Episode #16 Carlos Battey (Jackie’s Boy)

Interviews

Aug 15

Welcome to Living A Vocal Life: A Podcast For Singers!

Welcome to the Living A Vocal Life Podcast, where I interview singers who have succeeded in creating a life in music. You’ll hear from vocalists of all genres, in different stages of their careers, including singers who’ve been on the Billboard charts and those who are teaching the next generation. What do they have in common? They're all performers with amazing stories to tell and experiences to share.

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Singer and songwriter Carlos Battey against a yellow and bright blue colored backdrop.

As a songwriter, Los Battey’s career has been extraordinary; he and his brother Steven have penned hits for artists like Madonna, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown and Bruno Mars. They’ve been nominated for a Grammy Award four times, winning in 2010 for their contribution to Madonna’s “Revolver” remix.

The Battey brothers, or Jackie’s Boyz, the name they gave themselves in honor of their mother Jackie, were far from an overnight success. Their story began in Savannah, Georgia, when they were just teenagers, busking for change on the pier. After their parents’ death, they made their way to another pier, this one on the opposite side of the country in Santa Monica, CA.

For five years, four to five days a week, they performed on the pier and the streets of L.A., using what little downtime they had to hone their songwriting skills. The hard work finally paid off when they got a chance to record a demo for a new artist named Flor-ida. The song, “Sugar,” went on to sell 1.5 million copies. A publishing deal with Universal came next, and the songwriting team was off and running.

But Los has always been a singer first. After a health scare in 2016, he felt called to finally write and record for his own voice. And what a voice it is.

In our conversation, Los generously shares his story; the love that inspired him to follow his dreams, made him resilient in the face of tragedy and continues to keep him moving forward while giving back to the next generation of young artists.

“…the key to writing for other artists is you have to get out of your mind and get out of your body and just feel what the artist is feeling. I love seeing a glimpse of an artist’s humanity, their willingness to just be open. Cause you can’t be the cool guy for all your life. Right? There’s ups, there’s downs. Everything that happens…just happens to everyone.”

— Los Battey

Links:

You can find Los on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or his website.

The songs from today’s episode are:

When My Love Ends from the album Revival

Anomoly (Single)

Do It Again w/Shawn Stockman from Boyz ll Men (Single)

(all songs used with permission.)

To listen to Jackie’s Boy’s discography, head to his Spotify channel.

Theme music for the Podcast was composed by John Smith. He edits all the podcast episodes too. (Thanks, honey!)

Valerie: So, Hi Los . Welcome to the podcast.
Los: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Valerie: I really am grateful to you for being here. I can hardly wait to ask you this long list of questions I've got going. There's so much about your story that is incredible, and I think will be helpful to listeners.
You've had incredible success as a songwriter, but it was singing I have a feeling that came first. When you were only about 16 years old I read that you and your brother, Steven, sang on the pier in Savannah, Georgia to entertain people, but even more so maybe to make some money. You were entrepreneurial from an early age.
But I bet you started singing when you were a small boy. What's your first memory of singing?
Los: Oh, man. I remember me in diapers singing to Michael Jackson, Billy Jean.
Valerie: Oh, get down.
Los: Yeah, I remember it was pretty early. And I think just, I had to be at least around maybe three or four, maybe even five of just listening to a beat and just wanting to sing and tap along and do whatever I could do.
So that's like my earliest memory. Yeah.
Valerie: Was there a lot of music around the house?
Los: Yeah, there was. You know, Sundays were like cleaning day around the house. So on Sundays we would play music. We'd play, uh, Temptations, My Girl, a lot of the Motown hits. We'd play a lot of like the Whispers and the Chi-Lites.
And so music was always around and it was just there as a, as a comfort too, for me. Cause you know, we didn't have a lot growing up. But music was always constant. It was always something that I could lean on to get me through times.
Valerie: Those are some good songs to do that too. Music can change everything when you're listening to music that inspires you and that you love. Plus it sounds like you were grooving in your pull-ups.
Los: Yeah, that's right.
Family
Valerie: Awesome. Well, relationships are everything in life, and especially in music. There are two people in particular, who've had a huge influence on you and who you are as a person and the music you make, your mom and your brother, Steven. Can you tell us about them?
Los: Yeah, yeah, of course my brother, Steven, we'll start with him.
I mean, you know, I call him a ride or die a person who is just a great-hearted person. And just really, if I have an idea, he will follow along with it. No matter how stupid it is.
Valerie: That's a good brother right there.
Los: But thankfully it's been working out thus far. He is a, just a great guy overall. And we came out to Los Angeles together with just this dream of you know, wanting to make it with very little. You know, his support really is what helped us get to the next level in our careers. He's a bit of a risk taker like myself. I mean, he's been in Nashville for over five years and actually wrote a number one country record for Luke Holmes about two years ago.
Valerie: That's great.
Los: It's just amazing to see that we keep betting on ourselves and we keep winning ultimately. And that's the idea. He's just a great guy and I love him dearly.
And as far as my mother, she is really the driving force behind everything. She instilled in us being humble and being grateful and never taking anything for granted and how much hard work is still important and valuable to this day. And she always is a constant reminder of how to treat people, how to love people, and how to spread love.
We're just really so blessed to have her in my life for the short time that she was here. She passed away in 2004 due to leukemia. But you know, I'll always remember the great things that she taught me and how she always believed in me. And that's why, you know, as an artist, I call myself Jackie's Boy. So that way, when you see me, you'll ultimately see Jackie's boy.
Valerie: Right. She's the energy behind everything that you do is what I've heard you say. Yeah. So who was the ringleader? It sounds like you were when you were young.
Los: Yeah. I'm like four years older. So it, it went from a point to where my little brother would tag behind me everywhere I'd go to like, Hey, get this kid out of here, to like then, well getting older, you realize, okay, well, he actually is pretty cool, so we can start doing stuff together.
Valerie: So when did you start doing music together specifically?
Los: Well, I was around 16, 17. And he was 12, 13, and I noticed that he had a voice. And my mother didn't sing. My father didn't sing too much, but I noticed he had something. And I just would take him everywhere and we would just sing together.
I remember us singing in the hallway of our three bedroom apartment. We would just sing in the hallway and my mom would just tell us to shut up and go to bed cause it was like 10 o'clock at night. Like I said, he's went along with every idea I've had.
Valerie: And what kind of songs did you sing when you were young?
Los: Everything from Jodeci to Tevin Campbell, to After Seven. I mean, we're big R&B heads, you know.
Valerie: And some of that Motown stuff too, right?
Los: Oh, yeah. I mean, like I said, we would have these Sundays of just listening to nothing but classic R&B music. The Jackson Five American Dream movie was one of my favorite movies growing up as a kid. The Temptations movie was another movie growing up as a kid.
So we grew up heavily knowing like who everybody was. We even knew the members of the Temptations. I don't know how many kids can tell you all five members of the Temptations and you're at like nine or 10 years old.
Valerie: You were deep into it. That's fantastic.
Los: Oh, yeah. That's how much we loved it.
Valerie: What about your dad? What kind of influence did he have on your life?
Los: Well, my pops, he was a little bit in and out. I mean, he was a blue collar, you know, go to work, go to bed kind of thing. I mean, him and my mom got divorced when I was about five or six. So, he became the kind of weekend dad, coming over on Saturday and Sunday, picking us up, taking us for ice cream.
And one thing about fathers is they're not around everyday, but they try to drop these nuggets of wisdom on you.
Valerie: Whether you want them or not. Right?
Los: Yeah, exactly. So you're like, I will say we didn't have as much time with him, but when we did, it was some life lessons that we learned along the way. He never talked about music when I was growing up. But then, um, I asked my uncle who is pretty close with my dad. I said, Hey, did dad ever do music? You know, what was up with that? He said, Actually your father used to write songs.
Valerie: Oh my gosh.
Los: He goes, yeah. He said he wrote songs and he would never sing them for us. But he would write songs and write poetry. And it's crazy how that's kind of came around full circle to his children.
Valerie: Without you even knowing about it, as you were growing up. That's some genetic flow through there.
Los: It is. It is.
Valerie: So how has your musical relationship with Steven changed over time? I mean, you said he's now he's in Nashville and you're in, I think you just moved to Florida. Is that right?
Los: Yeah. Yeah. Just bought a house here in Florida. I still live in LA as well. So I'm back and forth quite often. But our relationship has evolved over time.
It's one of those things to where you don't see the person every day, or you don't work with them in the studio every day, but you are supportive in whatever things they do and one thing... you're just happy and proud of the things that they've accomplished.
So we had some parts in our book that were unfinished. And I think for me, it was to see my solo career, my artist career go to the next plateau. And I think for him as well. And I think for him as being a better writer, and him wanting to be a country songwriter, was an itch that he needed to scratch. So we decided to part ways in the sense of we're not in a group anymore, we're not writing all the time anymore, but we're still very much supportive of each other and our journeys that we're taking on.
Valerie: It sounds like it's been really amicable in terms of this new chapter in both of your lives.
Los: Yeah. I think you have to be, you know, I think that there's a natural progression in life for me. I got married. I had kids, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's much different from my brother's life. He's, uh, he's in a relationship, but he's not married. He doesn't have kids. So he's able to do things a little differently from mine and, and that's completely okay.
And I think we respect the ideals that every man must go their path.
Valerie: This is a different season in your life and you are there for each other, even though you're not working together the way you were.
Los: Yes.
Valerie: That's a beautiful thing. That's real love, you know.
Los: Yeah.
Coping With Loss
Valerie: So, your dad died 2003 and your mom only a year later. Steven was like 19, and you were 22, I think.
Los: Mmm hmmm.
Valerie: John and I have a son Malcolm who's 25 and he moved out when he was 18, but we were always around to provide support when he needed it. I just can't help thinking about how hard it would have been for him to lose us at that age.
You know, when you're on the edge of adulthood and finding your own life. I think you still need your parents, even if they're only in the background. You had your brother, but still that had to have been really hard. What was that like for you?
Los: My whole world kind of collapsed. My father, I watched his life transitioning to being, like I said, the weekend dad to then becoming a person that honestly, wasn't very cool to be around the older I became.
So that part I was kind of coping with a little better than the loss of my mom. And when I lost my mom, it was like one of those things, like I never, in a million years would ever thought this would have happened. Because she was sick for about two years, but she was getting better every day. You know, we would take her to her appointments and, uh, she was doing all the right things. And yeah, it just happened and it really hurt.
And I think the part that really made me realize that you're really alone is my daughter was born a year after that. And when you watch a life be born and I knew nothing about raising kids, you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, of course being an older brother to my younger siblings was one thing, but to have a child that you have to look after, and there's so many questions that you have, and you don't know where to start.
Valerie: Right? There's no manual, nobody hands you the manual when you leave the hospital with that little one.
Los: None whatsoever. And I just remember feeling like, man, I wish I could talk to my mother. To have these questions about how to do this, how, you know, what do I do in these regards? Or how was I when I was this age? You know what I'm saying? Like..
Valerie: Right. Of course.
Los: It still kind of get to me to this day because, uh, you know, my daughter is now 14 years old and you know, there's so many things I would have loved for her to be around for and see. But she's always with me in spirit though.
Valerie: Yeah, but still, that's hard too when you're a parent and your children are going through all these stages of development that you wish this person that you loved, your mom could see, you know, to get to know these kids.
She would have loved being a grandma. It sounds like.
Los: Absolutely. She would have been the best Gma. Like she would have spoiled them to death, but she would have been the best of course. Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent.
Valerie: You said about your mom that she was, quote, Always my true inspiration and my driving force. She was responsible for all of this. She inspired me to be who I am and stay true to who I am. If you could talk to her today, what would you want her to know about who you've become?
Los: I probably would just say that I've always thought about you every step of the way. You know, I've always kept her in my mind. And I always tell my kids about her.
You want to tell your kids how much they meant to you. So they can mean something to them as they get older.
Valerie: There she is giving you a little note there.
Los: I know, right?!
Valerie: Right? Ding, an angel gets its wings.
Los: That was a message.
Valerie: From another world.
And then what about who you've become? What would you say to her about your life and how it's gone?
Los: I'm happy. I feel like, of course there's so many things I want to accomplish, but if it all ended today, I'd be very happy with the life that I've built and the family that I have. I have a beautiful wife, beautiful children.
When I left Georgia to come to California, I knew that this part of my life I needed to completely do. Like I can't just kind of half it. Doing that I think made me realize that there's no excuses. I got to get out here. I gotta do my best. And I feel like I've made my mark in music and coming out to LA that I can be proud of.
Valerie: So you've lived the life that you wanted to live and you didn't hold back. And part of it was because she was standing behind you, you felt the whole time.
Los: Yeah, the whole time.
Valerie: Wow. That's awesome.
The Move to L.A.
Speaking of L.A., tell us why you moved to L.A., and then paint us a picture of what life was like for you and Steven, when you first got there.
Los: We moved because after the passing of your parents, there's this thing that people see you as is like, almost like, sorry for your loss, kind of look, people would give me and my brother all the time. And I didn't want to feel that way. I didn't want to have people see me every time.
And we live in a fairly small city or a small community, and I just got tired of hearing it and I didn't want to hear it for the next 5, 10 years going, Hey, those are the boys that lost their mom.
Don't get me wrong. I came to terms with knowing that she's not here, but I wanted more for her name and for our own to be able to be out there.
So we left on the idea of making a name for ourselves and doing what she would have wanted us to do... was to live out our dream.
Valerie: Had you been to LA before? Did you know what you were getting yourselves into?
Los: Mmmm... kinda, kinda not. I went there at 19 one time to just see what LA was like. It was on a vacation kind of thing. And, uh, I went there and I was like, man, this is really nice. So I came back to Georgia. And like I said, after our mom passed, I was like, yo, I think we should really just go hard, just really make this thing happen. He said, All right. Cool.
So...
Valerie: He followed you.
Los: We scouted areas. I mean, I had looked at the pier before - Santa Monica. Looked at, you know, Hollywood Boulevard. You know, I looked at Burbank at different places, Long Beach. And like, it was like, okay, if we set this up properly, we can be able to build a nice little infrastructure here to start making money while people are just having fun on a weekend, we could be having fun and making money at the same time.
Valerie: Which you'd already been doing in Georgia. So you knew it could work.
Los: Yes. In theory, we figured like you get enough people who like enough of your music, there's bound to be somebody who's gonna tip. Um, I remember the first day we came out to LA and we sung, um, and we got a spot and I think we were, I mean, we sung our hearts out for like five hours and we only made $37.
Valerie: Yike. And you're going, Oh, no!
Los: And I'm looking at him, and he's looking at me like, Are you sure this is the right decision to make?
Valerie: Thanks, big brother.
Los: But, um, the next day, in the same amount of time, and we pushed up the intensity. We worked even more harder and we made about 390 something dollars.
Valerie: Wow. That's pretty great. And what a great example of perseverance, right? I mean, you didn't just give up after the first day. You went back. So tell us when your day would start and what it looks like.
Los: Typically you have to get up pretty early to be able to secure a spot, right? So you have to get to the pier around 5:30 AM, because what happens is there's an attendant there who takes people's names and it's first come first serve.
So...
Valerie: So it's really organized.
Los: It's very organized. Yeah, you would think it's just like, Oh, just show up and sing like...
Valerie: Right. Then there'd be 50 people there.
Los: There was about, 12, sorry about maybe 15 spots, but there's really only about eight spots that were really, really good for like people coming by and actually watching you.
So, uh, we would get there at 5:00 AM. The attendant will come by at seven. We put our name on the list at five, soon as you get there. He shows up at seven. He looks at the list. Ask what spot we want and we take the spot and then we would have to wait until our set time.
And our set time would be anywhere, it could be... they had a 12 to 4, a 4 to 8, and then an 8 to 12. And for us 12 to 4 was like the best time because people would come by and, you know, it's still early enough to where families can come by and give tips.
So we would then go back to the car, wait till 11 o'clock grab all the equipment, which was so much equipment. Oh my gosh, speakers and cords. And just, I mean, and we had this little trolley, little dolly thing... that was falling out, like it was the box and the speakers will fall every time we put it on this damn trolley. It was so annoying. It was so annoying.
Valerie: Oh man, that sounds, yeah.
My husband, John, his first gigs, uh, he's a guitar player, you know, and his first gigs, uh, he'd load all his stuff up into a shopping cart and push it down to the gig in Portland. So it sounds like a similar thing with the trolley. You're just trying to... moving gear, it keeps you in good shape though, right? I mean...
Los: Yeah it does. It was frustrating though. Cuz by the time you get there, you'd be like, I don't want to sing no more.
Valerie: Right, right. I don't want to perform. I'm all wiped out. I'm all sweaty already.
And was this five days a week?
Los: Yeah. About four or five days a week.
Writing Songs
Valerie: That's a lot of playing. So during that time, were you writing songs as well?
Los: Personally, yeah, we would, we would kind of write our own songs and like find beats on YouTube or whatever, and just kind of write little ideas and songs. I always loved to write.
So that was kind of something that was just always in me to just keep doing. And, um, we met a, um, woman by the name of Rachel Noelle, amazing, amazing woman and a mentor as well. She saw us singing on the pier one day and was like, Hey, I got a party on, I think it was a 4th of July party. And she said, I'd love to hire you guys to perform. And this is in the Hills and Hollywood. So we're like, Oh snap, like, this is pretty cool.
Valerie: Let's go!
Los: Let's do it. So she paid us and I was like, okay. And then she was like, I'd like to talk to you guys about management. I'm like, okay, cool. So she began to manage us and she had a studio inside her home.
So what we would do is, after we would sing on the pier, we'd go to her house and record songs and create music that way. Yeah. We're were always writing music. And I think after that, it was just the right place, and right time situation. But the timing was a little late though. It was like five years of doing what we were doing. Singing at the pier, going to the studio. Singing at the pier, going to the studio.
Valerie: So another overnight success, right?
Los: Exactly, right? It just happened so quickly for us.
Valerie: Five years of playing on the pier, doing parties, but yet you had some support already. I mean, you already had somebody on your team helping you to do what you needed to do.
So after five years of getting up at 5:30 in the morning to claim your spot, you finally get a break. How did that happen?
Getting A BreakLos: Um, it happened with, uh, of us kind of doing the whole rinse and repeat situation of just singing that we end up meeting an A&R, a junior A&R at the pier one day.
Valerie: So can you explain to our listeners what A&R means?
Los: Yeah. A&R is the artist's repertoire. They're basically the people that help put these songs together and these collaborations together with these artists. They typically, they all work at record labels and this person, Brandon Kitchen - shout out to Brandon Kitchen, worked at Atlantic records.
So his job was to be able to find talent, find songwriters, bring about collaborations, things of that nature.
Valerie: So he heard you on the pier.
Los: He heard me and Steve on the pier and then asked us if we wrote songs for other people or wrote songs in general. And you know, I said, absolutely, we do, you know. And at the time we didn't have anything placed on anyone. We just, who, you know, our idea was just like, just say yes, and then we'll figure it out later.
Valerie: Right. Yes we do!
Los: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. We can do whatever you want. So, that was the idea and the mentality. Yeah. And because we got time, I'll give you actually the little longer story. Cause the shorter story is it's great, but the longer story just shows kind of how you just don't give up in these situations.
Doggedness and Determination
So we built a relationship with Brandon and we started to send him demos over time. And he didn't just go right away and say, Hey, I think guys are ready to meet with Atlantic records yet. But it was a relationship we had to build on.
And that was about maybe six months of just like, Hey, check out this demo. Oh, I like this song. Oh, I like that song, et cetera, et cetera. He goes, all right. I think you guys are ready to meet my boss at the record label. And I was like, alright cool.
So he sets up the meeting and me and my brother are sitting and, you know, we see all these plaques and all of these, just super cool things on the wall and all these famous artists and pictures and all of this stuff. And it's like, our mind is blown.
So we play him some demos from the stuff that we have recorded at our manager's house. And he goes, Man, I like you guys' stuff. You know, you guys seem very raw. And I'm like, yeah, you know, we, we literally just sung on the pier. So like, we're not like, singer songwriters, you know, but he was like, Okay, cool.
And I could tell at the time he really didn't want to take the meeting because you know, we're not famous songwriters. Right. But when it's junior A&Rs are saying, Hey, I got these guys come and meet them.
So he gives us his email. He goes, Hey, you guys keep in touch with me. And I said, well, likewise, we'll just, you know, we're hungry, right. So we're just going to keep in touch.
So we go back home. I mean, we start working on stuff. He sends us beats, the label does. And we're just start writing. We're just writing and writing, writing. We're sending in stuff, sending in stuff, sending in stuff. So after a while, me and the gentleman at the record label start to build a nice little rapport with each other.
And then all of a sudden he got ghosts. Like did not respond, did not text back. Did not do anything. And I'm thinking to myself, like, what did I do? Like, is there anything I did wrong? Did he not like the songs? He said he liked these songs. I don't understand. Like we've been talking and talking and talking.
Another six to eight months go by. I am like...
Valerie: Oh my gosh.
Los: I'm like on the edge of like insanity and like determination cause it's like, you're not going to just ignore me now. So I found his number.
Valerie: Wow. You are dogged.
Los: And this wasn't like right away. Like I said, it's about five or six months after he..
Valerie: Right, right. Where you've tried everything else.
Los: Absolutely. I said, Hey, what's up, man? I think we lost touch. I would really love to keep building a relationship with you. Um, you know, me and my brother are always writing. We've got some great material. And he calls me. And he goes, Man, you don't play around. Do you? I was like, no, man, I don't.
Valerie: You're serious as a heart attack. You got a bull by the horns. You are not putting it down.
Flo-Rida
Los: You're not going to get rid of us that easy. So he was like, Okay, I'll tell you what, I'm looking for something for Flo-Rida. And I need a follow up single for him. And can you guys do it? I said, yes, absolutely. Just, you know, tell us when and where and we're there.
So the way the record companies do is they'll have a bunch of writers and they'll put you in sessions for like, you know, maybe four hours, six hours, and your whole job is to be able to write the artist's next, single or third single, or even write the whole album if they likl you enough. So he offered us 45 minutes.
Valerie: Oh my God.
Los: Clearly not enough time to be able to flesh out ideas and be able to do it, but I think honestly, because he thought we were going to bomb. So he was like, let me just give 'em a shot so they can just get off my back and he can stop calling my personal number.
So, me and my brother we get to the session. And I hear the beat and, you know, for me, it was like kind of just breaking everything down. I'm hearing melodies, I'm hearing all these different things. And I was like, okay, cool, go me in the booth. So I get into the booth and the beat comes on and I just start singing, My lips, like sugar.
I just run ...Then I'm just start singing these melody. And then the junior A&R, Brandon, at the time, he was like, Yo, I like that. I think that's dope. Sounds really, really good. So he jets it over to the senior A&R, he hears it and goes, I think you got something. And at that moment I'm like, Oh my gosh. Like really? Like you think, you know.
So, uh, that song became Sugar, featuring Winter Gordon, and it sold 2 million copies. And he definitely was hitting me a lot more than I was hitting him after that. I can tell you that.
Valerie: Unbelievable. That is such an amazing story. And I'm glad you told the longer version of it, because I think it's important for people to know that these things can happen in this way sometimes. You were ready though. Like the whole time you were waiting for feedback from him, those four or five, six months where he wasn't responding, you just kept doing it.
You kept, you know, writing songs and throwing them back at him. And, and so you were practiced. When you stepped into that booth, you were ready to throw down and you only had 45 minutes and you did it.
Los: And I think that that was something that was destined. I think it was destined by God to be like, Hey, the five years that you've been doing here, and the other five years that you've been singing in Savannah, and the studio time, and the lossed studio time and the, you ain't got enough money to go an extra hour for studio time - all those things prepared me for that moment.
Valerie: Yeah. And you did not give up. Finding his phone number and texting him - that is ballsy and great. I mean, wow.
SongwritingWell, I want to pivot back to songwriting for a little bit here. What's the process of songwriting like for you?
Los: For me, I'm a melody guy at the core. So, uh, I get driven by melodies first. So I'll go into a booth and if a track is there for me and it's already laid out, I'll go in and start kind of humming and singing along a lot of gibberish.
And once I kinda get something I can grab onto, which is like maybe one word or a title, Or something that kind of gets me moving. I'll start to build a song around that. I think for me, it's not hard, but it's, it's a little, slightly difficult to try to create a song out of thin air without trying out melodies on a track first.
I think there's a back and forth, a bit of a dialogue when a track speaks to you. You want to speak back to it, and if you're not in sync with that, it's not going to work.
Valerie: So you have to be into it.
Los: A hundred percent. You have to be into it. And you have to see where the melodies take you. I mean, I've written tons of songs without any beat, right.
Are at least, for instance, I'll have the track and I'll just write it right on my phone or on a pad or whatever, and then I'll sing it. And I was like, Oh, it doesn't sound the way I envisioned it in my head. And that's because I didn't get a chance to really hug the track first, get in the booth and sing along to those melodies. And I think that's important.
Valerie: Hmm. So the feeling of the track really propels you, is that right?
Los: Yes, absolutely.
Valerie: So how is it different when you write with, or for other artists?
Los: Same kind of process. I just kind of do a little more thinking and diving into who the person is. So, uh, you know, for any artists I've written for, I try to get like some background ideas and just what makes them tick and things like that.
For instance, I worked on Chris Brown's fifth album called Graffiti. And everyone knew what the title of the album was going to be called, which was Graffiti. But for me, I was like, okay, then this was right after the Rihanna incident and everything that was going on in his life. So he was in a really crazy time of knowing like, you know, rise or fall.
And, uh, I had a chance to sit with him, and just kind of be around him, and just watch him in, in his spirit and his heart. And he was a really, just a really good guy. And it took me sitting down and getting a chance to talk to him that I wrote this song called Graffiti. And I said, I think I'm going to write the title track.
And no one asked me to do it. Me and my brother was like, yo, we're gonna do something extremely different. We're not going to go for the number one chart topping record right now. That's going to be basically surface level talking about a girl and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. We want to find something that's a little more deep - deeper.
Valerie: Cause he was in a deeper place in his life where he was kind of cracked open.
Los: Exactly, exactly. And I think he was 19 or 20 at the time. You're you're a kid, you're a child. So he was had to, had to face with adult issues very early. So the song Graffiti was basically talking about how the things that I've done does not define me as a human being. I am remorseful. I've learned my lesson.
I have to press on, I have to move on. And that people were trying to spray graffiti over me like I don't exist anymore. Which isn't completely fair to me. You know, I'm still a kid basically at heart. And I sung the demo and his manager heard the song and was like, Oh, Chris already sung it? He's like.. No, I'm like, that's me. He was like, Oh wow!
Valerie: You really, you nailed it. You nailed him.
Los: I tried, I tried to get it in his psyche as much as possible, even down to the mannerisms and the adlibs that he would normally do. Like, I tried to really tap into who he was. And he heard it and was like, yo, I love it. Let's finish it together. So..
It was so cool. I'm just, you know, and I'm a huge Chris Brown fan. So I'll be my brother and Chris in the studio working on a song together. I'm like, can't believe I'm working with Chris Brown right now. How cool is that?
Valerie: That's amazing. But the door opened because you got inside his head and actually his heart.
Los: Yes, I think that, uh, that's the key to, you know, writing for other artists is you have to get out of your mind and get out of your body and just feel what the artist is feeling. To me I love seeing a glimpse of an artist's humanity, their willingness to just be open. Cause you can't be the cool guy for all your life. Right? There's falls. There's ups, there's downs. Everything that happens where, you know, it just happens to just everyone.
So I wanted to show that.

Valerie: I saw a video on YouTube that you and your brother made. Oh, my gosh, I think it was back in 2011 or something, maybe 2010. And it was kind of a, a reel, like a here's Jackie's Boyz reel. And, uh, Bruno Mars was on it talking about how cool you guys are.

Bruno Mars
You've written a bunch of songs with Bruno Mars. How did that come about? And what was that like? I'm a huge fan.
Los: You know, it was really cool. I mean, at the time when you're... we're in this new world of like songwriters, right? We didn't know songwriters was even a thing. We just thought the artists wrote their own songs, you know, at that time. So at that, that A&R, I mentioned to you at Atlantic, he exposed us to the idea of, Oh, like, people do this for a living living. Like you can make a living from this. And there's circles of people who are just doing this all day writing for other people.
So he had suggested that there was a duo, a writing duo just like me and Steve called the Smeezingtons, and it was Phillip Lawrence and Bruno Mars.
And he was like, you guys got to get in the studio. You guys got to create something with them because we think they're going to be the next to go. So we want you guys to kind of be in the mix.
So our first meeting, we go to their studio in Hollywood and we're just like, cracking jokes and laughing and talking about where we come from and just our history and background. And it's funny because he was like, man, y'all sing on the pier. Right? I was like, yeah. He's like, I think I saw y'all. A lot of people saw us like, you know, doing our thing. And so they respected the fact that we, we weren't like some made to order writers. Yeah.
Valerie: You were from the street.
Los: Yeah.
Valerie: You were from the Pier.
Los: I feel as authentic and as real as you can get. From a rags to semi riches story at that time.
Valerie: Which is Bruno's story too, right?
Los: Absolutely. So we started telling stories and he's told us that he was signed to Motown and, you know, got dropped. And basically that he was like, Hey, I'm just trying to write these records. And just make it happen. And at the time he wasn't even thinking about being an artist again. He just walked through the idea of just writing for other people.
So we caught a vibe, him, and me, Phil, and me and Steve, we just caught a vibe, of just working every weekend. So we fused our name to The Jackeezingtons.
We got to a point where almost everything we wrote that place. Like almost everything we did just flew off the shelf. And it was those guys who said, Hey, you know what, what are y'all doing today? So are we at the crib or are we all singing at the Pier? Well after y'all get done come to the studio.
And we will fall into working with Lloyd and people just come into the studio who we, who we had no idea that we would end up working with. But, because these guys were in the business, I'll look at like, they were up and coming, but they had the relationships that we didn't have. Like I said, over time, we just built and built and talked about our dreams and aspirations and one record ended up turning to like 20 or 30 records we did together.
Valerie: My goodness. That's incredible.
Thank you again for doing this. I think it's going to give people a behind the scenes look that often they don't get. They don't see like, yes, we made that connection, but it didn't bear fruit for six to eight to 10 months later, at least.
Los: It's not for the weak of heart or faint of heart. It's just, you have to, I mean, to tell you the amount of nos. I could write a book of just nos and tell you how many times people told us no. And how many things just didn't work out are the almost we kind of made it, but it's not what it is. You know what I mean? But those stories defined us. Those nos made us more hungrier and more diligent about what we wanted. It's crazy.
Valerie: That's resilience, right? I've been thinking about resilience a lot lately, because it's what makes it possible to recover from life's failures, disappointments and hardship, you know? I mean, it's always been an important capacity to have as an artist, but it's also an essential skill to have as a human, right? Because especially in this moment, we're in - the pandemic, the politics, the protests, and all the divisiveness in our country, we need to have resilience as humans.
ResilienceYour life has taught you a lot about resilience. Is there anything that you can say to that that would be helpful to others?
Los: I dunno if you've seen the picture of the glacier that is in the water and you only see the top of it and they show all the way at the bottom of the ocean floor and how long that glacier has been growing and growing and growing until you see the top. And that kind of sums up my life and my journey for so many years. You know, you have the talent, you have the work ethic, you have the ability, but no one notices.
And then over time, slowly and slowly enough people start talking, enough people start saying, you know what, check this person out, or check out this work, or check out this song. And slowly and slowly, you start to see... you come out the water a bit. And then you're big enough to be seen in view and things just start to happen, but there's still much more to go. But at least you're seen a bit, but don't diminish the parts that you're underwater's still growing.
Valerie: They have to remain strong. Right?
Los: Absolutely.
Valerie: That's a beautiful image. That's a great metaphor, actually for resilience is that that base is wide and deep.
How does that base get built?
Los: I think for me, it's celebrating the little wins in life. Like the first year of us performing - street performing - we could have been like, Aw, man, you know, we're not Usher already?
You know what I'm saying? We're not like, we're not like, you know, named the big artists at the moment. And when you look at things like that, You automatically think, Oh, you're not good enough because you're not at that level yet. But when you celebrate the little wins, man.
I remember when we had a manager, right. Shout out to Rachel again. That was a little win. Even somebody going, Yo, man, I like your song. Don't matter if it's on the radio or not.
And at the time, you know, we would try to, you know, talk to girls or whatever, like. So we, you know, we go on a date and be like, Oh, I got this song I want to play you. And then you play the song, and the girl be like, Ooh, I like that song. That was a win for me. That was a win for my brother and me.
Valerie: Yeah.
Los: So celebrate those little wins in life because eventually they'll lead up to the big one that you're trying to get to.
And even in my personal life, right, I have more, the little wins I'm accepting now is even as an artist, right. My song just went, uh, number 20 on the digital charts.
Valerie: Oh, congratulations.
Los: And it's a little win for me because yeah, it's not on the radio right now, on terrestrial radio at the moment, but it's a win that I'll take. And because I've dreamed of wanting to be an artist for so long and wanting to fulfill this part of my journey. I'll take it. I mean, when I cracked my first hundred thousand streams, I was almost in tears. Right? Cause it's like, these are little wins that I appreciate. So when I do get to those crazy numbers or just kind of being out and about, and people noticing me, you know, as an artist, I will reflect back on these moments and know that man, this I've went through the journey and then I celebrated the little wins.
Valerie: Yeah. I don't know how an iceberg forms underneath the water, but I bet it's layer by layer. You know, a little bit of freezing at a time. Like those little wins that you're talking about, you know? And pretty soon it just builds a solid foundation. And that's so awesome that you're recognizing those.
Cause sometimes people have their eye on the big prize and that's important too, right? I mean, you got to have a vision for where you want to go, but you also have to be grateful for where you are right now.
Los: Yeah. I agree.
Health Challenge
Valerie: Because life is short. In fact, the last two years have been kind of crazy for you in that you were faced with a major health challenge. Talk about coming right up against mortality and being in the moment. What happened? And what was important to you before that health challenge and what's important to you now?
Los: I was doing my thing in LA as always just kind of moving around. And I would come home and I would get these crazy migraines, you know, almost like I could barely like keep my eyes open migraines, and my jaw would just be in pain all the time.
I would talk to my wife. I'm like, why is this happening? Like, so I went to the dentist. And initially I thought, Oh, okay, well, I must have some type of, uh, like, uh, something needs to be removed. A wisdom tooth or something like that. So I ended up getting all my wisdom, teeth removed, but then I was still having the same kind of pain, same kind of migraines.
So. I went and, uh, the dentist said, you know what, let me put you on an X Ray to really kind of get a whole panel of your face. So he did it and then, uh, he you know, looked at the, uh, x-ray any kind of give you one of those, hmmm. And when you get a hmmm, you know, he's said, Hey, well, this seems a little abnormal. I'm going to refer you to a specialist so they can write, I actually kind of give you a better diagnosis.
And, uh, you know, I had already felt anxiety from, uh, my parents passing away so early that I was kinda going to be, you know, the cautionary tale of just somebody just losing their life at an early age.
Valerie: Makes sense.
Los: Yeah. So I went to the specialist and he says, yeah, you know, I got your x-ray. It does look a little, little abnormal. We're going to take a look at it. So after I come out of there and he said, well, it looks like there's a cyst or a tumor in your jaw. I don't know quite which one it is, but we're going to do a biopsy. Give us 11 days and we'll tell you exactly what it is. The most painful 11 days of my life.
Valerie: I bet. Oh my God.
Los: Just stressful pain.
Valerie: Oh, just knowing that your well being reminded that it's there because of the pain and then not knowing what it is and waiting for the results and your mom and dad. And, Oh my God!
Los: That to me is some real fear. Not like a fear like monsters and ghosts and all that crazy stuff. But when you have so many things ahead of you at a young age that you want to accomplish, and there's one defining answer that could either make that happen or deny that from you, that's a fear that I, I've never experienced before to that moment, and never want to repeat again.
On the 11th day I got a call and he said, We needs you to come by to the doctor's office. So I go to the doctor and he goes, So, um, I have to tell you what you have is a tumor called ameloblastoma. And I'm like, well, what is that? You know, the long words, are even scarier. So I'm like, Oh my God, well, can you tell me what it means?
He goes, Well, it's not very common. It makes about 1% of the world's tumors, but it is a very aggressive tumor. Now the good news is it's not cancerous. But the bad news is the natural things we will use for something like this that would be cancerous would be chemotherapy that would shrink the tumor. But because those things don't work on this kind of tumor, it's almost worse.
The good news - it's not cancer. Bad news is it's going to kill you anyway.
I go, what, what do I do? He goes, well, there's no other option, but to do a very invasive surgery on your jaw. At the time, this is in Los Angeles, so the doctor, he said that their procedure was to remove the section of the tumor, where it is. Also some bone that was around the tumor. Take a piece of my leg bone and put that and replace into my jaw. And that would take about a year of recovery.
Well, what happens if I don't do the tumor? He said, Well, eventually you'll start to grow the tumor on both sides of your mouth, on the inside and outside, it'll crush your larynx so you won't be able to speak or sing, and it eventually will kill you.
So I was like, okay. But at the time I wasn't quite satisfied with the year recovery. So I talked to my wife and I say, We have to find another doctor. It's a big country, right? And I was prepared to go anywhere to get me something better than a year.
So, I went and hit my good friend Google. And I found a surgeon in Ohio, a surgeon in New York, and a surgeon in Miami. And I like Miami. So I was like, I'm gonna try this one first. And I sent him an email. And I said, you know, Hey, you don't know me, but I would love to see if you could take me as a patient, here's my x-rays, here's what it is. And, uh, you know immediately me and my wife and my newborn baby at the time we made the decision to move to Miami for my recovery.
So we left LA for a while and he said, Hey, you know, I can definitely take you as a patient. And I was able to be fully recovered in four months.
Valerie: Wow.
Los: Yeah. So they took out my jaw, my right jaw completely, and they replaced it with a titanium plate. And right now, that place still sits perfectly and symmetrically with my face in my mouth.
Valerie: Did having that titanium in your jaw affect anything about your singing?
Los: No. Um, I feel like, I think it made it a little better honestly. I'm able to have different tones from the way that I'm singing now,
Valerie: I bet it was impacting your singing and you didn't even know it. And you were just figuring a way to sing around it without even knowing it was there.
Los: Exactly. And that was, you know, I had had it for two years and didn't know.
Valerie: So having it out of there just felt freeing.
Los: It did. It did. It felt really freeing and allowed me to just like, take a sigh of relief to know that it was completely gone. And now I go back every year just for, you know, my followup, whatever. But shoutout to Dr. Mark for keeping me alive and helping me, um, you're the best.
Valerie: What a thing to go through. So what was important to you before, and what's important to you now?
Los: I think before I was just like, kind of taking things for granted a little bit. If somebody wants to offer me a show, Oh, I'll take it whenever I want to. Or somebody is looking to work with me as an artist. Oh, well, you know, I'll get around to it. But, there's nothing like being faced with death and just, your own mortality where you realize yo, like I don't have that kind of time to sit and say, yeah, Oh, I'll get to it when I feel like it, you know?
Our days aren't promised to us. So we have to appreciate it. And after that, I told God, I said, if you get me out of this and you allow me to get back to recovery, the way I was before, I won't take the gift for granted. And soon as I came out, I did my first record called Mad Love, which was dedicated to my wife and her willingness to stand by me and through a crazy time. And I've been hitting it ever since. I've been going hard.
Valerie: Did this kind of happen concurrently with your brother and you deciding that there were different things that you wanted to do in life?
Los: Yeah, it was around the same time. When you got unfinished business that you want to do...
Valerie: Right. It focuses you to have a disease like that or anything that threatens your life.
Speaking of which I have to thank you for something that you probably don't know that you did.
Los: OK.
Buzzin'
Valerie: So, in 2010, our publishing company got in touch with us to see what we thought about a song called Buzzin' by a rap artist named Mann. And it had some samples on it from our Nu Shooz hit, I Can't Wait. And it turns out you and Steven were two of the writers. So..
Los: Great song by the way. The original was already great on its own.
Valerie: Tell me everything. How did you end up on that song writing team or what, you know, what, what role did you play in the creation of Buzzin'?
Los: Yeah. So, um, I just gotta give props to you by the way. Just amazing song. Just, you guys are amazing anyway. Nu Shooz - amazing. I think I've said early on that my mom would play music that I would just jam to on Sundays. And I Can't Wait was one of those songs as well. So I just want to let you know that too. Yeah. That that's amazing.
Valerie: I love it. You were jamming to I Can't Wait in pullups probably.
Los: So yeah, there was an A&R, at, I can't remember the name of the label. It's um, he's not there anymore. I think he's changed labels by then, but his name was Daniel. And Daniel was always a huge fan of kind of what me and my brother did. And he, you know, was privy to the Madonna record and the Bieber records. And he goes, Man, I got this new artist, name is Mann. You know, I think he's got some squabble. I think he'd be able to do something. ..He's from West LA.
And I got this track, this producer did. And we had a relationship somewhat with J.R. Rotem. Where we've known him for awhile. And he was known to like flip samples. Like he would take classic songs and just flip them and, you know, see if we can make something out of it.
So I heard that beat and I went in and wrote the chorus - Man I feel like money. They're attracted to me. Come around, like honey, cause I'm fly like a bee. Yeah I got 'em all buzzin'. That's all we had, we had the chorus.
So we sent the chorus to Daniel.
Valerie: I'm smiling so big right now, I wish you could see. I love hearing you sing that. Okay. Sorry. Go on.
Los: We sent the demo to Daniel. Daniel sent it to J.R. And J.R. was like, Yo, this is fire. Let's uh, let's get Mann to lay some verses. And Mann wrote his own verses. So he wrote both verses. But I'm gonna tell you the coolest part to me was..
Okay. After he did his verse, he did it separately. We did the hook separately. He said, Hey, how about we all get together and finish up the bridge? Cause we need a bridge for this. So we go into the studio on Melrose, a studio on Melrose, and we got the song idea. He's laying it down. It sounds great.
And we, I wrote a bridge. And to me, I was like, Okay, the bridge is cool. And I can't remember what the bridge was at the time. But I was like, we had left the session. Right. Cause we were going to another session. But something told me, in the car, I said, Yo, that bridge ain't good enough. And Steve was like, what?
I say, bro. That's.. That bridge is not good enough. If this song cause see, at that time, Daniel was saying, this song is a hit. This song is going to be everywhere. This song is going to be so, so, so, so dope. Right? So I was like, I say, if Daniel was saying this song is going to be big as we think it is, and as I believe it is, I don't want to leave anything to chance.
He was like, well, what are you saying? I said, let's turn around and go back. And this is at like four o'clock, five o'clock rush hour in LA.
Valerie: Oh boy, that's not an easy thing to do.
Los: So I called the engineer and I talked to Mann. I say, Hey Mann, sorry bro', this may seem very weird to you, but we want to come back and redo the bridge. And he goes, what? I go, We want to come back and do the bridge. We turn back around, take us another 45 minutes to get back to the studio.
We get in the studio. And, uh, we come up with the, And their friends. I, her, we can get all her friends buzzin'. So we came up with this cool little chant thing. Like, so we had this like cool little bridge that we came up with in like 10 or 15 minutes.
Valerie: Perfect.
Los: And I told Steve, after, I said, now we can leave.
Plus knowing that when our best isn't enough, we was like, yo, we gotta go the next level. Cuz I knew that that song, the original, the ones that you guys did, was so great that I don't want to touch anything unless it's great as well, unless it stands up, at least holds up somewhere close to the original. Cause uh, I'd hate for anybody to go, Oh, man. Why did he do that? Why'd they flip that one? That, the original was so much better. Like, why'd they even touch it.
So I never wanted to get that kind of feeling.
Valerie: And that happens. That song's been sampled and written over, you know. And there's been some other versions that have been pretty cool. I have to say that Buzzin' is our favorite.
Los: Man. That means so much.
Valerie: It is.
Los: Like, you have no idea.
Valerie: It's our favorite one. And it was really fun for us to have friends call us up and say, Oh my God, I was in the car with my daughter and we were driving along and this song Buzzin' comes along and my daughter's singing along to it in the back.
And then the mom says, you know, our friend she says, well, honey, you know where that song came from. And, you know, then can like school them - school, the kids in the eighties. Yeah. Here's the lineage actually, darling.
So after that record came out, 50 Cent got involved. Do you know how that happened?
Los: I heard, and I do not know for sure, I heard that 50 Cent was talking with the label, and asking about what hot songs were popping in LA at the time. I don't know if this is all true. It can be more to the story. They played him a couple artists, that songs were really on the rise that was getting some play.
Cause we had the New @ 2 on Power 106. And that was like, the thing. New @ 2 was like hottest records, hip hop, R&B records at the time. And ours were at New @ 2, and then there was another record called Body On Me by Jeremih. And 50 hopped on both of those. And that's, that's the story that I heard that he was like, yo, I like this record. Let me hop on it.
Valerie: So he did a remix that he put out on his website is what I heard. And actually people were downloading it for free or something crazy like that? Maybe this is wrong too. I mean, you know how stories go? If you're not really there, you don't really know what happened. But then the labels got involved, and this might've just been part of the marketing who knows, you know?
But, um, the labels got involved ,and then they put the remix out, and the video, and the thing went crazy. It went crazy in the United States and the UK. And it funded my cancer treatments. That's what I wanted to tell you.
Los: Oh my gosh. I did not know that.
Valerie: So in 2011, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and then I went through a winter of chemo, and I had surgery, and had radiation and all that.
And when the bills started coming in, that's when the publishing money started coming in too. And we had insurance, but you know, health insurance for self employed people. It's like what insurance, you know? I mean, our exposure, as they say was, you know, probably 20 grand. And so it made that experience..
First of all, I knew that I wasn't going to die. My surgeon that I first met with, she said, just want to tell you straight up, you're going to die from something else. This is not what you're going to die from. So I was like, okay, good. I'm going with that story. I just have to go through all the treatments and everything and they'll be over.
But then to not be left with all those bills and stuff was just an added blessing. Because I didn't have to worry, like so many people do, about what they're going to do when the bills come in, you know? I mean, you want to be focused on your health. You don't want to be focused on how you're going to pay for getting well.
So ,thank you. Thank you for the part you played in that.
Los: You, you planted the seed, which was that song. If I didn't hear that sample, right, I would have been like, Oh, okay you know. But when I heard it immediately and that bass line, but do, do, do, do, I mean, I remember that as a kid and that made me go, yo, this is it.
Valerie: You win. You win! I'll tell you what you win too. So we have this little test called the cool test. If people come up to us and say, Hey, are you guys the people that did that song? And it goes like this, and if they go , that's not cool. But if they sing the baseline, like you just did..
Los: Oh, yeah. That's it. That's what you immediately know. I know that baseline like, Oh, my God. It's so on.
Valerie: Because the baseline is the thing. I love it. I really do. So, anyway, great story and great connection to have with you by the way. So it's lovely to meet you 10 years later.
You've made a huge commitment to live a musical life. What else are you committed to in your life?
Commitment to Being A Great Father
Los: Well, for me, it's, it's being a great father.
I didn't get a chance to get as much of that as I could with my own father. Like I said, I had bits and pieces of him, but it was really important to me to raise my children with the idea of knowing that their dad is always going to be there for them and help them through the tough times. Yeah. I think that's probably the most important thing. I'm really proud and grateful of it.
That makes me who I am, uh, is a great father, a great husband and a great friend ultimately. Somebody you can call on when you need something and just being able to be there. Cause at the end of the day, you know, don't get me wrong, I would love for people to remember the songs that I've done, but also remember the man, I am. That's probably more important than songs.
Moving Forward. Giving Back.
Right. But yeah. And you know, I just want to keep moving and pursuing things further. Like for me, I'm on this whole R&B campaign right now of bringing R&B back to the forefront. I created a label called Big Circle Music Group, which is dedicated to, um, really bringing R&B music back to the forefront. And we're doing some great things over here.
We've, you know, I'm the first artist signed to the label. I have another artist as well, named Aunyae who's on the label. And, and I'll be releasing several releases over the next several months and going into 2021 and, and beyond.
Valerie: That sounds like a great next step for you. After all the other people that you've written songs for and all the other labels that you've provided songs for to have your own label and be the singer and sing your own songs.
Sounds like a really great next step.
Yeah, but it sounds like you're also committed to giving back. I mean, the video for Mad Love and what it raised awareness for, the sex trafficking in the, in the United States and the world, and then the money that you raised through Jackie's Boyz events that went to an organization called The Black Book Sessions.
So you're committed to giving back to the community as well, and also to the up and coming musicians who want to have a career in this crazy mixed up business that we're in.
There's a program that you have called Music Success 101. Are you still, are you still interested in teaching the next generation?
Los: Yes. I have a songwriting masterclass. It's called Hit Songs Academy, which is dedicated to, um, giving artists a chance to understand how my song writing process works and how I basically create. And, uh, it gives some business ideas as well, and just kind of how to navigate in this crazy business.
So yeah, it's, it's something really cool. I created it top of the year. I've been really pushing it since the top of the year. It's a real cool thing. And I've had people take my class and they're like, Yo, like I learned so much. I didn't know about this. I didn't know about that, and you know, it's all online which is cool. And it's basically these 12 modules, 12 videos that you can be able to watch. And due to COVID obviously, you know, it's nothing like having something in that you can just watch from home.
And while you're learning at the same time, you could be, you know, sitting on your couch or in your studio, wherever. But yeah. You know, giving back is a credit, back to my mother again. She always helped people in need. She was always a giver and she taught us to do the same.
Valerie: Yeah. It's important. Especially when you end up, through hard work and perseverance, getting so much, it feels good to give back.
So what would you tell a younger version of yourself if you could go back in time and talk to him? What age would he be first of all?
Los: I think it would be, I would probably say 20, 21 self. And I would just tell myself at 21 to really breathe in the moments that you have with your family. Really take in the moments you have with your mom and your father. And that your life's going to change. And it's not going to always be bad, but it's going to be some adjustment. And, uh, to learn to embrace change, because you're going to deal with a lot of changes in your life.
That's what I'd probably say to myself.
Valerie: Yeah. Breathe in the moment and appreciate the time with your family. I think that's a good one for any age, right?
Los: Yeah.
Valerie: So last but not least, you've got a new record out right now called Do It Again, featuring Shawn Stockman from the legendary group Boys II Men. That's not an easy thing to do right now, put out a record. So I hope it's going well. Actually, you just said it's going well.
Los: Thank you.
Valerie: Is there anything that I haven't asked you?
Los: Oh, I think you covered it. I mean, This is so much fun, you know? Cause you do interviews, you know, and it just feels like super long winded and all of this stuff. But with you, it's like a conversation. And it's like talking to a friend, which you are a friend now. And it's just two people having a great conversation. And um, yeah, I love it.
Valerie: I'm glad you feel that way. I really, that makes me feel good. Cause that's what I go for. I mean, I've been on the other end of a lot of these interviews too. And when they ask you what your favorite color is, it's like really? Can we talk about something else?
Just a little bit. Come on.
Los: You know, I've got to ask you now because I have a podcast myself on my Instagram live. I do once a month called Do You Miss R&B. And I would love to have you on it. So I will be hitting you up and asking you at some point, like, when are you available?
Valerie: Oh, that'd be great. And I'd love to do it with John actually.
Cause you'll love him too. He's amazing. We call him Mr. Jeopardy at our house because he's got the memory for names, dates, places. And he's also really funny. He's a funny guy. Which is why we've been together for 45 years or something like that. Oh my God.
So where can people find you online?
Los: Yes, under uh, Jackie's Boy, I'm on Twitter. Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok. It's spelled like it sound: J A C K I E S B O Y - Jackie's Boy. And yeah, I'm all over there and check out my antics and, and, uh, yeah, that's where I'll be.
Valerie: Excellent. Thank you so much, Los, for being on my podcast today. I have enjoyed talking with you so much and it's just great to get to know you.
Los: Likewise. Likewise Valerie. Thank you so much again. And, uh, and I got to say again, I mean, you guys, what you brung to music, it just, it just makes me smile. And I know it makes a lot of people around the world smile. So, uh, it's just so cool to see you doing this and obviously talking about great things and the love of music. Um, but also, like I said, you guys are truly a gift to music with, with your amazing music catalog.
Valerie: Ah, thank you. Yeah. Joy is important in life and I'm so glad we get to be a part of other people's joy, you know?