Combining electro riffs and pop grooves, Miami native Jamie Jo is getting a buzz with her debut single "U Turn Me On." Check out her website, jamiejo.com, and you will see the song title is an apt description for this club kid turned pop star. I chatted with her during WMC and with the release of her single this month, here's an introduction to Miss Jamie Jo.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: Is this your first time in Miami at the Winter Music Conference?
Jamie Jo: No, I am a native, I was born and raised here.
RS: So you've experienced the madness before?
Jamie Jo: Yes, I've experience the madness before. I grew up on clubs
and I grew up with the Winter Music Conference around.
RS: And you went to college in New York, at NYU?
Jamie Jo: Yes, I went to NYU, and then I went to the University of
Miami, as well.
RS: Were you entrenched in the club scene in NYU?
Jamie Jo: Yes, music was a big part of being in New York. I was in
the club scene, but actually I went to CBGB's a lot, and Don Hill's
and places like that.
RS: Very cool. The album is very much on the electro side. What
about electro inspires you?
Jamie Jo: I just think it's very titillating. It has some amazing
sound, it makes you want to get up, it makes you want to dance and
have a good time.
RS: In electro it's always the producers who are the focus, and
not the artists. How are you as an artist going to keep the focus on
you?
Jamie Jo: Well, I think just through my music. It's so steamy, it's
so hot, that you're going to want to focus on the artist as you want
to focus on the singing. My music is there to be enjoyed.
RS: Your first single "U Turn Me On" features Barry Gibb from
the Bee Gees. How did you hook up with him?
Jamie Jo: He's a family friend and he heard the song You Turn Me On.
He was so excited about it that he wanted to sing on it.
RS: Who did you work with, producer-wise, for the album?
Jamie Jo: Producer-wise I worked with Carmen Rizzo; Damon Elliot, who
produced Destiny's Child; Bob Robinson, who worked with Jennifer Lopez
and Boyz II Men; and Dillon O' Brian, who worked with Shakira. I had a
slew of amazing producers.
RS: How do you work with producers? Do they give you a track? Do
you sit in the studio together and write songs with them?
Jamie Jo: Well, sometimes there's a track, and sometimes we sit
together in the studio and we write.
RS: What's your inspiration?
Jamie Jo: My inspiration is going to the nightclubs, and writing my
experience on the dance floor, that is part of my inspiration. The
evening sky, the beach, just a romance, passion – that whole thing is
the inspiration, and a lot of it has to do with being here in Miami.
