{"id":3006,"date":"2025-10-14T15:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T15:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T15:07:06","slug":"jmsn-finally-got-his-pop-hit-so-he-went-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/3006\/","title":{"rendered":"JMSN Finally Got His Pop Hit, So He Went Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you see JMSN dance for the first time, you never forget it. In a full-body writhe, his limbs are outstretched in every direction, his hips gyrate like a metronome and his body moves like a snake. Over a decade into his career<\/a>, those unpredictable moves have almost defined him, if not literally with them being such a memorable part of his live act, but also figuratively, because just as you never know what move he\u2019ll hit next, you never know what kind of music he\u2019ll release either. And that\u2019s all part of the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking about the expectations and trying to do the opposite,\u201d says Christian Berishaj, who goes by JMSN (pronounced like Jameson) on stage and on record. On his 2012 debut, Priscilla, the first wave of expectations was set. Heavy. Hedonistic. That sort of leaving-the-club haze pop<\/a> that defined the early The Weeknd albums.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

On his next two releases, 2013\u2019s Pllaje and 2014\u2019s self-titled JMSN, his sound drifted into R&B, all sung with a voice that could be mistaken for Justin Timberlake. In 2016, Whatever Makes U Happy, featured melodies that could be mistaken for Jill Scott.<\/p>\n

When Velvet was released in September 2018, things changed. Those R&B sensibilities still prevailed, but the uniquely JMSN brand of funk infused in tracks like \u201cInferno,\u201d \u201cLevy\u201d and \u201cTalk Is Cheap\u201d became a revelation. This wasn\u2019t another soft-spoken bedroom crooner; Berishaj had the makings to lead his own cult of musicality. 2021\u2019s Heals Me was his best record yet, until 2023\u2019s Soft Spot managed to blow expectations out of the water yet again, pivoting hard from the funk-soul trappings of earlier years into an indistinguishable brand of art pop that only he could create.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a year-long tour of the album, the Dallas-born and Detroit-based artist releases his ninth studio album this month. A subsequent tour will start on Oct. 28 in Phoenix, including a Dallas date on Nov. 3 at the Cambridge Room at House of Blues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy MO has never been to do the same thing,\u201d Berishaj says. \u201cSo I\u2019m not going to start doing the same thing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

We got our first taste of the new album,\u00a0 titled\u00a0\u2026it\u2019s only about u if you think it is., this May, when its first single, \u201cClick Bait,\u201d was released with a full aesthetic rebrand for JMSN. Going against the grain is nothing new for him, but \u201cClick Bait\u201d might be his most dramatic left turn yet, coming together like a bass-heavy grunge song that somehow manages to seamlessly fade screeching strings into a chorus of voices. Most of the production is done by Berishaj himself, allowing for the creative control to try off-the-wall things like this. You\u2019ll have to hear it to believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to start all the songs with the bass line,\u201d Berishaj says of the song and record. \u201cThat was a challenge, and I always challenge myself to make songs with the least amount of tracks and instruments as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can hear it on the album\u2019s second single, \u201cDirty Dog,\u201d which was released on Sept. 18. The instrumentation here is almost entirely drum and bass, with layers of Berishaj\u2019s vocals singing the song\u2019s chorus between \u201cTime Of The Season\u201d esque \u201coohs\u201d and \u201cahhs.\u201d It maintains a rockier sound compared to any of his previous music, which we\u2019re expecting to hear more of when the full album is released. But then again, we\u2019d know better than to ever give JMSN expectations.<\/p>\n

He told us that most of the songs on \u2026it\u2019s only about u if you think it is. were written around the time that Soft Spot was released in 2023. We saw him at Trees in Deep Ellum just a few months after its release, where he delivered an unforgettable set, playing through most of the new album plus a smattering of hits from throughout his career. The album\u2019s title track, \u201cSoft Spot,\u201d particularly put the crowd in Berishaj\u2019s hand, but by the time we left, songs like \u201cLove Me\u201d and \u201c2 High\u201d were still considered the standout tracks on the album.<\/p>\n

Almost a full year later, \u201cSoft Spot\u201d exploded on social media, especially TikTok, thanks to a remix that added a rap verse from Detroit rapper Sada Baby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is amazing,\u201d Berishaj remembers thinking. \u201cI already had the next album ready, so we were like, now we can have some time to plan it out. This kind of had a second wind, so we can let it do its thing even longer and give us time to prepare the new one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be easy to chalk up the sudden surge of popularity to \u201cSoft Spot\u201d managing to land on the right algorithm at the right time, but that\u2019s not exactly what happened. Berishaj and his team, including manager Drew Drialo, deserve a ton of credit for their unconventional rollout strategy with the album, where they essentially never stopped promoting it for almost two full years. New music videos, remixes, live shows. It didn\u2019t matter. There was no \u201calbum cycle.\u201d Soft Spot was all that mattered for every second of time between its announcement and the release of the first single to \u2026it\u2019s only about u if you think it is., and the hard work paid off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent at least a year after it\u2019s out,\u201d Berishaj says. \u201cWe had done over 100 shows promoting this album, and it\u2019s funny that the \u2018Soft Spot\u2019 stuff happened after our last show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between all the touring, Berishaj managed to find the time to record, mix and master 10 new songs for the record, which is being released on his own label, White Room Records. It marks his ninth studio album in about 13 years, a remarkable and unprecedented output for any artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not out of a necessity to make sure my output is consistent or anything,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just pure excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the new record, expect the unexpected, as usual.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heavy at times, it\u2019s groovy at times, and it\u2019s emotional and slow at times,\u201d Berishaj says. \u201cI\u2019m just excited to see what everybody takes from it, and I\u2019m just excited to have it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although we\u2019ve only heard two songs, we\u2019re happy to report that the album feels just as JMSN as ever, while also sounding wholly unique, both for him or any artist working today. Perhaps it will be the record that skyrockets him into a broader mainstream appeal, and maybe it\u2019ll happen sooner rather than later. If the latter becomes true, we\u2019re reveling in the chance to see an artist as talented as him in a room as small as the Cambridge Room at House of Blues, and we get the feeling that we might not get the chance to experience that again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things stay out forever,\u201d Berishaj says. \u201cYou never know what stuff is going to work. I hope it happens when I\u2019m alive, just so I can make stuff easier when I\u2019m here. You know you can\u2019t control those things. Maybe that\u2019s not my journey. You never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

JMSN will perform on Monday, Nov. 3, at 7 p.m. at The Cambridge Room at House Of Blues, 2200 N Lamar St. Tickets are available starting at $45.32 on Ticketmaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you see JMSN dance for the first time, you never forget it. In a full-body writhe, his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1467,102,104,103,3502,3503,2174],"class_list":{"0":"post-3006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-concert-previews","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-rb","13":"tag-rock-music","14":"tag-touring-artists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}