interview+photography Jorge Perezchica
In the world of music, some artists shine with a brilliance that reflects the essence of their lived experiences. Meet Jasmine Rose, aka JAELYN, a singer-songwriter based in the city of Coachella. With a passion for music ignited at a young age, her journey has been a story of self-discovery and growth. As a youth, shyness may have kept her away from the limelight, but her words resonated with emotions that would one day transcend through her soul-stirring music.
Jaelyn’s life followed a unique path, as she was adopted into a family with a musical inclination. However, she didn’t have the opportunity to witness their artistry firsthand, as they had already lived their lives before she entered the picture. Growing up shy and introverted, she sought solace in writing poetry, finding refuge from social interactions. Jaelyn gradually embraced music by joining choir and theater during her school years. After completing her education, she pursued a solo career, determined to pursue her dreams as a singer-songwriter.
Love takes center stage: In Jaelyn’s music, she delves into the intricate complexities of relationships, capturing both the highs and lows with raw emotion. Drawing from her own experiences, Jaelyn artfully weaves narratives that explore the spectrum from anger to adoration — with heartfelt authenticity.
As Jaelyn ventures further into the music industry, she remains grounded, knowing the impact music can have in bringing people together. She advocates for vulnerability and honesty in music, seeking to break free from stereotypes and embrace the true essence of emotions. With an album on the horizon (Tell Me More) and a passion for her craft, Jaelyn is set on spreading her message of truth through her music.
Read on for the Coachella Magazine interview.
The text has been edited for clarity.
Coachella Magazine: Introduce yourself and tell us about your background in music.
JAELYN: My name is Jaylen. I’ve been making music since I was 14. I started writing though since I was 10. I wrote a lot of poetry in school. It’s been a journey about learning what you want to sound like, and how you want other people to perceive you as making music.
CM: Did you grow up around a family of musicians?
JAELYN: My dad was in a band growing up and he did play the drums. But I wasn’t there for that. I didn’t get to see him play the drums and do all the other things. A lot of my family members play instruments and stuff, but like I said, I didn’t really grow up seeing them play instruments. Also because I’m adopted. So when I grew up, they had already lived their life until I came into the picture.
CM: What were you like growing up — were you ever in a band?
JAELYN: I didn’t. I was really shy growing up. I didn’t really talk to a lot of people. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I think that’s why I got really involved with writing poetry, because I didn’t really like to associate with people. People would want me to perform for talent shows and things like that, but I never would. I’d be so scared. But when I got older, I started to be less scared, and I was really involved in church. So I did choir. I did some theater, but it didn’t last long at all. I didn’t start doing my own thing till I got out of school and I started to pursue my music career.
In school, I got into a lot of trouble. So I didn’t take school seriously. I ended up doing homeschool, because I would just not do what I was supposed to do. And I just had a lot of time to do my own things, like writing music or recording. There would be times, I would skip school for a whole two weeks and I would be in LA just making music with people that I met.
CM: Let’s talk about the creative process in your songwriting. What themes do you explore most in your music?
JAELYN: The main thing is “LOVE” — usually love. I feel like it’s what everybody goes through at some aspect of their life. Maybe not in intimate relationships, but we all have relationships in our lives that bring us to that point where we feel some type of heartache. Or just something that that has to do within a relationships. So, I always write about love in general. I feel the writing process is just based off my experiences with my loved ones, or intimate relationships. And I’ve noticed, I write from the perspective of what I wish I could say, but not necessarily how I went about the situation — if that makes sense.
Like when somebody first makes you mad and you’re just, “Oh, I hate you. I can’t stand you, get outta my face. I don’t wanna see you, touch you — nothing!” But then, there is a part of you that’s like, “I also love you, I wanna care for you, and I wanna take care of you and love you unconditionally.” I think in my music, that’s what I capture a lot of — it’s the two sides of relationships. Sometimes I could get very angry and edgy, and talk about the bad, the negative emotions in the relationship. But then I also come back to say the positive things about how hard I love the person.
So all of it is just how I feel within my creative process, how I write my songs and things like that. It’s hard for me to say things that I don’t necessarily feel.
CM: Did you go through a lot of heartbreaks growing up?
JAELYN: I did (laughs), I did. I feel like it all started though since I was young — because I was adopted, you know. My mother is a drug addict, and my father sold dope. And so, instantly, growing up, I felt this neglect and this abandonment, and I have five other brothers that I didn’t get to grow up with because we were all separated.
From the beginning, as far as I can remember, I’ve always felt this pull on love. I never really felt love in the ways that I’ve wanted to, or felt what love was. So I think when it came to my relationships, it’s a trial and error every time, because growing up, you don’t have that particular somebody to look forward to and be like, “Oh, I want my love life to be like that.” I didn’t have no examples. So yeah, I definitely had a lot of heartbreaks just trying to figure out what is “love.”
CM: What’s the biggest lesson you learned about relationships?
JAELYN: I would say it’s a never-ending learning experience with your significant other. So you’re constantly having to adapt yourself to learn, to understand the other person, because that person is going to forever grow and evolve to whatever they’re supposed to be. And it’s the significance of their job to understand that and to adapt to whoever that person is becoming, if that is your true love, or the person that you want to spend the rest of your life with.
There’s a lot of compromising and understanding and space. I think “SPACE” is a big thing; because I’ve had attachment issues where you’re so scared for somebody to leave, or so scared for somebody to move on, that you kind of hold them hostage. But that’s not love — that’s insecurity. They say the heart grows fonder when people aren’t together, when they’re far away from a distance. I think that’s true. So, I would say definitely, “space and understanding.”
CM: Do you still feel optimistic or have you become jaded about relationships?
JAELYN: I love, honestly, I love, “love” — it’s the main topic that I write about. If you get to a point in your life where you feel jaded about love, you didn’t really know love, because that’s not what love is. I think a lot of people have the wrong idea or perspective of love and that isn’t love. I believe love is true. Love is unconditional.
I’m the type of person that, I believe whatever experience you’ve been through, or whatever life brings to you, it’s always a lesson. It’s always something that was supposed to teach you from something. So you may do it again or you may not do it again, depending on how you took it, how you dealt with it the first time.
I’m not the type of person to be like, “Oh, I hate love. I’m done with it.” No, of course you have moments where you’re like, “Okay, I think I need to just focus on myself and do me.” But for the most part — no, I’m a lover girl.
CM: Do you hear the beats in your head when you are writing the lyrics? How do your songs come together?
JAELYN: I’ve always felt I had a great way with my words. So it usually starts as a poem. And it’s just me writing how I feel, and then I go to the studio, or I’ll record something and I hear a beat that matches the emotion that I’m currently feeling. And then, I look back at my poem, and I try to make those words sound good within the beat. That’s usually what happens.
My first album, “Seven Roses” when I first did that album, it really was a breakthrough for me. And that’s something that was my first time experiencing music, really doing that for me, because I’ve always wrote how I felt. But I guess, it’s the process of creating something and then letting it go into the world. Your brain is like, “Okay, you’re now releasing something — something that you once felt, you’re now letting it go.” It’s kind of like the same thing.
CM: Do you ever get stage fright in front of an audience?
JAELYN: Oh, my gosh. I hate performing. I’m not a fan of performing, but it’s something that I’m trying to get better at and grow in. I currently started working with a band that’s been helping me take it to the next level as far as performing live. And that’s been a lot easier for me, because you have the band players on stage with you, so it’s less stressful.
CM: Now let’s talk about your single “Playboy.”
JAELYN: I wrote “Playboy” about a relationship that I had with someone — it just being kind of toxic, but kind of not caring that it’s toxic, because you have this attachment and connection with that individual. You’re like, “I don’t really care if this person is not talking to me or ghosting me, or if he’s talking to other women, or et cetera. I don’t really care, as long as I get to have this person when I get to have him.” It’s like none of the other things that should be important matter, (laughs) you know? That’s kind of what Playboy is about.
CM: And on the marketing for the single, you are holding a copy of a Playboy magazine.
JAELYN: It was kind of like going on with the aesthetic of it. Because it’s like most men have the desire of getting every woman that they possibly can, or hitting every girl that the last dude just hit. It’s like they have this dilemma of being that guy. So I was just like, “I’m gonna name it ‘Playboy.’” Because that’s how I felt about the situation. It was like, “Oh, you want to be a playboy, you don’t want to really grow like a commitment towards our relationship. You wanna go out and do your own thing.” I went on with the whole theme of “Playboy” for the marketing aspect of it.
CM: How was the song perceived on social media?
JAELYN: Honestly, you wanna know what’s crazy about it? I was this close to like turning off my comments and turning off my notification when I did it. Because if you look through all of my stuff, I’m not ever really showing my body, showing them all of me and being vulnerable in that way. So I was kind of nervous about it… I’m really doing it for the marketing aspect of the theme of the song. And so I was going to turn off the comments, and then I was like, “No, we’ll just see how it goes, and if it gets too intense, I’ll just take it down.”
But what I loved about it though is my fans and the people that really know me and see how far I’ve come — I just love the respect that they had for me. I only got maybe two (negative) messages. But any other person that was commenting or looking at my stuff was very respectful — and I appreciate that. Because that lets me know, “Okay, you guys have the right idea of what I’ve been doing.” Rather than, “Oh, she’s just putting herself out there to do this.” And third, I feel I’m doing everything the right way as far as the rollout…I try my best to make sure that it’s about the music and that it’s about Jaelyn rather than like the appearance of Jaelyn.
CM: How would you describe yourself in three words?
JAELYN: I would say, strong, brave and humble.
CM: As an artist, what mark do you want to make in the world and be remembered?
JAELYN: Honestly, I wanna leave this world knowing that I spoke my truth in every aspect. I love to help people. But also, I know there’s a lot of malicious people in this world, and I feel being a good person sometimes, we don’t always know how to speak up for what we want. So I just wanna leave this world being honest with whatever I do. I honestly feel like I’m already doing it.
CM: Do you have other creative avenues besides music that you’re interested in pursuing?
JAELYN: Yeah. Before I even did music, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was gonna go to school to design and do all of that. I love writing so much that I’m dropping a poetry book very soon. So having books published that are written by me, clothing lines, and merch. But as far as growing my brand, just being a writer and being a fashion designer are really my main things other than making music.
CM: Will we see your live music performances and fashion shows mixed together?
JAELYN: Oh yeah, definitely. I actually want to have a big event. I wanna throw a listening party for my album, and I want models to wear my designs, and I want everything to be like this whole theme of Jaelyn — all of my art that I do.
CM: What do you love most about the music industry?
JAELYN: You know, there’s so many things in this world that we fight over, like politics that divide us. There’s religion that divides us. There’s sports and things as well that are not as crazy, but divide us to some degree. And I feel “MUSIC” is the only thing that brings us all together. You know, no matter the race you are, no matter the religion you believe in. I think that’s my favorite part about music in general. It brings all of us together. It doesn’t matter what you are, how you grew up or any of that. I would say, as for the process of making music, it would probably be the writing process.
I think to be a great writer, you have to be very vulnerable. And I feel we live in a generation right now where vulnerability is not an easy thing, because people are so cutthroat. I think the writing process, because it is a difficult thing to sit in a room and write from your heart. It’s not an easy thing.
CM: How do you view the music industry today?
JAELYN: As far as artists who are women, like a lot of the rap females. I feel like, and honestly too, even some of the R&B females as well, it’s like we’ve grown into a society where women are becoming more masculine than the male. I don’t wanna say women are supposed to be feminine, that’s not what I’m trying to say, but, you know, it’s like we can’t have both where men are rapping about their masculinity and then we have women that are rapping about their masculinity because then we have a lack of vulnerability. And, there are still women in this world that need to feel and cry and are still vulnerable and are still sad sometimes about things, you know — like there’s still women in this world who are sensitive.
I think we are lacking the vulnerability in music and the honesty that shows how humans really feel, you know. We’re on our high horse all the time and we’re on top of the world. That’s just not reality. We are human and we get sad, we cry when we’re alone. We have heartaches and breakups and we’re not always the toughest person in the room. You know, like that’s the reality of life. And I feel like we are not showing that in our music anymore. And I think that is so important. So if I could change one thing, it would be that, let’s start becoming more vulnerable and honest about how we really feel. And stop this facade of always being like, “Mr. Tough guy or that girl,” because it’s just not real.
CM: How would you describe your music — are you rap or R&B?
JAELYN: I would say both. I started off rapping, because I didn’t really know that I could sing when I first started making music. I didn’t know that I could sing until people were like, you should sing because you sing good. So I was rapping before I was singing. Sometimes in my music there will be like a verse where I am rapping, and then sometimes it’s just the full song of me singing.
I’m not really too confident on my voice. I think I just have a nice tone. I think people like to listen to me talk and they just like to listen to me sing. But there’s people, I’m sure you know her, Porsche Camille, she’s an artist out here too, and her vocal range is crazy. I tried to take singing lessons from her, but I was like, that’s another commitment I have to learn with making music too. I’m not a bad singer, but I’m not like a Porsche Camille where I could just sing at the top of my lungs.
CM: Were you born and raised in Coachella Valley?
JAELYN: Yes.
CM: What was your experience like growing up in the desert?
JAELYN: Positive and negative at the same time — I would say. I’m mixed with a bunch of things. Like I said, I was adopted, My mom is two different things, my dad is three different things. And I grew up in a Hispanic household. Where I live, there’s a school right down the block. I actually went to Peter Pendleton (Elementary School), right here in Coachella. And you know, there was just like a lot of racism for the fact that I looked so different compared to the other kids in the valley that were all Hispanic. So, I think growing up, it was a little bit rough, a little bit difficult, because of that. But as I got older though, you start to be a part of different things and you start to get more involved and so it got easier as I got older.
CM: Do you stay active working out in the gym?
JAELYN: It’s part of my mental health. I work out because as an artist, you are misunderstood a lot. A lot of people don’t really understand you and it becomes frustrating. So I started working out — I’ve always been pretty athletic. I grew up playing sports and things like that. So I’ve always been active, but I stopped after I tore my ACL at a basketball tournament. And so ever since then, I kind of stopped working out till my knee got better. But I started going back to the gym almost a year now. It’s just a big part of my mental health.
CM: Do you sing in the shower?
JAELYN: Yes. (laughs) I do sing in the shower, not my own songs. I mean, sometimes they’re my own songs, but sometimes I’m singing other songs. I have my speaker in the shower.
CM: When you’re out and about, how do you capture new musical ideas — by jotting them down on paper or recording them on your phone?
JAELYN: Here, I’ll show you (pulls out phone). I literally have 334 memos. I just do voice notes. And then I’ll come back to it whenever I’m in the studio. They say though, if you don’t remember what you did, then it wasn’t good enough. So sometimes I go back to it, sometimes I don’t, depending on if I remember it.
CM: Is there any misconceptions people have about you?
JAELYN: Oh yeah. I feel like a lot of people think that I’m like a stuck up person, (laughs) but I’m not though. I’m a very soft person. I’m very gentle and loving and humble, but when things aren’t done how I want them to be done, that’s when people get another side of me where it’s like, “Oh, she’s some other way.” But I’m just really passionate about what I do. It’s like, you have a vision in your mind, and you want it to come to life. I’m not a “Yes” person all the time. I for sure tell people “No” when I don’t like things or when things are wrong. I tell them that it’s just not how I do things, or it’s not how I go about them. And I think that’s what brings people to think otherwise. But no, I’m a loving person though.
CM: Anything else that you want add or share that we haven’t talked about?
JAELYN: Honestly, what I would love to say is, if there’s a passion that you have, pursue it. Pursue it relentlessly, like it’s your job, or it’s your life. And if you are working a nine-to-five and you hate it, find a passion, find something that you enjoy doing. So that you’re not stuck and you’re not in the depressed mind state. Because I feel a lot of us have some type of mental health. And I think mental health has been a very important thing this year. Especially because of COVID happening two years ago.
Let’s take heed to our mental health — if we feel we work too much. I think it’s important to find something that you genuinely like doing because it does help. If it’s working out, if it’s just writing, if it’s dancing, it could be whatever, but find something that you enjoy doing besides your workspace. And if you love something and you found a passion that you enjoy doing more than your workspace, make what you enjoy doing your workspace.
CM: Do you make any New Year’s resolutions?
JAELYN: I mean, I try and make a New Year’s resolution every year, but it’s kind of like a couple months in, then we stop doing it. But I’ve been pretty disciplined though on my goals.
CM: What’s on your bucket list?
JAELYN: One is my poetry book dropping, but that’s already done though. Just needs to be put out. But I guess like personal goals, I would say just more disciplined.
CM: Do you go to the Coachella Festival every year?
JAELYN: No, I don’t. I know that sounds so bad, but if we’re talking about personal goals, it’s actually one of my personal goals. I’ve never been to the Coachella Fest, because I’ve always had to do something else, or I haven’t had the money to go. But I’ve always told myself though that the first time I go will be the day I perform. So I think that’s like a huge, I mean that’s such a huge goal to have. But one day, one day.