As long as she pursued the music, Jax was told to be someone else.
No more mystery, no more sex appeal – even as a preteen performing covers with friends from school, the East Brunswick singer was told by producers and managers to ignore her ” completely genuine and goofy nerd me, ”she said.
“They were in my corner saying, ‘Look at Lady Gaga, you must be more like her,’” Jax told NJ Advance Media. “I finally realized: if people don’t really like I, then I shouldn’t be doing that.
In November, the 24-year-old songwriter, now living in Los Angeles, decided to try a new approach to reaching fans: she traded in her trendy clothes and curling iron for a bathrobe and towel. hiding her bleached blonde locks.
She sat down at the keys of her piano, played a few chords and sang on the screen of her smartphone, singing a silly song she had tinkered together, to the melody from the 2003 hit Fountains of Wayne, ” Stacy’s Mom ”. A witty lyricist, Jax reversed the song’s perspective to play the frightened mother seduced by the song’s famous teenage narrator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YwbJy0uCZs
“Stacy, why is your boyfriend so weird?” she sang in her best New York accent (born artist Jackie Miskanic lived on Long Island until the age of 11). “He’s been on our lawn since your father disappeared.”
Jax posted the 40-second clip on TikTok, the country’s most popular social media platform, and fell asleep wondering if she had just made a fool of herself.
At around 4 a.m., she woke up to use the bathroom and glanced at her phone – a deluge of notifications; a million views in a few hours.
“I scared the shit out of my boyfriend,” she laughs. “I just screamed. My boyfriend said to me, ‘What? Who is in the house? And I’m like, ‘We’re going viral! My little song on TikTok! “
Now Jax is a true TikTok star. Her dozens of well-written parody videos have garnered over 125 million views in total, earned her a guest spot in February on “Ellen,” and have been noticed by industry stalwarts Andy Grammer, Plain White T’s and Simple Plan.
The best part: She just signed the recording contract of her dreams, with Atlantic Records, at the end of January, after representatives of the big label got wind of the singer’s massive following on the app.
Jax acknowledges the irony, that after a Top 3 ranking on “American Idol” in 2015 and a list of subsequent original musical releases – plus four years in Los Angeles largely devoted to writing for other artists like Paris Hilton, Weezer and Big Freedia – that a lot of the comedic videos shot in her one-bedroom apartment would be what pushed her to the top. But she is far from shocked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMNjUFgQVvw
“My music in general is super eccentric and full of daddy jokes in general,” she says. “This is who I am.”
Over the past four months, Jax has capitalized on pop culture trends, dressing as a panicked Tom Brady and reworking Ariana Grande’s ‘7 Rings’ for the Super Bowl (quarterback was looking for his seventh trophy Championship) and posing as a bored commuter stuck behind new teenage mega-star Olivia Rodrigo for her No.1 “Driver’s License” smash.
While nearly all of her TikTok videos have climbed over a million views – a key metric to judge an artist’s continued popularity – she was noticed by Adam Grossman, A&R Senior Director for Atlantic Records.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2yOTTt5aM8
“My girlfriend sent me one of her parody videos,” Grossman tells NJ Advance Media. “I recognized the name since Jax was writing songs for other artists and I had already encountered some of his demos. I put two and two together and realized how brilliant his lyrical writing was.
With 1.4 million subscribers, Jax is the latest artist to harness TikTok – which now has 1 billion users worldwide – to jumpstart her career. The plan was first posed by rapper Lil Nas X in 2019, whose hit “Old Town Road” became Billboard’s biggest hit due to its explosion on the app. The trend is only intensifying amid the isolating COVID-19 pandemic, with new artists like Rodrigo, Tate McRae, Iann Dior and New Jersey compatriots Cookiee Kawaii and Foushee translating TikTok’s fame into billions of streams Spotify and YouTube – and a full-fledged record of careers.
“TikTok is an incredible resource for discovery,” says Grossman. “Not only is it a great tool for discovering artists and records that are reacting, but it’s also a great tool for creators to share and showcase raw talent in a way that wasn’t so accessible before. “
When Grossman and Jax reached out, she played him some of her original music, the centerpiece being an addicting love song called “Ring Pop,” which playfully details the romance over an artist’s salary. in trouble.
With his social engagement and now solidified writing skills, Jax joins the roster of Atlantic stars – Bruno Mars, Cardi B and Charlie Puth of Rumson, to name a few.
“I still don’t get it – I thought maybe I was too old for TikTok,” she says of the app first adopted by Gen Z teens.
As she is now backed by the label’s main resources, Jax has big plans for 2021.
“I will be releasing songs periodically this year; singles to build an album, ”she said. “I call (my sound) daddy pop, because it’s a big daddy joke, but also a little emotional.”
And she won’t neglect her TikTok audience either – she promises more fun videos are on the way as well.
“TikTok is a great place to be dumb,” she says.
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Bobby Olivier can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
