Interviews
Click here for more soul After years of performing, developing a voice that could get her on any radio station, and international exposure, Jennifer Johns still doesn't have a major record deal - and that's the way she likes it. "It doesn't make any sense to be signed right now you run the risk of being dropped like whoa," the 25-year-old soul singer says. "I can deliver an album that can go multi-platinum and would be doing that if I was signed to a label anyhow, so why not keep my money?" And Johns is doing just that. She started her own record label, co-produced a solo album in just two weeks, and she rocked some of the world's biggest stages on an international tour with Gift of Gab from Blackalicious last summer. Johns says she can't remember a time in her life when she wasn't making music. She has vivid memories of harmonizing with her father when she was just three years old, growing up in Oakland. And she spent more than five years singing with the award-winning Oakland Youth Chorus. But her career truly started to take shape in the past five years, as she traveled up and down the West Coast connecting with other artists and learning the subtleties of the music industry. She started in Los Angeles, where she began recording music, worked with a promotions company, interned at both Arista and RCA and was "just really intent upon learning the game," she says. "I don't just want to be a musician, I want to be a mogul - I want to be able to do Russell Simons job," Johns, who would eventually like to help other independent artists, says. "I think that there are a lot of musicians out there that are incredible and have a whole lot to say, but don't know how to work the industry. I took the time to learn what I could about the industry." In 2001 Johns, who is also a spoken word artist, started pure.love entertainment group, a media company that produced live music and spoken word events. She hosted the weekly Soul Sessions that became a staple of the Los Angeles spoken word and live music community. "I had a live band and I had to freestyle and create constantly," she says. "It was the beginning of figuring out what kind of sound I was trying to create and all of the things my voice could do." While in Los Angeles, Johns also experienced her first love relationship gone bad, which helped her to grow as a songwriter. "I couldn't not write and that was when the floodgates opened up and all of my experiences prior to that had to come out," Johns says. "I use my songwriting as a purging for me, and I know that I get my point across when I sing it." She wrote and co-produced her song "Fallen" with Grammy-nominated producer Spontaneous, which went on a pure.love compilation of which she was the executive producer. All the proceeds from the compilation went to pay for music lessons for underprivileged children. It was finally time for Johns to start working on her own album. She packed her bags and drove to Seattle where she got a great deal to use an underground studio for two weeks. Spontaneous flew to meet her and together they created Heavyelectromagnecticsoularpoeticjunglehop. The album is full of beautiful songs about love, desire, loss, inspiration and life. Spontaneous throws in a pleasant mix of hip-hop, soul, reggae and electronic beats that prove his skills go far beyond the album he produced with Oakland rapper Mystic. And Johns' musical influences - Sade, Whitney Houston, Earth, Wind and Fire, Sweet Honey in the Rock and West Indian rhythms - come out strong in her music. She has a voice that echoes through the depths of your mind for hours after listening to her album. Her soulful, heartfelt melodies caress your ears and, with the right lighting and a loved one near, are bound to put you in the mood. It's hard to believe this album was birthed in only two weeks. Some instant favorites on the record include the second track, which is filled with soft, delicate chords asking, "Do you believe in love?" - the title of the song. "Fallen" comes at you with sweet whispers over exotic beats that fade like the sound of chirping birds vibrating in a cave. "Never Give Up," switches the tempo as an anthem for all who are struggling to make it. Johns reassures her audience that "What's in your heart will see you through." The beat claps with the motivational rhythm of her voice and gets your head bobbing, it's the perfect song to listen to on headphones while strolling down a crowded city street on the way to work. The album was completed in April and Johns founded her record label, Nayo Movement Music, to support the release. Nayo means "she who brings joy" in Swahili, and that is what Johns hopes to do with her music. "We all experience love and we all experience pain and sometimes we need to be uplifted, and so I sing because I want to uplift people, and I sing because I have to say how I feel," Johns says. "After I recorded my album, I felt like I had so little to say to the world and I didn't want to talk as much because I had the supreme experience of letting it all out." By May, Johns had a distribution deal with her childhood friend and founder of Oakland's Collectiv Records, Andrew Williams. Her album was quickly shipped to stores across the West Coast, and sold 1,000 copies in the first few months without any publicity outside of Nayo Movement Music and the Collectiv. Johns snagged several performance opportunities during her four months in Seattle, including opening slots with Medusa from Feline Science and De La Soul. "Seattle folks drink the music like water," Johns says. "I have so much love for Seattle and the live music community folks are really doing their thing up there." She made her way back to Oakland, where she was invited on a tour that would take her out of the country for the first time. Johns' friend and fellow musician Jahi from Jahi and the Life was doing a show with Blackalicious and told her Gift of Gab needed a singer. Johns was hesitant at first because she had just released her record and didn't think it was logical to be a backup vocalist for someone else. But Gift of Gab heard her album, loved it and said he would incorporate some of her music into his set. Johns accepted. After performing at his album release concert in May, Johns was invited on a six-week tour of Europe with Gift of Gab. "There were a couple of details that needed to be worked out, but I basically found out that I was going to Europe two weeks before I left and I had no passport," Johns says laughing. They traveled to at least 10 countries, opened for Mary J. Blige and Chaka Khan and drew crowds as large as 50,000. "I'm in love with the big stage," Johns said. "I was blessed with the opportunity to see if I could work that and I can." Johns says she knew she was doing something incredible when she was on tour, but it didn't really hit her until she was watching the movie Brown Sugar on the tour bus and heard one of Blackalicious songs. "I was like, I sing that song, I sing that song every day, and I looked at Gab and was like your song's in here, and he gave me that look like 'you are slow'. And he was like, 'there's two other songs on the soundtrack too, and it was so real," she says. "It was also a testament to independent music. They had to deal with MCA, but they're an independent company and have done so much. I was blessed to be a part of that experience to see how it's done and to see how independent music can thrive." Johns has set many goals for herself as an independent artist. She already has plans to re-release her album to the masses with a major distributor by April 2005. To keep the momentum going from her summer in Europe, she booked her own West Coast tour at the end of October with fellow soul singer Felicia Loud, performed at an after party for a Talib Kweli concert in Seattle and opened for KRS-ONE in San Francisco. She also wants to start recording another album. "I would love to be an independent artist that goes diamond," Johns says. "I want to sell 10 million copies." Johns owes her success thus far to her connection to God and her hard work. "If there's anything I could ever say about the way I live my life it's that I live it on faith," she says. "God and I are super homies. I don't question the blessings I get, I just say 'thank you God, now give me some more.'" But, her life isn't simply ruled by luck. "It's all the little things that add up," she said. "A tour with Gift of Gab and Blackalicous would not be nearly as important if I didn't have an album, which means that internationally people have heard my music." She encourages others to have faith as well. "People have to open themselves up to letting go and letting God," Johns said. "God will guide you to what your position is in this grand cosmos experience that we call life." Click here for more soul Copyright 2005 Danielle Barnett and Mischief Photo |
