Jesswar Is Empowering Their Audience To Be Incredible

Jesswar is one of so called Australia’s most inspiring artists. Emerging onto the rap scene in 2017, the Fijian Australia, Yugambeh/Kombumerri based artist has established themselves as a powerhouse musical voice. Their sound is constantly evolving, breaking through with their debut EP, TROPIXX in 2019, which saw them take the rap throne with ferocity and unapologetic confidence.

After two years away from the limelight, Jesswar has returned with the announcement of their forthcoming mixtape LIFE’S SHORT LIVE BIG, which is set to release on the 23rd of September. The first taste was the infectious BAD LIKE RIRI. Roaring synths combine perfectly with snappy percussion, creating the perfect trap bed for Jesswar to dominate the track and present an ode to one of the great, all-powerful role models of our generation, Rihanna. Then came FELL IN LOVE, which ushers in a new era of creative excellence for them. It features a silky slick backdrop of polished guitar licks and bouncy rap drums which sit below with a smooth, velvety pair of verses and hook from Jesswar.

As the project builds externally, it’s obvious to note that there’s a significant rebirth that Jesswar is undertaking. The mixtape musically plays beautiful homage to its title, to tackle every day with as much energy as possible. Musically, while Jesswar seems gentler on this outing, their enthusiasm, emotion and pride are still deeply on show, manifesting a clear message to their audience, to live life big.

Ahead of the tape’s release we chat to Jesswar about its formation, its ethos and the emotions it explores. 

I love the way that this mixtape is building. FELL IN LOVE is such a banger is definitely a vibe shift from you. How did it feel releasing something that was something that your audience hadn’t previously heard from you? Was there an anxiety attached to it, or is a bop like that something you’ve always had in your wheelhouse?

Writing to different subgenres and poppier R&B sounds was creatively really exciting for me because it was a totally different structure and format of what I was used to writing. It’s much shorter and there aren’t as many bars packed in. I was not used to that, I was used to writing pages and pages of lyrics. It was exciting and fun. The video was a big part of it too, if that was a year ago it would have been completely out of my comfort zone. The journey as you grow into life sees things change. In the last couple of months to a year I’ve been touching into gentler sides of myself and being proud of that. That’s reflected into my creativity, and not locking myself into just doing one thing. It was creatively extremely fun. 

I made it in this little studio room in my house and I had the best time even though I was by myself the whole time because it was during COVID. Everything was made via email or zoom, so it was a really fun and different project to make. 

What triggered this change of mindset?

It was a mix of being in the pandemic as I was rethinking a lot about myself and my life too. Figuring out what it is that I want in life and musically and having a relationship with that fear. We all have a fear of doing things and putting ourselves out there like that. I know for me, I made this project for myself. Some of these songs I questioned releasing because they’re so different from each other. If i didn’t release them together though I wouldn’t be honouring myself and my journey. For years I did that, deleting catalogues and catalogues of songs that I never put out. I don’t want to do that anymore. 

When I got COVID I got it really bad and I was having really bad fevers and migraines and I shaved my head to free myself from that. That was something I wanted to do my whole life and just shaving my head sparked everything. I want to do what I want to do, I want to make the music I know and I love to make and listen to.

Does that mean that the project didn’t have much mental labour in terms of its creative direction? Was it just feeling?

For this project it was all flow state. I didn;t have any idea of what it’d be or any themes. I was just getting sent incredible beats, opening them up, putting them straight into logic and turning the mic straight on. I was writing the songs as I was recording them into the mic which is something that I never do. Normally I would sit over and over with the instrumental. It was a really cool and fast way to make music. Previously I’d rework it over and over again to the point I questioned releasing it. With this new method, listening back to the project as a whole, it was interesting to hear the things I was going through personally. It was interesting to see all the things I was going through emotionally and how they evolved into the art spontaneously. 

LIFE’S SHORT LIVE BIG is defined as a mixtape, which gives it creative freedom. There isn't a preconceived notion of what to expect like an album would have attached to it. Did writing for a mixtape help being free?

Knowing it was going to be a mixtape allowed me heaps of freedom. The project was a completely different project last year. At the last minute I scrapped all the songs and starting writing again. For the first project I had was meant to be called Rebirth, and it was really heavy, really TROPIXX vibes, lots of verse. It was cool but I didn’t want to listen to that sort of music at a festival. It felt like a cool album but it wasn’t me anymore. I wanted to go back to writing music like it is when you first start. It’s fun and exciting and I wanted to feel that because it felt like I lost it. For this one I was tracking three songs a day, just creating as much as possible. Popping as many out as possible once the beat would come to me. 

I know personally when I can write a song quickly I know it’s going to be one of my favourite songs so I really leaned into that. 

I love the title and the energy that it evokes instantly. Life is short, so have some fun with it. When in the process of creating the mixtape did that title emerge as the common theme, and has the meaning changed to you at all over time?

I changed the mixtape name so many times. First it was Rebirth, then it was Life's Too Short, Live Big, but I felt like that was too long. I wanted to touch on the personal Rebirth by delving into a fun freeing side where I felt if I’m not truly who I want to be I’ll regret that for the rest of my life. Trying to live life to the fullest every single day was the mantra in my life, and I wanted to put it to this collection of songs because I fell like it ties them together so well. 

Bad Like RIRI, is such a banger and it's just fun and energetic and boss-worthy, just like RiRi. I’m not going to just straight up ask, What does Rihanna mean to you, but in reference to her, how important is seeing the trajectory of someone like her career in inspiring yours. Does someone like that showcase that anything is possible?

Rihanna always does icon behaviour. As a person watching her growth and watching her build her empire, everything that she’s been through publicly is super duper inspiring. It’s incredible for women and women of colour to see an absolute icon that is running her own businesses and killing it. My first ever memories of her icon behaviour were her early Instagram days. 

Your vocal performance on HEFTY sounds the most comfortable and confident I’ve ever heard you sound on music. What to you was the key feeling you wanted to evoke with HEFTY?

I wanted people to get lost in it and forget about their lives and have fun. We’ve all been through so much. That’s what I was craving throughout the pandemic, a break from it all. The beat is so heavy but it feels sort of relaxed. It’s got the hi hats going really fast, it comes in with those hectic piano chords, it goes lower octave to higher octave, I just wanted to evoke the same energy that I got from hearing that instrumental. Sometimes you get those songs where you can feel the energy and excitement. It would be awesome if people felt some sort of release or freedom. 

What makes you excited for fans to hear this mixtape? What are you most proud of presenting this project to the world?

I’m really excited for people to get a body of work that is longer than 6 songs from me. There’s quite a lot of content in there and I’ve wanted this for ages. In 2020 I released my debut project but before that I was cruising along with just one song for a long time. Playing shows and experiencing the music industry, I’m really excited to give people way more music and way more visuals and let them indulge in the world of this mixtape.