ITS Home Edition: JP Saxe

up the moment. Maybe you know the original version from last year, which is a duet with one of the greatest songwriters in pop music today and JP's girlfriend, Julia Michaels. Or maybe you know the new version from this April, where twenty six other artists jumped on the track, Sam Smith, Kesha and Nil Horan h E. R Key Turban Florida, Georgia line. It's a long list and the track benefited

Doctors Without Borders. Our quarantine correspondent Jordan Runtalg caught up with Jp to talk about that song and much much more. And after you finished checking out this episode, be sure to give a listen to the I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts rivals Music's Greatest Feuds, which, as the saying goes, is available wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hello, everybody,

my name is Jordan Runtag, but enough about me. I'm joined by a Toronto born singer, songwriter, and self described over sharer. You may know him for his collaboration with Julia Michaels entitled If the World Was Ending, a song about connection during times of crisis. Although it was written last summer, it's become the theme song for an untold number of couples sheltering in place during the Corona pandemic.

It can be found on his new EP, Hold It Together, which is brimming with soulful vocal work and confessional lyrics that may make you laugh, cry and occasionally both at once. I'm thrilled the welcome JP sex JP, how are you think so much? Loves that intro? Thank you very much. I did my best laugh price mild think is it's the emotional spectrum. I want it once. There you go. Yo, Oh my god, you got that in spades, my friend.

I've got so many things to ask you, But first off, congratulations on successive If the World Was Ending, I just the story behind the song. It's like it's like a Hollywood movie. I mean, I can tell me a little bit of how the song came together. First of all, how did you and Julia first link? It's a pretty crazy story. I'm just now realizing that drinking soda water drain interview is such a horrible idea. I will be like meaningful thought, burp, genuine idea of burp. You're doing

it too, I'm doing I'm doing it too. I know so much. You thought I was a professional. You thought wrong. Well, look I got Selzer right with the soda water during the I'm gonna keep drinking it. We can burp mid thought together. Um, so perfect segue to the story of this song. So I would say, I would say the first thing that kicked everything off was Julia sharing a song of mine called in Barcelona on her Instagram story. Um. When she shared that story, I got a notific agency.

Julie Michael was a tagulum story. I was mid conversation on a road trip about how Julia was the most influential songwriter of our generation. It was a strange, serendipitous moment. So her and I get talking. She suggests we right, not long after that, we're in the studio and we wrote if the World was ending on the day we met. That is insane. I mean, I've read that you wrote the chorus first, if the world was ending, You'd come

over right, which is just such an amazing line. It really just strips away all the like trivial day to day stuff that gets in the way of of love. Where did that line come from just popping your subconscious one day? Or it was actually an attempt at writing a chorus for another song. So usually the way my my creative process will work is I'll have a verse or pre course or course that I love, and then

I'll try I'm right around it right. So so for that song, a song called four thirty in Toronto, which will probably be on my album, I had a verse that I was subsessed with, and I've been trying to get the chorus to this verse forever. And if the world was ending, you come over right was an attempt at a course for that verse. It didn't work, but I knew I liked if the world was ending, You'd come over right as another line, So it kind of just like was in my journal living there so often.

My next song will come out of a failed attempt at my previous song. Um, so it was there. I kind of forgot about it. And then when the earthquakes in Los Angeles happened around the fourth of July, I remember that failed attempt at a chorus if the world was ending to come over, right, And then brought into the session with Julia, and the song came together really fast, right,

I mean in the same day. Yeah, we wrote the song in a couple of hours, and all the all the original vocals and original piano from the day we wrote it are what's on the record now. Was initially intended as a duet? Or was that? Sort of like a happy happy accident? It's funny, so you know, sometimes sessions like that, you don't really know what you're trying to do. You're just getting together to be creative. I'm not sure Julia had it in her mind as a duet, but I knew that. I knew it was going to

be a duet. So when I was cutting the second verse, so she sitting the second verse on the record, But originally I was I was trying to sing the second verse and I couldn't get it right, and it was like the most blessed failure I've ever made was not being able to sing that second verse because Juliet got so frustrated with me not being able to go how to think about you with that? It ripened my heart out.

She got so frustrated my inability to sing in that rhythm that she was like, functuous, let me do it. So she comes into the studio to show me how to do it. But as soon as she started singing on the record, I'm like, I'm not coming back like you were singing that part. That's how this is gonna go. Now, I got a question about one of your lyrics. Feel free to plead the fifth on this Uh that night we went drinking, stumbled in the house and didn't make

it past the kitchen. Can relaborate on that. Were you admiring a new coffee maker, really clean linoleum? I think I think it's about the potential of a kitchen island. Now, was there a moment when you knew that this song was was really something special? Yeah? Honestly, like I had a I had recorded a voice note of Ben Rice,

who engineered all the vocals and piano. On the first session, I had a voice note of the playback at the end of the day, so before he mixed anything, And I must have listened to that voice note, which is that's like an incognito thing, like I'm not sure they knew I did it. I did that. I must have listened to it like a hundred times. Now at the time, I wasn't sure if I was just excited because Julia was on it, or it was this new song, or

hearing our voices together felt really exciting and special. But I knew I loved it from the jump. I think it took Julie a little bit longer. I think at the end of the day, like that's all we can never really do as an artists. Just make yourself love a song and that enough people are share your taste that they're gonna love it too. The sort of state the obvious here, you released a song with the chorus if the world was ending, you'd come over right on

the eve of a global pandemic lockdown. I mean the timing is you know, I mean you get people saying like, are you part of the psychic Friends network? I mean the timing is nuts. How do you feel knowing that a lot of couples are using this as sort of their their quarantine theme right now. Yeah, we get accused of insider information on Twitter a lot um and I've I've clarified many times that we had no idea when

we wrote the song. July came out of October we had we had not heard of anything related to coronavirus at that time. How does it feeling? I mean, I think at the end of the day, the song is kind of at it's or about putting love before everything else. And if there was ever a time in history that's uh, it felt relevant to put love before everything else, This is certainly one of them. You can say that again.

And in your case, you did come over your quarantining together with with Julia right now, but say you are you are together. I did come over. I'm at her. I'm at in her guest room as we speak. Was there a moment when you thought that your your relationship might be more than professional? Yes? Was our specific moment? Uh? Yeah, I think I think I knew within thirty seconds. Wow. She text her manager of the day the day of our session saying she thought she was in love. Wow.

So lightning struck both of you. I saw the the music video for the the demo version of the song that you put out and for people who haven't seen it, it is so great. It is JP and Julia recounting their relationship via text on both sides of the screen. It's it's really great. I ighly recommend watching it. Wow. So it was it was immediate for you too. Yeah. We we went on our first date the next day. We wrote the song on a Saturday. We went on a Sunday. We were officially a couple eight days later.

What was the date? What was it? What did you do? We went to the park and then we went to a Peruvian restaurant and then we was on a movie. That's a very good first day. The park was the main part. We were at the park for like three hours. That was like it was supposed to be a date date, so it was kind of like three dates in one and now you're together. You're sharing a home too. Incredible songwriters, do you feel really productive in lockdown or is it

hard to get creative right now? How you feeling? I mean, I got lucky. I'm locked in with the best songwriter the world. So you know, I hear my friends complaining about zoom sessions, which Honestly, I have also complained about them. But if the only person I get to write with in person is is Julia, then I leved out uh and we've been Honestly, the first month and a half we weren't too productive, and then we caught of wave.

I thought, I think over the last like four weeks, we've written a lot, a lot of songs for her, a lot of songs for me, songs for others. We just kind of caught a wave. What is she taught you? I mean, obviously you're an incredibly compress songwriter yourself, but

what is she taught you about songwriting? Good question? So I think usually my instincts melodically are to just follow the follow the cadence of a lyric, like it's more, it's more in my wheel house to be like if the world does any you come over right, like nothing too, there's nothing too distracting from the lyric itself going on melodically, I'll do a lot of like I'll stumble into interesting rhythms melodically because I'll follow the like rhythm of the words.

It isn't too often will consciously go like, how can I make that melody around that line? Jump around more? How can it be more exciting? And Julia is able to both be sincere and the way she presents lyrics, but also really stretch what the melodic possibilities are. And I think from writing with her, like I've really started

to expand the way I think about that. And I want to ask you that about that because so many songwriter as will say, you know, my songs are really journal entries, but in your case that's literally the case, right as so many of your lyrics begin as as diary entries. For you, you know, I was so I'm called Barcelona the whole first, versus a journal You know, I thought you would have called yesterday. I said, I didn't want you to, but I still thought you would.

I don't know what I expected you to say. But I turned twenty five and pidding my mind, you'd be a part of that in some way like that. That is the journal entry into what I was saying before, like that melody on that versus I thought you would have called with the us today. I said I didn't

want you to, but I still thought you would. I don't know what I expected you to say, which is very much the same cadence as I would have just spoken it exactly ago, um, whereas Julia will like she'll she'll stretch the possibilities of what that cadence can be,

what that melody could be. And that's been fun for me to explore with her aim now like on my own in my writing a little bit more, um, I guess in Barcelona, I do a little because the course jumps you know well or so these people, which is funny that that would have been the song that she responded to the first time, because it's a little bit more like and move out of that. But it's like a little bit more the approach she would take to

a course and the one that I take. Traditionally, Now, when you sit down the start of song, do you hear a fragment of a piece of music in your mind and then you go to your diary and look for a passage that you feel would fit with that piece of music, Or do you take words in your diary that really mean a lot to you and try to write music to fit that. Usually it's like it's a line or two that will be like that feels like a song. Yeah, I would say more often than not,

it's the beginning. I'll have like the first line of a song, like I have a song called Explain You or I go. My therapist called you a learning experience one eighty an hour. That's all you mentions. Missing you is getting expensive. And that was the beginning of that song. It took me forever to write the second verse of that song because I like the first verse so much. I didn't I didn't know what I wanted the second

verse to be. And usually I try, like I try not to have favorite parts of my songs because I find if I have a favorite party usually means the other parts aren't as good. Um, So it's like the challenge of like, how does and that doesn't mean every part needs to be the moment you know it all

kind of works together in itself. But you can always tell us a writer when you're like, there's the part of your song that you're always really excited for to hear yourself, are excited to get to when you're playing it for someone else, and you want your whole song to feel like that? Is it hard for you to ever choose the moments of yourself that you kind of want to keep back and keep private versus the ones you want to put in your song for fans. No, uh,

the simple answer, no, I don't know. I think like every job comes with its occupational hazards. And if if the occupational hazard of being an artist and getting to sing my songs around the world for people that I'm so excited to meet, the countries that I have have always wanted to go to is uh, is sharing a little bit more than it's comfortable sometimes that I'm okay with that.

I also think there's something very empowering about taking the most of all the rule part to your life and making them the thing that you get applauded for, making them the thing that people sing along too. It's uh. It's a reminder for me that it's it's in my

humanity that my my power exists. And I hope that it can also exist as a reminder for people listening to it that sometimes the parts of your life that you find shame, or the parts of your life and you're the most human, that's the part where we find

each other. That's a beautiful way to put it. I wonder as a writer, do you ever find it difficult to be present in a moment, either a good moment or a bad moment, because there's a little part of you in the back of your mind that's writing this down and thinking, oh my god, this is gonna be a great song. This is gonna be a great lyric. That's definitely a thing, but I try not to do it.

I've yelled at Julia for for in the middle of a very sincere conversation, like you know, I'll say something like heartfelt and candid, and She'll be like, maybe you should put that in a song. Would go away? Talk to me? Not right now? A session? Yeah, the hazards of two songwriters dating. Yes, Now, what is it a day like for you on a songwriting session? Like, how do you start? What's your first of all, what's your setup? Where do you like to work? Anywhere with a piano?

A real piano is a really important part of the songwriting session for me, and you'd be surprised how many

studios don't have real pianos in them. I like bouncing back and forth instrument instrument like writing, but sitting at the piano writing, but sitting you know, with the guitar writing a bit, listening to a track, because sometimes there's like there's different ideas that common different setups, you know, if the World was Ending was written just at the piano, but Explain You was written on guitar, on piano, on listening to track, on going for walks, on being in

the shower. You know some sometimes like that environmental shift is really useful. So I like being in studios with there's lots of options. I was gonna say, what do you do when you're totally stuck on a song? What? How do you completely just flush your mind watching a SMR video, go for a while. Walks are super helpful. Yeah, And I try and like stay off my phone. I allow myself to be bored because boredom is a really

productive space. And if you're like, well funk, I didn't get the song, Like I'm gonna scroll through Instagram or I'm gonna watch a YouTube video, you're you're just you're occupying your mind in a way that doesn't let it marinate on the idea where it's like if you just like have a conversation or go for a walk, or just like sit with your thoughts or like have a shower,

like that empty space is super productive. That ship scientific to this book called the End of Absence, which talks about like the impact on creativity from eliminating boredom and how boredom is the most fruitful space for a creative Wow, I gotta check that out. And being at home all the time, it's that's gotta be really hard to be bored because it's filled with distractions. Like what are some of your biggest distractions from from being at home? Biggest distractions?

I mean, I really love Jeopardy, A lot of Jeopardy, a lot of banana grams, anything dorky, I'm usually about it. Um, those are the main ones. Board games and game shows. I'm big Jeopardy fan myself, big any kind of like trivia stuff I am absolutely all about. I honestly think that if I could make it onto celebrity Jefeopardy, that would be my that would be my my like point of success. That would be the that would be the max for me. Yes, I'm writing that down. We're gonna,

We're gonna make that happen. What is making music taught you about yourself? Mostly everything, Um, at least my emotional self. I'm not sure how I would figure out anything if I didn't have songs. It's kind of the first place I met myself as like a fifteen year old was sitting at the piano trying to figure out my feelings and songs. But I mean, I think for everyone there has to be that space where you listen to yourself

as a practice. You know, for me, songwriting is very meditative. Um, I'm really grateful to work in a career where listening to myself is required for my success. But I think regardless of that, we figure out who we are listening to ourselves and and figuring and listening to others and recognizing what it means to be yourself differently in different situations and with different people. And there's got to be that point of reflection where like all of that kind

of pieces itself together. And for me that's always been song writing. I'm sure people have said this way better and I'm about too, but a song is gonna be a hell of a mirror to literally hear yourself singing back to whatever those thoughts are. And you know, they always say that every character and a dream is you, every line and a song is is you, And there's probably a lot to unravel from that. I never thought

of that. I mean, that's that's the challenge with making sure it's always sincere because if I'm not being honest in these songs, you ask if it's hard to be candid, if it's if it's hard to share part to yourself with a song. To me, like, in the long term, being dishonest is more of a risk because it is a mirror. It is where I'm captured pieces of myself.

So I'm lying in those songs. Then five years later, I look back on these parts of myself that we're dishonest and like that sounds like what fun with my sense of self? Absolutely? What is next for you? Like, where do you want to take your music from? From

this point? I'm excited to explore different kinds of feelings. Um. I think it's easy as a songwriter to get caught up in the uh, the really alluring mystique of sadness, and I do think it's an important challenge for every songwriter to figure out who you are and more than one feeling. So you know, if the World was Ending

is a longing, nostalgic, loving song. Um, And it's It's one of the reasons I'm proud of the selection on the EP is like there are different versions of what it feels like to be me on that EP, so I would say, what's what's next is I'm working towards an album will come at the end of this year, and I'm gonna try and fill that album with songs that represent as many versions of what it feels like

to be me is possible. What it feels like to be me, be a silly, a silly loving dork on a Saturday afternoon, you know, going for a drive with my girlfriend. You know, what it's like to be me at three in the morning alone at my piano. What it's like to be me like you know, it's it has I wanted to feel. I wanted to feel holistic like that, not just like one version of a feeling.

So that that's that's what's exciting me about this album because I think there's it's already starting to happen in the next song I'm gonna put out our definitely different feelings already. I can't wait to hear it. I know one of your dream collaborators is Paul McCartney, who's one of my all time favorite humans. Sorry to my future children who might be listening to this, but he will always be. What is it about Paul McCartney that you love. Uh well, he he was the first songwriter I really

fell in love with. You know, I taught myself how to play both the piano and guitar by learning every song in the Beatles song book. Wow. Unfortunately George Harrison and John Letton off the table. So Paul McCartney is my dream collaborator. Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder and Alessia Car ideally together, that'd be cool. Well, you kind of almost got there with the with the the live stream that you did to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.

That was incredible. A lot of my dream collaborators are in there, like basically everyone in that video or someone I want to collaborate with, but like Sam Smith, Alessia Car at the top of that list. For those of you even seen it, I I strongly recommend it. An incredible list of people her Keith Urban, Sam Smith, Please go check it out. JP. My my last question, what is the first thing you want to do when this

pandemic is over? With trips? You want to take people you want to hug hugs or hugs or are huge A huge thing that I'm looking forward to, just like social distance, responsibly long hugs with my friends will be nice. I don't know, it's an incredibly cliche answer, but I'm missed touring a whole lot. I do these every Thursday live streams on my Instagram and they're fun and they're a little bit of a band aid solution for my love of touring and performing. But it's just singing to

an audience trapped in your cell phone. I'm not sure how long that's gonna last for me. It's just it's not the same, and you know, it's I'm I'm very lucky that my audience has grown over the last three months, so by the time I finally do get to tour, it might even be a bigger tour than it would have been originally, which is exciting. Um. But like I mean, I want to go to the Philippines, and I want

to go play in you know, Taiwan. I want to do shows and and the Netherlands and and you know, Turkey. You know, I want to I just want to want to travel the world. I want to play shown Lima, Peru, whatever reason. The largest audience I have in anyone city is in Lima, and I want to go play a show in Lima. Well, when you do, I want to go it too before we go. I absolutely love your song twenty five in Barcelona. You've introduced to me the

topic of a breakup vacation. I did a breakup semester abroad, so it makes me feel definitely a lot healthier than my version. So there's a video on YouTube. I think it's still there that we did around the release of Barcelona because after that song game and I heard so many stories from people being like, I wanted to break up trip. Yeah, oh I saw the video. Yeah, you recreated the music video with other people's breakup trip footage. Super fun. I felt way less alone, So thank you

for that. It was such an encouragement for me on why under that idea that I've heard so much in so many different so many different kinds of arts and different mediums, and people say the more personal, the more universal. Yeah, for whatever reason, songwriters, some songwriters straight away from that, You're like, I wanted to be relatable, and I'm like, so they go general. My favorite movies are about lives that are nothing like mine, and yet I'm moved by

the humanity in them. So why can't I talk about my twenty fifth birthday? In Barcelona and exactly when I was feeling and have that still be relatable And the amount of stories I heard from people being like me too was so encouraging for you know, the kind of art that I want to continue to make. And it was in Barcelona too, by the way, where I went youre semester brought in Barcelona amazing? Did it help? No? But I'm I'm still here. The truth is, the truth is,

might the song didn't really help either? It's gonna be tough, like playing a song about somebody that your heartbroken by every night at you know, a different club. That probably might make it worse. I guess perpetuates the nostalgia. Yeah, I realized the same. When you first write the song. It's cathartic, right because this emotion that's so heavy on your heart is now in something other than you, and

that helps. But then fast forward six months and the feeling isn't really in you as much, and now you're so performing the song. So the same thing you put the feeling into was now putting it back into you. Oh, I never thought of that. That's the that's the double sword of writing songs while moving through a heartbreak. But it got so much easier. You always have a good sense of humor about it too. I always appreciate in your music. I mean from you know, same Room, and

so many in your songs sad corny. I won't say the last word because it's the family show, but so many of your songs, so I've crossed so much. I'm so so come on, I'm kidding j P. Thank you, Thank you so much for your time today. Been a true pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for caring. I appreciate. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio home edition of production of I Heart Radio.

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