JXDN aka Jaden Hossler’s new chapter is all about intuition and connection. The Texas-born, Los Angeles based artist has had a whirlwind few years, growing up from his TikTok roots into an esteemed pop-punk-rock artist. Under the guidance and collaboration of Travis Barker - and Barker’s label - JXDN has crafted his best work yet on his new album WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS. Changing his artist name to his birth name on a whim (that didn’t last long), embracing the uneasiness of complete silence and grieving the loss of his best friend all led way for JXDN to feel deeper and write in a more introspective, instinctive and genuine way. The album dives into all the facets of his world, reminiscent of early 2000s pop-punk anthems. We spoke to the artist about creating such a thoughtful body of work and doing thing on his own terms:

I'm excited for this chat because I spent yesterday and this morning listening to your album and it's so vulnerable and thoughtful. I think if you're a person who is really open to experiencing and feeling your creativity and your emotions you can really relate to it, but I also think that people who may be younger who aren't super comfortable expressing themselves will feel like they've got a friend through listening to this album. So tell me what the catalyst was for it and do you remember when you consciously began crafting it?

First off, thank you so much. That's like exactly my intention with this album, exactly what you said you felt. So that's really good to hear. This album was really weird because I did not expect it to be this. I went through a lot of changes over three years and I was convinced, probably four times, that I knew what I was supposed to do and it changed constantly. I wanted to tell that story, the time from the beginning of my first album till now and where it took me. And there’s an overlaying sadness throughout this project, which it's a lot more in depth than my first one. I think topically it was a little bit more broad. This time, I got pretty specific with like what I was going through. I don't know if you heard about the whole chrome hearted debacle, but I put out this song called Chrome Hearted and I changed my artist name back to Jaden Hossler and that was a really odd time in my life. I went to South America and for some reason, I'm very big in Brazil. I feel like a superstar. And I had like 300 fans sitting outside of my hotel for a long duration of the day. I love talking to my fans. That's just like my favourite thing. I'm a very big people person. I feed off people's energy and fans have the most pure energy in the world. So I was talking to them and I had just dropped Chrome Hearted. They come running up saying ‘I love this song’, you know, they're like, ‘Jaden, you saved my life,’ and ‘you and Cooper's relationship gave me purpose' and stuff like that. I don't know, it was a big moment for me because before that I had felt almost guilty that I wasn't succeeding anymore because streams were going down, and especially since my best friend died I had made it apparent that I didn’t want to be on social media anymore. I hate it so much, but it was a requirement. So I meet the fans and they have JXDN tattooed on them and I'm like, what the fuck have I done? Like I have made such a grave mistake. I think the best part about me sometimes is a little bit of my ignorance and especially when I first got out here [to Los Angeles], but that ignorance is actually turned into wisdom. So, in that moment, I felt like I just had a gut check and I was like, oh, I messed up. I have to change my name back to JXDN and I have to go back to the world that I have already created. It's everything that I've already built with Travis and, and with Kells [Machine Gun Kelly] and so before, this was before I performed and before I went on stage, I told him, I was like, yo, you gotta put my old logo back up. I went back to L.A. and called Travis and said ‘I need you like really badly. I can't do it without you. And I also don't want to make any hits. Like I don't want to make any songs that are like ‘radio hits’. I don't want to make it. I just don't want that anymore. It like ruined me.’ And he was like, all right, perfect. So we made this entire album in like a month and a half. And we also brought back probably like five or six songs that I made like two and a half years ago, initially right after my first album. This album is literally for no one else but me. And it's the first time I've ever done that. Even I don't know directly where it came from, it just came from me.  And I do think that's why me and Trav made a really good album and that good album turned into a great album. And that great album has really turned into the album that I think is the turning point for me in my career. I'm not saying that it's going to be like the hit. I just feel like this is the turning point. I'm really grateful.

You can feel that in the music. Like there's no obvious like TikTok hit, it definitely feels like a concise project. You said you were leaning into an uncomfortable silence, which I think is such a brave thing to do in this day and age. And especially at the age that we're all at where it's so easy to numb ourselves with technology and social media and all these distractions. What do you think that those moments of silence and introspection taught you about yourself?

It's interesting, I didn’t listen to music for about a year and a half. Like I only had 3000 minutes on my like Spotify Wrapped last year. Like I didn't listen to any music at all.

Why?

When my best friend died, he was my muse in real life. I don't know exactly what happened, but it really felt like I died too. I couldn't even listen to music. Like I just didn't have any connection to it anymore. So that's kind of a testament to this album specifically. I fought really hard just to love the music again. So the whole phrase I put in the synopsis of my vinyl is ‘when the music stops, the world keeps singing'. I think that that was like the biggest lesson of music for me. It isn't a song online and music isn't just me putting together these instruments but music is what comes before that, you know, and what comes before that is us and our lives. What we're living and going through, that's music. Over these past five months, I've gone through a breakup but it was all intentional. It was the first time I had to make hard decisions that… I wasn't even hurting, you know, I just wasn't where I was supposed to be relationship wise, career wise even like physically where I was living and I made the conscious decision to fall back in love with music again, and I'm just going to make it about that. That's all I care about. I genuinely believe that  energy has shifted in me. I decided I don't want to be a brand anymore.  

It’s a really courageous thing to do, to be in really comfortable situations, whether it’s career relationships, romantic relationships, physical places. You have that feeling where you know you’re not living up to your full potential and you have to leave things and let things go for all those doors to open. You say you don’t want to be a brand anymore and social media is so interesting because obviously it's been a huge part of your life. So how are you feeling with this rollout? How are you navigating that?  

Well, I deleted all my videos on TikTok and I was like, I'm just not doing this anymore. I pleaded with the president of my label… My label told me - and this isn’t Travis, by the way - they’d rather I stay home, they think I can do stuff here, make videos and put it online. And me and my manager and my roommate (who’s also my assistant now, he's amazing, he’s my best friend). We were like, you know what? We're going to do it anyway. So we told them we're going to do it, I'll pay for it, I’ll go out of my own pocket.The day before we left, they were like, all right, we'll pay for it. So luckily, my manager and I just did a promo tour all throughout UK, Berlin, Paris, London and then Chicago… I did like a fan listening event. In person with all these fans doing more in two weeks than a year and a half online. It was an entire energy shift. I showed around 120 fans in each city in person the album and they're all in a blacked out room, no cell phones, and they just listen to the album. I'm walking in and people are  crying, you know, we're also just sitting there having a good time. I did one at the Louvre, I did one at my Warner office in Berlin, I did one at a skate park with like a bar, and it was all really beautiful. I feel like people really understood it. I know what it feels like to be overlooked and people were not overlooking me. They were actually incredibly curious about this idea of like going back to real music and so with this campaign for the album I'm hoping to do a lot of this stuff. It’s all about supporting each other, too. I try to go to about two or three shows a week and they're all my other artist homies. The scene is really alive right now in L.A., and it's really fucking cool because it's the last place I think anyone would ever expect a genuine scene to come out of right now. But I'd say around 500 to 1500 kids legitimately and consistently come to these shows every single week and they don't miss it. It feels like history is happening. All I'm doing is word of mouth and all I'm doing is like going above and beyond. That's why I think this album is going to reach more.  

I think your intention is really pure and you've had so much experience that you really know what you want out of this. You've started this whole new chapter that feels a lot more vulnerable. How would you define this like new era, in your words?

For some reason I've always had this vision of putting out three albums and then that's when I’ll be the biggest artist in the world, which is really funny  because I was really scared about this album. My first album is like… stick with me… think of a slingshot, right? My first album is the stick. This album is the rubber band or whatever that helps pull back the rock. And then my next project is the rock. This is the moment that we're pulling back and gaining momentum and that's what it feels like. I feel the tension, I feel ready and so that's why I'm patient. I’m just trying to trust my gut. This album is exactly what it needs to be. That's such a good feeling because I definitely didn't think that was going to happen, especially a year ago, I was pretty caught up in some shit and it's just bizarre how things get better with time if you allow them to. If you fight for them to.

‍Listen to WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS here.

@jadenhossler