Coco Jones is in the building at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about her album, 'Why Not More?'
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00:00I would say of course Beyonce. I would say Jasmine Sullivan. I would say SZA. I would say Rihanna.
00:12Welcome to Odyssey Check It. My name is DJ Buck and we have a special guest with us today.
00:17Coco Jones. Coco how are you feeling? I'm excited. How are you? I'm excited to see you again. Last
00:22time I saw you was here too. Yeah. How's it been since then? I mean I finished an album so that's
00:28a huge difference in my life. What was the approach going to this album as opposed to the EP? I think
00:33for me I just wanted to be more decisive this time. I was still figuring myself out with my EP and you
00:40know EPs are like lower stakes. You don't really have any expectations and I was kind of just learning
00:45how it goes being signed again. Like that's my first time being signed as an adult so I was really
00:50learning how it goes and now I feel like I kind of know a little bit more. I know a little bit more
00:55about myself and so I wanted to speak up more on things that were really important to me.
00:59What do you pull from when you put these songs together? I think I pull from real life. I mean
01:04my friends and what we talk about the things that we're all going through relationships and life and
01:10learning ourselves. It's such a I feel like relatable place in life that I try to take real life
01:17conversations and turn them into songs. How do you deal with because the more popular you get the
01:21bigger you get the more eyes are on you in your in your privacy sometimes it's hard to keep your
01:27privacy because the internet is everywhere. How do you deal with that? I think I've actually I had a
01:33really good realization that someone close to me said that when you walk out of your house you're on
01:39stage and so just accepting that because at least it means you know people are listening to your music
01:45people are tuned in you have support you have the things that you want as an artist. Accepting that has
01:50been really big for me so I don't go out if I ain't expecting to be seen. I don't leave my house.
01:57Do you go to movies? Do you think what do you do for yourself personally to have fun? What do you do?
02:00I like to go to dinner. I like to go out with my girls go to like a nice dinner maybe like a lounge
02:05or something like that. I like wineries during the day. I'm into wine and like pairing them. I really
02:10live for that. I go to the spa get a massage or like get my nails done or something like that.
02:15Now you play basketball. When are you gonna lace them up again? You gonna play again?
02:17No. That was just the era before I knew music was a real job. When you got that microphone and started
02:24singing? It was a rap. I mean it would literally sing the national anthem before my own games. Did you?
02:29Yes. I was not playing. I was like I'm about to sing it. I don't know about I don't know who y'all
02:33think about to sing this. It's me. This new album Why Not More you have a lot of good songs on there.
02:36What are some of your favorite songs on there? I think my favorites are probably Keep It Quiet
02:41by myself. I think Taste is a favorite of mine. Taste is kind of hot. Thank you. I love it because
02:47it was scary to do and I feel like sometimes I feel like the best things are the things that
02:52you're scared to do. You know they teach you a lot. Now a lot of people are talking about a song you
02:57may call Toxic because you used a sample from Britney Spears but you used a sample of another guy
03:01Lenny Williams. That song how was that? That's I'm interested in that because that song is like the
03:06national anthem. How do you feel singing that song with that sample? Well Cardiac produced that track
03:12and I wasn't going in there. I'm never going in trying to sample something. I'm just going in trying
03:15to feel something. Right. And I mean when I heard it of course there's the nostalgia but also that raw
03:20vulnerability and those real emotions that he carried through it. It inspired me so I just wanted
03:25to do my take on that that same you know opportunity to to just be to go hard you know. Now lately there's a
03:32trending going on right now but the Mount Rushmore is of everything. There's a Mount Rushmore for
03:36everything. What would be your Mount Rushmore for female R&B singers? I mean me personally because
03:43you know you you always gonna say people and then people gonna be mad at who you didn't say but
03:46I mean I'm thinking I'm gonna think Mount Rushmore of women who inspired my art and my album. Okay.
03:52I would say of course Beyonce. I would say Jasmine Sullivan. I would say SZA. I would say Rihanna.
04:03That's good. That's a good that's a good Mount Rushmore. That's for me personally creating my
04:07album. That's right. I wanted your personal. That's good. Now it seems to be a surge of like
04:13young producers and a young sound. I ran across you on a few songs until the end of time. How was it
04:19doing that record right there with Leon? That was really dope. I mean we did that for like a Spotify
04:24Valentine's Day song and it was really dope. I think Leon is amazing. We've actually seen each
04:30other throughout the years because we both did you know Disney and Nickelodeon when we were super young
04:35and so it's really dope to to see us both finding our art lanes now. I see a lot of young producers
04:41really pushing the boundaries of sound and even on your album you're pushing the boundaries. Do you feel
04:47it's important to do that to just do it with you and not just break out of the box and do something
04:52totally different? I do think that's important. I feel like with music now that everything's crossing
04:56genres for real. Right. So it's like there's really no true strict sound that is one thing you know
05:04everything has influences of everything. So yeah I think it's important plus I feel like there's so
05:10many songs dropped every day. You kind of got to think outside the box you know you don't want to do
05:15anything that's similar to something that's been done. What was the point of that? If I was to look
05:18in your phone right now what songs would be on your playlist that may surprise me? Actually I just
05:24discovered the song like TikTok be putting me on the songs I ain't gonna hold. But there's this like
05:29rock artist and he has a song it's called Introvert and it's just it feels for real like I'm like
05:36you screaming but this is giving me soul a little bit. So I think you'd be surprised to hear that.
05:41Um I think you'd probably be surprised to hear some jazz. I love Samara Joy. She's one of my faves.
05:47I listen to her a lot. I love Laughy. Um I like jazz. It's really calm. I feel like I have a chaotic
05:52life so I tend to like be drawn to calm music most of the time. Calm you know. Now your tour when you
05:58sat down and put together the tour what ideas did you tell the people who were putting your tour
06:02together? What did you want this tour to be about? I wanted this tour to be about learning more about me.
06:09I think people are still getting to know me as an artist. I'm still getting to know me as an artist
06:14and so um I want to show all the different emotions that I feel and I want to show um all the different
06:21inspiration that is really me you know. Um even sampling Toxic in my song Taste. I mean Brittany was
06:28a Disney Channel alum and I did years of working on Disney and so to me that's really a like a link in
06:34my development as a human and as an artist. So I want to show more of the things that influence me
06:39and and kind of expand my fans mind on what Coco is. You're doing an amazing job. Thank you. Um the
06:45confidence on stage where'd that come from? It came from performing when people did not know who you
06:50were and did not care. Learning to um to enjoy it regardless of like whether or not people know you
06:57makes you unstoppable you know because then you're just there for you. You on stage because you love it.
07:02Not because anybody is over here giving you the validation. I mean um at the time when I first
07:06started performing I would be on like Radio Disney tours so I'd open up for the like a Radio Disney
07:11artist who would be popping like I don't know Selena Gomez and her band like these kids was trying to
07:16see that you know and so I think you learn a level of fearlessness that is so important and then it
07:22makes it really fun. There's one particular performance I saw you do when Usher was sitting there
07:27and you sang his song and you got him out of his seat that's amazing that was confidence
07:32was that planned did you know you was going to go up to him or just I knew where he was going to be
07:37sitting um I didn't know that his wife would be beside him so I was like oh I got to respect
07:42the wife first period I'm respectful of all relationships but I mean it was such an honor to
07:48be able to do that for Usher I think he doesn't even know the way that he's opened all of these doors
07:54and how it's still to this day I mean he probably knows a little bit but like it's just so important
07:59to break those barriers you know for the next generation and there to be some sort of blueprint
08:04that that this works you know that that this is real and it's powerful and it can leave a legacy so
08:10um he doesn't know how much he inspired me with that but um he's really great and I love to being
08:14able to honor him. Coco Jones I've seen a lot of artists put music out um without emotion there's no
08:20emotion they'll go in the studio or they'll sing a song and there's no emotion
08:23sometimes I think to make a great song it has to connect with you do you have what songs connect
08:28with you the most that bring out the emotion in you? I definitely think I see you when I think of
08:32songs that bring out emotions but I think of Here We Go as well um like more anger I guess um and I'm
08:40excited for people to listen to this album because I I kind of like treated my EP like first date vibes
08:46like you're not going too hard you're not showing like all of yourself but um you're trying to make a
08:50good impression and then when you start to get to know somebody more like yo your real self slip out
08:55you know and I think my album is like when you're starting to get somebody to know them more like
08:59the real self is slipping out and I'm still going to show more and more as um as I get comfortable
09:05and as I learn more but uh I definitely dive deeper into some of my emotions with this album.
09:10By Myself. Mm-hmm. Tell me about that one.
09:12Uh by Myself is really I mean verbatim what I was going through at the time feeling like um I need
09:19people to make me feel like valid and that's just too much power to give people you know so I I wanted
09:26to um just express myself and be like I don't want this feeling I don't want to feel like I need anybody
09:31else to make me feel like I'm something you know. Your circle how important is it to have a tight circle
09:35around you someone to tell you that's good and that's bad? I think it's crucial I think it's
09:42important because your voice can get distorted with all of the all of the noise that comes from
09:48you know being talented being in this industry being you know here and being alive honestly you
09:57know I think that you can sometimes get distracted so I think it's important to have a circle who's
10:01willing to tell you the truth and um and it's it's important for you to know your truth as well
10:06because sometimes good and bad is subjective and you need to make sure it all aligns with you
10:10before you accept it as the truth. Is there someone that you would love to do a song with
10:15past or present? Who would you love to do as a past or present? I would love to do a song with Whitney
10:20Houston. I would love to just learn how she hits some of them notes. What song would you do if you
10:24could do a song with her or do it with her? Um my first thought was Saving All My Love For You.
10:30Um or maybe maybe it would be I'll always love you. I just want to see how she does it though. I'm
10:37really just there for the for the tips and the tricks to see how you hitting that for real because
10:42I'm really like a sponge. I want to learn you know as much as I um look up to um a lot of artists I
10:48just want to know how they do this like for I would rather like sit and have a conversation.
10:52I feel like that would the wisdom would be so crucial. Coco there's a young girl in middle school
10:56right now. She wants to do what you do right now and she doesn't know how to do it or what to you
11:01know how to deal with it. What would you tell someone who's coming up right now wanting to be
11:05in that spotlight? Well I mean there's no like specific formula. I mean some things are going
11:10to have to be miracles but I do feel like what I can say is consistency will always lead to something
11:17and um I would tell them that we have social media and it's a it's an opportunity to create a stage
11:23for yourself. You should be posting every day you know and build up a community so that you have some
11:27sort of leverage when you get to a place where people are really looking because you will if
11:31you're consistent you know. I think for a young a young entertainer sometimes you're getting on the
11:36stage there's maybe 10 people there and you're like no one no one here you still have to give
11:40100% whether there's 10 people there or 10,000 people there. It's so funny yes I I have a story of
11:46one of the performances where I like as a kid was going so hard like me and my mom will laugh about it
11:51because I was so into it and there had to be 50 people 50 in that in that in that place 50 but um
11:57I just loved what I did so much I just didn't care and even now when I do festivals like not
12:02everybody's there to see you some people are really waiting on you to get off stage you know
12:05so it kind of gives me like that nostalgia of when I was a kid and people didn't know me
12:09I think it's it's always important to stay humble and um and to uh to to love what you do enough
12:16that it doesn't matter what people say. Well thanks for stopping we appreciate it why not more
12:20it's out um amazing project and I can't wait for your tours amazing you're coming to my town too
12:26yes I'll be there with that all right period can't wait it's the Odyssey check-in DJ Buck Coco Jones
12:31thank you thank you enjoy that video see more interviews more performances and more of your
12:36favorite artists by subscribing and downloading the free Odyssey app
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