like Beyonce, whatever
Speaker 1: that means, and and that I think I thought I
Speaker 1: would have been like the head of a label or something,
Speaker 1: which I am. Actually I do have my label clover
Speaker 1: and so I think the only difference is that I
Speaker 1: thought i'd be married with children. Um, and I'm not Beyonce,
Speaker 1: but I never will be. I'm Joe Joe, I'm Jooe
Speaker 1: and is pretty dope. It's pretty damn awesome. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're you're married or have kids, but I
Speaker 1: just now it feels like something that, Wow, I can't
Speaker 1: believe that I thought that i'd be They're already. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty seems so old when I was twenty five. Now
Speaker 1: I'm thirty two, Like, oh oh oh, now I feel
Speaker 1: better than ever. So I hope that I just continue
Speaker 1: to feel this way, Like if j Lo is any
Speaker 1: example of how you can thrive, like just even in
Speaker 1: any decade. Shoot, I mean, she's the prototype. So listen
Speaker 1: to twelve year old jo Joe, keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1: He exactly, Oh Joe, My my last question I've been
Speaker 1: asking everybody this is My last question, what's the first
Speaker 1: thing you want to do when this pandemic is over?
Speaker 1: If you could snap your fingers and if everything go
Speaker 1: back to normal right now, what would you do if
Speaker 1: people trips? You want to take people, you want to hug, restaurants,
Speaker 1: you want to go to What is it for you? Oh?
Speaker 1: I wanna go travel, I want to go see I
Speaker 1: want to take a friend's trip. I want to get
Speaker 1: like all my friends together, um from from the East Coast,
Speaker 1: from l A, from Australia in Europe. I want us
Speaker 1: all to meet somewhere in the middle, like whether it's
Speaker 1: West Africa, or whether we go to you know, New Zealand,
Speaker 1: or I just want to go somewhere when whether you
Speaker 1: meet up in Hawaii. I would really really love to
Speaker 1: be on a beach somewhere and have some great food,
Speaker 1: some great drinks and great company. And I would really
Speaker 1: love to travel. Yeah, Judge, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: your time. Your music has been such a pleasure. I
Speaker 1: thank you. It's been a really fun things. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio Home Edition,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio and other shows, from i heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Check out the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.