YouKnowIGotSoul had a chance to talk to emerging singer/songwriter artist Jae Stephens who has been on a roll recently with the release of her project “TOTAL SELLOUT”. We talked to her about the success of the project, her song “Afterbody” which went viral recently as well as upcoming plans for her which includes her debut album as well opening up for Khalid on tour.
YouKnowIGotSoul: It’s been a year since our last interview. At that time last year, you were opening up for FLO and you were on your first tour. Just talk about what this year has been like since then. You dropped the full project, you’re headlining your own tour now and also have your own podcast.
Jae Stephens: Oh my gosh, it’s been so busy. I feel like this has been the year of a lot of realized goals and things that I really wanted to accomplish. It’s been really exciting releasing my project and just some of my favorite songs ever including “Afterbody” and “Boyfriend Forever”. And just really seeing how people have responded to those songs because I always had a good feeling about them. Just the response since then, off the back of the whole project, to now enabling me to do my own tour has been really great. It’s been a really busy year since then and the following year is about to be even busier, so I’m so excited.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Could you have imagined all of this happening last year? Was this all part of the plan?
Jae Stephens: We make plans and God laughs. But I definitely had in my mind that I wanted to release a full body of work and I wanted to go on tour, and I feel like that has absolutely happened because we worked for this. Me and my whole team, we’ve just put in a lot of time and effort into making sure all the music has been very intentional and giving the fans what they want to see, what they want to hear. So it makes me really happy that it’s paying off and everybody is receiving it so well. I think we’re doing what we’ve set out to do.
YouKnowIGotSoul: And the entire “Sellout” project, like you mentioned, is finally out now. I love seeing how much your songwriting has evolved from the first part up until now. What did you enjoy most about the entire creative process of this project?
Jae Stephens: I think for me it was really a process from the beginning to the end. I think that you can hear and even see in the visuals me kind of figuring it out as I go along, getting more comfortable, finding my sound, finding how I want things to look, how I want things to feel. So it’s been a real process of just finding myself, learning my style. I really enjoyed finding the people that I love to work with and just finding my footing and finding out how to have fun in this process. It can be a lot, it can be overwhelming, but I’m at a point now where I’m really having fun, and I think that is the “Sellout” way. So I’m really happy to have gotten here to this point. And yeah, that was definitely the result of this project.
YouKnowIGotSoul: And I feel like you fully connected the dots especially with the last four songs you released. I feel like the songs sounded big just like you intended them to be, but you were also able to put your personality and your charisma into those songs. Is it kind of bittersweet that the “Sellout” era is coming to an end?
Jae Stephens: I mean it is. This has been a very formative time for me, I think not just as an artist but also as a person. So yeah, I’ve had so much fun. I’ve learned so much across making the music, the videos, and now going on this tour. It’s always going to mean so much to me, and everyone who found me and started listening during this era I will always hold super close to my heart. So it’s a little bittersweet, but I’m super excited for what’s next, the new music, my debut album. I’m just looking forward to telling more stories and also really building something with intention from the start. “Sellout” was very much like me figuring it out step by step, EP by EP. Now with this album I have so much more insight to really get the ball rolling right from the start, so I’m excited for everyone to hear and see it.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Now, prior to this, you were behind the scenes, you were working as a songwriter. Now that you’ve gone through this whole process, and I feel like you’ve personalized a lot of these songs for yourself, can you see yourself going back to being just a songwriter? Because I know at a point you thought about just transitioning to that.
Jae Stephens: Just a songwriter? Definitely not. But I do think that I will always enjoy just writing in general. Pitching songs to other artists and other people I think will always be something that I will enjoy, especially because I think it’s important to have that balance of writing songs for myself that I’m very involved in and very a part of that process, and then also just being able to write songs that I’m less attached to, that I can step into a different character, a different voice for somebody else. I think that my experience in that is what has granted me the ability to write these songs for me and vice versa. So I look forward to hopefully getting to do both forever.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Now talk about the song “Boyfriend Forever”, because I feel like that’s one song that checked off all the boxes for me. It felt like a radio record. It had the nostalgic feel to it. It had obviously your personality on it with the bus line. Just talk about how that song came about.
Jae Stephens: I always say I think that “Boyfriend Forever” is the quintessential Jae Stephens song. It has every box on the checklist of what makes a Jae Stephens song. I definitely think it’s “Boyfriend Forever”. It came from a true place. It was very much an argument, and I was like, well, it really doesn’t matter because he won’t be my boyfriend forever. I wrote the song based off of that, and I’m really glad that people are resonating with it and just love the sound. I wanted it to feel very carefree, not like a sad breakup record by any means, but something that suggests greener pastures and new hope and new possibilities. So I’m glad that people can really just have fun with it because I had a lot of fun making it.
YouKnowIGotSoul: That’s a great song. And last time when we spoke, we talked about your superpowers, which was your melodies. I listened to a song like “Precious”. The first portion of the song, it’s like beautiful chaos, and then that bridge hits and it’s like this dreamy sound. And we talked about bridges in our last interview, but we never talked about what your influences were for the bridges. Who inspired you to write these dreamy bridges?
Jae Stephens: I feel like it’s just like an era as a whole. I feel like back when songs were longer than three minutes. I just think it’s an important part of the dynamics of a song. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and end, and I think that the bridge is what carries you over to the end. I think early 2000s, they really valued that song structure, and as a songwriter it’s something I’m a little bit strict about. I think Mariah Carey is a big bridge queen. I think Destiny’s Child, they crossed a bridge or two or 10 or 20. So yeah, I think just music back then in general, I really admire how much they valued song structure.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Right, for sure. Now, of course, you had a big moment with “Body Favors” last year, and now the new record “Afterbody “is another viral moment for you. Did you foresee this happening for you to have these type of moments?
Jae Stephens: I definitely know which songs I feel special about and which ones I hope the fans will gravitate towards and resonate with. So yeah, “Body Favors” and “Afterbody” were definitely both examples of that. I knew when I was writing them that they were special, that they felt very uniquely me. You never really know what’s going to happen, but you can always have a feeling. So I’m really glad that the audience has gravitated towards those songs because it definitely validates my gut feeling about what I want to hear in my music and what the fans want to see.
YouKnowIGotSoul: So, after this tour, you’re going to head off to Europe with Khalid?
Jae Stephens: Yes. Oh my gosh. In October. I mean, that feels so far away, but my summer is going to be jam packed. I’m going to be at Pride, I’m making my festival debut at Lollapalooza, and then I’ve got a whole album to roll out, so there’s a lot going on, but I’m so excited. I’m super excited to tour Europe with Khalid, who is just so sweet and so iconic, and I haven’t performed in Europe except for my show in London last year, so I’m really excited to experience that, bigger venues, different kinds of crowds and see what the European crowds are giving. It’s going to be really exciting.
YouKnowIGotSoul: And then finally, we just talked about your new album briefly, your debut album that’s going to be dropping. Just talk about maybe some of the differences and some of the similarities that we’ll hear from Sellout versus this new project.
Jae Stephens: I mean, it’s definitely been a different process in the sense that I had a good idea of what I wanted it to be from the very beginning, and I’ve started it with that foundation. I think that it’s still going to be very female focused, female-led, femininity, fun, and just very grounded in that confidence, just like “Sellout” was. I do think maybe a difference here will be I’m a bit more focused on telling a story and showing a bit more sides of myself across this album than maybe I was on “Sellout”. So it’s always going to feel very confident, but I do think that there will be some songs that you listen to and you’ll get another side of that confidence, or you’ll hear another side of the story, and it’ll make you wonder a little bit about who Jae Stephens really is. So I’m really excited about that. But yeah, it’s always going to be fun, confident and fresh.