Ever since Jack & Jack‘s new album A Good Friend Is Nice finally dropped on January 25, we’ve had it on repeat. But besides being full of bops, what we especially love about it is the fact that the album’s also got a ton of really personal songs.
Take “Used To You Now” for example. In it, the boys sing about falling in love with one of their close friends. Naturally, fans have been wondering, “Who are their songs about?” “Are they based on real relationships?” Well guys, the boys just opened up to J-14 exclusively about how their past relationships have shaped their music, and we’re seriously loving how real they’re keeping it.
So it turns out, although they like to also write from someone else’s point of view sometimes, a lot of their songs definitely come from personal experience.
“I feel like just like anybody, any relationship — whether it be a significant other, your mom, your brother, your sister, or your aunt — whatever it is, every relationship in your life has a story. And I feel like those stories can always be told in various ways. Obviously if you’re an artist, then you write songs and you sing about them,” Jack Gilinsky explained.
It’s only natural for singers to write about personal experience, right?
“Past relationships with friends or family members — or even a girlfriend or a loved one — those definitely shape how we make our music because it’s what we’re going through at that exact moment,” he continued. “When you go through a breakup you’re gonna write probably slower, more somber songs. It’s gonna be a little bit more sad, or maybe it’s like a revenge thing.”
As J-14 readers know, the singer went through a very public breakup with his girlfriend of three years, Madison Beer, back in 2017. So although he didn’t confirm any of the songs were about her, it’s definitely possible.
“I don’t know how you would go through a breakup and then not write about it if you’re an artist,” the 22-year-old added. “I just feel like it’s very important to not suppress your feelings and to write about everything that you feel, and not hide anything from anyone.”
But do the boys ever get nervous when they’re releasing a song so personal to them? Jack Johnson sure doesn’t.
“I don’t really get nervous because I’m just a human, and these feelings are real, and the person who’s hearing this already probably knows about these feelings anyway,” he explained to us exclusively. “It’s not that deep if you have a little animosity towards someone in a song. That’s just life, and you gotta just be honest in your music. If they don’t understand, then that’s on them. We can’t hold anything back as artists.”
The 22-year-old also explained that when he writes a song about someone, he usually likes to let them hear it before it comes out. “Usually, I’ll send it to the girl if it’s something specific beforehand anyways,” he added. “Even if it’s something negative towards her. I don’t really care, I’m kind of shameless in that sense.”
You can listen to Jack & Jack’s new album here!
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