Jon B sits down with YouKnowIGotSoul to talk about his latest album “Waiting on You” as well as legendary career He also opens up about working with DJ Quik, the importance of craftsmanship in today’s music industry and the challenges newer artists face when it comes to touring. Jon B also reflects on the experience of making “Pleasures U Like”, revisits some of his favorite tracks from the album, and discusses his longtime relationships with producers Tim & Bob and Babyface. He also addresses the unreleased music he recorded with Warryn Campbell and whether fans could eventually hear those songs.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Talk got the latest album “Waiting on You”. We’ve talked about the album, one of our favorites that came out. Especially that “Driftin” record. That was one of our favorites of last year. Just talk about that one, because that one stood out to us immediately.
Jon B: Oh man, “Driftin” is a record I recorded in Kingston, Jamaica. In Tuff Gong Studios. That’s Bob Marley’s studio. For those who don’t know, Bob Marley had a studio in Kingston, Jamaica, on Marcus Garvey Ave, and there are two studios. There’s one that’s on Hope Road, which is basically his home. That has a studio, and that’s more like the museum now. You can go, and that’s where all the tourists and whatnot go to see Bob and feel the essence of Bob Marley. But I wanted to record in his actual recording studio that is still used as a recording studio to this day. This is where he recorded “Could You Be Loved” and “Coming in from the Cold”. So there’s a lot of, for me, there’s a lot of just his spirit, his energy still in that building. The same instruments, the drums, the piano, the rhodes, the organs, the percussion, all of that was the same instruments that he used for his albums. So to get to play on these drums and play that drum set is the drum set you hear on “Driftin.” It’s just nostalgic for me, as well as just spiritually, it’s a deep moment for me, being that I’m such a huge Bob Marley fan and get to play his piano. I actually wrote the song. I came up with it on the spot in Jamaica on the piano, just sort of messing around, and that little riff came to mind. I think I was really trying to write my own kind of “Ribbon in the Sky,” if you will, like something really soft and piano-based. That’s a very stripped-down record. It’s just basically bass, drums, and keys, and a little bit of strings, a little bit of horns, but it’s very, very simple. I love that about that song. It’s got a 70’s, very laid-back 70’s feel to it.
YouKnowIGotSoul: I love you just explaining the song, naming all these different instruments and you playing them. That’s always been the thing that we’ve admired about your career. If we go on every album, it’s always said, “Produced, written by, instruments played by Jon B.” I know you take great pride in that. In a time where maybe that’s not viewed as important as it was once upon a time, the love that you still have for it, it seems that you still love doing that.
Jon B: Oh yeah, that’s part of my artistry, if you will. That’s part of what you get when you buy an album of mine. I crafted these songs myself. It wasn’t a team that got together. A bunch of people got together and wrote the lyrics and figured out how the melody goes. They told me, “This is how it goes, man.” This is all coming from personal places in my heart, from the deepest place inside my soul. That’s what I put into my music, whether it’s a ballad, or whether it’s a mid-tempo or up-tempo. It’s got to come from here. This album is 11 songs of just nothing but heart. I’m very proud of this one. This feels like the most mature album I’ve ever made.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Obviously, it took a little bit of time for it to come out, with the pandemic and whatnot that kind of delayed things as well. I know a lot of fans were wondering, because I know you had mentioned at one point you were going to get in with DJ Quik for this album as well. What happened to those songs? We were looking forward to those.
Jon B: DJ Quik, basically, his involvement was more as an engineer on this album. He helped mix the song “Still Got Love.” That song transformed when he put his thing to it, because it’s literally like he’s the sonic god on the West Coast. That guy, he’s the mixer extraordinaire, as well as producer extraordinaire. One thing that I’ve always loved about Quik is that he’s always acknowledged me as a producer. He’s always said, “Man, I don’t need to do nothing to this,” unless he feels like he wants to, and then he does his thing. In this case, he said, “Man, all we need to do is just add some claps.” You’ve got to put those famous DJ Quik claps on there. We were clapping on the record together. There’s actually a little documentary that I did. It’s basically, we call it The Story of Waiting on You. If you have a chance to check that out, please do. It shows you a little behind the scenes of us in the studio, me and Quik in the studio, mixing the record and cutting the claps and whatnot. It’s just always fun to get with guys I have the utmost respect for, and we still have love for each other, man. That’s why the song, it makes sense. It’s about me and my wife, basically, being together. We’re going on 20 years now. I wanted to write a song for her that was very celebratory, if you will. I just feel like Quik is one of those guys. He’s the perfect guy to mix that song because it’s an uplifting, kind of uptempo—nah, I want to say it’s like mid-tempo, kind of “don’t-talk speed” is what it is. I wanted to do another bounce-rock-skate. There’s nobody greater to finish that with than DJ Quik.
YouKnowIGotSoul: I’ve got to give you some props, Jon, because even at this point in your career, the music is, the attention to detail to the music, I can hear it in the production and the songwriting. We’re in an industry now where people have the ability to put out anything at any time. They can just post it on Spotify and it’s up there the next day. But that attention to detail, and I’ll even give you credit for when you released The B-Sides many years ago. Those were leftover records from previous albums, but when I listened to those songs, there was still that attention to detail and that craftsmanship in those songs. Just talk about, I guess, your desire to still make songs that matter, that still sound good, but also looking at the state of how the industry is now where maybe that doesn’t matter as much. Like, how do you kind of balance that?
Jon B: I think it will always matter because you have to create a different choice. If everything is the same at the buffet, when you pull up to the buffet, it’s just like, it’s all just, it’s in a different place, but it’s the same thing. You’re going to be like, “This isn’t a buffet. I want my money back.” So, the point is to create a variety, to create something else to choose, and that’s what I’ve always kind of tried to do, set myself apart from everybody else with a little something, and at the same time, blend in. So, sometimes you’ll see me kind of like riding a wave of a vibe that’s happening at the time, and I just happen to like that vibe, so I’ll jump on it. In the case of “Don’t Talk,” that was very much the case because it was like, Next came out with “Too Close,” and I think that really inspired me to write “Don’t Talk,” and at the same time, you had, like, groups like 112 and “Only You,” and just that bounce rock skate was happening at the time. So for me, it was like, only right to make one of those. I needed my own, like, “Let’s get down.” Yeah. I needed a record like that, so I just cooked it up, but it all comes from some place. It belongs to a family of records, like the Koffee Brown “After Party.” It’s all part of that little time right there, and so I love to blend with the times. At the same time, I like to create my own little wave, too. So sometimes you might see me way, way left, going way left with it, and you’d be like, “What is he on now?” That’s just because I like to create variety.
YouKnowIGotSoul: You’re constantly being booked. One of the things that I think is happening in the music industry right now with the newer generation, they’re putting together these tours, but they’re not able to get the ticket sales. They have these big records, these moments that trend on viral platforms, but they’re not able to translate that into ticket sales. Obviously, you have a massive catalog, so it’s easier for you now, but just kind of look at today’s industry. What do you think is the contributing factor to them not being able to do these shows?
Jon B: I think time is really the main contributing factor. Time and just really getting out there and doing it because a lot of artists are complacent. I’m gonna just be real. A lot of the artists, they want to get paid too much money to go out on the road. It’s like you’re not bringing that many people in to sit down and watch the show, so why should they pay you that? And so, you keep yourself from having those experiences by pricing yourself too high. So, I say as a recommendation to a lot of the artists that aren’t getting booked, maybe you should take your fee down, and maybe you should just really dig in and grind it out for a few years. Because I’ve been grinding for 31, and it’s like, it’s paying off, but do you realize how many years of paying dues that I’ve had to pay in order to get to this place to where it’s like we have sold-out shows? And it’s like, it takes time, man. It takes time. It’s not a quick fix. It’s not a quick experience. This is something where you need to put in some years, man. And it’s a lot of practice and time that comes with it.
YouKnowIGotSoul: I saw an interesting conversation take place recently. I know a lot of moments now at concerts, a lot of artists are using filters on their mics, a little bit of Melodyne, a little Auto-Tune. I know a lot of it has to do with the world of social media now, where unfortunately the audience is looking for you to make that one mistake. We’re not necessarily looking for perfection anymore. We’re searching for the imperfection to not even compliment, but just to call out, and that’s how social media is with its commentary. But how do you navigate through that? I know you’re somebody that you’re on stage, you’re playing instruments, you’re still singing live.
Jon B: No autotune on my voice. I mean, actually, it’s kind of cool when you do use it as a tool. In the studio, and for those who use it live, I’m not dissing because I think it’s, as long as you do it in a way where it’s not noticeable, it’s not like a robot voice. Because people want to hear the best sound they can hear. And if that helps a person perform at their best, then I say go for it. But if you don’t have to use it, then you don’t have to use it. I mean, I will say with all of the technical advances that we’ve made, it still doesn’t change the fact that you still have to have talent, y’all. I’m saying, like, you still got to have some legit talent to get to where I’m at. There are tiers that are, there are other tiers. And if you want to reach those tiers, you can get to it pretty easily by doing the Auto-Tune thing. It’s a quick fix and it makes everything perfect right away. But I think that people got, kind of got a whiff of that and enough of it to where they missed a real singer, hearing a real singer, they missed hearing somebody really, really croon for them. Sing their heart out. And maybe the mistakes and some of the imperfections is what makes the soul, right, is what brings the soul. It’s like that bluesy note that you bent up to it. It was like, yeah. It’s hard to explain, but soul is not perfect. It’s not a robotic thing, there’s nice, there’s nice little bends and sways. So I like to think that we don’t have to be so perfect, or rather, we don’t have to think we need to be so perfect.
YouKnowIGotSoul: No, and I love, I can tell you’re super confident in yourself, obviously a career that’s been 31 years now. The term underrated has always come about when it comes to Jon B. And obviously, it’s complimenting, but obviously we would also like to see Jon B. be bigger and whatnot. Like, when did you get to the point where you were just completely comfortable being who you are and just doing your thing? Because I’m sure early on, you were trying to reach success.
Jon B: Yeah, I mean, we always are reaching for the next idea, and I’m always reaching for the next sound, the next drum, drum kit that’s going to be my next hit. So I’m always kind of looking at what ingredients to use to cook up with. And I think when I realized that I was sort of like done chasing the dragon, if you will, the fame thing was after the third album, after the third album. Yeah. I had a top 10 single with “Don’t Talk.” I wrote and produced that song 100 percent. And then the label kind of, they kind of digressed from that album. To watch that happen with that particular album, because we had Nas, we had Faith. It was just a wonderful record, and they just decided to not do another single on that record, which was really, really just a bad decision on their part. And really, it made me want to sever my relationship. So because I was like, how do you not put another single out? I just cooked up this Nas record. This has got to be the next single. We got to shoot a video for this. Like, what do you mean? Like, but I guess it was a little bit too, too hip-hop. And at the time, it was kind of like, it was a little, a little innovative. It was a little ahead of the times. Of course. So maybe it just wasn’t the right timing, obviously. But that’s what really made me say, “OK, well, if I can do all that, accomplish all this, and then they treat me like that, I’m not chasing that anymore.” I mean, I’m going to make quality music for the rest of my life, but that’s up to me. That’s not up to them to decide. So after I made that decision, I just continue to do me. And 100 percent, and keep the collaborations going, keep the quality music going, just keep building.
YouKnowIGotSoul: It’s so funny you mentioned the third album. That was actually in my notes because “Pleasures U Like” is celebrating 25 years this year. A lot of songs on there, but a lot of great songs on here. So we want to play a game with you quickly, Jon, regarding that album. So I’m going to give you five songs here, one at a time. You’re going to blind rank it from one to five. These are our personal favorites.
Jon B: OK.
YouKnowIGotSoul: And we were just curious to see where you would rank each one. These are our personal favorites. So the first one is “Finer Things.”
Jon B: Oh, wow. I’d probably rank that as like number two.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Another one we loved was the self-titled track, “Pleasures U Like.”
Jon B: I love that. That’s a great one. That’s three.
YouKnowIGotSoul: That’s a three. OK. “Overjoyed.”
Jon B: That’s my number one pick. Yeah. That’s my number one pick from that album. It’s just what that represents for me, to get to do that with Faith Evans, have her pull up to the crib, right, and just concur with the record, just like what I did, and not want to change nothing, and just sing it just like everything I could have expected and even beyond. Big up Faith Evans for that one.
YouKnowIGotSoul: No, for sure. Next one is “All I Want Is You,” because that’s a sleeper.
Jon B: Yes, with Cuban Link. Probably that probably be five.
YouKnowIGotSoul: “Now I’m With You.”
Jon B: That’s actually, I’ll switch it. That’s my number one. Yeah, that’s my number one pick from that album because that was sort of like that “They Don’t Know” for that. We really wanted to revisit those vibes and cook up something nice for the third album.
YouKnowIGotSoul: “Now I’m With You,” like if they wanted to go with a safe option, that would have been a guarantee. That would have been it.
Jon B: I would have loved that. I think we did put it out as a single, but it wasn’t promoted.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Speaking of Tim and Bob, I just spoke to Tim last week. You guys linked up back in his hometown. You guys did “They Don’t Know” on stage, which is a surreal moment in itself. But these relationships that you’ve had from early on in your career and they’re still here today, like what does that mean to you that people are still rocking with you? All these producers that linked up with you early on?
Jon B: Oh, man, big up Tim Kelly, man. He’s my guy. And Bob Robinson as well for producing such an amazing track, “They Don’t Know,” and “Now I’m With You.” We did a bunch of stuff together. They did “Bad Girl” for me. But yeah, man, just when I think of getting in the studio with those guys, it’s just, we have a chemistry. And we’re all keyboard players, so we all kind of pay attention to each other’s chords, and I’m a producer, so it’s like I’m into drum sounds. I’m into why you would select certain sounds. In the case of Tim and Bob, both of them are very much like the mini Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. It’s like the younger version. And so a lot of their sensibilities are very similar. But I will say that they have their own sound, too. They laced me. And it’s something I’m going to continue to give them their props on.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Because the one thing Tim told me was that “They Don’t Know” was the record that launched them into that super-producer status because that was the first time they got a chance to get a single.
Jon B: OK, like a first single, right? Yeah, I know they had produced a lot of records for Boyz II Men, 112, and some of my favorite records, man, on 112. Like, man, I just, I was a fan before we did “They Don’t Know.”
YouKnowIGotSoul: Another producer I want to talk about is Babyface. You guys got back together on The Cadillac Chronicles. It’s really good to see you guys back together. What did that moment mean to you?
Jon B: That moment meant full circle. It’s nice to see us back on, in that way, in the car singing together on the song in real time. It’s like, it just makes me smile and say, “Wow, how long, how far we’ve come.” How long we’ve known each other, but how far we’ve come, both as artists. And he’s still doing his thing. I’m still doing my thing. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be doing my thing. Or at least not like this. And he’s sort of my father to the game. So I kind of like owe him a lot to be able to just say thank you in real time to his face and shake a hand. And just make sure that we’re good after all these years. Yeah, I mean, and we are. So that’s, that’s a lovely thing. And just to celebrate with my brother right there. That’s my big bro right there.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Lastly, Jon, I have to ask you this question because the fans keep hitting me up about it. There was an album that you recorded before “Waiting on You”, which was with Warryn Campbell. We’ve heard snippets of it. I know it never eventually came out, but is there a chance that that can eventually be heard? Because some of those records, man, I tell you, like that “Hurricane” record, I still play that. And all I have is a recording of it.
Jon B: Yeah, it’s like weird. Sometimes you record, like I’ll record, like I know B-Sides is an example of just 23 songs on there. And that’s what an album would be like before we go and curate the record, you know? That’s what it would be. It would be like 25 songs. So that’s kind of like what happened with the Warryn Campbell. He came in after I already kind of had an album ready, halfway ready. And he was going to just do like one or two records on it. And we started with “Hurricane.” And then we just kind of kept cooking. So I think we came up with like six or seven records. And they were all great. But I think that there’s a level of maturity that I’m kind of, I want to grow into. I don’t want to necessarily go straight to that right now. I kind of had some other things that I wanted to do before I go, because that was a little bit more AC. It’s a little more adult contemporary for me. A little bit more jazzy. We could grow into that record. But trust me, that, that, that ain’t going nowhere. But yeah, I wanted to make a different record than that. And then I think that those songs are good enough to be able to put out again sometime later. And yeah, it’s, that’s the beautiful thing about R&B. It’s kind of like it doesn’t lose its swag. It doesn’t lose its meaningfulness. It doesn’t lose its relevance. Because people always want a throwback joint and they always want something new, too. So it’s kind of like both worlds, it’s nice to have an archive, a bunch of archives of music. Be able to go back to it like, “Oh, yeah, that one off,” and bring that one out.
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