Speaking on vacation from his hotel room in Forte Dei Marmi, a relaxed Justin Jesso talked about his transition from songwriter to singer, his latest single ‘Lose Ya’ and his big plans for the future.
The music industry can be a ruthless business for most people and Justin Jesso learnt this the hard way when starting out as an aspiring singer.
The artist from Illinois took the scenic route in becoming a singer by following the trajectory of his idols John Legend and Bruno Mars by starting out as a songwriter for other artists.
This fruitful pursuit led to Justin writing songs for some of the biggest names in the industry like The Backstreet Boys, Maluma and Ricky Martin.
Speaking with Justin, the artist said: “The struggle was always that I love writing music and I love writing music for others but I never felt it was truly what I was supposed to be doing. I felt like it was always a means to getting to sing my own songs and tell my own stories with my own voice.”
After three meetings with three different record labels, Justin played his music to the executives and they were all interested in his music but instead wanted someone more marketable to perform the songs.
It was after the last of these meetings that Justin did a bit of soul searching as he took a look in the mirror and said to himself: “I hear the universe, I’m just going to focus on writing the best songs I possibly can and I’m not going to put my dream of being an artist out to die but I am going to listen to the universe and put it over here for a minute.”
This is where Justin got his big break as he wrote the smash hit ‘Stargazing’ for the acclaimed Dj Kygo. The label wanted a bigger named singer to perform the track and the cycle nearly repeated for Justin but instead, Kygo felt strongly that he should be the singer as it felt more authentic to the sound of the song.
The collaboration with Kygo kickstarted Justin’s career as an artist and he has gone on to release such songs as ‘400 Trillion’, ‘CLARITY’ and most recently ‘Lose Ya.’
On his latest single, Justin said it is, musically speaking, one of the truest expressions of who he is as an artist as it is stylistically representative of himself as an artist.
He said that the song combines his influences of soul singers like James Brown, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder but also the big stadium anthems of Elton John and Queen.
He added: “I have been fortunate enough over the past however many years performing with Kygo and on stages myself to get a taste of it myself.
“I’ve been lucky enough to perform in stadiums and arenas and those crowds and that energy is absolutely electric so to give something that translates on that scale and has that largeness was something that important to me.”
“It is this blend of soul-stadium-pop that I feel is very representative of me and that’s what I love about ‘Lose Ya’ is that I feel like it is a really true form of that distilled down into a song,” said Justin.
Justin recently appeared on ‘American Song Contest’ where he represented Illinois. He said that one of the things he enjoyed most about this experience was seeing the younger talent come through and see how they navigate and thrive in the ever-changing music industry.
“Something that everyone is grappling with is the idea of ‘are we musicians or are we marketing machines on TikTok?’ The truth is, fortunately, or unfortunately, is that we have to be both,” said Justin.
He added: “It’s fun for me to watch people navigate that and then trying to navigate it myself. I’m not really good at navigating it myself, I’m much better at performing and being in studios making music than I am trying to market it.”
Fresh off a European tour with a performance in London and with more solo music on the way Justin is excited for what the future holds, especially after the pandemic.
Talking about his career trajectory before the pandemic hit Justin said: “I started as a songwriter then I had the Kygo stuff then I was given the opportunity to speak and sing. It was like we are going to set up tours, we are going to release records, things are going to happen.
“It’s not like momentum vanished, the momentum was still there because shit lives online but for me, I’m a live performer. I like to get in front of people, I like to meet people. That is what’s exciting about what I do is getting out there and meeting people and hearing their stories.”
It was this crowd interaction that Justin missed the most and especially hearing individual stories from fans about how his songs have affected people and what it means to them.
There was one message in particular that stuck with Justin about his song ‘400 Trillion’ from a mother of a child with learning difficulties and this makes expressing love and emotions difficult for him.
Justin explained that the song is about how there is a one in 400 trillion chance that we even exist, so how small must the odds be that we find love in our life. When people find this love they must cherish, protect it and tell the people that we love them.
So when the child asked his mother what the song was about and she explained it, he told her that he loved her.
Justin finished by saying: “It’s those messages and getting out to meet those people and hearing those stories that really is the most exciting part about what I do.”
