Coco Jones released her debut album, Why Not More?, and the R&B singer shares how sampling Britney Spears’s “Toxic” for “Taste” came to life, her experience working with an “in love” Future, how she’s defining R&B in her own way, and more!
What did you think of Coco Jones’ new album? Let us know in the comments below!
What did you think of Coco Jones’ new album? Let us know in the comments below!
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MusicTranscript
00:00I didn't have a plan of using anything, especially such an iconic Britney sample.
00:04So don't play me, because I would play you back.
00:07I think it was iconic that I got a song with Future where he's actually in love.
00:12Learning about myself as an adult while putting out music and learning about myself as an
00:16artist.
00:17There's a lot of learning going on in the room.
00:18I love to co-write with women.
00:30I feel like we just have a similar language and they get me in a way that sometimes I feel
00:35like it's different for a guy.
00:36Sometimes they write a little bit more thoughts based and women are more sometimes feelings
00:40based like literal like the senses and like things like that.
00:43Women I think commonly write with me and men commonly make the music.
00:48Writing You was very easy, I feel, because I write from real life experiences.
00:56For me, I am at a place where I don't have to keep my guard up in this side of my life,
01:03on the personal side.
01:04It's refreshing to have a song that's like good vibes.
01:07I don't want to leave people with only music for the negative emotions.
01:11I want to also have some songs that I feel like are useful for the positive emotions when
01:15you're having a good day and you want to keep it wrong.
01:18So don't hold back down, why not more?
01:23Why not more was definitely another song where I just wanted to expand what R&B is to me.
01:29Yes, R&B can have a Britney sample in it.
01:32Yes, R&B can be aggressive.
01:33R&B can be happy.
01:35We're not always heartbroken.
01:36R&B can be at the islands, okay?
01:38Sipping a little coconut by the pool.
01:40Because why not more?
01:41You know, and that was kind of like the whole theme of the album and really just leaning
01:45into all of the authentic ways that you feel like you want to go.
01:50Go in every direction and then see what sticks, you know?
01:53You don't have to have all the answers.
01:54You don't have to execute everything the way that everyone wants you to.
01:56You should just lean into what feels right and you'll get where you need to go.
01:59I'm a tellin' with the love I feel is real.
02:01Friends like me got a heart made up still.
02:04Hello.
02:05I mean, of course, his legacy of the iconic Lauryn Hill, but also YG Marley is just a great vibe.
02:12He's super carefree, he's super positive and he's fun, he's free, he's in the moment.
02:17He embodies the song and he embodies really, too, the vibe that I'm trying to carry out with
02:21this album.
02:22Like, let's not try to figure it all out.
02:23Where are we at right now?
02:24Let's lean into that.
02:25He comes out to one of my shows and we get to perform it together.
02:33So I love a rap and R&B collab.
02:36I mean, they're historic heavily in the 90s.
02:39They were like iconic stamps in time.
02:41I was really grateful that me and Future both have that common ground of London on the track.
02:46We both have worked with him and I'm both like super familiar with him.
02:48So it was kind of great because he knows us both really well and he found that space sonically
02:53where we could both do our thing.
02:54I think it was iconic that I got a song with Future where he's actually in love.
02:59He's talking about this girl like she's a gift from God.
03:01Period.
03:02I mean, yes, Offside to Future and yes, on my debut album, I'll take it.
03:06The way he records, he's like a music machine.
03:08Like there's beats being sent to him in real time.
03:10He picks when he's recording, he's writing it in real time and we're all in that room.
03:14Iconic.
03:15Keep It Quiet was really, really fun.
03:23So I had just started working with some new producers to me, Stargate and Jasper Harris.
03:29It was really just this four on the floor sound.
03:31And I was like, dang, this has no melody whatsoever.
03:34Let me see what I can do to it.
03:36And I just started talking my stuff because I felt like it was a really braggadocious type
03:40beat.
03:41And I was like, okay, what, what do I really brag about?
03:43Like, I think if anything, I brag about how hard I work, the effort that I've put in to
03:47be where I'm at.
03:48I guess it's kind of like an ego trip where I'm telling this guy like, hey, you're a
03:52big deal, but so am I.
03:53I'm just like you.
03:54So don't play me because I would play you back.
03:56You know how, when you tell your friends about a guy and then, then he starts embarrassing
03:59you.
04:00It's kind of that world too.
04:01Like, if you're going to embarrass me, just do it on low because I have an ego to protect.
04:05Okay.
04:06I'm not trying to look stupid in front of my friends.
04:11Taste was actually a pleasant surprise at the time when I thought my album
04:18was already finished.
04:19So it was supposed to come out in October and it got delayed just because everything
04:22felt a little rushed and I don't want to do things in that way, especially something
04:27that you can't ever do again, like a first album.
04:29So we pushed it back and I was kind of chilling because I'm very type A, accomplished the goals,
04:35but the goal was done.
04:37So I was like, let me just see what I can do in the studio.
04:39Like I have time today.
04:40So what's up?
04:41And I just think that that freedom of like not trying to reach any goal allowed me to
04:45go places I never would have went.
04:46So I had this beat that I really, really loved.
04:49And I just wanted to add something to it, like some sounds or whatever.
04:52I didn't have a plan of, you know, using anything, especially such an iconic Britney sample.
04:56Jasper Harris and Stargate were who I was working with at the time.
05:03And he just played this like chopped and screwed version of it.
05:06And I was like, that just fit way too well over this beat that I already love.
05:10So just kind of sprinkle it in there and let me just sing around it and just see what happens.
05:14And it was just too good.
05:16It just felt right.
05:17We just went with that feeling.
05:18It's so fun too, to like perform because I think people are still learning me as an artist.
05:22I mean, I'm still learning myself.
05:24Like I just got here on earth.
05:26So there's so many more epiphanies to go, but I really like to perform it because I constantly
05:30see people have this surprised look when I start the song versus when like toxic comes in.
05:35And they're like, what the?
05:36And then it's like so fun.
05:37So it's like watching like a self discovery of like Coco Jones epiphany happening right
05:41before my eyes.
05:42Sometimes it's really funny.
05:44I really worked my ass off.
05:56Some things come natural and some things come with work.
05:58You know, singing is hello.com.
06:00I mean, keep it humble self.
06:02Dancing is like, here we go.
06:04Like seriously, like let me lock in.
06:07This is where I struggled the most.
06:08And so for me, I wanted the choreographer who did it is Aaliyah.
06:11I wanted her to make it whatever she thinks she could do, not whatever you would think I could do.
06:16And I'll just find you in the middle.
06:18We definitely had to work on the middle ground though, because some of it was just too freaking hard.
06:21But I was proud of how I pushed myself, really got out of my comfort zone in the entire world of taste.
06:27It was all something different than people had seen from me.
06:30Something more sensual, something more choreography based and even something more pop leaning too.
06:35I was excited to try it all.
06:36And I think I learned so much about myself through trying things.
06:39That's kind of the whole point of this album.
06:41When it comes to making a song heavily involved right now, as I'm like finding my sound like, oh, that's a Coco song.
06:48Oh, that's a Coco thing to say, like, I gotta be there.
06:51You know, I need to be in the room so that it becomes something that stems from me.
06:55I'm not trying to do that all the time.
06:57And honestly, even right now, as I was recording, I was like, anybody got a hit song they want to send me?
07:01Free songs, free songs, send it my way.
07:02I'm heavily involved in the music.
07:03When it comes to the music video, I'm kind of more like, if it feels right, let's do it.
07:08I don't need to know all the ins and outs and the what's and the who's and the hellos and the goodbyes.
07:12No, thank you.
07:13I'm already burnt out.
07:14I did the song.
07:15I just want to feel like whatever's next feels cohesive.
07:17So I let other people bring the ideas.com.
07:21Heck yeah.
07:22I got to have the bandwidth though.
07:23By the time I get there, I'm like, I'm just ready to do the performing thing.
07:26Cause I already did the artist thing.
07:27And that takes a lot of creativity and energy.
07:37When I was thinking about what's the name of this project, there were a couple of different things that suck.
07:41I could do like the self titled first thing.
07:43And I was like, Ooh, that's kind of serious on them.
07:45Then there was also this why not more energy and it kind of felt a little lighter, a little lighthearted and a little more playful.
07:51Cause that's how I feel right now.
07:53I feel like there's plenty of time to be serious and be Coco the album.
07:57But like, as I'm still figuring her out, why not more is where I'm at?
08:01Like, okay, so let's try it.
08:02Cause why not?
08:03Okay, let's do that.
08:04And now I want to be here.
08:05Cause we only have the one life and I'll figure out the answers and I'll get more clarity as I'm figuring myself out.
08:11It's so freaking fun to bring songs to life in general that you write, but like they're just really important and special and authentic right now.
08:22It's kind of like seeing your baby grow up, you know, and now it's in this different phase of like real life out in the open and people can perceive this thing instead of it just being on my files and on my notes apps and in my head.
08:35I hear bands playing it, the background vocals out.
08:39I see the choreography and it's like, it's materializing as a world that I get to live in.
08:43It's really exciting.
08:44I hope that fans get more clarity on where I come from.
08:48My EP was definitely a good introduction, but I have so many different influences.
08:53I mean, I was doing the Disney jump thing.
08:55I was singing those bubblegum pop songs for years of my life.
08:58And before that I had my mom's influences and I learned whatever song she told me to sing.
09:02And that was my audition song.
09:03So I know super soulful things.
09:05I know super pop things and I know modern R&B.
09:08And I guess I want fans to take away like, oh wow, Coco really does have like an expansive palette, but it is her.
09:14She is a lot of these crossovers of genres authentically.
09:17That's really her.
09:18And really to just watch me grow.
09:20Like I'm very vocal about saying, I don't know everything right now.
09:23I would hope that people give me the time to, to figure it out.