We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jace Heyman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jace, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I remember being different when I was at school. I didn’t care much for being part of a group or crew, I loved football but I didn’t care too deeply for not getting picked for a team. I would come home from school and just watch videos of Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Usher and Justin Timberlake and I would copy their moves and sing along. All of that was understanding and developing a love for this craft called entertainment, at a young age. When I met a producer from Los Angeles, DG, a guy who believed in me from just a singing contest, I knew that this could be a path to something bigger. Just imagine being at work, a job you don’t enjoy so much, with someone in the industry saying you have the skills and passion to make it, and that you may just have to take that leap.

I started taking music seriously in 2020, that’s right…the famous pandemic. I released my first song, with visuals and social media content. I started my career in a time when so many things were changing, social media, DSP’s, contracts and agreements, but I continued to learn, regroup and release. I knew with this resilience, live and passion, that I would be able to turn it into a professional career, plus a team behind me that have not only been here from the first day, but continue to back me on difficult times. I can’t pin point the exact day I knew I wanted this, it has been a life long dream that I have continuously built.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jace Heyman and I am a music artist, singer, songwriter, dancer and social media influencer. I have been training as a dancer since the age of 15, studying performing arts at school and at Warriorz performing arts academy. Singing was part of the curricular so as much as I liked singing for fun, I found out I had a good voice and took extra lessons to improve and improve. At 18, with some convincing from my parents, I studied Business and Spanish to get some degree and academics behind me, but I still found myself in the studio and at singing contents and shows, due to the love and passion for it.

In 2019 I met a producer from Los Angeles at a singing contest who liked my vibe, providing I was nervous and didn’t sing the best, DG wanted to work with me. I released my first song in 2020, Dunk Text, which solidified myself as a recording artist, it was a proud moment and I knew from that moment I had something. However, I had some work to do, so I took some songwriting lessons from my mentor, Jamei Black, who has helped me from the ground up to create melodies, great lyrics and timeless music. I always make time to see her when I’m out in LA. I’m now finishing up my second project, which will be accompanied by a short film and music videos.

I think what I have learned to be most proud of is the growth. Success will come and go, especially in this era of short attention spans, so now I put emphasis on being happy when i’ve written a great song, learned something new about the music business or created a new connection with an artist, writer or creative. That is what sets me apart as an artist, because I will always improve something that we have created or the next thing will have a new formula, whether it be the sound, the marketing or branding development.

Fans will always get an improved version of me, which includes the music, visuals and all things entertainment.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Oh for sure! The creative journey is one the only journeys where you could be five years down the line and still feel like you’re at square one. The industries are changing so fast and have the least amount of data to work with. Creatives are faced with many problems in their career and craft that relies on resilience, patience, working on projects for months or years until it’s presentable to the public. I have had several jobs outside of creative work, and these jobs are soft-skilled based, so spreadsheets, excel, presentations – basic stuff. As a creative you may do all of that work, plus emailing artists, venues and producers, plus editing, recording, attending network events, managing time with family and friends, organising shoot days, creating content, and all of this to maybe not see any financial gain.

I think non-creatives need to understand that we do this because we love it, we love the journey, all the successes and lessons that come with it. Willing to do part-time jobs and hustling just to get a song out or do a 1 hour show for some fans. As this creative journey continues to get more difficult with an open playing field, just liking a video, sharing content with other people, buying tickets to a show or even a nice, authentic comment on some music can make us creatives day better and cause us to continue to create.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My audience started to grow in 2021. I had been posting clips for around 2 years before that, of music, acoustic videos, lifestyle and all things Jace. Ironically, it was a drunk video of me dancing, with no thought behind it that actually exploded my brand. The video was funny and unexpected which liked about it, which then led to people searching my music and other work, leading to streams, music work and other opportunities, all from one drunk video.

I started to focus on these types of videos and mix in singing and music with comedy and dance videos, to show that i’m not just a one trick pony. I quickly went from 10K followers to over 50K. Within a year i gained almost 150K and now over 200K, this also mirrored on my instagram with 50K followers. I’m not the biggest hype man of followers but it jus goes to show how fast you can build on these platforms, and the importance of just being yourself, as much as showing your skills and craft. People like that more from me and then they go to the music when I release, or they put it on a playlist.

Only advice I can give right now is be patient while building. Make some content first and test it all out, put effort in for ones of your craft but also show your personality on day to day. The people will like what they like, you can’t force it. I know that can sound annoying and like a broken record but it’s true. The people will choose the hits, the content, the albums, teh art work, and just follow them and push the ones that they like.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jaceheyman.komi.io/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaceheyman/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaceheyman/
• Twitter: https://x.com/jaceheyman
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jaceheyman
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-312064017

Image Credits

Zekaria Al- Bostani – @zek.snaps
Emily Badgley – @emb.jpg