An Interview with Pop Vocalist Natalie Jane

On March 6th at Houston’s House of Blues, Coog Radio had the opportunity to sit down with pop singer-songwriter Natalie Jane. Although Natalie Jane had to cancel her Houston performance due to health issues, we were able to speak with her prior to the cancellation. Interviewer Isha Merchant chats with Jane about her feelings about the tour, her recent album, “Where Am I,” and her new single “Tattoos.”

Isha: Hello I’m Isha. I’m really excited to work with you today and I’m really excited to interview with you. So first I wanted to start off with how does it feel like being on tour, are you liking Houston so far?

Natalie: I mean I have been in Houston for like forty-five minutes. So far I love it. I had my Dallas show yesterday which went great. I am very excited for tonight. The biggest room of this tour so far. This tour has been tough so far cause I am battling a cough at the same time which sucks. But it seems to be going away at night so we are good. 

Isha: I can imagine that it would be really difficult being sick and singing at the same time. 

Natalie: I woke up this morning and I sounded like this. 

Isha: …You are nineteen years old and you have been able to accomplish so much and been able to like you know. You are on tour and you have a bunch of listeners on Spotify. So, how does it feel being able to accomplish so much so quickly?

Natalie: It’s honestly a crazy feeling like I put my first song out when I was like 17 but I wrote it when I was 16 and it’s only like two years later. Now I am doing this big America and Europe tour which is crazy to me. I also look at the Europe dates where I just finished a tour out there and the rooms were like 300 to 500 people and then I go back and they are like in the thousands. It’s crazy how fast stuff is growing. I can’t really comprehend it. I’m just very excited. 

Isha: And it’s also like you are basically growing up with all of this too. I feel like it must really impact your mindset. 

Natalie: I mean my first song that I have ever had some real traction was like my song “Mentally Cheating.” I put that on TikTok like a week after I graduated high school. So there wasn’t really that much overlap between like school. I was supposed to go to Berkeley College of Music in Boston, and then like three weeks before moving in. I decided I did not want to go and I moved to Los Angeles and signed onto my label. So it was a very big change of what I thought was gonna happen.

Isha: I feel like making that move to change colleges… Is a really sudden decision. Was it nerve racking? 

Natalie: It’s just my brother is like a consultant and my sister is going to grad school right now and doing research on molecular DNA. They’re smart. So my parents see both of them in college and now I am taking a completely different route. It took them a second to be like ok you made the right choice. But it was a few months ago when my mom finally sad “I think it was a good idea that you didn’t go to college.” And I was like there is no way you said that Jill…

Isha: So I wanted to kind of discuss your album that came out “Where Am I?” I listened to the whole album and I really liked it… I feel like a lot of it shows a theme of transition and change. And the interlude to me kind of describes a shift into adulthood… [and] dealing with so many different challenges all at once. So how do you feel that change and that transition into adulthood has impacted your music?

Natalie: Yeah I mean. The first song that came out on the album is from over a year ago. So the project is like a year in the making and sometimes a year is a lot and sometimes I feel like it isn’t for someone but this last year for me was SUCH a big change. I’m like 19 so I think like 18 to 19 was such a huge shift that I never expected and I don’t know I feel like I’m a different person now then who I was when I first started writing it. And I have been through a lot, seen a lot and I am excited for the next project. I don’t even know what that is gonna look like yet but it’s gonna be like a different Natalie then where I am at right now. 

Isha: …Since you become more independent over time. I feel like you discussed moving out, going and being separated from your parents, and like really pursuing this big career. [Do] you feel like this reflects in how you approach your music now versus how you approach your music when you were first starting out in high school? 

Natalie: Those are really good questions oh my gosh. 

Isha: I thought about them. (laughter) 

Natalie: I mean when I first started I was in high school. And now there is a lot more to write about either A talking to new people or just about my career. There is so much that goes on inside that I can write about like I really want to write about, especially recently, a lot of hate that I get. Ugh tea. I feel like there is a lot in there that I can say in a more broad way. People can relate to their relationship or their family. I’m always looking for a way to incorporate new things.

Isha: So then I am gonna ask specifically about a couple of songs. So I feel like the song “I’m Her” off of your album has a lot of power behind it. So where exactly does that feeling come from?   

Natalie: I love that song, it’s my favorite one. That song is like I came into the studio that day and I was like we have to write something big and powerful and I didn’t know what I was gonna say and I’m like what is big and powerful? The writer was like God. I’m like ok and we kind of rolled with that. We were like how can we incorporate God in like a song about relationships cause it’s a very different term when you like to call yourself a God. I was stressed that people would be like ‘Who is this bitch?” calling herself a God like she is better than other people. And there were a lot of me having to think about the words so that people wouldn’t think I was calling myself a God but more of like it’s a metaphor like I am a powerful being and I won’t let you control my emotions and have power over how I feel.

Isha: That’s really strong. And I feel like a lot of that can really stem from you know how people feel entitled to send or give hate comments. So I think that is pretty cool. 

Natalie: Thank you!

Isha: [I also] think the song “AVA” is so relatable to women that have been in shitty relationships.

Natalie: Who the fuck is ava? 

Isha: Mhmm. Is there more of a backstory behind that and do you feel comfortable talking about it? 

Natalie: Just a girl that really likes to text my ex. He wrote a heart next to her name. Yeah I found her Instagram and i know what she looks like. She lives in New Jersey.

Isha: Yeah I completely relate to that. So what does it mean to you to be mentally cheating on someone? Because I know that has been a theme of some of your past songs. 

Natalie: Mentally cheating is when you are with someone and you’re like dang this other person is kinda of cute and nice. And I’m kinda flirting with them but I shouldn’t because I am in a relationship but i’m thinking about it. You’re mentally cheating. You are not actually gonna do anything but in your head you’re fantasizing about it.

Isha: You’re like what if? 

Natalie: You are like what if I was not with my current boyfriend. Dot. Dot. Dot. Question mark?

Isha: Real (laughs). So what’s the story behind your most recent single “Tattoos”?

Natalie: I went to that session and I had no idea what I wanted to write about and I really had to pee. So I went to the bathroom and while I was in there I was looking through my concept list and notes and one of them was  “tattoos”. Sorry it was graphic I was literally sitting on the toilet. And I’m like (sings) “tattoos” and then I went back into the room and then we wrote it around that. Crazy story that was. Yeah it’s just about like, I personally do not have tattoos but I have heard stories about how they hurt a lot. Some people say they don’t and I wouldn’t know cause I never had one. But also apparently it depends on where you get it. Anyway it doesn’t matter. The point is that tattoos hurt a lot physically but you hurt me mentally and emotionally. So I am saying that this physical pain that hurts millions of people, that have had tattoos, doesn’t compare to what you put me through emotionally. 

Isha: There is a huge sense of permanence attached to that song because tattoos are permanent. So do you feel like that experience that you went through behind that song would be with you forever? 

Natalie: I think so. Because as you said there is a sense of permanence. It’s just like this person who hurt me like they’re always going to have a place in my mind. It’s like they are kinda tattooed there. 

Isha: So I know your mascot is panda. Is there any reason why that is? 

Natalie: I have had my stuffed panda since I was eight. This is not the real one actually. This is an identical duplicate that I found online. 

Isha: That’s cute. 

Natalie: Because I didn’t want to be like that girl when I’m thirty like walking around with a panda where it’s held together by a single string. I had to preserve that one while I got the identical one. They actually don’t make them anymore. I had to get this one on ebay but you don’t care.

Isha: No I do. (laughter) 

Natalie: I mean I just put it in a couple of my videos like in the background and I think people just started to be like “oh I love that panda,” and comment on the panda. I’m like “I love pandas too.” I just started to slowly post more about it and then people started to comment more about it and now we are selling panda plushies at the show, I think it just slowly evolved with Natalie Jane hoodies on them. 

Isha: So you’ve been teasing a new song on TikTok recently… Can you tell me a little more about it? 

Natalie: Yeah the lyrics are “1am breakup. 2am makeup. 3am make love. Friday then you date me. Saturday you hate me. Sunday morning baby, can I see you tonight.” So it’s just like a cycle of this toxic relationship like you have ups and downs all in the same night but you inevitably go back to them. So you finish that toxic relationship cycle…(sings) been there done that!

Isha: Is there anything you want your fans to be looking forward to later this year?

Natalie: I think. There is so much you can’t say but more music and hopefully more show announcements. 

Isha: More TikToks? 

Natalie: Of course! 

Overall, Natalie Jane shows how Generation Z is taking over the music scene with her powerful skills in songs based on storytelling. Although she could not perform that night, she has an intense admiration for her fans and is enjoying the tour. Check out her “Where am I” album and listen to “Tattoos”!