We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful JaaLa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with JaaLa below.
JaaLa, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
Great question! As a little girl, singing was always the goal. I wanted to be famous like Brandy lol! But seriously, it was always a goal to do what I love and be able to sustain my livelihood as a result. It’s honestly still a goal, as I still work a 9-5 job as a music educator to pay bills. But I started professionally singing at the age of 16 and receive my first payment for a gig at about 21. So I worked say at age 13 is when the singing professionally wheels started turning. That performing for “exposure” was definitely a thing in my beginning stages lol! But it was ok then because I was still in school, so navigating the gig world while still in school would’ve been too much. In grateful for my journey.
JaaLa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi! I’m JaaLa! I’m a singer songwriter who’s main goal and purpose is to spread light, love, and inspiration through my voice and my music. I’m originally from the British Virgin Islands, but have been residing in Georgia for over 20 years so I call myself an “island peach” (insert cute smiley face emoji here lol!)
I moved to America at the age of 12/13 and was first introduced to studio life, thanks to my sister and her schoolmate, and immediately fell in love with writing and creating music. I would hang out at that studio often and just being around other creatives and immersing myself in music really helped me hone in on my songwriting skills. It was a great time.
Years later, after have 2 kids and navigating my new life as a mom, I picked up learning the guitar. I didn’t like the idea of having to always sing to a track at gigs because I wanted the freedom of live music. And because it’s a challenge sometimes getting musicians together with different scheduling and having to have some type of budget to pay them, I started learning the guitar. It was no easy feet in the beginning, but I kept at it and played the guitar on and off for about 3-4 years before I was confident enough to play and sing at gigs. I now take my guitar with me to just about all my gigs. My guitar’s name is Schuler by the way lol!
With me learning the guitar and being able to perform with vocals and guitar, it makes it very beneficial when booking gigs. The clients don’t have to worry about shelling out a huge budget for a 4 piece band because they have the convenience of one person who can entertain their audience. I find pride in that and it is partly the reason I picked up the guitar as well. It’s easier to navigate when it’s just you and yourself. Would I love a band? Sure! But is it less stress with just me? Absolutely!
What sets me apart from other performers is that I love to spread my light love and inspiration through my performances by involving my audience! It becomes a whole experience and everyone involved becomes a part of the show. I love when there’s a genuine, impromptu, and spontaneous collaboration with myself and the audience because it connects us all. And I believe that’s what music does, connects people. My goal after each performance is to have the listeners leave feeling touched. My gift is so amazing to have and I’m so honored to be able to share it. So come and see a JaaLa show and leave inspired and loved!
If you want to see a show, I’m at Life Bistro in Atlanta, Ga every first Friday. This is an intimate show and you get to experience collaborating with me to make the show a memorable one! I even have a segment of the show where I ask the audience for words or topics and I write a song on the spot! It’s really a cool game that helps me sharpen my song writing skills as well as allow the audience to connect to the art! I truly love it! A most welcomed challenge!
And lastly I was blessed with the opportunity to audition for The Voice, yea, the vocal competition TV show! (Insert excited scream here! Lol!), so be on the lookout for that! It streams on peacock and airs on nbc on Mondays 8/7c. The experience was AMAZING! Can’t wait for y’all to see it! But in the meantime, feel free to buy, download, stream, and share my recent single release “Who You Are”. It’s a great song that encourages you to remember the amazing YOU that you are! I hope you all live life on purpose and with purpose and stay encouraged! Your light is needed in this dark world so go shine! And if it’s a challenge, I pray that after listening to my song, you’ll feel encouraged to keep going! I love y’all! (Yes, even the ones I haven’t met), because God loves y’all!
Thank you in advance for the love and support!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Yes! Consistency, consistency, consistency!.
When it comes to social media, it can pose a great challenge because it can seem like SO MUCH! It can feel over saturated and even seem overwhelming! But fear not! All it takes is some consistency. Well not all, but mainly. The social media journey is a marathon and not a race, despite this new era of instant gratification. Here’s how I personally got my followers on Instagram up:
Find your niche. Your niche is something that comes natural to you that you don’t have to fabricate to try to be relevant or cool, just be YOU!
Be consistent in sharing your niche. For me, that was singing with my guitar on my lunch breaks. I would think of a song I wanted to share or that dropped in my mind to share and I would learn it that day, and upload it to my Instagram. I did that everyday for 2 weeks straight! I did it everyday, at the same time everyday and just kept going. I made sure to use an Instagram reels feature as well. I used the captions feature. And I also wasn’t afraid to share the ones that I didn’t think were perfect either! People connect to imperfections that are honest. So don’t think everything has to be perfect all the time starting out. I did it for two weeks and the followers started growing because towards the end of the two weeks one of the songs I posted gained crazy amounts of traction (250k views)! It encouraged me to keep going! I was consistent for another two weeks, then another two weeks and my followers went from over 5000 to 30k in about 2 months time. It was excitingly overwhelming! After I hit that goal, I didn’t even know I had, the algorithms came to play which slowed things down, but the goal remains… keep posting!
It takes discipline and dedication to grow and KEEP followers, but if you set your mind to it, you can do it! You got this!
I’m currently building back up that stamina and determination for my TikTok. I created an audience on Instagram, now I’m ready to tackle TikTok!
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The way to best support artists is to buy their stuff! Sharing helps too, but if we’re being honest, monetary support is the best. Us creatives invest a lot in our crafts and it takes money to put out our work and share it with the world, so it means the world when you actually buy the product. Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and whoever else ain’t paying us for these streams, at least nothing to talk about, so investing in us means the world! We get a return on our investment. And maybe you can’t afford the product at its full price, but you can donate to the artist. Send a Cashapp, or Venmo, or Zelle of whatever amount you feel led to. Trust me, it’s supporting a great cause. It’ll be the most heartfelt $2 or $5 received by that artist.
Another way to support is to share! The original sales tactic is word of mouth. And the way social media is set up, by you sharing, you never know who may see it that can be a blessing to the artist. And this support is free! The more you share, the more we get out there to be able to spread our message and our gift!
And lastly, SHOW UP! If there’s a gig or a show… show up! Sometimes your presence is present enough! Knowing that there’s people in our corner helps to fuel the creative inside us even more. We feel like we’re living out our purpose well! And that’s encouraging! Would we stop creating if people don’t show up? Of course not, but it orchestrates a beautiful reciprocation when people show up for you! Show up for us so we can show up for you through our gift!
Contact Info:
- Website: officiallyjaala.com
- Instagram: @officiallyjaala
- Youtube: @officiallyjaala
Image Credits
Chris Montgomery of Montyangelo Productions Ric Flo of Global Flo Pics