Staying away from the melodrama: James the Seventh explores her latest pop rock single, ‘Off the Grid’
The Korean-American alternative pop artist James the Seventh has officially unveiled her latest single, Off the Grid, released independently on September 27th.
A gritty pop rock song with a fresh new sound to cleanse even the most seasoned of musical palates, Off the Grid is an absolute must-add to your playlists this year.
A self-taught singer, songwriter, producer and previously a pre-professional ballet dancer, James stepped into the music scene after undergoing surgery for an injury that cut her prospective ballet career short in 2020. Her dad, the sixth in a generational line of James’, bought James a guitar to help her cope with being unable to walk for over a year.
Since releasing original music as early as a year after first writing songs, James the Seventh has headlined a show in NYC, collaborated with Oren Yoel (Miley Cyrus, Joji, XXXTENTACION) and amassed over 21k monthly Spotify listeners.
Her latest single, written and co-produced with Oren Yoel, is a gritty, unhinged, alt pop rock song about wanting to stay in and away from melodrama.
VoiceNoted had the pleasure of talking with James the Seventh about her latest release, and we discussed everything from navigating the industry as a genre-blending artist to her advice for new musicians and plans for upcoming projects.
If you haven’t already, you can listen to Off The Grid on Spotify before reading ahead:
How did the artist name ‘James the Seventh’ come about?
“My dad is the sixth in a generational line of James’, and when I started putting out music, I didn’t want to use my real name. I wasn’t really sure where I was going musically, but it didn’t really portray what I was going for. So, I decided to go with James the Seventh as it’s been an inside joke in my family for a while!”
Having been a pre-professional ballet dancer before finding your love for music, how would you say that your journey as a dancer has informed the musician you are today?
“It’s impacted my perfectionism a lot. Everything interwoven into ballet is trying to reach something that doesn’t exist because you’re not even putting your body into natural positions. So, sometimes I’d be looking to find the perfect kick for an hour and I think that’s impacted my musical process. I’m working on it, but it’s also nice because in a way, perfectionism is a double-edged sword.”
In your own words, how would you describe Off the Grid?
“It’s kind of angsty, and definitely more so than what I’ve done in the past. With my music, I love taking feelings that don’t feel sexy at all to have and just turn them into something you can listen to and vibe with. It’s so therapeutic for me to do that because I used to be more extroverted, but over the last couple of years I’ve become more introverted and part of me is like ‘oh, I used to go out and talk to people but now I don’t really want to’, so I wanted to make a song that was like: I’m doing that - I’m staying inside and I don’t care what people think about that.”
What was the process like of writing and co-producing Off the Grid with Oren Yoel?
“I’ve worked with Oren in person a few times, so for the past few songs I’ve been working on, I’ll send over my ideas and he’ll give me his thoughts on it. I sent him the original instrumental demo of Off the Grid and he sent me back an idea for the melody that sounded a lot like a rap verse. It really inspired me, so I went in and put my own spin on his idea. After that, I wrote the rest of the song and all of the verses, then sent everything back to Oren for fine-tuning. It’s a lot of sending things back and forth!”
What are your favourite lyrics in Off the Grid?
“I really love: ‘Can’t go out tonight cause I don’t wanna / cannot be bothered by the melodrama’. It’s not anything profound, but it took me so long to write! I rewrote these verses like four times because they wouldn’t flow, so this one was my favourite because it felt so good when I knew that I’d finally finished it.”
When you listen to music, are you more drawn to the lyrics or the production of a song?
“I listen to both a lot but I guess it depends on the artist and, more specifically, the song. I absolutely love how on Spotify you can read the lyrics on a lot of songs now and I love to do that. I never listened to production before I made music myself, and four years ago I’d never hear particular things like the bass. So, that’s been interesting to listen to songs that I listened to before I did music, but now hearing a lot more things within them that I didn’t before - it’s really fun and inspiring to listen like that.”
As a genre-blending artist, what has been your personal experience with navigating the alt/pop/rock genres - and has it been easy to find your sound within those realms?
“It’s really confusing finding your sound, and I feel like mine has evolved a lot. I’ve been consistently moving into something lately, but that’s just a part of learning more about music and figuring out what works for me.
The biggest part has been figuring out where I fit into it now that I’ve been learning more guitar, have been singing for longer and gained more control over my voice. Figuring out what’s best for me has helped me find what comes most naturally, and it’s been really fun to figure that out. I also think that doing music has helped me listen to more genres and expand my horizons because I’m not listening to music in the same way that I was before.”
We then asked James what songs she’s been listening to recently, and we made them into a playlist!
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?
“I saw Mac Ayres live in Pittsburgh last year and it was such a good show with the band and everything, so I would love to play with them! It was a pretty small show actually and that whole experience of seeing a band with so much chemistry that close was really cool.
I also love Wolf Alice, but if I were to be on stage with her I’d probably just stand and stare in awe! As for touring with someone, I’d love to open for WILLOW. One day, that would be a dream come true because then I’d get to watch her perform every night and she’s just so amazing.”
How are you working on getting your own music out there in the world?
“I started posting on TikTok back in 2021 and have used Instagram reels over the last couple of years. There’s been phases of things doing well because the internet’s a mystery, but social media has been the way that I’ve found most of my audience. I’m so grateful that I started music in the time that I did because if I was born pre-internet, I have no clue what being a musician would have been like for me.
I’ve done some live shows locally in Pittsburgh and a lot of things at college before I graduated, so I’m hoping to do that more. I’d really love to play with a band at some point, too!”
Is anything special happening for Off the Grid’s release day on September 27th?
“The song’s actually releasing on my birthday - I thought, it’s a Friday so I might as well! I’m actually going to be out in LA recording music then, and I’m really excited to work on that and to build a project.”
On that theme…are there any plans for Off the Grid to be part of a debut EP or album?
“Yes! I’m open to an album, but in the past I never really felt ready to do a project so I just keep thinking: is this music thing really happening? In some ways, I feel like I just started, but I’ve been really wanting to create music that’s ‘a whole thing’ that I can work on.
When I first started, I watched a lot of YouTube videos where people talked about the best process for starting music, and they all said to release singles. The problem with that is you can release lots of singles and later put them in an EP, but I would often lose the vision that I originally had. Now, though, I’ve been wanting to execute all the ideas I’ve had so I’m really excited to make some kind of project soon!”
Have you got any advice for upcoming artists?
“My biggest advice is just to keep going even though it might feel cringey - you just have to embrace it! I’m still working on it myself because sometimes I’ll write a song and think about putting it out, but then I’ll spiral about how it’ll be received and if people will think it’s cringey. But now, I remind myself that thinking that way is a good sign! The fear of perception can be such a big barrier sometimes when you’re putting yourself out there. It might feel against your nature, but you just have to embrace the feeling of being weird!”
For our final question…Off the Grid is a track about wanting to stay in and away from melodrama, so what’s your idea of a good night in away from the drama?
“I would love to just cook myself dinner and go into my studio and just zone out for hours. That’s my ideal situation, or doing something creative because I like to get completely obsessed with doing something - you get to a certain place where you just completely zone out and could do something forever, and I love that. It only happens every once in a while, so I have to catch it and ride it.”
