We were lucky to catch up with Jalen Johnson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jalen, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I was always a kid with a big imagination. My brain had no off switch so I would always think of different ways to reinvent ANYTHING. That being said I fell into love with cars, sports and music. Growing up, you start to realize that you can’t throw a turbo on every car, or that it might have a feature or two missing that you really like. The reality was that you could add these things anyway, but it would be very expensive and/or dangerous. Same thing can be said with sports growing up watching how people get hit in football and deciding you don’t want that long term pain. Or basketball in the way that we realize we are under six feet tall and would never dunk or get a chance in the league. Music felt like the only avenue of my interests at the time that was obtainable. I would start to hear songs and think to myself “well I would have did it this way, said this bar instead, chopped the beat up this way”. Then one day I told myself, “If I wanted it done this way then just do it”. I looked for free softwares like Audacity and start to play with recording my voice. Me and my buddies had even made tracks for math class as a project. All it took was a laptop, Audacity, and a Blue Yeti mic and I was starting to live my dream. Years went on and I never really started taking music seriously until around 2020, when I was introduced to Bandlab, another free software, but this one was also like a social media built in. It offered a lot more help with fine tuning music as well, with vocal presets, autotune, mastering, etcetera. I have been making music on Bandlab ever since.
Jalen, 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?
I got into my craft simply because I wanted more control of what I heard. As a big fan of music, and someone who is critical of what I give my time, I started to feel like the best way for me to appreciate what I was hearing was to do it myself. I am mainly an artist, willing to try any ideas in terms of music, but I also mix music as well as make beats as a service. This industry is vast and diverse, so I can’t speak on what makes my music or beats any different from the next thousand artists, but I know I have real love for my craft, and character that is rare to find. I won’t say my music sounds the same as everyone else, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say my music is some brand new unheard genre. I want to make music that is as relatable to the people listening to it as possible, whether that be the lyrics, staying up until two o’clock in the morning to iron a project out, making the beats myself, or like I said, making the music on free software. I’m more concerned with inspiring people to atleast attempt it if they are interested.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is the people you meet. Creatives are generally people who dream big; the type of people that are the quietest in the room until you ask then about their projects. It has been a great avenue into getting to know people in paying attention to their creative process, or what they are saying on a song. Building real long lasting relationships with those I frequent is always important to me and being an artist/creative gives you a lot of opportunities to meet people.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best way to support a thiving creative ecosystem would be to not be so judgmental. Nowadays everyone is extremely critical of what they come across, and for some, they give up on people or things before they can actually blossom. If we had better constructive criticism skills as a society, it would be much more useful in terms of helping things develop, even when they start out slow.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrychapo?igsh=MzhpcmxwZGQzeGIz&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1G74HWMsjY/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jalendjohnson?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iBeChapo
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JerryChapo/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jerrychapo
- Other: https://linktr.ee/JerryChapo
