Today we’re excited to be connecting with Jaki Nelson again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.
Jaki, always such a pleasure connecting with you and thank you for sharing your stories, insights and inspiring messages with our community. We’re looking forward to getting the download and what you have been up to since our last interview, but first can you briefly introduce yourself to folks who might have missed the prior conversation.
Hi, my name is Jaki Nelson, and I am a Certified Platinum Recording Artist, Songwriter, Producer, and DJ born and raised in LA, but living in Miami now. My songs do about 1,700,000 streams per month, and they’ve done almost 200,000,000 streams total to date. I have charted top 10 on Billboard twice, and I’m regularly featured on major artists Spotify radio stations – including but not limited to David Guetta Radio, Tiesto Radio, Martin Garrix radio, etc.
Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
It’s been a crazy ride! I’ve actually been really excited recently because I’ve been getting back toward my early visions of what I wanted my career to look like.
Starting out, I wanted my live shows to include me DJing live, whilst also playing instruments and singing live all at the same time. It all got to be too much and I didn’t know anyone (or know *of* anyone) who was doing what I was trying to do and the information gap led me down the studio route first and foremost.
Last year, I attended an incredible Miami Music Week event hosted by Femme House, a 501C3 (charity) program dedicated to helping women and BIPOC people to develop their skills in music production and DJing. I suddenly found myself in a room full of all these incredibly beautiful and talented women that ***are doing it***. MIND. BLOWN. One girl I met literally opened for Illenium the next day. I immediately got going studying and practicing again and it’s been so much fun. I just posted my first hour long set the other day! (and totally forgot to tell anyone, hi)
Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.
- Favorite Movie: Independence Day
- Favorite Book: The Alchemist
- Favorite TV Show: Industry (HBO)
- Favorite Band or Artist: Ludovico Einaudi
- Sweet or Savory: Both. At the same time ideally.
- Mountains or Beach: Beach always and forever
- Favorite Sport (to watch): Hockey
- Favorite Sport (to play): Pickleball
- Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Volleyball – won every game 4th thru 8th grade
- As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: This is it! Pretty crazy.
- French Fries or Onion Rings: In N Out Animal Fries
- Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: Logan Roy
- Favorite Cartoon growing up: Dexter’s Laboratory
- Favorite Childhood movie: Flipper!
- Favorite Breakfast Food: Bagels
When you look back on your life, what are three things you expect to be proud of?
1. I never stopped following my dreams, and I never let setbacks stop me. I thought it was all over when 2020 canceled my whole tour and well…like everything else. It turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to my career.
2. Fear has never been enough to talk me out of big/risky decisions. Maybe I was afraid, but most of the time I did it anyway. I moved across the country on essentially a whim and I thought I was crazy leaving the music city I had grown up in and learned so much from, but my career has exploded since. I have more work than I know what to do with and I couldn’t be more grateful.
3. I have the greatest dog on the planet and no one can tell me otherwise! 0% kidding. Ok no I’m kidding, but I have to leave the country tomorrow and I miss him already.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jakinelson.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/jakinelson
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/jakinelsonmusic
- LinkedIn: —
- Twitter: —
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/JakiNelson
- Yelp: —
- Soundcloud: https://SoundCloud.com/jaki-nelson
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7oz4dlYyj9jadcbGJq1jwx?si=wre83BmWSP6hKr8o8pQXpw
Image Credits
Angie Myers
Gianno Currie
