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'Tumblr Famous' To Musician: Interview With Jae Stephens

Coral Rucker |
September 30, 2014 | 4:48 p.m. PDT

Staff Reporter

Jae Stephens, better known as beyoncebeytwice, has been a growing sensation on the social media site, Tumblr. Having attracted a big following with her witty humor, cool song covers and her love of Beyonce, she's now taking her talents and focusing it all into her music. We had the chance to get an exclusive interview with the talented 17-year-old musician. 

NT: Seeing as you are Tumblr famous, how did that come about?

Stephens: I wasn’t really expecting to do anything with Tumblr, I just created it because other people at school were talking about it. I can’t pinpoint an exact moment when it happened, but I still think it’s kind of weird to go, “ooh I’m tumblr famous.” I guess it came about both with my music and the humorous things I’d post. A mix of my voice and my humor made me interesting enough for people to follow and somewhere in the middle it just caught on and now here I am with over 100,000 followers.

NT: Has the attention ever affected your life?

Stephens: Not really. Saying that I’ve been more confident because of the attention I get on the internet seems a little questionable and weird but it has. There are so many people out there who appreciate me and who I am. There are some people at school who talk to me about my blog and I’ve even made friends on the internet. So it has benefits that are both superficial, but are also good for me as far as how I see myself. So I would say that it has affected me pretty positively.  

NT: Did the positive feedback encourage you to have a music career?

Stephens: Yeah it has because I’ve been wanting to sing professionally since I was 9 but I’ve never actively pursued it. It’s kind of hard to pursue it when you only have your parents and grandparents supporting you. So the positive feedback that came from people from other states, other countries and then across the world telling me things like, “OMG you’re amazing,” “You’re so good,” “I love it,” etc. It made me think, maybe I am kind of good at this. So, posting the song covers really encouraged me to do songs like, “Killing Time” and “Days in the West” because it got enough people to listen to me and start asking for me to post original stuff.

NT: It’s great to hear that people from Tumblr have been able to encourage you to do great things with your talents. I have noticed that with your two songs, they have a unique sound. What are your musical influences when you’re making original music?

Stephens: I take so much from everywhere that people have a hard time specifying what genre I am. It’s been called like indie R&B, because I take things from indie, R&B and hip hop. I also look for different people for different stuff. For example, I look to Beyonce for melodies, harmonies and riffs, stuff like that. I love Lorde’s lyrics and Banks' harmonies as well. Also with the 1975, the Neighborhood and Artic Monkeys mostly the drum loops and guitar riffs from them. So I take bits from everywhere and it’s overwhelming but then I bring it in.

NT: That’s amazing.

Stephens: I know that "Days In The West" was heavy with influence of Banks and the Neighborhood and I think you can kinda hear it.

NT: In the future do you see your music going into a more specific genre like Pop? R&B? Indie?

Stephens: That’s so hard because they’re all so broad. I think I would be pop because there’s so many types of pop like Britney Spears-bubblegum pop and then there’s Lorde-dark pop and I think I’d see myself in that darker pop range a little bit. I'd probably stay in the pop alternative genre. I don’t see myself going full R&B but definitely keeping a lot of R&B elements in there.

NT: Yes, I love pop. Pop is life.

Jae: Pop is good! People can’t just bash on pop, its good music.

NT: Are you thinking about sticking to the music style you have now or will you become more open and explorative with it?

Stephens: I’m still trying to figure out what sound I am. I know a lot of people told me that they like "Days In The West" better than "Killing Time" and when I listen to them I hear things that are similar but a lot of things that are different. Those songs were only written a couple months apart. So I’m still changing a lot and I don’t know how much rock I want or how much R&B I want but I do see myself staying in this type of sound. As long as it’s cool, mellow and chill kind of music like I never want to get like too electro or too upbeat. I just like chill music that you can bop to, y’know? I make chill music for the car, night time and people say it’s good make out music but I don’t know anything about that because I’m pretty clean so…I make music for that stuff. As long as it’s cool enough for those situations, it doesn’t matter what genre it is.



NT: I’m excited for you. I’ve always noticed that the more artists know themselves, the stronger their music becomes. Are you working on new music to release before 2015?

Stephens: Before 2015, unfortunately not. I’m focusing on a lot of school work right now. I kinda wish I wasn’t, but it’s a good thing though because the school I go to I’m learning a lot more about music production and songwriting so I have a lot more time to focus on those things before I go off to college and decide what I want to do for those four years. As far as releasing any new music, not really because I’m putting a lot more work into my new stuff and the next thing I will be releasing is an EP.

NT: Well that already answered my next question, “Are you going to be releasing a new album soon?” But now, an EP! Ooh!

Stephens: *laughs* I’m really nervous about it because I have so many songs written for it and I wrote them all myself. I don’t have much experience with co-writers but I’m just starting to get into this. It’s like, you think you can do so much by yourself and you work with other people and they say a bunch of stuff you never heard before and you never even thought about doing. So that’s been really exciting because I’ve only worked with about two other people so far and I really liked it. So whenever this EP gets up and running hopefully it’ll be 10 times better than anything I have put out so far.

NT: How does the creation of your music come about?

Stephens: I’ve found that I have to have lyrics before I make anything else. I’ll start humming and then I’ll shape some music around it. I’ve noticed that it always starts with a riff. I remember with "Days in the West," the first melody that came to mind was, *hums DITW melody* and then the drums came into my mind and I just started playing guitar to it. I noticed that with producing, it’s a lot easier but it was really hard starting out in the beginning. It’s like you can just hear it in your mind what you want and it’s so hard to translate it onto the computer sometimes but after so much trial and error you eventually get it. You just gotta learn your way around a keyboard and a guitar and stuff and it’ll eventually come out.

Production is not easy by any means but you learn a lot about what you want, what you’re trying to do and learn how you are as a singer. I’ve gotten to be a better singer from playing instruments and by knowing what kind of sound and vibe I want. That’s why I’m going to school as a production major not just vocals, a little bit of songwriting but mainly production. I like it so much it’s so different from anything I’ve ever studied and it’s such an interesting process because there’s so many ways that you can execute it.

NT: When does your creativity happen? Does it peak in the middle of the night or when you’re out and about with friends?

"I really want my music to make people feel cool" - Jae Stephens
"I really want my music to make people feel cool" - Jae Stephens

Stephens: I don’t really have a certain point. I know a lot of people tell me that they write their songs at three in the morning or when their sad but I don’t have anything like that. I know for sure that I can’t force myself to write anything. Whenever I do, bad songs come out of it. It just sounds really forced, y’know? So when something comes to mind it can be at any time of the day. There’s not a certain time for me, which sucks because I can go days without writing but you can’t force it, it just comes when it comes. I’ve finished songs that I forced myself to do but they just never sounded good.

NT: What is one thing that you would say about your music to someone who doesn’t know you?

Stephens: My music is for cool people that wanna feel cool. Honestly, what I had in mind when I wrote both of my songs was “I want this to sound cool.” I just want to make music that makes you feel cool when you’re listening to it. If you’re driving or walking down the street and it makes you go, “yeah, this is a bop!” I just make cool music for people who wanna feel cool. It may sound a little douche-y but I don’t care. It sounds cool to me.

NT: That’s good because that way your music can be used to play on platforms like television.

Stephens: You figured me out.

NT: That’s what it’s all about!

Stephens: Trying to get that movie placement. I could have it for an apple comm—well maybe a little too dark for an apple commercial.

NT: Maybe for the "Hunger Games."

Stephens: "How to Get Away with Murder."

NT: "Grey’s Anatomy."

Stephens: Let’s call up ABC right now. "Hello, I have a song for you."

NT: We’ll call up Alexandra Patsavas and she’ll get you on a drama series in no time.

Stephens: Yes, put this on your placement ad things. *laughs*

If you want to know more about Jae Stephens and her music you can:

Check out her music on iTunes or on Facebook.

Contact Staff Reporter Coral Rucker here and follow him on Twitter here.



 

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