Talk about a one-man team. Jhameel is an underrated artist with a lot of talent. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter who writes and produces all of his music. This says quite a lot when a majority of artists these days usually have a whole team backing their efforts.

 

“Music is like the perfect language”

Here’s a fun fact: If you’ve watched the recent Verizon Droid Razr commercial, you may have already heard his song “Collision” that was used in the background.

 

Get to know this San Francisco based artist with this exclusive Jackfroot interview that delves a little into his music, motives, and more…

 

What is it about music that intrigues you and why were you confident enough to make a career out of it?
Music is like the perfect language.  You can express an emotion or concept so directly with music, and make the listener feel it completely. I think what gave me the confidence to make a career out of it was the fact that the vision has always been so clear in my head, all I needed to do was take the time to record it.

 

How much of your music do you write and produce yourself? What kind of life experiences have you drawn from?
I write and produce all my music.  The life experiences I draw from are usually what I’m going through at the time, or reflecting on an important event in my life.  From that, I either just talk about the straight truth or make an interesting fiction out of it.

 

What noticeable changes have you seen with your music over your last few projects?
I learn something new with every project.  Specifically with every new release, I become more intimate with not only structure and melody, but texture, the soundscape and the engineering aspect as well.  I learn from and fulfill my vision both at the same time if that makes sense.

 

Who do you most admire in mainstream music and what would be your dream collaboration?
I love what Janelle Monae is doing, she’d be my dream collaboration.

 

 

What barriers or stereotypes do you think you will face (or have faced) from critics in mainstream music? How do you hope to dispel them?
There’s sort of a stigma with Asian American artists.  It hasn’t really affected me too much though, all I’m doing is making my art, having a good time, getting to know my awesome fans, working hard, and releasing good content.  In the scope of my career, that’s all that really matters.

 

What is your philosophy in life? In music?
Keep it good and simple.

 

If you could have the opportunity to do one significant thing in this world (music or non-music related) what would that be?
I’d like to host a web series.  It’d be a travel show, learning languages and instruments around the world.  I don’t know if I’d ever actually do it, it’s just a fun thought haha.

 

Jhameel’s new music video for Waves:

[youtube id=”XEqh9ZwDNtQ” width=”600″ height=”350″]

 

What inspired the lyrics to Waves?
It’s been a lingering idea in my head all my life.  I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so life seemed to go in waves if that makes sense.  In daily life, there’s ups and downs, good and bad, dark and light.  If you look deeper, matter is waves, sound is waves, light is waves.  So I think it’s just safe to say, everything goes in waves.

 

What do you think of “Linsanity?” Are you a Jeremy Lin fan?
He’s been doing so awesome, and I’m very glad to see him keeping it up.  I think the hype might be a bit much to live up to, but the fact that he’s a humble hard working guy is enough for me to consider myself a fan.

 

Do you favor any popular Asian-American artists?
I like Thao, she’s a local indie artist up here in the Bay Area.

 

What are the top 3 things that people would find surprising about you that you have not mentioned before (in the press)?
I’m really good at origami, I’m terrible at drawing, I used to be a bit overweight growing up.

 

Any last words to our Jackfroot readers?
Life is short, live passionately 🙂

 

Connect with Jhameel:
http://www.jhameel.com
http://www.facebook.com/jhameel