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JP Saxe Fans Unite EXCLUSIVE interview with JessieLou!

Radio show host. Blogger. Station owner. Songwriter. Fashion icon. Entrepreneur. M4B Radio’s own JessieLou has transformed herself from queen of parodies to bonafide pop star, with the release of her latest single and debut non-parody, “Identity Crisis”.

Prior to this single, JessieLou has had many smash hits within the M4B community with parodies such as “Fuglicious” in 2011 (parody of Fergie’s “Fergalicious”), “This App Sucks (Delete!)” in 2021 (a parody of Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar”), “U + Ur Bible” in 2007 (parody of Pink’s “U + Ur Hand”), and of course her signature song, “Ugly Vegas” in 2006 (parody of INXS’s “Pretty Vegas”).

But JessieLou, who has been writing her own songs since 2004, released her first non-parody single, “Identity Crisis” on April 23, 2021. The four-minute alt-pop banger was written and co-produced by JessieLou (although most of the production was done by another M4B Radio DJ, M4B Radio Top 40/The Geezer Show host Kim). Throughout the song she sings about something we can all relate to – bad friends and being rejected for not conforming to their standards. At first she shows vulnerability (“I desire your approval / So I try to be more like you / But I wasn’t told selling my soul to the devil would pay me a costly price”). But the end of the song is basically a “screw you” to anyone who dares try to change her (“So much time wasted trying to be someone I’m not / So much time wasted I was losing myself / Was it worth it? / Was she worth it? / No, she wasn’t”).

The song has become a huge M4B Radio hit since it’s release, as just this week it debuted all the way at #16 on the M4B Radio Top 40 and #56 on the Globalchart – immediately becoming her biggest hit on the latter chart, where her previous best peak was #66. Here at JP Saxe Fans Unite, we got to sit down and interview JessieLou. We talked about everything from “Identity Crisis”, the possibility of releasing more original songs, why “Dunzo List” is now on her dunzo list, why she won’t chart JP Saxe, and, of course… Jerry Cantrell.

JPSFU: Hey, Jess! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview.
JessieLou: Any time, I’d do anything for the people at Harry Styles Fans Unite!

[The staff at JP Saxe Fans Unite then begin to look at each other and agree not to correct her].

JPSFU: So you’ve been recording parodies since 2005 when Adam wrote your debut single, “Shadow (Canadian Wannabe)”, which parodied the 2004 Ashlee Simpson song “Shadow”. Why are you now releasing original songs?
JessieLou: Well, I’ve been songwriting on and off since 2004 and a lot of the stuff I’ve written hasn’t gone anywhere outside of Urapopstar. I especially started writing more during the pandemic because so much crap was thrown at me during the year 2020 and I had to get all those emotions and anger out in song. “Identity Crisis” is basically a watered down version of a very angry song I wrote about that same person called “Bury The Hatchet” where I basically lay it all out on the table. That’s one of the songs I’m seriously considering recording next.

JPSFU: So this isn’t a one off? You’re gonna record more of your songs?
JessieLou: Hell yeah I am, especially after how positively received “Identity Crisis” has been. I can’t believe I’m almost top 10 on Bryan’s chart! Between you and me… I always wanted a hit on Bryan’s chart [laughs]. But going back to what I was saying, at the end of 2020 I released “This App Sucks (Delete!)” and on that song I experimented more with the production, added layered vocals and all that good stuff. And that made me think… what if I did that with one of my own songs? So between that and getting the writing bug, it was only a matter of time before I released an original song.

JPSFU: I’m intrigued already by this “Bury The Hatchet” song. Please share some lyrics!
JessieLou: “Poured my heart and soul to you
Felt like you were a sister to me
What makes this worse is, you even knew that and still acted the way you did
You stopped reciprocating and never answered my texts
Made me feel invisible at parties
All because I didn’t jam out to “Thank U Next” or talk shit about the one they call Madame Bullshit”

JPSFU: Woah. Wig = snatched.
JessieLou: And that’s just one verse! Kim compared it to “You Oughta Know”, which of course is a compliment I fully welcome. Alanis is such a queen!

JPSFU: Speaking of “Thank U Next”, I read somewhere that you are not a fan of “Dunzo List”. Is that true?
JessieLou: Yes, it is. I find it very cringeworthy to listen to now and I even went as far as taking it out of M4B Radio rotation. First off, the timing of that song was terrible. I wanted it to be an M4B Radio hit but it was around the time Kim stepped down as host during his first run and John was supposed to come back which as we all know never happened, and then a month later was the pandemic, so for that alone I think the song was pretty much dead on arrival. But I also wrote and recorded that song when I was in a very angry, fucked up state and I felt like in that song I gave too much power to shitty people. Plus the line about letting Julian crash with me or whatever I said has aged terribly considering that we made up 11 months after that song came out. I mean, if you still wanna jam out to that song I welcome it, you do you, but it’s not a song I desire to listen to these days. Especially when you can listen to Jerry instead.

JPSFU: [sighs] I should’ve known you were gonna mention Jerry Cantrell at some point.
JessieLou: Can you blame me?! HE’S SO GORGEOUS AND TALENTED!!!

[At this point, JessieLou goes through various photos of Jerry saved onto her phone and shows them to the interviewer. Every other word out of Jess’ mouth is either “cute”, “adorable”, “sexy”, “gorgeous”, “cuteness overload” or “he’s so gorgeous I can’t even”.]

JPSFU: Why can’t you be like this with our musical God JP Saxe?
JessieLou: Because he’s boring as hell. “If The World Was Ending” is pretty much the cure for insomnia dude.

JPSFU: I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that about my JP. Anyway, going back to “Identity Crisis”, I can’t help but ask – what brand of ripped jeans are you wearing, who is your character on Mario Kart, what Soundgarden song are you listening to, and which Murphy Brown episode are you watching?
JessieLou: American Eagle, Princess Peach, literally anything on Superunknown or Badmotorfinger, and “Frank’s Appendectomy.”

JPSFU: Please explain to me the line, “What looks like a trip to the caribbean / Is actually a trip to prison.”
JessieLou: Sometimes something that looks desirable to you isn’t all that it seems. Especially now with social media, we try to present the best, flawless version of ourselves. I have photos of myself from 2011 when I was at my lowest point where I look happy and bubbly and it was all for show. I may think I wanna be part of the “narrow mold of blondes”, but in hindsight that group isn’t what they’re cracked up to be. Do I really wanna be friends with a bunch of stuck-up “feminists” who mutually bonded over their hatred of another woman? Hypocrites, much like The Doors, suck.

JPSFU: I like the nod to [the 2019 M4B Radio hit] “Fools” by Drugdealer near the end of the song.
JessieLou: I’m impressed you caught that, I assumed that Kim was the only person who even knew what that song was.

JPSFU: Aside from “Bury The Hatchet”, what are some other songs you wrote recently that you plan on recording?
JessieLou: I actually wrote a song about anti-maskers about a week ago called “Let’s Pretend There’s No Pandemic”, because I’m fucking sick of going to places that say “mask required” and one of like three people in there with a mask. I also have a lot of older songs that I’m thinking about recording like “Beauty Queen”, which I wrote back in 2011 about an ex-boyfriend who constantly compared me to other women, and “Broken Angel” which I wrote that same year at the height of a really bad depression I was going through at that time. Then I have a bunch of songs I wrote during 2020 like “True Colors” which I also wrote about phony friends. I’m totally imagining that one having that shoegaze Teenage Wrist/Catherine Wheel sound to it. Then there’s another one called “How To Hate Women When You’re Supposed To Be A Feminist” – which I’m sure you all know is a lyric in the legendary and iconic Alanis Morissette song, “Eight Easy Steps”. That one is basically about people like the “narrow mold of blondes” I sing about in “Identity Crisis” – girls who say they are feminists but still like to tear other women down. I am all for equality and women’s rights and I support all of that so much, but modern day feminism is a joke – these people who claim they are “feminists” don’t even know what the fuck it means and only use the word to make themselves look “cool” and “woke” and all of that shit. If the person I primarily wrote “Identity Crisis” about really was a feminist, then I don’t have a crush on Jerry Cantrell.

JPSFU: One last question – and you’ll like this one – what were the last 5 Alice In Chains songs you listened to?
JessieLou: You’re right, I love that question! “Nutshell”, “Social Parasite”, the MTV Unplugged version of “Over Now”, “Junkhead”, and “Sea Of Sorrow”.

JPSFU: I’d say good choices, but none of those songs are as good as JP Saxe.
JessieLou: Um yeah they are sweetie.

JPSFU: Well Jess, it was nice interviewing you and having you sit down with us. Good luck with the latest single and congrats on all it’s success so far. Have a great night!
JessieLou: Thanks so much, you too! Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the Grace records!