00:00
And putting a, on a reggae song.
00:03
It's like, wait a minute, this is freaking awesome, Jessica
00:08
Thank you so much for your time today.
00:10
Lovely to have you here and you know, we're gonna do like a little
00:12
spotlight on you and your career and you know, everything
00:15
you know, that has led you to this moment right now.
00:18
How did your career start?
00:19
Like, what were your beginnings for you from like a musical
00:22
family or how did you get into, into, into music?
00:25
I've always been a huge fan of music.
00:27
I started following the steps of Michael Jackson, Tina Turner
00:31
Madonna Aretha Franklin.
00:33
And from a very young age, my mom, my mom, it's a, it's an actual
00:37
former, former singer dancer and my dad is a musician.
00:42
So from a really young age, I just saw them always like playing
00:46
My dad was in a band his whole life.
00:49
And when I turned about nine or 10 years old, my dad and my mom
00:54
they started realizing that I had so much love and passion
00:57
for music that they just like kept putting me, like my mom had
01:00
me in like dance class and I was in every, every single talent
01:03
show of school and I was always the one putting up choreography
01:07
And like when I was like, you know, a child one day my, my dad
01:12
just, my dad had a cover bin, right?
01:13
And Puerto Rico was like really famous and like super popular
01:17
to have cover bands.
01:17
Like they, you, they would play songs that were popping and
01:22
one day his lead singer got sick.
01:24
I was, I was 10, 11 years old and my mom was like, why don't you
01:30
Like, she knows the whole repertoire, like just have her sing
01:33
and I'm freaking out, I'm like, oh my God.
01:36
And my mom was like, why not?
01:37
You know, everything just go like, it's OK and it was a bit controversial
01:41
because I was a minor and my dad used to perform in bars but in
01:46
Puerto Rico it's a little different, you know, like, I guess
01:48
in Puerto Rico, even if it's a bar, I mean, I would go there and
01:51
do my thing and leave, right.
01:52
But I end up doing the gig and I end up like, it was such a success
01:57
because yes, every time we see kids like performing or doing
01:59
something, it's just like, amazing, right?
02:01
And I literally did this show and I was like, like performing
02:06
and like, I was just like, in a whole different world and I took
02:09
her gig like, I literally took her spot.
02:11
My dad never called her again.
02:14
No, not, not like that, but he fired her was like, my daughter
02:18
is the new lead singer of my band.
02:20
And that's how really my career started in developing this
02:23
huge love for, for music and being an artist.
02:27
I continued doing my thing with my dad.
02:29
But I also started traveling.
02:31
I, I traveled and I wanted to for new things and, and I just started
02:35
developing this, like, love for American music that I was
02:39
just like, you know what I, you know, I haven't told you guys
02:42
what happened to me because it's a long story.
02:44
But when I had my accident at 11, I had a huge accident that kind
02:48
of really put a hold on my career for, for many years.
02:53
And music was really the only thing that, that kept me alive
02:56
like literally because, um, I had a really horrific accident
03:00
that I like, really messed my head up my emotions.
03:03
Like I was just like in a really dark place, depressed and music
03:07
was really the only thing that kept me going like that kept
03:10
me just surviving because as a teenager like to, to face accidents
03:14
that, that deal with your self esteem.
03:17
It's, it's really hard for a kid and especially for a teenager
03:20
and me being able to do music and like kind of hide what was going
03:24
on because of people just thought I was a character it's what
03:28
it's what saved me and I was like, like a shield for you.
03:33
And I feel like because of the suffering that I, that I had to
03:37
go through so much and here in Puerto Rico because I'm in Puerto
03:40
Rico right now, I was just like, I need to get away like I just
03:43
I need to find myself again.
03:44
I need to get away from the negative energy.
03:46
And this is me as a 13, 14, 14 year old girl thinking like that
03:52
like I need to get away from this energy because it's gonna
03:55
And it's when I decided like, I'm gonna wait a few more years
03:59
and kind of like, like go go to the States, obviously, I was
04:03
I didn't have a job, I didn't have money.
04:04
So like, there's no way like I could just leave.
04:07
But the moment I like the moment I, I grew up like 18, like I was
04:11
just like, I'm out and I, and that's when I really started developing
04:16
Like I was trying to really fix myself first before going back
04:21
into the industry because like, we all know the music industry
04:25
It's, it's, it's really, really hard, especially for us females
04:28
and I wasn't really ready to go back to a world that was similar
04:32
to what, what I was going through, you know, because as an artist
04:36
you're exposed to critics you're exposed to people, like
04:39
telling you you're, you suck, you can't dance, you can't sing
04:42
you're ugly, you're old.
04:44
You're like, there's so much negativity for females like
04:48
It's really hard to be in this.
04:49
But I feel like with everything that I've been through, I have
04:52
a voice and I have a, a story that can really motivate so many
04:56
young teenagers, so many young women, so many women that it's
05:01
what really keeps me going and, and going back to all of that
05:05
after I moved to the States.
05:07
And I was like, OK, I'm ready to go.
05:09
I've done my homework.
05:10
I traveled, I literally toured on my own.
05:13
I had a record in China that was on the radio on rotation because
05:19
I became like a thing like I started doing club shows and I started
05:24
performing my original music and one of the DJ S was one of the
05:27
like the radio guys and he's like, I love your record.
05:31
I'm gonna start playing it on the radio and I'm like, yeah.
05:33
I've heard that before.
05:35
That's not gonna happen.
05:37
The record was called with or without you.
05:39
And it was an original song that I had written along with the
05:42
producer called Fuego that had done like Jason Rule and like
05:47
And um it was a kind of like ID M pop record.
05:50
So I was like this pop star, this Latin pop star in China and
05:56
me being, being in other cultures and just like learning from
05:59
other cultures and performing in front of people and just
06:01
seeing like I started really missing, my, my culture started
06:05
really missing where I came from.
06:07
And I had developed such confidence and I had developed such
06:10
like, OK, I'm through all of this ideas that I went through
06:14
I'm ready to go back and I now have a story to tell.
06:18
I now have something that is meaningful that can actually
06:22
And it's, when I, I really truly told myself I'm gonna go in
06:26
And that's when you know this, I said I'm gonna start singing
06:29
in Spanish and this is before like the boom like, right?
06:32
Because I think really put us on the map once again, we had the
06:36
wave of the Shakira and the, and the Ricky Martin.
06:39
But this, this song really opened up there before and after
06:43
I think in the music industry to think I like, like, yeah, we
06:46
had a lot of music all, all around.
06:47
But when that blew up, it's like, OK, everyone like everyone
06:53
And I had already made the decision of I'm going back to my roots
06:56
because I'm going back to singing in Spanish and literally
07:00
a few months later, oh my God, what is going on deposit is the
07:03
biggest song in the world and it's in Spanish, like this must
07:05
be meant to be, this must this decision of going back to my roots
07:10
And I did the, I did the deposit cover and I actually went to
07:14
Morocco and hung out with Luis FCI.
07:16
I was, I was doing touring in Morocco because as you know, I'm
07:19
just like, where I'm like trying to like, make a living somehow
07:23
So I'm like, hey, I'm a performer.
07:25
I would book my, like I would, this is a little secret for all
07:28
of you that are pursuing music.
07:30
Pretend to be your own manager.
07:32
It works in the beginning.
07:34
I would literally pretend to be my own manager and I would literally
07:37
book myself in every gig, every club I went to, I went like I
07:42
did so much on my own that it just a lot of people like, say like
07:46
the artist as a hustler, like it's always gonna succeed because
07:49
you're just, it's not gonna give up, you're just gonna keep
07:51
And that's when you know that this whole thing with the Spanish
07:53
opportunity started to come around.
07:57
I didn't have a record label.
07:58
I had signed to a label like years past and nothing really happened
08:02
And I was just like, look, I wanna put this song out to the world
08:06
I want to see people's reaction.
08:08
I wanna test the waters and every penny that I made doing all
08:12
I invested it in myself.
08:13
I invested it in making the video for a, I had spoken to uh an
08:18
executive at the time that it's now the president of the label
08:22
that I'm signed to Gus Lopez.
08:24
And I gave him, I said I need you to manage me because I know this
08:28
is gonna work and I'm positive that this is gonna work.
08:30
There's no way God let me live this long to, to not let this happen
08:35
And you know, we're still up and coming.
08:37
We're still growing, we're still developing like the music
08:40
But to me, like I've done so much, it just comes to show what
08:43
what the law of attraction means and what your positive mindset
08:46
Like just, it's amazing.
08:48
So as so I produced the video, I directed the video, I was a part
08:53
of everything I, I had, I had all the dancers were wearing my
08:57
clothes from my closet.
08:59
It was crazy but it was such an amazing experience and such
09:01
a like amazing, proud moment that I did that.
09:05
Like I invested every penny I have to put this out.
09:08
And that song, it's what really took me to that level of finding
09:13
a, a home and, and here we are, you're truly a self-made artist
09:17
if you think about it because you created your own way, like
09:20
your own career to put it, to put it that way.
09:22
Would you say that's like the best advice you could give you
09:25
know, an up and coming artist, like be your own manager.
09:27
If you're trying to be an artist, I just think that you have
09:30
to think that you're your own manager, your own publicist
09:33
your own everything.
09:35
Because in the beginning of all of us, like, it's really hard
09:38
to just find the top producers, the top managers, you know
09:41
and, and right now there's so much, there's so much access
09:45
Unfortunately, you know, there's even for me, it's a battle
09:48
because the, the generation X or Q or there's a word for the
09:55
teenagers now they, which is important.
09:58
Yeah, like they're getting so much content that we as artists
10:02
we have to constantly be on top of our toes.
10:05
Like we have to give them what they want because so I and I have
10:09
ad D and I can't really focus on one thing and I get tired of things
10:12
quick, imagine a teenager.
10:14
So it, it's, it's really, it's really challenging for all
10:17
of us and not, not everyone just has it that easy, you know,
10:21
because there's a lot of people that there's the one in a million
10:23
that get the opportunities at a really young age and, and,
10:27
you know, but I think the secret is to never give up.
10:30
I think the secret is to not get desperate because like we tend
10:33
to get desperate when things don't happen right away.
10:35
And the best advice I can give any, it's just to if you're talented
10:39
and this is what you love the most and there's nothing else
10:43
in the world that you'd rather do keep going because it's just
10:46
persistence is key in everything we do and, and not just only
10:50
talking about music, just talking about it in general.
10:53
I know that that was like a viral when I saw that song, like popping
10:57
on that, like the cover version and then you did the Spanish
11:00
version with Pit Bull, I mean, like, you have like, you know
11:03
a recipe for, for success.
11:05
How did that happen?
11:06
Did you go to like, can we do this song?
11:08
Did he come up to you?
11:09
How did that happen?
11:10
What's crazy is that, you know, surf Mesa had released, we
11:14
have the song way before that song came out.
11:16
We had that song a year before it came out, we had it locked in
11:20
you know, because like when you're dealing with icons like
11:23
Pitbull, you kind of have to like, and that was my first record
11:26
Like, you know, and we were like, no, we wanna do this record
11:30
You're like the perfect person for this record.
11:32
I can't do it without you.
11:33
And we had already that the story, like there was a story with
11:37
our chemistry and the way I started working with them.
11:39
So I was like, there's no way that the first record I'm gonna
11:42
release with, with Saban it, which is a, a huge record for us
11:46
and it's so special.
11:47
I cannot do it without you.
11:48
And we waited, we waited and, and then Surf Mesa comes out with
11:52
I love and I'm like we needed to release this wave of war.
11:56
But you know, everything happens for a reason.
11:58
And I think the babe in the end to ghetto baby and that in that
12:02
style of music is not really the focus for Ches, but I, but it's
12:06
a style of music that I love.
12:07
It moves me and it opened a lot of doors I think to get baby opened
12:11
so many doors for me and I'm forever breaking for the record
12:14
It means a lot to me because my parents love Frankie Valli and
12:18
it was a special moment that Frankie, even Frankie Valli himself
12:21
wanted to be on the record and he's like, oh, like I want to like
12:24
change the vocals and like just be sound current.
12:27
That's why the distortion in the beginning.
12:29
It's like, and he still till this day, he's like, thank you
12:32
so much because you know, he made it to the billboard charts
12:35
for the very first time in the Latin in the Latin billboard
12:38
And he's just like us, we'll be forever grateful for each other
12:41
But it's just crazy to think that such an iconic song and an
12:45
iconic artist like Frankie Valli is telling you, thank you
12:48
for the opportunity.
12:49
Like, what do you realize who you are?
12:52
Like, I'm starting like you performed on Jimmy Kimmel, right
12:56
This is my first like us late night performance and I still
13:01
can't believe it because I used to live in the same street in
13:04
L A, same street as the Jimmy Kimmel stage.
13:06
And I always told myself I'm gonna one day be on that stage.
13:10
I don't know when or how or if I'm just gonna like jump the fence
13:14
and it happen and it just again comes to show the like how much
13:17
power the law of attraction has and, and like thinking that
13:20
things are gonna happen.
13:21
But yeah, it was amazing.
13:23
It was amazing having offset on the record gives it like that
13:25
whole twist and like combining two worlds in one and putting
13:29
and putting offset on a reggae song.
13:32
It's like, wait a minute, this is freaking awesome.
13:36
I'm the first Puerto Rican female ever to perform on that stage
13:40
because J Lo J Lo has done performances, but a lot of people
13:43
don't consider her like Puerto Rican, right?
13:46
Like she has Puerto Rican descent in Puerto Rico.
13:52
And then it's a little different.
13:54
Like for me to be the first Puerto Rican female to ever perform
13:58
in that stage has been a huge moment also like performing at
14:02
Billboards, which was like an award show that I've always
14:04
looked up to and I always wanted to be in.
14:06
So definitely music by me too.
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