Jai’Len Josey is one of the most unique and impressive talents we’ve come across from the new generation’s group of artists. Her music is packed with everything we look for in an R&B act: great songwriting, insane vocals, and real instrumentation. With the ability to produce, write and sing her own music, Jai’Len is an all around triple threat. Songs like “All Mine”, “When We Jump”, and “Good Soup” are the perfect showcase of these skills. Fresh off of opening for Ari Lennox’s age/sex/location tour (who she penned hits “Pressure”, “Stop By” and “Gummy” for), Jai’Len is getting ready to release her second EP titled Southern Delicacy this Friday (April 14th). She shared with us who she worked with on this second EP, what she learned from her time on Broadway as Pearl in Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway
YouKnowIGotSoul: I’m amazed by you, for real. I really think you’re outta here already. I can’t wait for the next five years to come because I feel like I’m gonna look back on this interview and be like “I was talking to Jai’Len Josey. That’s crazy.” How has the Ari tour been? You’ve been receiving a lot of love, how do you feel? Has it opened any doors? Jai’Len Josey: The tour has been a big learning lesson, a big stepping stone for me. I’m learning how to keep my head on straight and not let outside influences or things that are actually happening in my life prior affect the show. I know this is gonna be cliché, but I’m learning how to switch to be the star in front of people and then go backstage and cry and do all my stuff like that *laughs*. I’m learning how to be an adult finally. I’m 24, so I’ve been an adult for a while, but this taught me time management. I’ve always known that you’re supposed to be on time, but like, it’s more imperative now cus’ you know your face is involved. This tour has really shown me that I’m not a kid anymore and it’s a blessing because I feel like I’m just moving into a different phase of my life. I’m really emotional today, because today’s the last day [of the tour], so I don’t know … it’s just a big round of applause for myself. Like an internal congratulations. I did something. I pushed through to the end and you know, that’s what big girls do. You push through any type of circumstance. I’ve been having boy troubles this whole tour. I usually have my dog with me. I don’t have my dog, you know what I mean? I’m trying to communicate with my family. Last year my grandfather passed away, so I’m trying to keep in touch with my grandma and make sure she’s good. It’s just wild. YouKnowIGotSoul: I get you, I’m 24 too so I feel exactly what you’re going through adult wise. But with the tour and all that on top of it, I’m sure it is even harder so props to you. Let’s hop into your background. Tell me some artists and albums that got you started wanting to make music. Jai’Len Josey: First and foremost, my mom was from Detroit, so they didn’t have segregated radios. Everything that she cleaned our house to was like Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel, Elton John. It was just an array of sounds that was in my house. We could either be listening to Christmas music one day or R&B the next, and we’d be in the middle of June. I was very blessed that my mom had a very expansive musical vocabulary because now I feel I can say that I have a very diverse musical vocabulary. All of those songs really pushed me towards orchestral music. I went to Tri-Cities High School and in music theater there’s a thing called The Pit, and that’s where the orchestra sits. I would do my due diligence to go down there at any point in time just to listen to them play. When I ended up going on Broadway, when I wasn’t on stage I would be in the pit and I would just be listening to them playing. I just remember thinking, “Dang them folks can play”. I gained so much of a respect for instrumentalists and people who can actually play instruments. I play an instrument myself, I can sing. The voice is a crazy instrument as well. I can dabble on the piano, but nothing like these crazy guys and girls that I encounter who can play the cello and horns. I also have a huge respect for producers as well. When I write and I produce my music, I only produce it to a point where another producer can actually take it to the level that it needs to be. Someone having a musical ear to take someone’s idea that was in their head and transform it to something else, I have huge total respect for them. Getting back to my influences, I remember going on YouTube and just playing videos of the violin and the cello because I was afraid that I was gonna imitate somebody and sound just like them. I would just listen to the instruments and I would be like okay let me mimic that run that the cello does or that the horn does. Watching people do their covers of songs and then mimicking what they do with their instruments. I feel like that also was a part of my training, even though I’m musically trained, and that is what cultivated my sound. YouKnowIGotSoul: Take me to your time on Broadway. I was talking to Haley Kilgore and we brought you up because I think you guys have this similar feel and background in music. You both are these vocalists from Broadway that blow me away. She actually was curious as to what your answer was gonna be to this question too. What did you learn from Broadway? What do you bring from there to your music and to the stage? Even more specifically, to this tour? Jai’Len Josey: The biggest thing that I would say is that if you can’t perform your music, then it’s a wrap. The way that you captivate people with your lyrics that they probably haven’t heard before, and how you reel people in with how you walk across stage or how you connect with somebody, like with your eyes and the audience. If you are missing that one thing, it’s hard for people to … in my opinion the reason why I would go to a performance is to experience something, to feel something different, to leave changed. You want somebody to feel healed and you want somebody to leave changed. I always say if one person in the audience is changed, then the job is done. I learned from Broadway that it’s different being in an ensemble than carrying the show. Now I’m carrying my own set, and that’s a whole difference than relying on other people and other bodies on stage to push the show with you. Being by yourself, you have to make sure that at least 12 of them people in the front are captivated. You know what I mean? The performance aspect of Broadway is such a great teacher for me that I learned that the show and how you perform your music is one of the most important things. How you connect with people beyond just them having their headphones on is the next level. If you can connect with people through the headphones, great. If you can connect with somebody in person live and in front of them even freaking better. I believe that Broadway was such a great teacher to me for that, and I wonder what her [Hailey’s] answer was. YouKnowIGotSoul: It was pretty similar. She mentioned learning how to reach the crowd and how to perform as well. she said. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about where you got your vocal ability from? Jai’Len Josey: It’s crazy cause I don’t think anybody in my family can sing. Everybody in my family, they’re creatives, like artists. My mom’s a graphic designer. My grandmother can look at something and paint it. I got the vocal ability, and I was just a loud kid *laughs*. I was just really loud. I guess God was like, all right, she’s, you know, is she gonna be loud? Let’s just put a little