London based Jazz Mino recently released her new single, ‘Misunderstand’. In conversation with us, she reveals more about her musical campaign to promote mental health awareness, how her latest single differs from the rest of her music, and her nerdy love for Pokemon.
What is the inspiration or message behind ‘Misunderstand’?
‘Misunderstand’, I feel really proud of, because it’s the first one I’ve gotten really hands on with. My manager Louis, who writes with me and me, we crafted together. Whereas normally I just do the chords and then go to my producer and say this is the kind of sound I want. The message behind it is about really trying to get through to someone and them kind of rejecting you and not understanding you. I wanted to write about something that has happened to me and do something a bit different. All my previous singles have given a positive message and while putting out positivity is very important, people don’t have just have only positive thing happen to them, there’s different flavours of people and I wanted to put across the message that even though I’m a positive person, bad things happen to everybody.
Is this something very different from your previous work?
Yes, all my singles so far kind of give a positive message. I’m doing a series of singles, and each one is to promote the importance of mental health and each is about something that’s very near and dear to me. So ‘Crush’ which I’m most well-known for, was about living in the moment and not overanalysing things. I was inspired to release that single because I struggled with anxiety for a very long time, and the single reminds me of the journey I’ve been through where I can now get up on stage, embrace and enjoy the moment. Then I released, ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ which was about my family and friends looking out for me and always being there for me. And then,’Warrior’ which again about friends and family supporting you through the really difficult times. So all of them have had really positive messages. But ‘Misunderstand’ is from a different angle, and its saying that sometimes people are rejected and bad things. It’s showing a different side of me, and musically it has a darker edge as well. It has a lot of harmonies going on, which plays into the idea of the song; like which one are you going to listen to, there’s lot going on.
This mental health campaign you mentioned, is that the ‘colour campaign’ that you’ve been doing? Is there a particular colour associated with this single?
Yeah, it’s the colour campaign. Where I use a different colour to correspond with the message of each song. And ‘Misunderstand’ is going to be yellow.
That’s interesting that you’re using yellow- a really bright colour- to represent a song like ‘Misunderstand’ that’s more about a darker themes. Was that conscious decision?
Yes! It’s basically yellow, because its called ‘Misunderstand’ and playing on that we’ve got a darker edge. It’s almost like how people can put on this front, but you don’t always know what’s going on inside.
How would say describe your sound? And how has it evolved?
I used to describe my sound as electro-pop but all of the songs I’ve released Spotify has categorized as chilled pop, so chilled electro-pop would be a good description of my sound. And I think my sound has fundamentally remained the same.
Who would you say are your major musical influences?
There’s so many artists. My top ones are Ann Marie, I was lucky enough to meet her a few weeks ago, and Rae Morris. Could go on and on about them. I’m also really inspired by a lot of producers, I really love Sigala.
What’s been a really memorable moment in your career so far? And what’s next for you?
Two things happened within weeks of each other and they were both really step ups from where I was. The first time getting into a Spotify playlist with ‘Crush’, which then made its way into number 5 on the UK Club Charts. These two things have been huge milestones for me
What’s next is just writing a lot and getting maybe a few summer gigs which would be super fun. Obviously releasing ‘Misunderstand’, after that I’m working on writing a few songs for different producers, so doing a few features. Other than that just living in the moment and enjoying life really.
So besides writing, how do you enjoy life? How do you spend your down time?
Not much, I’m a really boring person, I’m joking! I spend time with family, I enjoy running. I just like chilling and watching Netflix. I’m quite a nerd as well, I like playing Pokemon.
Finally, if listeners could take away one message from your music what would you want it to be?
I would say just to be yourself. Be true to yourself, and don’t change yourself for your company. And I hope that reflects within the series of singles.
Listen to ‘Misunderstand’ below;
https://soundcloud.com/jazzmino/misunderstand
Follow Jazz on her Twitter, Facebook, and Soundcloud accounts.
