A promising young artist making music full of energy and good vibes, jxsh is intent on rising from up from the trenches. Despite his intent on becoming a star, jxsh is still rooted in the underground. Having contributed his smooth vocals in collaborations with MISOGI as well as being a member of both anti-world and disaster club, jxsh has been making all the right moves in preparation to rise. With his first major album, LOVERBOY approaching release, jxsh sat down with us to talk about his love of pop music, the influence of his anti-world brothers, and big plans for the future.
Underground Underdogs: Can you introduce yourself?
jxsh: Hi I’m Josh and I’m a popstar with the anti-world boys and I’m working on my debut album LOVERBOY. The album actually fucking smashes, I just finished recording it today.
That’s one of the things I wanted to get to pretty early on is the fact that you’re intent on making pop music. I think artists have made pop songs here and there, but if I go through your entire discography and the EPs you’ve released so far, it is thoroughly pop and early on you touched on RnB. What makes you so focused on making pop?
Yes! Most of my old stuff was alt RnB and it’s all trash. I fucking hate that genre. It’s stupid saturated and most of the artists are trash. My last EP I put out, CUTIE, was more pop and the direction I’m going in now. I love making pop shit because I feel like pop music is timeless, or most of it at least. That’s what I want to be. I want to make great music, I’m not here to be underground; I also grew up listening to pop shit that was always around me. I can go back to that shit now and feel the exact same as I did listening to it back then
So you’re not necessarily here to thrive in an underground that’s taken off in various forms of hip hop/trap and other music that has evolved from vapor wave but you’re surrounded by artists and even worked with some artists who kind of fit those sounds and even helped push them a bit. What’s that dynamic like? Working with friends who may align more with the
It’s still cool! I do love listening to shit like that. I’m still into hella underground artists n shit & respect what they’re doing. They’re super important and I’m inspired by all my friends like the anti guys specifically, I’ve known all of them for a few years now. they my brothers. forever. everyone in the group is super different though & versatile in their own right, but it’s always anti.
I think it’s an interesting situation – that you’re intent on making pop music yet, like you said, you still have the guys making other stuff like your brothers in anti-world. I know UU has a lot of anti-world fans. Can you tell me more about your involvement with them?
jxsh: I joined anti-world at the end of my freshman year of highschool and I just finished my senior year last week. So it’s been about 3 years now! It was actually just a really simple situation on how I joined [laughs] I think one day I sent sybyr a message on SoundCloud with a link to my only song at the time and asked him to join. I think it was like 2 days later he got back to me and said that I was in and that he loved the song. From there, I would talk to the rest of the guys like everyday in Skype. I don’t know where I’d be if it weren’t for those guys. I love them.
How have they had an influence on your growth as an artist?
They’ve influenced me in literally every way possible. They’ve obviously given me feedback on my stuff and helping me mix tracks and fine tune some things, but they really just push me to be better. Seeing all the content they put out and all the cool shit they do, it inspires me to do the same – a lot of the shit they do is super inspiring to me. How they’re able to meet up with each other now and do shows is so cool. They really make things happen. They are so determined and I love that. They push me to be better, to be great.
That’s really inspiring – it sounds like you’ve got a good group of friends. Now you’ve released plenty of singles and some EPs, you’ve worked with other artists on their projects, and now you’re finally releasing your debut album LOVERBOY. I’ve heard some older demos from it and what I’ve heard is really damn good. Can you tell me more about the album?
Hey thanks. The shit is really bonkers. With my past projects, I never really loved it 100%. There were always some parts that I fucking hated and some songs that I felt weren’t up to par with the others. But with this one, I truly am in love with every single detail. I want it to be perfect, so I guess that’s why it’s taken this long [laughs]. I started working on it in December of 2016 – that’s when we started LIPSTICK. Fast forward a long ass time and I finally have 10 tracks that I absolutely love. I cut off all the fat so I have a complete body of work that doesn’t drag in some areas or have huge holes. That’s is how I feel at least. I tried to model it after Yeezus as I feel that shit is arranged beautifully. It only had the necessities, nothing that wasn’t needed.
It’s crazy to think that this has been in the works or such a long time. What kind of obstacles did you face other than perfectionist tendencies?
Mostly school. I also run track from like January to June everyday except Sunday so that shit eats up a lot of my time too, but I have late arrival for school so I usually just stay up absurdly late and work on shit. Also college shit had me really occupied too. From visits and forums I need to fill out, to writing essays for scholarships, it was a lot.
In previous conversations I’ve had with you the subject of college came up. Will you continue to make music while you attend school? What happens if LOVERBOY blows up? Would you ever choose to leave school to pursue music full time?
Bro, FUCK school. School is so easy for me though. I’ve always got good grades and shit though without studying, its really just a waste of time. I’m actually majoring in the Recording Arts & Music Production portion of music industry at Drexel in Philly, so I’ll always be around that shit and in studios. I’ll probably be more active than I am now at home. It’ll be cool to actually learn about shit that I love. But shit dude, you best believe if LOVERBOY blow I’ll be gone in a MINUTE.
If you had to recommend three jxsh for new listeners, what would you recommend? This includes your upcoming album as well.
Right now, I’d say LIPSTICK & AMFLD, which is only on Spotify and Apple Music atm, and my album when that shit come out [soon]. but those two specifically give a good feel as to the direction future releases will be.
So you’ve worked on LOVERBOY for quite some time perfecting it and you’ve said to expect even more. Can you tell us anything about what else you have in the works?
There’s gonna be a lot more than just music coming with LOVERBOY. We have so many videos ready and planned. I’ve also been creating various art pieces to come along with it as well. Some visual art and other pieces of written art. I’ll also be releasing more merch soon. The next drop is gonna happen in a few weeks. Nothing big, only two pieces; the “CAR CRASH” collection. But there are many components that come together to form LOVERBOY, not just the music. I also have a few cool collabs with my friends too!
Thank you for your time, jxsh. You’re clearly very passionate about what you do and I can’t wait to hear LOVERBOY. Do you have any shoutouts or concluding words?
Thank you buddy! This was really fun! LOVERBOY coming real soon I’m so excited. Shoutout to Sora, Garrett, e, anti, Matt, Kevin, and EVERYONE THAT HELPED ME MAKE THE PROJECT. LOVE YOU!