JADE’s “Angel Of My Dreams” Inspiration, Possible Little Mix Reunion & More | Billboard News
JADE’s highly anticipated solo single “Angel Of My Dreams” is officially out now, and the popstar has loads to say about how it came to life. JADE shares the challenges she faced in the music industry as a solo artist and in a group, her future music, potential collabs with RAYE & Tove Lo, a possible Little Mix reunion in the future and more!
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00:00When you're in a girl band, everybody just tries to compare you.
00:02It's just natural.
00:03So you kind of have to get used to that.
00:05But we had each other to support each other through everything.
00:08So, you know, this is essentially me starting again.
00:12So I don't even know yet what it feels like
00:15fame wise on my own.
00:17Hi, it's Jade and you're watching Billboard News.
00:31I'm here with Jade.
00:32Jade, welcome. Thank you.
00:34Very excited to be here.
00:35We are so excited to have you and so excited to dive into your new era.
00:40A new song called Angel of My Dreams.
00:43Can you tell us about the song?
00:44What was the inspiration behind it?
00:46Angel of My Dreams, I would say, is about my kind of love,
00:50hate relationship with the music industry, which, as you know,
00:55I've been a part of for quite some time.
00:58So I have a lot to say about that, good and bad.
01:01So yeah, Angel of My Dreams is kind of like a love letter
01:04to the industry of how obsessed I am with it, how much I love it.
01:07But with that comes, you know, some trials and tribulations.
01:12Did you know that this was going to be the single as soon as you wrote it?
01:14I've been writing for like two and a half years.
01:16I knew I hadn't quite landed on the song yet.
01:18Angel came about when I was in L.A.
01:22I was kind of having a bit of a lonely time.
01:24The head of my label at the time had just left.
01:26So I was kind of stressed about that.
01:28Went into the studio and told the guys, you know, like how I was feeling,
01:32how fickle this industry is.
01:34Nobody's safe.
01:35And so that was kind of the the birth of Angel of My Dreams.
01:39We sampled Puppet on a String, which is a Eurovision song contest
01:43from like the 60s.
01:45I've been trying to sample that for years and inspire the rest of the song.
01:50And I walked away from that session thinking the label will think
01:54this song is too crazy and they're not going to like it at all.
01:57And then I got a call the next day from management
01:59being like, everybody loves Angel of My Dreams.
02:01And I thought, ah, relief, I've found the song finally.
02:06But I definitely had that special like feeling like in my gut,
02:09like this is the one.
02:11And anytime we've, you know, I've had a single or a single within the band,
02:15you know, when it's the one, sure.
02:18This is your rebirth.
02:19You're persevering. You're coming out of your shell.
02:22I think so.
02:22And for me, like I am genuinely a huge pop fan.
02:25I'm obsessed with pop.
02:26And when I look at all the pop girlies that I love,
02:29they're the ones that are doing the absolute most like the looks,
02:32the choreo, the big songs, big choruses.
02:35Give it to me. Do you know what I mean? It's very that.
02:38So I want everything.
02:39I want a lot. And that's what I want to deliver.
02:42Adjusting from Little Jade to Big Jade, I know that this song
02:47tracks your transition from being out of the spotlight to in it.
02:52But what do you think the biggest challenge has been adjusting to fame?
02:56I mean, it's hard to say now because I do think I have a very thick skin
02:59because I've kind of been forced into having to do that.
03:02But I think from the off, initially,
03:05it is just that understanding that suddenly everyone
03:09has an opinion about you, good and bad.
03:11And we all know, like everyone going through life,
03:13you can't convince everybody to like you. It's impossible.
03:17So you have to kind of learn to be at peace with that.
03:19But knowing that it's on such a dramatic scale, it's like magnified by a thousand.
03:24Everybody knows who you are, has an opinion.
03:27So I think that's like the hardest challenge.
03:29And I think as a pop artist and as a woman in pop,
03:33that obviously has its challenges with like misogyny in the music industry
03:38and kind of having to work harder and prove that you deserve
03:42a seat at the table or deserve credibility,
03:46especially back in the day.
03:47Like as a girl band, we really had to like constantly
03:51convince people and win people over that we were worthy of being
03:55like respected as pop artists that we're going to stick around for a long time.
04:00You spent quite a few years in that group.
04:03Yes, it catapulted to fame.
04:05But how would you describe your relationship with fame
04:08at the beginning of Little Mix versus now?
04:10To be honest, I think I'm quite grateful that I was so young
04:14when I was put in the band.
04:15Like I was only 18.
04:17And I think that naivety and like innocence
04:20fared well for what I was put into because I was just so grateful to be there.
04:26And me and the girls worked so, so hard right up until the end.
04:30I think, yeah, I was just
04:33I guess like rose tinted glasses initially.
04:37But it's been really important for me to like surround myself
04:39with friends and family all the time to like keep me grounded,
04:43you know, always understand what like the bigger goal is.
04:45So obviously you have the blanket of the girls around you as well.
04:48When you're like handling fame as a group, it's kind of easier.
04:52It comes with its like troubles.
04:53Obviously, there's the comparison thing, not necessarily from each other.
04:57But I feel like when you're in a girl band, everybody just tries to compare you.
05:01It's just natural.
05:01So you kind of have to get used to that.
05:03But we had each other to support each other through everything.
05:07So, you know, this is essentially me starting again.
05:10So I don't even know yet what it feels like fame wise on my own.
05:15I think I'm really grateful.
05:17I've started this journey now in my career and at my age because
05:22I've just I'm a lot more level headed.
05:24I couldn't have been a solo artist like 10 years ago.
05:27I don't think I'm so ready for it now.
05:30And we'll see.
05:32We'll see what happens.
05:33And that's on growth.
05:35Exactly. I don't want to play it safe.
05:38I think it would have been probably quite easy to do that.
05:41But I've got a lot to say.
05:43I love pushing myself creatively.
05:45I love writing.
05:48Maybe what's unexpected for the fans.
05:52Little Jade, there's a lot of her in your music video.
05:55What was the inspiration behind that?
05:57Well, I think firstly, like with the visuals of the video itself,
06:00I would say like Britney Spears, Lucky,
06:04Inspiration, like the early Gwen videos,
06:07Showgirls, Black Swan, like all those things mixed together.
06:10But for me personally, I thought it was important to show my story.
06:14So we have, yeah, like the real raw footage of me as a little girl
06:17singing up to the X Factor audition, as well as me as normal Jade
06:22kind of busking in the street, which is what I used to do growing up as well.
06:26It's obviously a dramatization of my life.
06:29So it's like the extreme version of that.
06:33But I think Superstar Jade in the video for me is like what I saw
06:38as what a superstar was as a little girl.
06:41Like I was obsessed with Diana Ross and all the big D.U.
06:44airs, but even like obviously Britney, Madonna, Kylie.
06:48There's multiple versions of myself in the video to kind of almost show
06:53all of those characters do exist within me.
06:55You teased the video in Fontaine DC's Starburster music video.
06:59How did that come together?
07:00We have the same music video director who is Aub Perry.
07:04Phenomenal.
07:05I knew when we first started talking about the Angel video
07:07that it was always going to be him directing it.
07:10But he just so happened to be directing the Fontaine's DC video as well.
07:15And he came up with this idea of this kind of multiverse
07:19where Grian, the lead of Fontaine's DC,
07:22features in my video and I feature in theirs.
07:25And we literally leaked that like months before.
07:28And I love that nobody clocked it until now.
07:32It's a great time to be a woman in pop, I think.
07:34I think so.
07:35Who are some of the pop girlies that you admire?
07:38OK, so Chattel Rowan is like I'm obsessed.
07:43And I think she's such a breath of fresh air in the pop industry right now.
07:48She's phenomenal.
07:49She's given us vocals.
07:50Like I said, I love that she's, you know, she says that she's heavily inspired
07:53by drag, and I think it's quite interesting to see.
07:57But I think in general, yeah, the pop girls are doing it at the minute.
08:01We've got Charlie, Chattel, Sabrina, Rina.
08:05Like the list is endless, actually, of big pop girls.
08:08And I love to see it.
08:09And you?
08:11And me. About to, yeah.
08:13You mentioned Chattel being influenced by drag.
08:16You were a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.
08:19Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with the LGBTQ plus community?
08:23Being on Drag Race was probably one of the best days of my life.
08:27I'm obsessed with that show, and I have been for years.
08:29So that was a big sort of pinch me moment.
08:32But I like to think that my sort of relationship and allyship
08:36within the LGBTQ plus community
08:39has kind of just organically happened over the years.
08:42I was well aware that in the band we had a big LGBT fan base.
08:47I felt necessary to support that community
08:52rather than just, I guess, benefiting.
08:54I think one of the first things I did, like in my early 20s,
08:57when I realized it was growing and growing, was to get in contact with Stormwall,
09:01which is a big charity in the UK, to literally sit me down
09:05and tell me how to be a better ally.
09:08And it's just gone on from there ever since, really.
09:11I've got a lot to thank that community for, even since I was little up to now.
09:15So the music that I write and create as well
09:19is almost like a thank you to that community, too.
09:21You created the Jade Room, which is a new hub for fans
09:25to see your content and learn more from you about you.
09:30Why was it important for you to give your fans that space?
09:33Well, I think when we were talking about having a kind of HQ account,
09:38didn't want it to feel like too corporate.
09:42So then we came up with the Jade Room idea,
09:45which was to create a space that feels a bit more like a community hub
09:48for the fans, like old school, like original Stan Twitter.
09:52You, talking about yourself, said she took her time.
09:56How are you discovering yourself as a solo artist?
09:59I've discovered a lot.
10:00Like, you know, the band's last tour was like two and a half years ago now.
10:05And I'm really, really glad that I took the time
10:09to have that time to evolve as my own artist.
10:11I've discovered a lot about myself.
10:13I think it was important for me to really have some time at home
10:17for the first time ever and just feel grounded enough to then feel
10:21like mentally prepared for this.
10:24And, you know, now when I look at some of the songs I wrote
10:27like two years ago,
10:29they sound so different to what I was on this record
10:32or what I've been writing now.
10:33So I need that evolution.
10:35I needed to figure out what my sound was, who I wanted to be as an artist.
10:40The fans were sick of me saying soon, soon.
10:43I was sick of it, too, by the end.
10:45You know, I do see and I think that's the thing that the fans find funny.
10:48They know I'm always lurking in the comments
10:49and I'm always seeing what people are saying.
10:52So I get it.
10:53I understand what they were feeling.
10:55And I just hope that now they're like, OK, it was worth the wait.
10:58You know, I used to be like a big fan on the Internet and a fan of you.
11:03So beautiful to hear that you love them so much.
11:06No, absolutely.
11:07They've literally got me through.
11:08Like, I'm not just saying this to sound cheesy,
11:10but when you feel like crap or struggling in any way, if you go online
11:14and you engage with your fans or you see like how positive they are
11:17about what you're creating or that you're on the right track,
11:20like it really can help help you creatively.
11:25And it would literally inspire like me going in a room and being like,
11:28this is what I want to write about today.
11:29So I think it's really great that you have such a positive relationship
11:33with the Internet.
11:34You posted no more soon.
11:37When can we expect?
11:38I know this is selfish knowing we're just getting the single.
11:41When can we expect an album?
11:43Oh, my gosh. I mean, I'm so excited to just show the world everything.
11:48If it was up to me, I'd just be dropping it all at once.
11:50But I will say the album is very nearly finished.
11:53I'm literally in the process of just mixing, mastering,
11:58deciding on the order.
12:00So that should tell you that.
12:02What's another word for soon?
12:04Because we need to burn that word now.
12:06It's inbound, perhaps.
12:08Truly. It's inbound.
12:10So you're dropping a single.
12:12You'll be dropping an album.
12:13You also dropped your last name.
12:15Pretty iconic.
12:16Tell us what went into that decision.
12:18Multiple things, to be honest.
12:19I feel like I want people just to get to know Jade.
12:24I feel like Thirlwall is a bit of a mouthful.
12:26Just genuinely, like nobody ever spells it right.
12:31I literally have so many plaques in my house where it's spelled wrong
12:34and I couldn't be bothered to tell them it was wrong.
12:36I kind of like that all of us actually in the band as solo artists
12:40have kind of just been like our first names.
12:43I think that's pretty cool.
12:44We're like the Powerpuff Girls.
12:45We ventured out and we all have our own name.
12:49Well, you're not in a group anymore, but you are working with other artists.
12:53You've been working with people like MNEK and Ray.
12:56Can we expect any collaborations on those upcoming albums?
12:59Oh, well, I've been writing with MNEK, Andre, Antivelo.
13:05I can't confirm nor deny yet if it's like an artist collaboration thing,
13:10but we've definitely worked and wrote together.
13:13But I mean, yeah, all three of them are phenomenal artists.
13:15So why wouldn't I want to, you know, do a song with them?
13:19I definitely have like a wish list of people I'd love to collaborate with.
13:23And I'm going to manifest it until every single one of them is ticked off.
13:27Can you tell us a couple of the collabs you're manifesting?
13:29Chet will's up there for sure.
13:31Channel Trez, I really love.
13:35I'd love to have like a Kate Trenada remix or something further down the line.
13:40Now, you're not with the girls anymore, but I'm sure you still keep in touch.
13:45We don't talk as much, but we're weirdly somehow closer.
13:49I think we know we went through such a special thing together for such a long time.
13:54It's like family, isn't it?
13:55You don't have to message every day to have that connection.
13:57Like we'll message.
13:59I mean, we literally spoke to you a few days ago.
14:01I think I said that I just did my first like social thing on my own
14:06and I was like quite nervous about it.
14:07So I messaged the girls, be like, oh, God, what do I do?
14:11So we kind of caught each other through it
14:13because we relied on each other for so long,
14:15especially when it came to like events or anything like that.
14:18You rely on each other around you.
14:20So I've really had to train myself to be able to walk in a room and be like,
14:24no, this is just about me now.
14:25And I have to make the effort to talk to everyone
14:30and not just rely on the girls.
14:31Yeah, there's just that mutual love that will always be there.
14:34And I'm so grateful to them.
14:38I'm so thankful for everything we had.
14:41Yeah, it'll just never leave.
14:43Have they heard your new music?
14:45Leigh has.
14:45I went round to Leigh's house a couple of months ago to see
14:50the twins and her.
14:52So I played a few songs.
14:53So that was really nice.
14:55So fans would love to see you together.
14:57Do you think there's any chance of that in the future?
15:00Oh, absolutely.
15:02I think right now it's very much about us all doing our own thing.
15:07You spend so long in a group, you have to come out of that and
15:12understand who you are as your own artist.
15:14Like now is all our individual time.
15:16I would never close that door of us doing something together in the future.
15:20I think that would be insane.
15:24Yeah, because I loved it.
15:25Do you have a favourite memory from your Little Mix days?
15:28Oh, gosh, there's so many.
15:30I think whenever we'd like win at the Brit Awards, that was really special
15:33just because I think we fought so hard to literally have a seat at that table.
15:37So to win in an environment like that, especially for Best Group,
15:41you know, towards the end of it, to win Best Group was really, really special.
15:45Felt like all the hard work had finally paid off.
15:48That was like the first female band to ever win that award as well, which is insane.
15:52Travelling around America as a band was so special.
15:56Especially in the beginning, I think we didn't realise how big
16:00we were here until we got here and there was like thousands of fans at events
16:03or at the shopping malls or outside radio stations.
16:08Like it felt so special.
16:09We were just like so young at the time and we felt like we were superstars
16:14and it was the best feeling ever.
16:16And I'll never take that for granted, that feeling.
16:19Was there a moment when you were on a smaller stage earlier in your career
16:22where you knew in your gut, like, this is it?
16:25The very first feeling I had of that was literally
16:28when we first got put together on the stage.
16:32And I can't explain that feeling.
16:35I don't know how much people believe in all that stuff, but like,
16:38I just had a feeling wash over me where I was like, this is going to be massive.
16:42And we hadn't even sang together yet.
16:44I just had this weird,
16:47like, spiritual feeling, I guess, where the four of us looked at each other
16:51and I was like, this is, this is it.
16:53This is my life now.
16:54I knew my life was going to change genuinely.
16:57Maybe I manifested it or, yeah, the stars aligned.
17:00But yeah, I definitely felt it then.
17:03And then we did a show here, actually,
17:08where it was our first support tour, the Demi Lovato tour.
17:11And the first night we performed on the stage,
17:14I think we thought nobody was going to know who we are, like genuinely.
17:17We're like, you know, we'll be lucky if there's like two fans in the audience
17:21when we got on stage and everyone in the audience knew the words to the song
17:24and we came off all out.
17:27We're like, oh, my God, people know who we are.
17:29And like, we're going to, we're going to do it.
17:30We're going to make it.
17:32And so that was really special.
17:34And you did it.
17:35Yeah, I was there.
17:37Can't compare. You were literally there.
17:39Can't believe it.
17:40So what's next for you?
17:41To gag the world, I suppose, show them all my music.
17:45I'm so proud of what I've created.
17:47Like, genuinely, I could say that with chest.
17:50I'm really proud of this music.
17:52So I'm excited for the fans to hear it.
17:54My dreams are to obviously have my own album, do my own tour.
17:58It's an exciting new chapter that
18:02isn't just soon anymore.
18:03It's here. It's happening.
18:05No more soon. No more soon.
18:07Burn the soon. Put it in the trash. Be gone.
18:10Well, Jade, thank you so much for coming.
18:12Thank you. Thanks, everyone.