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Jesse Jo Stark on new album 'DOOMED', working with Jesse Rutherford and her love of the UK
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Feb 9, 2025
Jesse Jo Stark's long-awaited debut album 'DOOMED' is here. With a now controversial artwork and a sound that spans old-Hollywood balladry, country storytelling and the punk spirit of The Ramones, the LA artist talks to us about making the record, its now-controversial artwork and perfectionism. For more music interviews, visit https://www.thefortyfive.com Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_forty_f...
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0:00
foreign
0:04
hi I'm Charlie from the 45 and we're
0:06
here today with Jesse J Stark how are
0:08
you doing Jesse
0:09
hello I'm good how are you I'm good
0:12
where are you at right now
0:13
I just got to London today I'm playing a
0:15
show in two days so we came a day early
0:18
to get settled I know I'm excited for
0:21
that I'm actually going to come down on
0:22
Friday
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um but congratulations on the release of
0:28
doomed uh how did you celebrate it
0:31
finally being out
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well we actually had a um official
0:36
release party in La at my studio where
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it was recorded and just invited some
0:41
family and friends and had yummy food
0:44
and I premiered my lipstick video so we
0:49
have this like little sunken couch area
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and we all piled in and watched it and
0:53
it was so much fun ate Candy
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all the Vibes sunken couch is like my
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dream home setup yeah yep Duncan living
1:02
room
1:03
really gotta get one of those
1:05
um the album artwork is so cool did I
1:07
see that there was like some issue with
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like a billboard that people thought it
1:12
was like too raunchy or something
1:15
yeah you know the city got a lot of
1:17
complaints
1:20
I don't know if it was the placement or
1:21
what was going on because I mean half
1:23
the Billboards in LA or everyone naked
1:25
anyway you know it's a painting of me
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and it just had to be taken down which
1:31
was to me quite iconic and funny yeah we
1:35
ended up the the guy that runs the
1:38
Billboards actually listened to the
1:40
album and was like I love it I'm so
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sorry about this so we're gonna give you
1:43
another one and he's been so sweet so it
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was actually fine you know but it was my
1:48
one of my first Billboards so I was kind
1:50
of bummed for two seconds but then it
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ended up being funny so it's quite good
1:54
publicity I think yeah it was cool
1:58
um so congratulations on it finally
1:59
being out the record's been in the works
2:01
for some time as I gather there was sort
2:04
of a version of it that you were ready
2:06
to put out like just before covid
2:09
um these have been like strange times
2:11
for everyone how do you think um the
2:14
last couple of years have impacted you
2:16
and the work that we're hearing now
2:20
I think I just took it as a time to
2:23
reassess you know some songs that I
2:25
recorded before actually made it onto
2:28
the album we produced them in a
2:30
different way but they still
2:32
made sense to me now
2:35
um
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I
2:40
I feel like
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specifically for me during that time I
2:44
learned a lot about myself just like
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life feels
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you know like you can do anything and
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you have time for everything but you
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really don't and so during that time I
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kind of wanted to
2:57
be a bit more Fearless in writing and
3:00
try new things and try writing with new
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people and meeting new people and asking
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people I never had asked to
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work with you know ask to work with and
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so this album
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it's very much me but it sounds new for
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me as well I think I was just a bit less
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uh
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like
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I'm very picky
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and the people that I chose for this we
3:30
all really trusted each other and we
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went for it and I feel that and I'm very
3:34
proud when I sing these songs like they
3:36
mean a lot to me
3:38
well yeah there's a couple of things in
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there um firstly like there's a lot of
3:42
different diverse sounds on this this
3:45
record
3:47
um you know you've got the kind of like
3:48
older like old Hollywood style songs
3:51
like love is a dream sugar high and then
3:53
some like really Rocky like dance here
3:54
numbers too
3:57
um is is that reflective of your taste
4:00
just being really broad or was that kind
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of um like newer sounds for you like
4:05
reflect because of the people that you
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were working with
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no I think I have such a crazy weird
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Chase
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box like I I grew up on country I love
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rock and roll you know I when I met
4:20
Jesse who produced some of the album you
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know he works a lot with 808s and I just
4:24
wanted to incorporate all these
4:26
different things love is a dream I
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actually wrote
4:28
um at one of my favorite Studios Vox
4:30
before the pandemic and we had this like
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live stream section and that really you
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know
4:36
is one part of me and then you know
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you've got like patterns which is kind
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of just like I wrote that song in 10
4:42
minutes I was just in a bad mood and I
4:44
wanted to feel like
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raw and and and just like
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not really
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overproduced at all you know we ended up
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using one the vocal tape the first vocal
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tape I did but then I really wanted a
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dance song and that kind of just slipped
5:02
in it wasn't like we tried to find
5:04
anything or make make try to make sure
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that there were all these different
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things they really it just really
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happened organically with all of us and
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when I wrote pussycat with Jesse that
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was just like
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I was so excited about that one you know
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I was I referenced Blondie a bit and and
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just wanted one that I could like really
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if I wanted to do this whole like
5:24
routine too and so I feel like I've been
5:27
explaining all the songs on the album
5:29
quite like my moods in the day because
5:31
you know I think we wake up one way and
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we go to bed another so I wanted to be
5:35
like this little Moody
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um mix
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yeah that's cool I guess like putting
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together an album is so different from
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an EP because you want it to feel like
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it's of you know a body of work that
5:48
that kind of tells a story but that's
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cool that you say it's like a journey
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through your different like elements of
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your psyche different different moods
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um
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you mentioned Jesse uh Rutherford
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um why did that collaboration work like
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why was he the right guy for this
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you know
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we'd known each other for a minute I'm
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shy
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he's shy and then one day I was like do
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you want to write and he was like yeah
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and then I was quite shocked because
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we're so like testy as artists and then
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we got together and we kind of just
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spoke and we really liked the same
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things and he really understood my sound
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and when he explained my sound it wasn't
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like he said I was a one fit into one
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genre like we were just vamping off
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different artists we liked and I just
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really felt like he understood and then
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we started writing and
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and then one day I called him and was
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like you know I need to you know 40 or
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50 of them have been done you know a lot
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of the songs have been picked but I
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called him and was like I just want you
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to produce the rest of this with me and
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when he came in we ended up writing more
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and it just
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it just worked he really pushed me you
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know I had to he pushed me to fall
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behind the beat and we experimented with
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different sounds and he he spoke to me
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and wanted to understand me as a person
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and I think you know it's really hard
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for us to understand ourselves sometimes
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we're not looking at us um so his
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observations of me really led to the
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lyrics and we spent so much time on the
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lyrics and
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it just it wasn't like I had picked
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someone and was like he's going to give
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me this it's just like we really over
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time organically we're drawn to each
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other and it was it was just such an
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amazing experience him and my my friend
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who's an engineer Michael and my guitar
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player it was like this little family
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and it was a safe space which I love and
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we were in La it was it was just cool
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yeah we just really clicked
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I've heard people say
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um some other artists that like when
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collaborating it feels like really
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different working with another artist as
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opposed to like a songwriter because
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teachers come from it like from a really
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different mindset like I guess maybe
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that fed into to things or did you did
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you find that to be the case
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I don't know I just think that you know
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Jesse doesn't typically produce he
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produces for him in the neighborhood
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like
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so it was kind of like he was dipping
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his toes into lava and going can I do
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this and he was actually quite brilliant
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um because you as as an artist it's like
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tends to be about you
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so he's like you know you don't really
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want to give your songs away you don't
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really want to like even give anyone a
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lyric and then it was like they just we
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we really
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it was just meant to be so for him to be
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able to step down from his job at being
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like a frontman and then focus on me I
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think was
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um
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a really beautiful experience for him
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and then also like inspiring his hell
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for me and
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it just worked
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and one thing I really love about your
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music is that it's so evocative and I
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feel like you're not only creating
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this song or the album like you're
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creating this kind of like world around
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it
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um how do visuals like pie into your
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sort of creative process
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I'm just such a visual person I didn't
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even understand that until later you
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know I I love words but I don't remember
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that well I see things I see colors and
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so on and every time I write before I
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write even I can see the music video or
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I can see how this other world that I
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really want to be in I want to be in
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that and so
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I don't know that's like the the cherry
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on top you know it's like the song is
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one thing you feel like such a release
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from writing and telling the story but
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then to create a world around it you
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know whether it's from like just picking
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a color that you like whether it's black
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or red or whatever and then all of a
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sudden you know I've got this like
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gargoyle that I bought and his name's
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Garg we've named him guard I bought him
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at a Halloween store the other day and
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he just like is so he's so
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in fits the world of doomed and
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so I just like everything that comes
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with it I'm so like cheeky like that
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talk to me about the title doomed it's
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kind of depressing is that how you were
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feeling about the world right now
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well
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the world's definitely [ __ ] up and
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dark
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um
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I always think it's getting worse but I
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actually think we just know more now
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I think
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it's hard to stay positive you know even
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releasing a project you're like what is
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this doing is this doing anything you
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know and I you have to remember like it
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is it's art is inspiring
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um
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it's something to discuss it's it's
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important you know because that's the
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lightness I think to this to the
10:53
darkness but doomed for me is like even
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though it has a very negative
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connotation it's it's it's almost
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accepting that it's it's
11:03
it has optimism in the word I I just
11:06
feel like it really represented the
11:08
album but if you listen to the album on
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the end song You Know tripping it's this
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quite like juvenile upbeat kind of like
11:16
ramonzi song and the end it ends with
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doom from the start or this really
11:20
pretty you know melodic moment
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it's accepting the chaos and the
11:27
Darkness and like it's just really the
11:30
start of something new so even though it
11:32
sounds negative and depressing which
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life can be it's not to me it's like
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it's
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it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean
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giving up but I also love spooky [ __ ] I
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love dark words I like the underbelly I
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like all that stuff so it just it was
11:50
fitting
11:51
I guess yeah we're all doomed so may as
11:53
well make the best of it you know I
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think we're born and like we're
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criticized for being ourselves and it's
12:01
really hard to exist in your body I
12:02
don't care who you are you go through
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so much like we're never good enough for
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somebody and it's about like really
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lending yourself because if you think
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about how simple that is it's like I can
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only be me
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um
12:17
I think with the internet and just
12:19
everything it's like there's just like
12:23
so many
12:24
you see all the same [ __ ] you can get
12:26
everything now nothing is like that
12:28
special
12:30
um so
12:34
I don't know it's just like being
12:36
yourself and owning who you are and all
12:38
that jazz
12:40
is a good message
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um definitely I it's hard to pinpoint
12:45
why exactly and maybe you know I'm
12:48
coming from London but like to me this
12:50
album just sounds like LA or certainly
12:52
what I like expect LA to sound like how
12:55
much do you think like your city and the
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environment around you influences your
12:59
sound
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I mean I wrote two of these songs in
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London okay also I also
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a lot of these songs are about my
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experiences in the UK so listen I'm a
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Cali girl like I grew up by the beach
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and I grew up by the beach when it was
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cool and like not modernized it was like
13:19
no shoes and everybody knew each other
13:21
and it was just a small town but
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yeah I would say it definitely you know
13:26
my studio most Studios like people are
13:28
working until 5am in the darkness and I
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was working with the sun and I like the
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light I like to go outside I
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I like to work in the day sometimes I so
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I think it really of course the city led
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to the sound you know I love being in my
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car so a lot of these Tunes are like
13:46
driving
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um but I think
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I travel a lot and I'm never home and I
13:53
think that I do also think that being in
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the UK with like you know you you barely
13:58
I mean I'm getting a little glimpse of
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the sun now but it's very gloomy and and
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dark and cold for me and so that lent to
14:06
the album as well so I think there's
14:08
different influences for sure
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have you picked up any
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British lingo since you've been hanging
14:15
out here I think so I try not to
14:17
embarrass my friends here like they get
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mad when I'm like can I get a beer
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they're like like little things I have
14:23
to say like pint or like
14:27
sometimes I'll pull Madonna Like
14:29
honestly not
14:31
so embarrassed by this but I'll say one
14:34
word accidentally a bit British when I
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get home and everyone's just like you
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can't do that you need to clean it up
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and I'm sorry I really like am not
14:43
trying to but I spend so much time here
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so yeah I'm I think I'm
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I feel at home now here so
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I try to stick with the good lingo
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um I've had to say that you grew up
14:55
around a lot of really artistically
14:57
talented and hard-working people like
15:00
that must be a great driver but does it
15:02
ever add like pressure to be surrounded
15:05
by so many like excellent High achievers
15:09
yeah well
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you know I think growing up with I was
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around a lot of adults
15:17
that
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went after what they wanted and and
15:20
we're struggling artists honestly when I
15:22
was little
15:23
and try to make a name for themselves
15:24
and I would you know
15:26
I think watching that it's like I was
15:28
like [ __ ] how am I gonna
15:30
pave my own way how am I gonna earn
15:32
their respect how am I gonna do a good
15:34
job how am I going to be proud of myself
15:36
and
15:38
my mom to this day is like you are so
15:40
hard on yourself but I don't know how
15:42
it's to be because it drives me I'm a
15:44
workaholic and I want to be proud of
15:47
what I have to offer
15:50
um
15:51
so it definitely influenced me and I
15:54
wouldn't have it any other way I
15:55
my dad to this day like
15:58
is one of the hardest my mom and
16:00
daughter the hardest working people I
16:01
know and it's it's we're chaotic like we
16:05
don't stop but
16:07
it's fun and
16:11
I'm
16:12
I think I'm better for it you know so
16:17
the pressure comes from me I think they
16:19
wanted me to do good but they were they
16:20
wanted me to do what I wanted and I and
16:22
I'm
16:23
yeah the pressure comes from me for sure
16:25
I've heard you say in your like fashion
16:30
um kind of creativity you can like
16:32
really like obsess over like little
16:33
details for ages is that the same when
16:35
your music was it hard to like really go
16:38
okay this album is finished and let it
16:40
go
16:42
it wasn't hard when the songs were there
16:45
it was like they're just there and it's
16:47
done you don't want to add you know I
16:49
wanted 13 songs at one point because I
16:51
love the number 13 but it was like it
16:53
was 11. that was it but I mean it took
16:56
me my whole life to release this project
16:58
which now that it's out I'm like
17:00
probably gonna release a [ __ ] album
17:01
once a year now because I'm um it's like
17:05
getting over that hump but
17:07
details are important to me that's
17:08
another thing I feel
17:10
with
17:12
you know I was there every step of the
17:14
way we were all there but I I trusted my
17:18
P my collaborators more this time and
17:20
and was open I I I didn't fight myself
17:24
you know that that voice in your head
17:25
and you're fighting it like I just
17:27
didn't do that as much on this album and
17:30
I arrived at a place where I was like oh
17:32
okay cool I can do I can do this now I
17:35
can do that and so
17:37
but you know I I
17:39
with my merch brand deadly doll I made
17:42
this pair of sweats the other day and
17:45
there's
17:46
I accidentally like approved this deadly
17:49
doll X I forgot to remove a letter and I
17:54
cannot let it go I mean they came out
17:57
six months ago and I can't stop thinking
17:59
I'm just like I can't believe I did that
18:01
and so I'm a detail freak but you know
18:04
things slip
18:06
yeah that must be hard maybe it could be
18:09
like I know like Kanye released that
18:11
record and then he was like tinkering
18:12
with it like for ages afterwards like no
18:15
I'm not gonna suggest you do that I
18:16
think yeah yeah yeah
18:18
the terrible idea
18:20
um so I'm psyched for the show on Friday
18:23
what can people expect from from your
18:25
live live shows
18:28
I kind of
18:31
I kind of think I'm different when I
18:33
perform now I didn't realize but I'm
18:35
actually I'm so shy regularly but on
18:37
stage I'm just like the the hands and
18:40
the boots and everything's all over the
18:42
place
18:43
I really want to tell a story with the
18:45
show you know I really am playing the
18:46
album I'm hoping people aren't mad
18:48
because you know my my people that have
18:51
been with me since the beginning like
18:53
are requesting songs that are not being
18:55
played so I'm nervous they'll be upset
18:56
but I really wanted to offer the album
18:59
at these shows you know their album
19:01
release shows so you can expect that and
19:04
hopefully some cool lights and just a
19:07
moment of like us really just sharing
19:09
one thing I think that's what music is
19:11
like I love going to see artists that I
19:13
went to show the other day and
19:15
the fact that we were all there enjoying
19:17
the same thing was really cool to me
19:18
because there's just it's it's so
19:21
chaotic and you just like go in this
19:23
little venue and enjoy one thing and
19:24
then you go about your lives when you
19:25
leave so I'm excited to just like share
19:27
the night with people that like the
19:29
music
19:31
awesome and
19:33
um now the album is out in the world
19:35
what do you want this record to say
19:37
about you as an artist
19:46
I just it's such a hard question
19:50
I don't know I don't like committing to
19:53
a genre I don't really
19:55
care I just this music is who I am right
20:00
now and
20:01
and then there will be more like doomed
20:03
is just
20:05
[Music]
20:07
it's just like everything that's made me
20:09
me up until now and it's so it's I hope
20:11
that it inspires people I hope it I hope
20:14
I hope people hear the fearlessness in
20:17
it and also the the heavy insecurities
20:19
and and and kind of like really coming
20:22
too and and I hope that it
20:25
just inspires people to be like badass
20:28
and sexy or
20:30
anything they want to be I hope they
20:32
take different things from each song and
20:34
that's it
20:36
well that's awesome thank you so much
20:38
Jesse what are you have you got any fun
20:39
London plans for the next couple of days
20:42
going to dinner seeing my band and then
20:45
playing a killer show can't wait either
20:49
all right well I'll see you on Friday I
20:52
can't wait to see you thank you for
20:53
having me thank you so much
20:56
cheers good night bye
20:58
[Music]
20:58
[Applause]
20:59
[Music]
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