JONILL has had some exciting releases so far this year, and it’s only the beginning, he says! This week we caught up with him and heard a bit more about what to expect on the horizon.
PSN Congratulations on your recent single release, “Breathe!” How has the response been for you since putting it out?
JONILL It’s been good. I mean, with that song, I originally started it at the end of 2020, so it’s been in the works for a while, and everyone I’ve shown it to pre-release has always loved it and said, “You have to put this song out.” So I got that feeling, like, “Oh, this is the one.” For me, it felt like this is one of the ones at least. And everyone’s just been great. I think people really liked the sound, and it feels very polished is what a lot of people say.
PSN Yeah. The drum production sounds so good. It’s so crisp, and that spring reverb sounds so nice.
JONILL Yeah, yeah, that’s probably all Wes (Wesley Curtis) on that. Funny enough though, out of all the collaborations we’ve done (it’s probably the third or fourth song we’ve collaborated on), typically he’ll produce the entire thing and send it to me, and I’ll write to it. But this was a song that I had produced, like a demo, and I sent him the demo, and he added post-production. So it’s our first true production collab. It definitely still has a lot of his sound in there in terms of the high end, crisp production, you know? Slightly poppy at times but I think it still has a good amount of myself in it too.
PSN Yes, totally. You’re someone who’s done so much playing behind other artists, producing music for Wesley Curtis, playing with AJAY and Tuck Ryan, and also gigging with so many other artists. You’ve also performed as a solo artist for a long time, but I’m wondering, how does it feel now that you’re releasing your own music and starting that process in a more regular way?
JONILL Yeah, this year, I set a goal to release something every month. Just because, like you said, I feel like I’ve been in the scene for so long – whether it’s been playing or producing or even just doing my own stuff – but not a lot of people know me from my own music. So, I guess for me, it feels like I had so much of a foundation laid but that was really just it, you know? Like a foundation without the actual building. So now it feels good to just be putting stuff out, to see how it’s received, and just build that portion of my career, you know?
PSN Yeah! That’s so great. Can you talk a little bit about Star Destroyers? What made you, AJAY, brushstroke, and KYON decide to form a group rather than continuing to back each other’s solo projects? It’s been so cool to see the four of you reconfigure so much around each other’s music, and I wonder what the process is like between deciding what’s a JonILL track, an AJAY track, a brushstroke track, or a Star Destroyers track?
JONILL Yeah. Like you said, we’ve all been backing each other’s music. We are always playing as this unit, and we’ve toyed with the idea of starting a band. Especially because, while we all do make our own stuff individually, we do love collaborating and making music together. So I guess that was the driving force, just wanting to put a name to this thing that is already existing. In terms of what separates our own music from the Star Destroyers, it’s a little bit of a thin line because, like with my songs, Ajay has played on them, Eoin has played on them, I have a couple tracks that Kyon’s going to play on too. So I’d say the main thing is usually when we sit down and there’s all of us collaborating on one song, that’s what tends to make it a Star Destroyers track. Or if we just decide, “Oh, this sound feels like it’s more of a collaborative effort,” versus your own personal voice… I think that’s the main thing. The group is really an embodiment of our friendship. I think it will continue to be a focus for all of us and we’re starting to book a couple more shows. We’re playing Beard Fest on June 14th, actually!
PSN Awesome! If you could collaborate with one artist in particular, who would it be?
JONILL Oooh, that’s a good one… My normal go to answer would be Frank Ocean, because I love Frank Ocean. But as a Frank Ocean fan… I feel like that’s completely unrealistic, because I don’t know if he’ll ever make music again [laughs]. But, um… maybe a more realistic answer would be, uh… James Blake. I would love to collaborate with James Blake. That’d be me fulfilling my childhood dream.
PSN What are some things you’d like people to know about, and to look out for, that you have coming up?
JONILL Yeah, so I’m happy to say I have a good amount of things coming up. Most of which I can say… It was just announced last week that I’ll be playing the Tiny Desk Contest: On The Road show at Warehouse on Watts on June 23rd! I also have the Beard Fest show coming up June 14th, and I had a great time opening up for Serpentwithfeet at the Foundry on May 21st. That was cool because I’ve always been a fan. I mean, Serpentwithfeet was a UArts grad, just like myself. And funny enough, he was a vocal major, much like me. So, to get to actually meet him, you know? And open up. It was very exciting.
PSN That’s amazing!
JONILL Also, this month, I’m releasing an acoustic version of “Breathe” with a video, so be on the lookout for that. And next month, I’m planning to release another single, and on July 21st, which happens to be my birthday, I’m releasing Another Life and Time, Vol 2. So that’s going to be a whole three-track EP.
PSN That’s amazing! My last question was, what are some other artists in Philly or elsewhere that you’re excited about, that you’d want to shout out?
JONILL Ooh, love that. I’m a big fan of ZekeUltra. Chioke, I saw that she’s doing the Roots Picnic and I thought that was really cool. Of course, all my friends who are around me: AJAY, brushstroke, KYON, Indoor Yves, Wesley Curtis, SANTRISTÁN, Tuck Ryan… I definitely forgot somebody. But yeah.
PSN Cool!
JONILL I will say – Indoor Yves – I feel like everything that he drops, he’s pushing the culture forward. And I think, he really inspires all of us to just make whatever we want to make, you know?
PSN We love that. Thank you, JONILL, for sitting down with us!
JONILL I appreciate y’all, thank you.
For more on JONILL, visit https://linktr.ee/jonill.