J.M3

J.M3 is an artist with much to share with the world and she does so through her music that mirrors what she wants to say. From randomly strumming the guitar to writing her first rap and finally watching her hard work pay off on the big stages, J.M3 is a rising star and a groundbreaking artist in the music industry.

Firstly, let’s address the question you all have been wondering about. How did she come up with the name J.M3? It’s certainly a unique name, isn’t it? Well, did you know it’s pronounced like Jamie, which is her real name? To J.M3, music is an extension of herself, like an alter ego, where she says things she doesn’t normally say. She feels that music is a part of her but not her entirely. Her original idea for her stage name was JME but another rapper already had that name. Hence, she got creative and swapped the E with a 3. A love-hate relationship soon came about with that name as a lot of people struggled to pronounce it correctly and often spelled it wrongly. Many people also mistaken the M3 for M cube, which she often finds frustrating. However, when people ask her how her name came about, and the light in their eyes when the realisation hits makes her feel good about the name once again. 

To her, every one of her songs are different. Yet, what ties them together is what inspires them. Like most artists, her muses are experiences she has had or things that people say that leaves lasting impressions. However, what is unique to her is that some of her songs are sparked from little fun facts she comes across. In particular, her song “30000” was a fun fact song. While she was scrolling through Tik Tok like most of us do, a video about human’s life spans came up. Through this, J.M3 learned that 80 years of our lives only equated to 29000 days. To have the life that we often see as an extensive journey put in numbers as mere thousands, helped her see that we do not have all the time in the world. Hence, the line 雖然沒有三萬天 which means although we do not have 30000 days signifies that we should live life how we want to and not waste the little time we have. She jokes about how this could be a result of her being in the end of year reflective mode as well. Another song with an interesting backstory is “Scared to lose me” which drew inspiration from a conversation she had with Adele Lim the Hollywood director of Crazy Rich Asians whom she met at a conference. Adele’s response to the question “How it feels to be an Asian working in Hollywood” struck a chord with J.M3. Adele answered everyone wants to have a seat at the table and fight for the top dog spot. For herself, as an Asian and female, she is far from the stereotypical white man. She said she doesn't want to sit at their table but rather through her hard work, make others want to sit at her table. This empowered J.M3 to take an interest in the balance of power that every relationship has. She wanted to play on the imbalance of power through this song. When asked how she would describe her music, she considers them to have a lot of attitude. For now, it’s not as fearless as she would like it to be but it’s the direction she’s working towards. Apart from that, she hopes to refine her sound and throw in more swag sounds.

 J.M3 first picked up guitar at 10 after learning it in school. Her teacher also asked the class to write their song. Even so, it was only a little later on when she was randomly strumming on her guitar, did she write her first piece. Her initial thought was that it would be cool to write her first rap. Beyond that, Music was a platform for her self expression. Later, more opportunities came around for her to take music more seriously which helped her career grow. These said opportunities include signing her first major label deal with Warner music which jumpstarted her career. At the same time, she signed a songwriter’s deal with Sony music. This led to the realization that she could do music wearing both a recording artist and songwriter’s hat. These labels opened many doors for her that she would not have come across herself which she is extremely appreciative of. 

She is also grateful for her parent’s support despite the Asian parent stereotype. When she decided to pursue music, her parents accepted and supported it which helped her get to where she is today. 

Now, you might be wondering how her music comes about?  Her creation process starts with her planning her direction and concept which she started is the root of everything. Then, she decides on the vibe of the song, the feeling she wants people to get from it and most importantly, the feeling she herself wants to convey. The rule of thumb for her is always starting work on the melody first. Afterwards, she works with her label on the arrangement and once she is happy with the top line which is essentially the beat, she goes into lyrics. When she’s done and happy, she puts on her recording hat. Finally, her producer mixes and matches the track. In relation to her creative process, we asked how she deals with writers block. In response, she laughed and said she watches Netflix to get things off her mind as forcing it makes it harder. She expresses that the best work comes when it flows and it comes easy. She also describes the feeling of having something you want to say but not knowing how to say it and suddenly having it voiced out of nowhere as divine. Moreover, she believes that writer’s block might happen because the thing she intends to write about might actually be something she doesn’t vibe with. Something she has recently started doing to practice being in the zone is Morning pages, a method she read about in a book. This means writing 3 full pages on whatever comes to her mind every morning without stopping until she finishes those 3 pages. This helps her to unconsciously create without any limitations like the nagging feeling of “this isn’t good enough” or the tiny voices in her head. Without them, she can be in the zone, where her thoughts and ideas simply just flow.

Other contributions to her creative process include how she listened to 90s R&B and Aaliyah growing up. Rappers like Doja Cat and Kanye West are also some of her biggest inspirations when it comes to writing music. They inspired her fearless, hip-hop warrior spirit which shines through in her music. She admires how they have lots of attitude and are fearless to say whatever they want to say without holding back. She made that her vision for her upcoming album, telling herself to write about whatever she was afraid to say. When listening to an interview by Kanye, where he said that you have to write what you want to say, since you can’t please everyone. This stuck with her. She does not want to write general things that everyone can write about and aspires to be unique and different. 

Some major milestones in J.M3’s career include having music placed in TV Shows and Hollywood movies. Features of her music include Tap Out! In the movie Joyride by Adele Lim and Pick ‘Em Up, the official theme song from Affyn- Buddy Arena. She also had the opportunity to perform in the Indoor Stadium. J.M3 loves performing, a big part of her pursuing music, the reason why she chose to become a recording artist and not just a hidden streaming artist or a songwriter working in the background. Of course, being a music artist does not come without its challenges. To J.M3, almost everything feels like a challenge. In particular, learning about the music business, which she described as “a whole different ballgame” where you need to think about money and how to make it. 

When asked what the most rewarding part of her musical journey was, J.M3 mentioned that it was accomplishing things she never imagined she would one day be doing. She loves the feeling of joy, hope and excitement when she does things that feel like a dream and then the realisation that it’s reality when she feels like “ Oh my god I have actually done this” She values the numerous experiences she’s had over the course of her musical career. J.M3 lives by a beautiful quote, which states that you only have to care about the opinions of two people, the version of yourself as a kid and the older version of yourself. If the kid version of yourself can look up to you and think “wow that’s me in the future, I’m so cool!”, and the older version of yourself can look back, have no regrets and be proud of you, you know you are doing well and making the right decisions, and you do not have to care about anyone else’s opinions. Hence, she believes that we should go after whatever we want so that we can have no regrets in the future. 

For all those aspiring for a career in the music industry, here’s some valuable advice from J.M3:

“Anything is possible. You should hesitate and worry less. Don’t think about it too much, just do it and you’ll learn anyway because life is all about learning. The times I have learnt the most are the times when I made mistakes. It’s tough but what gained me the most satisfaction is doing things I never imagined that I would do, and the realisation the once far fetched dream that I never imagined would happen happened. I never thought that I would accomplish even half the things that I have.”