Q+A: JAYDE
Jayde is a singer-songwriter based out of Toronto, Canada. Growing up, the rising star always knew she was meant to be an artist; Jayde remembers writing songs as a young child and listening to the radio wanting to release music of her own someday. Now, after three years, the 21-year-old has finally released her debut EP titled sad songs about sad things. Jayde’s introspective lyrics and buttery pop vocals have helped her find her own space within the vast community of singers and songwriters and she credits her collaborators in helping create such a strong project.
We had the opportunity to chat with Jayde about the process behind the making of her debut EP, her inspirations, and her musical journey.
Do you mind introducing yourself?
Hello. I’m Jayde. I’m from the Toronto area, and I grew up in a really small town outside of Toronto. I started writing songs when I was about ten or eleven years old, somewhere in that age range. I kind of never stopped. I have just been writing songs ever since. Eventually, in 2018, I started releasing them. It’s been a couple of years, but now I am doing an EP!
Did the music scene coming out of Toronto provide any inspiration for you growing up?
I grew up listening to the radio, obviously Canadian radio. In Canada, there is this rule where you have to play Canadian music on the radio, so I was inspired a lot by the artists I was constantly hearing there. Some of my favorite artists growing up influenced the fact that I got into music.
How did you get into making music? Do you have a specific memory of the moment you realized that music was more than just a hobby?
I think I was always going to do music. As a very small child, whenever I was crying my mom would put on music and that would immediately shut me up. As I was getting a bit older, I was that kid that would consistently sing everything she was seeing. I was always making up songs even though they were something stupid like “the sky is blue and the trees are green”. My grandparents had a piano and bunch of guitars in their house, and I watched this movie with them about this child prodigy called August Rush. Immediately after watching that movie I knew I wanted to be a singer. That was the definitive switch where I said to myself that I’m not doing anything else and that this is it.
No matter how easy or hard it gets, this is it.
Yes, again, I didn’t see myself doing anything else as a kid either. My friends and I would play games like house and they would be the parents and I always wanted to be the singer. There was never a moment where I said to myself “okay I guess we’re putting our all into this”. My all has always been in it.
I love the EP. I’m so excited for you to release it out into the world. Can you give us a preview into the making of the EP? Did you collaborate with any new people?
Thanks! Yeah, there are collaborators on every track. It was about three years in the making. It was one of the things that I never planned to make. All of a sudden everyone just said I was doing an EP now. I wrote the first two tracks separately, but they were both written in Montreal. I did another writing camp in Toronto, which another song came out of. One of the songs I wrote by myself, but then I had a producer hop on. Long story short, there is a collaborator on every song. Over the last couple of years, more collaborators got introduced to the project. Even songs that were written two years ago have collaborators that are brand new on them. It was really an interesting process.
A lot of your music touches on hard times and sad feelings. What kind of emotional headspace are you in when you sit down to write? Has writing become a cathartic experience for you, especially now?
It can be hard because sometimes when you sit down to write you’re in a session, so there aren’t as many emotions. When I am writing by myself I am usually in a headspace where something has happened or there is something on my mind that I am not allowing myself to think about. I’ll sit down at my piano, play sad chords, spew out words, and record whatever comes out on my phone. Over time, it has become very evident that I sit down to write when I feel like I need to get something out or say something. I also suck at talking to people about my real feelings and emotions, so I just write a song, and there you go.
Can you walk us through the journey behind the “f this” music video?
We started working on the video in November, and then we filmed it in January. The process of making it was filled with a lot of rehearsal to try and figure out what we wanted to do because it’s such an ambiguous track, so when you go to put a visual with it you have to think about what direction to take. I worked with the director and producer to come up with this concept where there was going to be multiple different personalities in this big house. It mirrors the different stages of when you’re talking to someone and you’re scared of it. Your logical brain is like “don’t do it sis” but your heart is like “but he’s so cute”. We did rehearsals once we figured that out, and we shot it over two nights.
How much of a role do you put on your visuals to shape your creative direction?
Visuals are really important to me, especially after doing such a big music video like that. Going forward, I realized how much visuals can impact the way that the song hits other people. It can really tell the story and make people connect with it more. In the future, visuals are going to be a big part of my career.
You’re described as a pop-singer-songwriter. Are there any artists you admire that are changing the traditional definition of what makes a pop star today?
I’ve always looked up to Ariana Grande. Billie Eilish is also someone I look up to, even though she is substantially younger than me. Honestly, just a bunch of emerging artists that are coming out are inspirations to me. I feel like the turnaround time for music and making music is so fast that you can use inspiration from something that came out yesterday. So it’s not necessarily one artist it’s more so about where music is headed.
What are you looking forward to most with the release of your EP?
I think the biggest thing for me is that I’ve been sitting and waiting to do a project since I was like a small child. I was just waiting for the timing to be right, and I was waiting for people to actually want a body of work since we live in a singles world. Since I have been sitting on this collection of work for so long I am just excited to have it out. It allows me to close that chapter and move forward in both my emotional life and my musical life.
Are you looking to tour once you’re able to do so safely?
Yeah, that’s like the dream, you know? To play your songs for a large group of people is ultimately what we release music to do. The idea that I don’t know when that is going to happen is sad, but I would love to tour. It depends on what the timeframe is and when I can release new stuff. Mind you, if I have this EP and I am probably going to do another EP, that is the kid a full show together. So, hopefully, that will happen.
Lastly, what are you currently listening to?
Eddie Benjamin is super cool. He just released an EP. Gracie Abrams is so good. I’ve also been listening to Alexander23 and Olivia Rodrigo. She’s so good.