jacob sartorius
Courtesy of Artist, Photo by Nick Favila

Jacob Sartorius is only 14 years old, and he knows that he has a long way to go. At such a young age, the singer has millions of fans. His journey started on Vine, then musical.ly, and now he's launched a full-fledged music career. You probably recognize his infection hit, "Sweatshirt," but he's actively working on developing himself as an artist. The singer's new record The Last Text EP has officially dropped, and it's a long time in the making. While visiting the J-14 office, the pop star exclusively opened up about his musical journey, the message of his EP, and why he's waited months to release new music.

Writing The Last Text EP

The entire record was created during a writing camp, and Jacob worked hard to make it happen.

“I was in a writing camp, which means I had five different producers in different rooms across a hallway. We rented out a whole facility, and I would walk to each room every day and work on six different songs every day, which is insane," Jacob told us. "[I learned] that you can’t just record in an hour and leave. When I went there, I was like, ‘Alright, let’s put down my vocals and go.’ But that’s not how it works."

jacob sartorius

Instead, he's hustled the hardest that he's ever hustled in his life.

"I think I worked 15- or 20-hour days," he told us, "[It's] the most exhausted I’ve ever been. We just wanted to get the best sound, so I think that people will really hear the difference between my first couple songs to this EP. It’s really completely different."

Moving beyond "Sweatshirt"

Even with a jam like "Sweatshirt," his growth as an artist is visible in his newer songs, like "Last Text." While the former track was a viral success — and his EP still includes a remix of the song — the response to his debut prompted him to push his music to greater heights.

"I've learned that I need to develop as a singer. I released 'Sweatshirt,' and I got a lot of constructive criticism where they said, 'He needs to work on his voice. His voice isn't there yet'," he said. "I did musical theater growing up, stuff like that. I was a singer, but I wasn't a developed singer. So I've been taking vocal lessons and doing everything I need to do to really become an artist."

Jacob is preparing to bring his EP live on tour, which means daily Skype calls with his vocal coach, and he's humble enough to know that he can always improve his craft.

"I have vocal lessons every day for two hours and we do it over Skype, since she's in California. We've been really working for the last six months, working intensely for this EP so I can perform live for this upcoming tour. It's really exciting for me that it's starting to pay off, but I just have so much more work to do and to improve on," he said.

"I'm always just like, 'How can I get better and better?' There's nothing you can just do and think, 'I'm the best.' You have to keep getting better. And somebody like Shawn Mendes is completely humble and even he knows everyone can improve. So I feel like that's for everybody, even Michael Jordan had to get better and better. Hopefully, it all just keeps going up for me."

Echoing his message in his music

Jacob's messages on social media speak directly to his fans, and it's no coincidence that the intent behind his music is the same.

"The stuff I say in my tweets and my Instagrams is just stuff that I think [fans] are waiting to hear, stuff they haven't been told already. I want to be the person to tell them that," he spilled. "Through this new EP, the message is about finding that one person and getting to know them, forgetting all your worries. That's a big message in my songs. It's cool to spread that not only in my tweets and my captions but in my music too."

His 14.3 million musical.ly fans, 7.2 million Instagram followers, and 1.15 million Twitter followers would probably agree.

Scroll down to see five facts about Jacob's EP.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Maldonado.

Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.