Jade Novah got next. Within a year the animated R&B singer has generated a lot of buzz online with her critically acclaimed YouTube covers. To date, her YouTube page has received over 13 million views. Her rendition of “Diamonds” by Rihanna received 11 million views itself.
Though her covers to some of today’s hit songs are amazing, Jade is looking to make her own mark in R&B music. In our interview with Jade, she told us what her name means, how she got started in music, how her character Keyonce Bowles came to life, and details about her debut album In Search of Me.
Read our interview below.
Where did you get the name Jade Novah?
Jade Novah is pretty much a way to represent all facets of my artistry. Jade is kind of like the softer side of me, the lyricists, my inner fairy princess [laughs] and then Novah — which actually means “an exploding star” — is more of my performer side, my comedic side, or my star persona. When you put Jade Novah together, it’s a juxtaposition of two extremes.
How did you land your publishing deal?
I had just gotten off a tour with Tyler Perry — his production with Madea’s Big Happy Family. I was touring with him as a background singer for about a year — and an understudy as well. After the tour ended, I had enough cushion to travel, just travel back and forth from my hometown (Cleveland) to LA and NY, and just different places to participate in writing camps and network, just to build up my songwriting catalog. In that time, Steve Rifkind who is the president of SRC, he caught my music and passed my music along to the president of Rondor who is also a Clevelander. Rondor is one of the publishing companies that really believe in organic writers and writers who can actually sing to sell their records.
You have been receiving a lot of buzz online, specifically YouTube. Now, I must say I love your Keyonce Bowles video. I thought it was pretty funny. How did that character come about.?
Jade: [Laughs] Actually, I have been doing impersonations and different voices and characters ever since I can remember, I’ve been working on my upcoming album, In Search of Me – and I also do acting as well – the album I really wanted a way to incorporate acting into my music. On the album, there are different characters and Keyonce is one of them. Devin Johnson who is also the executive producer on the album — who also executive produced shades of Jade — he and I thought it would be a cool idea to bring Keyonce to life and share that acting impersonating side of my artistry.
You also do a lot of covers on YouTube but instead of just singing the song with the same melody, you go the extra step of forming your own sound and providing a visual. What’s your inspiration behind doing that?
I wanted to take songs that I love and give listeners a glimpse of my sound by fusing the familiar of the song that they already know with my style. By doing that, it provides a perfect segway into my original material so that people can already get a glimpse of what my music will sound like. As far as the visuals, to me, I feel like music is like a book. And the visuals – the music videos – are like the movies. So every reader kind of interprets the book differently, so once I put my interpretation of the record, I feel like I owe it to them to give them a visual that I see for a song once I changed.
You’ve worked with Missy in the past. How did that come about?
Well, I absolutely love Missy. I met her in 2003. I sang for her. It was really random. She loved my vocals and ended up flying me out to Miami weeks later to do background for her This Is Not A Test album. Since then she’s kind of taken me under her wing per-se. She’s kind of mentored into my artistry and given me advice allowing me to write for different projects and give me that insight.
Let’s talk more about your music. I’ve listened to your Shades of Jade mixtape and I really liked it because I could picture everything you were singing. I thought it had a theatrical and unique sound, which was really cool. Is this the same type of sound that we can expect on your new album?
Absolutely. And I love that you get it. It’s Broadway meets R&B. To help tell a story, we even went the extra mile for In Search of Me by writing a storyline and then writing all the songs around the story. So it’s definitely what I’d like to call visuals through sound.
Do you plan on providing a lot of visuals for your album to help tell the story?
Absolutely. Since it is a story and the music goes to the story, it has to kind of have the visual to bring it to life because it’s a movie. It’s definitely a full storyline. I can’t wait for you to hear it. If you liked Shades of Jade, you’ll definitely really get it with this one.
Where are you in the process of this album? Can we expect new music soon?
I should have a single out around March and not too long after, the album should be out. I’m just about done, but I want to make sure my visuals are done the right way.
Do you have any other projects lined up, besides your album?
Really, that’s just the main focus.
Make sure you follow Jade Novah on Twitter at @JadeNovah and Like her on Facebook.