STEPH JONES SHOUT-OUT

If you’ve ever taken a glance at Steph Jones‘ MySpace, you already know the type of person he is. He’s humble, down-to-earth, and above all, he’s just a really cool dude. To say the least, I was surprised when I received a comment on T2W’s MySpace about him ready to “interview when we are.” It’s unusual that an artist comes directly to us to do an interview, but then again, we’re talking about Steph Jones here. It took us a couple of weeks to iron out each other’s schedules and set up something, but we got it done, and I learned a lot about this “Mo City Alien,” as he so candidly calls himself.

After doing the interview, I learned that Mr. Jones is very hands on when it comes to his music and how it is presented, and I now know why he calls himself, “Mr. Ordinary.” He’s just an ordinary guy, and when he blows up (not if, but WHEN) I hope that his personality doesn’t change one bit. The industry needs more artists like this, and I believe that Steph Jones is definitely what the industry needs. Think2wice, I present to you Mr. Ordinary aka The Mo City Alien aka STEPH JONES!

PART 1 // WHO IS STEPH JONES?

“I GREW UP IN A HOUSE WHERE EVERYBODY TOLD ME TO ‘SHUT UP’”

Dustin: Who is Steph Jones, and where is he from?

Steph Jones: Steph Jones is a young southern boy. H-town, Missouri City. Got a lot to say on his mind, experienced a lot in his lifetime, but still walk around with a happy smile on his face all day every day because at the end of the day it can always be worse.

Dustin: You were a model before you got your record deal. Was modeling something you did to sort of get your foot in the door?

Steph Jones: Yeah, it was definitely something I did to get my foot in the door but to be honest, I was trying to do music and modeling at the same time, and modeling just took off. I was doing extra work, but I didn’t expect it to just take off like that and the next thing you know I was doing runways, music videos, commercials, ad campaigns, all over the world, so it ended up being something more than I expected, but at the same time it put me in the back of everybody else’s subconscious, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Now it’s time for my music to add on to that whole modeling legacy thing.

Dustin: Did you always know that you could sing?

Steph Jones: No, I didn’t know I could sing, because growing up, you know, everybody knows, even my title heading for MySpace says “I grew up in a house where everybody told me to shut up.” My mom was a fan of shut up, everybody at school, my brother, everybody was a fan of shut up, so if you hear that every day, all the time, every time you open your mouth, you eventually start shutting up, so I didn’t know I could sing until I got to college, when I started doing karaoke.

Dustin: Who are some of your musical influences?

Steph Jones: Oh man, it’s a big wide variety of genres. You can go anywhere from Harry Belafonte, Harry Koenig Jr., Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, Bob Marley, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Joe. It goes on and on. Basically anybody who sang music from their heart and soul, a lot of greats from back in the day. You know, I feel old school music. I don’t really listen to the radio now.

Dustin: When it comes to the production of your music, what part do you play?

Steph Jones: I’m 100% in every aspect of my music. I co-produced half my album. I wrote 90% of the lyrics on my album. I listened to probably 3,000 beats to make this album.

Dustin: Dang!

Steph Jones: And I didn’t pick not one beat that was already done. I’d sit with the producer and then we’d start from the music to the beat to the hi-hats and we birth it from a baby so that’s when you know that it has a certain type of feel, and I always tell people whatever you do, make sure you do it from your heart and soul, because your soul never lies. Well, I make music from my soul, and however it comes in, that’s how I put it out. I don’t believe in blocking creativity so that’s why you may hear stuff that sounds different, like I could do a “Celebrity Chick” then come back and do a “Mr. Ordinary” because I just make music. I love making music.

Dustin: That’s good, because now-a-days you really don’t have that much going on, you have, you know, people having producers and stuff for them, having songwriters, having ghostwriters, etcetera and you’re one of the few people that are coming out that are actually doing everything on your own, and I like that. That’s dope.

Steph Jones: Thanks brother, I appreciate that.

Dustin: My next question is how did the whole DTP thing come about? How were you discovered by Ludacris?

Steph Jones: I was at a comedy club in L.A. at the improv and then my brother DeRay Davis, he’s a comedian, he hosts the improv. Every week I would go up instead of him putting up a comedian, I would just go up and sing, and so I was singing one night and then Ludacris was in the house and he was like, “Yo, you got a demo?” I had like one and a half, two songs then, and I gave it to him and I just knew he was gonna call me back, but I didn’t hear back from him and the more and more I didn’t hear back from him, I got angry, so I just started recording and recording and recording, and then I found myself in the same predicament like four months later and he was like, “I like what I heard last time, I just want to hear more music.” I was like, “Today’s your lucky day, brother!” I had like 20 more songs, and so I gave it to him and then within the next week, I had a meeting then another meeting, and then another meeting. Then we got the contract and stuff right, and that’s when I signed to “Disturbing the Peace.”

STEPH JONES AND HIS BROTHER, COMEDIAN/ACTOR DERAY DAVIS

Dustin: Okay, you also answered my next question. I was going to ask you if you and DeRay Davis were really blood brothers because I see he’s in your top on your MySpace page.

Steph Jones: Yeah, no, we’ve got the same father, different mom. We’re half brothers but we don’t say half. We’ve got a spot together in L.A. That’s my brother. I don’t believe in the half thing, it’s like you my blood, that’s my brother.

Dustin: Back to your album, what’s going to be the name of your album, and can we expect the release date anytime soon?

Steph Jones: I do not have a release date. As soon as I get that release date, you’ll be one of the first people to get the information. But the title of my album is called “Mr. Ordinary,” and the reason why I titled that is because everybody in this world, even Jesus Christ, we suffered through trials and tribulations, whether it be good, bad, rich, broke. But at the end of the day if you are doing you, yourself, that’s your ordinary. A lot of people they call my music, extraordinary and I may be doing extraordinary things, but I don’t have to travel outside of myself to do that. That’s just me every day, like I wake up. If I feel a certain type of beat, then I just do it, and then people are just like, “Man! That song is crazy!” But at the end of the day that’s my ordinary. That’s why I titled it “Mr. Ordinary.”

Dustin: What can we expect from the album as far as guest appearances, producers and overall sound? I know you produce your own music, but are you working with other producers to help you out or are you just doing it on your own?

Steph Jones: Yeah, I worked with All-Star. All-Star did “Stutter (Remix)” for Joe and he’s done a lot, he’s been in the game for a minute. I worked with All-Star, I worked with Ryan Tetter, the lead singer of One Republic. [singing in falsetto] “It’s too late to apologize.” He’s there. He’s crazy, man. He can play like a thousand different instruments, so I got a song called “Catch A Cold” with him. I did one song called “La La Means Love” with Tricky Stewart. That’s probably the most R&B song on my album, the most radio-ready song on my album.

But other than that, I’ve just been working. I don’t believe in going to find the hottest producer. It’s all about vibe and energy with me. If I vibe with you and we’ve got a crazy energy in the studio, the song is gonna come out crazy and it’s gonna come out with the same type of feel. So that’s pretty much my only thing. I’m working with a guy named Chris Warrior, and Jay Hand… Chris Warrior did like 7 records on my album. He did “Look What You’ve Done,” “Mr. Ordinary,” “Melody to Snap To,” “Hollywood,” “Southern Love…” I’ve got records. Chris reminds me of Hooty and the Blowfish. I call him Uncle Chris. That dude is so cool, and when you listen to my song, you would think I did them in a huge studio. We did it in this like, little room, but it’s all about that vibe you know, he knows how to make a song sound big with the least amount of equipment.

But I mean, whatever we’ve got to do to create that magic, we do by any means necessary. Guerilla grind, and I have no features on the album. I chose to have no features because this is my coming out album. This is about Mr. Ordinary, so I’m giving you me, I’m giving you my soul, my thought through melody. And I didn’t feel that it was right to have anybody come in because y’all need to understand me as an artist and I didn’t want anybody else to come in and fill that void.

Dustin: Okay, I can definitely respect that. A lot of new artists now think you got to have a big name attached to your name, like so-and-so featuring a big name and…

Steph Jones: Not if you have the right music, brother.

Dustin: Exactly, exactly, you remind me of Musiq Soulchild. I had an interview with him around this time last year and I asked him, why you never see him with featured artists and he said, because he wants it to be “Musiq Soulchild featuring.” He doesn’t want the other person to overpower him as far as people knowing the other person more than they know him, so I can definitely respect that.

But you mentioned “La La Means Love.” Is that going to be the first single off of the album? Are you going to make like a video for it, or…?

Steph Jones: That’s the plan as of right now. You know, it’s like … now-a-days you have to do things in order to get on the radio, and “La La” is a great R&B record, but I don’t think that it describes the whole “Mr. Ordinary” sound. Anybody who goes to my MySpace or my YouTube, they see personality, they see in everything, but “La La” is a great record, but when you listen to songs like “Mr. Ordinary,” you know, that’s Steph Jones right there. I know a few R&B artists that can sing “La La,” but at the same time I love that record because you know, me and Dream wrote it, so it is definitely a part of me. So as of right now “La La,” that’s what we’re going with.