Hi Jaylen, thank you so much for taking the time to share your journey and everything you’ve been building. Your new EP feels like a powerful turning point — let’s jump right in.
Your EP Prodigy marks a new chapter both personally and musically. Looking back at the process, what growth, mistakes, or lessons did you most want listeners to feel and understand through these songs?
I’m hoping my audience really enjoy the songs in a genuine way, but also in a deeper way. I hope they listen to it and seek motivation, thrive, sadness, peace, and strength. That’s what all my songs embody on this EP. I feel like a lot of people deal with the same life problems, such as finances, relationships and just pure motivation and happiness. I just want to show them that it’s up to us to find that reason to keep pushing and going for whatever we may try and achieve.
You mentioned pushing yourself lyrically with deeper storytelling, metaphors, and more experimental flows. How did you challenge your comfort zone creatively on this project, and how is this version of you different from your earlier music?
This EP really pushes my limitations and I really enjoy just being more comfortable involving my personal things in life, and putting it into something that everyone can relate to and thrive in. The flow and the emotion I put within this EP is definitely different from my latest songs. I touch on certain subjects with my past songs, but on this EP I became more vulnerable, and it feels great.
I had a lot of people reach out to me and explained; how my music or the content. Help them extremely through tough times, and I want to make sure it stays like that. I understand how important it is to be there for someone.
Beyond music, you’ve expanded into YouTube, Twitch streaming, vlogs, and gaming content. How has connecting with fans in real time through those platforms changed your relationship with your audience and your identity as an artist?
Like I mentioned, I got into streaming and gaming on Twitch and YouTube, and it introduced me to more people that can relate to me; and I find it amazing. I can relate to many other people, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be music-related. Streaming definitely made me open up my shell a little bit more. I know people that come to the stream every day to catch up with their day-to-day business. I think finding out that I do music and other things creates a respect for what I do and how I balance it.
You’re also launching new merch and working on publishing your first book and short stories — which shows a really multi-creative side of you. How do writing and storytelling across different formats (music, books, video) feed into each other?
I’m very excited to keep showing people what else I have to offer. I mentioned that I’m about to launch my brand-new merch campaign with new styles, variations and designs. Definitely ready to drop it and I already copied all of my own merch just to show it off, and already shipped some for free to designated supporters. I like the idea of people wearing my merchandise in different states and cities. I know this one guy uses it to work out every day at the gym. It’s pretty dope, and it makes me more excited to introduce my official copies of my books/novels. Story telling is definitely one of my favorites, and I use this same skill to direct my own music videos and even embezzle it to my own songs when it comes to lyric wise. For my novel, I’m working on an action sci-fi apocalyptic story. I’m hoping to make it a series, and for my storytelling books. I touch on religion/culture aspects, and hope to make people think about life. I feel like it’s easy to be oblivious about certain things and I just want people to open their minds more.
With so many projects happening at once, what keeps you motivated on the hard days, and what kind of legacy are you hoping to build through everything you create?
I agree that there are a lot of things I’m working to achieve, and I would be lying if I said that it’s all easy. I try and really remind myself that life is too short, and we only have so much time to make an impact in this world we live in. I’m not doing this to be the next big thing or anything. I just want to be able to change people’s lives in ways that matter. To help them grow and thrive and to always seek for more in life. We do only live once.
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