J Ingram is an enigma. Chic clothes, long dark hair, and an orbital piercing; these are all the markings of an artist who's as brooding as he is mysterious. The reality is that J Ingram is soft-spoken, hardworking, kind, and, yes, soft. He's the kind of artist whose 80s, retro-laced textures and gated snares make you move and make you emo. He's always got his ear to the ground and his nose to the grindstone and on a bitterly cold evening last week, we sat down to talk about the soul behind the synths.
FP: When/where were you born?
JI: I was born March 3rd, 1998 in Kansas City, Kansas at Menorah Hospital, which is right down the street from my house...so I pass the place I was born every day.
FP: How were you introduced to music?
JI: I was introduced to music just kind of by chance, really. I owe a lot of it to the game "Rock Band" 'cause I played that a lot and I loved it. I also played a lot of "Guitar Hero". I was a bit of a gamer when I was young...Then one day...I went down to the storage room in my basement when I was in 4th grade and I was like, "Dad what is this?" and it was his old drum set from when he played in high school...At first he was really reluctant to get it out 'cause he thought I would break it or something but I actually convinced him to take it out and I just started dicking around on it, basically. I really loved it and I was like, "Dad, will you teach me how to play drums?" and he started showing me a few things and then sent me off to take drum lessons and I...fell in love with music from then on. Then I picked up guitar and I was all about it. I did band in middle school and high school and was really obsessed with drum line. I was really into drums at that point but during my freshman year of high school I got into drum line and then I got really frustrated because there were a bunch of seniors who were way better than me so that pushed me to get a lot better. But then I also wanted to one-up them so it became a little bit competitive for me. So I started songwriting and getting into other things involving music...Once I got past the competitiveness of my peers I just started falling in love with it and wanted to write songs for me.
FP: What artists inspired you as a child/later, when you started to do music professionally?
JI: The music that inspired me as a kid was anything that had cool drum grooves...because I was such a drummer when I was a kid. So a got into the Chili Peppers...and a lot of pop punk...Fall Out Boy, Panic!...I was primarily a rock drummer when I first started and then I transitioned to a little bit of funk and a little bit of R&B just 'cause I got better (at playing) and got into more syncopated stuff...My dad was a huge Police fan [Ingram has a Ghost In The Machine tattoo on his left forearm] so that was all we listened to in the car. That and Duran Duran...I would play (that sort of pop music) on drums. Right now, I'm super inspired by synth-wave, retro-wave-type artists...like a lot of (less well known) artists...joan is a really big one for me right now. They're a duo from Nashville and they're fucking incredible. (There's) this other artist that my friend Andrew showed me called Ruby Haunt that I'm super into right now. They're super sick. Andrew and Brooks and this friend group that I've been around my whole life...we love this band called Seoul, even though they don't make music anymore. They're dope...a little more future electronic.
FP: How do you approach songwriting?
JI: Honestly, it's really evolving; especially this year...these past couple years, really. I can walk (you) through the different phases. It used to be...I would sit down with a guitar and guess and I think that's kind of how everybody starts. It's really blissful because you don't really know what you're doing at all and it's the best feeling ever because everything you make is dope...and you figure out that you're not even playing in one key, really. You're kind of...playing a bunch of random triads on the guitar and if it works out, it works out. I started with that. By the time I was a junior in high school I had somewhat of a (music) theory brain and I started being able to figure out how everything works diatonically and I could write songs like that and it would still be awesome and (relatively) easy. It was still freeing. By the time I was a senior I started messing around with production and my freshman year of college I was really getting into production. That was cool and new because I was like I can produce out my stuff and I can put it in a box and have all my ideas realized and it can be all me. I don't have to be with a band. So that was also really freeing...In music school I learned so much and you almost learn too much to the point where you have too many tools to use...and your brain starts racing...Last year I was in a a slump where I wasn't writing as much as I would normally. It hasn't been until recently...in Sean Holt's class...he's made me realize that I need to reclaim that freedom to write...and why I love it, why I enjoy the process, and why I shouldn't destroy my ideas before they're even (fully) created. All that to say, my writing process now is...I try not to get into the (production) box until I'm confident that I have a verse and a chorus. A lot of the times, I won't have much chordally, it'll just be like 2 or 3 chords...but getting into the production of things helps me play around with ideas and try different progressions. I'll record a vocal one time with one progression...and then just try different progressions once its done. I can ask What fits? What works?
FP: How would you describe your lyric approach?
JI: I'd say that I typically write about...experiences and things that I've felt before...I used to do this thing where I could make shit up and be able to come up with hypothetical stories but I find that now that's not authentic to me. Lyrically, I like to come up with my one-liner thing...like if I was gonna write a one-line chorus what would it be?...Then I center the rest of the lyrics around that idea.
FP: To what extent does your upbringing/hometown influence your writing?
JI: Hugely. Hugely...Kansas City is so special to me and as much as I want to hate on it because I'm from there and not necessarily wanting to be associated with it, it is so big to my story. This is where I came from. Nobody really thinks of KC as a music city...other than jazz nobody thinks about it in the pop realm. I'm really proud to be from there now...I see so many people coming out of the woodwork as songwriters and producers. So many new bands have come up in Kansas City. It's really because the city itself is growing...I write about family a lot. One of the most recent songs I wrote was about my brother, who's in high school...kind of using him as a vessel to write and talk about my experience in high school...The community that I have in Kansas City is really strong, so that's always a warm place to write happy songs, for me...about family and friends. That's always a really nice spot to draw from.
FP: Do you consider you artist image/brand separate and distinct from yourself?
JI: To an extent...I think it's very important to have fans see you as an actual person and have your personality shine through your artistry. So I think they're very connected...They're actually pretty synonymous. I don't ever want my artistry to be something that I'm not. I think the only difference is that one is a persona...Even if I decided one day that I wanted to change my (artist) name it wouldn't change me or my personality. I would probably just be going in a different artistic direction. I think that can be confusing for people...If I started making metal people would assume differently about me...but as long as it's true to me I don't think there's any real difference.
FP: Tell us about your band Tall Tales. Does it influence your music now?
JI: The backstory is that (Tall Tales) was my high school band from 2014 to 2016. We played a ridiculous amount of shows in Kansas City. It really helped me get immersed in the Kansas City music scene and know a lot of people and confirm what my love of music is and why I wanna do it. It really solidified my love of songwriting and...seeing my songs realized and seeing fans sing along to my songs was fucking crazy. It's also where I met my best friend Rylan so that was super pivotal...I don't know if (Tall Tales) really influences my music now. I think it's a building block of my character and my friendships and connections. I don't think that music really influences me now but it was a stepping stone. It was my first 50 really terrible songs.
FP: How has your move to USC and Los Angeles changed your music and your approach to music?
JI: It's really been an eye-opening thing to meet and see people who are so incredibly talented and so driven and as passionate as I am...to move all the way out here from wherever they're from to pursue this...Coming from such a small pond and getting into this gigantic clusterfuck of people that are wanting to do the same thing as me makes me work harder and really realize where I'm at. When I first moved, it was a little depressing because I thought I...was terrible. But I kept working on it. It's brought up the best songs I've written so far.
FP: How did your EP Surprise Party! with Brooks Brown come about?
JI: That was definitely my favorite full project that I've ever put out. It was this sort of thing where...I was in a writing slump during my sophomore year (of college) and I was getting all these tools but I didn't really know how to use them and I was very shy about using them. There was a lot of doubt. But Brooks and I have made music together for so long and it's so easy to talk to him...so we came together for 2 hours every Friday and knock out a song a week...and that was really fulfilling. We have similar things to write about and things that we wanted to say. We wrote "Winter Break" together, which is about Kansas City and friends...It was another really good stepping stone for me.
FP: Tell us the story behind the songs on your upcoming EP.
JI: I'm very motivated to create songs right now, but there's not a lot of motivation to put it out as a project just yet. I definitely have these ideas of what I could do with this music, because I'm really passionate about releasing it eventually and I think it's really dope but I don't think there's a rush to put it out. I think I'm definitely getting close and I'd like to see it done by the end of the summer...It could be 3 of them. It could be 10 of them...Through the process (of writing a lot of songs) I've realized a lot of the storylines intermingle...it's all my voice and stories that I wanna tell and things I wanna say. I don't think there's any rush to make it fit into a project...I may just release them all as singles because I think they're all individual in that way. But they could work together as well.
FP: Can you tell us a little bit more about the narrative behind the songs?
JI: Yes. I have about 3 songs that are super self-doubt-y. These will probably be the first ones that come out. They're darkest out of all of them. They're heavily inspired by the woman in my life right now...I'm doing long distance with my girlfriend right now and that's been hard. There's those and then there are these happy, reminiscing songs about times with my friends, times with my family, times at home, and times way back in the past that I wish I was still in (like high school). I think some of that is a result of being in L.A. and wishing I could go home sometimes. There's about 3 or 4 songs in that vein. That's about it.
FP: You produced, engineered, and recorded it yourself here in your apartment, yes?
JI: Yes.
FP: Who is your music for?
JI: I definitely have songs that I write therapeutically. And then I have songs that I write more for entertainment purposes. I think I definitely border more along the lines of entertainment because I want my music to be fun to listen to and I want people to enjoy them. There are hard songs for people to listen to, lyrically, for sure. But I still think that can take people for a ride. Even the most deepest, most personal song for me in this collection is still really entertaining to listen to and theres's a lot of ear candy. I'm not saying that people that are more bare bones in their styles don't have that but for artists like me, I enjoy having those things. In that way, the music is for listeners like me, like my friends and people who enjoy this style of music. It's for me and for my friends and people who like groovy tunes.
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With this interview, I'm introducing fresh pressed five, a set of 5 bonus questions with each of our interviewees to help you, our fellow readers, get a bit of an extra peek into their personalities.
FP: What is your favorite sound (unrelated to music)?
JI: This is really random but you know those little popper toys that you get from the dentist's office? The sound they make.
FP: What makes you swoon?
JI: People that are 100% themselves and super authentic and don't give a fuck what anybody else thinks.
FP: What is one thing on your bucket list?
JI: I just wanna go to Dubai. It sounds so sick.
FP: Which color makes you most emotional and why?
JI: Probably blue, for obvious reasons...It's super calming and puts me in the feels.
FP: Where is your happy place?
JI: With my closest friends, really.
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J Ingram and Brooks Brown's Surprise Party! EP is available now on Apple Music and Spotify.
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