Artist To Look Out For is back with the soulful songstress, songwriter & actress, Mia Jae. Jae has been performing her whole life. While she is better known now for her music, Jae didn’t always want to be a singer. Her goal was to be an actress. Starting out, she was heavily theatre-focused—auditioning on and off Broadway. Her mother, who was her talent manager growing up, helped her navigate the ins and outs of the acting industry. She continued her theatre education through college, studying musical theatre at Marymount Manhattan College in New York and other various training schools in the city.
Photograph by Glen Alexander
She learned at a very young age, however, that roles for Black women and women of color were slim to none. “It’s fucking impossible,” she says candidly. “Being a Black woman in Broadway there are only a handful of roles that you can play.”
Unfortunately, a lack of opportunities for Black women and women of color runs true across many, many industries. I’m sure some of y’all can relate.
As jobs became few and far between, Jae set her talents and sights on releasing music independently. The Harlem based artist just dropped her debut EP: Couple’s Therapy, an in-depth musical tale on the ending of her long-term relationship and her personal journey in overcoming heartbreak, betrayal, and a feeling of hopelessness. It’s safe to say that her process in developing Couple’s Therapy is equal to her process of finding her identity. Listening to the album you can tell that it is in sequential order for a reason: from her start of wanting a ‘Better Man’ to getting to the resolve of ‘It’s Over’, Jae allowed her vulnerability to shine through and offered a therapeutic experience for anyone else that can resonate.
What have you been up to while in self-isolation?
I’ve been trying not to go crazy! I ordered a shit ton of stuff on Amazon and I'm redecorating my room. I'm painting and I learned how to braid my hair. I learned how to do my acrylic fill-ins, I learned how to do my lash extensions. I've been trying to write, but I'm also trying not to force it and put out content just for the sake of putting out content.
As an artist, do you feel like this pandemic and self-isolation has hindered or supported your creativity?
When self-isolation first started I thought it hindered my creativity. My motivation to write comes from life experiences and I can’t experience shit when I’m home. But as time went on, I would say it supported my creativity because it’s led me to think about things that I don't normally think about. I've started to slowly write and it’s coming from a completely different place – an authentic, natural place. There’s no deadline, just time to create.
With everything going on currently, what’s one thing you’ve learned about yourself?
I've learned that there’s a lot of beauty in just existing. Like, I’m a very goal-oriented person. My whole life has always been the next goal, next milestone. And now, there are days where I do nothing, and I realized that’s ok. In the past, I felt like I always needed to doing something and if I'm not, I’m doing myself a disservice. But I've definitely learned the beauty of being with your own self and with your own thoughts.
Photograph by Jacob Francois
Whether it’s listening to music, reading a book, or watching a show/movie, many people have been consuming art during these trying times. Can you speak to the importance of art and what creating means to you?
I think it's been really helpful to have all this time to go through all the art that we don't normally have time to. We always think we have time to get to it but we rarely do. So, now that we have literally nothing but time it’s like, yeah, let me go discover some new artists. I feel like creativity is necessary for sanity; art is necessary for the sanity of culture and for the sanity of society. It's always so crazy when people or society try to make artists feel like they’re so disposable when they're actually indispensable.
What is your songwriting process?
Most times I tend to get the lyrics before I get the beat. Lyrics come to me randomly too, so I always keep a notebook on me or I write in my notes. Once I write something down, I'll find a beat that I feel like goes with the flow of what I'm trying to say. All of my music is based on my experience and the human experience in general. I think that a big thing for me with the music I create is that I always want my songs to connect. Like, you have those songs that you listen to and you're like, “ahh yes”. I want my music to be that for other people, for people to be like, “yo, yeah, that's exactly what I felt like”. There are so many emotions that we all share just within the human experience that anyone can relate to.
“The start of my journey of going through the breakup and finishing the EP was when I wrote ‘Better Man’.”
What inspired Couple’s Therapy?
I wrote Couple’s Therapy when I got my heart broken. We, unfortunately, reached a point where we just couldn’t work and there was just so much hurt and so much anger. A little before the breakup I met Termanology at a party, and we started working with each other after that. I actually was working on another project with other producers, but when the breakup happened I just couldn’t write; I couldn’t see beyond that point. Heartbreak can really physically fuck with you. I was not well; I was not good. The first song I did end up writing was ‘Better Man’. I wrote the single on the floor of the San Juan airport, waiting on my flight back to NY. As I'm sitting on the floor of the airport, crying and listening to this beat Term sent me I just started writing the hook to the song, and then it all started to come out like word vomit on the page. By the time the plane landed, I had the whole song written. The start of my journey of going through the breakup and finishing the EP was when I wrote ‘Better Man’.
Photograph by Lauren Lepore
The track It’s Over is a fitting title to end the project. What were some resolutions you came to when the EP wrapped?
There was a two-year span between me starting the project and me actually dropping it. It was so hard for me to let go and release it because it’s super personal, and in the end, it's like being so personal is what got people to like the EP, which is dope. Heartbreak is something we all experience and when people tell me they relate to my music because they’ve been there, it makes the journey a little less lonely. I'm such a different person now than I was when I was writing that album and when I was going through that kind of pain. I realized I really had to go through all of that for me to start something new. I didn’t realize it when I was going through it, but I’m a stronger person because of it. I now have boundaries and limits and a stronger sense of self because of the relationship I was in. If I can help one person grow through their situation with my music, I did my job. It's all about growing, you know?
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Interview by Rahel Tekle