For our 14th Clapper Sounds Interview, we are highlighting American singer and Clapper creator: Jubicudis!
Jubicudis is a talented musician with wide and diverse musical background. From pop to R&B and rap music, this artist has a unique style and songwriting process. Jubicudis was always interested in music but didn’t pursue it professionally until he became a father of two. Since then, he has been making his music a priority. In this interview, we talked about his journey, his inspirations, and his view on “word of mouth” as the ultimate awareness technique for musicians.
I want to create my own content, make my own path, and I’ll post stuff up in videos, but I’m not going to do it the way social media wants me to.
-Jubicudis
Clapper Sounds is meant to be an intimate musical experience, and we want that mission to translate into our written interviews too. As you read about @Jubicudis, play their music in the background and really get to know this artist’s unique sound.
Let’s start from the beginning. What is your first memory of being involved with music? How did you start your artist journey?
For me, that’s a two-part answer. My first memory is singing in the back seat of a car with the radio on and my dad asking me to stop because I sounded like a dying animal. That was my first real memory and then I got interested in choir, so my journey started there. Being an artist didn’t really start until I was probably in my mid-twenties when my second son was born. I decided to start focusing on stuff that was real and stop wasting my time. I would say my youngest son is my inspiration; he’s the one that caused me to change my life, and everything else sparked from there.
How would you describe your musical style? Who are your biggest inspirations?
Growing up I liked all the pop music, like NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, 98 Degrees, and Blink 182. Out of that, I got inspired by the stuff that Timberlake was doing over the years, and at the same time Eminem. I wanted to have a blend of styles, where I take certain things that they do in a performance aspect and how they do artistry and combine them into something different. My own style is more like a pop-R&B-rap, somewhere around there. But I definitely can change from one style to the next and I don’t like to limit myself to one. I just kind of feel the song.
I grew up with a lot of influences culturally, like country, rap music, and R&B, because when I was growing up my dad was in the Air Force. When we came back to the United States and we went to Wichita, Kansas was the first time, I was introduced to R&B. It was like, All-4-One, Boyz II Men, Usher, and all that genre of music. I fell in love from that moment on. I was like “no more country – I want to listen to this!”
What is your songwriting process like?
Well, that’s a long answer. I usually work on a song for a long time and I practice it a lot, but I’m at a weird point in my music-writing career. I made music previously, but I feel like want to go a different direction and I haven’t figured out that direction. That’s why no more music has been produced. And I want it to be a faster process. I’m the type of artist where I’d rather start with a brand new instrumental, brand new music, and brand new lyrics than sit down on a YouTube beat and try to create something from that and compete with thousands of other artists who have grabbed that same beat. I want something completely original.
What are your thoughts on content creation as an artist? How do you feel about artists having to balance their social media presence and still be committed to their art?
That is an awesome question, and thank you for asking! My opinion is that the whole subject is kind of an annoying one that artists are even forced to do. My experience has been that, as a singer, the most powerful thing is word of mouth. Like, if I sing for you guys and you go around and say “oh this dude is awesome, go give him a follow”. Then you get that person to follow me and to listen to me sing, and then they do the same thing– that’s much more powerful than social media. I want to do social media, but not with somebody telling me what to do. I want to create my own content, make my own path, and I’ll post stuff up in videos, but I’m not going to do it the way social media wants me to.
Do you have any side hustles other than music?
I manage Livestream broadcasters on other apps. They have agencies and I will, basically, hire people to earn time and coins on other apps. We’ll create events for them to participate in to earn coins– all different kinds of stuff. That’s what I’ve been doing over COVID times.
Deciding to be an artist can have its ups and downs. What advice would you give to that young artist who is just learning to play guitar, or starting singing lessons and whose dream is to be a musician?
My advice would 100% be: don’t forget to have fun. You should be doing it because you’re having fun and you’re loving it and you’re enjoying the sensation. Like a movie or a television series that you binge-watch, then get sad at the end of it because you want more. That’s the feeling you should have when you’re not doing it. Remember that that’s why you’re doing it. Find something about it that makes you remember that’s why you’re doing it- whatever it is. That would be my advice.
Make sure to check our recorded live session on our account Clapper Sounds and in our reels on Instagram. Enjoy the Clapper Sounds live session of the week!