I like somebody I can consider edgy, because, I also find that when people see me; the first thing they might think about me, musically, is that I rap or make beats, in the sense of trap or hip-hop or whatever, and when they hear what I actually create, they'll often be like, 'Wait a minute, I wasn't expecting this'.
JlinEvery artist, to me, should know why they're doing what they're doing. You shouldn't create simply because it sounds good to you. That's not a real response to me.
JlinThere's a lot of failing. Failure to me is a lot more important than success because the learning from it is so important. You have to be willing to fail, to step outside of yourself and you can't have a comfort zone. I had to learn that and I'm still learning that.
JlinI have to dig from myself versus digging from something that I like. Digging from something you like is easy whereas from your inside, it's a totally different ballgame altogether. That's not a matter between picking red and blue, it's not like that. It's a decision, it's a choice and, like I've said in the past, it's like jumping off a cliff and hoping you survive the jump.
JlinWell, when you think music-wise, and if you hang with me or you see me or whatever, the average person will be like 'oh yeah, she probably raps'. This is that stereotype and then I do what I do, so they're more like 'oh, I wasn't expecting this whatsoever'. This especially links with the idea of being a woman in this kind of work and within the footwork genre.
JlinIf you create something, it really should mean something more than that to you. I had to grow into all of this though, through a learning process. I didn't wake up one day and just say, 'Yeah, that's Jlin, there it is'. That's why I said it took my entire life to make this album and it comes back to having that comfort zone - if you don't have one, the more progress you make and the more creative you become over time.
Jlin