Jocelyn Alice songs are instantly recognizable. “Jackpot”, “Feels Right”, and “Bound to You” have played repeatedly on Adult Contemporary and Hit Radio stations and achieved Platinum and Gold certification in Canada.
With a powerful, soulful voice that’s reminiscent of mega stars like Amy Winehouse and Adele, Jocelyn is poised for success once again with her latest single, “How Could You Not Know” and a new album in the works for 2022.
You’ve been back to Calgary for a few years now, haven’t you?
Yeah, which is fucking wild to think about. It’s like the last two years was such a weird vortex of time, it feels like it’s been 10 years and also like two days.
Has it just been since the pandemic started that you’re back in Calgary?
I was already living halftime here and halftime in L.A. at the beginning of the pandemic, and then it hit and I felt I was ready to be in Canada and have health care and my family.
I know a lot of people that are in the States and haven’t been able to see their family.
I can’t imagine that because especially my younger brother, he’s just gotten me through this time. I don’t know what I would have done without my little bubble here.
You have a new single that just dropped last month. There’s a long history behind that song, isn’t it? I mean, you didn’t just write it recently?
No, Like so many of the songs I’ve released in my career, they’re generally pretty old. This is definitely one of the oldest songs I’ve ever released. I wrote it probably five years ago now and was playing it live a lot as the original version and really believed in it.
I signed to Sony in New York a few years back and they wanted to release it and the production just wasn’t quite nailed yet and I thought it could be better. I felt like I’m taking a huge risk but I’m just going to pause on this for a second and just wait.
Then Songland came around and I was asked to do the show before I was even told what the song was that they chose. I won’t lie, I was pretty disappointed when I found out what song they chose. I didn’t think it was right for the artist and it was such a close song for me as an artist that I just felt like I don’t want to win this show.
I’m really grateful to be here and I really want to experience it all but I really hope I get to keep my song and here we are.
A year after Songland came out I was finally legally allowed to release it and my team inspired me to do so and it’s just been a really fun journey.
One of your early influences was Amy Winehouse. Do you remember where you were when you heard that she died?
I was on a bus on my way to work at a sushi restaurant in Calgary and I just cried that whole bus ride. I knew that she was suffering and that she didn’t have support. I think it’s another story of the Britney Spears type era where the paparazzi were just so dangerous and I understood why she was suffering so hard, but fuck, I wish that we got to hear more of her music.
I wish that we had more of her light because I just felt like she was such an honest artist and real artist too.
I get pretty discouraged lately seeing what’s connecting and a lot of it, no offense, is people that don’t have musical background or any experience whatsoever. It shows when they get up there and they play those shows and it’s like, yeah, you’re definitely not ready to do this, which is fair, I mean, it takes a lot of experience. She was just an artist that I thought was absolutely born to do it, an old soul. I’m still kind of grieving that honestly.
She was a shooting star, just lit up and burned out way too soon.
I wonder if she’d had better people around her, what would have happened? We all know her Rehab song and how her father basically said no, you don’t need help, when it was very clear to everyone that she did.
It’s sad and it’s a good reminder as an artist for me to have only really safe, really strong, really honest people around me.
I actually sobbed when I watched the documentary, it was so heartbreaking to see that and yeah, you definitely handle your career in a different way. You’re a prolific songwriter, aren’t you?
I’ve been really taking a break from the way that I used to grind but I still want to write every day. It’s just something that is really hard for me to not do.
I think it really is worth it to work hard at what you love and I’ve seen that grow and my ability grow. I’ve definitely felt pretty discouraged the last few years just because things feel so heavy.
When I go to write, it just feels like all I want to write about is what’s really going on and I’ve been diving back into it and I just went to a little camp in Vancouver. It feels really good to be collaborating again because I’ve been writing on my own for the last little while.
You’ve collaborated with tons of people. Is that kind of your thing?
It’s funny, I actually don’t love it. There are certain people that I really connect with and I fucking live for it, but it’s really hard for me to find those people, I won’t lie. It’s really hard for me to find someone that gives me enough space as a writer, and as a singer, and trusts me enough, but also finds a way to challenge me because I’m just a raging bitch most of the time. It’s not easy to tell me what to do and I’m aware of that.
I used to work with everyone under the sun and I would be in L.A. doing sessions for three years straight, basically every day a different person and I just burned out, I literally had a mental breakdown.
That’s a big reason why I was starting to move back home to Canada and just re-establishing my priorities. I’m now at a place where I just really want to work with people that I love, that understand what I do, and that like my personality too because I’m a big personality. I definitely want to do more intentional collaborating in the future.
That time in LA, was that a direct result of the success of Jackpot?
Definitely. I was an indie artist with Jackpot, I had no teammates whatsoever. When that song came out I had just let a manager go and was kind of on my own and slowly started to build my team and that’s where Sony found me through Shazam. They were like, how are you doing this on your own? And I said I have no idea but I’m tired, you know? They signed me and pretty much said, “You’ve got to move to LA” and then I signed as a writer as well.
They were really adamant about me moving to L.A. and that wasn’t something I was necessarily dying to do at that time. I was pretty nervous about going there and I was right about all the things I was nervous about. I’m really grateful that I didn’t move there until I was in my 30s because it would have been a lot harder.
You also spent some time in Nashville.
I lived in Nashville right before I lived in L.A., and it’s an interesting place I will say. I wasn’t really prepared for living in The South of America and what that really means and I just ended up leaving because I couldn’t handle the racial ignorance that was constantly around me, I just couldn’t handle it there.
I learned a lot as a songwriter. I think that they’re really dedicated to the craft, which I respect a lot. I don’t find that to be as much the case in L.A. I find L.A. people are chasing what’s popular and chasing a hit song.
In Nashville all they’re talking about is songwriting and I really respect that, but not my scene.
You don’t like to have your style labeled but your music definitely has a pop sound to it and it’s also kind of ironic because you’re not wanting to chase popularity, right?
Not at all and that’s another thing that has been a real challenge in sessions for me, finding people that really understand that because I’m an Aquarius, and we are known for not understanding rules. We’re visionaries, we’re here to think of the future and the thought of doing something because it’s already popular literally makes no sense to me.
I’m like, why don’t we do the total opposite of that then? I don’t understand that mentality at all.
Jackpot was never meant to be on the radio, it was never expected to do as well as it did. I never expected if it did get on the radio to get onto Hot as well as the AC (adult contemporary). I really thought it would just be AC because there’s really nothing going on in the production of that song. There’s a keyboard and drums, that’s it.
But I really believe in breaking those rules and I think artists should do that and it’s a big part of how I choose who I collaborate with now.
Kind of a happy accident, that’s the formula for hits, keep it simple.
Simple and authentic. I think you can hear in that song too that we were having a good time that day and I liked working with who I was working with, I think that really matters.
Did you start out singing country?
I did. I started doing rodeos around Alberta back in the day. I wasn’t allowed to choose my genre as a child. I was told I would be singing country music and that I was in Alberta and I looked like a country star and you know, let’s do this.
I never wanted to take that route but it was a really great foundation for me to learn my skills on stage and eventually get to a place where I was confident enough to start my actual band.
You appeared on the Canadian television show Popstars and that kind of gave you a little boost.
I did Popstars, oh my God, and this is before YouTube by the way so this shit is not even online. I’m so grateful. It was so embarrassing. I was the most awkward 16 year old you’ve ever seen on screen.
I actually did look for it. I’m sure it’s interesting. Did you have kind of a rough upbringing?
I definitely went through a lot. I went through my siblings living in different houses. I was taken from my mom’s house at a pretty young age. My mom struggles really heavily with bipolar disorder. I moved to my dad’s house and it was pretty abusive and pretty scary.
At the end of the day I’ve definitely been through a lot, but I’m really grateful for my music even more so because of all of that.
I can remember as a kid I would just practice for hours and hours just so I wouldn’t be around the people in my house. It was definitely my saving grace being able to go to my bedroom and sing to karaoke CDs because that’s how we did it back then.
You surround yourself with a nice tight circle of friends and they perform with you in your live shows and your videos and you kind of feed off of each other, don’t you?
It’s so important to me to include the people around me. I also just seem to attract incredibly creative, kind people. I think I’ve also been through hell and back as an artist and so to be able to involve other artists and inspire them and also create a safe space for them means everything to me.
You also like to try to involve as many women as possible with your productions. Do you think things are getting better with that? Is the music industry starting to change a little bit?
When we start really paying women and paying songwriters, maybe I’ll say yes, but at this point, honestly, no, I don’t think it’s getting better. I think women have more of a voice now and situations like the Britney Spears movement and how she’s got her voice back and she’s finally really sharing the truth of what happened to her.
It’s very easy for women to find themselves as performers in those kinds of situations and it’s a big reason why I didn’t release my first single till I was 30 because I knew how dark it was.
The reality is that women always seem to be the leaders of real change in the world and we have to take charge. This is why I’m not signed to a label anymore. This is why I try to make every decision myself and this is why I’m only working with women even higher up now because I just find they come with more empathy and more understanding. And again, it’s that belief that making more is not always better.
This last year I literally took six months off social media because my team said, “You’re going to do that, you’re going through a lot personally and you’re going to take some time off.” I didn’t think I was really allowed to do that and it just completely recharged me and brought me back in a way that I’ve never experienced before creating from such a healthy place.
I really hope that changes and I will do everything in my power to be the change, but I will also say I think women are tired.
Definitely, there’s a lot of inequity. As far as women’s worth in society, there’s still inequity in pay and promoting and businesses and that sort of thing. I see movement but there’s always more to be done, right?
I want to see more of those powerful men including women in their sessions. I don’t think it’s that hard to do, especially people of color. I think it’s the absolute bare minimum and I’m so tired of seeing rooms of all white men making music, like we don’t need more of that, honey, I’m sorry, no offense to you but you’ve been heard for years. It’s time and that’s the other thing, when you bring women in, when you bring people of color in and they’re involved in the creative process, the music is better obviously.
Is there an album in the works?
There is going to be a release probably in the summer. It’s been a lot of fun to choose songs for this project. I always have a hundred demos sitting there unreleased, so I’m like, Okay, what’s the next album going to be? It’s never really me writing for the album.
I will say that one of the only songs I wrote in 2020, during the pandemic is the next song that’s going to be coming out and it’s probably the proudest song I’ve ever worked on. It’s an absolute pop banger. I’m so excited about it.
I wrote it with Corey Lerue from Neon Dreams who are just killing it right now and it’s one of my first vocal productions. That’s something that I decided to take more seriously in the last year just so I would be able to work from home and I’m just so excited.
Once again, it’s an album that’s all over the place and completely genreless and just touches every kind of music there is and that’s what I do. I’m really excited.
I’m really looking forward to hearing that. I love everything that you do. I love your voice, I love your songs. I think you’re absolutely amazing.
Thank you so much, we really need to hear that. It’s been a really discouraging time so that really means more than you know.
I think there’s some light on the horizon. Even with this most recent wave, in my heart I feel like this needs to happen to get us to the end.
I think you’re right and that’s the thing. It has been hard but at the end of the day I would never give away the lessons that I’ve learned from this time, so I’m really grateful for that.
I learned in my later years that when opportunity comes, sometimes you just have to take it and not worry about it, even if it’s scary. Just go for it and it seems to have done me really well for the last few years.
It’s a brave attitude. We have a new music video coming up for this next single as well and same thing, I was so afraid I had a mental breakdown before we filmed because I felt like there’s no way I can pull this off.
I realized I’m probably being offered this because I’m ready for it and I just have to jump into the fire and it was one of the happiest moments of my life so I don’t think you ever feel fully ready for anything in life.
For more about Jocelyn Alice, visit www.jocelynalice.com.
