Maker of excellent sad songs. Writer of bops for Lewis Capaldi. Support act for Lauv, Anne-Marie, and Maisie Peters. And now, JC Stewart can add ‘ability to talk to One on One about how the hell he’s managing to cope amid all of this madness’ to his CV.
JC Stewart! Are you managing to stay sane amid all this?
‘You know what? I feel really bad saying it, but… I’m loving it. (Kind of).
‘I’m actually really enjoying it – my parents live in the middle of a farm in Northern Ireland, so I came back here before we got totally locked down. It’s all green, outdoor space, which is nice. There’s free food, and I’m even pretending to exercise every day. I’ve got a little studio set up, too, so I’m writing loads and doing a ton of work…. It’s the dream.
Have you managed to get into a routine yet?
‘I’m doing a lot, actually. I’m doing a lot of phone calls and video calls and doing all of the meetings that I was meant to be doing anyway. The plan was for me to be in America and Asia a lot this year – I got to America a couple of times, and then the lockdown set in, so I’ve been doing everything I was supposed to be doing abroad… But over Zoom. I get up, I pretend to exercise, I eat all the food in the house, and then I crack on. I’ve been writing two or three songs every day; I’ve been trying to understand what TikTok is; and, yeah, that’s kind of been the entire thing.
‘I’ve been trying to teach myself how to produce, but it’s… Well, tricky. I can do the basics, so I suppose that’s all I need for now. My productions are all lo-fi The 1975 rip-offs, essentially, but it’s all good…
‘I do keep threatening my manager with the prospect of me making a Tropical House record, but only time will tell if that comes to fruition! I’ve been doing a bit of pitch writing for other artists, too, for a laugh. There’s a new Chainsmokers pitch that somebody sent me, so I’ve just been vibing out to some Deep House in the middle of this Irish farm.
What would you be doing right now if it wasn’t for the lockdown?
‘There was a lot of international stuff in the pipeline – a lot of travelling, ironically. We’re still going ahead with all of the releases. Obviously, shooting music videos has been compromised a little bit, so I made a music video in my bedroom – it’s essentially me posing in the mirror for three and a half minutes, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes down… I’ve told the team that I’ll be asking for double the budget for the next video, but apparently that’s ‘not how this works’?
‘I’ve got a super-small list of people that I write with, and most are based in Canada and America – so, I’ve been working with them through the night and then getting on with my own stuff during the day.
‘It’s nice, though, because they’re mostly producers: so, I’ll write a song and send what I can send to them, and then by the time I wake up the next day they’ll have sent over a version with their parts added and I’ll have another bit to work on.
‘It’s been really fun, and I’ve just been writing loads and loads of songs. I don’t know what to do with half of them, so I’ve just been posting them on Instagram – if the management or record label don’t reply within, like, a day, I’m like ‘alright, they don’t like it, let’s get it up on Instagram’.
‘I’m still doing all the stuff I was doing before, weirdly, just in a different way. I had to learn how to put all my equipment into Zoom so I could do live concerts and showcases for different companies. We’re planning on doing a little live-stream festival, too, which will be fun. Everybody’s doing live streams – I’m bored of them, and I think that everybody else is bored of them too, so we’re trying to do something a little different for ours.
What have you been reading/watching/listening to over the last few weeks?
‘I’ve been reading a lot. I read a book called The Spy and The Traitor, which was good. What else? I don’t know if you follow me on TikTok – and if you don’t, it’s probably better for your mental health – but my parents have a little pond, so I bought a dingy off Amazon for thirty pounds and called it The Yacht: so, I bought a yacht. I just go and sit in that in the sunshine and read my book, which is rather nice.
Well, if you’re being forced to sit around on your arse all day, you might as well do it in style.
‘Totally! It’s been good to keep busy, too, though. Like a lot of people, I’ve been making excuses for years about why I couldn’t write more songs, or produce, or record my own vocals, or do anything like that – but now, I don’t have an excuse anymore. I’m really bad at being bored, so I’ve just been getting stuck in. I’m overworking myself now if anything, but I’m enjoying it. My Dad’s really into outdoorsy stuff, too, so I’ve been tearing around the fields on a quad bike he borrowed from somebody as well. Here’s hoping that I don’t fall off and break both my hands, eh?
In an ideal world – and assuming this has all died down by then – what do you want to have done in twelve months’ time?
‘Next year, I want to release an album. I want to finally do my first-ever headline tour, and I want to go and play in as many different countries as will let me in once all this is done. And I just want to keep doing this. I’ve really fallen in love with writing music again and making music, which is something I forgot about because I was so obsessed with doing promo, and shows, and all the other bits that go alongside the music.
‘If this stays like this for a while, I’ll be happy.