Jason Derulo interview

He’s on the verge of becoming the new king of pop, with his genre blending debut album racing up the charts. And it’s no surprise considering he already notched two #1 singles, In My Head and Whatcha Say, prior to its release. Chatting from his native South Florida, Jason Derülo talks about avoiding being pigeon-holed into one genre, his tour with Lady GaGa, his take on Haiti, and what it’s really like to sing and dance at the same time…

Whatcha Say has been available as a single for about nine months and it’s been dominating the charts for a long time. Why has it taken so long for the rest of the album to finally come out?

I wanted people to get to know me as an artist first. Dropped another single first, and they can see the versatility, because I reinvent myself on each song. You can’t really get to know somebody after one song, so I didn’t want to drop my album before they were ready for it. I wanted to drop an album when I have a name, rather than drop an album and then develop a name.

Has the album been done for nine months, or have you been continuing to work on it?

Well I recorded three hundred songs for the album, so the album could have been done a long time ago, but I continued to work on it while I had time. But it could have been done a long, long, long time ago.

Why three hundred songs? Are you just a workaholic, or did you want to write three hundred so you could guarantee that there would ten hits in there?

That was my thing. I wanted to get the premium, I wanted to get the best product possible. I worked twenty hour days, I was always in the studio, and I went through J.R. Rotem’s whole archive, making records. So I worked really, really hard on this album to make sure that every single song could stand on its own, and every single song could potentially be a single, and every single song a reinvention, just totally different.

In My Head is blowing up right now. The opening line, “Everybody’s looking for love, ain’t that the reason you’re at this club,” how’d you come up with that?

It’s the truth. Nobody really goes to the clubs just to listen to music. You can listen to music at home. I think everybody goes to the club with that intention.

I’m looking at the iTunes chart and I see that In My Head is in the top ten, it’s ahead of Bad Romance from Lady GaGa, it’s ahead of I Gotta Feeling from the Black Eyed Peas. How does that make you feel?

It’s amazing. It’s an incredible feeling. I’ve been working on this my whole life, and to see everything coming to fruition in such an amazing way is really, really cool. That means that my fans are being receptive, they’re really liking what I’m coming out with, and that’s the most important to me.

You said it a minute ago and I agree, your album isn’t just R&B, it’s not just pop, it’s not one genre. What kind of combination of influences allows you to be an artist who’s not just based in one genre?

I’ve studied music my whole life, so it’s not something that just popped out of nowhere yesterday. I study all kinds of music and I’m a music lover. I love all kinds of music, whether it be country, rock, jazz, hip hop, R&B, I love it all. So I wanted to make music that way. I didn’t want to be locked into a specific genre, especially because of the color of my skin. I didn’t want to be pigeonholed and stay in this small bracket. I want to make music for the world. I want to make music that the world can enjoy. Why should I have to do one specific kind of music? It took me a long time to figure that out. I went through many stages in what kind of performer I wanted to be. At one point I wanted to be a neo-soul singer. At one point I wanted to be a rock singer. At one point I wanted to do musical theater. So it took me awhile to kind of find myself and realize that I didn’t have to choose one. I could just make music, and whatever came out would just be me.

You mentioned the color of your skin. In terms of music, do you think we’re in a post-racial place? Do you think you can attract a multiracial audience without any of them identifying you as being an artist of a certain race?

That’s my goal. I still feel like there is that barrier. A lot of people, when they hear, like, the In My Head song, they’re like “this rapper.” I’m like, are you serious? Rapper? And it gets frustrating. So I would love to just completely break that barrier. A lot of times when people hear my songs they’re like, they thought that I was white. I’m like, why, you know? So I want to completely break down that barrier and allow people to enjoy music for what it is, without the color of the skin being an issue.

Besides the current singles, do you have a favorite song on the record?

I have two favorites. One of my favorites is What If. It’s kind of a like a ballad, but it’s a little more up tempo than the average ballad. It’s about meeting someone for the first time and saying what if I was meant for you, and if you were meant for me? What if us meeting here right now is fate? What if three years from now we’ll be married with children and have a life together? Many times you never know what effect that person is going to have on your life, and that’s what makes it special.

The other one is Love Hangover. I think the guitar is just so infectious. I’m in love with guitars, and that guitar riff is just incredible to me. I don’t know how J.R. came up with it, but it’s amazing. The song is really fun. It’s about having fun with a special somebody, and then waking up in the morning and it being okay.

What do you learn as an artist from touring with Lady GaGa?

It was my first tour, so definitely a learning experience, but from the standpoint of just being comfortable. I’m always comfortable on stage, but traveling from city to city on a bus can take some getting used to. But it was fine for me. As time went on it became easier and easier, and I just had a blast on the tour.

She’s amazing. She was as awesome offstage as she was onstage. When she met me for the first time, it was like we’d known each other for years. She screamed from down the hall, she’s like “Jason!” and I’m like “GaGa!” and we had a big hug and she looked at me and she was like “I want to thank you for being so kind to my staff. They’ve been raving about how great you’ve been on stage, but more importantly about how humble you are offstage.” And she was like “I want to thank you for that.” And then she looked into my eyes and she said “I want to let you know that you’re special.” She was like, “I don’t tell anyone this, but you’re special.” And I was like wow, that meant a lot to me coming from her, you know?

It occurs to me that the first time I talked with her a year and a half ago, she was in a very similar situation to where you are right now, in a position where your popularity is about to explode. What are your ambitions on that?

I would be comfortable with whatever comes, man. Honestly, I just make music and at the end of the day I just hope that the world receives me. I don’t want to make music for a small amount of people, I want the maximum amount of people to be affected by it. Music really heals the world, and I would love to be the biggest healer.

As a rising star of Haitian descent, what kind of responsibility to you feel in terms of trying to make something happen for Haiti?

I feel such a large responsibility. I am young, but that doesn’t mean that I can just sit back and let things happen the way that they’re happening. Even today, I’m going to a school where they’ve accepted foster children into their school. It’s a private school, and they’ve accepted Haitian children, and most of them they’ve lost both of their parents. I’m going to the school just to bring a little ray of sunshine. I don’t know how much I can bring, but just me going there, it means a lot to me and I hope it means a lot to them also. I’ve been doing club shows and stuff like that one the side, whenever I can get some free time, and I’ve donated thousands and thousands of dollars under the radar. I think a lot of people are kind of stepping up to the plate, and some people are taking advantage of all the publicity they can get, but I’ve been doing my stuff under the radar.

But it’s beautiful to see how all the nations have come together and are helping out. It’s not all bad at all, but there are a few that are trying to take advantage of the publicity.

We threw it open to our readers for questions, and two of our readers wanted to know why you sing your name at the beginning of In My Head.

It actually started off as a joke, and I guess it just kind of caught on. Before I was signed or anything like that, I used to sing my name as a joke, and my friends would call me and they would be like, “can I speak to [singing] Jason Derülo?” So it was kind of catching on, and I was like hey, why not have a little jingle for myself? It’s not on all the songs on the album, but it’s on a few.

Another reader question: is it a strange feeling to be singing and dancing at the same time, and is it something that you get used to?

It’s one of the hardest things to do in the world [laughs]. It’s so hard, but as time goes on I think I’m getting better and better at it. It’s really something that’s really hard to do, but I’ve been able to master it pretty well, especially over the course of the past few months. I’ve been dancing my whole life, and I’ve been singing my whole life, and doing it at a talent show or something like that, doing one song, is definitely totally different than putting on a forty-five minute show and dancing and singing. So it’s definitely one of the hardest things to do.

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