POINT ZERO WORLD

Six years later, the Londoner artist is renewing his ways to create, from rapping to singing. Right after his latest Parisian live show, we took a deep dive into a new chapter of his career and life.

Pictures by : Moment_de_Grace

PZW :

Hello Jay Prince ! Can you introduce yourself and how does it feel to be back in Paris ?

Jay Prince :
Hello, my name is Jay Prince. I’m here at La Boule Noire. I just finished playing a show. Yeah, I’m in Paris. I love it here.

PZW :

There was a long gap of 6 years between your two last albums, why so ?

Jay Prince :

I put out little projects. I put out maybe small EPs, but it took a while. Between that project, my first project, Wonder (2019) and « Shine » (2025), purely because of just time. It took a lot of time to make the project.
There was a lot of features on it. I think this is the project that I did the most collaborations. I had a lot of musicians, I had a lot of features. And usually my previous project, if you know, there’s probably usually maybe one feature There are two features. This one, I think there was the most features I had. And there was a lot of musicians on this album as well. A lot of people played like Yussef Dayes, Christian Scott, so many people.
So it did take a bit of a while to make and finish. And also, during the time of COVID and finishing it after that as well, it was like, stop, start, and figuring out what I wanted the project to be about and go through the journey of the project took some time.
And I moved back to London from LA, so there was a lot going during that time. Even though the album was finished, I felt like « oh my gosh, so much has happened. Let me continue adding more stuff. Let me add more new music ». During the time of the album, I met so many artists. I met Estelle. The album was finished, but then I met Estelle as well. I was like « oh, let’s get her an album ».
So a lot of amazing opportunities happened during the process of the album. I met so many people and I was like, okay, let’s get you an album. So the album went through a lot of changes, taking away tracks, putting new tracks on. I’ll just say it’s probably because it was the longest process of handling every part of it, from the collaborators I worked with, from the producers, from the musicians to the features. I have to try and keep everybody happy. So that’s why it took long, but I’m happy with it.

PZW :

The project is really British, was it a choice ?

PZW :

We can also hear in your last album « Shine » your growth and the « pop » direction. Did you want to challenge yourself and your sound ?

Jay Prince :
So the collaborators I worked with from Estelle, like I said, Estelle usage days, all these people, they all have different experiences and have great careers and people I look up to, and I finally got to work with them, and I think it pushes you to take your level higher. I was like, okay, if I’m working with people that I look up to, I need to raise the bar.
I think it challenged me with my I think it challenged me being vulnerable, talking about my experiences, talking about God a lot as well in this album, which is a very important aspect of this album. Yeah, I’ll put it all in one. I’m just talking about God, my experience, and I think that is just a journey, an ongoing journey anyways. I don’t think it’s a journey that stops at this album, but it’s just there were so many things that reflected that and in my life. The challenge was more than anything. The challenge was how do you do something that you’ve never done before, but it seems so familiar. That is so familiar. So yeah, it’s a paradox, but I don’t know.

PZW :

And in terms of sounds ?

Jay Prince :
Oh, yeah, sounds, 100%. There was so many artists that was inspired by on this album. I worked with so many artists that didn’t also make the album as well, which is fine. We’re still going to put music up, maybe. I was listening to a lot of indie music at the time, a lot of indie alternative music, a lot of Frank Ocean. I was listening to an artist called Mk.gee a lot as well. We actually worked together for my album.

PZW :

Oh I love Mk.gee music’s, he is really cool !

Jay Prince :
Yes, we actually have a song together. Okay. He produced a song for this album, but I didn’t put it on this album, so I need to finish it. I love it so much. I’m going to give this Mk.gee and Mr Hudson on it, and hopefully one day we put that out. But he’s one of my favourite artists. I actually played him my album when I was living in LA. I played him some songs. I said, Bro, I just put… A lot of the people I spoke to during this album wasn’t just to work with him, it was also for feedback.
So someone like McGee, I played him my song Chasing Thrills from my album, because that song I was inspired by his production. So I went to his house and I said to him, Listen to the song, can you give me feedback? And he told me what he thought about it, he liked it and stuff like that. So that was like a very… When you’re inspired by a certain sound, that also challenged me as well because the people that I like, that I listen to, and I was lucky enough to have them hear some of my music.
Mr. Hudson as well, this is when I was living in LA, so I had the opportunity to meet people. I played Estelle, my album, and I was like, What do you think of this? Do you want to be on this song? I’m just like, Please like it. Please, please. So it challenged me sonically because I don’t make the music that people I had on my album make. Everybody I worked with, they all make different kinds of music. But it was fun. It was challenging in a fun way.

PZW :

Since the beginning of your career, you seem to have a relationship wih religion and spirituality and church. Did you grow up in the Church ?

Jay Prince :
Like really, really ! I used to play, yeah. Read all my interviews. It says everything. From the past, yeah, I grew up in church. Hey, that’s how I started playing. That’s where I learned That’s what I learned in my musical interest. I’ve played the bass, I’ve played piano. So yeah, it’s always been a part of my life.
That’s my inspiration. Jesus is my inspiration. Music, life, friends, family, kindness, just the simple things. That’s it. Simple things are very important to me because it’s very hard to do simple things sometimes. So yeah, not much. I don’t know. There’s not much that I’m inspired by in terms of directly to my music. I just think it’s about your people, your surroundings, your family. I think there are things that are important to me, not inspiration, and it’s inspired me. Whatever is important to me inspires me. Everything I think is important inspires me. Food, music, family, everything, really, like coming out here.

PZW :

And what can we wish you for the future ?

Jay Prince :
To come back because it’s been too long. Wish me to come back. Yes. We come back, we could talk again six years later. There’ll be five years, two years, one year, one month. So next year. I want to try and come in the summer, so wish for me to come in the summer. That’s the aim, because today’s show, I was like, Oh, we can come back in the spring, summertime. We’ll figure something out, do something special, hopefully.