UCLA Radio’s Rising Artist Spotlight aims to highlight upcoming artists who have demonstrated unique creativity and talent through their music. Through interviews and features, we delve into their journey, influences, and aspirations, giving listeners a glimpse into the future of music.
Photos courtesy of Jax Fleming
From the heart of Henderson, KY arises a new indie artist named Jax Fleming. Inspired by 2010’s alternative like Tame Impala and Cage the Elephant, Jax sings his soul out in his new single, “Superficial.” Jax and I got to talking about his new project and the behind the scenes of being an artist in the latest edition of Rising Artist Spotlight.
This interview, conducted on July 9th, 2024, has been edited for clarity and brevity purposes
Interviewed by Chloe Gonzales
Chloe Gonzales: Your new single, “Superficial,” has over 30,000 streams right now. How does that feel, getting that response on your first single?
Jax Fleming: My goal was to break 11,000 streams, because that was my highest for my last project. And I think I did that in a week, so I was like “Oh shit, I need a new goal!” It’s pretty surreal if I’m being honest and it just keeps growing too.
Chloe: What’s the story behind “Superficial”?
Jax: It’s tongue-in-cheek, especially with the pre-chorus, the lyrics, “super official, you can call me superficial.” I felt like with Atlas[Jax’s previous band, Atlas of the Dogs] I had to be something, I had to be this rock star. I felt like I wasn’t good enough, so I had to put on this character to actually be successful. And this song was just me saying that I’m doing what I think I need to do. I’m done writing for other people. I’m just going to write for me and it’s going to be true and honest. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if people would like it. We were in the studio and when you are at the beginning stages, writing the song, you’re like, “Oh, this is really awesome.” And then it takes so long to make it, mixing, putting the instruments in, rearranging things, and by the end of it, you’re like, “Is this even a good song anymore?” But it’s been doing well. I think people like honesty.
Chloe: I also wanted to talk about your previous project, because it sounds a lot different from what you’re making now. Could you tell me more about it and what genre you feel like you fit into now?
Jax: Right now, my genre is pop rock or alternative. My past music, it’s definitely a lot different. It’s got that like 2000s rock, very angry music. The first EP that we released with Atlas was written during COVID in my basement. Recorded everything, written mainly by me. It was a very difficult time in my life. I wanted to do music, but I didn’t know what to do and I was very angry with a lot of things that were going on. I think that you can definitely hear it in those recordings. Then it eventually evolved into more of a group writing session with the band, where I kind of backed off and let everyone else write as a collective, rather than just me. And that’s difficult, having four people doing the same thing, constantly butting heads. With this [solo project] it’s pretty nice, because I just write what I want to write.
Chloe: Do you feel more comfortable with being on your own versus having a whole group behind you?
Jax: Definitely the opposite. With Atlas, I took the back burner and let everyone else write so I was never nervous about releasing a song because in my head I could be like, “Oh that’s not me, that’s us. It’s not directed towards me.” But with my solo project, it’s like reading my diary and if someone says “This is horrible,” you know, you’re like crushing my heart!
Chloe: No absolutely, it’s more of a high risk, high reward type of thing. It’s scary being vulnerable, especially with the internet and such. Do you journal a lot?
Jax: Definitely. I’ve journaled since I was like twelve.
Chloe: Wow. That must be so fun going back and looking at your entries then!
Jax: I wish I still had them.
Chloe: Oh no! You lost them?!
Jax: No, I wasn’t writing music whenever I was that age. I just had all these emotions and wrote poetry and had to get it out in some way and was very embarrassed by it. My mom found them and I got really upset because she went through and read them so I burned them all. Definitely one of my biggest regrets because I definitely have music in there, before I even knew how to write music there were at least the beginning stages of writing music.
Chloe: What a shame. You’re starting a new chapter now though! I wanted to switch over to concert things because I’ve heard, at least with your previous project, that your stage presence is to die for. Maybe I’m wrong but I was wondering if you had any upcoming shows?
Jax: It’ll be a little bit. I’m trying to just focus on writing this year. If a big show comes my way, I’ll definitely take it, but I definitely got burnt out and I feel like I even burnt out the crowd, just how much that we played, and I don’t want to make that mistake again. I want to make it more of an event, you know, especially for my hometown, make it more of a thing that people would go to because with Atlas, we just played every weekend and eventually people stopped coming.
Chloe: Being more intentional with it, quality over quantity. That totally makes sense. You’re set to release another song on August 6th. Can we get an early scoop on it?
Jax: Yeah, I mean “3am” is definitely a sad song, much sadder than “Superficial.” I wrote it at 3 a.m. and the original demo file was named “3am” and we ended up just writing it about kind of what I’ve been going through this past year–losing my band and at that point in time I thought it was the worst thing that could possibly happen. I felt like that was the only way I was going to be successful. And with losing the band, I kind of lost my friends, too. I don’t really talk to them anymore after we broke up and on top of that, we were out every weekend drinking, having fun, playing music, and with them gone it just felt like I was alone.
If I’m being honest, one of my favorite things to do is to go to bars and dance. I just love to dance and I think that’s why people love watching our shows because I’m just constantly dancing. Going to a little bar and listening to a DJ and dancing with my friends, but then I found myself out but alone and still showing up and not wanting to let it all go. And then coming home and being disappointed because I just blew all my money, didn’t have a fun time, and then have to deal with a hangover.
I feel that pursuing this career as well makes it hard to connect with people in my life. My life revolves around music and everyone I went to high school with is married with two kids and buying houses and boats and living for the weekend and I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, but I just can’t really connect with it, my day-to-day life isn’t that. It’s like waking up, writing music, going to work, kind of makes me a loner.
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Chloe: Are there any artists that you draw inspiration from?
Jax: It definitely changes as time goes on. For this stuff it’s Cage the Elephant. Instrumentally, I pull a lot of inspiration from there. Lyrically, I’m just kind of winging it.
Chloe: Yes! Love them. I have one more question for you: where do you want to go with this project?
Jax: I definitely want to be successful. I would love it if people listened to my music and felt something, and I would like to at least make a livable amount of money. I don’t really care about being ultra-rich or anything. I mean obviously that would be amazing, and that means that you definitely made it very far. At the end of the day, I just want people to listen to my music, connect with it, and have a big enough audience that I can tour and not be a struggling artist.
Check out Jax’s socials and music below!
