An Ode to Being Unapologetic
The South London-born singer/songwriter, JGRREY, has made their name with their distinctive sound, candid storytelling, and authentic approach to making music. But, in their upcoming EP “If Not Now?” they push this further, effortlessly defying categorisation to create a style uniquely their own.
Words Bryson Edward Howe Photography JC Verona
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Jen, as she tells me, has lived many different lives. Jen has worked as a photographer, a stylist, and other roles in fashion that prove she is accomplished even outside of being a sonic creative, but it is as JGrrey that she is most known to the wider world. Having first caught attention with their viral performance of “Don't Fade” on the COLORS platform in 2017, she has since had a consistent release schedule, before taking an unexpected break following the Coronavirus and lockdowns to catch her breath before launching the next phase of music, determined to shape their own trajectory and at their own pace, returning with a new EP titled “If Not Now?” coming October 27th. "Absolutely every single reason you could possibly think of for having a break from the music industry was my reason,” she says openly, "I was struggling with addiction, I was struggling with my personal life and family life," coming into contact with her birth mother and another brother she hadn't met before after growing up in foster homes across South London and eventually with adoptive parents. “Everything was very serious and very big”, and she was struggling to find time and space for music.
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"This project had to happen just because of some of my lived experiences, and some of the things that I've been going through in the last couple of years," she says, citing the impact of this turbulent period following the pandemic, and "just off of the back of that, there were so many other things that kind of snowballed and domino effected to lead to me needing to make really big changes." The first single off the EP, “Theirs13” vocalises these changes, feeling more musically liberated than ever before. JGrrey’s voice floats over the silk-woven neo-soul sound that has exploded and evolved into the jazz new wave across London in the last decade, with songwriting that is full of both the actual and the potential, an intriguing dance that J knows the steps to all too well at this point.
"Everything I do is quite loose," she says, explaining their process of making music, which always begins with a freestyle recorded over the first time she hears the beat. “I like a loose structure, just so that I'm not making music the way I should be. I hate that. I don't want to make a single for radio. I want to make something that someone hears and goes ‘That sounds good, but why'd she fucking do that? Why is that a chorus, or why is that [song] just a chorus? We work as loosely as we can, and then once we're happy with everything we're like 'right, let's figure out the structure, how's it gonna be received?’" This stream-of-consciousness style of making music has worked well for JGrrey throughout their career but comes to a confident new height on this project, coming with the newfound freedom of brokering their own label deal without a manager. "I signed to this project as a one-project deal, by myself […] and every single song is something that I felt like I wanted to say."
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“You've got to take the rough with the smooth.”
Long sleeved top - Christopher Esber Velvet top - Acne Studios
"I think the sonic is a bit brazen in that it is quite different,” she says teasing the eclectic soundscape of the upcoming EP. “I just leant heavily on just doing the stuff that I want, because no one was telling me what to do anymore […] In regard to this project, I have got jazz-inspired tracks on there, but I have got tracks like ‘BOYS?’, which are like a fucking heavy, metal, really gritty punky sound. There's so much scope.” This friction between looseness and rule-breaking is the spirit of jazz and punk and one that evolves from the blurred lines between JGrrey and Jen.
Navigating the intricate terrain of identity, J knows, is difficult. "I'll just get wrapped up in situations that really have nothing to do with me, when people are talking to JGrrey," but she remembers a time when this separation wasn’t so defined. “I had so many yes-men around me, everything was available.” These trappings of success led J into unhealthy patterns of behaviour, and "people were there enabling that. I think that I got it mixed up because people were wanting to hang out with JGrrey, and not Jen. So, now I definitely go through my life as Jen as much as I can, and when I'm performing JGrrey comes out, and it's a good time, but I definitely think it's a separation that I personally need to have because I was a bit lost in the sauce there for a minute.” Talking about how she found their way out of this state, she cites their partner and some sage advice from an old friend and now-collaborator, “Kojey Radical once said actually, 'These people are not your friends'. I've always remembered that. My whole team of people around me, I pay them. They're not my friends. We're in a business together […] Especially as young, female artists, a lot of men end up managing you or talking on your behalf, and then you actually lose reality with what you should be looking for in your relationships or your social life, or your downtime, or your calm time, or even being on tour. If you're on stage every single night in so many different cities, as your act, then who are you without the artist's name?"
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Kojey Radical, a relationship that J beams “I fucking cherish,” features on the EP’s second single “May”, a track dedicated to J’s late friend James, a beautiful song about grief that, expectedly, pulls no punches. "I think [Kojey is] one of the greatest musicians to come out of London, I think he's got so much to say, and when he says it, you listen because it sounds so good." Threatening each other over the years with collaborating in the studio, but never feeling like it was the right time, J enlisted Kojey, who recorded a verse almost immediately “about how he perceived the beat, and what he's been going through,” resulting in a track that feels like a poetic and healing conversation between two incredibly raw artists.
J is incredibly candid with me when I ask about their experiences of being vulnerable on such a large, public stage, realising as she answers that this freedom found in their music has been carried through even to how she interacts with the press. "You've got to take the rough with the smooth," revealing that, "I feel very affirmed when my younger, queer, non-binary fans or young, female, queer artists are listening to it, and that's a great thing, but I also think that we're just being unapologetic, we're just trying to make a point, and make a statement, does come with a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people."
“People don't realise that even if you are saying bad things about my art, it means you've listened to it.”
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"I've found that in these last couple of months, men have got a lot to say online, on my Instagram posts, or on my YouTube Boiler Room I did [...] and that's something I'm up against all the time." She's quick to observe, "I'm on a call right now with three men," referencing myself, my editor, and J’s publicist, indeed three men responsible for presenting this post, and J's image, to you, their audience. "Am I making myself unsafe just because I want to make tracks like “BOYS?” and tracks like “Theirs13” [...] It's a lot to deal with, just in regard to putting your art out there." She stopped here, again seemingly careful to make that separation between themself and their art. "I think some of the best art makes people question themselves. I think it makes people angry. I think it makes people uncomfortable, or disgusted, and for me, if I evoke any sort of emotion in you, I've done my job, even if it is anger, and then you need to look inwardly. If you're angry at me, for a song I've made, that's entirely you. But you have to care, don't you? To make a comment, or to be angry, you have to care about it, or love it ... I think people don't realise that even if you are saying bad things about my art, it means you've listened to it. You've watched the video and had an opinion on it.”
The way J talks about the music industry, the closest metaphor I can think of is a tightrope across two buildings, where one of the buildings is on fire but you’re not sure which one. There is no clear direction, but when this is your livelihood on the line, the stakes are so high. But it’s a challenge that J takes on with a newfound fearlessness and confidence, feeling affirmed in their music and in who she is, realising in their hiatus "I'm entirely worth something". In a good place where she's in no rush, doesn't owe anyone anything, and can make music at their own speed, J calls the new project “an ode to being unapologetically who you are” and one that she’s more than ready to release. "It speaks for itself, 'If Not Now?’" Then…
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About JGRREY
Through her consistent release schedule and unwavering talent, JGrrey has found stoic fans in the likes of British Vogue, COLORS Berlin, Dazed, Grazia, Polyesterzine (of course), British GQ, The Face, Evening Standard, The Fader, Radio 1, Annie Mac, Anime, Jorja Smith, Julie Adenuga, DJ Target, Peter Rosenberg, Billie Eilish and more. Not forgetting that J’s song “For Keeps” was synced in Kathryn Ryan’s new smash hit show The Duchess and jumped straight into the Shazam charts. From being British Vogue’s “Vogue Darling” last year to being featured on legendary producer Madlib’s track The Call, from his critically acclaimed album last year. J was also covered the digital issues of both Bricks Magazine & Gay Times - consistently proving she is a firm favourite amongst fans and critics alike.
Watch the triumphant video for ‘THEIRS13’
Watch her brand new video with Kojey Radical for ‘May’
Team credits
Interview Bryson Edward Howe
Photography JC Verona
Cinematographer Timothy Heinrich
Styling Charly Sugget
Hair stylist Sharon Robinson
Make-up artist Claudine Blythman using Illamasqua
Retouching Stefanie Schneeberger
Photo Assistant Lauren Johnson
PR Wired
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